Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship, Part 4, Learn Marketing

Learn marketing or go bust

This is yet another thing I did wrong when I first started as a new entrepreneur, so learn from my mistakes. I didn’t fully understand the importance of marketing. I had the typical employee mindset – I thought if I offer excellent service, somehow the clients would show up, and I’d make money. Wrong. (Image by Patrick J Lynch)

Right now, there are tons of professionals who can offer outstanding services and yet have so few clients. Many are forced to go back to regular employment out of financial needs. I was pretty close to the low point. Gee, just remembering how I was feeling with that dim outlook makes me cringe.

If you can, start learning about marketing ASAP while you still have employment. It will save you a lot of heartache.

Get Clients Now! — marketing coach in a book

For me, there were two things that helped me to get clients. One, I hired Naomi Dunford and got her personalized advice. It was well worth the money. Two, I read several books on marketing, including Get Clients Now!

This book is like a marketing coach in a book. After briefly explaining the marketing theory, it shows the various approaches from which you are to choose and make your own specific action plan for the next 30 days. It is so practical. Many books talk about marketing ideas that sound nice, but after reading those books, I found myself saying to myself, “Okay . . . so what do I do?” With Get Clients Now! you are writing down your action plan by the time you are one-third way of the book.

It even shows the relative effectiveness of each marketing approach (Let me tell you, advertisement is low in the ranking) so you get to make informed choices. Then you make a checklist, and work on the plan day in day out. The book comes with daily encouragement, the author talking to you from the page as your marketing coach.

It’s important to choose the approach that utilizes your strengths. I like writing, so I blog and network through this platform, but there are other ways. For example, a friend of mine has made a strong connection with the local alternative health center, where people who are more open to spiritual healing gather. If you are like hands-on face-to-face communication, this kind of approach is great.

Regarding the 30 day plan I made according to the Get Clients Now!, I haven’t completed it honestly. It was so effective that I got plenty of clients somewhere in week 3 and forgot about filling the checklist. Now I know clients come in waves, so there may be times in the future when I need to do more marketing – but then I know what to do. I go back to this book, make a new plan, and work on it.

Marketing is about communicating your love for the work you do

Here is the surprising part: I now love marketing. I used to hate the idea of marketing and sales, to talk people into buying my service. I felt shallow when I had to do it. It didn’t fit into my philosophy of “Live and Let Live” And I usually didn’t make the sale, so that added to my negative feeling and hesitation about marketing.

I have a different idea about marketing now. Marketing is about introducing and educating people about the thing I love so much. I love it, I firmly believe it has lots of value, so I want to talk about it. Just like I want to talk about the great movie I saw. I don’t care all that much if my “marketing” results in immediate sales. If it does, it’s great, and I know my service has more value than the money my clients pay, so I feel good. If it doesn’t, I still feel good because I know I gave them valuable info.

Ironically, it seems to me that the less I care about the immediate results of my marketing, the more sales I make. By far, the best marketing gig I’ve done so far for my Akashic Record Reading was the interview Hunter Nuttall facilitated. I worked on that interview over the long Labor Day Weekend without expecting sales at all. I did the interview because Hunter is my friend, he had my reading and had lots of great questions that I found interesting too. It’s an interview, so there is really no sales talk. But the readers picked our enthusiasm, they asked many thought-provoking questions in the comments, and a good number of them contacted me directly ^_^ (And I’m sure the posts were great traffic attractor for Hunter, too. It was a win-win-win for Hunter, readers, and me. Now send a few more interviews like this my way, and I’ll be rich ^_^)

So again, it’s critical to choose your business niche based on what you love, as we discussed in part 1 of this Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship series. Your love and passion will show when you talk to people, and therefore it will affect your sales. And when you love what you do, you almost owe to deliver it to the appropriate audience. How can you possibly keep that goodie to yourself? Love is better shared, we all know that.

Do you like marketing? Do you have great marketing ideas? (I’m still learning, so I’m all ears if you do!)

Further reading: Learning to Love Networking Learn three practical techniques to make your great first move in networking that is critical in any marketing. Or read on to Part 5 of this series.

10 Spiritual Money Practices To Eliminate Poverty

This post is for Blog Action Day 2008 that is about Poverty.

It’s also a supplement to my last post on how to start your own business because the issue of money is unavoidable when you quit your job and make the leap of faith. (Photo by Kaptain Krispy Kreme)

Real cause of poverty

When we think about poverty, it’s so easy to focus on the existing tragedies such as the homeless people or the starving children in Africa. I feel for them, but I’m asking you to put those issues aside for a moment and think why poverty exists. Let’s take care of the root cause first.

Now imagine two individuals – two brothers, with the same educational background. Will they achieve the same level of financial status as they proceed in life? We’ve seen similar cases and know they won’t, right? So what makes one succeed, while the other fails miserably? It’s their thinking. One is focused on wealth, abundance, and success, and the other only sees lack and poverty in and around him.

In my previous bank job, I was told never to judge customers by their appearances. A stinky homeless-like guy may have tens of thousands of dollars while the guy in nice suit may be deep in debt. (As bank employees, we knew this.) I also read that Donald Trump once said, when the economy was down, that the homeless guys had more net worth than himself because they had some coins in their papercups while he was deep in debt.

So what makes Donald Trump rich? He focuses on abundance and success. While the guy on the street worries like crazy and never touches his savings.

Kiva: Empowering the have-nots

This understanding that poverty starts not from external lacks but from the internal scarcity thoughts has taken roots in our social awareness. For example, charity. Charity used to be about sending money to the needy. This only helped the needy superficially and temporarily. Now organizations like Kiva lends money to the people who currently don’t have the money but are willing to make some. They treat the people as those who have the full potential to become rich – just not there yet. This is empowering.

Do you still think there are absolute poverty? People who just can’t climb up from poverty because of their outwardly circumstances? Well, I’m not going to argue – there may be because this physical world is not perfect. For those of you who think that way, however, the real question may be: Are you using their poverty as an excuse for you to stay stuck?

I’ve seen this pattern of thought. For example, Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question describes people who say something like “Oh, but those poor immigrants . . . they take the worst jobs . . . I feel bad being so picky about what I want to do in my life . . .” As an immigrant myself, I say BS. Don’t use us as an excuse of your procrastination and lack of courage. For the same token, don’t use people in poverty as your excuse. Pick up after yourself and the world will be a better place.

10 principles of spiritual money practice to eliminate poverty and to become rich yourself

There are a lot you can do right here and now to decrease the world poverty, and only you can do them because they are about your own spirit. In the meantime, they will make you rich

Here are the principles of spiritual money practice (I will be explaining them into more details in my future posts):

1. Let go of your scarcity thoughts. One by one, as they surface in your mind.
2. At the same time, expand your spirit to allow higher level of abundance for yourself and others. (My Dream Money Project is a fun way to do this.)
3. Accept money as a form of natural abundance. There is nothing dirty or evil about money. We can do a lot of good things with money.
4. Learn to see the current situation, financial or not, as a vehicle to learn the valuable lessons rather than being stuck in it.
5. Learn to see the possibilities behind what meets your eye. There are a lot of opportunities to make money.
6. Take responsibility for your own life. Don’t wait until you win the lottery to do what you want to do. Use the power of your free will and free choice to create your own life.
7. See abundance in nature. Be amazed how God (or any name Divinity) has made this physical world so abundant and beautiful. Isn’t the sunrise literally priceless?
8. See everyone as your equals and treat them with respect. Money goes around and comes through people.
9. Start your day with gratitude and end your day with gratitude.
10. Enjoy giving.

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur – the startup money issue

You might want to do some math how much money reserve you need to quit your corporate job and start your own business. Alternatively, you can take a part-time job or rely on your family’s income. But still, there is a point when you cut your umbilical cord and step into the unknown. No amount of money can make this transition completely safe.

When I was starting as a new entrepreneur, I often thought about the Kiva beneficiary in another country that I was supporting. Or about Muhammad Yunus, the banker to the poor, and his story of lending money to a woman who wanted to buy a goat to eventually sell its milk. (If my memory serves me well, she expanded her business further and later became Mr. Yunus’ business partner) It gave me tremendous courage in the uncertain days of early entrepreneurship.

What is your money hangups? Write them in the comment as a way to overcome them!

Further reading: This book review is about how to become a millionaire.

Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship, Part 3, Check Your Readiness

How do you know if you are ready to jump?

So you carved out your niche from what you love and polished it to a marketable products or services. Now you have the basic idea of what kind of business you will be in. But how do you know if you are ready to leave your corporate job and become an entrepreneur?

There are things you can check to objectively evaluate your readiness. For this, I’ve already written the e-workbook 7 Check Points For Aspiring Entrepreneurs, so I’ll just do a quick review of that book in this post. Then there is the inner knowing, the critical sense of readiness.

Don’t sabotage your aspiration with perfectionism

There is one thing I want to emphasize before we move ahead, however. It’s about perfectionism. When you are caught up in perfectionism, you are likely to say one of the following two things (or both) to procrastinate:

1. “But I’m not ready yet. There are more I need to learn about this niche. If I’m starting my own business, I want to be the best, and I’m not there yet . . .”
2. “(Even though you have a clear plan or picture of your future business), but I don’t know if my plan is good enough. There may be things I have not considered . . .”

The truth is you don’t need to be the best to start a business. You need to be good at it, of course, to the point it makes sense people pay for your service or products, and it’s important you are committed for improvement, but you don’t need to be the best.

Starbucks don’t offer the best coffee. They may say so, but that is just their marketing. I know much better coffee. But I still go to Starbucks often because I like the atmosphere there. Did Microsoft perfect its technology before launching to sell their software? Did you buy their stuff anyway? Same with service industry. Is you doctor the best? Maybe not even in the small community you live in. How about your hairdresser?

Later, when we talk about marketing, we will be talking about what home-based business marketer Naomi Dunford calls USP (Unique Selling Proposition). No, I’m not going to repeat what she already taught you, so if you are not familiar about this concept of how to differentiate you from the crowd, please check out that post and maybe the rest of her Marketing School series. What I want to say here is “I’m the best.” is NOT an effective differentiater, so right here and now, you need to be heading to high quality and uniqueness, not the impossible conceited status of the best-ness.

And you can never foresee and prepare for all the challenges you will have in your business. You and your business are to grow through the challenges. You can’t have a perfect business plan and be done with it. Commitment for improvement is far more important.

How to check your readiness

I think the best way is to talk it out. Get a trusted partner who would give you honest feedbacks, not just nice compliments. You may want to hire a business coach – it’s a good investment compared to crashing a new business due to poor preparation. Again, be sure to get a coach who knows what it is like to start a new (probably home based) business and who is honest and has integrity.

Then, talk about your plan. If you find yourself hesitating to talk about certain aspects of your plan, that is a good indication that part needs further work.

My $2.95 mini e-workbook offers a lot of questions you can use in this dialogue in the following seven areas:

1. Motivation: The power of strong and sustainable motivation
2. Strengths and Weaknesses as Entrepreneur: How to realize the strengths that often go ignored
3. The Market: Understanding the market and its needs
4. Vision: The big picture of the business and its owner
5. Team Building: Strengthening the business by building a winning team
6. Risk Management: The biggest difference between an employee and entrepreneur
7. The Money Challenge: Testing the market and planning the cashflow

Be sure you are not “escaping”

In the first section “Motivation” of that workbook, I discuss the difference between moving toward your goals and dreams and moving away from what you loathe. This is important. If you want to escape, your goal is achieved the minute you step out the company building. It is not a sustainable motivation. If your motivation is all about escaping, you are not ready for a big adventure like starting a new business.

The inner knowing of readiness

I personally did this step really “wrong”, by the way. Sure, I studied and contemplated, but in the end, I basically just stepped out. No matter how much you prepare, there comes a moment you have to make a decision, and that comes as a quiet inner knowing. I knew I had to start a new life, so I did.

Please also read this article about money and abundance that supplements this post.
Or read on to Part 4 of this series.

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