Yesterday I mentioned that some of the more creative entrepreneurs I've encountered are those selling stuff on the side of the road. That word --- creative --- or creativity --- seems to scare entrepreneurs nearly to death.

I get letters: "I'm just not creative." "I'm just not creative enough." "My business is failing because I'm just not creative." YIKES!

For starters, if you think you aren't creative enough, you're probably selling yourself way too short and I've never said that you had to be creative or clever to market your business.

Without belaboring the point here again, I'll just remind you that there are some very basic business building strategies you can employ to market your business and they don't require any creativity. But you do have to do them.

Being creative is a skill you can hone just like anything else. You just have to start by being more aware of what's going on around you. Start paying attention to all the advertising you see. Listen out for the marketing message in what other's are doing. Notice how you are feeling when a certain ad catches your attention.

Then borrow those ideas and adapt them to your own needs. See a postcard that grabs you? Is there an idea there that you can develop for your own business?

Those of us "in the business" so-to-speak, keep what we call swipe files. This is a file where we keep all the cool, creative, and exciting (and sometimes the really bad ones, too) ads, newsletters, postcards, and other marketing pieces we find that might spark an idea later.

You can start your own swipe file to give you inspiration for future marketing projects.

But also, and more importantly, start paying attention to your own ideas and WRITE THEM DOWN. You probably have dozens of great ideas for your business every single day. But if you don't write them down, those ideas will be lost to you forever. Someone else will get that vibe and run with it instead.

Some of the most creative entrepreneurs I've seen are those folks selling stuff beside the road. Traveling around in my RV, I get to see lots of folks selling stuff along the road and once in a while something will catch my attention enough that we'll go to the trouble to stop. (And in a giant rig like ours, you don't just stop on a dime.)

The other day I saw a guy selling fresh shrimp at a busy intersection. The cool thing was that he was selling it out of a boat! I've seen many people selling shrimp and other seafood from the back of a truck, but never from a boat and I thought that was so cool. Even though the boat was on a trailer, of course, it still gave the illusion that his shrimp might be fresher because they were coming right from the boat. I loved it.

I'm sure you've seen cars, trucks, vans and other vehicles with advertisements and website url's all over them promoting a business of one kind or another. Lately I've been seeing a lot of vehicles like this that also have a plastic box with a hinged lid so it stays watertight attached to the back of the vehicle filled with business cards. One in particular I saw in a parking lot was for a mobile dog grooming business.

This seems like a clever way to reach folks who might otherwise not have a pen or paper handy to write down a phone number or a web address. Prospects can just reach in and grab a card. (Of course, if you use this strategy you might want to make sure your car alarm is disabled.)

I'm always intrigued by clever marketing strategies. If you've seen something unusual that caught your eye, write me and tell me about it. I'll keep you posted on the things I see, too.

Who knows, you may get a great idea that you can use for your business, too.

Not long ago, I attended a networking event and struck up a conversation with someone who was offering a rather unique service. I was very interested in what she was offering because it addressed a problem I had recently experienced, and I could immediately see great potential for this business concept.

We exchanged business cards with the promise that we would be in touch. Later, as I was entering her contact information into my system, I was suddenly stopped cold. Suddenly, I had no desire to do business with this person.

Why my sudden change of heart?

It was because of her email address.

Have you ever stopped to consider what your e-mail address might be saying about you? Could you be inadvertently killing potential sales and interest in your business with an inappropriate or unprofessional e-mail address?

This businesswoman had presented a perfectly professional image in all other ways. Her clothing, her demeanor, her handshake, the passionate way she talked about her business, even her business card said “I am a professional and it is safe to do business with me.” She had obviously put some time into the development of her image. She presented herself as the consummate professional and I bet she is.

But she blew any goodwill she had garnered with me entirely when I encountered her e-mail address: hotsugarmama@blahblah.com.

Read that again: hot-sugar-mama at blahblah.com.

Now on a personal level, I would not have been offended by that and may have been mildly amused. But to use that professionally just reeks of—well—unprofessionalism.

And so of course, my next thought was, “how unprofessional might she also be in the conduct of her business?” The service she is selling involves dealing with potentially sensitive personal information of her clients, information that most folks wouldn’t want someone else to know about or to reveal to others.

Some other e-mail addresses I’ve seen lately were along those same lines:

• thedeadrule@blahblah.com (the guy was selling insurance but was a big fan of the Grateful Dead).
• liquidlover@blahblah.com (an owner of an upscale private clothing seller). I didn’t ask the meaning of that one.
• chewchewhuhhuh@blahblah.com (Uh, what?)

Do you get the idea of how inappropriate these e-mail addresses are for business?

Another pet peeve of mine is business people using Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL e-mail accounts for their business address.

Now, I have nothing against those providers per se, but they do not project a professional image for your business. Plus, they often severely limit what you can do with your e-mail accounts.

Save these accounts for using to sign up for mailing lists but never use them in the professional arena with your clients or prospects.

The best thing you can do right now is to register your own domain name and start using that as your e-mail address. Like mine: marty@martymarsh.com marty@successfulsoulproprietor.com or yours would be yourname@yourbusinessURL.com.

If your budget just simply does not allow for this and you must use a free e-mail account, at least use something tamer in the name portion of the address, preferably your own name or the name of your business. For example: martymarsh@yahoo.com or successfulsoulproprietor@aol.com.

These days, you can register a URL very inexpensively and get e-mail service at the same time, even without a Website. I personally like GoDaddy.com.

There is just no excuse any longer for not having your own domain name. Without it you’re likely to be perceived as being unprofessional in the way you deliver your services.

And remember, right or wrong, true or not, how you are perceived --- especially online --- trumps everything else.

Join the conversation: Please add your comments below. 

Many of the coaches, therapists, and others in the healing professions --- those folks I call Soul Proprietors --- love what they do yet dislike being in business.

These are the people I’ve heard described as “reluctant entrepreneurs.” Are you one of these?  You want to do your work, you want to do it on your own terms and you want the freedom that comes only from being self-employed; and yet, you are not nearly as successful as you could be because you refuse to “take care of business.”

I long ago learned that there are just some things relating to business that I do not do well. (Accounting being one of them.) And I suggest that, if you have tasks that you don’t do well, find someone to help you with those important things to keep your business going.

But this is not really what I’m talking about. I’m talking about having the mindset of an entrepreneur. This means that in addition to helping your clients achieve what they want, you have to have the mindset that allows you to get what YOU want as well. And that means taking care of business. Every day.

Born to be an entrepreneur?
Most of us aren’t born entrepreneurs. But just like all the other skills you’ve learned, you can learn to think like an entrepreneur and enjoy the success of being one.

The best place I know to start developing this mindset is in the areas of marketing and selling. The day you hang your shingle out, announcing to the world that you’re now in business for yourself, is the day you don your marketing hat, and it doesn’t come off --- ever. And as long as you are self-employed, like it or not, you’re also a salesperson.

Marketing is one area of your business or practice that you don’t want to farm out to someone else. Your success is totally dependent on how well you attract clients that will pay you. And you know your business better than anyone else, and you care about its success more than anyone else ever would.

So if you’re one of those who is reluctant to market your business because you either don’t know how or don’t know what to do first or what to do next, I suggest that you set aside some time every working day to learn about marketing.

Then take what you learn and apply to it your own business.

There’s no shortage of marketing information available today, and I do my best to share with you the things I know and practice --- the things that work for me and my business --- so that you can observe the strategies that I use, learn from my example, and apply what you learn to your own business.

I know of no better place to start than with my complimentary ebook, “How to Get the Word Out About Who You Are and What You Do.” If you’ve downloaded that ebook but haven’t read it yet, it’s time to find it and get started. And if you can’t find it, email me and I’ll re-send you the link so you can download it again.

Remember, millionaires take care of business first.

So, let me ask you this (please add your response in the comment section below):

What can YOU do today to take care of your business?

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Now, for a slightly different view: While I personally love interacting with my clients and the readers of my ezines and my blog, and I have no desire to be just another anonymous entrepreneur on the internet, other folks do like the anonymity that the internet can provide.

For me, half the fun of being in business is the people I get to interact with every day. But many folks like the idea of being relatively anonymous to their clients and customers and the internet allows them to do just that.

As I was writing this week's blog post above, I stumbled on this article that talks about this very thing. My view is not the only one and you might find this notion to be more to your liking.

This week I saw The Lion King --- LIVE on stage in Tampa, Florida --- and it has to be one of the most spectacular performances I’ve ever seen.

Aside from the sheer artistry of the performers, the technical aspects of mounting a show like that are even more breathtaking. What a fun night.

It was one of those experiences --- it was truly an experience, not just a show --- that left us all wanting more. You could tell in the hesitation of the audience to get up and start leaving that everyone in that theater was spellbound and not yet ready to let the experience go.

Which, naturally, got me to thinking about my business. If you’ve been paying attention you know that I have blogged recently about the Disney experience and The Lion King, natch, is another Disney production.

All of us in that audience, I would guess, were left wanting more. It’s a long show and yet it seemed like it was over in the blink of an eye.

This idea of “leave ‘em wanting more” is one we should keep in mind whenever we are interacting with our own business “audience.” Do your marketing materials and programs leave your prospective clients wanting more? And by that I mean, do they then want to know more about what you’re offering? Do they want to experience more by working with you?

Every marketing strategy you employ --- from networking to ebooks to your ezine --- should be designed to leave your audience wanting more from you.

I find that to be true from folks who download my ebook, How to Get the Word Out About Who You Are and What You Do. While it is chock full of “take it to the bank” content, that ebook has done more to generate more paying clients for me than anything else I’ve ever done. (If you downloaded it but haven’t read it yet, I suggest you spend some time reading it as soon as you can.)

So, let me ask you this:

How can you leave your target audience wanting more (of what you're offering)?

Over the last week or so I’ve been poring through the results of the Business & Practice Needs survey I asked my list to take and I must say the results have surprised me --- a lot. I thought I knew my audience pretty well, but as it turns out, I don’t. But that’s something I’ll write about later.

As an incentive to get more folks to complete the survey, I offered to send a special audio CD recording of an interview I did with my favorite organizer, Elizabeth Hagen. And, as it turns out, I’ve been nearly overwhelmed with the response. This is a good thing because the information I’m gleaning from this survey is very valuable.

Many would probably tell me I was foolish to do so, but I chose to hand write the shipping labels and greetings on each of the letters that accompany the CD. And yes, it has taken a good deal of my time, even though I do my best to keep up with them as the requests come in one by one.

The amazing thing I noticed, however, is the connection I felt with each person as I hand wrote their name and address.

While I’ve always felt like the folks who join my list are far more than just another name to send marketing materials to, it was while I was writing out those names and addresses that these people each became very real to me. It was as though, when I wrote their names, that we shared just a moment of heart connection. And it was a pretty powerful experience.

And it was through this process, and through the responses that I received on the survey, that I realized just how important it is to me to be part of a community of people who are all striving for a higher purpose through business. These are the people who inspire me to be the best I can be at what I’ve chosen to do.

So let me ask you this:

In what way are you making a personal connection with the members of YOUR community?

When I was a teenager, we used to go over to Disney World on Friday night dates.

I was 15 when they opened the park near Orlando (now you can figure out how old I am if you want to) and I’ve been there so many times I long ago lost count.

Last Saturday we decided to go to Disney World again after having not been in about 4 years. The thought of going again did not thrill me so much until I decided that I would visit the park as if I was visiting for the very first time.

And what a nice difference that made in how much I enjoyed the day. Disney does things so well anyway, I believe, and the magic there always seems quite real.

For anyone who has been there as much as I have, you’ll know that they pretty much do the same things over and over and over. They may repackage the shows and themes a bit differently but underneath, it’s all the same stuff.

And most park visitors aren’t even aware of it, but everything they do is one big promotion of their products. Their products being their characters, their films and their shows.

People will still stand in line for hours with their kids so they can talk to their favorite characters and the crowds always go nuts whenever Mickey Mouse shows up. It’s quite the phenomenon to behold.

All of that promotion is obviously working just fine because people were buying Disney stuff by the armloads.

If you stop and think about it, how many of us would ever consciously buy access to a place for an exorbitant amount of money (admission is $75 bucks these days) only to get inside so that we could spend even more money? Boatloads of it. But that is exactly what happens at Disney World.

And we do it with big smiles on our faces and squeals of delight.

There are so many marketing and business lessons to be learned when you pay attention at Disney.

So this got me to thinking about my own business (and you may want to start thinking about yours as well).

Right now I'm thinking about how the Disney experience is so much fun that you don't think twice about spending $5 bucks for a hotdog. The Disney experience is so much fun that you want to go over and over and over again.

I want to create THAT kind of environment for my own clients. An environment so valuable and magical that they are happy to pay me to share my knowledge and experiences. An environment where they learn so much, where they see so much in the way of results in their own business, that they want to keep coming back again and again.

So, it’s back to the drawing board for me to re-think and re-imagine what kind of magic I can create so my clients can have that kind of experience when they choose to work with me.

So let me ask you this:

What kind of magical experiences can you create for your own clients?

If you’re inclined to share, please leave a comment below.