I received a blog comment from an amazing woman recently. She was all about supporting a friend who had fallen short of funds necessary to take the next step in her life. The note was as beautiful an example of loyalty as one could imagine. In fact, when the comment didn’t make its way to me fast enough, the author was indignant in the way that only a best friend can be.

I’ve been that best friend more than once in my early life, watching those I loved struggle to move forward (or pay bills… or afford medication… etc.). It’s not a good feeling to be powerless to help those you love. So I want to do two things today. One, I want to offer a few solutions for small loans – because I know that a lot of you are NOT near that 7 Figure Business mark yet. (But you could be IF you make the right decisions and follow the FORMULA to get there.)

And two, I want to talk to you about the formula. Because let’s face it. Success is not a new idea. It’s not “eureka” I’ve got it. (Okay, it CAN be, but hey, why not follow the path instead of beating your own through the jungle.)

* Okay, one last note. I am going to list two specific places to find small loans. I do not endorse either. Do your homework on these AND search the internet for “micro loans” and other avenues, such as angel investors and small business loans. Don’t forget that your own bank is often a great source for funding – don’t discount that idea. AND finally, if you can find a zero interest credit card, and you only need a short-term loan, that is another option. But have a GREAT repayment plan and a rock solid formula in place for success.

#1. Small Loans: An unsecured loan requires no collateral (a home or other asset) to secure it. So if you’re in the market for a loan under $25,000, check out http://www.prosper.com. If you demonstrate good will with prompt payments, you’ll be eligible for another, often larger, loan in time.  You can also check out http://www.microloan.com/. Remember, do your HOMEWORK. You don’t want to give away your soul OR YOUR BUSINESS. You want a good loan with good terms.

#2. MOVING YOUR OWN BUSINESS and FINANCES FORWARD. Okay, here’s what I want to say to ALL of you. I personally hit a place where I never, NEVER wanted to have to say no to the people I loved again. I decided that I was going to amass a bank account big enough to support my loved ones (and the charities I adore) in any way I could. Now let’s face it, as I’ve written before, support is NOT all about money, but dang, it sure helps.

SO I WANT EVERY ONE OF YOU who has that same drive to succeed to stop standing on the fence and grab one of the 36 seats left at my 7 Figure Business Summit. If you’re not sure why you need to be there, you can come to a totally free preview call – where you’ll also get a TON of amazing business building info from me.

What I want for ALL of you is FREEDOM – and having a 7 Figure Business creates big choices and BIG freedom, believe me. THIS event is happening in only 3 WEEKS. 4/30-5/2. So get  your seats RIGHT NOW. You can still come for the early-bird price of $997 AND bring a friend for half price. (That’s MY PERSONAL business acceleration recession buster – 7 Figure Business Summit.)

To your amazing and IMMEDIATE 7 Figure Success,

Christine Comaford, 7 Figure Business Builder
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author of Rules for Renegades

PS: IF you cannot attend my Summit for any reason, then by all means, grab my Results Now Webinar and get started – but I think you should ALL be at that Summit and give me a chance to see you and hear the extraordinary life that YOU want to build.

Christine Comaford believes every entrepreneur has at least one multi-million dollar business inside of them. Her 7 Figure Business Formula has created over 153 multi-million dollar businesses. Learn the 6 proven steps to YOUR 7 Figure Business here: http://bit.ly/ComafordWebinar

Budding entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs ask me more questions about pricing than anything else. When do you charge full price? When should you low-ball against a competitor? How do you determine the right price point? How should you position yourself relative to price?

So this week, I’m going to touch on a few of these frequently asked questions… Be sure to stay tuned to my blog to get all of my business acceleration tips and million-dollar advice.

–FAQ #1: When Should You Low-Ball? Let me make this very simple…if you have a tangible differentiator, then NEVER!  When I was selling services head-to-head against the Big 6 accounting firms, we were competing to provide expertise in converting corporate information systems to Microsoft Windows. I had four years of Windows engineering expertise, and I was even on the Windows team at Microsoft. My team was equally as strong as the Big 6, if not more so. On the other hand, we were only bringing 6 months of Windows experience to the table. Know what? I never low-balled. There was no need to – we had the expertise advantage.

However, when you’re equal to the competition, but have a perceived disadvantage in the commodity business, then low-balling may be the best choice. When I was competing with a large job shop to hire highly skilled freelance programmers, I did low-ball. The programmers were the decision makers. They didn’t care who paid their paychecks — they just wanted to keep working at Microsoft. So I paid the contractors a piece of my profit (more than the large job shop would) because I had no differentiator. And it worked out great.

Of course, there’s a lot more to be said about pricing strategies, and I go into more detail about each one of these questions, as well as a host of others, at my 7 Figure Business Summit.  Worried that you don’t qualify because you’re NOT a 7 Figure Business yet?  Well, that’s the point, of course!  If YOU are ready to work with me, I still have a few seats left!

THIS event is happening in only FOUR WEEKS.  4/30-5/2.  So hurry! Get your seats RIGHT NOW.  You can still come for the early-bird price of $997 AND bring a friend for half price. (That’s MY PERSONAL business acceleration recession buster – 7 Figure Business Summit.)

To your amazing and IMMEDIATE 7 Figure Success,

Christine Comaford, 7 Figure Business Builder
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author of Rules for Renegades

PS: IF you cannot attend my Summit for any reason, then by all means, grab my Results Now Webinar and get started – but I think you should ALL be at that Summit and give me a chance to see you and hear the extraordinary life that YOU want to build.

Christine Comaford believes every entrepreneur has at least one multi-million dollar business inside of them. Her 7 Figure Business Formula has created over 153 multi-million dollar businesses. Learn the 6 proven steps to YOUR 7 Figure Business here: http://bit.ly/ComafordWebinar

The Number One Rule of Sales:  The Inner Game of Sales = Perseverance

Step Six:  Last but not least, HANG WITH THE WINNERS, people.  You will be MUCH more likely to find mentors, inspiring friends and yes, even clients when you’re with the BEST of the best.  If you’re seriously on the road to your 7 Figure Success and ready to FIND those winners (and learn from ME, in person), then you MUST be at my 7 Figure Business Summit is in April.  Seats are going fast http://www.bit.ly/5dHdCp and the early bird pricing ends in just a few DAYS.  AND, if you hurry, you can still bring a friend for half price.  (Yes, that’s two of you for $1,499.)

PS:  Here’s the link again to the 7 Figure Business Summit:  http://www.bit.ly/5dHdCp

When you’re building your 7 Figure Success Story, this is one of the toughest things for some of us to master, but it’s VITAL.  If you have trouble with this, you might want to attend my personal mentoring weekend and get my personal attention AND the attention of 19 other rockin’ CEOs.  Because NOT having this step at work in your life and business will be a dead end to your success.  http://www.MightyVentures.com/bai 

#3. Equalize Yourself with Others. I believe we all have one unit of worth, no more, no less. No one can add to it, no one can take it away. We’re all equal. Just because someone is powerful, rich, or famous doesn’t mean they are better than you. Practice equalizing yourself with others—this will enable you to more comfortably interact with others, and to reach out to people of all walks of life.

I’ve met many billionaires, Presidents, celebrities. Initially I’d be intimidated, until I remembered we’re all made of the same stuff. When I met Andy Grove of Intel I decided to equalize from the get-go. The result is he has always treated me respectfully, even asked my opinion on matters once or twice. As a result he’s one of the billionaires I choose to model. The more wealthy and powerful he becomes, the more gracious he treats others. Wow.

To your amazing and IMMEDIATE success,
Christine Comaford, The 7 Figure Business Builder
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

PS:  IF you are 100% ready to move into 7 Figure Success, my private mentoring weekend is the end of this month. Join 19 other CEOs (and me) to be mentored by me personally. Each of you will get a hotseat to present your business model and get my feedback and mentoring.  Strongly affordable at $1,997. 
http://www.MightyVentures.com/bai  

This week, I’m all about financing.  Financing is a VITAL part of growing a real business.  This begins with a killer FINANCING PITCH.  Remember, value boosting makes your company more compelling. A compelling company gets financed. Here are the key things you need to convey in your financing pitch:

1) There is a tangible pain or huge untapped opportunity in the market: quantify the pain or opportunity in dollars and market segments and explain how you know who and where the people who need your product are. You know how to reach them.

2) You and your team are the ideal people to remove this pain or tap this opportunity: prove it! Make us believe that you, your team, your advisors, your circle of connections are positioned perfectly to pounce on this pain or opportunity. Remember—at least a dozen other people have the same idea as you and are likely executing on it. What makes your company special? What gives you an advantage over all the current and future competitors?

3) You have a well-thought out sales, marketing, product plan: You know how to build your product, people have already said they will pay for it, you know how and where to sell it and at what price, you know how to generate tons of interest that will build buzz and result in revenue.

That’s it. From there you’ll have them hooked enough to bring in the rest of the decision makers, or you’ll have to refine your pitch to hook the next prospect the next time. Refining and testing your pitch is essential—you generally get one shot to pitch your deal. Use your community, your coach, your mentor (me!) to help you refine your pitch.

Remember, you must build trust and respect with others. Making the two most common mistakes damage trust in you and also make the financier lose respect for you.  There are 2 common mistakes I see in almost every financing pitch:

1)   Asking for too much money: an entrepreneur says they need $1million in financing but their company is a pure startup with no product, a skeletal team, no real traction. They may only be worth $100k. How can they possibly raise $1 million? They should raise a super small angel round or get a loan, create some tangible business traction and achieve some specific milestones, then take that proven track record out and get the larger financing. There’s no rule as to how many rounds of financing you’ll raise. Just get somebody to take a risk on you. Then more will follow.

2)   Having unrealistic revenue projections. Don’t be like Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies. Understate the amount of revenue you expect to generate, then blow your financiers away with your massive results. Here’s a sample plan for fundraising:

Financiers like to see a decent revenue ramp, plus a controlled cost structure. Sloppy cost control will botch profitability pronto. Also, there are key inflection points that are expected in the growth of a business if it is to be considered compelling.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table.  Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story.  http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

Well folks, 2009 is winding up. For many of you that means celebration DESPITE the economic downturn. Why? Because you managed to create opportunities in tough times and build a path to results NOW – because we’ve ALL learned that results later just won’t cut it any longer. Maybe your success came about by creating new product paths, by building relationships through JVs and affiliates, or maybe by obtaining financing through private investors.

If, instead, you’re one of the entrepreneurs who can’t wait to build a big bonfire and release 2009 to the ashes of yesterday and move forward to a new decade, stick with us and learn some new paths and new inroads. After all, this is YOUR life and your business. It is your right to work hard, build a great business and write a success story all around you. YOU get to create your own path to CEO freedom, and no one has the right to stop that. But remember, a mentor who has built a business or two (or ten) is vital to your success. I have a fantastic mentoring program for all levels of business – and one especially designed for NEW (or struggling) entrepreneurs. Visit http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI to sign up for my very affordable monthly mentoring program AND get my free CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business.” If you don’t do AT LEAST this to move your business forward, quite honestly, you’re declaring your right to fail.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table. Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story. http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

You will create a REAL strategy for success by setting up joint ventures and affiliates. Here’s the difference between the two. Joint ventures (JVs) are partners where the exchange is equal (or close to it). With JVs you’ll extend their offers to your list, and they’ll extend your offer to theirs. You may pay them a revenue share on sales generated from their list, or you may not. If you do you’ll track these sales via an affiliate link, which you’ll set up via your shopping cart or with affiliate management software. JVs are a fast-track strategy for success and create results NOW just because the other party’s list is often already pre-qualified for what you’re selling – believe me, they don’t want to JV with someone who wouldn’t be a good fit for their list.  And remember, whatever creates those results now are the paths we want to focus on.  The end game for all of us is CEO freedom, and that comes only from one thing – results.

Okay, affiliates.  Affiliates are more of an extended sales force. Some solo entrepreneurs make a decent living simply building lists and promoting third party products to them. The goal with either approach of JVs or affiliates is to get your product in front of an audience you haven’t had contact with before. Standard revenue shares for affiliates range, but I often see 30-50% for products, 20% for training, and 10% for consulting services.

Remember, marketing is an ongoing adventure, so be sure you keep this in mind as you build JVs and affiliates.  A large part of marketing success is in testing to find out what is and isn’t effective, so be sure to track and measure these efforts carefully to see which bring results now. 

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table.  Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story.  http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

Having a killer sales page is an absolute must to creating results now and CEO Freedom, because you can do all the hard work to drive them there, but if you’re sales page isn’t top notch, you’ll never make your sale. So first you need to really know your target market and speak to their pain. Each component of a sales page is key. Here are the 10 components that my friend Jane Deuber recommends.

1. Introduction: Start with a story, best case, YOUR story as to why you created this product.

2. Problem: State what problem your product solves.

3. Agitate the problem: What is the pain of not solving this problem? Why would the prospect want a solution right now? Why can’t they wait? Remember your greatest competitor is inertia. Pure and simple.

4. Solution: Provide a basic introduction to the product and provide a glimpse of their glorious future. If you own this product, here’s what your life will look like. Dang, it’s gorgeous. (Remember, your solution is a crucial part of the path to get them to buy your product – that’s the end game – the results NOW that you’re looking for.)

5. Reasons you created this product: What you suffered from, make us feel it, and then we’ll understand why you just HAD to create this product.

6. Bullet points: This is simply a list of product details. Make them compelling, of course, and every 7-10 bullets offer the prospect the opportunity to buy now.

7. Features and benefits: An in-depth explanation of the features of your product, this is the cause and effect of your product features. There should be no less than 9 features and benefits.

8. Bonus items: Give the prospect a reason to buy today instead of waiting.  Make sure a bonus complements your product.  Just because something is free doesn’t mean it will help your sales, and sales are the results NOW that we’re looking for.

9. Guarantee: Guarantees tell your reader that you are confident enough in your product to stand behind it.  Studies have shown that the longer the guarantee, the less likely a person will ask for a refund.  Be realistic. Be fair.

10.  Order area: Make a prospect feel comfortable placing an order on your website. Some internet marketers insist on avoiding the words “No Risk”.  The word “Risk” makes people uncomfortable whether there is a “no” in front of it or not. I have mixed feelings on this. Decide for yourself — after all, this is your sales page and your CEO freedom that you’re creating.  Whatever you decide, just be sure to measure how many people visit the sales page and how many become your paying customers. Remember THAT is the only measure of results now that really matters.  Everything else is just the groundwork.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table.  Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life, finding the results now that you’re looking for and creating real CEO freedom in your life and business http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

As the new year quickly approaches, I wanted to go over one of the most tried and tested online marketing efforts – the irresistible free gift! I’ve used this many times and had great results, and this is one of the best ways to build your list (which is an immediate fix — results NOW, right gang?)

Remember Rule #1 of the free gift — Be Generous! Generosity should be a key component of your brand. By giving a value-added free gift to your web site visitors you’ll educate them regarding your value, provide them with helpful information, and begin to build a relationship. Your free gifts can be either digital or physical. I prefer digital, for the obvious reasons of easy self-serve fulfillment). However sometimes I like to offer a physical gift too to mix it up. This also gives you a reason to collect the site visitor’s mailing address (see http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI for an example of this).

Examples of free gifts include:

• Audio downloads (45+ minutes) (you can find mine at http://www.MightyVentures.com in the about Christine section)
• A white paper (make it 10+ pages in pdf form)
• Assorted documents and other helpful resources on your web site (see the Resources section of www.MightyVentures.com)
• Email communication that is value-added (such as a weekly email we offer on rocking your business and life, see www.MightyVentures.com home page)

To receive each gift the web site visitor must opt in, in other words, join your email list — so you create the do-not-miss value of results now (which of course, leads to CEO freedom). This is a fair exchange, and it is why you must offer super valuable free gifts. I once went to a site of a time management guru. He had all sorts of cool-looking free resources. So I clicked through, only to be asked to fill in a super long form prior to receiving my free goodies. I filled in the form, only to download my gift which ended up being one measly page of about 15 bulleted items. Yuck! Not high value. Needless to say, he damaged his brand and my opinion of him by requiring me to jump through form-filling hoops for a miniscule reward.

Again, be generous!

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table. Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story. http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

Autoresponders are pre-written emails triggered by a specific event, such as an order being placed. They are a terrific way to build relationships with your customers, follow up on orders, encourage them to use the product they bought from you, give them tips to success, etc., etc. All of this adds up to a more dynamic relationship and of course, results now.  Results “later” are fine for the hobby business builder, but for CEOs looking for CEO freedom, it is results NOW that will create your end game.

When it comes to autoresponders, consistency and tone are key. If you set up an autoresponder series, make sure they go out in a reasonable time range. To remind people of a teleseminar they’ve signed up for, you’ll likely send an email daily for the three days leading up to the event. But to check in on how they are enjoying the product they bought from you, once a week or every 10 days for a short period of time is fine. There are a zillion autoresponder tools out there. Ours is bundled into our shopping cart, which is www.MyMarketingCart.com.

Our model for client communication is:

• Touch (share something cool)
• Tell (share a success story of a client)
• Teach (provide content rich info)
• Sell (yes, only here do we sell— the other three communications are nurturing our list, sharing the love, adding value, not asking for anything). Because even though it’s results NOW that we want, we can’t do that without having a strong foundation in place.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table.  Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story.  http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI