4 Things You Absolutely MUST Spend the Money For

Just starting out in private practice, or moving from agency work to be out on your own? Haven't had to market for clients before and don't know where to start?

There are 4 tools and services you need to function as a business owner who relies on attracting clients for one-on-one counseling, coaching, or naturopathic healthcare. They are as important to your business as electricity is to your home.

A Client Attractive Website for Your Practice

It's a well known fact now that most people who have computers do an internet search first when thinking about needing our services. In addition, many allied professional want to check us out before referring, and want to see our website. If you don't have one, it's like announcing to the world that you aren't ready for prime time.

You don't have to pay a designer thousands of dollars to have a website. They really aren't that difficult to create on template-driven webhosts. See my Web-Based Marketing Resource Packs for Counselors, Coaches, or NDs for a list of recommended, inexpensive and easy to use do it yourself web-builders.

Your Own Domain Name

Rather than having your website address be something like yahoo.com/TopekaTherapy it really is better to buy just Topeka Therapy.com. It's more memorable and clear, and looks more professional, like you are serious about your work and the success of your business.

Many webhost / website builder companies will also have domain name registration as part of your package. Some charge more than they should, but many make the whole process very easy. One that I like so much that I became an affiliate of is Webstarts.com.

An Autoresponder Vendor That Can Send Attachments

To build relationship with potential clients who are yet ready to make appointments and commit to therapy or coaching, you'll want to be able to provide them with a useful piece of self-help in exchange for collecting their email address. In the beginning before you have more than 50 names on your business email list, you could manage this manually with your personal email program.

Once your list goes beyond 50 names you really will need an account with an email broadcast vendor such as Constant Contact, MailChimp or Aweber. Short information pieces -- such as tip sheets -- or a series of short articles, these can be delivered by your personal email, but will tend to get blocked from delivery if you send to a group larger than 50.

The best solution is to pre-program an autoresponder to send your self-help tip sheet or special report on request. Constant Contact is the easiest for that, but can't yet send attachments. Aweber sends attachments but is more difficult to configure. All broadcast email services provide a sign up box you can install on your website.

Listing in Locator Directories

Once your website is live on line, with its own address, and with an autoresponder email collection box on it, it's time for the last of the 4 essential items you must spend money for -- listing your practice on a locator directory, such as Psychology Today, CoachDigg, or HealthProfs. Some are free, but the better ones charge a monthly fee to list your practice. Look for the ones that rank high in natural search results, which means more people use those directories to find practitioners.

Don't forget that all these expenses are likely to be tax deductible in the cateogry of Advertising because they are spending you need to do to let the public know you are open for business.

The Art of the Soft Close for Business Phobic Solopreneurs

Solopreneur coaches often say that using a trial session is a way to discover if prospective clients are a good fit for us, and that it's a way for them to understand the benefits of coaching. New counselors are often tempted to provide a "free consultation" session for the same reasons.

But by itself, a trial or free consult session that has only these purposes won't necessarily turn a freebie into a paying client. What's needed is a comfortable way to "close the sale."

Yes, that's right, at some point we do actually have to ask for the business if we want it. We have to switch to the business-owner side of the brain and help the prospective client make the decision to hire.

I'm one of those who would rather not be put in that position. I'd much prefer that people would just automatically intuit, or deeply feel, or logically grok that my counseling or coaching services are so fantastic that they'd be super foolish to pass up the chance to pay me for them.

In the real world, it doesn't work like that. I've had to recognize that the REAL purpose of any trial or free consult session is to GET THE CLIENT. I've had to learn the art of the "soft close" -- that is, how to end the trial session with a comfortable way to talk about hiring me.

I have a brief outline for a soft close script I recently came across that I thought others who are reticent to be business-like in trial sessions might like to have. It's available on my wiki here.

The 4 Legs of Effective Marketing

Effective marketing strategy has 4 main legs:

1. who your ideal client is
2. what type of marketing personality You have
3. how much persistence you are able to commit
4. what stage of development you're in (what your marketing need is)

No one leg of strategy is THE answer for everyone.

Know who your ideal client is. This drives where and how you market, and what your marketing message needs to say. We all have to start here.

Know what type of marketing personality You have. This helps construct a marketing plan that can be consistently followed to get results. We all present ourselves and our business better if we lead with the strengths of being an introvert or extrovert, and use the style opposite from our own to supplement primary activities.

Know how much persistence you are able to commit. Carve out the necessary daily/ weekly/ monthly time, nurture the energy, gain the skills, and do the follow through -- all are needed to make your marketing efforts work.

By the way: four hours a day is optimal to start. Four hours a week is better than 4 hours a month. The more persistence you put in, the faster your business will grow.

Know whether you need to fill your pipeline, follow up with a contact list, get more chance to talk about your work, or become more efficient at converting interested people into clients. Those are the four stages of client attraction development for solopreneurs in the healing arts.

When you know which stage you're in, you'll know exactly what marketing activities you should be doing.

Need help? See The No Hype Mentor for a coaching package that's right for you.

3 Things that Steal Your Confidence -- & 3 Easy Daily Actions that Build It

3 Confidence Thiefs

• the unfamiliar
• procrastination
• fearful mindset

Confidence in life and in business, especially as a solopreneur, is sabotaged by encountering the unfamiliar -- situations in which we don't have a positive automatic reflex for knowing what to do, or believing we have the answers we need.

Procrastination robs us of success momentum. Putting things off for whatever reason -- especially the things that our business needs for daily growth and hygiene -- lets all the ingredients for success dry up and blow away.

Perhaps the greatest thief of confidence is the fearful mindset. Fear is generated when we soak in negative thinking about taking small risks, trying something new, or making a choice and following through. Probably the worst eroders of confidence are the self-asked questions: what if something bad happens? and its cousin, what if I do it wrong?

3 Confidence Builders

• be persistent
• take action now
  
• have learner's or adventurer's mindset

Things that we do over and over again become familiar. They become second nature. We learn to trust what to expect and know how to meet it. Persistence builds the confidence muscle. The most successful business owners try, fail, adjust, and try again. Confidence comes from the commitment to keep going.

Taking action that moves you forward in accomplishing your goals provides valuable feedback -- you can't know what works and what doesn't until you put something in motion. Many small actions done on a daily basis add up to business success. Small actions that succeed keep the confidence muscle toned and functioning at optimal levels.

Being a solopreneur is a life of adventure, of constantly learning to observe, assess, adjust, measure, and reap rewards. An approach that comes from the mindset of let's see what happens will bring more positive, delightful, and initially unexpected surprises that build confidence in tolerating risks.

So your coaching questions for today are:

1. What marketing activity do you need to apply some persistence to throughout this month?
2. How will you take action on promoting your business every day for the next 28 days?
3. Who can help you maintain the adventurous learner mindset, and how will you be accountable for being positive?
   

Are You Doing What it Takes to Succeed?

If I asked you to name the 3 top things you are doing to make your private practice succeed, what would you say?

What personal characteristic do you rely on most in making yourself a successful business owner?

Is there something that you know you need to have or do more of, before you will fully achieve your goals? What is that?

Most importantly, what will you do with your own answers to these questions?

For a little inspiration, I thought you might find this video of interest. For practical ideas and coaching, I'm here to help.

How Much Do Prospective Clients Know About You?

What do you tell prospective clients about yourself? What will they know about your passion for your work, and what led you to your choice of career field? Do you generate trust and rapport with bits of your own life story?


If you are like most of my clients, you probably feel uncomfortable with those questions.


A big issue in marketing among many of my clients is how much to disclose about themselves. As counselors, coaches and NDs, we've all been taught to keep extremely tight lipped about ourselves.


That training is a huge obstacle when it comes to effectively attracting ideal clients.


There is a natural conflict between the standard ideas about no personal disclosures and the need to talk about one's personal unique selling points and compelling story in relationship-based client attraction marketing.


Successful business owners work through this uncomfortable conflict.


Strong, prohibitive indoctrination about revealing anything about yourself generates fear of judgment from peers. We're left with a serious misunderstanding of what might or might not be ethical in marketing ourselves.


Consequently, most solopreneurs in the healing arts err on the side of just listing educational credentials and licenses, which often has a cold, egotistic, and distancing effect.


This is institutionalized, professional self-sabotage, similar to what doctors and lawyers faced decades ago when the AMA and ABA frowned on marketing private practices. It's a fear-based mindset that belongs to a past century, and that's out of step with today's business world.


It's a mistaken idea that marketing a self-employed business means talking about yourself. That type of self-promotion doesn't work very well.


A bit of your own life experience helps establish the know you, like you, trust you factor that is important in relationship-based client attraction marketing.

Is Your Fear of Risk Slowly Killing Your Practice?

These two terms -- solopreneur and risk-taker -- are operationally synonymous, when looking back from the vantage point of success. Businesses that succeed engage in continuous investment in marketing foundations and growth structures.

This is especially true of one-person practices in the helping and healing arts.

Yet, when looking forward from the mindset of a novice self-employed business owner, taking risks seems to be an anathema. I see a lot of this anxiety in those who are used to working for others and getting a steady pay-check.

Therapists, NDs, and coaches who aren't experienced with or temperamentally suited for wise risk-taking get emotionally, financially, and operationally paralyzed. When they can't overcome their fear, they soon find themselves out of business altogether.

It doesn't have to be that way. Fear of investing in your practice can and must be tamed.

One way to do that is to relate to your business as if it were your own child. It needs care and feeding, and new clothes on a continual basis. You can't feed it once in July and expect it to thrive on its own until October.

If your fear of risk is slowly killing your private practice, here are the action steps to turn that around.

1. Set a monthly budget -- think of it as an allowance for your child
2. Use all the do-it-yourself resources you can
3. Get expert help in outlining a marketing plan so you know the right things to do and when to do them
   
4. Discipline yourself to tend to marketing your business every day
5. Increase your budget as your practice grows
   
6. Develop and market multiple streams of income
   
7. Track the results of your efforts, discard what isn't paying off, increase what is

Above all, don't focus on the fear. Focus on the steps you are taking to nourish your child.

Marketing Misconceptions

If I had to brainstorm a list of the most common misconceptions about marketing a private practice as a counselor, coach or naturopathic doctor, I'd name these ideas frequently voiced by my clients.

1. mass market advertising is the best way to make people aware of your services
2. all a professional website needs is a description of your services, including benefits, and your contact info
3. joining a networking group is essential for getting new clients
4. a postcard campaign to referral sources announcing the opening of your business will bring in enough referrals
5. spend a week or so on marketing and then get down to business

There are likely many more misconceptions, and I may start keeping a list! But really, what's wrong with these ideas?

Each of these notions -- except #3 -- is rooted in the idea that there is a magic formula for attracting client that can be accomplished once, and never need ongoing tending. Most self-employed professionals don't realize that building a business is a fulltime job in itself, and that marketing is the most time and energy intensive activity we must continually do if we want to be successful.

Misconception #3 is usually wrong because we join general interest business groups, which is not usually where our clients are -- or because other networkers are intent on getting us as their clients.

Instead of these misconceptions, the marketing truths we need to accept are these:

1. Marketing, like bookkeeping, is a necessary DAILY task -- make it an appointment with success!
   
2. For solopreneurs in the healing arts, niche-based, client-centered marketing works. General, provider-centered marketing doesn't work.
3. Marketing from your personality strengths is more client attracting than trying to copy what works for others.
4. Market only to your ideal client, and don't waste time and resources on a general public.
5. Potential referral sources need to know why sending us clients will solve a problem for them, or how it will increase client loyalty for them.

Need more how to info on marketing your practice? See www.TheNoHypeMentor.com

Are You Using Marketing Intelligence?

Asking our target audience what they're main problems are that they are right now willing to invest in solving is the action of getting basic marketing intelligence. Big corporate advertisers do this by paying research companies to host focus groups.

Solopreneurs can do the same thing. In fact, it's a good marketing strategy to do so. People love to give their opinions usually. And they like to talk about themselves, and complain about their problems. A focus group is a gold mine of marketing intelligence.

The basis of an invitation to come to a focus group can be that you are gathering information on the topic of ______for a special report you are writing, or for the development of a special tip sheet or CD or workshop. Pitch the invitation as you wanting info from the "in the trenches" experts (your target niche audience).

During the focus group, be sure to sprinkle into your listening a few free tips. Just because you are acting as an information gatherer doesn't mean you aren't still the specialist in your field. Never miss an opportunity to let people sample you doing your work.

Of course, you then do have to create the report (or whatever), but that becomes a further good marketing tool itself.

Gathering marketing intelligence is a standard phase of business development for all startups, and for any new major product or revenue stream launch. They can be fun, informative, and excellent networking -- all at the same time! A great way to leverage your efforts.

Let's Get Real

Solid client attraction marketing is not a quick fix. The field of dreams website mindset -- if you build it, they will come -- is a myth. Despite the hype from many internet gurus, there is no magic wand to wave that will turn a lack of clients into a prosperous abundance overnight.

Let's get real -- Marketing is a continual process. There are many steps to success, many pieces that must be well crafted and put into (the right) place, before most self-employed service providers have not only a full client load but also a waiting list.

And then, you have to keep marketing to keep that stream flowing. Marketing isn't something you can do for a few months, and then sit back and wait for something to happen. Or worse, it isn't something you can stop when clients start ringing your phone off the hook.

Attracting clients requires daily effort. It requires focused purpose, clear strategy, compelling language. In other words, it requires some planning, and a lot of follow through. And then it requires some evaluation, and re-planning.

What's your marketing plan? What marketing efforts have you accomplished today? How's it working for you? What will you change, based on the results you're currently getting?

Desperation Tactics are Counterproductive

A lot of coaches, counselors and independent NDs are feeling pretty desperate for clients these days. Some have already closed their practices, or have taken part time jobs outside their professional field. Others are scrambling around to find creative new ways to offer their services.

Desperation tactics such as drastically lowering or sliding your fees below your bottom line costs, or cutting your marketing expenses are counterproductive to attracting clients in this economic climate.

Instead, this is the time to reconsider your ideal client concept:

• is it a viable market right now?
• how have their problems or suffering shifted?
• what are they desperate to eliminate and willing to pay you to help them get rid of?

How do you need to change your marketing message to connect with those clients right now?

People just don't hire helpers who project a vibe of being as desperate as the client. Are you aware of the emotional energy you are sending out in your marketing and networking efforts? Does it exude compassion and confidence?

If not, it's time to look for what you CAN feel 100% confident about, in terms of promoting your services. Some strategic thinking about varying the ways in which you offer services, and having different price points -- including giving away more information for free -- can give you a well diversified client attraction plan that will work better than shutting down out of fear.

Anxiety Poisons Self-Employed Business Spirit

Anxiety is toxic to body, mind and spirit. It clouds thinking, promotes irrational fear-based decision making, and causes us to contract not just physiologically in our muscles, but to pull back energetically on hopes, dreams, and plans.

From the perspective of attracting clients for your business, this is a period in which we all need to think smarter and be more creative. And that will be a challenge for some who get paralyzed by their fears.

Fear paralysis is a threat to our survival instincts -- the embodied reflex that prompts us to want to escape from danger. But as a biologic response that seeps into our financial and business thinking, it is counter-productive for a self-employed business owner.

This instinctual response leads some to taking rash actions that make things worse, including in some cases to abandon our dreams, sense of personal mission in life, and even to get out of self-employment altogether. What we mistakenly think is taking the safe route, actually prolongs the time we spend in danger.

Financial realities may require taking on some part time work in another field for a while, but I encourage you to not let go of your entrepreneurial dreams forever. Do at least one thing each day that keeps your own business going, no matter how small, or seemingly trivial. That keeps you connected to your goals, and helps maintain the posture of being ready for a comeback when the economy begins to rebound.