A solopreneur is any individual who is solely in charge of the growth in their business. That's me, and that’s all of you. It solely falls on you every single day go out there and build success within your business.

                When I launched my own business in a new state, I was naïve and thought business would come to me. When that didn’t happen, I worked hard to build systems to ensure my success. I’m going to share five habits I established that can help you, too.

Habit 1: Opportunity statement

What I realized when it came to my marketing plan, my message, is this is all I ever need: What I believe, why I believe it, what I do, how I do it differently and who I've done it for.

Learn how to ask for the business. If you break this down from a marketing message standpoint:

• What you believe is your tagline.
• Why you believe it is your story.
• What you do is how you help people.
• How you do it differently is your competitive advantage.
• Who you've done it for is the social proof.
• The ask is a call to action.

You can see why this works. This is all you'll ever need when it comes to your marketing message and your conversations.

Habit 2: Proactive prospecting system

Peter Drucker said, “The point of any business is to create a customer.” Most of us have a business, but we don't have a system to create a customer. Most people don't have a CRM, and of those who do, many don't consistently update it.

                Here's my analogy: You go play trivia and you can use your smartphone and nobody else can. Who's probably going to win? You. So why aren't we leveraging the same advantage with a CRM? That's the mindset for me. If I can use my CRM and keep it updated, it's going to help me increase sales as a game of probability.

                This is what I do on a daily basis. I focus on 10 conversations per day — five are with new people, at least three are with people I already have a great relationship with and at least one who refers me business.

If you reach those 10 people each day, you’ll create a compound effect. Create a habit of regularly updating your CRM, and develop clear, tangible benchmarks for activity within your CRM.

Habit 3: Follow-up system         

What kind of follow-up system do you have? Once you identify somebody as a new target or a new lead, what happens in that process? Do you have a system — one that you use consistently?

                When most of us follow up, it sounds something like this: “Hey, just checking in with you.” Some of you have already used that one today. Another is “Do you have any more questions?”

                Our touches should have value. For some of the people in my database, after the first meeting, I'll send them a short video email with Covideo. In the video, I'll address the person by their name and say, “Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me. I can't wait to work with you. Click down below.” I include some kind of call to action, such as providing links to content specific to their needs. They immediately know that I’m an expert, that I deal with these topics every day. Covideo allows me to track who opens those messages.

Leverage software and technology for your follow-up system. The intention is to get the individuals back in for a face-to-face meeting.

Habit 4: Unique customer experience

                For every new client in my CRM, I’m trying to create a transformational experience in a transactional world. If you’ve heard of “The 5 Love Languages” by Gary Chapman, I’ve borrowed the concept to guide how I interact with new clients in the first 90 days.   

                You're performing for your clients. Work like you're showing off every single day for them. You are really good at what you do, and in return, you get referrals, you get reviews, you get repeat business. Here is my system for nurturing these relationships:

• Gift. Figure out what their family likes to do, and buy a gift card.
• Quality time. Invite their family over to your back patio. You could do a multiplier event where you invite your entire database over and rent a bouncy house.
• Acts of service. Go support them in something that is valuable to them in the community. Maybe they're big into charity; maybe they're big into church. Go support the cause.
• Words of affirmation. Just shoot them a text to let them know you were thinking about them: “Hey, I appreciate you.”
• Physical touch. When you're with somebody, be with them. Put your phone away, and engage with them. Look them in the eye.

Habit 5: Entrepreneurial spirit

People use the first service provider they talk to 67% of the time. It falls on you to go out there and get more attention for your business to elevate your status. So, what is status? Status is simply incoming demand. If everything is outbound, how tiring is that? We want to attract.

I had to make my business more attractive by helping my clients, giving them results and speaking at events. I’m doing certain things every single day to become more attractive.

One way I do this is spending 10 to 15 minutes every single day making others feel good through social media. There's a dopamine that gets released in the brain when you like, share and comment on their posts. I have a system for this. Instead of scrolling mindlessly through Facebook, I'm being very intentional with my 10 to 15 minutes a day.

We want to become persons of interest and elevate our status so we can influence more people through our services. We want to help more people. The mindset is not self-serving.

                These are my five habits. What are you going to go do with this content? Pick one that is most relevant to your business right now and put the system to work.