Episode #11: The Business Map Method™ Revealed with Terra Bohlmann

Intro (00:02): Welcome to The Fast-Track Entrepreneur Podcast with your host Terra Bohlmann. You are about to get filled with business strategies, advice, and motivation to get you prepared to fast track your five year plan in less than one year. So buckle up and let's create your first class business with clarity and confidence.

Terra (00:27): Hello, Terra Bohlmann here, a business strategist and coach for women entrepreneurs. And I'm so excited about this podcast episode because it's all about my baby. It's called the business map method. And I often refer to my business map method as my fourth child. So I have three sons, I have a 17 year old son and 10 year old twins. And my business map method has been something that I literally feel like think I've burped over the last 10 years. So I want to go through it with you so that you understand the six essential strategies you need to have in place for your business so that you can fast track your business success. So we're ready to get going. All right, so let me share my screen. Four people who are watching this on YouTube. So, but if you're just listening, I'm going to walk it through as simple as I can so that you can see it.

Terra (01:28): So all right, so you can visually see it in your mind. All right, so the business map method is something that, to give you a little history on it, I have, before I even started my business, I was in the corporate consulting world, right? So I got the chance to work with some amazing fortune 500 companies and my job was to quickly figure out their business model so that I could help improve it. So, you know, that's kind of how the consulting world works. So, and there was always a framework in place. So a step by step method that was specific to the consulting company on how you would go do something. They don't typically make things up on the fly. There's a real strategy in place on how they help clients. And so when I first got into business, so I had left, I decided to transition out of the corporate world like so many of us.

Terra (02:27): And I decided, okay, I'm going to be an entrepreneur and I'm just going to go for it. And so what happened in reality was everything that had made me successful in the corporate world, because I was like a corporate, you know, I like to climb the ladder of, of the corporate, you know, like I always wanted to get promoted to the next thing and whatnot. I was very ambitious. I still am like, that's something I've just who I am. Like I just go all in with things and I love business. So when I decided to do my own, I was like, okay. And everything that had made me in the business world, I seem to have forgotten 10 years ago when I started my business, it was like going into the wild, wild West with no nothing. And so what I did was I got into my first business was like, I refer to it as my practice business because what I did was, you know, I didn't take tons of time planning.

Terra (03:21): You know, I, I knew I wanted to help women, but I didn't quite know what it looked like. And I really was a Jill of all trades, master of none, so I could do a lot of different things because in the consulting world you have to wear a lot of different hats and play different roles depending on the projects. So I was very much a chameleon to whatever was needed for the project. So I was like, okay, well first things first, you know, of course it's a logical leap, I guess. You know, I'm going to do something to help women probably in a consulting role, right. Since that's kind of what I knew. I ended up creating my website because ever all the experts said, you need to have a website. And this was 10 years ago. And so I created my website and then I think I had business cards and I would, I would meet people and I would say, they go, wow, your website's great.

Terra (04:05): Who did it? And I'd say, well, I did it well. Can you do my website? I'd say, sure. Well, how much? I don't know. I think my, my first one was 500 then I grew to 5,000 you know, not 5,000 like maybe the next BW became a thousand and the next thing I know I had a team in the Philippines that were any websites and like it was totally not the business that I had in mind when I left the corporate world. I don't know. I like I have no, I never figured out how to scale a website business for me personally. I know there's some great people out there that do websites and they figured it out. But the more websites I took on the same profit I was making, right. So I just, it got to a point where there was a law of diminishing returns and I was exhausted and it, you know, my last website I think was $3,000 and even at that price point I was like, this isn't what I want to do.

Terra (04:55): So what I did was I brought it, you know, I was like, okay, pause on what the heck I'm doing in my business. I was spending a lot of time, you know, doing websites and just any other things like, Oh, can you do this? Sure I can do that. And so everything was like a custom quote per se. And like I love that I said per se, my husband always makes fun of me when I say that, but per se. And I ended up deciding, you know, that this isn't what I wanted to do, this isn't the business I had in mind. Right. So I was able to luckily soft land my team from the Philippines and knew enough people to say, Oh Hey, you know, I've trained this person, would you like to take them on as, as your, you know, person that helps with your website and whatever.

Terra (05:40): So it was able to soft land my team, but then it was like the scary time of, Oh my, okay, so what am I going to do? So I had to get crystal clear on what the heck I wanted to do. And you know, and I say this because this really was the start of the what is now the business map. It was a 10 year iteration. Knowing that the first year to year and a half was the practice business on top of going down a learning cycle of taking every eCourse you could possibly take every in doing some but not finishing everything, going to conferences and workshops and you know, I was just in this new world of entrepreneurship that, and I'm a, I'm obsessed with learning. So it was interesting, but yet it wasn't, it wasn't growing sales. Like, I mean anyone who's came out of the corporate world, if you make a hundred thousand dollars in the corporate world, you need to probably make $300,000 in your business.

Terra (06:34): Just pay yourself that a hundred thousand so yeah. So I was just like, okay, something had to change. And so what I did was, you know, I took some time, I took some time and really wanted to get clear on my next things because I, at this point I felt like I'd wasted. Now I know that it didn't happen to me. It happened for me. And now I can share the story with you. Of course, like, you know, nine years later, but I wanted to get really clear on what I wanted to do and you know, so as I got talking to people and I just gave my, I wound down all the website stuff and projects that I was during for women entrepreneurs and I was like, okay, what do I want to do? And I'm like, well I want to do, I want to teach women business strategy and help them make more money in their business and yeah, and do it in a way that's cost effective for them and you know, take all these skills that I've had in the consulting world and just help women entrepreneurs.

Terra (07:30): So I would say this to people, you know, who were much more successful than me. I'd go, this is what I want to do, cause you're in this, like I'm trying to seek clarity, right? And they'd go, Oh, so you want to be a business coach? And I'm like, no. Like I don't know what that is. I didn't go to school for that. Like, you know, I had no idea really what that was. And, Oh and then I say, no, I just loved when I was in the corporate world. I love mentoring the women consultants. Like I just really enjoyed that and I just want to help women, but I want to do it and help women business owners now. And they'd go, Oh, so you want to be a business coach? And so after this back and forth goes on and on, like I was like, yeah, I guess that's is what I want to do.

Terra (08:08): I guess it's called a business coach. Mmm. So I started my business coaching business, was able to make it pretty successful quickly and did a lot of, you know, one on one coaching, you know, had 30 clients a month. I was doing a high volume, low cost, but I found myself just on the phone all the time and usually having the same conversations. And while I was making decent money, it didn't feel like it wasn't scalable. So it was kind of like, is this it? And then people would say, Oh, you need to do a group program and you did, you know, this and this and that. So, I mean, I played around, I did a couple of group programs and that was okay, but I didn't find that the women in it, you know, were really getting that transformation that I wanted. So I was like, something's off with this model.

Terra (08:54): And so I did was I took again more time. I often say now like if you're in an airplane and do you want to go farther and you want to go faster, sometimes you need to land that plane for maintenance, do some tweaks so that you can go faster and further. And so that's what I did essentially, is I landed my plane for some maintenance, which in that case it was a few months. I mean I wanted to get really clear on what my next five years look like. So I in essence created what was known as the very first business map, which was my own. And what it was was I just took time going, okay, I'm going to be my own best client. And if I were a paid consultant, like I used to be, what would I do to solve this problem?

Terra (09:37): Which is, I didn't have all the pieces in order and I was just like, a lot of women entrepreneurs Frankensteining my business together. So I would spend a ton of time on marketing and energy and money marketing, marketing visibility, but I really wasn't clear and when I was selling, so at one time I had 21 offers. Like that's insane. And so then I was like, I had to really streamline that. I went to one and then got really good at that. And then people will ask you like, Hey, you know, I'm not ready for that, but he has something like this, you know? And after you get that, then you're like, Oh, okay, cool. So I was known for my signature thing and then I, I ended up creating an upsell and a down sell from it and that I felt really good. So then I was like, okay, I wanted to make sure I got that down and that that made sense with my foundation of my business and that I knew how I was going to sell it and who was gonna be on my team.

Terra (10:31): And all these things started to come into play. So I created my first business map, which was maybe at that time, only like a 30 page document that where I pre-thought about every strategy area in my business. And then I went to a couple friends who are entrepreneurs and I said, Hey, I did this for myself. Would you find value in that? And they're like, Oh, this is cool. So I even did some for free and I did some for just a low cost, you know, like just to test it out. As I told myself, you know, of course I'm a psychotic planner and it was, gave me a lot of clarity on what I needed to do, but I needed the proof. Right. This is why, I guess social proof that it worked for other women entrepreneurs too. And then I had, I remember I had a booth, like an exhibitor booth and now a woman who's a good friend of mine came up to me and was like, and I had an example of my map that was like in a really pretty binder that I had done at Kinko's.

Terra (11:26): And she was flipping through it and she's like, Oh my gosh, this is amazing. She had a really high end program at the time and my private clients need this in my high end program. Can you do this for all of them? And how much would you charge me? And I was like, Whoa. So my first real sale was really doing it for like eight or 10 other women. Amen. Right. And so I figured out how to put a system together so I could extract all the information I need to create their map. And so there was, you know, eight, 10 more. And I always told myself when I got to a hundred maps that I did personally myself, that I would take this concept and make it in a way that was more affordable even. And that I could get these maps in the hands of more women entrepreneurs.

Terra (12:08): Cause these maps are customized. It's not like here's a map that you can follow for whatever. Now this is very customized to you, your personality, what you want, your hopes and dreams, what you sell, your branding, all that kind of stuff. So hence the business map method was born and I've refined it so much and it's just been an amazing process to really give women entrepreneurs the clarity and the confidence and ultimately make the money that they want because they have it all figured out and they know where they're going in five years. So if you can imagine, you know, from every day you struggle with, what should I be working on today cause everything's important or you know, I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. If you step back and do the business map method for you, then all of that just seems to go away.

Terra (13:03): You don't worry at night. I'm not saying we're all entrepreneurs, everyone worries, but you don't have to worry as much because you know where you're going and it's just, it's, there's so much peace of mind that comes with it. So I'm going to share with you the business map method and the six strategies that I know make all the difference in your five year plan, which ultimately allows you to fast track your five-year plan into less than one year. You can get the same amount of results in one year that you can in five when you just take the time to understand these six strategies to where and then document them and go through what you know, do the spend the time, spend the time it takes to actually create this for your business. Because if you don't, you'll end up hiring people that are going to do it based on what they want.

Terra (13:55): And you're going to have a business that you don't love and it doesn't feel like you. So only you as the CEO, no matter what you sell, you're the only person that can come up with the strategy. You can get advisement. Of course, I advise my clients all the time on, you know, the best moves to make on this specific strategy. But if these don't come from you, you're going to have that Frankenstein business that I was talking about that I had earlier. So this helps really eliminate that. So the first first strategy is to have your business map foundation in place. Your foundation is so important and I don't feel like a lot of people are out there talking or teaching or helping people with the foundations. It's not as super sexy as like marketing and digital launches and all that kind of stuff.

Terra (14:40): Your foundations are those things that I just kind of call them like the old school, it's like old school business that you have to have the foundation in place so everything else builds upon it. Because what I found in working with, you know, client women entrepreneurs for the past 10 years is if you don't have your foundations in place and you try to move on to the other areas of your business that you think are the most important, then you'll find that you're going to spend a ton of money and time and energy and stress filling the holes and the foundation when you could have just figured it out, just begin with. So I believe starting with the foundation is huge. Just like you would build a house, the foundation of your house has to be rock solid. You gotta have blueprints, which is your map, right?

Terra (15:24): And then you go and you build that foundation and then you can build upon the house from there. And oftentimes we want to decorate the living room before we've built the house. I mean in that, and that's not the right order. So for me it's like if I could come up with this right order, not just the right six strategies that need to be in place, but the right order to make a woman entrepreneur stress, less about building the business and feeling comfortable saying I am the CEO of this business, then that's my job, right? So I have this gift where I can see big picture, but I can also laser focus and on the little details. So the business map really becomes your bird's eye view of where you're going. Because when we're in the forest, we can't see the forest through the trees.

Terra (16:15): But if you step back and do you have a bird's eye view, you know it's so much easier to navigate the business map foundation foundation. What does that look like? It's having those basics in order. It's being really clear on your vision, where you're going with your business, right? You may have heard of mission, vision and all that stuff for this. Like where do you want to go? Like just, we need to know where you're going. Ultimately knowing that your business map after you go through these different exercises to really define what you want and that specific strategy you get. You know, I give my clients a template for their business map that they can, that they can literally copy and paste and move things from there. You know, the workbook for that specific strategy into the business map so that they have a tangible asset that becomes a 55 page document that when they hire people to work with them on their team, they actually can have their team members rate and understand where they're going, knowing what the business and how it all operates.

Terra (17:17): So, and, and that's beautiful thing because especially if you're the type of person where your business strategy is going in your head, it's like, okay, it's great that it's in your head, but it needs to be on paper so that you can transfer that knowledge a lot easier. And you don't have to explain every little thing to every person that comes on your team. So, and knowing that everyone who comes on your team before they can read your map and see your map, they have to sign a nondisclosure, right? Because you're giving away. You're letting them in on all your business secrets. Okay? So we've got your vision. We need to know that. We need to know your core values, like what you stand for. The reason you would hire a customer, reason you would fire a customer if they broke your core values of reason, you would hire a team member and the same reason you would fire a team member.

Terra (18:04): So what I've found from a core values perspective, if we aren't doing something that's in alignment with our core values, then it's not going to work. You're going to feel achy. It just is one of those foundational pieces that you have to have in place, right? You see this even more and more now with the corporate, with corporate companies like even I think it was like freebirds and you know chick fil a and all these like corporations that put their core values right there. Like when you're in the restaurant or they're on the website and they're to where they want to share that with everybody. And it truly is not just the corporate, like when you do your core values, it's not really just what your core values are for your business, but it's who you are inside. And when those two are not in alignment, that's when things start falling apart and your business feels icky and things aren't getting momentum or you know, they have to be the same.

Terra (19:00): You can't be one person in your business and one person in real life, right? Authenticity is everything. So core values then your branding. And I've seen a lot of people, I myself, like I tell all my stories on and within my business map method program, but it's like, you know, I've spent a lot of time, energy and money on branding to a point where I can even count how many websites I've did it at one of my live events. I actually went to way back machine.com and it takes screen captures of your website at, you know, a specific date and time. So even if you think nothing stays out there forever, it definitely does. So from my very, the first website all the way to my current one and I think maybe seven, eight, maybe I've had nine websites. And what I found was I thought I need to get clarity.

Terra (19:47): I needed to be clear in my branding. But what I did was spent a lot of time and energy and I was doing it as a distraction to constantly do a rebrand because I was scared to sell. I was scared. You know, I had other fears and I was using as a distraction when in fact it's like, Oh I'm going to re brand. You know that's the reason I didn't make a million dollars. Yeah. Like whatever. Like all this weird stuff comes up, you know, if you ever want to no. All your personal issues that you have in your life, just open a business. Cause they all come to the top whenever you need to get things done. Right. So anyway, so we've all had our own journeys, right? So yeah. So branding, so branding is just, we want to get clarity on the simple things from what are your signature fonts, colors, you know, what your images and what patterns and you know, and I have my clients create a brand style guide that becomes a system.

Terra (20:43): So anytime they want to hire someone to do graphics for them, they just them over the brand style guide and that says, Hey, here's the fonts I use. Here's this, here's you know, example of social media meme templates that it would be on brand, right. It just is one of these things that you can think about one time and keep it super simple but get so much mileage out of it. So no matter what your budget is, if it's $5 or $10,000 on to do your brand, you know there's ways to make it happen. So foundational is doing your brand that goes beyond logo and all that kind of stuff. It's, you know, your submarks, your, like I said, fonts, colors, textures, mood boards, you know, the whole vibe that you want to put out there for your company. That is of course in alignment with your core values.

Terra (21:37): So every single one of these things build up on each other, and then I do something that's what I've never seen done in business. So you know, I have from a foundation standpoint, the belief that you put strategic give-back right in the beginning of your business. So, one thing I've seen is that a lot of very wealthy people when they go to retire or from CEO, or maybe just retire from their position as president of the board or whatever that looks like, you know, billionaires, multi multi-millionaires, what they end up doing is going and working on their foundation, their literal nonprofit foundation. So because then that becomes their heart, right? So they spend all this time and energy making tons of money to then go work and do that meaningful work in their heart. That is all about give back. So my philosophy after I saw this time and time again, I was always reading these articles.

Terra (22:30): I was like, wow, what if we just build that in at the beginning? So that way you feel really good about the business that you're building. So I work with my clients to put together a strategic give back, the strategy that works for them. So that's part of the foundation. And so you can give back in a meaningful way. And here's the real thing. If you are uncomfortable selling, there's something about saying, you know, I'm not selling to make Terra Bohlmann wealthy. I'm selling because man, I'm going to give a percentage of this to help build a school in Africa, right? Or whatever your strategic give back in your heart really is. So that's a really cool tip. And then we do your framework and your foundation, which is your step by step process. Mine is the business map method. I'm sharing it with you now.

Terra (23:15): Like this is your framework is the thing that it takes all of your intellectual property that's inside of your brain and puts it out there and a way that makes people go, Oh, okay, this makes sense. Oh, step-by-step, I'm going to build my authority using my framework. So it's important for you to have fun too. And then the last part of the foundation is really getting clear on your perfect customers. So some people have heard of them. I've done an exercise that's like client avatars, you know, demographics are some other things that people call them. You know, marketing. I just call them creating your perfect customer profile. And why is that important? Well, if you know who you're selling to, you know, you know exactly where to show up from a marketing perspective and you know what to offer them at what price point and how to deliver it and their expectations.

Terra (24:05): So I get really, really clear with my customers on creating their perfect customers like mine. I know I've got Jillian and I've got Jessica and these girls are and have Jennifer now cause I have three offers. Every thing you sell you need to have a perfect client profile associated with it. So the more offers you have, the more complex it gets. So if you can just do like one signature thing, it's one no profile, it's one of everything and it makes it a lot easier. But you know as you scale and leverage your business, you can add more. So. So yeah, your perfect customers are something that's really important down to what you name them. I want to know, I want to be in the side of their head. I often say that Jillian is my imaginary best friend, right? I want to know what keeps her up at night.

Terra (24:50): I want to know everything about her. So that's part of the foundation that honestly takes up. So my business map method program is a 90 day program. Half of the time that I work with my clients is on foundation. That's how important it is and how many women are just pushed through and they kind of railroad through the whole foundation and do maybe one part of it but not all of it or just, Oh I'll come back to that. And when we do it upfront, the clarity that comes with it is amazing because once you have that first strategy around your foundation in place, you can go then to the second one which is all about your business map offers. So once you know who you're selling to, what you stand for, how you want to give back, you know, where are you going with your company?

Terra (25:39): It's easy to create a signature offer that's going to take your potential customer or your perfect customer profile. Cause we've already defined that it's going to be easier to take them from what their issue is into what their transformation is. Right. And then your signature offer takes them on that journey. So it doesn't matter to me if you're selling a service or you're selling a product or a combination of both, your signature offer is something that is going to be what you're known for. And again, please don't be the Jill of all trades like I was. It just makes everything that much more complicated. I used to get so mad at myself that it took me so long to start getting the momentum I wanted in my business until I finally stopped and said, you know what, that didn't, it happened to me. It happened for me.

Terra (26:24): Cause now I need to have went through that so I could be in the trenches. So I understand what my customers are going through versus if ever everything was coming up roses all the time and hunky Dory and unicorns and rainbows, I wouldn't be able to understand Jillian and what her struggles are. So we start with your signature offer. And then from that going to create an upsell, which cause people are always gonna want more, right? And then a down sell because people are going to want less, they're going to need less. They want to touch two out. So you have your signature offer, your upsell on your down sell is what we work through in the business map method, the pricing accordingly, the pricing strategy and then what other future offers may come down the road. And we're just gonna put them in a parking lot.

Terra (27:06): Gotcha. Oh they just, I don't want you to forget about him, but I don't want you to focus on them right now. So we'll, you know, we put the future offerings out there and then again have the pricing. So then once you know what to sell, the third strategy becomes about your sales strategy. I call it your business map sales. And this is really your customized sales process and how you convert people into a, I'm thinking about buying from you into transactions and I use a consultation process. And so if you're in the service space business and the business map method, I walk you through how to do a customized consultation process for yourself so that you can give value to other people and they can make the decision on if it's a fit or not. Right? So super non salesy way to get customers.

Terra (27:58): If you're in the services side, even if you're in a product side, you know, and maybe you just sell your products on line, right? There's still, you still need to know how to have, if you change out consultations and to have conversations, you know there's going to be strategic partners, you're going to want your product and bigger companies and you know, and so you need to know the sales process to do that. And then of course, in order to really have a sale, you have to have your specific way on how you accept payment. And so we have different ways that you can decide on what kind of payment you can take. And I'll, you know, I'll never forget, I was speaking in New Jersey once and after I spoke, this woman came up to me and said, Oh, this is so great, thank you. And I was like, no problem.

Terra (28:43): She's like, Tara, I'm just struggling. Like I haven't gotten, I have never gotten a customer yet, you know? And I said, okay, well tell me about your business. Okay, great. Well that sounds really great. So how do you get customers and okay. And she had told me and I said, okay, great. So how do you take money? I said, do you take when I asked her, do you have, do you take credit card? And she's like, eh, I haven't figured that out. Like that seems, I haven't figured out. I haven't set that up yet. Oh, okay. Well what about cash? Oh no, I wouldn't want to handle cash. I said, what about a check? Ooh, no, I don't know how to do a check because you know, what if it bounces and blah, blah, blah, you know, and then what about PayPal? Well, okay, so I mean, and it's like little things like that.

Terra (29:25): Can halt you from making the money you want in your business. So we get really clear on how you accept payment in a preferred way so that your customers are happy about it. One time I have my Concorde mastermind and I was at producing an event, you know, offered it and I remember my husband coming up to me afterwards and being like, you know, and it's not an annex expensive program. It's not the most expensive program out there. But he's like, how do you, I said, Oh yeah, I've sold these and dah, dah, dah. And he's like, Oh, did you get checks or how? I was like, no, I just, you know, credit card credit, they'll do credit card payments. Some people pay him full for a slight discount and some people do payments and he's like, for that price. And that's a ton in credit card fees.

Terra (30:09): And I was like, yeah, but here's the thing. I also know my clients love to travel. So that means, you know, if I want to give them the option to put it on their credit card because they want either the cash back or they want the travel points cause that's important to them. And so, you know, that was like, and then of course I start seeing everyone, you know, I want went to a coffee shop and wanted to buy coffee. I only had my debit card there. Hey we're going to have to charge you a dollar for that, you know, extra. And I'm like, what? Or it's a 3% you know, credit card, convenience fee. And I was like, what? That is a cost of doing business. So sometimes you need to know, well you definitely need to know how your perfect customer, how they want to pay.

Terra (30:49): I mean, have I had wire transfers and checks? Yes, of course. But most likely my clients like to pay via credit card because they want the points and they want the travel points and they or they want the cash back. Right. That's okay. Give it to him on a silver platter. So then after the third strategy, which is getting really clear on your sales strategy and mind you, your sales strategy is going to be different than other people's because it's based on what you're comfortable with. If you try to step into someone else's sales strategy and they're teaching you their sales method, great. That may work for them and they may be able to ask somebody for a credit card on the phone. But when you do it, you're literally feel sick to your stomach. I'm the same way. I don't like to be put on the spot.

Terra (31:31): Or Hey, if you buy right now, I'll give you a thousand dollars off. Like I don't, that's icky to me. So I had to learn sales in a way that felt good and that was really a win win. So we have to figure out yours. Some people, no problem. They can just ask for the credit card on the phone. I admire them. That's awesome. And if that works for you, cool, we'll put that in your map. But if not, you know, we'll find another way. So then on the fourth strategy, the fourth journey of this world trip we're going to do the business map visibility. And what your visibility is is your marketing strategy. So once we know what you're selling, who you're selling it to and where they're showing up, we need to show up in the same places so you can get in front of your Jillian, you're Jessica, you are Jennifer of the world.

Terra (32:17): And so the business map visibility is all about creating a marketing strategy that works for you and to get you in front of the right type of your perfect customers. And we also create a referral program as part of your visibility strategy. Because once I found 85% of new leads that come from that come to small are from referrals. 85% of new leads come from referrals. It makes sense to me. We have a customized referral program for your business. Okay, so visibility, very important. And a lot of women entrepreneurs try to go straight for the visibility when they decide to start a business. Oh, I need marketing. Well of course. But you also need clarity on what the heck you're doing. Where are you going in five years, what you're building, what you're offering, and at how much and how you're going to sell it before you ever jump into marketing.

Terra (33:11): Because if not, you're just getting eyeballs with no conversions and it's a very painful, expensive lesson to learn. And I can tell you that because it happened to me, right? So visibility, very important. It's also fourth out of the six steps, right? Because the other things build upon that. So you can waste a lot of time and energy on Facebook and Instagram and if you're selling to corporations, it makes no sense free day from be there. You can be there personally, but don't waste your time, energy, and money with your business if that's not where your perfect client is even hanging out anyway. So got to build the foundation, be clear on the offers, how much you charge, how you sell before you ever get to the market thing. And then once you have your marketing in place and what you're going to be doing, I divide marketing up into three categories.

Terra (34:02): First, where are you going to show up and what I call a traditional manner. This is that whole getting cheek to cheek. I am like one of these crazy coaches who like to actually have conversations with my clients. So I like to get cheek to cheek, I produce and do live events. I like that. I think that's important and you know there's networking that you can do. There's being on nonprofit boards, there's you know, all kinds of different ways which I break down for my own clients and the business map method program, like as a checklist of what they can do to do things from a traditional manner of what feels not just good to them but also aligns with their perfect customer because we've already done that work and also where they're going to show up online, which is different. It could be totally different depending on your perfect customer and then where you also show up from a social media perspective.

Terra (34:57): So I break out online, into online, through the website, which I like your website too, be your number one sales person. But if it's not, that's okay. I know plenty of millionaires who don't even have a website. So if digital marketing's not your thing, you can still have a great business. So, but we want to get clear on what you do from a traditional manner, which is maybe AKA old school marketing, whether it's I want a billboard or I, you know, all the traditional ways that marketing worked before the online world came up. So that stuff still works. So traditional. And then we look at what you want to do online to generate leads and what we do from a social media standpoint to generate leads. And that's all marketing is. Let's be really clear. Your visibility that you have out there is just letting people know you're there to serve them, whether it's with your services or your products or a combination of both.

Terra (35:54): That's all marketing is. It's generating leads, right? Your sales strategy kicks in once you get that lead. Okay? So if you're not comfortable with, that's why sales is third and not fourth. You've got to know how you're going to convert and be comfortable with when someone raises their hand to work with you and what you're going to do to transact with them. I stayed stuck in visibility way too long and I served and I gave and I gave and I did consult after consult after consult without even giving them an invitation on the next step. Right. Did that for so long. I spoke all over the U S and some, I think a couple of places in Canada even flew all over like out of my own pocket. Never once that even necessarily collected email addresses so I could put people on my list. I mean, you know a lot of this came from because I necessarily didn't do it the right way.

Terra (36:50): So anyway, but now once you have a visibility strategy in place it everything, it's a game changer. So then you know how much time and energy and money to focus in on that. So then after visibility, which is number four, we're going to go to number five, which is having doing your business map experience. So this is the customer experience that you want to give your new customer that just said yes to working with you. Right? so what I like to do is break that down into a couple of different things. So the experience really starts with wow customer service. So what are you going to do to wow your customer that makes it, that's a little unexpected, right? So, and sometimes the wow, honestly, sadly enough is just delivering what you said you're going to do. You know, I mean, something as simple as that, but you know, we have some different things that we can put in there to really wow them and yeah.

Terra (37:44): Why do you want to while them, because we go back to the referral program, 85% of your new leads are gonna come from referrals, right? So you want to wow. And then you have to know how you onboard your new customers. So that means when they say yes to work with you, what is the first things that you do right? And then the second thing is great, now that you've done that, how do you deliver what you just told them and do it in a way that's as first class as possible and then there's business map experiences where we can add some systems in place. Right? And then lastly on the experience, it's how do you transition your customers once they're done, whether they're working with you on a service aspect or you've delivered the product, you know what happens then what's next, what's what happens in the transition so that you have your steps in place so that they know exactly how to reengage with you.

Terra (38:33): Right. So much easier and more effective to keep an existing customer than it is to get a new one. All right, and it's been, that's a business philosophy that's been around for years and years and having a really great experience for them helps do that. Then after the fifth step, the strategy for your business map, do you want to have your sixth and final step, which is team. So your business map team. So your team includes who's going to be working with your company. It doesn't have to be right now. It can be, remember this is a five year plan, five-year map, who needs to be on your team at some point when you're ready to do the hiring so that you can accomplish all the strategies that you've put in place. And maybe some of the stuff is you now, but over time you can have and hire someone else.

Terra (39:20): Or maybe in some cases you have a tool that does it. So your business mapped team includes, you know, who's going to be on your team, the roles and responsibilities of that person and your team expectations. So what do you expect of anyone on your team? Obviously core values are the minimum, but then you're going to have other expectations that you need to put in place so that they know what to expect from you. So they're not guessing and you're just having a, you know, you have good standard operating procedures and then you know you want to have your tools as well, like what tools your business is going to use. And if you can have a tool replace something that someone would do awesome, do the tool, physical tools, apps that is going to be more cost effective for you and more accurate. And then you always have to have those roles that need a human element.

Terra (40:11): So those would be actual job titles. Right? And if you can't afford to hire somebody full time know that's okay. Like you can get somebody part time or project based or your go to person too, you know, help you accomplish everything that you want to in your business without going crazy. And that's the most important thing. And the last thing in your business map under the team is you have a sign off. So again, as I said earlier, you know, before you ever let anyone and on your business map and review it, you need them to sign the nondisclosure agreement. You have your attorney write up and then you have them sign off that they have read and reviewed the map. Right. And then once you have your map, it's not something that's like, Oh yay. It never changes. No, it's a strategy. Things change.

Terra (40:57): I just recommend every, even if it's once a quarter going in and doing some updates based on you know, what needs to happen for your map. So it's always up to date and you can always share it with anyone new who comes into your team. So yeah, so that's the business map method and I, you know, and it has been an absolute dream of mine to do over. Yeah. To do a hundred of them. I'm not quite at a hundred yet. I will be well have an impact in it. I'm running one of my programs, the business map method program now and you know, and I'll reviewing them with them. So I used to what was the person that created all these maps for all my clients, whether they were in the Concorde and some people would just hire me to do their map with them and take them through this method.

Terra (41:45): But now I wanted to create a way for to get maps in the hands of more women entrepreneurs. So I do that through a combination of teaching strategies, workbooks, group coaching to answer questions and be there and then give the templates. And then ultimately I just tell my clients, if you do your and complete your map within six months of working together, it takes 90 days to get through it. If you get your map done using my template and I try to make it as simple as possible, literally copy and paste over from the work we do in the business map method program and the 90 day program. If you get that done, I will give you a private coaching session with me and we're going to make that map even better and I'll help you refine it as much as I can. So I don't know what else I could do as far as helping women entrepreneurs get super clear on all these foundational areas in their business that just give you crystal clarity so that women aren't going on a path like I did, which was I need to go down these rabbit holes to keep learning things.

Terra (42:53): And so many digital marketers are so great at selling the next thing or saying, Hey, you know, my friend has this, you know, if you really want to be good at a, you also gotta know, and we can go down these rabbit holes forever. We're trying to be the person that learns, understands, and implements. And in reality, we just get overwhelmed and we're not even doing anything to move the needle on serving the customers that we know we want to help, right? So we got to work on the things that only do, can do. And in my humble opinion, I feel like every woman entrepreneur is a CEO in her business, no matter how much business experience she brings to the table. Right? I mean, you could have been a corporate consultant like me that was obsessed with business. Like I'm the weirdo that's reading all the business magazines when I go to Barnes and noble.

Terra (43:45): You know, and it's like I love that side of it. Or you could be on the other side of the continuum of like, I'm just a really good at this creative thing, but I don't know how to run a business. Well. My vision for having the business map method program was really so that I can teach any woman no matter where her skill set is to be the CEO of her company and have that ownership. And then at the end of the day, here's what I need every woman entrepreneur to know is once you build your business, you, you know at some point are going to want to move on, right? You may, I want to retire. You know, you may want to, you know, whatever you want to do with your business, just like is it Stephen Covey think with the end in.

Terra (44:32): We've got to think in that with the end in mind in our own business. And when you have a business map, it becomes a major asset. So when you do go to sell your company someday or legacy it down to a family member or an employee, they have a strategy to start with. And if someone's going to ever buy your company and you know in any business is sellable, right? It's like yeah they can buy the customers the list of whatever, but they really want the strategy and that's what you've documented and you've dumped all your intellectual property, brain power into your business map. So it really becomes a tangible asset that can pay for itself in the sense of, you know, you could even take it to a bank or if you needed additional funding for venture capitalists, they want to see a plan, they want to see where you're going.

Terra (45:18): And this tool, which is really a map, is a big business tool in your business. That's what it is. Tool that gives you clarity, confidence, and helps you stay focused on the things that you need that's going to help you make an impact. So I hope you found all this information super powerful. And I know it was for me. And you know, as frustrated as I was that it took me so long in my own business to get to, you know where I'm at. I know now I went through that for you, right? So that I can help fast track you. And that's what it's all about. So if you have any questions, feel free to go to my website, TerraBohlmann.com and if you want to schedule a chat, I mean I don't sell on my consultations, I literally give you your next best move. And sometimes that's us working together and you can ask me about that. And sometimes it's just, Hey, if this was what you're feeling, I would focus on this. And I promise that on my consults that that's what I give. So terrabohlmann.com/consult and we can figure out what your next best move is. So take care and talk soon. Bye.

Outro (46:24): There you have it. Another episode packed full of strategies and motivation that you can use every day to put your business on the fast track. For a podcast recap and more resources visit TerraBohlmannn.com. Don't forget, subscribe to the podcast and get what you need to help fast track your five year business plan.