Have you read Step 1 and Step 2 yet? If not, be sure to go back and read them. Afterall, we want YOU controlling your time so YOU can make more money, too! Just as I have learned to do.

However, as I’ve already shared, years ago I really struggled with getting things done. What made it most frustrating is I HAD the time, but was getting bogged down in the voices in my own head! Yet I’ve had people for years comment about how amazed they are at all the things I do. But, it’s only really been in the last year and a half that I can still accomplish the things I want to accomplish AND take real time off to enjoy life WHILE witnessing my income increase AND witness my clients achieve great success.

If you have followed Step 1 and Step 2, you already know that today I am living my dream: As my business continues to grow and is strongly in the 6-figure stage, because I’ve been able to follow these 3 simple steps I am sharing with you in these posts, my business continues to grow, yet I’m able to take 3 days off a week to do exactly what I want to do, without thinking about the business all the time. Today I walk into my office with a plan, and I’m able to shut down the distractions and focus.

When you’re able to control your time the way you WANT to, you’re able to better control the revenue that flows to you.

Today is Step #3 of three simple time success strategies that I cover more deeply elsewhere, but they can really can make the difference between working all the time, and feeling you would NEVER really want to grow to 6 or 7 figures (because then you wouldn’t have a life) or enjoying a thriving business, while playing and having tons of fun with family and friends, and feeling fulfilled because you are not only successful but ALSO are a living model of balance for your clients.

Step #3: Manage your social media

You KNOW how this can suck the time right out of your day! And what do you REALLY have to show for it? Not enough to justify hours of your time!

1) Create a plan for your social media.
What outcomes do you want? Write them down and then how you will achieve them. Then track your results. Don’t leave this part of your marketing to chance; it should be just PART of your overall marketing plan. And every one of you reading this should have SOME type of plan for how you market!

2) Create your schedule for social media.
If you scheduled 5 minutes a day on each site (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), it would only take you 15 minutes a day! And you’d STILL “Show up” on them enough to have a presence.

3) Then SET A TIMER so you stick TO your schedule!
It’s really easy to spend a day on social networking sites! That’s fine if that’s how you want to spend a weekend afternoon, but does it make sense to replace working ON the business with this? No!!!

Many new and growing Nutrition and Wellness Entrepreneurs struggle with the same challenge: They feel they spin their wheels all day and don’t get enough done. This directly impacts the amount of money they are making and the quality of life they live! In order to raise YOUR income AND actually enjoy a life, you HAVE to control your time in as focused and methodical manner you approach health and wellness! Yes, you really CAN have both, but, as with your health, you have to be disciplined.

Put these three steps into place in your business, and let me know how it works for you. My clients find them VERY effective, when they implement.

Margie
MEG Enterprises, Inc.

Do YOU struggle with time management? Do your days fly by with you wondering what you did that day, every day, every week? This is costing you money! To learn time success strategies that will instantly leave you feeling in charge of your life, and allowing you to MAKE more, check out “6-Figure Time Success Secrets for Health and Wellness Professionals.”

As I work with more and more dietitians and health professionals who want to build a thriving business, I realize that many might have a website, but most don’t know how to really make it work for them. So today I’d like to just address a few essentials you have to have in place in order to build a compelling online presence.

1 – First, yea, you have to have a website. However, make SURE your website home page isn’t all about you! It has to address the problems your ideal clients have, the solutions they’d LIKE to have, and it has to ensure them that you know what those problems are and that you are the solution for them.

2 – Just because you have a website doesn’t mean people are going to contact you or buy what you have to offer. They don’t know you! So, in order for them to get to know you, you next have to have some way to stay in touch with them. And today it’s NOT by saying you have a free e-newsletter. Your visitors want something really cool from you: Maybe a tip sheet, maybe a free report. Think about what all of your clients ask you or say they struggle with and offer/create that.

3 – You must also have a presence in the social media sites. Facebook, Twitter, blogs. Yep, you need them all! AND, to take it to the next level, also submit articles to the article-submission sites! All of these draw traffic to your website, which means they could then sign up for your free tip sheet and learn about what you have to offer so they can solve their problems!

If you do nothing else but set up these three steps, you’re on your way to building a thriving business! The more followers you have on your mailing list, the more potential clients you have. The more “potential” clients you have, the more “actual” clients you end up with.

Naturally, this is the just the beginning, but everyone has to start somewhere!

Margie

Want to learn how to grow YOUR list? Then you’ll want to join us for the interview with Wendy Lynn of www.thelistgrowers.com in my Unlimited Success Interview Series. To learn more, go here.

We hear all about how to use social media, and about all these businesses who have used social media to grow their business. And, when you read all these pieces about it, it sounds simple, huh? They all say that this is how you reach our clients.

However, I don’t know how many times I hear this question: “But where ARE my clients?”

Is that a question YOU have, too?

Here are 3 steps to reaching your clients:

Step 1 – First, determine who your ideal client is. No, you can’t pick “Generic Everyone”; that person doesn’t pay attention! You have to close your eyes and be able to describe that person to me.

Who are they? What do they do, where do they live? What things are important to them? Who do they turn to for help/advice/support? What makes them tick?? You have to be able to describe their pains and challenges. What is it they REALLY want! And, no, this will NOT dilute your services or limit your business! In fact, just the opposite happens.

Step 2 – Be very clear what YOU have to offer to this client. What do they ‘get’ as a result of working with you? What problems will they solve? How will life be different for them as a result of working with you? If you’re not clear what you offer to them, in terms of solutions, they won’t be clear. If they’re not clear, they won’t be any more interested than “Generic Everyone” is.

Step 3 – After you have determined who that person is, you then will have a better idea of where they might hang out. Not ALL potential clients ‘hang out’ online! Yes, it’s essential that you still show an online presence, but is this where your best use of your time should be spent? For me, yes, but for you… who knows? Only YOU know this!

Here are a couple examples: If your target market is stay-at-home moms, chances are they do spend time online. And the sites they may visit are sites that offer advice for children or babies. They may also have found a few supportive communities just for other moms like them. This is where YOU want to go, then. Join in on the conversations in the bulletin boards. Offer to write articles for the websites. These are just two ideas to stimulate your creativity. Also consider where they hang out locally, if you also want the local population.

A second example might be busy, professional men. They are less likely to spend much time online, and unlikely to be on any supportive websites. However, they may attend local networking events or professional meetings. They may have hobbies that take them online, however. This is why it’s important to get to know this client and what makes him/her tick.

Once you are clear who your clients are and where they hang out, THEN you are ready to promote your message to them! We’ll address this in another blog, but for right now you have your work cut out for you, as you look for those clients! And then come and share what you’ve learned from reading this post.

Margie
MEG Enterprises
Would you like to grow YOUR client list for 2011? A few more applications are still being accepted for the Private Platinum coaching program. Only apply if you are serious about stepping into a bigger game for 2011, however.

I just wrote about time management on another blog, because it is SUCH a big issue, today. One of the biggest challenges around time is in trying to ‘market’ your business via the current social networking venues.

I hear it all the time: “I need to market, but then I don’t have time for anything else!”

Seriously?

Let’s FIRST look at the term “marketing” and then let’s look at your social networking habits to see if we can get you back to work.

Marketing

Marketing is the strategy you will use to grow your business.

Marketing does not ONLY mean Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Marketing is a bigger picture of how you will accomplish the goals you’ve set up to accomplish with your business. Marketing is the tool for success. This also means newsletters, business cards, networking, phone calls, etc, just to name a few. Social networking should only be a PART of your marketing.

Literally, the definition of marketing by the American Marketing Association is “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (Approved October 2007)”

Got it?

Ok, that’s the first step.

Social networking

Next, let’s look at your social networking habits. Looking at your current social networking habits, are you able to quantify your results? How many visitors are you driving to your website as a result of your postings? And, of those visitors, how many are signing up for anything you have to offer? First item should be your newsletter/eblast.  Second would be your main service or product you have to offer.

Do NOT tell me you don’t know!

If you find yourself spending hours on these sites and you do not KNOW the results you’re producing, then really, you’re not working, you’re playing!

Consider how much all that ‘playing’ is costing you! Where is your return on investment? If it is not driving business to you, how else could you otherwise spend your time and actually MAKE money? Afterall, that IS why you’re in business, right?

The best piece of advice my Social Media VA gave me was this: Spend no more than 5 minutes a day on these sites. She suggested pick one to visit 3 days a week, another 2 days, and another 2 days. It was like she lifted this huge weight of pressure off my shoulders! Oh, I CAN create a presence AND work at the same time!

The funny thing is I’m starting to see other business coaches/consultants suggest the same thing. Why? Because it works!

So, now you know what marketing is and what place social networking plays in the BIG picture. And you have a suggested guide for controlling your social networking time.

So now, SERIOUSLY, stop reading and get to work!

Margie

I had my first book signing event in Arizona for JUST JUMP at the Next Chapter Bookstore in Prescott Valley, AZ last weekend. I had a great time, but the outcome was totally different than I had anticipated!

We had very few visitors to the store. But there were four of us at the event to sign books. And we created what I believe will be an incredible synergy of authors who will support, encourage and motivate each of the others. We are already discussing setting up our first meeting.

We’ll have a second book signing event at New Chapter, but although I put the word out about the event, I realize I didn’t quite do the push I know I should have.

What does it mean to to “Go for it 100%” and what holds us back from doing so? Let’s take a look at this and how YOU can JUST JUMP in and go 100%:

First, why do you hesitate to really GO FOR IT 100%?? Usually it’s one simple thing: Lack of confidence or self-doubt. Sure, it may not be HUGE, but it tends to linger in the fringes of what we could make possible. We all suffer from it at one level or another. We can SAY it’s lack of time, but we all find time for the things we most want to spend time on. We can also say we don’t know what to DO. Again, this is just another excuse. So, if you took away all of these excuses, THEN what do you do?

• Put your marketing plan together. I realized it’s time for an updated marketing plan for my book. Yes, I created one when it was in the production stage, and I have an updated (2010) plan for my business, but not for my book!

• Implement your plan. I could go into all the strategies to use to GO FOR IT 100%, but they are in your plan! Who must you contact, how will you contact them? How will you use social media? How will you manage your time around each of these activities? All of this must be included in your planning.

• Ask yourself, what is the worst that can happen? It’s all well-and-good to tell you to make the plan and then implement it, but then the limiting conversations come up that we mentioned above! So, how do you move past those voices of doubt? If you knock on a door or make a phone call, what is the worst thing that can happen? Seriously, usually it’s just that they say no! The worst is your ego is bruised, but you move on.

• Ask yourself, who must you be to make this happen? If someone told you they wanted to climb Mt. Everest, you would encourage them to do what’s necessary to make this happen, right? Why are you different? There is a part of you that might be holding back.  So, if you were to pretend you were someone ELSE, who would that person be? How can you step into those shoes, even for an afternoon or few minutes?

I totally believe that with the planning and vision, we can make anything happen. My goal is to enjoy the fact that I’m now in a new state/location and can spread the word about my book, JUST JUMP,  and how it can help people. I’m ready to GO FOR IT 100%!

Are you?

I challenge YOU to come on and post what you are willing to GO FOR IT 100%! Putting it out there means you WILL make it happen! You DO have a choice! It all depends on you and how willing you are to GO FOR IT 100%.

Margie