Thinking about lowering your prices?

With all the negative economic news being reported by the media, your first inclination as a business owner may be to lower your prices fearing that unless you do, you won't have a customer segment willing and able to pay your desired prices. Consider that once lowered, however, it may be more of a challenge to raise your prices in the very near future. You're also assuming that your customers can no longer afford your standard prices. In actuality, pricing may not be the issue but rather customers are becoming more thoughtful with their purchases and merely need to be further convinced of the VALUE before plunking down their money. I recommend an energetically more ABUNDANT approach to this. Here are some new strategies and possible alternatives to consider in lieu of lowering your prices.

1. Have a sale or extend payment options.
Maintain your current pricing but establish defined sale periods with beginning and end dates to maintain the integrity of your pricing model but still offer customers a break. Also consider stretching payments over a period of time if feasible. I regularly offer a 6 pay plan with my Protégé program in addition to timed discounts.

2. Bundled offerings or gift with purchase.
Add additional products and services to your core offerings (for no additional cost) to substantially increase the value but without necessarily increasing your overhead. Can you add a "gift with purchase" that doesn't cost you any more money? Digital products & excess inventory items work great with this. Such as a gym offering complimentary towel and locker service for a year with a new membership.

3. Bonus gifts from other providers.
I still chuckle at an article submission site I subscribe to that would send me a 1lb box of fudge from an outside candy company every time I chose A $100 service package instead of a $60 package. Can you bundle with others to provide more value? I offer over $1000 in bonus gifts when you purchase my eBook and audio program at http://passion2prosperitybook.com/ . I created tremendous value for my customer that I did not have to pay for! Win-Win!

4. Rewrite your collateral materials to convey benefits.
This is a good time to review the benefits of your products and services line- by-line to be sure you're communicating maximum value to your prospective customer. One client wanted to lower her prices to attract more customers. Before she did that, I had her dissect her service, list out each benefit and assign a monetary value. This created a paradigm shift when she realized how much value customers were actually getting from her. She didn't lower her prices then, she raised them and customers are still showing up to pay.

5. Offer a sampling of complimentary products or new price point combinations.
Consider building in a new layer of products and services that you can offer for free so that prospective customers can easily experience you before making a purchase. When you sign in to http://passion2prosperity.com/ , you receive 3 free gifts from me. Also consider a new level of product offerings at lower price points without changing your premium price points. Even Starbucks is now offering bundled product combinations.

[Maria Simone is a business development expert with a spiritual twist. She'll show you "NEXT STEPS" for transforming ideas into products, effortlessly attracting investors and sponsors, and manifesting customers with ease. http://www.passion2prosperity.com/]

Priceless Pricing Strategies

The following article was written by my CFO buddy Aisha Jones-Scheffel. There are four basic pricing strategies which can be drawn out on a grid or matrix:

1. Economy pricing: Low quality and low price.
This would be the no-frills pricing, think of Wal-Mart or Southwest Airlines. Compare this to Nordstrom and first class on Virgin Airlines.

2. Penetration pricing: High quality and low price.
This strategy entails initially setting a lower than market price to gain entry into the market. Think back to when the Japanese initially introduced cars into the U.S. market. They were cheaper cars, but with equal or better equality. Now Toyota is poised to become the number one selling car manufacturer in the U.S.

3. Price skimming: Low quality and high price.
With this strategy a company will set a relatively high price initially and then reduce the price over time. Over time, they are able to get consumers at every price point. The perfect example of this is the Apple iPhone, it was originally $499 when it was introduced. Apple is now introducing the second version on July 11th at a price of $199.

4. Premium pricing: High quality and high price.
Every luxury brand follows this pricing strategy, which is keeping the price of a product or service high, so that buyers will favorably perceive it as superior or exclusive. Think of Coach or Bentley or even the Ritz Carlton.

How to use the matrix:

Step One: Determine where you are on the grid. You might have products or services that fall in one or more categories.
Step Two: Determine which quadrants your competitors fall into
Step Three: Determine holes in the market. Do you and your competitors fall under the premium and penetration quadrant? Then, there might be opportunities in the economy and skimming quadrants. What products or services could you introduce to take advantage of these "holes" in the marketplace.
Step Four: Determine if you can have products or services that would fall into every quadrant. For example, Toyota has a Toyota Corolla (Economy), a Prius (Skimming), and Lexus (Premium). H

ow do you know if a change in pricing strategy will be successful? Well you don't know what is going to be successful. The best thing is to do your research upfront before investing too much in a new pricing strategy or product or service. The three biggest questions are:
1. Is there a market for it?
2. How can I reach that market?
3. Do you have the talent and resources in order to reach that market?

So give some thought to your pricing strategy. What is the cost of increased market share, more customers, higher revenue, and increased profits - priceless.

Aisha Jones-Scheffel is "The Doctor CFO." Get her FREE SPECIAL REPORT, "7 Never Before Told Ways to Make Your Practice Stop Bleeding Money (That Has Nothing to do with Insurance or Billing)" and her FREE money management how-to tips at http://www.DoctorCFO.com.

10 Ways To Grow Your Business With Twitter

I wasn't a very early adopter of social networking but I did finally join in a few years ago and began building my network. I've always been intentional about it but probably not as avid with it as some people I know. Last year I discovered Twitter and everything changed. If you’re not already doing so, please follow me at http://twitter.com/mariasimone . I found it cumbersome at first but since Michael swore by it, I decided to stick with it and it quickly began paying off once I got the hang of it all. Fast forward to today: I've developed incredible relationships and amazing business opportunities have come to fruition at lightening speed. I find it a much more efficient way to connect to the resources I need which would typically require more of a time investment on some of the other sites.

Twitter is a cross for me between Facebook, micro-blogging, text messaging and a chat room. It's fast and easy to connect and you're limited to putting out only 140 characters of info at a time so it forces you to speak in "soundbites" which is how most of us think anyway. It's easy to get into the flow once you start following people and people are following you. Spend some time learning the basics of how to reply to others, DM (direct message) for private chats, and how to search using http://search.twitter.com/ . Here are a few of the strategies I've used that have helped me create powerful connections, attract new customers, promotional and media opportunities:

1. Develop relationships with your industry influencers
Search for and then follow people who represent your industry, report trends, make trends, have large numbers of followers, demonstrated success, etc. You'll be updated regularly about what's happening in your industry and if you "speak" to them regularly (not sell), others will begin taking notice of you which IS A VERY GOOD THING as this may open doors to (fill in the blank) opportunities for you.

2. Connect with your perfect target market
Who is your perfect customer? Connect with them online and let them get to know you. Give things away, share yourself, and answer their questions. They, and who they know, will regularly follow what you have to say if you're being genuine. Your followers could ultimately become new customers for you.

3. Connect with those who have complimentary products and services
I'm always looking for additional resources to introduce to you, my subscriber--- anything I know would help you grow your business. Others are doing the same so it makes sense to connect to these people with the intent of developing win-win cross promotional opportunities. Twitter is one of the fastest ways I've found to do that.

4. Connect with those who represent the media
You want those who work within the print, TV or radio markets to know about you as well as those who are popular bloggers or freelance writers. The quickest way for that to happen is to connect with them first and let them get to know you by your posts. They'll eventually start talking to you and about you. I've manifested a number of media interviews this way. One of my posts---and my name--- recently appeared live on CNN during a news report.

5. Connect with potential Mentors (and investors if applicable).
There are always going to be resources or expert advice that you'll regularly need to help you get to the next level. Connect with these people right from the beginning so you can immediately defer to when you need the support the most...and fast.

6. Lift-up, validate, congratulate, and regularly acknowledge others.
This goes much further in solidifying your relationships (not to mention the Good Karma involved) than any other activity you could engage in. People naturally want to do business with those who make others shine. Don't use this platform to correct, admonish or try to be "right" about anything.

7. Consistently put out relevant useful information.
Let others see what you're all about by putting out tips, resources, links to current events in your industry, or other relevant info (90%+) more often than a promotion (less than 10%). However, make it very easy for others to find out more about when they're ready. If you really have nothing to say, try forwarding useful info from others.

8.Craft a profile that speaks benefits to the reader and has clear contact info.
You want to instantly establish your credibility in a line or two but don't lean too heavily towards what you've done. Make it more about what you can do for others. Next, where do you really want to direct people after that and why?

9. Check out the tools and resources that others are continually offering.
People are VERY giving on Twitter and tend to offer lots of value for FR*EE. Soak it all up to improve your situation, and save yourself lots of time and money knowing that your learning curve in your business will be reduced once you're properly connected.

10 Establish a regular routine of connecting on Twitter.
Networking should not be an afterthought and should be included as a scheduled component of your business development. People connect with those who are regular visitors, not those who periodically pop in. If you find you're currently having sporadic results, it's probably because you're not regularly connecting.

Once you start implementing these strategies and work to build your list of followers (as well as following others) you'll begin experiencing accelerated results with your business agenda---all while having fun and developing meaningful connections.

Maria Simone is a conscious business "architect" and marketing expert who will show you "NEXT STEPS" for transforming ideas into products, effortlessly attracting investors and sponsors, and manifesting customers with ease. http://www.passion2prosperity.com/

Action Manifestor: Just Let Go

Lots of drastic changes being portrayed in the media and now being felt by us all. Business changing, markets changing, values, etc. Not that it's good or bad--- but it does feel like our world is changing so rapidly, it’s difficult to keep up. Routines are upset, rules are changing, not getting the same results from familiar strategies. One woman I know has been so anxious by constant changes at work she confessed to having a need to use the same bathroom stall each and every visit to the ladies room just to maintain some sense of familiarity and routine. If you're not comfortable with change, the fear of loss that is associated with change can creep up unbeknownst to you and cause you to hold on even tighter to your "realities", even if they no longer make sense. Take note: Are you holding on to material possessions that create clutter but not serve a useful purpose for you anymore? Have relationships that no longer support you? Clients who are draining and you no longer have a desire to serve but you continue to do so anyway? Watching your sales dwindle but not making the changes really necessary to turn it all around?
Become keenly aware of these situations and start giving yourself permission to begin letting go. The fear is an illusion and cannot harm you. The moment you let go, you'll allow more abundance will step in to fill the void not to mention the sense of peace and relief you'll experience by letting go of an uncomfortable situation that really isn’t serving you.

For more Action Manifestor tips, subscribe to my ezine at http://mariasimone.com

Celebrate The Success Of Others

You work so hard on birthing a project, acquiring the resources you need or landing that big contract. It may be easy to see others succeeding in areas you’d like to be and think enviously “that should be me”. That WILL be you and if you’d like to accelerate the process, simply raise your vibration of gratitude and begin genuinely celebrating their success. Support their efforts, look for ways to collaborate, give them words of encouragement. The accomplishments of others will quickly become yours.

Small Changes That Lead To Big Results

Obama’s campaign platform was about CHANGE ---“yes we can”--- but change can be a scary proposition, even when it’s in our best interest. Some changes are comparatively bigger than others. Changing careers, change in marital status, a new child, and moving to a new city are the big ones. Entrepreneurs seem to be in a continuous state of change in the hopes of achieving our desired results. Today, I thought I’d present some relatively simple changes you can make that could produce significant results. I like to make THOSE types of changes and hope you do too!

1. Include more financially successful and accomplished individuals in your circle of influence.

Watch your own abundance increase the more you adopt this. Socially, you can meet new friends via introduction, through your place of worship, getting involved in your children’s school, volunteering for local charity fundraising projects, attending socially oriented networking events, and getting involved in the community. For your business, attend a variety of functions, industry tradeshows, or networking events that could attract wealthy people. Mix it up until you find the combination that works for you.

2. Eliminate some obligations to increase productivity

If there are activities that you engage in or people you maintain relationship with simply because you feel obligated to do so, it may be time to re-evaluate. Give yourself permission to (gracefully) eliminate simple activities you deem an obligation that lack your desire and may not serve a real purpose for you anymore. Choose one thing at a time and you’ll see a dramatic increase in your own productivity as a result.


3. Take time to process during the day to increase performance

Spend at least 15 minutes each day in quiet meditation to “re-boot” your brain. Get to a quiet place, breathe deeply, and clear your head of busy thoughts. The silence allows you to process the events of the day, get a quick re-charge and receive new inspiration and solutions to issues at hand. This simple task helps me to continue functioning at higher levels during the day and I find solutions I’m looking for present themselves much more quickly.

4. Personal branding as a CEO can connect you quickly to your market

If you’re running a small business, it’s a lot easier to accomplish this and could produce dramatic results with regard to marketing and PR efforts. Associate yourself in unique ways to your company’s message. Be a more visible representative of your company’s brand so customers, investors and the media can develop trust and quickly buy into what you have to offer.

5. Communicate more frequently to your market, team and investors

Begin looking for ways to increase the frequency of your messages to every person who is connected to your business. In-store appearances, simple email and social networking activities could have dramatic results with regard to customer and investor relations. This is not a “when we have time” activity, make it an ongoing part of your daily activities.

Maria Simone is a conscious business “architect” and marketing expert who will show you "NEXT STEPS" for transforming ideas into products, effortlessly attracting investors and sponsors, and manifesting customers with ease. http://www.passion2prosperity.com

Working Past The FEAR To Take The Next Step

This topic is worthy of an article, a book…even several days devoted to it.

Many people are simply paralyzed with fear and unable to move forward these days. One of the most effective ways to deal with fear is to DEAL with it. What are you so afraid of? Give it context so it’s not this illusive, looming monster. Rejection? Failure? Not being good enough? Success? Risking your life savings? Losing a relationship? Look at each of these one-by-one and do what you can to reduce the risks or simply realize the issues are not as “dangerous” as they feel. Worst case scenario? Chances of it actually happening? You’ll find it’s all an illusion anyway and can be shifted quickly but you may have to work through some it this to get to that conclusion. The fears will start shrinking and you can keep moving forward.