Hi gang, THIS is Alyson Hoag’s amazing success story. Alyson is the CEO of Authentic Beauty, one of the rockin’ clients I mentor through my Business Growth Blueprint program.  Aly’s letter was so powerful that I decided not to change a word of it.  I know it’s longer than my usual blogs, but stick with it guys, it’s totally worth the four minutes.  To learn more about my BGB program, go to: http://bit.ly/7gZW41

Christine, I know you haven’t heard from me lately but I am still out here listening and engaging and rocking! I have been implementing my plan and I think this month is the month I deserve to be your success story.  I know this isn’t going to be in the format you’d like. I would be here writing all day if you wanted me to name the hurdles I have had to overcome. There are too many to name. In the story below the major ones are mentioned. As for the most important module – it was Business Essentials. I have hung onto my end game throughout all of this.

I want to back up to when we first met. It was at Guerilla Business School, March of 2007. If you don’t remember I ran after you delivered your presentation to introduce myself. I didn’t have enough money to pay for your course but I called my mother and said, “If you believe in me, you’ll lend me the money. I have to work with this woman”. 
I think I was your first round of Groundbreakers and that time was invaluable to me. It was in the “formulation” days when the idea was being born into reality. I hung onto every word you said and I listened to the replays over and over.  And then the rubber hit the road. The week I sent out my investor packages the market disintegrated and key people I knew lost millions. The following month we found out the building we leased wasn’t going to be permitted and then slowly one by one all the people who were part of my team disappeared. It looked as though I was going to crash and burn.  And through it all I kept listening to everything you had to say over and over. I was really scared. I didn’t know how I was going to make it. I had two kids to take care of.  I knew somehow I was going to get out of this. Despite the creditors calling I just kept moving forward.

When you sent the email and said just get here in June 08 for your Summit in CA, I begged for a buddy pass from my ex-husband, my sister took my kids and I got on the plane. It was the best thing I could have ever done. I left refocused, recharged and taking action.

Miracles began happening.  One after another.

A big part of my business model is to create mobile events inside of hair salons. Well, since I didn’t have a “home”, I decided to put the model to the test and I spent 9 months in 3 different salons, building the model on my own and learning. The most important thing I kept looking for was what I was going to learn from each situation.

In the meantime I had several key breaks. I became the lead makeup team for a local magazine and they did a story on me and I had a radio personality name me as “the brow guru of Atlanta”.

It turned out that one of those salons I was working with asked me if I wanted to take the front of his space. The owner wanted to downsize and if I didn’t want to take it he said he would shut the doors. At this point I had NO money. I worked it out with the salon owner and I went for it. It also just happens to be in one of the most central locations in Atlanta.

We opened the doors late November 2008. I was actually interviewed on tv by our local Fox affiliate about opening during a down turned economy. However, I believed in the lipstick effect. If you don’t know, in a bad economy makeup sales go up. Leonard Lauder coined the phrase.

We opened the doors and last month marked our one year anniversary. (We had a BIG party and nearly 100 people showed up to show their support.)

So what we accomplished this past year:

• We grossed nearly $160k this year ending with a 20k month in December!!!!!! 
• Hired our first employee.
• We have 10 freelancers
• We have over 850 active clients
• Authentic Beauty was written up in our local Fashion Mag as What’s Hot this year for 2009
• I write my own monthly beauty column in a local magazine.
• Have developed relationships with several PR companies who use me regularly in their promotions of other companies in which I benefit.
• Developed relationships with all local tv affiliates and this week had my first in studio appearance with the CBS Atlanta affiliate for their morning show.
• Developed relationship with the most popular morning radio show in Atlanta and do the makeup for a video weekly for one of the DJ’s AND as a result she featured me the week of Christmas as one of her favorite things.
• Authentic Beauty was written up in at least 7 magazines and our work was featured in at least 10 publications with at least 4 covers.
• We have been told by Jean Chatzky’s people that in the next week or 2 I will be featured as one of their entrepreneurs of the week on her blog
• I was featured as one of the top 100 entreprenness’ in the CRAVE Atlanta book
• We are in the middle of developing a new mobile tester unit that I will be able to resell to the artist community
• We are developing our own makeup line (I finally stopped resisting) and the plan is to get it on QVC and fund the whole business with it.
• We  just closed 2 deals with 2 MAJOR plastic surgeons who are going to carry my makeup line and bring our makeup artists in.
• I have a meeting on January 15^th with the hottest salon in the Atlanta area to bring our artists in and do events
• We have an investor presentation on January 14^th with someone who is VERY interested in what we are up to. He is coming to Atlanta to see us.
• I am fully in the REVENUE, REVENUE, REVENUE mode. This month was a huge breakthrough. We doubled our sales from what we started out with in January, reaching the over 20k mark in December. The goal is 40k per month and I am clear it won’t take that long. All the seeds are planted.

When you said to me on the last call I was on, “You need to come up with revenue generating ideas,” I went for it! That’s why you haven’t heard from me. I took a step back, looked at what needed to happen and I think I haven’t come up for air since. LOL

I am planning in all the structures to make sure I am taken care of…In fact a huge breakthrough is that I got sick this week and I had a whole team to cover for me. I couldn’t be there on New Year’s Eve and they handled it all!!!

My goals for this year are to clean up all the messes left from the first go round, get myself financially stable, get the salon/mobile model implemented, build our wedding work, develop the makeup line, QVC launch of our eco, gel based 3in 1 foundations, get the website revamped and get all the social media working in synch, begin the national PR campaign which includes MORE MAGAZINE and get my makeup artists booked solid, Have Project Authentic Beauty (our non-profit initiative) fully structured. AND TAKE AN UNBELIEVABLE VACATION WITH MY FAMILY.

I want to say thank you for all your support, encouragement and guidelines. I am far from being perfect but I launched!  I have taken everything you have said (or nearly everything) and have but it into practice. I am certainly not at the mastering level YET but I am moving in that direction!

I am grateful for your commitment to others and to me. Thank you for everything! Without you the beauty industry would have had to wait for someone else to come along to transform it.

I look forward to being one of your million dollar companies. I don’t think it will be long now! 

With All the Love in the World, Ayson Hoag
CEO, Authentic Beauty

 Note from Christine: Aly, it’s NO surprise to me that you’ve turned my Business Growth Blueprint formula and teachings into a REAL success story.  You definitely had the chops AND the know how to implement implement implement!  I totally enjoy working with you and look forward to your amazing 7 Figure Business Success. 

Christine Comaford, The 7 Figure Business Builder
CEO of Mighty Ventures
NY Times Best Selling Author

PS:  To learn more about my BGB program, go to: http://bit.ly/7gZW41

SUCCESS Stories – If you’ve followed my company, Mighty Ventures, for a while, you know that Business Growth Blueprint is one of the ways we help build massive success with entrepreneurs and small businesses.  Scott Jordan is one of those success stories, and we’re proud to call him a colleague and a friend.  Read on!  And if you want more info about the BGB program, visit http://www.mightyventures.com

Scott Jordan, All Credit Lending Solutions

For Scott Jordan of All Credit Lending Solutions, (ACLS) becoming a mega-success story is all about focus and a strong foundation. ACLS provides financial expertise and non-bank / private lender funding to small businesses seeking financing of $50,000 or more.  Scott has almost single handedly built his business by providing a variety of financing options, with special focus on equipment leasing, lines of credit, accounts receivable and purchase order financing and other B2B needs.

When clients first come to Scott, they are often panicked – they have been denied capital from traditional banks and don’t know where to turn for funding. Scott educates clients on what funding sources look for and why lenders come in a variety of shapes and sizes – with many different criteria for lending. Not having the knowledge or relationships needed, the client in question faces losing opportunities for profit – or even sustainability. With ACLS’s expertise and support, the client gains access to multiple non-bank sources of funding and is provided the vital analytical piece of the puzzle.  Add to this equation that Scott has built relationships with over 50 non-bank lenders, and has hit the ground running with the timely concept of utilizing creative and little known finance strategies and direct access to multiple lending sources to solve a borrower’s problem of being denied financing for their business.  With Mighty Ventures’ mentorship, ACLS has created a new focus, moving from banks and the Mortgage Backed Security Marketplace, to asset-based lenders and other non-traditional sources of capital, many of which are only now coming back into the market after the long recession.

ACLS is in a market-leading position, similar to where Scott was in his career when he was part of a voice over the internet (VOIP) startup in 1997, which raised $265 Million in a successful IPO in 1999. ACLS has the ability to dissolve a client’s fear and replace it with knowledge and experience by preparing a package that will lead a borrower to receive approval for funding. 

Scott is 100% committed to the success of ACLS – and has achieved much of that success with his own effort and expertise. With Christine Comaford’s direction he has started to assemble a talented team to focus, identify and overcome certain hurdles in his path. With the Business Growth Blueprint Program, he has created much needed increased focus and clarity. Christine Comaford has begun to take ACLS through steps needed to create solid building blocks and business development. Scott has already identified many of his company’s roadblocks and begun to blow through them, “My ego was not my amigo.  It compelled me to think that I could do it on my own — without someone else’s help. I now have more focus – more clarity on what is important in growing and developing my vision into a reality.”

He added that marketing now has a clear, solid role in ACLS’s model for success, “Module 1 of Mighty Ventures’ Business Growth Blueprint was great, and the marketing module helped to provide some clarity and focus on the marketing efforts we are now instituting.”

With the guidance of Mighty Ventures, ACLS will soon add a membership site with a “Freemium” model, featuring three levels – Free, Paid, and Premium – this will enabling small business owners to connect with other like-minded entrepreneurs. The site will enable members to gain the knowledge in approaching non-bank lenders themselves, or they can utilize ACLS’s unique process in obtaining the financing they need. With the launch of the new website, www.YourBusinessLoanNow.com, Scott looks forward to taking his company into its next evolution. Say’s Jordan, `Because of our unique creative strategies and access to multiple lenders we can provide the best solution for the customized needs of each borrower. There are very few companies that have access to multiple types of loans, leases, etc. Most companies do a single type of loan, and if it fits their box, they take in the file – if not, they reject it, RARELY providing additional options for the borrower to consider.  At ACLS, we believe we are on the cutting edge of providing a new model (multiple lending choices combined with financial expertise) for providing the optimal capital structure to business owners. We are excited to take our unique business model nationally to help business owners get the capital they need while we are in this uncertain economic cycle.”

With Mighty Ventures’ guidance, the future looks bright.  Scott is now ready to find a pay-for-performance sales agent to help handle the screening of inbound leads – a key player who can support ACLS as it moves forward.  He is also looking for lenders who have new programs who need marketing of those new products.  The new website, www.YourBusinessLoanNow.com, will provide information helpful to borrowers, such as their free downloadable information product: 9 Secrets Your Banker Never Told You.  ACLS will also create a portal for submitting loan scenarios and forms every borrower will need when submitting to a lender for funding.