One of the  biggest problems for solopreneurs and independent professionals is to have a steady flow of new  clients coming in. Do you  make a big marketing effort and then get busy servicing the new clients and stop marketing effectively?  And then 2 or 3 months later have to start the whole process again? How can you keep on marketing when you’re busy taking care of business? And not get burned out by working too many hours and not doing the things you love?

Here are 5 ways you can keep a steady flow of new clients flowing into your business.

1. You don’t have to be doing 10 different things to market yourself. Focus on 2 ways of marketing that you enjoy and are working for you. Get really good at those and then add more later. Develop systems and standardized ways to market yourself so you can turn over  part of your marketing to virtual assistants. A good place to find VA’s is at Odesk.com

2. While you want to have systems that work for you, you need to keep checking in and testing to see if your marketing is working. Leave some room for creativity. Play with your marketing systems. When it feels like something is not working as well as it should or it’s become boring and stale, look for new ways to spice it up. Ask an expert for their input. Spark some new ideas. Specific input is usually better than copying generalized approaches.

4. If you hate marketing or it feels like drudgery, ask a question.  A question will empower you.  A conclusion will limit your possibilities. Ask yourself: “What would it take for this to be fun?” Be with that question. Don’t try to figure it out. See what magic can show up for you.

5. Get a mentor or a coach to help you break through your marketing bottlenecks. They can help you see things you don’t and help you stay on track by holding you accountable for getting things done.

There’s no reason why marketing can’t be an ongoing and fulfilling part of your business. Are you willing to do what it takes?

Do you get the jitters sometimes?  One of my newsletter subscribers says she gets the jitters when she thinks about starting a new business. That can be a good thing. Why? Because the jitters can be your awareness telling you there’s something important you need to be aware of. Marketing research and key business indicators can help you know what’s going and act effectively.

When you know something is off, but you don’t know what it is, it can make you feel uncomfortable even frantic. That’s an alarm bell telling you to pay attention. Go ahead and find out what you need to come out of the jitters.

Being in business almost always involves some kind of risk. Fear can keep you from doing things that could really be expansive for you. It can also keep you from losing a lot of money. It’s not fear that’s valuable. It’s being aware. Aware that there’s danger. Aware that you need to know more. You need to ask questions.

One of the things I’ve often run into when writing business plans for people is that they fall in love with their product or service and assume that everyone will easily see the value. And just flock to them. The old “If you build it they will come.” With the economy the way it is now, most people don’t have that illusion anymore. But many people are still creating their business based on assumptions without asking key questions and doing the necessary research.

Marketing research is absolutely necessary in order to have a clear sense of who you’re selling to, what they really want and how they feel and talk about it. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Getting feedback from customers can tell you a lot. But without some form of research you’re traveling blind. You’re just guessing based on your viewpoints which may not be anything like your customers.

As well as marketing research, key indicators will help you keep on eye on what’s really happening with your business. Like the number of people visiting your website, how long they stay and what pages they click on. Information you can easily get by adding Google Analytics to your website.

You also need systems and procedures to follow. So you don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel. You won’t have to keep asking yourself “Now how did I do that last time?” Having systems built into your business means that it can work for you rather than you having to work harder for it.

Ok market research and business systems may seem boring. But rather than letting them drag you down into tasks you’d rather not do, use them in ways that excite your awareness of what else is possible. If you don’t like research and bookkeeping, hire them out to a virtual assistant. You can find very inexpensive freelancers at Odesk.com You don’t have to be stuck in the details. Once you set things up, a quick look at some key indicators will tell you what’s going on.

Use information and business systems to help you be more aware.You don’t have get bogged down by their form and structure. Ask questions. Step out of the box of assumptions. Interpret information based on your awareness. You can ask “What else must I be aware of?” Look for more ways you can contribute to your business and your business can contribute to you. So instead of having the jitters you can be  generating greater possibilities! ……

Your profitable essense is even more deeply powerful than your unique selling proposition. Nancy Marmolejo gave a great teleclass today about what’s missing in so many people’s online marketing. They get so busy doing what they’re ‘supposed’ to do, they lose touch with their profitable essence.

If that’s you, you’re on Twitter and Facebook. You blog regularly and comment on other people’s blogs. You post articles, use social bookmarking and so on. But if you’re not making enough profit, you’ve probably lost touch with your profitable essence.

Nancy talks about how deep within you is a core of you that’s the”DNA what makes you unique and what makes you profitable.” That’s your profitable essence. Someone asked Nancy on the call if it’s the same as a unique selling proposition.

She didn’t answer the question. But for me in hearing what she’s saying, they are different. Profitable essence is deeper than your USP. It’s much more right brain. USP is left brain. Analytical. And as you probably know, most people make decisions based on their emotions.

So if you really want to get to the core of what makes you profitable, get in touch with how you feel when you’re loving what you do and you’re loving what that’s doing for someone else. You step out of the how and the why and just soak up the simple life giving essence of how that person’s life is better. And the joy that gives you.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your opinion. You can leave a comment below. >>

When you’re building your business focus your energy and resources on one specific area that will give the greatest market position in the shortest time. And keep in mind the big picture of where you want your business to go in 6 months a year, two years. It’s called the Beach Head Strategy.

In World War 2, the Allies invaded Normandy to get a toehold in France for a drive to Berlin. They put all their resources on that one bold move. Without it, it would have taken a far longer time to win the war having to supply troops in Italy.

It’s the same way in business. There’s usually one strategy that will optimize your resources to get strategic sales and profits. Tim Berry is the master of writing business plans. He just wrote an excellent blog post Don’t Underestimate Beach Head Strategy talking about how a focused business strategy is judged as too narrow a focus and an overall strategy is judged as too broad and vague.

Aside from potential investor criticism, it makes sense to write your business plan and marketing strategy in both focused and broad terms. You’ll be able to get the most immediate results from your resources while positioning them to gain your long term advantage.

Are you worried about your competition? Stop worrying. There is no competition when it comes to being you. I was talking with a client the other day who was freaked out about somebody offering the same thing they were to the same target niche. “Don’t worry about it.” I told her. Just make your offer so unique and so irresistible that your ideal clients can’t help but want to work with you.

Be Who You Are

Be who you are  and the full expression of your strengths and talents. That’s the most potent way to attract the people you’re meant to work with. By really getting in touch with your unique value, fully embodying it and communicating that with exuberance, you make yourself an irresistible magnet for those  clients and customers looking for exactly that quality and ability.

It’s an Abundant World

It’s an abundant world. Don’t get sucked into the  scarcity thinking that makes you worry about the competition. Otherwise  it will drain you of your energy, enthusiasm and vision. Sure be aware of your competition and learn what will  help you. Just don’t make them a problem.

Be the Invitation

Have you ever gone to a farmer’s market where all the vendors were standing around waiting for business. Except for the stall where all the people are gathering.

An engaging  smiling man is handing out free samples of food and pulling people in with his friendliness and excitement about what he’s offering. His enthusiasm is contagious and people can’t help but buy because it feels good.

Do you think he enjoys what he’s doing? Of course he does. But you don’t have to necessarily  be an extrovert and take center stage everywhere you go. You just have to enthusiastically embody whatever you have that people are looking for and communicate that.

You reach out as deeply authentically you as possible with full caring and curiousity in other people. It’s not just that you’re different, it’s ‘How’ you’re different!

It’s critical to be an expert in one area if you’re offering a service. As Seth Godin puts it, it’s the purple cow that stands out from the herd of black and white Holsteins. But is it just another Holstein painted purple? Or is it some rare genetic expression of purpleness?

The more you can be aware of your unique talent and are willing to explore that and your unique gift you offer in your unique way, the more you attract from being authentically and enthusiastically  present rather than a flashing neon sign of weirdness to stand out without any substance to offer.

Have Fun Exploring

Be yourself. Explore what that really is. Have fun following the  gifting and receiving of working with different people  You will draw to you  people who complement you. You will expand each other in win win ways.

Your being in the world is unique. Fully embrace and express that. When are open and fully available to the world you are a remarkable invitation. Not that you don’t have to do anything. You simply  don’t have to worry about it…

Just be you and willing to do whatever it takes. Follow the nergy that makes you remarkable. As fun and fulfillment. Rather than competing for attention. The more you fight the competition the more crowded your marketplace will feel.  Post a comment. I’d love to hear what you think.

In his latest blog post Fear of Apples Seth Godin tells the story of going to the farmers market and being asked by several people which are the good apples. Apparently he looked like he knew. Even though he doesn’t look anything like a farmer.  Seth’s take on things (he has a lot of takes on things, often brilliant) is that people are afraid of many things. They’re afraid of too many choices. They’re afraid to waste  time and money or look foolish getting involved with something unknown. That includes your product or service.  Especially if it may change their world. What feeling must you generate for them not to be afraid?

So what do you care, you’ll just take the ones that aren’t afraid. But what if you could have more people coming to you wanting what you offer and they just need a little nudge? Often sales and marketing is affected by some little thing. Some ‘feeling’. And not just buying apples. In his great book “You, Inc, the Art of Selling Yourself”, Harry Beckwith tells the story of how a company made a multi million dollar decision based on a feeing. A Fortune 500 corporation was interviewing companies to handle it’s payroll. After several weeks of reviewing the different choices, the selection  commitee was stumped. The three finalist companies  looked equally good.

So they visited each finalist’s headquarters and took a short walk around. When they walked into the third companies lobby something felt different. Somehow right away, they ‘just knew’. Something ‘just felt right’. They were there all of four minutes and then headed home. At the airport they called the company and gave them the multi million dollar good news.

If you want more business, what must you do beyond providing excellent service and being professional? What feeling must you generate in people that would make them get past their fear. Especially if you’re offering them some form of transformation. What was Seth embodying that made people trust him? Yes he’s written 10 best selling books and Business Week called him “The Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age”.

But most likely those people at the farmers market didn’t know who he was. There had to be a feeling about him that he knew things. That he had integrity and could be trusted. Not just as a person, but as someone who could help them decide what to buy. So are you just offering a service? Or are you offering the energy and safe space that comes along with your experience and abilities? Is that what will make the difference in people hiring you and making their life richer and more expansive?

Don’t make it only about your talents and abilities. Be the energy and safe space that facilitates people to get past their fears. What if promoting your business was about being you and enlightening people about choices rather than just being competent or even brilliant at what you do? Would you be willing to step beyond your fears of being and be the ease, joy and glorious self expression that people are dying to be shown by your courage how to be?

In my last blog I talked about how you use practical intuition to find your unique value. So who are you serving? That’s the next question. Find your best customers. Who really wants what your offering and will pay for it. Start by creating a system to get ”real world’ feedback. Ask your customers questions directly and through customer surveys. Collect the responses.

Write them down and put them into categories. You can use a spreadsheet program. If you’re just starting out, you can send surveys to friends or bribe people on social networks with a simple free ebook. Use http://www.surveymonkey.com/ You can also do Google searches for “I want…” and see what people are saying. Or go on forums that cover your topic. Get some logical sense for what people are saying. What are their “pain points”.  Their dreams and desires. Then see beyond the surface. What are they really saying.

Ask unlimited questions like “What else do I need to know that I’m not aware of.” “what’s the greatest opportunity to serve my customers?” Just be with that question in an easy way without trying to figure it out with your mind. Insights will come to you and you’ll get quick powerful insights into what works. What will satisfy you personally, serve your customers and make profits for your business.

Ultimately it’s not information or even strategy that’s so important as your felt sense for who your customers are and what they feel. It’s your caring and generosity of spirit that moves them. When you combine that with living your unique value through your business you’ll automatically start to find and attract your best customers.

Seth Godin is one of my favorite bloggers to comment on. He gets to the heart of important issues and writes about them clearly and succinctly. His recent post Find Your Voice makes the important point that marketing unlike any other aspect of business is always changing and that the most successful  marketing is  highly unique and different from anyone else’s. His bottom line point – “Avoid obvious mistakes, don’t follow obvious successes.” So how do you avoid  being overly influenced by other people’s marketing and find and express your own unique voice?

Find what you really care about that nurtures and empowers you and the energy to share that with the world .  That’s creative power. Creativity is  what you choose to accomplish with your life that expresses and fulfills you.  Power is the energy, exuberance  and strength to make it  happen. Creative power is the synergy of both. Together they are at the core of what makes living your life or creating your business worthwhile. It’s not just a mindset, it’s a way of being and a physical embodiment. When you activate your creative power you transform your life and business at a fundamental level. If you’re an entrepreneur, it empowers you to know your mission, your market and the methods that work. That takes the committed  investment of time, focus and the willingness to see things in a new and different light.

An entrepreneur or company has to go on a journey of self-discovery and explore their territory if they wish to master it. While a talented resourceful individual or business can work wonders on their own, no one can succeed without some outside help. You have to know when to seek help and who to seek it from. And at the same time, avoid getting overshadowed by  someone else’s frames of reference. The creative  entrepreneur requires curiosity and the ability to  take advantage of  useful information  with an independence of  heart and mind.

Know your own vision so strongly and follow through with such vigor that no one can stop you.

“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

Morpheus from “The Matrix”

In his blog post Marketing in a Recession Paul Herring at ChaosScenarios talks about how corporations are too lazy to create effective marketing strategies and treat their marketing department as a poor cousin of sales. It isn’t just big corporations doing this. It’s a mindset you can often see throughout every size of business down to the solopreneur working in his home office. Why aren’t we willing to really look at marketing strategy with a sharp eye and broad awareness of possibilities? Because true effective marketing requires soul searching.

It requires a courageous willingness to look at what is really going on with our relationship with our customers and our market in general and be willing to radically change our favorite assumptions and pet points of view. In a word, great or even just good marketing requires honesty. It requires you to take the red pill and see what’s really going on.

You’re not being honest with your vision if you don’t look at every aspect of your business and are willing to change it. Because strategic marketing affects every aspect of your business from operations to HR to finance to sales. You have to be courageously willing to change everything in order to be truly effective. Especially during this economic crisis. Of  course be careful as you integrate change into your company so you aren’t destroying the work flow.

Let go of your judgments and assumptions and ask strategic questions like: “What need are we fulfilling? Can we serve that need? How do we make a good profit with that? What action steps are required?” A lot of times those questions are asked without really being willing to receive the hard answers and make the necessary changes.  Everything else in the company needs to serve the new business vision. Even cash flow and profits without vision can blind you to greater opportunities or dangers coming up on the horizon.

What you think?

Earning customer trust has never been so crucial.  With this economic downturn  customers are demanding  far greater transparency and customer service.  Seth Godin’s latest blog post Two Ways to Build Trust talks about building trust either through what you do or what you are. The first is companies doing business in a professional customer oriented way, what he calls “walking the walk while they talk a good game”. The second is being trustworthy yourself and letting that express through your business to  invite people in. Either way you have to believe in who you are and in what you’re doing. In other words, you have to trust your own integrity first before others will trust you. Pretty obvious, right? But what if your habit patterns and inner beliefs  undermine your confidence?

An obvious case in point is people who don’t fully believe they should get paid well for what they do. It’s not just artists and  healers who believe that.  If  you’re transitioning from a job to starting your own business, you may not fully believe that you deserve to be paid well for the skills you’ve accumulated. Corporations are great places to stifle your creativity and self expression. To make the transition, you can journal and reflect and write your mission statement and elevator pitch. All good. But  judgments of your self have a sneaky way of hiding and tripping you up when you least expect it.

Even well thought out and professionally organized businesses can fall prey to not trusting themselves. This economy is confusing and uncertain. Business owners start  second guessing themselves and look for flashy marketing techniques like Search Engine Marketing and list building schemes to stay afloat. There’s nothing wrong with these techniques per se. It’s just that now more than ever you have to base your business on your core values, not flashy tactics. Flashy tactics won’t work unless you know who your customers are, what they want and how you best serve them. Your core values will work for you when you know them intimately and consistently  put them into action.  That all begins with self knowledge and commitment.

More and more nowadays, success comes through having integrity and integrity demands that you break through your assumptions, judgments and self-defeating thinking patterns. Much if not most of lack of business success is based on resistance to change and holding on to ‘safe’ worn out ways of dong things. Look at the Detroit auto makers. For long term success, you have to put really serving the needs of your customer above quick profit.  Otherwise, someone like Toyota will come along to give your customers what they really want.

You can open your mind to new philosophies and ways of doing things, certainly. But the most reliable way of  trusting yourself  and being trustworthy is to destroy the judgments that keep you from stepping up  and making your integrity and competence  available to your customers.