 In each episode I will share with you, ideas, thoughts, and lessons I have taken from the latest books and articles written by best business thought leaders on the subject of entrepreneurship. I will present concepts for you to evaluate and decide if they are right for you and your business. Some may resonate, and some you will dismiss as nonsense, but each episode will bring you a fresh perspective on how to launch and grow your business. Ideas from “Entrepreneurial You.” Dorie Clark “Monetize your expertise, create multiple income streams and thrive”  Episode 45 Build Your Brand The underlying advice contained in Dorie Clark’s “Entrepreneurial You” is that most entrepreneurs in the coaching, consulting, speaking field fail to diversify themselves. Diversification can enable you to earn more and mitigate risk. Too many entrepreneurs focus on earning revenue from one or two activities, such as consulting and coaching. To stop being held a slave to the clock, trading hours for dollars you need to develop multiple streams of income. In his prologue to the book Dori states that her business model has seven distinct streams. Before you tune out at the thought of developing seven, yes seven, income streams, keep in mind that it has taken Dori over ten years to get to this stage. As she describes in her book “The Long View” it takes time to achieve great things. Not all potential income streams will be appropriate for you, select the ones that match your business goals. Your objective, and its mine since reading Dori’s book, should be to be earning money while you sleep. And although I will focus on the solopreneur, much of the information shared in these episodes is applicable for the intrapreneur working within corporations with all the advantages that access to funds and talent that brings. Nor do you need to quit your job to follow Dori’s advice, a side gig can bring in useful additional income. Over the next few episodes, you can learn how to build your portfolio career. Step one – Become a trusted source Dori’s opening advice on how to become a trusted source is similar to Sahil Lavinga’s concept of starting your business by focusing on your community which I covered in episode 38 of this season. Dori’s suggests you do not hold anything back, share everything you know with your readers. Do not make them pay for the final piece to the jigsaw puzzle. Salespeople who over promise may be able to achieve a sale or two by offering to sell their secret techniques for a price. But this will soon alienate customers and is no way to develop a sustainable business. It’s sometime since I read “Book Yourself Solid” by Michael Port but I do recall one piece of advice he gave which was along the lines of “Give, give until you think you have given too much and then give some more” I hope you can begin to see a pattern here. Building your reputation as someone who willing to share, to support, to nurture your potential customers before charging them anything, builds a solid base for their future business. Create Valuable Online Content. Demonstrate your expertise by writing articles for sites that people already trust. That was the approach that Dori took. She started blogging about marketing and branding for the “Huffington Post” and “The Harvard Business Review” Writing for such august journals provided Dori with a level of legitimacy. Now keep in mind that Dori had been a journalist, so she likely had better than average writing skills. If this approach appeals you, start honing your writing skills by submitting articles to your local paper, contacting bloggers in your market space suggesting you write a guest blog. Write a book. This can be a major brand enhancer, especially if you can get published by a traditional publishing house. But self-publishing has lost its stigma, if you are willing to put effort into publicizing your book you can quickly rise up the rankings on Amazon. An e-book can be created from material you are already sharing online for free. People will pay to have free content aggregated into an easily readable form. If you enjoy writing this a satisfying way of building credibility. Develop Social Proof. This is similar to posting valuable content online, it is about gaining credibility by being associated with an already recognized expert in your field, but this time achieved by networking. The principle of give before you ask. applies to developing your network. Dori’s book contains an example of Derek Halpern who reached out to successful bloggers, who focused on the audience he was targeting, to offer advice on how they could increase their conversion rate of visitors to subscribers. He recorded his advice on a video, If his advice worked, he asked them to post the video on their site. By providing free advice Derek got chance to get his message out to the bloggers’ large audience. Maintain a connection with your audience. Building you contacts via social media is risky. A tweak of an algorithm or AI deciding your site is not appropriate for the platform can disrupt your carefully curated presence on Facebook. Twitter, Instagram etc. Dori advises, as Sahil Lavinga does in his book the Minimalist Entrepreneur, that you develop your e-mail list. When busy, folks may not look at social media for a while, but they will continue to review their e-mails. Dori provides similar advice as Sahil, do not spam your email subscribers and do not add anyone to your e-mail list who has not specifically request to connect. Not only is this bad form, you could be violating anti-spam laws. The key takeaway I get from both Dori and Sahil, is email is not dead, it is still an excellent medium for connecting, and it is a channel that you, and only you control. Build your email list: Develop a lead magnet that promises. and delivers, something that is useful to your chosen target audience. To increase the chances that folks find your valuable offer, post a link to it every chance you get. If you write a blog, add a link within the blog. Consider writing for Medium describing your content and how it might help fellow entrepreneurs. If you post a video on YouTube include a link, as YouTubers say, “in the comments below.” People understand the deal, they are buying your content with their e-mail address, and they know they will get some follow up emails from you. But a too aggressive approach can destroy all the goodwill created by your excellent content. I talked about my poor experiences with over aggressive follow up e-mails in last week’s show. Later in his book, Dori talks about affiliate marketing and even with her cautious approach to this subject she has received complaints about the sales hype delivered by some affiliates. Often when I unsubscribe from an email list that is bombarding me with thinly disguised sales pitches I find that they include, in the list of reasons why I am unsubscribing. The option: “I received more emails than I was expecting” Even they know it’s a problem, but they still keep doing it. It’s funny they do not include the option “I was not getting enough emails” I am sure you can do better. Tags: How to grow a business, achieve business success, employee individualism, self-assessment, motivation, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes; IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems  Episode 46 Monetize your expertise. Building up the courage to charge for your services is challenging. What if no one wants your product? Or people complain that you are overpriced? Or call you a sell out for charging at all? Yes that may well happen. But you cannot help others with your advice or great product or outstanding service if you cannot keep yourself in business. It’s strange, people will pay $200 per hour for a psychiatrist but will look askance at paying the same rate to tap into your decades of experience. I “lose” many potential clients when I tell them my charges, for me this is often a cause for regret, not because I have lost a potential client but because I know I could deliver them many times more value than I charge. Should I reduce my rates? No! I charge what I am worth, as is borne out by my client history. My clients can terminate my services at any time, I do not insist on a notice period. Yet all my clients have stayed with me a minimum of two years and many much longer. Charging what you are worth is key to creating the long-term impact your desire. How can you do this? The first step is to understand the value you bring to others. Once you can do that you will feel comfortable charging appropriate or premium prices. When you start out as a solopreneur you will probably undercharge rather than overcharge. You are anxious to get a few jobs under your belt. Dori tells a great story in his book which I will paraphrase. After pitching a proposal to an early client, the client asked the obvious question, how much? Dori was not prepared for this question and mumbled $60 per hour, which was a little less than his acupuncturist charged. The client instantly said yes, and Dori knew she had left money on the table. I made a similar mistake with my first client, although my rate was a little higher than Dori’s. It was also the first, and last time, I agreed to be paid by the hour. Full disclosure Dori now commands top end prices whereas my rate remains more modest. Think about your pricing strategy before you make that first pitch to a potential client. And keep in mind that you will be spending time on business building activities and time upgrading your skills. And you need to get the balance right. Building your social media presence can seem to be highly productive, and in the long run it will build a foundation for your business, but it does not pay the bills. You need to earn a living, so you cannot quote sky high rates with impunity when you are starting out but can raise your rates over time. A good time to start testing the deeper, more lucrative, waters is when you are covering your living cost with existing clients. In Dori’s book Michael Bungay Stanier the author of “The Coaching Habit” suggests your going rate should be fear +10%. If you feel the top rate you feel comfortable with is $1000 per hour, then ask for $1,100 per hour. If you are moving from a salaried role to a consulting role, figure out how much your previous employer was paying you per hour. Do not forget to adjust for vacation time, pension contributions, etc. That can give you a base line that you can feel confident, your employer paid you that rate, month after month, and felt they were getting value for their money. Why shouldn’t your clients pay you the same rate? Maybe not at first and maybe not all clients initially, you have your bona fides to establish, but that should be a minimum you are striving for. Let’s explore the income streams you should look at and decides which ones are appropriate for you. Notice the plural which ones, we are seeking multiple and diversified sources income. Become a Coach or a Consultant Dori explains why you should consider this route. “It may seem almost old fashioned to propose making money through hands on coaching and consulting. But if you want to eventually leverage your talents online, Dori argues, that to understand your audience’s needs and to know what really works, it’s important to begin with traditional consulting/coaching world.” Interestingly Dori describes coaching consulting as the perfect Side Stream income because they are almost zero cost to launch and can bring in immediate revenue. Think of them as a laboratory to test your ideas and refine them before presenting them to a larger audience. You can cultivate a small cadre of passionate advocates who can help you spread your message. Maybe more importantly you will be able to directly see the impact you are having providing hands on help to people who need it. The challenge is to stand out from the crowd. And it is a crowded field. I decided I would google how many coaches there were in the world. The answer 53,000; the source, an article that the same Dori Clark wrote in 2019 entitled “3 Reasons New Coaches and Consultants Fail” If you want to read her article, which contains valuable insights on to improve your chance of success, Ctrl+Click here (Note HBR is a subscription base website but HBR does allow access to a number of articles for free so if may be available even if you are not a subscriber to HBR). The field for consultants is even more crowded with Inc Magazine claiming there are 700,000 consulting firms globally. Although Inc does not say firms range from the global giants such as McKinsey, Accenture to the one person solopreneurs. In the next episode I will be sharing Dori’s ideas on how you can develop your initial network and spread the word about your services, grow your network exponentially to expand your practice and generate revenue with premium offerings and eventually license your intellectual property. Breaking away for the tyranny of the clock and the limitations of being paid by the hour.  Episode 47 How to build a successful coaching/consulting business? Step 1 Develop your initial market. Tell your family, friends, contacts about your decision to launch a consulting business. Ask them for introductions to folks who are able to hire and who you may be able to help. If time permits you should do this with a personal call or e-mail. And be specific about the type of client you want to attract. I would love to work with anyone in the aviation industry, or do you know anyone in Google, they would be my dream client. Of course, this assumes that you have a clear idea of what type of coaching/consulting business you want to build. If it is not obvious to you where your skill set lies, or maybe you are a generalist, complete an assessment of your areas of expertise. Some pointers from Bozi Dar who runs an online business as a side gig,
What if you do not have a network of friends, colleagues etc. who can help you. Dori recommends LinkedIn as way to build a network and I agree with her based on my experience. You can view your LinkedIn contacts to see who is in their network. If you see a person you want to connect with, ask for an introduction. Be prepared to be told that they do not know that person well, or even at all. I get connection requests almost every day, and if it is not from someone who is clearly out to sell me something I will accept the request. For many connections on my LinkedIn list this is the only interaction I ever have with them. No network? Limited LinkedIn connections? What else can you do? Offer to speak for free, there are plenty of organizations looking for speakers for their monthly meetings, annual gatherings. And your price is right – free. You can decide to speak almost anywhere, you never know who may be in the audience. Make a list of non-profit, professional associations, local business groups, where you could speak and offer your services. If the audience does not match your potential clients consider how you can bridge the gap. Even a simple ask at the end of our talk that if they know of anyone who could use your services can bring results. Or you can be more targeted, I chose to speak at CFO conferences. Although the audiences comprised of senior financial executives who were unlikely to need to hire a part time CFO, I could establish my credibility with them and if someone asked them if they knew a competent CFO possibly my name would come to mind. I also speak to Executive Networks for similar reasons. Speaking for free is not something you want to do forever, and in the next episode I will talk about how you can develop an income from paid speaking. But when you are starting out it is a great way to start. And if it lands you a contract early in your consulting career, it will be time well spent. Find your voice. When you land those first few engagements make sure make a substantial contribution that justifies your fee. Sometimes it can be hard to speak up, to deliver unwelcome news, but it is unlikely that your client has hired you just to be told everything is fine. You must achieve a balance of drawing out the facts from your client’s perspective by asking questions and sharing your opinion based on your knowledge and experience. By doing this you can make a genuine contribution and give them their money’s worth. This is best achieved by being you, telling things as you see it. If you can inject some humor into the situation giving bad news may not be too bad. Sometimes you will have a client who does not listen to you. I had a client where the owners were paying themselves way too much money and the business was heading for trouble. They did not change, and I ended the contract. A great thing of being a consultant is, as I said to a client over dinner last week, that I am fortunate I can afford to work only with clients I like. Once you have established your credibility with your client, you should not hesitate to ask for referrals. For some reason consultants, myself included, do hesitate to ask for referrals or references. Somehow it seems akin to selling yourself. I am not sure why this is. Your client clearly sees you are bringing value to them, why should we be reluctant to ask them if they know anyone else to who we could deliver the same value. If you find it difficult to ask for referrals I recommend you listen to Steve Sweeny, The Referral Guy, who broadcasts each Wednesday on IBGR.network from Melbourne Australia. He also has a library of over 150 podcasts available. If you are in North America consider checking out David Wilson’s show No Nonsense Market Domination. For Steve Sweeny Ctrl+Click here For David Wilson Ctrl+Click here  Episode 48
Break free of the clock. In episode XX I mentioned Michael Port’s book “Book Yourself Solid”. Let me share with you the changing ways Mr. Port was able to capitalize on his book’s success. After publishing his book in 2006 Mr. Port suddenly had a massive new audience. He now had the scale needed to build a group coaching program. He started with teleseminars, most internet connections at the time were not fast enough to support video conferences. The cost for a three-month program was $1,200 and demand was strong. Then he tried a yearlong mentoring program for $8,000 per person which entitled his clients to several training calls per month and three, three-day retreats per year. His initial program had 40 participants. Even when he increased his price to $12,000 demand remained strong attracting between 150 and 250 clients each year. But his participants found travel to the retreats pricey, and Michael Port found executing large live events, costly and stressful. Like all good entrepreneurs he took the time to re-evaluate his program, even though it was delivering an excellent income. He completely changed his business model. He eliminated the three live events and reduced the cost from $1,000 per month to $89 per month. For their money clients got access to 9 training calls per month, one conducted by Michael himself the rest by trained associates. The revised program brings in less income than the early more comprehensive program but requiring much less of Mr. Ports time and with significantly less stress. And maybe in time the lower price point will attract enough sign ups to make up the difference. Most of us will not be able to emulate the success of Michael Port but as your experience, knowledge and skills grow you will be able to develop a marketable program that you sell to multiple clients. Build it once, sell it many times. Webinars where you charge a fee to share your materials are an easy business option these days. A one-hour webinar at $19.99 when you attract 50 people will earn you $1,000. That is one way to break free of the clock. Another way is to systemize your approach. That’s what John Jantsch did with his marketing business. By working hard John grew his business until he reached the stage that without taking on more staff and overheads he could not serve any more clients. That would have been risky, he could not raise his rates as his clients were small businesses with even smaller marketing budgets. That’s when he started to think about providing his consulting services more efficiently. He realized that it was difficult for his clients to by marketing solutions as a comprehensive package. Some folks sold SEO solutions, others blogging advice, but no one was saying “Here is marketing as a solution, We’re going to install a system.” Initially it was a low-tech solution – a three ring binder with 200 pages which was mailed to his clients. He called his system Duct Tape Marketing. It was a hit, and its popularity grew when he started sharing his insights blogging on the internet. Eventually he was able to identify elements that everyone needed. By following the same discovery process with each new client, efficiency and profitability grew. He was able to move away from hourly pricing to monthly retainer fees. Eventually it reached the stage that clients were no longer buying John’s services, they were buying his system. It was I want that system; I want that approach I want that methodology. Today Duct Tape Marketing is a highly successful business. One way you could start to systemize your approach would be use the MVP approach we discussed in episode 39 of this season, taken from Sahil Lavinga’s book “The Minimalist Entrepreneur” As you start your selling cycle with your first customer, document each step of the process, so that with every consecutive customer you have a play book upon which you can build and improve. Sahil calls this your true MVP of your business. Here MVP does not mean your minimum viable product which every solopreneur is trying to build and launch. In this context MVP means Manual Valuable Process. By recording the steps, you take to complete each sale you will be able to figure out what is working and what is not. Refine and repeat, this will be your guide on how to increase your efficiency Generate Revenue with Premium offerings. Aim High for the get go. When starting out on your coaching/consulting venture you may feel that starting small will lower your risk. You might consider selling an online course for $50 or an eBook for $2.99. These are fine options once you are established, consider Michael Port who took his premium $1,000 a month course and reduced the price to $89.95. But aiming for high volume low dollar sales almost certainly will not support you when you are starting out. Instead consider offering a premium package from the start. That’s what Selena Soo did. Her initial offering was a $5,000 six month coaching program. As she says “With a $5,000 package its not difficult to achieve a six-figure business. Get ten clients to sign up for six months and you’ve got $50,000. Do that again in the next six months and hey presto you have made $100,000. Does that sound daunting to you? How can I ask that much? Selena had done her groundwork. She had established her network, developed relationships with established influencers. With those connections in place Selena started writing guest blogs for established industry players and appeared on podcasts; all of which increased her visibility. In other words, she followed the steps outline in Episode 45 and in Episode 38. Ask yourself this What high-ticket item could you realistically offer? Write out a description that includes: Who is your ideal client? What is the price point for offering? What will they get in return? What is the duration? Why will it appeal to them? And why should they choose to work with you? From my observation most folks starting out undervalue their product, be brave. I do not always follow my own advice. I recently sold an 8-hour coaching program for $2500 to a large UK multinational. Looking back, I underpriced the package. But it does give me a good reference client and they do have several other employee who could benefit from the program. If they sign up for more packages, with the bulk of the work already done and following the prepare it once sell it many times principle it could be a nice earner. If you would like to learn whether I can achieve this success start to follow my blog – The Geriatric Entrepreneur – launching this month where I will share my journey in my quest to beat the tyranny of the clock. Tags: How to grow a business, achieve business success, employee individualism, self-assessment, motivation, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes; IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems I am committed to helping entrepreneurs succeed. I can bring the experience of 30+ years of experience at the C-Suite level in an MNC from Europe, North America, and Asia. Combine this with eight years of helping a diverse range of businesses and I can provide you with practical solutions to any difficult problems you may be facing. Please do not hesitate to contact me for chat via the following links: mailto:jeremy@business-in-asia.org Or schedule time via Calendly: https://calendly.com/3-continents-consulting My websites include: https://business-in-asia.org/ https://thedentistscfo.com/ My LinkedIn URL https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-gray1
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