What Will Be New About Your New Year?

Make this the year your business really changes for the better.

What does 2010 promise for your  career? Will it bring you more revenue, stronger client relationships, and new professional alliances? Or will it simply be more of the same? Are you working with energy, or are you enervated? Are you simply vowing to work harder this year, without any definition of how, why or what for?

Stop. Think. Consider a few questions.

6 Questions for 2010

1. What is most satisfying about your work?
2. Where do your best clients come from?
3. How can you get more of those clients in your book?
4. What do your best client relationships have in common?
5. How do new clients find you?
6. What are you known for?

These are some of the most important questions of your career. In the last couple of years, I’ve helped many professionals answer them. They are specializing to attract the clients and professions they really want, the clients and jobs they enjoy working with the most. They are marketing to rural Kansans, faith-centered business owners in the Twin Cities, retiring federal employees near Washington D.C., educators in the Texas Panhandle, and many other niche audiences, all communicating their value directly in their marketing.

The biggest step you can take in your career is the step from generalist to specialist. A specialist attracts clients; a generalist accepts what’s left.

How Do You Attract the Clients You Really Want?
I’m going to state it very simply. First, decide you who want to attract. Second, target them: market consistently to them, promoting your specialized services as the answer to their problem.

Over time, specialization and target marketing to a niche audience will help you make more money from fewer clients, or aim you toward your ideal career like a laser.

A structured, yearlong marketing plan is essential. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Client and professional referrals, press releases, website, e-mails and networking are great low-cost or no-cost marketing channels. Direct mail, seminars, and radio and print advertising, while more expensive, can be very powerful generators of new business and opportunities when sustained.

Whatever marketing channels you choose to exploit, promote your services and “brand” consistently through them, on a calendared basis. Don’t take out one ad and send three press releases and ask clients and friends in October for referrals or testimonials and call it a marketing campaign. Regularly use several marketing channels (at least a few) to get the word across.

How Have You Designed Your Business and Job Search Strategy?
Do you have time for your clients, or do you feel like you have to “make time” in your fatiguing day for your clients? If it’s the latter, do you ever wonder if your clients notice your fatigue?

In consulting so many business owners and professionals across the country, I’ve noticed the evolution of their businesses and job search. Some knew early success, some built their books of business and contacts slowly, but there came a point where the structure of their business had to change. They had to do it for their clients, and for themselves.

I’m going to guess that you really, really enjoy a) meeting with your clients and advising them face-to-face, b) meeting new prospects and showing them the big ideas and value you can bring to them. You should be free to do that.

Top achievers have freed themselves to produce and achieve. Their marketing assistant, social media connections, friends and family takes care of marketing. Their marketing takes care of first impressions. And so forth. They added staff when they needed staff. They delegated, for their own health and the health of their business.

The Year of the Specialist
I’m proud to have helped so many individuals define and develop their identities as specialists. They are positioned to attract the job and clients they want, the clients and careers they enjoy doing. They have taken greater control of their careers. They have a plan to grow, instead of merely a hope.

You’ve got a new year ahead of you. Take a new outlook. Specialize. Focus your marketing. Find little ways you can free up more of your time. Giving 110% is fine; making the core decisions that will take your business to new levels of growth in 2010 and beyond is even better.

For more Personal Branding articles check these out:

What can you learn from a drunk Ewok?

Personal Branding Tips from the Experts

Staking Your Claim with Employers and Recruiters: Use Your Personal Brand to Own a Piece of Your Prospect’s Mind

–
Mark Montoya has been working in personal branding for more than a decade for hundreds of online and offline companies, small businesses and individual service professionals. His focus has been toward improving the way jobseekers find employment on the Internet. He has synthesized his expertise by helping job seekers obtain their ideal choice of employment over the Internet on his sites MyOnlineCareerSpace.com and MyOnlineCareerCoach.com, and through his books 101 Tips Every Job Seeker Should Know and The Ultimate Online Job Search eBook. Learn more at MarkMontoya.com, on Twitter, Digg, or StumbleUpon.