Six Figure Success: How Coaches Can Build the Ideal Business and Profits

Continuation of Six Figure Success, part one. Steps five through eight.

5. Surround yourself with excellence.

Find resources that empower you, including coaches and mastermind teams. Peak performers will tell you over and over again that they achieve their biggest successes with the support and encouragement of the people they're surrounding themselves with.

Develop and increase your expertise in all aspects of business management including planning, financials, marketing, customer service and sales. People tend to focus on what they do best. Consultants consult. However, at some point, sustaining growth in any business will require shifting resources away from providing 100% services all of the time. You should spend 40% of your time consulting, 10% of your time on business management and 50% of your time marketing, including new product development.

Consider hiring another expert to support your core business functions (bookkeeping, marketing, sales, etc.) They, too, are an investment in the future growth and prosperity of your business. Go back to your values. There are only so many hours in the day, but things still need to be accomplished and somebody has to do the work.

For me, I needed support in keeping my business organized, which is growing at a healthy pace. I needed someone who could handle the administrative work that was bombarding me – and that I was avoiding. The week I hired my virtual assistant, I tripled my business. Small investment = big return. I also hired a marketing professional. Even though I am an expert marketer, I got what I call the "Vampire Effect'. You look in the mirror and you can't see yourself. Hiring someone to give a new perspective to market my business was the best investment I made.

6. Effective marketing will build business, bad marketing will destroy it.

Tell people who you are, what value you offer them and where to find you… again and again. Develop a powerful personal brand that differentiates you within your industry. Why should they hire you over a different professional? This differentiation will lead to better communication, increased revenue and an image to be remembered. Does your team have a phenomenal response rate? Are your public speaking skills superior? Do you specialize in a specific area? What unique trainings do you have? By highlighting your uniqueness, you capitalize on your brand.

Remember your first public appearance as a consultant? It was great. A bit nerve-wracking, but exciting. After awhile, those appearances may have diminished as you spent more time handling client work and staying in the office. Well, get out there! Your business prosperity depends upon whether you become known locally, regionally or nationally. That means you need to establish yourself as an expert. Speak to new audiences. Developing passive income (books, audio tapes, special reports) to sell in the back of the room is a sure fire way to dramatically increase your income and your expert status. And position yourself as the expert the media calls.

Finally, make sure you have a professional image. At a bare minimum you need a web site, a business card and a brochure telling people what you offer. If you have no site or a poor site, you have no idea how much business you are losing. I highly recommend leaving this to the professionals. Many companies, including mine, can help entrepreneurs develop a strong brand identity. Show the public you mean business.

7. Integrity, commitment and tenacity generate results.

Consultants often tell this to their clients, but often forget it when it comes to their own business. Stay true to what you know and what will work for you. Be committed. Follow through on what you say you're going to do for your clients, yourself and your business.

8. Celebrate successes and failures… then try again.

You learn from both. Document and celebrate your successes. Don't be afraid to develop tips and techniques for overcoming failures. Look at failures as a gift: you now know what not to do.

As a consultant, we often get bogged down with the things that stop our businesses from reaching their true potential. You must focus on your own business vision and action items to be successful – and structure your practice to make this a priority. View your business as a billable client. After all, it's the billable clients that are the key to your Six Figure Success.

Copyright (c) 2007 UpLevel Strategies

Every consultant has had the feeling: the conviction that your own private service practice is your true calling. Your passion quest. Yet, the mundane details of actually running a business make even the most inspired business person ask whether the choice was the right one…

For more information, visit http://www.uplevelstrategies.com .

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