Osborne’s big mistake was to introduce a new piece of technology before it was available for purchase.  Tech buyers will immediately cease to buy an older model and wait for the newer one once the word gets out…if you don’t have it ready to sell, your sales plummet.  This became such a famous case study that it is still known today as the Osborne Effect.

It is always wise to forego advertising a new model until the model actually exists for purchase?  It depends on your industry.  The movie industry always advertises new movies before they are released, looking to drive up the buzz and make big hits at the box office on opening day.  But that’s a different biz model, because they’ve typically already squeezed sales out of the previous releases long before the new movie is out.  (Think Harry Potter or James Bond.)

Generally, though, if you sell a product (jewelry, luggage, clothing, air conditioners, etc.) you don’t want to get stuck with a lot of existing inventory because you have started to market a “new, improved” version of the same thing.  And you don’t want your sales of existing inventory to tank when word gets out that in a few months the “new, improved” version will be available.  A few months can be a long time to wait for cash flow!

Think about your own products and be aware of the Osborne Effect.  Plan wisely for releases of newer “models” of what you sell, and don’t create a thirsty crowd if you don’t have something to sell them.  Osborne eventually declared bankruptcy.  You and I can learn from his mistake.

1. Business plan templates often ask for information not relevant to your business, such as detailed plans for capitalization through “old-business” mechanisms such as bank loans and venture capital.
2. Commonly used biz plan templates often do not support newer business models such as Internet-only businesses, those with little or no physical inventory, or direct marketed businesses.
3. The templates also often short-change the marketing and customer service aspects of the business, arguably the most vital parts of business activity for micro-businesses.

Even though commonly used business plan templates or outlines don’t serve solo professionals particularly well, you still will do better in your business if you have a written business plan.  So if the dirty little secret of your business is that you’ve done no formal planning, listen up!  You need a plan!  Here are just a few reasons why.

• Completing a solopreneur biz plan forces you to become clearer and more succinct about what you offer, and that enables you to talk to prospects (potential customers) in a way that attracts them to your services. 
• A completed plan gives you specific goals to hit at specific times, which allows you to review and reflect how you are doing up against what you said you could do 3 months, 6 months, or a year ago.
• Often even more valuable than both of the above, having a plan helps you avoid the “bright, shiny object syndrome” that so many of us have.  It gives you a quick way to judge whether the opportunity is a distraction or something that will actually help you hit your goals.

There’s much more that proper business planning can do for solo professionals.  And by proper, I mean planning that is crafted specifically for a small, solo business that operates out of the home (or a small solo office).  Next Monday, May 10th, I’m doing a totally free one hour teleclass about easy-peasy business planning for solo professionals.  I suggest you register for the teleclass and call in.  You might be surprised at how simple yet helpful completing a business plan for solo professionals can be.  To register, go to http://confidentmarketer.com/site/upcoming-teleclasses/simple-business-plan/.  You’ll get good content about what you do need in a solo professional plan, and how to make it usable just for you.  See you then!

Let me ask you…..where is your business now, compared to that vision?  Where is it compared to your secret thought of making it big?  Have you given up on that dream?

I read a story about makeovers in a recent edition of O magazine that made me think about how women so often put their business at the bottom of their to-do list.  We do it to ourselves and our businesses, actually.  We think we’re being unselfish and giving, taking care of others before ourselves.  But are we, really?  Listen to one comment from the O makeover article:

“With the new looks came a new attitude.  What a makeover does for all of us is point out that there are BIG possibilites for us all.  Maybe we’ll get the idea that from a makeover, we can take another step toward change in other areas of our lives.”

Lack of attention to one’s self is no way to teach our children to stand up and be counted, is it?  Making sure that everyone else has new clothes while we schlep around in last year’s sweats only makes us both look and feel at the bottom of the barrel.  Paying for private lessons for our children while refusing to spend the money to take a workshop for ourselves sells ourselves and our business short.

Think about it.  If you fail to give yourself and your business the nurturing you both deserve, you send a silent message that you are not worth your own time and care, and that your business isn’t important enough to make a difference in anyone’s life.  Is that the truth?  I doubt it.  But you are showing how little  you believe you can make it really big when you continue to play safe and small.  You are refusing to serve others with your business, in a way that only you can uniquely serve.

When you really tune in to your business vision what does it look like?  Have you forgotten about your early enthusiasm?  How can you get it back?  And if you did, how much cleaner and better would you see the way to that secret vision you have?  How much more freedom would you have to be with your friends and family?  How much less worry over financial matters would you have?  What kind of example would you set for family and friends and other entrepreneurs if you kick-started your business again and made it provide for you at a high level?  It would be a powerful message, wouldn’t it?

That’s just not going to happen if you take care of everyone else’s current needs first.  Take care of yourself and your business, so that you have the wealth needed to take care of those you love.  You aren’t here to serve your family and friends everything on a platter.  In fact, if you do, they will learn directly from you to lean on others rather than themselves.  Is that what you want?  I heard a quote last week that really made me stop and think. “A strong focus now creates a different future later.”

How do you focus now on your business, so that you can have that different future?  Here are three ways:

1. Change your lifestyle and your schedule around so that you are spending at least two hours every single day building your business.  No excuses.  You are in business for yourself, right?  Two hours a day is a bare minimum.  Otherwise, your business is nothing more than a hobby.  You can work part time, but you can’t work no time.  Two hours, minimum, every day.
2. Create a calendar for the entire year.  Plan in your vacation weeks, at least three long weekend retreat times for yourself to focus solely on your business, and time for learning what you don’t know and need to know in order to build your income.  If you are running out of hours in the week, get help for the low-level stuff and keep your eye on the stuff that creates future income.
3. Get a mentor or a coach.  Do I say that because I am one?  Nope!  Virtually every single wealthy business owner works with someone who can pull them out of the weeds when they need it, give them perspective, and save them a lot of time in mastering new tasks.  No excuses.  Don’t tell yourself you can’t afford it, tell yourself the cost of doing without is much higher than what you’ll pay.  Think return on investment, not cost.  That’s how a business owner thinks, after all.  Are you one, or not?

I just spent over $200 on Magellan’s travel supplies website.  Why?

1. I got their new spring/summer catalog in the mail.  Magellan’s used a direct mail piece, their timing was right (I have several trips coming up), and the catalog renewed my TOMA (top of mind awareness) about Magellan’s.  The key here?  Timing! I regularly receive Magellan’s catalog and usually throw it out without looking.  But I’m excited about upcoming travel, and I needed to refresh a few things.  LESSON LEARNED: Keeping in touch with your customers over time is critical, even if they haven’t bought from you in a while.
2. A notice on the catalog’s front cover offered free shipping on orders over $100.  I figured almost any order would come to that amount, and free shipping saves me money.  A deadline on the free shipping (May 9th) spurred me to take action now rather than lose the catalog on my desk.  LESSON LEARNED:  Make your special offers time-limited, with a relatively short time frame.

Let’s look at what I ordered and my reason for each purchase.

• Spill-proof pouch – because the last time I was on a plane one of my face care products leaked out into my cosmetic bag.  This pouch SOLVES A PROBLEM.
• Electronics travel case – I didn’t go looking for this item, but I saw it browsing the catalog.  I’m thinking “Hmm, I’m sure tired of all my various chargers and USB cables getting into a big knot at the bottom of my briefcase, so maybe I’ll try this.”  This purchase SOLVES A PROBLEM and was a win for Magellan’s because of 1)  A GOOD IDEA and 2) SUGGESTED SELLING.
• Personalized luggage strap – This is actually a gift for my husband.  His luggage looks similar to many, and more than once he’s picked up someone else’s at the airport.  The strap WORKS AS A GIFT and helps SOLVE SOMEONE ELSE’S  PROBLEM.
• Extra-large mesh pack-it cube – These things are hard to find in large sizes, so Magellan’s gets a star for carrying them.  They allow me to pack clothing inside my rolling duffel luggage and quickly pull out what I need without digging around.  If I get stopped for inspection, I can easily pull these out without re-shuffling and wrinkling my clothing.  I’ve used 2 gallon kitchen zipper bags, but the zippers don’t hold up to being open and closed over and over again, and the 2 gallon size is now hard to find.  These mesh cubes SOLVE A PROBLEM but also GIVE ME A FEELING OF LUXURY.  I get to graduate from packing my clothes in baggies. 
• Blackberry pouch – When I’m sight-seeing I try not to carry a purse, but I often need my phone and camera with me, and my pants usually have no pockets.  This handy little pouch hangs around the neck and will hold both my Blackberry and my small camera.  Perfect!  Again, solves a problem and makes something easier for me.
• Walkstool – One of the downsides of having a new knee is that it’s still hard for me to stand on concrete for very long without pain.  This innovative product offers a sturdy, foldable instant stool but weighs very little, and can hang off a belt, a backpack, a purse, or my shoulder.  Next time I think I better not go on a walking tour because we’ll stand and listen to a guide for 15 minutes, I’ll be able to go and know I can sit when I need to.  HUGE problem solved for me and a solution I can live with (not too heavy or too bulky, small and easy to pack).
• Inflatable neck pillow – I use one on planes, and foolishly over inflated mine a few trips ago.  POW!  It burst at 30,000 feet and that was the end of that!  I’ve looked around in airports but balked at paying $30.00.  Magellan’s had one on sale for $12.99.  What sold me?  REASONABLE PRICING and PROBLEM SOLVED.

As you can see, I’m a buyer who will spend for solving problems.  I also respond to suggested selling and to the feeling of having something a little fancier for myself.  But these are not the only reasons Magellan’s got $200 from me.  They are smart in how they set up their web site, too.

1. Their website is easy to maneuver and loads quickly.
2. They offer customer reviews of their products, which talked me into the stool and the Blackberry pouch.
3. Their page for each item tells me immediately that the item is in stock.  (One of my pet peeves is ordering online only to find that the item isn’t due in for 30 days or so.)
4. Their page for each item offers more pictures than the catalog, allowing me to “look” at items in detail.
5. Their check-out process is easy.

Take a look at what you’ve spent money on and list the reasons why you bought.  You can then look at what you offer to others and think about whether your offers are attractive for those same reasons.  If they are not, tweak them and your sales copy, and see if your sales improve.  I bet they will!

(c) Sue Painter

In fact, “seeing” myself playing a piano piece or “practicing in my mind” as I then called it is one of the first ways I learned that I could make things happen.  An early-bird piano student (I started when I was 7), I somehow realized that I could read the music and then re-play it in my head, and “watch” as my hands played the piece.  In today’s world (7 was a long time ago, ha!) we call it visioning.  Visioning is a key precursor to manifesting what we want to do with our life.  And it’s a very handy little tool to have.  I’ve used it in all sorts of ways.

• Learning music for piano, flute, and guitar for recitals and concerts
• Teaching myself how to do proofs in geometry
• Remembering positioning, draping, and treatment routines for neuromuscular therapy treatments when I took my national boards
• Seeing myself walking again after back surgery as a child
• Finding the exact piece of furniture I wanted for a room in my home
• Speaking to large groups successfully
• Finding the perfect office space for my business

There’s more (ask my husband about my “finding” the perfect car on Ebay for a song), but you get the point.  Visioning leads to manifesting, and manifesting is a critical skill to have as an entrepreneur.  I’m not saying that one doesn’t have to put the time in to get what one wants, but you can work with the flow of things and get there a lot faster than working against the flow.  And working in the flow means having a clear vision, a picture if you will, of what you want to create in and around you as you work.

Here, then, are three ways to make things happen.  You can use them to accelerate your income, build your business faster, get clear about the products and services you want to offer, and even find the perfect office space!

1. Step one is to find about 15 minutes of totally quiet, alone time for yourself.  Get some paper and a pen, sit or lay down, and close your eyes.  Ask yourself “how exactly do I see my business?”  And then wait until words or pictures form in your mind.  Follow them, make them fuller.  If you see yourself in an office, look around and get a detailed look.  How much of the time are you there?  Are there other staff members?  What are you wearing?  Where is this office located?  Do you see people there?  Make whatever pictures come to you as full as you possibly can.  If you’re traveling in the pictures that come to you, ask where, how much you travel, who you are with, what you do when you get there.  No matter how outlandish the pictures or words are that come to you, let them become detailed and full, and follow where they lead.  Jot down anything you think you won’t remember about the words or pictures.  Keep at it until you have a full vision of the things you want to manifest in your business.
2. Make a vision board.  You can do this any way you like.  I sometimes use large poster board, sometimes just a sheet of paper.  Either way, go to Google images and search for pictures that represent what you want to make happen.  Get the pictures out of your mind and into the world.  Print them, stick them onto your vision board, and put it where you can see it often.  Your eye will go to it many times during the day, and your brain and your energy will lock on to the visions you put there.  Soon enough, you’ll begin to see your way to each one of those pictures.  Your energy will be so full of what you want to manifest that you literally will begin to pull the thing toward you.  I’ve had completely doubtful clients do vision boards in my workshops, only to call me up six months later and report that every single thing on their board was “magically” accomplished or found.  No, it isn’t magic.  It’s putting your energy and intention toward what you see in your mind’s eye, and have helped to make real by creating your vision board.
3. Share the vision board you made with your family, friends, and team members.  If you want to put even more thrust into your vision, take the time to share what you are going to make happen by showing your vision board around.  You’re not asking for help, you’re just saying what you are going for to those you spend the most time around.  You’re creating a wider, broader energy for what you want, even if you don’t think anyone will actually do something to help you.  The fact is, you just never know.  One person might mention something in passing to another person, who happens to be just the person you are looking for to help make something happen.  Sharing your vision deepens your own commitment to it, too.  It helps you lose the “oh, I don’t know if this will actually happen” self-doubt that seems to always be lurking underneath us.  Just make your board, share it with a few people, and go about your business.  You don’t even need lengthy explanations – let the pictures speak for themselves.

The thing about envisioning is that it will become a habit for you if you do it consistently.  You’ll find yourself stopping for a few seconds to envision even little things in your life – the perfect dinner one night, exactly how you want to look and speak in front of a group.  Learning how to open yourself to the inner knowing, the vision inside yourself, is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself and your business.  Set aside visioning time once a week for the next six weeks, and notice how your life and your work begins to change.

(c)  Sue Painter

1.  Change what you have in the fields for first and last name.  Instead of using Sue Painter, for example, I kept my first name (Sue) but changed the last name field to read Painter, Owner, The Confident Marketer.  This puts your business name front and center and leaves you the next field free for key terms about who you are and what you do.

2. Change the next field (the headline).  Most people put the name of their business in this field.  But your business name often doesn’t tell people exactly what you do or what you are expert in.  And, you now already have your business name above, in the “last name” field.   Since LinkedIn is keyword searchable (and is indexed by Google) this is a great place to use your keywords.  For example, I used the terms SoloPreneur Marketing Stategist, Mindset Shift Expert, Neuromarketing, Coach, Speaker, Internet Marketing Expert.  So now, right at the top of my profile I have much more information about myself and what I do than just my name and my business’s name.  Here is the before and after of the very top of my profile.

Before:  Sue Painter
Owner, The Confident Marketer
After:     Sue  (Hawkins) Painter, Owner, The Confident Marketer
SoloPreneur Marketing Stategist, Mindset Shift Expert, Neuromarketing, Coach, Speaker, Internet Marketing Expert

Can you see how much more information that offers someone viewing my profile?  And, the keyword terms are searchable within LinkedIn, so if someone is looking for a mindshift expert for solo business owners, I’ll be found more easily.

3.   As you build your profile, weave the keyword terms you have used into “Summary” field.  It’s your chance to give a fuller explanation of what you do and how you work.  Be sure to use your keyword terms again at the very bottom of the Summary field, where LinkedIn asks for “Specialties.”

4.  If you are a blogger (and as a solo professional, you should be!) click on the “More” tab at the top of the Linked In page, above your profile, and then click on “Applications.”  You’ll see several applications there, the important one links your blog poastings to to LinkEd automatically.  You can also add Twitter accounts if you wish.

5.  Be sure to hit LinkedIn a few times a week to see what’s new with your connections and to provide an update about what you are up to, as well.  Share information about upcoming products, events, and offers.

Personalizing your LinkedIn page will lead those you don’t know toward the “know/like/trust factor, which is very important to building your business.

(c)  Sue Painter

1. Her business is not thriving, meaning she needs more customers and she is not financially successful.
2. When asked who she works with, she replies “Oh, I work with just about anyone.”
3. If asked to thoroughly and completely describe her target market, she is flustered and can’t give more than a sentence.

The “Oh, I work with just about anyone” response is one I’ve heard from both new and not-so-new entrepreneurs many times.  So many times, in fact, that it now drives me a little nuts.  When someone says that, they are setting no boundaries for who they work with, which is a deadly thing.  Let me ask the “just about anyone” entrepreneurs these questions:

1.  Does it matter to you if a customer stiffs you?

2.  Are you open 24/7?

3.  If you were, for instance, a seller of curtains and blinds, would you drive 400 miles to sell a set of blinds to someone?

Of course, the answer to each of these is almost always NO!   And that’s a good, thing, because that entrepreneur has just started on a path of better describing her target market.  Her target market are people who have the money to pay for her products or services, she works with those who contact her during specific days and hours of business, and she has a limited geographical area in which to sell her blinds.  This isn’t a complete description of her target market, but it is a start.

You can picture the creation of your target market as setting fences and gates around a specific group of people with whom you really want to work. You might not be as blatantly obvious about it as the gatekeepers are at hot night clubs, where one must stand outside on the sidewalk and get personally picked to go inside, but that is one very good example of a business who is very picky about who they want to serve.

I’ve learned about finding your niche and describing your target market from 3 or 4 of my coaches and mentors, but the one who made me work the hardest to describe my market, hands down, was Suzanne Falter-Barnes.  She has a very long list of questions that one must answer to get through one of her platform building classes.  The first time I saw that fat list of questions I just about fainted.  In fact, the document she proposed I fill out to describe my market was 17 pages long!  Still, Suzanne knows her stuff and I was there to learn, so I plowed into the questions.  At the end, I felt like I’d invented something akin to a kid’s secret playmate.  I started getting actual pictures of how my target market person looked, how she dressed, what she spent her money on, and more.  I got so familiar with her in that 17 pages of ruthless questioning that I decided I knew her well enough to name her, for Pete’s sake!  And that is what I strongly suggest you do, too.

My suggestion is to sit down with your computer or a piece of paper and describe a “sample” person from your target market as if she (or he) is a character in a book you are writing, and it’s up to you to fill your reader’s head with a detailed, specific, colorful image of the character you are writing about.  Describe age, education, the kind of work she does, where she lives, her likes and dislikes – anything you can think of that will add to the picture in your head.  This may lead you to dig around on the web for demographic or other information.

Spend quality time here, for it pays off in the end. Ask yourself (with pen and paper or keyboard nearby) “who is the most perfect customer for me?”  If you have a hard time doing that, prime the pump by listing the characteristics of your most favorite or best customer so far.  From there, dream on.  Who would be delightful to work with?  Who would you dread working with?  What characteristics drive you crazy?  Who have you worked with who bugs you so much you hope she never calls you again?  You get the picture – and that’s whole point.  For here is a secret about financially successful entrepreneurs:  

Those who describe and visualize their target market well have started the process of manifesting exactly that type of customer for themselves.  You now have a vision of who you want to attract, in detail.  Put that right on your business vision board and keep it in your mind’s eye, for who you focus on tends to come your way.

Having this vision and description on hand also makes it easier to walk away from business that isn’t right for you, doesn’t truly interest you, and has a downside to it.  (The downside being that while you are spending time with uninteresting client A, you cannot very well be also working with or running into very interesting and exciting client B.  This is called “opportunity cost.”)  Realize that it actually COSTS YOU to work with the wrong customer, for you are giving up the opportunity to work with who is just right for you.

Taking the time to dream up your ideal target market person makes finding that type of person much easier.  You now know where to focus your efforts.  If you are spending a lot of time and money networking in a group of direct marketers, and these are not your target market, it’s time to make a change.  Pull your time and money from the wrong group, and go find the right group.  You’ll find more and better business in the new group and waste less of your precious time.  

When you are creating marketing plans, writing sales copy, or pulling together a presentation you’ll be able to keep your secret target market person right with you, writing to them.  There will be less agony over creating these things.  

And finally, when you have the opportunity to build a relationship with a potential customer, you will be much more at ease because, after all, you will pretty much feel as if you know that person in a way.  You’ll be confident that you’ve spent time with someone who has a much higher chance of needing what you offer.  This will shorten your sales cycle and make you more money faster.  I don’t know of any entrepreneur who doesn’t want that!

So, get that blank paper or computer screen and get going.  Breath some life into your target market, and you’ll breath new life into your business, as well.  It’s a win-win for every entrepreneur.

(c) Sue Painter

1. Running your own business is a solitary endeavor.  Decisions are up to you and you alone.  You need the perspective of other business owners to round out your own thoughts.  The perspective of your employees (if you have any) isn’t the same thing.
2. Your own energy waxes and wanes.  I’m not talking about the moon or hormones, either.  The best business owners know that their own energy has to attract others to them – good staff, great customers, good deals for rents or whatever else.  And it is very hard to keep your own energy up where it needs to be without sometimes drawing from the good energy of others.
3. Time inevitably puts you in the box.  What do I mean by this?  When you created your business you did it to put forward a new, not previously done type of business.  You felt what you had to offer was unique and special.  In other words, you were out of the box.  But as time rocks on, your own thinking gets boxed in by the very dailiness of what you do, by your own fatigue, and by the fact that others will emulate you.  To keep on re-creating a business that continually pleases and serves your customers, you need to keep yourself out of the box.
4. Your ideas, although they are great, can be sharpened and improved by your entrepreneurial community.  Simply put, multiple heads are better than one.  Here’s a quick example of this.  In one of my own communities, a woman had a deal with a book publisher for her very first book.  But she was balking about what the publisher wanted to title the book, taking issue with both the main title and the tagline.  She brought it up in our next get together, only to find that her adamant opinion was not shared by a single one of us!  We all though the title was good and that, furthermore, the publisher knew what would sell much more than the author did.  As I pointed out, the author is the subject matter expert but her publisher is the marketing and sales expert for her book.  All but one of the entire community basically told her to suck it up.  And after she listened to us, she did!  She ended up coming all the way back around to what the publisher had suggested, with only a very minor one-word change.  Which leads me to my next point about the benefit of being in an entrepreneurial community….
5. It helps you get your own ego out of the way, and think about what you offer from your customer’s point of view.  Believe you me, you will ONLY be successful if you offer what your customers want and need, not what you in all your wisdom think they need.

I could probably come up with a few more good reasons, but I think you, smart as you are, get the point.  It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a community to foster a solo business.  I cannot even begin to list for you all that I have learned from constantly participating in my own communities.  I’ve gotten both wonderful, gentle, loving support and a sharp kick in the pants….and both have been beneficial to me.  It will be the same for you.

I’m excited to tell you that I’m forming a new community for solo business owners that will offer these benefits ( and more) in just about a month.  I’m calling it Private Matters because I’m creating a group to which you can bring your most private thoughts and worries.  These deeply affect your business, they matter.  So….in a nutshell….Private Matters.  It will be small, full of sharp thinkers and dedicated solo business owners, and  it will change you and your business in ways that you can only dream of.  If you feel you are a good match for Private Matters, you can e-mail me and I’ll make sure you get the application and information.

Meanwhile, keep your business focused on who you serve, what those people need, and how you can best offer products and services that meet those needs.  And remember to reach out for community regularly.  Both you and your customers will benefit.

(c) Sue Painter