Do Something New In 2010!

I was watching the news on New Years day and, as with every year at this time, they were talking about New Years Resolutions.

One of the guests they had on the show was a “personal development expert” who had written a new book about, yes, you guessed it, getting what you want!

Yes! Another one. Just like all the rest.

I may be sounding sarcastic and cynical at this point. And that is because I am.

I hate to sound blunt, but that is just another self-help book to clutter the shelves in your local bookshop.

I was listening to the guy being interviewed and he had nothing original or new to say he was just regurgitating all the usual self-help clichés and truisms.

Not that what he was saying wasn’t good. It was all useful stuff. It’s just that is was the same stuff that every other self-styled “personal development expert” is saying.

I see it time and time again, people setting themselves up as coaches or therapists or trainers (or “motivational speakers”) and doing, saying and acting the same way as everyone else who are doing exactly the same thing!

You will be very, very lucky to be successful if that is your business strategy. You will throw good money after bad and probably end up out of business in 18 months and there is a good chance you may even take someone else’s business with you when you go bust (by stealing clients from them whilst your were in business).

The self-help field is crowded and competitive and entering into the marketplace without an effective business and marketing strategy is just commercial suicide.

But I am not trying to put you off. Honestly. I am just giving a stark warning. It is still possible to be very successful in this field. You just have to start out with the right strategy.

The starting point of a successful strategy.

If you boil down all my advice to one word, it would be “NICHE”.

You need to specialise, do something unique and original or something no one else is doing. It doesn’t have to be amazing, but it has to be different. Sometimes something as simple as aiming at a specific geographical location, gender or social group can be enough to differentiate you from everyone else. But you need to do define you niche and (this is essential) stick to it.

How do you develp a successful niche??

There are 3 simple steps to getting a successful niche:

1. Gather Ideas
Firstly, brainstorm things you are interested in or know a lot about (there is no point developing a niche you hate just because it is a niche, you will end up not enjoying what you are doing and there is nothing worse that being self employed doing something you can’t stand!).

Now see which of those ideas yo can turn into a viable business. The best way to think about it is what problems are not being fulfilled in that niche?

2. Research
Then research, research, research (you get a set of research questionares as a bonuses with the “Professional Practice Builder Handbook“), is there anyone else doing it? Is there a real and tangible need for it (you could have the best niche in the world, but if no one needs or wants it, you will fail. I have seen this many, many times…).

3. Set Up and Test
Once you have done your research set up what you think will be the most successful niche for you, you don’t just blindly stumble in. You set up the niche and continue to test. Is it as good a niche as you thought? Do you need to tweet and alter your approach?

Was there more than one niche you thought would be successful. Set up both and test, see which one is best and drop the other one.

You get the idea?

Learn a step by step approach on how to do this and much, much more in the “Professional Practice Builder Handbook”. Click here for more details.

Matt

PS, I apologise for not posting as regularly as I would have liked towards the end of 2009, a few things ran away with me. My New Years Resolution is to start posting at least once a week, to get my head round twitter and get some more  web classes recorded (I can’t believe the first – and so far only – one was way back in March last year!).

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

Cooperation NOT Competition: How to use Joint Ventures for Your Advantage

Another NLP trainer, Max Watts from Kanousei, rang me up out of the blue the other day. Max had someone interested in doing her NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner training, but they could not do Max’s Practitioner dates, so she was wondering they could book on my Practitioner training instead.

Now, if you can get round all the scope ambiguity in that introductory paragraph, it is a very nice example of the idea of co-operation rather than competition. It was surprisingly open minded of someone to offer up a potential client or customer to someone else rather than try and keep them to themselves.

The self-help field is cluttered with a lot of people all doing similar things. Some better than others. If you go into setting up your therapy or coaching thinking about competition you could struggle to make yourself heard in all the noise out there, even if you have a fantastic and original niche.

It is much better to look around at the other people in the field you want to enter and consider how you could create co-operative relationships with these people.

It could be about creating a formal partnership with someone, or about creating a working relationship where you pass work to and from each other and team up where required. They could be doing the same thing as you or something that is similar and complimentary.

For example, I have often do work, pass work to and receive work from a network of people I have worked with, experienced and therefore trust.

These include (but are not limited too):

• Hazel Bagley, NLP Therapist and Coach, specialising in addictive behaviour and anxiety www.hazelbagley.com
• Cain Leathem GB Fitness, one of Britains leading Exercise and Nutrition Consultants www.gbfitness.co.uk
• Mark Peters, Balanced Approach www.balancedapproach.co.uk

So, whilst doing your research and developing your therapy or coaching business see who is out there that you could team up, maybe they are doing the same as you want to where you can share clients (and costs), or maybe they are in a similar and complimentary field where you can recommend and exchange clients.

Matt

Don’t Spend Too Long Studying The Competition…

This week’s blog is a recommendation based on a confession…

I have spent far too long, in the past, looking at what other people are doing in the same field as me and compare how I am doing with them. Often I couldn’t help but get the impression that they were doing so much better than me (whether it is true or if it is just my perception is irrelevant) and it really gave me a kick in the confidence.

You see, the worst thing you can do if you are running your own therapy or coaching practice is compare yourself to the “competition” and find yourself wanting.

It is import, of course, to do your SWOT analysis (see last weeks blog post) and it is important to keep an eye on the current market conditions, which includes what everyone else is up to.

But, you should not spend too much time doing it. Once you have done your SWOT analysis and decided on your niche, you need to just get on with your own thing.

It is even more important to avoid comparing yourself to the competition when you are just starting out. You will most probably find yourself wanting compared to the more established companies.

When I started out setting up my NLP business I could have looked at the established players in the field at the time and easily given up, but I stuck to my niche, to my idea and kept going.

When I first wrote the “Professional Practice Builder Handbook“, I did research to see if anyone else was doing what I was doing. Of course I came across people who were doing similar things (some books, some training courses), and some of those people were very well established and had very good reputations, but I stuck my guns and still maintain that what I am doing here is different to those people, and what I have to offer is an important addition to the market. If I didn’t I would have given up by now!

This is why, in the “Professional Practice Builder Handbook“, I talk about your own definition of success.

It is important to develop and own a definition of success that is relevant to you. If your definition of success (where you want to be, or what you want to achieve) is “I want to the next Anthony Robbins”, think again, that is not personal enough, you are comparing yourself to something outside and that will not work. You need to define it personal terms, such as “I want to be seeing 20-30 clients a week, earning approximately £1500 net profit a week. I want to have written a best selling book on my niche and be considered the ‘go to person’ by the media and customers”.

Do you notice the difference? One compares where you are to the outside world, the other defines what you actually want.  You are much more likely to achieve that latter as it is almost 100% in your control.

Make sense?

Matt

Why You Need to be a SWOT

(This is a re-print from an the April 2009 newsletter)

What is SWOT and why do you need it?

In the “Professional Practice Builder Handbook” I talk about the essential steps you need to start up your own business and the one thing I stress is research, research, research! You need to know your capabilities and skills, your environment, you competition and your “product”. Good quality, thorough research will save you 1000’s of wasted money and 1000’s of wasted frustrating hours and will be your key to success. A lot of people rush through this step, convinced they know what they are doing and just ash to try and make money, this soon descends into fire fighting to sort messes out you should have done in your set up and may lead to a very quick failure…

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

It involves specifying the objective of your business, identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective.

SWOT is actually the 2nd step to take once you have developed your niche (or your potential niches).

If a SWOT analysis does not start with defining a desired end state or objective, it runs the risk of being useless.

Internal Factors:

Strengths: attributes of the business that are helpful to achieving the objective.

Weaknesses: attributes of the business that are harmful to achieving the objective. Things you need to work on, learn, etc.

As the ancient Greeks say “Know thyself”! You need to be honest about your strength and weakness, since your business, at the moment is essential you. It takes a lot of honesty and self-awareness to see things as they are, not worse or better. It is always worth running these by someone you know and trust who is disconnected from you and your business.

External Factors:

Opportunities: external conditions that are helpful to achieving your success. The obvious example of this is discovering a massive potential untapped market, it could be developing or discovering contacts, potential joint ventures etc

Threats: external conditions which could do damage to the business’s performance. Examples are your direct competition, even bigger things like the economic climate!

Identification of SWOT’s is essential, because subsequent steps in the process of planning and developing your business success comes down to knowing these for factors. It will help you identify which one of your potential niches will be the most successful.

However the real power of SWOT is to generate strategies that mitigate threats and weakness and build on your strengths and opportunities.

• You can do this by asking each of the following four questions, many times:
• How can I use and capitalise on each strength?
• How can I improve each weakness?
• How can I exploit and benefit from each opportunity?
• How can I mitigate each threat?

Finally once you have done that you can use SWOT for matching and converting.

• Matching is used to find competitive advantages by matching the strengths to opportunities.
• Converting is to apply conversion strategies to convert threats or weaknesses into strengths or opportunities.
• An example of conversion strategy is to find new markets.
• If the threats or weaknesses cannot be converted you must minimise or avoid them.

I hope you find that useful. It may seem a bit of hard work, but a good SWOT analysis will save you time and money in the long run.

Matt