Archive for * Podcasts
Jan Marie Dore with Sandy Vilas on Blog Talk Radio
Posted by: | Comments| Apr ’10 |
| 27 |
| 8:00 pm |
Join me Tuesday, April 27, 2010 as I’m interviewed by Scott Cluthe on his show “Positively Incorrect” on Blog Talk Radio along with Sandy Vilas, CEO of CoachInc.com / Coach U.
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO REPLAY HERE.
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Publish eBooks for Profit
Posted by: | CommentsClick the arrow to listen to Jan Marie Dore reading this article
There has never been better time to write an eBook.
Ebooks and other “How-To” Manuals are the hottest thing selling on the internet right now. There is a phenomenal global potential to distribute information products using the Internet.
Writing about what you know and publishing it in eBooks is one of the most effective ways to grow your professional service business. Publishing information products can help you become a recognized authority in your area of expertise as well as substantially increase your income.
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Who Am I Now?
Posted by: | CommentsClick the arrow to listen to Jan Marie Dore reading this article
Typically, at the start of a new year, many of us feel the urge to set new goals. The slate feels as if it has been wiped clean with the sweep of the clock into a new year, and we are inspired to imagine we can accomplish great things.
This year, why not try a new way of ‘going goalless’. Focus on who you are becoming rather than any tangible, specific goals. Make a plan to develop qualities of your SELF that will shift you into a new space and direction in your life and your business.
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Shifting From Ideas Into Action: Tips to Nurture Your Creative Ideas
Posted by: | Comments“Shifting From Ideas Into Action: Seven Tips to Nurture Your Creative Ideas Into Reality”
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Can you relate to this?
Do you ever get thinking about new ideas for your business, then get so caught up in talking about those new ideas and researching them that you get totally overwhelmed and never take action?
Analysis paralysis!
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In this Teleseminar, Kate Sanner of VivacityMedia.com interviews Jan Marie Dore on “The Formula for Making More Money and Having More Freedom in Your Business”.
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO REPLAY HERE.
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Teleseminar Interview Description
Too many women entrepreneurs struggle with growing their business. Often it’s because they were not taught the right way to market themselves or to build a sustainable business that doesn’t drain all their time and energy.
In this teleseminar, Jan Marie Dore will share with you the twelve most important business success principles she has learned about being financially successful in any professional service or ‘special knowledge’ business. She calls it her formula for simplicity & prosperity that when followed leads to more success, more time off, and more money.
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SWOT Analysis
Posted by: | CommentsClick the arrow to listen to Jan Marie Dore reading this article.
SWOT Analysis: Clarifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
One of the planning tools I use for my business is the SWOT analysis. It’s a great tool to be familiar with, and it has many applications. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Here are some tips on how you might use it for your small business.
The SWOT analysis is a tool for auditing your small business and its environment – both internal and external. It forms an important part of your strategic planning process.
SWOT analysis is a framework for analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your business, and the opportunities and threats you face. It is an important component of long term planning that takes into consideration many different internal and external factors, maximizing the potential of the strengths and opportunities while minimizing the impact of the weaknesses and threats to your business. It’s generally a good idea to carry out a SWOT analysis once a year as part of your strategic planning process.
This analysis that takes into account not only your own business, but also your competitor’s activities and current industry and marketplace trends.
The strengths and weaknesses are internally focused – they are about you, your company, and your services. The opportunities & threats are externally focused – they are about key opportunities or threats that are external to your company or that your services face. You can use this analysis as a very effective ways to identify different internal and external factors that will affect your business.
Why use this tool?
Carrying out an analysis using the SWOT framework helps you focus on your strengths, minimize weaknesses, take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available, and anticipate any threats to your business.
How to create your SWOT analysis
To begin the analysis, create a four-cell grid or four lists, one for each component:
Strengths | Weaknesses | Opportunities | Threats. Then, begin filling in the lists.
- Internal Analysis: Examine the capabilities of your business by analyzing your company and services strengths and weaknesses.
- External Analysis: Do an ‘environmental analysis’. Identify opportunities for your business, and any threats or obstacles to performance.
- Enter the information you have collected into a table.
You can use this information to help you develop a strategy that uses the strengths and opportunities, reduces the weaknesses and threats, and achieves the long term objectives of your business.
Some examples:
Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. For example:
A strength could be:
- your specialist expertise
- a new, innovative product or service
- the location of your business
- top quality products, processes, and procedures
A weakness could be:
- lack of marketing expertise
- undifferentiated products and service (i.e. in relation to your competitors)
- location of your business
- damaged reputation
Opportunities and threats are external factors. For example:
An opportunity could be:
- a new developing or international market
- a market vacated by an ineffective competitor
- new market segments that offer improved profits
- mergers, joint ventures, or strategic alliances
A threat could be:
- a new competitor in your market
- price wars with competitors
- a competitor with a new, innovative product or service
- competitors with superior access to channels of distribution
Guidelines for successful SWOT analysis
A word of caution, SWOT analysis can be very subjective. Do not rely on it too much. Two people rarely come-up with the same final version of SWOT.
- be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your business
- be specific; avoid grey areas
- always analyze in context to your competition i.e. better than or worse than your competition
- keep your SWOT short and simple; avoid complexity and over analysis
- analysis should distinguish between where your business is today and where it actually could be in the future based on your current situation
In Summary
Completing a SWOT analysis helps you identify ways to maximize the strengths in your business while minimizing the effect of the weaknesses. Ideally, you will match your strengths against market opportunities that result from voids in your competitors’ products and services.
You can also learn more about your own as well as competitor’s businesses and expand the reach of your SWOT analysis through the use of surveys.
With a thorough SWOT analysis, you are sure to come away with newfound insights. Use these insights to increase your company’s effectiveness and as input to your strategic business and marketing plans.
Take Action
Start by listing all your small business strengths and weaknesses – the internal analysis. Focus on the strengths that can be leveraged in your marketplace to gain a competitive advantage.
Identify the weaknesses of your small business and services that you can manage or overcome.
The external analysis begins with a list of opportunities and threats – sometimes called issues. Identify key opportunities that you can capitalize on in your marketplace. Then, list the external threats or issues that could significantly impact your company or service.
Here are some questions you can answer to determine your SWOT:
Strengths
- What advantages do you have over other businesses?
- What do you do well that your competition can’t?
- What makes you stand out from your competitors?
- What do other people see as your strengths?
In looking at your strengths, think about them in relation to your competitors – for example, if all of your competitors provide a certain type of service, this would not be a strength in your market, but rather, a necessity.
Consider this from both your point of view and that of your clients. Don’t be modest. Be realistic. If you are having any difficulty with this, try writing down a list of your characteristics. Some of these will hopefully be strengths!
Weaknesses
- What do you do badly?
- What do your customers complain about?
- What could you improve?
- Are your reputation and market presence as strong as they could be?
- What are the areas of struggle for your company?
- Do you have the staff and technology to provide top notch customer service?
Do other people perceive weaknesses that you do not see? Are your competitors doing better than you? It is best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.
Opportunities
- Where are the opportunities for your business or services?
- What are the trends in your area of specialty?
- Will changes in demographics, social patterns, or lifestyle changes affect your business?
- Is your business sector expanding?
- Are there emerging trends that fit with your company’s strengths? Is there a product/service area that others have not yet covered?
A useful approach to looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities. Try to uncover areas where your strengths are not being fully utilized. Also, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them.
Threats
- What obstacles do you face?
- What is your competition doing?
- Are your competitors becoming stronger?
- Are the required specifications for your products or services changing?
- Do you see other external threats to your company’s success?
Examine your weaknesses and ask yourself whether any of them could seriously threaten your business. Are there emerging trends that amplify one of your weaknesses? Internally, do you have financial, development, or other problems? Look both inside and outside of your company for things that could damage your business to see the big picture.
Create a four-square grid to develop a preliminary SWOT analysis for your small business. List your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths. If you have different niches or specialty areas, you might want to create separate lists. This information can then be included in your overall strategic plan.
Carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating – both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done, and in putting problems into perspective.
© Copyright Jan Marie Dore www.janmariedore.com All rights reserved.
Jan Marie Dore, ‘The Professional Women’s Success Coach’, Speaker and Author, publishes valuable marketing tips to grow a professional service business and increase profitability in her newsletter and blog ‘Success Secrets for Solo Professional Women’.
Jan Marie teaches women how to attract more clients and financial success, and as a result, live extraordinary lives. For free resources and programs on marketing a professional practice please visit Femalepreneurs.com .
Technorati Tags: small business marketing, small business planning
Does Your Workspace Inspire You?
Posted by: | CommentsClick the arrow to listen to Jan Marie Dore reading this article.
The environments we surround ourselves with are often overlooked as a potential nurturance for both our work and our daily lives. Our surroundings shape the way we think and feel. Exceptional achievers make sure their surroundings reflect their commitment to perform at their best.
Your office space can reflect your intention to do great work that makes a contribution to the world. It can provide aesthetic nourishment where the colors and textures of the interior space nourish your creativity and inspire you, or it can leave you feeling exhausted and unfocused.
We need only to step into different offices to notice how they affect us.
Close your eyes and picture this. It is morning, and you are walking into your office to start your work day. You step onto a lovely patterned carpet, and walk over to your beautiful, functional wooden desk. You sit in a very comfortable chair that supports your back, and gaze out the window at the sunny day. A fresh breeze blows in from the open window. You hear the sounds of birds singing and leaves rustling in the wind. A large green plant is in the corner and a vase of fresh flowers is on your desk. A beautiful lamp infuses warmth and soft light throughout the room. Your eyes are drawn to a lovely piece of art on the wall, then to an artifact you bought on your latest trip, and then to an array of family photos.
Would this type of space uplift your spirit and inspire you to do your best work?
You bet it would!
Yet, very few people take the time to create for themselves an office that is truly nourishing and uplifting.
If our offices are beautiful and inspiring, then what is produced in those offices will have a sense of purpose and integrity. The challenge is to seek a way to occupy your office space in a way that harmonizes with your personality, energy, and purpose.
Take Action
Look closely at your workspace. What is the message that your office area currently communicates to you and others? What do you see that stimulates your creativity and inspires you to do your best work?
If your workspace doesn’t currently nourish your creativity and effectiveness, take a moment to mentally create the perfect space for you to do your best work. Think about changes you could make, even if you’re on a limited budget, to create a more inspiring work environment.
Could it be by moving your desk so that the view is more inspiring? Or by adding fresh flowers, a plant, or music? What about adding a water fountain, a wind chime, a poster, or a beautiful piece of art to your workspace? Or, choosing to write with pens in a rainbow of colors?
Are your office and desk areas visually stimulating with lots of pictures, photographs, quotes, and memorabilia? Or, you may prefer a clean, uncluttered state for working.
Only you know the type of surroundings you will thrive in. Determine what you need in your environment to inspire your best work. Decide how to change your space so you feel more inspired and creative – and watch your productivity and satisfaction levels soar!
……………………………………………………….
Copyright © Jan Marie Dore ~ www.janmariedore.com ~ All rights reserved.
Jan Marie Dore, ‘The Women Entrepreneurs’ Success Coach’, Master Certified Coach, Speaker, and Author, publishes valuable ideas to grow a professional service business and increase profitability in her newsletter ‘Success Secrets for Women Entrepreneurs’.
Jan Marie teaches self-employed female professionals to attract more clients and financial success, and as a result, live extraordinary lives. For free resources and programs on marketing a professional practice please visit Femalepreneurs.com and read the Blog Success Secrets.
Technorati Tags: mindset & success, spirituality in business
Do you want more money and more freedom in your business?
Posted by: | CommentsI was recently interviewed by marketing coach Jody Gabourie on “My Formula for Making More Money and Having More Freedom in Your Business”.
In this teleseminar, I shared my twelve step formula that when followed leads to more success, more time and more money. I call it my formula for Simplicity + Prosperity.
Click the arrow to listen to the interview
I see too many women entrepreneurs struggle with growing their business. Often it’s because they were not taught the right way to market themselves or to build a sustainable business that doesn’t drain all their time and energy.
In this audio program, you’ll learn how to:
- simplify and streamline your business so you can work less, have more freedom, and make more money
- shift your business model from one to one service delivery to one to many and multiple streams of income
- redesign your business step-by-step around your expertise
- rise to the top of your field and become the leader of a micro-niche market
- grow a financially successful professional service business that gives you the lifestyle you really want and makes a difference
- implement the formula for making more money and having more freedom in your business
In this interview, I share with you the twelve most important principles that I have learned about being financially successful in any ’special knowledge’ industry, such as coaching, consulting, speaking, training, etc. It really is possible to build a professional service business that is financially rewarding, gives you the lifestyle you really want, and makes a big difference in the world.
Jody Gabourie who interviewed me is a marketing coach in Vancouver, BC. Find out more about Jody here.
I hope you enjoy the interview!
Jan Marie
No Cost Marketing Strategies to Increase Sales
Posted by: | CommentsClick the arrow to listen to Jan Marie Dore reading this article
In these times of tight budgets, many of my clients are looking for low cost and no cost marketing strategies to promote their services and make more money. We still need to get the word out about our business and continue to be visible, and there are many ways to do this even on a limited budget. All they cost you is your time.
Here are four ‘no cost’ ideas to promote your services and increase your income:
1. Write and submit articles
Article publishing has been one of the most effective strategies I have used to get more visitors to my website and grow my business and income. Whether you like to write or not, you can either write or record your tips. You always have some good tips and ideas to share with your clients. You can speak an article into a voice recorder, and then have it transcribed. Or, use speech recognition software like I do to dictate your articles and have them automatically typed up. I use ‘Dragon Naturally Speaking’ by Nuance. Submit your articles to online article directories, print publications, and specific online sites that your target audience would go to. My favorite online article directory is EzineArticles.com.
2. Contact former clients
Previous clients can be one of your best sources of repeat business. It costs much less time and money to market to someone who already knows you well than it does to try to continually find new prospects. Yet, many business owners fail to pay attention to the potential gold mine of former clients. They continue to look for new prospects rather than keep in touch with previous satisfied clients. Designing a ‘keep-in-touch’ strategy is crucial to your business growth. Regularly sending out tips and resources to prospects and clients will keep your services top of mind. Survey your former clients using a free tool like SurveyMonkey.com and entice them back by making them an irresistible offer. Provide exceptional customer service to keep them satisfied and buying more. Get creative in thinking about what clients would really like from you and over-deliver on value.
3. Get more visible on blogs, forums and social networking sites
There are lots of places online where you can be more visible, express your opinion, and let others know who you are and what you do … and how you can help them. Posting helpful comments to other people’s blogs in your area of specialty with a link back to your website can be a very effective strategy for attracting new visitors to your site. Posting or answering questions in forums is also worth doing. And – social networking is one of the latest ways to get connected and visible online. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.com can be very effective to develop relationships and joint ventures. Be strategic and limit your time on these sites so they don’t consume all your time. Writing testimonials, comments and book reviews are also ways to get noticed for r fr.ee.
4. Send out press releases
Press releases are often overlooked as a low cost marketing tool. There are paid services of course, but there are also many fr.ee press release sites – such as 24-7PressRelease.com or Free-Press-Release.com. You can send a press release about a new service offering, or a workshop or teleseminar or a new product. To make your release newsworthy, connect it to a current news item or a current event or holiday. Create a list of media contacts, and send the information directly to specific editors or contact people in your area.
Don’t let not having a budget for marketing stop you from promoting yourself and increasing your visibility and income. All it takes is some time and a little creativity!
Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude
Posted by: | Comments“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~ Melodie Beattie
Click the arrow to listen to Jan Marie Dore reading this article
The practice of gratitude is a powerful tool for recreating your life so that you regularly experience happiness, joy, and contentment. Gratitude is simply a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation for all that is. Grateful thoughts align your heart, mind, and soul.
Opportunities are given to you in every moment to be grateful for what you have and what you experience. Beauty, richness, and love already exist in your life. There are gifts and opportunities in every situation.
The core of gratefulness is having an awareness of these opportunities inherent in life events and circumstances, and then thoughtfully choosing your response.
Gratefulness is about enjoying the sights, sounds, smells and abundance all around you, appreciating all of your emotions and feelings, and celebrating the blessings of family and community.
We all have the ability to make our lives even richer and more positive by noticing daily events, appreciating the benefits we receive, and being mindful of surprises. You have the power to control whether your thoughts will be positive and focused on what’s going well in your life or negative and focused on what is not going well.
You can be an example of happiness and gratefulness by expressing appreciation to people on a regular basis. Let the people you care about know that you are grateful they are in your lives – and why.
Having much to be thankful for does not diminish the reality of sadness, disappointment, or discouragement, or the need to feel those feelings at times. You can, though, intentionally reframe painful or disappointing events as opportunities for growth and learning, and deliberately look for the silver linings.
“Whatever you are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of Simple Abundance – it will surely come, but only when you are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach
Here are five intentional practices to feel more peace and contentment and to make your life richer and more positive:
1) Gratitude Journal
Create your own personal gratitude journal – a place to list your blessings on a regular basis. Record the small and large gifts and moments that are enriching your life every day. You can also create a family gratitude journal where everyone makes entries.
2) Gratitude Ritual
Create a gratitude ritual. Before going to bed at night, glance back over your day and reflect on moments of grace, abundance, joy, friendship, and contentment – the things that you enjoyed or felt blessed by that day. Nightly, record three things that went well each day and why they went well.
3) Evening Meal Blessing
Pause before your evening meal to acknowledge the things that make your life abundant and meaningful.
4) The Gratitude Alphabet
This exercise works like magic when you need a change in attitude. Either aloud or in writing, beginning with “A”, think of the first thing that comes to mind that you are grateful for that starts with that letter and say (or write) ‘I am grateful for ______.’ Do this quickly without too much thought. Continue until you have reached “Z”. You might also share this exercise with your loved ones, speaking aloud alternate letters.
- I am grateful for Apples
- I am grateful for Beauty
- I am grateful for Chocolate
- I am grateful for DVD’s
- I am grateful for Email
- I am grateful for Friends
- I am grateful for Grass
- I am grateful for Hugs
- …. . you get the idea
5) Gratitude Affirmation
Practice gratitude by reading this affirmation on contentment:
This day, I am content.
- I am grateful for what I have and for what I do not have.
- I learn from both joys and disappointments.
- I refrain from criticism and fault-finding.
- I don’t try to change others.
- I accept myself as I am and as I change.
Begin to notice if your words and thoughts are full of complaints about what is lacking in your life. You can begin right now to start to see the perfection and beauty in everything and everyone.
By applying gratitude daily in your life, it’s possible to achieve peace and contentment in a demanding, overwhelming, and sometimes disappointing world. It’s a habit of mind!
“If the only prayer you ever said was ‘Thank You’, that would be enough.” ~ Meister Eckhart
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