3 Easy Steps to Creating Your First Product

For new entrepreneurs, in nearly any field, product creation is the best way to:

• Reach a wider audience
• Grow your brand
• Earn more profits

So why aren’t more adopting the product creation strategy? Like I was, they’re most likely stuck in the process, unsure of the steps to take to create a great product.

Step 1: Identify a Need

As a business owner, you already have great insight into the wants and needs of your ideal client. You chat with her on Facebook, answer her email questions, respond to the comments she leaves on your blog, you may even work with her one-on-one.
What is it she needs the most help with right now? This is the product you should be creating because you already know you have a built-in audience and there is a good chance she is not the only one out there that needs it.

Step 2: Gather Your Documentation

If you’ve been in business for more than a few weeks, chances are you already have all of the answers required—all you have to do it organize them. Some places to look for content you can re-purpose include:

Your blog
Emails, even your auto-responder
Previous client calls and experiences
Your social media accounts
YouTube channel
Your checklists and worksheets

All of these things (and many more) can be edited and organized into a comprehensive product that solves a serious issue and you can do it in less time than you might think. After all, you already have the bulk of the work done!

Step 3: Create the Solution

Now that you have your content, it’s time to put it together in a way that will make sense to your audience.

Will you…

Write a Kindle book? This is an excellent option for solving a very focused, single problem. Even better, Kindle books offer a fabulous opportunity to reach a wider audience.
Create a membership site? For a comprehensive, step-by-step course, you can’t beat the flexibility of a membership site.
Offer a group programs? Add personal time with you to your membership site and you’ve got an instant group program. Not only that but you’ve dramatically upped the value (and cost) as well.

[Tweet “”Nike doesn’t want to make products for everyone – they want to make products for champions.” Simon Sinek”]

Your choice will depend largely on the scope of the solution. Is it a simple answer that can be explained in a few pages or is it a complex issue that requires several weeks of work?

Remember, creating a product doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Sure, you can design a massive, all-inclusive course if you like, but when you’re just getting started, that’s a daunting prospect. Instead, work with what you already have and you’ll have your first product up and selling in no time.

Sales Tips for Reluctant Salespeople

If you are an entrepreneur, you are a salesperson. Every time you have a prospective client or a discovery call, you’re making a sales pitch. When you send an email or write a blog post with an offer – that’s a sales pitch. Creating an opt-in page? You’re making a sales pitch.

And you’re probably pretty good at it, too, or you wouldn’t be where you are today, would you?

So why do we continue to think we’re so bad at sales?

Because “Selling Feels “Icky”.

I hear this one a lot. You feel pushy or uncomfortable when talk turns to money. You don’t want to force anyone into a decision. You secretly think your rates are too high.

I’m going to be honest with you. This is one of those things that gets better only with practice. But the good news is, you don’t have to be on the phone with a prospective client to get that practice time in.

Instead, use the technique self-help gurus have been advocating for years:

Look in the mirror and talk to yourself.

When you were a little girl, did you ever dream of becoming a professional ballerina? I don’t know many women who didn’t, I know I did. I would put on my dance outfit and spin in circles in front of the mirror for hours! Why would any other business be any different?

Becoming a ballerina just wasn’t in the cards for me, however; I did learn a valuable lesson. A mirror is a fantastic tool. I suggest you take advantage of the ones you have.

Practice saying your rates out loud. Practice your transition from discovery to the sales pitch. The more you do it, the more natural it will sound, and the less uncomfortable you will feel when talking to a new customer.

Fix your mindset.

What if you weren’t selling anything, but instead were merely chatting with a friend about the incredible new product that was going to change her life? You’re helping your friend to improve herself by sharing your experience with this new product.

That’s exactly how you should think about selling your product or services. You’re not trying to get your prospective client to spend money. Instead, you’re offering a solution to her problems. You’re genuinely helping her to overcome some obstacle in her life or business.

When you can turn your thinking around from “sales” to “helping” you’ll find it’s much easier to have the sales talk.

Don’t be afraid of the follow-up.

Most clients won’t say yes with the first call, and maybe not even with the second. But good entrepreneurs know that many sales can be closed if you simply take the time to follow up. Send a quick email and invite your prospect to:

Schedule a follow-up call to answer her questions
Read some of your testimonials
Review your program outline or sales page
Or even join a different program of yours that might be a better fit

Don’t let that old “I’m not good at sales” thinking get in the way of making a real difference in people’s lives, and in growing your business and your profits. With these easy tips, you can quickly turn your sales blocks into a system for landing new customers consistently.

What do you think? Do you have any further tips or suggestions that have helped you? Why not join us inside the TVS Entrepreneur Workshop and share them, we’d love to hear from you!

Sales Tips for Reluctant Salespeople

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Sales Tips for Reluctant Salespeople

Inspiring Greatness: Cindy Sherman.

Cindy Sherman is the first woman to break $1 million in a photography sale. She studied painting before she became a photographer and is known for her conceptual and chameleon-like self-portraits.

Below read a snippet on how she speaks on her budding career as a female artist in Time Magazine’s FIRSTS Women Who Are Changing The World.

I never felt pigeonholed as a child in terms of my potential. But I did feel that I’d probably be expected to settle down and get married and have kids at some point. I definitely remember from all the old movies and TV shows from the time, like The Donna Reed Show and Leave It to Beaver, all these women that were portrayed as these perfect moms. I never really saw myself as that. I never imagined myself getting married, I never imagined myself in a bridal gown, and I really never imagined myself having kids – and I never did.

In an issue of LIFE magazine, I saw Lynda Benglis as a young artist throwing paint on her floor. I don’t know how old she was then. I was probably in high school, but it was the first time it dawned on me that a woman could be an artist.

When my career got started in the ’70s, I did feel like I was being taken seriously. I didn’t really notice any kind of difference between men and women artists until I would say the early ’80s, when specific men started to become very successful. Even though I was critically successful, it was definitely a big distinction between what their work sold for and what my work sold for.

As I evolved in the ’70s, I think I took for granted what the first wave of feminist artists had to go through. I never felt like an activist because I didn’t experience that kind of fighting., It’s not like I would say I’m not a feminist, I just couldn’t quite identify with those women. Of course we’re all feminists, right? We all want women to be seen as equals. I am shy and not a person who can debate and take on critical political talk. But at the same issues definitely piss me off and show up in my work, and I definitely have always used my work as a forum to address a lot of things that I can’t say, that I can’t articulate.

Cindy Sherman, American photographer and film director.

Tell me, who inspires you? Share below in the comment section or join the conversation in the Facebook group.

Website vs Blog – Or Do You Need Both?

Creating a website for a new business? If so, you may be wondering which is the best choice – website or blog. The answer isn’t as complicated as you may think. Here are a few things to consider when choosing for you and your business goals.

Business model and purpose

Both websites and blogs, particularly a WordPress blog, can support just about any type of business model. WordPress developers have created plug-ins that can turn any WordPress blog into an e-commerce site, a membership site and more.

However, these plug-ins and add-ons can be more of a hassle than it’s worth. And finding the right plug-in may be a trial and error process. Believe me – I have gone through a lot of trials and made a lot of errors!

If your business model relies on the publishing of timely information, then a blog is likely better. However, if your business is meant to sell a product or service, then a website may be a better choice.

Maintenance and time

How much time do you have to devote to the upkeep and maintenance of your business? A blog still relies on consistently publishing content. Despite contrary “rules” about blogging, you don’t have to blog every day or several times a day.

Just keep in mind, people who subscribe to blogs do expect regular installments of new content. You can schedule your posts. However, it does require a bit more maintenance on your end. Whereas, a website can be left alone for a month or two without any issues.

Blog versus Website

Personality and ease of use

Some of your decision will be based on your personality. What format do you prefer to use? A blog is straightforward and easy to update and utilize. You may need help to find, install and set up the right plug-ins. You may also need help customizing a theme or adding a custom header. By and large, blogs are very easy to use.

Websites can be trickier for some. That being said, many website developers and design software make the user interface quite simple. You can modify pages and add content without needing to learn or understand a design language.

Goals

Quite often a blog and a website work well together. A website sells. A blog drives traffic and brands the business. A blog can speak to a niche within your niche.

For example, General Motors has a central website. They also have a blog that is car talk. It’s for car enthusiasts and its run by a head honcho at GM. He loves cars. The blog helps brand General Motors and it connects prospects and customers to the business, it also builds a community.

Before you decide whether a blog or a website is right for you, consider the above. What’s the purpose of your site? What will offer the best customer experience? What will be most comfortable for you to use and maintain? Finally, what will best help you achieve your goals?

If you decide that blogging is in your future, check out these 52 Blog Ideas for your business to help get you started!

If it is a website you are after, check out these 30 Tips for Building Your First Business Website off of smallbiztrends.com to get you started.

To your success!

3 Surefire Ways to Create In-Demand Products and Services

If there’s one thing that holds promising entrepreneurs back from launching their business, it’s this: a lack of confidence in their products. Sure, you think that new product or workshop is a great idea, but how do you know it will sell?

Imagine spending weeks or even months of time—plus the cost of document design, video editing and all the other pieces that go along with it—only to discover it’s not what your audience wants or needs. How frustrating would that be?

You don’t have to leave it to chance, though. There are plenty of ways to test your idea before spending the time and energy on a full launch.

1. Ask

This is the simplest way to get a feel for what your market needs and wants. Simply ask them. Create a survey with Survey Monkey (or even a Google form) and send it out to your mailing list. For best results, keep it short, but do ask:

What they’re struggling with?
What problems are these struggles causing in their life?
How would their life be different if they had [insert your product or service here]?
What do they feel your product or service is worth (what would they pay)?

These four pieces will tell you everything you need to know to create a product or program that’s practically guaranteed to sell.

2. Listen

If you have a community (or are part of one) that is full of your ideal clients, pay attention to what they’re asking about the most. These are the things they need help with. For example, if you’re a business coach and your Facebook group is filled with questions about running Facebook ads, then clearly there is a need for some training in that area.

3. Know

Hopefully, you have a list of competitors and you’re reading their blogs and emails, joining in their Facebook groups and getting to know them. Network and build relationships with them, this is a great way to gain insight into what is out there—not to copy them but to discover what’s hot in your industry right now.

Creating products in a vacuum is a great way to waste a lot of time and money on programs that won’t sell. Instead, pay attention to what your market is asking for, find out what they’re willing to pay, and delve into your competition’s offers. The information you gain from these three activities alone will give you incredible insight. Not just into your market but what they want and need, making it easy to create your own hot-selling products.

Now you know what to creat, take a peek at 3 Proven ways to Market Your New Business to help promote your new product!

What kind of content tends to go viral?

If you’re trying to get your content to “spark” and go viral, it really helps to have a strong understanding of what kind of content tends to go viral. Of course, nobody can predict what will go viral, nor can they make something go viral 100% of the time. But by understanding what kind of content tends to go viral, you stand a much better chance of creating something viral yourself.

Here are a few of the main attributes of things that tend to go viral.

It’s Human

It’s rare that a factual, statistical or economical video goes viral. Instead, it’s usually the most human videos that go viral.

The singing homeless man on the street. The baby laughing at something senseless. An incredible display of guitar prowess.

Strong Emotional Content

The more emotions you can arouse in your audience, the better.

Let’s take one of the world’s most viewed videos, the “Charlie Bit My Finger” video. The video features a baby whose brother bit his finger; he sits there laughing and complaining at the same time.

This video has an astounding 863 million views at the time of this writing. That is crazy, I have to admit, I have seen it more than once…

One of the main reasons this video took off so strongly is because of how clear the emotions were in the video. The watcher can almost “follow along” with the baby’s emotions and also experience the joy of playing with your baby brother, not to mention the pain of being bitten by a baby with a fresh set of pearly whites.

Videos That Provide Unique Information

Another type of content that does really well are videos that are informational. The key here is that the videos really have to provide content that can’t be found anywhere else.

My point is, informational videos work in many different industries, but the most important thing is that there’s something truly unique to them.

Content That Appeals to Specific Groups of People

Content that tends to appeal to specific groups of people tends to do very well if they have strong emotional or informational content.

A video that recently went viral was M.J Hegar’s campaign video to become a Democratic candidate for the Congress in a Texas district. The video racked up 4.7 million views on Youtube and Facebook combined as of June 28, 2018. At the time she was challenging 15-year Republican incumbent, John Carter.

Hegar’s video racked up 4.7 million views on Youtube and Facebook combined as of June 28, 2018. I am pretty sure, she did not need half that many votes to win. Which did happen by the way, with 62.2 percent of the vote!

Consider your business niche, something can go viral within the community. Like, new food laws, something which may be seen as boring, could be very interesting to vegans if it affects the foods they’ll be able to purchase. A video about the new laws could really take off among that specific community.

These are some of the factors that go into determining whether or not a video goes viral. At the end of the day, a video going viral really means that a lot of people want to pass on your content. The key, as with many other things in business, is to just create something so amazing that people want to share it.

3 Proven Ways to Market Your New Business

The world is filled with great ideas and broke business owners with fabulous products but no sales. Trust me. So here are 3 Ways to Market Your New Business.

The fact is, ideas are not what drives most business success. Marketing does. So before you quit your day job to branch out on your own, it pays to have a solid marketing plan in place. Start with these 3 ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Free Webinars

For information product sellers, coaches, and service providers, one of the best sources of new clients is in free training webinars. No matter what your niche, the promise of in-depth training at no cost is enough to entice potential clients to part with an email address (which you’ll be able to market to later) and an hour of their time.

Not only that, but webinars are a fantastic way for those potential customers to get to know you better. And the better they know you, the more likely they are to buy.

Content Marketing

Not comfortable hosting a webinar? Hit the keyboard and start sharing your thoughts and ideas via your blog, ebooks, guest articles and other written content. For internet marketers, this gives readers a taste of what they can expect from your product. If you sell physical products, it provides the perfect opportunity to share useful tips and other important information with your buyers.

Of course, there’s another important benefit to content marketing, too: search engine optimization. Google and other search engines index the words on your website and use the information to present search results to their users. Content marketing is a tool you can use to make the most of these results and to bring more potential buyers to your website.

Paid Advertising

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google and plenty of other sites all offer paid placement, and with today’s powerful analytics tools, it’s easy to create ads and drive traffic inexpensively. Consider starting with Facebook, since the cost is low and it’s easy to target your ads to your ideal client. Once you’ve perfected your funnel, you can branch out into more costly ads with a larger reach, such as Google AdWords or another ad network.

Don’t limit yourself to these three marketing methods though. There are dozens of others you can try, including affiliate programs, JV partnerships, automated funnels, direct mail campaigns, and even television advertising. The key is to keep testing and tweaking to make the most of every marketing effort so that your business continues to grow.

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3 Ways to Market Your New Business

9 Principles for Successful Women

“You are responsible for your life.” Oprah Winfrey – TRANSFERED

Have you ever thought that you just lived the same year twice? Noticing that you are in the same place today as you were last year or the year before? You are responsible for your life
I have, I had repeated the same problems, my challenges hadn’t changed, my thought process was the same. Total deja-vu, everything was-the-same… I had been working like crazy, putting in a crazy amount of hours but nothing was different than it was the year before. There was no growth and nothing had improved.

When I realized this, in that pivotal moment, I realized that it wasn’t that I was not working hard enough but because I had not been taking 100% responsibility for my life.

It’s a powerful lesson that Oprah says she learned at an early age. If you want to move forward in life, only you can make it happen by taking responsibility. Watch below as Oprah shares her story.

[Tweet “”Only you have the power to take the responsibility to move your life forward. The sooner you get that, the sooner your life gets into gear.” Oprah Winfrey”]

TVS has launched the Inspired Action Mastermind!

A premium mastermind for mission-driven, service-based women entrepreneurs who are ready and willing to put in the work it takes to reach the next level!

Inside the Inspired Action Mastermind, we are an intimate group of entrepreneurs, all of which are committed to the success of one another’s businesses. It is a mastermind that provides the support and guidance you need to help you move your business forward. Because, when you’re in the right mastermind group, you can start to see your business and yourself through someone else’s eyes as you support one another and leverage each other’s experiences.

If you are ready and willing to shift your mindset and tackle all the hard questions to accomplish your dreams, then join us.

Learn about the Inspired Action Mastermind

You are responsible for your life

It is time to stop comparing yourself to others.

Do you ever find yourself comparing yourself to others? Viewing their success as only a way to make yourself look bad? If so, you are not alone. If so, it is time to stop comparing yourself to others. For some, the success of others equates to highlight their own failures.

If you are anything like me, you’ve done it, you’ve compared yourself to others and felt horrible after. The good news is that people out there compare themselves to you and the not-so-good news is that it is a fixed mindset we need to get out of.

Comparing ourselves is part of human nature. It’s how we grow, it’s how we strive, but sometimes, unfortunately, it’s an excuse to give up.

This is something that has to change, today!

Stop Comparing Yourself

Stuck in the Fixed Mindset

If we don’t have something to compare ourselves to, you might reason, then how will we learn to achieve and grow? When we compare ourselves to others, we have something to gauge our success and failure with and, therefore, a measure of where we can do better and achieve more.

Unfortunately, for those with a fixed mindset, this does not occur at all. There is actually a backwards way of thinking. That reverse method tells us since we are not as good as the other person, we might as well just quit. That doesn’t work in the world of intelligence, however. Not to mention, it is ineffective.

We have it in our minds that the other person as being luckier or having it easy. Another excuse is to say everything just falls on that person’s lap or, even worse, use their success to highlight some other unrelated shortcoming. It is that fixed way of thinking that does not propel us forward and keeps us from our own success. But – what if it is only a matter of re-training your brain to adopt a mindset of growth?

Adopt a Mindset of Growth

On the opposite end of the spectrum is a growth mindset. Where we give ourselves the opportunity to change and grow over time, as we learn to re-train our brain into a mindset of growth. By viewing someone else’s success as a way to strive harder, do more, and work harder, we will be re-training our brain to view this not as an excuse to stay status quo, but as a reason to thrive.

Once we choose the thought patterns that intelligence can be developed, we can most certainly train our ourselves to reach higher heights. Then, and only then will we see a radical change in our lives.

A stepping stone to success.

Once you understand that your self-image has nothing to do with failing at something and that this failure is actually a path to higher learning, you will be at ease in your own skin.

Wouldn’t that be nice to be at ease in your own skin? If you change your mind, you can re-train your brain to view failure as a stepping-stone to new successes. You will begin to understand failure as a learning tool and not as a way to define your image.

So, the next time you want to compare yourself to someone else, stop and ask yourself if their success can highlight inspiration for you. Maybe they put a tremendous amount of effort into the realization of dreams and all that hard work paid off. This could be a learning tool for you rather than something viewed as an enemy.

Other people’s success should be a way and a means for you to learn, grow, and, most importantly, be inspired. This is just one more way to empower your entrepreneurial mind.

Now I’d love to hear from you. Where will you find motivation for growth and be inspired where you did not see it before? Join us inside the Studio’s Study Hall and let us know what your passion is or something you don’t like to do – but love when it is done! The group is a community of supportive women, where you will find business-focused training and support for female entrepreneurs.

It is time to stop comparing yourself to others.