Archives for August 2013

Sticky Situations: How Do I Fund My Business?

August 21, 2013 by influexwp Leave a Comment

Q: I have a great business idea, but no money to fund it. What should I do? — Excited But Broke

A: Dear Excited But Broke, we're going to get you fixed up right here.

The world is resource rich and if you really have a good idea, it will be relatively simple to find the financial resources to fund your investment into your future.

As a starting place, you need to know exactly how much you need. Once you know what you need, you will begin to see things you were simply asleep to before. Synchronicity happens (and it's always a signpost that flashes, “you are on the right track. keep going!”).

Once you know exactly what you need, you can pick from one or more of the following ways to get it:

1. Ask your parents or other family members/friends to give or loan you the money. It helps to have at least a one page plan that explains what you want to do and how it will be financially successful. Return on investment may not be that important to family and friends, but they want to be able to feel a good about their support of you;

2. Borrow from a bank. You can borrow from a bank in a few different ways:

a. Traditional revolving credit type loan, often funded by the SBA;
b. Line of credit tied to a house or other piece of collateral;
c. Line of credit tied to your personal credit score;
d. Business credit cards (based on your personal credit score, but tied to the business);
e. Business loan based on revenues of your business or a Personal Loan tied to your personal credit score;
f. Personal credit cards.

3.Venture Capital: sell part of your company to an investment firm that specializes in equity investments in start-up companies in exchange for a big exit upon sale within 3-5 years. Are you prepared to sell that soon?

4. Pre-Sales: the marketplace supports your growth by buying into your concept and pre-buying the product or service you will offer in the future.

5. Crowdfunding: often can be similar to pre-sales in which people are investing in your future growth by buying “perks” or products now. Crowdfunding may also involve no pre-sales and instead straight investment capital now that the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) has passed.

6. Out of revenue: if you are offering a service, the fastest and best way to get into business is just to start offering your services in a one to one, high dollar package. We recommend you start by knowing what the minimum you can charge for your time is, create packages on that basis and raise your prices slowly, but surely from there.

No matter which way you choose, you are going to need legal guidance and documentation. Contact us to help you decide what's best for your business idea and how to raise the money you need with the least risk to you, your family and your personal assets.

Sticky Situations: Alexis & Ali Give You Eyes Wide Open Guidance

August 19, 2013 by influexwp Leave a Comment

Q: My deceased husband's daughter keeps showing up with her kids to stay at my house, uninvited. I can't say no because I don't want them out on the streets. But, I don't want them here either. She's my step-daughter and has nowhere to go and if I tell her she can't stay with me, I'll feel terrible and I can't bear to see my grandsons out on the street. — I'm Ready for a Really Empty Nest

A: Dear Ready Empty Nester: Boy, are you in a bind. You love your stepdaughter (and you really loved her dad before he died) and you want do the right thing by her and her kids. But you hate having her stay with you because it's disruptive. You let her do it, get resentful, feel bad about your resentment, beat yourself up, hold it in and act out against her in passive/aggressive ways.

It's a vicious cycle and you'd love to get out of it. You've got three options:

Get okay with being thought of as “selfish” (it can actually be a good thing), tell her you do not want her there and trust that she'll be just fine one way or another;
Let her stay and find the way to be glad she is there. Relish the time with the boys, enjoy having a full time house sitter available, travel, relax, trust the perfection of her journey; OR
Do nothing, seethe when she's there, worry and judge her when she's not there, and tear yourself up with resentment, judgment and stress.

Here's the best part:

You get to choose which three of these is right for you and behave accordingly. The way you create your reality (you've heard of manifestation and law of attraction, right? this is how it starts) is to behave in alignment with the outcome you want to experience. If you want stress, do nothing. Things will stay as they are. If you want ease, either tell her to go and revel in it OR let her stay and enjoy her as much as you can.

Launching Your Product, Program, Course or Service Online? Read This First…

August 7, 2013 by influexwp Leave a Comment

Does just thought of the word product launch stress you out? Are you clueless on how to sell your product, program, course or service that you’ve invested so much in creating?

I know how you feel.

I was first introduced to the world of product launches back in 2005. I was a lawyer with my own practice, and I was pretty damn successful.

But I wanted to get out of serving just the clients that came into my practice; I wanted to move from serving one-to-one to serving one-to-many.

I felt I had some pretty unique work to offer to the world, and I wanted to get it out there in a big way. Leveraging the internet, I set out to create a product that I could create once and sell again, and again, and again.

This product wound up costing me $15,000 dollars to develop!

So, here I was with this beautiful product I was so proud of without having any clue how to sell it. Sure, I was selling one here and two there, but I wasn’t moving the product in a way that I had imagined when I created it.

I tried buying ad space on a blogger network. I wound up having my ad pulled (I wasn’t too good at speaking to my target market back in the day). With nothing left to try, I invested $30,000 to work with an information marketing expert.

At this point, I was no longer tapping into my savings. I was using my business credit. I had invested everything I had.

So with the help of this marketing expert, I hosted a teleseminar and launched a program that I hadn’t even finished yet!

With no product, no program, and no list I made $117,000 in 67 minutes.

Since then, I’ve never sold a completed product or program.

If you’ve got a product/program that you haven’t already finished: Stop. Wait. Don’t!

A huge part of the product you’re going to deliver gets developed during the sales process.

Here is the basic product launch formula we use at EWO:

Multiple Emails: Send out 4 emails inviting people to a teleseminar (… conference call or webinar)
Host the teleseminar (To learn how to host a killer teleseminar, check out Lisa Sasevich's ‘6-Figure Teleseminar Secrets.'
Create Reasons to Invest Now: Structure your script in a way that creates demand for what you’re offering
Offer Added Bonuses: Make an offer on the call that is only for a limited time or you only have a limited amount of product for sale, have a specific date after which people can no longer buy you product or join your program, and offer a bonus for people who take action fast.
Have a Killer Follow Up Campaign!

Of course, this is a very simplified version, but you get the basic flow of the process. The key is to master the fundamentals, then you can add all the bells and whistles.

Where are people going to screw up this simple formula? (Skip the screw ups and let us handle your launch.)

1.They’re not going to send out enough emails ahead of time to promote the teleseminar.

When you fail to correctly promote your teleseminar, you’re going to end up on the call with a small number or people (if any at all).

2.They’re going to drive people directly to a sales page without hosting a seminar.

By directing people straight to a sales page, you lower your conversion rate dramatically. Hosting a teleseminar allows you to build a relationship with your audience and hear what their needs and wants are so you can include it in your products.

3.They’re not going to have people opt-in for the teleseminar.

The biggest value of hosting a teleseminar is to build your list!

My first teleseminar, I had 750 opt-ins. This meant that after my seminar was over and I made my sales, I was able to still build a relationship with my list of 750 people.

Also, when people register, you’re able to send reminder emails. This ensures more people end up on the call.

Listen to this: We’ve found that ONLY 3-10% of people that you come in contact with are ready to buy now. That means that if you’re rushing to make the sale and failing to collect contact info, you’re missing out on the 90-97% of people who may be ready to buy later.

Now that we’ve created a project management system, launch doesn’t have to be a dirty word anymore. Because I’m no longer trying to juggle everything and make sure the pages are up and the links are correct and the emails are going out, I’m able to focus on what I do best: the content and the creativity. And that’s what I want for you. (Listen to my call on how to launch.)

We’ve mastered our product launch system, and it’s worked to help us make millions on our products and services. If you’re ready for us to put this mastery to work and launch your product or service for you, now’s the time to take action.

Can any of you resonate with the feeling of uncertainty that comes with launching a new product or service? Or have you launched a product without knowing how to sell it or you’ve followed step-by-step programs and had weaker sales than you’ve expected? Leave me a comment below and tell me your story. I'd love to hear it!