Day Twenty-One – Asset

The single most important thing you can do for your Alexander Technique teaching business is build a list. It will become the primary asset of your business. A list? Yes, of names of people who have visited your website, met you at an event, attended an introduction or have in anyway, anywhere interacted with you. If you do nothing else but focus on this as a business strategy, eventually you will succeed. Your Task – How To Build Your List

Just start with that simple decision: I will build a list. Aweber offer a simple platform, a reasonable starting rate ($20 per month) and sophisticated tools when you are ready for them. They have simple step-by-step guides to get you started, and are ubiquitous in the internet for that service – ask around, someone you know could use it. Mailchimp is another, but I have no experience with them. Anyone? Do the research, look around, here are a few tips: 1. Do not go with a free service that delivers advertisements to your list – it confuses your message. However, you might find some free services based on a small number of emails – you could start there, upgrade or move later, if money is an issue for you now. In which case, point 2. is really important… 2. Make sure you retain total control over the names, emails and other details that you collect about members of your list. You must be able to optionally download these names into a document that sits on your hard drive. A free service may charge you to do this, so it is not a free service, just a payment delay plan. 3. Ask if you can add tags to a person's name (Aweber can) as later this will sharpen your abilities to communicate with the right people at the right time. 4. Are you confident they will be around in 5 years time? When you make the decision, find a service, commit to a plan, then you are in the driver's seat. As you feel your money slipping away every month (if you paid) you'll think "I better do something about that list." And so you will start thinking: what can I do? The first thing you will do is create a sign up form on your website and blog. Aweber makes this easy to do. Soon you will twig that you can also request on a flyer than people join your list. You can collect names on a form from people who come with their friends. As you start doing that you'll think: "But why would they want to join my list? What am I offering that could convince them to part with their protected email address?" And then you will start to think of your offer (or bribe) for collecting your avatar's email: AhoAlexander is one place to start. AhoAlexander can be free – this costs you nothing, just the time to create it. Be creative – there are lots of offers you can make, start testing them. Avoid discounting. You can offer extended commitments (like I did here – pay for one month, get an extra one included), or two-for-one (pay for an Intro, bring a friend for free) or anything that involves you getting an income, but not actually costing you money. The idea is that they get something, but you do too. This is a guideline, you can always break the rule. For some of you, this is a nerdy thing and you put it off. Do it anyway. If you are really freaked out, ask someone at elance.com to quote on doing it for you: you'll pay $50, but have your form sitting on your website where you want it. (actually, I did that) It is easy to do these days, and once you have the system in place, you can start building your list. This is the single, most important way to build your business. For those who have already started, think about a new offer or campaign you can launch to gather more people? Are you already collecting emails at all the opportunities you can? Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to build and develop an email list. Share on Facebook ATCS group some offers you could make to convince your avatars/niche to sign up. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATCSProMembers/