Part 1 ( #1-12) 

1. 1. First, take inventory of what you DO have. Most of us don’t realize that we already have some powerful connections at our fingertips. We haven’t really worked on building a lasting and powerful relationship with the people already in our sphere. Over 3000 people viewed and attended our Women of Power Virtual Summit Conference in June, but only 3 ladies that I know of, reached out to some of the speakers to connect further…. After a conference is an opportunity for you to make a warm connection because you’ve already met and most conferences have a manual or agenda like ours here, where you can learn more about the speaker and how to reach them.  

    

   You’re already made a ton of connections on social media platforms like Linkedin ( the most professional one) Facebook and Twitter. There are probably at least 10-20 people between all of your platforms that you could reach out to and start to build a strong business relationship with. Get out a piece of paper and start making your list, then just reach out and say hello, but don’t send them the simple Linkedin friend request. Send them this script instead:

    Script 1

   Hello, I’m Kristi Jackson. I’ve read your profile and like what you’re doing. I’d would love to offer to introduce you with anyone of my connections should you want to reach out and start building a relationship. I look forward to connecting with you and connecting the best professionals I know to you…. It would be my pleasure……I’m known as the elbow of many deals. Have a wonderful and progressive week.

   That’s better than the stale, “ I’d like to add you to my professional network” text that Linkedin automatically inputs in your emails. Everyone knows this isn’t personal and no one takes it seriously.

    

   Script 2

   Here’s a Twitter script that I’ve been using for over 2 years that has gotten me connected to some of the TOP businesses and entrepreneurs in the world ( for example, Priceline owner and American Express)

   Hello, can you please DM me so that I can send you a private email about speaking ( you can interchange speaking with, sponsoring, interviewing, etc) This very simple script gets me followed ( they have to follow me to Direct Message me, then we can connect privately)

   When trying to determine what you already have, take a look at these things: 

   1. Social Media ( Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter)

   2. In-Person Networking ( business cards that you have at home)

   3. People that you already know

   4. Speakers you’ve heard at events ( eg. speakers from Women of Power Virtual Summit)

2. Use Google Analytics to know and understand what social media platform your website/blog referrers come from, then make a plan to spend a good portion of your marketing time here.  Facebook is a HUGE referrer for us, it is usually our number 1, 2 and 3 referral sources. So this lets us know that we must continue our marketing on Facebook and keep our page fresh. You don’t need to be on ALL of the social media platforms. You only need to be on the ones that your clients are hanging out on and that they use to make decisions on buying your product or service. If you are new to implementing Google Business tools in your company, you are in for a treat. The suite of tools are freaking awesome and here’s a post on some of the top ones I use in my business that are free.

3. Don’t ignore the low hanging fruit. Your best sales will come from people who are already in your audience AND this is the audience that already knows you. So make sure to keep up with and stay in contact with your best clients and evangelists even after the sale. These are the people who will refer you, who will promote you naturally, and will regularly buy from you. Don’t make it difficult. Just call or email 2 of them a day or 5 regular clients a week.

4. If you can afford it, buy 10 $5 Starbucks gift cards a month and give them to people who you meet that you like and really want to connect with. But don’t give it to them when you meet them. Mail them out about a week later.  I have made SOOOO many days with lil $5 cards and people truly appreciate them. I can remember sending one to a millionaire, seriously, he’s a wealthy business owner of a mortgage company. He makes a lot of money, but he wasn’t used to people doing things for him. When he called to thank me, he told me that he didn’t remember when was the last time someone gave him a gift. I used this technique in real estate, and this particular man and I did A LOT of business together.

5. Create loops and build complementary products off one another. Creating loops is a Kristi term but basically it means, using products, services and tools to point to other products, services and tools of yours. It’s just smart and it helps your community to understand your total business offerings. Building products that build upon and complement other products helps people take steps, move up, gather more information when they are ready and stop when they feel like they’ve gotten all that they need. It also shows that you are growing, learning more and offering that knowledge to your audience.

6. Know who you want, then go after this person ONLY! Sounds quite simple, yet I find MANY entrepreneurs wasting time hanging out on the wrong playgrounds daily. Hustling, even spending their money and time in places that don’t hold their client. Why are you going to ONLY free events to meet clients when your product or services costs $100? Does this make sense? I’m not saying not to go to free events, but understand that your client really may not be there if your product is not free. People ALWAYS ask me how I only go to only a few events per year ( in real estate) but would sell just as many houses as they would AND at a higher price. And I’ll say it again. I only went to events that costs money and that were kind of exclusive. It’s like placing yourself at a party where if you pick any man, you’ve picked a good one because you were in a place with quality men. Same thing, you want to go to places where no matter who you meet, you have a better chance of them being able to reach even your minimum requirements. I remember hustling to get this speaking engagement to a group of engineers……It payed off. I sold 14 houses within the next 7 months to this group from 1 speaking engagement, which was more beneficial than me going to several events to speak which may or may not have my client.

7. One of the most powerful ways you can reach who you need to reach, is knowing EXACTLY who you want, and then determining who has that audience. Get out a piece of paper and make a list of what companies, organizations, conferences, magazines, and platforms hold your particular audience. Then make a plan to reach them. Perfect question: What organization could I get in front of and meet my ideal client? After knowing this, you can easily turn down “opportunities” that don’t fit your goals, partnerships that don’t move you forward, or creating products that don’t take you to your ideal client.

8. Learn where to spend money and where to save. Right now, and probably for a while… you DO NOT need an office or furniture, or great stationery. What you need is a computer, the internet, unlimited minutes on your phone, a blog, a domain name and a professional email address. This is the time to learn A LOT. The areas that I would spend money ( if you have it to spend) is on business education ( courses, conferences, and books) and hiring a business consultant or coach. Yes, you can do it without a coach. Of course you can, but it will take you YEARS longer. The best thing to do is to determine where you will spend your time to learn something and where you will spend your money to learn quicker. If you’re looking for and AWESOME consultant ….. click here 

9. Create things that have reach even while you sleep. This can be called many names like, creating passive income, mailbox money, beach money, multiple streams of income, etc. But whatever you call it, start doing it. This will carry you, grow your business, come in handy, and brand you 24/7 no matter where you are- working on other projects, in meetings, traveling, sleeping, not working, whatever. We’ve built an entire course AND a free video series to help you begin to create and share your talent with the world. But the BIGGEST thing creating streams will do ( other than money) is to leverage your time and the talents of yourself and others. Think like this, creating items, products etc. can do this for you:

   1. Pay for something in your company. Most months my eGuides covered the cost for my virtual assistant and my design work… So I could get the help I needed without coming out of pocket AND I was helping tons of people with the eGuides. I was consistently branding myself since it is a digital product, it can sell and be downloaded anytime from anywhere ( after the United States, we sell the most eGuides to entrepreneurs in Australia)

   2. It creates a chain reaction. Some people first become affiliated with us through a virtual event, then we had some additional products and services for them to take part in. So their learning could be progressive…. there was more to learn and engage them further in the Women CEO Project community.

   3. There are MASSIVE benefits to creating something bigger than you that lives and carries your company’s name. Be it a magazine, a conference, a product, or a service-having items other than meeting you in person, is a great way to spread virtually, virally, and constantly.

10. Get out of your own way and stop spending time on administrative tasks. We don’t think twice about spending $25 a week on lattes at Starbucks, but won’t spend $25 paying someone to design documents for us so that they look professional. We will happily waste hours trying to do this amateur document ourselves. Nor will we pay for a few hours of assistance so that we are not wasting our time creating documents, making spreadsheets, or designing newsletters. If this is your talent…. ok cool, but for most of us, these types of tasks are not where our talents lie. And if you’re curious about it, pull out some of your work and send it to me… I’ll tell you if it’s a talent of yours or not. More than likely, someone else should be working on these things for you. One of the best decisions I could make for myself and my business, is to hire someone to help me with things that do not move my business forward. They are important. I mean, yes, newsletters and emails need to be sent out. But momma needs to go out, have the big meetings and bring in the money. I can’t do that if I’m busy, head down into a spreadsheet, which, by the way, I am absolutely horrible at.

11. Create a system or a process in your company wherever possible. You will never be able to hire someone to help you if your whole process on how you do something is in your head. That is not a business, that is bootlegging… Let’s start to get stuff in order. If you create a newsletter each week, make a small document detailing how you do it, fonts you use, time of day and day of week you send it out, pictures you include, links etc. and just save the document. So now, when you do hire someone, even part time or temporary, you can just hand them this document and keep it moving- remember, momma is focusing on bringing home the bacon and now she can do that comfortably because her assistant knows exactly what she needs and how she wants it. I have created a strategic multi-level marketing plan template, an ideal client template, a designer and freelancer checklist, among many other documents ( I’ve included many of these templates in the Creator’s Blueprint course) These documents are immensely important to my business and keep us organized no matter who is completing the task.

12. While you’re creating, make sure that some of your products or services can be bought online without you being around. Again, you want to automate as much as possible and creating “passive” income is……passive. If you make money only when you show up to set up your shop or when you speak, you are leaving a whole other stream of clients and business out there to buy from someone else. You want people in different countries to be able to buy from you, whenever they want. You want things to be selling while you are at your speaking engagement, and to do this, you need your products and services to be online. You want the finding, vetting, buying and follow-up process to be totally automated and online. Aim for this in as many areas in your business as possible.

Ok, so I almost put ALL 22 business growth to do’s here and realized you’d probably need some time to digest the first 12. Ready for Part 2? Click here to get it!  Feedback time…..tell me Women CEO Project community, what questions do you have about business growth? Drop them in the comments below!