Don’t Be Afraid To Hire A Business Consultant

Yesterday, I was interviewing guest expert Jim Norris on a teleseminar on the subject of creating your own Peer Advisory Board. And he made an interesting but right-on-target statement that, “In larger businesses, hiring consultants and contractors to improve your business or strategies is perfectly normal and accepted. But most entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and small business owners see that as a sign of weakness or failure.”

Maybe that’s because hiring a consultant is often a last ditch effort to save your business when what you’ve been doing hasn’t worked. Really, getting help from experts, coaches, consultants and other experienced entrepreneurs should be part of your formula for success right from the start (Let’s face it, very few entrepreneurs know much about actually running and growing a successful business when we first start out!).

It might also be, in part, due to most entrepreneurs’ inherent do-it-yourself ethos. It’s their business, and they’re going to do it their way. As a result, many would rather use the trial-by-fire method and see for themselves than take anyone’s advice.

That’s just silly. Trying to reinvent a perfectly good wheel is nothing but a waste of time. It’s better to find someone with experience who can show you exactly what works and what doesn’t. Then you can always tweak it to suit your needs.

Finally, I think there are some entrepreneurs who just don’t want to admit they’re struggling—even to a coach or consultant. It’s that whole “fake it ‘til you make it” mentality taken way, way too far.

Okay people…If you’re struggling to grow your business, you have got to get over these issues…Ideally before you’re exhausted, out of cash, and on the verge of giving up!!

Because asking for help is not a sign of weakness or failure. It’s a sign of intelligence and forthcoming success. And it’s the best way to shortcut the process and skip a lot of the struggle.

I know every time I’ve hired a coach or consultant, or signed up for a high-priced training session, my business has taken a huge leap forward!

While it’s awesome if you can afford to hire a consultant or business coach on an ongoing basis, not every entrepreneur can. So below are five ways to get help that range from free to serious investment. All can be worthwhile. But you do often get what you pay for.

1)      Create your own, structured Mastermind Group or Peer Advisory Board that meets regularly to offer each other advice and support

2)      Join an existing business support or mastermind group

3)      Meet regularly with another entrepreneur at a similar stage in business to exchange ideas, or even co-work (get together to work on your own separate projects so you have someone to give you feedback and bounce ideas off of)

4)      Hire an experienced consultant or coach with a proven track record for just one hour to help you gain clarity, get answers, and create a plan for going forward

5)      Invest in a multi-week group coaching program

Things You Can Tweet About

Wonder what the big deal is with Twitter? Not sure how you would use it to marketing your business? Really not sure what you would even tweet about?

Below are 12 simple ideas of things you can tweet about at any time.

1. Your free report or white paper with a link
2. Articles you’ve posted online or on your blog
3. Events you’re hosting, speaking at, or going to
4. Newsworthy items
5. Inspiring or humorous quotes ( you can even quote yourself)
6. Thoughts on the latest ad, marketing, product or business you’ve seen
7. The latest good book you’ve read or movie you’ve seen
8. Links to other people’s articles, audios or videos that you enjoyed or found helpful
9. Your own questions, whether business-related or general interest
10. Quick and helpful tips
11. Whatever you’re thinking at the moment (it’s better to tweet about what you’re thinking than what you’re doing—though that’s okay too)
12. Retweet other people’s useful, interesting or humorous tweets

Is Your Headline Creative Enough?

When you only have at best a couple seconds to catch and keep someone’s attention on your Website, a good Home page headline is critical. What’s yours?

If it’s “Welcome to Our Site” you are definitely missing out. The best headlines identify the target market, promise a benefit they really want, and create enough curiosity to convince them to keep reading.

You don’t need or want to get creative with this. Because you don’t want prospects to have to think about your headline. You want them to understand right away how you can help them solve a problem, fill a want or achieve a goal.

Here’s a winner that’s anything but creative: “Corns gone in 5 days or your money back.”

In fact, it’s often best to use a proven headline as a template but change it to suit your products or services.

Take the well known headline selling piano lessons “They all laughed when I sat down at the piano…But when I started to play.” This could be tweaked for my Asian Cooking School client to “They all laughed when I invited them over for an authentic Thai feast…Then they tasted the food!”

The Power Of Hashtags
By Stacy Karacostas – Thu, 07/01/2010 – 10:12am.

Are you on Twitter?

If so, hopefully you’ve discovered the power of hashtags (basically a pound sign # and some letters). Or maybe you’ve seen hashtags and wondered what the heck they were.

Well, basically they are a way for you to track what others are saying about you, your event, your product or whatever you’ve created a hashtag for. The most common use is to let you track when someone tweets about your upcoming event. You just create a hashtag (keep it short since tweets are limited in size) then let people know to use it when they tweet about your event. And be sure to use it in your own tweets so it gets attached to retweets.

Then you can track usage on Twitter or using a service like SocialOomph and see who’s talking about you.