Loading the searchable article library…
Browse published articles attributed to Kaya Singer, with full-archive search.
Pricing seems to be the hot issue this month. Many of my clients are asking for help with how to decide how much to charge for their services. Many years ago I would have avoided this topic like the plague because of my own unresolved money issues.
About 15 years ago my husband and I had a bright idea one day. He was busy doodling on our Mac and I thought, “Those are really cool designs and I bet we could make them into coloring books.” We ended up creating and self-publishing two mandala coloring books. We were sure this was going to be a huge money-making deal (totally naïve). Instead we were shocked to find out that they were not so easy to sell. Bookstores ordered a few at a time and we managed to sell some on our website (websites were still new). The rest we sold at a Saturday Market and then let it go.
There's a plethora of great seminars out there. How do you decide if you should sign-up? Here's 5 ways to help you make the best decision. Maybe you're like me and you get tons of offers for amazing seminars, workshops and other cool learning opportunities. Wouldn’t it be nice to spend the day just leaning great new stuff; if you had the time and money? If you’re running a business there are two kinds of workshops to consider. One type is aimed at work-life balance, like a yoga or art class.
The first step in any good marketing plan is to know your ideal client and their emotionally compelling problem. Whether you are marketing your services as a massage therapist, a web builder, or designer, it's important to know how to communicate with potential clients in a way that grabs them at the gut level. Why is this so important? When you are able to speak to their emotions they sense that you understand them. When people they feel like you really get it, they also begin to trust you, and therefore are more ready to move to the next step in the sales process.
If you have managed to figure out your niche, you are miles ahead of most small businesses who either have no marketing plan at all or a very poor one. Last month I wrote about why entrepreneurs struggle with the concept of niche marketing, and the fears around it. Maybe you have managed to overcome those niggling doubts that say, “If I narrow down my focus to one tiny group, my business will slow down to a trickle.” In fact, it is the opposite, but there are a few things you need to be aware of in order to grow your business from this place.
If the idea of strategic planning scares you or makes you want to crawl into a hole, use my 5 easy steps to begin the process and you will be on your way. Here it is December again, and over here in Oregon, it is creeping towards winter solstice, the darkest day of the year.
I think of mental blocks as confusion. Imagine your mindnis like a hallow bamboo. When it is clear and opennyour creative ideas percolate, bubble up and turnninto inspired actions your business or life. You feelnlike you are in the flow. It is a great feelingnbecause you are moving forward, ...
Solo-business owners seem to have such a struggle around the whole idea of niche marketing. Of all the concepts I teach my clients, this is the one that is the most challenging for people. In theory people get it, but in practice, it tends to throw them into full on fear-based reaction. What exactly is niche marketing and what does this term mean? It’s about developing products or services that are directly fulfilling the needs and wants of a specific and narrow group.r
Every business goes through the cycle of having anwonderful vision of success, and then comes thendevelopment phase that includes all thencreativity and hard work. Last, is the process ofnovercoming mental blocks that get in your way. This cycle of envisioning, developing, andnovercoming goes ...
I talk to lots of entrepreneurs who say they don't like selling and they won't acknowledge this important aspect of their business. They figure that people will just gladly offer them money and they won't have to ask for it. Most of these people are also struggling to make ends meet because regardless of what kind of business you have, selling is always a part of the process and although it would be fun, people are very unlikely to chase after you to give you money for your services.
Women and men in their 60s and 70s are now busy re-inventing themselves, sharpening and learning new skills and beginning new enterprises. After quitting a corporate job or retiring from teaching many of you aren’t ready to stay home and watch TV knit all day. You want to "do something!" Maybe your retirement isn't stretching as far as you thought, but mainly it's because you just want to. You plainly aren't done yet. This age group has the distinct advantage of life experience to draw on, plus contacts and connections to offer support.
Have you ever been up in the mountains in the winter? You are in your car, enjoying the winter wonderland pristine beauty. The road is covered in snow and everything is going well until you put your foot on the accelerator to move forward and nothing happens. Your wheels spin, your car won't ...
When I arrived into the second half of my life, I realized that the years were drifting by and I began to wonder why my life hadn't completely turned out the way I had wished. Certainly I had racked up many successes but there were also still unfulfilled dreams, places I wanted to go, books to write and things to learn. Self- doubt slowly crept in and I wondered whether I would ever manifest all of my ambitions. That's how it once seemed to me. Maybe you are like me, and you too have also wondered whether you missed your chance and now it's too late.
If you own a small business you likely spend more time marketing than everything else put together. You also know that in marketing there's an order and a system to the process and when you follow the system correctly, it works and it brings you more clients.
If you're like many small business owners, you've put in the hard work to get your business going, you've taken risks, overcome some obstacles and now your business is doing ok. But ok is just…well, ok. You want it to be doing great! Why not? You didn’t start a business in order to stay mediocre. The longer you're in business the more ideas emerge as to how you could take your business to the next level.
You've probably all had the "used car salesman" experience at networking groups. You meet a new person, and doing the normal protocol, you politely ask them what they do. They immediately launch into a passionate pitch about how wonderful their product is and assure you that you'll be dead next week if you don't buy it. You politely don't ask them any more questions, hoping the conversation will end so you can move on. Or you wait for a break in their diatribe so you can blurt out that you need to find the rest room.
Entrepreneurs are often independent minded souls who like to do things their own way and in their own time. You're risk takers and initiators. All those are wonderful traits that can support your success, but like any qualities they also have challenging sides. You might be so used to going for it, and making decisions yourself, that when you're faced with a larger challenge you just step on the gas and do more of what you've already been doing.
If you are a small or solo business owner you probably suffer from a disease called “Overwhelm-it is.” Symptoms may include, inability to focus, stress from being pulled in too many directions, not enough time and constant energy drain. Sound familiar? Sometimes I wish there was a quick fix or a magic wand for this ailment. During the past week I had three different solo business owners tell me they felt they were spinning their wheels. It was funny that they all used that exact same phrase. It reminded me of driving in the snow and getting stuck.
We've all done it; put off something very important. Sometimes the more important the thing is, the more issues that come up around "just doing" it. It's so easy to find all kinds of things that feel more urgent and more important. But are they really more important? Some important tasks ...
A few months ago, one of my clients shared with menthat she had been unconsciously keeping hernbusiness small, because she didn't trust shencould manage it if it were bigger. She couldnhandle the customers she had now, but if she took onnmore,she might not be able to give them qualitynservice. ...
A mentor is someone who sees more in you than you see in yourself. At first I didn't really know what I wanted so I only foundnother confused people. This gave me an excuse to hide nbehind my fear. So put your vision in writing in detail. Ifnyou were taking a thousand mile car trip you would ...
As a small business owner you know very well that it's all about cash flow. Certainly you want to feel fulfilled, follow your passion and help people, but at the end of the day, if you aren't making money, it's not fun. Money stress is horrible and no one enjoys it. Yet, if money is an issue for you and you struggle to have enough paying clients, it could be you have some limiting beliefs around giving and receiving that are not supporting your success.
"I just want to help people." I simply want to do what I love." These are real statements I recently heard from a massage therapist and an artist who approached me for business help. The artist I worked with, decided that she just wanted to do her art and not focus on having to make money ...
Most small service based businesses begin with the following scenario. You get an idea , bing, and it begins to take hold. At some point it turns into a passion. You think, "wow, I can make this into a business. " You get your business cards and start trying to drum up clients. Before you ...