Mapping out life's memories turns entrepreneur into visual eulogist

Showcasing experienced entrepreneurs offers an added marketing communications or social media element to help promote their businesses. In addition, it provides a forum through which they can share solutions to unique business challenges that might be the answer to a similar challenge with which yet another entrepreneur is struggling. This openness of information flows with the following story offered by

Ronnis Oher, owner
LifeMaps - The Story of a Lifetime
www.lifemaps.biz
info@lifemaps.biz
847-398-0187

ABOUT MY BUSINESS
I’ve been called a visual eulogist because I’m in the business of creating customized keepsake treasures called LifeMaps. A LifeMap is a full-color, hand-drawn geographical map that outlines someone’s life. It incorporates their personality traits, their relationships, their major life events and some of their fondest memories. It captures not only the facts of the person’s life, but also who they are/were. The maps are humorous and whimsical featuring mountains, deserts, swamps, rivers, campgrounds, highway and small businesses - all representing a specific story about a person’s life. Yet, at the same time, they can be touching because they not only allow people to see what impact their lives have had on those around them, but also to learn how fondly they are viewed by others in their lives.

MY UNIQUENESS
While I don’t have a great deal of direct competition, what makes my business unique among those who provide a similar product is that I bring great interviewing skills to the project along with a sense of humor and custom creativity which others may not.

IDEAL CLIENT PROFILE
My ideal client would be anyone looking for a special gift for a special person who may be celebrating an anniversary, birthday, graduation, wedding or retirement. That would include corporations and non-profits that are looking for special retirement gifts and awards or visual mission statements or sales presentation handouts. Since LifeMaps make great memorials or family member keepsakes, some of my perfect clients would also be the families of seniors who wish to capture the lives of their loved ones while they still have the opportunity to do so.

UNIQUE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
My greatest challenge seems to be how to close the sale. How to get around a prospect’s saying LifeMaps are not within their budgets without realizing just how economical they are and the lifetime value they provide.

EFFECTIVE RESOLUTION
I approached this obstacle head on by offering a traditional lay-away plan to people. If they have an event coming up in six or nine months down the line, I give them the opportunity to start making payments well in advance so that by the time the day arrives, most of the LifeMap will be paid for. This makes the transaction much more manageable. This seems to help people make the commitment which allows me to introduce more LifeMaps into the lives of more people.

Financial advisory firm recognizes the economics of business operations outsourcing

Showcasing early entrepreneurs offers an added marketing communications or social media element to help promote their businesses. In addition, it provides a forum through which they can guide other aspiring business owners around avoidable obstacles and toward a path of attainable goals. Sharing their insights begins with hearing their stories like the one offered by

Christopher Roberts, Chief Executive Officer
Alchemy Financial Group
www.alchemyfinancialgroup.com
croberts@alchemyfinancialgroup.com
847-852-5000

ABOUT OUR BUSINESS
My partner and I formed Alchemy Financial Group because we wanted to provide comprehensive financial solutions to problems facing people in all walks of life. Some of those concerns include retirement planning, college savings, tax planning, asset protection and asset allocation strategies.

OUR UNIQUENESS
We offer goal-based financial solutions. This means we don’t have blanket recommendations for everyone. We provide unique solutions tailored to each individual. However, what differentiates us the most is our on-going service. We actually make house calls meeting with clients in their homes or offices. If they can’t come to us, we’ll go to them. We also stay in contact with our clients quite often. We’re not just here to invest their money never to be heard from again. We strive to build trusted advisor relationships. We’ve made many friendships among clients because of the extended service we provide.

CLIENT PROFILE
While we don’t have a particular niche market per se, we do a lot of work with teachers and municipal retirees. But, for the most part, we provide services to all people who just want to reach their financial goals and needs. A potential client could have anywhere from $10,000 to $10 million. We have solutions for every size client.

MARKETING OUR SERVICES
We primarily gain new clients through referrals based on the solid reputations that we have among our current clients. We do a little networking and prospecting, but the majority of our business comes from building relationships and the referrals that come from that. We find that Alchemy Financial is perfect for people who have questions about retirement, investments, tax savings, or insurance and need someone who will help them be realistic about their expectations.

SHARED ADVICE
The biggest difference between working for an outside firm and starting Alchemy was that we’re now able to offer solutions based on best available products rather than being tied to those of just one company. We now have many more solutions at our disposal that we can apply to clients’ needs. Looking back, we should have done this years ago. I would tell aspiring entrepreneurs to have confidence in your abilities and to “know what you know.” But, equally important is knowing what you don’t know. Never hesitate to outsource those business functions in which you have no expertise. You need to free up your time to work on more revenue-generating things. In the end, those outsourcing projects will pay for themselves.