growing the business

Making Business Easy & Less Scary for Values-Driven Entrepreneurs

December 27, 2011

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“Thank you, Marcia. You make me feel so brave!”
I’m Marcia Hoeck, and I take the scary out of running a small business, for values-based coaches, consultants, and creatives like you — I fill in with the stuff you didn’t learn in school. The quote above is from one of my clients.

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Work “On” Your Business

July 18, 2011

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Today’s a “Parse” day for me — I’ve got a guest post running on the blog for designers created by Jennifer and Ken Visocky O’Grady and presented by HOW magazine.
Here’s a bit to whet your whistle:
Work “On” Your Business

“I’ve spent the entire past year interviewing, talking to my clients, and studying the landscape, and [...]

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Not Everyone is Telling the Truth, and People I Trust for Coaching and Consulting

June 27, 2011

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Every time I open my email, go to Facebook, or check out Twitter, someone is telling me I can “make 6 figures” or “get all the clients I need.”
You know what I’m talking about. And while a lot of it is really well written (and I love to read good copywriting that pulls me [...]

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A Monday Rant on “Marketing”

April 11, 2011

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**Caution. A Monday afternoon rant is coming up.**
I’m getting just a bit weary of all the people promising the moon these days, aren’t you?
Every time I open my email, go to Facebook, or check Twitter, someone is telling me I can “make 6 figures” or “get all the clients I need.”

It’s just getting so [...]

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Women in Business Radio January 31 — Internet Radio

January 29, 2011

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I had a terrific time on Michele Price’s Women in Business Radio on Monday, talking about my business journey — how and why I’m where I am, my bumps along the road, and what I’ve learned that might help other women.
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Listen to the interview recording through my very own Women in Business Radio page!

Women [...]

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Creating Your Business Vision is Like Using Your GPS

January 26, 2011

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Here’s the analogy I like to use: If you just go out and sit in your car, it’s not going to take you anywhere, is it? But if you know where you are now and you put that information into your GPS, along with the information about where you want to go, and you [...]

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How to Pet the Monster

January 21, 2011

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When you build a business, you’re actually building an entity, separate and apart from yourself and the work you do. It’s a thing, like a child or a pet or a relationship. And it’s helpful to think of it that way.
I actually picture my business like the big blue monster in the 2001 movie, [...]

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Seven Easy ‘Exactly What to Do’ Steps to Take So You Can Enjoy More Time, More Profit, and Get Back to Doing the Stuff You Love

January 18, 2011

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I’m doing a special teleclass tomorrow. It’s about exercising your Business Brain.

Here’s why you might want to listen in:

Have you done wonderful, valuable things for your clients, but haven’t really worked out the framework of your own business?
Do you hold the work you do for clients in such high regard (because you’re [...]

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Get a Jump on Business in the New Year, Now

December 13, 2010

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It’s that icky time for you, when you just kinda want to slide through the rest of the year, isn’t it?
All your friends with “real” jobs are doing it — heck, their brains left their bodies right after the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend. It’s the holiday season — it would be so tempting to turn [...]

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How to Have an Indestructible Business

December 2, 2010

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You’re probably very good at what you do. In fact, that’s why you started your business — because you can do something amazingly well, you have a passion for it, and it really helps people. So far so good.
But every once in awhile, when you’re not doing what you love to do so much [...]

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The Three Phases of a Small Business: Which One are You In?

November 19, 2010

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In my work with small business owners, the same themes keep coming up over and over again, and it’s usually pretty easy to tell where each one is on the entrepreneurial path.
Here are some areas most small businesses get stuck:
getting caught in the weeds,
not having a clear vision,
not monitoring finances properly or at all,
having [...]

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How energy and emotion affect business

November 9, 2010

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You’ve heard that if you talk to your plants, they’ll be healthier and grow better. It’s been scientifically proven with special cameras that can photograph the energy fields of the plant.
During experiments, when a plant was exposed to “dangerous intentions,” its energy field got smaller. When intentions were positive, as when people came to [...]

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My GramMargie’s Solution for Business Inspiration

October 4, 2010

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When was the last time you sat down in person with someone you like, and shared ideas? Not on the phone. Not on a video conference. In person.
My mother was a redhead in a family of redheads. Five kids with fiery tempers and personalities, and they often picked on one another. Mom was the [...]

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Use Emotion to Win Clients

September 27, 2010

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I want to give you a heads up about a guest post I wrote for Parse, the brainchild blog of Jenn and Ken Visocky O’Grady, presented by the very respected HOW magazine.
My newest post is called “Use Emotion to Win Clients,” and I’ll be posting there monthly from here on out.
Here’s an excerpt:
When having [...]

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Recommended Reading List

June 16, 2010

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I was asked for a recommended reading list by several people I met when I was speaking last week in Denver at the HOW Design Conference. Because my topic was “Be a Better Manager: The 3 Major Principles of a Great Team,” this list covers my favorites for management, leadership, business, and some good [...]

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Interview with a Client: Barbara McCollough of Surrogacy Success

May 6, 2010
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Sometimes, to learn a bit more about our own businesses, it helps to learn about others’ businesses, and the challenges they face. Today, my client Barbara McCollough of Surrogacy Success in Boston, Massachusetts, has agreed to an interview. Enjoy!
MH: How would you describe your business? BM: Surrogacy Success provides psychological, emotional, and relational support [...]

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Setting Goals and Actually Achieving Them, Even If You Question the Rules

April 28, 2010
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Okay, I’ll admit it — I’m a pretty traditional gal.
Most of the stuff I talk about is pretty proven, and I try to stay on the path — because I like to know that what I’m doing works. I will question the rules, take things that have been successful in one industry and use [...]

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Attention Coaches! Two Events You Need to Know About

April 27, 2010

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If you’re a coach or are considering adding coaching to your business, there are two things happening soon that you really need to know about.
Both of them are from women I’ve learned from myself, and whom I admire. And both of them will give you insight and inspiration — things I love to get [...]

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“True Listening” Can Really Help You Learn Faster and Better

April 15, 2010

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Here’s a great piece of advice I picked up from my friend Marie Forleo — it’s called “true listening,” and it’s much more powerful than it sounds. It helps to train your attention muscles, and if you can train your attention muscles while you’re reading blog posts and articles, listening to teleclasses or speakers, [...]

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Three Secrets No One Talks About to Get Your Business Running More Smoothly, Work Fewer Hours, and Make More Money

April 13, 2010

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I’m guessing you started your business because you have a passion for something, or you have a special skill or talent, and you want to be able to make a living doing it — because it makes your heart sing.
Maybe you made a conscious effort to start the business, maybe it found you, or [...]

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Are You Ready to Grow?

April 11, 2010

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‘ve been thinking a lot these past few weeks.
About what I want. About what you want. About
life and work in general. About stripping everything
down to the basics, and skipping all the BS.
I’m so tired of all the hype and sales tactics and
the “next best thing” that I want to tear my hair out.
But I [...]

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Get Real: 7 Steps to Real Business Growth

March 30, 2010
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You get that I’m not just another internet marketer, right? If you’ve been on my newsletter list any time at all, or if you’ve read my blog before, or if you’ve been to one of my teleclasses, you know that I didn’t just learn internet marketing and decide I’m going to sell you something [...]

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Did You Catch My Twitterview with @HOWbrand’s Bryn Mooth? Apply for Your No-Cost Consultation Here!

February 4, 2010

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You’re in the right place — here’s where you can apply for the no-cost 30-minute “Unstuckness” consultations you heard Bryn and I talking about during our Twitter interview February 4th.
Here’s the deal:

Even though it’s well past, it would still be cool if you’d Tweet about our Twitterview, or RT our Tweets (at least once) [...]

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How Do You Limit Yourself?

January 5, 2010
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I’ve been talking in-depth to a lot of entrepreneurs over the last few weeks, and I’m more convinced than ever that we should be classified as a subspecies of humanity. There are just so many ways that we’re like each other — and unlike everybody else.
But what has been coming through the loudest is [...]

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