ACTION STEP: List all of things you want your customer to feel when they think of your company: excitement about future, feeling younger or prettier, more balance, more fun, more time, closer to their friends, better organized, safer, etc. Evaluate how well your current communication creates this feeling and specific areas where you want to improve.

4. Distinguish your benefits from your features and communicate them clearly.

Features are what your product or service does. Benefits are why your client needs your product or service. For example, a famous company advertises "our servers allow your website to be up and running 99.999% of time." That is a feature, but you must also tell your client what benefit of this is to them. Well, if their on-line business sells $200,000 worth of product every day, then being on-line only 98% of time will cost them serious money in lost sales. For every feature you have, you must tell your client what benefit is. Is your product better, faster, cleaner, guaranteed or longer-lasting? Will your service create more clients, decrease turnover, or increase margins? These are all great features, but you must tell your clients how this benefits them specifically.

You must get in front of your potential market and detail your specific benefits. Build value into what you do and how you do it. If you fail to clearly communicate what your benefits are to customers, rest assured-your competition will.

ACTION STEP: Take a piece of paper and draw two columns on it. Label on side "Features" and other "Benefits." List all of features of your service or product and for every feature state what benefit is to your target client. Integrate these statements into all of your communication efforts on a regular basis.

5. Reduce risk of working with you.

Many entrepreneurs have products or services that are similar to what much larger, more established companies have. Why should your potential customer buy your product over big company's product? Are they taking a risk with a company that may not be around 5 or 10 years from now? Will your 10 year guarantee really mean anything in 10 years?

While no one can predict future of your business, smart business owner recognizes need to develop creative ways to reduce risk of their clients in working with them.

ACTION STEPS: List what your company is doing to reduce risk potential customers see in working with a small, entrepreneurial business. Do you offer a written guarantee? Will you stand behind it? Do you offer a trial period? How have you achieved success with other clients? Will you provide them with case studies on previous clients? Do you have a strong reference list?

6. How effective is your cheapest form of advertisement-your business card?

Examine your business card as if you were one of your target customers. Does it tell them succinctly who you are, what you do and how you can help them? If not, perhaps it is time to redesign it.

ACTION STEP: Ask several of your existing clients what they think of your business card. What does it say to them? Is it memorable? How could you improve on it? Thank them for their suggestions and implement them in your redesign.

7. Can people find your product or services on internet?

Near beginning of internet age only Fortune 500 companies had websites. It was seen as a sign of being on "cutting edge." Today that perception has changed. More and more consumers perceive a website as a sign of legitimacy. Many consumers now believe lack of a company website to be a sign of a questionable business. With an increasing number of ways to create a decent website on a small budget ($2000-$5000), lack of money is not an acceptable excuse any more. Not every business will benefit from having a web presence, but most will. The question is not, "how long can I get away with not having a website?" but, "how many potential customers am I loosing without having a website?" A good website can be a great source of passive income.

For those of you who already have a website, how many of you regularly profit from it? How many people are visiting your website every week? What is your conversion rate for these visitors? What percentage of your existing customers found you from your site? How can you better serve your existing clients on your website? What are you doing to increase visibility of your site on search engines?

ACTION STEP: If you do not have a website you should have several REALLY good reasons why not. If you can't come up with several reasons then you should commit to getting one. If you do have a website, ask company who hosts your website to site down with you and explain all statistics about your site (how many unique visitors, how long do they stay, what page do they leave from, how do they find you). After that, sit down with your web designer and talk strategy: how can you increase your search engine rankings, what can you do to covert more customers, does your current site accurately reflect who you are and what your benefits are to your target audience, etc.

S.M.A.R.T. goals are:

Specific. Your goal should be as detailed as possible. For example, "I will call all new prospective clients I met at last networking event by this Wednesday at noon." "I will take a vacation at least three weeks this next year."

Measurable. Good goals allow you to quantify your efforts. "My company will increase top line sales to repeat customers by 2% this quarter by determining what their current needs are and developing a service to meet their needs before anyone else does. We will do this by surveying each of them and following up with a personalized phone call to clarify their answers."

Achievable. It is good to set your goals high, but not impossibly high. "I will meet three new venture capitalists this month and begin building a relationship with them with purpose of seeking funding from them in next six months." "I will re-write three primary sections of my website by this next month to better reflect who my new targeted customer is and to help them find solutions they are looking for more quickly on my site."

Result-oriented. In order for your goals to be SMART, they must focus on what you DO want, not what you do NOT want. For example, a goal of "I do not want to fail in my business" focuses on what you do NOT want. An example of a SMART goal is, "I will increase my passive income by 15% this year by writing a "How To" manual on "10 Steps to Small Business Forward Financial Planning" and sell it on a website for $89.99."

Time-limited. Put a specific time limit on your goals and have someone hold you accountable for reaching that goal. "I will finish researching my marketing strategy within next six weeks and then spend two hours a day for three weeks until I finish developing my customized marketing plan."

QUESTIONS TO ASK

Every one of us has 168 hours in a week. How we spend our time and prioritize our life says a lot about how successful we will be personally and professionally. There are many things that compete for our time: finances, future plans, family, fun, friends, present goals, pressing projects and pushy people. I heard someone once say, if you don't control your time someone else will.

When thinking about how to successfully manage your time, here are a couple questions to ask yourself:

• Do I have specific things I want to accomplish each day? • What percent of time do I meet my daily goals? • What specific things do I do to manage my time successfully? • What are priorities in my life? • Does my schedule reflect those priorities? • How successful do you feel in managing your time effectively?

Stephen Fairley, M.A., RCC is the President of Today's Leadership Coaching, a premier executive coaching and training firm, and a Registered Corporate Coach (RCC). Today's Leadership Coaching focuses on “Developing Leaders Who Deliver Results.” You can contact him at 630-588-0500 or at Stephen@TodaysLeadership.com

© 2001 by Stephen Fairley. All rights reserved. Please contact author for reprints