I’ve just met with one of my clients who is enjoying extra-ordinarly sales growth yet all around him others in his sector are finding the market is really tough.

Are you noticing a downturn in the economy or even a recession starting to take hold in your market?

Perhaps you are concerned about the results you have seen in the first quarter of 2008 and are finding sales are softening?

If you want to ensure that you thrive not just survive in the remainder of 2008 then yes we must manage overheads and controllable costs, but we also need to continue to grow market share and keep the pressure on sales.

But where should we focus?

Well on our next Biz Growth Live teleseminar masterclass, I will be in conversation with Wendy Weiss, the ‘Queen of Cold Calling’ and will be discussing strategies and tips to ensure you boost your sales even through an economic downturn.

DATE OF SALES MASTERCLASS: Monday 5 May 2008

TIME OF SALES MASTERCLASS: 6pm Dublin and London/ 1pm ET/10am PT

INVESTMENT: FREE

REGISTER: Register at Biz Growth Live

Some of the areas we will cover include:

• The biggest mistakes people make when the economy is unstable that limit their sales?
• The actions we can take that will enable us to keep on track and even  boost sales?
• Exploring pricing in a downturn economy - should we discount and if so  under what circumstances
• How to generate more referrals with ease and ensuring leads turn into more clients
• How to overcome the fear of making cold calls.

So if you want to make sure your sales sizzle and you boost your profits even in a difficult economy, you won’t want to miss this masterclass.

And if you have questions for Wendy, you can post your question here on the blog or over at our live questions page.

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Yesterday on our Biz Growth Live call we were joined by Sheri McConnell and the subject we covered was how to create a million dollar business.  Sheri has been researching the secrets of the million dollar mindset and coaching here clients based on the strategies she learnt from her million dollar friends.

The other thing to note from Sheri’s experience is that she is managing to run four businesses from her home office along side enjoying a business family life with her husband and four young children.

As you may be aware, the audio recordings for our calls are usually only made available to our clients and mastermind group members, however there were some things that Sheri covered on the call that I thought would be of benefit for the whole Biz Growth community to access, so I am posting a copy of the recording here.

Sheri does cover the importance of our mindset through this interview - so you will find it a little different from our usual action focused calls at Biz Growth Live. She also shares alot of her personal experiences about what it takes to grow a billion dollar business.

Please note that it’s not the same quality as our podcasts as I recorded the call which was a teleseminar for my Biz Growth Live community and we had everyone listening in live. I do encourage you to take notes and cnsider what you could apply to your business from the strategies Sheri covers.

You can access the audio by either clicking on the play button and the audio will stream direct or you can right click on the MP3 link and save it to yout hard drive to listen to at your convenience or transfer it to your portable player.

BIZ GROWTH LIVE SHOW NOTES 

00:00  Introduction

01:39   Discovering what it takes to build a million dollarbusiness

09:30  Studying the millionaire mindset

15:28   The importance of a ‘wealth plan’.

18:30   The leverage triangle - ways to maximise income in the business model

23:28   What learnings can be taken away from studying the ‘leverage triangle’

25:36   The six millionare business models

32:07   Leveraging your time to create your million dollar business 

50:22   Resources and how to choose the right model to use

55:54   Conclusion

64:10   Show ends

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Access to the Millionare Mindset Home Study Programme here. 

Sheri mentioned on the call on Biz Growth Live that we could access the success call with the recent participants of her coaching programme. You can stream or download the call from here.

HOW TO LEAVE US FEEDBACK

Do share your thoughts on this interview with Sheri.

Perhaps you have found some of the strategies and tips she shared have worked for you or perhaps you have ideas and suggestions you would like to share with our community at Biz Growth News?

You can choose one of 3 different ways to get in touch so why not:

• post your feedback in the comments section below
• leave comments at our media centre by calling +1 214 615 6505 ext 6842
• or send me an email at connect(at)bizgrowthnews.com.

 HOW TO ACCESS THE BIZ GROWTH LIVE CALLS

You can join me for our Biz Growth Live calls by registering here  - you won’t want to miss the next call as it’s with best selling author and small business marketing coach, Michael Port and I’ll be grilling Michael about the content of his new book Beyond Booked Solid which was released this week and is already shooting up the best seller list.

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This weekend I’ve been having lots of fun researching online video. It’s one of the strategies in social media communications that I have yet to fully embrace and while I use platforms such as Camtasia, Articulate and have tried out Oovoo, I’ve not recorded my own video from situations where I have been “on location”. You can listen to a podcast I recorded recently about getting started with online video.

How to create video that is compelling and engaging and which will support your brand essence be that your corporate brand, employer brand or personal brand is the place many of us start.

But how do you then ensure that your online video is “onbrand”; how do you actually embed your brand identity and call to action into your video; where should you host your video; and how can you achieve this without costing you a small fortune?

Then are a vast array of platforms from hosting your video to live streaming - it’s enough to make your head fuzzy like eating too many chocolate Easter eggs!

We’ve been doing some test runs over the weekend which has been interesting - so get ready for some video’s here in the not too distant future.

This next Monday on Biz Growth Live, my guest was to be Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book, but unfortunately Debbie can not join me as she is just finishing her house move and on Friday we had to postpone the session to a later date. Debbie sends her apologies to everyone.

So I got to thinking, if I am wondering about all these questions about online video, perhaps some of my Biz Growth Community are too. So I contacted my Facebook friend and someone who is an expert in video podcasting, Sherman Hu to see if he would join me as our guest expert this week.

Sherman is in the middle of a huge project so I was thrilled when he said he would join me this week.

If you’d like to join me and find out about online video, where to start and how it can support you in expressing your brand online, then you can register for the free Biz Growth Live call which will be taking place on Monday 24 March 2008 at 6pm in Ireland and the UK (2pm ET).

And if you have questions for Sherman or myself about how to master online video to bring your brand to life you can either post a question in the comments section or on our live questions page.

I also want to share with you a video clip from Stephen Fry a great British actor, comedian and author which I found on the terrific video sharing site VideoJug (their tag line is “life explained on film”). In this clip he covers:

- His defintition of Web 2.0

- His thoughts on the quality of user generated content

- How will Web 2.0 change traditional television

- What excites him about the way technology is evolving.

Stephen has a blog and podcast too if you want to connect with him through social media.


VideoJug: Stephen Fry: Web 2.0

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The following resource is especially valuable for people based in Europe - but scroll to the bottom of the article for 4 further great resources.
I am always on the look out for great online services to help my clients generate more leads at less cost. Teleseminars are one of the strategies I encourage them to implement and they have generated really significant revenues and helped me attract more clients over the last few years.

I was therefore delighted to hear of a low cost conference call provider in the UK called Conference Genie.

Their free service allows you to have 12 people on the call at one time and for their premium service which costs a one time fee of £10 plus VAT you can host 120 people on the call.

I have come across other conference call providers but none at the low price of 3p per minute for calls in the UK to a UK bridge number that Conference Genie offers so it is definately worth checking out their service.

There are also a limited number of numbers you can use for calling the Conference Genie  bridge line from other European countries - you will need to check the cost per minute.

They also offer a recording service at a fixed price per month.

So if you are a coach, business consultant or leader in a professional services firm based in Europe who is looking to attract more leads and more profits in the year ahead with less effort, then I do encourage you to take a look at Conference Genie.

ADDITONAL RESOURCES:

Listen to a recent podcast I recorded about how to use teleseminars to attract more clients and increase your profits

Listen to a recent podcast I recorded about how to host your own online events

Access 4 hours of superb teleseminar training for only US$20 - delivered by one of my marketing mentors, Alex Mandossian - and if you don’t think the training was worth the US$20, send me your receipt and I will refund your US$20 to you - guaranteed.

Access a trial of the teleseminar and webcast service I use for only 1US$ for a 21 day trial

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As we grow our professional services practice, there are two key areas we can focus on to drive growth in profits.

Firstly growing revenue generation with new offerings, attracting new clients and working closely with exiting clients so that we build long term sustainable relationships with them - all areas we focus on here at Biz Growth News.

Of course the other area we can focus on to grow our profits is managing our overheads i.e. we control costs.

I spend a lot of time using the phone to connect with clients in Ireland and overseas, to record podcasts and also to deliver teleseminars and webinars and use a variety low cost service providers for telephone services.

One favouite resource of mine is Skype and I especially enjoy the fact you can arrange conference calls with it and you can instant message people - a really fast way to connect to colleagues rather than having to wade through emails.

Skype was invaluable as a resource for the recent telesummit “A Brand You World Global Telesummit” when fellow event organiser, Kirsten Dixson and I could keep in contact for the full 24 hours of programmed teleseminars and manage technical hitches including the fact we lost one of the speakers who dialed in and one of the event hosts had problems with their battery on their phone died! Note to anyone organising events that span several hours - remind your attendees if they are speakers or hosts to phone from a land line and not use a hands free set that has a limited battery time!

We also use Skype to record the weekly podcast with The Podcast Sisters.

However I NEVER recommend using VOIP for especially important events that you are recording as it can prove very troublesome and I have had some people call in to my teleseminars cause problems with the quality of the line wen they have used Skype.

If you are interested in exploring VOIP for your business and are in Ireland, you might be interested to note that the Irish Internet Association is holding an seminar on VOIP technology on 6th December between 8am to 10.30am at The Westbury Hotel, Dublin 2.

Speakers  will be from telephone service providers providers eircom and Glantel and a online hotel booking company Bookassist who use VOIP in their business.

The workshop will outline the benefits of a VoIP system for your business, highlight the things that need to be in place (including infrastructure, security and firewalls, Quality of Service (QoS)) and will explore the types of solutions you can use ranging from an outbound only solution to a fully hosted solution. You can book to attend this event at the IIA website.

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