Anywhewsles, as you may know, we are launching a NEW course as part of our Amazing Biz and Life Academy – the Double Your Biz intensive.

And believe me angels, it is INTENSE.

I have broken down everything (and I mean EVERY LITTLE THING) I know about running a business that doubles income every year and piled it into a tome of business and marketing amplification.

And, not to be a negative Nelly, darlinghearts, but today I wanted to mention some of the mistakes I’ve seen business owners make over and over again.

NOT to make you feel bad if you’re making one of these –

But to show you how EASY they are to fix. Often, all it takes is knowing about these things to help you fix them and get you well on your way to seeing cwazzzy glorious results.

So get your pens out. Start taking notes. And fix ’em if you’re making ’em!

1. Hiding the Brownies

If there’s one big huge honkin’ mistake I see new business owners making, it’s that they aren’t willing to tell people what they do and ASK for the sale.

The author Fabienne Fredrickson has a good analogy about this. She calls it “Share Your Brownies!”

Imagine you have a whole bunch of friends over to your house. And you decide to make brownies. So you head off into the kitchen, and you bake them. And as they are baking, your friends keep popping in and saying “Oh my gosh! That smells so good! What are you doing in here? What are you making?” And you won’t tell them. Because baking brownies is your gift, your offering to the world. But to talk about it would be too salesy or marketish. So you hide your brownies from your friends. And you eat them by yourself in the kitchen. #sadface

The lesson here is: DON’T BE HIDING YOUR BROWNIES!

Have you told your friends/family/biz contacts/mama’s group/drum circle/knitting clatch what you do?

And if not, WHY THE HECK NOT????

You’ve got to be willing to take control of your destiny, say what you do with pride, and ASK for the sale.  Not in a pushy, dirty, icky way, but in a genuine, “I love you and I have a solution to your problem if you’re called” kind of way.

2. Getting Stuck on the Details

Done is better than perfect, panda bear.

Lemme say that again:

Done is better than perfect.

Whatever you’ve been holding onto out of fear that it wasn’t perfect, wasn’t right, wasn’t done —

It’s time to let it go.  It’s time to release it into the world.

An imperfect website is still a ZILLION TIMES BETTER at bringing in business than no website at all.

You’re only holding yourself back, panda bear. Time to embrace that imperfection in favor of forward momentum!

Ask yourself right now: what are you stuck on the details on right now? Now make a commitment to have it DONE el pronto. Make a QUICK deadline (i.e. this weekend! next Friday!)

Ride that wild donkey and get it DONE.

3. Selling to Everybody

So many of my peeps are so incredibly generous of spirit; they want to help everybody in the whole wide world. EVERYONE would benefit from their product or service!!

That may be true, love, but what is also true is that not everybody actually is going to buy your thing.

Think about the most popular, successful brands in the world.

Not everybody buys Coke.  Some people like Pepsi.  Some like root beer.  Some don’t drink soda at all.

Oh, and by the by—unless you have a marketing budget the size of Coca-Cola’s, you’re not going to be able to market to everybody!

So here’s the secret: figure out who your peeps are and start talking directly to them.  Get über specific! Know what they look like, what they think like, what they like like.  Then talk specifically to them.  (I’ve got fun exercises for doing this in the Double Your Biz course!)

Let’s say you run a yoga studio. Could everybody benefit from yoga? Sure!  Maybe so.  Is everybody in your town going to come to your yoga studio? Nope. You might find it’s people that like a certain style of yoga that you do, or it might be tired mums who like that there’s a kindy right across the street, or it might be busy professionals who like to come in after work or on their lunch hour.

Whoever it is, get to know them SPECIFICALLY and start talking to them in everything you do.

No multi-zillion dollar marketing budget needed!

4. Confusing Being “Annoying” with Being “Helpful”

I worked with a massage therapist one-on-one at one time, who was really hung up on not wanting to be “annoying.”

She didn’t tell any of her friends and family about her biz because she didn’t want to be annoying. She didn’t tell her clients that they could get the best results with her by booking a series of massages, because she didn’t want to be annoying. She didn’t ask people to book their next session when they finished, because she didn’t want to be annoying.

She needed a major mindset shift!

Because was she really being annoying?  NO!  She was being helpful! Telling people how to get the most out of your service (even if it means buying more) is HELPFUL! Letting them book their next session right away and not have to call later? HELPFUL! Letting friends know that you can help them with their problems? HELPFUL!

She was so hung up on not wanting to appear salesy or scammy that she literally wasn’t helping people where she could—even though her whole reason for being in business was to help people.

CRA-CRAY! (But not uncommon.)

And I will tell you what I told her:

How dare you hide your gift from the people who need it? Who deeply, deeply need what you have to offer. And you aren’t saying a word to them. You know you can help. You aren’t even opening the door to them… giving them the invitation to step through it. By talking about what you do, you aren’t holding a gun to anyone’s head and MAKING THEM do anything. You are giving them the opportunity to make a choice for themselves!

Open your hearts, lovelies. Give your potential customers the opportunity to choose for themselves. They will thank you for it!

5. Not Sharing Your AMAZING Results

Whatever you do — whatever your biz is — you create transformation.  You take people from point A to point B.

And that’s amazing!

So why aren’t you shouting that from the mountaintop?

What I see a lot is that people get confused between FEATURES, BENEFITS, and RESULTS.

Features are just what your product or service IS: it’s blue; it weighs 3 kilos; it comes with 4 Skype sessions.

Benefits are what it DOES: it relieves your pain; it helps you find your passion; it makes your coffee, does your laundry, and takes out the trash!  (I want that!)

Results are the lasting, life-changing effects. It doubled your business.  It saved you thousands of dollars.  It changed your life.

Whenever you’re talking about your  biz, you want to focus mostly on benefits and results.  You’ve got to tell the features in there somewhere, but the benefits and results are what are going to convince people to buy from you.

And how do you find out the results? You ask people! You’ve got to ask people for testimonials, especially when you’re getting started so that you can let them sing your praises.  Feels amazing, right?

A Little Challenge For You Today

Get a pen out. Write down what mistake (or mistakes) you are making out of this list.

And brainstorm three ways you can fix it TODAY.

Then go + bloody well do it lovey.

Momentum creates miracles. The little changes can create massive transformation when you do them again and again.

You have a gift.

Share it with the world.

Big love,

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