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Dawn Martinello from Monday Morning VA

In this second episode of the Creative Solopreneur Podcast, I’m chatting with Dawn Martinello from Monday Morning VA. {If you’re not familiar with the term ‘VA,’ it’s short for Virtual Assistant.} Dawn is also a product launch specialist who’s mad about helping solopreneurs create multiple income streams with profitable information products.

Our conversation is full of brilliant learnings for new and aspiring creative solopreneurs who dream of having a thriving online business, as well for more experienced creative solopreneurs who are wondering when’s the right time to hire a VA, or how to start up multiple income streams.

Here are two of the fabulous people and things mentioned in our conversation:

• Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek

• Danielle LaPorte, Fire Starter Sessions Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs {Yep, that’s my affiliate link. I’m a believer!}

Listen in as Dawn shares how she makes her business happen and plenty of tips for how you can make yours happen, too.

Right click here and select Save Link As to download the podcast to your hard drive, or left click to play in-browser.

P.S. The Creative Solopreneur Podcast will soon be syndicated to iTunes and RSS so that you can subscribe if you like!

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Photo by Rev Stan courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

Often when I’m talking about and almost always when I’m thinking about small, niche-y business — my small, niche-y business, your small, nice-y business — I’m thinking of them as enterprises. It’s a word that doesn’t get thrown around a whole lot in our culture, unless you’re renting a car or preparing to attend a Star Trek convention.

But around here, it’s one of the most powerful and elemental words that I can use to describe what I’m talking about when I’m talking about business.

Enterprise means {and yes, I Dictionary.com’d it} a project undertaken or to be undertaken, especially one that is important or difficult and requires boldness or energy.

Yes! Everything in me says ‘yes’ to that definition. It’s a pitch-perfect description of the way I want to do my work in the world, and I believe it’s right on for my right people, too.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the word ‘business.’ But, to me, it feels too work-y, too paperwork-y, too dry, and too motivated-by-striving to fit well with me and Abby Kerr Ink. {Don’t get me wrong: I — and you — still have to do the paperwork and the dry stuff. It’s kind of unavoidable if you want to have a solvent business. Or, you could hire Dawn’s people.}

Words are loaded. They have layers. They have mystical etymologies and cultural underpinnings. Words are power and meaning and revelation and inspiration.

Every enterprise deserves its own cache of words that it uses to describe itself, its creator {that’s you!}, its right people, its goods and service, its history, and its future.

I’ve chosen ‘enterprise’ for my cache. It’s in my tagline. So is vision, love, and phraseologie. {See my site header.} These words are important to me. They are the cornerstones of the very cool house that is Abby Kerr Ink. {Wanna come hang out?} I chose them intentionally, with thought and care.

What words do you want in your entrepreneurial cache? Is ‘enterprise’ one of them? Tell me about it.

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Today is an exciting day at Abby Kerr Ink!

It’s the debut of the Creative Solopreneur Podcast, starring my very first guest, Catherine Caine from Be Awesome Online.

Catherine Caine from Be Awesome Online

Listen in as Catherine and I chat about the recent launch of her big-and-very-cool product, The Awesome Website Extravaganza. Note: As of late 2010, Catherine is no longer offering this program.

In this interview, Catherine shares about how she found her right people {“delightful weirdos”}, exactly why a person like you {weirdo or not} might want to create your own website rather than hiring it done {tech dunces welcome — Catherine promises!}, and how social media truly is her business.

Ready to listen and learn?

Right click here and select Save Link As to download the podcast to your hard drive, or left click to play in-browser.

P.S. This and upcoming interviews will soon be fancied up a bit — intro and outro music, etc. — and syndicated to iTunes and RSS so that you can subscribe if you like!

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Image by Lucia. . .courtesy of Flick Creative Commons.

Like many of the best internet marketing awakenings I’ve had in my life as an online business owner, this one started with Naomi Dunford. In particular, it started with a recent post in which she says that the reason most online business owners fail to make the money they need is because they start asking for that money today. As in, on the day one recognizes the need for said money. Or even on Day One of business.

Naomi’s novel idea is this. Wait 29 days to ask for money:

Spend the first 28 days being totally, ridiculously awesome. Plan to make 100% of your money on the 29th day.

— Naomi Dunford, IttyBiz.com, “Make Them Love You. THEN Ask For Money,” August 23, 2010.

Sound schtick-y? Scammy? Not if you know Naomi.

And not if you do “totally, ridiculously awesome” right. {Go read Naomi’s post to get an idea of what that looks like.}

So shortly after Naomi’s post went live, LaVonne Ellis of The Complete Flake grabbed onto the idea and sent out a Tweet asking who wanted to join her in a Challenge. I think I may have been one of the first to respond back, “I’m scared, but I’m interested.” After all, I have something I want to launch and the 28-day timeframe works for me to get it created and launched.

I love my customers.

And my prospective customers. And my blog readers who may never be customers but who hang around for the free goodies. And I’m not afraid to show it. {After all, the word ‘love’ is my business’s tagline! Love is an important part of business for me and my right people.} And I’m certainly not afraid to step it up for 28 days and try to be totally, ridiculously awesome when it comes to showing them.

Then I Tweeted my friend David Crandall over at Heroic Destiny and showed him LaVonne’s Tweet. “Think of joining me?” I asked him. {He can tell you this story in more detail.}

So David said yes, then he and LaVonne put their heads together and then it was an official Challenge. With, like, an official Twitter hashtag. {#customerlove}

So there’s a bevy of us out here in the blogosphere trying for the next few weeks to be totally, ridiculously awesome to our right people to test out this theory of Naomi’s. Although from the #customerlove conversation on Twitter, I can assure you that most of us are doing this for reasons far beyond just making money. We’re doing, as LaVonne said, what we should be doing anyway, everyday, when it comes to being helpful and present and engaged and attentive, just being more intentional about it.

Here’s the official intro post for the Make Your Customers Love You Challenge, courtesy of LaVonne. Check in with The Complete Flake every day for the next few weeks for a new post filled with tips for making your customers love you. {And watch for my upcoming guest post!}

So here’s one way that I’m stepping up the awesome, in the hopes that you can feel more awesome about your niche-y entrepreneurial dreams.

From now until September 26th, I’m offering free, quickie, vision-fueled consulting sessions on the Abby Kerr Ink Facebook page. I’ll respond to the first three questions posed to me each day. A few guidelines:

1.} Questions must be clearly stated, and one question per asker per day.

2.} Questions must center on my areas of expertise: niche-y business, nichification, niche-y marketing, creative entrepreneurship, copywriting, or indie retail.

3.} My replies will be posted publicly on the Facebook page.

Looking forward to hearing your questions, and being wildly helpful.

If the Make Your Customers Love You Challenge intrigues you, why not join us? You can jump in at any time and count it as your Day 1.

In the comments, would love to hear how you try to be totally, ridiculously awesome for your customers.

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