3 Foolproof Ways To Soar Through A Recession

 

 

Winners are always looking for ways to grow their business.  

They trust their company, trust their customers to come through for them, and realize that a financial crunch offers advantages that aren't available during better economic times. 

 

1. Get More For Your Advertising Buck

 

When the economy makes a turn for the worse, it just makes sense that your advertising will give less of a return than during an economic boom.  Sure there's a lot less money being spent, but you don't have to have to watch your profit margin plummet!

 

Advertisers are feeling the recession just as much as you are, and are more desperate for clients.  It's the perfect atmosphere to negotiate your way to lower costs - even if you are already getting a good price.  Every advertising penny you can save, is that much more profit you'll earn on the products.

 

Have you thought about getting free publicity?  Local newspapers are always looking for something of local interest.  Make the news!  Publicity can be free, but a wonderful way to get your business in front of potential clients.

 

Do your advertisements really need to be as big as they are?  We tend to think the big is better, but the facts are that short ads with 11 words or less often generate higher response than large ads.  Give it a try, and trim some costs right off your advertising bill.

 

2. Take Advantage Of Big Ticket Sales

 

Not all of your customers suffer during a recession.  Remember that there are always people who are thriving financially, so don't be afraid to make big ticket sales offers.  Additionally, when money is tight, people who place a lot of stock in your product will value it even more.

 

Think about ways to create products similar to yours, but with much higher prices.  Internet marketers often create members-only sites and sell their products at much higher prices.  Hey, they'll obviously make fewer sales, but the people who really value the product will buy.  Each sale will net an immensely higher profit.  Think about it like this... even though the sales are fewer, the actual profit may be even greater than when it was sold at a lower price. 

3. Maximize The Customers You Have

 

Your customers already know that you have great products and provide satisfactory service.  They trust you to come through for them.  Think about it...  it's much easier to make sales to someone you already have a relationship with.

 

Use every opportunity to increase your sales volume within the customer audience you already have.  Do you have a product that goes with the one they are purchasing?  Offer it to them at the register.  It's a proven and effective method for increasing sales.  You may be shocked at the additional sales you can generate from those who are already buying from you.

 

3  Elements That Make Your Ad Successful

 

 

When was the last time you bought a car?  Did you really NEED a car?  I mean REALLY need a car? 

Chances are the one you were driving was still running when you bought the car you have now. 

Yep, people rarely buy because they need... they buy because they want to experience the feeling that comes with buying.

 

We enjoy new purchases.  Sure, we can convince ourselves that we really needed a new one, but if we're totally honest we'll have to admit that we could've got by without it. 

What does this mean to your advertising campaign?

 

1. State The Benefits Of Your Product or Service

 

Capitalize on the ways a customer will improve his lifestyle by making the purchase.  Will he increase his own business profits by 50 percent?  Say so in the opening statement of your sales letter, or at the top of your Web page.

 

Don't obsess with the features of the product itself or your credibility.  Frankly, customers could care less.  Let's face it... they're a bit selfish when it comes to dishing out their hard earned money.  All they want to know is what's in it for them.

 

2. Paint Word Picture That Let Them Experience the Benefits

 

"Wake up tomorrow, with no boss!  You can spend the day with your family or on the golf course... there's nobody to tell you what to do."

 

A Multi Level Marketer may want his audience to feel the freedom of having no one to answer to if they become successful in the business.  He'll dramatize that desire, and put the listener in the seat to inspire it to take hold until the listener is ready to sign up and get started.

 

3. Inspire Immediate Action

 

Hey, let's face it... the longer a customer lolly gags, the greater the chances he'll never take the plunge.  Don't let him off the hook that easily! 

 

Set a deadline.  Put on the pressure to buy now, or miss out on the deal.  Chances are pretty good that the procrastinator will get with it just to save a few bucks.

 

What about your sales materials?  Have you taken a good look at the things you are advertising? 

Make sure you are focused on the benefits the consumer will experience from the purchase, and not on the features of the product or service.

5 Steps To Supercharge Your Referrals

5 Steps To Supercharge  Your Referrals

It is no secret that “word of mouth” or referral business is one of the most effective ways to bring in new clients while simultaneously strengthening relationships with your existing customer base. But even though it is extremely powerful and virtually free (or at most costs very little), very few business owners or coaches use it anywhere near it’s potential!

 

Consider this: if you got just one referral from each one of your clients, over the next 60 days you’d double your client base! What would that mean to your potential income and how many more people would you be helping in supportive and uplifting ways?

 

So, how do you maximize word of mouth in your business? Here are 5 Steps you can start to take right now…

 

1. Really appreciate your clients and let them know consistently that you value them

 

This is the most important, yet overlooked element of creating endless referrals. Many businesses focus more on profits than on people. Focusing on profits alone can be detrimental to success and ‘Word of Mouth’ success comes from looking beyond just profit into how you can enrich your customer’s lives.

 

Action: At least once a month, take the time to communicate to your clients and show them you appreciate them. Send them something of value, something unexpected, a bonus report, a special piece of news you just found. Make it relevant to them and do it regularly.

 

 

2. Create an exceptional experience each time they deal with you or your company

 

If you can make doing business with you an exceptional experience, your clients will want to tell a lot of people. People want amazing experiences!

 

Here is an example: There is a Life Coach who has a special relationship with a city coffee shop. Once every 8 weeks he invites his in-person clients to a ‘brain trust’ meeting and the coffee and cake is on the house. Every client that attends gets a card and a voucher from the coffee shop owner to say ‘Thank you for joining us today, we would love to see you again soon’. The voucher is a ‘buy one get one free’ coffee voucher. So they are encouraged to come back again. And because the coffee shop owner is exposing his business to potential new clients, the coach pays just the cost price on the coffee and cake his clients eat. Normally about 8 clients attend and the cost is around $30. Just a little extra touch can make dealing with your business that much more of an exceptional experience!

 

Action: What can you do now to add little things that make an exceptional experience? Perhaps you can use the above example or something similar in order to network with other professionals while simultaneously providing amazing value to your clients. Remember, start creating exceptional experiences today.

 

3. Give your customers incentives for giving you referrals

 

If you’re being passive about referrals then you’re sitting on a gold-mine. Come up with ways of rewarding your clients for referring business to you. They could receive free gifts, such as a 90 minute coaching session with you, a certificate for a massage or a nice dinner, or perhaps even a financial reward (i.e. $100 Visa gift card). No matter what you choose, the key is making sure that whatever you choose to offer is something that your client will really be attracted to!

 

Action: Reward your clients for referring people to you. Come up with rewards that will be beneficial to your clients. If you work with clients who routinely use alot of equipment in their job or enjoy shopping, an Amazon gift card might be a very motivating reward for them! And if you are stumped on a gift idea, just remember that money is always a great motivator as well!

 

 

4. Make it easy for clients to give you referrals

 

If you want to get lots of referrals, you must make it incredibly easy for your clients to tell their friends. Don’t expect them to go way out of the way to help you grow your business. Make it as simple as possible.

 

Action: Develop a ‘referral package’ that you give to your clients. Ask your clients to be an ambassador for your business as you wish to work with people similar to them. The package would include a professionally designed document explaining why referrals are important to you, and a series of referral cards/ invites/ links that your client can easily share with others and post to their social media accounts. Always make sure to present everything very professionally in order to increase the perceived value of your offer/ services and to put your best foot forward with your new potential clients!

 

5. Ask at the right time!

 

When is the best time to ask for referrals? Any time! If you have followed the steps listed above…you’ve let clients know they are appreciated, you have consistently given them an exceptional experience, you have provided an enticing incentive to share your message with friends, and you have made it incredibly easy for them to do so. At this point, you should not only be able to ask your clients for referrals at any time, but you should also receive very positive results from it as well!

 

Action: The key is to do something now. Draft up an email today and just send it off to your clients letting them know how much you value them, how much you have enjoyed working with them in the past, and include something that is going to be helpful/ provide some value to their lives. Then over the next 4 to 6 weeks develop your ‘referral package’ and start to use it. Take yourself out of your comfort zone and take action…. Your business and new referral clients will definitely thank you for it!

 

Understanding Massage

Massage is a way of aiding the body and mind to relax and rejuvenate the body in it’s entirety. To achieve this, the massage practitioner works with the muscles and soft tissues and with other bodies systems.

The concept of the connection between the body, mind and emotion can be viewed in several ways. For example, think of a pleasant situation - warm emotions are evoked as the body relaxes into the image. Whereas, if driving the car an accident looks imminent, the body tenses, the mind races looking for an escape route.

Emotions such as fear and anxiety are foremost in the mind at this point. These are extreme examples, but on a daily basis our mind subtly alters our physical state.

Through massage our awareness of our body’s state is heightened and we can learn to recognize the developing signs of dis-ease and thereby take the opportunity to deal with this.

Under the daily stress of living the muscular system’s usual response is to “tighten up”, this in turn affects our skeleton by pulling it out of alignment. These muscles often remain contracted, reducing the work potential until finally we need to see a chiropractor,physiotherapist, or massage therapist for treatment.

The overriding result of tension is a vicious circle of pain and restricted blood flow, which in turn leads to more pain and eventually spasm.

You can break this cycle with massage and relaxation techniques.

The use of superficial stroking and effleurage help to deaden the pain and release tension. Circulation is stimulated through kneading, therefore aiding the removal of metabolic waste.

Massage is a way of helping to prevent this stress response, by inducing a state of relaxation, which eases tension out of the body assisting with the relaxation of contracted muscles on a regular basis. It is a tool of health promotion as well as assisting in regaining optimal health. This state of body alignment allows all the other body systems to function optimally.

THE ELEMENT OF TOUCH

Touching is more important than many people think. In recent times it was discovered that many refugee orphans in some war-torn countries were becoming extremely ill and even dying from the lack of touch due to the fact that they had lost their families.

Touch is nurturing.

Touch is vital throughout life. It is one of the first senses to develop. Touch communication is the way a baby learns to discover what things are – by feeling, holding or touching something. Touch is encouraged with children but as we move into the teenage or young adolescent years, under the guise of personal space and safety, touch has been discouraged somewhat as being unacceptable in many areas of our society. It was once believed if a baby or a young child was given too much touching they would become spoiled. Another fear, relevant to young boys, was that over pampering with touch might turn them into “sissies” – we now this not to be true!


Touch is a form of nourishment throughout life. A lack of caring touch can be substituted for in many ways. A example of this is the physical action of hitting someone or fighting, or even throwing a tantrum to gain physical contact and attention. Not always the best solutions! These forms of touch actions may develop into long-term patterns of dealing with stress in a dysfunctional way if the circumstances of life assist them.

As people grow old, it is evident that touch becomes one of the first contact qualities lost to them. If there is a baby or a young child and an elderly person in the same room it is the young one who receives all the touching contact and fuss. The elderly are often overlooked except for the initial hello hug and peck on the cheek if lucky! The elderly are denied touch for various reasons.

Massage is a way to nurture and give therapy to older people, allowing them to become comfortable with touch in a non-threatening way and reaffirm that they are worthy of touching care. Once this experience has been transmitted, the feeling of being worthwhile, being needed and useful usually returns. In some cases massage can give an older adult more meaning and purpose in life as their self-esteem increases. The therapy of massage assists with the treatment of disease in many ways.

It is important to re-establish the value of touching as a legitimate means of treating clients. Touch is a vital evaluation tool for the practitioner. It is a form of communicating with the body; to not only build trust with people, but also to show we care. Massage is one of the best forms of therapy as it needs no chemicals to work and the results can be enormously positive.

The importance of health is to maintain order between the mind, body and emotions in one’s life. Massage can be used to assist in maintaining this order and helps to keep the body in a state of ease or relocation, which will reduce the likelihood of dis-ease. This is not to say massage can do everything by itself. Massage, combined with other factors such as good eating habits, gentle, regular exercise and learning to take time out from work and stress are ways that good health can be achieved. With massage we can help teach people to gain an understanding of their bodies.

The relaxation of the body assists in recovery from disease, clearing the mind of stressful thoughts and allowing healing. This process often helps to lift the spirit. The body can also be invigorated to give it more energy through proper massage technique and help it with the daily demands placed on it.

With touch we assist clients to become aware of the state or condition of their body, and teach them how to enjoy responsibility for their health, showing them ways to recognise and release tension held within their bodies.

Learn to massage with Shaz ...a wonderful chance to help people with the skill of touch!!

Saturday afternoons
(4 sessions) August 6th, 13th, 20th & 27th

on Sunday 7th & Sunday 14th August

Why Massage is a Great Benefit To You!!

The benefits of massage are numerous to both parties. I am an experienced Remedial Massage therapist and as that person I am going to help to pass on the information that I have inside my head.

I have found as I have worked in the massage field that many people enjoy the touch they receive from a massage but often are not aware of the benefits that massage gives to our bodies.

Massage is a wonderful way to decrease stress and anxiety from our loved one's body.

In the modern world you can agree, that we are wound up to perform on many levels compared to the lifestyle our parents and their parents lived.

We have of course in our life, labor saving devices. The devices have often enabled us to work longer and rest less.

We now have computers at home (laptops in our bedrooms), at our friends and work colleagues constant beck and call with text messages, face-book and phone calls.

Don't get me wrong I also have these items in my life but they have not helped with the ability to "switch off and relax" easily.

We need to "book" in our relaxation time as necessarily as our gym time.

The need to incorporate into our lives the training to unwind and relax as a "learned" habit is much needed in this busy world we all now live in.

Regular massage can help to lower raised blood pressure, improve sleeping problems, relieves headaches and muscular pain and improve the functions of the skin, digestive systems and lungs.

Of course the power of touch is fundamentally the greatest pleasure as the slow caring strokes are recognized by professionals as a benefit to pain relief both physically and mentally.

My first Workshop!

Hi I am happy to say I have began to experience holding my own in a small workshop. I was contacted by a young woman hosting a "campfire" experience for medical students and allied health workers going through uni. Basically talking to them about other services and career choices they will or can make or be in contact with in the future.

I was swayed I must confess to the dinner that was being held at the Monarto Zoo and enjoying canapes with the giraffes. Not everyday a girl can enjoy that experience so I said yes.
I had three small time slots with approx 20-30 students in each to talk to.


It was a really rewarding experience and after introducing myself and giving a couple of case studies I showed them all how to give a nice hand massage. I had put together small bottles of generic body cream with a few drops of lavender essential oil to scent the cream.

Now I confess, I have been advised by my business coach, the lovely Mz Margaret Gill, if speaking to a crowd have some products on hand to sell as often the people would love a little of yourself to take home with them. I really hadn't given this much consideration when planning my afternoon but yes, you have guessed it, I was asked if I had some bottles of hand cream they could purchase. The scent in the bottles was very noticeable to them and as many were nurses with a lot of hand washing in their work, the cream was a balm to them.

Note to self, listen to my coach and implement her advice better.

I did give out vouchers and feed back forms and received great comments back on how the audience experienced the event. It does feel great when it went well.

I really enjoyed it. The experience was positive and even though when I said yes to the organizer before I was really aware of the blend of people in the audience, seems to have been a market for my launch into speaking and the new journey into coaching.