But, if you find yourself feeling frustrated with type of work you’re doing, amount of money you’re making, or kind of clients you are working with, it’s time to take charge of your business.

Take a piece of paper and write down 5-10 things you want people to think of when they think of your business. Here are several examples, but you might think of many more:

* low price * fast service * high quality * personal service * caring attitude * expert advice * emotional support * technical expertise * immediate results * creative ideas

Now, look through your list and choose one thing that you want to emphasize more than any other – one thing that will set you apart from your competitors.

Once you’ve selected it, write down a list of benefits that one thing provides to your clients. For example, if you chose “high quality” from list above, some benefits might include:

* you make them look good to their employees/employer/clients * you help projects stay on track because your work is good enough first time and requires no changes/edits * you allow them to take one thing completely off their plate because your work meets their standards without their direct involvement

Once you’ve identified aspect of your business that you want to emphasize and you’ve identified benefits to your clients, sit down with all of your marketing materials. This includes your business card, brochure, letterhead, web site, advertisements, bio sheet, etc. Determine how you can tweak each one to emphasize this aspect of your business.

If you can afford it, you might reprint some of your materials. If you can’t, you might come up with ways to add a tag line to your existing materials. You could print your tag line at bottom of every piece of letterhead each time you are sending a letter. You could have stickers printed with your tag line to stick on each of your brochures. Be creative!

The best part about proper positioning is that you end up doing type of work you enjoy and making more money. Many times work is more profitable -- you are able to charge more than your competitors because you are delivering more value than they do. The clients that choose to work with you are making decision to pay a little more in order to benefit from extra value you provide.

Happy Positioning!

* more time to spend with their spouse & children * a clean house (not actual actual "cleaning" service) * time for themselves & their personal interests * stress relief for taking one thing off of their plate * marital bliss (no more fighting over household responsibilities)

This was a light bulb moment for her. She realized that her ads and mailers were selling a "cleaning service" when in actuality her prospects and clients wanted to buy a solution to their problems – not enough time, fights with their spouse, harried lifestyle. If she could provide solution to just one of those pains, she would be serving her clients well.

Then quicko, chango, switcheroo – she re-focused her marketing efforts to focus on solving her prospects’ problems and began targeting overworked professionals and families with children. These simple changes helped her finally grow beyond plateau where her business had stalled.

So, ask yourself -- are your clients buying what you’re selling? What are you currently selling? If you contacted your clients this week, what would they say they are buying from you? Are you sure? Why not jot down a few questions that you can ask your clients during short, phone surveys this week?

Don't have enough clients to do this yet? Perhaps you can work it into your conversations with prospects? Ask them why your service does or does not sound like something that will benefit them. Yes, I know this is hard, but answers are your ticket to faster success.

Afraid to do this? Then it's even more important! Trying to sell wrong thing to wrong people is just extending your learning curve and length of your journey to sustainable success. So go for it!

To learn more about making more sales, download “10 Ways To Lose Great Sales Opportunities" at:

http://www.askthebizcoach.com/freebies.htm