#EntrepreneurLife

The Biggest Crime in Service Businesses That No One Talks About & You May Not Even Be Aware of Committing

The Biggest Crime in Service Businesses That No One Talks About & You May Not Even Be Aware of Committing

This is a tale of a crime that you must know as a service business owner.

This is a crime I have knowingly committed in the past, and I am coming clean about right here, right now.

Whether you’re aware or unaware, if you end up identifying with what I am about to share, you must also come clean for the sake of your business and your customers.

It’s funny how this is NOT often discussed as a "crime." But I'm calling it a crime because it's not the way to run a sustainable business.

So, what is it, you might ask?

Well... Let me tell you a story & give a few examples.

Once upon a time, my main business model was a monthly retainer model. Before that, I was charging hourly.

I thought, "I made progress!" Charging a flat rate on a monthly basis made me feel like a badass. In case you are still charging hourly for your service, check out “Still Trading Time for Money? Overcome These 5 Key Hurdles & Finally Stop Charging By the Hour”

But soon after, I started to question this model.

I thought, "Wait, there's only so many clients I can take on. And my sales cycle for getting them is long. The only way to keep going would be to make sure that I keep my current ones as long as possible."

Do you know exactly what I was thinking of as a “quick solution”?

I'll give you a min. I want you to think about what my immediate solution was.

OK, so my thinking was:

How to Experience Breakthroughs Under Any Given Circumstance Using Your Word of the Year

How to Experience Breakthroughs Under Any Given Circumstance Using Your Word of the Year

I’m glad you found me here because I’m about to make a bold statement. Are you ready?

This year would be so much worse if it weren’t for
the Word of the Year that I chose to live by.

About a year ago, I brainstormed my Word of the Year for this year not knowing what was in store for us, more specifically, how CRAZY this year was going to be for most of us regardless of where we are located.

Yet, the word I chose was just perfect for this year.

If you are interested in understanding why this matters & how I go about choosing the word that helps me grow as a person and moves my business forward, do check out How to Pick Your Perfect Word of the Year that Will Help You Finally Achieve Your Massive Business Goals in the New Year.

As I said in this post, this is not some kind of cute exercise to do to make you feel like you are doing something. On the contrary, if you take this seriously, you are going to produce the results that you want.

In order to produce results, you want to experience as many breakthroughs as possible. When I say “experience breakthroughs,” I don’t mean for you to sit back and experience them. That’s not how it works.

Instead, what you want is to induce breakthroughs by doing things that you’ve never done before faster and more often. By having your Word of the Year in place, it will help you get through the fear of trying something new and/or resistance to sticking with it.

I don’t know what your year looked like or how hard or easy it was for you, but if you are here because you know you can be unstoppable in achieving great things and you are more than ready for the new year, this is for you.

In this post, I’m going to share my experience using my Word of the Year, “Limitless” and what I took away from it. Then I’m also going to share the stories of 2 fabulous guests I had on my monthly Business Therapy Hour on how they choose their Word of the Year.

Why I Booked a Branded Photoshoot When I Wasn’t Ready: The 5 Key Elements of a Successful Shoot for Service Business Owners

Why I Booked a Branded Photoshoot When I Wasn’t Ready: The 5 Key Elements of a Successful Shoot for Service Business Owners

Oooo, let me tell you how much I dislike getting my photo taken. I’ve dodged it very cleverly for the longest time…4 years to be exact. So why did I book a proper branded photoshoot a.k.a. a “branded lifestyle photoshoot?” Well, you’ll find out all about it in this post.

But you might be saying, “Hey Maiko, I’ve seen your photos all over the place. What do you mean you’ve been dodging it?”

Did I not just say I’ve been “cleverly” dodging it? I’ve had 2 very casual shoots done by my friends in the past, just so that I didn’t get too nervous & worked up about the whole thing. Then while I was using some of them, I hired photographers to shoot my live events for “candid shots.”

Candid shots are great because I don’t need to pay attention to what the photographers are doing. I let them do their thing & voila! A ton of good photos come out of nowhere. Then I picked a few & threw them up on my website.

These are a couple of clever ways to avoid a proper photoshoot.

But there comes a time when you want to buckle down (more like suck up) and do one.

Take These 5 Solid Steps When You Feel Unappreciated for Providing Valuable Content

Take These 5 Solid Steps When You Feel Unappreciated for Providing Valuable Content

I see you. I see your disappointed, exhausted face after cranking out content after content. For free.

You consider yourself a hardworking and good student of marketing, and you know that getting your business off the ground by just relying on word-of-mouth isn’t sustainable.

So, you tune into podcasts, read up on articles and follow experts on social media to see what they suggest and what they are doing. It won’t take long before you learn it’s all about “giving away the best stuff” and “engage, engage, and engage” long before making an offer.

You roll up your sleeves and start creating content even though the process is scary and uncomfortable. You press on by navigating through fear of judgment, imposter syndrome, the dreaded feeling of how you look on camera…(or how much you hate your own voice). You are a trooper.

But…the problem is…it’s not working. You aren’t getting any traction, let alone inquiries for hiring your business. You wonder, “What am I doing wrong?! I’m grinding myself into the ground by creating content!”

You find yourself feeling resentful. Your brain is fried to the point where it’s crispy. You are on the edge of giving it all up.

The good news - You are here. The bad news - I’m going to tell you that you have been somewhat misinformed. But I won’t just leave you there. I am going to tell you what to do. So, I think that’s still good news.

Just to be clear, the advice of “giving away the best stuff,” and “engage & don’t sell” isn’t wrong. What’s wrong is your understanding of doing that at which stage of your business and for whom. This, in my strong opinion, is not explained well enough by those experts. We’ll get into that in a minute.

Now take a deep breath & stop whining. We have work to do.

Business Continuity Plan 101: The Top 11 Positive & Resilient Moves to Make During Hard Times Based on the 5R’s of Risk Management

Business Continuity Plan 101: The Top 11 Positive & Resilient Moves to Make During Hard Times Based on the 5R’s of Risk Management

“We are more often frightened than hurt;
and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”

— Seneca

9 out of 10 business owners I encounter, their answer to this question is a big, fat “no.” Can you guess what THE question is?

“Do you have a contingency plan in place?” – This is one of my questions that is part of the initial form everyone must fill out when they come through my doors.

Believe it or not, this to me is perfectly understandable considering that the past several years have been somewhat stable (in the US.) But this also calls for a big wake up call. Many of the things you can do to bulletproof your business are incredibly easy to do while things are seemingly normal.

The biggest reason is that you aren’t under pressure. This allows you to do all of the business continuity planning (a.k.a. contingency planning) with ease. This is the reason having a regularly scheduled CEO day on a monthly or quarterly basis is highly recommended so that you get to work “ON” (and not “IN”) your business.

For more about how to conduct one, you can check out this post.

If you are finding this post because your business has been hit by any of these risk factors, do not despair:

● Macro/Micro Economic Factors

● Technology Threats

● Pandemic/Epidemic

● Natural Disaster

● New Competition

● Government Policy/Regulation Changes

This post is not to shame or guilt you about the fact that you may not have a business continuity plan in place. This is about giving you the easy steps you can take right now to have the initial one ready to go.

How to Identify & Overcome Resistance to Change: 7 Game-Changing Questions that Will Instantly Get You Out of a Perpetual “Resistance” Rut

How to Identify & Overcome Resistance to Change: 7 Game-Changing Questions that Will Instantly Get You Out of a Perpetual “Resistance” Rut

Exactly a decade ago, I was sitting in a classroom at the IBM Conference Center in NJ. That's where I went every other weekend to get my MBA from Cornell while I worked full time.

It was during lunch time that a free class was offered. The topic was "How to Develop Your Personal Brand." William Arruda was the instructor. (I suggest you look him up on LinkedIn and connect.)

When he touched on the importance of securing a domain name under your full name, I raised my hand to make a comment,

"That seems too much like shameless self-promotion to me."

Attendees looked at William to see how he would respond, as they were secretly thinking the same thing. In this particular situation, for whatever reason, I decided to be the trigger-happy one to point out the elephant in the room.

William took a pause, looked straight at me & calmly said,

"Ms. Sakai. Get. Over. It."

Everyone laughed. Nervously.

Message received, nonetheless. That weekend, I bought my domain name.

But it wasn't until 5 years later when I finally did something with it. Yes, that's the one you're looking at right now.

"Resistance" is a powerful & distracting behavior both in life & business that we tend to hold onto. Sometimes consciously, and sometimes unconsciously.

What happened was…I was hiding behind the age-old Japanese virtue of "Wise hawks hide their claws."

The saying means to convey the importance of not showing off your craft to create unnecessary commotion which may scare off your prey. Sounds noble. Sounds logical.

But the truth was... I just wasn’t confident enough to push myself out there in that way. So, my brain decided to wrap that up with all sorts of logical reasoning as to why I shouldn’t do it to achieve 2 things:

Should You Stay a Solopreneur? - The Definitive Guide to Deciding Whether to Scale or Not to Scale Your Service Business in Under 1 Hour

Should You Stay a Solopreneur? - The Definitive Guide to Deciding Whether to Scale or Not to Scale Your Service Business in Under 1 Hour

“Should I stay a solopreneur or should I build a full-fledged firm (or an agency or a company)?

This is a $100K question.

Why $100K?

As I’ve explained in my previous post, “The Ultimate Roadmap: How to Instantly Reduce the Amount of Uncertainty in Your Entrepreneurial Journey,” you can make up to $100K without a solid business model or structure or even a clear long-term vision.

You don’t believe me?

Well, all I can tell you is that I’ve seen countless amounts of people who have done it. Either you take my word for it, or don’t believe me. Your choice.

But here is the thing. Once you reach this revenue mark consistently for more than 2 years or so, possibly up to $200K, you will have to face a question like this one to gain clarity on “where to go from here?”

The good news is this is great timing to ask yourself this question for 3 reasons:

1. You have enough confidence at this point that your business generates revenue. In other words, you have your proof of concept down.

2. It’s unlikely that you are in a dire, survival mode, so you can spend some quality time making a sound business decision.

3. It’s not too late to clean up your business that grew organically, without a massive cost, to mold your business into your desired version.

To top it off, I’m making this outlandish claim that you will be able to make this decision in under 1 hour after reading this post.

Yep, you heard me. Under 1 hour.

Any successful entrepreneurs you may look up to will tell you this, your business growth is heavily dependent upon how fast you can make sound business decisions (and take required action accordingly.)

It’s because being stuck in the space of indecisiveness is the silent killer of all businesses as it causes stagnation. Money, in case you didn't know, loves speed and hates stagnation. This is why I’ve designed this post to ensure that you will be able to make a quick but solid decision for your business.

Here’s the spoiler alert:

Abundant Selling: How to Fill Up Your Pipeline Without Selling Like the Rest Pt. 2

Abundant Selling: How to Fill Up Your Pipeline Without Selling Like the Rest Pt. 2

Many of you seemed to love the “Abundant Selling” approach that cuts sleaziness & awkwardness out of your sales process. Not only that, you feel truly inspired to get out there and talk about what you do with full confidence.

Today, I’m jazzed about bringing you part 2 of this concept so that you can continue building up your customer pipeline.

By the way, the juiciest part of this post will be my 3 secret tips at the end, so don’t forget to check that out!

In case you haven’t read “Abundant Selling Pt. 1,” go there first (link) & come back to this because if you don’t start off right, the rest of the steps won’t add any value to your effort. Trust me on this one.

Just to recap, the entire cycle of the Abundant Selling framework looks like this:

Be Seen (Cultivate Curiosity)

Invite (Extract & Learn)

Offer Possibilities (Offer Beyond Their Desires)

Part 1 was all about “cultivating curiosity” by executing the S.O.S. method. I don’t care if you are an extrovert or introvert. Increasing your chance of being seen is the most optimal way to avoid coming across as sleazy or awkward. And, there are many “introvert-friendly” business activities you can do to protect your energy level.

Through the S.O.S. Method, you are basically doing your part by simply showing up while allowing people to decide whether they want to know more about how you help others through your business.

That was part 1.

The next step, the step we are going to cover today is Invite. As I previously outlined, even here at this stage, you don’t have to feel obligated to sell or make an offer.

Instead, consider this step to be the Intel-Gathering stage by extracting information from people you are interacting with in more of a focused setting such as video conferencing, calls & meetings as opposed to being at conferences and/or networking events.

The core objective of the Invite stage is to:

One Thing that Gets Your Prospects to Say “Yes” Faster: Closing the Gap Between Value and Perceived Value

One Thing that Gets Your Prospects to Say “Yes” Faster: Closing the Gap Between Value and Perceived Value

There is one lighthearted question I wish I could have asked my grandmother who passed away a few years ago, at the age of 103, just for giggles.

“Hey, grandma. Did you know that young people nowadays don’t mind paying $12 - $14 for a big bowl of quinoa salad? They even eat millet, willingly. Mind you, willingly. What do you think of that?”

Yeah, I didn’t get to ask her this, but I’m not too disappointed because I know what she would have said (although it would have been a treat just to see her reaction).

My guess is she would have said something like this:

“Why in the world would you want to eat QUINOA when you can eat bowls of pearly white rice?! Feed that to birds!”

Bear with me for a few more seconds. There is a point to this story, and it is related to how you can make your prospects say “yes” to your offer faster. I promise. 

Quinoa was never a trendy health food until now, especially from where I am from, Japan. 

Back in the old days, commoners couldn’t afford highly processed white rice, so they ate brown rice. When they couldn’t afford rice - any form of rice - then they would eat barley mixed with quinoa, millet & other hardy grains that didn’t taste as good as white rice.

Even if you are not of Asian descent, you get the idea by just replacing white rice with white bread and how people in the old days would kill to trade their whole wheat bread for a loaf of white bread. 

OK, getting back to the story.

So to older generations, having to eat quinoa is like a punishment. For the rest of us, eating quinoa is a symbol of “I’m taking good care of myself.” 

Punishment vs. A Status Symbol. What a stark contrast! Right?

So what changed? 

Suck at Leading and Managing People? Follow These 3 Quick Steps to Become the Boss Even You Would Want to Work For

Suck at Leading and Managing People? Follow These 3 Quick Steps to Become the Boss Even You Would Want to Work For

I’ll get right to it. Most of us spend our early career focusing on sharpening our crafts. Unless you have been specializing in HR (human resources), chances are, you were never properly trained to be the boss that people would want to look up to.

To make it even more challenging, the reality is that most of us have experience working for a toxic boss or working in a toxic work environment before. And, most of us swore to ourselves right then & there that we would never do what they've done to us.

In other words, we are aware of what NOT to do from our own experience, but many of us don’t exactly know how to go about breaking the vicious cycle and what to do instead as a business owner.

That’s not all. Now that you are running your own business, all eyes are on you. You are ultimately responsible for leading your team, regardless of whether or not you have a management team right below you.

This is why today I want to check in with you to see how your people management skills stack up. Becoming an aspiring business leader isn’t fluff or an ego-driven wish; it’s a lifeline that can make or break your business.

Why?

Simple. Being a crappy leader costs an enormous amount of money in your business due to the deadly chain reaction of a high turnover rate with wasted training time, causing low productivity among employees resulting in piled-up, missed business opportunities.

If you don’t want anything to do with this chain reaction (I certainly do not), then just follow the quick steps I’m sharing here to fast-track your people management skills.

Even if you are reading this thinking, "I think I'm pretty OK at this," I still want you to read it to become self-aware of some pitfalls you may not even have considered before.

So, here are the 3 steps:

How to Pick Your Perfect “Word of the Year” that Will Help You Finally Achieve Your Massive Business Goals in the New Year

How to Pick Your Perfect “Word of the Year” that Will Help You Finally Achieve Your Massive Business Goals in the New Year

Drum roll, please! Finally, I have my Word of the Year for the new year.

Here we go. Ta-da!!!! 

It’s “Limitless.”

Now, I don't want you to think I randomly picked this because..."It kinda sounded good." 

Wrong! 

I've stewed my brain over this for a few weeks. Then I observed my entire process. 

The good news is you don't have to stew your brain like I did. What you get here is the cleaned-up, efficient version of it so that you don’t waste any time.

See, I always think of you.

By the way, we'll come back to my new word of the year a little later to uncover my thinking process after we go over the why & the how so that you can get started.

Sound good?

First, we're diving into why this is NOT some kind of cute thing to do to avoid doing real work in your business. 

This is real work with a real purpose.

So, I hope you take this seriously if you have big plans for your business in the new year.

Beyond Handwritten Cards: 3 Types of Thoughtful Holiday Gifts that are Guaranteed to Wow Your Clients

Beyond Handwritten Cards: 3 Types of Thoughtful Holiday Gifts that are Guaranteed to Wow Your Clients

Just the other day over on Twitter, someone asked for suggestions for gift-giving ideas for her clients. She wanted to thank her clients by coming up with thoughtful and affordable gift ideas, but she didn’t know where to start.

“What good timing!” I thought. I was just planning on writing a post about this topic, so I immediately bullet-pointed my suggestions to test my ideas. Turns out my suggestions were well-received.

So, here I am today to share the same suggestions but more in-depth in hopes of making your life easier.

For all of us, it seems to get awfully hectic once we get into the holiday season. We have gifts for family members, friends & peers to worry about while we plan out our travel logistics and holiday-themed events to attend.

Before we know it, shipping deadlines are just around the corner & the last thing we want to agonize over is…what to give to our clients! Right?

But I don’t want this to stop you from moving forward with this. The benefit of gift-giving outweighs the bit of prep work required, which I will explain in this post.

The good news is that what I am about to share will help you avoid the “deer-in-the-headlights” situation. I know you will thank me later. So, let’s begin.

 

Before Diving In… The Objectives!

The question here is, “Why would you want to give gifts to your clients?”

With anything you do in your business, you want to develop muscles to get super clear on why you should do something before taking actions so that you will use your precious time wisely. This is no exception.

The Ultimate Roadmap: How to Instantly Reduce the Amount of Uncertainty in Your Entrepreneurial Journey

The Ultimate Roadmap: How to Instantly Reduce the Amount of Uncertainty in Your Entrepreneurial Journey

I'm sure you agree that we all have the tendency to hold on to what's familiar to us, even if that means we remain sitting still in discomfort.

Ahhhh, the comfort of certainty!

I'm going to be flat-out honest with you. The entrepreneurial journey is filled with uncertainty regardless of where you are at in your business. There's no way around it.

But is "predictability" a lot better than "giving a shot at something that's loaded with new possibilities"? 

See, holding on to certainty can delay your progress in growing your business. It's because you are perpetuating the status quo. 

Think about your own experience for a sec. You might have delayed quitting your job just because you didn't have enough evidence to support the idea of you making the right decision.

You might have held off on going on your own because you weren't sure if you could hack it & ended up keeping your side hustle as a side hustle for the longest time.

You might have stayed on the job you passionately hated because, at least, you knew they weren't going to fire you any time soon & your paychecks were guaranteed.

Looking back, is it safe to say you feel like you should have done it a lot sooner? 

That's the point. 

"Well, I wouldn't have known what I know now back then. If I did, I would've done it much sooner!" 

If you just said this to yourself, that's an indication that you are in the right place. Today, I'm going to map out the typical journey of an entrepreneur in the service business from 2 perspectives: revenue & time.

This will help you understand that the experience you are about to go through isn't at all like driving on a highway during a tropical storm. Instead, you'll see your runway clearly without the help of a fortune teller.

Abundant Selling: How to Fill Up Your Pipeline Without Selling Like the Rest Pt. 1

Abundant Selling: How to Fill Up Your Pipeline Without Selling Like the Rest Pt. 1

Did you like math when you were in school? If you did, you are my hero.

I hated math as a kid. I loved reading & drawing. The place I wanted to live in forever was a fantasy land where fairies existed & I could use magic.

Naturally, daydreaming was my jam and daydream I did. But it all had to change when I was at a halfway into junior high.

I was sick of the public school I was attending because of the many meaningless rules & restrictions that came with it. Stupid rules made me feel worthless as if I didn't know any better on how to conduct myself. I hated it. With a passion.

Then I learned about how getting into a prestigious high school would grant me more autonomy because all teachers cared about was how many students would get into…prestigious universities & nothing else mattered--like how I modified my school uniform, how I did my hair, how I wore non-white socks, or whether or not I wore makeup.

My mom may have lied about this. But I bought it. I bought it HARD.

One problem - I had to nail both math & science exams in order to get into the one I had chosen...the best in the region. My teacher begged me (and my parents) to reconsider. He said I had lost my mind & it was virtually impossible with my grades even if I aced all 5 subjects with perfect scores.

You probably know how this story ends. So, I will fast forward it for you. I learned to LOVE what I hated by gamifying everything. I aced. I got in. People cheered witnessing the impossible becoming possible. End of story.

“Selling” is kinda like math in business. Many despise it. But business needs to sell. No getting around that.

So, what do we do?

My friend, Lisa, coats meds with peanut butter before giving them to her dogs. Clever, I thought. 

Can sales be like that? Can we put peanut butter on it? Then we close our eyes & swallow our pride?

5 Super Effective Tips on Setting Boundaries Without Sacrificing Relationship Building-While Still Providing Exceptional Experience

5 Super Effective Tips on Setting Boundaries Without Sacrificing Relationship Building-While Still Providing Exceptional Experience

Have you ever felt ‘a little off’ when interacting with would-be clients, peers or anyone you met in your circle before?  I have. 

Something about their boundaries that give us wrong signals, but they are so subtle that we just let them slide… Then later on, we realize that we engage less and less with them somewhat subconsciously.

The question of the day is, “What if the way you communicate your availability boundaries is hurting your business?”

Don’t get me wrong.  We can all agree that setting boundaries is key to the longevity of our businesses.  They help us streamline and avoid spending hours on time-consuming (and low value) tasks that keep us away from providing meaningful work.

Dilemma!  I know. 

So, how do we go about maintaining a healthy level of boundaries that won’t hurt the quality of interactions you offer to people in your business?  Is it even possible? 

It is.  Totally possible.

Today, we are going to explore:

1.     Why some boundaries give us the wrong impressions?

2.     Identifying your fears that are messing up your communication about your boundaries.

3.     5 super effective tips to help you implement this successfully.

Before diving in, I want to clarify that this post is going to focus mostly on “time & availability boundaries.”  We are not going to cover privacy, security, and special treatment (favors) boundaries.  These will be another lesson for another day.

The Anatomy of a 7-Figure Entrepreneur’s Mindset

The Anatomy of a 7-Figure Entrepreneur’s Mindset

I have a question for you.

"What would you ask if you could get the chance to sit down with a few entrepreneurs who have built their 7-figure businesses with no outside funding?"

This was the motivation behind my recent live panel discussion event, “How I Built My 7-Figure Business with No Funding.” I wanted to provide the opportunity for my members to hear directly from 7-figure business owners what they have experienced throughout their journey building one.

Here's the thing, many dream of running a multi-million dollar business. You might be one of them. But what people may not realize is that we are talking about gross revenue. It's not like you get to sit on the entire revenue. If you are visualizing having a bank account with 6 zeros as the available balance, that is not really the case.

Not only that, there are a set of challenges to scale a business beyond the first million, such as building a team, weighing what to risk for greater rewards, what to say no to (that you used to say yes to), etc.

My thought process was, "What do I want aspiring entrepreneurs to know about scaling up?" Because making a million in business gets way too glorified--especially online--I felt the need to get the right message out there.

So, the game was on. I started to reach out and see if anyone would be interested in sharing their stories. Soon, I was introduced to a few ridiculously successful entrepreneurs - Lucky Gobindram from Cemtrex, Karen Morales from Marketing Magnet, Mel Pharr from MelissaPharr.com & Luisa Zhou from LuisaZhou.com.

I can't tell you how many golden nuggets they openly shared. I mean, there was a lot that made us all think on a deeper level.

In this post, I'm going to feature the most memorable concepts they revealed that you are going to absolutely want to take on so that you can tackle building a multi-7-figure business by being level-headed.

Oh wait, one more thing... At the end of the post, I'll also share my behind-the-scenes thoughts you would be glad to know (because these are the things not often shared as key to becoming a successful & happy multi-7-figure business owner!) 

Don’t Make These 6 Critical Mistakes When Carving Out a Profitable Niche for Your Service Business

Don’t Make These 6 Critical Mistakes When Carving Out a Profitable Niche for Your Service Business

Hello, multi-faceted creative entrepreneurs with mad skills! 

 

If this is you AND your desire, vision & mission is to build a high-functioning, profit-generating business, then you’ve just landed on a gold mine. I am about to share 6 deadly mistakes that many creative service business owners make while they are on the hunt to discover a profitable niche that they can then double-down on.

 

There are many articles out there that cover steps (usually anywhere between 5 to 7 steps) to find a profitable niche. They are helpful, but no one really talks about the pitfalls that come with the process.

 

You may have already entertained the idea of niching down your wide range of offers before. Perhaps you may have tried by yourself, but it didn’t work out. That’s totally OK.  In this post I will show you why some attempts fail. These mistakes can be avoided so long as you are aware that they exist.

 

Just in case… if you are wondering why finding your profitable niche is so vital to your business, I’ve got you covered as well.  Before reading this post, start with “How to Niche Down Your Services When You Have So Much to Offer pt.1” (link).  This post explains 6 major reasons why it helps you grow your business exponentially.

 

OK, one more thing before diving in, allow me to clarify a bit about who this post is for. Better yet, let me explain this post is not designed to help those who:

1.     have not yet started a business and are looking for one to start

2.     are wanting to find a niche product to sell online, i.e. Amazon FBA

3.     are searching for a profitable affiliate marketing niche

These require a completely different set of playbooks. Instead, this post is particularly designed for multi-faceted service business owners who have existing offers that are generating revenue but want to narrow down (niche down) and redefine their profitable niches.  

Without further ado, let’s dive in.  

Everything You Need to Know About Hiring a Business Consultant for Your Service Business: Questions You Didn't Even Know You Had... Sorted!

Everything You Need to Know About Hiring a Business Consultant for Your Service Business: Questions You Didn't Even Know You Had... Sorted!

I’m almost afraid to ask, but I’m going to ask you anyway:

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the term “business consultants”? 

You might think of Ryan Bingham from the movie “Up in the Air” who travels around the country to help businesses restructure & downsize by firing people. 

Not a particularly good impression.

Or you might think of MBA’ers, whose #1 goal is to get hired by top management consulting firms like Bain, Boston Consulting, McKinsey, Accenture, etc. 

OK, another not-so-great impression, especially if you are a creative business owner.

In a way, these are stereotypical descriptions of business/management consultants.  But, in reality, they can help you find solutions to various business challenges faster. 

From my own experience communicating with small business owners, they often don’t consider hiring a business consultant because of these objections:

1.     It’s too expensive

2.     Their business is not big enough in size to hire a consultant

3.     They feel they need help in other areas in their business

It’s a shame because they may be missing out on spectacular growth opportunities by not teaming up with a business consultant.  Later in this post, you will see why these are just misconceptions about what business consultants can bring to the table. 

So, think again if you thought hiring a business consulting firm or a business consultant was a privilege only available to major brands and corporations. 20 years ago, maybe.  But in this day & age, it isn’t.

This post is a comprehensive overview covering the basics of how to find out whether you need to hire a business/management consultant for your business. 

Let’s Address the Elephant in the Room

Because I do roll my eyes when I see a blog post about why we need to hire an accountant on an accounting firm’s website and/or a guest-post about why it’s important to hire a social media strategist written by a social media strategist on an online business publication, I get why you might be rolling your eyes reading this post right now.

It’s a bit cheesy.  I agree.

How to Craft Brand Messaging that Resonates & Converts (Without Bashing Your Head Against the Wall)

How to Craft Brand Messaging that Resonates & Converts (Without Bashing Your Head Against the Wall)

Getting your messaging right is the first step to convert leads and prospects into buyers.

Why? 

It’s because your brand messaging can act as a conversation starter.  You probably have heard many marketers use this dating analogy when they explain the concept of know, like & trust, which helps turn spectators into buyers.

“You don’t just ask him/her to marry you on the first date.”

If you have your brand messaging down, this serves as the first date that goes really well so that it will lead to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th date to develop know, like & trust between you and your leads.

Sadly though, many business owners don’t allocate enough time and energy to crafting their brand messaging.  This became apparent through local Meetup events I host in NYC.

There are 3 types of not-so-ideal messaging I’ve picked up on while listening to the event participants introduce themselves to the rest of the crowd. 

1.     Too generic as for what they offer & who they are, i.e. social media strategist, accountant, SEO specialist.

2.     Too clever with flashy words but unclear as to who they help or what problem they solve.

3.     Only list what they sell.

There is absolutely no need to beat yourself up if you are guilty of these.  Trust me, I can speak from my own experience that crafting good brand messaging for your business is no small feat.

This is why I invited Zach Messler, a.k.a. “Messaging Guy”, as the guest speaker for my May Meetup event in Brooklyn to get to the bottom of this messaging challenge we all face.  He is the master of helping business owners identify what to say and how to say it so that they make a bigger impact on the world and their wallet.

When I met Zach earlier this year, I immediately liked the way he breaks down the process of crafting messaging that resonates and converts with simple steps.  After checking out his website, it was a no brainer for me to have him for one of my events.  

In this post, I am excited to share his framework and how you can improve your brand messaging to generate measurable results without bashing your head against the wall.

So, let’s dive in!

Want to be an Opportunity Magnet? 9 Secrets I Found by Observing Successful Entrepreneurs

Want to be an Opportunity Magnet? 9 Secrets I Found by Observing Successful Entrepreneurs

“I always wonder how in the world (insert a name) gets so many offers and opportunities, like speaking at XYZ conference or getting an invitation for ABC.  No one understands what he is selling.  Frankly, when it comes to credentials, I am a lot more qualified… I network a lot, too!  I just don’t understand what he does differently.”

Have you ever wondered about the same thing? 

Then, you are in luck.  This is NOT one of those articles you find online about networking & creating reciprocity.  Here, I am going to share the secrets I found from successful entrepreneurs by closely observing what they practice (most of the time subconsciously).

The reason this post is different from other “how to identify & attract business opportunities” articles is I am going to touch on some facts that not many discuss publicly.  You won’t find this on social media timelines. It’s because what I have here is the result of many “behind closed doors” conversations. 

To be honest, as a revenue & growth strategist (link), I was a bit hesitant to even talk about this, as none of these are “strategies.”  But at the end of this post, I will tie it all together.

And…there is more.  As a little bonus, I am going to share one thing the entrepreneurs I observed would NOT do at the end of the post.  This is going to help you assess whether you’ve been growing your business the right way or not.

Curious?

But wait.

Before diving in, let me define what “successful” means in this post since it’s a pretty broad & subjective term.  Let’s start with what it’s not.  Here, I don’t define successful entrepreneurs as simply those who generate a specific amount of revenue, i.e. 7 figures, 8 figures, etc.  Rather, they satisfy these 3 things that are essential to be a confident and fulfilled entrepreneur:

 

1.     Always generating leads (by being an opportunity magnet)

2.     Taking care of themselves & their people (their team, family, vendors, friends & peers) to be happy

3.     Having future-proof strategies

 

These are the only 3 jobs CEOs are responsible for. The ones I know who are doing great also have one more thing in common: they receive various business opportunities at all times.  If you like the way I clarified the definition of “successful entrepreneurs,” you are in for a treat!

Now that that’s sorted, let’s unlock the secrets!