We sometimes hear, “My business or profession is not what I AM, it’s what I DO.” But is your business really some completely separate entity?

If you’re a one-person business, I will argue that your business is, at the very least, an extension of you, a reflection, a representation, of what and who you are. Your business embodies your personal value system, beliefs and principles.

Your business will never express values or principles that are significantly different from your own. Nor would you ever want it to.

And you must make sure that your business never, in the interests of making more money, violates or misrepresents your values and principles.

Of course, for one-person businesses, this is pretty easy to do. But if you have a business partner, or employees who have contact with your customers or clients, then it’s somewhat less easy to do, because your image becomes a composite of different people’s values and principles, and becomes another thing that needs to be “managed”.

In any case, everything about you, and about your business, carries an “energy signature” – a perception of what you and your business ARE. Why is it called an energy “signature”, and not just “energy”? Think of it this way – if you speak your name, it’s pretty quickly gone (assuming it wasn’t recorded). But if you SIGN your name, it’s kind of permanent. And impressions (especially first ones) tend to linger and not be forgotten very quickly.

Every part and piece of your image and persona matter, because all carry an impression, a signature, which tells people whether they want to get to know you, whether or not they will end up liking you, and whether or not it’s a safe to trust you.

So get really clear on your values and principles, and write them down. And make them the foundation of your business.

 This is a guest post by Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach. Tom helps entrepreneurs and small businesses develop and execute marketing plans. He specializes in website usability and effectiveness.

Remove SELLING from your vocabulary. 

But keep SALES. 

You don’t need to convince, persuade, manipulate or arm-twist anyone to buy your stuff – you just need to FIND the people who are already willing and able to buy.  And there are more of them than you can possibly handle!  Find them, and SALES will happen.

Marketing is the process of making SELLING unnecessary.

This is a guest post by Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach. Tom helps entrepreneurs and small businesses develop and execute marketing plans. He specializes in website usability and effectiveness.

Tom Harris shares the secret of where to find happiness. Enjoy!

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Tom Harris discusses the Goodness Index and how we can each do our simple part to raise the world’s level.

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The strategies being taught at the InSights Group work for many different types, sizes and styles of business. Organic Marketing™ will work for anyone because it’s all about organic growth and opportunity strategies.

Among the members of the InSights Group, Tom Harris of Xn Marketing (pronounced “zen”) always stands out from the crowd. Bringing his unique talents to the table, he is always the first to offer a suggestion or a helping hand. Let’s hear Tom’s take on some of the Organic Marketing™ strategies that are helping to shape his business.

Tom first and foremost considers himself a Marketing Coach. He helps small businesses develop customized marketing plans. The key to working with Tom is the follow-up and accountability he provides, which he assures us is essential for a plan to be implemented. As a public speaker, Toastmasters member, and co-founder of Fearless Presenter Workshop (helping individuals overcome their fear of public speaking) Tom has an incredible message to share about marketing and website effectiveness. His book, set for release in the Fall of 2009, will feature his expertise and focus on aspects of website usability.

When asked about his favorite parts of what he does, Tom’s answer is “Creating new ideas and watching them affect people’s businesses.” These effects also include watching the growth and expansion of his own business. Tom’s favorite part, and one that will be very obvious when you meet him based on the excitement in his voice, is being in front of a group of people and teaching.

Xn Marketing was founded in January of 2009. As a marketing coach, Tom is able to bring together expertise in many related areas, packaging them in an understandable way, and being able to help small business owners navigate the new marketing arenas. When asked what Tom has recently changed as a result of working with the InSights Group Organic Marketing™ strategies, Tom reports that he has started doing serious networking, serious reading and studying, working on his social media presence, and generally expanding his contact base (“sphere of influence”).  Tom says, “InSights Group has been the single greatest influence in shaping my strategies and the direction of my business.”

Tom has realized “how much there is to learn about marketing, because the world of marketing has been turned upside down by new Internet technologies.”  He has also realized the huge need to “disseminate all this new information to small business owners who are pressed for time and don’t know where to start to learn it all.  That realization was the impetus for developing my marketing seminars and writing my book.  I’ll have another book about small business marketing out by the end of the year.”

Organic Marketing™ starts at the foundation with the most important person at the core. Tom Harris, as the center of his business, is here to help small business owners, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs be more successful through effective marketing.

If you would like more information about Tom, or how to work with him, please visit the following sites:

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