The 4th Annual Done4You Giveaway of the Century is on fire!

If you haven’t gone over there yet to see all the business and marketing services that are being given away…well, it’s time to do
so now!

More than 50 contributors (including me!) have joined together to give away more than $1,000,000 in ACTUAL business services and other done-for-you products.

(I’m giving away a Cash Flow Toolkit)

Check it out now: www.Done4YouGiveaway.com

Look at just some of what’s being given away:

* Ready2Go articles
* Done4You success tips with inspirational images
* Social media set up – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
* Bio creation
* Website makeovers
* Web analytics set-up
* WordPress maintenance
* Social media automation
* Done4You membership program
* Email templates
* Copywriting
* Mobile apps
* Ebook creation
* Done4You sales scripts
* Ebook creation
* Sales page creation

And too many more to mention here!

(By the way, if you’ve already registered for your free done-for-you products and services, you might want to check back, as more new
giveaways have been added since opening day.)

Head on over now and claim your freebies! www.Done4YouGiveaway.com

This is your last call if you want to join me live for tomorrow’s virtual workshop: Create and Launch Your First Info Product in 30 Days.

Why join me live? Because when you do, you’ll have the opportunity to ask me your info product creation questions right there on the workshop!

Here’s a quick refresher…

During the workshop you will learn how to:

• take your existing content and turn it into a paid info product
• the exact system you need to have in place to automate the delivery of your info product (both physical & digital info products)
• the 3 stages of a product launch so that you can maximize sales both during the launch and into the future
• the step-by-step plan for getting your info product created and launched in just 30 days

Click Here to get all the details and register

Here I am in lovely Charlotte, NC, at Suzanne Evans’ 10K Club. We’re working with a great group of business owners, and I’m focused on helping them build their businesses with the right systems.

This is the first of the 10K Club in-person intensives for the 2012 year, and everyone is so pumped and excited to be here.

Registrations are going great for next week’s live, virtual workshop: Create and Launch Your First Info Product in 30 Days. Will I see you there?

As I’m working off my laptop again this week, I thought I’d share with you a previous article on my top 5 remote working tools. If you get yourself set up to work remotely then you can just about work from anywhere there is an Internet connection!

When creating your filing system, follow the same system for both your paper & computer filing systems, as well as for organizing your emails – it makes it easier to find everything.

I’ve seen quite a few discussions on Facebook over the last week or so about 1ShoppingCart’s price increase; the main topic being that they’ve put their prices up by 30%. A lot of the posts I’ve been reading have been about users unhappy with this price increase and so are looking for a new provider.

Here’s my take on the whole issue … while it’s good to regularly review your prices and increase them periodically (after all you are running a business and your goal is to make a profit) it’s how you handle that price increase with current customers and clients that makes all the difference. And I think, in this case, it was 1ShoppingCart’s handling of the price increase that caused the problems, not the actual increase itself.

I’ve been with 1ShoppingCart for about five years and this is the first time they’ve increased their prices. If they’d done a little increase each year then this wouldn’t have been such a big issue (a pricing strategy tip for you there!).

I actually won’t be jumping ship because 1ShoppingCart is right for my business, and overall I’m happy with the service. But for those of you thinking of looking elsewhere, I thought I’d dig out this article I wrote a while back, comparing two different ecommerce providers.

Whilst on the surface it seems you’re comparing like for like, when you actually get down and into the system it’s not always quite what it seems.  Click here to read the article.

Having a clear client intake system in place makes it really easy to bring new clients on board.  So, next time you’re having a conversation with a potential client (whether that’s in-person, over the phone, or via email) and they express an interest in working with you, you can say, “Great!  The next step is to …” and tell them what happens next.

I’ve had many clients take on the challenge of creating their first info product in 30 days, and they’re always surprised at how simple it is. It really is possible to add a new income stream to your business in just one month — and you can do it really inexpensively too!

If you’re ready to add a new income stream to your business — or even if you’re just thinking about it — then I’d like to invite you to my upcoming, live virtual workshop, where I’ll share all my product creation steps and strategies with you: Create and Launch Your First Info Product in 30 Days.

You will learn how to:

• take your existing content and turn it into a paid info product
• the exact system you need to have in place to automate the delivery of your info product (both physical & digital info products)
• the 3 stages of a product launch so that you can maximize sales both during the launch and into the future
• the step-by-step plan for getting your info product created and launched in just 30 days

Click Here to get all the details and register

This week has been the kind of week where I really love running my own business; it’s been so varied in workload that I’ve really enjoyed the week.

Just a quick snapshot of what I’ve been working on:

— Creating a new program portal using Infusionsoft and InfusionWP plugin. I love learning new systems and setting things up. Add to the challenge of Infusionsoft’s major software upgrade and it’s been quite an interesting week.

— Working on installing and setting up two WordPress blogs. I don’t do project work very often, so when I get the chance to do this kind of stuff I really enjoy it.

— Having fabulous private clients calls, and working with them to create their own individual business models, and implementing a marketing plan to grow their businesses.

— Went to Toledo on Wednesday to meet a new colleague. It was a great meeting and she introduced me to a couple of new networking organizations in our area.

— Putting together the materials for my upcoming table sponsorship at May’s WEN Economic Success Summit. Sponsorship is a first for me, so I’ve enjoyed figuring out what I’m going take for my table. I can’t wait to see how it works out.

And I’ve even found time to write a brand-new article for you this week. It’s all about creating a checklist for your email broadcasts.

Being consistent in your business is one of the critical factors for ensuring long-term growth, and one of the ways to ensure consistency is to create systems. Everything you do in your business, from responding to emails to working with clients, needs to be systemized and documented, so that it’s very easy to create a repeatable process in your business.

This consistency is what builds the like, know, and trust factor with your clients, and so ensures that you continue to build your client base.

When you don’t have proper and well-thought out systems in your business, mistakes happen. One of the areas where I see this happening is in sending out your email broadcasts, whether you’re a do-it-yourself business owner, or whether you have a virtual assistant doing this for you.

Just some of the mistakes that can happen are:

• Bad links in emails – they go to the wrong page, or they don’t work.
• The wrong email template being used.
• Emails going out at the wrong time.

If you’ve experienced these, or any other mistakes, in your email broadcasts you know just how frustrating that can be. And once that email has gone out, there’s no getting it back!

So, to avoid these mistakes happening in the future, create a checklist for what needs to happen when sending out an email broadcast. Here are five areas where you can create a checklist and so ensure that when your broadcast does get sent, it does so with the RIGHT information:

1. The Content. Who is writing the content? What is the content going to be about? Who needs to receive the content (team member)? When do they need to receive the content in order to prepare the broadcast in time? These are just some of the critical areas you need to be aware of, and be clear on, so that the right information gets sent out at the right time.

2. Look and Feel. Some people have a different HTML template for their solo broadcasts than they do their newsletter. So specify which HTML template is to be used for which broadcast. And in some cases, a simple Text-only broadcast is relevant. With all of the list management services you have the option of sending out your broadcasts in either HTML, Plain Text, or MIME (a technical term that stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) and basically this means sending out your broadcast in both HTML and Plain Text versions. I always recommend using the MIME format – yes it’s more work – but it means your email has a higher chance of being delivered and is less likely to be classed as spam, because you’ve taken the time to create both formats.

3. Check Any Links and Other Relevant Information. If the broadcast is for a teleclass or other event, are the telephone numbers listed correct? If it’s your ezine or other broadcast, are all links correct? There’s nothing worse than sending out a broadcast with an incorrect phone number or bad link and then having to resend it again because you made a mistake the first time. It doesn’t look good for your business.

4. Proof Read. If you’re handing your broadcast over to a team member, ask them to proof read it too for any spelling or grammatical errors. If you’re doing it yourself, ask a family member or friend to proof read for you. A fresh pair of eyes can spot any mistakes that you’ve overlooked.

5. Send a Test. Many of the list management services give you the option of sending a test broadcast beforehand. This is a great way to check layout, formatting, links, and other relevant information. So ensure that sending a test broadcast is part of your system.

Creating a broadcast checklist is just one of the ways you can start to systemize your business, and so begin to build that all-important Standard Operations Procedure (SOP).

(c) 2012 Tracey Lawton

If you’d like more strategies to GROW your business with the RIGHT systems, then you’ll need the Easy Office Organization Home Study System that will teach you exactly how to set yourself up for long-term business success and profits. It’s a complete, 28-lesson program, complete with 18 done-for-you templates, and 7 worksheets, plus there are tools, scripts, examples, mind maps, checklists, and resources throughout the entire program. Nowhere else will you find it as easy to pull together all the necessary elements, in clear language, and very specific assignments.

I noticed this past week that Google Calendar has added a great new feature … it’s called Time Slots.  You simply block out time on your calendar when you’re available for appointments, and your clients can self-schedule with you.  What a great time saver!

Here’s the link to more information:

Click to read about Google Time Slots