When Mandi Susman was a little girl, she always dreamed of becoming an HR Compensation Consultant. Not!
She dreamt of becoming a mom.
But after fifteen years doing compensation consulting and analysis for different companies she realized she was spending her life in a profession she hadn't actively sought. She wanted to be home and available to her kids, to work from home.
She spent her workdays doing research on how much people should be paid, and her nights at home trying to find ways to make money from home to replace her full-time job's income, contribute to the world, and be available to her kids. She spent a good year buying and trying different online marketing, money-making schemes (also known as shiny objects). Nothing worked.
Scam City?
It hit her that all these 'gurus' were making money from her, and she had nothing to show for it. Mandi didn't want to be in a business where her buyers ended up feeling like they'd been scammed. She wanted to provide a true service that was helpful to people.
That's when she discovered local online marketing. It made sense. She could help good, hard-working business owners connect online with the customers who desperately needed their services. She could provide a service critical to their success, being the difference between whether they made it or not. As a local online marketer, she wouldn't be sucking money out of them, she'd be helping them move to the next level.
But first she needed a client.
Just Follow the Instructions
She went to the Local Business Money Machine Launch live workshop in March 2011. At the event, she was given an assignment: Send this email to your friends and family to see who they know who could use your services. She did it. Mandi emailed her personal contacts from her personal email, then sent a similar email to her LinkedIn contacts. Because her days were spent working at her job, she followed-up by email. Not a perfect follow-up plan, still, it worked!
Of course, there was the little matter of her full-time job that made for a bit of a challenge. Unwilling to let this stand in her way, she used her vacation days one at a time to enable her to make appointments with prospective clients. She knew she only needed a handful of clients to replace her income. (Mandi lives in the Bronx and made very good money at her job.)
It worked! Mandi prepared her presentation, did a bit of keyword research, and followed the consultative sales process she learned with the Local Business Money Machine. She halfway expected her prospect to say, "I understand how valuable this service is, but really don't have a budget for it." Instead, he said, "I understand how valuable this service is, and have been looking for someone to do this for us. Where do I sign?"
Six months later, he's saying things like, "I noticed on your website you've got some testimonials. Can I write one for you, too?" and "We're doing so well with this… can we add more keywords now?" (i.e. "Can I pay you more now?")
She kept at it, and still hasn't tapped her whole prospect list. With four clients and a now-proven track record of success, she decided to take the plunge to go full-time online. Mandi's got a marketing plan for 2012 that should enable her to reach her goal of $200,000 in revenue with 10-15 clients, while spending no more than about 4-5 hours a day on her business.
Advice You Can Trust from Someone Who's Making It Work
If you follow the program, your role is more client management, not technical. The tech stuff is your outsourcer's role. There's no way you could do it as well and as cheaply yourself as you could outsource it. You need to be organized because nobody's sending out your invoices for you (unless you outsource that, too!). Even if you outsource, you've got to manage your outsource team to make sure their questions get handled in a timely fashion.
You need to have a passion for helping business owners and be able to communicate that to them. You can succeed by just contacting your friends and family – although your friends and family will probably refer you to strangers. Having an introduction like that makes it easier. The better your relationship with your client is, the longer your engagement will last.
Jump in and DO it. Go through all the lessons in your course, then take action. Send that friends and family email. The faster you get it out, the better. Don't spend hours rewriting it – it's already a good email. Customize it a tiny bit if you need to make it sound more like you. You'll be surprised who responds – it won't be 100%, even with follow-up. But all you need is one or two to get started.
Understand and believe. You're providing a tremendous value to the business owner. Remember this and don't sell yourself short!
Commit to a mastermind group. It's a huge help knowing the group is there, a good source for accountability and answers to your questions – either they know the answer or someone knows where to find it. Hold each other accountable and ask the tough questions to keep each other moving forward. Be supportive, always focused on the positive. Negativity doesn't help you get anywhere in life – focus on the positive in every area – kids, business, relationship. This changes how your life moves forward.
Forget "Going to Disney"… Mandi's House May Be the Happiest Place on Earth
When I caught up with Mandi, it was the very first day of her new life as a non-employee. What'd she have to say?
"I have such joy in my heart today. I've had this vision of being in this place for three years – to be the master of my destiny, to be able to focus on my family as much as I want to. What I wanted when I was little was to grow up and be a mom. This afternoon, I have my sons' concert – I never would have been able to go to that! There's a holiday party on Wednesday, a holiday show on Thursday. I can now focus on what's really important to me!"
No Tags
