***Reading Tarot as a Business, the Sensitive Entrepreneur—Marketing Yourself

This is the second article in a series designed to be a handbook on what is required to be the entrepreneurial psychic, the sole practitioner who owns his own successful psychic business. Service professionals can apply most of this information to their enterprises as well.

Levels of skill in reading Tarot, or skill in other types of psychic insight, seldom lead to successful business ownership. In a sister article to this one, the steps in developing the skill of reading Tarot are described, and some reasons that skilled psychic or tarot professionals don't go into business for themselves are explained. (That article is 'Reading Tarot as a Business—Levels of Skill Seldom Lead to Successful Business Ownership.')

Success in the ownership of any business is determined more by marketing than by the product. An entrepreneurial talent for marketing is especially a must if you yourself are the product you are selling, if you are a 'service professional.' The first thing you must know if you are marketing your own services is exactly what the product is: exactly what you can do for the client. How many times have you seen a 'life coach' professional say 'change your life'? How many times have you seen a psychic say 'psychic to the stars' or 'amazing gifts'? So who cares: 'What specifically can you do for ME?'

So, go market yourself. Find out what your clients feel you do; you may not know some of that. You may think you analyze their situation brilliantly for them, and they may think they feel better now, they can sleep. You may emphasize your brilliant analysis and they may feel, and say "You didn't tell me anything I didn't know, but now I put it together and I feel so much better." These two concepts (yours and theirs) probably refer to the same actions on your part, but the selling point is what the BUYER experiences. ASK them. Watch for phrases they all say. That is what you do, from the client's perspective. That is what you are selling. Analyze yourself as you work: Ask yourself what it is you are doing for this person, really. It is my clients who told me I pick up word for word what the person they deal with will say, and that I am 100% every time on describing the type of person he is inside. ("That's HIM, all right!) It is I who realized, from what clients said, that I am 'dead on' about how the person clients deal with views the client--about his motives, intentions and attitudes toward the client. Voila! This is MY selling point. Another point regarding my talent that I learned from clients is that it is a "big deal" to them that I don't need a name or a birthday to answer questions about their person of interest. I may do LOTS of other things well, but here is the product I reliably deliver from the market point of view. Here is my ad, my slogan, my selling point that I can use to promote myself.

Why is discovering your market's view of what you do so important? Because you want to find the people who are looking for exactly what you do because those are the clients who will call you many times! You seldom make a profit on your advertising from just the people who answer that ad; your income is from steady users, and the reason they are steady users is, they have a use for what you actually do for them. The art of the deal is TWO satisfied people.

When you advertise exactly what you do, first-time clients go away happy. Not only may they come back, they may tell friends. When they mention you to other psychics they call, you will get a reputation in the industry. If they are on a budget, you will be worth a little sacrifice.

The next step on the way to being the professional business owner is advertising. Trial and error will develop where it is best for you to advertise and what is the best wording of the ad. For 15 years, I found Cosmopolitan magazine my best source of good customers. Now I am trying a web site and social media: a new adventure for me.

The next article in this series is 'Reading Tarot as a Business—Selecting Clients, Client Relations.'