You’ve been DREAMING about what it would be like to open your own private practice. It’s been on your mind since you were in school, and there are times, especially on Monday mornings, that you daydream about it.

But, you’re not really sure what it would look like. You don’t have the first clue how to get started, and of course you’re AFRAID that you would put your heart and soul into it, only to fail and look like a fool. You barely even talk about it out loud, because you don’t want family and friends to laugh at you.

But, anything is possible! The only limitations we have are the ones we put on ourselves! With planning and learning the steps, and doing your homework, if this is something you really want to do, you can do it, AND succeed greatly at it, too!

I’m not saying it’s easy! Nothing worth having is. I have had to learn a great deal; about myself, about business, about my clients and potential clients. And it never ends, because my interests and passions change with the years. But, how exciting!

When my daughter started kindergarten, I returned to school. It took me five years to get through school, but I had a vision: I wanted to help people become healthy and fit in the privacy of their own homes. After school, I didn’t have that plan fully in place, even in my mind, but after 6 years working in a hospital, I was ready. I opened MEG Fitness in June, 1996. It’s been an incredible ride! I’ll never look back at my life with regrets that I didn’t pursue my dream. I really have learned that the only limits are those I impose on myself, too! So, I continue to dream BIGGER and allow my vision to become more grand. Why not? What’s the worst that can happen??

That’s what you have to ask yourself. If you never try, will you be happier? If you never try, how will you know if you could have done it? Consider some of the well-known names in sports, such as Michael Jordan, the basketball player; he has thrown more MISSED shots than those that have made their mark. What if he had not taken the chance to see what was possible for himself?

Ok, so now you’re ready to take the next step! First, in order to help you focus, I recommend that people start working on their business plan. The Small Business Association has invaluable resources on their website. This was the route I took. A year before I quit the hospital, I started working on my business plan. It helped me determine exactly who I was, what I offered, why, who my ideal client was, who my target market was (at that time), who my competition was, where I would offer my services, how I would offer them, and so on. As I coach other registered dietitian’s who want this dream, I now use a 3-page business plan for clients who don’t plan to look for outside funding. Regardless of the type of business plan, it will help answer many hard questions for you.

There are resources specific to dietitians, too, including other great dietitians who help others get started. Of course, the Nutrition Entrepreneurs DPG is an invaluable resource with the different specialty groups within the DPG, as well as the private listservs for each group.

Once you have your business plan in place, it’s not time to celebrate, yet! How are you going to accomplish the goals you have come up with in that plan? You next need a marketing plan. Now, although the marketing plan is also part of a business plan, it’s really just the intro! The marketing plan will become your template, your schedule, and will spell out the actions you will take to make those goals reality. If you use it seriously, it will be your day-to-day guide to making your dreams come true!

You’ve been dreaming about what it would be like to open your own private practice. Now that you have a few tips on how to get started and what you need to do, the only thing stopping you from investigating further is you! Just imagine if 50% of all registered dietitians were in private practice! I KNOW we could not only change our industry, but we could change the world! Yes, I do have a grand vision…

Margie
MEG Enterprises, Inc.

Do you dream of a thriving wellness business? Are you a health practitioner or registered dietitian who imagines not only changing the course of people’s lives, but enjoying a successful business at the same time? Then check out the Prosperity Secrets Platinum program for 2012 and see if that’s the course YOU need to take to achieve greatness for yourself. To learn more, go here.

I’ll always remember doing a ropes course and, in the middle of an oncoming hurricane, climbing a 30 foot pole. The temperatures were warm, but the rain was falling and the wind was blowing. As I climbed up that pole, the higher I got, the more it swayed. As I got to the top and realized I would have to let go of the pole with my hands in order to climb to the little platform, all my confidence and sense of adventure dissolved. Even with a harness on, and logically knowing I couldn’t get hurt, I froze.

But I’ll also never forget the thrill of power when I jumped off the top of that little platform into the air. That’s when I realized my true calling of empowering people to achieve whatever they imagine achieving. That jump again reminded me and reinforced my belief that all of us can achieve whatever we can imagine.

Until that time, I hid out. Yea, I may have known what I was capable of. But what if I FAILED?? What if I risked and fell flat on my face? But while hiding out, although my business did “okay”, it wasn’t “amazing.” It wasn’t until I was willing to REALLY step up, and RISK, that I saw amazing results. Not just results in my own business, but results for my clients, too.

I’ve always believed that we are all here for some purpose, though, and the last thing I EVER want to do is look back at my life… wishing I had…. wishing I had whatever it was I dreamed of doing.

As an example, I still remember my grandmother the year before she died telling me she wished they had traveled more. This was a woman who, after my grandfather sold his business, was never home! They took their motor home to every corner of the US and Canada and Mexico. And when it was too hard to drive, they then started to explore the world through cruises. Yet here she was, telling me she wished she had done MORE!

What do you fear doing, yet dream of? When will YOU jump off that pole of safety and risk greatness?

Margie
MEG Enterprises, Inc.

Do you dream of a thriving wellness business? Are you a health practitioner or registered dietitian who imagines not only changing the course of people’s lives, but enjoying a successful business at the same time? Then check out the Prosperity Secrets Platinum program for 2012 and see if that’s the course YOU need to take to achieve greatness for yourself. 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.

As I work with clients to help them refine their niche and create their promotional conversations and emails, a question they often have is “Where do I FIND my clients?”

Here are 5 ways to find and attract your ideal clients so you can grow your business to the wild success you have only imagined;

1 – You have to FIRST know who your ideal client is! You can’t try to speak to everyone. You have to literally close your eyes and imagine ONE PERSON. Generic “Pat” isn’t going to cut it! If you try to speak to everyone, you will ‘reach’ no one. If you love working with stay-at-home moms, then you have to be very clear what makes those moms tick. If you want to work with 20-something year old men who want to compete in bodybuilding competitions, what makes them tick is going to be VERY different than the stay-at-home moms!

2 – When you’ve become very clear who that ideal client is, then you have to craft the language that will attract them to you! By understanding what they struggle with and what they really want, you’ll be able to easily craft your messages that will lead that person to contact you. They will understand that you GET them!

3 – Once you’re clear on who your ideal client is, you also need to determine where they hang out. Not ALL potential clients will be on social networking sites. They may not even all be online! However, someone they know will be, so you can’t discount a website or showing up on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You may want to reach corporations, so you can offer corporate wellness services. If this is the case, when you plan out your promotional schedule, you might want to spend more time on LinkedIn than on Facebook.

4 – They say that in order to really find your ideal clients, you sometimes have to swing a wide net. What this means is you will have to experiment. You have to test all the online locations you believe your clients might be hanging out in, as well as all the places they may show up in person.

5 – But when you experiment, you have to review and analyze your results. For example, if you do spend time on Facebook, how many people are coming to your website as a result of your posts? AND, of those who come to your site, how many take the next step? Examples of ‘next step’ might be sign up for your free gift, or purchase something from you, or even contact you about your services. If your clients are found online, it might be from various live events, such as Chamber events or entrepreneur clubs or networking meetings. Be sure to always track where a person comes from so you know what’s effective for you and what’s not. You’ll want to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t work!

I know people always think there should be more to it than these five simple ways to find your ideal clients, but it really IS as simple as this! Now, go out there and make it happen!

Margie
MEG Enterprises

Are you still unclear WHO your ideal client is? Are you trying to figure out your niche? Imagine creating your niche and your marketing materials that will attract them, all in half a day! To learn more on HOW you can make that happen, click here.

If you are dreaming of taking your business to the next stage, but you find yourself JUST dreaming and not growing, then it’s probably time to find yourself a mentor!

If you are an RD, ADA has a mentor program. The Nutrition Entrepreneurs Dietetic Practice Group of the ADA also has a mentor program, which I highly recommend.

But what if you need the NEXT stage of help? Then follow these 4 tips to help you choose a mentor who will challenge you to create the business of your dreams:

Tip 1: Find someone who is more than just a figurehead. It has to be someone who lives the life you imagine living and models what you would like to be doing. How do they live their life? What things are important to them? Do THEY invest in a coach for themselves? You don’t want to find someone who talks about the importance of mentoring/coaching yet doesn’t invest in that help for themselves.

Tip 2: Look for someone who can provide done-for-you templates. We’re all so extremely busy! Wouldn’t it be nice if you could find someone who understood your business and could provide you with templates and scripts for how to write your website text, how to write promotional emails and even how to have an assessment or strategy conversation with a potential client!?

Tip 3: Choose someone who shares your values. Are you looking for someone who believes that the path to success is making a difference in the world? Or would you prefer to find someone who can just show you how to make a lot of money, no matter how you do it? I suspect you would rather work with someone who strives to empower others, since if you’re reading this, that’s YOUR goal, too.

Tip 4: Choose a mentor who is a real coach. Anyone can call themselves a coach. But I have to share that I’ve heard MANY horror stories from people who THOUGHT they were hiring a coach, only to find out that they were really hiring a consultant. Coaches don’t scold you. Coaches don’t get angry when you don’t follow their advice. Coaches don’t give advice! Granted, it’s nice to find a coach who can both provide amazing coaching AND give you advice on how to move forward, but a qualified, educated coach will ultimately hold you as knowledgeable and the person in charge of your choices.

Although I believe that all of us can create whatever we can imagine, I also believe that if we invest in ourselves by investing in a powerful mentor, we will create it MUCH faster! And, life is too short: I want to create my dream business today and then have the rest of my life to enjoy it. What about you?

Margie

If you are serious about taking your business to the next level this year, the 6-month group Platinum program is for you! Click here for more information.