Top 10 Steps to Creating a Successful Business Retreat for Online Business Owners

by Donna Gunter, The Internet Marketing Automation Coach (TM)

The notion of doing a business retreat for myself is very new, although not novel, as we used to conduct a retreat each year as a part of both the Student Affairs staff and the Residence Life staff at the college where I once worked. When I heard about this same concept for self-employed business owners from Business Coach Chris Barrow, I thought, “Why am I not doing that for myself?” Thus, my Annual Business Retreat was born.

Here’s how you can create this annual retreat experience for yourself:

1. Book 3 days for your retreat on your calendar. Ideally, you’ll want to be in a location where you’re not readily accessible at a time of the year when you can devote serious time to business planning and development. If you can’t find 3 days together, at a minimum book 3 half-day slots that you can devote to this activity.

2. Isolate yourself from the distractions of life. My initial retreat experience involved staying with a friend in her guest home about 10 miles out of town. She lives in the mountains, so my cell phone didn’t work, and the house wasn’t wired for phone service, so that meant no phone calls and no Internet surfing. My friend and her husband worked all week and drove their cars to work, so I had no way to escape, as my friend’s house is very rural and there’s nothing to escape to within walking distance. Forcing myself into isolation left me with little choice than to work on my retreat materials.

3. Do your work in a serene environment. I have fond memories of last year’s retreat experience — sitting out on the back deck with a moderate temperature and low humidity, and the breeze was gently blowing the trees of the woodsy area I faced. There were no people passing by, no cars on the road — just me and nature and my computer. It was perfect. I took breaks as I needed them during the day.

4. Be willing to go in an unexpected direction. At the beginning of the process, ask yourself some hard questions during your retreat. My favorite is, “What kind of business do you truly want?” Answer this question as though money is no object, using your best assets and skills with none of your perceived weaknesses or liabilities, incorporating the best of what you also want in your personal life. The answer you receive may surprise you, and will serve as a great jumping off point to begin writing your business vision.

5. Write your three-year vision. This statement shouldn’t be a vision in which you expect to accomplish everything in the next 36 months. Instead, think of it as a rolling vision, or something you’ll continue to work on and revise at a minimum each year at your retreat. Expect it to evolve and change, as most visions do, but at least you’ll have some idea of what direction you’re headed.

6. Be willing to acknowledge all that was good, bad, and ugly about your business and your life in the past year. Hiding from the truth, even if you’re only hiding it from yourself, won’t do you or your business any good. It was my experience in writing about what I didn’t like during the past year and what didn’t work so well for me that led me to the place of creating my ideal day/week/year and gave me the information about how to structure that new vision for myself.

7. Create your 90-Day Goals List. After you’ve mapped out a 3-year vision for yourself, you now need to translate the upcoming year’s vision into a set of measurable goals. The easiest and most manageable way of doing this is to create a 90 Day Goals List. On this list, you take 7 categories: Business, Financial, Family, Social, Physical, Intellectual, and Spiritual, and create 3 goals for each category. Do this every quarter, and put the task on your calendar on the first day of every quarter (Jan. 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1) so that it becomes a habit.

8. Plan your finances for the upcoming year. On your retreat take your financial records — your Excel spreadsheets or Quickbooks or Quicken files — so that you know your financial standing. Note your expected personal and business expenditures for the upcoming year, along with things you’d like to do and items you’d like to purchase, and then plan your income, or how you’re planning on paying for your expenses.

9. Map out your entire year on your calendar. Based on your vision and financial goals, you’ll craft your upcoming year’s calendar in terms of vacation time, travel, other kinds of rest days, profit-generating days with clients, and business development days. I did this for the first time for 2004, and it’s made all the difference in keeping me focused!

10. Be patient. As I began this process last year, my thoughts and my direction and my work on this vision were just not “wowing” me–I was having a hard time dredging up any enthusiasm about where I had been in my business and where I was going. I continued to plod along regardless, doing my writing and completing my tasks, hoping that at some point I’d have a breakthrough that I could get really excited about. Everything finally jelled with me late in the third day, when I resurrected an idea I’d had several years ago but wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, yet it seemed to match perfectly and pull together all of these disjointed ideas I had. Had I not remained patient and vowed to continue to move forward with the process, I wouldn’t have found the direction and motivation that I needed.

An annual business retreat is the most powerful thing I’ve ever done for my business and it gave me clarity of intention for my life and business like nothing else I’ve ever done. Knowing where I’m going and how I’m going to get there and developing the financial picture of that plan was extraordinarily empowering. Don’t delay in creating this this process for your business!

Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Boost the sales of your products using Affiliates

If you’re looking for a fantastic way to boost revenue selling your products or services, you should highly consider setting up an affiliate program. A lot of people have amazing success doing this. An affiliate program is designed to help others to sell your products for you. They earn a commission each time they make a sale.

What’s in it for you? You gain exposure to potential sales that you might never have on your own. Your affiliates advertise your products on their websites, blogs, and newsletters.

What’s in it for them? A commission check of course. There are thousands of people out there that make more than a decent living selling other peoples products. This works well for the affiliate because they don’t have to spend time developing their own product or service to make money. They can dedicate their time to selling yours.

If you’re not sure how to do this, there are many resources available online that will help you set up your affiliate program. You can do it in just one day. I use 1shoppingcart.com for my affiliate program. They pretty much do everything for you except develop your product. They’ll help you with banner and URL codes as well as track your affiliates and make it easy to pay them.

After setting up your program, you’ll need to spend a little bit of time promoting it to affiliates. You will need a page dedicated to your affiliates. Some sample text ads as well as text they can use in an email message. Provide them with banners. You may want to offer several articles that they can incorporate their affiliate code into. Affiliate also benefit from regular messages from you reminding them to promote your service (these could be in the form of an autoresponder); they will also want to know about any sales or promotions you have upcoming.

The more successful they are, the more successful you are!

Things that make my work life easier

I thought I would share with you a few products and tools that I absolutely love.  They make my life so much easier. In fact, I honestly don’t know what I would do without them now that I found them!  They save me much needed time and energy. Check them out! I’m sure you’ll find they just might make your life easier too!

Blue Host – I’ve used several hosting services in the last few years and find that BlueHost is the most affordable and reliable. The value Blue Host offers for the price is flat out stunning. You can host an unlimited number of domains and you get unlimited bandwidth. That’s important in today’s online business environment as video and audio become more important.

Word Press – If you are searching for a blogging platform that really delivers, there is no comparison. WordPress installs quickly and painlessly, works well right out of the box and is massively extensible with themes and plugins for a truly unique blog. I’ve never met anyone who regretted moving their blogging to the WordPress platform.

Studio Press– If you’re in the market for a spectacular WordPress theme you have to check out StudioPress. The themes at StudioPress are all search engine optimized and easily customizable from the WordPress dashboard without having to learn any PHP or HTML at all. Whether you’re just getting started as a blogger or you’ve been at it for a while, StudioPress will give you the professional advantage, making your blog the best it can be.

Thesis - Another very poplar theme. I’ve worked with both and find them easy to customize and the support is second to none.

My Dropbox – Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer and they’ll be instantly available on any other computer where you’ve installed the Dropbox. You can even create links to share your files with others, and your files are securely backed up if anything goes wrong with your computer. It’s free for up to 2 gigs. I was thrilled when I discovered this.

Roboform – Do you struggle with managing all of your logins and associated passwords?  Roboform is a tool that manages your logins and passwords while maintaining strict security protocols through encryption. You can also use it to create profiles for filling out any kind of online form that you use frequently such as comment forms, article and directory submission forms as well as social bookmarking sites. There’s also a synch tool that allows you to securely store your passwords on the Roboform server so you’ll never lose another password or login again. It is an indispensable tool that keeps me organized and running efficiently.  Check it out!

1ShoppingCart – This is the premiere site for all your eCommerce needs.  1ShoppingCart solves the challenges faced by many online business owners including:  order processing, autoresponders, email marketing, affiliate program creation and maintenance and more. It really handles every ecommerce application you’ll ever need in one reliable, secure and easy solution.

Learn About Online Business- Learnaboutonlinebusiness.com offers a variety of services and products to help online businesses make the most of their web presence.  I attended the Blog Design Bootcamp and  learned tricks and techniques that made my site more effective even though I had been using WordPress for a while.

Tungle – Accelerate your calendar! Tungle handles everything from time zones to double bookings. Great for online scheduling. You can even integrate Tungle with LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, Ning and your blog allowing people to see when you are free and schedule meetings with you.

Smooth sailing…

Business Planning: 4 Steps to Creating Your Online Business Model Blueprint

I’m in the process of completely rethinking my business model, and that will be my primary focus as I plan this year’s business retreat for myself.  Your business model doesn’t have to be at all complex, but should provide the guiding force for all that you do, like guiding you to the opportunities to accept (and those to decline), the joint ventures and strategic alliances to pursue, and the new ideas you should retain and develop, as well as those to let go of.

Here’s are the 4 steps I’m following as I create the blueprint for my business model:

1.  Make clients pay well for your most valuable commodity — your time.  I see many service business owners tying themselves up with (and tying themselves down to) far too many 1:1 clients.  You have only so many hours in the day, and at some point you’ll hit the wall and not be able to expand the number of 1:1 clients you see.  Sure, you can hire and train additional staff to handle the overflow, but in many cases, you make less money in this model while tripling your headaches.  Make your 1:1 time with clients your highest-fee service, charging a premium fee to dispense your expertise.

2.  Ongoing recurring revenue is key.  Feast or famine seems to shape the life of the service business owner, regardless of industry.  Wouldn’t your life be much more sane if you knew that you could count on recurring revenue each and every month, rather than having to  constantly go out and find new clients?  This was one of the models I adopted early on in my virtual assistant practice, i.e. working exclusively with clients on retainer rather than a “pay as you go” model.  What is it that your clients need from you that you could provide on an ongoing basis with them that isn’t time-intensive for you?

3.  Always have an upgrade.  Never offer a stand-alone product or program that doesn’t have a natural tie-in to the next level of program or service that you offer. If there’s no way to leverage what you’re offering into some type of upgrade, don’t offer it! For example, a free teleclass can lead participants to enroll in a paid short-term group program.  From that program, plan to enroll a certain percentage of those participants into a recurring revenue continuity program. You can then upgrade a percentage of these participants into a live event or small ongoing mentoring program, and from there make an upgrade offer to your premium 1:1 time.

4.  Design the blueprint.  Brainstorm all of the types of programs, products, and services you might offer in your business.  Your list might look like the one below:
 

• Consulting

• 1:1 Service Provision

• Group Coaching/Mentoring/Continuity Programs

• Sale of Info Products

• Private Retreats

• Strategy Sessions

• Live Events

• Speaking

• Information Products or Books

• Licensing/Certification Training

• Teleseminars/Webinars

• Subscription Membership Website

Pick 3-5 of these items that will make up your business model, and then determine what percentage of income you want to derive from each.  Your total needs to equal 100%. Then, determine the order in which you offer the components of your program over the next 1-2 years.  This becomes your blueprint for action.

How do you determine your success? If your business still suffers from feast and famine, take a long, hard look at your business model for the solution. Every offer you make in your business should flow seamlessly into the next, which will result in a steady, predictable income that you can increase over time as you become more expert at designing and following your blueprint.

Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at == > http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

How Many Emails are in Your Inbox?

How I feel each day is directly related to the amount of email in my inbox. A perfect day ends in an empty inbox. For me, Eudora works great. It’s strictly an email client, I use ‘it’ for email and Outlook for contacts, calendar, etc.

I have a lot of folders set up in Eudora to organize my email. Each client has a minimum of two folders - Misc. and Completed. I set up a filter so if a client sends me an email it goes directly into their Misc folder. When an email arrives each folder in Eudora opens its own tab.

Why is this so important to me? Having the tab open tells me that I have a task to complete for that particular client. Once the task is completed I move the email to the Completed folder and close the Misc tab. This not only keeps me on track, but keeps my Inbox empty.

When reading my friend Stacy’s blog this morning (which prompted this post), I was reminded that not all people work the same way as I do. She has a completely different way of handling her emails. Read how she tamed her Inbox.

I hope one of these solutions will help you when tackling your email overload.

Stay In Business After A Disaster

Whether it’s a natural or man made disaster, you want your business to survive a disaster with little disruption.  How quickly you can get back to business depends on the emergency planning you do today.

1. One of the first things you will need to do is to determine which staff, materials, and equipment are absolutely necessary to keep your business operating.
2. Create procedures for all aspects of your business in case someone has to step in and cover another persons duties.
3. Contact your insurance provider to review your coverage for things like physical loss, business interruption, and flood coverage.  Ask what records they will require after an emergency and include them in your emergency supply kit.
4. Create a contact list that includes all of your suppliers and business contacts.  Include back-up vendors in case your primary is not able to supply you after a disaster.  Keep this list in your emergency supply kit and at an off-site location.
5. What will your business do if you are not able to access its location?  Can you run the business from another location?
6. Define procedures for a crisis.  Make sure everyone knows what they are supposed to do.  Include emergency preparedness information in your internal communications, newsletters, employee email.  Designate an out-of-town number employees can call to leave a message saying they are “OK.”  Provide emergency information in the form of a card that can be placed in a purse or wallet.
7. Review your emergency plans annually. Your business may change as well as your procedures. 

With a little preparation you should be able to minimize the interruption in business in the event of a disaster.

Manage Your Time Efficiently

Running your business takes a lot of time.  Everyone has the same amount of time each day, so why do some people achieve more?

Successful business owners realize what their time is worth and spend their valuable time adding to their bottom line.  Figure out what your time is worth, and then decide ‘what is the most productive way to spend my time?’  The little things can sometimes take up a good portion of your day.

Do you actively seek out new clients, and what about your current clients?  Do you take the time each day or week to prospect new clients and keep in touch with current clients? Or are you getting caught up in busy work?

Think of all the things that you do throughout your business day.  Can someone else be handling the things you don’t have time to learn or the things you don’t like to do?  Successful business owners delegate certain activities so they are able to focus on what they do best and they are able to achieve greater success.

Now days, you have no excuse for not working efficiently.  There are a host of programs and web sites that offer ways to streamline your business.  Take a look or hire someone to look for ways to automate some of your procedures.

When you take the time to make changes to your business, you will be more successful.

Are You Prepared for Disaster?

Yesterday I look at my calendar and saw that my newsletter was on my calendar for today. I wondered what I would write about. By the end of the day, I had my topic. Back-up and Recovery System.

Are you prepared for a disaster? Around 2pm yesterday I looked up from my computer and saw a reflection of smoke. I knew right away someone’s home was on fire. Thinking it was one of the homes behind me I stepped out my patio door. It was the house right beside mine that had caught fire. I immediately went out front to find two members of the family in shock. I found out 911 had been called and no one else was at home. The fire department was there within moments and started fighting the fire. I, like a lot of my neighbors, stood outside and watched with sympathy as this single mother with five children lost everything they owned.

It always happens to somebody else, right? Not all the time. One minute my neighbor’s house was on fire, the next, a whole opened up in their attic and the most amazing ball of flames shot directly towards my house. It was at that time I realized that I could also lose my home. I went in, grabbed my purse and my dog and was back out in the driveway. As I stood there I realized I didn’t follow my plan.

You see, since I started my business I’ve had what I considered a good plan in case of fire, I’ve even written up a disaster recovery plan. My business and its equipment are insured separate from my homeowners. It will also cover any lost income I may incur. I’ve burned copies of all my software and keep it off site along with copies of important business documents. I back up my entire hard drive daily in case my PC crashes. I keep my calendar on my PC and sync it with my palm; I also keep a paper calendar in case of power outage. Now, the plan was that on my way out of the house I would grab my external hard drive that is used as a backup.

I stood there really hoping that my home would be saved and thinking I need a new plan because when push came to shove, my dog and purse were the only things on my mind. I was so shocked that after all that planning, my business didn’t even come to mind.

Well, I was lucky; my home suffered only some exterior damage. My neighbors, unfortunately, lost everything except what was in their garage. Note: fireplace ashes stay alive at least a week after the fire burns out.

If you have not considered what you would do to get your business back up and running in case of a disaster, I suggest now is a good time to start.

A virtual assistant can help with this process.

Are You Losing Customers?

As a small business owner, you are grateful for all of your clients or customers. But did you know that small business lose over 62% of sales because they don’t follow up? You are caught up in the business of running your business you don’t take the time to follow up with your clients.

After moving to a new city recently I’ve been, of course, searching out a new hair salon. The first place I tried was what seemed to be a very upscale salon that offered everything from hair cuts to nails to a massage. At this place I received on of my least favorite hair cuts. I tried two other places that gave a pretty good cut. The big surprise is that I’ve not received so much as a post card from any of the stylists requesting my return for my next cut.
How much business are these places missing out on? Tons if they don’t follow up with their clients. I had the same experience with a masseuse I found here also. Wow, imagine what would happen if they mailed out a monthly postcard; a quarterly newsletter; a monthly e-zine?
Whether you have a brick and mortar or an on-line business, you don’t want to miss out on all that business because you are not following up with your customers. It’s never too late to start.

1. Buy a reliable customer database system and track more than just your clients name and phone number. You should track their birthday, anniversary, and other important dates about their business, interests, etc.
2. Establish a routine to take at least an hour a week to update and maintain your database. Review it each week to prepare for any upcoming events for your client.
3. Implement a system to send an email, a personal, note, and thank you notes.
4. Develop a monthly newsletter if you currently don’t have one. It can be delivered via email.
5. If you come across an article, product, or service that will benefit a client, pass it along with no strings attached.
6. Remember your clients with holiday gifts between November and January.

If you don’t have the time or expertise to develop a follow up system, hire a pro to do it for you.