February
2008 Newsletter: Leverage Your Credo
People create their own success by learning
what they need to learn
and then by practicing it until they become
proficient at it.”
~ Brian Tracy
Fireside Chat - a personal
note from Teresia & Sonia
Hello, Sassy &
Savvy Woman!
Starting this month we are diving into
some critical business building strategies.
Fasten your seat belt and get ready to discover
some savvy strategies to take your business
to the next level!
Let’ begin, at the beginning, with
a very important question: When someone
asks you what you do… what do you
say?
This is a pivotal moment, it really is
the beginning of your marketing campaign;
a chance to communicate your business to
a captive audience that could very well
become a paying client or a referral source.
Do you freeze up? Feel nervous? Walk away
thinking. "I could have handled that
better?"”
This month, we’re going to help you
set yourself up for success in this critical
conversation, so you walk away feeling great
and knowing that you made the most of that
moment – and you can do it again every
time you get the chance.
Don't miss this month's "Savvy
Conversation," a *fre'e* conference
call where we will be focused on business
building strategies – the power of
influence! JOIN
US and other like-minded business women
on Thursday, February
21st at 9 AM PST/12pm EST to dig
into the details of how to build a thriving
business with the standards and boundaries
that let you soar. Click here
for more details, and to register!
Your Sassy Catalysts
Teresia LaRocque & Sonia Stringer
SassyandSavvyWomen.com
In this issue:
Feature Article - Leverage
the Power of Your Credo
Savvy Steps - Hitch Up Your
Pantyhose and Get Moving!
Sassy Breakthroughs - Success
Stories of Women Like You
Feature Tools & Resources
Savvy Conversations - Join
Us for A Live Coaching Call
feature
article
Leverage the Power
of Your Credo
What is a “credo”? The word
was originally used to signify a statement
of religious beliefs; the Latin definition
is literally “I believe.” In
the modern world, the term has been adopted
by businesses to state the fundamental components
of the business. The longer versions might
include a company’s mission, who it
serves, its values and ambitions…
in other words, everything the company stands
for.
Do you know what your company stands for?
More importantly, can you explain it in
a few sentences?
You must! As entrepreneurs, one of our
biggest challenges is getting the word out
about who we are and what we do, and doing
so in a way that makes people want to work
with us.
If you don’t sound clear and confident
when you speak about your own business,
how is your listener or prospect going to
believe in your work?
A well-developed and practiced credo is
a critical component of any marketing plan,
because it is the heart of how you represent
your work to prospects – both in print
and in face-to-face interactions. If you
find networking a bit uncomfortable, it’s
probably because you don’t have a
strong credo to leverage in conversations
with strangers.
We want you to feel excited to share who
you are, what you do, and who you love to
work with, and to walk away with strong
strategic relationships. So this month,
we encourage you to take the time to develop
(or improve) your credo.
There are four critical components of a
credo:
1. Who you (or we) are
2. What you do
3. Who you serve
4. How your clients benefit (*Hint: This
is the most important part!)
We like to say that a strong credo is the
window to the soul of a business. When said
with clarity and conviction, you engage
people right away by telling them about
the difference you make to other people.
You also give them much of what they need
in order to determine whether you’re
a fit for their needs. In that one minute
(more or less), you stand in the gateway
to more clients, more business, more profit
and more success.
To help you wrap your mind around this
concept, here’s the one Teresia uses:
I am the founder of a life-changing business-building
program called Passion into Profit. We work
with self-employed professional women who
struggle to get their business off the ground
and suffer from isolation and low motivation.
Our clients thrive in an environment that
provides foundational support, coaching
tools and strategies to build profitable
businesses.
See how simple and easy it can be? Make
a commitment to yourself to devote time
this month to developing or improving your
credo. If you already have one that fits
like a glove, practice your delivery. It
doesn’t take very long, but the time
you invest will pay big dividends for years
to come.
Savvy
Steps: Hitch up your pantyhose and get moving!
If you’re starting fresh, give yourself
a set amount of time to brainstorm the basic
components. Don’t give it too much
thought; just trust your subconscious mind
to do a rough draft, and let it be as long
as you want.
Once you get the basics on paper, recruit
others to help you refine it. Who knows
you and your work well? Who has witnessed
your journey as an entrepreneur? Who do
you call on for strategic support? Ask for
their input on what to include and how to
present it in a compelling way. Also, consider
doing an informal survey of current or past
clients to pinpoint the most valuable benefits
your deliver. (Surveymonkey.com is a great
tool for this process.)
The most important thing is that the final
product feels authentic and energized –
not artificial or hyped. If it doesn’t
feel good coming out of your mouth, it won’t
land well or produce the results you want.
Once you have the words on paper, practice
delivering them. You need to get to the
point where the words just roll off your
tongue with ease and confidence. If you
look like you’re thinking about the
right words to say, you lose impact and
sincerity points. Practice in the car, in
the mirror, and with your trusted colleagues
and friends. When your delivery is consistently
smooth and confident, you’ll find
yourself looking forward to telling your
next prospect exactly what you stand for.
Sassy Breakthrough - Julia James,www.juliajames.ca
Another Sassy Breakthrough!
Julia James had a well-established career
in the natural resources 
industry, but when dissatisfaction slowly
crept in, she hired a coach to help her
answer one question: “What is it I
really want to do for a living?”
To her surprise and delight, her first
step toward the answer actually became the
answer: Julia soon realized that she wanted
to be a professional coach. So in 2004,
she left her job and jumped onto the coaching
path with both feet.
In those first few months, Julia realized
that the best step she could take was to
cultivate some support, so she applied to
an entrepreneurial program to learn what’s
involved in running her own business. The
program had a big impact, and she continues
to rely on those mentors today. She also
joined a mastermind team for more strategic
input, but she soon realized that she needed
to go one critical step further.
It was time to confront a brutal fact:
despite her cash flow crunch, she would
have to hire help if she wanted to move
her business to the next level. This went
against everything she believed about responsible
money management, but this was no time to
hold herself back. Opportunities were waiting;
she had to stretch out of her comfort zone.
She couldn’t afford not to!
So Julia gathered up her courage and assessed
the areas of her business that needed the
most help. “Despite having some experience
in graphic design, I went ahead and hired
someone to redo my website and develop my
brand. I also hired an editor to help me
focus the text. This made it much more professional
and made a huge difference in how people
perceived me. Having outside perspectives
on what to present really helped me nail
down the strongest aspects.”
Seeing the success of these steps gave
her the courage to take the next step: administrative
help. She was spending a major chunk of
her workweek entering data and doing her
bookkeeping, and the more time she spent
in those areas, the less time she spent
marketing and coaching. Her business-building
activities and attractive abilities were
falling by the wayside. So she took the
plunge and hired an assistant.
Unlike most nervous new entrepreneurs,
Julia tapped into all of this support in
her first years of business – and
we applaud her for that! It took a tremendous
amount of mental clarity and courage to
conquer her fear of debt, to stretch beyond
her comfort zone, invest in her business,
and trust that it would all come together.
It wasn’t easy, but looking back,
she sees that these steps really helped
her establish a successful business without
compromising her work-life balance.
“I’m not going to spend my
Sunday afternoons on bookkeeping –
that’s not healthy balance. We need
time for renewal, so we can be the best
we can be.”
~ Julia James - www.juliajames.ca
Julia's strategies have really paid off.
She now has associate coaches that she can
delegate work to, and she's creating a business
that can thrive without her involvement.
Soon she'll be able to take time off to
build a family without losing her income
stream – and that's her long-term
vision of success. Bravo, Julia!
Women empowering
women! Be an inspiration to other women
and share your own Sassy Breakthrough!
If you've experienced some inspiring successes
and you'd like to be profiled in the Sassy
and Savvy Newsletter, we want to talk to
you! Have you had a win in dealing with
your tolerations, raising your standards,
setting boundaries, or other key concepts?
We invite you to send an e-mail with a brief
description of your breakthrough to stories@sassyandsavvywomen.com,
and we'll be in touch!
Featured
Tools & Resources
Double or Triple Your
Income While Playing in Your Comfort Zone
Want to spend more of your day doing what
you love - and be paid well for it? We want
that for you too! Learn how to build a foundation
for a thriving business that's based on
your own natural abilities, your Comfort
Zone. The
Double or Triple Your Income program
includes audio recordings and an e-book
with notes and action exercises designed
to help you implement the concepts and step
up to the next level of professional satisfaction
and success.
Click here
to purchase your copy today!
Savvy
Conversation - February 21st at 9am PST
If you'd like to explore this topic in
more depth, get coached, and experience
the momentum of other like-minded women
join
us on February 21st at 9 AM Pacific
/ 12 PM Eastern for the latest Savvy Conversations
Coaching Call.
In this *fre'e* teleconference, we'll be
exploring the challenges, secrets and shortcuts
to time blocking. In this candid discussion,
you learn about some of the most effective
ways to raise the bar, in both your business
and your personal life. We’ll "see"
you there!
Have you checked out our Savvy Mastermind
teams? Let go of the "Lone Ranger"
mentality and experience the magic of being
part of a mastermind. Join a Savvy Mastermind
team, click here.
Watch for more upcoming developments from
the Sassy and Savvy Women! We are building
one amazing community, full of top-notch
resources and high-caliber guidance for
the self-employed woman.
And we're hard at work on our powerful
new book: Sassy and Savvy Self-Employed
Women: The Ultimate Guide to Leverage Your
Business and Love Your Life. If you'd like
to preview a chapter, click here!
Your Sassy Catalysts
Teresia LaRocque & Sonia Stringer
SassyandSavvyWomen.com
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