Do you find that the New Year brings an onslaught of those events or messages from people, all about “setting one’s intentions towards success”?
I love those, because I think it’s so critical to step away from our daily chores in business to look at the bigger picture: “Could I spend time on myself, and less on my business?” “Am I earning enough revenue, and if not, why not?” “What are my bigger-picture life goals, and how does my business fit into that – or interfere with it?”
My friend Christine had me in hysterics when she put me on hold at work, saying, “Oh, if only work didn’t interfere with my personal life so much.” It was funny, to be sure. But it also gave me food for thought about my intentions for the year.
MAKE MONEY HELPING OTHERS
Like many of my colleagues, along with the need to earn a living I started my business to help people, and to give profits to worthy organizations I support. This year I wondered if my intentions (and donations) were significant enough.
Then I learned something remarkable.
As I was writing this eLetter, I heard about a company that tripled its revenues in just a few hours:
http://doubletakeclothing.bigcartel.com/product/help-haiti-20. In one day they launched a brand-new, extremely worthwhile business model, selling t-shirts to raise money to aid Haitians in the wake of the country’s devastating earthquake. These savvy business-owners created unprecedented demand in just 3 hours, and made $1000 in that amount of time. And that was only their first day in business!
HOW DID THEY TRIPLE PROFITS IN THREE HOURS?
They caught the attention of one of the country’s leading bloggers, Seth Godin, who then mentioned them in his hugely popular blog. Sales and donations have been pouring in from this exposure ever since. Sure, they have other marketing strategies in place. But this one brought significant exposure to them, fast!
It makes you think, right? In our country we are so fortunate to have the social services, emergency networks, and infrastructure that Haiti lacks. In our businesses we are equally lucky that we can generate income. We may not make all we want to, or have a lot of time to spare. But I think we sometimes take for granted all that we do have.
HERE’S AN ALTERNATIVE IDEA
Think about how much opportunity we have right now. We are not living in a war-torn country, with bombs threatening our lives daily. If you’re reading this, you’re probably not without food, water or shelter. And you likely have many communications media at your disposal: radio, TV, email, newspapers, telephones, mobile devices and more. Sure, we all whine about the time it takes to manage that collection of devices and media. But at least we have the choice.
What about our personal choices? How often have you thought, said or heard something like this: “I have so many clothes in my closet; I just can’t decide which to wear tonight.” “I have to go on a diet because there’s too much food to choose from.” “I can’t decide whether to take a yoga class, go to tai chi, or force myself to get to the gym tonight.” In this country our lives are insanely abundant.
ABUNDANT WEALTH
In a similar vein, we have so many ideas for our businesses that we don’t have time to implement them all: We could create a new service, build a website, launch a new campaign, hire more people or experts to help us implement our plans, or revise our marketing plan so we can find “balance,” and do everything we want without torturing our schedules or budgets.
We have so much education, training, and potential funding sources that we can’t even decide how to narrow our “titles” to one thing (i.e. “I’m a massage therapist, but I also do Reiki, offer herbal remedies, coach people on stress reduction,” and so on). I know you’ve heard this kind of introduction! We get frustrated at having to summarize all of our talents, and affix one small label on top, when most of us have so many competencies we can offer to others.
WHAT WE CAN DO
We can rethink our wealth: Does it make us happier to have money in our bank account, or to give it to someone in need? Will a new pair of shoes really help us get that boyfriend? (maybe it depends on the shoes! Just kidding). Do we need to travel more to get a better perspective on our life, or to get some needed downtime? If we take serious action on our marketing, can we earn more so we can fulfill a bigger life purpose?
Well, of course you can guess my answer.
HERE ARE TOOLS TO HELP
We created high-quality, low-cost tools and packages that help people improve their marketing; specifically those that help them fulfill their dreams. Our agency typically finds that clients who work with our designers, web teams and writers, and those who invest in marketing consulting (or coaching) earn triple what they pay us. And, our tools are designed to save eons of time while improving your marketing so you earn more. Below are a few that we recommend – especially if you’re tired of twittering around, and reading about your friends having latte with their kids – who cares?! If you’re not linked into how social media actually works to build business, or if you need some help making your marketing work, here are a few ways to get started:
Make your website convert looky lu’s into sales
Stop Wasting Time: Get Expert Social Media Management
Let people find you on Google so you can help them
Ensure your strategies and messages will actually bring you business.
BRING PASSION TO YOUR WORK
Passion. Joy. Bliss. That’s what we’re all about. What about you? Please share your comments for our readers on our blog; your insights will help keep us all on track when we’re having those “downward momentum” days!
Need help? Just contact us. We’ll get back to you. Really!
Client Results
“As my business partner and I launched our new business, we needed help in bringing our services to market. We had heard great things about Allison, and we really liked her approach and style, so it was an easy choice to hire her.”We thought we would be getting a marketing plan, but we got so much more!
“Not only is Allison an outstanding marketing mind who created amazing collateral, a website and a brand for us, but she is an astute business person overall. She listened carefully, asked great questions, and then suggested so many creative ideas to help us establish ourselves as a market leader for our service.
“She helped us design different packages to provide our services – ways that we would have never thought of on our own. She regularly thought of different marketing campaigns to keep our name out there with a unique, professional style.
“When the dotcom crash happened, and our business was severely affected, she helped us quickly re-brand ourselves to serve a different market and survive the downturn. And she worked with us in such a fun, non-judgmental way, yet with a calm authority that reassured us that we were getting sound, reliable advice.
“I thoroughly enjoyed working with her and loved the results we got from her work – I can’t recommend her highly enough.” – Sandy Minella, CEO, Start Up Right
Thanks, Sandy! You prove my point that: “Knowledge is Bliss”
May this be your most extraordinary year! Allison Bliss Consulting 510-879-7600
Total Marketing Services. Totally Talented Teams of Experts. . . Totally easy for you, all in one place.
Total Bliss!