Meeting new people in person is still one of the best ways to market your services. If you do a good job at this, you will quickly end up with a desk drawer filled with business cards. But then what do you do with them? Read more (members only)

Imagine for a moment that you were launching your first marketing newsletter, and it was time to compile your mailing list. How many people who already know you could you put on that list? To make your newsletter effective, that number should be in the hundreds. This is one test that will quickly tell you if your pipeline is sufficiently full. Read more (members only)

“Every person who has ever started a business, I imagine, thought he had a good idea. It’s the smart person, and the rare person, who tries to find out the most important thing: do other people think it’s a good idea?” Read more (members only)

In this audio interview hosted by Dave Summers of the American Management Association, C.J. talks about the biggest marketing mistakes most entrepreneurs make, building an effective marketing system, how to overcome your fears of self-promotion, Read more (members only)

My clients often ask me to help figure out what’s wrong with their marketing. The first question I ask is how much marketing they’ve been doing, since many failures have more to do with quantity than quality. But assuming you’ve been sufficiently active at promoting yourself, here are some other ways in which your marketing might need fixing. Read more (members only)

Independent professionals pay a lot of attention to the mechanics of marketing. They take classes, read books, and hire experts to learn how to do the best job possible. When I first work with a client, I often discover that his or her knowledge of marketing techniques is quite good already. What might be lacking is the right marketing attitude. Read more (members only)

Speaking in public can be a powerful marketing tactic for any professional. Public speaking increases your visibility, boosts your credibility, and establishes you as an expert in your field. It puts you in direct contact with potential clients in such an impactful way that you may find yourself closing a sale before you leave the room. Read more (members only)

When launching a professional practice or service business, the success of your first few months of operation is crucial. If you are a typical service business owner, you’re starting up with less capital than a storefront or product-based business. You are likely to have the expectation that you will begin earning income right away. Read more (members only)