Special Gift for Blog Readers

HELLO – all you lovely, gorgeous people who read my blog.

We all know that I don’t do Christmas for many varied reasons but anytime is a good time to give gifts. So I have permission to share with you a special little gift that one of my US Licensee Family, Karen C. Rothstein, shared with all of us earlier this week.

It is a meditation CD called “FREEDOM FROM STRESS” that she has generously given to celebrate her being on the cover (no less) of Health & Fitness magazine in the USA. Because she is such a star she has allowed me to send it onto others as well.

So because you have showed loyalty by getting a blog feed to your email or coming on regularly to read my blog and putting up with me in the early stages of blog learning, you will be first to get this little gift. It has to be downloaded before 31/12/07 – that is the only catch. ENJOY!!!

Karen is a gem who has helped me greatly over the past two years of me being in the Licensure Program and she is a real kindred spirit. I just love the abundance which exists within our Licensure Family and I love that some of it rubs off on you too.

Just follow this link and you can download the meditation from http://www.karenrothstein.com/

This will be my last post for 2007 as I’m heading off to the USA for a Vipassana Silent Meditation Retreat for 10 Days (imagine me (the Gemini who can talk under water) not being able to talk for 10days) and then I’m onto Colorado for a “full on” - “talking as much as I like” Mystery Tour for 5 Days before returning to the Cute House to get stuck in to make 2008 my very best yet.

Thank you all so much for you support this year – its been fabulous and I know 08 is going to be even more “fabulouser” than 07. Have a wonderful time with family and friends over the holidays and I will look forward to hearing you all again in 2008.

Luv Mz M xx

What to do in Your Down Time

December is traditionally a very quiet time and many therapists report time on their hands and not a lot of clients in the last week of December. THIS DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN SLACK OFF!!!

Firstly a change of mindset around the holiday period could result in clients coming through the door. Often this time of year brings “emotional stuff” up for people that they need to deal with and having your mindset open is a really grand idea. I did a successful presentation that will bring a lot of abundance to my business just two days ago and anyone would tell you that wasn’t possible at this time of year.

But if it is genuinely quiet for you, then now is the time to get all those jobs done that you have been “meaning to do”.

It is also a wonderful time to be getting ahead of yourself – so why not try some of the following:

• Get several articles written and finished
• Submit articles to various different media or websites
• Set up systems that you have been meaning to complete all year
• Do your filing (lets get honest – I’m sure there is a pile somewhere that needs doing!)
• Write your Future Letter for 2008
• Network – go out and go to some year end gatherings – you are bound to meet someone who might need your services
• Take a colleague to lunch or reward a strategic alliance partner
• Re-do your Welcome Pack to have a new energy for the New Year
• Design that program you have been meaning to write
• Have a spring clean in the office
• Handwrite some note cards thanking your favourite/regular clients
• Phone and book your favourite self care treat - nothing like doing something yourself to stir up the energy you want in your life
• Plan next years Grass Roots marketing campaign
• Start making lists of people to call in the New Year to ask if they need speakers
• Write a new talk you can do at these talks before they are even booked

The list of things we could be doing is endless so why not do them now. If you use this time wisely you will be highly prepared for the influx of people that will be looking for you to help them get their New Years Goals and Resolutions in place and working for them in 2008!

Gosh with all that work you are gong to need a holiday!!! SO TAKE ONE – don’t forget to spend time enjoying the things that give you joy.

How Writing Articles Gets You Known

A friend recently sent me an article on getting outside your comfort zone. The topic is close to my heart and I might as well have written the article myself. I’ve included the link below for you but that’s not the point of this blog post.

People often ask me why they should write articles. Well this is a good example of how any article can be a powerful tool in your PR campaign.

The newsletter that this article appears in is for a Government Department. Somewhere in that Government Department some poor soul is given the task of creating articles of interest to feed to the waiting readers every Tuesday. A big ask for even the most prolific of writers. What they have done to overcome their content challenge is to go to an article publishing service and they probably got this item for free or they may also have purchased it. The reason the author gave it away for free is because they understand that it will get into places (like this) and it will get them free publicity. Free publicity are two of my favourite words linked together – my most favourite two words linked together are Free Lunch but we all know that to be a bit of a thing of the past!

So if you write articles there are websites that will list your article so people can come on and promote the article and your business by way of the little resource paragraph at the bottom of the article. This article even let him list his website plus the landing page you happen to land on - has his books that you can buy. Do you get the chain of events here. From one article he could get known to thousands of people without even getting out of bed that day.

If you have any ability to string a few words together I would recommend you start writing articles and submitting them for publication. The trick is to have a strong WHO & WHAT in place so your articles can be listed with people in your target market.

You can read the article here

Working From Home with Kids

Question

I'm mother of two small kids and can't go out for work, so wished if, I could get cases at home with the help of centers running here. I wish you could say something on this.

Answer

I haven’t heard of centres outsourcing treatments in the way you describe because they have a vested interest in keeping their clients under their own roof so they can maintain their standard operating service. I suspect only an incredibility busy centre that was overflowing would look to moving their clients to a secondary location. Of course if you offered something unique and different to what they were offering perhaps they might do that but your standard would have to be very high.

What I would recommend that you do, to get clients at home, is to re-read through the 90 Day Challenge in the area of strategic alliances – it might give you some ideas how you could work with others LIKE YOU. If you could build up a selection of women with kids who were doing natural therapies at home, that complemented yours – then you could refer clients between you if it were appropriate for the client. I know a lot of women work from home – the trick will be finding them as they often get clients via word of mouth. You could also put flyers up where your children attend classes or school because women with kids go to those places and they would be interested in having treatments with a female therapist with similar circumstances to them. You might also like to consider do some talks or demonstrations at mothers groups or small community centres to help generate clients. Giving people the opportunity to meet you is the best and easiest way to get clients. People like to work with people and the more those people have in common with them – the more they like working with them.

What to Do When Your Website Gets Hacked

Hacking or stealing pages on websites is quite common and this week my site http://www.margaretgill.com/ got hacked.

My poor site looked more like the inside of a warehouse selling internet drugs than my lovely little site filled with love. After my initial feelings of violation and insecurity it became something I just had to “get over” because it is one of the hazards of having a website.

If it happens to your site, the first thing to do is to get your hosting company to change your password so the hackers can’t get at the site again, or at least it will make it harder to get back into your site. Be aware too that the hackers may have imbedded code in the site that will make it easy to repeat the action again, in which case you will need to completely reload your website from your back up files (tell me you have those!)

Also don’t forget to change your policy on passwords because lets be honest I have had the same password on my website since the day it was created back in 2002 and it has caused some minor irritations for me today. Also make sure you have numbers and letters in your password, it just makes it a wee bit harder for the hackers to get through.

Internet security is something we always have to be aware of and I’ll be speaking with my supplier to ensure I have everything in place to be certain it doesn’t happen again but it is not something that should make you stop in tracks and not use the technology. In my instance, the Universe has come in with a little message to remind me to make myself as safe as I can and then just “get on with it”.

Why Websites Don't Attract Visitors

Websites

MP3 File

Question

Why aren’t people visiting my website?

Answer

Let me answer that question with a question

Did Jackie O have a little black dress?

You bet she had several because she knew they got her attention. Website design is a lot like fashion design. Catwalk designer outfits look good on a select few but most of us look best in basic traditional styles that bring out our best features.

It’s the same with websites. Don’t be talked into the latest design fade when a basic site will be what brings the compliments and the visitors.

Most websites result in the search engines going straight over the top without even pausing for a look - quite simply because the site is invisible to them. Remember search engines love relevant text not pictures!

The majority of people who visit websites only stay 10 seconds. If you make it hard for people to see your site, or haven’t given them a compelling reason to stay you can rest assured they will be hitting the back button and will be gone in under 5 seconds. They will NEVER come back. You only have to look at the way you visit websites yourself to know this to be the truth. Isn’t that depressing!

The bad news only gets worse. Most search engines find you via four methods and many websites have these areas blank.

• Titles – these are the words that appear in the tabs of your browser and is the heading that appears in a search engine ranking
• Meta Tags – the description you see when a site comes up in a natural ranking
• Keywords – are coded into your site and help search engines match your site to a search string
• Text - the actual words you see on your website

The more these four items match and compliment each other, the higher up the search engine ranking you go. People seek up to the minute information and for that reason blogs frequently out rank websites these days.

This nifty tool will let you see what a search engine sees when they pass through each page of your site click here - it’s sobering!

So check your text and make sure you have the required items that search engines can see.

Further resources

This blog forms part of an article I wrote for the Empowering Women website. You can read the full article here

There is further information about this topic on the Ladies Who Launch blog

Also you can purchase the "How To Get the Most from Your Website" workbook on my website

How to Push Past Your Fears of Self Promotion

Mirror work and self promotion

MP3 File

Question

What are the best tools you can use to push past your fears of self promotion?

Answer

This is a key question in the success or failure for many practitioners. It’s the fear of self promotion that kills people who work from the heart. There are many different tools to use to get you out in the world but the best one is getting a firm belief in your abilities to help people. Once you have that nothing can stop you. If you can put your own stuff aside and only focus on the fact the every time you go out the front door you get a chance to tell another person how you can help people come to gain greater health and wellbeing in their life. You will go to great lengths when you have a higher vision.

The biggest thing to remember is that not everyone is going to want to know you. In the old days my coach made me go out with the expectation that 100% of people were going to say no, that way I could never feel I’d failed. If only one said yes, well it was just a big bonus. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself to get a big bundle of yes’s in the early days. The thing is once I went out with no expectation of course I was just being myself and that helped people say yes more often.

The greatest tool I have is the mirror. In the early days I was encouraged by my coach to stand in front of a mirror and look myself in the eye and say really outrageous things that voice your fear in positive terms. So if you are afraid of speaking, you stand there and say I am the best platform speaker in my state. When you finally believe that, you start saying I am the best platform speaker in the country. Then you just repeat it over and over again until your cells start to believe it. Much of my fear busting is a result of mirror work and then going out and facing the fear. It’s worth the discomfort to get to work positively with people and live your dream of helping others.

Getting A Natural Therapy Practice Known

Question

How does one get an unknown therapy known and trusted?

Answer

There is no simple answer to this one apart from saying “commitment and a lot of hard work”.

Trust in any relationship is gained over time and a natural therapy practice is no different.

You have to be walking your talk all the time and making sure you are projecting the right image and message to people constantly. This is part of your brand and it’s not just about logos and the colours you use – it’s about everything you do.

Getting known is about going out there and wearing down your shoe leather and shaking a lot of hands! Therapists generally hate this part but to be known, people need an opportunity to get to know you. The only sure fire way to do this is by going out and meeting people.

My system has various ways in which you can do this and I recommend you try them all because you could just find out you enjoy doing something that you initially hated, like public speaking did for me. Initially I was absolutely petrified of talking in public but after forcing myself to do a few talks and learning some of the tricks of the trade, I now love it. Actually I hate myself for agreeing to do it until I’m a couple of minutes into the talk them I love it once I get going.

Choosing a strong WHO and WHAT (who you work with and what you do for them) speeds the process up because all your time and marketing activities can be done to a smaller group of people which results in a higher take up rate. It also sets you up as an expert in that particular field which makes it really easy for others to understand what you do and how they can refer others to you.

What I recommend is that each month you do at least

2 x Speaking events to your target audience

2 x Networking events or functions where your target audience will be

1 x Newsletter to your database (tell me you have one!)

4 x Approaches to a strategic alliance (someone who can pass clients to you)

And each quarter do some sort of grassroots marketing campaign

Follow up all your leads and contacts and ensure they get on your database because your database is your friend!

Having a Practice at Home

Question

What are your thoughts on woking from home in your practice?

Answer

This question is asked a lot and there is no real clear answer because it depends on each individual therapist. Some therapists prefer the safety of a clinic and like that it provides a steady stream of client leads and often other therapists within the clinic refer their clients. There is nothing to stop therapists working from home creating a similar network of therapists who work from home so you can mutually refer others; it just takes a little more effort to maintain the links.

Some also see the clinic option as more professional. Again how you view this is up to you but often in clinics your reputation is only as good as the weakest link in the clinic set up. That could be its procedures; it could be other therapists, position of the clinic etc. You have less control in a clinic unless you own it.

I think working from home takes a little more effort and focus. It is all too easy to be dragged off purpose when you are working from home. The neighbours pop in, the washing needs to done and over the course of a day many things can get in the way. If you are easily distracted it may be best to be in a clinic. However, as a Gemini I’m VERY easily distracted and am the classic flitter between projects but I have been able to train myself to be consistently in my office for long period of time working on the things I’m meant to be doing (well most days anyway!)

The benefits of working from home are many including flexibility to see people at times outside set hours. You can do your odd jobs if there is a gap in your diary or you can easily pop into your home office and work on projects in downtime. You have the ability to create an environment that you love and have control over.

The main advantage I see is from a profitability point of view. You need to see less people working at home to make the same profit you would have made paying rent at a clinic. You probably have to do more work initially to secure those clients though.

I believe as times goes on working from home will be a more popular option particularly with women with school age children. It means less travel and less stress in the day. I believe if you have a quiet place at home that is able to be shut off from the main house and you are the sort of person who can get out and do what it takes to fill a practice (which means a lot of worn down shoe leather and shaking a lot of strangers hands) then you will be successful at home. A clinic is not a guarantee of a steady client base and initially you will still need to do the hard yards to get your practice full.

To determine whether working at home is for you is really just a matter of heading up a page with plus and minus columns and going to work on all the wins and challenges both options would bring up for you.

Australian Unity Changes Focus to become a "Wellbeing" Business

Australain Unity recently announced they have been reshaping to become a "Wellbeing" Business


MP3 File

An article appearing on MoneyManagement.com.au this week quoted the group managing director of Australian Unity, Rohan Mead on the future direction of Australian Unity, one of the major health fund providers in Australia.

“This was the year of reshaping the company into a ‘wellbeing’ business. We will be better placed to provide high quality and well targeted services that will contribute to our members being healthy, happy, secure and prosperous,” he said.

You can read the full article here

My question to you

Wellbeing and Natural Therapies are fast becoming the hot topic of the moment.

How many of you are ready to knock on Australian Unity's door with products and services that will help them achieve their goal of becoming a "wellbeing business"?

Big corporations have the same needs and wants as our smaller customers, as always it's about clearly articulating the features and benefits of your offerings.

My health insurance is with Australian Unity and all I can say WELL DONE on WELLBEING!!

For a long time I've never understood why health funds reward people for being sick not for being well. I'm looking forward to all the new ways I can be more healthy under my policy. Who knows maybe they will give bonuses if I never claim on my hospital cover they make me take out but have never needed.

Recent survey shows Women asking about non-medicinal options for relieving menopausal symptoms

A recent survey in the United States sponsored by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has found that women want their doctors to inform them about non-medicinal options for relieving menopausal symptoms.

The survey indicated that women turn to health professionals more than any other source for guidance about menopause. Forty-eight percent of the respondents said they talk to their obstetrician or gynecologist as their menopause treatment advisor, while 38 percent look to their family physician or general physician, and another 19 percent consult a nurse practitioner, nurse or pharmacist.

My question to natural therapists is - how are you going to tap into this market and educate the women to start talking to natural therapists about alternative methods to treat the numbers of women in the baby boomer market who are experiencing challenges with "power surges" and wanting to use natural methods to control them.

You can read the full article here.

Maintaining Work Life Balance in a Small Business

Question

My main focus is to get experience and immediate income by offering massage and life coaching from various areas, ie gym, healing centre and day spa. Eventually I want a spiritual healing centre. Am I doing too many things?

Answer

This is the classic catch-cry of people in their own small business. It comes down to being able to maintain a healthy worklife balance. I don’t believe there is such a thing as “too much” when starting out to grow your practice, so long as you look after your own health and don’t burn out!

The more you are in action getting clients, the quicker you will fill your practice.

The beauty of my system is that even if you end up in the wrong place initially you will learn and understand how the system works under any conditions. So the experience you gain now will set you up for future projects. When it comes to having your own centre you will know how to fill it quickly by simply returning to what you have learnt in this set up phase. Use this time to get out there and test the market and learn.

A word of caution is to stay focused and not spread yourself to thinly and be trying to work out of too many different places at once. Even if there are no bookings, it is important to be on the spot ready for non-booking walk in clients. If you are in too many places you often miss the opportunity to fill with walkins. For instance if you are at the gym and have no clients, put a sign at the desk in a plastic holder that says “free 15 minute neck and shoulder massage”. That will give you the chance to persuade the recipient of the neck and shoulder massage (who just happens to be in your target market and niche) to take up a 2-4-1 offer with you.

Any news is good news when setting up a new practice – the worst case scenario from giving away those 15 minutes is that the member now knows there is a good massage therapist at her gym! Obviously when you have bookings you bring the sign in.

A-boards at the front of the building also work well with these types of offers but just make sure you find out the rules from the local council – don’t get fined for illegally placing an A-board!

Choosing the Right Business Name

Question

I am looking for a name for my business and all I can come up with is names that are already taken or are very corny. Is it important that the name of my business communicates clearly what niche I am aimed at (so that my target market knows I'm the one for them) or can I go for something either a bit more subtle (just because I like the name) or a bit more generic (in order to keep my options open)?

Answer

The Abundant Private Practices system really encourages you to make your practice all about you and be coming from your heart, this is key to your success in that your integrity and passion for your work come through your business. However, that is only true of the vision, mission and values of the business.

The next thing you need to understand is that your practice then becomes all about the client! In other words you need to let go of things you like, anything quirky, inside jokes or things you understand but the rest of the world doesn’t because you are going to confuse people. The name of your business is really important on two levels

1. Your business name needs to describe clearly what you do or at least describes it in conjunction with a tagline.

2. When people type a search string into a search engine like Google, the closer your name fits with words in that search string, the more chance you have of coming up near the top. This is invaluable if you have a website and these days a website is pretty much a given.

The clearer your business describes what you do, the easier it is going to be to get clients. Sadly this means that sometimes the name could be very boring or you could get very clever like the door company did that named itself “Well Hung Doors”. I love this business name because it totally describes what they do with lashings of humour. With a name like that though you better not get some boring person to come to hang doors that doesn’t have an ounce of humour. Your name needs to match the vision, mission and values of the company.

Therapists love to come up with exotic sounding names from Sanskrit messages or terminology from their modality or names like “Flowing River Sunset Rhythms” but unless you take river cruises with live music, this is probably not going to identify you as a natural therapy business that can sort out someone’s sore back – Julies’ Back Massage Service, although a bit boring, will work better to attract clients. If you can give your card to a 15 year old stranger and have them understand what you do, then your business name has hope of being understood by the general population. There is elegance in simplicity so keep it simple and obvious.

Anther key thing to consider is names that rank alphabetically in advertising etc – it’s always good to be at the top of an alpha listing, hence one of the reasons why I called my business Abundant Private Practices :-)

Getting Clarity on your Niche and Target Markets (the WHO & the WHAT)

Hi Mz Margz

I’ve been working through the 90 Day Challenge and the question raised about the choosing a niche or target market (WHO and WHAT) brought me to a question of my own, which I have been thinking about for some time.

Question

Currently I have narrowed my niche down to women in transition and I think that's still pretty broad.

Answer

Yes, I think you would find it easier if you defined which group of women or what their transition is. Perhaps both, for instance women transitioning to a new career or working women transitioning to motherhood – it just makes it a little clearer who you work with.

Always remember that you are only going to market to this group, you will still see women outside the group but your marketing dollars will only go on one specific area. The concept around having a specific niche is that when you say what you do, the person you are speaking to will be in three categories:

1. Is interested in what you do because they are in your target market and need and want what you are offer and therefore they will ask for more information



2. Has no interest in what you do but knows someone who would be (can refer others)



3. Has no interest in what you do or doesn’t know anyone who does – so stop wasting your time and start talking about the weather!

In your preferred niche for instance if you were talking to a man don't automatically assume they won’t be interested because even though they won’t personally use your services they have wives, mothers, sisters, friends who could need what your service offers.

A short talk by Mz Margz on the benefits of choosing a strong WHO & WHAT



MP3 File