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.

There is one thing I often hear from health professionals, which is they feel they just need a plan, and then they know they can turn their business into a great success.

But they don’t create that plan! Why? Let’s look at 3 biggest reasons why you don’t, and give one tip for each reason that can turn things around:

1. Usually you are too close to what you do to be able to really SEE what you have to offer!

   If this is you, sit down and write out every service and product you have to offer. Then determine when you would like to sell that product or service. Even I work with a company who can help me not only see the services I have to offer, but also helps me plan when I will offer them, and then helps me create the promotional plan to fill my programs.

2. Sitting back and putting a comprehensive plan together feels like too big a project.

   It’s really not; it just takes some time and a methodical process to turn what you have to offer into a plan to FILL your services or sell your products. Once you have all your products and services written down from above, print up calendars for the period you’d like to plan (each month for the rest of the year would be ideal) and, in pencil, play around with how many of each product or service you would like to sell.

3. You don’t know HOW to plan!

   Again, by just taking it one step at a time, the “HOW” really resolves itself rather quickly. If you have identified all of your products and services, and you have written down when you’d like to sell each on the calendars, from above, you actually have started your plan! The next step is to plan your PROMOTIONS!

Often it’s just a matter of getting started. As a successful person, though, once you’re given the right door to open, you can excel! You just have to “JUST JUMP”!

Margie
MEG Enterprises

Do you struggle with taking your business to the next level? Imagine if you could create your plan for the rest of the year in just half a day! You can do this with the MEG Enterprises half-day intensive coaching session in Marketing Plan in a Day. 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.

Are you struggling to turn your dream nutrition business into reality? Do you suffer from periods of feast or famine with your revenue? Yes, there are very specific strategies that can help you turn all of this around, so you flow freely towards your business dreams, but first you have to stop giving away your power!

Let’s look at the three ways you are probably giving away your power that prevents you from creating the fulfilling, successful, thriving business that you know you’re capable of creating.

#1 – You’re not charging enough! Yea, it’s as simple as that. As a registered dietitian and personal trainer myself, I see it all the time with other RDs and trainers: We look around at what others are charging (which isn’t enough, either) and think we have to either charge what they charge, or less! When clients don’t hire us, we continue to drop our rates… and see business drop lower and lower and lower…

Try something daring: RAISE your rates! But just raising your rates isn’t enough. Sit back and clarify for yourself how you transform the lives of the people you work with. And the next time you have a conversation with someone interested in your services, come back to that transformation you help with before that conversation, and then, at the end of the conversation (I can help you with that), boldly and confidently state your new rates! Then celebrate your new-found business AND confidence.

#2 – You give away services. It’s either doing things for free or offering WAY too much with a service. Two things are coming up here: Either you’re trying to justify your services, or you don’t value what you have to offer. I hear this all the time “People can get what I offer for FREE, so why would they hire me?” Yes, people can get just about anything for free… except you and YOUR expertise! So, when I hear this ‘excuse’, I know it has nothing to do with the information/material, and EVERYTHING to do with that person’s own view of their own self-worth.

How do you counter this? Imagine that you are the solution to the problem your ideal clients want! Imagine that they want YOU! You may have to literally ‘pretend’ you know this, before you really start to embrace this belief.

#3 – Ignoring the money coming in and the money going out. I was good with this one. I would tend to ignore bills, especially if not enough revenue was coming in! If I ignored them, maybe they’d go away!? Yea, right.

However, instead of trying to ignore your revenue and expenses, start embracing them as if they were a child! Track every dollar that comes into your business for the next month. And when a bill comes in, pay it immediately. By the end of the month, check in with yourself to see how much more empowered you feel as a confident, successful business owner. ESPECIALLY since you will have also implemented #1 and #2 above!

Often we believe that our success is out of our hands. Yet, this is NOT entirely true! How we embrace our power, or not, determines how successful our business is. It’s time for you to embrace YOUR power and create the thriving private practice that you KNOW you’re capable of creating!

Margie

Are you ready to create/recreate your niche so you can attract more clients? Come join us for the Niche Breakthrough Secrets for Unlimited Client Attraction 4-part teleseminar starting on August 23. To learn more, click here.