Now that I’m done with school, I am ready for the next step, which is to expand my speaking career and create new and more valuable services for my clients.

And as I consider these next steps, my initial plan is to update my marketing plan. But, even before I do that, it dawned on me that I need to follow my own process that has been so successful for my own clients, which involves re-evaluating my vision, identifying my ideal clients and clarifying my unique essence.

What am I talking about and why are these important? Many of the people I work with are health, fitness and service professionals. They know nothing of business plans and marketing plans. In fact, it sends shivers down their spines thinking about such things. However, in order to succeed in business, and I mean REALLY succeed, you must first determine your vision, then develop a goal, then map out the plan. This is the focus that every business must have, preferably in the beginning, but if not then, at least at SOME time!

If you have a business, or are dreaming of, or starting, a business, take a step back and ask yourself if you have worked through this process:

1- What is your vision? What is it you really want to create? Who do you want to be known as?

2 – Who is your ideal client? What makes that person tick, what are their pains and challenges?

3 – What is your unique essence? Your competitive edge? Why would your ideal client come to you instead of someone else? What is great about you?

4 – Do the planning. A business plan is putting your goals and objectives down on paper. A marketing plan is an action plan for how you will achieve these goals and objectives.

5 – Make sure to have a process to measure your progress. You want to know what works and doesn’t work. The last thing you want to do is keep doing the same things that do NOT produce results.

Owning and running a business is a process. It never ends. And, above it all, you want focus to keep you fresh, fulfilled, and successful.

If you’re curious about this process I talk about, I would first suggest that you check out my book, “Just Jump“  at http://www.californiabasedpublishing.com, or my coaching services at http://www.meg-enterprises.com.

I would also like to invite you to register for my free weekly eblast. Not only do readers get a short email that highlights pertinent business information, but also health information they can either use for themselves or for their clients. I also include special offers that are not always available from the website.

Margie

I know this is a little off-topic from what I usually write about, but I was thinking about this after a conversation with a colleague. I’ve heard from many people who say, “I want to go back to school for…” and I often ask why. MANY times they don’t really have a clear-cut reason.

When I graduated in 1990 with my BS degree in nutrition, I also wanted to continue on to get my masters degree. And I always was SURE it would be in an exercise science, particularly kinesiology, which I love. However, when I graduated, my daughter was 10 years old and I felt it was time to put my focus on my child. I knew I could always go back to school later. I don’t regret my decision.

But a funny thing happened along the way to that graduate degree! Through the years, I would look into different exercise science degrees, but there was always something not quite right. I then very seriously looked into one around 2003. But two people asked me the same question on the same day: How did that help me grow my business?

I had to say it didn’t! It DID help my ego, though!

Hm… was that a good enough reason to dig deeply, make that huge commitment of time, money and dedication to a graduate degree? No.

So, I waited…

But, what also started to happen around 2003, is I started coaching other professionals on starting up their own businesses and I felt the need for more knowledge to better help them. I LOVED business coaching from the very beginning. These clients have such a desire. And the success my clients have seen is beyond extremely rewarding. Not only for them, but for me!

So, in September 2005, I returned to school and knew it was the right move. I have been excited through the entire program, and am sure that the time, money and commitment has been worth it. And I can tell how I’m better able to help my clients, too! No longer am I just speaking from things I’ve read about business, or taking from my own experience as a business owner, but I’m speaking from what I have learned from my formal education and from the discussions and debates in classes, as well as the multitudes of essays on each topic. For health professionals, we’ve learned that just reading books before that education really didn’t help us REALLY understand the topic the way we do after that formal education. I’ve learned it’s the same with this education in business.

I will graduate this March with an MBA in Entrepreneurship in just 6 weeks! I take my comp exam in 2 weeks, in fact. This will be a 4-hour essay exam to answer 3 questions about entrepreneurship. I’m almost done! This fact is just starting to dawn on me, and, as I suspected, looking back, it seems like just yesterday when I started.

So, my point is this: If you are considering going back to school, it involves a large commitment from you: Time, money and dedication. Most people I know who go after a graduate or post-graduate degree put a lot of time into the project, and sometimes dedication and interest gets lost along the way. The PROBLEM with this is then it becomes an albatross around their neck that they can’t get rid of! They generally are in too deep to quit, but it takes a lot out of them to keep going! So, you have to be clear what you want to accomplish and why you want that degree.

Meanwhile, though, here’s to going for that dream AND accomplishing it!

Margie