Does Your Online Scheduler Do This?

January 10, 2021 By Janice Hurlburt

Does Your Online Scheduler Do This?
An Actionable Productivity Tip

Today I want to talk about my favorite program—it helps my business run more efficiently AND has helped me get a lot more clients!

That program is Acuity Online Scheduling.

By using Acuity Online Scheduling, everything is taken care of for me.

All You Have to do is Show Up

Acuity puts appointments directly on your calendar and then sends you (and your clients) reminders when those appointments are approaching. The integration with Google means that you can get desktop and phone reminders—sounds and/or pop-ups—reminding you that you have an appointment in 30 minutes (or time you choose), giving you enough time to clear the deck and put on your game face!

When someone books a specific type of appointment with you, you can also have Acuity give them a built-in questionnaire, right during the booking process. Their responses show up in Acuity, in your email, and right within Google calendar so you can see what the call is about when you get that 30-minute pre-call notification.

When you get on the phone or your Zoom call, you’re ready to serve!

What’s that? Do You Hear the CaChing of Money Going into Your Account?

Did you know that Acuity can process payments while a client is booking their appointment? It’s a seamless operation. You no longer have to send an invoice because you can get paid in full before you start the appointment! You’re paid your value ahead of time. Too many business owners bill after the fact, sometimes waiting 30-60 days for payment.

No more! Set Sale … I mean … Set $ail!

One Simple Step to Send out Post-Appointment Follow-up Emails

For each of your appointment types, you can have Acuity automatically send a follow-up email. (You can send six follow-up emails with the next level up.) Depending on what type of appointment it is, you can send them a digital download that makes you look more professional (and valuable!) in their eyes. You can also ask for an evaluation of their experience or remind them of their next step – anything you want to help them succeed and keep them as a client!

This is only the tip of the iceberg of what Acuity Online Scheduling can do for your business and your life!

Click here to receive 7 more tips on raising your $ails with your online scheduling program.

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Why am I Using Nautical Terms on my Website

January 9, 2021 By Janice Hurlburt Leave a Comment

Have you notice I talk about sailing and use nautical terms in my emails and on my website? Even my email sign-off has “Bringing you Fair Winds and Calm Seas?”

It all begin when I was only five years old, I fantasized about living on a tropical island near the ocean. My ex-husband, had a similar dream, and I wanted to make sure this became a reality for both of us. We started looking for a boat in 1987 and upon selling our business in 1993, our years of hard work paid off. We sold the company at a price that allowed us to follow our mutual desire.

This dream was not only for the love of sailing but more to move freely from Point A to Point B and meet new people on our journey. There is a camaraderie in the sailing community that I have never experienced living on-land.

A Dream Realized

We purchased an Alajuela 48’ sailboat in 1991. Knowing I wasn’t ready to cast off, I attended Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship in Newport Beach, California. The curriculum included Coastal Navigation, Marine Weather, Survival at Sea, Sailmaking, Marlinspike Seamanship, and All about Anchoring. I had the privilege of studying Medicine at Sea with well-known Dr. Don McGillis and learned from two of the best, Lin and Larry Pardey, about Storm Tactics.

Who knew about all of the topics I needed to become an expert to make my dream come true! Similar to what business owners experience as they don all the hats required by entrepreneurs!

My penchant for entrepreneurship became evident while outfitting our sailboat Lachesa. I worked at West Marine as the Department Manager of Safety and Navigation, Nautical Charts, and Marine Books at the Point Loma, Shelter Island location. This education provided me with a wealth of knowledge for my coming adventure.

Cast Off!

We launched Lachesa in June 1993 and sailed from San Diego, California to the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, and on to Central America. What a day that was. I was filled with excitement, joy, and, admittedly, a lot of anxiety.

However, rather than just living life in paradise and having umbrella Pina Coladas drinks, we quickly realized we enjoyed taking people out sailing. We wanted them to experience sailing on a nice sailboat and seeing 20’ mantras and humpback whales. We would head out when we wanted and return when ready. No fixed schedule.

1993 on the Internet

When we cast off our lines in San Diego, I had a laptop computer with an email account with AOL. I had no idea how I would send emails off the boat or what I was doing on the computer; it was a traveling journalist who shared her computer tips and set me up with Hotmail.
There I was in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico learning all about the internet in a remote location. I use to lug my big laptop from the sailboat to the marina office in various ports and hookup to their DSL landline to upload emails and download my newsletter to family, friends, and associates.

Seven Wonderful Years

Seven years of living on a sailboat and traveling the waters along remote coastal communities strengthened my self-reliance and intuitive ability to think three steps ahead, planning and executing ideas from start to finish.

We decided we would have to go “home” to the mainland because it would have cost $35,000 (in 1993 currency) to have our boat imported into the country. The games we had to play to stay in Costa Rica got to be too much.
For instance, Richard had to go to Nicaragua every three months to renew his visa, I was left alone on the boat for four days, and it was not a good idea to leave the vessel without someone on board. I don’t remember being scared, I just accepted this as a standard operating procedure.

Sail On

When we made the hard decision to return to dry land and back to the states, I knew I wanted to use my enthusiastic, energetic, and highly motivated “people person” self to assist others with meaningful work, aka business owners. I want to provide that same feeling of the community I felt onboard with my community of clients.

What I learned from living abroad and coming back to the states is how you have to take the risk to live life to the fullest, experience things in life you never imagine would see. If I had not taken the chance to leave everything that I am familiar with, I would not have experienced the simplicity of living on a sailboat in a faraway place and being one with nature.

So this is why I leave each of my messages to you with “Bringing you Fair Winds and Calm Seas.”

Are You Leaving Money on the Table

January 5, 2021 By Janice Hurlburt

Are You Leaving Money on the Table

An Actionable Productivity Tip

Lead magnets, opt-ins, freebies; they go by several names but the intent is the same. You try to entice someone in your target market to join your email list. You want to give them the opportunity to get to know, like, and trust you, AND to help those people on your email list with their struggles and challenges.

Recently I asked my business coach for her thoughts on what new resource I could offer you and those not on my email list as a new freebie. She was already familiar with my existing offers, and said that they were too cumbersome. While valuable, she said, they had too much content in them to help people be successful.

I gulped when I heard this.

I had spent so much time on those gifts.

Then she asked me this awesome question: “Janice, in all the work you’ve done with hundreds of entrepreneurs taking their business online, what is the ONE thing that everyone needs to get better at doing?”

My immediate reaction was that people don’t follow up. We don’t follow up with our warm leads, our former clients, phone calls, and emails. To be honest, I’ve been guilty of this, and so have my clients. In addition to not following up with simple tasks AFTER we have created a new program or webinar, launched it, we then let it drop off our radar because we had no follow-up plan.

The big realization I had is that we’re leaving BIG MONEY on the table.

Leaving Money on the table

And that’s why I created a very simple method you can use to avoid subscribing to a costly CRM program, at least right now, while you’re ramping up. I call it the Raise Your $ails system. And you can learn about it in this very consumable freebie (my coach will be proud!)—Raise Your $ails, a DIY Method to Increase Your Sales.

Raise Your $ails, a DIY Method to Increase Your Sales

There you have it. Now you might be thinking, this method won’t work for you because you want it electronic based, your calendar, or you rather use a spreadsheet. You may certainly re-engineer the method to fit your style. The key elements to keep in mind are:

Keep it simple. If it is not something that is easy to follow and you commit to doing everyday, there is no point.
Don’t buy some new-fangled app. I can guarantee if you don’t tie it into something you are already doing, it will fail. Again. Trust me, I’ve tried.
Start now. Stop leaving money on the table by pulling up the anchor that is dragging you down and take the first step.

How to Increase Sales with Existing Clients

January 4, 2021 By Janice Hurlburt

How to Increase Sales with Existing Clients
An Actionable Sales Tip

One of my former clients, let’s call her Cynthia, was complaining about a slow period in her business. I asked her if she’d lost any clients recently and she said, “Not really.”

Her wishy-washy answer told me to probe a little more. I asked when she last spoke with her clients… either over the phone or by email. She admitted that she rarely contacted her clients unless they called with a task or project request. I asked her why she didn’t regularly speak with her clients.

Cynthia thought for a moment and finally admitted that she is afraid they will complain.
This is a common fear among business owners. Why do we do this to ourselves?

What Do Your Favorite Clients Say?

I asked Cynthia to tell me about her favorite client. Why was this person at the top of her list? She said that she loves her services and the results they’ve achieved. She pays her invoices immediately and never questions a bill. She has increased her requests for additional services and is a dream to work with.

I then asked Cynthia what the lifetime value of this client might be. She quickly responded, easily six figures.

When I asked her if she would have a problem calling this client, Cynthia said no, I talk with her so much, it’s no big deal to call her again.

If You Talk to Clients Regularly, It Becomes the Culture of Your Business

I asked Cynthia if she had a few other clients that she classified as favorites and if she thought she could call them to check in.

Cynthia did as I suggested. One of her clients said that she’d been on his mind for weeks, but he hadn’t gotten in touch. He went on to say that he needed more of her services.

$ails Up!

If Cynthia hadn’t made the first move, who knows how long it would have taken him to contact her?

That follow-up brought in an upswing of 10% increased sales over the next six months. Enough that Cynthia was finally able to hire a VA (Virtual Assistant) to help with some of her admin. The lifetime value of her client skyrocketed!

Cynthia continued to work through her current client list. Some calls generated new $ails and some left with a “thanks for calling. I look forward to talking to you again soon.”

Every call was a positive experience. So much so that Cynthia is now working through her past client list, no longer afraid she is going to only hear complaints. She now has goals for how many calls she will make a week and when she gets through the list she will start over again. Meanwhile, sales are up from her client list and new referrals.

It’s Your Turn

How often do you check in with your clients? Now is the time. We’re in a global pandemic and people need to know you care about them. And they might even have more work for you!

• Action Step: Follow up with your top 10 clients just to see how they’re doing—even the clients you’re working with now.
Click here to download this sample $ails Up! script that you can use over and over or follow the $ails Up! script below.

Inactive Clients

Hi [Name]! I was [driving down the road, at the dog park, something relative to them] and I thought of you. I wanted to check in and see how you’re doing.

Let the conversation casually flow. No sales, no requests. Just be you and follow their lead.

If nothing comes up naturally, depending on your business or product, finish the conversation with a single statement such as, “It’s been nice talking to you! If there is ever anything I can help you with, don’t hesitate to call.”

Active Clients

Hi [Name]! I was [reviewing your file, reading emails, at the dog park, something relative to them] and I thought of you. I wanted to check in and see how everything is going.

Let the conversation casually flow. You can talk about their account or just life in general. No sales, no requests. Just be you and follow their lead.

I cannot count the number of times I’ve done this and my former client said, “I have been thinking about calling you.” Give it a try – if you’re nervous about calling your top ten clients, call your favorite client and practice on them. If they happen to also be a friend, tell them what you are doing and ask for their feedback.

The important thing is to do as Nike would say, Just Do It!