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For most business owners and independent professionals, the key to success is attracting more customers willing to pay higher prices.
It sounds simple but, if you run your own business, you know it's easier said than done.
The problem is that there are only 24 hours in the day and you have to spread yourself around a whole range of different tasks - looking after your clients, finding new ones, planning for the future and carrying out all the day-to-day duties of running a business. Each of these is a full-time job on its own.
Studying highly successful business owners and entrepreneurs suggests that a combination of two factors is needed:
Firstly, the right "success mindset" or way of thinking.
Secondly, effective marketing that easily attracts lots of customers and lets you charge higher prices.
Maybe the first of those sounds like the usual 'positive thinking' psychobabble. But the reality is it's what successful entrepreneurs do every day with fantastic results. And the rest fail because they don't have it.
So let's put it to the test. Grab a sheet of paper now and answer a few quick questions.
I promise this will help grow your business.
Success mindset is based on two things - knowing what you want and taking focused action to get it.
So, to start, consider these two questions.
1. What exactly do you want your business to have achieved in 3 years time (e.g. in terms of sales, profits, size or reputation)?
2. What proportion of your time each day is spent on activities that are focused on these objectives?
If the answer to the second question is too low, maybe you need to give something up.
When you have the right mindset, the next step is making your marketing as effective as possible.
The trouble is that most business owners don't think of themselves as being in marketing.
But, whatever business you're in, marketing is its lifeblood.
It keeps your business growing, and can allow you to enjoy your dream lifestyle.
Yet most business owners either don't pay enough attention to marketing, or they spend so much time and energy on it that they don't have time to make money.
Some gurus would like you to think that marketing is a complicated process that requires lots of specialist advice.
Truth is it can be quite straightforward if you put in a bit of thought and planning.
Being able to give powerful answers to these five questions gives you the keys to increasing your profits.
1. What problems do your prospects and customers have that you can solve or what do they want to achieve that you can help them with?
2. Who are your ideal customers, taking into account how you can reach them and how well you can give them what they want?
3. Why should they do business with you rather than someone else?
4. How can you get your message across to them using what media?
5. When exactly will you communicate with them using each of these tools?
These may seem quite simple but most business owners struggle to give good answers to all of them.
If you spend a few minutes answering each of these questions, you have the basis of a powerful and effective marketing plan.
Then, as you act on it, you can keep reviewing it based on the results and improve your answers.
Combining these good marketing answers with the right mindset from the first two questions above, you are well on your way to success.
Robert Greenshields is a marketing success coach who helps entrepreneurs and independent professionals to develop the right mindset and marketing strategies for higher profits. Sign up for his 7 free secrets of making your marketing more effective
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