Showing posts with label Get Clients Now. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Get Clients Now. Show all posts

Friday, December 28, 2007

Guest Author: Will Seminars Get You Clients?

By C.J. Hayden, MCC
Author, Get Clients Now

I often suggest public speaking as a powerful way to show prospective clients what you can do. Many professionals and consultants have built successful practices by giving free presentations to associations, businesses, and educational institutions. But what about producing your own seminar, where you arrange the logistics and invite the guests? Does this work as a strategy for landing clients?

Offering a seminar can be an effective means to become more visible to your target market. If you are a good (or even fair) presenter, and the right people come to your seminar, you will definitely get new customers. But to use seminar marketing successfully, you need to be very clear on your goals, and plan each seminar carefully.

If the purpose of your seminar is primarily to get clients, you shouldn't be expecting to make money on the seminar itself. You may wish merely to cover your expenses, or maybe even spend a little extra. For this type of seminar, the key to making it pay off is to attract people who are good prospects for your business in the first place, rather than just filling the room.

Instead of making your seminar free, it's a good idea to charge a small fee. That way, your prospective clients will perceive you as offering something of value. The fee will also discourage attendance by people who can't afford your product or service. It's the quality of the participants that matters, not the quantity.

If what you really want is for your seminar to turn a profit, you must recognize that by offering full-fee seminars, you are adding another line of business to your company. Operating as a seminar producer will require the same kind of planning and ongoing management as your existing business does.

It can be as difficult to make a profit on your first seminar as it was to originally launch your business. Many people won't sign up for a seminar the first time they see it; others would like to come but can't make the date. You'll have a better chance of making money if you plan at the outset to offer your seminar on a regular basis. You may find, though, that this takes away too much time from your core business.

Whether the seminar you are planning is promotional or for profit, estimate your projected income and expenses before making a commitment to proceed. Base the income you project solely on the fee you will charge per person multiplied by the number of attendees you expect. Don't include any projected spinoff business in your income estimate. If you land new business, you will still have to work additional hours to earn that compensation.

Typical expenses include design and printing of a flyer or brochure, postage, posting a notice on your website, purchase of mailing lists (if you don't have your own), print and Internet media ads (including calendar listings), facility rent, audiovisuals, handouts, and refreshments. You should also consider the cost of your own time to design promotional materials, compile lists, compose e-mails, and make phone calls, as noted below.

In designing a snail mail or e-mail campaign for your seminar, keep in mind that it is quite typical to get only one registration for every 100 pieces you mail, even with a pre-qualified list.

Subtract your projected expenses from your income, then make a rational decision on whether to proceed. If the purpose of your seminar is to get business, estimate how much spinoff business is likely. Before going ahead, ask yourself if there might be an easier or cheaper way to get that many new clients or contracts.

If your purpose is to make money, divide your expected profit by the number of hours it will take you to design, market, and deliver your seminar. Is that amount a reasonable level of compensation for you?

If your best guess at the numbers tells you that producing a seminar makes good business sense for you, go for it! Because people do business with those they know, like, and trust, seminars can help you build a solid client base. And because repeat contacts raise awareness, mailings and ads about your seminar will generate more visibility for your core business.

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Copyright C.J. Hayden.
To subscribe to the "Get Clients Now!" e-newsletter
visit http://www.getclientsnow.com

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Guest Author: Beyond Billable Hours


By C.J. Hayden
Author,
Get Clients Now

In any professional services business, you typically begin by serving clients one-to-one. As you improve your skills at marketing yourself and begin filling your practice, eventually you discover there are only so many hours in the day. You want to keep growing your business, but you have no more time available for additional clients.

What can you do?
You can raise your rates, although there is an upper limit to what you can realistically charge. You can offer your services to multiple people at once through workshops and group programs. But these ideas are still based on the billable hours model. You must keep providing service in order for the money to keep coming.

An entirely different
direction to look is toward generating passive revenue. Including elements of passive revenue in your business does more for you than just increase your income. It also allows you to make more of an impact on your profession and community. When you are locked into a cycle of constantly acquiring and serving clients, it's difficult to find the time to think creatively, experiment, and build a bigger vision. But when you are earning money you don't have to work for directly, you have more capacity to expand -- on all levels.

Passive revenue models give you the ability to impact more
people with your ideas, world view, and way of doing things, because they expand your influence beyond what you could ever do by yourself. A product or service you create that doesn't require your constant presence to deliver it extends your reach in the world. This extended reach has a substantial effect on your visibility and credibility as a professional.

When your
product or service becomes widely available, people begin to hear of you before they ever interact with you personally. Your products not only earn you income, they also market you. By the time a prospective client speaks with you, they may have already decided to hire you based on their experience with your product, or simply your reputation. Sounds pretty appealing, doesn't it?

Here are 13 ideas
for how to start generating passive revenue today.

1. Affiliate programs and referral fees.

This is one of the
easiest revenue streams to create, because you don't need to create anything of your own. If there are products and services offered by others that you would recommend anyway, why not earn a commission on your referrals by signing up for the company's affiliate program? If they don't have one, ask. Many companies with no formal affiliate programs will make a referral fee arrangement if you ask them.

2. Sell other people's products.
If you speak, give
workshops, or have a web site, you have opportunities to sell products in the course of what you are already doing. Offer your clients and web visitors books, audios, or software that enhance your work. Selling products will compensate you for free speaking engagements and can double your income at paid workshops. If you sell products on the web and don't want the bother of shipping, offer only e-products or arrange for drop-shipping directly from the publisher.

3. Sell other people's services.

If the service you offer is
in high demand, consider hiring other professionals to work for you as subcontractors. You bring in the business; they do the work; you earn a percentage of their fee. Or, if there is a service complimentary to your own that your clients often buy from someone else, consider offering that service as part of your own package, then subcontract the work.

4. E-books.

Offering an e-book for sale on your web site is
an excellent way to earn income from visitors who may never become clients. You may find it easier than you think to write down some of what you know in a way that will be helpful to your target market. But even if you're not a writer, you can still put together a valuable product this way. Consider compiling a resource guide, collection of quotes, or digest of material contributed by other experts in your field.

5. Audio downloads.

Creating recordings to make available on
the web is quick and easy. You can hold a teleclass or workshop on a topic you know well and make a recording at the same time. Convert your recording to Real Audio, upload it to your website, and charge a fee for people to listen to it.

6. E-mail and web-based courses.

Any material you might
include in a workshop, e-book, or audio can become an e-course or web course by breaking it into multiple lessons. For an e- course, write a series of lessons as e-mails, and use an autoresponder to send them out automatically. For a web course, combine written material and audio into a syllabus posted on the web or sent as an e-book. You may not have to create any new material to do this, just package what you already have in a different way.

7. Audiotapes and CD's.

You don't have to use a script,
sound studio, and editing to produce an audio for sale. You can do all that for a highly-professional product, but it's also possible to record a teleclass, live presentation, or even an interview with someone else, and package it unedited as a tape or CD.

8. Booklets and workbooks.

If you speak in public or work
with clients in person, the same information you might put in an e-book can be used for a printed booklet or workbook. Checklists, templates, or worksheets you are already using with clients are excellent candidates for workbook material. You can produce a simple spiral-bound workbook at any quick printer for around $5 and sell it for $10-15 or more, depending on the content.

9. Membership network or web site.

If you find yourself
naturally connecting people and helping them find resources, you can turn this into a paying proposition. You can start a membership organization that meets in person, or a virtual group that communicates by telemeetings and on the web. A project like this can take quite a bit of time and effort to launch, but can also result in a substantial ongoing income stream.

10. Full-length book.

Writing a book may seem like a
daunting project, but a book can evolve by writing articles or creating any of the products above, and eventually putting all that material together.

11. Software.

Is there a process you use with clients that
they could perform themselves if it were automated? Your process could become a unique piece of software. Like a membership site or book, creating it will take time and money, but could lead to significant profits.

12. Licensing programs.

If you have a book, workshop, or
unique system, you may be able to create a program to license others in the use of your material. Depending on the complexity of your process, licensing can be as simple as writing a manual and conducting a brief training class, or could become an entire enterprise in its own right, involving training, supervision, and ongoing support. Your licensees can also become your subcontractors as described above.

13. Mentoring programs.

Potential mentees may be the same
people that would be your clients, or they may be colleagues who would like to learn from your experience. Mentoring can take place in live groups by telephone or in person, by email, and also by incorporating any of the products mentioned above into a full-service package that includes personal contact with you.

By having products to offer, you
can increase the price you charge for your program beyond what your mentees would pay for just your time.

Pick just one of these ideas and get started today, even if
you don't yet have a full practice. The sooner you begin generating passive revenue, the sooner you will have more time available to spend however you want -- on your business or not.
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Copyright C.J. Hayden.
To subscribe to the "Get Clients Now!" e-newsletter
visit http://www.getclientsnow.com