Main Business Improvement Plan
How I plan to improve my main business income over the next 6 months:
- Design my ad for the BR Parents Magazine classified section, submit it and pay for it so it will appear in the August issue. Run the ad monthly. I may take a month or two off during the year to save money (they don’t require a contract), especially if I write an article for Parents or one of its companions. Their classifieds are business card sized and in color - a big plus.
- Finish updating my business marketing plan and implement the changes. This plan will included as many inexpensive, bartered, or free marketing techniques as I can find. Until I have a full book of clients I have time to spend marketing so I can spend less money.
- Market heavily to my current clients. At least a few are due for a bi-annual check-up. It takes a lot less to sell to current customers than to prospects.
- Give a free seminar at a library branch. Make sure my seminar materials are branded and every attendee gets a business card. I’ll be sure to invite my current clients.
- Rewrite my website. I haven’t done a substantial update since I first opened in 2004. I also need to do a better job of tracking my monthly traffic.
- Finish my certificate coursework and get some letters after my name to increase my credibility. I foresee this to be the best thing I can do to increase my income the fastest, so I’ve got to make studying every day a big priority.
- Pass the CFP(TM) exam and petition the board to use the marks. That will increase my credibility even more.
- Design and write a quarterly newsletter and have an opt-in link on my website that will give me prospect contact information. Mention the opt-in newsletter in my BR Parents classified ad.
- Run very limited time promotions on my classified ad and my website so I can gauge which is giving me more paid clients, and when I am getting them. Each ad will have a slightly different promotion or code so I can see which months give me the most business. Same will happen on the website.
- Write contact letters to other professions who refer clients to me. Often, people go to them and what they need fits my practice much better, so they refer them to me. I also refer clients who fit them better. Why? You can’t be everything to everybody. You have to find your niche and work in it.
- Write on professional topics more for Associated Content to add more credibility to my name. The more professional articles I have published, the better.
- Write for local magazines and newspapers as much as possible, again, to add to my credibility and get more exposure.
This is my main source of income, and if I want a pay raise, then I have to make the business earn more money. Also, if I can get the business earning sufficiently, I can pay the business’s debts from the business’s account instead of lumping it all together under my personal debt. I have to lump it for now because I’m responsible for the debt personally. Having “LLC” after my business name really doesn’t provide any real insurance against my business creditors taking personal assets to pay business debts. I can bankrupt the company without bankrupting myself, but that would only get rid of a about one third of my total unsecured debt and I’d have to find another job that probably wouldn’t pay any more than I’m making now. It sure wouldn’t have the flexibility I have now.
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