If you read yesterday’s blog post, you’ll have read about Stage One of the Business Growth model, which is Service Mastery.

After you get to the point where you kick butt in delivering the service that you do, the next phase comes and can slap you up side the head!

Meaning — it’s in this phase where you discover that you absolutely cannot do it all.  Not that you should be doing it all, but for most of us we make this mistake.  Here’s how it goes…..

You open your business, and then realize that there is way more to success than just hanging out a shingle.  There is marketing, website design and upkeep, bookkeeping, database management, copywriting, billing and follow up with clients.  Whew!

In this stage you hit the wall. For me it was when I was up at 2am in tears as I was trying to manually type in business cards to a database.  (No, I didn’t know about CardScan and could barely figure out Excel) I was overwhelmed, and realized that it was taking me so much time just to do the ‘business’ part of the biz that I almost didn’t have enough time to do the client or revenue generating part.

So I bit the bullet, called a mentor, and said, “HELP….I have no idea how to work with an assistant or even what they could do for me, but I can’t keep going like this.”  It’s been a long journey, but today I have three assistants, and a team for my social networking, plus a graphic designer, blog guy, web guy, and loads of coaches.  And I”m a happy gal!  Let me introduce you to the next phase -

Phase Two is what I refer to as Business Mastery. Your task here is to learn how to take on the identity of a BUSINESS OWNER and not just a practitioner or whatever service you are providing.

How?  The first part is usually the awareness that what you are doing by being the crazy “I-can-do-it-all-by-myself” entrepreneur just isn’t working.

The work here is to move from being a service provider to a business owner.  Making decisions from this place is a completely different one than from that in Phase One.  The way to do that is to list the qualities of leader/business owner that you want to be.  Who can you model?  Where can you get some mentoring in this?  Without this step, you’ll forever be stuck in overwhelm  and burn out.

The first place to start is to outsource! What can you get rid of?  If you were able to peel off about four hours a week, what would you do instead that could be something that would get you more visibility of credibility.

When I work with my clients I have them follow themselves around for a week where they note how they spend their time.  After two weeks you’ll get the drift of what you are doing that is costing you time/energy/money.  Ask around for great assistants and start giving them some of the pieces that you don’t want to do, aren’t great at, or take you away from your brilliance.

The cool part?  Once you get your Business Mastery down, you will have a team who partners with you.  They can help move you forward, keep you inspired, and grow your business.  Now you are ready to move to Phase Three – Content Mastery….AKA Expert Status! Tune in tomorrow to learn more about that.

No, that doesn’t make you a multiple personality or crazy person, but it may mean that you are running what I call “Conflicting Intentions.”

You may experience a part of you that wants to move forward, but another part that wants to stay safe. How do you know if you have this going on? Sabotage, lack of progress, overwhelm, and all the other frustrating things we entrepreneurs deal with.

Listen in as Molly Luffy and I share what conflicting intentions are.

This is for our upcoming program that starts on September 15th:
www.InnerGuruExperience.com

Just imagine…14 days to a breakthrough!
It’s possible.

What if there were some things that you weren’t even aware of that were preventing you from getting the success you desire?

Molly Luffy and I have created an amazing program which will blast through all the old beliefs you have which aren’t supporting you.

The program starts September 15th - go to http://www.innerguruexperience.com/ to check it out.

You CAN have a huge shift!

Are you using testimonials on ALL your marketing pieces?  There is a concept known as social proof, which when used the right way, can add to your credibility and perception of value.  That means that if someone else likes you and got a good result from your work, you must be good!  There’s an element of ‘proof’ in testimonials.  In this article I’m going to teach you not only what to put in the testimonials to make them even more effective, but also how to ask your clients to create some powerful ones for you.

Some business owners feel hesitant to ask the clients for a testimonial, but once you learn this system, this is easy to master.  It doesn’t have to be contrived at all.  If someone says that they liked your work, just simply ask if you could write that down and use it in your marketing materials.  You can also let them know that their testimonial is a great way for them to get visibility as well.  (In fact, in the internet marketing world, many people use giving testimonials as a way to get their names out in front of more people.)

Another great way to gather powerful testimonials is to write them yourself.  Because your clients may be busy, you can offer to write down what they said and send it back for their approval.  This can insure that it will get done, and if you have a good relationship with your client, it will make it easier for them to help you.

What elements make for a great testimonial?  Let’s start by talking about what you don’t want to do.  Listen to how generic this one is:

“Working with John has been a good experience.  John has a great program and I am quite satisfied with the results.”
T.G – California

That’s usually the first kind of testimonial your clients will give you, so you have to coach them a bit to be clear and more precise about how they benefitted from working with you.

The following questions make for a great format for them to answer-

1.  Where were you before we started working together?  (You want to focus on their pain or what wasn’t working for them)

2.  Because you were there, what wasn’t working? 

3.  What had you tried?

4.  During our work together, what did we do?

5.  What was the result of that?  (Be as specific as possible!  If you can monetize or quantify the result, that’s even better)

6.  And now what’s different?

So if we take those points and rework the watered-down testimonial, it can be like this:

“John, you were a lifesaver!  Before I started coaching with you, my business was not generating enough revenue for me to even pay my employees.  I was frustrated and felt like throwing in the towel.  I had tried other coaches and had attended a few seminars, but couldn’t find the key to turn things around.  Then my friend Amy recommended you, and I’m glad she did.  You put me through your 12-week “Business Turn Around” program and wow…the results are amazing.  Since being in your program, I have been able to create my marketing message in a way that attracts the right customers to me.  As a result of this, my business has increased 30% and I’m not only making a profit, but feel so much more credible as a business owner.  And thanks to you, I am now working on two more product offerings, so will have an even more leveraged business.  I’d recommend you to anyone who wants to get great results – quick!”
Tom Gannon – www.thegannongroup.com   (name and domain are fictitious)

Want to make it even more powerful?  Get a photo, audio, or even video.  That’s the #1 way to have people feel like you are the go-to person in your industry!

Now it’s your turn.  Think about your top five clients.  Do you have their comments recorded?  If not, just create a plan to get what they love about you captured and onto your marketing materials.  You’ll be glad you did.

or “How my 10 year old coached me into getting over my fears and getting with the game of living bigger”

This is a story that I just kept writing and writing and writing, so we’ll break it up into three parts….

What if you could have a breakthrough in the most unlikely of places? What if doing one wild and crazy thing changed the way you experienced your business?

Because we are in some wacky times and almost every business owner I know has been faced with having to figure out how to get and keep clients, and how to best put forward their marketing messages. Since I’m in the middle of yet another rebranding, I’ve been experiencing some of that frustration myself. But it was all about to change….

There I was, finally facing my fears, barreling down one of those enclosed tube-style water slides, when it happened. CLARITY! It’s as if something Divine got revealed to me as I realized what a metaphor this was for not only my business, but for most business owners. Who would have thought that leaning into my HUGE fear of water slides would reveal something so symbolic and profound to me.

In that moment of surrendering to the water and where it was taking me through the black tube – I saw why so many business owners are struggling. Speeding down the tube, I even was able to see a solution! (Sort of like your life flashing before you…except I wasn’t going to the pearly gates, but to the big splash pool at the end.

Tune in tomorrow to hear how I went from a freaked out water-slide phobic mom, to a solid and grounded business owner who ‘got it’ in terms of the flow of life and business.

Life and business go hand and hand.  Very often as I experience things with my boys, I can see the patterns that my business owner clients also have as well.  This was really present for me when I took John, my almost 10 year old, to karate for the first time last week.

See, John is the kind of kid that wants to excel and is really hard on himself.  He’s dropped out of two sports when he can’t be the best, and has a tendency to be quite the little perfectionist.  Being the therapist-turned-coach-mom, I believe I know just what to tell him.  OK, maybe I don’t know exactly, but I’m gonna give it a shot.

After just one karate class, John decided that maybe  he wasn’t good enough.  He was anxious, and really had a very bad attitude about going back.  In fact, the old pattern of wanting to quit was emerging again.

But this time, I’m not letting him give up on himself.  Much like working with clients, I have a vision of what’s on the other side of the fear.  It’s my job to show John and my clients what’s possible if they will just persevere.

So the day of karate we were driving to school and John started in.  He went for a few minutes focusing on all the things he couldn’t do, how he’d probably be the worst in the class, blah, blah, blah.  This was a teachable moment….

I stopped him and said, “John, for three months, just give yourself permission to SUCK!”  He didn’t get it again, so I repeated it.  “John, just give yourself permission to be really bad for three months.”  This time, he looked at me like I had two heads, and said, “Hey mom, that’s not being very nice.”  He was taking it personally.

Clearly at nine, he didn’t get my loving support, so I had to explain it this way.

“You are working on learning something you have never done before.  If you give yourself three months and be totally gentle with yourself and only focus on what you do well, you’ll feel so much better about it.  Versus, the alternative of focusing on what you can’t do, getting frustrated, and wanting to quit.”  I went on to acknowledge how athletic he is, how disciplined he is, and how he could totally control what he chose to focus on….learning new skills or the mistakes he would make.  It was a pretty cool drive to school as I love teaching my boys ‘consciousness’ and that they have the power of choice.

Now in your business or life…where do you bump into the need to “allow yourself to suck for 90 days?”  It’s really an amazing little strategy I’ve developed from working with thousands of clients over the years.  Personally, I just started singing lessons, and it’s funny because my words to John came in very handy just three days later when I felt like I’d never master the breathing and complicated exercises the teacher was asking me to do.  But being older and wiser, I now know that the #1 most important thing I can do is to breathe, be gentle with myself, and keep showing up………it always gets better.

.

“Don’t Have a Dog You Can’t Pick Up…Or A Business Too Big to Manage”
by Therese Skelly

After his recent near death experience and a VERY expensive surgery, I had to take my eleven year old dog Colby back to the vet to get his sutures out. He had eaten a stuffed Easter egg (which didn’t pass through!) so ended up having to have it removed which left an 8 inch incision in his stomach.

On Saturday morning as I was ready to get him in my van, I discovered that no matter what I did, he wasn’t going in. I’d lift, push, cajole, and basically tried everything I could do, but my 80 pound elderly, weak-in-the-hips pooch would just slide under the vehicle. It occurred to me that one of us was gonna get hurt, so I did what every smart business owner would do….I called in reinforcements! OK, the ‘muscle’ in this case was my ex who lives about a mile away. (Yeah, we have that cool kind of relationship….) One quick phone call and in a few minutes the ex popped over and said canine was comfortably in the seat on the way to the v et.

Support = success!

Now why in the world would I share this story about my geriatric dog and my need to call for help? Because it’s the perfect entrepreneur’s dilemma!

I had a ‘project’ I needed to do but didn’t have the resources to make it happen on my own. The theme for this article is to encourage you to see who can do the ‘heavy lifting’ and help you out in areas where you need some more support.

Below is my four-step process for embracing this really important principle in your business.

Step #1: Open your eyes! Take a look around at your business and where you either loose energy (bookkeeping maybe?) or where you are chronically overwhelmed, or when you know that if you just had a few key pieces in place….you’d really be able to take off. Sometimes it will be letting someone do the tasks for you, or maybe it’s the need you have to learn a new skill. For me it was social media. I knew that I wanted to jump on the latest relationship/networking building trend, but didn’t have a clue where to start. What would it be for you? Make a list…………

Step #2: Visualize! The next step is to allow yourself to imagine what would be possible if you had this piece in place. This is where the fun is. If you could design it EXACTLY how you wanted, how would it look/feel/be? My best learning style is having someone talk me through the process, because I am an auditory learner. So the perfect solution to my social media desire was to have someone go through step-by-step all the bells and whistles. I had even signed up for a couple of teleseminars with the ‘experts’ but didn’t use them as the PERFECT design in my mind was a one on one relationship with someone who would just tailor my learning. Your turn…dream big! What would you love to see in terms of support.

Step #3: Strategize! Now where do you find this person? There are two ways of doing it. The first is the ‘inner game’ way of just harnessing energy. Part of the ‘magic’ is if you just set the intention, the Universe conspires to support you. (Anyone ever watched The Secret?)

The next way is to do some research about who is out there that could ‘fill the bill’ for you in this area.

The magic for me came when I attended my coach Kendall Summerhawk’s Brand Authenticity Money and Meaning workshop in May. There I found my perfect solution! I had already known and was friends with Mary Pat Kavanaugh, but after spending three days with her, we really connected and decided that we could support each other. Guess what she specializes in? You got it….social media! She’s like the FaceBook Queen!

Now it’s your turn…after putting out the intention, create a list of where you could find the support you need and a list of who you could go to for help finding it. Don’t forget the power of your network. Ask others who they know.

Step #4: Realize! Now that you have found that perfect person, how is it going to work? What has to happen for you to put them on your team? Maybe you just need an advisory board or possibly a peer run mastermind. In either case, explore what’s the win-win for all parties involved. In my case, Mary Pat is mentoring me in FaceBook, and I help her by coaching her on her business growth and strategies that she can easily implement. < /o:p>

If you need to pay for some new team members, do a calculation about how much business you’ll need to bring in to cover the new cash outlay. Truthfully, many entrepreneurs get themselves stuck in the trap of “I can’t afford to pay anyone to help, but I’m so busy doing so much administrative stuff, that I can’t earn more money either.” If you find yourself in that conundrum, ask yourself the following questions -

1. What’s the minimum investment I’d need to make to move forward? (Example, if you can only spend $500/month…what could that money buy you?)

2. How long would it take for me (with the new people in place) to begin to see a return on my investment?

3. What is it costing me to NOT have these additional resources? This could be in time, money, or just stress! Be honest here.

I’d encourage you to follow the four-step process and email me to share who your ideal support people are and how you are going about getting them because you deserve it!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? Please do! Feel free to reprint this article on your website, own newsletter or message boards as long as you include the following resource information:

©2008 Therese Skelly. Discover a simple, yet surprising secret to getting unstuck in your small business by visiting www.AcceleratingYourSuccess.com and requesting a free copy of the audio, Master Your Mindset to Be the Master of Your Business.