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10 Things To Do When Business Slows Down Over The Holidays
I’m sure you’ve seen it happen every year: your business slows down during predictable times, like the summer vacation months or year-end holidays. For the self-employed who rely upon steady cash flow, this can be a disconcerting time. Should...
3 Strategies to Market Your Business Even When There’s No Money
Many small and home based businesses know they need to market and yet, have little or no money to do so. Sadly, many use this as a reason not to market. Even on a limited budget you can promote and gain visibility for you and your business. The...
Assembly Work At Home Scams
Many people who need extra money would like to work from home. Unfortunately, some companies cheat people out of their money by preying on this desire to make money from home. Most work at home "opportunities" look like legitimate ways to make...
Brand Your Consulting Brilliance
Today's competitive marketplace for consulting services is no longer responsive to the marketing strategies that worked in the past. The services you provide should speak volumes about your consulting business. Think about what happens when you...
Ebook Farming- A Definitive Guide to Your Ebook Creation (Ebook Review)
Why would you want to buy a book on writing Ebooks? There seem to be a multitude of freebies on this topic as well as tons of free content available on the web. Well I have found an ebook on this topic, that you definitely want to study...
How To Raise Money For Starting A Business
The task of raising money for a business is not as difficult as most people seem to think. This is especially true when you have an idea that can make you and your backers rich. Actually, there's more money available for new business ventures...
Identifying your Niche
The Internet has become a valuable source of information and purchasing tool for today’s consumer. With the click of a mouse you can find almost anything from products to services on the web, and you can shop for the best prices and values all hours...
Sorting Through the Good, the Bad, and the MLM Ugly
You know, if there's a surefire killer of a beginning networker, it's the old deal where the new networker wastes so much time finding the right folks to sponsor. As you are well aware, the key to building yourself that lucrative residual...
Why Are You Doing Everything Yourself?
When I coach my entrepreneur clients, one problem I often see is that they're not taking enough time to market and grow their business. It's not that they don't understand the value of those efforts, or they don't want to make the time. It's that...
Why Self-Published eBooks are Winners
Why Self-Published eBooks are Winners Judy Cullins c. 2005
Myths abound about print books being the right kind of book and
eBooks are on their last leg. These ideas spring from
traditional publishing.
Hopeful authors have read it many...
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The Power of "Masterminds"
Mastermind - Drawing from the experience and knowledge of others to grow your business. A mastermind group is a group of people who meet on a regular basis to exchange ideas, seek the advice of the group and solicit feedback from. It is a resource center of new ideas.
I have been involved in several masterminds. Most recently an online exchange between women speakers around the world, which I started, and the other one is an in-person meeting, which I was invited to participate in. Each of these have taken my business to a new level and I have made some wonderful friends.
Highly successful mastermind groups work best when you follow these guidelines:
1. Choose people who have specialized knowledge you lack. Enlisting people with very different outlooks strengthens a mastermind group.
2. Make a time commitment and stick to it. Once a month generally works best. When you make the commitment, don't allow anything except serious emergencies to interfere with your date.
3. Create an agenda to follow. This creates a sense of order during your meetings. Sample agendas might include open discussion at the beginning of the meeting and then focusing on individual challenges for, let's say 20 minutes each. My in-person group (of 6) focuses on one member's challenge each meeting with the others offering their feedback or advice. Each member gets his or her turn to share. This is very powerful because each of us learns something from the other's challenge. My online group meets in a "chat room" and we each ask a question (there are 5 of us). Then the other 4 offer their responses. We meet for approximately one hour. We have open discussion at the end of the meeting if
there is time.
4. Our in-person meetings are fun. We meet in a different place each month, and it has become as much a social event as an educational opportunity.
5. You can invite an occasional guest. Your group can become an event that guests ask to be invited to. However, be careful with this. Guests may inhibit the open exchange that has been created.
6. Keep it Small and Simple. Groups of 5 or 6 work best. More than that and you may find two meetings going on at the same time.
7. Discuss and Decide a policy for disclosure in the very beginning. My in-person group openly discusses details of our company with the understanding that our "inside" "secrets" are never discussed outside of our group. The online group is not as open online. If we have a serious issue, we will make a point of calling each other and discussing our issues off-line.
8. You might want to consider a facilitator to keep the group on target and on task. You learn to facilitate by doing it.
Follow this simple guideline; you will have a highly successful mastermind group and you will see your business GROW!
Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business © 2005 - Heidi Richards
About the Author
Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is also the Founder & CEO of the Women’s ECommerce Association, International www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) – an Internet organization that “Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.” Basic Membership is FREE. Ms. Richards can be reached at Heidi@speakingwithspirit.com or heidi@wecai.org.
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