First of all, I want to wish you a Happy Spring.  Sunday, March 20th marked the first day of spring.  A time for bulbs to grow, flowers to bloom and new beginnings.

This may be the time for you to ask yourself if your business has sprung over the past year.  Have you been working and working at your business, struggling to get it off the ground so that you can quit your day job?

Or maybe you are a newbie, thinking about taking a passion and turning it into profit eventually but you need the tools to begin.

As you can see from the photo to your left, spring has sprung.  But now I ask you, has your business sprung into action?

Part of my mission on this Bloomin’ Boomer’s blog is to help baby boomers go from passion to profit.  In order to do that, there are some essential steps you need to take before you even begin that journey.

Over the weekend, I created a new FREE giveaway called “5 Easy Action Steps For The New Baby Boomer Entrepreneur.” I wanted to give you newbies a chance to do some research before you even take the entrepreneur path.  Without these essential first steps, you will do what I did and get lost in the maze of overwhelm and information overload and I don’t want to see you do that.

In this free report you will learn how to

• Discover the very first piece of the puzzle before you begin your journey.   This piece is the key to your success and a must do before you can determine your strategy.
• Define your solution.
• Develop your strategy.
• Determine your free giveaway.
• Deliver your marketing message.

How do you get this report? Look over to the right of my blog here at the top of the page and put in your name and email address when you see the image like the one here.

Within minutes, you will have access to my free report where you can begin the process to see if you will go from a new baby boomer entrepreneur to an entrepreneur who turns passions to profit.

See you on the inside.

Until next time, here’s to your success.

Cindy

Your Marketing Solutions Coach

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Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What is the “F” word that can make or break your business?  It’s  “Follow Up!” You know the phrase “The Fortune Is In The Followup?”   It’s true, every letter in it!

So let’s take a look at the reasons why followup can make or break your business.

1. You want to build trust. Let’s say you have talked with someone about your product or service and they show an interest by asking questions and leaving you their contact information to get on your newsletter or want to be informed about your monthly promotions.  It is your responsibility to make sure you connect with them in one or two days to reconnect, ask them questions and make sure you send them what they asked for, such as your newsletter or free offer.  This is how the trust starts to build.  If you don’t build the trust, this could break your business.
2. People get busy.  There are many times when someone is very excited about a product or service and tell you they will get back with you later.   Then time goes by, their kids get sick or they get busy doing other things and may have forgotten or have lost interest while out of site out of mind.   This is when you need to engage in conversation through a phone call or an email to reconnect with them as soon as possible.  When you do this, make sure the conversation is about them, not about you or making a quick sale.
3. Are you thinking about the customer first? One of the worst mistakes many business owners do is to pitch a sale right away.  People like to buy from those they know, like and trust.  Therefore, it is important to make sure you become the go to person full of value and knowledge offering discounts, specials, giveaways.  When you do this you are showing them that they are your priority.  When you do this consistently, you develop a bond with your potential client or customer and they begin to enjoy talking or interacting with you.

By you taking the initiative to stay in touch with your contacts, build a relationship and remain consistent, you have an opportunity to build a long term bond that can turn into a happy and paying client or customer.   I am guilty of not following up.  Now, I have created a habit of contacting those who I meet with a nice thank you email and then a phone call later, if they gave me one.  To take it further, this year I started sending postcards to those I have an address for.

So how do you follow up?  Please share your story below.  I love hearing from you.

Until next time, have a wonderful day,

Cindy

P.S. Don’t forget to leave your comment below.

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Click the Arrow to Hear the Interview

[audio: http://cindymurphyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Interviewing-Morris-Fisher-on-6-29-10.mp3]

I had the pleasure of meeting Morris Fisher last year in Portland, Oregon when we both went to a Live Event with our Renegade Professional community.

It was there that we both connected through our coaching course at Coaching Cognition and our connection has grown since that event.

Morris just completed his class with Coaching Cognition and is now starting his Life Coaching business from his home.  As you listen to this interview, you will learn more about Morris and his coaching business.

If you want more information about Morris, or want to contact him, you can reach him at www.morrisfisherblog.com

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Shoe String Budget

Do you dream of owning your own business or do you have a passion that you have always wanted to turn into a business?

Maybe you don’t have any money or you have been affected by the downturn of the economy and have been laid off your job or feel like it could happen to you at any moment.  Maybe you have a family to feed, bills to pay and a mortgage on your house that isn’t paid off.

Well, this all happened to me last year and it took a great deal of courage, networking and determination on my part to find free or low costs ways to build my dream.    I couldn’t afford to go back to college in the traditional sense but I was determined to find a solution.

For the next week or so of my May Makeover, I will be sharing the Social  Media tools I used and set up to help me move forward in building my homebased business. Beware Babyboomers. – You CAN fullfill your dreams and passions and it CAN be done On a shoe string budget.

Moving forward, go to Day 6.

Please remember to leave your comments.  I would love some feedback.

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Every Thursday I offer an opportunity for discussion about  Thursday Thoughts.  Come join us by clicking on the “Discussions” tab on my Facebook Fan Page.

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