Archive for October, 2008
More about On-Line Scheduling
Posted by: | CommentsLast week’s Biz Tips was about using on-line scheduling services and one of my sharp readers, Bonnie Hill, has given me another great resource to tell you about that may be useful for your coaching business. TimeDriver is not only a way for clients to schedule with you, it is a scheduling promotion system through the use of invitations and easy-access buttons. TimeDriver calls itself an appointment invitation system and the intriguing aspect is those buttons. The system provides a way for you to include a “Schedule Now” button for your emails, website or even LinkedIn profile that connects the prospect directly to your openings. The TimeDriver Marketing strategy is that their system compels action from prospects and customers by making the scheduling immediate – sounds like a way to make an entrepreneur happy!
The system coordinates directly with either Google or Outlook calendars and determines appointment times for you. All you have to do is say when you are available – example, Tuesday mornings for 30 minutes – and the software does the rest. No one is given access to your calendar directly; they do receive email confirmations and reminders. There is also a feature allowing you to ask a direct question of each person scheduling so that you can know the nature of the appointment or the issue being addressed. TimeDriver gives a generous free trial of 90 days and then has an annual cost of $29.95 which makes it affordable for many coaching businesses.
New Position – New Seminars
Posted by: | CommentsI am pleased to announce that I have taken on a contract position as the National Education Director at Practice Pay Solutions. I am excited about this work because Practice Pay is a company that is truly committed to helping business owners succeed. What a great pairing for the work that I do helping coaches, counselors and consultants grow their businesses. I am honored to be taking on this position that has previously been held by C.J. Hayden and Karyn Greenstreet.
Practice Pay Solutions is well known in the coaching world as the most popular company for credit card processing with what is called a merchant account. In addition, they provide shopping carts, Learning Management Systems, a Website Builder and a registry for virtual assistants. They are dedicated to great customer service and training on all their products. My selection for this position is related to the company’s new initiative called Practice Pay University which will unfold in a very exciting way over the next several months.
My role as National Education Director will include hosting free classes and teleclasses on both Practice Pay products and on important topics in business development. We’ll be discussing e-commerce, automating your business, and creating passive income. You should be hearing quite a lot from me! And even though this sounds like a lot – I’ll still be working as usual in my own business, giving you lots of information and ideas for growing your business on a very personal basis.
The first classes from Practice Pay University have been announced. The first call is “Using a Virtual Assistant for Your Business” and is scheduled for November 5th at 5pm eastern. On November 6th at 5pm eastern, I’ll be interviewing Deborah Gallant about “Building a Coaching Website”. You can find out more about either call or register for free here.
I am continuing to poke my toe into the waters of social networking for business development. The newest experiment is with Twitter. This is an extremely fast paced site where thousands of users are repeatedly just answering the question “What are you doing?” Oh, and all your posts must be 140 characters or less (characters, not words!). Simple concept, but it really is powerful because it is a quick way to develop relationships and connect with many people you would otherwise not come into contact with. Many people that I know have been achieving quick success in gaining new partners, projects and even clients from these conversations.
I highly recommend doing some research and studying before jumping into this pool. The best resource I have found is a great, free ebook called the Twitter Handbook. Written by Deborah Micek and Warren Whitlock, it is a complete guide for what Twitter is, how it can help you and how to get started. I am trying to follow some of the suggestions in the book and have begun to make my own posts – called tweets. If you are already tweeting, I hope you will follow me @janetslack. You can also find me at http://twitter.com/janetslack. Come join the conversation!
100 Best Business-Building Resources for Coaches
Posted by: | CommentsHere is a great resource for every coaching entrepreneur – The 100 Best Business-Building Resources for Coaches. Thanks to Lynn Serafinn, coach from Bedford, UK who has compiled this list. She originally put it together for a London meeting of the European Co-Active Community and is available in both Excel and PDF formats. Lynn says, “Each resource has been reviewed carefully and described in detail, with explanations as to why you might find it useful for your business. This saves you months of time-consuming research, and hopefully will save you money by avoiding costly mistakes as you build your practice. AND, nearly half of these resources are absolutely FREE.”
I am proud to say that two of my products for coaches are included on this list. My free weekly ezine, Biz Tips for Coaches, is listed as well as my book, Mind Your Own Biz. I have explored the list at length and am honored to be listed in such company as such well known coaches as C. J. Hayden, Andrea J. Lee and Christian Mickelsen. If you are looking for resources about business development and want to find the best of the best – this list is a valuable tool for your search.
Consumer Research
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the keys to having any successful business is to be in touch with your clients and find out what they really want. Many entrepreneurial coaches have developed products and services in their coaching business and then discovered there was not a demand for that product. Talk to your clients first and find out what their biggest problems are. Then design a product or service that solves the most important problem for them. Here is a humorous video that was recently sent to me that makes this point. Even the very best ideas will not help your business if your target market is not interested.
The Business World Uses Strategic Thinking
Posted by: | CommentsRegular readers know that I believe in the necessity of strategic thinking for running your coaching business. See previous post here. My husband, Bob reminded me recently of the importance of strategic thinking for all businesses. Bob is general manager of a small company that manufactures specialty fibers. Not too long ago, he and the other managers rewrote their business plan. They wanted to make some changes in the business due to changes in the marketplace and the business environment in general. They rewrote the plan, made some business changes and things have started to look better.
About two weeks ago, Bob realized that they had made some good changes, but were still failing to look ahead to keep the successes going. He actually printed out my blog post on strategic thinking and took it to his managers for a “what’s next discussion”. It would have been easy for them to look at the improvements they had made and sit back content at that. What they did instead is to review the long-terms goals and the progress they had made to date. They then devised new next steps on the plan to reach the final goal. Whenever we do this, we are likely to find areas that have changed and that need our attention. Any change in your business is going to effect things in many areas.
You need to do similar strategic planning on an ongoing basis in your coaching business. I am currently looking at the strategic advantages and disadvantages of social networking with Twitter. What area of your business are you making decisions about that may affect your overall plan?
Biz Tools for more Productivity
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a great blog post to help you find just the right business tool – perhaps just what you’ve been needing for your coaching business. Donna Gunter at InfoBusiness has gathered her Top 10 Tools to Turbocharge Your Business Productivity. What I like best is that several of these will definitely save you time. Although I don’t know all the products she has chosen, I use and like four of them myself. Make sure to look at GoToMyPC, Roboform and XDrive. If you are interested in Practice Pay Solutions, feel free to click in from my affiliate link here.
Should a Therapist Twitter?
Posted by: | CommentsI am a coach with a thriving business which includes two niches, individual clients, groups, newsletters, this blog and several other marketing activities. I am also a Licensed Professional Counselor and have a busy private practice specializing in marriage counseling and trauma recovery. In the past few weeks, I have uncovered a dilemma in my life about Twitter.
Many of you know that Twitter is a new, very popular social networking site. Many coaches are having great success with using Twitter for business development. What they are finding is that connections and networking on Twitter happen very quickly. Twitter is made for just that – quick little bursts of info about you that others receive and follow. You get to know people quickly and they know you based on what is posted. The way this happens is that you write brief posts about yourself and your life that you send periodically throughout your days.
The excitement of Twitter is very obvious to me as a coach and entrepreneur. The exposure of Twitter is causing the counselor in me to be concerned. Although I am not a traditional therapist by any means, traditional therapy says that the counselor knows all about the client and shares nothing about themselves. Not only is there this inequality of information sharing, but the inequality is considered to be essential for the benefit of the client. Even though I share freely about myself with my counseling clients when I believe it will be helpful for them, now I am taking pause and wondering what the impact would be on my counseling clients for me to start twittering.
My counseling practice is in a small town with clients who are not typically online entrepreneurs or in other ways likely to Twitter. However, many are youthful and spend time online. I have decided that if I Twitter, I will not automatically post to other social networking sites. I know that I would only post about the coaching and business part of my life – not the counseling part. Yet I am still hesitating – I signed up for a Twitter account and haven’t posted the first thing. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Should a therapist Twitter? What should I look at and think about as I move forward or not on this? Leave your comment here and let me know.
