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Who Is Your Ideal Client?

posted by kgbusco

How many of us have had clients who are rude or unappreciative of our efforts? How many of us have had clients who don’t seem to trust us or second guess everything we do for them? How many of us are not being paid what we are worth? These of course are rhetorical questions; I’m sure that all of us at one time or another have had clients like these. Bad clients are not only a waste of time, but they are detrimental to our emotional well being. They make us stressed out and they lower our ability to make our businesses grow. They are in short a poison that slowly eats away at our businesses health, until it shrivels up and dies. So why do we hold on to these clients? Desperation is usually the answer I get. “I’m afraid to let them go because I need the business!” This is what I hear all too often. There are some steps that should be taken to ensure that you are servicing the right kind of client for you. These steps will help you establish your IPC, or ideal client profile.

Make a list of all of the qualities that you would like to see in a client. These qualities should be realistic. Obviously every client you take on can’t be a complete joy to work with who is witty and makes you laugh. What I mean by characteristics are values and personality traits that match with your own. A good way to do this is to make a list of good past clients and write down what you liked about each of them. A good example of this is communication. If you run a business that requires solid communication between you and your client in order to function, good communication skills might be an important quality for your list. The next step is to get rid of all the clients who don’t share at least a few of your qualities. Again, I know that this is a big and scary step for most of you, but it needs to be done to make room for better clients. The bad ones are just draining you and your business. Keep the ones that you share a few qualities with; after all, your clients aren’t perfect and neither are you. At least if you have a few things in common, it will make working with them a whole lot easier. This step is not fun, but it’s needed.

You should never try to market to the whole world. The internet allows us to reach anyone and everyone on the planet with access to a computer. Just because we can do this doesn’t mean we should. To put it short, it’s a complete waste of time to try to reach everyone with your business. Not everyone will be a good fit for your business, and trying to market to everyone is an almost impossible task. Instead, try to pick specific, and more focused avenues to apply your marketing. The first step in this is to establish a niche. This means a specialization that sets you apart from others in your industry. If you specialize in real estate support for example, post some articles on a real estate networking site. Also, try to establish yourself as an expert. Do things to let your potential clients know that you are at the top of your industry. Again, if your niche is real estate support, write some articles that demonstrate your knowledge of that industry. No one wants to hire someone that has an average knowledge or ability in a particular field; they want an expert.

Like minded people typically associate with each other. What this means is that people often form relationships with other people who are at least a little like themselves. So why not try to find the people your clients are associated with and see if they may need your services? This is a great way to increase your business and has a fairly high likelihood of finding clients who match your ICP. There is no harm in asking your clients if any of their associates may need your help. You should do this once you have developed a good relationship with them of course. If you have made them happy with excellent service, they probably will have no problem giving out a few of your business cards to people they know.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: Building Your Business, Ideal Client Profile, Ideal Clients, potential clients, Prospective Client

Do You Have Balance in Your Life?

posted by kgbusco

Do you understand the importance of moderation? Moderation is an important part of life and without it we can become obsessed with something that was initially harmless. These things can take over parts of our lives that should be reserved. Things like family dinners and spending quality time with your spouse or children can quickly take a back seat to work.

It can take over your entire life, take precedence over family and friends and turn you into a slave. The difficulty in identifying work as only a part of your life is that most people initially work to support their families. People start working because they love their families and they want to provide for them. This fact can easily blind a person and help them justify why they work 60 or 70 hours a week. Make no mistake though; it’s still harmful to a person’s health and well being. Not being able to say no to a boss is a dangerous thing and it doesn’t just hurt the person working. A person’s family and friends suffer as well.

According to Wikipedia “Seventy-five to ninety percent of physician visits are related to stress and, according to the American Institute of Stress, the cost to industry has been estimated at $200 billion-$300 billion a year”. A good balance between working hard and spending time with loved ones is an essential part of a healthy life. When you pass away someday, people will speak about you at your funeral or wake. They probably won’t say “I love how much money he made, I’m really going to miss him!” They will talk about the times you spent with your family and the fun things you did together. People should provide for their families, but they should never underestimate how important it is to spend time with the ones who love them.

There are both physical and emotional signs of an unhealthy work/life balance. They may not always be easy to recognize but it is important to know what they are. One of the most obvious signs is when all you think about is work. It is something you sleep/eat/breathe 24/7. I know in this technological world, it is easy to fall in this trap. We are tied at the hip to our laptops, cell phones, and blackberries. Sometimes it is the physical symptoms that we notice such as headaches, trouble sleeping or all over tension. For some people they notice that they dread going to work or they do not get any satisfaction from completing their tasks at work. For many, work consumes their everyday life. They work for a company that states they have a work/life balance but they receive phone calls and e-mails at all hours. I also know of people that take a vacation or a day off and then they go into work or don’t disengage from their phones and computers. It is important that we recognize these signs early on so that we do not suffer the emotional and physical consequences of this. Another sign that we may not think of is to listen to our family and friends. If you hear them talking about how they barely know you and that your never around. Take this as a flashing neon sign that you must slow down and regain that healthy balance.

Let me provide you with some tips if you currently have an unhealthy work/life balance. First start with taking a check with your work practices. Evaluate if you are exhibiting some of the signs I mentioned above that you could change right now. For example after hours and on vacation, shut your phone and computer off. Enjoy this time with your family and friends. If you have been skipping taking vacation recently, take some time off. If the issue comes from your employer, try to negotiate a healthier balance. Another suggestion is find hobbies that help you to relax and relieve stress. Take time for yourself and rejuvenate. Jason and I love to go lift weights at the gym. It is a stress reliever and helps us to live a healthier life. It also helps that we enjoy it. My last suggestion is that you should prioritize your responsibilities and decide what is important. If something can wait, then let it wait. I know one thing that I have a hard time doing is saying no. I am always looking for ways to volunteer in organizations and sometimes I should say no.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: healthy balance, making family a priority, moderation, overworked, stress, unhealthy balance, work life balance

Your 60 Second Speech

posted by kgbusco

So here’s a situation for you. You’re shopping at the grocery store for company that’s visiting your house that night; you have a million things going through your head. Someone you haven’t seen in years says hello to you and asks how you are. The subject turns to what you’re doing for a living. What do you tell them? Do you fumble all over your words or do you paint them a perfect picture of your company? Wouldn’t it be great to always have the perfect response to the old question “So what does your company do?” This rehearsed response has been called many names, but my favorite has to be an “Elevator Speech”. It is an absolute must in business to have an elevator speech. What this is exactly is not so much a speech, but a short, well rehearsed verbal description of what you do for a living. The purpose of it is to give the person you meet a great and accurate idea of what you do. It shouldn’t be too long, around 60 seconds or so. If it’s too long, the person will think they just walked into an infomercial and they may get annoyed. It should be short, catchy and most importantly, memorable. It’s at least as important as having business cards and in some ways even more effective. Let’s face it, how many hundreds of business cards do people get? They’re very important but they can be somewhat forgettable simply because of the sheer numbers we all encounter. A good elevator speech is anything but forgettable. If you really work on designing a good one, you will be on that old acquaintance’s mind for the rest of the week. On top of having the body of the elevator speech well designed, make sure you have the answers to any obvious questions ready as well. Just brainstorm any quick questions that you think they will ask and keep them ready. An elevator speech is such a great tool for marketing your business because it works and best of all, it’s free.

Filed Under: Networking Tagged With: 60 second speech, effective elevator speech, elevator speech, great elevator speech, networking

What to Keep and What to Throw Away

posted by kgbusco

It’s that time of year where we are all thinking what should I keep and what should I throw away. We are working hard on our taxes and the paperwork to go through can be overwhelming. I start to think what paperwork can I shred and what must I keep in my files. So here is a quick rundown of what important records must be kept.

All monthly bills can be thrown out once you have received the next statement that shows you have paid the bill.
Receipts can be thrown out when you receive your bank statement in the mail.

What you must keep for seven years are as follows:

Tax Returns
Bank and Retirement Account Statements

What you must keep longer than seven years:

Titles and Warranties (as long as you own the item)
Health and Life Insurance Policies (life of the policy)
Birth and Marriage Certificates plus any other court documents (lifetime)

These are just some of the important documents that must be saved. If there is any question of what to keep or save, consult a financial or tax professional or your lawyer. It is also important to keep these documents in a safe place, such as a fireproof cabinet that is locked up.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: important documents, Paperwork, Tax Time

Where to Begin When Starting a Business

posted by kgbusco

I get asked my many entrepreneurs starting up a new business, what should I know on the start-up phase. Here are 5 essentials that you should know:

Make sure you have some alternative cash flow or built up funds. In the beginning, most start ups will not be making a substantial amount of money for their owners. They can be successful if handled properly and given enough time to grow, but they tend to take money in the beginning, not make money. Having funds built up to compensate for this unprofitable phase can make things much easier to bear. Having an alternative stream of income to offset the unprofitable business in the beginning is also a wise decision. Starting up a business with the idea that it will pay all of the bills in the beginning is not realistic and should be avoided at all costs.

Have a good business plan. With a vast majority of start-ups failing before they can really get off the ground, it’s important to minimize this risk. The business is going to be the product of your time, effort and starting capital; it’s worth it to at least have a good solid plan to boost the chances of survival. Not having one won’t guarantee that the company will fail, but it will definitely lower the already low chances of success. A good plan that lays out goals and sub goals and the paths to reach them is critical.

Delegate Authority when needed. As the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Another truth is that it wasn’t built by just one person either. A business owner really needs to treat the company like a well trained sports team. For example a football team has a variety of players for different situations and jobs. A defensive lineman will need to be very big and strong, while a receiver needs to be very fast and have great reflexes. No one person could fill all of these positions perfectly. In a company, there will be many jobs too. It’s important to match up each individual with the job they are best at. All too many business owners want to make it a one man or one woman show. This is a big mistake. It’s important to save money in the beginning, but this is an area that shouldn’t be neglected. If there is at least some alternative income coming in, hiring someone as a contractor to help with areas that you are not an expert in is a wise move.

Make use of low cost or free advertising. Many people in this day and age still seem to think that advertising is all about radio ads and T.V. commercials. While this can be a great way to give your company more exposure, not all of us can afford such expenses in the beginning. Websites, blogs and social media marketing are all free or very low cost. Without them, a company will be very disadvantaged. If a website seems either too costly or too technical consider this; a hosted web site will usually run about $10 to $20 a month. Running a company in today’s world without a website is unthinkable. A blog is free to have and post too. A blog is basically a mini web site that you can post articles about what your business does or about similar industry related subjects. The idea here is to get people to go to your website, so having links to your website on your blog can really boost traffic. Social networking sites can let you connect with many potential customers or clients. Linking up with people and talking about what you do can be a great way to gain more exposure.

Get in contact with everyone you know and tell them about your business. Old friends from high school, your next door neighbor, family and acquaintances; all of these people should be contacted and be made aware of you company. Don’t try to hard sell them or anything, that’s really annoying and counter-productive. Tell them about your new company subtly and don’t try to sell your services or products to them right there. They will probably tell their friends “Hey I ran into Jason the other day; guess what he’s doing?” If properly done this can spread word of your company like wildfire. You also never know what person either in your past or present might want your company’s help.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: business plan, business plan essentials, business planning, business tips, essentials of business plan, starting a business

Business Plan Essentials

posted by kgbusco

There are several components to a good business plan. They include:

Executive Summary: This should include your mission statement as well as information about your company. This means when the company was formed, number of employees, who the owners/founders are and locations. Of course you want to expand on as much company information as possible.

Market Analysis: This is where you describe your industry and the economic outlook on it. The target market that you are focused in should be detailed as well. Your competitors should be analyzed here and any laws/regulations should be outlined.

Company Description: This is a general overview of your company. Describe who you are providing your products and services to, what you are providing them and how you are going to serve them. This helps to better define the purpose of your company as well as what your unique selling proposition is. That is, why should your target market choose you over your competitor.

Management: This section should include a more detailed description of the managers and owners of the company. Look at this as a organizational chart of the company with expanded information on the key people.

Marketing: Here is where you want to outline your strategies for marketing and sales. Define more clearly how you are going to market your products and services.

Services or Products Offered: This should be the area where you discuss the products and services you are offering. It can include patents, research and development and any other planning mechanisms for your products and services. Also, you should include what need you are filling for your target market by offering these specific things.

Sources of Funding: This is the nitty gritty of where you are going to acquire funding in order to make your business successful. This should be very specific and organized.

Financials: Use this section to show your financial projections. Include your projected sales revenue as well as any costs associated with producing your products and running your business.

Last but not least attach any pertinent appendices that will assist in making the above components complete.

There are some great resources when writing your business plan such as:

http://www.sba.gov

http://www.score.org

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: business plan, business plan essentials, business planning, essentials of business plan

Client Communication

posted by kgbusco

In business it is so common to make contact with a potential client, talk to them about your services and then never hear from them again. They may tell you, “oh, I need to check on a few things but I will contact you next week with more details”. They may tell you this even after they express excitement in the idea of hiring you and working with you. Next week comes and goes and they never respond. There is no e-mail or phone call to update you on the situation. I think we’ve all been in this situation. It can be tough, and sometimes it feels as though our time is not valued. One thing we can do as Virtual Assistants is to never be guilty of this habit ourselves. For starters, never tell anyone you can or will do something that you may not be able to do. It’s so easy to forget to e-mail or phone someone back, but when you remember to contact them it instills confidence in that person. They will begin to think of you as a person who does what you say you’re going to do. This of course is a good way for people to think about you. Not responding to a client or any person for that matter, makes them feel unimportant. In any business, making people feel unimportant is damaging to your reputation. I know what you’re thinking, “Phone calls take time and I’m totally swamped”. All I can say to this is that clients, either current or potential, want to be your number one priority. What can be done about this is to try and have a section of the day just to get back to people. This part of the day is a blocked out time, just for returning e-mails or phone calls. It needs to take priority over everything else. Even if this time is only 15 minutes, it will give you time to drop a quick e-mail to some people so you don’t leave them hanging. If you can’t even spare 15 minutes, then hiring someone just for returning calls and e-mails is a must. Often when a potential client is left hanging, they do what everyone else does, they move on. A potential client who moves on is a missed opportunity. Do you have systems in place to make sure you are maintaining contact with both current and past clients?

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: client communication, potential clients, prioritizing

How to Find Clients

posted by kgbusco

These are tough times we are seeing for business. The economy is at an all time low and many people are beginning to feel the pinch. Is there any hope at all for the little guy to get by in these hard times? I say absolutely yes! I know it’s a major cliché, but the old saying holds so much truth. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” What this really means is that when times are hard, you need to try harder. It’s easy to be successful when times are easy. In terms of getting clients, there are a number of cost effective ways you can improve your chances.

Have a strong online presence. No matter who you are in business these days, if you’re not online, you’re not in business. There are so many ways online to advertise yourself and your business for free, that it’s just a shame not to take advantage of them all. Some examples of free online social networking include Biznik, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. The key to these social networking sites though are to participate on a fairly regular basis. Just popping in once a month to add something new to your profile or to post a brief article won’t cut it. These sites are free, but they do take some effort on your part to make them effective. With the sheer number of people that could see your profile, they are extremely effective when handled properly.

Look for both local and non-local clients. This ties in somewhat with my first point. Think of what you offer for a service or product and ask yourself if there is anything stopping you from selling it to people out of state? The technology that is available to businesses these days are nothing short of amazing. We can do business with someone on the other side of the globe about as easily as across the street. In your search for clients, think of it as painting a house. Do you want to use a tiny little paint brush that makes thin little lines, or do you want to use an industrial grade paint spray gun? I know that it’s not always possible based on what your selling, but give it some thought.

Offer more than just one service or product. In today’s shaky economy, just about everyone is trying to cut corners to save money. If a company wants a particular service, they may not go to a specialist for help. A specialist (a company that does just one thing) will be of a high skill, but will probably charge an arm and a leg. If your business has always just offered phone support, why not try to put more things on the menu. If you are good at finding things on the net, offer internet research as well. If you’re also good at writing, try offering blog writing too. Often times a client may want to add to your responsibilities if they know you are offering other services. This of course means more profit for you.

Educate yourself. The world of business is not stagnant, it flows and changes constantly. The industry you are in likely changes often as well. You need to adapt and upgrade yourself with your environment. Gaining new skills makes you more attractive to potential clients. Now, I’m not just talking about going out and getting a degree. I realize that that takes lots of money and few people these days can afford it. What I am talking about is taking advantage of free or inexpensive online seminars to boost your skills and knowledge. I’m not talking about dropping $1000 on a class, but if spending $100 or so will make you more valuable to clients than why not do it?

Filed Under: Networking Tagged With: business improvement, economy, getting clients, growing your business, tough economy