I’m often asked by service business owners how to go about setting appropriate hourly rates. Entrepreneurs are often advised to compare their rates to the competition, but this isn’t the whole answer. As one business owner told me, “My competitors are charging anywhere from $50 to $150 per hour!” So what other factors should you be considering? Read more

One of the most persistent barriers to success for self-employed professionals is fear of rejection. Sometimes this fear is quite conscious. You know that you are avoiding marketing and sales because you’re afraid your prospects will say no.

Other times the fear is lurking in the background, making an impact you’re not always aware of. You may find yourself procrastinating about making a phone call or setting up a sales appointment, and blame it on laziness or poor time management. Or you may avoid following up because you “don’t want to bug people.” Or perhaps it feels pushy to ask directly for a sale. Read more

It happens to the best of us. We have brilliant plans for marketing our business, but the rest of life keeps getting in the way. We know we won’t succeed if we don’t spend time on marketing, but somehow days and weeks slip by, and our marketing to-do list gets longer instead of shorter. Read more

This sample form for collecting and filing information about prospects and contacts is designed to be used as part of a manual contact management system, or as an input document for a computerized system. It records your prospects’ contact information, Read more

Most website owners fall into one of two categories: they are spending a fortune on banner ads, bulk email, listings in classified directories, and pay-per-click advertising, or their sites are languishing with only a few hits per day. But you can change all that, and you don’t have to spend a fortune. Here are three ways to get started today: Read more

It often happens that we follow up with prospects multiple times without getting a response. If you call them, email them, and send them letters, but you never get through or hear back, at what point should you scratch them off the list and move on? The rule I’ve always used to make this decision is: evaluate the value of the potential sale. Read more

In this audio interview hosted by Cole Silver, author of How to Create Wealth and Freedom in Your Law Practice, C.J. describes key sales and marketing strategies for professionals, beginning with the core principle that you’ve “gotta have a system” Read more

I’ve been thinking a lot about comfort zones lately, mostly because I can’t seem to see mine very clearly anymore. Or more accurately stated, I can see it, I just haven’t spent that much time there recently. Read more

Lately, everywhere we look, from the in-flight magazine in our seat pocket to the Sunday Style section of the Denver Post we notice an article on networking: the right way to network, the wrong way to network, what it is, what it isn’t, how to, how not to, and more. Read more

Have you ever found yourself knowing exactly what you need to do about marketing your business… and then not doing it? You are not alone. Many self-employed professionals find that the hardest part of marketing isn’t figuring out what to do. What’s hard is actually doing it. Read more