save money Archives - Cara Lumen

by Cara Lumen

A coach can save you money. What, you say? But a coach costs money and that’s a consideration in today’s economy. But can you remember a time you didn’t read the directions and ended up with several mysterious pieces left over? Or the preverbal don’t-ask-for-directions-I-can-find-it-myself attitude that put you miles out of your way? A coach helps you create a map of where you want to go and then gives you step-by-step GPS directions. Of course you’re going to get exactly where you want to go. And that straight line from here to there can save you money.

A coach can keep you from making mistakes – wasting time and money going in the wrong direction

A coach holds your vision, sees the best route and clears the path ahead for you

Here’s the deal – if you don’t know where you are going you will certainly end up someplace else. A coach knows the territory. She knows the shortcuts and the pitfalls. She knows the watering holes and rest stops. She is a valuable guide for your journey.

But first you both have to figure out exactly where you want to go. That’s called laying the foundation – your target community, your niche, your branding, and the type of service and products you want to offer.

This work, done right, will save you hours of going in the wrong direction

Step 1 – Know Where You Are Going

A Coach Knows What You Need to Get You There

Remember the old trail bosses? They helped the travelers know what supplies they needed and how much they could actually carry. You know the stories of scattered furniture along the way because those items, beloved or not, were just too heavy to carry. Well, a coach can help you choose only the things you need to move you to your destination. You can leave the rest behind for another time and trip. You travel light, you travel fast.

I have a client who is an extraordinary visionary. She thinks up fabulous projects. Big ones. Time-consuming ones. And my job is to keep her grounded so she completes basic things like her web presence and sets up systems to begin to build her community. It’s hard sometimes, her ideas are tantalizing to me too, but my job is to be certain she has a strong foundation and puts the basic things in place like a web presence and personal branding.

Step 2 – Trust your coach to take you one step at a time and choose the steps you need to take next.

A Coach is a Source of Wisdom

Do you want to get your guidance from someone who is just learning or someone who has been there, done that? You want the expert, of course, the person who is excited about their area of expertise and continues to study it and grow wiser in it and explore ways to teach it to others. That deep knowledge and experience helps them guide you on your journey and choose the right path for you.

Once you find that perfect coach/guide pay attention. When there is homework, do it on time. When you start to go off on yet another great idea, allow her to pull you back. If you have a project, allow her to help you break it down into small steps and stay with it till that phase is completed. A good coach will honor your personal way of working, but she won’t let you aimlessly wander off the path

Step 3 – Listen to your coach and do what she says

A coach can keep you from overwhelm

Entrepreneurs have tons of ideas and we can get pulled off course and get stuck in the mud of overwhelm. A coach can see that pitfall ahead, and will help you focus on one step at a time instead of the mountain you are trying to climb. That saves you time, and preserves your energy for the task of moving forward.

Step 4 – Trust the coach to help you choose your best ideas.

A coach is your motivational partner

Working alone is great and it can be lonely. How do you keep yourself on target when you are the boss? A coach is a motivational partner – a person who will call you on your “stuff”, creatively find ways around your blocks, shore you up when you falter, and stay by your side as the partner she is.

Is it time for you to hire a coach?

I’m a coach. I’ve had a lot of training. I’m a Certified Book Yourself Solid Coach which makes me really good at building strong foundations. I’m a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach which makes me really good at creative, innovative, inexpensive ways to market yourself. And I’m a prolific writer, so developing rich content for the internet is a talent and a passion. I can help you build an authentic business from your inside out.

And I’ve added a partner to help you with one of the steps. We are the Magnetic Blog Builders If you want to establish a magnetic web presence, you begin with me. We center and focus your vision and start moving toward your goal. Shortly after we begin you work with my partner Nancy Hendrickson, the WordPress expert, who will help you create either a web site, a blog or a combination of the two. It takes both of us to get your web presence positioned and aimed in the right direction. Then you’ll be off like the proverbial arrow – right on target to attract the people you are meant to serve.

There is something very creative about trying to figure out how to get what you want without investing any money. You look at a situation and think “Here’s the problem, how I can solve it in an unusual way.” I’m not saying you have to do something cheaply, just cleverly, with innovation, and out of the box thinking. Here are some ways to spend less and get more

One of the things I do every quarter is examine my business and see what I can leave behind. Like lightening the load so you can go faster. I look at my services, information products, clients, and partners and the more I toss out the more I have room for something new to come in.

There are a lot of things we put in place when we started our business that we need to periodically question. I recently adjusted the level of my shopping cart to reflect the reality of what my business was doing and saved some money. I had subscribed to a “what if” level more than a “what is” level. I look at the statistics on sales and decide what courses should be given live this year and what can stay as home study courses. I had a demand for my early metaphysical books so I made them available again. I decided to turn a course I gave into the extremely useful Magnetic Marketing Plan workbook rather than a home study and give it live once a year.

If I see something I want to add, I first look to see if I have some version of it already that I just need to bring out and spruce up. I found a half started marketing book when preparing for that class. And another book on masterminds that is inches away from completion. At the top of my list will be “Go finish some of the great ideas you have started.” Does this sound familiar?

How can I do more marketing without spending more money? My radio show is free to do. I just have time invested. My article campaign is free to do, again it’s a time investment but those articles often end up as radio shows, and blog posts and even courses. And then there is my blog which allow me the flexibility to write about a variety of things, cast my thoughts on broader waters, so to speak, and see what ripples back in the form of interest. The blog continues to attract new people and writing for it is one of my favorite things to do.

Yes, I invested in a blog course. Yes, I invested in a course about building your platform which can be translated into building your market share. But the rest of my investment is my time. Time to get better at some software that will open up some new opportunities for me. Time to create some videos. Time to read some business books. (Do check out Seth Godin’s Lynchpin) Time to think up new ways to be in service.

How can I take an idea and turn it into something of value to my target audience? And better still, how can I make that so affordable by my clever version of it, that everyone can easily afford it. It’s fun and challenging to be creative about conserving my resources and those of my clients.

Why It’s a Good Time to Hire a Coach