Now I want you to be honest – can you currently see your desk? Or is it somewhere underneath a large pile of paperwork that’s growing at a rapid rate? And, are you struggling to keep up with everything that’s going on in your business?
Annemarie Cross is joined by Lori Krolik – a Certified Productive Environment Specialist and Professional Organizer, who is an expert in creating systems so that you and your employees can work smarter and more efficiently.
Lori talks about the essentials tools that are necessary for maximum productivity; the one behavior that will propel you from information overwhelm to getting things done; and how to stop getting distracted throughout your work-day.
She also speaks about:
– The importance of having special ‘places’ to store business information and tasks;
– Why a contact management system is essential if you want to manage all of your contacts effectively; and
– Why having a formalized schedule/calendar system is important to keep you on track and focused so that you can work on business-building activities.
Did you know it can take you up to 25 minutes to get refocused after a distraction? Lori will show you want you need to do to eliminate those annoying interruptions.
So, if you’re struggling with information overwhelm and need to get back on track and focused, this show is a must listen!

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Does your mind go blank each time you sit down to write your sales page, article or blog post? Have you written your sales copy but just haven’t been able to generate the results you want?

Annemarie Cross is joined by seasoned copywriter Debra Jason from Write Direction. Debra has more than 25 years of copywriting experience and has developed compelling content for web and direct marketing communications that has converted her clients’ prospects into loyal customers.

Debra talks about two things you need to do before you put pen to paper (or hands to keyboard). Not doing these things is often the reason why your copy isn’t connecting with your audience. Listen out to see if you recognise them.

Find out the importance of ‘pushing your target markets’ buttons’ in your copy and how you could fail to grab their attention when you don’t.

Think you know the difference between the features and benefits of your products and services? Most ambitious entrepreneurs think they do – however when looking closely at their copy, what they are talking about is not a benefit at all – but a feature. And, features don’t showcase the outcomes your prospect can expect by working with you.

Make sure you learn the steps that Debra shares to help you pinpoint the benefits of your products and services – the outcomes your client will achieve through investing in you.

Debra also shares her formula/system to help you tempt your prospects as well as the template she uses when gathering testimonials from satisfied clients – very important when building social proof about your credibility and expertise in your field.

Want to be able to craft compelling copy that converts your prospects into loyal customers? The tips and strategies Debra shares on today’s show will show you how.

The post Ambitious Entrepreneur – Copywriting: How to Write Compelling Content That Converts Prospects into Customers appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Want to build your reputation as an expert?

Then sharing your message through speaking is a must.

However, if you’re one of those people that fear speaking in public more than you fear death, before you shake your head and refuse to even consider adding speaking to your brand communication strategies – then you’re encouraged to listen to today’s show.

Today Annemarie Cross is joined by Debb Carr – Founder and Director of Voxy Lady Women’s Speaker Bureau.

Debb shares why she believes speaking is a great way to raise your profile, especially if you want to become known as an authority in your field.

By regularly speaking and showing passion for your topic, you’ll not only raise your profile as an expert, you’ll also continue to develop a community of people who are interested in what you have to say. And these people could eventually invest in your product/services.

Deb herself is now a passionate and powerful speaker; however she wasn’t always that way. In fact, when she first started speaking, she too felt nervous and apprehensive, so today she shares some of the tips and techniques she used to calm her nerves.

As the Founder and Director of a speaker’s bureau, Debb also shares what she looks for in a potential speaker looking for representation by her bureau. Implement these tips and strategies and you’re bound to get noticed and hired.

The post Ambitious Entrepreneur – Speaking Your Way to Success appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

As an ambitious entrepreneur it can often be difficult to come up with ways to market your business better in order to build brand awareness and stand out from your competitors. Right?!
Do the traditional methods of marketing still work? Should we spend our entire marketing budget on social media and internet to get our message in front of our target market? How do we outthink our competition without having to outspend them?

These may be questions you’ve asked when it comes to marketing your business. Especially if you want to make 2012 your best year yet!

Annemarie Cross is joined by Leslie R Wolff – a 45+ year marketing veteran who will answer all these questions along with sharing:

• 4 principles of Smart Marketing;
• How to identify overlooked opportunities; and
• How you can outthink your competition without outspending them.
Find what Leslie believes about basing your entire marketing strategy just on the Internet and social media, and why doing this can hurt your business’s growth. And, about the two things you can do that will dramatically improve your customer service.

Leslie has also generously offered 1 lucky person a free copy of his book – Smart Thinking: Volume 1. Email Leigh at: [email protected] with the correct answer to the following question to win.

Q: What’s the second principle of Smart Marketing?

Leslie is also offering a 50% discount off his book if you order by Feb 19th, by clicking here and using the code: BV43M

The post Ambitious Entrepreneur – Smart Marketing for the Ambitious Entrepreneur appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

You’ve just been invited to introduce yourself to a group of business owners.
So what do you say? How do you introduce yourself and your business?
Perhaps, like many other entrepreneurs you state your name, your company name, and your job title – after all that’s what you do. So it makes sense. Right?
Or perhaps your nerves get the better of you and you end up stammering and stuttering through your introduction.

According to today’s guest – neither of those ways will leave a memorable impression and you could be missing out on numerous business opportunities.

Today, Annemarie Cross is joined by Katy Tafoya, founder of Success for Solopreneurs and Katy is an expert when it comes to developing powerful, memorable introductions.

Learn Katy’s 4-step process so that next time someone asks you to attend a networking event, or meet someone for the very first time – you can introduce yourself like a pro!

Listen to Katy as she shares insights on:
– Why it’s so important to be able to tell people what you do in a clear and concise way
– What to do if you do more than one thing in your business so that you don’t end up sounding like a walking infomercial, and
– What to do if you struggle to keep your introduction simple and therefore end up confusing everyone, and so much more

Katy’s strategies are simple, however don’t let the simplicity of these steps fool you. They are powerful. And, if you follow these steps when you attend your next networking event, you’re bound to be impressive and memorable.
So, what is it that you do? Listen to Katy’s tips and you’ll be able to answer that confidently, concisely and powerfully!

The post Ambitious Entrepreneur – Powerful Business Introductions appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Google+ is one of latest social media tools to enter the marketplace and is certainly starting to make itself known with 100 million users within only 7 months of launching.

While it’s tempting to roll your eyes and sigh “Not another social media tool,” – you may just want to listen to today’s show before you decide not to incorporate Google+ within your social media marketing and relationship building strategies.

Annemarie Cross is joined by Janet Fouts – social media coach, nationally recognized speaker on online marketing and social media, and author of 4 books on the subject of social media, including her recent book, “Google+ for Business Tweet”. All of the tips and strategies that Janet shares in the book are written in 140-character posts/tweets.

As an ambitious entrepreneur find out why Janet believes it’s important to at least get your personal profile set up on Google+, even if you don’t plan on actively sharing content and building your network just yet. “From a search engine viewpoint – having your personal profile setup on Google+, is gold” states Fouts.

What you may not realise is that Google (the world’s number one search engine) no longer indexes Twitter posts as quickly anymore, often taking up to 3 days for your content to be indexed. Nor does Google index Facebook posts, which means the content you are sharing and posting on both Twitter and Facebook may never be found. This alone should be reason why you want to start sharing your content on Google+.

Not sure what to post on Google+? Don’t be tempted to share the same information as everyone else. That’s just dull and boring. Instead, Janet recommends you share unique, fresh content, especially if you want to build your reputation as a go-to resource.

Tempted to follow everyone back? This is not the best strategy when it comes to Google+. Janet shares her thoughts on who you should be following and why.

Google Hangout is a unique feature of Google+ and allows you to hold video meetings, share documents and chat with up to 10 people. Find out how you can leverage Google Hangouts in your business.

Janet also has a special offer especially for you, giving you access her ebook on how to leverage Google+ for business. Find out how you can get your copy.

The post Ambitious Entrepreneur – Google Plus for Business Tweet appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Are you an ambitious entrepreneur working alongside your spouse/partner and while you love them dearly, at times they drive you crazy? You can’t agree on the business’s direction or how best to manage your finances/money? Or they’re just not pulling their weight?

If that sounds familiar, this week’s show is a must listen.

Annemarie Cross is joined by Erika Forbes principal of The CouplePreneur. Erika is passionate about helping entrepreneurial couples and families develop and maintain passion and love while creating and building the business of their dreams.

Erika speaks about the common problems that many couples/families struggle with – recognise any?

Listen as Erika shows you how you can work through these issues so that you don’t sacrifice your personal relationship in order to build a thriving business.

Many CouplePreneurs believe that keeping their business and their personal lives completely separate is the best approach; however Erika doesn’t think so. In fact, Erika believes that “separating your work and the rest of your life just doesn’t work. It’s important to be able to recognise and agree that you have a shared passion for your business.”

“Is your business built on the foundation of love?” asks Erika? “From there you can develop the skills you need; the job description, the duties and responsibilities. This is not just a business for business sake. There is a far deeper bond that’s beyond your contract and your work.”

Are you relying too much on your own efforts while forgetting to tap into the resources of others around you? Erika believes this is yet another problem that can surface for CouplePreneurs. “Trying to do everything on your own is unwise, as you limit the possibilities and opportunities to grow your business.”

Erika believes it’s important to reach out and develop a network of other entrepreneurial couples for support. In fact, she encourages CouplePreneurs to set an intention for this year to reach out and meet other couples that are doing the same work. Meeting regularly with these couples will allow you to gain fresh insights to keep your creative juices flowing.

Not sure how to bring up a difficult conversation with your spouse? Erika’s suggestion on how to begin a difficult discussion is a great approach and will certainly allow you to maintain your love and passion no matter how difficult the topic/discussion.

Also on the show Annemarie Cross catches up with sales guru Meridith Elliott Powell – Author of 42 Rules to Turn Prospects into Customers. Meridith speaks about Rule 22, which explains the importance of solving the right problem to help you get past selling ‘price’. If your prospect is focused on price, it’s because you haven’t shown them that you have the solution to their problems.

Don’t get stuck in selling your products/services on price, but rather sell risk and value so that you can charge what you are worth – and get it! Meridith shows you how.

The post Ambitious Entrepreneur – Entrepreneurial Couples: How to maintain love and passion while create the business of your dreams appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Cash flow, finances in general and how to access funding from third parties to help ease cash flow is something that many small business owners continue to struggle with.

On today’s show, Annemarie Cross is joined by Charles H Green, a recovering Banker with 30-year career in finance and author of Get Financing Now: How to navigate through bankers, investors and alternative sources for the capital your business needs.

According to Charles many ambitious entrepreneurs aren’t aware of the market place and therefore don’t necessarily know the most appropriate or the best source of funding. Because of this they start to negotiate with the first party that comes along, leaving themselves wide open to predatory people working in the banking industry.

Don’t be fooled into thinking you need to take the first deal that comes along. And, don’t feel that you have to accept conditions that just don’t make sense for you. Do your homework first.

Listen to just a few of the many tips and strategies Charles writes about in his book, including:

• The Best Sources for Start-up Capital:
o Why it’s important for startup businesses to be financially independent before involving a third party. Consider going into business more moderately. You don’t need a large office or the best equipment/motor vehicle, or even to take prospects out for expensive lunches.
o Why you need to speak loudly even if you have a small stick: you can be as big as you want to be by leveraging online and social media technologies.
o How to get someone to pay you to develop (a product/program/system) and then sell it to everyone else: Charles shares his personal success story where he was paid to develop a comprehensive spreadsheet, which he is now going to leverage and sell to other clients.
o Approaching a potential partner to collaborate and contribute capital to your business.
o How to create cash out of thin air.
• What to prepare and what to expect when approaching a bank and/or investor.
• Getting to the bottom of no: what to do if your request for funding/capital has been declined.
• And much more.

Need to ease your cash flow and get more funding into your business? Charles will show you how.

The post Ambitious Entrepreneur – Get Financing Now: How to navigate through bankers, investors and alternative sources for the capital your business needs appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Do you have a business plan that you regularly refer to? If not, you could be jeopardizing your ability to reach your business goals.

In fact, we’ve all heard the saying: “Fail to Plan – then Plan to Fail,” which is exactly what today’s guest believes will happen if you don’t have a solid business plan in place to guide you.

On today’s show Annemarie Cross interviews Fran McCully – Virtual Bookkeeper and Principal from Your Administration Solutions who believes that your business plan is the roadmap to building a successful business. And without one, it’s impossible to run your business effectively.

Fran talks about:

• the key elements you should include in your business plan
• why performing a comprehensive market analysis is so important, especially it you want to identify how you can distinguish yourself from your competitors; as well as
• steps you need to take to ensure you can achieve your business goals.

Fran also draw on her 30 years combined experience as an executive assistant in finance and budgeting to talk about why having a virtual bookkeeper (to help you keep track of your expenses and finances) is so important if you want to maximize your overall profitability. That means more money in your pocket!

If you haven’t created a business plan, or the one you’ve put together previously is outdated and sitting at the bottom of your filing cabinet, then grab a pen and paper and make sure you write down the practical steps that Fran shares to help you create a strategic business plan that will help you grow your business in 2012.

The post Ambitious Entrepreneur – Business Planning: Creating your roadmap to success appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Do you find marketing difficult and confusing?

You’re certainly not alone – which is why many ambitious entrepreneurs don’t spend nearly as much time marketing their businesses as they should.

Well, you’re in for a treat as on today’s show Annemarie Cross interviews Steven Howard from Howard Marketing.

Steven is a leading marketing strategist, positioning specialist, consultant and author whose 30-year marketing and sales career in Asia/Pacific and Australia has covered a wide variety of fields, ranging from consumer electronics to publishing and from a national airline to personal financial products.

Steven talks about:

• Common marketing mistakes that entrepreneurs and small business owners make
• Tips on how to prevent making these costly mistakes; and
• Why customer retention is more important than new customer acquisition, and much more.

Find out how Steven helped one of his clients (operating in a highly competitive market place) distinguish their service offerings from their competitors, which enabled them to secure clients at a rate that was 25% higher than what their competitors were charging. You too can follow this positioning strategy.

Are you leveraging satisfied customers? Many ambitious entrepreneurs don’t, and are therefore missing out on numerous opportunities for repeat and referred business. Steven reveals the steps you need to take in order to start compiling key feedback from your customers so that you can build your reputation, while ensure your customer will continue to sing your praises.

Do you think that a ‘customer’ is someone who makes a first-time purchase from you? According to Steven, this is not really a customer but rather a trial user. And, depending on the level of service you provide him/her, will determine whether or not they remain a customer and continue to recommend you to their contacts.

Looking for more marketing tips to help you take your business to the next level? Access Steven’s weekly Monday Morning Marketing Memo for some great marketing advice.

The post Ambitious Entrepreneur – Powerful marketing strategies for business growth appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Want to increase your income, but the thought of working longer hours seems impossible because you’re already exhausted with your hectic schedule? Want to free up your time so you can spend with family, but know that by reducing the amount of hours you work – you’ll also reduce your income?

Stuck, confused and unsure what to do next?

You’re in the right place.

On today’s show find out how you can reduce the amount of hours you work with clients so you can spend more time with your family (or on leisure activities), while at the same time increase the amount of income you generate in your business.

Seems too good to be true?

Today’s guest will show you how.

Annemarie Cross is joined by Crystal O’Connor from Moxie Mompreneur who will share her top four favorite income streams, which includes Active Income; Passive Income; Leveraged Income; and Recurring Income.

Crystal believes that as an ambitious entrepreneur you can already create some of these revenue streams quite easily, by just leveraging the services you’re already offering.

According to Crystal trading hours for dollars (providing one-to-one coaching and/or consulting services) is not only exhausting, but will have you reach a level of income that you just won’t be able to breakthrough. Why? Because there are only so many hours in the day and working too many additional hours as a way to increase your income will only have you become exhausted and burned out.

In fact, this is the Active Income stream, and one you don’t want to build your entire business model around.

Instead, consider creating a group membership program that is run over a period of time so that you can build recurring income. Group coaching programs are far more lucrative for you as rather than providing one-to-one services, you are providing one-to-many services.

Passive income is also easy to create by developing information products that you can sell over and over again. Create it once and continue to build a steady stream of income that doesn’t require your direct time or ongoing involvement.

Think about recording a teleseminar, adding a few templates and worksheets, and having this available for download from your website, therefore allowing you to generate income while you sleep.

Crystal also talks about her 2012 coaching program, which you can learn more about here.

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