First, C.J. Hayden asks “Not Enough Clients?  What’s in Your Way?”

Instead of trying to fix your marketing by just seeking out more ways to meet people or collect names, email addresses and phone numbers, stop for a moment. What is the problem you’re trying to solve? In other words, what’s really getting in the way of your marketing success?

And Lynn Grodzki looks at “Essential Connections“:

[T]the resource of connection — with community — is free. Having a strong professional community can build your practice, but sometimes attending a professional group feels like a waste of precious time.  So I wondered: What is the best strategy to finding or creating a community that really supports your life and your work?

What’s Stopping You From Getting Clients… and What To Do About It

Learn how to overcome the challenges you are facing and get the tools to help you grow a successful and thriving practice. C.J. Hayden, best-selling author of Get Clients Now!, will teach you how to attract more clients with less effort.

Much of the popular wisdom about how to succeed as an independent professional seems to center around saying yes…

Here are six examples of situations where you may want to consider saying no:

1. New clients who don’t fit into your niche.

2. Networking with people who have no connection to your niche.

3. Clients who take more effort to pursue than their business is worth.

4. People and organizations who ask for your time but do nothing for you.

5. Ads, promotional schemes, and exhibit space that don’t fit your budget.

6. Flavor-of-the-month marketing approaches.

Details/explanation at Get Clients Now.

“I don’t have enough clients,” one of my students told me. “I’d love to put more effort into marketing, but I’m so busy, I don’t have the time.”

This independent professional’s dilemma might seem humorous, but it’s no joke. I’ve heard this complaint repeatedly from professionals and small business owners. You’d think the solution would be easy – just drop whatever else you’re doing and spend more time on getting clients. But making that adjustment is often not so simple.

Five too-busy-to-get-clients situations explored in the rest of the article, posted here:

http://www.getclientsnow.com/too-busy-to-get-clients.htm

C.J. Hayden, MCC, CPCC is the author of Get Clients Now! (AMACOM, 2007), Get Hired Now! (Bay Tree, 2005) and The One-Person Marketing Plan Workbook, and a contributing author to Guerrilla Marketing on the Front Lines. C.J. is a business coach, consultant, and speaker who teaches people to make a better living doing what they love. Her company, Wings for Business, specializes in serving entrepreneurs, self-employed professionals, and people in marketing and sales.

C.J. is a former corporate productivity consultant with over 30 years experience in business management. She has been a professional trainer since 1978, a full-time consultant since 1990, and a coach since 1992.

A new, 28-day program with Joan Friedlander begins January 12, 2010.

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