The Financial Guru:

One of the easiest ways to kick-start your revenue boost is to implement an easy-to-use-and-apply referral strategy. I find most business owners, especially service-based business owners, believe that this may be a lengthy and complicated process. Truth be told, if you provide exceptional value to your current client base, fill their needs and turn them into “raving fans,” you have an incredible opportunity to receive the most coveted type of new business of its kind, right now: Referral business.

Why are referrals for you and the growth of your business so valuable? To begin with, referral business tends to cost you fewer marketing dollars and less time to acquire a new client. That in itself is a goldmine. Beyond that, referrals tend to value, trust and like what  you have to offer at an entirely new level. Your referrals are already at ease because they have been referred by a raving fan and, because of this, there is a higher probability that they will turn into raving fans as well, thus igniting your referral chain of coveted new clients.

In today’s challenging yet opportunistic marketplace, I tend to be skeptical of businesses that have very little referral business, as this is often is an indication of the quality of service and/or products they are offering. For example, I worked with an internet marketing company as a strategic alliance partner last year and when I inquired about its referral business, it was low, real low–like less than 3 percent.

Turns out, I had a very poor experience working with the company across the board. I reminded myself after the fact of the little red flag that came up for me in our first meeting–almost no referral business. Needless to say, I wasn’t left wondering why.

If you, the small business owner, apply just one of the four user-friendly tips below, I guarantee you’ll see an immediate impact on your client growth flow.

1.  After you offer your sensational service to a client or sell a well-received product, introduce a two-minute conversation: “I just wanted to let you know that one of the great gifts I can receive as a business owner from you (or from my clients) is the opportunity to work with your friends, family and colleagues. In case you didn’t know, my business is X percent referral-based, and I wholeheartedly welcome this opportunity to provide exceptional value for anyone you know who may be a fit for my service and/or product.”

Remember, clients who love your services and products unconsciously and/or consciously want to thank you. All you are doing is giving your client an understanding of how to do this. This is called the Law of Reciprocity. Good business today I believe has three goals:

1. To make money
2. To provide value
3. To be of service

If you are truly fulfilling the MVS philosophy on business success today, you have a bucket load of referrals looking for you!

2. Sweeten the deal! You may want to give your clients a limited-time offer. For example, If you provide massage services, you may want to let your clients know about step No. 1 above and then also mention that you are excited to share with them that you have a limited-time opportunity celebrating the launch of your first e-zine, and that if they refer three new clients in the next 30 days, they get a free massage.

What are three new clients worth to you? Three new clients whom could turn into raving fans and repeat clients, who then send you more referral business with your new referral system in place?  A heck of a lot more than a free massage, yes?

3.  Create a mini-postcard, promo gift bag,or other fun memorable giveaways. I recently learned that my yoga teacher was named Best Yoga Teacher Of The Year by UCLA. I mentioned to her that she should create T-shirts with this on the back, just for fun. Why not jokingly trump this new title bestowed upon her and, ultimately, while giving the T-shirts to yoga students, introduce the opportunity to refer more students to her class, advertise on her behalf when they wear the T-shirt or offer a promotion to refer her private one-on-one students, like me.

This all goes back to one important theme, getting your clients to send you new clients–what they organically want to do if you just know how to assist them.

4. Go online. We’ve recently launched a super-focused online referral program. At of this writing, we’ve only opened it up to a handful of clients, although we plan make it available soon to our entire list. It has been fun to share special referral promotions with a handful of our raving fans in a fun, easy and informal way.

I’m convinced the reason this referral program has been so successful is that, first and foremost, we have incredible clients who genuinely want to support the success of the services and products we offer. Again, this comes from their experience of having success working with us, too.

Second, we make it clear and simple in an engaging format with our online affiliate program for our clients to get involved spreading the word about an upcoming event or product.  Just a few e-mails with simple directions on what to do, what link to click, and BAM–your results of who signed up or bought will be posted for their review.

Side note: I generally think online referral programs are not for the faint of heart. I encourage you to get your offline referral program going with steps Nos. 1 through 3 before jumping into No. 4. Consider this a phase two option.

In closing, you will find that the clients you enjoy working with the most most likely will be the clients who send you new clients whom you will enjoy working with the most. Not always, but most of the time.

You’ll also find that certain clients are not the referral type, but that doesn’t mean they won’t appreciate the opportunity to learn more about how to help you grow and find it exciting to learn about all that you are up to. After all, it’s enticing and inviting to work with a business that has got its mojo in gear and really values bringing value with its products and services–and being rewarded for it.

In a changing tide economy, you need to understand at a deeper level that business owners focused on delivering value digitally via the internet are truly reaping some amazing rewards. Why? They have innovated, transitioned and positioned themselves to extend their “value line” to provide even greater solutions to their clients and prospects.

So what is a “value line”? Simply put, it’s the gifting of knowledge, expertise, and solutions–via marketing tips, tools and resources about your services or products–that you, as a business owner, offer as a free gift to your prospects and clients to entice them to convert into new clients and repeat business.

In the old economy, this is what the free value line looked like, especially online:

Free value = Client Conversion + Repeat Business

In the new economy, if you understand that the free value line has now been extended, you can align your approach for unrivaled marketing and business success. Here’s what the free “new value line” looks like:

Free value, Free Value, Free Value, Free Value = Client Conversion + Repeat Business

So if you need to bring more value to your prospects and clients to continue to grow as a business, how can you do that easily and effectively online? Take your knowledge and expertise (aka, the capital in your head), provide valuable insights about the solutions your services and products provide, and share those golden nuggets with your ideal demographic.

Here are four time-tested online strategies that will catapult your business  income levels in just a short period of time. I can attest that once I started implementing these proven success formulas, my business began to really boom.

Strategy No. 1: Offer a weekly or bi-weekly e-zine. That’s an online newsletter delivered through an e-mail service provider into the e-mail box of your prospects and clients. Let’s face it, you know so much that others would like to know.

Take the time to share some of your knowledge and expertise on a consistent basis via this low-cost publishing format, and you’ll quickly see a transformation not only in your bottom-line income, but also in your conversion rate of prospect into clients and in added repeat business from your current clients.

Strategy No. 2: Add some video to your website. Research tells us that more than 60 percent of what is being searched for online is video. More 200 million videos are consumed per month in the U.S. alone. Get yourself a Flip Video camera and create five to 10 videos approximately three minutes apiece. In each video, answer one frequently asked question about your services or products.

Share those videos with all your prospects and clients online and–bam–you’ve just moved your free value line to the right again!

Strategy No. 3: Write a free report. List five, seven or 10 questions that your prospects and clients should be asking you about your services and products. Now answer those questions and edit these pieces into a five-, seven- or 10-step free report. Once the free report has been written, take your word doc and turn it into an unalterable PDF digital file.

When you have new visitors to your website, share this free report with them via automatic delivery for leaving their name and e-mail address. Now you are automating building a relationship with your ideal demographic, adding extra value for your current client and, once again, extending your free value line to the right. Want to see a good example of how this has been done? Visit AndorAssetManagement.com

Strategy No. 4: Post on a blog. Truth is, people buy from people they know, like and trust. A blog offers you the opportunity to share more about you and your expertise in an ongoing format. If your visitor likes one blog post, he or she can scroll down to read others. The more you bring value via an ongoing blog post, the more you extend your free value line. Plus, every time you post content, the blog directories pick up your stuff and help drive traffic to you.

Further, when others comment on your postings, it becomes social proof. This creates a community of people who know, like and trust you, and who as raving fans refer other people to your services and products. The other advantage of a blog is that visitors tell you what they like and what  they want, so you can set yourself up for great success by giving them what they want.

These four strategies are the most relevant to extending your free value line online. Practice these formulas, and you’ll love the results. Plus, it’s fun to build relationships 24/7 via the online world, because it never takes a vacation and is always working to extend your free value line even while you sleep.

I not only specialize in working with service-based business owners; I am also one of them myself. I often find myself these days having an ongoing consulting conversation with many clients on how to implement a powerful, time-tested strategy to increase the pricing of their services successfully to make “Mo Money.”

Believe it or not, the way you introduce your service with your prospect or lead has a powerful impact on the perception of the value of the services you offer. Period. You will find below seven guaranteed quick-fire ways to monetize your service offerings at an entirely new level. And the best part is, you will see immediate results in your bottom line. I did, and my clients do, too!

1. Presentation of services. Think about it. If you receive a plain black and white sheet of paper with a basic rundown of a service you are in need of, such as a spa service, landscape service or even tax service–does it elevate your perception of the service? Most likely, no. Does it entice you into taking action right away? Probably not. Now consider this: If you were to receive a mini-brochure via a smart, five-page color presentation with a company logo on high-quality paper and alluring packaging, would this increase your interest and perception of value of the service offered? Of course it would. You know that old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Well, it ain’t true! Research shows a books cover does impact a book’s bottom-line sales margin–big time. It works the same for you as a business owner with how you package and present your services. If you want to immediately increase your rates, increase the overall visual presentation of the services you  have to offer.
2. Name of services. Here is another really important pricing tool. Many service-based business owners name their service or services something dry, simple and–quite frankly–boring. We recently launched a series of packages with names like: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Business Elite. To begin with, these names “snazzy up” the service offerings we have and entice our ideal demographic to want to learn more and keep consuming the package offering. What fun names could you be playing with for your services today?
3. Description of services. Most business owners list their pricing right next to the name of the service or services. I would highly encourage you to first give a beautiful, enticing description of what the actual service is in an inviting paragraph detailing some of the benefits. Once you write a captive description, then list all the benefits the package includes. Once you have done all this, then–at the bottom or even on the next page–list the pricing. Why do you do this? So that the pricing is not the core focus of the offer; the benefits are. Do you think you will have a higher conversion rate with this approach? Absolutely, because you are helping your leads or prospects more successfully consume your offer.In a recent package offering presentation, one of our offerings said something along these lines before we even presented what was included in the actual package or the pricing:“Living your ‘ideal vision’. . . is actually within your reach–and much closer than you think. Platinum program has been carefully constructed to take your business and your life to an entirely new level. From cutting edge insider business knowledge to exclusive ‘one-on-one’ coaching sessions with Vanessa, it’s about thinking big, being extraordinary and settling for nothing less than the best.”
4. Images, color and font. Studies show that people buy on emotion and then back it up with reason. Having access to colors in keeping with your logo and branding, enticing fonts in certain areas and images that help create an emotional connection with the benefits of your services will go a very long way–as in, lots more clients!
5. Extended payment Plans. This is technically called down selling in this economic cycle. Offering your prospects or leads an extended payment plan option that helps them say yes instead of no to working with you. Ultimately, that is a big part of our job as a business owner, helping add our value in the world by creating programs that help “our ideal demographic” say yes easily and consistently, so they can receive the value of what we have to offer them. I recently realized that most prospects and clients do not look at the total package cost if they are interested in signing up for your services. Your prospects and individuals will be more fixated on the monthly cost and if they believe they can make that happen.
6. Bundle your services. Think about putting a selection of your services together that can ramp up the value you bring to your clients, while making it easier for them say, “Yes, wow, this is a great selection of services–sign me up!” For example, I used to provide only workshops and one-on-one consultations. As my business grew and I adapted to new technology, I realized that in working with VIP groups of small business owners, by offering them packages over a longer time period, say six months to a year, I could fill their need at an entirely new level.One of my current favorite packages is our new Platinum program, which offers exclusive LIVE in- person training days for Platinum participants, one-on-one coaching time, monthly LIVE hourly group tele-training calls, audio-CDs of the tele-training calls, access to the tele-training transcripts and a copy of our Online Money Making Fast-track Home Study Kit 24-DVD System. How can you bundle your current services to offer packages that are irresistibly jam-packed with amazing value to entice your prospect or lead him or her to take action and work with you?
7. Digitize. Finally, you can digitize this offering in a non-changeable PDF document, which is really just a Word document converted into a digital format that you can send via e-mail. This is a nice way to automate getting your offering to your ideal demographic online, too! Need to convert a Word Doc to a PDF file? It’s easy, just go here to adobe pdf to find out more!

Seven years ago I stepped out of my comfort zone and let a friend drag me to a LIVE seminar. I remember the experience extremely well, ‘cuz it changed my life forever. At the time I was in credit card debt and had a lot of limiting “money stories” that I kept reliving unconsciously. Like, “It is hard to be financially successfully in business.”

In hindsight, I see clearly that my very first LIVE seminar was intoxicating and impacted my own business growth in phenomenal ways. At that seminar, I opened myself up to an environment of individuals seeking to grow and transform themselves into better people . . . as well as downloaded some pretty serious business building tools that I still reach for today!

And so, I have since prided myself on going to at least two seminars a year to step-up my game and get out of my own way to ensure that I am learning amazing information to help grow my business and, even more important, me.

What I didn’t understand seven years ago, which I implicitly understand today, is that when you commit, the universe commits. Every time I sign on the bottom line to invest in myself through attending a LIVE seminar, I know what I am really doing is fast-tracking achieving my ideal vision for my business growth and my life.

These days, even with the challenges (or rather opportunities) in the marketplace, I invest in attending even more live seminars. And I have consistently seen that it pays off in not just thousands of dollars, but hundreds of thousands of dollars . . . if not more!

Here are six benefits on how attending live seminars powerfully transforms your business and your life:

1. Raises the Bar on Your Business Expectations.

When the guy next to me at UBMS in Vegas partnered up with me for our first exercise on our first day of what was to be a five-day event, he went on to explain why his fund only had $100 million vs. $1 billion. I then learned that the gal in front of me recently took her multi-level marketing company to a billion dollars in sales. It turns out she was exiting the seminar room every few hours to negotiate her next corporate contract to include a G5 for her exclusive use. Sadly, I had to ask another friend what a G5 was. (for those of you who don’t know, like moi, it’s a jet plane.)

Hey, I don’t seek out ways to be one-upped in business. But I was totally out of my comfort zone of what I thought was possible for me and my business during this entire event. Surrounded by business owners who were playing at an entirely elevated level above me–guess what? It raised the bar on my own expectations. What is that worth to me? A lot of saved sweat equity and time!

2. Learning Curve is Steep.

At a live event there are no distractions. You are immersed in the content. There is nothing like getting out of your routine, away from your office, and spending a few days with experts in their field to learn new strategies to innovate your business for greater financial success!

Although I am a big believer and weekly user of home-study systems, I never have more take away or transformative “ah-hah” moments than while attending a LIVE seminar.

3. Colleagues for Life.

A good seminar is almost like being in summer camp. You miss it when you leave and you certainly want to connect and possibly do business with the “peeps” that you shared these incredible moments alongside. Turns out from the last seminar in Vegas, I have successfully aligned with some big players in the online world who are fast-tracking the tools I am utilizing to grow my business both offline and online.

Making a connection in person is invaluable. You get to walk away with a handful or more of truly valuable new colleagues to mastermind, network and explore elite-level opportunities with. And here is a secret insider tip; generally more successful people attend events that have a higher price tag.

For reference, remember the gal with a billion in sales negotiating the G5 deal I mentioned meeting above at the ‘UBMS’ event.

4. Direct Connection With the Featured Speakers

By far a really cool opportunity for you is to hob-nob directly at your seminar with the guest speakers. Creating an authentic connection, brainstorming your pertinent business growth question and at times exchanging contact information are super cool.

Case in point: At my UBMS event, I asked one of the internet marketing gurus who spoke if he had “mentees”? Although I have not been officially inducted into mentorship guidance, I have established a genuine connection, we have been e-mailing, and I totally feel comfortable reaching out to swing some questions by him!

Remember, many of these people you can’t even get on the phone–so this is very valuable for you!

5. Get Inspired!

As a business owner, I truly believe your business can only grow as much as you do–so you need to continually upgrade yourself as an individual to continue to successfully grow your business. Let’s face it: You can only get exponentially inspired by jumping on a teleseminar or listening to a CD. At these live events, you have the opportunity to walk away transformed–I’m not kidding!

Since returning from the UBMS event in Vegas just over a week ago, I can assure you I am not the same person and certainly not the same business owner. I am the upgraded version of me. How I perceive the ups and the downs of what is happening personally and with my business now is completely different. Why? I have been inspired and equipped with an entirely new set of business success tools. And although daunting, it is super exciting.

6. Let Uncle Sam Pick-Up The Tab!

Beyond your total seminar costs being investments that are most likely a tax write-off, they are also a great opportunity to take a lifetime learning tax CREDIT. Meaning, check with your tax accountant–but you most likely qualify to write $2,000 off of what you owe on your total tax bill for investing in seminars for that specific tax year.

Stay open to all possibilities. I find the most successful business leaders at seminars arrive expecting to have an incredible event. They show up with an attitude of gratitude, and it becomes truly contagious. I sat next to Stephen Covey’s business partner at my recent seminar event and he was so involved in what Mr. Covey had to say that it inspired me at an entirely new level to really value the business success tools being shared.

Finally, if your business is in winter (like many are in this economic cycle) or you have reached a plateau in your business cycle–you need to INNOVATE! Adding new tools to your business success toolkit through attending LIVE seminars will guarantee you stay on top!

These 4 Success Secrets have led to significant profitability with my business in today’s fast-paced, changing marketplace. They are simple, yet powerfully effective.

Secret #1: Create Systems to Support

The more that you can implement systems to support you in self-care, the more effective you will be in moving your business to its next level.

This year, I set up a few new systems of self-care that include a pre-booked: weekly massage, twice weekly early-morning private yoga sessions and biweekly coaching. I also have our nanny shop for specific healthy food items to ensure that I nourish myself to replenish my energy and vitality daily. Plus, other simple stuff, like pre-booking: haircut and color, getting facials and getting my nails done.

I now arrive with more energy and in a “state of success” when I reach my desk each weekday because I feel so darn good.

As your business income grows, your responsibilities as a business owner often grow, too. If you don’t prepare yourself to make space to carry these new responsibilities, how can your business really grow into your desired results?

Ask yourself: What can you put into your daily or weekly routine that helps you feel revitalized? What gives you a great perspective on your business? What helps you get through the hiccups in your business?

If your budget is tight, you can still pre-book self-care into your system for success. A daily nature walk, a hot cup of tea with a great book, journaling time or even weekly “process time” with a successful business colleague.

Secret #2: Your Environment

My environment has made such an impact on my business growth this year, and certainly on our numbers. It has also made a big impact on how I feel about the business, especially day-to-day. We recently remodeled our detached home office to be more in keeping with our new logo, Live Your Ideal Vision. We have also added new members to Team Vanessa, as we have been in a growth mode. I am absolutely certain in working with the new members of the team that working in this new office environment has elevated the team’s perception of who we are, what we are doing and where we are going as a company. It is almost like “live it, and your business results will come”.

Ask Yourself: What is my environment like when I go to sit at my desk? What am I stepping into? Is it welcoming? Is it inviting? Is it clean, neat and organized? One of my platinum students took this tool to heart a few months ago and, even though she works from a small home office, she took the time to print her newly created business logo in large format, frame it and have a spotlight featuring it on her home office wall. She also reorganized her office environment. The end result was an impressive and uber-inviting space to work from.

Secret #3: Choose Your Friends Carefully

As business owners, we are 100 percent accountable for creating our entire life. Think about this, fewerr than 6 percent of people in this country make $100,000 or more annually. Fewer than 1 percent make more than $365,000 annually. What does this mean for you as a business owner? You are absolutely responsible for your results on every level of your life.

With all the extreme news and real-world challenges, as a business owner today, you get to determine your next level of success. It’s not the marketplace that dictates your ultimate results as a business owner; it’s your ability to adapt to the marketplace to ensure that you are focused on profitable opportunities.

Close to 10 years ago, I didn’t understand that, as a new business owner, my net worth equaled the average of my 10 closest friends. When I learned this statistic, I was very upset. I looked around at my circle of influence and thought . . . well, that’s not so good. I learned shortly thereafter that I am the average of my five closest friends. That worried me even more.

Equipped with this new knowledge as a budding entrepreneur, it helped me immediately begin being accountable and responsible to expanding my circle of influence. I didn’t have to get rid of my circle of “peeps” at the time: I just understood that I needed to meet new, “more successful” people to expand my circle of influence.

I also learned quickly that if I am 100 percent responsible for my results as a business owner, I needed to be more discerning with whom I shared my business insider details. Have you ever noticed that highly successful business owners usually respond differently to their problems with their business than the business owners who struggle?

Today, I am very cautious when it comes to sharing any insider details about my business for this reason. I know if I share challenges, fears, opportunities or even risks I am taking with my business with a proven seven-figure-plus business owner . . . I am guaranteed to get valuable feedback and perspective that almost always lead to more dollars in my bank account.

Ask yourself: Do I have a circle of influence that surrounds me in my business and life today that models success for me? Does my circle of influence inspire me? If not, make plans to attend events, hire coaches/mentors and seek out genuine opportunities to expand your circle of influence. And by all means, re-review whom you talk business with. Is it someone who has the business results you desire? Or someone who isn’t even in business? I promise: As a business owner in today’s marketplace, you need more support than ever. Having the right people to motivate, inspire, guide and model your next levels of  business success is not just a secret, it’s a vital key ingredient to your success.

Secret # 4- Prioritize

Often, the difference between business owners who are low income earners and high income earners is how they prioritize. Simply put, successful business owners focus on short-term money-making opportunities and learn to delegate, delete and systematize the rest of their business responsibilities.

As a business owner, when you start to identify the key areas of opportunity to double your business income in the next 30, 60 or even 90 days, you learn to refine your focus on those areas of your business without getting distracted by low-priority tasks that will have minimal impact on your business growth. You see, most business owners are efficient, but they are not effective. Efficient means they can do lots of things on their to-do list and talk about a lot of things they are creatively thinking about the business, but they are not effective in the most important part of business, making money. Hence, their business produces just that: very little income.

Ask yourself: Is there something drawing me away from my most important focus with my business, making money? How can I delegate, delete or systematize my business to give me more time to focus on the money-making opportunities at hand?

Part of our responsibility as business owners is to continue to ask ourselves throughout our days doing business what it is that we can delegate, delete or systematize. For example, if I find myself sweeping the office floor or rearranging things, I remind myself that this is a $10-an-hour job, and I really shouldn’t be doing this. Assigning priority is a ball in continual motion for busy business owners. Perfection isn’t possible with this secret success tool. I encourage you to create awareness around doing low-payoff tasks that will not contribute to the immediate cash flow of your business. Learn to delegate, delete or systematize them.

I deeply believe that the more you have, the more you have to give. I leave you with my favorite quote:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
–Marianne Williamson

Just yesterday a client of mine, whom I’ll call “Michelle,” asked my advice about marketing her specialized services both online and offline. She had begun some test marketing and we were discussing the possibilities for her success.

In our conversation I shared with her one of the most important marketing tools I’ve learned along the way to tripling my income in the past three years through studying other marketing millionaires: the Millionaire Marketing Mind-set.

Think about this. Successful business people who have easily made millions from their innovative marketing techniques–and still are in today’s changing marketplace–didn’t always start off making millions from their marketing plans.

Although hard to imagine, they didn’t become millionaires overnight with their first marketing campaigns. Believe it or not, they had failures. And after I learned more of their inside stories, I found out they had many many failures that in fact led to finally achieving success.

When we look at successful business owners today, we find it hard to imagine they have ever failed. It seems everything they touch turns to gold. Right?

In fact, these millionaires tried a marketing technique, either online or offline and, if it didn’t work, they moved to another one.

So their failures acted as key steps to the marketing successes they went on to have with their products and services.

Today, plan to be innovative and action-oriented with both your online and offline marketing strategies.

If one fails, tweak it, overhaul it, kill it or introduce another.

I recently learned that one of the most successful business owners in my industry (who has a billion-dollar business) launched an entire new multimillion-dollar marketing division to launch a new product a few years back, only to turn around in a “post-recession shift” and wind-down the entire division.

Why? That owner had an innovative idea, overhauled it several times to make it successful, didn’t achieve success, closed down the division, and is now off and running in a new marketing direction that is achieving enormous results. “Results” meaning multimillion-dollar results. (Note: These new marketing results are being achieved through . . . drum roll, please . . . the internet. No surprises there right?)

Do you flat line when marketing doesn’t work? Here’s the solution. Nothing has meaning except the meaning we give it. Adopt your own Millionaire Marketing Mind-set. One marketing plan gone bust is really one step closer to your next marketing plan that will go bang!

As a business owner today, test your new marketing plan, review the results and move on to another strategy if that one doesn’t work.

You see, in marketing, when it doesn’t work, we learn, we grow . . . and we clarify where not to spend our time. What is that worth in dollars and cents to your business?

So today, launch, innovate, track and test . . . and move forward or move on.

Just a few years ago, I couldn’t tell you how many visitors hit my site each day. Today I can tell you the exact number of visitors, the percentage that opt onto my list and, on average, how many turn into paying customers for my products and services. Understanding the importance of reviewing this information with my online marketing plan is what helped me more than triple my income over the past three years.

Compiling this type of data is not as challenging as you think. It just takes a conscious commitment to focus on reviewing what is and is not working through tracking and testing your marketing results on an ongoing basis.

My client Michelle plans to implement this track and test mentality for all the marketing strategies she implements to ensure that her time and resources are being continually directed in a way that gives her a maximum return on investment (ROI).

The numbers always tell a story. Once you begin to listen to the story, your marketing transforms from painful to profitable. Keep focusing on what works, and always keep moving in that direction.

Equipped with your Millionaire Marketing Mind-set, when you reflect on your marketing journey, you won’t see failure; you’ll only see key steps to your big biz success.

Offering valuable articles with juicy tips, tools and resources to your list through publishing an online newsletter, also known in the internet world as an ezine, is an amazing way to automate marketing your business to MAKE MORE MONEY. When you offer your business expertise, knowledge and know-how in this format, you are sharing the “capital in your head” while building credibility with your list as an expert.

Just in case you are stumped for content inspiration, feeling a bit overwhelmed at the thought of what you are going to publish in your upcoming ezine, please enjoy these seven easy (and effective) publishing ideas when you are having a brain freeze.

1. Offer real-life client stories.
Think of recent clients who have used your services or products successfully. Give an outline of a problem and then go onto to describe how you’ve solved your client’s issue. This is an opportunity to showcase the value of your service or product, as well as offer more general advice. These case studies help your reader understand more fully the value of your services or products. Ultimately, these real-life client stories position you in your readers’ minds as an expert.

2. Focus on a short list of key areas in which you want your prospects and clients to view you as a resource.
Create focused content in these key areas. For example, in my early days as a published author of my first book, The Girl’s Guide to Money & Investing, I really enjoyed working with women to help them manage their finances better. To help encourage my list to hire me to help them “step it up” with their money management, I published several articles on how to budget and invest more successfully.

3. Make a short list of questions clients have recently asked you.
I bet there is a short list of questions your clients ask you on a continual basis. Think about addressing each one of these questions in a brief article. Think about this: If you publish biweekly, that could be a few months’ worth of valuable content for your list that you know your ideal demographic will love.

4. Be on the lookout for new innovative information from expos, conferences, trade publications or even online.
The cool part of this publishing idea is that you can find valuable content outside of yourself. No one expects you to do it all alone. Give opinions, offer advice or even make noteworthy comments on an article, but be sure to give acknowledgement of sourced information. Your list will value your direct candor.

5. Offer a list of your top seven tips on a specific topic
It’s easy and time-effective to offer a targeted list of value-added content on a specific topic vs. writing long, wordy articles. These tips are also much easier to consume as a reader online ,too. Keep in mind, your most valuable tips should be featured at the beginning of the list to whet the appetite of your reader and encourage her to keep reading.

6. Recommend resources, such as vendors, books, websites.
I love to offer a review of cutting-edge services that can help my list market more successfully, make more money, save money, save time and upgrade their lifestyle. Your readers will love these recommendations, since they’ll not only learn the value of the recommendation but will also have a place to go to put the resource to good use.

7. Recycle, when all else fails.
Keep in mind that your ezine’s main purpose is to create more clients for you and MAKE MORE MONEY, so you want to be sure to continually showcase the value of YOUR services and products. Recycling previous articles can be a great quick fix when all else fails. Often, your list will either not remember the original published article, find value the second time around or discover value in the article the first time out of the gate.

My new biz motto for 2009 is “Go Big, Or Go Home!” Thanks Oprah and the Big Give for that line. If you aren’t making changes to shift how you market and manage your  biz today based on the economy shifts as of late–well, lights out for you. Simply put, how we all are doing business is changing at a rapid pace. You can choose to participate in the exciting opportunities or not. It’s funny: Students practicing  my new “7 Step System to Online Marketing Made Easy” keep telling me they are having their best year ever. And I keep responding with, “I know, I know.” Why? Because as I teach it, I live it.

With that said, I’ve been stepping  up and out of my own comfort zone, interviewing hundreds of candidates to join Team Vanessa as of late. By the way, I would never have dreamed a few short years ago that I would be here now so quickly. But it’s true; dreams do come true if you have the right tools at the right time and you’re willing to take action. So as there are countless business owners out there struggling and starving–there are plenty of others rolling up their sleeves and embracing new opportunities to grow their business by learning how to integrate their marketing offline to the online world. We have so many exciting projects we are launching that ensuring I have the right’ team members on the bus is essential. Hence, it’s well worth my time to make this happen.

In the process of getting more clarity of how to interview effectively and find a great hire, I came up with a few lessons you may find valuable:

1. Expect your prospective employee to tell you what you want to hear in an interview. Funny, candidates can be dream boats in an interview and then show up to work with a negative attitude lacking in the exact skills they assured you they had in their interview. It’s my job to challenge everything they are sharing with me in the interview and find out what level of the truth is being revealed.  I take the time to be brutally honest about the environment they’ll be working in, the goals the company has, the obstacles they can expect–and in some ways, I really grill them on their responses in a respectful but direct way.

Why? I want to save us all time. I have taken the time to define what the role is we are looking to fill, and I want to be sure I am setting everyone else up for success, too. The more detailed you can get about the environment, the mindset, the financial pay/compensation, opportunities within the company, direction of the company and the ideal result you seek, the more success you will have finding someone who is  a fit.

2. People who think independently from their family. Don’t get me wrong; I love family. I also love energetic, ambitious young talent to add to our team. I, too, have learned that I need go-getters on my team who are at a space in their own journey where they can evaluate a great opportunity that is a fit for them without giving too much weight to what others think.

3. Find individuals who sing to you. I only want to work with individuals I want to be around. My days, hours and time are precious to me as I build my business. I want to work with individuals who I feel live from a set of values and consciousness that vibe with who I am and the standard I set for myself. If a prospective candidate is sparkly and shiny to you, has the skills for the job and her life’s goals are in keeping with the job you have to offer, this might be a great fit for your team.

4. Less is more. I would rather have fewer people on the team who are the right people than more people who are not right for the team. Why? Because a fewer number of the right people often accomplish more than a lot of the wrong people. What is that phrase, “A lean, mean fighting machine”? Well, not quite that, but the idea that getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus is essential to any business’s growth is a principle I very much believe in that works wonders for success.

5. Don’t shortchange the interview process. Screen carefully over the phone prior to taking up your precious time to schedule an interview. Get clear and specific. Even send candidates to your business’s website and chat with them again if they are interested after getting a taste of what your business does. If you genuinely have a good connection, bring them in for an interview and even have other members of the team interview your prospective candidate as well. Letting other members of the team have a thumbs up is vital if you are interested in creating a collective consciousness that all your team members are going to vibe with. Then take the time to follow up with references–as many as possible to reaffirm the picture you have painted of your potential new team member. And don’t forget: Have clear contracts and nondisclosure agreements dealt with upfront to establish the importance of the new hire’s role and opportunity.

6. Always give a trial period. Even if you practice the first five lessons, you may still strike out. Be sure to give a trial period and set the expectation for weekly or biweekly reviews. We are growing so quickly, we don’t have time for someone who doesn’t perform her role fantastically. You should set high expectations for your team members so they know what is expected of them and are motivated to grow into being great at what their job is.

7. Don’t accept second best. Today’s abundant job marketplace ensures you have no lack of great prospects to choose from. It’s an awesome time to grow and spread the money around. Remember, hiring great people to help grow your business should be viewed as an investment, not an expense. In truth, your business growth is capped at you. When you begin to systematize delegating different aspects of your business, that is truly where the MAGIC revenue begins to happen!

Do you believe you can double your business revenue in 2009? How about tripling your referral business? One essential tool to facilitate these results is available to you right now with the online marketing tool known as a sales page. (Some refer to it as a landing page because you literally “land on the page.”) Sales pages have the ability to leverage your business efforts offline and ultimately provide you with new business for your services and/or products online while you sleep. Your sales page has four specific goals:

1. To convert a visitor to join your prospect list.
2. To convert a prospect into a customer.
3. To convert a customer into a repeat customer.
4. To receive referral business from existing customers and prospects.

When your visitor arrives at your sales page, you want him or her to do something (e.g., register for your e-zine or buy your product and/or service). When your visitor takes that desired action, you’ve had a conversion. If you have 1,000 visitors to your sales page per day and have successfully tested your sales page to see that 2 percent, on average, convert, that means you are successfully converting 20 visitors into one of the four categories listed above per day. Now just for a moment, ask yourself, would this be valuable to the growth of your business? Heck, yes.

In an effort to jumpstart your revenue growth, here are eight simple tips to a sensational sales page:

1. Define your conversion. Before you even begin to lay out your sales page, define your sales page’s ideal conversion activity. For an e-zine sales page, the conversion activity for your visitor is entering a name and e-mail address into a form and clicking “Submit.”
2. Do a little research. A little target market research goes a long way. Figure out what your visitor wants. Build a profile of your ideal target market visitor. Keep this person in mind when creating your sales page. Do not create your sales page for anyone else. The more your message “sings” to your target market visitor, the higher the conversion rate will be for your sales page. Have you heard the saying, “There are riches in niches”? Know your niche and just give them what they want.
3. Eliminate unneeded elements. Distractions kill conversions. Strip any unneeded elements from the page. This is not your home page. Anyone who comes to your sales page is extremely valuable to you, and you don’t want to distract them with unnecessary information. You want your sales page message to be specific with one BIG call to action, to convert.
4. Captivating headline. Your sales page should have a captivating headline. The easiest way to clue your visitors in that they have arrived at the right place is to use a captivating headline in quotes that immediately engages them to continue reading your sales page. Here is a headline from our OMMFW sales page:


Finally, A Workshop That Gets You Fast-tracking

Making Money Online…..

Even If You’ve Never Made A Penny Online Before.

5. Stay Focused. Avoid the urge to promote or link to other areas of your site. The point of your sales page is to prevent your visitor from wandering. You want them converting, not clicking around to other parts of your site and potentially losing the conversion. Imagine if Pottery Barn encouraged shoppers who entered their store to leave and peruse other areas of the mall? Once they stop thinking about your offer, you’ve probably lost them.
6. Important elements above the “fold.” Pay attention to what information first appears at the top of your sales page before your visitor scrolls down the page. This is known as the virtual fold (the top of the screen before scrolling). Place enough captivating content and graphics above the fold to entice your visitor to make a decision to keep reading your sales page. If a visitor has to click or scroll to figure out what your sales page is about to begin with, the only thing he or she will click is most likely the back button away from the page.
7. Lead the eye with bolded text. The truth is, people tend to skim. Bold text that you want to emphasize as your message on your sales page so that the “skimmers” can get the gist of what you are offering. Use bold text and even some color to your advantage. Just like we are doing in this article for you. Lead the eye along the page toward the conversion purchase or subscribe links.
8. Results-based testimonials. Your facts will inform your visitors and your testimonials will sell them. Gather testimonials with headshots and plan to pepper your testimonials throughout your sales page. You may even want to take a small blurb from each testimonial and list it in bold at the top of the testimonial itself to help make it more eye-catching and consumable to your visitor. Here is a favorite student of mine named Rod who generously offered a great results-based testimonial:

Tweaking your sales page can be one of the most cost-effective ways to improve your conversion rates. Increasing your total conversions by just 1 percent translates to a 50 percent improvement in your conversion rate (based on the 2 percent original rate discussed above). Think about this: To get the same results with most traditional offline advertising, you would have to increase your advertising budget by 50 percent. Remember, you will always want to track, test, & tweak your sales page results. Having successful conversion rates for your sales page is a process. And with these eight tips, you have more tools to refine your process for bigger business success today.

How do you evaluate the value of your business? If an investor decided she were  interested in buying your business today, what would be the number one criteria to establishing what it’s worth?

Most business owners immediately respond with revenue or net profit as an answer. But let me take you to the next level–’cuz revenue and net profit are a result of something bigger. The bigger I am referring to is having a list of happy, satisfied clients who are practically raving fans who buy from you over and over, as well as refer you great new clients. Plus, a system to convert your current prospects into customers consistently. This little nugget of information I just shared has the power to transform how you think about and grow your business moving into 2009.

What is even more fabulous about this golden nugget is that how we do business today has changed, and it will continue to change moving into 2009 based on the fastest-growing industry out there–a little thing called the internet. More than ever, you as a business owner have the opportunity to utilize simple tools and techniques to grow your prospect and customer list, as well as implement time-tested formulas to convert both your prospects and customers into ongoing big paydays for you.

Here are Four Golden Nuggets to consider tapping to grow your list from biz colleagues in your circle of influence who can help you grow your list right now through promoting you and your products and / or services.

1. A trade. A simple, old-fashioned trade: They promote you and your biz to their list, and you will do the same for them. This can be done as an affiliate relationship (where a predetermined referral fee is paid for a new client signing up for service or purchasing products) or a strict joint venture whereby simple cross-promotion is worked out with no money exchanging hands on the back end.

I do this often for vendors I work with who provide excellent service and great value for my list. A good example of this is my merchant processor, Evelyn Siegel at cashflowservice.com . As a thank you, Evelyn shares with her clientele–small business owners–more about the opportunity to work with me to grow their revenue by working smart, not hard, through online marketing and managing their money better.

2. Official affiliate agreement. You offer a great service/product that would benefit your biz colleagues’ lists AND have presented them with an offer they can’t refuse–a money-making affiliate plan. Think about it: Your biz colleagues get to add value for their lists, giving something to customers and prospects that they might want and need. They also receive a percentage of the profit just for promoting you to their list.

3. Membership programs. Another opportunity is to connect with monthly membership clubs and continuity programs online that have your “ideal demographic.” Most of these programs offer a guest expert call each month, which means they have to find compelling guest experts to provide valuable knowledge to their subscriber base via monthly teleseminars. They are motivated to get experts booked and, in many cases, don’t want any reciprocation.

4. Just for asking. In your immediate circle of biz influence, all you have to do is ask. In fact, it will make some of your biz colleagues happy to help you. Why? Because they know, like and trust you and what your business is all about. Why not let them help you? They know you offer something valuable. They see the fit and the contribution to their own list of customers and prospects. So they’re helping you, as well as offering this gift of introduction to their own list. What could be better? It’s a win-win for all involved. One of the greatest time-tested styles of marketing offline has been through the power of word-of-mouth. Online, you get to practice this tenfold through the click of just one button to an entire list of your biz colleagues.

These four golden nuggets can dramatically impact adding new quality prospects and clients to your list in a short period of time. Don’t miss out, set a target for 2009 of how much you plan to grow your list, roll up your sleeves and get down to it.