It’s not easy to start a business. It’s even more difficult to market a business. This month I’m going to talk about marketing. I’m currently enrolled in Mitch Meyerson’s Guerrilla Marketing Certification Course. Mitch is an amazing coach. He knows exactly what to ask to get you to come up with your own answers. I’m very lucky to be learning from someone who knows so much.

Do you have a marketing plan? Well, you should. Without a plan, you may be just going around in circles and not even know it.

Without a plan, how do you know…

• what to do to reach your prospects?
• who are your prospects and who are just strangers?
• whether you have spent enough time marketing?
• whether your marketing efforts are working or not?
• whether you should change your marketing tactics?
• if your social media efforts are effective?

There are 5 steps in my 5 Step Mompreneur Business Success Formula. Step #5 is Marketing Your Services.

Each step is extremely important for a successful business, but I find #5 to be the most challenging for many mompreneurs. It is also the step that you will spend the most of your time on when starting your business.

As with any plan, a Marketing Plan helps you to gain clarity and focus on your efforts. A well-formulated plan paired with a month-by-month Marketing Calendar will become your business’ most important asset if used regularly each year.

 Jay Levinson says in his Guerrilla Marketing book, “Right here and now, let me tell you the two most important things you should know if your’re to succeed with guerrilla marketing: 1) Start with a plan and 2) commit to that plan. If you do those two things, you’re off to the right start, and you’re primed for success.”

A good marketing plan will help you to stay focused, obtain clarity on your marketing efforts, see faster and more effective results and be able to track your efforts to fine-tune where you should be spending the bulk of your marketing time.

I will be offering periodic tele-clinics where I walk you through a short marketing plan that you can implement immediately. These are group tele-clinics where you will listen in while a coach my invited guest.

I am also offering a special one-on-one marketing consultation session for only $180 where I will personally walk you through the 7 steps to your own marketing plan and help you to build a marketing calendar where you can track your efforts. To learn more about the one-on-one session, contact me.

Have you ever thought to tap into the power of partnerships to build your business? What about to get a business started and off the ground running?

Whenever I partner with someone on a project, or swap ads and exposure, or barter services, it always ends up being a win-win situation. I get more sign-ups to my email list when the person is coming from a referral than I do from any other source.

Partnerships create referrals, and referrals are word-of-mouth and word-of-mouth can create immediate trust. Trust is so important to sales. Get the picture?

I decided to do something a little different today. I interviewed a special guest. My guest has created a partnership with another mompreneur to create a project that supports other mompreneurs. As you know, I love to support moms who are supporting other moms. We moms have to stick together in this world, if we want to become a success and stay sane.

This partnership project is a contest like you haven’t seen before. Honest… I know people tend to say that on the internet when it isn’t true, but this is true. There are hundreds of products being donated to this contest.

The top 3 winners will receive thousands of dollars worth of media exposure for their business from media sponsors as well as gifts, services and bonuses from other contest sponsors.

I interveiwed her to not only mention the Baby Business Shower and how you can enter, but to also talk a little about creating partnerships for your business. Since this contest was a partnership, I wanted her insight into how others could create partnerships to start or grow their business.

If learning more about partnerships is something you are interested in, let me know. If there is interest, I will put some content together. You can leave a comment here, or you can send an email using the contact form.

That is one of THE most asked questions this year amongst mom entrepreneurs and other small business owners.

There are literally millions of users on twitter and FaceBook (not to mention many of the other social media sites available). Many of these users are mom entrepreneurs using them as a way to build a community for their business. Social media is a great way to find clients, find prospects, get to know other people in your industry, collaborate on projects and discover mentors. Social media is revolutionizing the way we do business.

Other entrepreneurs are more cautious. They know that social media can eat at their already stretched time. As if we didn’t already have enough to do, now we need to socialize with strangers. Some people are still trying to figure out if twitter and FaceBook is really going to help their business, and if so how?

Social media is definitely here to stay. The way that we experience social media now will definitely change. Some sites will disappear and some will be new. Other sites will evolve and grow into something that we can only imagine at the moment. Social media is changing the way people buy and sell. We can now not go back to selling the same way we did before. We will only move forward down the road that social media has paved.

Additional Social Media Resources:

• Links to over 100 twitter tips and secrets
• 6 Simple Steps to Kick Start Your Social Media Success System by Christine Gallagher – well-worth the price!!
• A great blog by a Social Media Strategist – Tina Cook

There are so many amazing women in the business world. It’s always astounding to me how women will collaborate and help each other in positive ways. I recently collaborated with Maruxa Murphy on my Cereus Giveaway project. I originally met Maruxa through someone else that I invited to work with me on the Cereus Giveaway project. Joint venture projects are an excellent way to grow a business, by the way, but more on that later.

Last week Maruxa and I were talking on the phone, and I find out about a new venture she is putting together called Mama CEO Summits. This website sounds like a phenomenal opportunity for mom entrepreneurs.

“Are You Hosting A Seminar, Webinar Or Teleseminar That Could Benefit A Mama CEO?”

Maruxa’s goal with the project is to have mom business owners list their upcoming events. They can be both live events or teleseminars, webinars, etc. There will be a free listing section for any entrepreneurs who have events to tell others about. She will also have some paid positions for those who want to be placed in a more prominent location.

The listings will be emailed to subscribers on a daily basis. Subscribers will have access to these listings, which will put them in touch with all types of events where they can learn to take their own business to the next level. The website is set to launch on March 1, 2010.

When I first learned about the opportunity, I knew that I had to blog to you about it. This sounds like such a great opportunity to connect with each other. As a subscriber, you are put in touch with events of all types to help you learn how to grow your business and become a success. As a contributor, this is a great opportunity to get your events listed.

The site is still a work-in-progress, but will be launching next week. It is up and ready for you to list your events or sign up to start receiving the listings. Visit Mama CEO Summits, especially if you have some events scheduled for March.

If you are a mom who is deciding to start your own business so that you can stay home with your children but also contribute to the family’s bottom line, then you are not alone. The number of women, and primarily moms, that are starting new businesses is astounding. With the internet, us moms are realizing that we CAN do it all. With the right knowledge and the proper tools, we are making it all work with business and family life.

According to trends noted on the SCORE website, more than 1/3 of the people involved in entrepreneurial activity is women.

“The number of women-owned firms continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms (23 percent vs. 9 percent). There are an estimated 10 million women-owned, privately-held U.S. businesses. The greatest challenge for women-owned firms is access to capital, credit and equity. Women start businesses on both lifestyle and financial reasons. Many run businesses from home to keep overhead low.” (Source: SBA, Office of Advocacy and Business Times, April 2005)

It’s no wonder that you want to grow a business. So many women are already doing it and many are successful. A home based business can provide you with the lifestyle that in other generations moms only dreamed of.

Since my son was 15 months old or so, I have been a home based entrepreneur. Working as a conusltant and coach has allowed me the freedom to keep my children out of day care while also providing additional income for my family. I won’t say it has been easy because I have worked very hard to keep my businesses at levels where it was worth keeping them. There have been days I wish I was just one of those moms who read and colored with my children all day, but there have also been many days where I LOVE being a work at home mom. I enjoy having something that I can call mine. Something I do that doesn’t involve my children where I can step away from them and focus on other people outside of my household.

Having a business has truly been a dream come true for me. The best part about teaching other moms to turn their talents, passions and dreams into a business is that I can see what happens when they find clarity in deciding what business to choose and then watching their business blossom and bloom into something great.

* photo courtesy of pdekker3 on sxc.hu