1. Expand your market.

Toll-free numbers allow you to use the same number for receiving local toll and state-to-state calls.  This gives you the opportunity to market your business nationwide.  Even if you don’t provide service in certain areas, toll-free numbers have the flexibility to block calls from those areas.

2. Advertise your number.

Toll-free numbers lend an air of legitimacy and professionalism to your business.  By using a toll-free number, your business may appear larger and more established to the consumer which will make him/her trust you more.

3. Initiate a direct response mechanism for impulse buyers.

By allowing your customers an avenue to immediately react to your company’s efforts calling for their action, this prompts significant increases in phone orders.  It has been found that these buyers generally order more merchandise and higher ticket items nearly every time they call.

4. Qualify your buyers.

Toll-free numbers enable your business to use time more efficiently and effectively.  With a toll-free number, you know that someone who has called your business is already interested in what you have to offer.  You spend less time trying to find interested prospects and let the number find them for you.

5. Analyze your call detail.

Toll-free numbers allow you to track calls and access all of a call’s details such as the number, time, date and duration of every call.  This information cannot be blocked and is an excellent tool for generating leads which can lead to more sales.

Many people are looking at ways in which they can become self-employed as they have had enough of being dictated to and fed up of long and frustrating commutes to work. They want the freedom of being their own boss and to be able to choose their own hours of work.

Leaving a full time career can be quite a scary prospect however. The security of having a regular income and other benefits such as a pension and a share save scheme can seem hard to let go. I am sure many people whether rightly or wrongly have opted to stick with this security and to merely keep their business plan as an idea, which they never see through or use.

Other people are willing and happy to take the risk and see it as a way of getting out of the rat race.

When you have an idea for a new business you then need to think of a name to call it. I would keep this name quite short as it makes it easier to remember for people. It obviously needs to have something to do with the business sector you are entering.

You will now need to work out how much money you will need to set up the business. This can be quite daunting but is essential. In the short term I would advise to keep these start up costs as low as possible, you can always buy or rent better machinery in the future as an example.

Once you are aware of how much money you need, you then have to find it. You may have enough yourself via savings or a redundancy payout, however most people are not in this position. If you do not have enough money, you could try and raise money via the family, by seeking a partner or by releasing the equity from your house. There is also the option of a business loan.

The next stage is to market your product or service. There are many ways of doing this including:

The internet via a website

An advert in the newspaper

Direct marketing in the form of leaflets

An advert in the yellow pages

Exhibitions

Trade fairs

I would advise finding out where other people from your industry advertise as they will have tried and tested many of the above options.

You then need to work out how much to charge for your product or service. I always keep these charges fairly low at the outset in order to attract as many people as I can and to get some income in. I then hope that word of mouth will take over and the idea is that after a few months I will be in a position to increase my fees.

It is also important to realize that we will make mistakes along the way. When this happens we need to think positive and not to beat ourselves up. It is an experience we can learn from.

Always have belief in yourself. At times any business will go through a rocky period, this is when we need to be strong. In my opinion the more work we put in, the more rewards we are likely to obtain.

Self-discipline is one of the keys to your success. Being able to choose your own hours of work may seem like a dream but it can prove to be many peoples downfall. We have to ensure that we work the required amount of hours. It is far too easy to stay in bed for that extra hour or to arrange yet another game of golf. These things are fine once you are established, but this is a long way off at this stage.

The first thing I want to do is qualify the above by saying “quick” means several years not overnight. Sure, you could write a hit song or contemporary book but these have a lot to do with chance. People with determination generally don’t like chance because control is a solid aspect of wealth generation.

Anyone can have an idea. By that I mean virtually any idea can become workable unless its just totally “out there” What matters is that you act. But more then that, before you act, you must know how to make it work. That’s really what most people with a good idea lack.

So knowledge again is where the central workability comes from. So let me give you some knowledge right now. The knowledge of the wealthy. There are many ways to get rich very rapidly but I offer you an example below and some insights about what the wealthy know and have known for centuries.

Arbitrage is a concept that you should learn more about. Its a word that circulates in financial circles and is therefore obscured to the average person as just some odd french word that the stock market people use.

The truth is that arbitrage is the single biggest idea about wealth that you should understand. Doing an arbitrage deal is literally this… If I offered you 70 cents for your crisp clean dollar note would you take the deal? What if you had $100,000 and I had $75,000 and I said look, let me deposit this money into your account in exchange for your money? Straight swap. How would you feel about that?

Well I imagine you’d say no. I wouldn’t blame you, its hardly a fair deal. Arbitrageurs do this all day long. But this is the difference.

We deal in value and perceptions not numerical currency like cash. Or we deal wholesale and sell retail. There are hundreds of ways that I can swap my 70 cents for somebody else’s dollar.

The wealthy have practiced arbitrage for as long as currency existed because arbitrage is the secret road to wealth. A secret that will never be openly talked about because it is so tightly held. My little contribution here will do nothing to change that balance, but consider yourself fortunate to learn about this and maybe it will spur you on to a new life.

Here is a real world example of arbitrage that I practiced many years ago, when I was starting out broke, dejected, but hopeful.

It wasn’t long ago but seems like centuries ago. Its pre-history now. One form of arbitrage is the concept of economies of scale. This arbitrage strategy relies on a single fact. An irrefutable reality about fiscal life on the planet earth. Here it is. When you buy something (of anything) in bulk, you are entitled to and more often then not get a very large discount on your purchase. When this bulk amount is “split up” and re-sold in traditional more popular chunks, your investment will return a decent profit.

So here is a get rich quick idea. One you can use right now to establish an income stream to replace your daily job. It can be reproduced and systematized to manufacture a very healthy income indeed.

When you look at newspaper and local journal price lists, you will notice they are very yielding to this concept of economies of scale. Simply a small ad may cost $140 for example. But buy a full page and you only pay say $900. Why? because its less work for the publication. Well my idea was to start a weekly page called “Martins Market” I approached 200 business owners face to face and told them they can get a small ad in my one page spread “Martins Market” for just $90 a full $50 cheaper then if they bought their ad from the paper directly. Do you think this offer interested a good percentage of the business owners I approached? You bet! Not only that, but they got a further discount if they paid up 6 months in advance.

I could fit 40 ads of that size onto my page. Being filled up, I made $3600 every week for an outlay of $900 for the page. I added value with nice graphics and the page got quite well received as my clients reported good returns from their ads. This was reproduced 20 times around the country, with 2 sales staff for every “Martins Market” I was netting close to $20,000 per week for a fairly lengthy period.

You will need a few dollars to try this, but its inevitable that if you do your research properly you can make this work and get exactly the same results.

In my opinion it is certainly possible to be too creative for your own good. What exactly do I mean by that? Let me share a very public example to explain.

My example comes from the reality television show, “The Apprentice.” Okay, so I admit it, I LOVE that show. I’m not much of a reality TV fan, but there’s something about watching these teams compete on business challenges week in and week out that intrigues and entertains me.

Quite often they are given marketing-related tasks on the show. Let’s face it, marketing is one of THE most important jobs you’ll ever have in business. If you can do it well, your business will more than likely do well.  If you can’t market well, your business is in trouble.

In a recent episode of “The Apprentice” the task was to create a TV commercial for Dove Body Wash. The teams were instructed to come up with an “out of the box” 30-second spot to promote the product. The result?

Both teams created garbage! I guess some may argue they certainly did think “out of the box,” and both teams tried to justify that’s what they did, but in the end, they failed miserably at their number one task: to sell the product!

And that’s what I think happens to many marketers who try to be too creative. They lose sight of the fact their job is to sell a product or service. To do that effectively, your marketing has to be one word: relevant.

You can be as clever or creative as you want, but in the end if your marketing is not relevant to the product and to those who are most likely to buy it, you have failed.

Look, I realize we have to be creative to capture our audience’s attention. After all we are trying to cut through a sea of marketing clutter. I just wish more marketers tried harder to connect with their audience vs. simply entertain them.

Heck, I sometimes wonder if marketers even know who their audience is. This definitely came into play in The Apprentice with both teams showing men using Dove Body Wash in their commercials. C’mon, it doesn’t take a lot of sense to recognize this product is for women! But because they were so focused on being clever, they lost sight of this very basic fact.

If I can leave you with one thought it is this: Identify and know your audience and then aim to connect with them and jump into the conversation they are already having in their head about your product or service.

If you can do this, you will be effective in capturing their attention, AND selling your product or service.

My first job as an intensive care nurse in a major medical center prepared me for business success. Subsequent jobs reinforced those early messages. I invite you to look closely at your own nursing career and discover the lessons that will help you succeed as a legal nurse consultant.

Success Lesson 1 — Find Your Passion and Turn It into a Business

As much as I loved my work with critically ill patients and their families, my inner voice told me I wouldn’t be working in a hospital forever. As a young nurse, the vision of myself working in the ICU at age 40, 50 or 60 just wouldn’t come into focus.

With only 6 years of nursing experience, I left the hospital and started my legal nurse consultant business. From there, I listened to my inner voice and reconnected with my first passion teaching. At age 8, I spent hours every day teaching an imaginary class. Today I am privileged to teach, coach and mentor nurses to live their career dreams. I turned my passion into a business, and since then I haven’t worked a single day.

Listen to your inner voice, and you will find your passion. Many nurses have reconnected to their passion through legal nurse consulting, a choice unknown to them before they took my program.

Success Lesson 2 – You Have the Power to Take Control of Your Career Destiny

Patients heal faster when they take control of their health and practice healthy habits. Even the smallest positive action can give a patient a sense of control and empower the healing process.

I learned this lesson time and again as I struggled to gain control of my own nursing career. Each time I refused to give in to the frustrations of working within the healthcare system and took a positive step on my own, I felt better. With every step I grew, I thrived and I came up with new ideas to further my sense of control and satisfaction.

The same is true about your career. You have the power to practice the healthy habits essential to take control of your career destiny. Educate yourself about the steps to achieving career health, including new career options like legal nurse consulting. Then take action on those steps. You really can take control of your career destiny.

Success Lesson 3 – Don’t Give in to Fear

As a nurse, I frequently treated patients who had the same progressive disease, yet experienced dramatically different outcomes. We all have known patients who lived years after their predicted demise and other patients who should have lived but didn’t because they gave up or didn’t want to live. The fact that so many elderly patients die within months of losing a spouse is a solid example of the mind-body connection. In almost every case, the patients who died too soon had given in to fear.

There’s also a mind-business connection that will influence the health of your business. When I give in to fear, I become the biggest obstacle to my success. That was true when I started my business 19 years ago. That is true today.

Fear will paralyze you instantly. Practice mind control and exercise your mind daily for positive thinking. Shake off your lack of confidence and negative thinking. Don’t wait for an MI to stop inhaling the toxic smoke of fear. Don’t let fear be the reason you don’t live your career dreams. Always remember the mind-set of the patients who live and the patients who die.

Success Lesson 4 – Nurses Can Do Anything

As nurses most of us have brought patients back to life. We all can recall at least one miracle story a case where, with our help, a patient survived against all odds.

Whenever I face a business crisis, I remind myself, “I’m a nurse and nurses can do anything.” I’ve repeated this same message for 19 years, and it has helped me overcome every obstacle.

If you can heal sick patients and handle life-threatening emergencies as easily as you make your bed in the morning, you really can do anything – especially something as straightforward as starting a business.

Success Lesson 5 – You Can’t Climb Mount Everest without Practicing on the Foothills

I had to have extensive education and training just to qualify for my first nursing job. All the lessons from that job helped prepare me for the next. Each successive nursing position required new and different skills necessitating more training and education.

The same applies to owning a business. Today I handle things easily and successfully that seemed impossible 19 years ago. But that’s because I’ve been in training for what I do now ever since I became a nurse.

If you’re frustrated with your nursing career, don’t feel like you’ve thrown your life away. No experience or job is a waste. Everything you have done has trained you to move up to the next level. Above all, don’t let the fact that you’re not trained to climb Mount Everest stop you from pursuing your dreams of becoming an independent legal nurse consultant. Your nursing training and experience was the first step. Start the next step of your training today, and you will make that climb to start your successful legal nurse consultant business.

Success Lesson 6 – The Nursing Process Is Your Friend

When I left clinical nursing, I thought I could set aside the “nursing process” forever. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Business requires that same process of assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation. Every project I take on requires me to assess the possibilities and needs, diagnose the problems, plan how to achieve my goals, implement the plan and evaluate my results.

Your nursing jobs have prepared you well. You can apply the nursing process to any business situation and challenge. You will thank your nursing instructors for this one. Every time you review a medical-related case, interview with an attorney or face a challenge in running your business, you will rely on the process they taught you.

Success Lesson 7 – Act Quickly and Decisively

As an ICU nurse, I learned that seconds made a difference in patient outcome. That’s true for nurses in any specialty. I rarely had lots of time to ponder or brood over a clinical decision.

I have applied the same principles of acting quickly and decisively in business, too. Am I always correct? No. Do I make mistakes? Yes. Yet because of my nursing experience, I’m never paralyzed into inaction and I’ve been able to make the most of numerous opportunities I would have missed without acting quickly.

Don’t miss your chance to succeed. Learn to act quickly and decisively, and you will grow your legal nurse consultant business.

Success Lesson 8 – What You Focus on Is Where You Achieve Results

In nursing I was often overwhelmed by short staffing, heavy caseloads and lack of support from hospital administration. I soon learned to triage and focus on what I needed to do to heal patients in this less-than-ideal environment. Nursing taught me that where I focus my time is where I achieve results.

That skill comes in handy in business. It’s as important to triage and prioritize your actions in business as it is when working with patients. Every day I’m confronted with dozens of challenges, five things that must be done at once, and 20 new creative ideas for my business, but I rarely panic. The organizational and multi-tasking skills I learned as a nurse have served me well.

When you start your legal nurse consultant business, you will not receive any extra hours in the day. In fact, the days will feel shorter. Even the general public knows that working conditions for RNs are worse than ever. Your ability to focus on what’s really important under these conditions is the perfect preparation for your successful legal nurse consultant practice.

Success Lesson 9 – This Is Just Business, It’s Not Breast Cancer

Ministering to patients and family members helped me put life with all its problems and challenges into perspective. Today when I overreact to a problem or feel I’m in crisis, I think of sick and dying patients. I think, “Now fighting for your life is a REAL problem.”

In business I’ve had lots of ups and downs. When the down moments come, I remind myself, “This is business – not breast cancer.” This helps me focus positively on solving the problem rather than embarking on a pity party. I’ve thrown plenty of those “parties”, and they never helped me solve a single business problem.

As you grow your legal nurse consultant business, it helps to ask “So what if this month is not as successful as I planned?” or “So what if my best attorney-client retires?” and to remember its just business, not breast cancer.

Success Lesson 10 – Illness Can Wake You Up

As a nurse I treated many patients who only began to live after they almost died. We’ve all had patients who said they are glad they got sick, because while they were well, they weren’t living the life they wanted. The health crisis forced them to wake up, reassess their lives, decide what was truly important to them, and go for it.

Not every day is a healthy business day. Some days I wake up to a disease challenge in my business. Surprisingly, it’s the business ills and mistakes that often awaken me to creative ways of injecting my business with new life.

If your career is facing a health crisis, this is your opportunity to wake up and change things for the better. Legal nurse consulting is one way to restore the health of your career.

Success Lesson 11 – Business Is Personal

Even though technical skills are vital for an ICU nurse, the relationships with patients and their families were what mattered most to me. Those relationships paid off one day when I made a mistake. Because of our relationship, the patient requested that I continue being his nurse despite my error.

Legal nurse consulting is a service business where you will apply the same relationship principles you learned in nursing to your attorney-clients and prospects. Provide quality service and excellent work product that no other legal nurse consultant can replicate, and soon you’ll feel like you’re in a short-staffing situation all over again.

Success Lesson 12 – Healthy Patients Take Care of Themselves

We’ve all worked with healthy and unhealthy patients and we’ve seen the effects of poor health habits on the human body. The health of a pregnant woman is often dramatically reflected in the health of her offspring.

To run a successful company you must enjoy an optimal state of health. Give yourself permission to take care of yourself. I love my business, but I love myself more. After all, without a healthy me, I couldn’t muster the energy to give 110% to my clients and employees every day.

Every lesson I learned from nursing, I apply to my business today. You’ve already learned similar lessons yourself. You don’t need another hospital job to help you succeed in business. Take a moment to revel in all nursing has taught you. These lessons will multiply your success when you transfer them to your new legal nurse consulting practice.

I hear the term “Virtual Assistant” more and more in business. Did you know that you could possibly hire someone from another continent that works while you sleep and maybe for $8 – $12 Dollars. Mos t of the VA’s I work with have degrees and one an MBA in Business Admin. I pay her a paltry $15.00 per hour and what a bargain that is.

With the growth of virtual assistants has also been a change in what it means to be a virtual assistant.  The leaders and founders of this particular entrepreneurial job have made distinctions between what it means to be a virtual assistant, and what it doesn’t mean.  When you are explaining your business to others, you want to make sure to keep this standard.

Being a virtual assistant is becoming a distinct definition of a specific home owned business.  It is expected that the standards will be upheld of a virtual assistant for all others who are working in this profession.  This means that a virtual assistant is someone who provides a variety of services to businesses and individuals following the standard that has become formalized in the past decade.

The first angle that is taken towards approaching what a virtual assistant is includes the idea of being virtual. If you are not working out of your home, or remotely, then you are not considered a virtual assistant.  Instead, it is considered to be a temporary job or a telecommuting job.  One of the standards for being a virtual assistant is having the freedom to work where you want.

The second part to being a virtual assistant is the distinction that is made in the job description.  Most virtual assistants will cringe at the idea of being called a secretary or freelance worker.  Technically, a freelance worker is one who only does the job for extra income.  At the same time, a secretary is one who doesn’t do the work continuously with only one client.  A virtual assistant is provided in order to create a substantial and long term relationship with a business.

Here are 5 things you should consider in a Virtual Assistant:

1. Professionalism.

Does the VA answer her or his emails, voicemails and other correspondence in a timely and professional manner? It is important if this person is to work for you has the right skills to not keep you or a deadline waiting. Make sure you give a covert task to her or him to pass that shows commitment to deadlines.

2. Project Management.

Juggling tasks nowadays is vital. We now tap out feet in front of the microwave so things need to get done. If a person cannot work with a few projects on the go you might want to move on. I guarantee you will only find out that they have a project management problem when you lose “the big deal”.

3. Availability.

Many of these people work for several people at the same time. It is not uncommon for you as an employer to be in a funnel system for the VA. You slowly move down the funnel as they take on better contracts from new virtual employers. Be aware that you and your project will get dropped at the most time you least need it. You also need to be lining up new VA’s. Try to split your work between 2 or more VA’s to combat this problem.

4. Test.

Give the VA a mini project before going ahead with a contract.  I also give a minimum of 2 tasks that cost no more than $30 -$40 to complete. I need them done correctly and to my total satisfaction before I even consider this person. It is simple to hire one of the first few people to come along but please shortlist at least 10 and give the tasks to 2 of the 10 you shortlisted. Obviously make sure these tasks are something you actually want doe, don’t waste any money.

5. Get References.

Can the VA give you a list of people whom you can contact who will tell you about working with her or him?

The main distinction that most virtual assistants will work towards creating is the idea of being in a relationship with a business, and making this their business.  This goes beyond the Expectations of any temporary work or telecommuting job.  It also means that the services a virtual assistant can provide will go outside of job descriptions that are made in the office.  By understanding the standards for being a virtual assistant, you can best approach this in your own relationships with businesses.

1. Physical down time

You work hard to grow and maintain your business. Trying to be superhuman will certainly take its toll if you allow it to. Give your body a break by taking in some R&R.

2. Mental down time

Your days are filled with busy, sometimes even hectic, day-to-day activities related to your business. If you don’t allow yourself to get away from it once in a while, your peace of mind and general well-being will most definitely suffer. Get out and play. Your mind will thank you!

3. Spend time with loved ones

Your family and friends see you working, working, working, sometimes rarely coming up for air. Both you and they will appreciate spending some quality time together.

4. See the world (or your own back yard)

The important thing is to do something you enjoy, whether it’s traveling or, if that’s not your cup of tea or you don’t have the budget for it, spend time at home. If you also work out of your home, this could be challenging. The key is to stay out of your office during your vacation time. Try getting creative with this. Make your office “off limits” by closing the door and placing a sign on it. Do whatever it takes to keep your mind off working. How about a hobby or a day trip to the beach? Think of what you can do within your budget that’s fun. Or do nothing at all!

5. You have a life

Although this one is a no-brainer, it surprises me how many small business owners don’t feel as if they deserve time off. There is too much to do, and not enough hours in the day to get it all done. Well, I’ve got news for you. It’s always going to feel that way! Only you have the power to allow yourself time off. Even if you prefer only to take a day here and a day there instead of a week-long (or longer) vacation each year, that’s a whole lot better than never taking time off. Trust me, you’ll feel better about yourself and your work if you take regular vacation time. You’ll be healthier, too!

When I say eliminate, I mean … take them out of your prospect’s consideration set for your product or service category.  Make it so your prospects ONLY think of your business, product or service when they are contemplating making a purchase.  That way you get their business, instead of your competition making the sale.

What this means is if you sell widgets, you want your prospects to only think of your widgets when they are thinking of buying widgets.  This is pretty easy to do if your business is not in a competitive industry.

But let’s suppose there are all kinds of businesses selling what you are selling, or filling the same consumer or business need you are filling.

How can you make sure your prospects ONLY think of you — and therefore only BUY from you — and not all those other companies?

Answer:  By thoroughly understanding those competing businesses and then doing one of two things:

(1)  Finding a position in the category you can own.

This will separate you from all the other businesses and will make you uniquely qualified in the eyes of your prospect to fill their need.

This usually requires finding a specific market niche you can focus on, or finding a specific product or service attribute or benefit, that is of value to your prospects, that none of your competitors can claim or are currently promoting.

This puts you in a class of your own and virtually eliminates the competition. No one does exactly what you do. Or in the quite the way you do it.

(2)  By turning your competitors into “co-opitors.”

What the heck is a “co-opitor?”  It is a competitor that you turn into a partner or a cooperator. Are there businesses or individuals with whom you could partner, with the idea of referring business to each other?

For example, a wellness coach could partner with a weight watchers clinic or a health club or a massage therapist. All of these practitioners are selling improved health and well being, but they can also be positioned as complementary services.

Or, let’s say you are a web site designer and you decide to focus primarily on working with small businesses (a market niche). You could create a partnership with another web site designer who has decided to focus on large corporations.

If you both agree to only take on business that fits your identified niche, and to refer business outside your niche to the partner, you both win.

You can partner with other businesses in your exact business in this manner, by identifying niches, by geographic area served, or by size or type of clients served.

And you can partner with businesses in different categories that fill a similar customer need by agreeing to work together to help each other get customers.

There is not a business out there that cannot effectively use one of these two strategies to significantly reduce their competition.  So figure out which strategy fits your business best, and make it a priority to eliminate your competition this year.

Join Houston Black Professionals as they learn FREE and Low-Cost ways to market oneself and/or business in 2009! Learn how to network, utilize partnerships and leverage online social media to ultimately increase sales and/or expert recognition.

Speaker: Crystal Washington, Group Organizer.