Do you ever have days when you just don’t want to? First you don’t want to make your bed or eat the right food. Then it ratchets up to not wanting to be nice, call people back, or do what you know needs to be done to keep your business running and thriving. Maybe it escalates to the point where you just don’t want to do anything except maybe sit on the couch, eat Cheetos, and watch Law & Order reruns. Read more

When visitors to your website email you with questions about your services, they might be legitimate prospects. But they may also be window shoppers, tire kickers, or looky-loos. Before you invest too much effort in trying to close a sale, you should try to pre-qualify these online prospects. Read more

My wife and I were driving home from a camping trip when we pulled up behind a car and I noticed an array of bumper stickers. I couldn’t quite make out what message the owner was trying to get across. My wife picked it up right away — they were isolationists. Read more

Lately, people have been telling me that they hate marketing and don’t want to do it. They hate it so much that even though they are in love with what they do — or want to do — for a living, they will not do what it takes to get out in front of prospects. 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

“Every person who has ever started a business, I imagine, thought he had a good idea. It’s the smart person, and the rare person, who tries to find out the most important thing: do other people think it’s a good idea?” Read more

In an ideal world, every independent professional would have both an attractive, content-rich website and a high-quality, well-written brochure or marketing kit. That way you could use either or both to attract and approach prospective clients. But when time and money are short, you may need to choose where to invest your resources. Read more

The challenge with marketing unique, experiential work like new healing modalities, personal growth approaches, or transformative group processes is that your ideal prospective clients aren’t already seeking it. Read more

Recently I taught a class at the Small Business Administration, where we discussed many characteristics of successful business owners. When discussing communication, and differing communication styles, it became apparent that most of us assumed that others communicated the way we did — or at the very least, could hear and understand what we were communicating. Turns out that’s an assumption that isn’t always correct. Read more

Offering free samples to prospective clients is a powerful method of increasing the know, like, and trust factor that makes people buy. When you are selling a professional service, potential clients have no way to see, feel, or taste what you will actually deliver. Read more