The Three Ingredients of Business Success

I hope you are ready for a treat today.

I want to give you a very simple equation that just might make a huge difference in how much money you make in your business. It will change how you conceptualize your products or services, your place in the marketplace, and how you connect with your potential customers. Without any further delay, here it is:
Target Audience + Problem + Format = Your Business Prosperity

In a nutshell: Define your target audience as narrowly as possible, define the problem you are trying to solve for them with your services, and choose the best, the most fun, and the most efficient format or formats for delivering your solution. Sounds simple. And it is.

Your target audience is a group of your perfect customers. In order to narrow down your description, or define your “niche”, ask yourself who you would be the most excited to work with and whose energy you would really appreciate in your business. It is easier to create great products for narrowly defined audience segments because these groups have very specific issues that need solutions, and chances are, there are not many solutions available on the market for them.

State what specific problem you would like to solve for this group. Is it painful enough or important enough for them to seek solution to? Are they going to be elated when they find out you can help them with it? The more significant the problem for them, the higher it is on their list, the more money they are willing to pay you for the solution.

The format is the actual form of the product or service, the packaging of it, and the price. Ask yourself what would be the most suitable format to deliver your solution so it captures your potential customers’ attention, so they see a real value and a real good return on investment in it, and so they are happy to spend their money on it.

Every time you are conceptualizing a new product or service, or a new business altogether, I invite you to run it by the formula. It will get you to the success quicker, I promise you.


Be well.

Margaret Moczkowski
Personal Business Coach
Momentum Coaching
www.momentumcoach.net


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How To Answer "What Do You Do?"

Here is my Tuesday "wisdom to use as you please". Use it to your good health and to attract your highest good.

How do you answer the question “What do you do?” A lot depends on this answer, because it creates the first impression you make on somebody who might be your perfect customer. Or they might know someone who would be your perfect customer. So having a concise but informative answer to the question “What do you do?” is crucial.

Here are the guidelines: It should be as complete as possible when explaining what you do, it should focus on the ultimate results you are creating for your perfect customers, and it should not be too technical or too complicated for anyone to understand quickly. Sounds simple, but for many professionals it’s not very easy. Many of my clients, even the ones who have been in business for some time, don’t have it “nailed down”. They tend to focus too much on the strategies they use in their work, or they use too much of their industry lingo, or the answer is not intriguing enough for the listener to follow up with additional inquiries.

So what are the elements of a perfect answer to the question “What do you do?” Try this format:

I am… (your title).
I help… (summarize your target audience) who…(state their need or desire)
As a result, they… (list the core benefits your customers gain from buying from you). Note: Be careful to focus here on the ultimate benefits that your target audience sees as important, and not the benefits that you think are important to them.

Example: I am a business coach. I help entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who want to take their business to the next level. As a result of working with me, they quickly evolve their business and are able to create the level of financial prosperity and satisfaction they desire.

Example: I am a green cleaning service owner. I help individuals and small businesses that want to live and work in a clean and non-toxic environment. As a result, my clients live longer and healthier lives and they contribute to the cleanliness of our globe.

I invite you to write and rewrite your perfect little speech as many times as necessary for you to get to the version that really represents you and your business in all your glory. Evaluate each version not only for the presence of the above mentioned elements, but also for the energy it creates for you. See how it feels, try it on and see if you would like to wear it and to and to be seen in it.


Be well.

Margaret Moczkowski
Personal Business Coach
Momentum Coaching
http://www.momentumcoach.net/


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Your Perfect Customers

As an entrepreneur, business owner or a sales representative, you know very well that not everybody is your client. Then, out of the people who might qualify as your market, some are more perfect and some less perfect for you to work with.

So how do you define your absolutely perfect customer? How do you choose who you want to work with, sell to, serve? The clarity of answers to these questions is crucial because it will save you from going after the “wrong” people. Keep in mind that your “wrong” ones might be someone else’s perfect ones.

Let me use my own example. I coach entrepreneurs, business owners, sales representatives, and in general, people who want to make a great living doing what they love. I coach them on a variety of things: Getting clarity in their business vision, defining their business needs, setting goals, establishing priorities, deciding in what order they want to take action steps necessary for them to evolve. Why do I love what I’m doing? Because this work resonates with me. Because I resonate well with other entrepreneurs, with their creative energy, with their commitment to freedom, with their drive to change things, take risks and grow. I am an entrepreneur and my values seem to be aligned with the values of other entrepreneurs. Being a lifetime entrepreneur myself, I am an expert on inner and outer game of an entrepreneur. It took me a while to realize it, find my “niche” in the market and to define myself as a coach for entrepreneurs. I learned my lessons from serving my less-than-perfect clients. And here I am now – happy, aligned, “plugged in”, in my right place and in the right business.

The point I want to make is that we tend to do our best work with and for people who in some important aspect are like us. We share core values, desires, or vision. The same things ignite our inner fires. We connect with them easily, we energize them and they energize us. We inspire each other. That’s when the sense of connection and alignment is present and guiding our business. That’s when creative energy has the best chance to thrive.

Today, I invite you answer the question: If you could have perfect customer showing up at your door tomorrow, who would they be? What do you have in common with them, what energy are you sharing? If you already have perfect customers, who are they and what attracts you to them and them to you? When you are clear on that, you open your door much wider to your perfect business.


Be well.

Margaret Moczkowski
Personal Business Coach
Momentum Coaching
http://www.momentumcoach.net/


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Passion Meets Profits

Here is my Tuesday "wisdom to use as you please". Use it to your good health and to attract your highest good.

The optimal prosperity is doing what you love and making a good living doing it. Making money fulfilling your heart’s desire is optimal not only for the sake of financial prosperity, but even more importantly, because it enables you to continue doing what you do love and bless the world with your natural gifts. The economics are simple: If you can create the level of prosperity you desire by doing what you truly love, you don’t waste your time or energy on “making a living” doing anything else.

So why do so many people separate what they feel passionate about from how they earn their money? Some of the prevalent beliefs are “work and pleasure are two separate things” or “you have to work hard (read: do what you don’t like) to make good money”, etc.

But the world is changing. And the concept of making money is evolving. More and more people strive to successfully combine their passions, desires, and values with creating prosperity. And this true prosperity goes well beyond the monetary rewards: they are prosperous emotionally, spiritually and even physically (they don’t get ulcers from hating their workJ)

Today, I invite you to take a look at your belief system and see how you relate to the passion/work/money question deep inside. Check in with your attitudes about making money; see if they stand in your way to true prosperity. And if they do, I invite you to… simply change your mind.


Be well.

Margaret Moczkowski
Personal Business Coach
Momentum Coaching
www.momentumcoach.net


If you find this message inspiring or fun, please spread the word and share it with other people.

Thanksgiving

This week I’m doing something different than usual; instead of my weekly wisdom I’m offering you a short, inspiring, and a very wise video to watch. It’s Brother David’s Thanksgiving prayer, “Giver of All Good Gifts”.
http://www.gratefulness.org/brotherdavid/thanksgiving-video.htm
With it I wish you a peaceful and grateful Thanksgiving.

Wherever You Go, There You Are, and Whatever That Means

There is a Zen saying I really like: “Wherever you go, there you are”. It took me some time to finally understand its meaning, but maybe before I had not been ready to embrace the concept. Now I’m ready and my translation is: “Enjoy the process”.

Sometimes we are so wrapped up in working on our life and business goals that we forget to enjoy the process that will get us there. We think we will relax when “we get there”, when we “arrive”. We will then finally exhale and be happy; we will do fun things and think fun thoughts. Now is not a good time for it because we have to work hard or worry about things.

Try a different perspective: That you have already arrived. You are exactly where we should be, at the time and place that is perfect for you in your process. Wherever you go, there you are. So why not exhale now and be happy? Why not do fun things and think fun thoughts now? I’m not saying stop working on your goals and just relax on a beach, but do your work and still have and love your life. Be happy now, don’t wait till it’s all done, earned, bought, sold, made, expanded, healed, under control, in the right place, etc., whatever you think needs to happen for you to “arrive”.

Today, I invite you to simply be happy in the place you are now. Do something you truly enjoy, or don’t do anything if it feels good. Just be. Take a breath and feel how great it is just to be able to inhale and exhale when you want to. Be content that You Are.


Be well.

Let Your Vision Pull You

Create a vision of what you really want in your life and let it pull you to your highest good. Creating a vision is a powerful thing to do. When we state out loud what we would LOVE to have in our lives, a great shift happens, both in us and in the Universe (same thing, really). We dare to think big about ourselves and about our time on Earth; we open the door to a possibility of having it the way we want, and we invite the Universe to co-create with us on a higher level.

I always think of my life vision as something to PULL me to my dreams and desires. When I have it in front of me, guiding and keeping me on track, life and business become less complicated and much more fun. It seems I don’t have to work as hard to “push” myself towards my goals; rather I let my vision energize me and supply me with synergies, courage, confidence and trust to move forward. And the best thing is that it gives me a great sense of direction in life.

Today, I invite you to either create of revisit your life vision. Ask yourself: What would I LOVE to have, to do, in, let’s say, a year? And how will I feel when I have it the way I want it? Play with it; it’s a fun exercise to go through. Make is light, yet truly manful to you. Write down all thoughts and ideas that show up and revisit them often. Change and update when you have new insights.

You will see a different energy present in your life. It will pull you and let you float freely towards your highest good.

Be well.

Your Best Is Enough

Always do your best.
No more, no less. Your best is enough. Your best is the only thing you can do. When you do your best and you acknowledge yourself for it, you can’t be dissatisfied with yourself. There is no room for blaming yourself or complaining about the outcome. When you know you’ve done your best, you know that there was nothing else to do at the time. You can rest you mind easily.

Keep in mind that your best today might look differently from your best tomorrow, and it’s all right. On days when you wake up full of energy and enthusiasm, your best will be better than on days when you wake up tired and in a gloomy mood. But your best is really all you’ve got.

Always doing your best will free you from self-blame, complaining, feeling not enough. It will create a shift towards acceptance, satisfaction and love.

Today, I invite you to do the following: Evaluate all your today’s actions and give yourself an honest feedback whether they were your best. If you feel that with some things you could have done better, make a decision to do it again or make amends. If you feel you’ve done your best today, sincerely acknowledge yourself.

Make a decision to do only your best from now on; not only in “important stuff”, but also in small routine actions you perform every day. You will see a tremendous difference in how you see yourself and what you create. For me, doing my best is a liberating experience. I hope you find it liberating too.

Be well.

What's Right With You?

You create more effortlessly when you feel good about yourself. You can handle all your life situations much better when you know you are doing your best, when you feel “enough”. Feeling enough is the most fundamental need we have. Yet many of us don’t feel enough…

We are programmed to see insufficiencies in our life situations and in our own selves. We are taught to point out what’s NOT working, what’s NOT whole, what tasks on our to-do list were NOT completed today, where we are NOT enough. By doing that we create a general attitude of lack, powerlessness, and being stuck. And, as the saying goes: What you resist persists.

So if you are ready to increase the flow of positive things into your life, use this very simple yet very powerful tool: Acknowledgement. By acknowledging yourself daily for all the things you’ve done that day, you make a huge shift from “What’s wrong with me” to “What’s right with me”.

I invite you to try this exercise for three weeks. Every evening, before you fall asleep, come up with as many self-acknowledgements as you can for that day. They don’t have to be huge accomplishments, you can praise yourself for such “small” things as smiling at a stranger, being patient with your children, returning calls or emails, taking a walk in the park, getting some things done from your to-do list. Some days you can even praise yourself for getting up in the morning though you didn’t feel like it. Make the list as extensive as you can each day. Have fun with it. You can either recite it in you head, or even better, write it down in your journal. Be specific; treat each item on your list seriously and with respect.

This is what will happen: You will experience an immediate feeling of ease, joy, and sufficiency. You will start liking yourself more. You will start liking other people more. You will appreciate yourself for who you are and start seeing how much you already do in your life. You will feel more important. You will feel enough, whole and complete. And the Universe will respond accordingly. It will like you more, treat you better, send more good things your way. But the first step is yours. Take it and open up to the positive feelings about yourself and to the positive energy of the Universe.

So go ahead, acknowledge yourself right now for at least five things. See how differently the world looks already?

Be well.

What Is Already Perfect in Your Life?

Do you want to attract more good things to you life? The easiest and the simplest way to do this is by being grateful.

If I wanted to use just one spiritual tool in my life, it would definitely be Gratitude. By simply thanking the Universe for all the goodness we receive daily, we create feelings of abundance and satisfaction. We become more joyful, we feel more “in the right place, at the right time”, and we open up doors for more of the good stuff to flow through. More than that, when we are in a place that we think is less than perfect or even “bad”, being grateful for what we do have and for all goodness coming from this situation creates the necessary shift of energy to turn things around.

I do a morning ritual to thank the Universe for all my blessings. I invite you to create a ritual that feels good to you and give thanks daily. You might create a gratefulness journal to write down things you are thankful for. Or you might simply close your eyes and tell the Universe what you’re grateful for. Thank daily for what you have and it will multiply. Thank for what you want to have and know it’s already yours. This ritual doesn’t have to take longer than two minutes and you will be amazed by what it will accomplish in your life. You will feel more connected, more in the flow of prosperity - financially and emotionally. You will start seeing good things just flowing into your life.

Try it right now, see how different you will feel in a minute.

Be well.

What Are You Investing Yourself In?

We all have just 24 hours in a day. We all have limited amount of physical, mental, and emotional energy we can spend daily. The things we choose to do, to think about, or to get upset about are what we spend this precious energy on. How do we make sure that we invest it in things that are really important and worthwhile for us? How do we not get sidetracked by things of little importance and by mental energies that are not really serving us?

Here is an anecdote that drastically changed my way of looking at time and energy management. I learned it when taking a Franklin Covey time management course.

A professor brought a large empty glass jar to a lecture on time management and asked his class: “Is this jar full or empty?” The students responded: “It’s empty”. Then the professor filled it with large, fist-size stones. “Now is it full or empty?” he asked. The students responded: “It’s full”. Then he poured gravel into the jar and the gravel filled the spaces between the large stones. “And now, is it full or empty?” he asked. Some of the students said it was full; some got the idea and said that he could still pour sand to fill the spaces between the gravel. The professor did just that. He repeated his question. Students suggested he could still fill it up more with water. “Right”, he said, and he poured water into the jar. Now everyone agreed that the jar was finally full and there was no unused space left. “What’s the moral of this story?” the professor asked. “The moral is that you can always squeeze more into your day even though you think your schedule is already full”, the students volunteered. “No”, said the professor, the moral of this story is that if you don’t put your largest stones into the jar first, you won’t be able to squeeze them in later. If you don’t make time to do the things that really matter to you on every day basis, the smaller and less important stuff will surely take over your day”.

So are you putting your large stones into your jar first or are you busing yourself with “other things” and then you don’t have time and energy to do what really matters?

Today, I invite you to ask yourself what the big and important stones in your life are. What is the gravel and sand for you? And what is just water? When you schedule your week, your day, I invite you to make sure you choose to invest your time in the biggest things first. You know, the ones that give you true fulfillment. Of course, we all have to do our “gravel” or “sand” things too, but it’s up to us to create healthy proportions between them and the large stones. Decide what’s the healthiest for you, what would serve you the best, and invest yourself accordingly.


Be well.