Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

Turn a Minus Into a Plus

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The thing you believe is an obstacle can actually be a plus to your customers. It just takes looking at it from another perspective.

Can’t afford an office or storefront? Go to your customers. They will appreciate the convenience, and you’ll have an edge over your competitors. There are hair stylists who regularly go to nursing homes to serve the residents, massage therapists who do outcall, and even pet groomers who go to customers’ homes in a van to bathe and groom cats and dogs.

Is the amount you can earn limited by the number of hours you can work? If you provide a service, your earnings can’t exceed the number of hours you can work times your hourly rate. However, you can “clone” yourself to serve more customers. One way is to hire help. Another is to create products and services, such as videos and books, that share your information with those who need it. You create additional revenue streams, and make your knowledge available to a wider audience, allowing you to help more people.

Don’t focus on what you don’t have or can’t do. Look for ways to serve your existing (and new) clients by giving them what they want and need.

Do you have an obstacle in your way? Email me! I will share some of your obstacles and how to overcome them.

Shaking Your Money Tree

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Does your business have a money tree you can shake when a little extra cash is needed? Every business should have one!

What I mean by money tree is something you can do quickly to generate revenue when you need it. Where can you find one? Not at your local garden store. Just as in a forest, there are many species of money trees, so you need to find one that is right for you. Here are a few common varieties:

The Sale Tree brings in cash by making a discount offer to customers. Buy before June 30th, and you get a lower price. This creates a sense of urgency for customers to buy now in order to save money and can create a new flow of sales for you.

The Bonus Tree can work like the Sale, but instead of a discount, customers get a free item with purchase. Buy one, get one free, for example, or buy this item and get a free accessory.

Generate cash with the New Product Tree by introducing a new product. Customers love new things, so announce it with a flourish.  You might cross the New Product tree with the Sale or Bonus tree to get a hybrid with extra appeal.

Shake the Personal Touch Tree by contacting current or former customers and reminding them it may be time to do business with you again. Perhaps the supplies they bought from you a few months ago are running low, or it’s time for a follow-up service.

The Referral Tree should be in bloom all the time, but you can get better results when you tend it. Do a mailing or phone campaign to ask current customers to refer their friends and colleagues. You may be able to generate lots of sales quickly this way.

The Cold Call Tree can be hard to shake, but the results can be worthwhile.

One of my favorites is the Publicity Tree. It’s an odd one, in that you never know when it is going to bloom, or what it will look like when it does; however, the results are often magnificent. Provide a jumpstart in its growth by regularly sending press releases and other materials to the media.

Decide which money tree is right for your business, then nurture it and keep it growing. And, every once in a while, shake the heck out of it and watch the dollars come floating down!

As the Idea Lady, Cathy Stucker can help you attract customers and make yourself famous. Get more free tips when you subscribe to Cathy’s newsletter at http://www.IdeaLady.com/.

Blog Post Idea Generators

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idea-generatorsAnyone who has been blogging for a while knows that it can be difficult to come up with interesting, new ideas for posts on a regular basis. Sometimes the ideas flow and other times…not so much.

What can you do when the ideas just don’t come? A lot of people liked the video I did about using the Portent Content Idea Generator, so I decided to share a bunch of other headline and title generators you can use to come up with titles for articles and blog posts.

All of these are free. None require registration or make you jump through any hoops. Just follow any of the links below, enter your topic or keyword and click.
[Read more…]

Video Name Tags

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We humans like to look at pictures, and moving pictures especially fascinate us. Wearing a video name tag can certainly grab attention at networking events, trade shows or on the sales floor.

There are several brands of video name tags available, and most seem to work in pretty much the same way. Upload a video or slideshow via USB, attach the video player to your shirt (or wear it with a lanyard) and play. The players come with a rechargeable battery with a life of six to ten hours, depending on the device and how it is used.

It seems that the video could be a distraction in a routine sales situation, but a video-playing name tag would certainly get attention at your next networking event. If nothing else, it would be a great conversation starter.

If you want to use it to show products or other content, the players I looked at allow you to call up more than one video stored in memory, or scroll through a slide show to locate the slide you want. That would be cool at trade shows.

One of the players has a belt buckle frame available, but asking customers to stare at your, uh, belt…well, that just seems wrong.

Several video name tags are available at prices ranging from $129 to $149 at Amazon.com.

Tips for Being More Creative

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creativity-tipsIn the past people were rewarded by how many hours they worked or the years of experience they had with a particular company. But in the 21st century knowledge economy what really makes a difference to how much you earn is your level of creativity.

In addition to the financial rewards that come from thinking creatively there are also the emotional rewards of doing work you enjoy. People who are involved in creative work feel more fulfilled and are more successful in their chosen industry.

One mistake that many people make is to believe that you are either born creative or you are not. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are all born with a sense of creativity.

Don’t believe me? Picture in your mind right now a red sports car.

See that? You were able to use your mind to “create” the image of the car. You didn’t need to see one to be able to make the image. The reason that some people believe themselves to lack creativity is because just like you need to exercise the muscles of your body, you need to work your “creativity muscles” if you want them to function at their best.

Here you will learn four top tips for being more creative to get those creativity muscles in peak working order:

#1 Exercise, Eat Healthy and Get Plenty of Sleep

The old saying “healthy body for a healthy mind” could not be more true. If you want to think creatively then you need to look after yourself. If you are burned out because of lack of sleep or stress you are going to find it hard to think creatively. Exercise is also crucial to creative thinking. When you exercise it pumps oxygenated blood around the body, including to your brain. Finally make sure to eat healthy which means plenty of vegetables and fruits. Also try adding green tea, as the caffeine and antioxidants will help to give your brain a boost.

#2 Keep a Journal

If you are like most people you are probably getting creative thoughts through out the day. Ideas don’t always come when you want them to, so it is important when inspiration does strike that you write it down. Also the process of keeping a journal and writing things out will help to spur your creative mind.

#3 Use Mind Maps

Mind maps are so named because they closely reflect the way the brain actually works. Our creative mind does not work in a linear fashion, instead it is constantly making new connections. To create a mind map simply take a blank piece of paper and in the center draw the main idea that you want to think creatively about. From that central idea draw branches off to ideas that relate to that idea. From each of these ideas you can draw off further branches of sub-ideas that relate to them. Make use of different colors for each main branch of the mind map as this will help to spur creative thinking and memory.

#4 Take Up A Creative Hobby

As I have already said, creativity is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it will get. This means you need to look for opportunities to use your creativity. One great way to do this is to take up a creative hobby. Whether it is playing a musical instrument, taking up drawing or learning to dance, if you need to think creatively to perform it, then it will only enhance your creativity.

And finally don’t be afraid to fail. Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers” states that in order for someone to master a particular skill they must spend at least 10,000 hours practicing it. So if you want to be a creative genius, get creating!