Annemarie Cross | Branding | Online Marketing | Business Building | Internet Marketing | Marketing Online | for the Ambitious Service-Based Entrepreneur

[Twitter tip] “Stop comparing yourself to your competitors. Measure & look to expand YOUR personal best.”

Last week my above tweet generated quite a few responses from my community all of whom agreed that this statement was an important reminder to stop assessing their business’s success by using their competitors’ performance as a benchmark.

Comparing our businesses to our competitors is something that I’m sure we’ve all done at one time or another. Competitor comparison as part of your market research during your business planning phase is often suggested as it allows you to identify how you can differentiate yourself in the marketplace.

However, if you find that you’re constantly comparing yourself to your competitors by regularly visiting their website, their Facebook Business Page or blog, scanning their newsletters, reading their Twitter posts, and watching the conversation they’re having with their community etc with a frame of mind of competing and trying to ‘out-do’ them, you’ll find this will become soul destroying and can cripple your business’s growth.  

Don’t fall victim to the ‘competitor comparison trap’ – instead measure yourself against these 5 key components that relate to YOU to enable YOU to continually expand YOUR personal best.

Component 1: Your Knowledge

‘Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune.’

Jim Rohn’s statement is certainly appropriate.

Ongoing expansion of your knowledge and expertise is extremely important for all ambitious entrepreneurs.

Many industries continue to experience changes and advancement and to ensure your skills, knowledge and expertise are always at the forefront of these changes it’s important to continue your knowledge growth.

• Do you schedule professional development opportunities into your business calendar?
• Are you part of a mastermind group of like-minded business owners who can support you?
• Do you have a mentor with whom you meet regularly – someone who continues to challenge, stretch and encourage you to expand, grow and evolve?

Component 2: Your Self-Belief

It saddens me when I see amazing, talented women business owners who have so much to offer, block their business’s growth because of unhelpful habits and barriers, which is often because of a lack of belief in themselves and what they have to offer.

The words of one of my business mentors echo loudly for me when she says “Who you are is reflected in your business results, daily.”

So what do your business results reflect about you?  

• Do you recognise the strengths and talents you offer your clients and the value you bring, or do you constantly find yourself making excuses such as “Oh it’s nothing, anyone can do that”.
• Do you have amazing goals for your business; however things just keep getting in the way, preventing you from ever achieving what it is that you really want?
• Do you have bold money goals that you’re so committed to achieving, however that inner voice is constantly in the background raising an element of doubt that you’ll ever really achieve it?

Component 3: Your Reputation (Brand)

Your reputation and your brand are the lifeblood of your business and should therefore be managed with the utmost of care and precision.

Everything you do, write and say reflects on you and your brand. Do it inappropriately and unprofessionally – you may as well give out the contact details of your competitors right now as that’s where your prospects will end up. [Would you invest in someone who was acting in poor taste?]

• Have you got a strong brand message that you are regularly portraying through all your communications whether it be in print, video or in person?
• Are you communicating your brand in a consistent and professional way that powerfully connects with prospects and clients?
• Are you constantly looking for ways that you can continue to bring your brand message out to a larger audience? And, are you regularly communicating your brand with your existing community through blogs, articles or video posts?

Component 4: Your Relationships

It’s a well-known fact. People recommend and do business with people they know, like, and trust – so how do you measure up on the likeability scale?

Building and nurturing your relationships with your database, your Twitter followers, your Facebook friends, your Linkedin connections etc should be an important part of your business-building endeavours and something you should continue to monitor on a daily basis.

• Are you taking regular action that results in people joining your tribe and community?
• Are you adopting an approach of regularly sharing valuable information with your community with no expectations in return?
• When interacting and connecting with your community – how are you showing up? Are you doing so in a way that is positive and inspiring to ensure you continue to strengthen your relationships?

Component 5: Your Marketing & Sales Skills

While it’s important to maintain your level of excellence in what you do and offer to your clients, another crucial area that you need to become skilled at is in your marketing and sales abilities.

Even if you offer the best products and/or services that can support your clients in achieving results that are beyond their wildest dreams, if no-one knows about you, or you struggle in promoting and selling your products and services, you’ll find it very difficult to generate a level of income that will sustain your business’s growth.

• Do you have a solid marketing plan in place that schedules solid marketing strategies and action taking on a daily basis? And, does your marketing plan include both offline (face-to-face) and online (social media) networking?
• Does your website copy and your conversation continue to market your offerings in a way that allows your prospects to understand the value they will receive when they invest in you?
• Do you feel comfortable when having sales conversations with your prospects?
• Have you got a solid process in place to help you respond to that dreaded question “So, what do you charge?” so that you don’t blow an amazing opportunity to show your prospect what they can achieve through working with you?

Tracking and monitoring these five components in your business will be far more authentic and empowering as you continue to grow your business, and will certainly be noticeable and far more appealing AND influential to your community of followers, your prospects and your existing clients.

Here’s to expanding YOUR personal best!

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When things don’t work out as expected: 5 tips to get you back on track – FAST!

Have you recently received a knock-back which has left you shaken, battered and questioning your self-worth?

Perhaps you spent countless hours developing your tender application only to have been greeted by a ‘Thank you, but-you-were-unsuccessful-at-this-time’ letter? Or, despite after pitching an impressive proposal that outlined many of the significant outcomes your client could expect to achieve through investing in your services the project offer went to your competitor.

Even though you may have set out with the best intentions and had given the situation your complete attention and commitment, things just didn’t turn out the way you would have liked. Sound familiar?

Whatever situation you currently find yourself in, it’s important that you don’t get (or remain) locked in bitterness, regret or self-doubt, as this will certainly prevent you from moving closer to your dreams and business goals.

Here are five tips to get you back on track and working towards your goals – FAST!

1. Don’t take it personally

Looking at the situation as a negative reflection on you personally will only lead to increased feelings of doubt, insecurity and low self-esteem, which will ultimately make it extremely difficult to move forward with confidence and optimism. And, optimism and confidence are two qualities that you should be reflecting, particularly as you continue communicating with prospective clients.

Recognise that this situation wasn’t a direct reflection on ‘you’ and that this doesn’t mean that you’re unworthy of being hired. It only means that this time around, someone else’s skills and experience had a slightly better match with the person’s / organisation’s requirements.

2. Don’t choose to play the victim

Where you put your attention, energy and focus is what you’re going to continue to attract – it’s as simple as that. And choosing to play the victim and having the mindset of “Why me?” or “It’s not far” is extremely disempowering.

You have a choice as to whether you are going to let this situation dampen your spirits and have you continue feeling despondent and miserable. Or alternatively, you can choose to look at this as a learning opportunity so that you can move forward with renewed confidence and optimism.

Which option will you choose?

3. Don’t leave negative feelings and thoughts unaddressed

It’s easy to continually focus on negative feelings and thoughts by constantly talking about how unfair things are. Or worse yet, you may bottle up your feelings of disappointment and hopelessness and not acknowledge them at all. Both of these situations can seriously undermine your ability to move forward.

It’s important to talk about your disappointment, however not to continue focusing on this. Doing so will only serve to keep those feelings of disappointment close by, which brings me back to what I mentioned in point 2 about keeping in check about where you put your attention and energy. Who wants to continue feeling disappointed and hopeless?

Rather, how would you like to feel? How would you like to continue moving forward towards your goals? How do you want to represent yourself to prospective clients and key decision makers?

So, my coach’s request would be for you to concentrate exactly on how you want to feel and how you want to move forward AND ensuring your actions are aligned with the positive intentions you are now setting yourself.

4. Don’t do the same thing over again and expect to get a different result

There’s an old saying I want to share with you. ‘What’s the definition of stupid? Doing the same thing twice – AND expecting to get a different result.’ Now while the saying is quite blunt it really does have merits, doesn’t it. I’m certainly not suggesting that you’re stupid – far from it. However what I do want to do is encourage you to look at ways you might change your approach, your focus or your actions so that you can start generating the outcomes that you do want.

Do you have a clear and powerful brand that positions you as an expert in your field? Do you need to tweak and tailor your marketing materials / proposals more specifically to the needs of the organisation? Does your conversation focus too much on your product/service features and not enough on the benefits that your product and/or service offer? Do you need to hire a coach to help you hone your brand presence and your verbal and written communications so that you continue to position yourself as an ideal service provider?

What changes will you make?

5. Don’t continue the journey alone

Having a positive support and accountability partner who is one hundred percent behind you, can certainly make all the difference in not only how quickly you move forward but also how quickly you see your goals come to fruition.

This person can be your coach, your mentor, and your confidante as you continue working towards your goals, while later becoming your cheer leader to celebrate alongside you as you finally reach your destination.

Who will you select to be your support and accountability partner?

So, the next time life throws you a curve ball, ensure you follow the above 5 steps to ensure you get back on track – FAST!

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Feel like you’re doing lots of marketing and promotional activity in your business but not really making much progress in terms of measurable outcomes? Find yourself working on different opportunities week by week to grow your business; however you haven’t quite reached the levels that other service-based businesses have accomplished? Are you constantly looking for new ways to promote your business, and find yourself implementing yet another strategy in the hope that this one will finally be what you need to take your business to the next level?

Unfortunately, the above scenario of continuously trying numerous ways to grow their business occurs for many highly talented entrepreneurs who are operating service-based businesses. What they don’t realise is it’s not the activities and actions they’re implementing that aren’t effective – it’s often because there are five fundamental elements of their business that they haven’t yet put into place.

To ensure you don’t block your business’s growth, make sure you address the 5 most common barriers, as they are often the cause of service-based businesses struggling to reach their full potential.

Barrier 1: Being unclear about your unique and authentic brand

Many service-based businesses operate in highly competitive industries which means their marketing material is going to be one of dozens of other messages from other service providers all of whom are vying for the attention of prospective clients.

To see whether you have a strong, unique and authentic brand – ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the information you communicate about you and your business immediately connect with your target audience, so much so that they continually return to hear and learn more about you and the service you offer?
• Is your brand message authentic and unique enabling you to cut through all the other marketing messages so that your target audience is compelled to contact you?
• Do you find it easy to put together your marketing messages, your social media communications and other materials about you and your business because you’re so clear on what makes you unique; how you can support your clients; and the benefits they can achieve through working with you?

Barrier 2: Being unclear about your target market

Many service-based entrepreneurs and business owners believe that having a broad target market will offer them far greater opportunities. While this may seem logical, it is often the exact opposite. When your market is too broad, your marketing message fails to speak to anyone, particularly not your target audience, as the information in your marketing materials is too general, doesn’t highlight the specific issues and problems they may be experiencing (and that you can support them with) and therefore fails to capture their attention or response.

To confirm whether you have a clearly defined target market, you should be able to answer the following questions:

• Are you able to clearly define your target market, including their needs?
• Do you know where to find these people? And, how are you going to connect with them in a way that will catch their attention?
• Are you positioning your services in a benefit-driven way so that they can see the value you offer?

Barrier 3: Being unclear about your ‘entrepreneurial code’

Each and every one of us has a specific way we behave, communicate and approach our work. As business owners we also have a unique entrepreneurial code, which includes our strengths, talents, skills and motivated work style to name a few, which if we’re unclear on, can sometimes block us from driving our business forward.

As an entrepreneur / business owner we often find ourselves taking on too many tasks – or more importantly the ‘wrong’ tasks. The tasks that we pursue don’t necessarily align with our true strengths and therefore take our attention, energy and focus away from the core elements in our business that we should be focusing on.

Answer the following questions to see whether you’re tapping into and leveraging your unique ‘entrepreneurial code’:

• Are you currently struggling in areas of your business which you should really be directing to your VA, so that you can concentrate on areas of the business which require your specific skills and expertise?
• Do you know what drains you of your energy so that you can avoid it?
• Are you aware of what activities inspire you and will help you in driving your business forward?

Barrier 4: Being unclear about your business goals

If you were taking a holiday at a location you have never been to before, I’m sure you’d take the time to research and plan the best route to get you to your destination in the safest, quickest and most cost effective manner – yes?

Have you taken the same approach to planning and defining your business goals, both for the immediate and the long-term period? If you don’t have a clear picture of where you want your business to head you may find yourself becoming distracted and unfocused and chasing opportunities that are not really serving you and your business’s best interests.

To ensure you’re clear on your business goals you should be able to answer the following questions:

• Do you have a specific goal that you are working towards in the next 90 days in your business, which fits in perfectly with your long-term business plans?
• Do you have specific action steps planned (including the resources that you have available to you and the resources you need to seek out) that will enable you to reach my 90-day goal?
• Do you schedule time in your diary to allow yourself time to work on these action steps?

Barrier 5: Being unclear about how to drive your business forward

When looking at top-performing athletes or highly-respected and successful business people – what’s one thing that they all have in common? Coaches and business advisors who are able to stretch their knowledge, skills and abilities, while keeping focused and accountable so that every decision and action they take continues to drive them forward.

Recently, I decided to invest in a high-end business and marketing coach as I knew that I was going to generate far better results knowing that I was being mentored and supported by someone who was a specialist in their field; who had my best interests at heart; and who was not only going to support me, but keep me accountable for the actions I said I would be taking to grow my business.

To ensure that you are clear about how to drive your business forward, you should be able to answer the following questions:

• Do you have a business mentor, coach or advisor who is skilled in the areas that you need additional support and advice on; and do you speak to this person regularly?
• Do you have clearly-defined action steps which you are currently working on?
• Do you know how to ask for additional help if you need it; and do you know where to go in order to get this additional support?

Hopefully, you have been able to answer all of the above questions to help you overcome those 5 common barriers. If not, what action will you take today in order to help you move your business forward?

Confused and stuck? Feel you could benefit from having a private, one-on-one laser-coaching FREE half-hour Brand, Biz and INCOME Building Strategy Session? Find out more here: http://tinyurl.com/bizbuildingsession

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With competition in the marketplace steadily increasing many business owners are harnessing the speed and reach capabilities that social media platforms offer to promote their services. One of these social media tools is Internet Radio – an amazing way to communicate your brand message to a global audience.

Here are five reasons why launching (or being interviewed on) an Online Radio show should be an integral part of your brand communication and social networking strategies.

1.  Unlike traditional radio stations, online radio shows are far more focused in the topic they cover so will have a highly targeted audience who are more likely to be interested in what you have to say. I currently co-host an Online Radio show – Career Success Radio, covering everything about the world of work so our audience are individuals who are serious about their careers and are therefore interested in the guests we have on the show.

2.  Online radio not only streams live on the internet when the show is running, but is also recorded as a podcast with an ongoing lifespan through being accessible on iTunes, iPhones and other similar technologies. So, unlike traditional radio, your interview is recorded and can be accessed and heard over and over by new subscribers and fans. Currently, Career Success Radio has over 75 podcasts, which have been downloaded over 42,000 times from listeners in over 100 countries.

3.  Being interviewed by Online Radio shows is a fantastic way to elevate your status as an expert. Many Online Radio shows will give you access to the recordings, so a great way to create a buzz about you, your brand and your expertise is to include snippets of the interview in your newsletters, on your website and your blog.

4.  Online radio provides a great platform for you to create interest and excitement around your topic of expertise through being able to interact with listeners. When our show is streaming live we provide our listeners with multiple ways to connect with us and our guests, which includes ringing in live; interacting through our online chat room; or connecting with us on Twitter. 

5.  Often following the structure of a talk-back radio show, online radio provides a wonderful platform for you to showcase your expertise with listeners. Remember, the best way to connect with the audience (and have them wanting to learn more) is to offer a solution to their problem, rather than blatantly sounding like an advertorial for your services.

Here’s to communicating and elevating your brand through online radio!

Interested in launching your own Online Radio Show? Find out how at http://annemariecross.com/launch-your-online-radio-show/

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DJ Mat Cross

Today I invested (as an interest-free loan) in a large pair of speakers for my 16-year-old son – who’s starting up his own DJ-ing business. [I think the next thing I’ll need to invest in is a set of ear plugs]. He’s been practicing for months on a music mixer and other technologies and officially ‘DJ’d’ a birthday party last weekend, which was a huge success. [The picture on the left is of him in action.]

What’s really impressive is that he’s created a website for himself, has started up his own fan club, is reaching out to his connections on Facebook and his friends at school to promote his business. And you know what? – It’s working. He’s started to generate a lot of interest for his services and has at least four birthday parties in the pipeline. He’s steadily raising his profile and starting to create a buzz about his talents in his area of interest and passion, which is music and technology.

I’m really proud of him (as any mother would be) considering he’s doing all of the things that I constantly encourage my clients (both job seekers and entrepreneurs) to do, when trying to raise their profiles out in the community about their services and expertise.

So, what are you doing to continue raising your profile?  Here’s a few things you should be doing:

• Meeting new acquaintances on Facebook;
• Connecting with your Facebook friends (colleagues) by commenting on their walls; sharing a valuable tip or article;
• Sending out a valuable tip to your Tweeples (Twitter contacts);
• Connecting with and reaching out to new contacts on Twitter to grow and nurture your tribe;
• Writing an informative blog post and sharing that with your connections;
• …and the list goes on.

Anyway, I’m off to join my son’s fan page!

Have a fabulous day!

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With a tightening and highly competitive market across many service-based industries numerous business owners have increased their networking endeavours with the hope of sourcing their next potential client or business opportunity using this approach.

While networking should be an integral part of your marketing and communications plan (and overall business development strategy) there are some secrets which can make a significant difference between not really generating much success (and the potential for networking burnout) in comparison to building influential and productive relationships that open the doors to potential business opportunities.

To avoid networking burnout, ensure you’re adopting the top ten effective habits of highly successful networkers.

A highly successful networker:

1. Is clear on their niche, their idea target market and can clearly articulate this when seeking support or communicating with members of their network.
2. Has a clear understanding of their personal and business brand, their unique selling proposition and can professionally communicate their brand both in person and in online networking opportunities.
3. Has up-to-date marketing material, (which can include business cards, brochures, website, business blog, and profiles on multiple social networking platforms) that highlights the solutions and benefits that you offer to a potential client as well as successes of your former/existing clients.
4. Is able to speak confidently (not arrogantly) about their strengths and successes so that potential clients and key stakeholders are able to grasp the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) should they decide to invest in you.
5. Has a powerful and memorable ‘marketing pitch’ that can be utilised as an introduction to networking events and that question ‘So what is it that you do?’
6. Has a written strategic networking plan that encompasses regular attendance of both online and offline networking activities that allows them to continually expand and leverage a diverse network.
7. Utilises a network management system to effectively track their networking endeavours and important information about each member of their network.
8. Adopts an approach of regularly sharing relevant information with people in their network with a mindset of no expectations in return. They continually nurture their network as part of their long-term business management plan and not just when seeking new business opportunities, so that when they need to seek help from their network, people are far more open to supporting them.
9. Knows how to frame and deliver the right questions to whom they are speaking to enable ongoing expansion of their network or an opportunity to speak to a key decision maker.
10. Surrounds themselves with positive and supportive people who continue to strengthen and enhance the enthusiasm they portray during their business development and marketing activities. This is in complete contrast to being surrounded with nay-sayers who can seriously undermine your enthusiasm and ultimately your business development and revenue outcomes.

 If you’ve ticked all ten areas, then congratulations – you’re a highly successful networker and are communicating your brand professionally and prominently in readiness for when that ideal client or business opportunity presents itself.

If, on the other hand you haven’t ticked all ten areas, then my suggestion would be to select, work on and integrate one new area each week into your networking plan so that you too can become a ‘star’ networker.

So which strategy are you going to work on this week?

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