By Beth Schneider
I was recently inspired by a fly. Yes, a fly. It was caught in the house desperately trying to escape through the screen door, when it was literally inches away from a wide open screen less window. It was buzzing along, seeming to get more and more frustrated because it couldn't get out. Yet, it was just inches from the freedom it was seeking. It was so focused on trying to squeeze itself through the little holes in the screen; it was missing the opportunity to fly through the wide open window.
It's kind of like what my client, Linda Fleishmann, President of www.loanconnectors.com was saying to me at the end of our session, "You know, Anita (her operations manager) and I always meet after our sessions and say to each other, 'why didn't we do that years ago? It's so simple, but we just didn't see it!'" It's so easy to get stuck doing it "the same ole way". Ask yourself, what are you missing because it's so obvious you just can't see it? Here are 5 money- making opportunities that may just be too obvious to catch.
Freebie Fall Out Many people offer some kind of freebie as a marketing tactic. One of my clients is a high end internet marketer. He makes a great living selling products online. If someone visits his site and is not quite ready to buy, they have the option of getting a freebie report. Now he has this whole list of freebie receivers. And they are just sitting there. When we put a system in place to do something with that list, he figured he could make about $15,000 with about 10 hours of work. What potential customers are you accidentally ignoring?
Frequently - and I mean Frequently - Asked Questions Everyone wants to provide excellent customer service. But that pile of questions seems to pile up pretty quickly, doesn't it? Explore ways you can head people off and provide a solution BEFORE they ask. One of my clients posted an audio tutorial that people receive immediate access to. Another puts the special code needed for their program in the subject line and several times in a welcome email. What are some things you can do to head your clients off at the pass?
If You Don't' Ask . . . You Don't Get Are you out there asking for what you want or need? Are you asking for referrals? Are you asking for speaking gigs? Are you asking for affiliate partners? Are you asking people to interview you? Are you asking for help? Ask, ask, ask. You will be surprised at how often people say yes. As my Grandpa Lenny, always says, "If you don't ask, you don't get".
Expand Your Product Line Got a book? A program? How can you enhance it? Could you turn it into an individual or group coaching program? Or could you turn your coaching into a product? I bet you could. Even I feel victim to this one. As I was brainstorming ideas for my next teleclass series, it hit me. Literally. A copy of my home study program, Easy Delegation for Entrepreneurs, fell off my desk and landed on my foot. Guess what the next tele-series is focused on.
Everyday Experts You hire experts. You should and I encourage it. However, what often happens is you start to depend on these experts for recurring and/or daily tasks that could be handed off to less expensive help. Here's what I mean. I have a client that was paying a hefty hourly rate for an expert to do some recurring tech stuff. Once that recurring stuff was set up, systemized and documented it was easy for him to bring in less experienced, less expensive help to run the system the expert set up - adding dollars, not just pennies to the piggy bank.
Take a step back and look around your business to make sure you aren't missing the open window.
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© 2009 Beth Schneider, Process Prodigy, Inc. Want to reprint this article? Feel free as long as you include the following:Beth Schneider, President of Process Prodigy Inc., www.processprodigy.com, along with her team of highly sought after operations consultants, reveal the insider secrets billion-dollar corporations pay thousands of dollars for. Specializing in process creation, Process Prodigy tools and techniques have helped entrepreneurs increase productivity by as much as 600%, and revenues by as much as 250%. Visit www.processprodigy.com/ezine and grab your FREE systems starter kit valued at $297.00
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