How to Set Business Goals in 2010

Isn’t it time to breakthrough barriers holding you back from achieving more income in your business? What it takes to is confidence you can do it, courage to take action, and a solid plan and system to transform your business into something special.

Achieving extraordinary results in your business requires you to open up your mind, and do things differently than the way you’ve become accustomed in the past. To help you start the New Year in a powerful way, I am sharing with you seven powerful steps you can follow to make 2010 a spectacular year for you and your business .

The seven steps to follow to achieve a business breakthrough in 2010 are:

Looking closely at each of the above and expanding on each:

Many entrepreneurs struggle with discovering their brand identity, which is something that communicates who they are, and how they want to position themselves to their market, relative to all other brands. Without a brand identity, you look flat and lifeless to your market, and don’t communicate a personality or clear message to attract the right clients you will buy from you.

Your authentic brand identity captures the essence of who you are, communicates your values, personality, and what you stand for to your market niche. By successfully communicating your brand identity, you will attract your ideal client, the person most likely to buy from you. Also, what this means, is you will repel people who do not have anything in common with you, and will probably never buy from you.

Examples of strong brands and their archetypes we all know are Levi Jeans-Explorer, Lady Diana-Innocent, Nike-Hero, and Tom Petty-Outlaw. Archetypes evoke strong, deep emotions that everyone can connect to, and understand. The twelve ancient archetypes and primary attributes associated with them are:

1. The Innocent – Wholesome, pure

2. The Explorer – Seeker, adventurous

3. The Sage – Thinker, philosopher

4. The Hero – Warrior, change the world

5. The Outlaw – Rebellious, liberated

6. The Magician- spiritual, holistic

7. The Regular Guy/Gal – Not pretentious, straight shooter

8. The Lover – Seek True Love, intimacy

9. The Jester – Playful, trickster

10. The Caregiver- selfless, compassionate

11. The Creator – Innovative, artistic

12. The Ruler – Leader, confident

Which archetype are you? Think about these twelve archetypes, their related attributes, and determine which one resonates most with you.

One of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make, without fail, is they don’t have a clearly defined target market. They think they do, that it is women business owners who have a service business, or work-at-home moms, or people who have household incomes of $150,000 or higher, or businesses involved industry “X.” This information tells you very little about the buyer, how they make buying decisions, what motivates them to buy, and what values are important to them.

Lack of clarity about your target market will keep your income level stuck at its current level, no matter how hard you market. The reason is without a clearly defined market, you are marketing to everyone, and not reaching anyone.

It is imperative to determine exactly who your market niche is, and where you can find them. You need to know your market niche so well, that if you pass this person on the street, or you drive by their company, you can identify they are your ideal clients.

Most entrepreneurs’ business models don’t work, simply because they consciously have never thought out a well-defined business model. A business model is simply what activities you do to make money in your business.

Here are two some quick ideas how to create a better performing business model:

1. Decide on three core ways you will be paid for your topic, such as through teleseminars, workshops/retreats, and coaching programs.

2. Decide what percent of your income will come from each of these three core activities.

By doing these two simple steps, you will gain clarity about the activities you must focus on doing in your business to generate income, and you will also prioritize your activities.

Packaging your services makes it easier for clients to make buying decisions. The reason for this is think about your services you provide, and this includes paid-for services, as well as ones you provide for free, such as telephone and email support, a free consultation or needs analysis, etc. It becomes quite a long list, doesn’t it? Now, try to sell these services to your potential clients. It becomes confusing, and overwhelming to your clients, as well as to you. The end result is a buying decision is delayed or never happens.

Packaging your services makes it easier for your potential clients to conceptually understand what your offerings are, makes it easier for them to make a buying decision, and it makes it easier for you to sell your products and services. Offering three different levels of packages, at three different price points, also offers more opportunity for your clients to say yes to your offerings.

Many entrepreneurs give away too much of our personal services for free, and I have to say I have been guilty of this for years. We give away free coaching, free consulting, free design work, and then we wonder why people don’t buy.

The best way to raise your fees is to determine the value of the results you offer your clients. This will convince you to change your fees overnight!

For use coaches and consultants, we typically do a needs analysis and assessment, by which our client then knows exactly what needs to be done to fix the problem. This has to stop, because you are giving away your coaching and consulting for free. To have confidence to increase your fees you must first determine the value of the results you create for your clients. A simple way to do this is brainstorm a list of thirty results clients can expect by working with you. Those results for your client could be:

• Raise your fees so you can potentially double your income in 2010

• Learn a sales process that gets people to effortlessly say “Yes” to your offers, making you more sales, a higher conversion rate

• Identify your brand archetype so you authentically and easily communicate who you are, and take out the guesswork about how to brand yourself

• Identify the right words to use to attract your target market

• Increase confidence and eliminate doubt

Think about the top result your client ultimately wants to get from working with you, such as ‘increase income,’ and quantify the result, if you can.

Another way to charge higher fees is to build your credibility, by being known and sought after as an expert in your field. The more people who know about you be seeing, hearing, and reading about you in different places, the easier it will be for you to command higher fees. There are a number of ways to build your credibility, including:

• Submitting press releases

• Being interviewed by a reporter

• Speaking in public

• Conducting teleseminars

• Being a guest on other peoples’ teleseminars

• Writing and publishing articles

• Writing and publishing a book

• Posting entries on popular blogs

• Becoming active on social media networks, such as Twitter and Facebook

Not only are these activities powerful ways to build your credibility, but they are also easy to do. Pick a few activities to focus on, build your credibility and celebrity, and raise your fees.

Be increasing your credibility and celebrity, this will give you an opportunity to increase your list of leads and prospects, people who may buy from you. Make sure you have a way to capture leads, people who are interested in learning more about your products and services. Without a way to capture leads, you will have no way to follow-up with them, and they will be gone forever.

Once you capture a lead, have a very strong follow-up strategy in place. Following up means determining how you will stay in touch with your leads, and how often. Some ways to stay in touch and follow-up are through an ezine publication, direct mail, thank you cards, birthday cards, special offers for customers only, email promotions, or calling and emailing directly, etc.

These seven powerful steps will position you to transform your business, and achieve spectacular success in 2010!

About the Author: Bonita Richter, MBA, teaches entrepreneurs how to Brand, Market, and Create High-Income Businesses of their dreams with ease and speed. To download her popular and *FREE* Branding, Marketing, and Biz Growth resources and ideas visit ===> https://www.BonitaRichter.com