Welcome to Week 1 of my first public Get Clients Now! (GCN) program…

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, lol, be sure to read the first intro post in this series. Basically, I’m publicizing my progress in going through the 28 day marketing program found in Get Clients Now! A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants, and Coaches by C.J. Hayden.

Class In Session (Or A Preview)

The program itself is starting today, but if you don’t have the book, don’t worry! Just follow along this month to see what you think… if you like what you see, you can pick up a copy of the book, and join in on the next round!

My thoughts being that by posting my process on this blog, it will help make me accountable for my actions - making sure that I actually complete the program and make the most of my marketing efforts.

In doing so, I’m also hoping to have as many of you as possible join in on the process - nothing like a group of peers to help support each other!

And yes, I realize this might not all make sense if you don’t have the book, but this series should at least give a general idea as to what the book entails.

Put Yourself First

As I mentioned in my previous GCN post, I have started 3 programs in the past, but each time I got too caught up in client work that I put my own marketing efforts on the back-burner.

Perhaps the most important quote from the book, and one we as small business owners should live by…

“Make marketing your first priority
instead of the last thing you do”

I’m guilty of putting my own projects and marketing efforts last, whenever client work comes in, so it was very good to read someone else stressing how important marketing is - that it should come first.

I’m starting with that new mantra today!

Program Focus

The book is built so that you can create as many plans with different focuses as necessary, depending on your particular marketing needs:

• Filling the Pipeline
• Following Up
• Getting Presentations
• Closing Sales

In my previous GCN programs, I focused on the first step in the Universal Marketing Cycle - Filling the Pipeline. I plan to complete this program by continuing to focus on this stage.

For those of you joining in on the program, please feel free to design your own program on any of the four stages above.

Action Worksheet - My Program Goals and How I Will Obtain Them

Below are my program goals and planned ingredients and actions for the next 28 days. Don’t forget you can download the FREE marketing plan worksheets from the Get Clients Now web site.

Start Date

• May 17, 2007

What strategies will you use?

• Direct Contact and Follow-up
• Networking and Referral Building
• Writing and Publicity

Where are you stuck or what needs the most work?

• Filling the Pipeline

How much business do you have now?

• $X,XXX / month
  some things you don’t have to post for the whole world to read, LOL

How much business do you really want?

• $X,XXX / month x 2
  I’d like to double my monthly business income

What would that get you?

• Extra money to pay off credit card debt… aka Less Stress!

What is your program goal?

• 10 new prospects / 2 new clients

What will be your reward?

• Me Time / A complete day OFF!
  No work! Sleep in late, take a nap, have an at-home girly spa/pamper day complete with manicure, pedicure and candle-lit bath… aka Relax!

Success Ingredients

1. Description of Services
   This is mostly complete, but I need to tweak existing rates and services, as well as add new WordPress and eCommerce services.
   by May 30, 2008
2. Networking Venues
   I especially want to focus on maximizing my social media profiles by making the most of existing profiles and creating some new ones.
   by June 6, 2008
3. Blog Concept / Topics
   I need to focus on this blog as a business networking tool, mainly by producing quality posts on a more frequent basis, at least twice a week as a starting point.
   by June 13, 2008

Daily Actions

1. Spend 1/2 hour each day on my Success Ingredient Projects
2. Spend 1/2 hour each day on reading or writing
3. Send 1 letter or email to a new person each week
4. Make 1 new community contact each week
5. Post 1 Q/A Question each week (on LinkedIn or Work It, Mom!)
6. Post 1 Q/A Answer each day (on LinkedIn or Work It, Mom!)
7. Post 2 blog comments each day
8. Post 2 message board posts each day (new and/or response)
9. Publish 2 blog posts each week
10. Plan my day each morning (or the night before)

Special Permission

• I Deserve to be Successful!

Now It’s Your Turn

What are your program goals? What do you hope to accomplish over the next 28 days, and which daily actions are going to get you there?

Please feel free to post your Action Worksheet on your own blog, or in the comments below. This will help make you accountable and ensure you actually get this done (and if you don’t we’ll be here to motivate each other to continue).

Best of luck to you this month! Let the marketing begin!

Read More Posts In This Series

• View All Posts Tagged with “Get Clients Now!”

Back in January, I started reading Get Clients Now! A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants, and Coaches by C.J. Hayden.

This book walks you through creating a 28 Day Marketing Program to help promote your business. It’s particularly aimed at service based businesses, but I’m sure the techniques could be adapted to those selling products as well.

With a title like that, the book instantly caught my attention. That and the rave reviews I saw on Amazon. (Yes, that’s an affiliate link above… if you plan to buy the book anyway, I hope you’ll help a girl out by clicking the link, LOL)

From the first few pages, I was very excited to get started with the 28 day program. I believe I share a lot in common with many small business owners -we love what we do, but we are designers or writers or [insert job title here]… not necessarily marketing specialists!

As a small business owner, though, you end up wearing many different hats - including that of a sales man (or woman).

The Universal Marketing Cycle: A Brief Overview…

Get Clients Now! focuses on the four stages of the Universal Marketing Cycle:

• Filling the Pipeline
• Following Up
• Getting Presentations
• Closing Sales

C.J. Hayden explains the strategies and ingredients necessary for improving your performance on the stages above. As part of the 28 day cycle, you are able to put together your own program, selecting the specific ingredients, techniques and daily actions that appeal to you.

The Importance of Self-Promotion

I’ve found this to be a very motivational book, and I can honestly say that I have accomplished a LOT because of it. I’ve completed several success ingredients, and have been networking through this blog and other social media. I’ve met a lot of great people, and formed relationships that I never would have if not for this book.

Some of the contacts I’ve made through the networking suggestions in the book have turned into qualified leads, too (and that is the point of the book, after all…)

Now, I love the concept of the 28 Day program… BUT - and there’s always a “but” - I’ve started 3 programs so far, and I have yet to actually complete one!

Although I always hit the ground running, I end up slacking off before reaching the final week (or two). I hope that doesn’t reflect poorly on the book itself, it’s just the side of me who ends up putting clients first, before my own business.

Avoid the Feast or Famine Cycle

Unfortunately, this throws me right into the vicious cycle of feast vs famine.

In other words, when business is slow, I market like crazy, which is great! But when things pick up and I’m juggling several clients at once, I feel I “don’t have time” for marketing.

This is most certainly NOT the smartest approach to take - because although you will not notice it during the busy times, you will most definitely feel the consequences “next month” when the work you were doing is finished, and there are no new clients on the horizon.

It’s important to keep planting those seeds, so you have a steady stream of work sprouting up.

Enter a NEW Month… and a NEW 28 Day Program!

So, this post is all about creating some accountability for myself. This time will be different, as I’ll be posting weekly updates right here.

Nothing like putting it all out in the open to help make you accountable!

Care to Join Me?

I’m planning on starting a new program very soon - a little over a week from now, on Saturday, May 17th.

The book suggests starting the program on a Saturday, but otherwise you have weekends “off” while you do the majority of your program tasks during the work-week. Of course, if your schedule is different, you can easily re-arrange the dates to better suit you. Point is… it’s 28 days of marketing and self-promotion.

You can’t go wrong there!

A Book Club, of Sorts…

I’d love to open this up to anyone else who has the book; have been planning on getting the book; have never heard of the book, but your interest is now peaked… well, you get the idea, right?

I’ll be posting weekly updates as I go through the program. It might not all make sense to you if you don’t have Get Clients Now! but you can get a general idea of what to expect if you do eventually want to try it for yourself.

Are You In?

So, if you want to participate, please make a comment below or post on your blog, etc. It would be great to have a group of people to help hold each other accountable. What’s there to loose - your business could (and likely will) benefit from it!

For those of you joining in on the fun, you can download the FREE marketing plan worksheets from the Get Clients Now web site.

Have You Already Completed A (Several) Program(s)?

I’d love to hear your thoughts… Has it worked for you?

Do you have any suggestions?

BTW, like Naomi’s recent small business game post…

…this is NOT a meme! LOL

Read More Posts In This Series

• View All Posts Tagged with “Get Clients Now!”

Last week, Naomi over at Itty Biz posed a thoughtful question to her readers: Let’s Play a Game - What’s Your Home Business?

Some might call this a meme, but she doesen’t specifically call anyone out to answer, so it’s NOT a meme, LOL.

Not as Obvious as You Think…

Naomi received a question from one of her regular readers, asking what she actually does for a living.

“So what do you actually do for a living?”

This can be somewhat shocking to hear that a regular reader doesn’t quite understand what you do… If a regular reader doesn’t get it - how are new visitors you your site or blog supposed to know?

Enter the What’s Your Home Business Game! Naomi posted several questions that will help clarify exactly what it is that you do for a living. Sounds like a fun and completely useful game. It’s my turn now, so here goes…

What’s your game? What do you do?

The quick answer - I design web sites.

iDesign Studios creates custom web sites
that help you stand out from the crowd.

My full personal and business speil’s are hopefully pretty obvious, and are placed up at the top of this blog and on the main business site.

Basically speaking, though, I design and develop web sites, from concept to completion. I’ll discuss your business needs with you, see where you are headed, come up with a plan and design a web site that will help your business grow. More on that process here.

Once we’ve finalized the design, I will develop it into a functional web site, using valid, W3C standards compliant code. If you like, I am also more than happy to continue working with you to update the content on your web site, adding new features, etc. - basically helping your web site grow along with your business.

Why do you do it? Do you love it,
or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?

I design and develop web sites because it’s what I love to do!

I have always been artistic, and was lucky to have a very early exposure to computers. My Dad got his first computer - a TRS-80 - way back when I was 3 years old. So maybe there is a tiny bit of “creepy knack” in there.

But, it’s more than just having a “creepy knack” because I actually enjoy it.

While I like the design phase - especially when you get in the “zone” - what I love the most is the development stage. The point of taking something that I designed and turning it into a functional web site.

I especially love learning new techniques. As a front-end web developer, you have to face challenges such as creating code that not only validates, but also looks good on a variety of web browsers. There are often several obstacles you come across in accomplishing this, while also maintaining the design that you created for a web site.

It’s when you surpass those obstacles - often times learning a new trick in the process - that I find to be the most exciting. This is a huge part of what I like the most about being a web designer / front-end web developer, and what makes me look forward to developing the next web site.

It’s a never ending learning process, one that I greatly enjoy!

Who are your customers?
What kind of people would need or want what you offer?

My clients are a mix of small to medium sized businesses, with the occasional larger organization thrown into the mix. However, the majority of my clients are small businesses - one man/woman shows, or small family run businesses.

Working with a wide range of businesses, industries
and organizations throughout the United States,
my primary goal is to help other small businesses
succeed in their endeavors.

I find that I especially enjoy working for very small companies - primarily those who are establishing themselves on the internet for the first time. It’s nice to be able to introduce them to a whole new world of business marketing.

When a company decides they want to create a web site for the first time, it helps push their business to a whole new level. They are able to reach a much larger audience that they can market their business too.

I often also work with companies that have already gotten their feet wet with one (or several) web sites in the past. But those sites were either un-successful, or have just run their course. It is nice to work with them to help them establish a whole new identity to step their online presence up a notch.

What’s your marketing USP?
Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?

My USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is that I will give you a unique, professional, custom design that you can be sure no-one else out there will have. I will give you full attention to detail, and a good quality web site. Those “other losers” aren’t necessarily going to give you that.

Not everyone is going to give you a custom design. Unfortunately many web designers utilize template services for this, which means there could be 5, 10, 50 or more companies out there with the same exact web design as you. That’s not going to make your business stand out from the crowd!

There are a lot of designers out there that don’t have a unique design style, either. Many will give you a so-so design. Or will develop it with old web standards (using old-school html tables or even worse a site that doesn’t validate, or that doesn’t display properly across a variety of web browsers - thereby limiting your web audience).

When you hire me to design your web site, you can be sure that I am going to sit down and design something from scratch, with you completely in mind. I have a unique design style - typically a “less is more” “clean” style that I will apply to your web site to give it a good professional look (or a funky look if that’s what you’re going for, lol).

Bottom line - I will give you a uniquely styled and well coded web site that will help your business grow. Simply put, I’ll help you stand out from the crowd.

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?

The big plan at the moment is to expand upon my core services.

Right now, I primarily design and develop static web sites. However, I’ve dipped my feet into the wonderful world of WordPress, and am loving it! WordPress is a powerful tool, that can be utilized not only as a blogging platform, but also as a light CMS (Content Management System).

I’ve actually got my first client WordPress web site launching later this week, which I am very excited about! This will be doing double-duty for me, as I plan to use this as an opportunity to officially announce new WordPress Theme development services - which I plan to start offering through my online store before the end of the month.

For More Information…

I can’t end a post like this without linking you to additional information on my main business web site, LOL.

You can learn more about my company, iDesign Studios here, as well as read testimonials from happy clients. I also hope you’ll take a look at my web design portfolio, as well as my list of services (which links to an online shopping cart with complete details on exactly what is included when you purchase any of my web site design, development and hosting services).

If you have any questions, you might find the answer over in the Frequently Asked Questions. If not - please do feel free to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you!

Now It’s Your Turn!

So what about you? What’s your small business?

If someone went to your web site, would they immediately know exactly what you do? You’d be surprised how blatantly obvious you might think the answer is… but there is always that one reader (or ten) who don’t quite get it.

Help them out by participating! Tell everyone what your business game is, and link to or comment on the original article over on Itty Biz. I’d love for you to make a comment below, too!

A good friend of mine recently decided to start-up her own business, and asked me if there were any web sites or blogs that I recommend she read.

I’m currently subscribed to approximately 40 blogs relating to small business, blogging, marketing, etc. Although I love them all, some are more highly regarded as great resources on these topics.

The cream of the crop so to speak…

Now, this isn’t a definitive list, as it’s all subject to personal opinion, if you know what I mean. There are obviously a LOT more blogs than the ones listed below, and many of these actually cross-over between different categories - although I did attempt to place them in the most applicable spot…

Anyway, these are the blogs that I personally refer to the most. Whether it is to read the latest post, or search through the archives for something specific, you can often find me on these sites. They are the “must reads” on my feed reader.

I just came across a very interesting post by Nick Cernis on Put Things Off in regards to using the “F” word with clients and potential clients.LOL - No, not a curse word - but the word “Freelance” or “Freelancer” etc.

Shock! Horror! Are You Using The F Word Around Your Clients?

In his article, Nick discusses both the Pro’s and Con’s of using this term with clients and potential clients, etc.

Personally, I have been using this as part of my non-official title on my other web sites, but am now reconsidering it…

Of course, as part of this blog and blogging community, I am among the company of some amazing Freelancer’s! That is what I am, too, so I will proudly continue to use the F word around here, LOL.

I hope you’ll give this article a read! It is interesting to see the comments and what everyone else has to say on the matter.

What do you think?

Do you use this term with your clients and prospects? Did the article change your mind about it?

I would love to hear your opinion on the matter, whether it’s here or over at the original article!

Skellie of Skelliewag and Anywired recently wrote a four part series on Freelance Switch about Becoming a Freelance Web Worker.This isn’t just in reference to becoming a freelancer - the articles focus on how to be a freelancer who does 100% of their business online. I found the posts to be very helpful and informative!

The series focuses on:

How to find clients, how to work completely online and how to run your freelancing business from anywhere in the world.

Working as an online-only freelancer takes this flexibility to another level. You can work for who you want, when you want, in any state or country in the world (all you need is an internet connection and a computer).

I would say that the majority of my business is done online - in fact I don’t actually have any local clients. I think of this as a great thing, because that means I don’t have to deal with any in-person meetings.

Most importantly, I’m able to do all of my work from the comfort of home, or wherever my laptop takes me. With no local clients, I’m lucky enough not to have to go to their office to work, for example.

On the other hand, most of my clients and prospects prefer the phone to email, and most pay by check rather than by PayPal - so in this sense, I’m not truly a web worker yet.

However, the majority of my business either comes from referrals or from online sources (most have found my web sites through the search engines, for example).

My favorite post in the series is Part 2: Finding Work Online. Skellie lists 23 ways to find work online, and goodness knows we can all use tips on how to get more work… well, those of us just starting out, anyway, lol.

So, I am fairly close to being an online only freelancer - the tips in the articles below might just get me to 100%. Hopefully they will help get you there, too!

Becoming a Freelance Web Worker

• Part 1: Why You Should Do It
• Part 2: Finding Work Online
• Part 3: The Working Day
• Part 4: Working Anywhere

I just came across a new Ebook from one of my favorite blogs! Freelance Switch is an amazing blog for Freelancers. I’d just about have to say that it actually is my favorite blog.

They’ve recently published a 212 page Ebook titled How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer. (Currently available as an Ebook… due out in Paperback in January 2008!)

I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy yet - this book is extremely high on my wish list, though… if I get a little extra Christmas money, I very well plan on spending some of it right here.

So anyway, I can’t give my own review, but from what I’ve heard from other people who have read this book, it is a great resource. It apparently covers information that is not included on the blog. Goodness knows I’ve received invaluable advice from the Freelance Switch blog, so I can only imagine how much more helpful this book will be.

Topics include…

• Getting Your First Jobs
• Scoping & Timeframes
• Pricing Yourself
• Doing the Job
• Clients
• Getting Paid
• Marketing Yourself
• Building a Business

This sounds like a truly great read. A perfect last minute Christmas gift for any Freelancers out there.

This week’s find is a great one, and should be of particular interest to anyone trying to get their small business off the ground!

Naomi Dunford over at Itty Biz has recently posted a number of topics in a new series titled Marketing School. Naomi has a great writing style - it certainly does NOT feel like school, lol. She teaches many important aspects of starting (or beefing up) your business, including topics such as:

• What is a USP (Unique Selling Point)?
• How to Build Your Own USP
• Identifying Your Target Market
• and much more…

It’s definitely worth a read - I’ve learned a lot from the articles so far, and am anxiously awaiting the next post. I believe there will be approximately 30 articles to the series once it’s complete.

Today I’d like to highlight a new feature from a good friend of mine, Rose. This will be of interest to all of the Moms out there who own their own business!

From the Park Bench will be starting a new feature called Moms in Business.

I’m looking for a few good business moms. One of the features of my up coming site will be a weekly feature called “Moms in Business”. It will highlight a mom who’s providing a product or service for sale on the internet. The articles will be 100% free to the featured business. I want to do something to encourage moms to support other moms.

This looks like an excellent opportunity to help promote your own business. It’s rare to get Free opportunities like this one, and I love that the main point is to encourage Moms to support each other.

As long as you qualify, all you need to do is leave a comment or privately contact From the Park Bench to express interest in the feature. I for one am very interested in this and have already requested to participate.

I’ve got a great find for you all today! Wendy Piersall of eMoms at Home has recently been looking into issues with Google, Page Rank and paid text ads. More on that story here.

What I wanted to point at today, though, is her recent article: 27 Website Promotion Sources That Have Nothing To Do With Google or SEO.

Of course SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is still important for bringing traffic to your site. Wendy points out, though, that it is best not to depend too much on the search engines for traffic to your web site. There are so many other sources of traffic - at least 27, lol - plus some other good ones in the comments below the article.

I’ve finally started dabbling in a few of these - such as Social Bookmarking and Social Networking. I have a lot more to do though to utilize all 27 suggestions.

Definitely worth a read, and certainly worth bookmarking for future reference.

Thanks for the suggestions, Wendy!