Low self-worth is a problem that most of us have to deal with at some point in our lives. For others, it can be a nagging problem that affects your entire life. It can keep you from achieving important goals and becoming all that you can be.
The results are that you’ll be decidedly unhappy with your life. There are several things to keep in mind and constantly work on if you don’t feel worthy of being paid for your work.
You may feel that you’re not good enough at your job for people to pay you for anything you do. Or, you may underestimate (or overestimate) the work you do. Many of our unworthy feelings may come from what we experienced in childhood and others from negative life experiences as an adult.
Whatever the reason you feel you don’t deserve a fair price for your work efforts – it can be overcome. Make it a practice to replace those negative voices with positive ones so that you feel worthy of earning and gaining wealth.
You Don’t Have to Be an Expert to Earn Money
This is a problem that’s especially true with beginning entrepreneurs. You may not have the same amount of experience under your belt as some of the successful gurus, but something led you to this place of wanting to build a business and helping others.
Rest assured that you’re at least a rung ahead of others climbing the ladder – and with time and experience, you’ll be sought out by those who need your advice and expertise if you chose to provide it.
At first, you may think you spend most of your time proving yourself. But if you’re helpful and display a strong intent to help people solve their business problems, you’ll gain trust and a loyal following.
There’s actually no such thing as an expert in entrepreneurship. A heart surgeon is an expert as an electrical engineer is. They worked hard and received an advanced degree in their field, so you can call them experts.
But entrepreneurs don’t need degrees to be successful. They simply need a passion and the desire to learn as much as they can about a chosen niche. You come by that expertise gradually and with experience, others will see you as qualified to advise them with information they need.
Being honest with people who seek your advice is another virtue that entrepreneurs need to have. Don’t pretend to know about things and make up an answer. Say you don’t know, but offer to find the answer to the problem.
This strategy alone will propel you forward and let people know that you don’t just say you want to be helpful – you actually live it. And remember, you only have to know a small amount more than others to help them with content and information.
Get to know others who are further up on the success rung than you. Interviewing an entrepreneur on a podcast or having them write a piece for your blog is a good way to draw others to yourself and your site because their audience will come listen or read it.
And it helps them expand their list, too. Find ways to learn and get the word out that you offer helpful and succinct information that others can depend upon and you’ll keep moving up the ladder of online success.
Don’t Overestimate What You Can Do for Others
You may be the type who underestimates the value of your work and your true worth, but you also need to be cautious about overestimating how much you can do. Underestimating your value can hold you back from success, while overestimating it can let your customers down and cause a rift that will never heal.
The trick is to find a healthy balance in what you project – and what you know you can deliver. If it’s a matter of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, it may be worthwhile to accept more than you’re used to.
But if you know you’re incapable of providing certain information within a grueling timeline, it’s not worth the stress and the possibility of letting your customer down. Perhaps you could recommend someone you know who has the expertise and experience the customer is looking for.
The customer will appreciate your honesty and will likely reach out to you again for another issue. You may truly believe that you can do the job and then find out later that you underestimated the magnitude of the project or overestimated your ability to do it.
That’s why it’s necessary to think through any project you may want to take on and make sure that you’re up to the task before you embark on it. You don’t want to ruin your reputation by announcing a project you know you can’t complete or engage in properly.
If you’ve ever worked for a company where periodic performance appraisals are the norm, you may have had the experience of receiving an average rating when you thought you had done a stellar job that deserved praise – and a raise.
Or, you might have been confident you turned in a perfect essay for an English project and received a C or D. In both cases, it’s possible that you overestimated your ability to achieve in a particular situation.
Honest feedback on your job performance is helpful for you to work on the areas where you may be lacking. If overestimating your ability happens too often, take time to step back and reassess your talents or the time you need to accomplish certain tasks.
It’s always possible to improve and work on your shortcomings so that you have a good idea of your competence in every aspect of what you do. A healthy balance of confidence and caution can help with any problem of overestimating your worth.
Has Your Past Impeded Your Feelings of Worth?
When self-esteem takes a nosedive in childhood or other times in your life, you may have difficulty in overcoming it and realizing true success. Self-esteem problems often begin in childhood when you may have been ridiculed or made to feel inadequate.
These problems can haunt you forever if you can’t heal yourself, let go of the past and be there for others who may need your advice and help. Negative thoughts about yourself may be the norm for you and may have become a bad habit.
Getting rid of those thoughts of inadequacy and replacing them immediately with thoughts of what you have accomplished or what is truly good about you can give you a self-confidence boost. It just takes practice.
When in doubt about a project or question you’ve been asked, ask questions until you feel secure that you know what you’re up against and what’s expected of you. When you have the necessary information, you’ll be armed with what you need to do your job well.
Life sometimes gives you lemons, but when you’ve been subjected to something traumatizing, it can also make you a strong person – when you make lemonade from it. Letting go of the anger and resentment you may still be holding tight in your heart and mind can help you get on with the future and the happiness and accomplishments ahead.
Surround yourself with people who support the person you’re striving to become. Negative people will only foster negative thoughts. Create a new you by taking care of yourself, learning something new and begin to love and accept yourself again.
When you do accept a difficult project, go above and beyond what is expected. The appreciation you’ll receive from a job well done can boost your self-confidence and make you want to take on even more toward your quest for success.
Above all, don’t ever give up. You may find yourself falling back into despair or doubts during down days. The old self sometimes has a hard time giving up on making you miserable.
Meditate, exercise or do things that you know have the effect of boosting your self-esteem. Take care of yourself and do what you need to do to lift yourself and your mood up again.
Put Your Focus on Helping Others
Focusing on your own inadequacies and inabilities will only make you feel more unworthy for the payments you receive for helping others. When your focus is skewed, it’s easy to drown in self-destruction and sabotage your efforts to achieve success.
When you’re in the business of providing people with advice and guidance, it’s imperative that you turn your attention to the needs of your customers and the solutions you may be able to provide.
If you’ve made the decision to become an entrepreneur who offers a product or service which will help others succeed – and boost your own earnings – it can be the most rewarding time of your life.
You’ll learn more, be more fulfilled, become truly engaged and passionate about what you’re doing and begin to realize all of your dreams and desires. As you begin to add to your growing list of customers, your business will begin to grow.
Self-confidence and feelings of empowerment will give you the boost you need to build your business even more by focusing on how you can better serve (and add to) your list.
When you put the needs of your audience first, you’ll begin to branch out and success will come naturally. It’s easy to become distracted by other things like our own problems and concerns, but when your thoughts are mainly focused on sharing knowledge and helping others, your own needs will automatically be taken care of.
Sharing knowledge is one of the easiest and best ways to help others. Your expertise and experience can be a gold mine of information for those attempting to make their own businesses successful – and also a gold mine for you, because it enhances your reputation and increases your own knowledge base.
Discovering what valuable information needs others have is the single key that can propel you to a level of success you may never have thought you could achieve. Ask your customers about their wants and needs and then seize the opportunity to find and share what can help them most.
Recognize your customers when they succeed in part by taking your advice. A mention of a newly successful client or customer in a blog post or podcast will not only make the customer feel appreciated, but will boost your own reputation of offering stellar information to others.
Success Doesn’t Require You to Suffer
You don’t have to sweat buckets and work 24/7 to make a success of your business as an entrepreneur. The key is to work smarter rather than longer and harder. Customers don’t care how hard or long you worked on a solution for their problems – they only want good advice.
It may only take a minute or two for you to find exactly the answer they need to solve their problem, but because of your expertise and experience, you were able to find the solution and translate it to the customer in record time.
When you focus on what will help your customers and know your advice is the best, others will be willing to pay for it. What is the advice worth to them? That’s up to you to decide, based on research you can easily find online. Set your price and stand firm, but offer more than they expect.
You may compare yourself to other entrepreneurs who seem to brag about staying up all night to work on a project or who went to great lengths and spent a great deal of time solving a problem.
But you don’t have to suffer constantly to make your business a success – or to help others turn their businesses into successes. Your goals and dreams naturally take time and effort to achieve, but when you decide what your main goal is and know how to achieve it, you’ll take less time to get it all done.
All success takes time and effort, but if you plan wisely and schedule your time to reflect your best efforts, you’ll soon develop trust in yourself that you can ultimately achieve what you want without having to give up anything or anyone you enjoy.
Remember that success is like planting an apple tree. You have to wait for the fruit to appear, but watching it grow and flourish is part of the fun and fulfillment. You’re gradually planting seeds of success among people who ask for your advice and your efforts will eventually bear fruit.
Also, make sure you focus on what you want to achieve rather than possible failure. Time will fly when you’re working on something you’re passionate about. The accolades you’ll receive from your customers as you work to help them solve problems will help you realize your own self-worth and set your prices accordingly.
One of the worst things we can tell ourselves about accomplishments and success is that we don’t deserve it – and then feel guilty about it. These feelings may have been plaguing you since childhood and kept you from the success you’re very capable of.
Rather than celebrating and touting your success, you may feel unworthy or afraid that you’ll come across as bragging. But when you’re an entrepreneur and in the business of helping others, your accomplishments should be touted.
If your potential customers don’t see you as a success, they won’t have much of a reason to follow your advice. You may even take your feelings of guilt so far as to give away your advice and information – great for the freebie seekers, but bad for your business.
That doesn’t mean that everything has to have a price on it. Successful entrepreneurs usually go the extra mile and provide more solutions and guidance for their customers than necessary. But it should be your choice, not a result from feeling guilty.
Feeling Guilty Doesn’t Serve Your Customers’ Best Interests
When guilt about your success or how much money you make overwhelms you, it may cause you to abandon your career pursuit of helping others. That leaves your customer base that you worked so hard to build without a leader they can depend upon.
If guilt and unworthy feelings are something you contend with, it’s time to nip it in the bud before it grows into an obstacle you can’t overcome. Think about why you feel guilt. Did someone – a customer or loved one – make you feel guilty or berate you for wanting to better your life?
Or could these feelings come from childhood experiences? Unless you find a way to bury the guilt and remove it from your thought process entirely, you won’t be able to fully help your customers succeed – and you will fail, too.
You must have done a number of things right to be at the place you are now. Others are seeking your advice and experience because you’ve obviously accomplished enough to be considered worthy of offering solutions for their problems.
They view you as a person to look up to and emulate. If you let your customers down by becoming indecisive and letting them down, you will lose the business that could eventually make you a success.
First, know that no one has the right to make you feel unworthy of success. Don’t let others beat you down and make you feel that you just got lucky with your success – that it wasn’t a matter of your knowledge, drive and past experiences that led you to triumphs.
And even if you did luck out in some areas, you had the good fortune to know when to take advantage of a situation. As an entrepreneur, you have to tout your own successes.
This doesn’t mean you’re bragging, but that you’re stating the facts. You are good at what you do and you do have the knowledge and experience to help others gain their own success.
Sometimes it’s difficult to fend off criticism from others – especially those close to you. But you have a choice on how to respond. You can either sink deeper in guilty feelings and apologize for the success you’ve had or celebrate what you have and do what makes you happy.
Remember: “Your value does not decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.” ~ Unknown.
Everybody Has Hardships
It’s normal to feel empathy or sympathy for those who are struggling financially. Luckily, with the career you’ve chosen of providing useful information, you can help those people succeed.
You’ll feel good about yourself and the ones you help will be lifelong customers. You’ll both benefit from the help you give. As an entrepreneur who is in the business of helping others achieve success in whatever niche you’re leading, you should go above and beyond.
That doesn’t mean giving away all of your knowledge and secrets for free, but the products you do offer should have meat in the content and go beyond a simple freebie that you secured from the Internet.
You can use much of the free information you research on the ‘net to help others. There’s so much data on just about any topic you can imagine that you can share it with others and they’ll be grateful for it.
When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re considered a leader – and leaders can be assured of their continued success by helping others. One of the best ways to be a leader is to share the knowledge and experience you already have.
Your customers are looking for something of value, so you have to be able to discern what they consider valuable. It’s a waste of time to try helping them with something they don’t need or want help with.
Well thought-out blog posts, an easy-to-maneuver website and periodic specials where you offer past information products at a premium price is a good way to share your resources and make your customers aware of unique products and opportunities.
Another way to help others struggling for success is to offer feedback. The criticism should be constructive and transparent, helping improve what they’ve already accomplished rather than destructive criticism that can shatter their dreams.
Introducing your customers to other entrepreneurs and websites or blogs is also a great way to help others. If you know of another entrepreneur or guru who specializes in or offers something your client may feel is important, make sure the client knows about it.
When a client has overcome a particular obstacle or has come up with a new way of doing something, recognize him by mentioning him in a blog post, inviting him to a podcast presentation or any other method that will extol what he’s accomplished.
It’s not always easy to help others who are experiencing hardships. You’ll have freebie seekers who will test your patience. But the connections with those willing to work hard toward their goals and pay a fair amount for the guidance are the foundation of your success and it makes sense to cultivate those relationships.
Beware of Chronic Freebie Seekers
Just as there are unethical entrepreneurs, there are also unethical customers who constantly want something for nothing. You have to realize that you’re worthy of getting paid for the solutions and guidance you offer and find a way to help them see that – or send them away.
The true freebie seeker has no intention of paying for anything. It seems that their goal in life is to waste your time until you give them something of value just to get rid of them. When you offer a product online, you do it as a way to accrue clients for future products and to create interest in your product from paying customers.
But there are always a few freebie seekers who show up, looking to grab anything free you might offer – plus the products you expect payment for. You can try to convert these freebie seekers into paying customers by helping them see the value of your product and how it’s going to help them succeed, or attempt to protect your business from wasting time and effort on them.
A free offer can be one of your best marketing tools. But you should know that the word free will attract those who never intend to pay for anything you offer. It’s a mindset most of us don’t understand and it can truly damage your business efforts if you don’t protect yourself from it.
First, you should know how the freebie seekers operate. You’ll see them as repeat responders to free offers, but can drag your conversion rates to lower levels than they truly are.
Free offers that are only targeted to your paying list of customers (through a newsletter or blog post) reduce the amount of freebie seekers you may receive. But when you post free offers on social media, you can expect the percentage of freebie seekers to increase considerably.
When you post a free offer that’s contingent on a subscription to your newsletter, be prepared for the freebie seekers to immediately unsubscribe as soon as they download the free offer.
Research methods that other successful entrepreneurs use to stop freebie seekers from wasting their time and effort. For example, check out alternatives to free offers when trying to attract clients. By reducing your percentage of freebie seekers, you’ll be taking a big step in helping your business grow and prosper.
To Alleviate Guilt, Serve Your Audience Well
As an entrepreneur, there are many tried and true ways that you can serve your audience and help grow your own business as well. You don’t have to feel guilty about your own success when you know your clients are prospering from your efforts.
One way you can know that your audience is benefiting from your efforts is to define a particular group rather than attempting to appeal to everyone. It’s like shooting an arrow haphazardly without really aiming. You’ll surely miss the target and hit something you didn’t mean to.
But when you have a target audience, you’ll know exactly what to offer that they will like and enjoy. It’s the best way to invest your time, money and efforts and accurately promote your own business, too.
Having empathy for your audience is another way to alleviate guilt. When you show empathy, you’ll build a group of customers who clearly appreciate what you’ve done and what you’re doing for them.
When you do everything you can to help others in the business, you’re likely going to alleviate any guilt you may have for your own successes and be able to focus on improving your own goals for success and happiness.
Defining your target audience helps you know exactly what to offer them. You won’t be wasting your time and effort going down the wrong path of research and development, but will accomplish more in a shorter amount of time.
The relationships you strive to build within your targeted audience also help alleviate any guilt you may feel for your current success. Watching others’ businesses grow with help from the information you offered is the surest way to boost your confidence and take your business to the next level.
Serving your audience as well as you can also means that you can better identify opportunities for yourself and for them. You’ll be able to gradually build your business to the level you want and achieve goals on the way up. There’s no guilt involved when you learn how to serve your audience well.
Were You Raised with An Entrepreneurial Spirit?
If you can’t seem to get ahead or make progress with your business because you lack an entrepreneurial spirit of giving, it may be time to assess your upbringing. Many parents raise their children to be giving while others are intent on having their children focus on earning money.
The reality is – you need a balance of both. Children who were raised to give with a free spirit may have difficulty grasping the importance of receiving money for what they do – especially those who offer advice and guidance.
When you have an entrepreneurial mindset, you strive to change yours and others’ lives for the better. You seek change, rather than sitting back waiting for things to happen. Giving is an important part of the entrepreneurial spirit, but it should also enhance the growth of the entrepreneur rather than just the person being helped.
Entrepreneurs can never think of what they do with a negative mindset. Positivity and enthusiasm is key to having others look up to you as a leader and advisor. Entrepreneurs are empowered and are capable of teaching others to become empowered.
A sense of being worthy of success is also important to the entrepreneurial spirit. Giving away all of your advice and guidance information for free doesn’t enhance an entrepreneur’s path to success at all – in fact, it may hinder progress.
If you don’t think your advice is worthy of payment, no one else will. This attitude can’t be taught, but may be developed over time. By fostering passion and enthusiasm for what you do, the entrepreneurial spirit will grow and you will prosper as a result.
Potential customers sense the passion and enthusiasm in your voice and in the helpful information that you offer. Even if a person comes into their relationship with you skeptical at first, they sense your conviction and will react by becoming a loyal customer.
And while some people accept things as they are, entrepreneurial spirits are researching how it can be done better. They’re usually on the forefront of all great innovations – because they care.
Entrepreneurs are naturally optimistic and tend to enjoy life to the fullest. They take risks and push past the lines where others have stopped. Even though you may not feel you’ve developed a true entrepreneurial spirit over time, you can begin now to turn the tables and eventually consider yourself worthy of all good things that come your way.
Your career path and personal financial goals work together to help you achieve the top dreams and goals for your life. In fact, the career path you choose sets up the possibilities for financial success you’ll experience throughout your life.
You need to better understand the connection and the reasons why you should think of the two as issues you need to work on together, ensuring you achieve the success you desire for both.
You also need to learn how to plan personal financial goals such as meeting your bills that include food, shelter, education and medical. You should always be aware of your exact commitments so you don’t fall short when it’s time to pay up.
Doing what you have to do to meet financial obligations is a big part of your career planning. You’ll first need to meet small task of paying bills – the rest is for you and your financial future. Invest it wisely and you’ll meet those goals.
The Two Reasons You Pursue Success
Personal fulfillment is an important part of planning for career and financial success. You also have to think about survival in a world that can sometimes be financially harsh and difficult and how you want to live – in luxury or barely getting by?
When you’re living the life you were created for in your career path, you’re achieving personal fulfillment in a way that should make you happy. But, if that life doesn’t provide you with means to survive with enough left over to live your dreams, then that career might be flawed in your eyes and bring regrets.
Many people become lackadaisical in just getting by and pursuing more can seem like a mountain – impossible to climb. Others become obsessed with achieving a career that will bring happiness – and create a life they’ve always dreamed of.
That could mean providing an education for your children, traveling as much as you want, living in a nice home with all the features you enjoy – or simply having the leisure time to work in your garden.
Success isn’t the same for everyone. Your perception of success and how you go about achieving it might be totally opposite from a friend or family member. That’s because you each have different potential to work toward your goals and be happy with those accomplishments.
The potential you carry within has to be set free to pursue the goals you have for the future – and that can be difficult if you live in fear, doubt or negative self-talk that keeps you down.
You can do anything you want to do bad enough with that inner potential. You may need to shift your mindset from holding back to jumping in and taking the steps necessary to achieve financial success and overall fulfillment.
Begin to program yourself to believe that anything you want to accomplish is possible. That may mean you may have to change your personal story from failures to any accomplishments you’ve had along the way.
The best way to begin your pursuit of success is to take action. If you truly want success in a career that brings financial stability, you will take the steps necessary to achieve it. And don’t forget to pursue happiness along the way.
Minimum Personal Financial Goals
Being acutely aware of your minimum financial requirements is the first step in becoming financially independent. Pay bills on time and know where your money is going. That sets up the scenario for further financial successes.
It’s imperative that you set up a budget and track where you’re spending money. When you’re aware of the exact amount you need to meet bills and other necessities, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever fall short.
If you’re married and share the expenses, make sure your spouse is well aware of what your bills are and how you’re going to meet those obligations. Many couples have run into major trouble by being clueless of financial needs and goals.
You’ll need determination and a good way to track your spending habits if you want to meet the minimum financial obligations. It’s important to be realistic about your budget if you ever want to get ahead and have money left over to devote to your business and personal goals.
There are various online sites that offer budget strategies and methods to track your spending. Research and choose one that’s best for you. By all means, base the budget on the reality of your income and expenses.
Ways to customize your plan also exist on the Internet. You may need to experiment to find which is best for you and which you’d actually use on a day to day basis. One budgeting strategy is called the 50/30/20 rule.
This method divides your spending into three category percentages. For example, necessary expenses such as food and shelter account for 50% of your budget. Unnecessary expenses such as cable and cell phone bills account for 30% while saving for the future, paying down debt and savings for emergencies make up the last 20%.
Don’t forget to include amounts in your budget for emergencies or for payments that only happen two or three times per year. Accuracy about all of your financial obligations is important to make sure there are no surprises.
Another budget strategy you can find more about online is the fixed and variable budget, which divides your expenses into two categories – fixed and variable. Fixed expenses may include mortgage or car payment and variable would include entertainment and dining out.
The Bare Bones Budget may be best for you if you are self-employed or work on commission only basis. The main part of the budget is the realistic part – which includes survival necessities such as food and shelter.
The other is money you have left over to spend as you wish on things like entertainment, holiday gift giving, and more. Monitor your situation and change the budget plan to fit as your life progresses.
Ultimate Personal Financial Goals
No matter what stage of life you happen to be in at the moment, you’ll want to set some personal financial goals which reflect your situation, goals and dreams. Do you want to have money to purchase a home, send your kids to college or travel?
Everyone is different, and you have to figure out what you want out of life – and how to get it. If you don’t dream big, you won’t achieve big, so really think about what you want – for your family, charities – and yourself.
Then, create a financial calendar for setting goals. You may want to be able to pay for a child’s college tuition in 10 years. How much per year will you need to save? Plan it out and you’ll have small goals to look forward to.
A big way to ultimately achieve personal financial goals is to get rid of the consumer debt bills that are now weighing you down. If you have several credit card bills, find the one with the highest interest rate and pay it off first.
Allocate a percentage of your income to priorities such as retirement or emergency savings. You’ll be surprised at how fast your debt will go down and your savings up when you take as much as 20% of your income and spend it on financial priorities.
To stay motivated and on track financially, you may want to start a vision board devoted to your financial goals. You can easily track your progress with a quick glance and be reminded about what you’re working so hard for.
Be very specific about your financial goals. Use specific numbers or dollar amounts to identify debts you want to pay off or savings you want to procure. Also, set specific dates. That will identify exactly how much you’ll need – and when.
Set smaller financial goals just as you set small goals before you reach the ultimate end result of what you want to accomplish. Think positively about the goals rather than telling yourself you’ll never reach them.
They may seem monumental, but if you’re constantly working on those goals, you’ll reach them eventually. Keep focused and be happy with what you have now rather than longing for the future. You’ll get there soon enough.
Setting Personal Goals and Achieving Them
Money management is important to setting and achieving your personal goals. It’s difficult to think about expanding your business or learning new techniques to advance you at work if you’re constantly worrying about money problems.
When you set goals for financial spending, it helps keep you from wasteful spending. Your own desire to meet goals will override your innate impulse to purchase something that will only bring you happiness for a short while.
It’s extremely important that you write down your goals – perhaps keep them on cards arranged from immediate to long term – so that you’ll know at a glance how many more small goals you have to reach to get to the big one.
It could be a new house or a three-month emergency savings plan – or even a trip you’ve always wanted to take. Working toward it will mean much more to you if you can see your progress from time to time.
Writing down your short, mid-term and long-term goals helps you keep track of your progress and also keeps you motivated to stick to a budget. If you feel that your budget may be leaking money and don’t understand where it’s going, take awhile to write down everything you spend – every penny.
You may find that purchasing that latte every morning before work is costing you much more than you thought – or that money doled out to the kids is much more than you figured.
Whatever the reason, finding the money leak is the first step to solving the problem. Some people succeed best in money management by going on the all-cash method for awhile.
Allocate some cash money periodically for each category such as lunches, tips, dry-cleaning and manicures or pedicures. When that money is gone for each category – the spending stops until it’s time for you to allocate more cash.
You’ll be able to rapidly find out where your spending habits need to change. That’s an important part of being financially secure. You’ll also find ways to be less wasteful with money and budget more carefully.
Sometimes, you have to think long and hard about what matters most to you and spend accordingly. You may enjoy eating out once a week, but if you save that money for awhile, you could have a great down payment on the car of your dreams. Which means more to you?
Try to think in terms of the future rather than the here and now. Also, anticipate what might occur in the future. What if you went into work tomorrow and your boss gave you a pink slip? Would you have an emergency fund that could see you through until you started earning again?
Make sure you include health and life insurance in your financial plans. No one knows what may happen tomorrow and one big health emergency could wipe out everything you’ve saved for years.
Setting Career Financial Goals and Achieving Them
When you’re an entrepreneur, the chart you course is your own rather than depending on raises and bonuses. Of course, you don’t want to quit a job until you know you can afford to, but it’s perfectly fine to work on your entrepreneurial goals while working at your job.
There are services you can provide that pay faster than other online avenues. Ghostwriting, for example, is a service you can provide while working on your own project or product.
You’ll learn as you go and soon will have picked up enough speed to meet your financial necessities. Recruiting affiliates can help a great deal with maximizing your time wisely if you have a product launch coming up.
When you spend time learning sales copy conversion – with affiliates, you’ll earn more money immediately than if you quietly launched your own without more people onboard to promote you.
As you gain more confidence as an entrepreneur, you’ll feel more comfortable asking for support and help. There’s an abundance of online help you can turn to for learning purposes – and to teach you how to use affiliates to promote your own product.
Even though it’s difficult at first to figure out how much money you’ll make from a launch, time will give you the experience you need and you’ll soon be giving advice to others.
Have a plan, set goals and meet smaller goals to ultimately meet your goal of financial independence. Determination to enjoy a better lifestyle, provide for loved ones or simply for the satisfaction of succeeding at your own business can see you through and help you meet and exceed all of your expectations.
Could your mindset be keeping you from financial success? A defeated or negative mindset keeps many from even trying to become successful and derails others who get so far and then give up or become discouraged.
You have to recognize the negative mindset you may have unwittingly developed over the years. It involves negative thoughts and actions that make you feel unworthy of getting paid and praised for what you do.
Some people may be satisfied with just getting by. If they have enough money to pay the bills and a bit left over to see a movie, then they’re perfectly happy being left with the daydreams of success rather than true, monetary success.
You have to learn how you can manipulate your mindset to stop complaining and get moving toward the goals and opportunities that will help you cultivate an abundant mindset rather than one that will lead you nowhere.
Recognize Negative Mindset Traits You May Foster
You may recognize negative mindset traits in others more than yourself because you’re used to your own rhetoric. Think about the times you’ve been around super negative people who focus on the bad rather than the good and drag you on a downward spiral right along with them.
They’re certainly not fun to be around and it’s doubtful they’re very productive – negative people usually aren’t. If you find yourself with a negative mindset that’s keeping you from reaching your goals, look at your own thought patterns.
Thoughts such as, “I’ll never succeed like that person,” “I know I’m going to fail,” and “I have no confidence or experience” will set the stage for failure before you even begin. Why should anyone be willing to pay you for guidance when you don’t even trust yourself?
Because of that low self-worth and negative thinking, you may not be willing to invest in your future by taking time to research or to pay someone who can help you learn to succeed. You tend to flounder in your own self-pity.
Another negative mindset trait to be aware of is focusing on what you don’t have rather than what can happen if you take the reins of your own path to success and begin to move forward.
Rather than being confident and secure in the career you’ve chosen, you may fear the outcome so much that you never begin or waste time wallowing in despair rather than finding hope for the future.
You become a victim rather than fighting for what you deserve. Some negative mindset problems begin with the past. If you can’t let go of a painful situation that happened in the past, you may have difficulty finding success.
This is a typical example of thinking with so much negativity that you can’t be productive and build for the future. Another negative mindset trait is when you feel plagued with guilt rather than feeling good about what you’ve accomplished.
Let go of the blame and become more compassionate toward yourself. Focus instead on making a positive impact on the lives of others. Your negative mindset can’t last long when you harbor a positive outlook on life.
Consider What Wealth Mentality You’re Lacking
What’s holding you back? If you daydream about wealth or success more than you take action to get it, you’re lacking something in your mindset. Learning to develop a go-getter attitude and working on replacing negativity with positivity may finally put you on the path to success.
Financial success isn’t achieved by daydreaming, but by actually setting goals and working toward them. If you have no goals, it’s unlikely that the financial freedom you desire will ever happen.
After you define your wealth goals, the steps to achieve them should be at the forefront of your mind. You wouldn’t think of building a home without plans – and you can’t succeed at building wealth without plans.
Stop thinking survival and start thinking in terms of building wealth. Many people have the mindset of simply surviving from paycheck to paycheck. Wealthy people are more focused on building prosperity and meeting goals for their future.
A fearful wealth mentality is also detrimental to your future success. If you focus on keeping your money safe, you’ll likely miss any opportunity that may come your way. That doesn’t mean you need to be reckless with your dollars, but you do need to be willing to take risks when good opportunities present themselves.
Don’t simply hope for success – work towards it. When you change your thinking from wishing to doing, you’ll automatically begin to accumulate two things – self-confidence and money.
Make sure you save some money for a rainy day. Don’t spend everything you make, but invest it wisely to build your financial empire. If you know you’re not very astute when it comes to money matters, get a financial advisor to help you sort things out.
Another mental attitude that limits your wealth is to think you don’t have enough money to attempt to make it grow. One way to overcome it is to stop spending money on non-necessities.
Make it a game to see how much money you can save out of a paycheck rather than running up bills that keep you poor. Thinking you don’t have enough time to devote to building wealth is another belief that limits your future success.
Sure, it’s difficult to juggle work, kids, friends, family and everything else in your life. But carving out some time to devote to your goals is essential to any success you might be working toward.
Mainly – believe in yourself and trust that you can make it happen. Do things to build the confidence necessary to see wealth and abundance results and you’ll soon begin to see that developing a mindset of success can really make it happen.
Leveling Up Your Money Mindset
As you cultivate an abundant money mindset, remember the old saying, “Shoot for the moon and land among the stars.” Even if you don’t reach the moon, playing among the stars isn’t a bad place to be.
The point is to aim big, think big and never think that you’re asking for too much. Even 7-figures aren’t that far away from where you can be if you set your mind to it. Expand the mentality from “having enough to pay bills,” to “what would I do with an extra $1K or $5K per month?”
If you’ve had a past full of financial failures, forgive yourself and start over with a better plan and more enthusiasm for what you’re doing now. Forgiving yourself will help you let go of the behavior patterns of the past and create new patterns of abundance.
As you’re going through the process of forgiving yourself for past failures, begin to change your personal story in your mind and in what you do – especially in the area of money.
Change your thought patterns from “broke” to “wealth” and you’ll soon see how your inner thoughts and feelings affect the reality you’re living. Planning a good budget will keep you focused and knowing exactly where your money is and where it’s going.
Surround yourself with people and things that create positive energy. Get rid of clutter like old memories that hold you back. Assess your lifestyle and figure out what you can do to make it happier, better and more abundant.
Begin to add soothing things and positive people – change your surroundings to that which creates a feeling of wealth and abundance. You don’t have to live a life a luxury to feel rich – but you do have to be happy with your life and how you’re living it.
If you look around and always take note of what you lack rather than what you have, your wealth mindset will be negative. But when you look at your surroundings and feel grateful for what you’ve already been blessed with, you’ll be able to attract even more abundance.
Open your mind to new opportunities and new ways of doing things. If you don’t like your present income, think about how you can change it. Even if you’ve reached the top rung of your job, there are other ways to make money.
When you become aware of what others are doing to create abundance and how you could change your current lifestyle and make things happen for you, the creative ideas will flow and you’ll find your way to wealth through cultivating an abundant money mindset.
Backup Plans Are for Those Planning to Fail
You may be surprised to learn that successful people never make backup plans. That’s because it’s not in their thoughts or vocabulary to fail. Backup plans tend to put failure in your mind rather than help you succeed with your first choice.
It’s a big “if” that doesn’t need to be there. It takes time to make plans, and the more time you’re putting into a backup plan, the less time you’ll spend on your dreams and goals.
Your backup plan will become your true reality and you’ll never realize what you might have done with your original plan for success. Another reason to steer clear of backup plans is that they decrease your desire to be or remain motivated.
A backup plan becomes your safety net if you haven’t risked everything on your plan for success. It might be an easier and safer path for you to take, but it won’t get you to the pinnacle of success you want.
The best and only way to succeed is to focus completely on the exact achievement you want to accomplish. Anything else is a waste of time and can sap your energy and take away your future options.
When you work hard at formulating and crafting Plan A, you won’t need a Plan B as a backup. You may face some obstacles along the way, but as long as you’re working hard to make Plan A a reality, that’s where your focus will be and that’s where you’ll succeed.
So what if Plan A doesn’t work out? Maybe you wanted to be in the NFL, practiced as much as you could, but luck just didn’t find you (and that would need quite a bit of luck). When you know in your heart of hearts that you tried your best and you didn’t give up because of fear of failure, it’s much easier to begin a new path to another type of success.
Don’t use a backup plan as an excuse to fail. It’s easy to take the alternate route when things get tough or you begin to doubt yourself. But without a backup plan, you don’t have a choice. You have to move forward.
Simply keep pushing onward with the original plan for as long as you can. Perhaps all you need to do is adjust your plans or tweak them to fit the present situation. As long as you’re going forward, you will succeed.
Where Is Your Mental Energy Best Spent to Attract Wealth?
When Michael Phelps competed (and won) in the Olympics, he was truly focused on the task at hand. An interesting note to the swim competition is that Phelps’s closest competitor was caught in a picture turning his head and focusing his attention on Phelps during the swim rather than on what he had to do to beat him.
Phelps’s competitor lost focus because he was more interested in how Phelps was doing. Losing focus on your ultimate goals and plans for success is a sure way to lose the momentum you’ve built and slip back into failure mode.
Attracting wealth is best accomplished by focusing all of your attention on a plan that you’ve formulated and set goals for and that you know will work when carried out systematically.
You’ve seen what happens to those who seem to concentrate on complaints. They use Facebook, blogs or other social media means to complain about real or imagined obstacles that have kept them from achieving success.
Nothing gets done when you’re in the mode of complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. Wealth can only happen when your mental energy is focused on your plan for success and how you’ll achieve it.
If you have trouble focusing, try to figure out where the problem lies. Do you have many interruptions when trying to work or tend to check emails or Facebook posts too often? Take a measured look at why you may have trouble focusing on getting work done and then do something about it.
All of your mental energy should be spent on attracting wealth. That means the negative thoughts of failure – either imagined or those from the past – must be eradicated from your thought process.
It may take some practice to use your mental powers to focus on cultivating an abundant money mindset, but the payoff will be the success you’ll realize when everything comes together and becomes a reality.
Have you ever had to ask someone to return a tool or other borrowed item? For most of us, it can be an uncomfortable situation – especially if you’ve already asked for it several times. Asking for money from a client or customer can also be uncomfortable, even though you’re providing valuable information.
This is especially true for new entrepreneurs who may be unsure of the real value of the information they’re providing. The consequences include giving your information away for free – or at a highly discounted price – and never getting your business off the ground floor.
You may wonder why customers don’t simply hand over payment when they’re helped without being asked or invoiced. You need to feel more confident about closing the deal and asking for the payment you deserve.
Understanding the Value of Information
There are dozens of online entrepreneurs who get paid very well for the information they research and provide. These successful entrepreneurs have built their businesses on the quality and uniqueness of the information they offer and aren’t shy about setting a price and expecting to be paid.
They know their worth. If you’re afraid or lack the self-confidence to put a price on your entrepreneurial efforts, you should begin to understand the value of the information you’re providing by doing some simple research.
First, understand that people are willing to pay for well-thought-out and researched information that will help them in their own endeavors. See what other marketers are charging for their own products and pay attention to how they ask for payment.
Also, research the quality of information provided on other sites. When you know you have a quality product, you’ll be able to tout it much more effectively. Pay attention to the type of information people are offering, too.
Some products may be seasonal (such as Halloween costumes) while others are called evergreen, meaning that they can be promoted throughout the year. Your marketing campaign for each product should be based on the latest and most accurate information.
Be crystal clear in your efforts to encourage clients and customers to pay for the information you provide. When you’re specific, you come across as more confident and will build trust within your customer base.
Your customers want to know they’re getting monetary value out of the information you’re providing, so it’s necessary for you to communicate that message before asking for payment.
Once you have the inner self-confidence that you’re offering a product of value, you’ll have less fear of asking for money – and your customers will be more willing to pay for a product that is unique and well worth the asking price.
There Will Always Be Freebie Seekers
Some people just can’t seem to help themselves from wanting to haggle down the price of anything from a used car to a piece of penny candy. They can be difficult to deal with and you can choose to send them to other sites – or use some special strategies to turn them into paying customers.
Freebie seekers are everywhere and in every line of business. They can test your patience and drain you of valuable time. No matter how wonderful your product is and how much effort you’ve put into it, the freebie seeker just seems to want it for nothing.
Actually, they may not be as concerned with price as with the value they’re getting for their money. If you can succeed in making them understand how your product can help them with their own business efforts, they can become your most loyal customers.
One way to turn a tire-kicker into a paying customer is to offer a free trial or introduction to the product before they move up to the next level (payment for the full product). Car dealers let you test-drive before you buy and books usually provide a summary of what the plot is on the back cover. The same theory works with information products.
Many times, a test-drive is all it takes, but there may be some freebie seekers who need a bit more prodding. Try offering extra tips and advice on how to use your product – tips they won’t find with other, similar products. Provide testimonials and other information that will help them feel more confident about purchasing the product.
You can also involve the customer in the price negotiation. For example, you may offer prices for different levels of information. A beginner with a small budget can purchase Level 1 and purchase Level 2 when he feels he’s ready and when he discovers how unique and helpful your product is.
Assume at first that your freebie seeking customer is only looking for value in what they purchase and once they realize the worth of what you have to offer, they’ll happily pay the price.
But if the freebie-seeker begins to take up too much of your time and effort and you’re giving away too much – direct the person to other links and sites where he can download information or advice for free. It’s likely that the would-be customer won’t be satisfied with the quality or quantity of the free information and will return to your offer.
Know Where to Direct Tire Kickers
One way to turn freebie seekers into loyal customers is to try to help them without giving away your own products. There are many informative blog posts and free reports you can direct them to for a download and when they want to level up, they’ll remember you as a helpful resource.
If your opt-in email lists contain freebie seekers who don’t add anything to your profit margin, quit paying to have them on your subscriber list. To weed them out, stress in your emails that you are creating a product or service for sale – and that it’s unique and informative.
Offering an introduction to a product and what it contains and how it will help is often a good way to push the tire kickers into a decision to buy. But there are some freebie seekers who won’t be satisfied no matter how much you give away.
These are the ones you need to weed out for good – otherwise they’re a drain on your time and effort. Paring down your customer list is a good way to get rid of the tire kickers and save you money and time.
The quality of your list is actually more important than the quantity and can help you generate more sales on a regular basis. Target the people who are truly interested in what you have to offer and understand the value of what you’re offering and pamper these people on your list more than anyone else.
When you gain a freebie seeker’s trust that you’re honestly interested in helping them find their target product (even if it isn’t yours), they have the potential of becoming happy and loyal customers to you in the future.
Then, there are the tire kickers who are not at all interested in paying a fair price for a product or service – they’re only out for the free offers. After you’ve tried to help them and they still come back for more freebies, take them off your list and send them on their merry way with a list of free sites that might help them – like YouTube.
Remember that the true sign of a freebie seeker is one who signs up for every free offer you have, but has no intention whatsoever of ever paying for anything and opts out as soon as they’re asked to pay.
Those people can cause you to become discouraged with your marketing campaigns and you can’t judge your efforts based on the feedback you receive from them. The freebie seekers are attracted to the word “free” like bees to honey, so watch your wording, factor in the tire kickers in your marketing efforts when necessary and don’t waste too much of your valuable time catering to their demands.
The Problem Is Similar to Asking for a Raise
Proving your worth to a boss is sometimes difficult when you work within a large company. You may rarely see or interact with the person responsible for giving you a raise in pay because there is a supervisor (or several) to contend with first.
When you have your own business and offer a product or service for sale, you’re faced with a similar situation. A potential customer doesn’t see you researching and working hard on how to offer the best quality possible.
They don’t realize your worth – and unless you know your worth, you’ll never be able to ask for the payment you deserve. A salesman closes the sale by asking for the money, but preps the customer before by reassuring him that he’s getting the best return on his investment.
If he’s a new customer, offering a sample (or freebie) may push him over the edge of closing the sale. Another way is to offer even more than what you advertise. Special bonuses or reports add value to your product and give the customer an incentive to purchase the entire package.
If you were going to ask a boss for a raise, you might submit an extra report outlining how the company could save money or time. You may need to work on it during your time off, but a fat raise is worth the effort.
Providing your customer with something extra may well be worth your effort in converting the freebie seeker to a loyal, paying customer. Some tire kickers just want to be convinced that spending their hard-earned money is a good idea.
Your business should be a reflection of what you think of yourself. If you don’t think you’re worthy of someone purchasing your product, that mindset will show in everything you do for your business.
Even though asking for money can be intimidating and sometimes terrifying, you can’t be a victim of your fears if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. Fear of rejection and failure can cause you to lose sales and give away what you should be making money on.
These are real fears that should be addressed, but knowledge and experience will eventually lead you to the conclusion that you do offer a worthwhile product or service and that it’s well worth the price you’re asking.
Start Out Small and Level Up
One of the best sales strategies for online entrepreneurs is to begin your marketing strategy small and gradually level up to a larger package of information. For example, a $7 product will bring in people who want to see what quality you’re offering.
After they know your worth, it’s time to move up – offer an even larger and more informative package for $17, then $27 and perhaps throw in a recurring membership option as you raise your price to $47, $67, $97 or more.
Never skimp on the lower-priced package. This is where you’ll nurture your repeat customers and get them onboard for other promotions, so do your very best on every product you offer.
It’s also easier to ask for a small payment than a larger one when it comes to a nervous mindset. As you get familiar with strategies to use to secure payment, you’ll build your confidence asking for larger amounts.
Never think that asking for payment is pushy. It’s only pushy if you’re full of hype and don’t deliver what you promised. When you research the strategies of other marketers, you’ll find that many are somewhat shady in their dealings, while some are completely upfront and don’t promise you the elusive moon.
Learning how to sell – especially the best strategies to use online – will help increase your sales and let your customers (including the freebie seekers) know that you’re up front and honest.
Businesses are jumping on the bandwagon of using the level up technique. Offering a great product for an inexpensive price to bring in customers or get them to experience the quality you offer is a technique that most people will go for.
The fear of asking someone for payment is a problem with most beginning entrepreneurs – especially freelancers who hear “I could do it myself” from prospective clients.
But after you’ve gained experience and found the strategies that work best for you, you’ll move away from that fear and may begin to enjoy the selling process. As you move away from the fear of asking for payment, your business will begin to grow substantially and you’ll learn how to weed out the dreaded freebie seekers who aren’t about to spend a dime, but want everything for free.
Research and learn all you can about how other marketing entrepreneurs ask for money in their online strategies. Some of these entrepreneurs started out the same as you and have now overcome their fears and gone on to business success.
Build confidence in yourself and your product by making sure you have a quality product – even though you may be selling it for a small cost. That will ensure repeat customers and a great business future.
When you strive to develop a low risk wealth mindset, you’re setting yourself up to build wealth rather than having it disappear with no clue where it went. That means impulse shopping is a thing of the past and you should analyze every purchase you make – even the small things.
Both personal and business spending should be limited to what you need. Jumping at every shiny new object like a new pair of shoes you don’t need or software and plugins that aren’t beneficial to your business isn’t the way to nurture a wealth mindset.
Stick to time-honored methods to avoid financial mistakes that could take years to recover from. When you’re leveraged to the highest point, you won’t be able to take calculated risks and invest when the best opportunities present themselves.
Don’t Spend More Than You Should
One rule of thumb for personal or business spending is to avoid credit unless you can afford to pay cash. It’s okay to build a good credit rating by wisely cultivating the advantages of having it, but don’t simply pay by credit if you don’t have the cash to back it up.
There are so many bright and shiny objects to tempt you to open your wallet that it can be difficult to know which are the best investments. In your personal life, that might equate to a big screen TV or shiny new car and bumping your credit to the max.
In business, you might be attracted to the promises and hype that other marketers throw out to entice you to buy. Some of these are excellent deals and can provide guidance and advice for your future.
Other offerings might sound good, but you find out it’s a bunch of fluff when you download it. Do your research before you plunk down the money or go into debt for software, plugins or to join a mastermind group.
One way to ensure you don’t jump at the latest deal or succumb to an impulse is to delay making the purchase. Don’t let sales people – online or offline – pressure you into signing on the dotted line before thinking about it first.
You may be itching to say “yes” to that advertisement promising overnight success for your online business if you sign up for a product or online class. And that new car may sound like a deal you can hardly refuse until you read the fine print and find out what you’re really paying.
Never think you can’t get the same deal if you walk away and think about it for 30 minutes or a day or two. It’s beneficial to step out of the bubble and see the big picture of what the deal truly entails.
Another way to ensure that your budget will remain intact is to deal only with cash. This is a great idea for those who just can’t seem to pass up deals that may or may not be a good idea.
One good method for watching your spending is to open an account designated only for spur of the moment purchases – and cancel the overdraft protection. You’ll have to be vigilant about the balance and careful not to go over.
There’s a thing called FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) that affects many marketing entrepreneurs. If it seems that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of a good deal, you don’t want to be left out, even if you can’t afford it.
You may be tempted to go on a fun, but expensive trip with your friends because you don’t want to miss out on the experience even though it will take months for you to completely pay off the debt.
Think about the benefits you’ll derive from your spending before you plunk down cash or a credit card and you’ll be on your way to developing a low risk wealth mindset. Sometimes the reward doesn’t outweigh the risk involved.
Analyze Purchases to Avoid Financial Mistakes
That cheap bargain may seem like a good deal, but when you actually download it and take a look at it, you see all sorts of flaws that make you sorry you paid any amount for it.
You would have been better off purchasing a better quality product and one that would give you a better return on your investment. It’s the same in both offline and online marketing.
Purchasing products or services which seem like a deal you can’t refuse sometimes leads to disappointment and failure. A good rule of thumb is to only purchase products from those people you trust.
Most online entrepreneurs have a track record that you can easily check. Educate yourself about the seller before you commit to anything. Most of us feel good about purchases we make at first.
It’s a rush of adrenalin to spend money on something that you think is going to make you look or feel good or benefit your own business. It’s so disappointing to find that what you thought was a great bargain is flawed in many ways.
Hopefully, you didn’t break the bank and you can recover. Now you’ve learned a big lesson in purchasing. Research before you buy and are sure you’re purchasing from a reputable source.
Ask yourself if you really need the bright, new, shiny object you’re attracted to. You might find a better deal if you shop around a bit more. Or, you could find something less expensive that will do the job just as well.
Don’t skimp on quality. You may have to pay a little more, but in the long run it will prove to be a bargain. Some smaller purchases may seem like a good deal – and you’re really not spending that much – but little things add up and you may find yourself spending more than you intended.
Use Everything You Buy or Don’t Buy at All
Going through the grocery aisles when you’re hungry isn’t a good idea. You end up filling your cart with extras that you may not have intended to buy, but the promise of taste and fulfillment makes it hard to resist all of the tempting delights.
A week later, much of what you’ve bought is ruined and you end up throwing it away – or what you bought on impulse wasn’t as good or fulfilling as you thought it would be and it goes to waste.
It’s the same with every bright and shiny object you’re attracted to. You pay hard-earned money because it promises success beyond what you expected and you purchase it only to find out it’s not all it was cracked up to be.
If you were an employer, you’d quickly get rid of an employee who made non-useful purchases time after time. Make it a point to implement all of your purchases within a two-week time period and you’ll be surprised about how much more you’ll think before you buy.
Be careful not to purchase products and then demand a refund because you can’t use it within a certain time period. That isn’t fair to the seller who has to deal with the refund in many ways that take time and effort.
The time-period you set to use a purchased item should be a tool to help you avoid procrastination and to force you to carefully think about the implications before you push the “Buy Now” button.
This one act of thinking clearly before you purchase will help you save money. If the item is just going to sit in a drawer or remain in your downloads until you forget about it, then it isn’t worth buying.
Experts say that having too many possessions can be a burden in your life. A big house with a pool and lots of amenities can keep you from taking advantage of traveling to the places you’ve always wanted to see.
Too many bells and whistles in your business can keep you so busy you’re unable to focus on the real desire of making your business grow. Choose your purchases wisely and avoid the shiny new object syndrome.
Create Products That Will Convert
Conversion is one word you’ll hear often in the pursuit of wealth when you’re an entrepreneur. You have to create products that will covert to sales or you won’t be successful in your online ventures.
The best way to know if a new idea that could turn into an amazing product that will convert is to diligently research it. What is the competition doing along these lines – and has it been done before?
If it has been done before – was it done successfully, and can you do it better or make it different than other marketers? Check out forums and comments to see if someone has mentioned wanting or needing your product or service idea.
Remember to carefully think out your product pages. They will be the deciding factor on whether or not your traffic will convert. You’ve thought of the idea, taken time to work out a strategy and goals and then spent hard work and money on the idea, so give the customer a chance to be wowed.
The first look of the page has to provide the customer with a good experience. Then, the information needs to assure and motivate him or her to buy. One good tip from the experts is to de-clutter your page.
Cut out the frivolity that doesn’t tell your customer something about why he needs the product. Pictures and text that don’t really serve a purpose should be cut from the page – and keep the information simple and succinct.
Your customer likely doesn’t want to waste his time on reading or looking at stuff that doesn’t have a thing to do with the product, so get to the point quickly on your page. Make sure you include a call to action. Without that, the customer won’t know where to go next.
With every page you create, you’re helping build your customers’ confidence in you and your product. Let them know you have their best interests in mind and be convincing about how the product is going to help them.
One element that’s essential when creating products that convert is to always give the customer an option if they choose to pass up the deal (such as a one time offer) at the present time.
You might offer a downsell that extracts part of the original offer – or show them something entirely different. You’ll be creating trust with the customer that you always have them in mind and want to help as much as you can.
Diversify Your Earnings to Keep Risk at Bay
To keep investments safe from the fluctuating economy, many experts recommend that you diversify. That means you keep money in various types of investments, so if one type fails, you still have growing savings in the others.
That bit of wisdom also applies to your online business. When you operate with various business models – info products, affiliate marketing, Kindle fiction, coaching, AdSense and others, you’re diversifying your business so that if one part wanes, the others can make up for the slack.
It’s also called not putting all your eggs in one basket. You have much more chance of something happening to a single basket and crushing all of your eggs than if you divide the eggs into various baskets to weather any storm that might come your way.
A good example in the online marketing business is Squidoo.com. So many people built their one business model on it and counted on it to pay their bills. One day it wasn’t there anymore.
The site was shut down without much warning and everything – all of the hard work and time invested was gone. Diversification has worked for many corporations who wanted to enter a new market by creating a product that the corporation had not yet entered.
When a company is diversified properly, it’s not so devastating if the new idea doesn’t work – they still have other products to fall back on. There are several strategies that good marketers use to diversify their businesses.
One is to change the product ever so slightly so that it appeals to another type of customer. For example, if you offer an online course with an expensive price tag, try cutting the course down and lowering the price.
This strategy can attract those people who are looking for something less expensive and simpler. You can also tailor your products to different demographics, such as weight loss products that cater to men versus women – or even age groups such as seniors or the over 40 crowd.
You can also offer a book along with a course for more information. This strategy also sets you up as an expert in your field and takes you to the next step on the ladder to monetary success. Diversification is one of the best strategies of adopting a low risk wealth mindset.