Archive | October, 2010

How to Become an Infopreneur

By on October 28, 2010 in Q & A Interviews, SmallBizChat

SBC sq sunflower 150x150 How to Become an InfopreneurEach week as @Smallbizlady, I conduct interviews with small business experts on my weekly Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. This is excerpted from my #SmallBizChat interview with entrepreneur and instructional designer, Tai Goodwin @Tai Goodwin. She leverages over 14 years of developing adult learning materials and training to help entrepreneurs, coaches, and speakers create infoproducts that sell. Tai offers e-book and information product design services through her website http://www.InfoThatSticks.com

Smallbizlady: How would you define an infopreneur?

Tai Goodwin: There’s a ton of free information out there — there are also people who are willing to pay for not having to search and find it on their own. Infopreneurs market and sell prepackaged information products.

Smallbizlady: What are some examples of infoproducts?

Tai Goodwin: Popular types of information products include: Articles, booklets, ebooks, workbooks, trade books, CDs, Videos, DVDs, forms, e-courses, worksheets, manuals, MP3 audio files, e-zines, newsletters, home study courses, workshops, seminars and conferences.

Smallbizlady: What are some benefits of having infoproducts?

Tai Goodwin: Info products help you position yourself as an expert. They can increase your credibility. Create more opportunities to put yourself in front of your target audience. Create more opportunities for you to meet your customers’ needs. And provide a way for you to create additional streams of income.

Smallbizlady: How can I use infoproducts in my business?

Tai Goodwin: There are two popular ways to use the infoproducts: As free give-aways to build your list and as a source of multiple streams of income. You can invite people to subscribe to your list and in exchange offer them a free infoproducts. Examples include a mini-report, a checklist, a video, an e-course. You need an autoresponder like Aweber or Constant Contact or Mail Chimp and an info product — then you start promoting it to your network

Smallbizlady: How can infoproducts be used to generate additional streams of income?

Tai Goodwin: You only have so many hours a day you can work directly with clients. But you can sell infoproducts 24/7 to your clients — basically earning revenue while you sleep. And while your price point for individual coaching may be out of reach for some — you can offer lower priced products that have a broader market.

Smallbizlady: What level of expertise do you need to create informational products?

Tai Goodwin: There’s a difference between creating content and creating a product.

You don’t need to be an expert to create content. If you can write or speak you can create content. In fact you can even buy content or hire writers to create content.

Product creation is different — it involves organizing content so it makes sense and building in components to make it practical and engaging for your customer.

Smallbizlady: What makes a good information product?

Tai Goodwin: I use the acronym STICKS.

The first S is for Solution Oriented — it needs to solve a problem your customers have. Before you write or record: research. Ask, survey, find out what problems your customers have.

T is for Transforms. It needs to take your customers from point A to point B. If they don’t know more or can’t do more than before your product — there is no value for them.

I is for information, instruction, ideas, innovation and inspiration (this is what people will pay for)

C is for Covers relevant practical information. Don’t give them everything and the kitchen sink. Keep it to exactly what they need to take action.

K is for Keeps their attention. Use stories, examples, facts, steps, explanations, images, infographics, worksheets, questions. The best products keep customers engaged from start to finish.

The last “S” is for structure – is it organized in a way that is clear and logical.

Smallbizlady: What are some examples quick infoproducts that people can create?

Tai Goodwin: One of the best strategies for rapidly creating infoproducts is starting with what you have. For example: Turn your top 20 blog post into an e-book. Add questions and activities to those blog posts and create a workbook. Take snippets of your workbook and create a 7-day e-course. Or take those same 20 blog posts and record them to create a podcasts series. If you like being in front of the camera, record a series of short videos instead.  Don’t have blog posts? Get someone to interview you and record it: create an mp3 or have it transcribed and create a mini-booklet. There are so many possibilities.

Smallbizlady: What are some of your favorite tools for creating infoproducts?

Tai Goodwin: Start with basic word docs or Powerpoint files which you can publish as a PDF. I like on-line recording tools that let you create downloadable mp3s — freeconference.com, audioacrobat — which also lets you create videos. There are tools like podbean and audacity for creating podcast. Flip cams are great for creating informal videos. Camtasia and Jing are great for creating step-by-step videos. And one of my favorite image capture tools is Snag It for great screenshots. And then there are sites that offer royalty free music and graphics.

Smallbizlady: What ways can infopreneurs promote their products?

Tai Goodwin: Create a launch and marketing strategy just like you would for any other products. You want to pre-sell, use bonuses, create joint ventures, use affiliates to help expand your reach, you also want to consider how to upsell. One of the masters is Dave Navarro — The Launch Coach. I recommend his book — How to Launch the $%^& out of your e-book.

Smallbizlady: How should business owners price their infoproducts?

Tai Goodwin: Approaches include having three tiers between $19.97 — $47.00. Then you have mid products that range from $67 — $97, then you have your top tier products that range $127 — $197. Depends on what’s included and how specialized the information is. Then you have full home study courses or certification programs that start above $200 and can go into the $1,000s.

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

For more tips on starting or growing your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog at www.succeedasyourownboss.com

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as Small Biz Lady is one of America’s leading small business ecover 1 How to Become an Infopreneurexperts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure.  As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She has been featured on NBC Nightly News, the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur and Black Enterprise Magazine. She hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs and publishes a resource blog  www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010).

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Women Entrepreneurs Are Better Because…

By on October 25, 2010 in Mompreneurs, Women in Business, Your Small Business

highheels 173x300 Women Entrepreneurs Are Better Because…As women, we already play multiple roles in a day. Small business owners on average perform 10-13 jobs all at one time, including chief sales officer, market researcher, bill collector and secretary. Moms do too.  In fact, 82% of all women business owners are mothers, so managing details from work to home is a skill most women do as a reflex. In the early stages of a business, it’s all about the juggle, and women are better equipped to handle the stress and responsibility of running a small business.

We are better delegators. We understand that we can’t do everything, even if many of us believe that no one can do it better than us. We put support systems in place to get the job done. Whether it’s a team of virtual assistants to follow up on sales leads, chase down opportunities or keep our social media networks working or a college student or nanny so that our children will have someone looking after their safety, we make sure that a full team is in place so the trains run on time. While our team has our back, we can be present wherever we are, so that everyone we connect with knows we care.

We are willing to ask for help. We don’t just ask for help with driving directions, we are willing to ask others (especially other women) for advice and mentorship in our businesses. As women, we are willing to admit that we do not know everything and can show enough vulnerability to get what we need for our businesses. We are also willing to take advice. Being coachable is our secret weapon.

We are better equipped to make big decisions. We think about the long-term impact of our business decisions on our families, customers, vendors and employees – we’re not just about the short term gain.  We also use our intuition as an additional tool when dealing with customers.  If it feels like a client is going to use double the project management budget with a bunch of hand-holding nonsense, we might have an upfront hunch and hopefully, the sense to double the budget – or walk away from the contract.

We are better communicators. As women, we believe in talking through opportunities, problems and conflicts. We work better at consulting with others on critical decisions, especially if we think we need more information.  We are not afraid to get face to face with a difficult customer to work through any challenges and we are also naturally friendlier and less likely to intimidate sales targets or our employees.

Share your thoughts.  Leave a comment about this article.

ecover 1 203x300 Women Entrepreneurs Are Better Because…Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure.  As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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How to Increase Productivity and Get More Out of Your Day

By on October 21, 2010 in Q & A Interviews, SmallBizChat

SBC sq sunflower 150x150 How to Increase Productivity and Get More Out of Your Day I’m Melinda Emerson and every week as @SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts  on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wed on Twitter from 8-  9pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with Allyson Lewis @allyson7minutes.  Allyson is a professional speaker and productivity coach and the author of The Seven Minute Difference, Her book is filled with stories and practical tools to help you rediscover your purpose, regain control of your time and accomplish your goals and dreams. For more information: Http://TheSevenMinuteDifference.com

Smallbizlady: What is time management and why is it important to improve your personal time management skills?

Allyson Lewis: In order to improve work productivity, you intuitively understand a need to improve personal time-management skills. When someone is working toward completing a task, project, or activity, there are certain processes that will make them more efficient. Improve time-management skills by focusing on these basic time-management concepts:

* Clarifying the desired outcome or goal
* Proper planning
* Prioritizing your activities and steps
* Organizing your resources, tools and people
* Monitoring your progress
* Focusing, or persevering until the task has been fully completed

Here’s an article I wrote earlier this year about this. www.MorningstarAdvisor.com,
http://www.morningstaradvisor.com/articles/article.asp?docId=18948

Smallbizlady: Your organization system is based on a specific time frame, Why 7 Minutes?

Allyson Lewis : Partly, because my life changed forever in seven minutes.  And, partly because as I was doing research for my book, The Seven Minute Difference I discovered that the attention span of the average adult is very, very short.  Different studies on attention have stated that true attention varies from as short as 2 seconds to as long as 20 minutes, and maybe all the way to 90 minutes if you are in the “zone.”  With that in mind, our company began to focus on time management and productivity workshops, tips, and tools that you could implement into your life in as little as “7 Minutes.”

Smallbizlady: There will always only be 24 hours in a day, so really what is time management?

Allyson Lewis: Time management is prioritizing.  Period.  Every minute of your day, you make a decision of what you will choose to do with your time.  You choose to focus your attention on a high-priority task that is alignment with what you value, or you choose to squander those precious minutes of the day on low value activities that are not in alignment with what is most important to you.  Therefore, the beginning of time management is taking the time to clarify and establish your personal life values or priorities.

Smallbizlady: What is “The 7 Minute Lifeâ„¢?”

Allyson Lewis :The 7 Minute Lifeâ„¢ is a strategy that creates a framework to Prioritize, Organize and Simplify® your life both at work and at home.  In my last book, The Seven Minute Difference, we helped people understand how in “7 Minutes” a day they could:

- Prioritize their personal and corporate values
- Rediscover their purpose
- Establish written 90-Day Goals
- Organize their game plan
- and, Simplify their lives down to a few simple actionable items that they will commit to accomplishing every day.

Smallbizlady: What is the best way to clarify and establish personal values?

Allyson Lewis: Initially we recommend our “7 Minute” community members schedule a retreat for themselves.  Take a morning or an afternoon to be alone and begin by asking, “What is most important?”  Then, take a sheet of paper and list as many values as you can.  Many of our consulting clients will end up with a list that includes values such as: faith, family, peace, joy, health, serving, community, love, leaving a legacy, making a difference, meaningful work, learning, growing, creating, and sharing.  The key part of this exercise is to step back and look inside your heart and find out what is truly most important to you.  Then, look at your calendar and compare your daily activities to what you have just said is most important to you.

Smallbizlady:  What is the next step in The 7 Minute Lifeâ„¢?

Allyson Lewis: The next step is helping people discover or re-discover their purpose in life.  Take out a blank sheet of paper and a pen and at the top of the page write, “My purpose in life is…” and complete the sentence.  We believe purpose is how you serve others, purpose is how you use your gifts and talents to change the world, love is the foundation of purpose.  This simple exercise of articulating your purpose can change the entire direction of your life from an inward focus to an outward focus.

Smallbizlady: How is goal-setting related to establishing your priorities and your purpose?

Allyson Lewis: Once you have defined your priorities and established your purpose, then you will create written 90-day goals.  You will want to write each goal in present tense as though it has already happened and you will follow each goal with 5 action steps.  It is important that you can’t really accomplish a goal — you can only accomplish specific action steps that will draw you closer to reaching your goals.  These short-term written goals are a key turning point for many people.  When they can identify what they want to accomplish and the action steps to accomplish it — they begin to FEEL new excitement and energy to actually do what they said they will do!

Smallbizlady: What are “7 Minute Micro-Actions?”

Allyson Lewis: After you have your written 90-day goals for your personal life and your business life — it is very easy to translate big goals into what we call “7 Minute Micro-Actions”.  A micro-action is a tiny step forward.  It is an action that is so easy to accomplish you feel no burden or emotional barrier between what you want to accomplish and what you can actually accomplish.  Having a list of a few of these daily micro-actions sets you up for very powerful psychological improvements in your well-being. If you have a list of a few micro-actions that will allow you to become the person you want to become and that are in alignment with your priorities, your purpose and your goals and you accomplish those micro-actions — imagine you will feel?  The simple answer is that you will feel GREAT!

Smallbizlady:  Talk to us about the importance of having a daily written plan of action.

Allyson Lewis: Time management begins with prioritizing what you want to accomplish each day and then blocking out the appropriate amount of time on your calendar to start and completely finish each task.  And, by having a daily written plan of action you will do much more that merely have a vague idea of what you will want to accomplish – you will have a written roadmap.  If we choose how we will spend the minutes of our day, a written roadmap will help you make much better decisions.

Smallbizlady: You have created a system of completing your 5 before 11®.  What does this mean?

Allyson Lewis: Your 5 before 11® micro-action list is one of the planning activities you will do on a daily basis. Just before you leave the office for the afternoon we encourage you to create a written plan of action.  Your 5 before 11® micro-action list will be a prioritized list of the five highest-value activities that you are willing to commit to completing before 11:00 a.m. the next morning. Your life will be radically different if you start every day knowing what five specific action steps you must take that morning in order to get closer to reaching your goals. This process makes every day count.

Smallbizlady: How can entrepreneurs really change their lives “7 Minutes” at a time?

Allyson Lewis: The single best way for entrepreneurs to change their life is take “7 Minutes” at the end of every day to create their 5 before 11® list for the next day.  This single idea of identifying the 5 most important action steps and placing them into a daily written plan of action is transforming people’s dreams into tiny micro-actions that they believe they can accomplish.  They no longer feel the pressure of having the overwhelming and demoralizing list of 50 tasks that they know they cannot accomplish — rather they walk into their office each morning with a written plan of the 5 most important things they need to do before 11am.  And, here’s the difference — because it is only 5, they do it.  The 7 Minute Lifeâ„¢ is about DOING what you say you will do.

Smallbizlady: What is the end result of living The 7 Minute Lifeâ„¢?

Allyson Lewis: The end result is that your life is congruent.  You spend your time focusing on your faith, your family, using your gifts and talents to change the world, living from a deep understanding of your purpose, finding fulfillment in a job well done, and making a difference in the lives of those closest to you.  The 7 Minute Lifeâ„¢ is about discovering meaning.  It is about regaining energy and excitement and it is about having the time to love life again.  The great paradox of The 7 Minute Lifeâ„¢ is that as we take the time to become more self-aware, we will become less self-directed.  Life is a journey.  The 7 Minute Lifeâ„¢ breaks down that journey to single steps.

Smallbizlady: What tools have you created for entrepreneurs?

Allyson Lewis: I have been an entrepreneur since I was a child.  The word entrepreneur is from the French word entreprendre, which means to undertake.  My problem has always been that I want to “undertake” TOO much.  I had so many ideas and dreams and goals, that I wasn’t accomplishing any of them.  I was driven, but I was distracted.  So, I have created concrete processes, tools and repeatable systems to make sure the work I do every day is CONSISTENTLY moving me forward.  We have written the book, The Seven Minute Difference: Small Steps for Big Change.  And, in July 2010, we released The 7 Minute Lifeâ„¢ Daily Planner that walks you through a system of  materials and exercises you can read about here http://bit.ly/dxsbwG.  You can find out more information about our books and planners at www.TheSevenMinuteDifference.com; and twelve of our most popular free time managements tools here as well: http://bit.ly/9jtN4L.

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

Find more tips on starting or growing your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog here – see RSS link to the right.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business ecover 1 203x300 How to Increase Productivity and Get More Out of Your Dayexperts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure.  As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She has been featured on NBC Nightly News, the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur and Black Enterprise Magazine. She hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs and publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)

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