Recently a woman emailed me to tell me how lucky I am to have achieved the level of success in my business I have so quickly. This made me smile. Mostly because this person likely has no idea I started my business over 17 years ago.
The woman recently learned about what I offer through one of the many ways I continually market my products and services. Until I was on her “radar” I was literally nonexistent to her; thus her assuming I am lucky to become so visible so fast.
Years ago I heard someone in the speaking industry say, “I’m an overnight success and it only took me 15 years to get there.”
Regardless of the amount of time you have a business there will be people who don’t know who you are or what you do. This is why marketing and promotions is essential to one’s success.
No matter what kind of business you run you absolutely must continue to get the word out to your market.
You must also have various ways of generating revenue. If you have only one or two ways you are setting yourself up for some major challenges when changes in the market, economy and business climate occur.
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs struggle with their marketing. They make it out to be some big bad monster that is out to get them.
It’s not a monster, it’s not bad and it’s not difficult; when you know what you are doing. Yet, unless you are willing to learn what to do it will remain the boogie man under the bed that only pulling the covers over your head will appear to have made the monster go away.
The challenge many people have is they try to learn everything in one fell swoop. This is not the way to get on track with your marketing.
Another challenge is thinking once they learn something they never have to learn anything else. Nope. Doesn’t work that way.
Learning is a constant. This is a given. What isn’t a given is who to learn from. I have seen many people go down a dead end path because someone they thought was a qualified expert fed them a load of “stuff” that had no proven track record.
Here are some recommendations on how to know if someone is the real deal:
1.    Have they been referred by someone you know and trust? Although this is usually a great way to know, not always. Some time ago a trusted colleague recommended a consultant to me giving him glowing reviews. After several conversations with the consultant I hired him to the tune of several thousand dollars. Turns out he talked a great story but when it came time for delivery the results were awful.
In hindsight the lack of results would have revealed themselves had I taken more time to research this guy before signing on the dotted line.
As a general rule though, referrals are a great way to go.
2.    Check the “expert” out on Google. If they have been around for a while and have a track record you will find plenty of information on them.
3.    If they are involved with social networks do a bit of research on the types of information they post. Is it valuable or what could be considered “fluff” with no substance to it?
4.    If you are making a substantial investment in their services and they try to rush you into signing a contract you may be well served to turn the other way. It’s one thing for an expert to have an “urgency buy” on a low priced information product or training course, it’s something completely different when someone tries to push you into signing a contract for thousands of dollars.
If they rush you to make a high end decision you may want to look elsewhere.
5.   Go with your gut. If you get a “my world will fall apart without them feeling” chances are they are not the best fit for you. When working with an expert you should feel like they are an asset to your knowledge base and business but not that you can’t live without them.
6.    Finally, join in on training programs they are involved with such as a free telesummit.  This gives you an idea of who is who and who, their level of knowledge and who you will at some point want to invest money with.
Based on these six recommendations I would love for you to join me on June 8th for a free session on ways to create hands-free income. The event is sponsored by David Perdew, founder of NAMS – Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems.
This is an ongoing FREE event with some of the world’s leading Internet marketing experts. Click here to register.