4 Secrets

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success
By Lorraine Cohen BZ Riger-Hull Terri Zwierzynski Rose Hill
of Team Solo-E http://www.Solo-E.com
2005-2006 Solo-Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Thank you.
Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................. 5 Secret #1: The Secret of Personal Development....................... 6 Personal Development A Page from the Corporate Handbook ....... 6 What does that have to do with being a Solo Entrepreneur? ........... 7 An Example ............................................................................. 8 Conquering the Chaos............................................................... 9 Bottom Line........................................................................... 10 Secret #2: The Secret to Working With Clients You Love Create Your Attraction Niche .................................................. 12 What is An Attraction Niche?.................................................... 13 What an Attraction Niche Can Do For Your Business .................... 14 How to Create Your Attraction Niche ......................................... 15 An Example ........................................................................... 16 Bottom Line........................................................................... 17 Secret #3: Leverage -- The Secret to Doing What You Love And Only That......................................................................... 19 How can you do it all?? ........................................................... 19 Why do you do this to yourself? ............................................... 20 How can I afford help? ............................................................ 21 An Example ........................................................................... 22 Another Kind of Leverage ........................................................ 22 Automate!............................................................................. 23 Bottom Line........................................................................... 24 About the Author ................................................................... 24 Secret #4: The Secret to Getting More Done and Making More Money as a Solo Entrepreneur Collaboration ....................... 26 The Benefits of Collaboration ................................................... 27 The Best Collaborations for Solo Entrepreneurs .......................... 29 An Example ........................................................................... 31 Bottom Line........................................................................... 31 Conclusion.............................................................................. 33 Download the latest version of this document: http://www.Solo-E.com/foursecrets/4secrets.pdf
The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success http://www.Solo-E.com
Introduction
Certainly our four secrets have been taught, singly, elsewhere. However, for reasons best understood by those that study culture and human behavior, these concepts are the least publicized, understood, and implemented strategies for business success even though they are acknowledged as the most powerful drivers of success for the Solo Entrepreneur*. In pondering these secrets, I marvel at their simplicity while at the same time, I recognize my own resistance to actually applying them in business. You might recognize this same resistance within you as you read this report thats okay. Because youll also be inspired and begin to see your own barriers to being a more successful Solo Entrepreneur start to dissolve. To your solo success, Terri Zwierzynski Conductor of Extraordinary Ideas (CEI) http://www.Solo-E.com
* Solo Entrepreneur: one who wishes to work for themselves, with no or few employees (and little inclination to hire more), and who does so because of a desire to do work that fits their values, passions and lifestyle. Typically a corporate refugee, but not always.
http://www.Solo-E.com
Secret #1: The Secret of Personal Development

Written by: Lorraine Cohen
Edited by: Terri Zwierzynski
Copyright Lorraine Cohen 2005 for
Solo-Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved
"Success is about who you become. The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit." -Jim Rohn As a Solo Entrepreneur you may be starting a new business or intending to grow your existing business. Aside from getting the most obvious systems in place technology, business and marketing plans, defining your product or services, and finances what else is needed to be successful? Personal Development A Page from the Corporate Handbook Companies have been bringing in corporate trainers for years. Its good business to invest in programs that teach employees how to be better leaders, manage conflict, improve communication, increase sales effectiveness, become more confident, and so forth. Using a myriad of tools including personality and behavioral assessments, skill building techniques, and self-reflective exercises many training programs empower people to develop both professionally and personally. Smart, right? Of course, the integration and sustainability
of the information is dependent upon how much a person values selfdevelopment! Having cutting edge technology, innovation, great products and services is not enough to guarantee sustained success. Why? Because people drive the success of a business. The greatest asset a company has is its workforce. To grow a business, you must also be growing your people. What does that have to do with being a Solo Entrepreneur? Im so glad you asked! If I had a $1.00 every time I heard someone say, Just show me (or tell me) what I need to do to accelerate my business, build wealth, manage my time. Many people believe that focusing solely on strategies to achieve external goals is the best way to achieve success. The truth is that, for your business to flourish, you must be flourishing as a person. Looking to grow your business without investing in yourself is a plan to limit your business success. Your outside world (your life) is a reflection of your inside world (who you are). Who you are affects what you do (or dont do!) If your business and personal life is NOT flourishing, where you are looking for your solutions? Personal Development is a vital key in having a successful business AND a fulfilling life! For a solo-entrepreneur, investing time, energy, and resources to grow yourself is a critical key in the level of success you achieve.
An Example One of my coaching clients (Ill call her Carol), is a solo entrepreneur who owns a graphic design company. Relocating two years ago, she has been working long hours to jumpstart her business and build a name for herself in the area. Because of her hard work and marketing savvy, Carol has built a strong following very quickly. (Normally, business takes 3-5 years to build). In fact, her business is growing so fast, she is unable to keep up! You might be thinking, who wouldnt want that? She should be celebrating, right? Shes not! In fact she began feeling depressed. Working such a hectic schedule was beginning to take negative tolls on her. BIG RED FLAGS!!!!! Heres the rest of the story Carol works 16 hour days and works on weekends because she fears losing business. Her private life is almost non-existent. A perfectionist, Carol put enormous pressure on herself in servicing her clients. She constantly feels stress and worries about keeping her clients happy. (They are usually thrilled with her results!) Even though she is highly talented, shes tough on herself, and lives with fear and self-doubt. As a one woman-show, she manages every aspect of her business. And, having grown so quickly, she has no systems in place to help run her business efficiently. As a result, she feels overwhelmed and
stressed with all the people and responsibilities she has to manage. Who wouldnt? Her relationships with her husband and friends are suffering. She is so busy working, she has no time for the people and things she loves the most. Or, even time for herself! Despite all of her business success, she is concerned she is losing her enjoyment for her work. She has difficulty sleeping at night, unable to turn off her brain. She often feels exhausted. She feels more like a human doing than a human being. If her outer world was in chaos, imagine how she felt on the inside! Conquering the Chaos Carol is a smart woman. She realized she was working harder, not smarter. What did she do? She understood she needed help to continue to grow her business and thrive as a person. She also realized that in order to change the way she was running her business (or more accurately, how her business was running her), she needed to look at herself. Not an easy task changing what has always worked for you but is no longer working, takes courage and support. So, she hired a personal and business coach. Some of the things she worked on included: 1. Identifying her values, vision, and purpose 2. Learning how to manage her time 3. Engaging in extreme self-care
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4. Designing strategies to help her stay focused and motivated Motivated by the chaos and anxiety in her life, Carol has made huge progress in six short months. Choosing to make the investment in her business and herself, Carol is beginning to enjoy her work again and have a life! Bottom Line Learning more about who you are on the inside (your beliefs, core values, natural strengths, passions, and innate talents) is the KEY INGREDIENT to making decisions that produce deep satisfaction and extraordinary results. By bringing who you are into the equation, you can view a full spectrum of choices and solutions to reach more satisfying and richer outcomes like bringing Technicolor to a black and white picture! At Solo-E.com, we help you unlock the power of Personal Development. Sign up now for our free Solo Secrets newsletter and experience it for yourself About the Author Lorraine Cohen brings more than 25 years experience in business and personal coaching, psychological counseling, and sales to more than 1500 business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives from a wide range of industries. Working with business people to accelerate their business, she coaches people from the inside out to achieve exceptional results by executing action in alignment with core beliefs, values and life purpose. An expert in breaking through fear and http://www.solo-e.com
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eliminating barriers to success, she helps people articulate what they want and gives them the tools to succeed. Check out Lorraines unique products and services at www.powerfull-living.biz Sign up for her free e-course and newsletter today!
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Secret #2: The Secret to Working With Clients You Love Create Your Attraction Niche
Written by: BZ Riger-Hull
Edited by: Rose Hill, Amy Ewart, and Terri Zwierzynski
Copyright BZ Riger-Hull 2005 for
What do you do to attract clients and customers instead of running around after them? Is your definition of whom you serve aligned with who youve discovered you are? Would you like to know a secret to attracting all the perfect clients and customers you want with ease? A secret that lets you have fun marketing A secret that lets your passion in business shine through A secret that once you understand it and integrate it into your Attraction Marketing mindset will let you easily create multiple income streams that will allow profits to flow in. And what if I told you this secret would also bust one of the top myths that hold Solo Entrepreneurs back from thriving?
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The secret is having a clearly defined, developed, and deep niche. Not just any niche but an Attraction Niche. What is An Attraction Niche? A traditional market niche is a targeted group of people or businesses that share a common characteristic that makes them easy to locate and reach with your marketing activities and messaging. For example:

Realtors Financial advisors Stay at home moms Divorced dads
An Attraction Niche, however, is even more targeted. It is directly related to the solutions you provide, your expertise and passion in business, and the qualities and characteristics of your perfect customers and clients. An Attraction Niche lets you attract the customers you want to be of service to in a way in which you can make a powerful, positive impact in their lives or businesses. Thus allowing you to attract a bigger universe of prospects than someone who doesnt have an Attraction Niche. And with your Attraction Niche you can create multiple income streams for your business, allowing your niche to change and grow as you and your business evolve. An Attraction Niche is not about limiting the people who you can work with. Its about aligning your passion with the process of how you run your business and who you really want to connect with. It allows you
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to market with fun, integrity, and a creative strategic approach, dramatically increasing the number of perfect customers you attract. What an Attraction Niche Can Do For Your Business An Attraction Niche is one of the most powerful tools for growing your small business. With an Attraction Niche, you know exactly who and where to focus your Attraction Marketing actions, allowing you to quickly and easily attract your definition of success. Part of creating your Attraction Niche is to identify your target market. Financial viability is another important criterion of your Attraction Niche. Once you clearly and specifically define your target market, you can then broaden and deepen the scope to which you serve that market through your Attraction Niche. The profits your business can gain from attracting your perfect customers and clients from within your Attraction Niche will broaden and deepen as well. An Attraction Niche is not limiting it is freeing. It doesnt shrink the pool of potential customers it makes it a whole water park filled with perfect customers and clients. An Attraction Niche frees you up to focus on attracting your perfect clients instead of running around trying to talk with and be visible to everyone only to find out the people who do hire you or buy from you are not a good fit at all. Deciding who your perfect clients are and who they are not is essential to success in creating your Attraction Niche.
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Once you shift your thinking about the importance of having an Attraction Niche, and start to see what a powerful tool it can be, the one question that comes to mind is: How do I find my niche? You dont. A niche is not something you find. Its something you create. How to Create Your Attraction Niche A great Attraction Niche is: 1. Based on your passion in business 2. Intentionally designed 3. A generator of great success and wealth for you 4. Continually evolving and growing as your business does 5. A receptive audience with whom you can easily connect 6. Filled with perfect customers who love to refer you new business An Attraction Niche is created based on the solutions you are passionate about providing. Then you can broaden the niche and develop multiple income streams for it by adapting your solutions to specific industry or demographic segments. Lets say your current niche is helping people with solutions to timemanagement challenges. This is a solution-based niche that you can provide through a number of different vehicles: in person, in groups, via Teleclass, with workshops, and many other formats. You could also develop a number of different products that solve the challenges people have around
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time management. A few examples would be e-courses, audio recordings, check lists, and assessments. You could then develop several focused sub-niches based on your solution of time management. For example: Time management for single moms Time management for small business owners Time management for traveling sales women
By taking a solution you are passionate about providing and targeting it to a specific sub-niche, you can provide a fantastic product for people one that really solves their challenges, fits their needs, and gives them the specific solutions they are looking for. In addition to having satisfied customers, you have a product that commands a premium price. Because your product is specialized and customtailored to a specific audiences need, your customers dont have to wade through generalized information that doesnt benefit them and their specific circumstances. An Example A great example of the power of an Attraction Niche is my client Juliann. Juliann had been a solo entrepreneur for 3 years when we started working together. She wanted to be more successful and increase her income. By focusing on her passion in business and clearly defining and developing her Attraction Niche, she was able to do just that.
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Within six months Juliann had fine-tuned her website and marketing materials, increased her monthly income by an additional $4,000 a month, and was connecting with more of her perfect customers. Using marketing language that attracts your perfect customers and focuses on your Attraction Niche makes your website a powerful tool to increase your income. For Juliann, creating an Attraction Niche allowed her to reduce the amount of time she was working while increasing her profits each month. But she says the most important thing it did for her was she fell in love with her business again. New ideas easily flow to her and she keeps the ones that fit into her evolving Attraction Niche and lets the rest go. Bottom Line Why is an Attraction Niche so important to the enjoyment of your business and level of income flowing in? Without a clearly defined niche and strategic systems to attract your perfect clients and customers, marketing becomes a struggle. Attracting prospects and converting them becomes a hit-or-miss process. And your passion and income quickly erode. Defining and developing an Attraction Niche is essential to making steady deposits into your spiritual and financial bank accounts. At Solo-E.com, we help you unlock the power of an Attraction Niche. Sign up now for our free Solo Secrets newsletter and experience it for yourself http://www.solo-e.com
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About the Author BZ Riger-Hull is an expert Success Mindset Coach and Bodacious Marketing Consultant and author of the Web Success Wizard. BZ helps you develop and effectively market profitable products and services. She knows how important having a step-by-step process to get the clients, customers, and income you really want flowing in, is to creating Bodacious Success. BZ helps you focus on what is most important, demystifies marketing and helps harness your creativity and market your products and services through your website, blog, podcast, newsletter, autoresponders... Making the complex technology pieces easy to understand and implement. "Success comes from you not to you, its all about committing to your success and taking action." She lives on Martha's Vineyard and begins each morning with a beach walk with her two white Labradors Taza and Luna before getting to the days' customers and clients. Please contact BZ BZ@BodaciousSuccess.com for solutions to help you be Bodaciously Successful. http://www.BodaciousSmallBusinessSuccess.com
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Secret #3: Leverage The Secret to Doing What You Love And Only That
Written by: Terri Zwierzynski
Edited by: Rose Hill, Amy Ewart, Jeff Morrow, and Kasey Zanolli
Copyright Terri Zwierzynski 2005 for
Ah, the sweet promise of Solo Entrepreneurship. No boss to tell you what to do or when. No commute through the daily gridlock. No employees to supervise. And then theres the reality of running a business on your own. Bookkeeping, ordering office supplies, marketing, answering the phone, updating your web site, and oh, yeah doing the work you love with clients! If youve followed the first two Secrets, those clients and customers are rolling in how do you keep up? How can you do it all?? The short answer? You cant. If you try to wear all the hats in your business, you are likely to find yourself overworked, underpaid, frustrated, and ultimately, burned out. The hours you can spend with clients, actually making money, will be limited and so will your income! As your frustration mounts, it starts getting harder to get clients because they can sense that you arent enjoying your work or doing your best. Instead, you are distracted by that bill that needs
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to be paid by Friday, by the clutter in your office, by those brochures you need to get to the printer by 4:00 p.m. Trying to do it all is like stealing from yourself. You are keeping yourself from doing the work you love, your genius work, by forcing yourself to learn all the aspects of running the business, and then trying to perform them all. Why do you do this to yourself? Probably a couple of reasons. First, especially when you are starting out, you think you cant afford help. Ill get a bookkeeper/receptionist/assistant later, when I have enough business. Somehow, enough business never comes because you simply never have enough time to get that business! Because you are too busy doing everything else. Its a vicious cycle! The second reason might be about control. Face it; you got into business for yourself so that you could have control over all the aspects of your job. You want your clients to experience a highquality product or service; after all, its your name on the masthead! You want your accounts in order; you dread the thought of a tax audit, or worse, someone stealing from you. You want your web site to be just so, and its just easier to do it yourself than to explain to someone else how you want it. No one else will ever do it the way you would! Its time to let go of the myths and fears.
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The truth is: you cant afford NOT to get help. And you have to LET GO of the need to oversee everything. If you want to have a business that gives you the freedom and flexibility you want, you need to take advantage of the secret that successful Solo Entrepreneurs know and apply consistently and profitably: The secret is LEVERAGE. How can I afford help? Leverage is defined as Supplementing, Enhancing, or having Gained Advantage. One example of leverage is when you take that first simple step to outsource some task that you dislike or arent good at. For instance, one task that vexes many Solo Entrepreneurs is bookkeeping. Suppose it takes 4 hours a month to do the bookkeeping for your business. And for this example, lets say that you can outsource your bookkeeping in your community (or virtually) for $25/hr, and you sell your own services for $100/hr. The instant you replace yourself with a bookkeeper, youve increased your potential monthly income by $300. Could you use an extra $300 a month, $3600 a year? And thats just by outsourcing one task! Additionally, you have created a business write-off, which is essential to lowering your taxes. In todays virtual world, you can outsource just about any service you might need. Of course, youll want to hire carefully to find someone with the skills and integrity that meet your standards. What about a service that is just as costly as your time? What if you could hire a marketing consultant to help you with your market research, but their hourly rate is the same as yours? Sure, you could do that research yourself but how long would it take you to do it?
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A marketing consultant who is skilled and practiced at market research can do the job in a fraction of the time it would take you to do it yourself. An Example When we started Solo-E.com, my business partner and I did virtually everything ourselves. We limited our cash investment by editing much of the web site ourselves, posting all the articles and classes, and creating the newsletter each week. We were able to get started on only $10,000, which lasted us more than a year. But our membership didnt grow as we forecast, partly because we didnt have the time to devote to things like setting strategy and marketing! When we finally contracted with three Virtual Assistants, a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I realized how much I disliked the kind of detailed work that our VAs loved doing! Suddenly I was free, not only with more time but without the negative energy dragging me down. In hindsight, were I to do it over again, I would find the money to get help immediately. Solo-E would have grown more quickly and had more to show for our investment sooner. Another Kind of Leverage The leverage described above is about how to leverage yourself: using your time in the most productive and profitable way, and hiring others who are more productive at the tasks you arent suited for. Another kind of leverage that will boost your business into the stratosphere if you take full advantage of it is leveraging your knowledge.
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If you are a typical solo service professional, your work is time-based. Your income is limited by the number of hours available to work on a project, to teach a class, to talk with a client. If you want to make more income, you have to work more hours. Leveraging your knowledge removes that limitation. If you have valuable knowledge to share and can package that knowledge and sell it, your income potential is now limited only by your skill in marketing (or the skill of that marketing consultant youve contracted with!). Recorded Teleclasses, e-books, e-courses, audio or video CDs, and print books can all be sold 24/7 via the Internet with a good eCommerce solution. Electronic products can be delivered automatically, and you can outsource the fulfillment of physical products. The possibilities are endless. By leveraging your knowledge and taking advantage of technology, you not only create multiple income streams, you also can make this money even while sleeping, or golfing, or vacationing. Automate! No discussion of leverage would be complete without mentioning the role of technology. There are many ways you can use technology in your business to leverage your time. Examples include using email rules to automatically sort your email, autoresponders to send oftrequested information, and of course your cell phone, PDA, Blackberry, and other assorted technical gadgets. The key is understanding the difference between the nice-to-haves and those that allow you to optimize your focus on leverage. Recall what we mentioned above about leveraging your knowledge. Consider how
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you can combine technology and your knowledge into a money-making product! That's the key! You now have your custom content being automatically paid for and distributed... while you are meeting with clients. Oh yeah... and your virtual assistants are helping set you up for your next round of success. The one other thing that our webmaster points out (notice the leverage) is to be careful about your choices in the technology arena. If you get too excited and grab the first thing that comes along, it may not be the best or most cost-effective solution. John Foster Dulles reminds us: "The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year." Go for it! Leverage your way to success. Bottom Line So gain advantage, enhance your business, and supplement your income by using the secret of leverage. Make a list of the tasks you do in your business that you dislike. Call a couple of bookkeepers to find out the going rate. Start the outline of an e-book youd like to write. Do something today, and everyday, that takes advantage of leverage in your business. At Solo-E.com, we help you unlock the power of Leverage. Sign up now for our free Solo Secrets newsletter and experience it for yourself http://www.solo-e.com
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About the Author Terri Zwierzynski is the CEI (Conductor of Extraordinary Ideas) at Solo-E.com. She is also is a coach to small business owners and Solo Entrepreneurs and the author of 136 Ways to Market Your Small or Solo Business. Terri is an MBA honors graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill. Terri has been coaching for over 10 years in a variety of settings, including 6 years as a senior-level coach and consultant for a high-tech Fortune 500 company. She went solo in 2001. See all of her companies at http://www.TerriZ.com.
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Secret #4: The Secret to Getting More Done and Making More Money as a Solo Entrepreneur Collaboration
Written by: Rose Hill
Edited by: Amy Ewart, Lorraine Cohen, and Terri Zwierzynski
Copyright Rose Hill 2005 for
If youve followed the first three secrets, business is humming now. But it still seems as if something is missing The great paradox of being a solo-entrepreneur is that, by definition, you are flying solo in your business but you only reach the pinnacle of success when you collaborate with others. Teaming up with others allows you to focus on the special services you provide, while increasing your business and leveraging your resources. Lets start with a fact: You only have three ways to increase your business: Get more money from each sale. Get new clients. Get your current clients to hire you more often.
By collaborating with others, you put all three of these factors to work in building your business success.
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The Benefits of Collaboration When you use collaboration you can: Land more business and increase your income. By working with others in your business, you gain access to new clients and new markets. Thats because you gain access to their networks, clients, and alliances vastly expanding your sphere of contacts and influence. You can participate in bigger projects; package your services with those of others to land new clients, and partner with the big boys to extend the reach of your business. Handle more clients. You only have 24 hours in a day. And not all of that time is billable youre limited to the number of billable hours you have in any period. By calling on your collaborators you can avoid the dilemma of either over-committing and not meeting your commitments to your clients, or of under-committing and cheating yourself out of potential income and new clients. Eliminate the feast-or-famine cycle. Too many Solo Entrepreneurs operate in a feast-or-famine cycle. That is, they land a client, focus on providing their services to that client, complete the project, and then look up to notice that they dont have their next client or project ready to start. Or, they are oblivious to the greater economic landscape in which their business functions, repeatedly being blindsided when external factors, such as economic stagnation or an industry recession, hit their business.
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By collaborating with others, you can keep yourself working steadily regardless of the state of the macro-economy in which you work. Take on bigger, more interesting projects. When you work by yourself, you might be presented with a project that requires skills that you dont yet have or that will take more hours than you alone can provide. When you have a cadre of collaborators in your contacts database, you can easily take on these projects with full confidence. Increase the ease with which you can change directions when needed. Because you can draw on the skills and abilities of your collaborators, when your client wants something done that you havent mastered you can instantly provide it. Having the skills and abilities of a collaborative team will extend your scope of services and expertise to a broader audience. Be seen as a serious player in your niche. Unfortunate, but true, many of your potential clients view Solo Entrepreneurs as dabblers. They lump you in with the growing numbers of consultants made up of professionals who have been laid off and who arent really serious about building a business for the long haul. Aligning with a group of business-oriented collaborators will communicate an effective/strong professional message to your target audience. Enhance your credibility or reputation. By working with a team of collaborators that includes people who
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already have great reputations in your field, industry, or area of expertise, you benefit by the halo effect. And they benefit from yours. Stretch your promotional budget get more bang for the buck! Leveraging your marketing and advertising through joint ventures with your collaborators magnifies your visibility in the marketplace. Sounds great, yes? It is! The Best Collaborations for Solo Entrepreneurs To maximize your business success, focus on: Project-Oriented Teams Marketing Alliances
Project-Oriented Teams A project-oriented team is created for the sole purpose of completing a specific project. Hence, the number and skills of members in a projectoriented team is dictated by the needs of the project. Once the project is completed, the team disbands. These teams come together and disband as needed, with tenuous ties among the collaborating members when they are between projects. Project-oriented teams consist of one project leader and multiple subcontractors. You can work this from either side as the project leader or as a collaborating subcontractor. Usually, the project leader is the person who secured the contract with the end client. The collaborating subcontractors are other Solo Entrepreneurs or small
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businesses that then contract directly with the project leaders company to supply specific services and deliverables for the project. If youre an adept marketer, you can quickly develop your business by pulling together a cadre of high-quality and qualified subcontractors that you can call upon for the fulfillment of your large projects. If youre new at marketing and promoting your business, or if you dont have all the work you want, you can offer your services (at your wholesale rate, of course) to people who you would normally have considered your competitors. Doing so allows you to extend your network, enhance your reputation, and increase your billable hours. Marketing Alliances In a marketing alliance, you join with other business owners to create or provide mechanisms to cross-expose your clients and prospects to the services and expertise of those in your business alliance. The keys to success in these alliances are: Each partner must be perceived as an expert in their profession or service. Each partner must contribute something that is of equal value to what is contributed by the other. Unequal exchanges usually destroy these alliances. The goal of all actions is to substantially increase the visibility of each partners business to their target market resulting in increased revenues.
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An Example Heres a common example of a marketing alliance: A Business Plan Writer partners with a professional association that serves entrepreneurs. The writer offers to contribute a column entitled Tips & Shortcuts for Great Business Plans in the associations monthly ezine. The writer also offers to host a free, quarterly teleclass on how to write a Business Plan. In return, the writer gains the thirdparty endorsement of being in the associations ezine, and she gets exposure on a regular basis to those who can use her services to create their Business Plans. And the association gets information that is highly valued by its members, allowing the association to attract even more entrepreneurs into membership. Bottom Line If youre ready to expand the pool of clients and projects available to your business, be seen as a serious business professional, and make more money, start collaborating with others today! At Solo-E.com, we help you unlock the power of Collaboration. Sign up now for our free Solo Secrets newsletter and experience it for yourself http://www.solo-e.com
About the Author Rose Hill made the leap of faith into full-time self-employment in 1990. A self-taught entrepreneur, she also studied coaching at a variety of well-known coaching programs, including The Coaches Training Institute, the Academy for Coach Training, and the Graduate
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School of Coaching. Additionally, she has developed and presented classes for the School of Small Business Coaching centered on how to coach the solo entrepreneur, and regularly presents her program entitled "Are You Ready to Be Self-Employed?" for the Professional Development Center of Portland State University.
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Conclusion
Are these the only strategies necessary for success as a Solo Entrepreneur? Of course not. However, our experience tells us that these are the most often overlooked, misunderstood, and underutilized. Here are other strategies that are more obvious, but just as crucial to your success: Passion If you dont have a passion for what youre doing, you may need to look harder at the Secret of Self-Investment, or the Secret of Niche. Or you may need to re-evaluate whether being a Solo Entrepreneur is really the right path for you. Self-care Solo Entrepreneurs need vacations too! Figure out a way to take a hiatus put your clients on hold for a while, find a colleague to cover for you, do something that will give you some time away no computer, no cell phone, no <fill in your favorite gadget here>. You might just re-discover your passion after youve had time for some much-deserved rest. Persistence The average Solo Entrepreneur business takes 18 months to really get off the ground; some more, some less. Knowing these Four Secrets can get you there faster and you still need to have the tenacity to keep trying new things, experimenting, and learning. Find the Right Teachers Dont make the mistake of looking for the holder of the magic bullet the one guru whose formula you will follow (isnt that why you left the corporate world, so you could stop
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mindlessly taking direction from others?). Find the right teachers that can help you get in touch with the guru within. You dont have to do exactly what they teach; instead, figure out how they think, pick the pieces that fit your business and your style, and build your own formula for success. At Solo-E you can find many qualified, inspiring teachers to help you find your keys to unlocking the power of all the Secrets. Take Action Today! Heres the Solo-E Challenge. Are you investing in yourself? Are you aligning whom you serve with who you are? Are you leveraging your time and knowledge? Are you joyfully working with others to do even more?
If the answers to these questions is anything less than a resounding YES!, you are not alone! Even 7-figure Solo Entrepreneurs keep tweaking and honing their skills, knowledge, and application of the Secrets. Shouldnt you be too? Find the keys to unlocking the Secrets at Solo-E.com. Sign up now for our free Solo Secrets newsletter and experience it for yourself http://www.solo-e.com Feedback We sincerely appreciate your feedback about the 4 Secrets. Just go to http://http://www.Solo-E.com/foursecrets/ask4secrets.shtml
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The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

By Lorraine Cohen BZ Riger-Hull Terri Zwierzynski Rose Hill

of Team Solo-E http://www.Solo-E.com

2005-2006 Solo-Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

Secret #1: The Secret of Personal Development

Copyright Lorraine Cohen 2005 for

Solo-Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

Copyright BZ Riger-Hull 2005 for

Solo-Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

Realtors Financial advisors Stay at home moms Divorced dads

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

Copyright Terri Zwierzynski 2005 for

Solo-Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

Copyright Rose Hill 2005 for

Solo-Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

The Four Secrets to Solo Entrepreneur Success

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