The Pricing Dilemma Part II

Deciding what to charge for a product can be a challenge, but setting the price for a service can prove even more perplexing. Pricing is more art than science. There are no hard and fast rules, other than making sure you cover your costs (including all overhead costs) and make a profit. Many books have been written and much advice given on this subject, but there is no neat one-size-fits-all formula that’s guaranteed to work. Read the rest of this entry »

Ruby Mayeda, The Dream-Tank

Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was asked to comment on our current environment and change. He emphasized now is the time for organizations and individuals to focus on reinvention:  “We are living in a white-water world, and these are level 3 rapids. You must have a clear sense of what your purpose is and the skill set to get there.”

The recession has forced many businesses to rethink how they’re doing business. We hear about companies laying off employees, reducing inventory, cutting back on costs, etc. I have no doubt these are practical and prudent steps. However, let me ask you this. How do you feel when you turn on the news and hear about a company cutting back?  I feel sadness and fear.

The word reinvention comes from invent or innovate. Innovation is defined as bringing something new to the environment. Laying off and cutting back doesn’t sound like something new. Does it sound inspiring?  Inspiration is said to be an arousal of the mind to special creativity. It comes from a Greek word that means “God-breathed.”

If you had the choice to act from inspiration or desperation, which would you choose?  What type of business attracts customers and engages their employees?  Inspired or desperate?

A new decade has begun, and we live in a different world from the one we experienced ten years ago. Reinventing by doing the same old thing won’t work today. Covey tells us to take charge of our future and draw on our imagination.

The Great Depression presented great opportunities for those who took inspired action.

• Hewlett Packard started in a rented garage. In 2009, it was ranked #9 among Fortune 500 companies.
• Kentucky Fried Chicken opened its first restaurant in 1937.
• The Empire State Building was constructed with 100% private financing.
• The Golden Gate Bridge was constructed despite great obstacles.
• More millionaires were created during this time than any other in American history.

Challenging times bring us the opportunity to ask ourselves the deeper questions.

I often tell my clients, “Your business isn’t unique. You are.” Define the passionate edge in your business in a way that inspires you and serves the world.

“You are, at this moment, standing right in the middle of your own acres of diamonds.” ~Earl Nightingale.

Guest blogger Ruby Mayeda is the owner of the Dream-Tank. One of only 24 international facilitators certified to deliver The Passion Test for Business, Ruby launched the Dream-Tank in January 2008. By making passion a competitive and visible advantage in business and in life, Ruby helps people of all kinds succeed

You’ve designed a new service or product, but how do you decide what to charge for it? You know your success depends on sales, and sales depend on pricing. If you charge too much, no one will buy it; and if you charge too little, potential buyers might be suspicious of your offer, and you may not make a profit. There are almost no hard and fast rules. Pricing is definitely an art not a science, but the following are some points to think about: Read the rest of this entry »

Subtle yet deeply held limiting beliefs could be preventing you from achieving your goals. What we truly believe — those often-unconscious assumptions about who we are and what we’re capable of — can propel us to greatness and enable us to achieve audacious dreams, or they can sabotage our efforts.

Negative beliefs that hold us back are rarely based on fact. They may have come from parents, early caregivers, teachers or society. We may have been told, “You can’t do …” “You’ll never…” and at some level have assumed it to be true.

Because we’re seldom aware of these ways of thinking, we rarely question them. Worse still, we may reinforce them with negative self-talk.

The good news is that we can choose what we believe.

What Do You Really Believe?

It’s a good exercise and can be revealing to find out what you truly believe. Take a minute and write down what you believe about money, yourself and your capabilities, success, your business, your market and/or your competition.

Change Limiting Beliefs:

In order to develop new thought patterns we must take a look at what we really believe in the objective light of day. Write down and think about each potentially limiting belief. Then, after each old limiting belief, write down a new, more appropriate belief. Repeat your new belief out loud. How does it feel?

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this belief based on fact?
• Where did it come from?
• Does this belief support and help me to reach my goals?
• What effect does believing this have on me and my business?
• How does it make me feel?

Uncover any negative self-talk that supports this belief. Write a new positive self-talk statement.

To cultivate and keep a positive mindset, determine to change your “I can’t”s to “I can”s.

What You Believe Can Determine Your Destiny

Our beliefs are a powerful force within us. They can keep us trapped in the status quo, or free us to become who we were born to be and achieve the dreams we set out to reach. Henry Ford understood this when he said, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Choose to change your old limiting beliefs now. This can alter the direction of your life and your business, and enable you to achieve extraordinary dreams.

A new client came the publicist’s way, one that promised to be lucrative. In her excitement, the publicist dashed off an incisive, newsworthy press release and threw it in the mail post-haste.

Before the publicist had a chance to follow up with the media, the client called and left a message on her voice mail. He’d received his copy of the news release in the mail. He would no longer require her services, he said.

Because she’d misspelled his business’s name throughout the news release.

Oh, the shame! The horror! The lost income!

I could regale you with similar tales of woe — and they are endless — but you’re probably thinking, “So what? I’m not a publicist. My writing doesn’t have to be perfect. My area of expertise lies elsewhere.”

Which is precisely why you need a proofreader. Oh, how you need a proofreader. Even proofreaders, when writing, need a proofreader. Because the brain switches to autopilot when reading something of its own creation. Instead of seeing what’s actually there, it sees what should be there.

Even if you do give your written material the once-over before sending it out, you may have fallen victim to the biggest mass delusion of our technology age: that the Internet and its chatspeak shorthand has revolutionized language to the extent that proper spelling, grammar and punctuation are obsolete. Even — gasp! — quaint.

WRONG! Why? Readers of sloppy, unedited writing think: “He didn’t care enough to do it right.” Or “How good at her job can she be if she can’t spell ‘their’ correctly?”

Some years ago, an attorney sent me an email solicitation with a headline that blared:  SOMEDAY YOUR GOING TO NEED A LAWYER!!!

Now, this guy must be clairvoyant, because I recently did have to retain a lawyer. But I would sooner eat haggis than hire one who doesn’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re.” Are you catching my drift here?

If you regularly send out communication pieces riddled with typos, inconsistencies and bloated verbiage, at best you’ll get a polite “We’ve decided to go in a different direction.” At worst, the recipient will save your piece to bring out and share when office morale dips.

And if your written materials aren’t polished to a high sheen, every skill set you have comes into question. In the same way that the eyes are the window to the soul, your writing is the window to your competence and credibility.

You’re no doubt brilliant at what you do. Why not let your writing communicate that fact?

I recently met with a prospective client about collaboration on a book project, and it was a real eye-opener. I received an unexpected insight into what people think is important when it comes to writing. Mr. X told me that he didn’t think grammar, punctuation, spelling and usage were all that important.

He told me that the writer bears responsibility for disseminating the message, but the reader has an equal responsibility to receive the message. I had to mull that over for a while — I’d never considered that concept before, and I found it fascinating.

After significant mulling, I came to an immutable conclusion: Mr. X is wrong.

As the writer, you bear 90 percent of the responsibility. The reader’s 10 percent? Learning to read in first grade. You, as the writer, are in essence asking for a favor: for the reader to listen to you.  It is solely your responsibility to write in a way that captures readers’ attention, is clear and understandable, and keeps readers reading.

Mr. X disagreed. “What really matters,” he argued, “is the message. I get irritated when I send out a marketing email and the recipients correct my spelling or punctuation or grammar. They get hung up on details and can’t get past them to the important stuff.”

Mr. X is missing a golden opportunity here — to take advantage of instant feedback. If readers of your blog or email marketing pieces point out your mistakes, they are doing you a favor. They are taking time out of their busy day to help you. You should thank them for telling you your writing is not accomplishing what you want it to accomplish. Then correct the problem.

If your readers let you know that your mistakes are distracting, listen to them. They’re saying that your message is hidden behind a film of bad writing and they can’t see through that film. The remedy is simple: get out the Windex.

Are distractions stealing your time and revenue? In our information-laden world we’re barraged daily with a tempting array of possibilities and products — a myriad of Bright Shiny Objects all vying for our time and attention. Those BSOs contending for our interest may be good and worthwhile, but they also divert our focus and decrease productivity. As a small-business owner who must wear many different hats to keep your company going and growing, maintaining focus is vital. Without it, you’re unlikely to turn your goal — your dream — into reality.

Use the list below to spot ways you can minimize distractions, maximize your time, and increase productivity and revenue.

Keys to Keep on Track

• Clearly define your ultimate goal and keep it before you.
• With your ultimate goal in mind, create a daily ‘to-do’ list, prioritize the tasks and stick to it.
• Identify and concentrate on the most important task you should accomplish each day.
• Know when your prime time is and maximize it.
• Learn to recognize and say “no” to opportunities and requests that take your time and don’t move you forward to where you really want to go.

Limit Interruptions

• Resolve to check your email and surf the Web only at scheduled times
• Close computer applications you aren’t using
• Designate phone-free times — break that reactive habit of reaching for it whenever it rings, and let voicemail take over
• Shut the office door when working on an important task — leaving it open invites visitors
• Keep a notepad handy to jot down ideas etc. when your own thoughts interrupt you

Recognize BSOs for what they are, quickly shut them down and get back to the task at hand. When we’re focused, our productivity increases and we feel good about our accomplishments at the end of each day. Choose and apply one or two of the keys above to increase your focus this week.

If you want to gain and keep good clients and boost profits, you must clearly understand and keep top of mind the benefits your products or services offer that set you apart from the competition.

Know Your Customer

Before you can begin to effectively communicate those benefits that set you apart, you must define your target customer as narrowly as you can. Then get to know how they think, and what’s meaningful and important to them. Understand the challenges they face in business and life that your products could solve. Ask yourself what problems they’ll gladly pay to resolve.

Identify Your Rivals

You also need to know who your competitors are and the products they offer that are similar to yours—their features, benefits, pricing, strengths and weaknesses.

Define Your Differentiators

From your target customers’ perspective, describe all your products’ benefits—those differentiators that set them apart. Make a list of all these differentiators and how they will directly affect your customers in positive ways to make their lives easier, or help them save time and/or money. Then go over the list again and delete any benefits that your competition could also claim. Use the remaining benefits to market and sell the products.

Note: Price shouldn’t be a differentiator. There will always be someone willing to sell for less. Plus, price-driven customers may not be the kind you want.

You can learn a lot by talking with your best clients. Ask them why they chose you over the competition.

Refine Your Message

Using your list of benefits, write down how your products will meet your target clients’ perceived needs. Understand the related emotions—remember, people make buying decisions based on emotion—and use this information in your marketing communications. Consistently and clearly communicating to prospective clients what sets you and your products apart and how this benefits them is key to your success.

Update and Profit from What Sets You Apart

In our rapidly changing world, clients’ needs and wants are also constantly evolving. You must regularly assess and revise the list of benefits you offer and your message. Review the list often and adjust it to address your potential clients’ most current perceived needs. This will involve some time in research and a lot of thought, but the results will be rewarding.

Plan now to create or review, and perhaps revise, your list of unique benefits and your message. Then go sell what truly sets you apart.

“Ordinary people become extraordinary and produce extraordinary
results when they align their passion with a meaningful purpose.”
– Theresa Szczurek, Ph.D.

We’re inspired by stories of wildly successful entrepreneurs who turned a hobby – or a passion – into a thriving business and realized their dreams. It’s encouraging to read about those who started with little and seemed unlikely candidates for business success but, driven by passion, worked absurdly long hours and surmounted enormous difficulties to beat the odds and make it big. Read the rest of this entry »

“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”

~ Edward de Bono

4. Be ready to capture creative ideas. Always carry a notebook and pen. You never know when you might have a brilliant idea or you hear something that you’d like to further explore. Write it down quickly; don’t lose it. Read the rest of this entry »