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Achieve Extraordinary Business and Personal Success in 2011!

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 2011 a spectacular year for you and your business.

The seven steps to follow to achieve a business breakthrough in 2011 are:

Step 1: Discover you authentic brand identity

Step 2: Clarify your market niche

Step 3: Design a profitable business model

Step 4: Develop creative packages

Step 5: Raise your fees

Step 6: Build your credibility

Step 7: Increase your list of leads and prospects

Step 1: Discover your authentic brand identity

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 who 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.

Step 2: Clarify your market niche

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.

Step 3: Design a profitable business model

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 three 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.

3. Decide how many of each service, product, or program you have to sell to reach your goals.

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

Step 4: Develop creative packages

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.

Step 5: Raise your fees

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!

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 2011

• 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.

Step 6: Build your credibility

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.

Step 7: Increase your list of leads and prospects

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 2011!

P.S. Find out how I can help you achieve breakthrough results with my Money and Marketing Magic Platinum Coaching Programs.  Request an Invitation Letter directly from me at Bonita@BonitaRichter.com.   This program is designed to deliver a high level of intense coaching in a short period of time, so you can take powerful action towards achieving Vision of success very quickly. It will move you forward fast!

As women entrepreneurs, it is naturally in our hearts to want to help others. That is why many of us start businesses, so we can help others be successful by offering the knowledge, skills and experience we’ve gained.

Unfortunately, as women, we may also have been told while growing up that money isn’t something women or “good girls” talk about, and it is a masculine trait to desire money. This upbringing is part of the money story that many women grew up with, and then subconsciously women push money away, by not allowing it to flow into their life. Examples of how this may show up in our life are by:

• Not charging enough for our services (or giving away too many of our services away for free)
• Harboring feelings of lack of self worth
• Having a fear of alienating someone by earning more money or facing disapproval

By brushing money away, you diminish your power and your ability to help others. An important point to note is you can keep pushing money away, be less successful (or poor) and help a few people. Or, be more successful, richer, and have the power to serve many more people. Which would you like to choose? Helping a few people, or helping many?

Remember, money only amplifies who you are.  It doesn’t take anything away.

Another way to think about how money helps you, help others, is to imagine four concentric circles; one small circle nestled in the middle of three larger circles:

• In the very center circle, or the core, is YOU

• The next largest circle is your FAMILY (whether it bY ’blood’ Or another group of people you consider family)

•  The next largest circle is COMMUNITY

• The next largest circle is the WORLD

You have to earn enough money to take care of yourself, before you can have enough money to begin helping your family, then your community, and then the world. This goes back to my earlier comment that you can either help a few, or help many people. The only way you can help many people is by making sure you are taking care of you, first. Money helps build your power and strength so you may help others with your special gifts and talents.

Having money isn’t being selfish, greedy, or masculine. It is the medium women will use to leverage their feminine power to infuse a loving and graceful spirit into the universe, and help others.

My challenge for you this week is to draw those four concentric circles, which include you, family, community, and the world, and write down how you will help each of those groups when you step into your power of bringing more money into your life.

To learn how to price your services, raise your fees up to 40% or more, gain confidence, and improve your sales skills to increase your income check out my new workshop, okay?

You may not have thought about this before, but the truth is you are programmed to earn a certain amount of money. And, you won’t earn more unless you consciously break through this money barrier.

Many influences have made us this way, the main influences being our family, and society. Most of these influences are born out holding a traditional JOB, and what a person will earn doing a particular job.

The problem is this mindset doesn’t take into consideration the opportunities and rewards that are present for entrepreneurs. The result is many entrepreneurs, subconsciously, are programmed to earn a certain amount of money, and have a hard time rising above this amount.

For example, say you had a job, and the most you ever earned working at this job was $60,000. Once you hit an income level of $60,000 in your own business, most likely you magically become stuck, and can’t seem to get your income to rise higher. This phenomenon occurs because $60,000 is your comfort level, and what you are programmed to earn from previous experience.

It’s important to adopt the mindset of an entrepreneur who is seeking opportunity by investing in a business and planning to create additional income for the risks by being in business. The reason an entrepreneur does this is to create wealth. Otherwise, why be an entrepreneur to earn the same amount of income as when you had a job? The risks aren’t worth it.

So, it’s up to you to consciously reprogram you subconscious, and adopt a mindset to earn more money and become wealthy, which is your birthright by taking the risks of being an entrepreneur.

Following are 3 powerful tips for creating a money mindset to break through into your next level of money and income potential:

Tip #1: Hang around people who make more money than you do

We tend to be like the people we hang around with, so make it a point to spend time with people who are successful, and reaping financial rewards. By spending time with successful people and achievers, you will learn their attitudes and behaviors that contribute to their success, and adopt them for yourself. Pay attention to what they think, read, what organizations they belong to, be introduced to individuals in their network, discuss money with them, learn how they do business, and even consider joining a high-level mastermind group. Get used to hearing “big money numbers” talked about, and you’ll find you’ll become more comfortable with these larger numbers. If you hang around people who cry the financial blues all the time, their influence will only bring you down, and not help you rise. So, think about the type of person you want to connect with, and where you can find them.

Tip #2: Play with larger dollar amounts

What I mean by this is practice saying aloud the dollar amount of the income you want to earn in your business. To start, say aloud the dollar amount you are earning now. How do you feel about this number? Does it make you feel excited, or doesn’t it have any effect on you? Now, double the amount you are earning now. How does this number make you feel? If it has no effect on you, double that number and say it aloud. Keep practicing and playing with saying money amounts aloud until you reach a point where you begin to feel a bit excited, and maybe even uncomfortable with the dollar amount; this is a stretch income level you want to strive to achieve. Any discomfort you feel signals you’ve reached a dollar amount that is outside your comfort zone, and you’re probably pre-programmed to earn an income less than this amount. Your income level will stay stuck here unless you consciously break through this money glass ceiling. So, become aware of this amount, and challenge it frequently, say every 90 days, to keep upward pressure on your income amount.

Tip #3: Break limiting money beliefs

We are a product of our parents, and most likely have inherited their money beliefs—both supporting and limiting. In my work as a coach, I have been surprised at the number of people I’ve worked with who’ve expressed to me feelings that earning more money means they will become greedy, are a “bad person,” or are not worthy of earning more money. Some people have told me they just “want to earn enough to get by.” This is very sad, because their parents didn’t realize they were establishing a money legacy that was limiting their family’s future financial success. Give yourself permission to earn money, create wealth, and be financially successful. Know that by earning more money, this gives you the power to care for yourself, your family, clients, community, and an ever-expanding circle of people who are influenced by your gifts and power. Making more money is easy if you consciously adopt a belief that you are capable, and worthy. The only amount of money you’re limited to making is the amount you decide upon yourself. Follow my money tips, and you’ll find your self-worth and net worth increase!

Watch for details about a workshop I’m leading to help you raise your fees up to 40% AND how to convert 80% of prospects into clients, watch for details soon!

I am so happy you’re back visiting my blog!  Leave a comment on the blog, and make sure you join my FREE newsletter so we stay in touch, and I can learn more about what you’re creating!

Have you ever looked at your calendar, and panicked because realized you overbooked yourself, and can’t possibly accomplish everything you’ve committed to doing?

I recently had a week where I had multiple Platinum client coaching and follow-up activities to take care of, I was travelling out of town for a couple of days, and I had five different seminars to lead within two days time—with one of those seminars being entirely brand-new content.

I had a whole 4-hour time slot in my calendar to create my slide presentation and handouts, before a 7:30 am seminar scheduled the next morning.

Before some of you suggest I become a better time manager, hear me out.

The truth is I didn’t panic.

You see, I work at a high rate of velocity, and have learned how to accelerate the rate in which I can deliver and create high-quality, high-value content, whether it’s planning activities for a seven-hour coaching retreat, or a new seminar.

To create the same volume (and quality) of work I do, many people invest days, if not weeks, creating their plans, content, and materials.  I know this, because one of the things I routinely work on with my Platinum clients is accelerating the pace at which they complete work, so they increase their income more quickly.  Universally, there is usually some “reengineering” in the manner in which they get their work done.

What’s the result of getting things done more quickly?  You WORK LESS, ACHIEVE FASTER, GREATER RESULTS, which means more cash flows into your pocketbook.

Examples of where you can achieve results could be taking less time to prepare for your coaching clients you serve, creating workshop or teleseminar content faster, or even creating an information product in a fraction of the time, and getting it to market faster.

Most of us entrepreneurs have a habit of working on our projects MUCH longer than we need to.  Why do we do this?  It’s because of a phenomenon called Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson’s Law, stated in terms of time, says—

“The amount of time in which one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete that said task.”

Translation: If you need to make a video introduction for your website, you’ll as likely take four weeks to produce, edit, tweak, and post it, when you could have accomplished the task in less than one week.  Dragging completion out of this project means you fill time, which is unproductive, and reduces your income potential!

By now, I know you’re convinced you can create results faster, in less time, with less effort, and produce high-quality work, to boot.  First, remember work expands to fill the time allotted.  Second, you have to consciously and deliberately create focused momentum.  Here are four tips how to increase the velocity of how fast you complete tasks:

1.  Be accountable to someone.

Whether it’s scheduling a workshop you’ve been meaning to lead for the last year, or signing yourself up for personal coaching, go public with the announcement or commitment.  Set a date.  Invest in coaching services and finally commit to growing your business, rather than saying to yourself, “I’ll do it when ________.”  Put some strong accountability in place so you have to get it done.

2.  Set specific time frames.

Be very clear and specific about a time, and date when you must “deliver the goods,” lead the seminar, or invest in you.  Also, set aside a specific amount of time to do the work.

My rule of thumb is decide how much time it will take you to complete a task, say 12 hours, and then cut that amount of time in half, to 6 hours.  By doing this you’ve just doubled the velocity of getting the task completed!

3.  Get focused.

Allow no distractions or interruptions during “creation time.”  This means no texting, tweeting, emailing, phoning, surfing the Internet, or straying off task.  Get focused, and committed to completing the task in the time you allotted.  (This will be easy if you stacked up your calendar with other “To-Do’s” and appointments.)

4. Believe in yourself.

This is probably the most important point of all, which is believing in yourself, that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to doing—and you will do it brilliantly well.

When pressed with a tight timeframe, don’t panic.  Just sit down, and get to the work.  When you follow these steps, you can easily double your results while working much less, which will mean a whole lot more cash in your pocketbook!

Action Steps to Accelerate Results:

1. What’s one profitable or income-producing task that’s been on your To-Do list for a while that you’re ready to tackle?  Write it down.

2. How can you pro-actively use the four steps I outlined above to achieve the task?

3. Schedule this task on your calendar, and get to it!

If you want to grow the sales of your business, squeeze some oranges.

Okay, I don’t literally mean ‘squeeze oranges.’  What I’m talking about is taking a look at the assets you’ve created in your business, and doing more with them.  Another term for squeezing is leveraging.  (I thought squeezing was more fun!)

What you want to “squeeze” are the assets in your business, so you can get more out of them.  Think of your company’s assets as a basket of oranges.  These oranges are a number of things, such as:

•  Products or services you’ve developed
• Clients
• Employees, virtual assistants, contractors relationships
• Marketing materials and methods
• Key referral resources

This basket of oranges is already creating a certain amount of income in your business.  The best way to make more money in your business is to:

• Create a second basket of oranges (more assets)
• Squeeze harder on the basket of oranges you already have

My choice?  Squeeze harder on the basket of oranges you already have (choice #2).

It’s my experience that most entrepreneurs wanting to grow their businesses take the much more difficult, expensive, and time-consuming route of creating a second basket of oranges.

The reality is many of your existing clients will buy more products and services from you, if you proactively tell them how else you can help.  That’s why it is so important to talk with your clients frequently and find out what are their probelms, and needs.

Therefore, my suggestion is get squeezing!

The fast track to growing your business—and your income—is to increase sales to an existing market. 

This means you go after the same or similar market with your existing products or services.  What you will do differently is you will market more proactively.

Revitalizing your marketing strategy may mean you’ll have to tweak, revise, or re-price some of your existing products or services.  The good news is you don’t have to totally revamp them.

It’s unnecessary to create new products and services, or market to a new market unless:

• Your product is out-of-date, or is no longer competitive
• The market you’re promoting to is extremely small, shrinking, not viable

Now, you’re squeezing your oranges!

So, if you want to grow your business and your income, the best way is to develop a smart, comprehensive marketing plan for your current products and services, and market…building on what you already have in place.

To learn more about how to create a marketing growth plan guaranteed to work visit http://bonitarichter.com/7-step/

Creating an information product can be a high-payoff activity for you to grow your business, and income.  Specifically, information products are eBooks, CD, and workbook kits.

Here is a quick list of reasons WHY you need to get started creating an information product right away!

1. Builds credibility

When you author and publish an eBook, workbook, or CD product, many people will see you as an expert in your field.  It is perfectly appropriate to self-publish, and garner respect that used to only be reserved for authors published by the’ big’ publishing houses.  Taking the time to compile well-thought-out content will increase your visibility, and build credibility with your market.

2. Generates leads

People want to know what you have to offer, and buying an information product is a perfect way for them to ‘try you out’.  Your information product gives them a way to do that, with little risk of their time or money.

A bonus is many people who buy your product, will then desire to work with you more closely.  Having an information product is a perfect lead generator to sell your higher-end services.

My Platinum coaching clients, almost without fail, have purchased my information product from me, first, before they coached 1-1 with me.

You can also use your information product to get speaking gigs, and get radio or teleseminar interview invitations.

3. Creates passive revenue

Selling copies of your product from your website, though not the easiest way to earn money, it is a beautiful way to earn passive revenue!

4. Offers a Platinum-Style Program opportunity

You can create a Platinum Style Program focused on expanding and deepening your clients’ knowledge about your information product topic. You can also create a teleseminar or workshop from your product.

5. Creates a Joint Venture opportunity

Other people will notice you when you have a product, and will invite you to partner with them on their promotions and programs.

6. Gives prospective clients the opportunity to say “yes”

Getting clients onto your list with your free offer, and having them purchase an information product with a small investment will lead to some people leaping to a higher investment program, I assure you!

Creating an information product is a great way to leverage your knowledge, get more people saying “yes” to your offers, and grow your business and income.  To learn a step-by-step process HOW to create an information product, be sure to check out my 7-Step Easy-to-Implement R.E.S.U.L.T.S. Marketing Success System!

The secret to making your income grow by leaps and bounds is to have a simple system in place that organizes your list-building, marketing, and promotional activities.  It is important to invest time in managing these activities, because the size of your list, as well as the timing and quality of your marketing and promotional activities, directly influences the amount of your income.  

Having said this, the problem many entrepreneurs experience is managing all these activities quickly becomes overwhelming, because there are just too many different activities to manage.   

The solution to this problem is to create three different calendars to manage all activities you must do to grow your business.  These three calendars are:

1. List-building

2. Marketing

3. Promotional activities

Using these calendars will banish overwhelm you may feel at all you have to do to grow your business.  Having three calendars may seem like it complicates the planning process, but, it actually simplifies it. 

I found when I tried to combine all my list-building, marketing, and promotional activities into one calendar, I ended up with a massive calendar that was a paralyzing mess.  By breaking up these distinctly different activities into three simple calendars,   it made my list-building, marketing, and promotional activities easier to manage.  It will help you do the same, too.

Here are the three simple tips about how to create your own simple calendars, just like the ones I use to manage my business-building and income-generating activities with ease.

Tip #1 – List-Building Calendar

A List-Building Calendar will simply detail out for you the timing of all the different list-building activities you will do throughout the year to build your list of prospects. 

To begin building this calendar, take a pencil and write down on a piece of paper a list of the different list-building activities you intend to do.  For example, some common and easy to implement list-building activities include:

- Offer free teleseminars

- Offer to be a guest speak on other people’s teleseminars

- Write and submit articles online/print publications

- Launch Pay-Per-Click campaigns

- Speak at live events

- Blog

- Participate in various social media activities

- Submit press releases

- Networking

After you write down your list of list-building activities, plot these different activities on your List-Building Calendar.  I recommend categorizing this calendar by month, and then by week, such as January, Week one, Week two, etc.  Doing so will make it easy to see 1) how often, and, 2) what you are doing to build your list of prospects and potential buying customers!

Tip #2 – Marketing Cash Calendar

A Marketing Cash Calendar helps you to plan the different products and programs you intend to launch during the year to generate your planned revenues. 

To begin to create this calendar, first write down all the different products and programs you plan to promote in the coming year (or whatever is your planning timetable).  Then, create a goal for how many of each product or program you want to sell.  For example, you may have a product titled, ‘Information Product A,’ and your goal is to sell fifty copies at $100 each in January, for total estimated revenue of $5,000.   

Then, using the same calendar format as for your List-Building Calendar (by month and week), plot your planned launch dates for each product and program.  The launch date is the actual date you expect to be generating income from a promotion.  Also, include a column for ‘Total Monthly Revenue,’ so you can see what your planned revenue is by month, and then add it up all months at the bottom of the column to see your total planned revenues for the year.

You may want to plan a maximum of four, certainly no more than six, different promotions in one year.  The reason is it can become very complicated for you to manage promoting more than one product or program at a time.  In addition, people on your list will get confused about the different offers, become irritated, and unsubscribe from your list (which some will do anyway when you promote). 

Tip #3 – Promotional Activities Calendar

Looking at your Marketing Cash Calendar, use this calendar to plan the different promotional activities you will do for a SPECIFIC product or program launch.  This means you will have a different Promotional Activities Calendar for each individual planned product or program launch.   

To create this calendar, list each of the specific activities you will do to promote, such as:

- Mention in ezine

- Tweet about the promotion

- Write about in blog

- Lead preview teleseminars

- Write articles about the topic, addressing benefits/objections

- Send direct mail to existing clients

Then, look at the launch date, and work backwards from this date to plot out the timing, and different promotional activities you will do.  Allow a period of four to six weeks to ‘seed’ the program, and then two weeks for active promotion and launch. 

By keeping your calendars separate, and simple, this allows you to focus your energy on creating results, and increasing your income in a grander way.

NOTE: If you are a creative entrepreneur wanting jumpstart your income in 2010, I recommend checking out the Money and Marketing Magic Intensive VIP Platinum Retreat, where I will help you almost effortlessly plan your income streams, and marketing and promotional calendars for 2010.  Email me at Bonita@Bonitarichter.com for details and the application.  There is ONLY 1 opening left.

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:

Step 1: Discover you authentic brand identity

Step 2: Clarify your market niche

Step 3: Design a profitable business model

Step 4: Develop creative packages

Step 5: Raise your fees

Step 6: Build your credibility

Step 7: Increase your list of leads and prospects 

Step 1: Discover your authentic brand identity

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.

Step 2: Clarify your market niche

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. 

Step 3: Design a profitable business model

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.

Step 4: Develop creative packages

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. 

Step 5: Raise your fees

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. 

Step 6: Build your credibility

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 ill 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.

Step 7: Increase your list of leads and prospects

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! 

P.S. To find out how I can help you achieve breakthrough results with my Money and Marketing Magic Intensive VIP Platinum Retreat request an invitation Letter and Application directly from me at Bonita@BonitaRichter.com.  This program is designed to deliver a high level of intense coaching in a short period of time, so you can make powerful decisions about your business, and take powerful action towards achieving Vision of success very quickly.  It will move you forward fast.

You probably dream about increasing your income. Yet, without a solid plan that determines, 1) how much you want to earn, 2) why you want to earn more, and what you will do with it, and 3) your action plan for increasing your income—little forward progress will be made toward achieving your income goal.

By creating a simple three-step income growth strategy, it will be possible for you to embrace the power already within you to increase your income. Follow the three steps I have outlined for you to move you forward on the path to achieving greater money abundance in your life.

1. Are You Thinking BIG Enough?

What is your current annual income level? Are you satisfied with this level? If not, ask yourself how much income you want to earn. Think about this number—what is it?

If the number you determined is less than double your current income level, you probably are not thinking big enough. The reason is that you will not have to make any significant changes in what you are currently doing to earn more money. This number also may not be large enough to motivate you into the powerful action required to increase your income. The predictable result is your income level probably will not change much from where it currently is now.

To move into a higher realm of income potential, you literally have to train your mind to think bigger. The reason is, as a culture, we are accustomed to our income increasing, on average if we have worked for someone else, about 3-5% a year; the typical pay raise for satisfactory performance in a good economic year.

You want to dream up a number that really feels larger to you. If the number you thought of earlier doesn’t get you emotionally excited thinking about it, feeling challenged, or even a bit scared about how you’re going to achieve that income level—then, the number you thought of is not large enough! You want this income number to be a stretch for you so you creatively think of ways to achieve that number.

The challenge I want to put forth to you is to think about doubling your income in the next year. This number may seem impossible, but I assure you, it is not. You can accomplish this goal by breaking this amount down into four 90-day periods. This means you will be increasing your income a minimum of 25% over the next 90 days, from what it currently is now.

Action Step: Think of an annual income amount that is at least double what you are currently earning. Write this amount down on a piece of paper. Now, take the number you wrote down and divide it by four.

For example, if the annual amount you wrote down was $100,000, dividing by four equals $25,000. This number is your 90-day income goal. You are on the path to doubling your income in one year!

2. Why Do You Want to Earn More?

Why do you want to earn more? What will you do with this money? Will you invest in your retirement, pay off debt, or invest in your children’s college education? The money “why” aligns your passions with your efforts. In order to take the steps you need to increase your income, you need to feel an emotional charge for the reason—or the “why.” This becomes a powerful motivator to do what activities you must do to increase your income.

Action Step: Write down one money “why” you want to increase your income. Feel passionate about this reason, and what you will do with more money in your life.

3. Create a Plan to Increase Your Income

You have tapped into your new income amount and your money “why.” Now you need a plan about how you will achieve your income goal. Start thinking creatively about the programs and services you will offer, develop a promotional strategy, and get selling! Be creative about what you can do to generate this income. Again, you are thinking in a 90-day timeframe about the activities and tasks you must do to create this income.

Action Step: Write down every single program, product, and service you will sell or launch in the next 90 days. Include the quantity and dollar amounts of each item. Make sure the dollars you plan to generate equals your 90-day income goal in the first step.

This simple three-step income growth strategy works wonders to help you pay mindful attention to your money goals, and creatively kicks you into action to double your income in the next 365 days.