Ladies Who Launch

Send a LWL blogger to Martinique

Wish you were here?

So do I!

Maybe we both can get there. Let me explain.

I'm a LWL member from the Twin Cities area. I keep a blog about my life as a freelance writer. It's called The 'er' Files.

A couple years ago, however, my husband and I ditched our jobs to go on an around the world trip. As I've got a creative streak in me, I designed a special name, logo and blog for our trip. I called it all Kelly and Quang's Global Roam.

With a little bit of lucky synchronicity, I managed to get a well-known travel web site (GoNomad) to feature my travel blog as a regular column. My hubby and I took off for our trip, GoNomad posted my writings, and suddenly, I was a legitimate travel blogger.

But our Global Roam ended some time ago. Actually, so did the Global Roam blog (hence my current new blog). But those past travel postings are still floating around in cyber space and last week I got an email from France's Tourism Board inviting me to participate in a blogging contest.

Twenty-five bloggers submitted travel postings. The stories are up for a month (until the end of February). The blogger who gets the most votes wins a free trip to Martinique.

The unspoken catch, of course, is that the winner will blog all about how great a place Martinique is to travel, thus enticing thousands of people who had previously never heard of Martinique to suddenly sit up and decide that they too would like to go there on their next Spring Break (cool marketing trick if you ask me). 

Anyway ... I signed up. I selected a past travel blog entry from Thailand and sent it in. Wa-la! It's in the contest.

It's called Tricky Tricky Tuk Tuk and it's about how my husband Quang and I got taken for a ride in Bangkok.

If you vote for my story, two things will happen. 1) I get a vote, boosting my story up the list. 2) Your email goes into the master pot and at the end of the tallying period, one voter name will win a free trip to Martinique.

So come on! Vote For Me! From all your different email addresses! And I know you LWLers all have more than one address. Take me, for example, I count -- um -- this is almost embarrassing to admit -- seven different email addresses.

If the force is with us, perhaps we'll be sitting on the beach together.

 

In a Service Business? Ten thing to do NOW

Recently I received a note from a new coach wanting to know how to get off to a good start...when I looked at what I shared I realized this would be good information for any person in a service business where the emphasis in on YOU! IF you are the business YOU are in trouble....here's why

In a service business, you cannot make money unless you are available. I have been coaching since end of 1999  and I quit due to burnout...it's all about you and you cannot make money with out you. YIKES.... You MUST change this to generating other streams of passive income or you will be exhausted, frustrated and will give up eventually. I can teach you about this and I highly recommend you do this.  Read the Secrets of the millionaire Mind and attend  a Millionaire Mind Intensive.  This has literally changed my LIFE.

2. Get yourself help as soon as possible whether you think you can afford/deserve it or not. I did NOT and started to DROWN. Now I know better. Hire yourself a Virtual assistant and or live- in-person assistant so that you can work on only that which you love and focus energies on marketing not paper pushing.  As you grow get a bookkeeper, a lawyer and a business manager.

For peace of mind resign NOW as the general manager of the universe. Some places to shop for a VA check out AssistU.com for Virtual Assistants also the IVVA Get creative, hire college students, interns, your neighbors' kid or a friend who needs a job right now while she looks for a new one.

Rule: Hire slowly. Interview carefully. Make sure it's a good fit. check out: www.collegehelpers.com, elance.com or guru.com

3. Network, network, network. Make yourself well-known. Join Ladies Who Launch and other organizations where your ideal clients are. Get out and meet people. Ask questions find out what they need and want. Build relationships. See how you can contribute to others. Get a simple website if you are not online, do that NOW. As you grow update and change. A website never stays static anyway (or shouldn't) so just get one up there for starters if you haven't. If you like to write a shortcut would be to get a blog. Oh and start building your email database.

4. Rule about what to be doing: If it's a Hell YES do it, if it's not it's  a Hell NO...so pass it, delegate it or dump it.

5. Rule about cash flow: Do not give up your day job until you have your cash flow in place or get another day job that is less demanding but gives you fuel to pay for all the pieces of parts of ensuring your success as a business. A service business such as coaching or massage is not just a calling it is also a Business with a capital B.  I kept my job as special event director at the Fashion Group during my 4 years of training at Coach U and beyond.

6. Make sure you have a coach to keep you in action and accountable. My coach Margit, is TOUGH and I love her for it.

7. Never-ever undersell yourself. Do not be afraid to name your price and get it. If you put yourself "on sale" or bargain with people you will attract people who you may not want to work with and kick yourself later for agreeing to accept less. Watch for this.  People who serve others have a tendency to undervalue themselves.  Avoid it. You have much to offer the world.

And another thing: I learned this from Kendall Summerhawk...Raise your prices from time to time, especially if it makes you uncomfortable. If you have spent years training, as I did,  for what you do and you have life or business experience that is of value, monetize it. Believe it or not your clients do expect to pay you. If you want, have a scholarship for a few clients who are deserving and cannot afford to pay you at the  moment when they get successful guess what happens?, I do this and it's great.

7. Ask for referrals and refer to others. This is an important revenue stream and way of creating your business community.

8. Ask for the business when someone calls you. Service people often leave this step out and wonder why they have no clients. ASK, "so when would you like to get started?"

9. Enjoy yourself and if you are not, STOP and regroup. I left coaching for 18 months to go work on the 2004 Democratic presidential camapign which really gave me a new perspective on life along the way I used my coaching skills for enrolling people.  After a stunning defeat, I joined the Ladies Who Launch Incubator in 2005 and began my coaching business again.
LWL gave me the uplifting and the  liftoff I needed in a very big way.

10. Here's my business plan: Simplify my life. Connect with others. Have more fun.
Have an audaciously fabulous day!

The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and the Millionaire Mind Intensive changed my life. It will change yours especially if you are in a service business or a solo practitioner of any kind...

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind Book>>>get this!
http://www.secretsofthemillionairemind.com/a/joyful_deliciousness

The single most important step you take no matter WHAT service you offer is to keep learning about the business of business along with deeply understanding who you are from the inside out and who do you get to be when you are doing the work you love.
Come and see who I am at my website
http://www.NancyMindes.com/

The home for Audacious Ladies and the men they love