Madonna, David Bowie, Prince, and most recently Radiohead have all developed the art of giving something away, knowing that they’ll receive something back.

The artists have all either given away or allowed low-cost or free downloads of their music, through a variety of channels like bundling the single into the local newspaper, or offering the entire CD for purchase for a price that you, the customer sets.

In Radiohead’s case, they sold 1.2 million copies within 1 week of releasing their latest, In Rainbows. Without a set price, some thought that they wouldn’t make any money at all, but in fact their average sale was $8USD.

What are some things you can do to give away your product, your expertise, or your consulting advice? Consider that the “freebies” that you send your potential customers acts as a “sampler:” they have an opportunity to get a sense of you and your services, and you reach a wide base. This is why Costco offers tasters at the end of each aisle in the frozen foods section, why Trader Joe’s has a sampler appetizer section, and why Whole Foods allows you to try their produce.

One effective way that this comes into play is promotions like with Netflix, which typically encourages friends and family of existing customers to try their service for free for 30 days. At the end of 30 days, many are “hooked” and continue on with the service. Another example is RingCentral, which we use for our toll-free number and our fax services: they allow new users to try the service out and make sure it suits their needs. If it does, a potential customer turns into a long-term customer. If not, a potential customer just walks away.

If you’re pleased with your services and products and you believe in them, how will you share that with others? You might consider any of the following:

1) Offer pro bono services for a local charity
2) Offer pro bono services to a local event
3) Write a free e-book available for download
4) Create a “resources” section for tips on your own website.
5) Offer high quality links to partners, associates, and other related vendors
6) Write for a blog where you analyze trends in your industry or in your line of work
7) Run a social event that promotes a local cause or candidate: and offer your company or business as the primary sponsor
8) Join a club or group related to your work and serve in an officer or organiational position
9) Set up a roundtable with other professionals, make it invitation-only, and put your heads together to work on each others’ issues
10) Sponsor a day that focuses on your business (e.g. cell phone recycling day, paper shredding day, free eye exam day, etc.)

Think of at least four different ideas that will promote yourself this year, and implement them on a quarterly basis. With evaluation, see which of these tools work well and fine-tune your model so that you are able to share your knowledge, increase your customer base, and receive significant profits.

As women in business, we are pillars in our community. We have many connections, we often serve in leadership roles on boards or within citizenship, political, and school groups, and we’re usually tapped because of our “can-do” attitude and ability to get things done.

I want to encourage you to find out ways to volunteer your gits and talents and skills within your community, or online thorugh a larger non-geographic effort.

When you’re really good at what you do, and you love to do it, your ability to share that knowledge with others shines through: you become a true resource to others, and when you volunteer and take away the need for money to be a part of the equation, you allow many people who might not otherwise afford it the opportunity to take advantage of your services and products.

I invite you to increase your giving to 10% of your efforts each year: this might mean 10% of staff time, or 10% of net profits, or one free client consultation for every ten that come through your doors.

When you volunteer, you experience the following five major benefits:

1) You increase the circle of people who know you. This gives you insight into people you might not necessarily meet in a ‘regular’ way. Also, your expanded circle may lead to valuable recommendations and referrals in the future.

2) You increase the list of “hands-on work” you’ve accomplished to your resume or list of credentials. With additional work experience, you become even more knowledgeable and valuable to others needing your skills.

3) You have additional opportunity to exercise and improve your skills. With feedback from a volunteer group, you will find candid and forthright answers to some questions that you might not get from customer feedback surveys. Gain valuable understanding about your products or service offerings when you volunteer them.

4) You feel part of an extended community of others who value you and appreciate your efforts. All of us benefit when we increase our circle of connections and inter-dependent links to people, places, issues, and causes.

5) You make a real difference in someone else’s life as a volunteer.

You might be doing some catch-up legal or accounting work for a nonprofit, you may be serving as a board chair, you may be donating products from your warehouse, or you may be a Big Brother or Big Sister to one child who needs you. Regardless of your volunteer efforts, your life outlook and will improve, and your business, in turn, will receive a boost of recognition, enthusiasm, and community focus.

As a special notice, I do NOT advocate you volunteering unless you truly feel that it is beneficial. Too many of us, as women in business, may fall into the trap of over-volunteering or overextending ourselves. When you are in a position where too much of your time is spent on nonpaying projects, you may start to feel resentful or overburdened. If this is the case for you, FALL BACK! Pull out of volunteer commitments where you are not able to fulfill duties, and pull away from events, people, or groups that do not allow you to feel productive and resourceful. I only advocate volunteering when you are in a position of being able to share the very best of your abilities, to the benefit of all parties.

Don’t sell yourself short, but also don’t forget about your community. A good balance of paid work and volunteer work will help enhance your entire outlook on life. Find that balance!

The world overflows with abundance, and there are many ways for you to be able to share, create, add value, and be prosperous. When listing out goals for the new year, many people decide that they’d like to be millionaires, and they often take steps like investing in an e-book, “proven system,” or home-based business opportunity to achieve that goal.

Sometimes, a lofty goal drops down to a less important level and eventually falls off the table, with any money invested into the dream discarded or written off as a loss. The same pattern may refer to relationships, health and wellness, personal goals, career plans, or anything that requires envisioning, measuring, and achieving.

I’m here to give you some ideas on achieving your million dollar goal.

If you break down the numbers, a million dollars (in receipts) every year is:
$83,333 per month

The average American income per year is between $30k and $60k, so when we reach the level of thinking like a millionaire, we’re definitely thinking above average, out of the box, on the cutting edge, in the top 10 percent.

What is your million dollar idea? Or, putting it a different way, what idea do you have for a product or service that you will sell each month to 83,333 people for $1?

How about an idea for a product or service that you will sell to 8,333 people for $10 apiece, each month? Or 20,000 customers every month for $5 apiece?

How about an idea for a product or service that you will sell to 900 people each month for $100 apiece? What about 1500 people each month for $60 apiece?

Now we’re seeing some creative juices flowing!

An alternative is to do high dollar value projects, such as twelve products a month for $8000 apiece, one customer each month paying $100,000, or two customers each year worth $500k each.

In most people’s current jobs, they’re capable of serving one, two, ten, or twenty clients. However, with a business serving up patented products that sell in the thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions, or with a commission or sale of a valuable service, you may easily move $80k worth in a month, every month.

Your biggest objective when coming up with your million-dollar goal is setting up your targeted income streams to total $83,333 each month. This might mean product sales (say, three separate products at $16k a month apiece), speaking engagements ($5000 each month), commissions on sales for $10k each month, and memberships, gadgets or geegaws, client services or some other valuable service selling for $20k each month and you’ve hit a million dollars in gross receipts every year.

If you’re smart, you’ll also not take this as taxable income but instead invest it in your company or series of companies, and you start to see some incredible ways for you to increase your net worth, hire people to do good work, and serve the causes and issues about which you care the most.

Now you may start looking in the tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or billion-dollar range.

That would be $830k of sales every month, or $8.3 million in sales each and every month, or $83 million in sales every month. As my second-grade enrichment education teacher would tell us: “Put your thinking caps on, it’s time to come up with an idea.”