Make Your Last Professional Act Classy

Doing This Assures You a Professional Send-Off

 Pre-planning for your death doesn’t mean you will die sooner.  I promise.  All it does is make life easier and possibly more affordable for your loved ones in the event of your loss.  

I wanted to finish the emergency planning month with the biggest emergency.  The one that’s hardest on your business. Your death.

Your Choice: Just Details or A Nightmare?

It’s easy to neglect this part of your business.  After all, you won’t actually deal with it. 

This can be just another aspect of settling the estate.  Or it can be a disorganized horror for your loved ones to sort through as they grieve their loss.  Here are a few nightmare-reducing things to consider.

Important Contacts to Organize

Have you hired an accountant?  Perhaps a personal assistant?  Have you outsourced product fulfillment?

Developing an easy to access contact list of vendors and clients will make it so much easier for the person handling your final affairs.  A simple instruction sheet of where to look for the list, how to use it (phone, online, mail, etc.) and even what to say means one less thing to figure out.

It may also save money by avoiding unwanted shipments or charges for monthly services.

You need a short list as well.  On this, include your retainer clients and other active clients.  They need to be informed immediately so they aren’t left hanging with looming deadlines and no product in sight.   

Leave clear directions for the bank accounts to make sure refunds are issued to appropriate parties.  If you are able to direct someone to fulfill orders, leave clear, step-by-step instructions. 

An extra touch of class would be to refer them to someone to fulfill the contract where possible.   It would be like having a godparent for the business setting, only less binding.  

Keep your research and work organized so that it's easy to send back to your client, reducing time for the next person to get up to speed. Your clients will appreciate your thoughtful preparedness.

Remember Your Other Contacts

Consider your personal contacts.  Friends you’ve developed over the internet via blog hopping or other forums may never know what happened to you.   They'll be pleased you thought enough of them to have them informed.

To avoid simply going dark, draft a final email, addressed to those people. You’ll want to remember people who recommend you through networking rather than client relationship.   

Facebook has a way to turn your page into a memorial page. Other accounts can only be shut off.  It's worth considering, if you don't want to run the risk of identity theft plaguing your estate and your family.

How You Want Your Legacy Products Handled

Are you blogging?  Make a draft final blog post.  Leave copy and paste directions so when it is used, it doesn’t appear to have been written years earlier if that is an issue on your particular blog. 

While you are thinking about your blog, do you want it left up for the benefit of new readers?  Will you have an online product that is automatically fulfilled?    

You’ll need to plan your business estate to account for keeping that up.  Include a way for funding to be addressed, including payment for your website.  Leave clear instructions for running that aspect of your business.   Include passwords, email addresses, information on any income sources such as affiliate relationships like Amazon or from banner ads. 

This will allow you to continue providing income to your family after you have passed as well as impact the lives of those who read your blog or buy your products.

Awareness is Key

The bottom line is to be aware of what would happen if your spouse or other loved one had to step in tomorrow morning and figure all this out alone.  Figure out how to make it easy to navigate. 

And get a lawyer to get things set up properly for minimum fuss to your survivors.

Make appointments to update this information regularly.  Your loved ones will bless you for loving them so much.

Weekly Challenge

I finally got my website live last week.  I don’t like it much.  Being lean on resources, I need to figure out how to do much of this for free.  My site looks incredibly boring.  Aside from the banner, it’s black and white. 

Much as I want to take time to do something about it, learning SEO is a higher priority.  Otherwise, I can’t be found without directly typing in my address.  That is my goal for this week.

Does this section hold any interest to you?  I’m considering dropping this section.  Comment below and let me know!

What are you doing to build your business this week?

Are You Courting Disaster With No Personal Emergency Plan For Your Business?

Effective Freelancers Save Stress Planning for These 3 Emergencies

Last Monday found me spending more time than I relished near people with initials next to their names.  RN, DR, PAC - all great people, I'm sure.

Yet for some odd reason, I found myself preferring to discover their awesomeness in a different setting.  Especially without pain involved.

While it wasn’t life threatening, it was decidedly disruptive.  I certainly wasn’t getting work done that day.  Not much the next day either.

Fortunately, the disruptive affects have gradually diminished since then.  However, I know I must schedule a procedure within the next couple of months or so.  This will disrupt life again – for a week.

It got me thinking.  What sort of emergency plan should a freelancer put in place to minimize negative impact on clients?  What other emergencies might happen that need plans in place? 

If you want to be effective as a professional, you must address these.  It will save a LOT of stress if - or when - an emergency occurs.  The hard part of figuring out what to do will already will be done.

Looking online, business emergency plans seem to focus on natural or terrorist disasters that interrupt business.  However, personal emergencies are most likely to occur.  If you prepare for those, most everything else cares for itself.

3 Types of Emergencies

Personal crisis.  Maybe a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness.  An aging, ailing parent moves in – or doesn’t move in and you are spending a lot of time with care-taking at their home.  Lots of doctor appointments and care plans to oversee or implement.  Additional cleaning.  Additional distraction.  Long term stress while still being able to work on a part-time basis or more.

Personal illness or injury falls into the personal category, but it has its own considerations.  Maybe you can’t think clearly because of meds or pain.  Someone can’t step into your shoes and do your work when you are the only one in your business.  This may involve just a few days of complete disruption.  Depending upon where you are with your work on a project, you may be able to absorb delays without a hitch.  Then again, what happens if complications extend your delay?  

Community crisis.  Weather can play havoc on your best-laid plans, no matter the season.  You need to prepare for natural and man-made disasters.

Death.  This is the ultimate disruption.  However, even in death you can be professional by having order in your records and priority instructions.  Down payments on services can refund quickly.  Immediate client contact can minimize delays in their production timeline for projects not yet started.  It's your final professional courtesy.

Each of these require attention on both the client and the fiscal aspects.  Less work time means less billable hours.  Less money to pay business bills.  Less personal income.  Are you prepared to ride out the crisis? Will there be debts left to those you leave behind?

This month, I’ll be considering things to plan for each of these and developing a checklist.  Personal emergency will have my attention first, since that is something I must address.  Though not life threatening, I want to handle it professionally, with minimal client disruption.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your emergency plans.  Do you have any plans in place?  Have you planned for other types of emergencies I didn’t mention?   Please comment below!

Weekly Challenge

My information packet is all but done, except for fiddling with graphics.  This week I’ll be taking on the behemoth of challenges – building my website.  Wish me luck – or if you are the praying sort, please remember me in prayer.  I’ll need it with all the techie stuff!

What are you doing to build your business this week?

Making Your Client the Hero

Understanding Why the “About You” Section 

is Really About Them

Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I assume you're reading this because you want to find an effective way to help people.  You’ve already done the hard part. You developed a great solution to your prospect’s problem.  Yet convincing people probably feels like your hardest challenge.  It doesn’t have to be that way.   

One personal productivity maven teaches entrepreneurs how to build their platform.  Michael Hyatt helps people define it in a powerful way.  I highly recommend you check out his work - especially Platform.   

Part of what makes it powerful is his understanding of how to attract your ideal client.

Who’s the Hero?

What changes the game is the concept of making your client the hero of their story.  YOU aren’t supposed to be the hero that saves the day.  Not even if you do most of the work for them.  However, you CAN play the part of the trusty side-kick who shows them how THEY can save the day - using your product or service.

It’s YOUR product that will allow their vision to come to fruition.  But to attract them, it must always be about THEM.

The “About Me” that’s About Them

So using that perspective to create content for your website, how do you do an “About Me” section … that’s actually about THEM?

Step back and review your market analysis.  You should have an idea of the age group of these people, whether they are primarily men or women, and what their lifestyle is like.  

Four Questions to Answer To Attract Your Ideal Prospect

1. What is the pain in their life that you offer to resolve?  (Get their attention.)
2. How did you experience that pain in your life? (Establish that you understand their struggle, start to develop a sense of commonality and trust.)
3. Why did you develop that solution?  (What have you gone through that may be similar to the trial and error they have been going through, without a satisfying resolution of the problem? This is further proof that you really DO understand the frustration of their pain.)
4. How did you develop that solution? (How you found the solution and what your life is like now that you have this solution.)

Proving There’s Hope

The purpose of your "About Me" story is to give them hope.  You are like them.  You discovered the solution to your problem.  Reading about your story lets them know their lives CAN be better.

Whatever you write, ask yourself how it relates to their story.  If it doesn’t relate, ruthlessly cut it out.  Your results will thank you!

No, I haven't affiliated with anyone yet, including Michael Hyatt. However, I'd be honored to do so.  I can't recommend him highly enough. I hope you'll check out his page.

Weekly Challenge

I was supposed to be working on my website this week, but I’m still working on the written portion.  Some life stuff got in the way … but that’s a post for next week!   

What are you working on?  Are you wondering if your story is about them enough?  The first ten people who comment with their website will receive a free evaluation of your "about me" section.

Why A Freelancer Must Have An Education Budget

How Mentoring Benefits Your Freelance Business

 

Let’s face it - you are perfectly capable of figuring it all out on your own.  The web offers a wealth of information on virtually any subject you want to learn.  Why would you want to think about paying for education or mentoring?  

Below are several possibilities.  Do any of these fit your situation?

You are serious about your business

You want to be effective. Find someone who has achieved the level of success you seek.  You avoid the pitfalls they point out.

You want to achieve results as quickly as possible

Instead of taking the scenic route, you want to find out what others discovered the hard way. Find someone who has done it.  You learn how to advance quickly.

You want accountability

Walking this road alone is hard.  A mentor who provides accountability will call you out on time wasters like too much email or social media – or your lack of focus on one main thing until the process is performing solidly.  You stay on target.

You are stuck

This is probably the biggest reason people seek a mentor.  Businesses at all levels experience plateaus.  Getting  someone who isn’t personally involved is valuable to gain perspective and ideas.  You save valuable time and resources and move forward again.

What are your mentoring options?

There are quite a few options to get direction in running your business.  There’s something to fit all budgets.

Books are the easiest form of mentoring you can engage.  If your budget permits, you can find almost any book online. 

You may also find relevant books at the library, depending upon the size of your library.  Some are available free online, if you know how to find them.  

You can study on your own time.  On the other hand, authors are rarely available for questions. 

Classes require availability at a certain time.  You can ask the teacher questions.  You can get feedback by doing assignments.  Accountability is available at differing levels. 

If you must drive a long way, it disrupts your schedule for several weeks.   

Class costs vary by length, frequency,  and quality.

Conferences can be great for focused learning in a short time.  Being in a room (or arena) with a lot of people who want the same thing is powerful.  You come away enthusiastic and ready to take on the world.

You may or may not be able to get questions answered depending upon the size of the event. 

Be prepared for conference let-down, because that high doesn’t last forever.  Costs can be prohibitive because it’s not just the event but often the additional costs of meals, lodging, and transportation.

Workshops are like mini-conferences.  Smaller in nature, there can be time to practice the concepts, and you should be able to get questions answered. 

These also vary in cost with the possible added burden of food, lodging, and transportation to factor in.

Webinars are the online version of a conference or workshop.  Often a shorter, focused event, it may feature a question and answer session at the end.  

Price varies, but is more affordable without transportation time and costs to factor in, nor lodging. 

Some webinars are available the next day if the time isn’t convenient for you.  You often lose the opportunity to interact with the teacher, but it's better than missing out entirely.   

Online conferences usually are a series of webinars.

Online courses vary in length, value, and price.  From free to many thousands of dollars, many successful people offer their knowledge through videos and other content through a private section on their website.  

Often the most convenient, you also usually have a way to get questions answered.  Some courses provide assignments to practice.  

Some provide a coach or mentor to go over your results or create an action plan with you, with some level of accountability.  The ones with accountability are more expensive, especially if they’ve been around for a while.

Direct mentoring costs the most.  One-on-one mentoring means getting expert advice directed to your situation.  If you have selected wisely, this is the most beneficial mentoring.  You don’t have to waste time getting bases covered all over again unless you have a weakness to be addressed. 

Depending upon the mentor's level of expertise, you could be talking $50,000 or more for a single session.  Cost could be considered a downside.

Return on Investment

When looking at your mentor investment options, look at the return on investment.  When you are starting out, the idea of paying for a $10,000 business conference feels crazy.  Struggling to break $100,000 is a big deal.   

Could your investment in that conference show you how to get to $500,000 this year?  Could you return with a roadmap to scale to a million?  At that point, you’ll be looking at the $10k price tag and asking, “Is that all?”

Set Your Budget

Tai Lopez, entrepreneur, offers this practical recommendation.  Set aside 3% of your income for education.  As your income goes up, so does the quality of education you can afford.  

If you can afford  a high-powered business seminar like Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery when you are just starting out.  If you implement what you learn, you will have a huge jump ahead of others just starting out.  The return on investment will  likely shock you.

Never stop being hungry to learn.  Mentors wisely chosen will be worth so much more than you pay.

Weekly Challenge

This past week was about finishing as much of my homework as possible for the Joshua Boswell workshop last week.  I finished all but 30 pages of the reading.  Now I’ve been assigned two more books to read!

I signed up for his 12-week mentoring program.  Yes, I could do it on my own, working with the workshop materials.  However, he has a process to make it faster PLUS accountability.  I need my feet kept to the fire at this point.  This will help me focus.  The 12 weeks start next Monday.  

In the meantime, I will be developing my information packet.  Some people call it a credibility packet.

The logo process is resuming.  I didn’t have time to work with the edits last week.  I want to get that finished this week so I can use it in my packet.  I want to do the writing for my webpage as well.

I have two questions for you:

What are you doing to move your business forward this week?

Is this blog useful to you?  Please comment below and let me know what topics you’d like me to cover.