Make Friends With Your Problems

Ow!  I know I am going to keep some folks and I am going to lose some folks with the topic alone.  It's okay.  I would look at the topic crazy too if I didn't know what I know.  As a matter of fact, I am feeling some type of way about sharing the message now because some of ya'll wont stick around to get it as well.  I promise eventually you will have an Aha moment.  Here goes.

It took me many many years to understand that I must make friends with my problems.  What I had been doing was resisting.  Which was like a fish traveling upstream against the current.  Imagine what that looks like.  Not a pretty picture.  Many of us are still traveling upstream against the current. Another way to look at is if your are a runner, you know there are many hills you must run up in order to get to the decline of that hill.  Once you get to the decline, you relax even more into the decline.  What an enjoyable feeling.  I've seen folks in pain going down hill.  I'm like what the what.  Down hill is the magic moment.  All you have to do is give in to it.  Make friends with it.  Oh how I miss running.  I digress....

Although

Trying to Predict Success Sets You Up for Failure

Some of us tend to doubt ourselves right out of future success with “what if” predictions we make. It could be named the “what if” syndrome. It’s when you’re mired in self doubt so much that you begin to imagine and predict obstacles and outcomes that aren’t even there.

The “what if” syndrome is especially prevalent after you’ve hatched up a brilliant idea for an online project that’s going to make you lots of money and help your fellow entrepreneurs.

You’re sure everyone will love it and want it. Then, self doubt sets in and you begin to think of all of the reasons why it won’t succeed. You walk on the shadowy side of your ability to make things happen and talk yourself down or out of even trying.

You were so excited about the idea at first and it fired up your creativity to a point where you could hardly wait to begin. That lull – somewhere between the excitement of the idea and taking action to make it happen – is where self doubt takes root.

You may begin to think of past failures and how they made you feel or become highly sensitive to the fact that you’ve never endeavored something like this before. If you keep thinking about past failures or what “might” happen, you may come to a point in the project where a big wall is placed in your path.

Since your self doubt has already been growing in your thoughts, the wall may seem insurmountable and you simply give up. Just another failure to think about next time you have an idea.

Or – you can take another route - one that doesn’t ensure success, but that at least gives you a chance. Rather than giving in to self doubt, trust yourself and try it again. You’ve likely practiced this scenario many times before in your life.

Some attempts may have failed, but you’ve probably succeeded many more times. Bring a new attitude into the mix and think positively rather than giving in to the hauntings of past failures. Also, bring in positive people to surround you who encourage, rather than discourage you.

Don’t compare yourself to others whose successes may be greater or more profitable than yours. You may even learn from their stories of success. They’re bound to have had failures along the way – and overcame them rather than feeling defeated.

When you find yourself become mired in self doubt about your future success, mute the negative voices by focusing on the positive and living in the present moment rather than projecting yourself into a future of unknowns.

My Taxable Items

Virtual Assistants need not worry about what to deduct and what not to deduct during their tax prep. Although there are people out there willing to assist you, there are things you can do to get the ball rolling. Depending on how long you've been in business, you might consider doing it all yourself.

If you are organized, or like me, semi-organized, you have a spreadsheet/folders/notebooks with careful notations of the money you made and the money you had to dish out during the year. Even if you some how forgot your debit card or your checkbook during a transaction, I'm sure you had a receipt written out by the client. So pull out that handy brown envelope with all the receipts you've tucked away. You'll definitely need it.

I am going to give you a few nuggets in this article to guide you in the event you are scratching your head right now. I know for some, tax time can be difficult. It is my goal to ease the pain a bit. So, here we go.

According to the IRS.Gov site:

First determine what is ordinary (common) and necessary (helpful; makes the job better). Then separate capital expenses, personal expenses and cost of goods sold.

Being a virtual assistant, I'm not sure if you sold any goods or not. If so, make a separate list. You only can deduct this one time. (For additional information, refer to the chapter on Cost of Goods Sold, Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Businesses and the chapter on Inventories, Publication 538, Accounting Periods and Methods).

Capital Expenses

"You must capitalize, rather than deduct, some costs such as the business start-up costs, business assets, and improvements. These costs are a part of your investment in your business and are called capital expenses. Capital expenses are considered assets in your business. In general, there are three types of costs you capitalize."

Personal vs Business Expenses

Divide the total cost between the business and personal parts. You can deduct the business part. "For example, if you borrow money and use 70% of it for business and the other 30% for a family vacation, you can only deduct 70% of the interest as a business expense."

Business Use of Your Home Deductions

Mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs, and depreciation.

Business Use of Your Car

"If you use your car for both business and personal purposes, you must divide your expenses based on actual mileage." (See the Standard Mileage Rates).

Employees' Pay

Rent Expense - "If you have or will receive equity in or title to the property, the rent is not deductible."

Interest - the amount charged for the use of money you borrowed for business activities.

Taxes - federal, state, local, and foreign taxes directly related to the business.

Insurance - related to the business.

Note: Remember, you can deduct all educational tools or classes, vacations, dining, conferences, seminars, online courses, etc.

I hope this helped some. I do advise you to visit https://www.irsvideos.gov/Business/virtualworkshop

Also, if you'd like to know more about me, I am Nikki Ruffin-Smith, CEO and founder of Exhale to Excel Global Outreach and Empowerment ORG (www.exhaletoexcel.org). I am also sponsor A Phenomenal Woman's Radio Networking System (Facebook). I can be reached via email - exhaletoexcel@gmail.com

Blog site: http://exhaleiiexcel.blogspot.com/

Fibromyalgia - A Soldier's Story

For those who are military veterans, do you recall those days you pitched tents, dug trenches, dug fox holes, worked in the motor pool, did sergeants time training/did PT/did ruck marches outside even in the rain, physically played war-games (not on the computer I might add), etc.  

Well, do you remember after so many years, you moved to the other side of the ladder, where you might see a 2 or 3 star general on a daily basis because you worked for him OR, yes, with him?  

My point is, you noticed those folks who had not seen both worlds could not ever relate to what the other faced.  Believe it or not, those people (at least some of them) had no sympathy/empathy for their comrades on the other end of the ladder.  

I could go on and on about the negative things I heard each side  say about the other without having any real knowledge...better yet wisdom of what their worlds looked like.  

It's easy to tell someone to "suck it up and drive on" OR that their symptoms aren't real OR they are an hypochondriac OR they just want attention OR it is all in their heads.  I even had a doctor once to tell me I needed a boyfriend :-)  (at that time, I did agree with the doc, only to have my boyfriend massage my aching body!!!!!)  

I digressed!  Anyway, it is easy to not feel empathy/sympathy for someone especially if you haven't experienced one ounce of that persons PAIN.

To those who suffer not, Fibromyalgia is not in our heads!

Self Doubt Stems from a Lack of Belief in Your Abilities

If you don’t believe in yourself, who will? Successful entrepreneurs have all experienced moments of self doubt, but also have an amazing ability to move past the lack of confidence and force themselves to go on.

That ability comes from experience and knowledge that even failure provides an advantage of knowing that you tried. Newbies to online marketing can sometimes find themselves in a perpetual state of self doubt.

They lack the experience to know they can overcome obstacles on the way to becoming a successful entrepreneur. That self doubt can make or break even the most successful entrepreneur and paralyze him or her so that no action is taken and failure is imminent.

Remember your school days? You were required to sit at a desk, learn, turn in homework and take tests to see what you’ve learned. Now, you have to take that initiative on your own.

Learning, experimenting and brainstorming new ideas is a bit like learning to ride a bicycle. You’ll likely fall several times, but eventually you’ll get on that bike one day and move on down the path like a pro.

After you’ve ridden the bicycle a few times, you don’t even think about how it works – you just do it. As an entrepreneur, you know there’s always something new to try or think about.

You can either choose to give it all you’ve got – or leave an idea by the wayside and move on to something else. An idea may work for some, but it may not be for you. You’ll learn to be discretionary in latching on to new ideas or different ways to do things.

Eventually, that ability will be so innate that you won’t even have to think about it as you move forward to meet your goals. Sometimes, you’ll try something that backfires or simply doesn’t work out the way you thought it would.

Rather than doubting your ability and becoming paralyzed by the situation, take a step back and remember what got you where you are in the first place. Even newbies can think back and remember what decisions led them to take action and become a marketing entrepreneur.

It’s likely a decision based on goals you’ve achieved in the past or a deep interest or appreciation you have for the possibility of making more money and having a business of your own.

And then forgive yourself for any mistakes you may have made. These mistakes give you the advantage of knowledge and you can now move ahead knowing you won’t make that mistake ever again. Your ability to succeed has just increased.

The Importance of Follow Up with your Clients

The Importance of Following Up with Your Clients

Once you have a client, whether it's a short-term project or a long-term one, it's important to follow up with them. Your former and current clients are likely one of the best sources for future clients, and it doesn't take much to please a former client when you follow up with them. A nice short note, a birthday card, or a congratulatory tweet, can all go far in keeping you in the forefront of their mind for future projects.

The Little Things Matter

People are touched more than you realize by the little things. A handwritten note and a newspaper clipping from an article you read, a quick email regarding a new product or service you are offering, a link to new software that you thought might work for them, a small note telling them they're awesome, will mean a lot if it's done in an authentic way.

Clients Are Referral Generators

Current clients can be great sources of new referrals. This is because they are happy. Keep your current clients informed about all the different types of work that you do outside of the work you do for them. Offer incentives for referrals too, as keeping connected will result in more clients.

Stay on Their Mind

This is most especially true if the client was a short-term project based client. By sharing information with the former client, and sending them periodic information about what you're doing, things you've achieved, as well as congratulating them on their achievements and life milestones, you'll stay on their mind. When they think of a project that involves the work you do, you'll be the first one they think about.

People Get Busy

The client may have been meaning to contact you to talk about a new project but life just keeps getting in the way. If you are the one who reaches out, they're much more likely to follow through with a new project. They just got busy and kept putting the idea of the new project on the back burner. You can help move new projects to the front burner by proactively contacting your clients on a regular basis.

Take It Easy

It's important to follow up without being irritating. Don't bombard your client or past client with continuous streams of emails. As a service provider, you're in a different place than an email marketer, and while you do want to grow and develop your prospects list, once someone is or has been a paying client, if you bother them daily with marketing messages they're just going to tune you out.

Remember to segment your audience. Short-term project clients should be on a different email list than current paying clients. Both should be on a different list than prospects.

Prospects you want to contact at least weekly, if not daily. Current clients you can get away with contacting at least monthly. Past clients you may only want to contact every 30 to 90 days. It depends on your audience, but one thing is for sure - following up with style and class will convert them all over again.

How Your Personal Story Can Attract Clients

Telling the best story of why you do what you do can attract clients. In fact, telling your story can do a better job at client attraction than listing the features of the work you do. The trick is weaving the story with the solutions you provide and how that benefits your future clients.

Stories have been used for ages to convey an idea, suggest solutions, and teach morals to others. Stories define our childhood, and give meaning to our lives. Your story, told in the right way, can attract more clients that you thought possible.

Stories can be used to tell who you are, why you're here, what you do, your vision for your future, and teach others something important while demonstrating your values. Telling your personal story of how you came to be what you are now can be a very powerful motivator for prospects to decide to become clients. And telling your story well is an art form that you can learn.

* Tell It at the Right Time - The context in which you share your story is almost as important as the story. When you are sharing something of a personal nature, make sure the tone of the story matches the emotions you want to evoke for a particular event. You probably have many personal stories that can be shared, so pick the right one, for the right audience, at the right time.

* Be Authentic - Only you can be you, so it's important to be real. Telling your story in a way that demonstrates who you are, why you're here and what makes you tick is important. You can show your vulnerable side, talk about a time when you experienced failure and how that affected you and what you did about it, and more...as long as you are being authentically you.

* Set the Stage - Stories need a beginning, middle and end. You want to remember to evoke all the senses in your story, telling it so that your prospects are emotionally connected to you by the end of it. Remember that people often go into their mind and imagination during a story, and you want them to bring up the right feelings. Words, context and tone matter.

* Understand Your Purpose - To help you choose the right story to tell, and to tell it in the right way, consider the purpose of sharing your story. Are you trying to explain who you are, why you're here, teach something, pass on your vision or something else entirely? If you know your purpose you can find the right story, words and phrases easier.

* Practice - Like with most things in life, you'll get better with practice. Whether you're typing out your story, speaking your story into a recording device, or telling it to a live audience, it all takes practice. You want to be able to tell your various stories at the drop of a hat when the appropriate time comes up with your potential clients, and practice will assist you in developing this skill.

You've heard it before, and you're going to hear it again. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen to others twice as much as you speak. Giving other people your full attention will go far in helping you attract clients with whom you can share your story in the first place.

Attracting New Clients through Community Involvement

There are several ways in which you can attract new clients to your service-based business, but one of the most effective is via community involvement. Don't get worried. Community involvement can happen both on and offline. There are communities that exist only online and there are communities that exist only offline. You can do both for best impact, but if there is a reason you can only participate online that is fine too.

There are two types of communities you can get involved in. You can involve yourself in a community of your peers, or a community of your audience.

Peer Groups

In terms of peer groups, there are peers with whom you are in direct competition and those who offer complementary services to yours. Both can help you get clients but the complementary group will be more beneficial to you because they are not direct competition. Consider that when you get involved in any particular group.

Business focused groups, mastermind groups, industry focused groups and so forth all exist to help you educate yourself further and provide connections. You can get clients through word of mouth when a peer group member feels you would be right for a position because they have come to know you. Peer groups also offer opportunities for joint venture (JV) partnerships which can widen and expand your audience.

Niche Groups

Audience or niche groups are the best place for you to spend your time because you can find groups full of your ideal clients. You can locate these groups by looking at local meet-ups in the area, searching for groups on LinkedIn.com, and searching for and joining message boards devoted to a particular niche.

The key making niche groups work is to join the group, freely answer questions for them and let them come to see you as part of the group. Let your signature line speak for itself, and do not try to sell your services at all. They will come to you when they see that you offer what they want via your normal sharing mechanisms.

Understand the Pros and Cons

Be a free and open source of information regarding your niche. This is how people will get to know you and trust you and start seeing you as someone to refer to others or hire. There can be problems with choosing to spend more time in communities of your peers than in communities consisting of your niche audience. Doing so can result in a problem finding your ideal clients and being stuck in a bubble of competitors.

You want to focus on spending more time in communities that are made up of your ideal audience than with your peers but you want to also participate in peer communities so that you can become known as a community expert.

Finally, when you join either type of group you want to realize that when you first join, you are the new person and you are unknown. No one is going to trust you immediately - whether they are meeting you in person or online. Take the time to get to know others before offering your services in any manner, and get to know the culture of the group. Let your business card or your signature line do the selling for you. Make participation your goal and more clients will be the result.

ow to Create an Email Marketing Campaign to Attract More Clients

First, it's important to realise that email marketing is about conversions more than attraction. Your list-building campaign is about attraction; your email marketing is about making connections and building trust so that they convert to clients. All marketing campaigns start with pretty much the same requirements: understanding your goals and knowing your audience.

Attraction is made up of various events such as blogging regularly, participating in social media, and offering something of value in exchange for a potential client's email address. Once the lead signs up, attraction continues with your willingness and ability to deliver something of value to their inbox.

A converting email marketing campaign incorporates the following components.

Audience Segmentation

The people on your various email lists are there from a particular place or due to particular event. They either signed up for your free item, low cost item, via social media or they are actually already a client. At the very least, separate your email list members between buyers and those who have not purchased yet. Segmentation allows you to personalize the messages going to your list members, which will help you attract more paying clients.

Compelling, Well-Made Content

Create content that speaks directly to your list members. Targeted, relevant, and valuable messages tailored directly to the specific audience will be effective in converting the curious into a customer. Once they've converted, it's important to move them to the buyer's list and off the lead list. Content can't be that compelling if it's not targeted correctly.

Frequently Delivered Content

Your audience needs to receive regular email updates from you. Believe it or not - no matter how excited your audience was to sign up for your list, if you don't contact them with valuable information on a regular basis, you'll lose them. Contact them at least weekly, if not daily, but only if you have good information to share that adds value to their life.

Frequent Tests of Effectiveness

At every stage of your marketing campaign, it's important to conduct tests. Test two headlines; test open rates; test reaction to your call to action; test your deliverability rate. When you test something, note what can be improved upon, then seek to improve it immediately. If you improve upon everything as you move forward, you'll make your email marketing campaign that much more successful.

Continuous List-Building Activities

You should always be conducting activities to build your list with targeted members. The more people who want what you have to offer that sign up for your list, the more likely you are to convert them to actual clients. It's a mathematical fact that the more people you attract to your email list, the more people you'll attract as a client. It's in the numbers and it's the truth.

When you work to improve your email marketing based on facts learned when you check your metrics and test your assumptions, you will create a customer attraction email marketing magnet. You'll convert more sign-ups to paying customers over time.

Nikki Ruffin-Smith 

 Grief,Transformation and Wealth & Success Coach

 She helps female entrepreneurs attract high-end clients working part-time.

Attracting abundance has always been my strong side. 

Ever since I started my business, I attracted clients easily and effortlessly. 

In my work I use combination of marketing strategies,  mindset work and law of attraction. This 

perfect mixture helps my clients get fully booked easily and effortlessly.

I am going to share with you my 10 step formula to attract high-end clients now. You can use this 

formula to manifest absolutely everything in your life.  

Using this simple 10 step guide on daily basis I turned around my business and personal life but mostly I helped many women to create wealth and abundance in their lives and businesses.

It will help you manifest all the clients that you need in no time, But, YOU NEED TO BE 

CONSISTENT, CONSISTENT,  CONSISTENT with repeating this formula daily.

               10 Steps To Manifest High-End Clients :

1.          Write down in great details: *The amount of clients you want to manifest, *How much will they pay you? *What will they buy from you? *By what day will you enroll them ? * What services will they buy from you? (THINK BIG).

2.          Write down THE BIG GOAL ex: I desire 6 clients to buy my 90 Day coaching Program at $3000 by the end of November.

3.          Each day repeat it and write it down several times. Visualize it, feel it, see yourself having Discovery Calls with them, see your email box being filled with people booking sessions with you. Every day, see the whole scenario (I encourage you to do it first thing in the morning before you open your laptop).

4.          Go back and read the BIG GOAL out loud. Re-affirm it, make it your reality.

5.          Repeat visualisation in the evening just before falling asleep.

THIS IS THE MOST POWERFUL manifestation

technique, because all your thoughts locks into your subconscious mind and helps to re-program it from LACK of clients to ABUNDANCE of clients. All that you visualized just before falling asleep will ENORMOUSLY influence you mind.

6.          Every day write down ONE BIG ACTION that you will take to help you accomplish your goal.

7.          Notice how Universe will support you with small miracles. Ex: you will get some unexpected referral, you will get invitation to be a speaker.

8.          As a part of morning routine, start journaling. Express gratitude for all that you have and write down what would you like to attract even more. Never allow your mind to entertain thoughts that you don’t want to manifest.

9.          Write down Future Script, with details to what you want to manifest and accomplish by certain date and sign it.

10.   Have the faith in the process. Every time when you catch yourself doubting, go back to your BIG GOAL. Make it no negotiable. Demand on Universe to make it happen. Having FAITH is %85 of SUCCESS.

If you can’t do all of the above points every day, do at least few, but consistently. Observe how everything will start to change around you for better. You will be manifesting more and more clients, as days go by. The only thing you need to stick to is :TO BE CONSISTENT.

The truth is that EVERY successful person do some of the above points EVERY DAY.  I will be using this technique during my upcoming "Rebuild Your Life - 2017" class, scheduled for Dec 29, 2016 @ 8pm.  Make sure you join us!

*I also encourage you  to get the book “The science of getting rich” by Wallace D. Wattles.

You can download it for free. There is also an audio.  Read it daily at least for 10 minutes.

If you feel absolutely ready to manifest as many clients as you need and would like to get a personalized plan and be supported by me,  then feel free to apply using the link provided.

My 90 Day Coaching Program is fully booked, but I still have a few spaces for Skype/In Person intensive.

Imagine how different your Christmas would be if you would manifest all the clients that you need now. 

Comment here that you are interested in a one on one. Spaces are limited:

(https://www.facebook.com/nikkinichelle.ruffin) 

A Guide Phenomenal Marketing - SWOT

SWOT Analysis Definition | Investopedia

www.investopedia.com/terms/s/swot.asp

SWOT analysis is a process that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization. Specifically, SWOT is a basic, analytical framework that assesses what an organization can and cannot do, as well as its potential opportunities and threats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ4uVsSqQ9k

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm

SWOT Analysis Worksheet

Fill out the fields below and review with a mentor.  This information can help you outline goals and strategies for your business and marketing efforts.

	Strengths	Weaknesses		Opportunities		Threats
Product/ Service Offering
Brand/ Marketing
Staff/ HR
Finance
Operations/ Management
Market
Can any of your strengths help with improving your weaknesses or combating your threats?  If so, please describe how below.
Based on the information above, what are your immediate goals/next steps?
Based on the information above, what are your long-term goals/next steps?

A Crash Course in Making Your Business Work For You - Book Marketing

 Book Marketing in 3 Steps 

1. Why do you market? -Marketing is an art. It is the art of connecting with your audience in such a way that you build a long term, healthy, profitable relationship…not just profitable for you but also enriching the lives of every customer whether they buy 1 book or books to fill the nation’s library. 

- Marketing is more than just advertising and promoting…it is the art of building a relationship. The same way that you want a genuine, heart-felt relationship with anyone you are connected to is the same way that you need to market product or service to your audience.

Marketing is building a relationship…not to making a sale. 

-Marketing is the way you connect. Once you connect you are able to communicate…once you communicate you are able to create the cash. 

2. What do you Market? Book Trailer  

-Studies show that consumers are more likely to read information if it has a picture associated with it. That’s why highway billboards are effective and you will notice that some of them have gone digital.  -A book trailer is a moving story teller. It tells the story via pictures and words. 

A book trailer is important because it tells the story of the solution you provide in a matter of a few minutes. Solutions are important because the world is full of problems. You are a solution provider whether you know it or not. 

-Make it easy for your audience to find you and share you. 

3. How? #1 Free way to market your book  

-Gather 3-4 friends and share posts about your book. This includes your book trailer. If you do not incorporate a book trailer with your book campaign, use pictures! Always include links to purchase your book. Make it easy for your audience. Rotate these posts within your social media schedule and among those who will promote freely for you. 

 Building an Author Platform That can Launch Anything:   A social Media Minibook, byToby Neal

 www.bowker.com – ISBN purchases

 www.lightningsource.com – Printing

 www.createspace.com - Printing (An Amazon Company)

 www.neevia.com – Free online document converter

 www.smashwords.com – eBook distribution

 www.designjd.net – Cover designs, Nikki Smith

Publishing Timeline Tips - 
http://spiritauthors.com/course-content/Mod-3/Week-1/Template-Publication-Timeline.pdf