I have been having new business development process issues coming up in consultations with clients lately so that’s usually a sign that I should write about it here. This morning I saw that other blogs were talking about the new business development process, so this issue is obviously “bubbling up”for other people as well and not just my clients.
Mark over at Court’s Internet Marketing School leads the parade with his post, Money Always Flows to the Solution.
What problem does your website solve for its users?
Does the answer to that question fly off your lips? Did you have to think about it? Can you answer it even after thinking about it?
How about this – fill in the blanks in the following statement:
“I give my users _________ and I get ________ in return.”
In a few lines, Mark hits the nail on the head. His post kinda makes me embarrassed that I devoted an entire book to that very subject. (Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results
Then Naomi Dunford over at Itty Biz tells why this is a GREAT time to start your home based business.
Sell the right thing. Sell it to the right people. Hit the right trigger buttons. Do those things and you’ll be the richest person you know.
Ah – there’s the rub! Sell the right thing.
Last week I told 2 different people to come back and talk to me when they have something to sell. Their enthusiasm is high but they don’t have a product or a structured service to offer. In essences, they couldn’t fill out Mark’s fill in the blank statement above. It’s not just websites that have to fill in the blanks in the statement below, it’s a burning question for business owners as well:
“I give my users _________ and I get ________ in return.”
That is the hard part. Developing a systematic way to fill in those two blanks in that sentence.
I’ve worked with small business owners for over a decade now on filling in those blanks. I had one client who offers nutritional coaching services. Her business wasn’t growing like she knew it could, so she and I spent three months working on her business model. She had the generalities in place -she could fill in the blanks with the basics, ” I give my clients nutritional information and I get money in return.” However, she was a bit fuzzy on the process – something that she wasn’t clear on until we began working together.
Her business positively EXPLODED after we created a road map so to speak of her process. We set up a “step one, step two, step three, step four” in her coaching process. Even though she knew those steps in her head, it was positively AMAZING how quickly her business grew once she was able to outline for her potential clients the process. In other words, she created a LABEL for the process – “A Four Step Process to Better Health” which helped her prospective clients wrap their brains around the service she provides. As a result, her practice filled to over flowing, drawing clients to her Michigan based practice from as far away as Japan.
Lately, when I’ve been getting “HELP ME!” emails, I’m seeing a common thread. People want to break free from the bondage of their 9-5 job and they’re desperate to break free. That’s great and I agree with Naomi – there’s no better time than now to do so. However, you have to be able to fill in the blanks if you want to make money – either online or off line. The common thread is the desire to break free is there – but there isn’t a product or service to back desire up. They can’t fill in the blanks in Mark’s statement –
“I give my users _________ and I get ________ in return.”
Skellie over at Problogger.net offers 10 innovative blog business models which can serve as inspiration for the ways others have created products and services which they use their blog to promote.
Developing a product can be as simple as creating an ebook or a membership site. However, sometimes that’s easier said than done.
What product or service do you sell with your blog? What process did you go through to create that product or service?
