Category: Entrepreneurs

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Entrepreneurs How-To Guides Online Business Operations

How to Create a Sales Policy That is Fair to ALL of Your Clients

When you start developing your multiple streams of income business by adding products and programs which are available on your website, there’s a very specific policy you need to have in place … and that is a clearly defined Sales Policy.

Before we get into what this is about and why you need it, let me just take a minute to ask you how you would handle the following scenarios:

* You offer a discount to prospective clients of either a dollar amount or percentage off the price of your product/program if they purchase before a certain date.  A client comes to you after the deadline and says they didn’t read your email in time, can they still receive the discount?  What do you say?

* You are offering quite an expensive program so decide to make things easier on your clients by offering a payment plan.  Part way through the payment plan one of your client’s credit cards gets declined.  What do you do?

* You offer a guarantee on your product/program and a client comes to you asking for a refund that is outside of your guarantee period.  What do you say?

As soon as you start selling products and programs online all of these scenarios (and others) become very real – and, yes, I have found myself having to deal with all of the above!

Your Sales Policy is simply a statement which lets your clients and customers know what they can expect from you and how you handle your sales processes.  How your sales policy is structured is entirely up to you; it’s your business and you’re the business owner, but once you’ve decided what those policies are you need to be strong in your implementation.  Having a central page that clearly lays out your sales policies will make the implementation of them far easier (for you) and smoother, and will ensure that you’re being fair to ALL of your clients.

The sort of things you would include in your sales policy are:

* How you handle discounts and coupons that are requested after the deadline.

* How you handle coupons that should have been processed at the time of purchase, i.e. via your shopping cart system.

* How you handle declined credit card transactions (and you will get them when you start offering payment plans).

* How you handle your regular holiday sales.

* How you handle requests for refunds, especially if that request happens after the guarantee period.

These are all situations that you have to consider and assume will happen in your business and therefore you need to plan accordingly.  The best way to do this is by creating a Sales Policy page that is linked to from all of your own sales pages.  You should put it at the bottom of each sales page, but also reference it on the area of your sales page where your customer is just about to purchase.

For example, a great place to link to your Sales Policy page is right underneath where you have your ‘Click Here to order’ button.   Then simply have a sentence underneath that says, “Please see Sales Policy for full details”.

Tip:  Make sure your sales policy page opens in a new browser window so your customer doesn’t lose the sales page when going to review your sales policy.

Once you have your Sales Policy page all set up then should you find yourself in one of the scenarios outlined above, you simply direct your client to your page.  And when you have to say “no” to your client it makes your response a lot less personal and more graceful – especially if you’re having to respond yourself rather than having a team member do it for you.

Having a clearly defined Sales Policy in place eliminates a lot of the stress and frustration of having to deal with these situations, and allows you to be fair to ALL of your clients.

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Entrepreneurs Online Business

Increase Product Sales with These 3 Types of Special Offers

When you’re an online solo service professional (solopreneur) it’s crucial that you move away from the hours-for-dollars business model and create a multiple streams of income business, i.e. your income comes from a variety of different sources:

  1. Passive income through the sale of information products.
  2. Leveraged income by creating and running group programs.
  3. One-on-one client income; this is your highest level service and you only work with a few clients at this level.

Creating passive income in your business through the sale of information products is at the heart of a multiple streams of income business. And once sales are going well you can be generating a consistent income each and every month.

Sometimes, though, you need to give sales a little helping hand, particularly if you’re launching a new product. Today I’d like to share with you three ways in which you can increase your product sales through using special offers.

1. Create a coupon. If your shopping cart service allows you to do this, coupons are a really quick and easy way to offer a discount. You have lots of options when it comes to creating coupons; you can set them up for a dollar amount, a percentage amount, a specified time period, or even a minimum purchase amount. Simply create a coupon in your shopping cart, give it a name (which is the coupon code), and then tell your customers the code they need to input at the checkout in order to get the discount.

2. Create a time sensitive discount. This follows on from the point above and involves creating a coupon; however the reason that I really like this special offer is that you can set the expiration date on your coupons too. This is really handy if you want to run a special promotion through to, say, midnight on a certain date (you know the type of offer I mean – this is very common). But what’s so neat is that you don’t have to be sat at your PC at midnight to switch the pricing over – the coupon will automatically expire and your pricing will revert to normal – completely automated!

3. Offer a bonus product. For a certain period of time you could also offer a bonus product; this could be another one of your lower-priced products, or a special teleclass or report, or anything else that you think will add value to the product you are currently promoting. Very often someone will buy your product because they’re getting your bonus too. Also set a deadline on the bonus to encourage your customers to take action. This could be purchase before a certain date or offer a limited number of bonuses.

Don’t just save these ideas for when you’re launching a new product; use them when you want to re-launch an existing product, get sales moving for one of your other products, or you simply want to give your business a boost.

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Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship Starting Up

Small Business Success –Avoid Letting Your Big Customer Sink Your Business

Image provided by www.2-small-business.com

Article Contributed by Jim DeLapa

A huge customer for a new small business can be both a blessing and a curse.  The positive side is more obvious—the business establishes an early recurring source of revenue. Since revenue is the lifeblood of any business, what could be wrong with that?  Nothing, if you don’t stop there.

Any new small business owner will tell you that there is never enough time to do everything he or she knows they need to do to grow their business.  In addition to fulfilling customer orders, there are personnel issues, the website and other marketing activities, and an unbelievable number of administrative tasks that must be done even if they don’t help to grow the business.

It seems perfectly logical to focus on just that one big customer when keeping up with that customer’s orders is taking all of your time.  After all, you have too much work to do now.  Why go out and look for new customers?   Wouldn’t it be better to just take care of the business you have?  The answer is ‘absolutely not.’ Don’t fall into that trap.

Of course you want to take care of your big customer.  But you cannot stop there even for a short time.  Doing so becomes a habit and a way of life for too many small business owners.  Remember, if you only have one customer, no matter how big, you don’t have a business, you have a job. Eventually it will become clear that you have no leverage and no control even over the fate of your own company.

To drive this point home, imagine that your new business gets off to a great start.  You land that big customer that everyone would want and you take care of them like no other.  Your business grows, you’re hiring people, taking on more office space, profits are strong and you’re living the American dream.  Then, after three years, they still account for 80% of your business and suddenly something changes. For any of a hundred reasons, you’re notified that your number one customer will be your customer no more.

Within 90 days, you lay off more than half your staff, take a pay cut and are negotiating with an unsympathetic landlord to take back some of the office space.  As you sit in your office alone at night with your head in your hands, you say to yourself, ‘If only we had gone after other customers when we had the chance.’   This story and this pattern are far too common among small business owners.  It leaves previously successful small business leaders feeling betrayed, humiliated and defeated.

Regardless of your success with any given customer, it is essential that you build a broad base of customers as if your business depends on it—because it does.   To ensure that your team gets behind this goal include “number of new customers” as a metric in your incentive compensation or bonus plans.  As the business owner, delegate less important tasks and stay involved in both the ‘big’ customer account and the effort to bring in new customers.

Building a small business on a diversified base of customers is a winning long term strategy.  In doing so, you’ll even out the ups and downs in revenue and profitability.  This will serve you well if you ever seek a small business loan or line of credit.  You’ll be creating a business with a higher valuation and one that delivers stability and peace of mind to its employees and owners.  Make sure your small business plan includes a commitment to building a broad base of customers.

About the Author:

Jim DeLapa is the founder of GreatBusinessPlans.com, a leading provider of small business plan assistance for current and future small business owners.  DeLapa has launched and invested in numerous successful startups and played an active role in nurturing two of those from inception through being acquired by publicly traded firms.

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Entrepreneurs How-To Guides Online Business

Info Product Creation: How To Create Your FIRST Info Product in 7 Easy Steps

Once you’ve mastered your online marketing system and you’re growing your list on a daily basis, this is a good time to then set about creating additional offerings for your subscribers.  This is where you start to look at your Product & Marketing Funnel and see where the gaps are and where new products can fit.

If you’re like most solo service professionals you’ll have something at the top (i.e. the widest part) of your funnel, which is usually your free taste, and then you’ll have something at the bottom (i.e. the narrowest part) of your funnel, which is usually your most expensive one-on-one services, but you won’t have anything in-between.

This is where you need to create products at different price points so that your clients and customers can experience your services and expertise without having to invest in your top (most expensive) service, but they want more than you are offering at the ‘free’ level.

A great first info product to create is one that sits at the second level within your Product & Marketing Funnel; somewhere between $1 and $50.

So, here is the step-by-step guide on how to create that all-important first paid offering.

Step 1 Host a Free Teleclass

Not only is this a great way to build your list, but it also exposes your audience to your expertise.  You get to interact with your target market via the teleclass and they are able to ask you questions right there on the call.

Step 2 Record Your Teleclass

In addition to this being a great incentive to getting more sign-ups (if a registrant is not able to make it to the live teleclass they know that they’ll be able to get hold of the information afterwards via the recording), but this is where you’ll turn your free teleclass into your first paid info product.

Step 3 Create an Accompanying Guide or Special Report

Using the notes you prepared for your teleclass, turn these into a guide to accompany your teleclass.  Or turn your notes into a special report and sell the report as the paid product and offer the teleclass recording as a bonus.

Step 4 Create a Workbook

If you also provided instructions or how-to information as part of your free teleclass, take that information and create an additional workbook.  A workbook is a simple document that will allow your customer/client to make notes, write down their ideas, or plan out how they’re going to implement the how-to information that you shared with them on the teleclass.

Step 5 Bundle It All Together

Now that you have your teleclass recording, and you’ve created an accompanying guide/ebook and/or workbook, bundle all this information together to offer as a paid product at the second level within your funnel i.e. between the $1 and $50 price range.

Step 6 Create a Sales Page and Shopping Cart Link

You now need to create a sales page for your product, and associated shopping cart link.  It is also a great customer service feature to create an autoresponder so that you can follow-up with your customers to check that they are happy with their purchase and are implementing the information you shared with them.

Step 7 Promote to Your List

Once you have your product all set up (Step 5), and created the sales page (Step 6) it’s time to promote it to your list and make sales!  This is the exciting part!  Include some teaser information in your newsletter leading up to the launch of your product, and once you’re ready to take sales send a solo mailing announcing the launch of your product.  A solo mailing is much more effective than including the announcement as part of your regular newsletter.

After the initial launch continue to promote your product through your newsletter; promote it on your blog; and tell all your social networks about your product.

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Entrepreneurs

Tracking Business Performance: Three Entrepreneurs, Three Systems

A recent study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on female entrepreneurs, reveals there are five distinct types of women in business. Based on professional market research of more than 2,500 women in business, this study shows that each type of business owner has a unique approach to running a business and therefore each one has a unique combination of needs. This article outlines three of the five types and provides tips for tracking performance metrics and using the information to create future success.

Jane Dough is an entrepreneur who enjoys running her business and generally, she makes a nice living. She is comfortable and determined in buying and selling, which may be why she’s five times more likely than the average female business owner to hit the million dollar mark. Jane Dough is clear in her priorities and may be intentionally and actively growing an asset-based or legacy business. It is estimated that 18% of women entrepreneurs fall in the category of Jane Dough.

Because Jane Dough-run businesses often produce a large income, Jane Dough business owners are more likely than others to make large investments in their businesses. By tracking key performance metrics, then, Jane Dough can determine whether her investments are paying off – and if they aren’t, she can decide how to shift those investments so they do so.

Given the success of her business, Jane Dough is likely to use advertising systems, such as “pay per click” campaigns on Google or print and radio advertisements. These traditional advertising systems provide relatively simple tracking mechanisms by which Jane Dough can determine how her advertisements are working. For example, “pay per click” advertising allows a business owner to keep track of how many people clicked on her advertisement, based on a certain set of keywords, which she chooses. Jane Dough can figure out how many people visited her web site based on a specific set of keywords – and then she can figure out whether that “pay per click” campaign was worth the investment. Print or radio advertisements in certain markets can include special offers – based on how many people mention those special offers (whether they mention them during a phone call or while filling out an application or customer form of some kind), and Jane Dough will know whether those ads are driving traffic to her business. For Jane Dough, diligence in tracking metrics provides a solid understanding of the company, and a good opportunity for refining goals, educating team members and selecting even more powerful strategies for growth.

Merry Jane. This entrepreneur is usually building a part-time or “flexible time” business that gives her a creative outlet (whether she’s an ad agency consultant or she makes beautiful artwork) which she can manage within specific constraints around her schedule. She may have a day-job, or need to be fully present for family or other pursuits. She realizes she could make more money by working longer hours, but she’s happy with the tradeoff she has made because her business gives her tremendous freedom to work how and when she wants, around her other commitments.

Because Merry Jane needs to remain flexible so she is able to meet her various obligations and responsibilities, she doesn’t have much time to invest in tracking her company’s performance. Nevertheless, tracking performance will assist Merry Jane in establishing where her time is best spent – so it’s a critical investment. A few suggestions to consider on this information-gathering mission:

Studying existing customer relationships provides an excellent venue for Merry Jane to discover what is working. Usually, Merry Jane doesn’t have a large number of customers (and she prefers it that way!). It will be quite simple, then, to tally the results of an Internet survey, an e-mail questionnaire, or even a personal phone call or visit. A Merry Jane business owner can ask existing customers how they found out about her business, what attracted them to her business, and what they believe are the biggest benefits of the business’ products or services. By analyzing this data, Merry Jane can figure out what’s working. For example, if she advertises in three different magazines, but customers mention only two of them, perhaps she might stop advertising in the third. If she sells books, games and toys, and customers list the unique books and games as benefits, maybe she should cut her toy inventory and increase her book and game inventory accordingly.

Go Jane Go is passionate about her work and provides excellent service, so she has plenty of clients – so much so, she’s struggling to keep up with demand. She may be a classic overachiever, taking on volunteer opportunities as well, because she’s eager to make an impact on the world and she often struggles to say no. Because she wants to say yes to so many people, she may even be in denial about how many hours she actually works during the course of a week. As a result, she may be running herself ragged and feeling guilty about neglecting herself and others who are important to her.

Because Go Jane Go is wildly successful in business (she has so many clients she struggles to keep up with demand), it may seem as though she doesn’t need to track performance metrics. However, one of Go Jane Go’s challenges is that she takes her work personally. Her work is a reflection of herself, and as a result, she goes above and beyond to ensure the message her work sends is a positive one. Tracking key performance metrics, then, is essential for Go Jane Go’s personal well-being because it provides her an opportunity to see what is working and what isn’t from a purely business perspective.

Already overcommitted and overwhelmed, Go Jane Go’s most practical choice for handling the measuring of performance metrics may be to hire an individual or a firm to do it. From measuring whether an ad campaign is working to interviewing customers and completing market research, professionals can take care of every aspect of performance measuring and then give Go Jane Go a report she can use to determine her best next steps. Although she sometimes has difficulty handing work to someone else, (for fear that person may not meet her exacting standards), most Go Jane Go business owners don’t have the time to perform in-depth research. She can alleviate the fear of delegating this task by getting references. By hiring someone to tackle this time consuming endeavor, Go Jane Go can focus on the work she loves. Once she gets the report, she can determine whether her energy is in the right place.

Determining which strategies are working is critical in creating a business’ path to success. Measuring performance metrics not only reveals whether resources are being spent as wisely as possible, it also reveals a path for the future.

Interested in learning more about the five Jane types and which Jane you are? Check out www.janeoutofthebox.com

About the Author:
Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com