A Commentary on the Dizzying Array of Train the Trainers

Howdy ya'll!

Hope Fall is beautiful wherever you are. I have an exciting group coming up in January I wanted to tell you about.

The Frozen to Focused is a 4 month teleclass/coaching/consulting group for folks who are looking to move their program to the next level (or to just get unstuck!).

In the course of the four months, we meet on the phone one a week for an hour each time, discussing various aspects that every program needs to be successful and sustainable. Topics include:

• Start-up Needs (Insurance, formation, etc)
• Strategic Planning
• Finding your Ideal Client
• Message Development
• Marketing Plans, PR, Advertising
• Websites, Brochures, Newsletters
• Selecting your Ideal Herd
• Grantwriting & Funding

We have special guests each month who are experts in their fields, including Mike Sowinski CPA & CFO, Brenda Dammann (who co-wrote the book with me), who specializes in Marketing, Strategic Planning & Message Development, and Elizabeth Barbour, who knows it all about networking and finding your ideal client.

And of course you'll get MORE THAN YOUR FILL of ME!!! Cool!

In a nutshell, this program combines professional consulting, personal mentoring, inspirational experience, & educational information through powerful (but simple) technology to save you time and money & get you on the road to success.

Click here to visit the information page on the HorseSenseBusiness.com website. It's got all the info you need to join! If that doesn't work, go to Equine Assisted Business Consulting section of HorseSenseBusiness.com website, and click on From Frozen to Focused Masters Group.

There is an application process, and we are accepting applications now for January's group. Download your application by visiting this page!

Look forward to having you there!

Shannon

Shannon@HorseSenseOtc.com

The story behind the August Free Monthly Telecall with Dr. Anne Perkins

Well, yesterday was another example of how we may have a plan but must always be willing to adapt in Equine Assisted Practices.

This past month I was asked to be a Graduate Advisor for Prescott College's EAMH & EAL program. (I'm really, really excited about getting back into academia, in some small way, as I miss the environment and the students.) In order to "get oriented" to this school and my role, though, I had to get myself out here to Arizona for the Orientation & Colloquium August 20-23. That entailed me flying out on Wed the 19, the day set aside months ago for our Free Monthly Telecall with Dr. Anne Perkins.

While I made sure I wouldn't be in the air during the call, I could not get from the airport in Phoenix to my hotel in Prescott fast enough to be in my hotel room for the call, which was my goal. At about 20 minutes to the call time (at which point I KNEW I wasn't going to make it to the hotel,) I began looking around for a quiet parking lot for me to host the call on my cell phone. Although I found one, I must say I wasn't looking forward to an hour long call in a car in a parking lot in 100+ degree heat. I began to drive around the small town of Black Canyon City, Arizona.

Suddenly, I spied the joint Visitors Center and Chamber of Commerce for the town in a little shopping area. Thinking it couldn't hurt to ask, I walked in, introduced myself as a business owner in need of a room (a broom closet would do!) to host a telecall for one hour. They graciously gave me a desk and a chair, and I was all set!

So, you never know how your local (or someone else's local) Chamber of Commerce will be of benefit to you. Join your Chamber and get involved!

Happy Trails,

Shanon

This week I’m traveling by car through the New Mexico and Arizona desert, and I’ve been amazed by the way flora and fauna survive in such harsh and unforgiving conditions. I’m learning a lot about the desert, and the surprising array of plant life it supports. The rugged terrain reminds me a lot of the current economic crisis we’re all facing.

I get asked nearly every week how clients are weathering the current financial crisis. As it turns out, all of them are doing better than the national averages in their industries and many have continued to grow in spite of the economic downturn. I thought it would be interesting to share the traits and wisdom these leaders shared with me:

Sales Focus
Well before the effects of the financial crisis began, these individuals already had a marketing plan in place and were executing their plans. They did not scrap these plans or downsize their effort.

Agility
If one part of their business started to turn downward, they re-adjusted their focus into new or more profitable areas.

Boldness
Business ownership means taking risks. These owners continued to take risks and did not shy away from the challenges they were facing.

Curiosity
These business owners are always examining their current situation, and looking for opportunities. They’re aware of every facet of their business operations at all times, and figuring out what dynamics are in play.

Planning
Each big decision is carefully planned with the use of strategic and financial information as a guide to help them make the right decisions. They also make sure each decision fits into their plans and budget for the future.

Wow – the economic news of late hasn’t been easy for entrepreneurs to bear. Uncertainties abound in even larger quantities...how will this affect my business? Will clients still spend money with us? Will we survive?

Even with all these uncertainties, there is still probably more security being your own boss than being an employee right now. You are in charge of your fate, not some HR person. You can take additional comfort in knowing thousands of small businesses and nonprofits have survived past economic downturns in better shape than their large counterparts.

In too many program scenarios the first thing owners cut during a downturn is their marketing budgets. As much as marketing may resemble a dispensable expense, it’s not. Cutting marketing efforts will cost you relationships, top-of-mind awareness, and your share of the client market. 

Consider this instead: just when your competitors are cutting back their advertising and networking efforts (and the clutter of their message is no longer competing with yours!), you can take command of the marketplace. You can continue building awareness while theirs drops off. And, when things start looking up, you can be poised to take off while they’re making up for lost ground.

In some respects, dealing with a recession simply requires the same strategic thought as any other economic scenario; I firmly believe opportunities exist no matter the situation. It’s your job to find them. Sit down with your team and ask the following questions:

• What are our strengths in this situation?
•  What are our weaknesses?
•  What threats does the current scenario provide?
• What opportunities do the marketplace, and this scenario, provide?
  

Then take action. Use this economic downturn to further at least one thing in your business. Can you be taking that training class while things are slow? Establishing important relationships in the community? Do something. Be pro-active. Face the situation head-on with a healthy, can-do attitude and leave the panic, despair, and negativity to someone else. And always, always be thinking of how you can be making headway marketing-wise so your program is ready to take off when things start looking up!


Brenda Dammann
The Riding Writer
www.CreativeInc.net

Last month we talked about how marketing is not necessarily just about getting business, it's about establishing relationships. With that in mind, what are the next foundational elements for your marketing?

1. Know Who You Are
This falls under a branch of the marketing tree called Identity, and it involves everything from your logo and tagline to your core message. Here’s the most important thing about your identity: the more accurately your identity reflects who you are, the more powerful your presence will be...and the better your chances of attracting the Perfect Client. As such, this is NOT the place to cut corners, go cheap, or try to be something you’re not.

2. Know Who Your Client Is
Just as important, know who the decision-maker is – it may be someone very different from who you expect. The decision-maker for a school program might be the school counselor. Or an administrator. Or the parent. You need to make that distinction of who you’re approaching before moving forward. Then, when you create your marketing message:

• Be exactly who you are.
• Demonstrate that you know who your client is. 
• Show you know the client’s lingo, whether it be a lay person, a doctor, a school administrator, or therapist. Each one has very different language and needs. 
• Show how you solve or address your client’s problem to make their life better.
  

3. Place Your Message Where Your Client Will Find It
Put your message where your client reads, listens, and watches...NOT where you read, listen, or watch. Businesses also make the mistake of running an ad one time and expecting a response. In today’s more cluttered marketplace, minimum frequency is now much higher – probably around six exposures – before a person will respond. 

Whew! Did you get all that? Distilling the science of marketing down to three elements is just the start of your efforts, but once you understand these key pieces, logic and common sense can take you a long way.

Brenda Dammann
The Riding Writer
www.CreativeInc.net

What is the most important piece of your business foundation? My immediate thought is this: relationships.

In the early stages of any new business venture, it's not about getting business, it's about establishing relationships.

Marketing is a process enabling you to build or carry on a relationship when you can't necessarily be there in person. When you think about it, everything about marketing is relationships... whether you're talking about face-to-face networking, or advertising tactics that help you reach out to hundreds or thousands of people at one time.

When you think about marketing from this perspective, its purpose and function become much clearer. And with this clarity, the questions that need to be answered by your marketing efforts naturally flow:

• Who do I need to build a relationship with?
• What do they need to know about me?
• How does my work and my business make their world better?
• How can I present my business in the truest, clearest, and most professional way?   
  

I'm not a networking guru like Coach Elizabeth, but I do know when I focus on the relationship first, inevitably the business comes. People are put off by a sales tactic; people respond when you demonstrate a genuine interest in their lives and who they are.

There is a lot to know about all the marketing elements - from logos, websites, media buys, and public relations - but these things are all secondary to the foundational element of building relationship.

Be who you are. Build the relationship; the business will come.

Spring is a time to indulge your Inner Perfectionist, a momentary time out from the every day bustle to evaluate progress, siphon off unneeded baggage, and create breathing room in your office space and project files.

May is also a good time to evaluate progress in your marketing efforts, too; if you don’t stop at some point to appraise how things are working, you’re missing a valuable step in your marketing efforts.

Here’s an example: earlier this year, Horse Sense momentarily dropped its advertising in a local publication. For years we’d maintained a small annual contract with the local paper to promote monthly tour dates. It was time to see if those ads were still doing their job.

The answer: Yes, they were! Attendance dropped off dramatically when the ads disappeared. It turns out this small investment yielded response from the local market while also helping Horse Sense maintain top-of-mind awareness. The ad was worth it.

Take a couple hours now to regroup and look over your marketing efforts for the year. Are you networking in the right venues? Are you overlooking important opportunities? Is your website Events page up to date? Is it time to restock brochures? Are your ads working?

Do your spring cleaning now, and you still have time to course-correct and renew your focus before more valuable time passes.

--- Brenda Dammann
The Riding Writer
www.CreativeInc.net

It used to be having a website was a novelty; now having a website is a marketing necessity. A website is probably the Number One piece of collateral you should develop for your program.  In my line of work, websites are a big focus for clients, and rightfully so.

But now, more than ever, it is the wrong time to have a website built by your sister-in-law’s brother’s pet squirrel. Here are the import elements and considerations to factor in when thinking about starting your program’s website:

• The Foundational: Please, for the love of horses, DO talk to several website development vendors before starting. In addition to finding a widely divergent array of prices, you’ll find some alarming differences in capability. Some vendors are heavy on the technical side, with no professional visual artists or graphic design capability. Others might look good but have poor back-end software.

• The Functional: It is very expensive to go back and retrofit an existing website. Think ahead now so your website can handle the things you want in the future. Most people today want the ability to change content on their Events page, or add photos to the News section. These folks need a Content Management System (or CMS), integrated onto appropriate pages. Some will eventually sell manuals, T-shirts, or products on their site, and need to plan a shopping cart function. Others want to have a blog.

• The Visual: strong visuals and proper navigation, appropriately and strategically thought out, are enormously important on the Internet. It’s very easy to spot an amateur job from a professional job. Invest in professional visuals so they can be an accurate reflection of your program.

• The Verbal: the effectiveness of beautiful visuals is instantly destroyed by poor written content. Just like the visual, invest in professional writing so that your program is accurately and intelligently presented, with all the right pieces. These pieces include a strong tagline, benefits-driven key message points, language tailored to your customer, and the right balance of information/call to action. And don’t forget to integrate the search engine optimization tactics: keyword saturation, meta tag development, etc.

There are so many other things I could tell you about website development...the latest trends in software, the latest studies in readership style and readability, or the latest trends in layout and design. But hopefully this will get you started

Hey guys! Last week we talked about getting started on your website. Here are some specific resources to help you turn your ideas into reality!

Very low budget: Start with a blog! It’s a great way to build an internet presence, they’re easy to set up and use, and you can modify all of the content yourself. Check out sites like www.wordpress.com, www.blogger.com and www.typepad.com.

Low-medium budget: Consider a DIY (do-it-yourself) site. www.GoDaddy.com has a program called Website Tonight that is very popular. Also check out www.webpowertools.com for a low-cost but professional looking alternative. Another great resource is www.elance.com where you can get bids from people all over the world for your project.

Medium-high budget: Hire an experienced website designer! Personally, this has been my choice over the years and it’s yielded terrific results. It’s more expensive financially but it’s often less stressful to turn it over to an expert. Shannon and I both use www.totsie.com –they create exceptional Plone sites (you are able to manage the content yourself) for businesses around the country. Or if you want to hire someone in your community, check out your local Chamber of Commerce. If you hire a web designer, be sure to shop around and get several bids.

I have coached dozens of clients through the process of creating a website. If you need support, give me a call for some coaching! Good luck!

Don’t have a website yet? You need one!

Over the past year, I’ve read several articles that point to the fact that most Americans are now using the internet as much as they are watching TV, if not more. Wow! I think it’s safe to say that if you want to be successful in business in the long-term, you’ve got to have a website because that’s where consumers are going to make their buying decisions. Sure, networking and advertising and other traditional marketing methods are important. But having an internet presence is key to establishing both visibility and credibility which lead to profitability!

Here are a few simple steps to get you started.

1. Buy your domain name. Visit www.godaddy.com for the cheapest domains on the web. If you're not sure exactly what you want, buy a few for just one year. That way, you'll have some choices.
   
2. Research other websites of your competitors. This includes other EAP and EAL practitioners (in your community or around the country), but it also includes other similar service providers in your community. Make note of what you like and what you don't like about their sites.
   
3. Sketch out your initial ideas of what you'd like to put on the site. Consider your target market--who are they and what do they want? how can you help them to solve their problems? Be sure to include descriptions of your services, photos, testimonials and what action they should take next.
   
4. Consider your budget. Decide if you want to try and create the site yourself or if you want to hire someone else to do it for you. There are costs with building a website and then also hosting it and maintaining it. Factor all that into your planning.
   

Tune in next week, as I'll share resources for low, medium and high budget websites!

The marketing professionals (like Brenda the writer for Horse Sense) told me that a website is not only important, it is essential marketing. As it turns out, I had about a half dozen clients that contacted me as a direct result of just simply having a website (several from out of state), and almost all of my clients and competition have checked out the site, and given good feedback. It has given me a level of professionalism in the marketplace, and a resume to show the entire world. Here are the essential pieces of a successful professional services website:

Home: This should be a really fast snapshot of what the company is with logo etc., it should not be wordy but provide easy navigation to the rest of the site

Services: What your company provides

About our Clients: Who your clients are, and how you work with them

Case Studies: What you have done for your clients

Bio/Staff: Who the people are behind the company, and their background

Contact: Don’t forget this one! Your phone and email should be on every page, with one page dedicated to it. I have used this many times when I forget someone’s contact info.

Lastly, don’t forget that this is marketing…you get out of it what you put into it. Good luck on developing your website!

Mike Sowinski, CFO Consultants

Visit Mike’s site at www.cfoconsultants.net

“Marketing people spend money, accountants hoard money. Never the twain shall meet.”

...Or at least that’s what folks usually think. People are often surprised to learn that crunching numbers plays a huge part in the strategic marketing world (or at least it ought to). Numbers tell us the nature of the goals we’re shooting for, what percentage of effort needs to go into different initiatives, and yes, where to set our pricing.

I know how painful this is for some of you; I personally saw Shannon’s eyes glaze over many times when crunching numbers during last fall’s marketing planning. And there’s no hall pass for you non-profits, either. While you might not be out to earn profit, you DO still have to crunch numbers and set fundraising goals that cover operating costs and salaries. So...if you feel your own eyes glazing over during this, stick with me! I promise it’ll make sense.

Pricing, first and foremost is a factor of program costs played against your staff’s capacity to serve clients. The most simple calculation: operational costs divided by the number of staff hours (capacity) available for client sessions. If you have $120,000 in operational costs and 1000 hours of available capacity (see Mike’s blog to determine this), your baseline hourly rate should be $120. Congratulations! You now have a starting point.  

If I’m your marketing person, my first consideration is determining how feasible this rate is to your program. I need to know two things: how many clients does this translate into? And where does the hypothetical rate of $120 fall in relation to similar service providers in the market? In other words: is this price realistic? Is it in line with similar service providers? Does this market have the potential to attract this number of clients? And can you attain these numbers?

As you can probably guess, it does no good to be sailing along with numbers that aren’t grounded in reality. And no marketing effort, no matter how super-human, will accommodate goals that can’t be reached.

Happy Pricing!
Brenda the Riding Writer
www.CreativeInc.net

Our theme for February at Horse Sense has been Generating New Clients.  My plan this year is to Spread the Love in generating new clients.  While at Christmas everyone is sending cards and no one has time to read them, Valentine's Day is different.  Almost nobody gets their fill of attention on Valentine's Day.  Yes, I know Valentine’s Day was last week but February has not come to a close.  So this year, be smart and do something special for your best clients, referral sources and potential new clients.  Here are some ideas to get you started:

For the Administrative Assistant who Squeezes you in
We all know that there is one who will frequently do you a favor, slip you into a busy calendar or simply answer the phone and is nice to you.  Consider sending a rose or a dozen of them. You will show her your appreciation and give her a reason to rave about YOU to everyone in her office.  You will certainly catch the attention and appreciation from her boss.

For your best referral source
For that wonderful person that loves your work (and you) AND sends you new business, February is the time to thank them. Make it something big (a massage or spa treatment), wrap it in a spectacular way with some additional treats, and hand write a thank you note to be delivered.

For that potential client you just met or want to meet
If you were listening as you met this potential client, you were taking note of ways you could solve their problem(s) through your business efforts.  Send a simple note with a gift of candy treats to let them know you heard their problem and you would love to meet them to discuss a fabulous solution, and most importantly add a statement of encouragement to them and the success of their business.
 

Many people have become cynical about February and Valentine’s Day.  I believe 2008 is the year for each of us to grab the excuse to Spread the Love and let our sphere of clients, colleagues, and friends know how much we LOVE working with them.

Virtual Task:  Help your clients and potential clients fall in LOVE with you
 

Virtual Action: Send thank you notes & gifts to your biggest and potential clients

I love to read. I’m an avid fan of self-help literature and inspiring business books. Lately, there’s been a big buzz about the Law of Attraction. Everyone’s talking about it and everyone’s writing about it. If this concept is new to you, I suggest you check out a few popular titles including The Secret, Think and Grow Rich, Excuse Me Your Life is Waiting, Ask and It Is Given and The Science of Getting Rich.

But my all-time favorite book that helps entrepreneurs grow their business using the best principles of the Law of Attraction is called Attracting Perfect Customers. I discovered this book more than 6 years ago and my life and coaching business have never been the same. When I first discovered the book, maybe 30-40% of my clients were what I would call “perfect customers”. After reading this book and creating a strategic attraction plan as the authors recommend, I soon shifted my client base to consistently be 90-100% of my perfect customer.

Whether you need more clients or better clients or both, taking the two hours the authors recommend to create a strategic attraction plan can dramatically improve the bottom line of your business.

Here are the four questions that make up the skeleton of the plan:

1. What qualities do I want my perfect customers to possess and demonstrate?
2. What makes my perfect customers tick?
3. What do I want my perfect customers to expect me to deliver or provide?
4. what do I need to improve to attract or maintain my customer relationships with perfect customers.

What percentage of your customers today are your “perfect customers”? How would it feel to have 100% of your customers be “perfect customers”?

Have fun generating new clients as you explore the Law of Attraction!

Coach Elizabeth

Happy January, everyone! This time of year always motivates me to take stock of my business. I love examining the past year’s inventory of projects and clients, kept on a spreadsheet that shows how work flowed from month to month across the calendar. I can evaluate where things were most productive, and where things fell short.

This time of year – typically slow for many businesses – also comes with a familiar tug of anxiety that harkens back to my freshman year of entrepreneur angst: Where will this year’s clients come from? Will they come at all? Will I be productive?

Productivity is important for every business, but it may surprise you that productivity isn’t always about being busy. And it’s not just about attracting lots and lots of clients; it’s about attracting the right kinds of clients...productive clients.

At Horse Sense, we were thrilled to when our roster filled up with lots and lots of warm bodies. However, we were confused and disappointed when those warm bodies didn’t translate into the income necessary to support the program costs. What was going wrong?

We had lots of clients, yes, but we didn’t have productive clients: clients that showed up for their sessions, clients that were motivated to return for a full course of treatment, clients that paid full rates. We realized that while we did want to help a high-risk, low-income population, it had to be balanced by a population of productive clients that helped pay the bills. Make sense?

We have a simple worksheet that lists all the client populations Horse Sense serves, separated by EAP, EAL, and the Business Sense categories. We list who the decision makers are for each group, and what percentage of business we’d like to attract from each group. It really shows us the critical areas of focus. We might network heavily among medical professionals. Or we might put ads in a journal for corporate professionals rather than put generic ads in the local newspaper. All these decisions come from looking at that worksheet.

Not every warm body is ideal for your program. As you evaluate your marketing and advertising plans to attract clients to your business, take time to examine what makes a client productive for you. Where should you spend your valuable marketing time and money? Spend your resources wisely...and you’ll attract a more productive client as a result.

Happy Hunting!

Brenda
www.CreativeInc.net

• Listen to some more great speeches online. What do they have in common? Which do you like best, and what describes those? What can you take into your organization from them?
  

• Take a look at your Mission and Vision Statements. Say them aloud as you are driving in your car, as you are exercising. Are they easy to remember, easy to say?
  

• Revisit your brochures and your website . Does the text there need re-working? Is your message clear? See if there is a theme that is just under the surface that needs more highlighting.  Beware of exaggeration and overkill: "we cure everything" is a common one I see. Save hyperbole for speaking; not for writing!

When I started my business six years ago, I didn’t have a dime to do marketing or get any marketing materials done professionally. It took some ingenuity to make myself look presentable in a tough market. Sound familiar?

As the New Year looms close, the perennial problem of marketing on a tight budget comes to a head. Start-up and smaller programs rarely have the budget for professional marketing collateral, and even larger programs are loathe to having every flyer and handout professionally produced. Here’s a few pointers to create respectable marketing materials when dollars are limited:

• If you have to choose one thing over another, invest in your logo. And use a bona fide graphic designer; you will get what you pay for.
• Keep your message very basic and straightforward. Have a headline, a few key points, a closing statement, and your logo. Put contact information at the bottom of the page.
• Work with one basic font.
• Give the eye breathing room on the page by leaving plenty of empty space (called white space) around your message elements.
• Think spare. Make it easy for the eye to go where it’s supposed to go. Your headline should be large, bold, and prominent. Your logo should be second in prominence. Body copy and all other info should be standard 12- or 14-point type.
• Use the same design for all your materials. Together, your materials should all look like they came from the same place, not four different companies.

Simple always translates more credibly and professionally. A sure sign of novice design is going crazy with font styles, sizes, colors, photos, and graphics. A professional designer uses white space extensively; a novice creates wall-to-wall words. If do-it-yourself design looks like a long-term proposition, invest in a class on layout and design, and read design books to educate yourself further.

Even better, if you’ve come across more creative ideas for producing marketing collateral on a do-it-yourself budget, leave a comment below. We’d love to share!

When your flyers, brochures, handouts, and folders look respectable, it goes a long way toward projecting a respectable image for your program as well.

Peace,
Brenda
www.CreativeInc.net