Monthly Archives: March 2008

Finding Clients that are looking for you

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Posted by Ed on March 29, 2008 – 7:24 am
Filed under Business, Information

 Many people’s quest involves running their own businesses. Whether your dream is a single person operation or a string of franchised shops, you are going to need clients. It’s their money that makes your dream a stand alone lifestyle. To be blunt, it’s hard to consider yourself truly successful at your dream occupation if you still have to wait tables in the evenings to survive. It’s just a fact of life. Getting enough clients is the difference between a full and part time dream. It’s the biggest hurdle that most quest seekers face.

 

I recently had a good conversation with Steve Willinger about locating clients. Steve is a business coach who specializes in marketing and helping people start businesses. One of his focuses is assisting technical professionals move from being employees to being self employed. We were discussing how one finds clients that need your services.

 

Steve started out by explaining that before you can start getting customers you need to figure out a few facts about your business. A common myth of new business owners is that the entire world is their client base. What happens is by searching for everyone you find no one. Everyone does not want your services. Not everybody can be sold on your product or service. You need to figure out who needs your service and sell to them. That makes it easier because they want what you are selling.

 

The first step to finding those people is to determine what service you really provide and who would be your perfect customer for that service. This is the self analyst part. You must decide what you are doing for money. Since you are the boss here, you only have to provide the services you like to do. Look at the perfect type of job for you. Decide what facets of your business are your specialty. You can have more than one but you do need to define them.

 

Once you have the list of things you want to specialize in you can decide who would need that service. Knowing who they are gives you an idea where they are. You can look there and find them. This allows you to maximize your advertising efforts as well.

 

This discussion with Steve covered several facets of this topic. I will continue it tomorrow. In the mean time you should check out Steve’s web site. It shows the areas that Steve is involved in and is a good resource for information on marketing small business.

 

See you tomorrow with part two.

 

Quest On….

 

Steve’s Web Site: http://www.amarketingguy.com

 

Evolution: The Quest Expands

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Posted by Ed on March 17, 2008 – 10:25 am
Filed under Commentary, In the Queue

I wanted to let you know about the changes and coming changes in MYQ. First of all I have added Feed Burner to the site. Now you can subscribe to a feed of our postings. It should make it easier for you to keep up with the site. They also offer emailing of the posts. I am going to be setting that up too.

 

A bigger change is in the works. I am currently writing my first e-book on starting your quest. When I complete it, it will form the basis of an auto responder course to be available to my subscribers. This course will be the bonus for subscribing to my newsletters. I am currently planning week day issues and a weekend wrap up. I look forward to providing this service to keep everyone motivated on their path to achieving their quest.

 

The other idea in works is to update the template to a more lively energetic one. I am currently searching for one. If you have any suggestions please email me.

 

Everything evolves and you should too. As you learn more and experience more your views will change. Periodically, review your goals and make sure that you are on the proper path. You shouldn’t waver in your ultimate goal to achieving your dream lifestyle, but as you learn more you may want to fine tune the details. A quest is a growth experience. Expect that you may not end up where you initially thought. Your happiness should be the final result.

 

Zen DeBrucke makes the point in some of her talks that sometimes our passions are carrots that the universe uses to move us in a particular direction. She gives the example of a client that had a desire to move to another city. Zen helped her clean up all the issues that prevented her from moving. However, when all the issues were resolved the client realized that now with all the headaches gone, her desire to move was gone too. The issues had been too large to attack outright. The focus on moving gave her the energy to fix them. When the problems were fixed the need for moving left too. So the moral of the story is to keep following your passion but stay flexible. As you change your dreams may too.

 

Quest On….

 

 

Questing as a Team Sport

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Posted by Ed on March 11, 2008 – 9:43 pm
Filed under Commentary

I belong to a small group of business people that meet once a month and talk about business related issues. Mainly they are business consultants and small businesses owners. The people at this group are all self employed in some capacity. Some are retired and working for themselves. Some have escaped cubicles and are working to build their own businesses. The range of experience varies widely. Some have done this forever. Some have just opened shop. It’s a good mix. We meet at a local restaurant over lunch and discuss various topics for about two hours. Most of the time it’s around a hour and a half. Lots of times people hang out and keep talking. It’s great. Honestly, most of my friends are employed by larger companies. They have the mindset of people employed by large companies. What I like about this group is that they don’t have that mindset. They have a different energy about them. It’s an underlying positive current. I look forward to the meetings. No matter what I feel like when I get there, I leave with a different attitude. I’ve spent two hours with people who are making things happen. Sure they have problems but they are working on the solutions to them. I can’t help but feel more positive when I leave. These people are doing what I want to be doing and they are successful at it. People pay them for their knowledge and creativity. I have direct evidence that it can be done. What could be more empowering than that?

 

So, great for me hey. I’m sure you’re wondering how that fits into your quest. Not everyone could belong to this group. Well, this isn’t the group for everyone’s quest. The message is that you need to find people that share your passion. Success is a team sport. If you can find one other person that shares your passion, your chances of realizing it are hugely better. Nothing will keep your motivation higher than spending time with people who are successful at what you want to do.

 

That may not appear easy to do at first. But if you look around you can find people who share your passion. Look for a club or class that deals with your interest. You may need to create one if one doesn’t exist near you. Internet forums and blogs can get you connected to like minded individuals. If your interest has a professional organization then it might pay to belong to it too. Access to people who are doing what you want to do is a powerful boost to your quest.

 

Why is this? It comes down to two factors. The first is motivation. You see people doing what you want to do. It’s easy to think that no body ever succeeds at achieving your passion when you are the only one you know interested in it. If you know someone doing it then you have evidence that it can be done. If one person is doing it then you could be doing it too. If two or three people you know are doing it then it becomes why aren’t you doing it. Peer pressure is not always a bad thing.

 

The other factor is the combined knowledge and idea generating power of a group. Napoleon Hill called this a mastermind. I know you’ve all seen it. You get a few people talking about some problem and all of a sudden all these ideas start coming up. If you can find a group of people involved with what you want to do, then you have a powerful resource for making it happen.

 

If you are actually going to fulfill your quest, you are going to need people around you that share your passion. That support is what’s going to get you through the rough spots. You need some people who are going to listen to your dreams and say ‘yea, I thought about that too and here’s what I did about it’. Your friends at the office, who’s outside life is the latest TV comedies, are not going to really understand. The bad thing is that by doubting your ideas, they are going to feed the doubts that you have. Before long you will be spending your time watching the same TV shows and your dream will be something to be done sometime in the far future.

 

So, find some people who have similar passions to yours. They can do wonders for you and in return you will help them stay on track. Success is a team effort. Working alone makes for a hard and lonely trip. Don’t worry about not finding them. The law of attraction will work for you. The light of your passion will draw those who share it. Just look for them.

 

Quest On…