Announcing the top 10 Joyce's Favourite Things!

Announcing the top 10 Joyce's Favourite Things!

Wow, has this been an exciting few weeks. Since announcing the Joyce's Favourite Things contest, my email has been flooded with lots of great submissions. I want everyone to succeed and grow their business! But because I know that a big part of business involves positioning and competition, I am choosing my favourite 10 products with the following criteria:

Originality of idea.

Some of these product ideas gave me the tickle when I read the description. They were simple but effective. Some just gave be the great Ah-ha and were unique enough that I thought they would make great non-traditional gifts.

Variety in overall selection.

I selected a variety of gifts, not just 4 kinds of food products or 5 crafty ideas.

Purchase Simplicity.

There were a few products submitted that were great but didn't have any website or online ordering system. Yeah I know I didn’t include it as a criteria for submission ... I just didn't see it as a huge problem until after I saw the submissions coming in. So next year, if I choose to do this again, I fully expect that all these early stage businesses will be up and ready to rock and roll.

I am actually hyperventilating I am so nervous about having to select winners among so many great entries. So here goes ... described in no particular order:
Joyce's Favourites Things 2006


Monthly socks

I have given a-gift-a-month presents before, the most recent being different blends of Peet's Coffee for my brother and sister. I loved the twist on this concept in the form of monthly socks ... especially for someone who has a raggedy collection of holey socks. This idea was created in a moment of inspiration between a man (David) who was frustrated by his motley collection of socks and his wife (Elena) who had a brainstorm for a subscription service while receiving her O Magazine. The full story here! And you don't have to get a pair a month if that is too much ... there are smaller quantity options. (I found the sock calculator didn't work on the site, but it may be fixed by the time this goes to press)

Home Study for Home Movies

This is downright cool … home study course developed by Myrtha Chang, a former corporate trainer and instructional designer who took her interest in creating home movies and made a very thorough step-by-step learning program for do-it-yourself videomakers. She talks about restoring and preserving old footage in digital formats, as well as editing the endless hours of rambling footage into a nice package that is fun to watch. There are some entertaining examples on her very detailed sales page (OK, it is really long, but you can't say she doesn't answer every question you might have!). Check out the one with the "How to Hug a Baby, A Guide for Ambitious Dogs."
This would make a great companion to the camcorder you were planning to give to a loved one.

Saylor Sage

I love wearing accessories. No matter what you wear it adds a unique beauty to the total outcome. This small company sells beautiful, elegant accessories for the classy ladies who want to add a little touch to their sense of style. The Founder Saylor Sage explains:

“I have always been intrigued with all things beautiful, old, or ethnic since I was a little girl and always loved digging into my grandmothers’ jewellery boxes and closets. But unlike most designers, I grew up wanting to be a business woman, and didn’t realize my creative potential until after college. In fact, I graduated from college with a major in International Finance and a minor in Japanese. And “no”, I can’t speak Japanese. Luckily, my senior year I took a costuming class to fulfil an art credit and discovered a new passion for design.

In the summer of 2004, with the support my wonderful husband Michael, I opened Saylor Sage. The Saylor Sage name stands for a certain lifestyle blending my Texas upbringing with the eclectic qualities of my New York lifestyle. We have very loyal and enthusiastic customers, and a slowly expanding line of products. It's been a blast."

Out Of Africa

This is a business with a mission. It’s created for the people of South Africa. They make cookies. Each time you take a bite of a Khaya Cookie you help Create Opportunity One Bite at a Time. Their aim is to create Societal Wealth by reducing the "tin-cup" dependency. By helping people earn an income they are no longer reliant upon hand-outs. The bakers of the Khaya Cookie Company come from the townships which surround Cape Town and primarily from the township of Khayelitsha. Today, almost one million people live below poverty level in crowded, one room "homes" in Khayelitsha. These homes are typically made from sheets of corrugated iron or any available timber. One out of every four children suffers from chronic malnutrition and 70% of all women who are heads of households are unemployed.

How to Quilt

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to make our very own quilt? Penny Halgren created this site to inspire and educate those that want learn how to quilt. All of her quilting resources are written in an easy-to-understand language. I am going to buy one of her books myself to create my own quilt too.

Hear and Play Piano

It you want to learn how to play piano the easiest way check out this site. Jermaine teaches you how to play the piano with you ear He said “The secret to playing piano is with your ear”.

He has over 60 music to learn for free. Over 1 million musicians visit his site every year and benefit from his online articles, lessons, and advice. There is nothing Jermaine enjoys more than the testimonials and thank you notes from his students: "It's all about helping people," says Jermaine.


Jewellery Holder

This lady's business gave me the kick. As you know ‘am into accessories and she knews the problems we face handling our jewelleries. Well, Bernadette decided to give us a solution. She designed the Jewel Caddy a product to help us arrange our jewelleries. Isn't it cute.

Flower Delivery

Can you remember a time when you forgot to send a present to a love one. Sometimes we could be pre-occupied with life that we forget those that are important to us. Beyond Blossoms is a flower business owned by Josh Grossman and Gina Maschek they deliver the freshest flowers from around the world, with the best designs, at the lowest prices to love ones around the world

Cruise Holiday




I love this guys he was able to turn a very competitive business to a million dollar baby. Captain Lou owes this travel agent business selling specialty cruise to various industry professionals. You can book any cruise you want at a reasonable price. You also have the choose to book a free cruise too from his AnythingLeft-Handed


Anythingleft-handed started out as a small shop in London selling left handed items but they were not making a lot of money until they put their business on the internet ranking them a 70% increase in sales. This is a great niche and I love how the business publicize themselves by promoting their own dedicated event “Left-Hander Day” on the 13th of August to celebrate the advantage of left handnes

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted their info to this contest! I have been sick for the past week that's why I haven't sent the list as promised for the 15th. I got so many submissions and I had to read them all to make my choice.

Thanks a lot and have a great week everyone and thanks for playing!

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Maven," is creator of the winning Attractive Marketing E-zine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.ClientAttractionStrategies.com

She’s an inspirational Gift to me

I first heard about this lady through a fellow blogger, Pamela Slim. Her name is Glenda Watson Hyatt. I was intrigued by this lady’s story and her goal of getting her autobiography published by her 40th birthday. She missed that deadline just by a one month. This week, her book, "I'll Do It Myself" was published, and it would make a great Christmas present.

Here is what Pamela Slim says about Glenda and her book:

[It] is Glenda’s life story of living a strong, sassy and courageous life with Cerebral Palsy. She has written it all using only her left thumb. A great gift for parents of children with disabilities, it is also a great, uplifting story for anyone about what you can do to overcome obstacles in your life with some grit, humor, fierce will and determination. I personally want this to become a bestseller and I want to see Glenda on Oprah...

A lack of oxygen at birth left Glenda with little use of her hands, the inability to walk and speech that was difficult for others to understand. But it didn't hold her back from experiencing a full and happy life. In school, Glenda was integrated into a regular classroom; she earned the Canada Cord, the highest award in Girl Guides; and she won the Outstanding Junior Student Award. And this gutsy young red-head even won a gold medal in horseback riding! Glenda is now married and works as a writer, especially on the topic of disabilities.
If you'd like to learn more about Glenda and purchase her book, here is a link to her web site: http://www.booksbyglenda.com/index.htm

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Maven," is creator of the winning ‘Attractive Marketing E-zine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.ClientAttractionStrategies.com

Ready for some fun? Have your product listed on 'Joyce's Favourite Things 2006'

At this time of the month Oprah always give out her favourite list to the audience. So I thought why can’t we do so in the entrepreneurial world, so I took the bull by the horns and I will be announcing mine.

As my mission is the help small businesses grow their business and get more clients. I thought it would be a nice way to help you break into new markets.

So here goes...

The process:

• From now (December 4) until December 15, send me an email with the subject line "Joyce's Favourite Things Submission" and tell me about your product, why you think it would be a great gift, and how it got you start as an entrepreneur. Send it to Joyce (at) Clientattractionstrategies (dot) com.

• I will work my way through the piles of excellent entries and choose the Top 10 to be included in the post to be published here on December 20.

• Feel free to spread the word to other creative entrepreneurs who want to join in the fun.

Basic guidelines:

• Submissions should be for products that one would actually consider giving to someone else for the holidays. Include a short descriptions of why your product should be on the list as much as a description of what it is.

• Please, no bigger companies disguising themselves as smaller companies. What I want to promote here are examples of people who have crossed the great chasm from corporate drone to kick-ass entrepreneur and have some great products to show for it that would make fun, valuable, interesting and off-beat presents.

• No need to send samples unless it is high-quality chocolate or gourmet. Then I must sample it to ensure it is as good as you say it is. I am not running this contest to subvert my own holiday shopping by getting a bunch of your freebies, although now that I think about it, that is an excellent idea. Ever hear of "re-gifting?" Seriously, don't worry about samples.

I might not be able to make you an overnight millionaires like Oprah ... I may generate enough sales by my recommendations to help you pay for the postage on the gifts you ship to friends and families.
But I guarantee you one thing - it will be fun! Please join in.



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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Maven," is creator of the winning ‘Attractive Marketing E-zine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.ClientAttractionStrategies.com

A Thanksgiving Message from Oprah

Oprah Winfrey is one of role model. She is a wonderful example of what an "Attitude of Gratitude" can do for a person. She had this really impressive “Thank You” message and I wanted to share it with you.

Happy Thanksgiving, Joyce

A Thanksgiving Message from Oprah

I live in the space of thankfulness - and I have been rewarded a
million times over for it. I started out giving thanks for small things,
and the more thankful I became, the more my bounty increased.

That's because what you focus on expands, and when you focus on the
goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships,
even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what
happened in my life.

"Say thank you!" Those words from my friend and mentor Maya Angelou
turned my life around. One day about ten years ago, I was sitting in my
bathroom with the door closed and the toilet lid down, booing and ahooing
on the phone so uncontrollably that I was incoherent.

"Stop it! Stop it right now and say thank you!" Maya chided. "But
You don't understand," I sobbed.

To this day, I can't remember what it was that had me so far gone,
which only proves the point Maya was trying to make. "I do understand," she
told me. "I want to hear you say it now. Out loud.

'Thank you.'" Tentatively, I repeated it:

"Thank you - but what am I saying thank you for?"

"You're saying thank you," Maya said, "because your faith is so
strong that you don't doubt that whatever the problem, you'll get through
it. You're saying thank you because you know that even in the eye of the
storm, God has put a rainbow in the clouds.

You're saying thank you because you know there's no problem created
that can compare to the Creator of all things. Say thank you!"

So I did - and still do. Only now I do it every day. I kept a
Gratitude journal, as Sarah Ban Breathnach suggests in Simple Abundance,
listing at least five things that I'm grateful for. My list includes small
pleasures: the feel of Kentucky bluegrass under my feet (like damp silk); a
walk in the woods with all nine of my dogs and my cocker spaniel Sophie
trying to keep up; cooking fried green tomatoes with Stedman and eating
them while they're hot; reading a good book and knowing another awaits.

My thank-you list also includes things too important to take for
granted: an "okay" mammogram, friends who love me, 25 years at the same job
(and loving it more than the first day I started), a chance to share my
vision for a better life, staying centered, having financial security.

I won't kid you, having money for all the things I want is a
blessing. But as I look back over my journals, which I've kept since I was
15 years old, 99 per cent of what brought me real joy had nothing to do
with money (It had a lot to do with food, however.)

It's not easy being grateful all the time. But it's when you feel
least thankful that you are most in need of what gratitude can give you:

PERSPECTIVE. Just knowing you have that daily list to complete
allows you to look at your day differently, with an awareness of every
sweet gesture and kind thought passed your way. When you learn to say thank
you, you see the world anew. And as Meister Eckhart so eloquently stated:

"If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is 'Thank you
God,' that would suffice."




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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Maven," is creator of the winning ‘Attractive Marketing E-zine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.ClientAttractionStrategies.com

My Dream Dinner Guest

It was during my amazing visit to Texas recently, sitting high up in the Hatta Hotel I discovered there was a single beautiful table at the balcony over looking the beautiful city. So I imagined sitting in the balcony of one of the most exclusive restaurant in town, 360ft up, taking in beautiful views of the city and having 10 people to invite for dinner, who would I choose?

So here is my idea 10 dinner wish list. I’m sure they’d all get along famously!

Oprah Winfrey
Alexandra Brown
John F Kennedy
Pamela Slim
Maya Angelou
TD Jakes
Nelson Mandela
Tyra Banks
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
Hillary Rodham Clinton

To add a twist to this and hopefully it gets kicked around the net a bit you must pick two fellow bloggers as waiters/waitresses and in so doing they become tagged and hopefully replicate a list of their own on their site.

Waiter: Tom Criuse
Waitress: Bono

PS: This was hard to keep down to ten, if I did this list tomorrow I would probably pick 10 totally different people, but I tried to go for a variety of backgrounds, ages, personalities etc. and obviously people who would interest me! So what you waiting for, go ahead and pick your 10 now!


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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Maven," is creator of the winning ‘Attractive Marketing E-zine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.ClientAttractionStrategies.com

Much to be thankful for

Much to be thankful for

I know that today is thanksgiving in the U.S. Even though ‘am not from the States I still like to express my extreme gratitude for all the people who have come into my life in the past year. Most have come right here through this blog, which has become a comforting, occasionally raucous and always interesting place to host. I don't see myself so much as the owner as the facilitator, throwing out thoughts that YOU, dear readers, share with me in the form of questions, comments and emails. I have so much fun writing here that I sometimes wonder when the big joke is going to end and I will wake up and realize it was just a delicious dream.

So thank you for:

• My encouraging and smart friends that keeps me in line, sharing knowledge, talking me off a ledge when someone blasts me or I get overwhelmed, and generally being fun to hang out with.

• Long-time readers and frequent commenters. I appreciate you comments and for being readers of my blog for a long time and often share your thoughts in comments. We don't always agree on everything, but you always make me think and you challenge me to do better, and for that I am very grateful.

• All of you who have provided instant, problem-solving advice for various technical challenges I have faced in publishing my blog and website.

• Girls – thanks for trusting me to work with you. You let me express my creative self through work and for that, I feel very lucky.

• My link "Sweet Face Sistahpreneur’s" who has graciously shared some of my posts this year with their audiences and who is always positive and encouraging.

• My dear boyfriend and best friend Abe who don't always understand what I am typing at a furious pace most nights, but always is (or act anyway!) excited to hear about my exploits, and share my excitement about many wonderful triumphs of my readers.

• And for the many, many hundreds of you who have shared your stories, your dreams and your fears with me. I don't want to leave anyone out! I feel very privileged to have your confidence and promise to do my best to create content that provides a path, encourages you, reduces your feelings of isolation and fires you up to start and grow your own success business. I appreciate the way that so many of you have evangelized this blog and gotten the message out to people who need it.

Thanksgiving is all about being gratefulness for family, for health, for life, and for always "walking in beauty," knowing that as the traditional prayers say, beauty is always above you, below you, before you, behind you and within you.

Enjoy Being Wildly Successful!

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Maven," is creator of the winning ‘Attractive Marketing E-zine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.ClientAttractionStrategies.com

7 Quick, Cheap and Easy Steps To More Clients

7 Quick, Cheap and Easy Steps To More Clients
by Joyce Oladipo "The Client Attraction Maven"

Often, all you need to attract a few new clients is the opportunity to speak to a group of qualified prospects at a seminar. Here are seven quick, cheap and easy steps:

STEP #1: Create a seminar on the problem you can solve for clients. For example: How to love the body you’re in. How to be organise and stay organised. How to reduce the pain and expense of divorce. How to find the love of your life in no time. How to make more money doing what you love. Choose a subject that will appeal to the new clients you want to attract.

STEP #2: Get a flier prepared to promote the seminar. On the flier, display the title, explain the various points or problems you will discuss, add your photo and include your biography. Include a space for the time, date and place of your program.

STEP #3: Get a co-sponsor for your seminar. If your seminar is business oriented, you might ask the local chamber of commerce to co-sponsor it. Or a local network group. If it is consumer oriented, ask a local newspaper or TV station to co-sponsor it. All way choose a co-sponsor based on the size of the audience they reach, how many of your ideal clients are in that audience, and how willing they are to promote your seminar to their audience, membership or mailing list. (This can save you a tremendous amount of money in promotion costs, including printing and postage.)

STEP #4: Promote your seminar to your co-sponsor’s audience. Provide them with a flier about your program. Given them the whole information about your seminar makes things easy. If you rely on them to create the flier, it will probably contain nothing more than the title, time, date and place. But if you provide it, you can go into great detail about the information you will present and the problems you can help prospects solve. The more you explain about your program’s content, the more prospects you can expect to attend.

STEP #5: Promote your seminar with newspaper publicity. Contact your local daily newspaper or business paper (depending on the nature of your seminar). Announce that you’re presenting a seminar. Discuss the problem your seminar will address and emphasize how many people in your area are affected by this problem. You can even ask the editor to interview you for an article to help alert the community to this problem and your upcoming seminar. You’re in a stronger position when you approach the editor in writing with a letter discussing your seminar and what you will present. Give the editor at least six weeks’ advance notice of your program.

As an alternative -- if you can’t get advance promotion from a particular media outlet -- invite the editor to send a reporter to your seminar who can write an article about it for the newspaper. I’ve seen editors put articles about my clients’ seminars on the newspaper’s front page. This article won’t help seminar attendance because it won’t appear until after your seminar. Still, it makes a powerful reprint and may bring you new clients.

STEP #6: Promote your seminar with direct mail to your past clients, current clients, prospects and referral sources. I have used this method successfully. Many people on your mailing list may want to learn about your subject. Also, they may have friends and colleagues they can invite to attend with them.

STEP #7: Present your seminar, addressing the subjects you outlined on your seminar flier. Discuss clients you have helped in the past so prospects see you have experience in these matters. Share actual case histories of what happens when prospects make good decisions, and what happens when they make bad decisions. Then offer something your prospects will find attractive, such as a free office consultation, free telephone consultation, free report, a free manuscript, audio, e-zine or whatever you wish.

In all likelihood, if you reach qualified prospects, you will get new clients as a result of this educational seminar.

© 2006 Joyce Oladipo


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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Maven," is creator of the winning ‘Attractive Marketing E-zine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.ClientAttractionStrategies.com

Get Clients Raving About You & Your Business

Get Clients Raving About You & Your Business
By Joyce Oladipo "The Client Attraction Maven"

Free Hugs

Have you been sent an email with a link to watch the "Free Hugs" video on YouTube yet? Well I got this video this morning and it’s quite nice. Words about this YouTube video has spread all around the world and millions of people are sharing this heart felt message.

If you haven't seen it yet, you can check it out here.


Juan Mann returned from a holiday to his home in Australia and thought everyone seemed just a bit miserable. So he decided to do something to cheer everyone up.

Well here is what he did to change things, He started a one-man campaign called "Free Hugs" and as you see in the video, he slowly spread his message worldwide, and had others joining his crusade, and single-handedly brought a twist to bringing a little more love into our troubled world. You wouldn’t believe that his local government tried to shut him down but he kept on giving free hugs.

Well a question you might ask.

How does this apply to small business marketing?

"Viral Marketing"

When people see, hear or do something that evokes a strong reaction in the world around them, They want to be a part of it and spread the word, so they tell others and the word keep in spreading.

In marketing, we call this "Viral Marketing"

Think about it.

When a good friend tells you, "You've got to see this" or "You've got to try this," what's your reaction? Wouldn’t you want to try and and see what make’s it special.

Now look at your business and your clients. Are you creating raving fans? Are you giving them something to talk about? Are you giving them reasons to share?

Assignment:

Do you recommend products or services to others?
What make this thing so interesting that made you want to send it to others?
How can you use that knowledge to build a viral marketing for your business?
I plan to try out this new marketing tactic myself, and in fact

I've already got my viral marketing idea for 2007.


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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Maven," is creator of the winning ‘Attractive Marketing E-zine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.ClientAttractionStrategies.com

"New Product Marketing: How I Market My New Product Or Service"

New Product Marketing: How I Market My New Product Or Service
By Joyce Oladipo "The Client Attraction Maven"

I have to admit that marketing a new product or service is NOT an easy task. With new product marketing you're fighting against two things.

1. No clients and no past history for your business

2. Worse still, peoples reluctance to buy in the early days of once business

A research says that 2.5% of the population instantly embraces new ideas. Another 12% accept them after a year. After 2 years 25% join the band. This means that pioneers have to have the patience and the money. Even after 2 years 64% of people are still waiting and seeing. SCARY But it's REALITY!

Just look at what has happened with compact discs and satellite dishes. It takes time. No matter how good your new product or service is, you're competing against human instinct. (Mind you Viagra seems to be having a different effect - few and far between though!)

So how can we help overcome this problem? Here are some proven guidelines for new product marketing.

Give It Away

Give your product or service away to half a dozen people in return for that they'll provide you with a testimonial. If this is not easy to do due to the cost of the product or service, then offer a free sample or free trial etc.

Use Testimonials

Testimonials should be used in all your marketing material. If you don't have any apply step 1 above!

Give Customer Statistics
Mention the number of people that have already bought your product/service and how many have made repeat purchases.

Information Overload

Always give as much information as possible in the form of brochures, videos, audiotapes, seminars, sales calls, free demonstrations etc.

Money-Back Guarantee

Provide a powerful money-back guarantee and warranty. This is an absolute MUST.

New Isn't New

Make the point to the prospect that at one stage everything was new: TV, computers, cars etc. Tell them how many people delayed their purchase because they weren't sure these breakthroughs were here to stay

Play The New Idea Down(in some cases)

Depending on your target market, you may want to avoid using the words - breakthrough, evolutionary, revolutionary and advanced. Let your benefits speak for themselves. The word "proven" adds power to new products or services.

These new product marketing guidelines will have an immediate impact on the success of your new product or service. But remember the ultimate rule:

Your new product or service could be the best innovation in the world. It could enrich the lives of all its buyers. It could be affordable for its intended market. But if you fail to use proven new product marketing techniques it will fail. Nothing is more certain than this!

So don't fall in love with your new product or service. Get your new product marketing right, and your clients or customers will do the falling in love, and simultaneously take care of your


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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Experts," is creator of the winning ‘Rapid Clients Gold Mine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.BookMoreClients.com

Five More Mistakes to Avoid in Your Business

Five More Mistakes to Avoid in Your Business
By Joyce Oladipo "The Sistahpreneur Queen"

1. Not identifying the services you want to market and the niche you want to fill.
2. Cutting prices to solve the problem instead of finding out what's wrong.
3. Failing to make doing business with you fun, easy and exceptional.
4. Not giving enough to clients.
5. Quitting your business too early

Look for ways to improve your business and give go service. Over time you'll see more clients doing business with you.


© 2006 Joyce Oladipo

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, “The Sistahpreneur Queen” is creator of the winning ‘Rapid Clients Gold Mine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.BookMoreClients.com

5 Things To Consider When Publishing A Newsletter

5 Things To Consider When Publishing A Newsletter
by Joyce O. Oladipo

Providing a newsletter for your opt-in list subscribers provides many benefits in terms of driving traffic into your site as well as boosting the sales and profits of your site and company. This is a marketing ploy that will not hugely dent your marketing budget and will not also require many man-hours in developing this project.

With a newsletter, you can inform the public about your company and products as well as services. You can keep them posted and updated about what’s going-on with your company as well as many of your promotions and offerings. With these, you keep on reminding your subscribers that you are still here and is willing to offer them good deals and services.

Newsletters also allow you to impress your subscribers. It can show your expertise and knowledge about the topic at hand and the many benefits you can offer them. When you impress people, they will become potential customers and another great thing is that they can recommend you to their friends, colleagues and family. All of them could very well be customers in the future.

If you do not have a newsletter or publishing one for your site, then you may have to consider about researching and be well informed on how to publish one. It is not as easy as it seems but if and when you get the right idea and process, it will be smooth sailing from there on. Try to take the time to learn what you need to learn and get that newsletter ready and good to attract subscribers to your newsletter as well as traffic to your site.

In the next few paragraphs, I will provide you with some things to reflect on when you decide to start your own newsletter for your site. Here are five things to consider when publishing a newsletter.

1) Make sure that the content of your newsletter pertains to and closely associated with your business or the theme of your site. Do not dwell too far on what could be regarded as your field of expertise. You have started a site and your theme for your site will always be something you are knowledgeable about. For example; if you have a site that sells auto car parts, your newsletter must contain articles or content like photos that pertain to cars, auto parts and such. You may also include content about your company and your staff.

Remember that visitors of a certain site are there because they are interested in what the site has to offer. If they sign up for an opt-in list or for a newsletter this means that they want to be updated for that certain theme or subject. Be sure that when you publish your newsletter you are providing for the need of the subscriber as well as their interests.

2) Ensure that you have well written, information riddled and content rich articles. You articles will be the body of your newsletter and that they should be able to excite your readers as well as provide information. Articles should be well written and checked for errors such as spelling and grammatical errors for it to look professional and believable. The trust of your client to you and newsletter is at stake here.

3) Fact-check your articles. Make sure that you provide true facts and figures so that your reputation as an expert and knowledgeable in that field is not questioned. If you lose the trust of your subscribers these may persuade them to unsubscribe to your newsletter. You will lose many potential sales this way.

4) Provide fresh and new articles that can provide new information to your subscribers. If you publish stale and old news in your newsletter, there is a tendency that people or your subscribers already have read and known about them. This will lose their interest in your newsletter and they wont get to read what is most important, your ads. They may not open or read any of your succeeding newsletters losing your intention in writing and publishing newsletters, to get them to visit your site and make a purchase.

5) Never use copyrighted materials such as photos and articles. This is outright plagiarism, you may get into a lot of trouble for this. You can lose your business and get sued over copyright infringement. If you do not have the time to write your own articles, there are many willing and able professional article writers that can do it for you for a reasonable fee. All your investment in writing and publishing articles will be well worth it when you see your list build up and your traffic increasing.

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Client Attraction Experts," is creator of the winning ‘Rapid Clients Gold Mine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.BookMoreClients.com

Talk about your business in a way that generates INTEREST

Talk about your business in a way that generates INTEREST
by Joye Oladipo "The Small Business Sistah"


Have you ever described your business to a potential client and
received either a confused or “glazed eyeball” look in response?

Your introduction, or 'elevator speech is one of the fastest,
and cheapest marketing tools you can use to describe what you do and book more clients.

Being able to introduce yourself and business is a crucial part of booking more clients because if you can say what you do in a compelling was in LESS that 20 seconds, then you are letting potential clients slip though your fingers.

(In fact, 85% can't deliver the true value of what they do for clients in a two-minute conversation)!

BUT do you invest enough effort into perfecting it?

Here's the bottom line, If you can't talk about your services in a way that
intrigues, attracts, and creates a sense of urgency that leaves potential clients wanting to get your business card or to talk more about your SERVICES you're losing out on TONS of new business! So knowing how to effectively talk about what you do is the #1 secret behind booking more clients and closing more sales.

STOP LETTING CLIENT SLIP THROUGH YOUR FINGERS TODAY!

Create a clear, compelling and short (15-20 second) benefits-oriented introduction that you'll use at networking events, or anytime someone ask, "so, ______, what do you do?"

Here is a nice formula you can use

I work with (target market) who (describe problem). For example, I work with small business owners who are struggling to attract clients and hate selling. Assuming this is short and punchy, the person you're talking to will either say something like, That sounds really interesting, tell me more, or they give you some indication that they are listening for more.

So when they say, tell me more, respond with the second part of your Elevator Speech.

The second part is a sentence that conveys the biggest results your clients receive from working with you. My own example is, As a result of working with me, my clients naturally book more clients, and make more money than they would on their own.

A tip for determining what the biggest result is, is to look at the opposite of the problems.


Keep in mind, your response should answer the biggest question forever lingering in your prospects mind of, "What's in it for me?" Next, practice saying this until it literally rolls off your tongue with confidence and ease.


© 2005 Joyce Oladipo

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Rapid Clients Experts," is creator of the winning ‘Rapid Clients Gold Mine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.BookMoreClients.com

What Really Separates Your Services From the Rest of the Lot?

What Really Separates Your Services From the Rest of the Lot?
by Joyce Oladipo "The Small Business Sistah"

Let’s face it; as a self-employed professional (in any given field) you are not the only sistahpreneur in town.

Imagine for a moment that a prospective client of yours is anxiously looking through the yellow pages or surfing the Internet searching for the exact service you provide and she finds herself faced with literally dozens of services providing the same service you provide what is it about the way you deliver your particular service that is going to convince her to hire you over another professional offering the same thing?

What separates YOU from the rest of the lot?

If you want to attract more clients and quickly double your current client base, you'll need to identify that "special something" you provide for your clients and be able to clearly communicate it in all of your marketing materials.

Determining what makes you UNIQUE is easier than you think!

Begin by answering the following questions:

What is the ONE THING that you do that others in your profession are NOT doing?
What is it about your actual business that makes you different or unique in some way?
What results can you guarantee your clients that others do not?
What natural talents and strengths do you bring to your work?
Why should a client hire you?

If you really can’t answer these questions that defines what makes you different, ask a couple of your best clients why they chose to work with you—and continue to work with you—instead of your competitors. Use this information to create a unique marketing message that appears in all of your marketing efforts.

Remember, if you’re not UNIQUE –you ARE invisible to your prospects!

@ 2006 Joyce Oladipo

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Rapid Clients Experts," is creator of the winning ‘Rapid Clients Gold Mine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.BookMoreClients.com

31 Places To Leave You Business Cards

31 Places To Leave You Business Cards
by Joyce Oladipo "The Small Business Sistah"

1. Movie Theater Lobbies
2. Doctor's Office
3. Tanning Salons
4. Cashiers at dealership
5. School Administration offices
6. Grocery Stores
7. Mortgage Office
8. Dance Studio
9. Computer Stores
10. Video Store
11. Pet Stores
12. Flower Shops
13. Shoe Shops
14. Bank Teller
15. With your tip at restaurants
16. Day care center
17. Retirement Homes
18. Nail Salons
19. Veterinarians
20. Deli's
21. ATM's
22. Real Estates Agent Offices
23. Corner Stores
24. In Front of Magazines at Check Out Lines
25. Insurance Office
26. Bagel Shops
27. Dry Cleaners
28. Hair Salons
29. Library
30. Orthodontist Offices
31. Dental Office

@ 2006 Joyce Oladipo

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Rapid Clients Experts," is creator of the winning ‘Rapid Clients Gold Mine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.BookMoreClients.com

18 Ways to Make More Money with What You Know

18 Ways to Make More Money with What You Know
by Joyce Oladipo "The Home Business Sistah"

As an expert in your profession, you possess a great wealth of knowledge and information that others will readily pay for. You can put that knowledge in many different formats, depending on your preferences, your skills and your budget.

Here are some ideas for your products and services. I am using a few of these money making ideas to increase my sources of income:

1. E-books
2. Membership Web sites
3. Teleclasses
4. Coaching
5. Consulting
6. Audio Tapes
7. Real Audio Files
8. Articles
9. Special Reports
10. Self-published books
11. Booklets
12. E-mail Courses
13. Newsletter
14. CDs
15. Do-it-yourself manuals in 3-ring binders
16. Reprint Rights
17. Workbooks
18. Clients Study Cases

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

Is Your Business Costing You a Lot of Money?

Is Your Business Costing You a Lot of Money?
by Joyce Oladipo "The Home Business Sistah"

Then here are 9 effective ways to put more money in your pocket.

When I first start my business it was difficult to make end meet. I was living check to check and masking my master card. Working long how wasn’t the problem but always having an empty back account what doing my heading.

I managed to figure out 9 effective ways to market business without costing my lots of money.

1. Network

Try networking with other business whose products or services are complimentary to yours. At least you both have to target the same audience. You can make an arrangement for a special price to their list and ask them to send an endorsement email on your behalf. This will cut down on your marketing and advertising costs. You may also try bartering goods and services with them.

2. Exchange links

Give your business and products credibility by linking to web sites that has more visitors visiting them. Make sure your site is related to linked person.

3. Free Ebook

Give your visitors a free eBook. It’s a good idea to include information about your product in the eBook. It you don’t think you can write one get a ghost writer to write one for you. A good place to look is elance.

4. Free consulting

Give free consulting to people who visit your web site. You could offer your knowledge via e-mail or by telephone. Now that we have skype you can talk with anyone all over the world. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.

5. Join business associations

Join online business associations or local clubs. Try and play an active roll in the group. When you’re a member they will list you business on their website. It’s also a great place to get referral. It will give your business extra exposure.$

6. Have a blog

Start a blog and write about anything your target market what to read about.
It’s a great place to talk about your business. You can also build a relationship with your subscribers too especially with those that come back quite often to read your post.

7. Brand U

Brand your name and business. You can easily do this by writing articles and submitting them to e-zines or web sites for republishing. You can also so workshops and seminars. Talk about how their problem is affecting their life or business and how they need your service or product to solve that problem


8. Sponsor a Community Event

Try sponsoring a community event. A golf tournament or other event that will be well publicized in the community. Your name may not be the centre of attention but sometimes the positive exposure in the community will bring in new customers.

9. Barter

You can barter for the cost of ad production too. Maybe the business coach needs a website. You can exchange designing a website for his free coaching.

So these are the few way I was able to be the cost for my business. Try them and tell me what happens.


Please don’t forget to make your comments.

Thanks

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

I Confess am a Lousy Speller

Now I’m confessing, I have trouble typing correct words despite the fact that I went to one of the best universities in the UK.

No matter what, nowadays there are all kinds of ways to be a genius in spelling.

An editor from The Wall Street Journal say: ‘If there are spelling mistakes in a blog, it’s toast.’ It hits me where it hurts. Ouch! Talking about pressure.

A fellow blogger Shel Horowitz, from The Frugal Marketer said:

“I use Google's Blogger, which has one, but doesn't support my favorite browser, IE5.2/MacOSX. So for posting, I use Mozilla firebird.”

I have managed to use word successfully for spell checking; now all ‘am concentrating on is having a good blog.

Write your blog entry in Word, and then spell check it there. After you’ve completely corrected the spelling, copy and paste it into your blog. If using Word be sure to turn the curly quotes and special characters OFF.”


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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

20 Ways to Attract New Clients

20 Ways to Attract New Clients
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah"

It’s not really easy to find and keep clients quickly and consistently.

Here are a few strategies you can use to jumpstart your Home Business to another level

1. Narrow down your niche
2. Create an educational based website to teach customers.
3. Focus on the top 5 or 10 customers for referral
4. Offer a guarantee
5. Don’t sell, focus on how your service can best solve their problems and value to then
6. Take about how your service can benefit them not how you would benefit them.
7. Ask client for memorable testimonies
8. Make a list of centre of influence
9. Make customers feel special
10. Strive for 100 referral customer based.
11. Put your expertise on and sell it. (People love information)
12. Set up a script that works and memorize them.
13. Book your follow up call
14. Become a speaker
15. Create client case studies
16. Come up with a clever #800 number
17. Brand yourself
18. Use an email signature as a customer attraction strategy
19. Have a powerful voice mail that attract customers
20. Write articles on you expertise

© 2006 Joyce Oladipo

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

Find Clients Easily for Your Home Business

Find Clients Easily for Your Home Business
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah"

Have you ever needed a hair cut or dye done and wondered where could you get be the hair dresser? I bet you wouldn’t just wonder into a shop randomly? Probably not!
I would say out of experience that the best way to find the best hairdresser would be to ask a friend, relative, or co-worker for the name of their hairdresser and whether or not they are satisfied with their service and customer service.


So the big question is what does this have to do your home business and how would it bring in targeted customers easily to buy your product or service?

Well it Got Absolutely Everything to do with your business . . .

Sometime you get new clients through your marketing and advertising efforts but there is also another way to get clients …referrals.

Why is this so important to your business?


Four BIG reasons to use referral

1. Ask for referral

Referral is a powerful way to get new customer. People who referrals trust your service. Those who come through refer then to buy from you because they trust the person who referred them, and you are able to capitalize on it.
Whenever you are fortunate enough to get a referred customer to buy your basket they would buy what they come for if not much more, Why? It because they already came in with a buying attitude, which is simply based on trust.

2. Customer replenishing

You need to continuously find new clients because old clients do stop buy over a period of time. Referral helps to increase your clients base.

3. Referral cost little

Referred clients cost less to acquire than expensive, traditional advertising such as newspaper, radio, or TV.

4. Referrals do refer

Referred customers are more likely to refer their friends, co-workers, and relatives to you, since someone else referred them.

Here are a few examples of a referral system¨

1. The Old Fashioned Contest referral
2. Thank You" Referral
3. Free Give-a-Gift referral
4. Send the Bill" Referral


© 2006 Joyce Oladipo


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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

50 Places Your URL Should Be Seen or Heard

50 Places Your URL Should Be Seen or Heard
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah"

􀂉 Answering Machine
􀂉 Address labels
􀂉 Billboards
􀂉 Billing Statements
􀂉 Brochures
􀂉 Business Cards
􀂉 Bumper Stickers
􀂉 Catalogs
􀂉 CD ROM Presentations
􀂉 Christmas Cards
􀂉 Classifieds
􀂉 Clothing
􀂉 Company/Personal Cars
􀂉 Coupons
􀂉 Co-Workers
􀂉 Checks
􀂉 Envelopes
􀂉 Emails
􀂉 Existing customers
􀂉 Fax sheets
􀂉 Flyers
􀂉 Freebies & Giveaways
􀂉 Friends
􀂉 Interviews
􀂉 Invoices
􀂉 Leaflets
􀂉 Media Kits
􀂉 Newsletters
􀂉 Newspaper Ads
􀂉 On Hold Messages
􀂉 Packaging
􀂉 Personal Mail
􀂉 Phonebook Listings
􀂉 Postcards
􀂉 Posters
􀂉 Press Releases
􀂉 Print Ads
􀂉 Products
􀂉 Promotional Materials
􀂉 Radio Ads
􀂉 Receipts
􀂉 Reorder Forms
􀂉 Sales Letters
􀂉 Stationery
􀂉 Storefront
􀂉 Television Ads
􀂉 Thank You Cards
􀂉 Trade Shows
􀂉 Uniforms & Hats
􀂉 Your Home

© 2006 Joyce Oladipo

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

Building Small Business Using Ezine

Building Small Business Using Ezine
by Joyce Oladipo "The Home Business Sistah"

Is it worth keeping in touch with clients via ezine?

Yes, Yes, Yes and it does work.

Ezines are a great way to keeping in touch with your clients and an effective way to promote additional products and service to your clients. Clients will appreciate your efforts to keep in touch with them on a regular basis as well.

I am amazed by the amount of small businesses that are not using this method to build a relationship with their prospects. Some even try sending and giving up because there is no response from their subscribers.

Isn’t it hard for you to get a sales person into the home of a client sweet talking for you?

A campaign is a sustained attack on something. So in other words if we keep sending we will build out list incredibly.

Here are some things you need to know before starting your own ezine.

1. Patience and perseverance

It takes sometime to get a responsive list. Most small business owners give up after sending a few ezines or they don’t email their list often. As long as they are still on your list they are still interested in what you have to say. Do you respond to all ezines that arrives in your mail box? You may be interested in the product they are promoting but it could take six months for you to realize that getting the products could be of great benefits to you. So keep sending your ezines and keep it interesting and make sure it contains relevant information for your prospects.

2. Ezine Objective

Your ezine can have a variety of objectives depending on your goals. For instance, you ezine could be used for:

• Establishing your name and reputation
• Selling your products and services
• Keeping in touch with clients
• Driving traffic to your website
• Announcing new products and service.

3. Good Content

Your ezine needs to content good information relevant to your target market. It also needs to be in sync with your objectives. If it’s to build relationship you might consider using personally written articles with an interactive question and answer section and if it’s for advertising you can add an advertising section to your ezine.

Here are a few ideas for contents that you might consider for your own ezine:

• How-To tips, hints and articles
• Your answers to readers questions
• Reader testimonials, opinions, and feedbacks
• Guest experts corners
• Recommend website resources
• Contest
• Product reviews (books, tool etc.)

And if you think you can’t write an ezine you can go to www.elance.com and have someone write one for you. You can also visit free reprint right directories and use their articles. Here are a few www.ezinearticles.com, www.marketing-seek.com and www.ideamarketers.com

4. Your List

You can dramatically expand your response rate by positioning your ezine to a particular group. Try marketing your ezine on directories of your target market. You might also call a list broker to get a list for your target clients, or run ads that attracts the attention of your clients offering them free information. By targeting one audience, you will postion yourself as a specialist for the service you provide.

5. Your Frequency

How often you send your ezine is important. There are six choices for you to decide to send your ezine.

• Daily ezine requires some commitment unless they are short. Normally this type of ezine consists of tips, quotes, or news.
• Weekly ezine are sent weekly
• Bi-weekly is an ezine sent every 2 weeks
• Monthly of just beyond the forgetting point.
• Quarterly ezine are simply a waste of time. It’s not useful if you are going to be keeping in touch with clients every 90 days. People will forget who you are and just delete your message when it arrives.
• Whenever ezine is the worst way of keeping in touch with your clients
Choose which frequency you want and stick to it.

6. Follow Ups

Follow up on everything properly. You can have your subscribers get messages in a certain way. Let them know they are dealing with a real person. Let them know you care.

7. Automated the system

Once you have decided on your objective, content, and frequency you’ll use for your ezine. It’s time to actually set up a system like:

• Gathering target clients email addresses
• Installing and setting up your email management system
• Having a subscription form on your website

The bottom line is this… if you don’t mail out to your clients you are losing or missing out on increased takings? We all need reminding of everything these days, life is busy. Your clients are no different. Keep in touch with them, set up a system where you mail them at least every six weeks and it will pay of big time for you.

Finally if you start it, never give it will pay off.


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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

How do you figure out what business you can start?

sMany of my clients always ask me that how can they run a business that they are happy and successful in?

My answer to this question is:

• What are you deeply passionate about?
• What will people pay you to do?
• What are you naturally good at that even if that business exist you can do it better than anyone else?

Your Assignment:

Now get you pen and note pad jot notes down the answers to these questions. Picture what you are good at and how your passion can help solve other people’s problem. It’s not enough to have a passion without knowing who will work with you and how it relates to them.

Now that you’ve thought about your passion and how it related to some people, what makes you different from the other? This is what’s going to make those people you think need your service do business with you.

Just bringing them to the forefront of your mind is going to open up some surprising doors. It may take you years to get a crystal-clear picture of work you are passionate about, you are meant to do and that people will pay you handsomely for, but you will discover all kinds of juicy things about yourself along the way.


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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

Why Blogging is a Great Marketing Tool for Sistahs in Business

Since have started my own business I have gained a tremendous amount of respect from other sistahs in business. As a small business owner, I am always thinking of creative ways to get my message out to clients and potential clients. So I have been delighted with the advent of the blog. Here is why it is great for self-employed sistahs like me:

• You only need a few minutes to create a good post. Even if cyou are a party girl like me, running around trying the get your hair fix, getting the right outfit getting your nails done you can imagine what you want to post. A blog post can be easily formulated in your head while you are doing all these things. You can take 5 minutes to draft you imagination while in the rest room, fixing your makeup. 15-20 minutes is enough to write your post before the next night out.

• You can post from anywhere. As long as you have internet access, you can keep posting good posts as you travel, taking a long weekend or visiting friends.

• It’s a do-it-yourself thing. You don’t need a designer to change you blog. You can do it yourself whenever you have the time. If that was the case I don’t think I would have had the time setting up conference calls or writing out instructions in an email to the designer to make changes.



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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

Learning How to Make Money Blogging

Learning How to Make Money Blogging
By Joyce Oladipo "The Home Business Sistah"

There are two major types of business models that
entrepreneurs use to make money blogging. The first
and most common way to turn a blog into a profit
making machine is to sell advertising to different
companies and brands who want to reach that blog's
readers. The second kind of money making blog is one
that helps a single brand improve its image by creating
positive associations between the blog and the product
in the mind of consumers. Both kinds of blogs can
make a lot of money, especially if the creator has a keen
mind for marketing.

If you are blogging with the goal of selling advertising,
there are two basic ways that you can go about
recruiting sponsors who want to put ads on your site;
you can let someone else do all of the legwork, or you
can do the work yourself and keep all of the revenue.
Within the first group, many people make money
blogging by selling space through Google's AdSense
program. The advantages of this program are numerous,
as it requires very little effort on the part of the blogger
or webmaster to begin raking in profits. However, most
people discover that they make less money through this
method than they had hoped that their blog would earn.

Selling advertising directly to companies who want to
put banner ads or sponsored links on your blog can take
quite a bit of time, but it is often fairly lucrative. If you
have a lot of contacts in industries that are related to the
topic of your blog, you may want to try to go this route.
People who have a strong background in sales and are
experienced at pitching proposals can make quite a bit
of money by renting blog space to interested companies.
The most serious problem with this model is that you
often have to build quite a sizable readership before you
can attract advertisers, which can mean that you have to
do several months of work before you start to make
money blogging.

As blogging becomes a more and more lucrative
business, a lot of established companies are considering
how they can get into the action. One way that
companies are capitalizing on the blog movement is by
having blogs that provide a kind of friendly face for
their corporation. Often, a company will employ an
established blogger to create a weblog designed
specifically to appeal to that company's customers and
to create positive associations with the brand in
consumers' minds. More than one writer who never
even dreamed that he or she could make money
blogging has been approached by a company and
offered quite a pretty penny for this kind of gig.



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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Customers, Sell More to Existing Customers, and Bring Back Your Customers More Often, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

Blogging For Home Business Owners

Blogging For Home Business Owners
By Joyce Oladipo "The Home Business Sistah"

If you run a small company, you may find that the world
of blogging for business owners is a world that you
want to be a part of. Blogging is a great way to get the
word out to consumers about your product or service,
and it can even be useful for inspiring employee loyalty
and helping you keep your workers at peak morale. If
you are looking for a way to take your business to the
next level, consider what starting a blog might be able
to do for you.

Blogging for business owners has a lot in common with
all other types of blogging, but it has its own unique
pitfalls and strengths. The key to having a successful
blog as a business owner is keeping your goals clear
and concrete at every step of your blogging adventure. It
can be all to easy to get sidetracked, especially if you
are just learning about the exciting possibilities of
blogging technology, but if you want your blog to
succeed you need to stay focused. Write up a plan for
how often you will update, how you will promote your
blog and retain readers, whether you will feature
photographs or video, and other aspects of your blog,
and then stick to it with the same kind of determination
that you used when you built your company.

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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Customers, Sell More to Existing Customers, and Bring Back Your Customers More Often, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

5 Ways To Get Your Existing Clients To Recommend You To Their Friends

5 Ways To Get Your Existing Clients To Recommend You To Their Friends
by Joyce Oladipo "The Home Business Sistah"


How to Generate Record Profits from Clients You Already Have

Many home business owners fail to take advantage of their most important asset, their client list. Most of the home business owners I meet are constantly searching for ways to expand their client base when it’s been proven time and time again that you can make more money from your present clients than constantly looking for new business. So, I devised some secrets to begin the process of retaining good customers and generating greater profits from them.

Get to Know Your Clients

Home Businesses today are finding that in order to survive super discount competitors and huge company advertising blitzes, they must go back to the relationship building of the good old days. In cities and towns of yesteryear, the shopkeeper knew his clients by name and the type of merchandise they needed and made certain he had it in stock. This kind of relationship coupled with personalized customer service and a genuine empathy with clients, is what keeps them coming back to you instead of going to your competitors.

Gather Clients Information

A database of clients is the most valuable asset your business has. Yet only 10% of the retailers in europe keep a current list of their clients! Statistics show that businesses spend five times as much for new clients than they do on their present clients, yet a regular customer is worth 10 times the cost of acquiring a new clients!

Today, however, a mailing list is not enough. To build relationships with clients that commands loyalty, you must gather information, which is valuable to you. For example, age and even ages of relatives, size of home, color and style preferences, date of last purchase, amount of purchase, brand preferences, important dates including birthdays, anniversaries.

Serve the Client

Waiting on clients courteously is just the beginning of good customer service. First, find out what the client expects from you. Make sure your salespeople praise every clients, show an interest, and establish rapport. Get in the habit of corresponding with your clients. Send them notes, cards, articles, and clippings that interest them. Send them thank you notes and cards telling them about private specials and trunk showings. Mail out a newsletter explaining what's new in your company.

Reward The Clients

A study by the Rockefeller Foundation found that a whopping 68% of clients stop buying from you because of an attitude of indifference toward the client by the owner, manager, or employee. In other words, if you ignore customers, 7 out of 10 will not shop with you again, for no special reason.

By segmenting clients into groups, you can treat clients individually, based on their buying habits and the information you've gathered. New clients need to know that you value them as a new client and that you actually care if they shop with you again. Send them a thank you note after their first purchase.

Use What You Know to Get New Clients

Once you've built a list of clients, their preferences, demographics and transactional data, you'll be able to use this important information to find new clients with similar characteristics. Start a Referral program by rewarding clients who refer their friends and relatives. Obtain a list of new movers to your area with similar age and income parameters to your present clients. Use testimonials from satisfied customers to attract new clients by mail. Obtain a mailing list of targeted prospects that match your client profile.

Tell a Friend

You now have the clients on your side; you now need to have a program for them to refer your products to your friends. When you have done that, aided with good products, you should be able to boost your site's traffic and have good sales. Refer-a-friend codes are available to help you put a plug-in to your website.

You should also offer incentives to your current clients to tell their friends and business associates about your site in any way that is appropriate to the content and purpose of your site. You may need to try several different incentives before you find one that works.

An inexpensive, yet effective incentive is to give them more chances to win a contest you are running for every friend they refer to your site. Another is to give them some kind of priority access to your services. It might be something as simple as offering a 10% coupon on products they purchase from your site after they have sent a few new clients.



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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Customers, Sell More to Existing Customers, and Bring Back Your Customers More Often, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

What's The Buzz

DO you want to know what the BUZZ is?

Well I’m the "Talk of the town" because my business has just been published on the front page of Business Owners' Idea Cafe, the premiere small business destination.
They were impressed by my profile and published my story as a role model to inspire other entrepreneurs.

Check it out http://www.businessownersideacafe.com/

Well, I’ve freed up some time to celebrate, savor the moment and give myself credit for this accomplishment.


Having a cafe latte, after taking the day off.

Since The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and other major publications pays attention to what's happening at Idea Cafe. I think this will give my business a big buzz and put me at the spotlight.



All dressed up for a fun night with a few girls in town.

You also can be the big buzz in your town

Unless you feel it is absolutely necessary to run large, expensive newspaper or magazine ads, you can attract business just as successfully by running small, inexpensive, in routine newspaper or magazine ads. You might not look as important as the purchaser of full-page ads, but you’ll definitely end up making more money.

Don’t forget, consistency is one of the most important factors in marketing. You can achieve consistency with small ads as well as large ones. The size of your ads does NOT produce the consumer confidence that consistency does. This secret will save you impressive sums of cash.

Start sponsoring some charity events or write several articles with catchy headline about the event and submit them as press release to all medias to get more publicity with the press



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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Customers, Sell More to Existing Customers, and Bring Back Your Customers More Often, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

Five Keys To Telemarketing Success

Five Keys To Telemarketing Success
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah,"

Telephone can be used to effectively market your business.
Some people have difficulties telling people about their business over the phones.
Here are five guidelines and tips that you can use to grown your business.

1. Have A Script

The real key to effective telephone marketing is having a script. Top of the head answering is not a good idea. A script, an outline, notes, flip cards, some written
tools to help you stay on track are important. Most of the best telemarketing companies create scripts for their business. This scripts are used by there their staff to bring in more business.

2. Courtesy Pays

Courtesy is a very important aspect of telemarketing. The person you are trying to do business with is someone you’re not in main contact with, you can't see you; they can only react to what you are saying and how you're saying it.

3. Don’t Take No As An Offence

Not every one you call would be interesting in your business. So don’t take no personally. It might be that it not what they want at that time. Sometime they can shut you up by hanging up you just have know how to deal with these; don’t let it put you in a shell. Don't take it personally.

4. Practice Makes Perfect

Practice makes perfect, or at least better. You need to call continuously maybe at least twenty or twenty-five calls of a particular type with a particular offer before even beginning to be judgmental about your calling, yourself, your skills or the results. If you've never used a telephone this way before you'll be understandably uncomfortable with the process.

5. Call, Just Call

Until you pick up the phone and call, that's when you will no if it works. Until you keep on calling that when you get perfect.

It's always important to remember that you were not made perfect in a day. Everything you now how to do were once difficult and uncomfortable for you.
Stretching your comfort zones and mastering new skills is an important reoccurring part of living to be enjoyed not feared.

Learning telemarketing skills, mastering them and being able to teach them to others is a way to greatly enhance your value and worth and be able to increase the sales and
profits of just about any business you're involved with.

Unfortunately, I've discovered that many businesses don't like using this tool or because of the DO NOT CALL LIST, they think people no longer use it. For many reasons thatis correct.

But there is one marketing tool every business should 'legally' be using "the phone" in order to grow their business.



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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah" is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Customers, Sell More to Existing Customers, and Bring Back Your Customers More Often, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

8 Fantastic Ways To Multiply Your Sales

8 Fantastic Ways To Multiply Your Sales
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah"

1. Follow Up With Your Prospects

When you sell your first gift basket, always follow up with the
customer. You can follow-up with a "thank you” note or email and mention any other service or products you provide. It’s good to follow up form time to time.

2. Upsell To YOur Customers

You could upsell to your customers. When they place their other you can tell them about addition thing you can add to the basket. Like a nice greeting card and if it’s for a corporate company you can add some customize items like ribbon or included the brochure or business cards in the basket. These are things you can add to their original order.

3. Ask For Referrals

Tell your customers if they refer four other customers to use your service or visit your web site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into three sales.

4. Have A Club Card Program

When you sell a gift basket, always mention your club card so that they can get commission if they do recommend your service. This will multiply the sale you just made.

5. Cross Sell With Others

You could cross promote your product with other businesses' products in a package deal. You can create flyer for your gift basket which other can advertise with their product or services. An event planner can be a good person to work with.

6. Include Coupons For Other Products

When you ship out or deliver your gift basket, include a coupon for other related gift baskets you are sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.

7. Sell Gift Certificates

Sell gift certificates for your gift baskets. People will definitely come and use their certificate.

8. Add Promotion Products

Send your customers free products with their gift basket. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.



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Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Customers, Sell More to Existing Customers, and Bring Back Your Customers More Often, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

Low Cost Marketing Plan

Here are a few local marketing plan you can try

1. Speak in a group

2. Write articles

3. Partake in on-line discussion groups

4. Try networking

5. Post cards to keep in touch

6. Always follow up

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Customers, Sell More to Existing Customers, and Bring Back Your Customers More Often, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com

Protect Your Image

Protect your image with your prospects. You are a big marketing aspect to your business. So you need to look successful.

Use Your Answering Machine To Get You More Clients

Use Your Answering Machine To Get You More Clients
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"


Another effective marketing tool is your answering machine. Most gift basket business owner use it to entertain callers.

Some messages people usually use to entertain are:

“This is the Bobby’s residence. Sorry we are not at home right now. Please leave a message after the tone“
“You have just reach 058 434 43433. I’m not available at the moment…..“

This is not a professional way of doing business and it would not help you get more customers. You should record what you do and the service you provide. It must be used as another way to position yourself as an expert.

Market yourself with your voice

You are going to have a marketing message on your answer machine. Clients that call you are interesting in you business so they would be interested in listen to a message that interest them if you not available.

Answering Machine Script

So, instead of saying, “This is the Bobby’s residence. Sorry we are not at home right now. Please leave a message after the tone“.
Why not say “Hello, Thank you for calling to discuss how to improve your business and get more clients. It’s Joyce Oladipo, The Giftpreneur Queen.”

“I’m quite busy at the moment but your call is extremely important to me. So at the tone, please leave your name, telephone number and a detailed message slowly and clearly and I’ll guarantee getting back to you.”

“All my gift baskets are designed to improve your business and bring you more clients. You can also go to my website to immediately download a report titled ’10 Way to attract more clients to your business’ from www.giftbasketqueensecrets.com”

“Thanks for calling The Giftpreneur Queen and I look forward to speaking with you later.”
The email has a CALL TO ACTION in it; to leave a message and visit your website. So whatever you call to action may be; to sign up for your newsletter, to visit your website, call for a free consultation, or email you to set up an appointment.
Try and use your answer machine in a productive way. It can be used as a way to get and retain new clients. Remember to keep it relatively short or clients will not want to call back.

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Home Business Sistah," is creator of the winning ‘Marketing Strategies’ to Jumpstart Your Home Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Customers, Sell More to Existing Customers, and Bring Back Your Customers More Often, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.TheHomeBusinessSistha.com