As you think back over the last year of your business, are you pleased with your results? I hope so. I am proud of what you accomplished and you should be too! Are there some goals that you didn’t quite reach? If so, you’re not alone! Being goal oriented and stretching yourself is part of being an entrepreneur. But, for a variety of reasons, sometimes you miss the mark and don’t get the exact results you were looking for.

Fortunately, achieving your goals and creating your version of success is yours for the taking with a little planning, organization and consistent effort. Whether you’re looking for more clients, more visibility or more income in your business, you can reach all of these goals by creating and following through with a marketing plan.

If you’ve struggled with your marketing efforts in the past, you may be wondering, “Sydni, where do I start?” The answer is simple.

Based on what you’ve accomplished so far, what would you like to accomplish next? And what is the gap between where you’re at now and where you want to be? Once you’re clear on the gap, then you want to determine exactly what you need to do to bridge the gap. While it’s nice to think “I want to increase my income by $1500 each month” or “I want to attract six new clients,” you’ll never see those goals accomplished unless you’ve got a marketing plan to back it up.

Keep these questions in mind when you are planning your marketing activities for the next year: Read more about How to Create a Marketing Plan to Meet Your Goals

I recently reviewed my client list over the past 18 months to see where my clients had come from so that I could fine tune my marketing efforts. You see, Smart Simple Marketing is not about doing more. It's not about doing the "latest and greatest thing". It about doing what works and doing that consistently.      Read more about How to Find Out EXACTLY Where You Should Be Promoting Your Business

One of my favorite quotes comes from Basil S. Walsh, who simply asks, "If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?"

Do you know where you are going in 2011? Have you drawn out a ‘road map’ for the direction you plan to take and assembled all the tools necessary to assure you will reach your business goals in the coming year?

I know people who refuse to ask for directions when traveling. They think they will be able to eventually figure out where they are and where they need to be – and they may – but at what expense? An extra cost in gas? Arriving late to their destination, perhaps missing out an important opportunity? Or at the very least, experiencing more frustration and stress than necessary, potentially spoiling what could have been an otherwise enjoyable journey. Wouldn’t it be easier to just stop, regroup, and ask for help from someone more familiar with the area?

While you alone are responsible for following through on your New Year’s Resolutions – here are some simple strategies for service professionals which are sure to assist in making that resolution a reality:     MORE

Joseph Ghabi said, "Your life will begin changing the moment you decide that you want it to. In order to facilitate change you must first be willing to allow it to manifest in your life, your heart, and in your thoughts."

The same principle applies to growing your business.  If you want to serve more people, create more profits, and enjoy more freedom in your business, you must make the decision to do things differently than you are currently doing.  And that starts with your mindset.

I find that many service professionals understand this, but struggle to take the first step because their mind is cluttered with ideas, client requests, overdue to-do items, and more.  REALLY- the first step must be to de-clutter and organize your mind, so that you can think clearly, determine exactly what you want to accomplish, and start taking the necessary, strategic action to achieve your goal.

Do you find any of the following details to be cluttering your mind? MORE

You've gotten clear on what you want to accomplish in your business. You've set specific, measurable goals for yourself. You've mapped out a plan and scheduled time on your calendar to take consistent action. What else can you do to ensure that you achieve your goal of consistently attracting ideal clients to your business?

Two things:

1. Determine how to eliminate your goal saboteurs
2. Create a support/accountability system to keep you on track

First, let's address the goal saboteurs. We ALL have them. Overcoming them is simply a matter of acknowledging yours and setting up systems to eliminate them.

The most common saboteur I see is "bright shiny object" syndrome. If you have ever taken small children to a candy store, you may have laughed to yourself as you watched them run around the store trying to taste everything they could put their hands on. There is no focus or logic to their decisions. They just want to try everything.

You don't want to run your business this way, where you're chasing every new opportunity presented to you, without any rhyme or reason. If you have a tendency to always want to try the next "new" thing, recognize that you have to have rein yourself in. From today forward, start making decisions in your business based on which path will get you closest to your specific goals. Setup a support system so that you don't get sidetracked and lose sight of what you're trying to accomplish. MORE

Last week we discussed how to set achievable goals for your business and why this is so important. The next step is to simply start taking action.

Unfortunately, this is often where service professionals get stuck. If we allow it to, analysis paralysis can set in and we can find ourselves overwhelmed; spinning our wheels, wasting time, and accomplishing nothing. But, those who are successful in business don't stand around waiting for results to land in their lap. They boldly take the first step, even if they're more than a little afraid and haven't quite figured out all the details.

The three most common excuses I hear for not marketing one’s business are:

• "I don't know where to start"
• "I'm too busy and don't have time to market"
• "I don't have the money to invest in marketing"

If any of these thoughts have ever crossed your mind, you may be wondering how to go about breaking through such limiting notions and creating results in your business.

Here are a few suggestions that will help: MORE

Last week we discussed how to get clear on what is (and what is not) working in your business, so that you can make the necessary adjustments and start seeing better results with your marketing.

Once you are clear on what you'd like to change and just what your baseline is, it's time to start setting some goals.  Setting goals is a critical factor in your business success for the following reasons:

• Setting goals gives you something to work toward.
• Working toward goals allows you to measure your progress.
• When you stay focused on your goals you will be more likely to say no to distractions that could delay your progress.

Setting and achieving your goals will increase your confidence, improve the quality of the services you offer and make you more attractive to prospects.  When defining your goals, it’s important to keep a few things in mind: MORE

One of the most important elements of effective marketing is often the most difficult for solo service professionals to maintain.  That is marketing consistently.  To keep your pipeline filled with ideal clients who happily and readily pay for your solutions, you MUST market your business consistently.

I find though, that many service professionals feel that they don't have time to do so.  It can be easy to become so consumed in serving the clients you do have and running your business that your marketing efforts may unintentionally be pushed aside.

If you've ever found yourself having "fallen off the wagon" when it comes to your marketing efforts, you'll be happy to know that a quick and easy tune-up can get you right back on track.

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Would you like to learn a simple secret to ensure that your clients get the BEST possible results from working with you, while at the same time boosting your profits? Of course! The answer lies in how you package and present your services. With ONE simple tweak to how you offer your services you can better support your clients, create raving fans and significantly increase your income. Learn all about this simple strategy in this week's episode!

How To Create Better Results For Your Clients While Boosting Your Income (SSMS Episode 18) [ 12:17 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (195)

Are you confused by the "noise" of all the different strategies available to market your business?  You may hear one “expert” saying you HAVE to do social media or else you can’t have a thriving business.  Someone else is saying that you HAVE to do pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic to your website.  Still another claims that blogging is the "golden ticket" to your success!

Then there's the fact that, as entrepreneurs, we often find it difficult to get through everything we'd like to accomplish in one day.  You may be so busy serving clients and doing your work, that your well-intentioned marketing plans fall by the way side.  If you don't have a head for marketing or aren't tech savvy, it can seem downright impossible to make any headway in growing your business.  And what happens then?  Because you can't decipher what to do next, are pressed for time and have limited marketing knowledge you become overwhelmed and wind up doing nothing.

Doing nothing to market your business is not an option.  If you don’t consistently market your services, you won't continue to attract new prospects and eventually your client base will dry up, leaving you with no revenue and no business.

So what's the solution?

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