One of the biggest office headaches that solopreneurs tell me they have is in managing the paper piles that litter their workspaces, and yet this is one of the key areas that any business owner must master if they’re to run a successful, long-term business – a robust, and simple, filing system that allows them to put their fingers on the information they need, exactly when they need it.

Even though they know this, it can be difficult to know where to start in organizing your paper piles, especially if you’ve never had to manage or run a business before.

Creating the foundational systems for your business is KEY to the long-term successful growth of your business, and these foundational systems include your filing and contact management systems.

I know (I can hear you groaning now!) … these systems aren’t very sexy or exciting and I’ll be honest with you, I’d rather be creating a new product or program rather than working on my filing! HOWEVER, having these foundational pieces in place will give your business a solid foundation on which to grow and thrive. And it will also make your life easier too!

In September’s module of the School for Online Business Management I’ll be walking you through, step-by-step, in setting up these foundational systems. In this module I’ll teach you how to:

• Implement the 3 different filing systems you need to have in place so that each one complements the other and allows you to put your finger right on what you need, exactly when you need it.
• Set up your contact management system so that you can quickly and easily follow up with clients and prospects – key for generating a steady stream of clients into your business.
• Manage your time effectively so that you’ll be much more productive – even if you only have a limited amount of time available each week to work on your business.
• Plan your workflow so that you don’t overcommit when it comes to working with your clients.
• Create your Welcome Packet so that all of your clients receive the VIP treatment – each and every time

Seats are limited – reserve your spot now!

==========

September Module: Core Systems Workout
with Tracey Lawton
Dates: September 8, 15, & 22
Time:1:00 pm Eastern/NY
Learn more and reserve your spot now

==========

In today’s online business world having your foundational systems in place is the key to long-term business growth.

Don’t miss this important and valuable teaching. Reserve your spot TODAY

I was recently a presenter in a Telesummit and even though I had a specific topic to present on, the hosts also felt it would be appropriate to talk about some of the biggest challenges and mistakes that I faced (and still do face today) along my path to solopreneurship!

These are the same issues that EVERY solopreneur faces at some point or other in their business so, in case you missed my presentation, I thought I’d share those challenges and mistakes with you here in the hope that you can learn from them, and also know that you are not alone. 

Challenge/Mistake #1 – Creating Balance

The main reason I started my business in the first place (way back in November 2001) was so that I could choose my own schedule – I had two young children at the time and needed to have a very flexible schedule that would allow me to be around for them, particularly during school holidays.

In the beginning it was easy to maintain this schedule, but as my practice got busier, client work started to take over. I needed to go back to the drawing board and create balance.

One of the ways to achieve this was to diversify … i.e. move away from providing just one-on-one client support and move into something that I also love to do – teach! By creating a business where the majority of my income comes from teaching and consulting, I can choose when I offer those training programs. For me that means having a training schedule that runs September thru June – similar to the academic school year. This gives me a lot of down time during July and August when my children are on school holidays. And by creating a training schedule that follows the academic school year I can also plan around other school holidays too.

Challenge/Mistake #2 – Taking on the WRONG Clients

I know that this is something a lot of business owners do, particularly in the early stages of starting their business. They are so desperate for clients that they’re willing to take on anyone who waves their credit card in front of them, even though they know in their hearts that this may not be the right client for them. And yes, I too have done this during the early years of running my business.

The challenge here is to recognize that the client is not a good fit for you and be confident enough to say so … easier said than done! One way to overcome this is to draw up an ideal client profile and use it as a checklist for when you’re having your initial conversation with a potential client. If they don’t meet your ideal client profile then you’ll know immediately and you’ll be able to say no, and in turn make space for that perfect client who is just around the corner.

Challenge/Mistake #3 – Not Creating Strong Boundaries

There will be times in your business (in fact there will be many times) that a client challenges you in one way or another, and you cave in and accommodate them even though you know it’s the wrong thing to do. Examples of this are granting a discount on a product once the discount period has expired, dropping your fees to get the client, or scheduling regular phone calls outside of your normal business hours. Bending your boundaries in this way will only lead to resentment and will prove a lot more harmful in the long run.

A solution to tightening up your boundaries is to create firm policies about how you operate and what you will or will not tolerate in your business and put those policies into writing – either as a page in your Terms & Conditions or uploaded to your website. That way when a client does try and push your boundaries you can gracefully remove yourself from the situation and direct them to your policies page.

Challenge/Mistake #4 – Not Having a Clear Vision

It’s so easy to become distracted by ‘bright shiny object’ syndrome that you move haphazardly from one project to another, never completing anything and having a business that is all over the place, which just leaves you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. Decide what it is you do for your clients and how you provide the solutions to their problems, and then map out a clear path for how you are going to deliver this.

You may be able to manage this on your own, but more often than not you will need the support of someone who has trod the path before you, who can see the wood for the trees, and who knows the pitfalls. Invest in a product, program, coach, consultant, or mentor that will help you achieve your goals. You will get there much faster.

Challenge/Mistake #5 – Following the ‘Shoulds’

It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you should be doing something in your business even though in your heart you don’t feel it’s the right thing to do. We have so much information coming to us these days that when you see other people successfully running their businesses you think that you should be doing what they’re doing and you’ll be successful too!

Remember, this is YOUR business and you can run it in whatever way you like (and, no, I’m not being arrogant when I say that!). Just because someone else is having an enormous amount of success running their business in a particular way doesn’t mean you should be doing the same thing too! You are you, and your clients will be drawn to you because you are you, not because you are trying to be someone else. 

(c) 2010 Tracey Lawton

About the author:  Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches online solo service professionals how to create the essential online marketing and office organization systems needed so that they can create a more streamlined, systemized, and automated online business.  Check out http://www.officeorganizationsuccess.com for fr.ee how-to articles, resources, tips, and tools, and sign up for your fr.ee “Office Organization Success Toolkit”.

and go on the More Life Tour!

For the first time ever in my nine years of being an online business owner I’ve got myself out of the house and attended not one, but two live events this year - and both within the space of a couple of months of each other.

What was so fabulous about taking the time and effort to attend these two events was that I got to meet my clients and many colleagues whom I’ve known online for years.  To meet these people face-to-face and connect on a more personal level is such a wonderful experience, and it’s great for business too!

So with that said, I want to  let you know about a no-excuses opportunity for you to get out of your house and interact with your colleagues, clients, and soon-to-be clients too … it’s the More Life Tour!

And it’s being hosted by my long-time client and friend Suzanne Evans, along with her mentor, David Neagle (who I recently got to meet too because I’d got myself out of the house!).

Suzanne & David are great teachers – to watch and listen to them teach in-person is an amazing experience.  You’ll get to hear how Suzanne walked away from her draining & unsatisfying 50-hour per week desk job … and in less than a year created an impact that generated over 7-figures in under 12 months. 

And both Suzanne & David are ready & wanting to SHARE EXACTLY HOW they’ve created 7-figure businesses with as many people who are wanting and ready to learn!

 They’re doing this through a series 8 Tour Stops that are taking place this year across the USA & Canada.  And it’s an absolute steal at just $57 for the entire day. And you get to bring a friend for free too!

Want to hop on board? Then visit the More Life Tour now!

Click Here to get on the More Life Tour!

P.S. This teaching is ridiculously low cost, and there is no obligation to buy ever, but if you ever do, please know that I’m an affiliate of Suzanne & David (which means I believe in the value of what they teach) and I may receive commission from their programs.

Hosting teleclasses is one of my absolute favorite list building strategies. Apart from being easy to do, it’s a great way to interact with my audience and get to know them, and also let them get to know me. But as with anything new there’s always a learning curve involved.

Over the years I’ve developed my own style for hosting teleclasses and found some shortcuts that allow me to present my content so that everything flows smoothly. Today I’d like to share with you my top six dos and don’ts for hosting teleclasses so that you can shorten your learning curve when you’re ready to host your own teleclasses:

1. Do prepare notes and timings. Even though you want your information to flow naturally from one point to the next, it’s also really important to have a plan and something to refer to so that you can stay on track. Planning out your topic timings means that you’ll also be able to deliver all of the information that you want to share, and within the timeframe that you’ve allocated. It also shows that you respect your attendee’s time too by sticking to your published schedule. 

2. Don’t staple your notes together but do number your pages. I realize this may sound like a contradiction – if your notes are not stapled together you could easily lose your page (which is why I tell you to number them). However it’s so much easier to turn pages that are not bound than it is to fiddle around turning pages that are stapled. And any added distraction will only cause you to lose focus when you’re presenting your teleclass.

3. Do make sure you’re comfortable. This goes from the room you’re presenting in to the clothing that you’re wearing (and everything inbetween). Okay, I know it’s a teleclass and no-one can see you, but if you’re not comfortable with what you’re wearing and constantly fiddling around with it, you will come across as sounding distracted and not focused. This also goes for your surroundings too – if they’re not conducive to delivering your information, i.e. background noise, it will come through in your delivery and your attendees will sense that.

4. Do give yourself plenty of room. When I host my teleclasses I prefer to sit on the floor rather than sit at my desk. This allows me plenty of space to lay out my notes and any other materials that I may have without having to have everything bundled together on my desk. And it also goes to point three above – I’m much more comfortable sat on the floor with plenty of space around me which means that I’ll be able to focus much better.

5. Do be respectful of your attendee’s time. This means making sure you stick to your teleclass timings and if necessary ensure that you have a timer or watch in front of you at all times. Personally I take off my watch and have it on the floor in front of me so I can see the time throughout my call.

6. Do mute your attendees out during your presentation. This is important because you will get a much better quality recording if the line is completely clear of any background noise; and it also means your attendees get a clear line too. You can always open up the lines for questions at the end of your call.

Follow these simple steps above and you’ll soon be on your way to hosting your own successful teleclasses.

(c) 2010 Tracey Lawton

About the author:  Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches online solo service professionals how to create the essential online marketing and office organization systems needed so that they can create a more streamlined, systemized, and automated online business.  Check out http://www.officeorganizationsuccess.com for fr.ee how-to articles, resources, tips, and tools, and sign up for your fr.ee “Office Organization Success Toolkit”.

My colleagues Linda Claire Puig and Kim Clausen have put together an outrageous event in which they and nearly 30 others — including me! — are giving away $250,000+ of done-for-you products and services!

I’m giving away 12 1ShoppingCart Affiliate Setup Packages!

The 2nd Annual “Done for You” Giveaway of the Century is NOT a giveaway of “how to’s” and other training but instead actual done-for-you products and services that you can use in your business but don’t have to create or do yourself.

The giveaway goes from May 17-June 7, but you’ll want to get over there now to pre-register so that you don’t miss it!

www.DoneForYouGiveaway.com

Here’s JUST SOME of the stuff that’s being given away!

• Bookkeeping services

• Opt-in page creation

• Ready-to-deliver workshops & teleseminars

• Custom audio & video production

• Website headers

• A full custom website

• Custom-designed ezine templates

• Blog set-up

• Article submission services

• Intern program set-up, interviewing & hiring

• Autoresponder copy

• Affiliate program set-up

• Ready-to-go articles & article brochures

• Audio “logos”

• Newsletter service

• Bio makeovers

 
And lots more!

Pre-register now so you don’t miss it!

When you’re an online solo service professional (solopreneur) it’s crucial that you move away from the hours-for-dollars business model and create a multiple streams of income business, i.e. your income comes from a variety of different sources:

1. Passive income through the sale of information products.
2. Leveraged income by creating and running group programs.
3. One-on-one client income; this is your highest level service and you only work with a few clients at this level.

Creating passive income in your business through the sale of information products is at the heart of a multiple streams of income business. And once sales are going well you can be generating a consistent income each and every month.

Sometimes, though, you need to give sales a little helping hand, particularly if you’re launching a new product. Today I’d like to share with you three ways in which you can increase your product sales through using special offers.

1. Create a coupon. If your shopping cart service allows you to do this, coupons are a really quick and easy way to offer a discount. You have lots of options when it comes to creating coupons; you can set them up for a dollar amount, a percentage amount, a specified time period, or even a minimum purchase amount. Simply create a coupon in your shopping cart, give it a name (which is the coupon code), and then tell your customers the code they need to input at the checkout in order to get the discount.

2. Create a time sensitive discount. This follows on from the point above and involves creating a coupon; however the reason that I really like this special offer is that you can set the expiration date on your coupons too. This is really handy if you want to run a special promotion through to, say, midnight on a certain date (you know the type of offer I mean – this is very common). But what’s so neat is that you don’t have to be sat at your PC at midnight to switch the pricing over – the coupon will automatically expire and your pricing will revert to normal – completely automated!

3. Offer a bonus product. For a certain period of time you could also offer a bonus product; this could be another one of your lower-priced products, or a special teleclass or report, or anything else that you think will add value to the product you are currently promoting. Very often someone will buy your product because they’re getting your bonus too. Also set a deadline on the bonus to encourage your customers to take action. This could be purchase before a certain date or offer a limited number of bonuses.

Don’t just save these ideas for when you’re launching a new product; use them when you want to re-launch an existing product, get sales moving for one of your other products, or you simply want to give your business a boost.

(c) 2010 Tracey Lawton

About the author:  Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches online solo service professionals how to create the essential online marketing and office organization systems needed so that they can create a more streamlined, systemized, and automated online business.  Check out http://www.officeorganizationsuccess.com for fr.ee how-to articles, resources, tips, and tools, and sign up for your fr.ee “Office Organization Success Toolkit”.

When you start developing your multiple streams of income business by adding products and programs which are available on your website, there’s a very specific policy you need to have in place … and that is a clearly defined Sales Policy.

Before we get into what this is about and why you need it, let me just take a minute to ask you how you would handle the following scenarios:

• You offer a discount to prospective clients of either a dollar amount or percentage off the price of your product/program if they purchase before a certain date.  A client comes to you after the deadline and says they didn’t read your email in time, can they still receive the discount?  What do you say?
• You are offering quite an expensive program so decide to make things easier on your clients by offering a payment plan.  Part way through the payment plan one of your client’s credit cards gets declined.  What do you do?
• You offer a guarantee on your product/program and a client comes to you asking for a refund that is outside of your guarantee period.  What do you say?

As soon as you start selling products and programs online all of these scenarios (and others) become very real – and, yes, I have found myself having to deal with all of the above!

Your Sales Policy is simply a statement which lets your clients and customers know what they can expect from you and how you handle your sales processes.  How your sales policy is structured is entirely up to you; it’s your business and you’re the business owner, but once you’ve decided what those policies are you need to be strong in your implementation.  Having a central page that clearly lays out your sales policies will make the implementation of them far easier (for you) and smoother, and will ensure that you’re being fair to ALL of your clients.

The sort of things you would include in your sales policy are:

• How you handle discounts and coupons that are requested after the deadline.
• How you handle coupons that should have been processed at the time of purchase, i.e. via your shopping cart system.
• How you handle declined credit card transactions (and you will get them when you start offering payment plans).
• How you handle your regular holiday sales.
• How you handle requests for refunds, especially if that request happens after the guarantee period.

These are all situations that you have to consider and assume will happen in your business and therefore you need to plan accordingly.  The best way to do this is by creating a Sales Policy page that is linked to from all of your own sales pages.  You should put it at the bottom of each sales page, but also reference it on the area of your sales page where your customer is just about to purchase.

For example, a great place to link to your Sales Policy page is right underneath where you have your ‘Click Here to order’ button.   Then simply have a sentence underneath that says, “Please see Sales Policy for full details”.

Tip:  Make sure your sales policy page opens in a new browser window so your customer doesn’t lose the sales page when going to review your sales policy.

Once you have your Sales Policy page all set up then should you find yourself in one of the scenarios outlined above, you simply direct your client to your page.  And when you have to say “no” to your client it makes your response a lot less personal and more graceful – especially if you’re having to respond yourself rather than having a team member do it for you.

Having a clearly defined Sales Policy in place eliminates a lot of the stress and frustration of having to deal with these situations, and allows you to be fair to ALL of your clients.

(c) 2010 Tracey Lawton

About the author:  Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches online solo service professionals how to create the essential online marketing and office organization systems needed so that they can create a more streamlined, systemized, and automated online business.  Check out http://www.officeorganizationsuccess.com for fr.ee how-to articles, resources, tips, and tools, and sign up for your fr.ee “Office Organization Success Toolkit”.

Affiliate Management is a specialized support service that many VAs/OBMs could fulfill for their clients but they themselves don’t know how to do this to the level required to effectively run an affiliate program.

Tracey Lawton has been running affiliate programs (both her own & clients) for over three years now and is going to take all of her knowledge of running affiliate programs and teach it to those who want to learn how to do this.

Introducing the …

Advanced Affiliate Management Training Program

On this training program you will learn:

• How to set up the back-end affiliate center
• How to create custom affiliate links
• How to pay your affiliates each month
• How to set up joint venture teleclasses
• … and so much more

The program starts on Wednesday, April 21.

So don’t miss out… Reserve your spot now!

In the last issue of Office Organization Success I mentioned that I’d been using two online marketing strategies that I’d completely forgotten about … yet they were so easy to set up!

I had quite a few emails from readers asking me for more information, so here ya go!

1.  Tell-A-Friend* software:  I’m currently hosting a free Spring Teleclass Series and I’m using Tell-A-Friend to help spread the word about this series.  When somone signs up for the teleclass series as soon as they hit the Submit button they get taken to my Tell-A-Friend page where they’re able to pass along the information about the teleclass series to their friends and networks.  They can either choose to do so or not, but whichever option they choose as soon they’ve finished with that page they then get immediately taken to the call details page.  It’s just one extra step but a great way to market your event at no cost, and fits in seamlessly with your current system.

2.  Audio Notes:  If you prefer to speak your message rather than writing it, creating an audio note is a great alternative.  You can customize the page with your own logo and other information and give your followers the option of listening to your message.  This is very easy to do in BYO Audio*.

Both of these marketing strategies are very quick and easy to use and implement.   So next time you’re planning a promotion of some kind, whether it’s free or paid, small or large, stop and ask yourself if there’s something different you could do to shake things up a bit.

Disclosure:  * These link use my affiliate link so if you do decide to purchase either of these services I will receive a small commission for my recommendation.

Your strategic Marketing Action Plan (MAP) is a document that is used to plan your day-to-day marketing activities/strategies for running your online business; in other words it’s your MAP to online business management success. And just like a real map, your MAP tells you exactly how to get from point A to point B and the route you need to take in order to get there.

When you have your MAP in place it eliminates the guess work – you always know what you’re doing, when you’re doing it, and how you’re going to implement the strategies. 

Creating a Marketing Action Plan can seem very daunting if you’ve not done this kind of detailed planning before; it can be difficult to know where to start.  My favorite tool for creating my strategic MAP is a spreadsheet because of the row/column formatting that spreadsheets use.

Today I’d like to make that process easy for you and share with you my insider secrets so that you can create your own MAP.

1. Heart of your business – your MAP is not a document that you create, look at once, and then set aside to review in a year’s time.  Like a real map you continually refer to (typically on a weekly basis) so that you know you’re going in the right direction. And if you do sway off course a little, maybe for a pit stop along the way, you can easily update it as necessary. 

Your MAP will provide you with your ‘Big Picture’ route for the year.  You’ll want to keep it handy so that you can refer to it often, whether you print it out and keep it on your desk, or have easy access to it on your PC.

2. Chunk it down – the easiest and simplest way for you to manage your MAP is to break it down into doable action steps, so that you don’t feel overwhelmed by feeling you have to plan out your entire route in one go. You’re going on a journey and as such there might be detours along the way. I highly advise you to chunk down your MAP, first into quarters, then into months, and then into weeks.

3. See any overlaps/conflicts – as you’ve been planning out your marketing activities for the upcoming year, having it all together in one place will allow you to see any overlaps or conflicts in your plan.  Similarly it will also allow you to see any gaps too.

4. Automatically creates your weekly/monthly To Do list – this is one of my favorite aspects of creating my MAP because when I chunk everything down into quarters/months/weeks I find that I create my weekly action list.  And it’s so much easier to be able to just focus on that week’s action steps and so implement them.

Some points to remember as you’re putting together your marketing plan:

• Seeding in ezine/networks – as soon as you’re clear on what programs/products/services you’re going to be offering and when, start mentioning them in your newsletter and to your social networks.  You don’t need to give a whole lot of detail – simply say that you’re working on something new, or an exciting project etc.  and this will start to create interest in your offerings.
• Marketing – plan out when you’re going to be opening registrations and when you’re going to be running promotions.  This is important so that you don’t have any overlaps in your promotions/activities.
• Delivering – also plan out when you’re going to be delivering your programs too, again to avoid any overlaps/conflicts in your promotions and activities.
• Team Members – know which team members you’re going to need support from to help you implement your goals, i.e. virtual assistant, graphic designer, web designer etc.  You may need to contact them several weeks in advance so plan this in too.
• Dates – and finally it’s important to include all dates in your Marketing Action Plan so that nothing gets missed out.

As my financial adviser reminded me just last week, you’re running a marathon not a sprint, and the same is true for your business also. Follow these simple steps for creating your strategic Marketing Action Plan and you’ll soon find yourself on track for achieving your business goals.

(c) 2010 Tracey Lawton

About the author:  Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches professional speakers, coaches, and authors how to create the essential online marketing and office organization systems needed to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business.  Learn how YOU can create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com