I was holding my business back. I was staying comfortably within the framework I had designed. Sure, my business had grown from my original idea but my original idea wasn't very big. And then someone handed me a larger frame and I had to think bigger….

I added a certification to my credentials - a certification that allows me to think bigger and play bigger. Actually, it demands that I do. And I m now fitting what I have been offering into the bigger business and expanding the service I offer.

I started out too small

I started from a very small place - both inside and outside. My web designer complained that her clients didn't know what copy they wanted on their web pages and I said, "I can help with that." So I started positioning my business as a content developer - someone who helps focus services, clarifies navigation, and develops compelling copy for a web page. In the course of that I found myself continually coaching people in the foundational steps of marketing - helping them discover their target market, defining their benefits and features, creating tag lines, etc.

My next marketing step was to expand and offer the clients additional services. So I started coaching people in other marketing strategies and information product development.

And then it all changed. A new frame was offered and I jumped at it.

I'm now playing in a bigger vision - and it's someone else's. And oh, how that has made me grow!

You see, I'm now part of a bigger group and the founder of that group is really thinking big. And now I am too.

Thinking big widens your stance

What I was doing is now just a piece of what I now offer. You see, I've recently been certified by Michael Port to be one of his first Book Yourself Solid Coaches. And Michael is known for Thinking Big. So what happened is that all I was doing in the form of content and web development, and information product development is now a small piece of a coaching a system that helps people get booked solid. See how different that feels?

Expand your vision by joining in another's vision

My vision has been freed to expand because I am now a part of someone else's bigger vision. Coaching the BYS system gives me a powerful method that has already been proven successful. I'm not saying you have to go out and get certified in anything. I am saying that you might want to consider looking around at the bigger players in your field and see how you might add to what you already offer. Place your business in a bigger frame.

My framework changed. I started thinking bigger.

My target market expanded. I raised my red velvet rope policy and upleveled the description of my ideal client

My web site got more focused. I was no longer promoting all the bits and pieces of the many things I do, it all came under one umbrella - the steps it takes to get yourself booked solid.

My pricing and packaging changed. I thought in terms of a 15 week program rather than the shorter segments I had been offering.

My branding changed. I could add credentials that identified me with a very large brand.

My expectations changed. I was coaching a system that was proven to bring success. I now expect even greater results with my clients.

My possibilities expanded. Having certified coaches is only part of Michael's big vision but because I'm in on this next step, I have new opportunities I wouldn't have had by myself. We're offering online interactive coaching services that allows easy financial entry to the BYS program by adding levels of self-coaching, and e-mail coaching to 1:1 coaching. That opens up Michael's work to everyone because the self-coaching can be done online very inexpensively. I will be able to serve people I couldn't before.

My leveraged opportunities expanded. I want to train to teach the BYS program as a teleclass. I have the potential to expand into doing workshops with this work.

All of this is because I widened the framework that was holding my business.

What else can you offer to your clients that places you in a larger frame?

I had already been looking for how I could engage my clients longer. I looked at what services I could offer before they were ready for a web site. I looked for ways to continue helping them after they had received my web content development services. But it was the addition of this new skill set that exploded my vision into a new framework that took me way, way further than anything I had ever conceived of before.

Look outside the box. Look at what others are doing. See how what you are now offering fits into a bigger picture.

Vision from a larger framework and see what doors open. Think bigger, grow bigger be bigger. That's what happens when you place your business in a bigger frame.

© Cara Lumen 2008