Make The Time To Invest In You

Continuous learning is essential for small business owners and it is easier than ever to learn something new, often without having to leave the comfort of your home office. Although some may think that learning is only for schoolchildren, it is actually a lifelong practice. Developing new skills builds confidence and increases our value to customers and clients.

If you think you don’t have time for learning, think again. All it takes is a commitment of an hour each day. If you examine your schedule you will likely find an hour a day that you have been spending doing non-essential things. An hour isn’t much but it does add up. If you’re dedicated to learning something and you are consistent, you will have invested 20 hours to your education within a month.

Here are 5 simple ways to productively spend an hour of your time to learn and absorb new knowledge:

1. Read a Book: There is an unlimited supply of highly rated books available to help you succeed in business. Visit your local library, book store or shop online for books on marketing, branding, networking and more. Did you know that the average person can read about 60 pages in 60 minutes? Take an hour each day to learn how to be more productive and successful or learn a new skill and apply this new expertise in your business.

2. Attend a Teleclass: Teleclasses are typically an hour in length, conducted via a telephone conference call. Many are no cost; you only pay the long distance charges if any. You will gain valuable information, get new ideas, and/or learn new skills. Attend live if you can as most are very interactive. There are often networking opportunities in a teleclass setting. I have gained new subscribers just by sharing my url and business description with other attendees. Did you miss the last teleclass you signed up for? Take the time now to listen to the recording and make a few notes.

3. Invest in an E-Course: Most e-courses are a number of weeks in length. Each lesson complete with homework arrives in your inbox once a week. Set aside an hour each day to review the current lesson and complete the homework. Learn some new skills that will help you to better support your clients or manage and grow your business.

4. Attend Local Events: These events are typically low cost and some are free of charge. Interact with other small business owners and align yourself with industry experts. You can even find quality affiliates and joint venture partners by attending conferences, trade shows and local meetups. Guest speakers entertain, educate and inspire their business event audiences through motivational presentations.

5. Learn through Trial and Error: Is learning by experience your personal learning style? This method is used widely in many fields but can be time-consuming and tedious. As long as you have resources to refer to for help, this problem solving style of learning is a valid option.

Remember, you don’t have to know it all. Specializing in one area and getting really good at it is preferable to being a ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. It’s motivating to know that using the one hour a day plan, how good you will be in 6 months with over 100 hours invested in continuously improving yourself.

7 Steps To Creating An Information Product That Can Make You Money While You Sleep

If you write on a regular basis or even have lists of FAQ’s (frequently asked questions), you have enough content to create an information product to give away or sell. Set aside an afternoon to gather and arrange your content and piece your product (free giveaway/pink spoon, e-report, e-book, e-course) together. Once you have done the groundwork and added your final details the rest of the process can simply be outsourced in order to automate the sale and delivery of your product.

Here’s how:

1. Create a spreadsheet with 3 columns using these headings:

*Title – the title of your content or topic of the article

*Summary – a short description of the content

*Category – specific to your content. For example, I categorize my content as Home Office Organization, Marketing, Time Management etc.

2. Gather all your content together and fill your spreadsheet with the above information for each piece of content you have. Use your blog posts, articles and FAQ’s.

3. Sort your spreadsheet by the ‘Category’ heading. This will group together all the content within the same category giving you a good overall picture of the quantity of content you have for each category.

4. Determine how you will package this content. Your options are to:

*create a short e-report as a free giveaway to build your list

*create an e-book to sell (generally priced between $10 – $47)

*create an e-course complete with assignments and set up the information to be delivered over a 4 – 6 week period or even longer (generally priced higher than an e-book)

5. Create a new document in a program like Word. Build your product by laying out the content you have chosen to use by copying and pasting it into your document. Play with the order and formatting.

6. Proofread your document. Add content to connect pieces where needed or subtract content to ensure your material flows and is easy to follow.

7. Congratulations! You now have the foundation of your info product. Finishing touches include the addition of:

-headings

-subheadings

-images

-table of contents

-cover page

-conversion of file to PDF format

Note:

* You may also want to add a headshot and your bio written in third person on the last page. This can include a call to action consisting of an invitation to check out one of your related products, programs or services.

* After your product has been created it is time to launch. You will need to have a sales page and a plan for ongoing marketing and promotion of your product to encourage sales or sign ups in the case of a free giveaway.

* Decide how you want to accept payment. You can use a shopping cart system or PayPal.

Tools you will need:

a. A program like Word and/or Excel to organize your content and piece it together into a product.

b. A website to announce your product for sale or invite visitors to sign up for your free offering.

c. A shopping cart program to set up, deliver and sell your product and communicate using autoresponders.

Remember, once you have assembled your product you can outsource the technical aspects of the process. A Virtual Assistant can create your sales page and automate the process by adding “buy now” buttons or a sign up form doing all the back end work on your site and in the shopping cart. This will ensure that sign up, purchase and delivery of your product operate seamlessly.

Whether the goal is to grow your list or make more sales or both, product creation is a great way to boost business. It is a one-time creation and set up process that is fully automated. Once you have invested the initial time and effort it will work for you over and over again. It is a very real possibility that while you’re in dreamland at 2:00 am a visitor to your site will make a purchase proving that, yes, you really can make money while you sleep!

How To Successfully Market Your Business With A Pink Spoon

If you have ever signed up on a website to receive information in the form of a free report, newsletter or ebook and had this delivered to your inbox, you have experienced the pink spoon. A pink spoon is a ‘free taste’ of what a business has to offer. It is like the ice cream franchise that offers potential customers the opportunity to sample a flavour of their ice cream using a pink spoon. If a potential customer likes their ‘free taste’ they will go on to make a purchase. This catchy phrase was coined by Andrea J. Lee, award-winning author, coach, consultant and online business manager.

Why is Pink Spoon Marketing a good way to boost business?

• It is a lead generation tool. Providing a free offering to visitors to your website is a good way to capture people’s names and email addresses.
• It allows you to keep in regular contact with your prospects. You are building a mailing list that you can broadcast to.
• It is a way to build relationships and trust. As you continue to communicate with your list, they get to know you and see the value of the products and services you have to offer.
• It generates new business. You will earn paying clients when your services fit with their needs.

A Pink Spoon can apply to almost any industry and there are many possibilities of what you can offer as a freebie. Here are a few examples:

• a 5 part (or 6 part etc.) e-course
• a free report
• a newsletter subscription
• a free chapter of your book

Are you ready to start setting up your pink spoon to build your database? You will need:

• An email marketing or shopping cart service with website sign up form and autoresponder capabilities, i.e. AWeber, Practice Pay Solutions. (If you’re not quite ready to start selling products you can still go with a shopping cart and upgrade your cart later with the selling features.)
• A pink spoon sign up form and attached thank you page on your website. The sign up form should be one of the first things someone sees when they visit your website. Generally the form is added to the top right of a web page and is really obvious. The form is usually quite simple asking for First Name and Primary Email with a Submit button. If it takes too long to complete the form or the info you are asking for seems too personal to give out on a website for a free offering, the less likely people will sign up. It is also good practice to indicate that you will never share your prospects information with anyone and that they have the option to unsubscribe at any time.
• An autoresponder or a series of autoresponder emails to be sent out on a predetermined schedule to deliver your free offering and broadcasts for ongoing communication with your list.
• Support with the process. If you are technically challenged, find a Virtual Assistant or a Webmaster who is familiar with this marketing strategy and who has the technical expertise to set up and customize the shopping cart and your website.

If you are willing to take the initiative, pink spoon marketing is something that can be set up once and continue to work for you time after time.