Information Products: The Second Key to Business Success as a Coach or Therapist (Part 1: Creating the Product)

Once you have all the clients you want or can fit in your time scale and have a waiting list as long as your arm, how can you expand your business? Well, you could put your prices up, that may work, but put them too high and you run the risk of losing clients (of course, this is a good strategy to cut the number of clients and keep revenues high).

And relying on private clients to earn your money means if you decide to go away, or take a week off, or (even worse) get ill or injure yourself and can’t work, you income stream dries up immediately.

So what can you do to continue to generate additional income or make some money whilst you take some time off?

The answer is to produce a series of information products. You can produce CD’s (or mp3 downloads), DVD’s (or video downloads) or books (or ebooks).

You could even get all carried away with yourself and design an online eCourse or other multimedia products (although, I would argue, that, this may be a bit complicated – and expensive – as a first time product, no matter what some other “guru’s” out there may try and sell, sorry, tell you. Start with something simple before doing a full-blown multimedia products).

To begin with I would suggest you start with either ebooks or audio downloads. These are simple, easy and low cost to produce and sell. As you get the hang of it you can create more complex products. Video products and DVD’s are a little more complex, as you have a lot more production to do and it is very easy to create a DVD that looks cheap and amateurish (and will do your reputation no good at all).

Creating Your Product/s

As long as you do the following three simple steps in the order listed, you should easily produce your first information product in a week or so.

1) Brainstorm and Research Ideas
There really is very little point in producing your own version of a product that is already out there and made by someone more well known than you. The amount of people I have seen who have produced some sort of “weight loss” product similar to Paul McKenna’s is almost unbelievable.

Brainstorm some products you think would be a good idea; that you know about; and most importantly, that you are interested in (if you are not interested or excited about it, you will soon run out interest and probably end up with half a dozen unfinished product ideas).

Then do your research and see what is out there already. What can you do that is a different to them? Add to? Offer an alternative to? If you can afford it, buy a couple of the similar products, see what they are doing and see what is missing. You need to find the need that is not being fulfilled.

2) Script It Out
Once you have decided on an idea (or idea’s – you can develop a few simultaneously). Do you want to do an ebook, audio product (CD or mp3 download) or video product (you could film a seminar, or produce a specific video programme)? What will suit your idea best?

Unless you know what you are doing I wouldn’t recommend a video product on a first outing, it can be expensive and easy to mess up.

If you are writing an ebook, then scripting it out will be part of the writing process and really just involves figuring out what content you are going to put into the book and in what order. When it comes to producing audio or video products you need to script it out in detail. Don’t think you can “wing it” during the recording process, unless you are an accomplished commentator, presenter or actor you won’t manage it (as an idea of length, I found that 4 A4 sheets of paper with Arial 12 type on it will take around 15 minutes to read).

3) Produce It
Now you have an outline and/or detailed script you can get on with creating the product.

Ebooks are most probably the easiest of all to produce, you can write it in a word processing software such as Microsoft Word or Apple’s Pages.

Once you have written it, I highly recommend that you convert it into “pdf” format, this is the “standard format” for ebooks online. If you are using a Mac, you can easily convert the document to a pdf by “printing it” into pdf format. If you are using a PC, you can either purchase a copy of Adobe Acrobat (although this can be expensive) or use a free online conversion tool such as www.pdfonline.com or www.freepdfconvert.com.

If you are producing an audio programme, you will need audio recording software. If you use a Mac, you will have the built in recording software Garage Band, which is a versatile and easy to use recording programme. If you are not using a Mac (and if not, why not? Mac’s really are much, much better than PC’s when it comes to running a creative business), you can purchase all sorts of recording software, from the simple to the professional (and expensive), I suggest, to begin with, to use Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net), it is free and simple to use.

You will need to buy a good quality USB microphone (such as the Samson C01U microphone, which is around £60), don’t try and use the built in microphone on your computer, the quality will not be good enough.

You will then need to save the file in an mp3 format, if it is spoken word, I would recommend a low quality version of around 92kbps. Don’t worry if you don’t understand that, it just means it is slightly lower quality and therefore a smaller file size, which is important if you are offering the product as a download.

If the audio product is quite long, break it into tracks to download separately, this, again will make the audio programme easier and quicker to download.

And there we are, you have just created your first information product! Easy wasn’t it?

In the next post I will talk you through how to get your product/s online and get selling.

Matt

Private Clients: The First Key to Business Success as a Coach or Therapist

This will be the shortest of the posts on the “four keys” to success as a therapist or coach because it is the one I speak about on the most regular of basis. So, in this article I am just going to run through a very simple checklist of everything you want to be doing to get private clients.

As I said in a previous entry (read it here), you need to do two things to be successful:
1) Define your niche.
2) Dominate your niche, so you are the first (and preferably only) person people think of when they are looking for someone in that niche.

1. Decide on a Niche

It doesn’t need to be totally original, but it needs to be something specific that sets you apart from the rest of the coaches and therapists out there. Think of a niche as a “need”, what need in people can you fulfil?

2. Define what you do in 90 seconds or less

If you cannot explain your niche enough to get the person so interested they ask for more information in 90 seconds or less (preferably less), you niche is not defined enough.

3. Shrink that 90-second sales pitch to one sentence, this is your strapline

It should be striking and memorable and explain a bit about what you do.
I like Joe Vitale’s “I can make you famous in 90 seconds or less – GUARANTEED!”

4. Get your marketing “literature” sorted

I put “literature” in inverted comments as I also include websites in this category.

Firstly, get yourself a website. It doesn’t need to be fancy (in fact I would recommend simplicity), but needs to explain what you do and how people can book you. Don’t worry with any fancy nonsense like video yet.

Then get yourself some well-designed business cards (not rubbish free ones!). Your business card is still your number 1 marketing tool.

Recently I have been advocating more “old school” methods such as A6 flyers.

5. Develop a presence and reputation

a) Online

Social networking is brilliant for this. Get yourself a blog, a twitter account, a facebook account, a linked in account, etc and start putting relevant, interesting and informative content on there (using social networking to overtly sell is a big “no, no” and won’t do you any favours, although people appreciate you are running a business, so asking for clients, etc, whilst giving  good quality content is OK).

Also, add yourself to as many free directory sites as possible, like DMOZ, Gumtree, Googlemaps, Selfgrowth.com and any other relevant directories for what you do, and work on your Search Engine Rank (suggestions on this will be in a future entry).

b) Offline

Deliver your leaflets (or get them delivered), they are no use in the box in your office!

Give out your business card to everyone you meet, go to (free) networking events (your local chamber of commerce will have details).

Get yourself in the media. Write a press release (it has to be interesting, newsworthy and relevant, don’t just send out a release telling everyone about who you are, that is just selling and will get binned) and send it to local TV, radio and newspapers. National media may be a good ego boost, but local media is what will get you clients.

It is deceptively simple (in principle) to become successful in this key area, but it does take a lot of hard work, perseverance and consistency. The secret to being successful in this key (and in all the other areas) is to develop an effective niche. Once you have that everything else will drop into place.

Matt

PS If you liked this post, please bookmark it on Digg, Stumbled Upon, Twitter, etc. I would really appreciate it

The 4 Keys to Business Success as a Coach or Therapist

The 4 Key areas you MUST be working on in your business are:

1) Private Clients

This is probably the first thing you thought of when setting up your business, if you are a one to one therapist or coach it is the most common way of making money for your business. Although it can be the largest income stream, it shouldn’t be the only income stream.

If you are a teacher (such as Yoga for example) you still need to consider doing one to one sessions for people who want them. Just teaching classes is only part of the mix of being a successful coach, therapist or teacher.

2) Products

Products are an essential stream of income for your business. They are low cost to produce and once you have made them you will be able to “make money in your sleep”. Not only are they an excellent way of making residual income, they are useful to use as promotional aids, free gifts and “bonuses”.

It is easier than you think to create and sell products, and can be done at home on most modern PC’s or (especially) Mac’s, I will talk you through the process in a later entry.

3) Seminars or Workshops

Maybe you are already a teacher or trainer (such as a Yoga or martial arts instructor, business or personal development trainer), if not you should still consider running short talks and workshops on the subject that you do.

The bare minimum you should be doing in this area is offering free introductory talks to groups or organisation you think would be a good potential client base.

Unhappy with your teaching or training ability? You can invest in “presentation skills training” to help you brush up and build your confidence. They are worth every penny.

Learn more about the presentation skills training here.

4) The Corporate Market

The corporate market is not just for executive coaches or business trainers. More and more companies are employing the services of alternative therapists and coaches to work with their staff.

I know of several therapists who make the majority of their income through corporate clients.

They may employ you directly through the company or offer your services at an “employee benefit scheme” where they pay a percentage of the cost for the staff member.

It is very easy to contact local businesses and offer your services, you can collect information and do a mail-shot yourself (using things like the Yellow Pages) or use the services of a professional mailing company (you can find one with a quick internet search).

The secret to succeeding in the corporate market is to show the benefits to the company (such as higher productivity, less sick days, etc) as well as benefits to the staff members. It is a good idea to be able to quote some studies showing the benefits of what you do to business (again, a very simple internet search will reveal a wealth of information.
In my next few posts I will break down what you must be doing in each of the areas to make sure your therapy or coaching business succeeds.

Matt

Back To The Old School

I was having a very interesting conversation the other day with an NLP trainer. He said he was going back to “old school” marketing methods like flyer drops, mail shots and calling people up, as the internet was too crowded and it is too hard to be heard above the din of everyone else (also, he had some mean things to say about “online marketing techniques”, but I won’t go into that…)

Does he have a point? Is the internet too crowded with everyone else trying to sell you something?

You see, the great thing about the internet if you are setting up your first business is that it is cheap. Very cheap, compared to the traditional costs and it is much easier to find customers (or it should be, more on that in a minute).

However, the fact that the internet has made setting up your own business cheap and easy is a blessing and a curse.

Because it is easy and cheap, you can set up your coaching or therapy practice at a fraction of the cost it would have been 10 or 15 years ago, but because it is so cheap and easy, much more people are doing it, therefore the competition has increased.

The recession hasn’t help, as people, in desperation to make some extra cash (and understandably so) have turned to the internet, lured in by the promise of creating an internets business you can run in your bedroom in as little as 1 hour a week (not possible by the way…).

It is getting more and more complicated to get heard, with ever more subtle and expensive methods cropping up (how successful these are I am not sure). Marketing on the internet and staying ahead of the curve is turning into a full time job. You could easily spend all your time marketing on the internet and leave no time to do the work you are marketing (if you are solely selling products, this isn’t necessarily an issue, but it is dull!).

In light of these changes, I have been thinking about how to incorporate more offline methods into my marketing strategy. I have recently been experimenting with A6 flyer drops around my local area to promote my coaching practice, it is too early yet to report on the success, I will let you know how I get on when I have something to report.

My advice, at the moment is, actually, what it has always been. You cannot rely on one avenue of marketing. The internet is important (you are no one nowadays without a website!), but it shouldn’t be your only means of reaching out to clients. You need to balance your online and offline marketing strategy and test, test, test and test some more to see what works for you.

To get 10 simple and free strategies to help promote your business have a look at the “Professional Practice Builder Handbook“.

So, what do you think? Are you abandoning the internet to return to more traditional marketing methods? Is the internet still working for you as marketing medium? What are you doing that works? Post any thoughts in the comment box below, I look forward to hearing them.

Matt

With the internet becoming more and more saturated with people trying to sell you something, is it worth going back to “old school” marketing methods?

SEO Part 2: Reputation

Firstly, my apologies for not being as frequent as usual with my entries on this blog, normal service will resume very soon.

In this entry I wanted to carry on with the idea of SEO (see my last blog) and the need to build a reputation first.

In any business, but more so in the self help field, you stand and fall on your reputation (or “brand”). In any crowded field (and boy, is the self help field getting crowded!), it is often that a handful of people or businesses will be getting the lions share of the business, work and money and the majority are left fighting for the scraps.

So how do you become one of those that has the lions share?

Well you need to build a bulletproof reputation and become the “go to expert” in your field.

It’s that simple really.

To be a successful therapist or coach you need to become the RECOGNISED EXPERT in your chosen field.

To do this you need to 2 (surprisingly simple) things:

1) To join (or better still create!) a field or niche where you can stand out as the recognised expert.

I know I keep banging on about it, but this is down to creative thinking and research. Find out what NEED is not being fulfilled (or not being fulfilled very well) for your potential customers and create a SOLUTION for that need.

You could have the best niche in the world, but if there is a limited (or no) NEED for that niche you will fail. Always ask yourself (and research, research, research) why someone has not filled this niche yet??

2) Create a Reputation that sets you apart in that Niche.

Position yourself as the ONLY (yes, only!) person who is capable of fulfilling that need in your CLIENTS minds (remember, when developing your therapy or coaching practice, to be a success you have always ask “what does the client really want?”). You don’t need to be only person doing it, but you need to be the only person your prospective clients thinks of.

This means you have to do 3 essential tasks:

1. Dominate the search engines for your chose keywords (because most people will turn to the internet first nowadays when searching for answers). What keywords or phrases would your potential clients use to look for the solution you offer (see my previous post on this)? How can you make sure you appear on the front page of all the major search engines for these phrases, in the most cost effective way possible this will be covered in my next post)?
2. Creating a massive word of mouth reputation within your potential client base, so that you are the first thing on their minds when asked about the NEED you offer a SOLUTION to.
3. Creating a media profile that stands you out as the “expert” in your field. Why is it do you think Paul McKenna is so successful? Is he the best hypnotist in the world? Probably not. Is he the best known hypnotist though? Probably.

These things will cost you nothing (or very, very little). All it requires is a bit of time and effort to find the answers you need.

Matt

PS, if you have found this post useful, please bookmark it on twitter, facebook, digg, stumbledupon, etc. I would really appreciate it

SEO Part 1: Web Optimisation or Reputation?

One of the biggest questions I am asked by people starting out is “How do I optimise my website (ie, improve it’s rankings on search engines)”, or “Should I pay to optimise my site”.

Which is understandable, the self-help field is incredibly competitive and everyone is fighting to be found. And you need to be found to be successful.

But to be found do you need to be on the front page of Google (Google is still the number search engine, with over 85% of the searches being done through Google) for you to be found?

The first page of Google seems to have become the holy grail of small businesses. If you are on the first page of Google you are guaranteed business, right?

Wrong.

I have met people who are obsessed with getting on the front page of Google, who don’t even have a website yet! Often they haven’t even decided what they want to do, and they are already stressing about getting a good Google rank.

This strange belief has created a whole industry of people promising to get your website to the hallowed ground of the first page of Google (for the right price of course). Some are more reputable than others, but more on that in a little while…

The first question is…

…is investing in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) worth it?

Well, yes it is.

But not yet, you need to do some pre-work first.

Firstly, lets just talk very briefly about what the search engines do (I am sure you know this already, but it is worth reiterating). When someone searches for something, say “Life Coaching, UK”, the search engines use a (very complex) algorithm to decide which of the websites it has listed are most RELEVANT to this search. It them ranks them in the order it decides is most appropriate, with the most relevant at the top.

This relevance is decided on a series of (ever changing – and becoming constantly more refined) criteria, but to even be in with a chance you need have the right keywords to begin with. So if you are a life coaching living in the UK, you need to at least mention on your site the terms “life coach” and “UK” (obvious really!).

However, I am sure you can imagine there are lot of life coaches in the UK all trying to be found and fighting for the hallowed front page.

This is where the importance of niches and specialty comes in. You need to decide on your niche, your “unique selling point” and research it. It will be much easier to appear on the first page of Google for “smoking cessation, Leicester”, for example (not that I have checked that search term. I have no idea if smoking cessation in Leicester is a viable niche or not!).

Once you have found your niche, you need to find relevant and related keywords or terms.

I use a mixture of Google Keyword tool:
https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal

and Good Keywords:
http://www.goodkeywords.com/

to find relevant terms (including common misspellings, which can be very useful).

If you don’t want to do this yourself, this is part of what your SEO company will do (if you decide to employ one).

But, I don’t want to jump too far ahead in this blog entry about how to do SEO, I wanted to discuss what else you need to do to be successful.

Say you have managed to get on the front page of Google for the keywords that you have chosen and therefore are well placed to take the most advantage and pick up the most business in your niche. Right?

Wrong.

Before you even need to consider going about getting yourself on the front page of Google (either by taking the time and effort to do it yourself or employ an SEO company), you need to consider some key points, otherwise your arrival at the hallowed first page will be wasted (and most probably short lived).

Landing on the front page of Google means you are more likely to found, it does not make it more likely that you will get work.

Think about that for a moment.

Then consider the 2 following points:

1) You need to spend a long time planning and designing your website.

Which should be obvious really, but needs reiterating (so many people I work with who moan about lack of clients have the most appallingly bad websites). If your website is unclear, untidy, messy, badly designed, badly written, and cheap looking, you will immediately lose any advantage you have from your placement on Google.

But  most importantly (the crux of this post in fact, it has just taken awhile to get here):

2) You need to build your reputation.

In fact, I would argue that a good reputation is easier, cheaper and more powerful (and more reliable) than a good Google rank, and if you are starting out, it is better to spend your time money and effort building your reputation than improving your Google rank.

I know some very, very, very (you get the idea) successful coaches, consultants and therapists who never turn up on Google for the keywords you would think they would (and a lot of them have rubbish websites too!).

Because, they have decided to take the time and effort to build a reputation, rather than build an online presence.

In the next few posts I intend to cover a mini-theme. Firstly I am going to go into a little more detail on how to do SEO or how to choose an SEO company (if you still want to go down that route) and how to build an excellent reputation (I would suggest, if you have time, to do both, obviously!).

Matt

NOW is the Best Time!

I am not saying that in some fancy personal development language that now is the best time to start just because it is now (although that is true), but I really believe NOW is the best time to set up a therapy or coaching practice or training business.

Yes, I know  it is all doom and gloom on the news about business going bust left right and centre, I am not saying now is EASIEST time to start, but upheaval creates opportunities as much as threats and right now there are lots of opportunities. The recent reports of us starting to emerge (I say “us” as in a global sense, Britain is still lagging behind somewhat) from recession and the global economy is looking to recover in 2010.It ie worth getting a jump on the recovery and position yourself to take full advantage of the recovery by acting now…

There is still work out there and I know a lot of coaches and trainers who are doing very well (some, better than ever!). The people who are being successful are not doing what everyone else is doing. That won’t work any more; you have to be a bit cunning and a bit daring.

The self-help field has grown bloated and stagnant, riding the waves of the boom years. Back then any idiot (and there were – and still are – a lot of idiots) could set up a therapy or coaching practice and get a decent level of success. But now the game has changed and it is a very different playing field. The self-help field is overcrowded and I expect a massive cull in the next 18 months. NOW is the time to get in and take the opportunity to sneak into the gaps this shake up is creating.

Let me give a quick example:

McKenna Breen, once the worlds largest NLP training company began in the last recession in the early 90’s, but they recognised exactly what I have just told you: Change and upheaval creates opportunities as well as threats, they saw that they could shake up the NLP training market and create massive success for themselves.

To be successful now you have to different, creative and challenge the status quo.  Remember the old rules no longer apply, you can no longer enter the market place and expect to set up a generic therapy or coaching practice, you need to do something very different.

Don’t look at what everyone else is doing and just copy them (how many websites have you seen with almost identical content? All spouting the same old “success” or “inspirational” rhetoric), it is easy to think when you are starting out that everyone out there is really successful and when you are not sure what you are doing it is comforting to follow the crowd with the “It must be working for them…” attitude.

That may have worked back then, but now you have to be different to everyone else Study the field you want to enter. What is it like? How many companies are there? What is missing? What can you do that is different? What can you do better?

Fortune favours the brave and all that.

Matt

If you liked this post, please bookmark it on Digg, Stumbled Upon, Twitter, etc. I would really appreciate it

How to Use Internet Social Networking When You Are Just Starting Out

Social Networking is the HOT topic at the moment when it comes to internet marketing. There is a lot of information about how to use Social networking to grow your business. I have been researching and testing out most of these networks for some time (mainly the “big 4″: twitter, facebook, linkedin and ecademy) including blogging (I have been blogging  – with various degrees of success – for about 6 years) and podcasts/video syndication.

I don’t intend to go into detail about blogging or podcasting etc, as they are subjects in their own right, but will touch on them when relevant.

So, the idea of this article to explore 2 things:

1. Is social networking relevant to the coaching or therapy field?
2. What is the best way to use it if you are just starting out?

The answer to question one is probably the easiest to answer. As is it simply YES. Web 2.0 is where the internet is heading and is all about creating connections and user generated content. So, being in the personal development field it is an ideal way to develop your presence online.

The questions is what should you do and how much of your time should you spend on it??

Well, the key thing to remember is most advice given about how to use Social Networking for business assumes that you are running an online business of some kind (selling CD’s, ebooks, etc) and is not relevant to people in the coaching or therapy field.

Remember: The MAJORITY of business or marketing advice, DOES NOT WORK for the coaching and therapy field.

If you try and follow this advice you will end up wasting a lot of time and money. And nowhere is this truer than trying to market yourself on the internet…

The other thing you have to consider about so called “success stories” about how social networking can become a phenomena is this and created a “grass roots” following that they have often been  blown out of proportion. And also, think about how many “success stories” you have heard and who they have been about.

They are usually in the entertainment field (Lily Allen, The Arctic Monkeys, etc) or it is something very new and original and never been done before. If you don’t fall into these fields then it will be harder. Also, remember that these so called “grass roots” successes often had massive marketing budgets and the “grass roots” story is just part of that marketing campaign!

You can make money from social networking, especially blogging. But this is not an overnight thing and can take years to build a big enough following to generate a decent income. The people who make money primarily from blogging and social media are the people who spend all their time doing it! And that is not what you want to do.

When you are just starting out, you need to the simple things that will generate business quickly and cheaply. In this case, social networking is really not the best place to do it. Work on the basics first (decent niche, good website, etc) and then start expanding your online presence (and, most importantly, your offline one!)

When you are just starting out (or re-inventing and re-launching yourself if you haven’t done too well the first time round) I find the best way to use Social networking is to manage my offline contacts (and maybe make some new ones!). Treat your social networking profile a bit like a contact list. Invite all your clients, friends and contacts to join you and use it to send simple updates (using the status box on facebook for example) and promotions (but don’t be too “in your face” with the latter!). You can then use it to expand your contact using the “6 degrees of separation rule” (click here for more info on that), by asking for contacts and introductions. LinkedIn seems particularly useful for this.

My thoughts on the big four:

LinkedIn

I have to admit to have been a bit slow on the LinkedIn front and have only recently started using it (a thank you to Jarrod who finally convinced me!), so I cannot really comment on that, I will keep you informed about it as I get on!

Facebook

The big site of the moment. It may go the way of myspace, but I doubt it now. I made a big mistake on facebook, which I will talk you through, so you don’t make the same mistake…

With some networking site such as linkedin or ecademy, they are obviously more business orientated. Facebook is a bit vaguer and can be used for business or social networking. If you are going to use facebook, decide which one you are going to use it for. You cannot do both. Either use it for business (doesn’t mean you can’t have you non-business friends on there, they are still your network after all!), which means you have to keep your profile clean and “on message”, or use it purely for social networking, and don’t accept business “friends”. I did a bit of both and messed it up totally! No I have to try and rescue my profile and sort it out to reinvent it as more “business orientated!”.

The good thing with facebook is you can set up groups and pages for your business as well as event invites and adverts. Mostly for free, or very little cost. I know someone who was essentially using JUST facebook to run their business and was doing very, very well at really no cost at all.

Ecademy

I have been a member of ecademy for over a year and have found it of zero benefit. I am sure there are people out there who are doing well with it, but not me. It reminds me of a lot of networking organisations, the only people who make money out of it, is the networking organisation…

Twitter

Still getting my head round it, but a recent report (you can read it here) has highlighted a few things that suggest it is not the “next big thing” that everyone is raving about.

After struggling with the best way to use twitter over the last 6 months or so, I have started to us it as a “live bookmark” system, where I can post links to article and resources I have come across and share them with my “followers” who will hopefully find them useful. This is a new strategy and I will let you know how I get on!

A word of warning about twitter: people seem extra specially impatient on there, if you don’t post for a few days you will lose dozens of followers (as I have). So if you cannot or do not want to post regularly, don’t use twitter.

Other Sites

There are dozens of networking sites out there: myspace (great, if you are musician), bebo (really for teenagers and kids), etc. I personally don’t bother with them, it spreads my time too thin.

Want to join me on any Social networking sites? Please click on the links below:

Facebook Personal Profile
Facebook Business Page: Matt Caulfield Training
Facebook Business Page: Slow
LinkedIn
Ecademy
Twitter

From Start to £48,000 a Year in Less than 12 Months!

I was speaking to a hypnotherapist just the other day down here in Cardiff (she didn’t want me to use her name – you will see why below!) who had qualified in August last year and was already seeing 20 – 30 clients a week. In fact she was getting more enquiries than she could handle and was turning a lot of people away and scaling down her marketing and promotion (hence the reason she didn’t want me to tell you her name).

So, in 12 months (less than that – she has been this successful for some time, probably the last 6 to 8 months) she has gone from newly qualified to overly successful. To give you an idea of how much she is earning, I have done a very rough calculation based to the figures she gave me during our chat:

She charges £55 per session and does in excess of 20 sessions a week.

So income is:

£55 X 20 (minimum sessions) = £1,100 per week

Her direct costs are (very approximately):

Room Hire £75
Leaflets £0.64 (seriously! Broken down to a weekly rate this is how much it costs her)
PPC £20
Website £2.50

Total direct costs £98.14 per week

Total profit for the week £1001.86 for 20 hours work. So over 12 months (assume she works 48 weeks – I made that up, but it is an average) she earns £48,089.28 per year.

That really isn’t too bad is it? After 12 months she is earning nearly £50,000 gross profit (remember there is tax and additional indirect costs to consider) a year. I don’t know if she has any ideas to expand/create products/charge more, but even if she isn’t that is a very, very reasonable yearly salary!

I am sure a lot of you out there would love to be being that successful?

So, how did she do it? Well, I really wanted to know, so I spent some time talking to her about it and she hasn’t done anything special, anything complicated, in fact she had followed almost the exact process I describe in “The Professional Practice Builder Handbook”, a very, very simple (and almost automated) marketing strategy that relied on 4 things:

1. A good simple website
2. Pay Per Click marketing
3. A6 Leaflets
4. Referrals and word of mouth

1. Website
Her website isn’t fancy or clever, it is a simple 4 page design that anyone can do with free sitebuilder software provided by webhosts. It is simple, straight to the point and guides people towards the sale. The domain name is also descriptive of what she does, so it gets good search engine results (as I recommend in “The Practice Builder Handbook”).

2. Pay Per Click (PPC)
She used Google Adwords to promote her online presence and support her organic rankings. In fact she used it as her primary online marketing strategy. She was very specific with her keywords and only used about 10 of them (all a variation on a theme). Again, just as I recommend in “The Practice Builder Handbook”. And she hasn’t read it, she told me!)

3. A6 Leaflets
This is where her strategy differs to what I suggest in “The Handbook”, I suggest utilizing business cards as your main source of printed marketing. However she did use A6 leaflets in the same way as I suggest designing business cards. The second thing she used the A6 cards for, that I don’t usually recommend, but seemed to be working very well for her was delivering them to local houses etc. I don’t usually recommend that (unless you are running a martial arts school) as it is a bit “local takeaway” if you know what I mean? But this strategy seemed to be working very well for her.

4. Word of Mouth
As with every business, let alone therapy or coaching, word of mouth is the strongest and most reliable form of marketing. But, it can take some time. However, her word of mouth strategy (the one I teach on the “Practice Builder Master Class” that isn’t in the “Handbook”) is a very rapid way of building word of mouth referrals.

So there we have it, a 4-part process that has shown to generate a massive amount of client and income in a very short space of time! If you implement the ideas in this post you will be well on your way to having a thriving therapy or coaching practice in as little as 12 months (if not sooner). If you want more details of how to do anything here, you can find a step-by-step process (as well as everything else you need to know to set up and run your own therapy or coaching business), in “The Professional Practice Builder Handbook” or, if you really want to overachieve, the upcoming “Practice Builder Master Class” on the 31st October to the 1st November.

Matt

LinkedIn: A Guide to Success, a guest post by Jarrod Baughan

Founded in November 2008, now operating as a team of 8 with a UK base, JARLIS operates on an International platform having been established to provide strategic development support and “hands-on” leadership in the design and delivery of business and people change. Working with clients of all sizes, from SME to global brands, clients receive “process” driven results for identifying and managing the problems they face both within the organisation as well as challenges outside the organisation.
Specialist Support Provision Areas:
1) End-to-End Business Process Solutions Design and Delivery,
2) Organisational Change Management/Leadership,
3) Business Re-Engineering and Turnaround:
4) Training and Development, Coaching and Mentoring.
5) Business Development/Connecting Solutions

In any consulting, training or coaching practice, you need to develop a sales operation that secures you new clients – ongoing. Not easy when your core skill is what you use to earn money and not sitting and calling, writing or designing literature/emails for no money.

Background For Using LinkedIn

In January 2009 I knew that to develop my type of trade, you need to access decision makers directly or via valued recommendation. Mailshots, cold calling, handing business cards at functions works but only in a small  and painfully slow way and is time and money consuming. To develop true awareness of your service brand/proposition, you need it spread via word of mouth to gain any chance of being seen and contacted.

ENTER LinkedIn!

In January 2009, I had connected to 10 people I knew from work and or friends/family. I needed to develop a strategy that would help me identify key players in identified business sectors that I could connect with. Once connected, develop ways of starting dialogue and seeking help in developing leads/meetings/introductions. This had to be done while I was sat watching TV, or at weekends when I had a spare hour so as to not eat into my valuable time and eat into my morale.

By designing the PROFILE that people saw on LinkedIn, choosing what was displayed and also by buying a Business Account I was ready to explore and test the networking market. Using search tools, developing approach methods and learning to navigate the system innovatively – Internationally, I found what I needed and gained ground.

I began a process of approaching identified people and connecting with them. Being very careful in how I did this, I wrote each request invite personally and chose the wording carefully so as not to appear like a stalker or sales cold caller. Once connected to a network of people, the system tells you how to find more people via those you know, who know people, who know people. Very quickly you build yourself a network. I joined and formed groups and invited people to join, using the groups to elicit discussions and comment on a range of subjects that related to what I specialised in. This all worked very well and my network grew.

In May, I then joined Matt’s NLP Practitioner course to understand the dynamics of group and individual meeting scenarios. I needed to be able to turn every meeting I was to secure, into something positive. That was my objective. Using the Meta Model and the components of NLP, I would be able to understand very quickly what was actually being said, how to de-code the business frontage and how to learn the real message by learning the “map”. Then suggest, through leading and anchoring, what it was I knew they needed to hear in order to “get” my offer.

Today, after 8 months, I have 281 connections, globally. I am a member of 15 groups and use the system and my network of 1st and 2nd line contacts to identify people I want to gain a meeting with, and have used this to great effect. JARLIS provides the full range of its support services to clients in Russia, US, Germany and the UK. As I practice my NLP, I get better at achieving my objective of quickly capitalising upon the valuable meeting time afforded to me and pushing things along in a structured way.

I am sitting here now, having written this, thinking that I should teach others what I did on LinkedIn and to create another revenue stream for JARLIS!

Good luck in your adventures.

Jarrod Baughan

www.thesolutionsteam.co.uk

You can connect with Jarrod on LinkedIn here:

www.linkedin.com/in/jbaughan

Sign up to LinkedIn here:

www.linkedin.com

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