Know Thyself and Thy Business

Article Title: Know Thyself and Thy Business
Author Name: Joanne Victoria
Contact E-mail Address: mailto:joanne@joannevictoria.com
Word Count: 483, including signature box
Category: Marketing
Copyright Date: 2003-04 all rights reserved
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Know Thyself and Thy Business

I recently interviewed a prospective client. I asked her to
briefly describe what she did. She said it was complicated,
she did so many things. I asked who her clients were. She
said she couldn't define them, that she dealt with everyone.
I then asked how her business was growing and she said she
was losing money, clients and had no referrals.

You get the picture.

If you can't describe yourself, your ideal client and your
business in brief, simple language, how is anyone going
to hire you or give you a referral? As an entrepreneur,
business owner or independent professional, you need to be
able to tell advocates, clients and networking participants
what you do, how you do it, who you do it for and why
they should choose you.

If what you do is help people build their business and how
you do it is a) one-on-one, b) training and c) workshops,
that presents a clear picture to prospective clients. The
next section, who you help grow businesses for, is
self-explanatory. The only question remaining is the size
of the business. Let us choose businesses that generate up
to $2,000,000 in revenue per year and independent
professionals who earn $100,000.00 or more per year.
Positioning yourself by concept or model removes the stress
for you and your clients. Create a model that motivates,
excites and attracts. Your model could be that you work with
people for a specific amount of time, say ninety days, for
an established fee (received up front!) and you have a
predetermined number of conferences with them.

This method makes it very easy for the right person
to say "Yes!".

A model or environment that clients can connect and feel
safe with is essential. If it is presented as "work", they
won't hire you. The experience for each of you needs to
be rich, fulfilling and enjoyable.

Here’s an example of positioning by concept. It’s one thing
to say you're a website designer. A more definitive
statement would be to say you design websites for people
who are ready for a revised website; know who they want to
reach with this website; and have text ready to serve this
audience as well as the resources to pay for your expertise.

It's specific and would attract the perfect client to you as
well as your method of working.

The last question is, why choose you.

A simple answer is that you have the knowledge, skills and
experience critical to their success. Go for it!

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Joanne Victoria works with independent professionals and small business owners who want to streamline their
operations in order to achieve more.
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Buy her book, Lighting Your Path! How To Create
the Life You Want, here:
http://www.JoanneVictoria.com/

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Joanne Victoria – Coach, Speaker, Author
Tel:415-491-1344 mailto:joanne@joannevictoria.com
http://www.JoanneVictoria.com/programs.htm
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