I just had a conversation with a good friend/colleague about money. She knows she’s charging too little, but struggles with raising her rates. However, because she’s starting to feel resentful, she KNOWS it’s time.

In our conversation, with a little coaching built in, she finally came to the conclusion that she HAD to raise her rates, and I helped her with the language to use to do that, which would help her break the news to her clients and still maintain her comfort.

But then she said, “Then I need to add something to what I’m offering if I’m going to raise my rates.”

Sigh.

This is an amazing woman coaching VERY successful, well-known professionals, and she’s now questioning her own value!

I call this the “Chronic Overdelivery Syndrome” and it is based on one of the Money Mirrors – Deservability.

Does this sound like you?

• You overload your services with too much. Or, better yet, when a new client comes to see you, you tell them everything they would ever need to know, so you are sure you have provided them with value! Trust me; this backfires every time, and you never see them again. They feel overwhelmed… AND stupid!
• You give away your services without charging. You are SURE if you give them something of great value right up front, they’ll hire you! But that backfires, too! Why should they pay you when you just gave them what they think they needed?
• You often fault yourself for not giving MORE! Sigh; need I say anything, now?
• You give much more than what the client paid you for. I get it, because I’ve done it, too. I’ll always remember the in-home nutrition client I saw who paid me for 90 minutes, but I didn’t leave for FOUR hours!
• You make yourself too available. Is your expertise of value? Are you worth anything? Do you want a thriving business AND a life? I’d venture you say YES! So one of the first lessons is that your time is valuable and from this very moment on, you need to be paid for it. You can give people a choice: They can have this and that, a la carte, or they can have the entire, comprehensive program. Their choice. And here are the fees for each.

If you said yes to any of these, yep, you have it: Chronic Overdelivery Syndrome. So what do you do about it?

Here are 5 ways you can break free of this Syndrome:

1. Cut what you offer in half. Trust me; your clients will feel EMPOWERED, not as if they’re being taken advantage of.
2. Stop giving away your time. You’re not just saying “no”; you’re saying, “I have this service/program that might interest you, then.” When you give away your time, you’re giving away opportunities – opportunities to make money elsewhere, or opportunities to spend time with your family or kids!
3. Create a daily list of how you helped the people you served that day. This will help remind you of what impact you already make on people! We all are great at beating ourselves up, rather than acknowledging ourselves.
4. When a client asks for more help, you can let them know that that is beyond the scope of your agreement with them, but you do have this other service that could meet that need. As an example, in my Just Jump Into Business Membership program, if people want one-on-one coaching, they can sign up for a separate Coach on Demand session.
5. Establish clear boundaries – with yourself and with your clients – regarding when you’re available and when you’re not. Then it’s important to gently remind clients of those boundaries when they push them. People (like with kids) appreciate having boundaries they are clear about.

Pick just one of these and let me know what happens for you!

Margie
MEG Enterprises, Inc.

Do you struggle with Deservability? Or maybe with how to even GET more clients so you CAN struggle with that problem! If you imagine growing your business into something of great satisfaction and success, come join us in 2012 in the Prosperity Secrets Platinum program.

I have to admit I did NOT make up this term, myself. One of my clients just told me this! And I thought it was great!

Do you suffer from “Messy Head Syndrome”? You know: You’re not sure what you want to do, what you offer and who you most like to work with? And this confusion leads you to just blindly move through the day, without a good, strong sense of where you’re going and why?

Let’s look at 3 steps you can take immediately to help you clear up YOUR “Messy Head Syndrome” so your business starts taking off in success.

Step 1: Clarify who you are. What are you in the business of, no matter what? No matter who you do it for or how?

Step 2: Determine who you most love to work with and what their problems are. Spend time on this. Imagine working with that ideal client all the time.

Step 3: Develop what you have to offer. Once you have become clear what the ultimate outcome is that your ideal client would like to achieve as a result of working with you, then walk through what steps are necessary to help them get there. THAT is your system, your program.

This sounds like simplistic steps, but they ARE the essential steps to clearing up “Messy Head Syndrome” for business success.

Margie
MEG Enterprises, Inc.

Would you like to step deeper into this process of clarifying who you are, determine who you most love to work with, and develop what you have to offer? Then you’ll want to join us in the Niche Breakthrough Secrets to Ultimate Client Attraction teleseminar series that starts on November 29. To learn more, go here.

As I watch the progress with my Platinum clients, I am reminded of the importance of working with clients I love. In building clarity around creating your niche, one of the testing questions is ‘do you love them?’

Although some health professionals feel they need to work with everyone in order to successfully grow their business, this often backfires on them. They end up seeing everyone, including people they don’t really care for. And because they haven’t clarified/defined their niche, they don’t stand out.

When you don’t stand out, you don’t catch people’s attention!

Here are three reasons you want to love your clients:

1. When you work with clients you love, your excitement in working with them works in your favor in two ways: First, your enthusiasm shows when you talk to others about them, leading them to want to know how THEY can work with you, too. Second, your joy in working with this client leads you to provide your very best services for them. People know when you enjoy working with them or not, and when they feel that joy, they are also more joyful and positive AND successful. And when your ideal clients are successful, they share with others about that success and who helped them make that happen.
2. When you work with people you love working with, doing what you love to do, it attracts more ideal clients to you. This results in you making a greater difference in the world, because the results these clients see is consistently positive and rewarding.
3. When you attract more clients, and the word spreads about the difference you help them make in their own lives, the end result is your business grows! The bottom line is your business grows because you are making a difference in people’s lives. Thus, for those of you who shy away from making a wildly exciting income because your ultimate goal is to make a difference in the world, it’s an important mindset change to realize that when you make a difference in people’s lives, the money will follow, helping you set up more programs so you can reach more people… and make an even BIGGER difference in the world!

Wow, who would have thought that working with clients you love could make such a big impact on the world, huh?

Now it’s up to you to get focused and clear on exactly who you love to work with!

Margie
MEG Enterprises

Are you unclear who your ideal client is? Do you wonder if you know what your niche is? How do you reach them? Learn all this and more in the Niche Breakthrough intensive 1/2 day coaching session with MEG Enterprises. To learn more, click here.

What DOES “6 figure business success” really mean? When we say “6 figures” we’re talking about making over $100,000 a year. Today, I help clients not only get to $100,000, but also to $1,000,000, which is SEVEN FIGURES!

However, the issues health professionals face when moving into the 7-figure category is very different than the 6-figure category. So, for today, let’s address “6 figure business success.”

But here is what often comes up for a lot of health professionals when you say “6-figure income” to them: They shy away, because what they REALLY want is the success AND a life, but don’t believe they can have both. I am here to tell you that you CAN have both! I have a 6-figure coaching business that I run out of my home office and also enjoy a lot of ‘play’ time with my husband and friends. It DOES take planning, however. And after working on it, myself, for several years, I have come up with the 7 essential steps to create 6-figure success AND have a life.

In order to achieve this, here are, in a nutshell, the 7 steps you must complete in order to create your 6-figure success:

1. Creating your niche and brand. Who is your ideal client? What makes you unique? What is about you and your services that makes you different? These are critical questions that have to be answered from the very beginning, along with the question about what your big vision is for your business.
2. Clarifying your services and turning them into programs. Moving away from the dollars-for-hours model not only frees you up to create amazing success for your clients, but also moves you into a whole new tax category!
3. Planning for success. My saying is “with vision and planning, anything is possible.” Thus, you’ve created that vision, NOW you have to plan! This includes putting your goals and objectives down on paper (taking them out of your head and making them ‘real’), and creating the promotional plan for how you will make all your visions come true.
4. Developing your marketing messages. What will you say when someone calls you to ask what you do? How will you attract people TO call you? Where will you find them? All of this is essential to success.
5. Managing your finances. They say cash is king. You must be very clear what your business model is. You have to know WHAT a business model is! And keep your eye always on the bottom line. This means tracking all money coming in and going out. This eye to the money details makes all the difference between success and failure.
6. Creating a compelling online presence for success. What does your website say about you when visitors stop by? How will you turn those visitors into clients? What is your online message? Today this piece is beyond critical.
7. Planning for support. You can’t grow a 6-figure business AND have a life if you’re doing it all yourself. One of the hardest things for people to do is hire help. But once you have tested the ‘help’ waters, you’ll be hooked! To learn more about how to hire, you can go here.

Imagine living the life you dream of: Not only are you making an amazing difference in the lives of your clients, but also living the successful, stress-free life you have always dreamed of. It IS possible! Work on these 7 steps and watch how you can change your life as well as those around you.

Margie
MEG Enterprises

How can you take your business to 6 figures and still enjoy a life? One first step is to become very clear what your niche is and to create your own personal branded system. In just half a day, this can happen for you in the MEG Enterprises half-day intensive coaching session. To learn more, go here.

Your ideal client just sent you an email and you’ve set up a time to have a conversation with her. But now you wish she was NOT calling, because you’re afraid the same old thing will happen: YOU know you can help her, but she won’t see it and will get caught up in “Oh, I can’t afford THAT!”

What can you do to change this from happening over and over and over again?

Here are 7 steps for how to create your marketing conversation that will turn those “No” responses into “When can we get started?”

Step 1 – Ask your potential client (let’s call her Mary) to tell you a bit about what’s going on with her. Why did she contact you?

Step 2 – Ask Mary to describe what it would be like to have ‘that’ (what she’s coming to you from). Encourage her to really describe it as if it has happened. What are all the good things she imagines?

Step 3 - Even though you have already asked Mary to describe all the good things she’ll get from getting what she wants, keep asking her ‘what else?’ until she says she can’t think of anything else.

Step 4 – Now ask Mary what she believes has been holding her back from achieving her goals. Again, keep asking her, allowing other things to pop up as she talks and thinks about it.

Step 5 – Once she has exhausted all the reasons she thinks have held her back, then ask her what life will look like if she does NOT accomplish these goals. It’s ok to have her dig a pit. Ask her to describe the costs of not getting what she’d like.

Step 6 – Ask her now what it would do for her if she could turn all of these challenges around and achieve her goals without a lot of struggle? Have her really step back into this area, as if it were happening right now.

Step 7 – Explain to Mary that you have a program that can help her achieve these goals, and then ask if she would like to hear about them. Now, this is where you need to have your programs and services down in your head, because you will want to relate what you do with the results Mary wants to see. So, although you might mention how often you see clients and how you see them, you won’t give details of what I call the ‘nuts and bolts’ of working with clients, but the big picture of working with them. Only after you have explained what results your program will provide, and how you work, do you share the nuts and bolts and then what the investment would be in working with you. Then do NOT talk. Let Mary think about it and respond.

Print this up and then turn it into your own. Practice on someone before putting it to use. Then come back here and share how it works for you! It’s time for you to move into that success you imagine for 2011!

Margie

Marjorie Geiser, MBA, RD

MEG Enterprises
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