Kristie T’s Home Business Blog Fun, mom-geared work-at-home tips and advice on making money on the net.

When someone is really successful, you might hear someone say, “Oh, they are so lucky.”. The truth is that luck has nothing to do with it. We make our own luck in life. We are 100% responsible for everything that happens to us. Here’s a fun acronym for what luck REALLY is:

L.U.C.K. is “laboring under correct knowledge”

Isn’t that the truth? When you have a good strategy and you apply that knowledge, that’s when you start the “magic” beginning in your life.

Do you feel lucky? What do you do to stay positive and create your own luck? Do you believe in lucky charms like 4 leaf clovers or a rabbit’s foot?
What are your thoughts on being lucky?

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Have you read John Reese released new white paper on the Rebirth of Internet Marketing? He talks about the way the Internet marketing industry is changing.

Here are some of the key points John Reese makes about trends in Internet Marketing:

1) Markets are fragmenting. Niches are breaking up into 1000’s of mini-niches. Internet businesses can adapt, big business will suffer.
2) Pay per click costs will skyrocket. Businesses that depend on this will suffer. Depending on pay per click to be your main source of traffic is asking for trouble.
3) Businesses that don’t know how to survive these changes will go broke and shut down
4) Having a higher visitor value gives you the biggest chance of winning in the Internet game (bigger product funnel)
5) Selling junk won’t cut it, you need to have quality information that truly serves your market
6) Content rules. Give away your best stuff. Having lots of content helps you get ahead with SEO and with building customer trust.
7) Reverse squeeze page - give great content and say “if you want more great content like this sign up here”
Hype is out, Education and Entertainment Rules (I have seen this true in the speaking industry as well!)
People are bombarded with ads. Marketing is less effective. If you can entertain them and make them smile you cut thru the clutter.
9) Long sales letters are out - Hybrid salesletters that are short and combined with video convert better
10) Video is absolutely critical in your online marketing - it converts way better than text or audio
11) Internet marketers who know how to leverage the power of relationships will win

http://www.income.com/images/reports/rebirth.pdf

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As your home based business grows, the model of doing everything yourself quickly becomes impossible. If you want to continue to grow without drowning in your own success, you need to expand with a success team.

I have experienced this firsthand in my business ventures. With 4 businesses now, it truly is impossible to handle everything myself and get it done correctly and on time. I hired several virtual assistants, and that has been very helpful. But I was still struggling to handle all the business I was attracting in my web design business - until now that is!

It all started with a vision and a list in my mind of what qualities that person would need to have: initiative, drive, motivation, attention to detail, quick learner, responsible, and good communicator. Well, it took a year of looking, but I finally found that person. Finally now, I can run my web design business, like a business.

What outsourcing< /tag> people if you brought them in to help would make all the difference in your business? Do you need a virtual assistant, a bookkeeper, a webmaster, or a internet marketing assistant? Here’s to wishing you huge success as your business grows in finding the right people to take your vision to the next step.

Do you use outsourcing help now? What kind of help if you had it now would help your business?

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In direct selling, there is a concept called the power hour. During that 1 hour, first thing in the morning, you commit to doing the things that will move your business forward. Part of that involves knowing what the profit making activities are in your business. Every day you need to sit down and make a to do list of what’s on your plate and decide which tasks to focus on first.

Let’s face it. You are a mom. It’s really easy between loads of laundry, doing dishes, and taking care of the kids to get busy and not get the money making activities done. So my solution is identify those activities and do them first!

For instance your daily list might look like this:
- send invoices for work performed last week *
- call the prospect that contacted me with a quote *
- call my client with the consulting appointment *
- do website updates for client then bill him *
- write a new email marketing message to promote new affiliate program
- read email
- return phone calls
- add a new seo optimized page to the site
- go to the post office
- go to the bank

Notice that the 4 activities I put an asterisk by will result in earning money right away.

Just look at your list and ask yourself, what activities if I did them would make me the most money, the soonest, with the least amount of work? Put a star by those things and commit to do them first.

My putting those money making activities first in a “power hour” you’ll move farther and faster in your home business.

What do you do in your power hour?

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My friend Marie Ynami is hosting a neat online event for women. It’s an online event for women in honor of International Women’s Day (3/8/07). This year, Celebrating Women’s Day Online Celebration is on March 13-15, 2007. There will be guest speakers for Celebrating Women’s Day will talk about topics related to empowering women. There will be networking, interactive chats and workshops, contests and goodie bags.

This celebration is FREE and held ONLINE - which means no parking fees, no baby-sitting fees - come in your pajamas - it’s a time to relax, have fun and be empowered.

Sign up to get Celebrating Women’s Day Events updates and information here.

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Mom entreprenuers, we have a great free teleclass coming up for you on Thursday. It’s called “Run Your Business Like a Business” with Michael Roby. Too often, home-based businesses don’t succeed to their fullest potential because the business owner doesn’t compartmentalize their time. This teleseminar provides ideas about two related areas of your business:

1. Time management tips for your growing business
2. Creating and building relationships to make your business grow faster and more profitably

Michael Roby is sharing his insider secrets with us on Thursday, Jan 18th at 2 pm CT.

To register for this teleclass, just send an email to teleclass@webmomz.com and we’ll put you on the list. After you register, we’ll email you the bridge line to call in on.

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I see so many entrepreneurs getting caught up in tactics. If only I could get more traffic, if only I get my blog going, if only I get that pay per click campaign going. In truth, those are just marketing techniques. And marketing does not ALWAYS equal money. When it comes right down to it, there are only 3 ways to increase your business revenues.

1) Grow your customer base. To do this, you need to get exposure to new people and get them to know, like, and trust you. Think about where your customers “hang out”. What websites do they visit? What magazines do they read? What forums do they visit? Go where your customers are.

2) Make the size of the purchase bigger. It’s the “would you like fries with that” approach. Instead of being a 1 product pony, thing about what else you can sell to those same customers. Take your $19 ebook and add an audio version and a workbook and you’ve made the purchase size bigger. Then have consulting, group coaching, and seminars you can upsell them to. Do you have monthly services you can sell to them to build a residual income? All of these things work to increase the lifetime value of a customer.

3) Get your customers to buy more often. Remind your customers when they mind be running low on supplies. Use email marketing to keep in touch with them so they don’t forget about you when the time comes to repurchase. Make a “book of the month” club and send them a note every month about the new book along with a link to buy. One smart idea is to send them a 12 CD case holder when they purchase the 1st CD so they have a place to put the other cd’s as they create a collection.

So, there you have it. Those are the big secrets to making money in your business. Take some time to ask yourself how you could apply each of those strategies to your current offerings.

What ways have you implemented these strategies and gotten results in your business?

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Plans and Projects and Goals — Oh My!

So you have taken some time to think about what you really want, but how do you break down the masses of plans, goals, research etc to stay organized and track for your “go big” year?

Here’s my personal process and plan.

1) Get a big picture vision about the work you really want to do and how you can best serve
2) Create the following plans: business plan, marketing plan, product funnel, product development plan, and specific project plans.
3) Write goals with dates and deadlines
4) Make a dream map to get you visually excited about you big success for next year
5) Write affirmations to help you strengthen your belief systems and engage your personal power
6) Break down your big plan into a managable schedule. Set quarterly goals and 3 main intentions per quarter.
7) Create files to track and store research and work in progress
Create a big dream binder book that has vision statement, affirmations, values, goals, dream map

Here’s the files I created to stay organized:
- blog
- podcast
- free report
- teleseminars
- SEO
- publicity
- coaching
- speaking
- events
- dream team
- competitors
- specific files for various marketing tactics
- a file for each chapter of the products I am developing
- a file for each project you are understaking

What’s your process for strategic planning and getting organized for the year? Do you have any neat rituals or processes you go thru to prepare for the coming business year? Share your tips here.

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Do you have a grand plan for what you want to achieve in your business this year or are you doing “hit or miss” projects and opportunities that sound good as they come along? I “thought” I knew what I wanted in my home business for the past 10 years. And while I was making huge progress on the things I was focused on, I was scattering my efforts in too many directions.

Are you guilty of living in entrepreneurial margueritaville and just doing things because it’s fun and it sounds like a good idea for your business? It’s an adrenalin rush yes, but it dissolves your personal power.

Once you focus all your efforts and really get a clear picture of what you want, suddenly every action you take is lined up in unison all for the achievement of one common vision. That puts the Law of Attraction to work for you and let’s you effortlessly create greater success.

Here are some things you can do differently to align and leverage all my business efforts in 2007

- Make sure that the publicity you are getting actually media for is focused on topics directly aligned with the products/services you offer.
- Write for your niche. Don’t write above their heads. Don’t write for your peers. Do an ask campaign or visit forums to see what your audience really cares about and write that.
- Have a strategic plan to work customers through your product funnel. How will you get customers to sign up for the free report. How will the free report lead them to a 1 hr consultation or your bottom level product? Then how do you convert them to either your $300 product or next level of service.
- Don’ jump on new business opportunities unless they are in aligment with your big goals. If it’s not in alignment, say no.
- Align what you are learning with your goals for the year.- Then make sure the actions you choose are helping you to make progress towards those big overall goals.
- Leverage your blog posts, podcast interviews, and article writing with the content/products that you want to produce for the year
- Optimize first for web pages for the things that directly drive revenue in your business. Those are your money words.
- Attend events that your customers would attend.
- Align your speaking topics directly with the “add on” products and services you offer. You want back of the room sales and extra consulting to further add value for your customers.

Imagine if you are this focused, what a powerful vibe you’ll send out to attract exactly the customers, colleagues, opportunities, and resources you need for a really successful year! That’s the power of a focused business.

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Now that the year is coming to a close, have you done your goal setting for next year? I used to think all the time spent on goals and business plans was overrated. But now I see it as fun dreaming and making a wish list that you present to the universe that makes it really easy to get exactly what you want in your business.

Here are some questions to ask yourself in planning 2007.
More than just a business plan, it’s also a marketing plan and personal development plan.

BUSINESS PLANNING
- What is the “theme” for your business in 2007?
- What’s your product funnel look like?
- What’s the next products that you will develop next year?
- Where can you cut expenses in 2006?
- What business activities will you drop to make room for new growth?
- What tasks that you now handle yourself can you outsource next year?
- Do you need to raise rates?
- After reviewing your income streams for 2006, which 3 were the most profitable for you?
- How can you take those top 3 revenue streams to the next level next year?
- How can you leverage content you have and turn it into additional products?
(blog posts, articles, audio products)

- What new vendors do you need to add to your dream team?
- What systems can you create to simplify your business (billing, accounting, customer service, selling, marketing)

MARKETING PLANNING
- Where can you strengthen/improve your marketing for next year?
- What marketing vehicles brought you the most customers last year?
- What can you do to boost your marketing in those winning marketing channels in 2007?
- What are your top 3 marketing strategies you will focus on next year?
(seo, networking, referrals, direct mail, podcast, pay per click. JV, affiliate marketing)

- What media outlets will you target to get publicity for your business?
- Who are the people you want to add to your dream team
- What keep in touch strategies will you use for relationship marketing with your customers and audience?
(sending birthday cards, email marketing, autoresponders)

- What professional organizations would be best to join to align with your business goals and reach your audience?
- What events and seminars do you want to attend for networking
- What new marketing collateral do you need to develop?
(blog, ezine, brochure, speaker one sheet, postcard, article, speeches, free reports, teleseminars, free workshops, landing pages, sales letters)

- What existing marketing materials need updating

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
- In what ways can you enhance your performance through personal development to achieve more
(time management, financial management, goal setting, focusing your actions, working with a coach, affirmations, overcoming limiting beliefs)

- What business books would you like to read?
- What professional skills would you like to develop?
- What mentors would you like to learn from?
- In what ways can you enhance your home office to make it more inspiring, organized, and efficient for you?

That’s what’s in my detailed business plan for next year. Hope that gives you some food for thought. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there. But having a vivid plan for your success will take you beyond your wildest dreams.

Wishing you a very successful 2007.

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