Illumin Blog

Happy New Year!

The New Year is always a time for reflection, goal setting and preparation for greater things to come and it is for those reasons that I have recently been "underground", gearing up for a stellar 2010.

Like many of you, I wanted to kick my business up a few notches in 2010 which meant some changes were in order. It meant taking an assessment of what was working, what wasn't and making changes that reflected my value, attracted the right customers and focused on ROI in terms of time, energy and revenue. For me, it meant making changes in four areas: Branding, Services, Clients and Pricing.

Branding

Based on client, colleague and supporter feedback, I knew my branding and website weren't working for me.

I had put a lot of resources (time, money and effort) into my former site, but the reality was that it wasn't speaking to my client demographic--well educated, accomplished, driven professionals. My business had been mostly referral based which is great, but not enough to take sales where I wanted to go. In fact, I had lost sales due to my website.

The reality is, I'm a no nonsense consultant who really gets down to business to deliver transformative results--fast. My background and process are founded on 25 years in business, yet visitors (a.k.a., lost sales) often commented to referral partners that the former site reflected Illumin and me as almost ethereal. Wow! This sure isn't reflective of the Illumin approach and this needed to change.

Additionally, I wanted a website that was dynamic so I could engage with visitors and leverage social media and technology.  I needed to transformed the website from the old static version to its new dynamic form. ( I'm still working on the website with my fabulous designer, Eva Potter, so visit often as it continues to get built out.)

Services

As I put together my goals for 2010, a loud (screaming, actually) internal voice emerged saying, "I don't want to do that anymore!"

What became clear was that I needed to refine my service offer and focus only on what I loved doing most and on what generated real revenue for me and stellar results for my clients.

Looking at where my revenue comes from, it's no coincidence that I am making more money on the services that I most love providing. This is where a service provider's greatest value shines and something I speak about with clients all the time. It was time to take my own advice and eliminate that which wasn't performing and generating revenue and which I wasn't thrilled about.

Clients

While I had been focusing much of my effort on service-based entrepreneurs, my other target market, executives in transition, really picked up. As I've said in the past, "This economy presents a changing landscape of the opportunity. Leverage it." I needed to put more focus on the market of executives in transition since opportunity is ripe there. While I continue to work with service based professionals, executives in transition have proven to be an area of growth and opportunity for Illumin.

I also knew that I wanted to catapult my revenue and deliver my unique methodologies on a larger scale. This meant bringing Illumin's transformative services to companies, not just individuals. After all, my background is in corporate and I knew how Illumin services could be applied to companies that:

• Invest in their employees
• Know the value of talent and corporate goal alignment, especially in a time when resources are stretched or limited.
• Have strong Organizational Development programs
• Work with job seekers, such as Outplacement firms and Executive Recruiters

With this in mind, I am targeting companies, as well as strategic partners who work in corporate environments.

Pricing

Given the challenging economy, you'd think that lower priced services would be the ones selling. The reality is that people shopping on price weren't buying and people who were shopping for solutions, value and a customized experience were.

I stopped selling lower priced services and started focusing on services with higher real and perceived value. These also happened to be the services that would lead clients into a deeper relationship with Illumin and thus ongoing revenue.

I also raised my prices. Yes, in this economy, I raised my prices and not just a little bit. The Illumin methodology works so quickly that clients get results immediately (often in just three sessions or less). This means they are able to get a job, launch a website or market their business or services faster and better. This, in turn, means money in their pockets faster. So it's an investment with a quick return.

Pricing now reflects my value and my expertise and attracts a better qualified client which means less "selling" and more closings.

Business is an Evolutionary Process

January is already gearing up to be a great month for me and its all because of the willingness to let go of the status quo, take a leap of confidence and make changes that won't attract every client, but better attract the right clients.

How is your January going?