Realgoalgetter Business Blog

Memberships Sites Can Be Profitable

2011-05-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

Is Starting a Membership Site for You?

The Internet is the ultimate 'equal opportunity employer'. Anybody can start a membership business on the Internet.

All that is needed is a subject, a website and the tools to build the site. You can start a membership website business but the question is should you? Can you make any money at it?

Many people that decide to start a home based membership website business are destined to fail, because their motivation and expectations are completely unrealistic. Before you attempt to start a membership website business you need to do a reality check, and some research.

First, if you really think that you can build a couple of web pages, invest little or no money, time or effort and start making an income tomorrow, you are so wrong.

Building a business…any business…takes time. It also takes a monetary investment, a lot of effort and energy, and, above all else, patience, passion for the theme of the website, and a drive for success.

Almost equally important is the need to have realistic economic expectations when undertaking a home based membership website business.

A membership site internet business provides many rewards such as working in the comfort of your own home, avoiding a stressful commute, being your own boss, setting your own hours, no dress code, etc., etc., but anyone that is also expecting instant riches could be sadly mistaken.

Study the opportunities of a membership website model carefully. Select the product or service that you are passionate about, that seems to fit your own particular interests or talents. What is a good choice for one person may be a very poor fit for someone else.

The common thread that applies to everyone is that you must passionately believe in what you are doing and anything less than total commitment isn’t enough.

Prepare properly. Faiilure comes to those that seek easy money.

Membership sites are extremely popular these days and there are those who pay good money every month to the people who service them with what they are looking for.

If you are interested in learning more about internet marketing and starting up your own membership business online, check out ImproveYourIncomeOnline.com

Use Resell Rights Products For FREE Giveaways

2011-05-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

Using Private Label Article Resell Rights to Your Advantage

In recent years, there has been a large amount of focus placed on private label resell rights. Private label resell rights are when an individual agrees to purchase the right to resell the product, often from the product’s original creator.

The buyer of those resell rights is then able to make a profit every time they sell that product or a version of it. Many individuals have capitalized on the success of private label resell rights and now you may also be able to.

If you were to search the internet for private label resell rights offers, it is likely that you will find an unlimited number of offers and business opportunities. Most of those offers are likely to include software programs or e-books.

While private label resell rights exist for a wide variety of different products, some products are better known than others. In a way, some products are considered “well kept secrets,” if you are interested in profiting from one of those secrets, you are advised to examine private label articles and the resell rights that you can purchase for them.

When it comes to private label articles, many of them are written by professional freelance writers and in large quantities. Many of these writers enjoy writing the articles, but they do not enjoy trying to sell them.

That is where the resell right opportunity develops. Instead of selling their articles to a prospective buyer, they sell their articles to someone who has the time and the knowledge needed to the make sales.

If you are interested in taking part in this money making opportunity, you are encouraged to get started. One great source for buying articles to resell is www.ArticleWholesaler.com. As of right now, many entrepreneurs are looking to obtain the private label resell rights to e-books or software programs.

Many are not even aware that there is a large market for mass content articles. In fact, you may even be wondering who you would go about selling those articles to and how. In short, the answer is everyone. You will want to target the general public, but there are groups of individuals that you should, without a doubt, target. These individuals are the webmasters.

Webmasters are known as individuals that have either created or are currently operating a website, often times that website is their own. In today’s world, websites need to have interesting content, often in the form of articles.

Many times, this content is used to make a website more user friendly, but other times it is used to increase a website’s search engine ranking. Search engine ranking is important because, in a way, it determines how many internet users will be able to make it to the site.

Depending on the type of website in question, a high search engine ranking may help a webmaster earn more money.

There is also a chance that you are concerned with selling the content. The internet is full of duplicated content and many webmasters prefer to purchase their own unique articles, but that does not mean that you cannot give them what they want.

When a freelance writer places their article resell rights up for sale, many writers are giving up ownership to those articles. In a way, those articles become yours. This means that you should be able to alter them in anyway that you see fit. The more you alter an article, bit by bit each time, the more you can sell it as unique content.

Once you have obtained the resell rights to a collection of articles, you can then begin to shop for buyers. There are a number of different ways that you can do this. You can seek out potential webmasters by viewing their online websites.

If the content you have is suitable, you may be able to make a sale. You can also advertise a collection of articles through online classified ads or by placing them for sale on online auction websites. The method of sale you choose will all depend on how much you want to work and how much money you want to make.

To make the most out of this opportunity, you are urged to act fast. It won’t be too long before others realize what a money making opportunity it is to buy and resell private label articles.

Check out TheIMDepot.com for Resell Rights Training And FREE Ebooks Weeekly to help you grow your online business.

Get More Money For Your Quality Products!

2010-03-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

Another great article on Quality Product Pricing on The Realgoalgetter Site.
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"Why Do I Charge So Much? Because I Can." Motivating with Value, Not Price - By Barry Maher

It's axiomatic that every business, every manager, every employee, every one of us is in sales, in one form or another. Of course, for companies with sales teams, we expect the "real selling" to be done by the sales professionals.

I'll never forget the day I watched a secretary outsell a team of sales veterans.

The company sold consulting services. That morning I'd met with some of their less successful reps. Most of them knew exactly why they weren't selling. "Our prices are just too damn high," they assured me repeatedly. I'd heard it before.

As we all know, price is often the single biggest obstacle for acquiring new business. It's also the number one excuse of unsuccessful marketing and salespeople.

Now, I was riding with Helen Daniels, secretary to the boss and the person who'd handled new business inquiries before the pros had been hired: handled them, I'd been told, with great success. I wanted to see just how she'd done it.

We were meeting with the VP of Operations of a good size uniform company. Sure enough when the issue of price came up, the VP acted exactly as the reps had predicted, using almost the exact same words they'd used.

"Sounds to me like you people are awful damn expensive," he said, accusingly.

"Absolutely," Helen agreed, offering her brightest smile.

"So why do you charge so much?"

"Simple," she said. "Because we can!"

"What?"

"We charge that much because we can. Because our clients are not just willing but happy to pay those kind of rates for the results we generate."

"But can't they find someone else to do the job for less?"

"Absolutely."

"Somebody who will do the exact same job for less?"

"Well, they could certainly find companies that will charge less. I'm no expert on the kind of work these people might do, so I really can't say whether or not they'll do the exact same job."

"So you're saying, You get what you pay for?"

"No," she smiled, "I'm saying to get us, you've got to pay for us. I really don't know that much about the kind of work these other companies do. Or why they charge less. Maybe you should ask them.

I don't know a lot of businesses that charge less if they could charge more, but maybe they're humanitarians."

"I seriously doubt that," VP said.

"Well, like I say, I'm no authority about their work. We charge more because our clients are happy to pay more for the results we generate. Maybe these other companies charge less because that's what their clients are willing to pay for the results they generate."

"But your rates . . . ?"

"Expensive."

"VERY expensive."

"Exactly. And worth every penny. And let me tell you why." Which she then preceded to do.

That's Making the Skeleton Dance. Helen took the potential negative of price and bragged about it so hard she not only made that skeleton dance, she made it polka. Twenty-five minutes later we walked out of there with a signed contract.

Aside from being a top motivational speaker, Barry Maher speaks, writes and consultants on management, communications and sales. This article is adapted from his book, "No Lie: Truth Is the Ultimate Sales Tool" (McGraw-Hill, 2004).

Contact him by visiting http://www.barrymaher.com.

Sign up for his free newsletter by sending a blank email to mailto:barrymaher-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
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Check out our sister site Improve Your Income Online for more on business topics.

Tips To Banish Burnout For Work At Home Business People

2009-12-12T14:38:00.000-08:00

Banish Work at Home Burnout – Tips to Keep You Going

Burnout can be a byproduct of long hours, hard work, little appreciation, and more and more work dumped on you at the most inopportune times. It can be found in any job, any career field, and in almost any work situation. It is not surprising then that even those who appear to be living the American Dream, namely working from home complete with fuzzy slippers on their feet, and favorite coffee mugs by sides, still suffer from work at home burnout.

Fortunately there are some things you can do to banish the work at home burnout, which may be easier to accomplish since you are your own boss. Here are some tried and true tips to keep you going:

Use the proper equipment. For example, if you are freelance writer and you are required to submit your writing in a certain format, it is wise to own the software that will permit you to complete the assignment.

If your computer was new when Bill Gates first took the computing world by storm, and you need to pre-write everything on old software and then take it to a friend’s house to convert it into the correct format, you will most likely get burned out on that process rather quickly.

So make sure that you have the adequate tools you need to do the work. Similarly, if you will be working a large amount of time at your computer, but you do not have a computer desk and instead sit hunched over the keyboard and suffer from back pain for the rest of the evening, you will once again burn out much quicker than if you have ergonomically correct equipment.

Set your work hours and stick to them. Sure, it is tempting to take Fluffy for a walk in the woods, the kids to the water park, and do a million household chores before sitting down and doing your work, but remember that you cannot do it all.

No matter what clever advertisers try to sell you, the answer is “no” – you cannot have it all and you cannot do it all. The notion of super-mom or super-dad is a figment of the imagination that has nothing to do with reality. If you work from home, you will need to set your hours and stick to them. This means negotiating with your family, friends, and yourself.

For example, if you are working part-time from home, and require four hours of work every day to keep up with your responsibilities, it is up to you to decide if you want to do these four hours in one sitting, or divide them up into two two-hour blocks. No matter what works best for you, make a plan and stick to it.

Do something you like, rather than something you endure. Opening that home daycare may have sounded like a great idea at the time, but if you suddenly find that you dread the idea of having a house full of screaming children you will need to think about doing something else with your time. There is no shame in trying out a business only to find later that it does not suit you.

Once your office hours are done, do not fall into the trap of working longer. It is easy to do, but it will not net you as much success as you hope. As a matter of fact, you will find yourself burning out even quicker than if you had just stuck to your schedule.

Reward yourself and take a day off. Look at the work you need to accomplish and try to apportion it so that you can take a day off here and there. If you have to work every day in order to meet your goals and expectations, you might need to realign them with real life. You still want to have a social life, a family life, and just some me-time that does not require you to do work.

It is easy to see why home workers suffer from burnout just like their counterparts that drive to an office or other business location every day. It is just as easily seen that with a little bit of planning, and some restructuring of your workday, you will be able to banish the work at home burnout, keep going, and achieve every one of your goals!

Benefits Of Time Management Training For Profit Stressed Companies

2008-09-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

Time Management Training Means Savings For Profit Distressed Companies

With so many businesses taking so many drastic cost cutting measures, it is strange to see how few of them really look deeply into the benefits of time management. Effective management of time is like effective management of any other resources – it can save your company a huge amount of money if it is properly implemented.

With the huge cost of outsourcing and moving operations overseas, it seems like every measure should be taken at home to improve efficiency before such a drastic solution is proposed.

Of course, performance management is nothing new. Although the modern understanding of the benefits of time management is a little bit different than as it was originally conceived, the concept still goes back about as far as Henry Ford and the invention of the assembly line.

Back then, workers were clocked to see how efficiently they were putting together cars. Various steps were taken to improve the program constantly, resulting in less work for the same product.

The benefits of time management are easy to see on an assembly line. In an office environment, however, time management benefits can be a little bit less apparent. This does not mean that they are not important! The benefits of time management will show up in the books, but it will take a while.

After all, the tasks that people have are usually a little bit less concrete. Rather than manufacturing a car, you have to type up financial reports, communicate with clients, and do other similar business tasks.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of time management is on the individual performance and job satisfaction of any particular worker. Without effective time management training, increased job duties can seem overwhelming.

After all, when a worker is used to getting a certain amount accomplished in a single day, adding additional tasks on is never welcome. To do that without giving them training on how to accomplish other tasks is not only unrealistic, it is also unreasonable and unfair.

The benefits of time management training are that they allow you to provide a way to ease workers into taking on additional responsibilities. If you provide them with adequate training, they will be able to cope.

If not, you can often lose some of your best, most seasoned employees to greener fields. No matter what employee benefits you offer, if you stress them out too much, or stretch their time too thin, they will leave for another company.

This has been proven over time . . . and downsizing puts unwelcome pressure on non time management trained personnel. If you want to keep these seasoned employees, help them adjust to the new priorities. Just my 2 cents . . .

Al Smith

Income Opportunities - Are You Ready For Them When They Come?

2008-06-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

Opportunity Knocks Daily

You've heard people say that opportunity only knocks once. I say it knocks a thousand times, or at least it can. The problem is, we often don't listen, we don't see, or we don't want to work. The biggest problem, though, is that opportunity really isn't opportunity, if you're not ready for it.

A couple I know had a business handed to them for free. The owner didn't want to deal with it anymore, even though it made money. He had other things going on in his life. He couldn't just call it quits, however, because the lease on the building had nine months to go. This is where my friends enter the story. Why did they have a business given to them?

They listened, and let the man tell his story. They looked at the business, and saw the opportunity. They worked, doing what it took to benefit from their "good luck." The owner agreed to give them the business if they would simply take over the lease on the building.

Get Ready For Opportunity

The biggest reason "opportunity knocked" however, includes the others, and goes beyond them: They were ready. They had a little bit of money to handle the transition, they had previous experience with a small business, and they were willing to learn what they needed to learn.

A friend once said that our mutual acquaintance John was "so lucky" to get a $6,000 car for $2,000 at an auction. I mentioned that John went to the auction regularly, that he had made himself familiar with car values, and that he always kept some money available for such opportunities. It didn't seem to register with my friend.

He could have been "so lucky," too, but he had to be ready. He could have saved $2,000, or obtained a credit card with a high enough limit, or arranged with someone to borrow the money and split the profits when deals like this came up. Not having done any of these things, there was no opportunity here for him.

When you want opportunity to come knocking, aren't there always ways you can prepare? If you want to be lucky in love, you comb your hair, right?

If you want opportunities in the stock market, start studying, setting aside money to invest, and exploring the possibilities.

Get ready for opportunity, and it will come more often.

By Steve Gillman

Steve Gillman writes on many self help topics including boosting brainpower, losing weight, meditation, habits of mind, creative problem solving, learning grattitude, generating luck and anything related to self improvement.

You'll find more at: http://www.selfimprovementnow.com

Want To See The Top 50 Business Plan Posts Of The Year?

2008-06-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, I was just taking it easy this morning, browsing some forums, blogs, sites, etc. I came across a gem for business people looking for information on how to form business plans for their company. And everyone knows how important it is to have a business plan, right?

Once you set your business goals, why, you must make up plans to achieve them, right? You would be surprised how many people just skip over this step. (Are you one of them? I have been guilty of this myself. GRINS.)

Anyway, back to the point. Here is a post outlining The Top 50 Business Plan Posts Of The Year on Evan Carmichael's site. They have literally searched through the internet and came up with what they thought were the best business plan posts created.

So if you are looking to be successful in business of any type, go over there and check it out. Nuff said. See you later.

Al

Private Label Rights Content Strategies From Joseph Ratcliff

2008-06-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

Last month I posted an article about Private Label Products.

One of the blogs I follow from Joseph Ratcliff, posted a series of articles about PLR Content and how to make money with it, and includes some pretty solid strategies in using PLR (PLR = Private Label Rights) content.

Here are the links to his PLR series. Take some notes. This guy really knows his stuff.

How To Make Money With PLR Content - 1

How To Find The Best PLR Content - 2

How To Create Unique Products Using PLR Content - 3

OK, I am taking the rest of the day off . . . didn't I just say that earlier?

See you soon.

Al

FREE Sales Letter Template And Checklist - Alice Seba is an Internet Marketing Sweetie

2008-06-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share a great chance to download the copy for a sales letter template and checklist from Alice Seba.

Hurry over to Free Download: Sales Letter Template & Checklist before she changes her mind, comes to her senses, and starts charging for this awesome information! LOL!

Just that for today folks. A quickie from Al.

Create Interest For Your Product With A Great Sales Letter

2008-04-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

Top Ten Ways to Write a Sales Letter for Each Product or Service

Perhaps you have a book out, or a wonderful service that helps people make their lives better. Authors/publishers are great at getting their books written. Entrepreneurs know their products. But after the initial one-year honeymoon, sales slow down.

To counter this make sure your ebook, product, or service you offer will keep on selling from the first day, the first year, even for life. Write a short sales letter for each product or ebook.

Whether you have a Web site or not, you can write a first class, must-buy-now sales letter. Write one for each teleclass, eBook, product, or service. I even write one for my bookcoaching services.

If you are like me and have a Web site, it is content driven. Why? Because that's why people come to any site--to get free information. You must also give them a reason to buy. Most home pages say too much about the author or the book instead of intriguing their potential buyers with a benefit- driven headline, which in turns leads them to the benefits of their books--the sales letter.

My first Web site had many fine books and kits in personal growth and book writing and marketing. Sales never went over $200 a month. To correct that, I created a new site and paid special attention to its sales language (without hype) for each teleclass, eBook, and book coaching opportunities to suit each income and need. Sales were $75 the first month, and in four months they reached $2265. One year later, and today, over $4000 a month. You can boost your sales too.

What Every Sales Letter Needs to Pull Orders and Profits

You can write each sales letter in less than four hours the first time. As you practice, you can write them in two hours.

1. Start the Letter with a Benefit-Driven Headline.

Include these headlines throughout your sales letter. "Want a quick and easy way to quadruple your Online Income in Four Months?

If you answered, "yes" to yourself, the headline succeeds, because you will keep reading. If you said "No, I don't believe this, " but I'm curious where this is going," the headline still succeeds. You win when your headline seduces your potential customer to read on in your sales letter to discover your product's benefits and features, some fine testimonials, and finally to click "buy now" which takes them to the order page.

2. List the Top Five Benefits of your Product or Service in bullet form.

To define your top benefits start with a list of problems your client or customer wants solutions for. Each specific problem you answer can be labeled a benefit. If you are not rock sure of who your audience is, your sales copy dribbles away and doesn't meet its target. Keep redefining your audience and know as much about them as you can.

Remember that one benefit is the top undeniable benefit—usually more money easier, more clients faster, more profits from Web sales, better relationships, and health.

If you have more than five benefits collected in a list, sprinkle the rest throughout your copy. How will your book make someone's life easier, richer in time or money, help their personal growth, provide additional income, entertain them? How will your product or service make them a better business person, more attractive, feel better, avoid catastrophe, sickness, or surgery?

3. Address your Potential Buyer's Resistances.

Remember to tell a background story of where they are NOW so they will emotionally connect with your solutions (the product or service). Let's say they want to write an eBook or print book to make themselves the "expert," make life-long passive income, or share their unique message.

Many people don't write a book because they doubt it will sell well enough for all the effort, it may not be significant enough, it will take too long, cost too much money, and they really aren't writers. One, by one, your sales letter addresses their concerns and shows these potential buyers how they can become an excellent author and make their books more saleable, while building their profits.

4. Sprinkle Testimonials Throughout your Sales Letter.

Potential buyers who visit your site or another one that sells your products are more pulled to buy when they think other people have already. If other people are happy with your product or service, they will be too.

Include testimonials from experts in your field, celebrities, man/woman on the street, and other people who have profited from your advice. Learn how to approach influential contacts through email friendly notes and requests. Ask them to look at and give their opinion on your table of contents, one chapter, and your back cover or sales letter information

Give as you receive. Give that person something of value. Study their Web site or read their ezine, and send them a short helpful tip or joke.

5. Offer your potential clients three or four chances to buy.

They may have already decided to buy before coming to your sales letter, so offer a "Click Here," "Buy Now" near the top of the letter. Offer more buying opportunities along the way after a list of benefits, what's in this book (features),and testimonials.

6. End your Sales Letter with your 100% Money-Back Guarantee.

When you offer an iron-clad guarantee, people see your book as so valuable that you put yourself on the line for it. They will be more likely to buy and be satisfied with their purchase.

"This product comes with a 100% Money Back Guarantee. Read the book cover to cover, and if the strategies don't work for you within 60 days, we'll cheerfully refund your money, and you can keep the product too!"

7. Make your Sales Letter Credible.

To boost sales, authors need to add free bonus reports related to their book. Make sure your free bonus reports do not cost more than the price of your product. Would you believe this offer "order this for $49 now and receive 4 special bonus reports worth $395?"

8. Share the downside of your book to create empathy.

For example, "this ebook won't write the book for you, or even get it published, but it will show you the steps and resources to write compelling copy, finish fully and sell well."

9. Include your expert credentials

"I spent 6 months researching this book and 3 months writing it. My background includes 23 years coaching, presenting 80 writing seminars a year, and 52 published clients since 1999."

Without a sales letter to guide your potential buyers on your Web site, you leave them bored, uninspired, without enough information to make that decision to buy. Your Web site and ezine must entertain, inform, and give enough benefits to convince your readers to order your book.

For all email promotion campaigns, without a short or long sales letter for each product, your unique, useful and inspiring information will not get read, people won't know you as the expert, and you won't make the sales you want.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach Bk The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Targeted Web Traffic free 2 monthly ezines, "The Book Coach Says. . .," and "Business Tip of the Month." at http://www.bookcoaching.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judy_Cullins

Communication In Business, Are You Asking The Right Questions

2008-03-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

The 7 Keys to Asking Clients the Right Questions

The secret to successful communication in business and in everyday life is asking the right questions. Understanding the value of effective questioning is probably the single most dominant factor in achieving business success. The way to learn about what people need is to ask a question and then listen carefully to the answer.

What do Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, and Barbara Walters all have in common? They are all great interviewers. They have the uncanny ability to make people feel comfortable and talk by asking the right questions. The bottom line is that customer and prospects will gladly volunteer information about what they think they want in pricing, products and services if you ask the right questions.

The more questions you ask, the more the customer or prospect will talk, which allows you to uncover their “hot buttons”. Remember, approximately 90 percent of customers and prospects think about themselves first.

To start, you should always remember the 7 keys to good questioning. It’s a matter of being clever, and being direct. How better to accomplish this than to utilize these 7 keys:

1. Why?
For example: Why would you choose software A over software B for your small business expenses?

2. Who?
For example: Who would you recommend this product to and why?

3. Where?
For example: Where did you first hear about my small business?

4. When?
When were you hoping to have project A completed?

5. What?
What troubleshooting issues have you discovered while using this program?

6. How?
How do you feel about our new shipping policy?

7. Is it?
Is it alright if I contact you in the future if I need more information?

You’ve probably already noticed that number 7, “is it” isn’t one of the standard questions that you consider when you think of posing questions, but “is it” allows you to verify what you have learned by listening carefully to the answers to keys number 1-6.

Confirming and verifying what customers are saying demonstrates to them that you are listening carefully to what is being said, and reassures them that their input matters. It also allows you to better absorb and synthesize what is being stated so that you can put it into its best application.

There is an art to asking the questions. While using the 7 keys to good questions does get you off to a good start, you have to remember to keep things well focused, so that the responses that you receive will be tailored to what you are seeking to discover.

Most people have a natural tendency to pose very general questions. However, while conducting business, you need to aim to ask questions that are as detailed as possible, so that you will receive a better response, and so that the person with whom you are speaking will know you are a good listener.

Keep in mind, also, that just because a question is detailed, doesn’t mean that it has to be verbose in any way. Rather, it must simply be worded in a way so that the right information is provided within the response.

For example, if someone were to ask you “how do you start a small business?” that would leave you in a bit of a lurch with regards to what to say and where to start. Additionally, it will necessarily lead to a number of other questions that negate the purpose of asking the original question in the first place: more detailed questions.

Don’t waste the time of the person to whom you are asking questions, don’t waste your own time, and keep confusion to a minimum. A better question with which to begin may have been something more detailed such as: “How do you start a small mail order business in Richmond, Virginia, that deals in laptop computers?” Notice the difference?

The foundation to asking good questions and achieving a wealth of practical answers is to apply the 7 keys in a direct and detailed manner. They allow you to get to the root of your question, so that you will gain the information and direction that you need to take specific action.

Robert Moment is a successful business and success strategist and author of “It Only Takes a Moment to Score”, which is available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Robert shows entrepreneurs how to avoid becoming a statistic and turn their ideas into wealth and have FUN ! Grab a copy of his Free Special Report, “17 Profitable Ways to Turn Your Content into Money”. Visit: http://www.sellintegrity.com/

Are Your Business Files Organized According To How You Personally Work?

2008-03-15T16:25:00.001-07:00

Following up on the last post about productivity in your home business, here is an article about organization and how each individual is quite different in how their mind organizes information.

It's Only Organized if It Works for You

Being organized means different things to different people. For some it means dozens of filing cabinets with carefully organized drawers and folders with lots of subsections.

For others, it means knowing which pile of papers to begin looking in when they need something.

What's organized to one person may be a horrible mess to someone else. But no matter what your organizational style, the bottom line is making sure that what you're doing works for you.

You could have the most state-of-the-art organizing system around, but if it takes you hours of sorting through subcategories to find what you need, it's not doing its job.

It Doesn't Have to Be Fancy, But It Should Be Functional

When getting started in business, many people run out and buy filing cabinets, in and out baskets, and desks with lots of compartments. These things provide lots of organizing options, but unless you are dealing with lots of files and paperwork, chances are it's overkill.

Systems that can expand as a business grows are a more economical option. Stackable file drawers are a great example. There are even plastic storage units that might suit your purposes just fine.

If you are dealing with confidential information, you might want to go with something sturdy and lockable. Otherwise, anything that holds your paperwork in a way that can be organized will do.

When it comes to desks, some like open shelving while others like lots of drawers and compartments. As long as you can keep things that you need within easy reach, it is simply a matter of preference.

There's a Lot to Be Said for Trial and Error

If you are new to business, it's hard to know just what will work. Even those who are extremely organized when it comes to personal papers and items may not know where to begin when it comes to organization for business purposes.

Perhaps the best thing you can do is just jump in and try something, and if that doesn't work adjust until you find what works for you.

Fellow business owners may be able to provide some guidance and share things that work for them. And there are lots of organizing gurus out there who are more than willing to help.

But the fact is that they may not work the same way as you do, and what is perfect for them could be a disaster for you. It doesn't hurt to get suggestions, but it's how well a system works for the person who is using it that counts.

Organization systems are as unique as the people that use them. One person might find things better when their location is determined by a specific and logical formula, and another might prefer to have frequently accessed items within easy reach and file away the rest.

Neither way is better than the other. It's what works for the individual that matters.

Pareto's Law Applied To Business

2008-03-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

The 80/20 Rule

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule), states that, for many things, 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes. For instance, you wear 20% of the clothes in your closet 80% of the time. This equation also affects your business, as in 80% of your business will come from 20% of your clients.

Unfortunately, most people will spend 80% of their time dealing with the 80% of clients who are not bringing in business. You can use this theory to argue that only 20% of the tasks you work on will bring in the majority of your business.

Here are some tips to help you streamline your schedule and spend time where it really counts.

Have you ever noticed that the people who ask the most questions or are the most difficult are the people who place the smallest orders? While it is certainly important to provide great customer service, you can place a limit on your time.

For example, let’s say you sell cosmetics and a potential customer wanted to know if the product was tested on animals. Once you researched the answer and got back to them, they wanted to know if only organic materials were used, so then you research that answer and when you get back to them they have another question and then another question and so forth.

This exchange could go on for several days, and at the end of it, the potential customer may not become your customer at all. If a potential customer is “on the fence” about a sale, it is okay to ask them for the sale, and if they hesitate, to let them know you are available to help them place their order, once they are ready.

It definitely feels good to get a sale and gain a new customer, but the time you spend chasing down small sales could be spent on the “big clients” who are willing to place large orders.

Another smart thing to do is create a thorough FAQ and standard answers that could be cut and pasted into a support email. Always direct your customers to your FAQ first, then support.

Email can be another big time waster. Setting aside a half hour in the morning and a half hour in the evening to respond to your email can save you time during the day. Another option is to hire a virtual assistant to answer general business email. There may be some things you need to respond to yourself, but the vast majority can probably be handled by someone else.

Start a time log where you document time spent and results achieved. Experiment a little by tracking the time you spend on various tasks to determine which ones are actually making you money. It only stands to reason that devoting more time to those activities will greatly increase your productivity and profits.

Try it and notice how much more you accomplish. See you next time.

Al

Discipline Is A Key To Business Success

2008-03-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

It's All About Discipline
By Susan Carroll

Having your own internet marketing business means being able to enforce some self discipline.

While many people think that time management is the only form of discipline you must enforce on yourself when you have your own home business, it isn't. There are at least 7 aspects in your life you must learn to adjust and today we're going to look at them.

1. Time Management - Learn to use your time effectively.
You must identify "weak spots" - the things in your business that suck a lot of your time and energy but produce very small results. For most, email and the amount of time spent reading and responding eats up their most valuable time. For others, proof reading their site and making sure they catch every typo is their downfall.

If you are spending some of your most creative and productive time on "weak spots", you need to redo your schedule and give your most creative and productive time to the areas of your business that earn you the most. Continued On The RGG Site

Productivity In Your Online Business

2008-03-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

Great article post over at Zen Habits today. In this post the author writes about time management and productivity.

He runs a full time online business from home, or wherever he happens to be as long as he has access to a computer.

12 Organizational Pointers for anyone working an internet based business include the following:

Focus on the essential.
It’s important to take some time to think about what’s essential to your tech work (and play). What do you really need? What gives you the most benefit for your time? What’s not so essential? What takes up a lot of time without making much of an impact? What gives you the most enjoyment?

If you can identify the activities, sites and software that is most essential to you, you can eliminate or at least reduce the non-essential. And from then on, focus almost exclusively on what’s essential. This applies to your work tasks as well - what tasks are extremely essential? Focus on doing those each day.

Do one thing at a time.
I know. This is super hard when it comes to tech. Browser’s on, a dozen tabs open at once, switching between reading and email and work and IM and Twitter … we live in a multitasking world. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

While there’s nothing wrong with having multiple tabs open, it can be very helpful to focus on one task at a time. Have 10 tabs open, but do one tab until you’re done, then close it and move on to the next, and so on. If you’re going to do IM, just do IM.

If you’re going to do email, just do email. Sure, you can do more than that at once, but it adds to the stress of your day and decreases your effectiveness because of all the switching. Practice doing one thing at a time and you’ll find your work to be much more peaceful.

Have periods of disconnectedness.
While I do most of my work online, I find it extremely useful (and calming) to close my browser and just work offline for awhile. This post, for example, is being written in a text program, and when I’m done writing I’ll go and post it in WordPress. This really allows you to get much more done, because there’s no temptation to go check something just for a sec.

Don’t live in your inbox.
I’ve done this, and if you do it you know who you are. Email is everything to many people. It’s communication, it’s a task list, . . .

Read more about 12 Powerful Ways to Keep Your Online Life Simple and Peaceful

Be Proactive and Creative In Your Problem Solving

2008-03-01T12:58:00.000-08:00

Think Outside The Cup and Saucer
Larry Galler

There were four of us at dinner. Three ordered “regular” coffee, the fourth requested “decaf.” Every so often a server, carrying two pitchers, refilled the coffee cups and knowingly poured three cups from one pitcher and one from the other. He never asked who wanted which type of coffee.

As we were leaving, one of us asked the server how he knew which of us preferred “decaf.” “Simple, the three of you drinking “regular” coffee have black cups with white saucers, we serve “decaf” in white cups with black saucers.” Instead of thinking outside the box these people have been thinking outside the cup and saucer.

What an elegant, easy solution. The server doesn’t have to interrupt conversation to find who is having which coffee, there is no mix-up or confusion, and everyone gets what they want. More importantly, it demonstrates how deeply the “customer satisfaction” thought process has gone in that particular establishment and it is a lesson for everyone who manages a business.

Imagine how many opportunities for little confusions that exist in delivering any product or service, from not greeting a customer properly to forgetting to return a credit card, and everything in-between.

Management that really wants to deliver a superior customer service experience systematically looks at every possible opportunity for confusion or error and attempts to eliminate them as they are identified. In the case of the cup and saucer solution there was no cost expended to solve the problem, just a little time and creativity.

An owners or managers challenge is to identify a little confusion or opportunity for error in your business that can be overcome by thinking through the process and developing a low cost / no cost solution. Instead of thinking outside the box, let’s call it “thinking outside the cup.”

Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the business column, "Front Lines with Larry Galler" Sign up for his newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

10 Steps To Increased Profits For Your Business

2008-02-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a good article about how to increase your business revenues and profits without spending a fortune. These strategies are based on sound business principles that have been proven through the ages.

10 Simple Tactics To Improve Your Business
By Leslie Sprankling

These ten simple tactics are just that, simple. Each one is a nil cost or low cost ways to improve your business and together they form a formidable armory of weapons at your disposal to make your business grow.

So, read, study and think about them all so that you can devise the best ways to implement them in your business. Here then are ten simple tactics to improve your business.

1. Concentrate your efforts on those people who are most likely to buy from you. If you sell only apples, don’t waste your time on people who really want to buy oranges. Qualify the people who come to you (your prospects) and pre-qualify the viewers and readers of your ads so that you don’t spend all day dealing with lookers and tire kickers.

When you qualify the inquiries as they come in, you’ll be able to spend the majority of your time with people who want or need your product or service, want it now and have the ability to pay for it now. All others are just a waste of your time.

2. Get ‘connected’ to your customers, at least the top 20% who may produce as much as 80% of your business. Get in touch with these ones personally and stay in touch with them regularly. Cultivate them and reward them for their loyalty to you. After all, these are the ones who provide the bulk of your income.

However, do not neglect the rest of your customers. Assign members of your staff or sales force to look after them as their ‘personal customer care officer’ as these ones, with proper attention have the potential to join the top 20%.

3. Follow up with all qualified prospects, not with blatant sales blurbs or pressure tactics, but do so with additional information on the product or service they inquired about, or to provide free advice, some additional benefits or solutions to their problems.

You can offer a free booklet, tips etc or ways to assist in meeting their desired goals. Never, never, never give them a sales pitch without at least offering help, advice or a solution.

4. Don’t take it for granted that your customers and prospects know all the benefits of doing business with you, compared with your competition. The fact is, unless you tell them, they don’t know, and couldn’t care less about you. Customers and prospective customers are selfish people, they want what’s best for them, not you.

Think about this for a moment, as a prospective customer, about to spend your dollars on something you want. Do you care about the person you’re doing business with? Or do you want to know ‘What’s in it for me’? Well your customers are the same, so spell out to them all the advantages and benefits of doing business with you instead of your competitor over the road or down the street.

This means telling about your great warranty or guarantee, your extended hours of business, your 24/7 home service, your lower prices, your greater range of products, sizes, colors etc., your uniqueness and whatever else puts you a step ahead of your competition. Even if you don’t do anything differently, tell ‘em what you do because they probably don’t know that your competitors do it too.

5. Spend whatever time and resources are needed to determine your customers’ Marginal Net Worth. This is the amount, in dollars, that a typical customer is worth to you over the duration of the time he does business with you. Without this valuable information you could be handing most of your business over to your competitors.

In simple terms a customer’s Marginal Net Worth (or LifeTime Value) is the average profit on each purchase, multiplied by the number of times in a year that he buys from you, multiplied by the number of years he stays your customer. As an example, if a customer’s average purchase is $100 (of which $50 is profit), if he buys 8 times a year and stays with you for 3 years, you net profit from this customers is $50 X 8 X 3 which equals $1,200.00 net profit. This is his Marginal Net Worth.

See The Simple Secrets to Business Growth at http://www.better-n-chocolate.com, for detailed information on how to determine your customers’ MNW.

6. Follow up all inquiries promptly. In contemplating the reasons for this use empathy here by putting yourself in the place of your prospective customer. How long would you wait for a follow-up before you went somewhere else. We live in a society where instant gratification is demanded. We want it, and we want it now!

So, if a customer has come to you, by phone or in person, get back to him while he is ‘hot.’ The longer you leave it before you follow up, the ‘colder’ he will get or, worse, the more likely it is that he’ll go to your competitor. Always follow up with useful information, advice or some benefit to him, but never solely with a blatant sales pitch.

7. In any transaction, there is a risk. For the customer the risks include that the item he buys from you will be defective, unsuitable, won’t match his color scheme or some other reason. He needs assurance that the item will be repaired, replaced, exchanged or his money returned if need be.

By reversing all those risks and taking them upon yourself you remove those risks from the customer. He will therefore be free of the normal transaction risks and will be more inclined to buy. Yes, you will get a few who may unfairly take advantage of your risk reversal, but you’ll get far more additional business than you will refunds.

8. In a disagreement with a customer, separate personal feelings from business relationships. Hurt feelings can be gotten over in a few hours, a damaged relationship can be financially disastrous and long lasting. Always listen politely to a complaint and act on it on the assumption that the customer is right (even if you feel he is wrong).

It’s much better to lose a little face, or a few dollars, if you can salvage and restore a business relationship. And remember this, the old man in the frayed sweater and dirty jeans may have enough cash in that shopping bag he’s carrying to buy and sell you three times over.

9. There are only three ways to grow a business: get more customers, get your customers to buy more, and get them to buy more often.

10. Hidden Assets are items in your business that, on the surface have no fundamental value but which you can sell or exploit to raise cash. These can include:

* disused or surplus materials, equipment, appliances or office furniture,
* unused space in your warehouse, factory, office or store that you can rent out to a sub-tenant,
* a good relationship with your customers (who can provide referrals or bring in new customers),
* relationships with your suppliers (who may be willing to meet all or part of your advertising costs, or even supply you with stock on credit),
* old merchandise that you have stashed away because you no longer handle those products,
* your reputation in the community as a person or business to get free publicity through press or media releases, informative and advisory articles in local newspapers, magazines etc., radio and/or TV interviews,
* component suppliers who may be willing to include you in their marketing at no cost to you or, if you are a component supplier, your customers may be willing to include you in their marketing.

© 2005 Leslie H F Sprankling. All Rights Reserved. Leslie H F Sprankling is an Australian business consultant and author of a number of business manuals and other publications. He has been involved in the start-up and operation of a number of successful businesses over some 40 years. His business experience covers three continents, North America, Africa and Australia. His web-site, http://www.better-n-chocolate.com offers a wide range of business products, including exclusive software, business books and manuals for experienced business people and for those entering business for the first time. For anyone considering how to get into business on the internet without risking large sums of money and time, as well as for some exclusive free software and business advice http://www.better-n-chocolate.com is well worth a visit.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Business Goals And Strategies - Decide What You Are In Business To Do!

2008-02-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

What Will You Get From Being In Business? What Are You Intentions? What Do You Want To Do? What problems are you going to solve? What value are you going to add that people are willing to pay you for and buy your products? (key words being "what people are willing to pay you for")

Before we do anything else, we need to make up a business plan for our new business. I am in fact in the middle of doing that for this new site. Spend some time on this, it will pay huge dividends later.

It is tremendously important to know what we want to accomplish so we have guidelines drawn up, so we can make the right decisions regarding the direction we take in our business dealings.

Why Is It Important To Set Goals For Our Business?

Goals are very important when it comes to the success or failure of our business. Why are they so important? Goals act as a roadmap for us to follow. They let us know where we are going, and if we are getting there on time.

You wouldn’t get in your car and start driving without having a destination planned out, so why would you approach your business that way? (Actually sometimes I do just get into the car and drive, but more often than not, I an just getting away to think or just enjoy the time on the road. Depends on your goal though doesn't it?)

All goals should have a few things in common. A goal should define what we are trying to accomplish and when we want to accomplish it by. Goals should be realistic and there should be a way to measure them.

All goals should be written down and viewed on a regular basis. Simply writing the goal down will significantly increase our odds of achieving it and having it displayed as a visual reminder will also help motivate us. We want to be thinking about our direction constantly and take advantage of opportunities to move forward when they show.

Even if you have never taken the time to set goals for your business, you are actually very familiar with the process. At some point in your life, you have more than likely taken out a pen and paper and mapped out a plan for accomplishing some type of task. Writing out goals for your business is no different than writing out your grocery list.

By clearly defining your goal, you are telling yourself where you are going. Instead of having a goal of “I plan to spend more time promoting my Virtual Assistant business”, clearly define the goal as “during the next three weeks, my goal is to spend 10 hours per week promoting my Virtual Assistant business”. The second goal tells you what you are going to do and for how long you are going to do it.

Once you know where you are going and when you want to be there, you can figure out how you are going to get there. Using the example above, you know that for the next three weeks, you need to be spending 10 hours per week promoting your business.

Now you can start defining mini-goals, such as writing articles and submitting them to reprint directories, emailing past clients and letting them know you are accepting new projects, sending press releases to the media, and so forth.

Goals can also serve as a great way to challenge yourself. Are there some things you have been meaning to do, but keep putting off? Start setting weekly challenge goals, such as blogging one post each day for a week straight or adding a new message each day to your auto responder or even writing an article each day and submitting it to a reprint directory.

The important thing is to be specific and measurable for easy monitoring results. Always keep your focus on how you can help more people get what they want. Price your product or service properly (according to your perceived added value) and you will sustain the business profitably long term.

Have fun with your goals and reward yourself with a point when you accomplish one of them. Once you have collected 10 points, treat yourself to a spa day or some other indulgence.

By setting and achieving goals you will find your business taking off and will feel a great sense of enthusiasm and accomplishment. And you will obviously be excited about your profit growth and the income stream that begins because of it.

If you need more information on setting proper goals, then see the link below and search out what info you need. There is a ton of info on our other site.

The Realgoalgetter Blog (Our Original Goal Setting Blog)

How's Your Time Management?

2008-02-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

Time Management For Internet Marketers Really Does Come Down To Changing Habits!

I was reading my favorite blogs earlier and came across an "aha" moment. What a timely post over at SSWT. I couldn't count how many times I have worked through backlogs, organized everything just right, updated all work to a current status . . . and then started to fall behind the very next day.

Check out Lynn Terry's blog post titled "Why Time Management Techniques Fail" and then dig out that old time management system and change your way of doing things.

Any time management system will work if you work it properly according to your goal achievement plans. You do not need to go out and spend more money on that latest greatest program.

Don't change your time management system, Change How You Use It!

By the way we will be introducing a FREE eCourse pertaining to time management habit change very soon.

Five Tips For This Year's Christmas Card Marketing

2007-11-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

Five Tips For This Year's Christmas Card Marketing

Perhaps you've thought of Christmas cards as too much
effort and bother to be a worthwhile part of your
marketing. If you send cards the same way so many other
businesses do then you are probably right!

One sales person told me he gave up sending cards because
he never seemed to get any response. Then he had his
customers phoning him wondering whether he had gone out of
business!

Want to know how to get a return on your marketing
investment with Christmas Cards this year?

These 5 tips for your marketing will help you out:

1.) Measure your results. Ideally put in some type of
response that you can measure, such as gifts they can come
and pick up, or something you will send them if they call
you. At worst measure the response by phoning a selection
of people to gauge how they reacted to the card and what
they did with it. However you do it, you must find a way to
measure your cards' impact.

2.) Get attention. Think about having your card stuck up on
a wall with 100 other Christmas cards. Would you card be
noticed, let alone singled out to be picked up and read?
Forget the fancy stuff. Stand across the other side of the
room and work out if your card really gets attention. No
matter how nice it is, if it fails this test them dump it
and find another one.

3.) Personalize the message. Sure you don't have to send a
different card to every person, but at least make sure you
include the person's own name in the message inside. If
you're doing it by hand it can be too much hassle to add a
personal message too, but there are web-to-print services
now that can make even this easy.

4.) No pushy selling. Christmas cards are a way of
improving the relationship with someone who you hope to do
business with over the long term. Certainly you can keep
the message business-like but if you really have a great
offer for them then send it to them in a separate mailing.

5.) Have your own face on the card. It's natural to be shy,
but this card is not for you it's for the person you are
sending it to. In some businesses they may have never met
you, or they will have forgotten you, but putting your face
to it makes it even more personal and adds to the
connection. You can use a photo of all your staff, and make
sure to include names so that people can tell their friends
exactly who is looking after them in your business. They
will give you great word of mouth referrals just from
showing other people the card.

Word of mouth referral marketing is one of the key methods
for any marketing strategy. It happens automatically, but
you can learn how to make it happen on demand at:
Word of Mouth Magic

What Would You Do For $20.00?

2007-09-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

Powerful Lessons From A $20 Bill
by Catherine Franz

Just last week I was speaking to a group of 50 women and men. I opened by holding up a $20 and asking who would like this $20 bill. I also mentioned there were no strings attached. You would have thought that everyone would be raising their hand wanting the $20 bill.

That isn't what happened. Less than half the people raised their hand.

I gave the $20 bill away and stood in silence. It wasn't a long silence but silence when everyone expects to be hearing you talk is long whether its 10 seconds of several minutes. I was waiting until I saw a few audience members began fidgeting.

Then one women spoke up. 'Darn, I could have used that $20 for gas today.' You guessed it, she was one of the hesitant ones.

My topic was on marketing. The exercise demonstrated that even when we market from the truth with no strings attached and even though we totally think of the customer first, many people perceive, assume, that there is going to be a catch to the offer.

This is a powerful lesson when you are expressing your offer, whether its written or verbal, the majority of the people reading or hearing it are going to be thinking with an 'it's too good to be true' mentality.

This means that whenever you are preparing any type of marketing material you need to see your offer from this perspective.

The following day I again spoke to another group. This time the audience was all women. I opened again with another $20. Only this time when I mentioned that there were no strings attached, I said it more powerfully - meaning more vocal variety - repeated it as if it was written in bold print and stated there were absolutely no strings attached. The word 'absolutely' was set off with a mild hand slap.

Every hand raised.

The lessons learned?

Whenever you make an offer you absolutely have to make sure you tell whomever you want to buy into whatever your offer is conveying what's involved on their part. I'm talking about what will they loose out on if they pass on this opportunity. It could be a tank of gas or even lunch with a friend. It doesn't always need to be something big and bold.

Another lesson learned was that in the first audience, the majority of the people raising their hands were women. This demonstrated that women are more likely to jump on an offer than a man. This also says to me that women are more willing to take a gamble than a man. Hmmm, that's fuel for thought the next time you make an offer, isn't it?

What else does this exercise tell you? How would you present your offers differently? Here's your assignment. Think on this for a few moments and look at one of your offers and then ask the questions that keep your audience's hands down and make sure you are addressing each one of them.

About the Author:
Catherine Franz, writer, speaker, marketing master, specializes in infoproduct development. More at:
www.MarketingStrategiesToGo.com and
www.AbundanceCenter.com. Including articles and ezines.

Have You Clearly Defined What Success Means To You?

2007-06-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

Define Success

Have you ever asked yourself why you want to succeed online?

If not, ... allow me to ask you ...

So, ... why do you want to succeed online?

Do you have e reason for it? Do you clearly know what the reason is?

Do you think other people are succeeding online? Are they more successful than you are? Are you more successful than them? Why?

Are you currently succeeding online? Do you feel successful? How do YOU define success in general?

These questions are very important questions in your journey to online success. The nature of your answer to these questions would significantly impact your mission.

We all have a pre-programmed definition of success. We all know what will make us successful in other people's eyes and what will personally make us feel successful. We have needs, wishes, wants and cravings for the results we desire.

But only you know what's important for you and what would drive you to achieve your vision of success, whether online or offline. You're the only one who can unlock the door to your hidden treasure of desires. Desires so powerful that would literally force you out of your comfort zone to find the success you seek.

What are you doing it for? What's in it for you?

Few years back, I joined a network marketing company that was doing business the *old way* of calling people on the phone, setting a meeting and presenting the prospects with a business opportunity. That was one of my best experiences ever.

I had an opportunity to interact with hundreds of different people from different walks of life. Different educational background, different culture, different life circumstances, different age, different business background ....

The most amazing thing was that they all had a different vision of success. They all had a different understanding of what success was and what it meant to them.

While going through the course of offering the business opportunity, some of the people were telling me that they were doing just fine with their life as it was. Even though I was offering them a business opportunity that would've given them results far beyond their wildest dreams, they were declining the offer with a comment that they were already successful in what they were doing and they were not looking for more in their life.

Other people would tell me that they were already working on achieving the results that they were striving for. My business opportunity did not offer the types of results that they wanted to accomplish. And others would simply take the opportunity since they had no other vehicle to take them to their desired results.

In general, I did not meet two people with same aspirations. Everyone wanted to be successful in his or her own unique way -- successful in regards to other people and successful in regards to themselves.

So, the question I would like to ask you is: "Why do you want to achieve online success and what are you doing it for?"

Is there something you desire to have as a result of you becoming successful online? It's very important to define your desired outcome - crisp and clear - as a result of you becoming a successful online entrepreneur. That would become your map. That would give you a direction to follow.

What do you want to have and who do you want to become as a result of you becoming successful with your online venture?

By having that fact defined, your success journey would then consist of finding the right sources to get you there as opposed to jumping onto every train that passes by with a hope that one of them would take you to your success.

You could use your list of defined results that you want to accomplish as an evaluation method when looking at different business opportunities or products. Ask yourself, could the business opportunity or even a product under your consideration, deliver most or all of your desired results?

In today's environment of ever changing technology and evolving life complexity, we don't have much time in our hands. Do we?

The "time" is slowly but surely becoming one of the most valuable commodities. The fact of knowing what you want to accomplish with your online venture would help you grasp the success you seek in the shortest time possible and help you understand the purpose of your mission.

I go in great detail on this subject in my book "Define Your Success."

by Steve Dimeck

© Steve Dimeck, webmaster and author. His recently published ebook "The Success Maze" provides an "Apt solution" (in the words of Neil Shearing) for people who want to succeed online but feel a bit lost in the online "Maze." Free details at: http://www.thesuccessmaze.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Dimeck

Reasons Not To Just 'Hold Down Any Old Job!'

2007-05-14T19:50:00.000-07:00

Do You Have a Job that You Just Despise Coming to on Mondays? By Rob Mead

"Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead failure is a few errors in judgment- repeated every day." This is a quote from the prominent businessman/writer named Jim Rohn.

Think about the fact that you go to a job you hate, every Monday through Friday, eight hours a day at the minimum, to get enough money to pay the bills so you can do it all over again.

To me, this sounds like an error in judgment repeated every day. Wake up to the new world reality that is computer technology, the world economy and the power of the Internet to get on your own two feet and generate your own income on a 24-7 basis.

Here are 8 reasons that will you show in detail why being a slave to your boss is wrong and why your main mission in life should be to quit.

1. Employment income is over-taxed income.
The US government likes to keep its citizens in the dark about exactly how much taxes are taken out of your paycheck each week. Your employer only pays a portion of the income tax on your check, you pay the rest.

Investors and owners of your company get another huge portion of your employment taxes, so whom are you really working for? Yourself? Not a chance. That's why even if you make your own income of $150/week, you will get more than 80% more of your own personal income from that amount than you would making $200/week at Starbucks.

Your actual salary at Starbucks may be almost triple of what you are actually paid when you cash your check! Are you getting angry yet? Good! You should be!

2. Co-workers are like lemmings going over a cliff.
Tomorrow morning, when you go to your office, look around at your fellow co-workers. How many smiles do you count? One, two, maybe three if you're lucky?

The reason most people in offices are unhappy is because it's not in the best human element to be kept in 70-degree office buildings where you're happy to escape for a 10-minute break to the great outdoors to have a 7-minute conversation with somebody.

Office workers are like robots or lemmings that just follow the person next to them and do what they do, no matter the consequences. "Bill works at Capitol One and makes $15/hr, so I applied with them. I hate the job I have now, but the next one I get will be great, because I hear Bill loves doing maintenance on computers in the IT department over there."

Haven't you heard a similar conversation lately? It always seems to be better somewhere else, but you get there, and everybody there hates it just as much! Don't be a lemming- think for yourself and take action!

3. Too much risk involved if you stay with your company for a long period of time.
Every month in America, thousands of workers just like you are laid off with no warning at all. It's called "at will", and 80% of American employers now have that legally binding term in their employee contracts.

What that means is that if the company can find a problem with your attendance, tardiness, sexual misconduct or personal habits interfering with the employer's working environment, they can fire you with little notice. Now does that sound risk free to you? I thought not.

Check into your own employee contract you signed, and I'm pretty sure it has the "at will" clause in it. You are already gambling with your income if you feel completely secure that one day your employer won't use those two words that Donald Trump is so fond of saying, "You're fired!"

4. You beg and plead for any amount of money you can get from your boss.
When it comes to getting a raise, what do you usually have to do? I'll tell you: You have to grovel like a hungry dog in front of the boss and give him as many reasons as you can to come up with why you deserve the feeble 5% yearly raise in your salary.

Meanwhile, the cost of living has gone up by 8%, making it a moot point to your disposable income even if you do get the limp raise. The 3% difference means you will never have any disposable income as long as you continue to get raises that never keep up with the cost of living.

The only choice most people have is whipping out their credit cards and paying for everything on their already maxed-to-the-limit Visa cards. That's why America leads the world in most consumer debt. The credit card companies know this.

That's why they raise your credit card limits as well as the A.P.R. fees and take away any income you might have had sitting in your checking account. How does it feel to be a prisoner of the working class? Not too good, I take it.

5. Your working life is your social life.
This could not be a worse scenario for personal contacts on a daily basis. If you're not talking to one of your co-workers about how slutty Jane is, or how badly your boss sucks, you're talking about when will the coffee maker ever get fixed, or why is the air conditioning still on the fritz, and even more mundane topics of conversation.

Why don't you go outside into the real world and interact with people that your boss has not put his stamp of approval on? Are you so relegated to just talking to fellow co-workers that you lost the ability to speak to strangers that are far more interesting? Now that's just plain sad.

6 No more freedom
Have you ever wondered why when you begin a job, the employee's handbook is over 50 pages long, and filled with every rule, mandate and regulation known to man? It's because the employer wants to break down the will of every employee so they cannot make their own decisions anymore.

The perfect employee now thinks that if he breaks one of the 42 rules in the handbook, he will be fired or otherwise disciplined. There are more and more corporations coming down hard on employees that have too many family pictures on their gray cubicles, or listen to their radio or I-pod's too much throughout the day.

The self-employed individual would never stand for that in a million years. They understand that the loss of their ability to live the way they want to is way too much to give up, no matter how much money is offered.

7. Being fearful becomes a state of mind
Employees at most companies live in a constant state of fear, hoping they never have to find another job if they are laid off of the one they have. Every employee who fears their employers like this has no real courage in the rest of their lives, either.

It causes a psychological breakdown of any self-respect they have, and most employees carry their lack of self-respect with them throughout the remainder of their careers. That's why most people keep generating the same level of income, never becoming what they wanted to be when they were kids.

Who wanted to be a gutless coward who cowers in fear every time their boss walks into the room with an angry look on his face? Not this writer, for damn sure!

8. You can generate your own passive income by starting out small.
Most people who are in desperate need to quit their job and retire well beyond when they should, are always looking for a "get rich quick" scheme. Sorry to say, this has always been an urban myth, and just a way for shady marketers to take your $9.95 out of your wallet and give you nothing back except empty promises.

Those schemes will never work, but what will work is finding something you love to do, and putting it together with a way to generate royalty income from it. An example: You love going to swap meets to find great bargains on picture frames.

Start a small website selling the picture frames you bought at a 45% profit for every picture frame sold. By combining a nice-looking site with a decent blog about art and artists, along with classic picture frames from the 1800's for instance, you'll have a great shot at making upwards of $2000 a month with no problem.

It has to be a service or product that you love, because you have to keep your passion about the business alive and kicking to get your new business in the profit margin. You could go on E-Bay to sell them on your E-Bay site linked to their main page, but E-Bay fees are high right now, so you might start with them, and then go set up your personal site after generating your own loyal buyers.

You also can add pop-up ads to your site to generate more income, and when you update your site blog, you can take your older blogs and turn them into articles, which you can then sell to article submission sites like "Associated Content."

This might take at least six months and some detailed work to get going, but when the money starts rolling in, you can take more time off from work until eventually you can quit, and start doing something you really love to do.

If you are having a problem reading about the reasons you need to leave your job immediately, then you are probably a well-conditioned employee of a large to fairly large corporation, and this is hitting too close to the bone.

Don't get defensive about it - do something about it! Look into generating your own passive income, or any other way to get a self-employed income that frees you up from being a prisoner to the American workplace.

Re-train your mind to quit behaving like a trained animal locked in a cage, and break free of your captors to become what you truly desire to be: a strong-willed human being.

Wikipedia

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rob_Mead

Do You Have Business Goals - Do You Have A Business Plan?

2007-03-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

Setting SMART Business Goals - Make Up A Business Plan

If you are thinking of starting a business, you should first figure out what you want to achieve through your business. Set Your Goals. Then work backward from there and build a strategy to attain those targets.

You have probably come across many articles, books, and audios that stress the importance of setting goals. Hopefully, you have taken the time to sit down and write out goals for yourself. But are you writing SMART goals? SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Related.

Specific goals are written out clearly and have a set time frame. When you write out your goals, state what you want, and give it a deadline. A simple goal of “earning money by working from home” becomes much more motivational if you phrase it as “earning $500 per month on a regular basis within sixty days”. Once you know what your plan is, it will be easier to achieve it.

It is important to have Measurable Goals, as they will help you track your progress. If a goal is not measurable, it will be very hard to define when you have actually achieved it. In the example above, by defining how much income you want to earn and giving it a time frame, you will know instantly when those sixty days are over if you have achieved the goal.

An Attainable Goal is a goal you know you can achieve. Don’t be fooled by the word “attainable”. It can still be a challenging goal and require effort to achieve it, but it does need to be something you can do.

For instance, if your goal is to learn to build websites and you have absolutely no experience, your goal shouldn’t be to build a huge, portal website in a week. An attainable goal would be giving yourself a month to learn the software and build a small, but functioning website.

Otherwise you will be putting pressure on yourself. If you are constantly setting unattainable goals, you may end up doubting yourself and become so afraid of failure that you start procrastinating on easy tasks.

While it is great to shoot for the stars when you are setting your goals, they also need to be Realistic Goals. Using the first example, the goal wasn’t to earn $500 within a week. Instead, the goal was to earn $500 per month within sixty days.

If you are new to working from home, it may take some time for your business to be profitable. Instead of setting one huge goal, break the goal down into manageable “mini-goals”.

You may have noticed that the example goals were Time Related. There is an old saying that “a goal without a deadline is just a wish”. Having a defined time line will keep you motivated.

If you have an open-ended goal, it will be easier to procrastinate, and therefore, harder to accomplish. However, knowing that you need to specifically accomplish something within a set period of time, will spur you into action.

Don't just fall in love with the idea of owning and operating your own business. It will take accurate thinking, planning, and a lot of hours invested along with your money.

Set your goals and then attack aggressively. Make it happen.

Gurus. How Do You Know Who's The Real Deal?

2007-01-28T06:39:00.000-08:00

Great article I read today in a newsletter I receive regularly. I wanted to share it with you, so here's a teaser and the link to the rest of it below.

"Who Are YOU Learning From?" (Or... "What Really Makes Me MAD!") by Alexandria Brown

You know what really makes me MAD?

When I see someone acting like a bigshot with no substance behind them, asking you to pay them handsomely to teach you something that they themselves have NEVER done.

Let me explain... I recently received an email announcing a very expensive workshop that claims to teach you how to develop information products and programs and sell them online to create wealth. (That part is fine.)

Here's the part that gets my goat...I happen to know that the person teaching this workshop has absolutely NO experience creating and selling information products SUCCESSFULLY! It just makes me ill.

There are many of these self proclaimed "gurus" out there. True, some have indeed created information products. (That's not hard to do.)

And they may be selling them online. (That's not hard to do either.)

But how much do they sell? How well do they REALLY do? How much money are they making?

And are they working their tail off, or have they really created a great lifestyle for themselves?

Now, I know it's hard to tell sometimes who to trust and follow. Some of these 'gurus' talk a great talk using excellent copywriting, stories, and persuasion tactics.

How do you know who is the REAL deal, and who's "full of it"?

Asking a few questions will help you.

Here are five questions you should ask before investing heavily in anyone's products, programs, coaching, or workshops. Read the full article here.

Resolve To Keep Your Company Lean . . . And Profitable

2007-01-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

I received a newsletter today from HBB Confidential. I receive quite a few informative newsletters that keep me on the cutting edge, and those that don't keep me interested I unsubscribe quickly.

This one always has me wanting more and I want to share an article today that I enjoyed thoroughly. Laurie Hayes wrote this article about how she is making changes in her day to day business operations to become more effective and more efficient.

Since this is a new year you might think that this is only applicable when making great sweeping changes, but this information can be effective anytime at all. In fact whenever you are reading this is the best time of all, meaning NOW! There is no time like the present.

Here is a little teaser here and the link to the full article below.

TIME TO TRIM THE FAT FROM YOUR HOME-BASED BUSINESS?

I don't know what came over me this holiday season, but for whatever reason, I had this overwhelming urge to start cutting the fat from my business.

It was starting to look like an over-stuffed turkey and although you might think, 'Is that really such a bad thing?' -- it is if the stuffing has little flavor or nutritional value.

There was too much going on both in my business and in my head.

I decided to make some lifestyle and business-style decisions before January 1st. This was too important to wait.

I made a list of all the things I should be doing consistently but wasn't, even though I knew they produced terrific results.

I made a list of the things I shouldn't be doing, but was.

Although I have a mastermind group and a good support system, I set out to find a new mentor and coach who has already achieved the level of success I'm aiming for.

And, I made a list of the relationships that do not contribute to my life or business in a meaningful way.

Then this is what I did ...

Full article here.

Merry Christmas And Happy New Year!

2006-12-21T16:11:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

For all those who celebrate the Christmas Holidays, I just wanted to wish you all a safe and happy holiday season. I will not be posting much from now until just after New Years.

Like many others, I will be enjoying all the holiday season has to offer. Family, Friends, Fun, and Food. Thanks for a great 2006, and let's try to make 2007 even better.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Al Smith

Service Sales - Are You Closing Your Prospects Regularly?

2006-11-30T18:12:00.000-08:00

To Close the Sale...Walk the Walk....Prove You Can Do It

Marketing and selling services is one tough task.

If your job is to market services to sophisticated buyers like professionals, doctors, lawyers, architects, designers, financial planners, accountants, tax experts, and those types, then you must get their attention by being able to declare that your services will actually produce a measurable, valuable, tangible, relevant result. Otherwise you are fooling yourself and barking at the moon.

You have to reach, inform and motivate this prospective buyer with a clear statement that is not ambiguous. It must clearly show that you have a service that will deliver XY and Q important benefits to the prospective client.

For instance, if you were a financial planner, you must be able to say something like: “this service will positively impact your financial life in the following way…” Then you provide your list of specific ‘ways’ of accomplishing this result.

When the rubber hits the road, every service marketer must provide an answer to some kind of problem, issue, challenge or predicament that a client is facing and is worrying about. Most people are plagued by either an intense “hurt” or “pain” they need cured; or a “problem” solved.

Your service not only has to address these issues, you need to boldly declare that you can provide that healing, ease that pain, or solve that problem (and then prove it).

When you hear the prospect say something like: “…you know, I’ve got a problem…”, or perhaps she says: “…here’s my problem….” You should know now that you have crossed the bridge of partial acceptance, and you are almost there. It’s time to think about closing the sale. Here is how you might do this:

1. Be Detailed, Specific - Tell exactly the kind of results your clients can expect to receive if they utilize your services. To persuade them, outline plenty of believable, relevant, understandable advantages.

2. No Vagueness: Be Crystal Clear - Generate attention and interest with every word of your message. Watch out for clichés and generalities. "We help our clients increase productivity" just doesn’t cut it, compared to, "Our program guarantees our clients or families or customers will meet their key financial goals and targets every time." (Note the italics on the word: every).

3. Cite Proof with Bone Fide Studies - Prove that your expertise works. Use third party (endorsement) studies. Your credibility multiplies if your approach is the same as that cited in the studies, (conducted by others, not you).

4. Quote Relevant, Defensible Statistics - Strengthen your position by giving specific numbers (don’t forget to disguise any client names). Measure actual client results and report on those. How much more did they earn or save using your firm’s services? These build your credibility and add to your reputation.

5. People Love Stories - well-crafted case studies that explain the original client situation, what you did for them and the results you produced, are very persuasive. People enjoy ‘visualizing’ stories.

6. Honest Testimonials - You'll increase credibility and establish trust by using the actual words of a happy client. Make sure the client tells about the specific results s/he received.

7. Be Confident, but don’t overdo it - Confidence comes when you have produced real results and you know you can produce them again. Don't undersell yourself; let your prospective clients know they can expect the same results if they work with you.

Always under promise, then over-deliver. There is a thin line between bragging and being confident. Don’t come across as a braggart, but make sure the client understands that you really can pull the freight.

The most important marketing activity you can implement is proving conclusively that you can produce the outcomes your clients/customers desire.

©Copyright, Roy W. MacNaughton, 2006

Roy MacNaughton is a niche marketing coach and business writer. He’s a seasoned marketer, with more than 30 years of international marketing experience, including nine years online. His new e-book, (Marketing Yours), teaches solo practitioners, entrepreneurs and professionals how to market their most important product.

Learn more at his blog: http://www.UmarketingU.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roy_MacNaughton

The Tragic Reality of Poor Planning - In Marriage or In Business!

2006-10-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

A Quick Quote before we get to today's article: "If I had only an hour to chop down a tree, I'd spend 45 minutes sharpening my axe." -- Abraham Lincoln

The Tragic Reality of Poor Planning

Today's Saturday. I was supposed to be at a wedding.

Our good friends, the ones we go on family trips with and fishing and hunting adventures were set to walk down the aisle at 2 o'clock.

The story begins like most others, boy meets girl, boy likes girl and girl likes boy too. They had a lot of fun over the last few years; traveled, enjoyed time with friends, enjoyed quiet time together, raised two puppies and a cat.

They had their ups and downs as most people do but were experiencing a few more downs than ups as they headed into this year.

They determined they had two options. Break up or get married. She opted for a July wedding. He wanted October.

As the wedding date drew closer their stress levels escalated as did the frequency of arguments.

A week ago, they addressed issues they hadn't seriously talked about before -- the subject of kids, a prenuptial agreement, how finances were going to be handled. They discovered they were at opposite ends on almost every issue.

It was a difficult time for both because there was a lot of "housekeeping" to go through. It became apparent that marrying each other would prove disastrous in the end.

We got the call three days ago. The wedding is off.

Why am I telling you this?

Because marriage is a lot like running your own business. You may have all of the love and passion in the world for it, but it is absolutely, no if-ands-or-buts necessary to plan for your success.

Before you commit any time, money, effort, or tears, make sure you're doing what's right for you. Identify your core values, your vision for the future, your desires, needs and expectations.

Make sure you know everything you need to know about the business you want to spend the rest of your life with (if that's your plan). What do you need to do and who do you need to become to make sure the love remains?

Imagine both you and your business growing together and measure your feelings as you contemplate this. If you love change, will your business allow you to expand to include other products, services, programs or models?

Picture your business as a stone in your hand. Roll it over and examine it from every angle. Look for the smooth lines. Find the rough edges. Know your business intimately as you contemplate your future with it and decide if it's a right fit.

You certainly won't know everything about your business as you start out. It will present you with surprises and challenges along the way.

The important thing to understand is there will be bumps and maybe even bruises, but you know where you're going and that the vision for you and your business is solid.

Decide in advance if you want to have "children." In other words, what dreams do you have of expansion, creating multiple businesses, multiple products or services.

Take care of the "pre-nup." This means cover your legal requirements. Business registration, type of ownership (sole, partnership or incorporation), insurance, by-laws, licenses, trademarks, copyrights, and so on.

Address finances. Will you fund your business on your own? Seek start-up capital and if so from whom? Will you extend credit or request payment up front?

Choices won't always be black and white either. Sometimes there will be a mix required. Instead of "break-up" or "get married" look for alternatives. Perhaps additional education or information gathering is necessary before you make any decision.

Do the necessary exploration and vision-creation work first so you can head into the future with excitement and confidence.

Start on solid ground and enjoy a long, happy life together.

2006 © Laurie Hayes - The HBB Source

Laurie Hayes is the expert and visionary behind The HBB Confidential, a no-cost bi-weekly ezine for home-based business owners. Each issue delivers simple strategies you can use right away to build a profitable home business while creating fun and freedom in your life! Go to http://www.thehbbsource.com to learn more.

Make and Break Your Sales Quotas - Maximize Your Momentum!

2006-09-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

The "Secret" Sales Fortune Cookie You've Been Waiting For!

I lovvvvve going to a psychic. Getting my tarot cards read. Cracking open fortune cookies..and all that jazz. It is fun, sometimes enlightening and usually thought provoking.

Are you sitting down? I am going to reveal your future in the Sales Diva crystal ball! And it is in the form of a secret "fortune cookie" that has made me:

· a national award winner in selling

· one of the youngest sales managers in the history of Canada's oldest television network

· a business owner with international clients and recognition ( and a nice fat bank account!)

Would you like to be in the same boat as your Diva? (And by the way, I can paddle and not even break a nail!) The Secret That Won't Break Your Bank, Back or Manicure

The secret is simple but I bet you aren't creating it.

Momentum.

I can hear your gasp of shock and horror. Yes.

In order for your business and sales to move forward you actually have to work ON it and not just IN it - every day. Yup. Everyday. It's that "just add water and stir" action you may be waiting for!

The Hula Hoop Sales Effect

It doesn't matter if you've had a flat tire, a bad day, a great day, attended a fabulous 5-day business conference, gained 2 pounds, have a 20th high school anniversary coming up, your computer has crashed, or you've just attracted the biggest client of your life.

If you SKIP a week/month(s) of creating MOMENTUM the wheel doesn't just slowly stop - it pretty much topples over. Imagine a hula hoop that you keep rolling.

If you ignore it - it ends up down by your knees pretty damn fast!

Here's How You Can Tell If You're On The Right Track

Are you wondering if you are doing the right sales strategies? Or if you are even doing ANY sales strategies? Check:

1. Your client activity list.

2. Your revenues.

3. Your goals and how close you are to meeting or exceeding them.

4. How much time you devote to your business every day vs complaining about it.

5. Your list of THRILLED clients who refer you happily, frequently and quickly.

6. How often you wake up at 3 am panicking about money.

If you get gold stars after answering those questions - then YAHOOOOO for you girl! If your stomach just went into a knot then you know you AREN'T creating momentum. It's Time To Strap On The Stilettos and Get A Move On!

So what do you do to create momentum faster than a Diva can apply nail polish?

Commit 30 minutes per day to the MOST IMPORTANT activity you need to do in SALES - which is FOLLOW-UP! What is the point of networking and attracting business if you don't follow-up and through with your client base?? Before you know it - you lose top of mind awareness and you're back to spinning your wheels and eating rubber chicken at network functions.

I don't care how you do it - with the phone, e-mail, by mail, pony express or pigeon carrier - just do it! And do it EVERYDAY.

It's the first step in momentum that leads to massive increases in money for YOU (which by the way, allows you to buy many, many, many pairs of shoes!)

So quit waiting for the Secret Fortune Cookie to fall onto your computer keyboard and instead DO SOMETHING. NOW. Your sparkling, successful future depends on it.

by Kim Duke

Kim Duke, The Sales Diva, provides savvy, sassy sales training for women small biz owners and entrepreneurs. Kim works with clients internationally, showing them The Sales Diva secrets to success! Sign up for her saucy and smart FREE e-zine and receive her FREE Bonus Report “The 5 Biggest Sales Mistakes Women Make” at http://www.salesdivas.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kim_Duke

Apply A Simple Acid Test To Every Home Based Internet Business Opportunity

2006-09-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Apply A Simple Acid Test To Every Home Based Internet Business Opportunity

Most people who have searched for a suitable home based Internet Business opportunity complain about a common illness: They are sick and tired of websites that promote best home based Internet Business opportunities… sick and tired of the false promises, the over-hyped sales pitches, and the downright SCAMS that lurk behind most Internet Business opportunities.

If you're new to the home based Internet Marketing opportunity 'industry', test a few websites for yourself. Simply go to the Google search box and type in the Keyword Term "Internet Business Opportunity", using the "quotes" to refine your search.

Now click on a few of the websites that appear on the first two or three pages… Read some of the content; Click on a few of the Advertised Sites that appear down the right hand side of these websites…and read some of the content on these websites. What is your overall impression?

Perhaps you've gone further… Perhaps you've bought into one or more of these so called home based business opportunities. If so, are you impressed and satisfied with what you received in return for your hard-earned cash?

The truth is… most opportunity seekers are becoming more and more disillusioned by the whole home based business opportunity 'industry'. They are becoming wide awake and more cautious… because its so easy to be misled and scammed by Internet sharks.

If you've suffered from these sharks, don't be too hard on yourself. Most serious business opportunity seekers get fleeced, often more than once, by ruthless business opportunity SCAMMERS… before they find a genuine business opportunity that suits them.

That's because most home based business opportunities fall far short of the hype and promises contained in the websites and sales letters of their owners and promoters. Being scammed seems to be part and parcel of the 'character building' experience that most Internet Business opportunity seekers go through on in their 'school-of-hard-knocks' learning journey.

A Simple Acid Test There is one simple Acid Test you can apply to EVERY home based Internet Business opportunity you come across. It answers the question:

What is the most important part of this 'Internet Business' opportunity?

If the answer is 'the Internet part'' then you would do well to tread very carefully. If the answer is 'the Business part' then you may be onto a good opportunity.

You see, at the core of the Internet Business Opportunities 'industry' lurks a Great Big Lie. Ignore it at your peril!

THE GREAT BIG LIE is: The INTERNET IS the BUSINESS!

The Great Big Lie is contained in the words 'Internet Business'. Look at how often most so called 'Internet Business' opportunity providers and promoters use the word business in their sales hype. They try to impress you that what they are offering is a complete BUSINESS-IN-A-BOX.

But most of these offerings have little to do with a BUSINESS. At best they are simply INTERNET TECHNICAL AND MARKETING TOOLS that can support your business. The 'Internet BUSINESS-In-A-Box is a sales ploy . . . to get you to buy a few packages of Internet software, ready-made websites, website hosting, and training courses. These are likely to be only add-ons for the real business you will need to create if you are going to make any money at all.

THE GREAT BIG TRUTH is: The BUSINESS IS THE BUSINESS! The Internet is ONLY A COMMUNICATION MEDIUM in general and a MARKETING TOOL in particular for Internet Businesses.

Why do most home based Internet Business owners fail? Because they do not have a viable BUSINESS MODEL from the very beginning. They simply jump into what they are led to believe is an 'easy-money-from-home-cash-machine' Internet opportunity.

How often have you read home based Internet Business Opportunity blurb such as: 'Make $100,000 in less than three months while you sleep. No experience or commuter skills necessary. Simply follow our step-by-step instructions that come with our Turnkey Internet Business-In-A-Box.'

Blurb like this is nonsense! There is no ethical Internet Business Opportunity in the world that can do this for the beginner! Even if you have 25 years of related Business Experience, 15 years of super Computer Experience, and a superb product to sell.. it will take you at least a year to make ANY money on the Internet if you are a novice! There's just so much you have to learn about Marketing alone before you can even get started… not to mention search engine optimisation, Adwords, and all the other tools to drive traffic to your website(s).

You simply don't get all of the help you need to start and run a successful home based Internet Marketing business in any 'Internet Business-In-A-Box' package for $495 or even $7,000! We know this because we've been there, we've bought the packages, we've spent loads of time, effort, and money on Internet Business opportunities, seminars, courses, software, products, mentoring etc. And our bitter experience shows that most Internet Business 'get-rich-quick-schemes' are nothing but Scams!

So, use our simple Acid Test before you part with your hard-earned cash: Check out whether or not the enticing home based Internet Business Opportunity really is a BUSINESS opportunity which can be operated effectively by Internet!

by Bill Barbour

Bill Barbour is a marketer and business developer. He and his wife Katerina provide products and serivices that help others to start and develop home based businesses. Their company is called InfoNiche Marketing Ltd.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Barbour

Does Your Marketing Have "Skanky Scrunchie Syndrome"?

2006-09-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

YIKES! I just have to publish this article! I feel that it was written just for me. The Realgoalgetter Website is still going through 'renovations' and there are many sections in disarray, and with tremendously incongruent looks. There are parts of the website which still have the 'old' look mixed in with the new site, in other words I need to clean up shop quick.

Give it a read and then check for your own incongruencies in your business look, your image.

Does Your Marketing Have "Skanky Scrunchie Syndrome"?
by Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen"

A few years ago I spoke at a large marketing conference in Atlanta, Georgia. One woman approached my display table to ask a few questions. Honestly she was so attractive it was intimidating. Tall with a pretty face, understated jewelry, a blue designer suit with beautiful shoes and a high-end bag. She looked like she'd just stepped out of a catalog. I thought to myself, "How polished! This woman really puts out a winning image. She must do very well with her business."

Then, as she turned to walk away, I spotted it...

The scrunchie.

Her silky, shiny hair was pulled back by a dingy white scrunchie that looked in desperate need of a washing, if not discarding. It was a truly skanky scrunchie.

Everything positive this woman had projected was immediately tarnished by this negligent afterthought.

Now, of course I assumed the poor woman must have been traveling and forgotten her good scrunchie, and that's all she had in her bag.

So a few months later I'm at another marketing conference here in Los Angeles, standing at my booth after speaking on the main stage. And up she walks again to say hi, looking fabulous as before. We have another great conversation, and as she turns away, there it is ... AGAIN.

The skanky scrunchie!

I realized then that she had no idea it had a negative effect in any way. She must have thought that no one would notice. Or that since the rest of her outfit was so polished that it wouldn't matter.

Wrong.

My point is not to ridicule this woman's choice of accessories. My point is how one piece of a "package" can ruin the entire presentation. Another example is seeing a beautifully dressed man (I just love a man in a sharp suit and tie) with shabby shoes. There goes the sale!

I eventually realized I had a few "skanky scrunchies" of my own, when it came to how I packaged my products. While I'd upgraded most of my marketing materials to my slick new look, there were a few product packages remaining that looked like I'd created them myself using clip art. (That's because I had!) I wasn't proud to ship them to people. I wasn't proud to display them at my seminars. In fact, I avoided showing them to anyone at all, which of course meant no one could buy them.

My good friend Kim Castle of WhyBrandU.com says that your marketing materials should "make you tingle" when you look at them. Like your business card for example. I'd say almost half of all people who hand me their business card make some type of excuse for it. "Oh this is just a temporary card for now." "This is my old logo on here." "Sorry this isn't updated yet." Kim calls this "business card shame." I love that!

I've realized over the last year that if I want to BE a million-dollar business, I'd better start LOOKING like one (and acting like one, for that matter). And that attitude and those actions are paying off immensely.

So take about 30 minutes this week and inventory all your marketing materials. I mean ALL of them. Your website, business cards, brochures, product packaging, even forms -- anything that your prospects or clients and customers see. (And even the things only you and your staff see.)

Do they all look consistent and professional? Or do some of them look like your kid designed it or it was thrown together quickly?

If any give you shame, they're your skanky scrunchies. Write them down on a piece of paper, and then write down what you're going to do about them, and when.

Resolve to fix them yourself or outsource the design and production to get them revised ASAP. I guarantee you'll thank yourself once you do! You'll not only be more proud to give out and sell your materials, you'll see your business rise as well.

WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE?
See Alexandria's Small Business Marketing Blog.

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Straight Shooter Marketing' weekly ezine with 20,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at http://www.EzineQueen.com

How to Avoid The Perfection Penalty - Get Your Product To Market

2006-08-31T19:51:00.000-07:00

Here is an article from a good friend of mine, Dave Navarro. (. . . NO, not that Dave Navarro!) Dave is a Rapid Results Coach who works with clients who want to increase their business profits fast. This article comes from his blog, Million Dollar Leverage . . ..

How to Avoid The “Perfection Penalty”
by Dave Navarro

As I work with people in the Rapid Results Coaching aspect of my business, I see a recurring theme among a number of my clients - namely, the feeling that they (or an aspect of their business) needs to be perfect before it can be successful.

I’ve also seen this outside of my coaching practice for years - people have a “great idea” that they never end up implementing because they are still working out the details and smoothing the rough edges.

In reality, though, rough edges are where the money is made. That’s because perfection is, in general, a lousy goal. Having perfection as your benchmark will always leave you feeling like you’re failing, because you’ll never be there. You’ll never launch your business, your products, your services … all because you’re still trying to make it ideal.

Instead, you need to accept the rough edges. Get whatever it is that you are developing out there, and improve it as you go. It goes against the grain of a lot of conventional wisdom, but the marketplace proves it true for most products (I’ll explain ‘most’ in a moment).

Microsoft Windows consistently crashes, is full of bugs and security holes - and always has been - but it’s the market dominator (at least for now). Why? Because it served a need in a way that was good enough for consumers and businesses.

America Online is another example - constant busy signals, poor download speeds plagued them in the beginning … but they got to market, responded to customers, and they’re still around (at least for now).

And if you have ever bought an information product online, consider it for a moment. I’ve paid good money for eBooks that were obviously not professionally formatted, contained spelling errors, and didn’t read like the author had a flowing, practiced style … but they were still worth every penny because they gave me the information that I wanted.

Remember, your goal isn’t to make the most perfect product on the market … it’s to get what you have to offer out to your customers, to solve their problems, to satisfy their need … do that, and they’ll keep coming back (even if your packaging isn’t top-rate).

Now, to put things in constext, there are some areas where “perfection” is more important … If you’re producing a luxury item like a Rolex or a Lexus, extrordinarily high quality is important to your customers, because they are paying a premium for it. But even Lexus doesn’t say that it’s products are perfect - their slogan is “The relentless pursuit of perfection.”

So chew on that. It’s fine to strive relentlessly for perfection … but do it in parallel with releasing your products and services to the market that’s hungry for what you have to offer.

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Neglect Marketing A Business At Your Own Risk

2006-08-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

Before we get to today's article I just wanted to point out a post on Steve Pavlina's Blog which describes some common mistakes made by newly self employed people. Have a look on this page: 10 Stupid Mistakes . . . Now back to our article for today.

Neglect Marketing A Business At Your Own Risk

Getting new clients and repeat business is definitely one of the very first things to do when starting off a new business. Most people have no problem acquiring the necessary skills to survive in the business they have chosen. When the clients are acquired, the business begins and the work continues until the money comes in. And the cycle continues till the business finds new clients or the clients themselves find new places to take care of their business needs.

However, many business people have made the mistake of neglecting this part of the business process. Very few, if at all, have ever concentrated on marketing a business.

Not many businessmen realize this, but marketing a business is probably one of the most important things they can do to grow their business. A lot of people see getting new clients as marketing a business. Nothing could be further from the truth. Getting new clients is one of the aspects of marketing a business.

But marketing a business involves a whole lot more than merely getting hold of clients. Branding is a part of marketing a business. Sales too are part of it. Why, even something as backend oriented as accounting and book keeping is also an integral part of marketing a business.

In fact, marketing a business is all about creating a brand for the business. And branding is serious business. Once a business, any business has a brand, it will begin to gather a reputation. And once it manages to gather a sufficiently large reputation, then clients will flock to it. So why waste time trying to get the clients to come to you when you can play all your cards right, concentrate on your core competency and the clients in turn come to you!

But before one presumes or assumes that marketing a business is easy work, one must realize that nothing again could be further from the truth. Not only is any marketing serious and a back breaking work; this is especially so in the case of any business.

Marketing a business is no easy task. It takes years of assiduous application, a whole lot of patience and constant, consistent and dedicated skill before one can even begin to build a reputation. And the troubles don't end when a reputation has been built. It needs to be sustained. Only then can anyone reap the benefits.

So the next time you entertain the thought of starting your own business, seriously draw up a plan for marketing a business. I assure you, you will need to think through this important process.

by Joshua Poyoh

Joshua Poyoh is the creator of http://www.business.resources-to.com where you can find out more independent information on Starting A Small Business Advice

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_Poyoh

A Fatal Mistake that Can Cost You Your Business ... And More

2006-08-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

A Fatal Mistake that Can Cost You Your Business ... And More
by Laurie Hayes

Whether you're a new business owner or if you have been running your business for several years, one of the biggest challenges you face at one point in time or another is overwhelm and imbalance.

How many nights have you dragged your weary body to bed only to lie awake for hours with nagging thoughts of what you haven't done or don't have answers to?

How many of your children's' ball games and school functions were missed because you had business commitments?

How many evenings did your partner spend alone because you were burning the midnight oil by speaking on the telephone or hovering over your keyboard, workbench or reference materials?

Was this because you loved what you were doing so much that nothing else mattered, or was it because you felt you had to do everything alone?

One of the biggest mistakes small and home-based business owners make is assuming they have to become the chief, cook and bottle washer and perform all of their related tasks flawlessly and concurrently.

I know many entrepreneurs who suffered failed relationships and experienced great loss because they over-committed themselves to their businesses and let everything else important to them fall by the wayside.

Many of today's most renowned entrepreneurs and success stories will tell you of losses they experienced because they didn't know how to do things right the first time or how to balance their priorities.

I was one of those people.

When I was building my first business in my 20's, I locked myself in my office for days on end. I would pour over books trying to learn business skills. I would be on the phone trying to drum up customers using painfully ineffective sales techniques I made up myself.

I created my chart of accounts, set up my bookkeeping system and decorated my office. I made flyers and pinned them up around town. Then I went home and waited for the phone to ring while I studied my product literature and organized and created and collected endless sources of information I thought were necessary for business success.

My partner spent many of his evenings and weekends alone. He would make dinner. I would join him once in a while, then head back into my office.

I wanted to succeed. I wanted to be my own boss and earn my own way and thought if I could invest every possible waking minute of my life to learning about business and acquiring all of the skills necessary, I would create the success and freedom I desperately sought.

Unfortunately, the biggest lesson I learned was, if you lock yourself in an office for two years straight, there probably won't be anyone waiting for you when you come out.

I learned that I had been completely unrealistic and selfish in my thinking.

No successful businessperson has made it entirely on his or her own. If there is an exception to this statement, the success probably came at a terribly high price, and in the end, would you call that success?

What is important to understand firstly, is you must have a product or service that provides significant and perceived value for the customer.

What you also need to understand is you don't need to be an IT specialist, sales or marketing expert, professional copywriter, or have an accounting designation to be a successful entrepreneur (unless of course it is the service you offer!)

You do, however, need to surround yourself with trusted people who are skilled and knowledgeable in the areas you aren't.

It's all about creating a success team and leveraging your time so you are focusing on what is most important and on what you do best.

You've probably heard this many times over, but you need to work "on" your business and not "in" it.

You have the vision of where you want to take your business and the future you want to create, so don't allow yourself to get bogged down by the tasks that take you away from your big picture.

I learned how to do things differently after what some may call dismal failures. (I prefer to call them valuable learning experiences.) I became wiser and put my ego on the shelf.

I understood that working alone and trying to be and do everything was foolish and counterproductive. It didn't mean I was weak or lacking in any way.

I learned how to create a success team and a mastermind group. I surrounded (and continue to surround) myself with mentors, coaches and people who are always a step or two ahead of me on the life and business success ladders.

I have a Sales Coach who constantly challenges me to expand my thinking, and a Marketing Genius as my mentor who bestows his infinite wisdom on me, and moves me to higher and higher levels of development and achievement.

I have a mastermind group I speak with bi-weekly who share in my wins, explore ideas and opportunities with me, help me analyze results, and hold me accountable to remain in balanced action. I provide the same support for them.

Surrounding yourself with people who are as committed to your success as you are and who not only fill the gaps, but continuously push and pull you forward is absolutely necessary if you want to achieve business success without paying a heavy price.

This week, take an inventory of where you are allocating your time.

Have you created a healthy balance between life and work to the point you are fulfilled in both areas?

If the balance is tipped, what activities can be discontinued, delegated or leveraged to regain stability?

What type of people do you need to surround yourself with to ensure smooth, continuous progress without placing the entire burden on yourself?

Spend time on these questions. Be honest with yourself and responsible in your answers.

If you acknowledge that change is required in the way you operate your business, take action to make the change necessary, always keeping your best interests and those of your business in mind.

Laurie Hayes works with small and home-based business owners who are struggling to maintain a healthy work/life balance. To receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a successful business without sacrificing quality of life, subscribe to her free bi-weekly newsletter at http://www.wheretheheartis-lifecoaching.com

(NOTE: This article has been reprinted from http://www.ArticleFeedster.com with permission.)

Essential Tips For Success In Your Internet Marketing Business

2006-08-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

Before we get to today's article, I follow Yaro Starak's "Entrepreneur's Journey Blog" and there is a great posting today that I wanted to share with you. Just go on over to: How To Finally Start Your Online Business and give it a read. You will probably want to bookmark his site because there is always something good to find there.

Essential Tips For Success In Internet Marketing

If you are well informed and hardworking, you can earn good money online. The internet is very dynamic, and in order to succeed, you need to be well informed and up to date with the various techniques of marketing on the internet. Marketing on the internet has changed considerably over the past few years.

Nowadays, techniques for promoting products or services on the internet require an increasing selection of multimedia features and capabilities, much different and advanced from days past.

What are the techniques and you must consider incorporating into your internet marketing efforts in order to increase traffic to your website and boost your sales?

a) Publish e-Books.

This is a very popular approach for generating profits and revenue to publish and promote e-book on the topic related to your business. You can give these out for free with links to your website. On the other hand, the internet is now the major source of information. So you can write and publish e-books on any topic. You can sell these online and earn a lot of money.

b) Give and share expert tips and ideas.

Successful internet marketers share various tips and secrets their email lists, or online customers on a regular basis. Some internet marketers offer daily 'tips' which they send through an auto responder. These days, having a trusting and confident relationship with your clients and potential customers is very essential. This boosts your sales and increases your internet marketing business profits.

c) Educational activities.

One of the single most important ways to increase your personal knowledge and expertise with any given topic is to get involved somehow with teaching this topic to others. There are a number of ways to distribute this information or educational material out to your potential clients.

Direct mailings over a period of time, or many successful marketers set the individual segments up into an email marketing auto responder program that sends the messages out to a predetermined list of clients and customers over a prearranged rate. Distributing this information gives you the perfect opportunity to include small "snippets" of promotion for yourself or various products or services which you sale or promote.

d) Directories that facilitate link exchanges.

Although not everyone thinks of it, you must sponsor a directory website with open invitations for others to include links, banners and promotional advertisements back to their sites. Beyond including your banners, links, and advertisements sprinkled throughout the page; you gain the added benefit of having reciprocal links exchanged with others in the process.

Developing, marketing, and selling of materials utilizing internet marketing ideas and techniques can be fun and profitable. If you want to find new, creative, and innovative methods for growing your internet marketing business, you must apply some effort.

Given that the internet is very dynamic, you must always be well informed about the tools for promoting your internet marketing business. You must be flexible and keen to explore possibilities and new techniques for your internet marketing business. Have fun trying different promotional strategies for your internet marketing business to see what works best for you and your products.

These techniques can help you in your internet marketing efforts in order to increase traffic to your website.

by Khemal Dole

Khemal Dole owns and operates http://www.PaychecksDirect.com, a completely FREE service which helps many first-timers and even experts find their perfect Work At Home job. Visit http://www.paychecksdirect.com right now and see for yourself why so many are flocking to his site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Khemal_Dole

The Art of Marketing of Ice Cubes to Eskimos

2006-08-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

The Art of Marketing of Ice Cubes to Eskimos
By Lance Winslow

How can you take a basic product and add pizzazz to your marketing? How can you add buzz to your simple product and elevate yourself above the competition and begin to build a brand from such efforts? There are ways to do this of course and no it is not easy, it takes a little strategic thinking, some luck and some marketing creativity.

For instance lets say your company sells ice. Recently while traveling in the Northeast after taking the Ferry back from Nova Scotia to Maine I found myself in about the worst weather I had ever experienced in that region. It was hot and thunderstorms with wind and this was the third week of raining, it was flooding everywhere. My freezer in my motor home could not keep up making ice for my Ice Tea and drinks. So, I stopped in a Wal-Mart to buy ice.

Ice was $1.25 and I thought okay, no big deal. But then I looked at the bag and it said Premium Ice. You see, I do not need premium ice; I just want some frozen water you know what I mean? Nevertheless, I looked at the ice cubes, they were smaller than normal, which is nice, because I can eat them as I drink, remember the weather was mega hot and humidity was 100%, as it was raining.

There was nothing Premium about this frozen water except it was more expensive than at most Wal-Marts. Premium Price I thought and had a laugh over it. No harm, no foul really. Then after pouring the ice I noticed that the other end was a zip lock bag? Cool, I thought, so I tied off the other end used the zip lock until it was used up.

Ice is frozen water and lets face it; it does not get any simpler than that in the way of products. By changing the bag, they gave me more value as a customer and really that is a Premium worthy of the extra $ .25 for the ice, and yet that bag difference did not cost them $ .25 so they made additional profit and I am a happy camper in the motor home. Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

Top 7 Mastery Principles To Building A $1,000,000+ Enterprise

2006-07-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

Top 7 Mastery Principles To Building A $1,000,000+ Enterprise

Are you aware of the single ** most powerful ** asset in your business? Is it money? Is it employees? Is it your credentials or intellectual knowledge? Is it your products or services?

No, actually, it is none of these. Your single most important business asset is your MIND ... more specifically, your mindset.

Your business only grows as quickly as you, your mind and your thinking do. If you want to create a $1,000,000+ business, you must think like a $1,000,000+ business owner. You must in your mind’s eye already BE a $1,000,000 business owner.

The seven mindset principles below are crucial to building a $1,000,000+ business. Print this list, and refer to it often. Devoting as little as 15-30 minutes per day to shifting your mindset is THE single best investment in building your $1,000,000+ enterprise.

1. THE PRINCIPLE OF TRANSCENDENT PURPOSE

Great companies and great business leaders do great things that leave a lasting legacy and make this world a better place for you and me. Such leaders create CAUSES, not businesses. If you want to get to the $1,000,000+ level in your business, you must have at its core a “transcendent” purpose for its existence - a purpose that bigger than yourself and your own self-interests.

Viktor Frankl, the great Austrian psychiatrist,said it best: “Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue ... as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.” What is the transcendent purpose of your business? How can you make your business a vehicle for making a differencein your customers’ lives?

2. THE PRINCIPLE OF HIGH PROBABILITY THINKING

Whatever you focus on, that is what you will multiply in your business. If you focus on the problem, you will get more of the problem. If you focus on finding a solution, the door will open to more solutions. Wherever your attention is, will drive your most probable outcome. Where is your attention right now in your business - on the problem or on the solution?? How must you shift your attention in your business to get to the $1,000,000+ level?

3. THE PRINCIPLE OF MAGNETIC ATTRACTION

What you think , you magnetize and attract. Your ** thoughts ** make your business and your world. Eg., if you are attracting low income producing or difficult customers, your beliefs about your income worthiness or about the kind of clientele that will want your products/services are attracting such marginal customers. Your business is **always** a mirror of your own inner thinking.

To go to the next level in your business, you must first get to the next level in your mind. You must know the value you offer and raise your mental sights on the kind of customers you want to attract. What challenges do you have in your business currently? How do they mirror back to you your thinking?

4. THE PRINCIPLE OF DELIBERATE CREATION

Having hopes, dreams and visions of becoming a $1,000,000+ enterprise is not enough to create it, although certainly a first step. Deliberate creation comes from deliberate intention, from making a **decision**, that no matter, what you will take your business to the next level.

When we come from a place of 100% committed intention, synchronicity and magic happen. Finding the right people and resources to support your vision unfolds effortlessly. Momentum pulls you in the direction of your dreams. Are you in a wishful state or have you committed 100% to creating your visions and dreams? What willit take to be 100% committed?

5. THE PRINCIPLE OF MASTERMIND MARKETING

Marketing is **not** a battle of products. It’s a battle of PERCEPTIONS. It all starts in the customer’s mind. Perceived value, first and foremost, is what attracts customers to your business. Real value is what retains them. What are you doing to create perceived value in your customer’s mind? Are you winning the battle of
perceptions?

6. THE PRINCIPLE OF SUPERIOR CONSEQUENCES

With every action, there is a consequence or outcome. While you cannot control the outcome, you can control and are responsible for your actions. This principle tells us If you want a different consequence or outcome in your business, you must take different actions.

No matter what your current level of success, a $1,000,000+ enterprise requires higher level strategies and higher level performance actions than your past efforts. Where are you getting inferior outcomes or results in your business? What different actions can you take to create a different outcome?

7. THE PRINCIPLE OF MENTAL RICHES

All riches are of the mind *** first ***. It is your MENTAL ATTITUDE that determines the difference between a floundering $10,000/year business and a booming $1,000,000+ empire. “As you believe, so shall you receive.” If you were to picture a $1,000,000+ business, how would that business be different than what you are operating now?? How differently would YOU need to be to run a $1,000,000+ business?

A FINAL NOTE: Mindset changes do not happen overnight. It takes persistent focus, effort and attention to shifting deeply embedded thinking to a new level.

However, just 15-30 minutes of time daily to mastering these principles and shifting your thinking can reap much greater rewards in your business than 1000 hours of additional efforts. The creation of a $1,000,000+ enterprise is only a mindset away.

by Denise Corcoran

About the Author:

Denise Corcoran - CEO, The Empowered Business (tm) - is a Business & Leadership Coach, Strategic Consultant, Master NLP Practitioner. http://www.empoweredbusiness.com/ Learn the legendary secrets of top business achievers. Our ezine is YOUR exclusive source. To subscribe (+ claim your BONUS): http://www.goldbar.net/go.php?id=7996&c=1738&ac=isnare

Read more articles by: Denise Corcoran

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Customers Respond To "Quality in Perception" over "Quality in Fact"

2006-06-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

Quality Lives in the Eye of the Beholder
By Adele Sommers

Regardless of how good you believe your offerings or project solutions are, your clients and customers will be responding to "quality in perception" even more than "quality in fact."

Quality in perception refers to things like courtesies, special considerations, a caring and personalized attitude, and a host of other subtleties that can lead us to believe that we are receiving something above and beyond what we're paying for.

Those things speak just as loudly, if not more loudly, to our customers and clients than the actual quality in fact we provide through our products, services, and project solutions.

Effective quality in perception can help compensate for any gaps in quality in fact that could otherwise irritate or inconvenience consumers. Through examples, this article explains how to recognize deficiencies in quality in perception, and what to do about them.

Example 1 - Driving Your Customers Away

Imagine a car repair service that repeatedly fails to diagnose a problem with a car and cannot fix it correctly after numerous attempts. The car is in the shop off and on for days; the customer, who is a single mom, misses time from work from having to shuttle the car back and forth. The car repair shop has no loaner vehicle, and it does not offer a pickup or drop-off service. The car owner cannot afford a rental car, nor does she have insurance coverage for this need.

In addition to not getting her car fixed, the customer is having her pay docked for missed time at work, plus she's been given a reprimand. To top it off, she cannot respond to an emergency call from her child's school when her child is injured on the playground and has to be taken to the hospital.

This example shows how one set of poor quality-in-fact circumstances can compound, as the ripple effects expand outward. Yet even with poor quality in fact (the inability to fix the car), the repair shop might have been able to salvage the customer relationship if it had increased its quality in perception, such as by offering sympathy along with a loaner vehicle.

Example 2 - Often, It's Not about Cost

Some time ago, I was a volunteer mediator in the Small Claims Court system. Over a period of months, I was fascinated with the proportion of cases involving alleged wrongdoing or incompetence. People were suing businesses such as termite services and auto body painters, and even former best friends and health care providers over a variety of grievances. The suits often sought fairly small amounts of compensation, which meant that the financial aspects were not the primary concern.

What repeatedly emerged in the mediation sessions was that each plaintiff felt that the vendor, service provider, health care provider, or ex-friend had not listened to his or her concerns. The plaintiffs frequently believed that their complaints about shortcomings in services, products, or communications had been dismissed.

Had the defendants in these cases earlier offered something as simple as an apology -- and had they made a sincere effort to communicate while taking timely remedial action -- I believe the resulting quality in perception could have prevented many of these lawsuits, even if the quality in fact still left something to be desired.

Example 3 - Honest Communication Matters

A group of consultants took on a major project (a Web site to collect and process data) that their clients truly believed would be easy. The group had not tackled anything like it before, but they, too, thought it would be possible to complete the project quickly. After all, it looked simple. How complicated could a Web site be?

Little did they realize it would be many times more complex than the client's basic home page. The project finally turned out to be nearly impossible for the consulting group to complete. The consultants finally got the system to work after many delays and dozens of mishaps. The clients, however, were very unhappy, even though the consultants ultimately fulfilled the project requirements (quality in fact).

Whose fault was it? The clients didn't understand what they were asking for. To top it off, they insisted on a short schedule that reflected their simplistic view of the effort. The consulting group, on the other hand, was not forthright about its own limitations.

The partners scurried to find people who claimed to be able to do the work. They kept quiet about their own difficulties and did not reveal their growing problems. The group's ongoing failure to communicate greatly reduced the clients' confidence, and drastically shortchanged their quality in perception.

In conclusion, quality in perception can profoundly affect your customers' and clients' experiences with your products, services, and project solutions. To make sure you're not overlooking opportunities to create quality in perception, consider:

1) Special courtesies that can set your offerings apart from your competitors'

2) Your ability to listen to and handle complaints quickly and diplomatically

3) Your willingness to be honest with clients about problems and shortcomings

Remember that quality in perception is not a substitute for quality in fact. But it can go a long way toward minimizing customer and client dissatisfaction, as well as powerfully reinforcing stellar quality when you ultimately deliver it.

Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is the creator of the "Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance" success formula. To learn more about her tools and resources and sign up for other free tips like these, visit her site at http://LearnShareProsper.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adele_Sommers

The Best Things In A Home Business Are Free!

2006-06-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

I have been following Donald Lombardi's 'HomeBasedBusinessWizard' Blog for some time now and wanted to pass on his link. There is a wealth of knowledge to be gleaned from his site, so click on over and check it out. If you have a home business, it is a "Must Read". Here is an excerpt from a post recently.

The Best Things In A Home Business Are Free!

One of the biggest advantages for doing business on the internet is the low or no cost that is involved in starting and managing the business. Take the place where you do business which is the site, your online store. Most sites can be setup for free by a hosting company. You can either design it yourself or have someone design it for you, again for free.

Products for your business can be obtained for free from various affiliate programs. You do not have to pay for storage of the product because this is done for you by the affiliate. Once the prospect lands on the affiliate’s page they will sell, pack, and ship the merchandise for you. Again, for free. And you are paid a commission on the sale just for leading the prospect to the affiliate’s landing page through your promotions.

Now some promotions can also be free. For instance, you can write articles with links to your site, about the products, and have them published on hundreds of directories on the internet for free. The articles act as advertisement and through the links take the prospect to your site where you, in turn, through links or banners direct the prospect to the affiliate’s landing page where the sale is made. You can also get the prospect to your page through links with other web pages or through your position in search engines. All again for free! Read the whole article here.

Marketing Your Business With White Papers

2006-06-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

Marketing Your Business With White Papers
By Rick Parrott

There are many different ways to market your business. One of the most effective is to use White Papers.

What is a white paper? A white paper is a story which educates your customer and shows how your product can solve their problems.

To be effective a white paper must provide information as well as a sales argument. Emphasis should be on the teaching aspect over the sales process.

To do this you should concentrate on writing your white paper in plain English, not in industry jargon. Don’t confuse your customers!

Here’s a simple structure to follow. Continued On RGG Site

7 Keys To Business Success

2006-06-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

The 7 Keys to Business Success
© Copyright 2005 Greg Roworth

Do you run a business that seems to run you? It does not have to be this way. There are 7 keys that can improve your business results and help you achieve success with much less stress.

1 Take Charge

The first key is to realise that success will not just happen, it is up to you to make it happen. Successful people claim to be in control. They refuse to be victims. They accept responsibility for the results their business achieves and take the blame themselves if things go wrong. When we are in control we can choose what to do. We can’t always control the situation but there are two things we can control – our attitude and our skills. We can get stronger, we can get smarter, we can get better at all the skills we need to run our business. We can take charge of ourselves and our business and change the results we are achieving.

2 Know Where You Are Going

Without having specific goals, business owners often find working in the business becomes an endless drudgery. If being in business is not exciting, enjoyable and rewarding, then why be in it? It is exciting and rewarding for the few who are really successful. The difference is that they have a clear idea of where they are going and each day they can see their business making progress towards their clearly defined goals.

If our goals are not clearly defined it is easy to become like the mouse on the treadmill. We can expend a lot of effort going nowhere. All we can do is react to the pressures the business creates. The second key is to decide where you are going. When you know where you want your business to go, you can determine what needs to be done to get there. Doing these things creates excitement and enjoyment. Instead of struggling on with meagre rewards, we can make progress towards success in a steadily growing and entirely planned way.

3 Spread The Word

You will never succeed by keeping your business a secret. You need to spread the word to let people know about your unique products or services. With many small businesses, there is a tendency to be reactive. If sales slow down, you decide to advertise to address the situation. When work picks up, advertising is stopped. The result of this approach is haphazard advertising which produces haphazard results. Rather than haphazard advertising, a planned advertising and promotion strategy can be applied to address specific goals.

Instead of one broad objective of “getting more sales”, strategies can be developed in three areas. Firstly strategies should be developed to actively encourage word of mouth and a system for generating referred leads. Secondly, planned advertising approaches are needed to generate a steady flow of new enquiries. Thirdly, strategies can be developed to increase the value and frequency of purchases from existing customers. Marketing must not be left to chance. The third key is to spread the word, by developing planned, consistent and effective advertising and promotional systems and strategies.

4 Do What You Do So Well They’ll Come Back And Bring Their Friends

The difference between the truly successful business and the average business is that successful business’ leaders live, breathe and preach quality, where the average business’ leader only pays lip service to it. There are many companies that have built their reputation on the quality of the service they provide as much as the product they sell. Even if we haven’t been, I’m sure we all know the reputation Disneyland has for the quality of the experience of a visit there. The title of this key is a quote (paraphrased) from Walt Disney. This man lived and breathed this attitude and accepted nothing less from his employees. The outworking is that standards and procedures are established so that employees know what is expected of them in every situation, particularly in an interaction with a customer. Delighted customers come back with their friends.

5 Train Your People To Do It Better Than You

When we start a business based on our own unique skills, we have a difficult choice when we get too busy to cope with all the work our expertise has created. We need to spread the load by employing others to do some of the work. This is the critical point in the business’ development. If the business owner gets this right, the future of the business is assured, but if it goes wrong, the business is doomed.

Many business owners wish they could clone themselves. They are unable to find anyone who can work as well as they do. Usually there has been some resistance to this move, but eventually the need becomes obvious. Business growth is always stifled by the owner hanging on to the work they enjoy. Having made the choice to grow, the key to unlocking this potential is to train the new people to be better than yourself.

6 Keep The Score

The greatest danger in a growing business is for the owner to lose control. This fear causes many to choose to stay small because they do not want the worries of growing too big.

WHAT YOU MEASURE YOU CAN IMPROVE!

A business’ performance needs to be managed and controlled. So many business owners worry about getting the work done, but they don’t measure results, they don’t keep score. Keeping the score indicates how well the business is going towards achieving its goals. If performance is behind expectations, steps can be taken to improve. If the score was not kept, no one would ever know that performance was substandard, and the goals would quite likely never be reached.

7 Celebrate Your Victories

Regeneration of our physical and emotional resources comes when we celebrate victories. One of the problems we have in small business is that we think we are too busy to take time off to celebrate. Even if we just get away from the business and relax, we come back rejuvenated and are usually able to tackle our work with a renewed vigour. Imagine how inefficient it becomes, using a battery powered machine, if we keep on working harder and harder to get the work done and never stop to recharge the batteries. If we don’t stop at times to recharge our batteries we keep working hard but become totally ineffective.

When we plan our future and set goals it is easy to determine when to celebrate. Without goals to achieve, we can keep on working until it becomes a drudgery. Celebrations put excitement into what we do.

Conclusion

Implementing the 7 keys to unlock the profit potential in your business could be what you need to end the frustration you feel from trying to build your business but seeming to take one step forward and two steps back. These are the keys to freedom from the daily grind of business pressure, the keys to gaining the rewards you deserve from the efforts you put in. It is up to you to take hold of the keys and unlock the hidden profit and excitement that is the potential your business holds.

Greg Roworth is a business consultant and author of The 7 Keys to Unlock Your Business Profit Potential. Download the first two chapters free at Small Business Success or check out the free resources there.

Do You Have A Vision?

2006-06-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Get Beyond Your Tasks
Nan S. Russell

Ever hear the story of the two masons working side by side at a building site? They're doing the same work under pretty much the same conditions. Then, one day a stranger comes along, approaches one of the men and asks him, "What are you doing?" "I don't know and I don't care," replies the man, his voice brimming with irritation. All I do is slap this crummy mortar on these crummy bricks and pile them up in a crummy line. That's what I'm doing."

The stranger returns to the building site the next day. This time he approaches the second man, asking him the same question. "Tell me," he said, "what are you doing?" Smiling at the stranger, the man proudly replies, "Why, I'm helping to build the new cathedral."

I don't know about you, but in my twenty years in management I met plenty of people like the first mason. People doing what they were told to do, without a greater context or purpose. People focused on what they were doing, not why they were doing it. People who clearly didn't like their job, and clearly weren't winning at working.

When you define the purpose for your work, you create a vision behind the tasks, and that vision changes results. Think about it. What are you helping to build in your workplace? Why does your work matter? Before you say it doesn't, think again. You have an important role or you wouldn't be paid to do it. Of course, it's unlikely you'll find the purpose outlined in your job description. You see, defining your purpose is not about the tasks you do. It's about the reason for the tasks.

So if you're an employment specialist in Human Resources, your purpose is not to hire people. That's a task. The reason behind the task might be to increase your company's competitive edge with exceptional people. If you're a web designer, your job is not to build websites. That's a task. Your purpose is in the why of it. Maybe it's to build the corporate brand or make life easier for your customers. Look beyond your title.

In one of my jobs, my purpose was to help the company develop a winning culture; in another it was to help build trust in the corporate brand so new customers would give us a try. My job title would never have told you about either.

But here's a secret. People who are winning at working don't wait for someone else, like their boss, to define their work's purpose. They figure it out. They define it. They create a vision for themselves.

People who are winning at working can articulate how the work they do supports their organization's vision, values, goals and objectives. They're not satisfied doing tasks like the first mason. They're like the second. They want to understand and contribute to the whole. They want to know that what they do at work matters. Want to be winning at working? Define your work's purpose. And get beyond your tasks.

Sign up to receive Nan's free biweekly eColumn at www.winningatworking.com. Nan Russell has spent over twenty years in management, most recently with QVC as a Vice President. She has held leadership positions in Human Resource Development, Communication, Marketing and line Management. Nan has a B.A. from Stanford University and M.A. from the University of Michigan. Currently working on her first book, Winning at Working: 10 Lessons Shared, Nan is a writer, columnist, small business owner, and instructor.

Visit www.nanrussell.com or contact Nan at mailto:info@nanrussell.com.

Goals And Your Home Business

2006-06-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

Goal Setting: The Secret To Home Business Success

The ability to set goals and effectively motivate yourself to achieve them are two essential skills that will help you achieve success in you home business.

To try and start a business without goals could be compared to throwing a baseball pitch, blindfolded in the dark. What would be your chance of getting your pitch on target? Never mind getting a strike-out. Unless you are very lucky it is unlikely that you will have any success without properly setting out goals.

If when you start your home business, in what ever field it maybe, if you have no goals and aim at nothing, is it not unlikely that you will hit nothing and achieve nothing?

To set effective goals there are a few things you need to know about yourself which will affect how you set your goals. You are affected by, the environment in which you live, your experience and knowledge, your attitude and dreams and visions for the future.

When you set your goals you need to decide what you want and when you want to achieve each goal. You should spend time writing down your goals and display them in a prominent position where you will see them daily to remind yourself to stay motivated and focused. Cross off your goals once they’ve been achieved, adding new ones to ensure your business keeps growing.

“Don’t set your Goals to low. If you don’t need much, you won’t become much”. - - Jim Rohn - -

I’m sure you will have come across the SMART analogy, with regards to goal setting. It contains the most important concepts to consider and adhere to when setting your goals.

Goals should be; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time related.

For example it would be unwise to set a goal of making $10,000 in a week, it’s just not a realistic goal for the average person, unless you have a lot of experience and knowledge in your field or receive help from someone who has these attributes. When you failed to reach this goal your motivation would suffer and you might start doubting your decision to start your home business.

Before you start setting your goals I want you to write a list of all the things you want; whether it is a new car, watch, house, to send your kids through college or a successful home business, write them all down and say why you want them. When I did this I had a list the length of my arm and I’m still working through it 3 years on. By doing this it will help focus your mind and motivate yourself to succeed.

Now set your goals, they need to be SMART and you need to set both short term and long term goals, and also daily goals. One of the best techniques I use is to set 6 goals before I go to bed for the next day and prioritise them so I know clearly in my mind what I have to do the next day.

All successful people set goals and prioritise them in order of importance. Remember your time is your most important asset; you simply cannot afford to waste it.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -- Aristotle –

When you are in business for yourself, you are the primary motivating factor, if your truly want your home business to succeed you will do whatever it takes to make it happen.

By making goal setting a habit there is no reason why you cannot achieve excellence.

by Ian Canaway

About the Author: Ian Canaway will help you launch your very own money making website today that's 100% ready to take orders and pull in massive profits for you right now... Guaranteed! Visit: http://www.asuccesfullhomebusiness4u.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Goals And Business

2006-06-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

The Importance of Business Goals

For you to get where you want to go, there are four key steps for you to take. They are not difficult, but they are vital.

Commonly known as the GROW model, the four stages are as follows:-

G stands for Goals

Being clear about where you want to get to is absolutely critical. You MUST know where you are intending to get to, by identifying your goals and being very precise about them.

Use SMART goals - this is a useful description which is great to remember.

S - is for Specific
Be really clear about what it is you want

M - is for Measurable
There must be some sort of number of other measurable description of your goal

A – is for Actionable
You have to have some verb in the goal – you have to DO something!

R – is for Realistic
Make your goal achievable, but don’t be frightened to make it BIG!!

T – is for Timebound
All of your great goals will fall by the wayside if you have no when about them – the ‘maybe I’ll start next week method’.

Poor Goal examples:-
To grow business revenue
To have happy employees

Great Goal examples
To build bottom line profit by 20% every year for the next three years
To have a 33% split between all revenue streams within 2 years

You might also want to consider what ‘Purpose’ in your life there is for this goal, the more it fits what you truly want out of life, the more motivated you will be. Thus SMART(P)

R stands for Reality

Be brutally honest about where you are starting from and what has held you back in the past.

Take a half hour to understand the assets and skills you bring to the business. Get really clear on your qualities - and shortfalls!

Be realistic and honest – a good way is to just list all the positive attributes you have, such as patience, perseverance and focus.

Dispel any ‘I can’ts’ right now. You can and will. Reality means just that and no untrue negative beliefs you hold about yourself.

O stands for Options

Here is where the fun starts, if you let it. Really let your imagination go – blank sheet of paper and 10 minutes of uninterrupted time. For organisations, this may take longer – it may involve as many of your people as possible – that’s OK! You write until you can’t think of any more ideas about how to make your goal come true.

After 10 minutes, or when you dry up – take a 10 minute break – and then think of ten more – you can do it!! In this phase, you are not judging, it is very important that you don’t think of any ‘can’ts’ or even thinking of any ‘how’s’ just let the ideas flow. There are loads more idea creating things you can choose.

W stands for ‘What’ and ‘When’

Check out the ideas from above and choose five ‘quick wins’ and five longer term projects.

Make a decision to do the five quick wins within one week, starting today (you might be surprised to find you do them all today!). Then when finished do five more till all are completed (mind you, once you get into the swing of it, you’ll start uncovering a lot more!).

For the longer term ideas to achieve your goals, a sense check is important first. Will action (remember the ‘A’ in SMART) on this idea, deliver the outcome you really want towards your goal – or is it a nice to do, or even off track. For either of these be ruthless and ditch the ones that are off track. Get five focused ideas in place ready for Action.

Create a timeline from your goal and working back from there, decided milestones on each of your five key ideas. Use say quarterly, monthly, or weekly reviews. Be decisive and flexible as the actions will go at different speeds. In some sort of visual planner, record where you will be with each one of your actions towards your goal at the regular reviews you have. Some people prefer to have weekly ‘action steps’ in each project – even daily.

The key is to be able to say., ‘This week (Tuesday is my best day), I will visit three new potential customers, as a step towards visiting 50 this year’. Put it in your diary, Outlook or whatever as if it is an appointment with yourself. Ring-fence that time as the most important thing you are going to do and it cannot be shifted. You will need to be disciplined – if you are, it will work.

The key here is to create actionable steps in bite-sized chunks which you believe you can do.

As someone once said (with apologies to elephant lovers), ‘You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time!’

. . . and finally

Remember that in life and business, you personally have the choices to make. No-one else. It is your responsibility how you act and challenge yourself. Take the responsibility and give it a go. Life is not a dress rehearsal – Grasp the opportunities you have today and every day.

Further reading on the GROW model (should be available from libraries)"Coaching for Performance: Growing People, Performance and Purpose", Sir John Witmore.

by Martin Haworth

Copyright 2005 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, executives and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com.

...helping you, to help your people, to help your business grow...

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Beating the Procrastinators Creed to Achieve Your Goals

2006-05-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Beating the Procrastinators Creed to Achieve Your Goals
By Peter Murphy

Oftentimes, we can get to the place where we begin to look to others to help us, when we know very well, that that is not where the answer lies.

To ask how we get the motivation to do something that we very well know that we ought to do, and wait for that answer, is evidence that it doesn't take much of an excuse to not do it. The procrastinators creed is still around - having its effect.

If you were to be asked, "Where do you get the motivation to go to work every day?", would your answer be because: "I am motivated every single day to go to work?" Now you might be one person that has such a wonderful job as that - but most people find it a little difficult to always go to work because they are so overjoyed to be there.

When you were in school, did you get up and go to school every day - because you were motivated to do it? What was the real reason you went? It was because you were supposed to go.

Duty was the reason, motivation had nothing to do with it. Now, realistically, motivation does effect your performance once you get there, but you did not need it to go. Duty did the job.

Some Things Are Just Our Duty To Do

It does not take much to give allegiance to the procrastinators creed. It only needs an excuse. But on the other hand, if we come to realize that, maybe you owe it to yourself to lose that weight, then duty may once again be sufficient reason (not necessarily motivation), to do it.

Others can only help you a little bit, in this matter. You see, it is only you that can do the walking, and lose the weight - one pound at a time. It does, however, begin with you.

Duty Can Override Emotions

Now it is time to put an end to the procrastinators creed, in your life. Let´s say you want to lose weight. Ask yourself why you ought to lose the weight. Having good reasons, will make the task that much easier.

We do not have to listen to a lack of motivation feeling that comes over us all, at times, Rather, put those feelings aside and go on, do your duty - if you have no motivation to do it.

Put Duty And Emotions Together

Another important thing would be to try and put your duty and motivation together - and then set a goal. If you look at the slimmer figure that you want, and determine that it is a worthwhile goal, then it will help you to get the motivation every time you think about what your figure could be like. Set a time frame, too, as to how soon you want that figure. With a goal like that, who needs the procrastinators creed?

Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert. He recently produced a very popular free report that reveals how to crush procrastination and sustain lasting motivation. Apply now because it is available for a limited time only at: stop procrastinating

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Murphy

-----------------

Procrastination can be habit forming and it can allow you to stagnate in your comfort zone when you should be growing.

When you feel like putting off something you know should be done, tell yourself that you are no longer following the procrastinator's creed.

Imagine and celebrate your breakthrough. Then take the action without hesitation while you are still in your positive energetic state!

Steps To Online Success

2006-05-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

The 3 Vital Steps To Online Success - Part 1 of 4 (An Overview) By Robbie Pugh

Since its inception the Internet has brought fame and fortune to many individuals. For example, news broke not so long ago, of a couple from the UK who, in double-quick time, grew an online dating agency from zero to an income of hundreds of thousands. The value of their business is reckoned to be in the multi-million dollar range.

Since then, I heard of one gal who has struck gold selling bras and underwear and a guy who is making a nice living with his website on fly-fishing. Fly-fishing for heavens sake! Who would have thought there was any money in that? But there most certainly is. It’s a niche site offering a niche product. The perfect ingredients for online success!

More often than not the product or service is so simple, we ask ourselves: why didn`t I think of that? I`ll bet many of you can recall similar success stories. Indeed, anyone with a spark of life inside them will think: I can do that. That is when the dream starts; to emulate these successful entrepreneurs; to make a good living and be truly independent.

This, of course, is the sheer beauty of the Internet. The small guy can succeed. If you do it right you do not have to compete with the big guys, in fact if you try you will surely fail. But before I get ahead of myself, let me ask you a couple of questions:

First, why should you start an online business?

Without doubt the Internet provides a wonderful opportunity to set up your very own business at a minimal cost, capable of reaching a potential audience of countless millions.

Compare this with the cost and time in setting up a traditional business: the costs of premises, purchasing and stocking inventory, employing staff, overheads... the list goes on. The potential reach of your customers is also very limited with an off-line business by comparison with the Internet. The world really is your oyster. I think we can safely conclude there is no comparison.

Second, is it easy?

No, it most emphatically is not! But I tell you, it is a darn sight easier than starting a regular business! And it requires far less capital. But it still necessitates work, lots of work. And be in no illusion about one daunting statistic, namely that 95% of all new online ventures fail! You read that right, the odds are stacked against you! There, what do you think of that for a bit of honesty?

But now that you have been warned I can promise you one thing: with application, diligence, determination and a lot of perspiration you CAN succeed. And, it is to be hoped, beyond your wildest dreams. You can build a business for the future. And remember this, once you have built your site, it can go on creating income for you for years to come! Many have, why not you?

So, how do you go about getting online in the first place and then building your very own successful online business and, furthermore, with no Internet experience. This is where you are going to need help. Did you know there are three vital steps you must take to succeed with an Online Business? Well, that`s where this series of articles really begins.

Over the next three articles I shall elaborate on precisely these three steps. So, watch out for Part 2, which deals with the options open to you for getting your very own website up and running.

Robbie Pugh offers you honest, down-to-earth advice on how to build your very own successful online business. If you are really serious about an online business, or maybe you are already online, this is a site you must check out. http://www.grabonlinesuccess.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robbie_Pugh

How To Increase Your Sales

2006-04-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

Increase Your Sales by Giving It Away
By Alan Boyer

Stand out above the crowd by Giving Away Your Best Information

What makes you better than your competition? Let me give you a hint, it’s not because you are less expensive than your competition or because of your great customer service. When you start giving away your services, your ideas, you will see your sales skyrocket.

Consumers have choices. In fact, they’ve got more choices today than ever before. And it only takes a few clicks of your mouse to be overloaded with options.

Given the fact that competition is at an all-time high, what can you do to stand out? Most companies have someone just like them on literally every street corner. So how do you get noticed? Just assume that you are standing in a crowd. Everyone’s the same height, wearing the same clothes, and has the same skin color. That’s what most companies are doing. They look just like everyone else. So, how do you get noticed?

There are many things that should be done. Many of the consultants out there talk about coming up with an authentic brand, crafting your positioning statement or unique value, choosing the right Bull’s Eye Market, and delivering your message effectively. But I want to suggest something else to consider.

How do you provide more value than your competition assuming that your products and services are similar?

Then how do you let everyone know that you have something really different? How do you become a trusted and credible resource and not just another vendor?

The answer is with information. You’ve got it. All you have to do is package it and share it. Just look at the number of people that surf the internet. What are they looking for? Information.

I’m not talking about just any information. I’m referring to information that will be valuable and beneficial to your prospects and clients. Start telling everyone how if they do XYZ their business will increase, their jobs will be easier. Give them some real meat that can help them, not just skim over the top because you fear that you will give away all of what you sell.

Spill Your Candy on the Floor—Give Away Key Information, Help Your Customer Get Information

I’ve heard other sales trainers say “don’t spill your candy on the floor in the lobby.” What they are referring to is the fear that giving all of your knowledge away means you are no longer needed. They believe you’ve essentially spilled all of the goodies so why should someone hire you? I believe just the opposite, that if we change our approach from selling to giving information and helping, you suddenly become a necessary part of what your customer needs.

They are hungry for information. Information that tells them how to fix their biggest problems. They need that information to decide what is the best approach to fixing their problem. And they will look on those that provide that necessary help as a trusted partner and resource.

The best sales process requires that you first build rapport with the client; after all I’m sure you’ve heard the statement that people buy from people they know and trust, not from salespeople. Once they know you and trust you, then they have to know that what you offer will solve their problem, and finally that you are credible, believable. All of that is a part of the “building rapport.” You also are there to help in any way you can. Selling should be really on the backburner.

So, by providing information you establish rapport, credibility, and prove that you want to help, not withhold information until the cash is shelled out. You are truly there to help.

Give Away as Much Information to as Many as You Can at One Time

Let’s talk a little about your marketing efforts. Have you always sent out your direct marketing (emails, letters, whatever) with a goal of selling something? What would happen if you sent them out to advertise that you are giving away all of this free information? Get everyone to attend a seminar on How to……..[whatever]

I can tell you from experience, both my own and those of the clients that have followed this procedure that your direct mail response rates will increase somewhere around 10 times. During the seminar make sure to give them some real meaty ideas to improve whatever it is that are clamoring for. You have just become “the expert” in the industry, in your geographic area, your community. You will be the FIRST person everyone turns to looking for help, advice, and….to buy from.

You will also have shown your value to a roomful of people in the time that you would normally have spent in a one-on-one sales pitch.

It sort of goes this way for my sales training and coaching:

I send out 1,000 postcards advertising my next “Double Your Business in Weeks” seminar.

There will be 50-60 phone calls (about 5+% response rate, where before giving away information it would be 0.5% or less).

I’ll end up with 25-30 warm bodies in the seats.

10-15 will actually sign up for the next sales training session.

Also, I will have a list of the 50-60 people that called that are on my “qualified leads” list that are interested in my ongoing helpful newsletters (more information giveaway), and within 3-6 months many of those will either call me to join a later session, or send me referrals. And I've done it in the time it would take to make one sales call.

There are lots of ways to give away, or even charge a small amount, for this information. Public seminars, white papers on your website, email newsletters, chamber events (offer to be the speaker at a chamber event, or host a free training, send the entire chamber an email to drive them to your website for the information, or call you to send the information), an electronic file, a CD The options are endless.

You don’t even have to stick to just one way to communicate it. The key here is to use the information as an enticement for them to contact you, give you their contact information, and for them to truly want more from you, much more. Don’t try to sell them, they will be turned off. Be the helper that is in demand.

If you have a complex or high-cost product or service, many businesses have had success by offering introductory seminars, webinars and teleseminars. It allows your potential buyers to take a test drive before committing to purchase. They can determine if your approach and values are similar to theirs.

By determining and delivering the information your buyers want, you will become more valuable and you’ll stand out among your competition. Of course, you have to make sure that your content is pertinent and objective. No one wants to read or listen to an advertising pitch, but they do want insightful information that makes their life easier or better.

Let’s look at some examples:

If you provide staffing services, you might put together information on “Five Mistakes To Avoid When Hiring,” or “10 Interview Tips To Learn What Your Job Candidates Won’t Tell You,” or “Now You’ve Hired Them…How To Retain Employees Without Blowing Your Budget.”

Mortgage company, you might offer a white paper or seminar on “How to get the lowest interest rates,” “How to Fix Up your house for best resell”. You might even partner with a local real estate agent to do joint seminars that would help both of you.

Massage Therapy: offer information where you talk about the biggest problems someone might experience, back and body pains, muscle pains, and how to eliminate them. It could include massages, some techniques that maybe your personal partner could do for you.

Don’t be afraid that you are giving away your services; this makes you visible, and THE EXPERT that they will turn to. I look at it this way: There are always those in your audience that will never buy your services. They are here to get the free information. So what? Aren’t you here to help everyone?

The actual sales you get will always be a relatively fixed percentage of those you talk to, whether it is 10% or 50%. If your sales rate was 10% in a one-on-one, it’ll be MUCH higher in the roomful of people, since you are now considered an expert, not a salesman. And you just talked to a roomful in the time you normally do one sales call to one person.

Everything Increases, Marketing Leads and Sales Closes

Everything increases, marketing response will increase, your sales close rates will increase, and on top of that you are talking to 20-30 people at once.

What would happen if you stopped going door to door, talking to one-on-one, and started having 20-30 people come to you every week, or every month?

Alan Boyer, President/CEO of The Leader’s Perspective, LLC, is considered one of the world’s leading breakthrough specialists. He has worked with some of the worlds largest companies, on projects in the multi-billion dollar area, and with single proprietor companies. He has worked on many hundreds of projects with companies that have resulted in multi-$100 million savings or gains.

With over 35 years of business, quality, and process experience, he has catapulted businesses lightyears ahead in weeks. Some have doubled and some have jumped 10 times. He claims the key to that is:

Helping the business owners/employees develop the business skills and Helping them overcome the limitations and attitudes that they built between their ears (the self imposed limitations, I can’t, this won’t work for me, I’m different) By helping them find the breakthroughs in their business and thinking

He helps companies worldwide reach further than they EVER thought possible . . . . FASTER

www.leaders-perspective.com/Sales-Training.aspx
mailto:AlanBoyer@leaders-perspective.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

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Characteristics For Sales Success

2006-04-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

Characteristics of Successful Salespeople
By Kelley Robertson

What separates successful sales people from everyone else? I believe that most successful sales people, in virtually any industry, possess the following characteristics:

1. They are persistent. Selling or running a business for a living requires a tremendous amount of persistence. Obstacles loom in front of us on a regular basis. But it’s what you do when faced with these barriers that will determine your level of success. I believe it was Brian Tracy who once said that a person will face the most challenging obstacle just before they achieve their goal.

The most successful people in any industry have learned to face the obstacles that get in their way. They look for new solutions. They are tenacious. They refuse to give up.

2. Successful sales people are avid goal setters. They know what they want to accomplish and they plan their approach. They make sure their goals are specific, motivational, achievable yet challenging, relevant to their personal situation, and time-framed. They visualize their target, determine how they will achieve their goal, and take action on a daily basis.

3. Great sales people ask quality questions. The best sales people ask their clients and prospects plenty of quality questions to fully determine their situation and buying needs. They know that the most effective way to present their product or service is to uncover their customer's goals, objectives, concerns and hesitations. This allows them to effectively discuss the features and benefits of their product and service that most relate to each customer.

4. Successful sales people listen. Most sales people will ask a question then give their customer the answer, or continue to talk afterwards instead of waiting for their response. Great sales people know that customers will tell them everything they need to know if given the right opportunity. They ask questions and listen carefully to the responses, often taking notes and summarizing their understanding of the customers' comments. They have learned that silence is golden.

5. Successful sales people are passionate. They love their company and they exude this pride when talking about their products and services. The more passionate you are about your career, the greater the chance you will succeed. The reason for this is simple—when you love what you do you are going to put more effort into your work.

When you are passionate about the products or services you sell, your enthusiasm will shine brightly in every conversation. If you aren’t genuinely excited about selling your particular product or service, give serious consideration to making a change. You are not doing yourself, your company or your customers any favours by continuing to represent something you can’t get excited about.

6. Successful sales people are enthusiastic. They are always in a positive mood - even during difficult times - and their enthusiasm is contagious. They seldom talk poorly of the company or the business. When faced with unpleasant or negative situations, they choose to focus on the positive elements instead of allowing themselves to be dragged down.

7. Successful sales people take responsibility for their results. They do not blame internal problems, the economy, tough competitors, or anything else if they fail to meet their sales quotas. They know that their actions alone will determine their results and they do what is necessary.

8. Successful sales people work hard. Most people want to be successful but they aren’t prepared to work hard to achieve it. Sales superstars don’t wait for business to come to them; they go after it. They usually start work earlier than their coworkers and stay later than everyone else. They make more calls, prospect more consistently, talk to more people, and give more sales presentations than their coworkers.

9. Successful sales people keep in touch with their clients. They know that constant contact helps keep clients so they use a variety of approaches to accomplish this. They send thank-you, birthday, and anniversary cards. They make phone calls and schedule regular ‘keep in touch’ breakfast and lunch meetings. They send articles of value to their customers and send an email newsletter. They are constantly on the lookout for new and creative ways to keep their name in their customers’ minds.

10. Successful sales people show value. Today’s business world is more competitive than ever before and most sales people think that price is the only motivating buying factor. Successful sales people recognize that price is a factor in every sale but it is seldom the primary reason someone chooses a particular product or supplier.

They know that a well-informed buyer will usually base much of her decision on the value proposition presented by the sales person. They know how to create this value with each customer, prospect, or buyer they encounter.

We all have what it takes to become successful. Are you ready to make it happen?

Kelley Robertson, President of the Robertson Training Group, works with businesses to help them increase their sales and motivate their employees and has helped thousands of sales professionals and business people improve their results.

He is also the author of “Stop, Ask & Listen – Proven Sales Techniques To Turn Browsers Into Buyers.” Receive a FREE copy of “100 Ways to Increase Your Sales” by subscribing to his free sales and motivational newsletter available at http://www.kelleyrobertson.com

Contact him at 905-633-7750 or Kelley@RobertsonTrainingGroup.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

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Customer Follow Up

2006-04-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Follow Up With Your Customer
By Jay Conners

After you go through a sales session with a customer, wether you sell them a product or not, follow up with them. Otherwise, your time was all but wasted.

Every part of a sales process from the initial contact, to the presentation of the product, to the final step, following up, are all equally important.

The following up process is an important element of the sales process for many key reasons, here are just a few:

1. Following up makes your customers feel important.

When a customer walks into your office, or calls you on the telephone, they do not want to be thought of as a statistic. They want to be treated as though they are the only customer you have.

By following up after your initial contact, it tells the customer that you are serious about doing business with them.

They will appreciate the phone call, and this will be a clear message to them that they weren’t just another sale on your way to meeting your goal.

2. Following up with your customer shows that you care.

Another reason to follow up with your customer is to find out how they are doing, and how their new product is benefitting them.

Ask questions about the product and the experience they have had with you and your company.

It is always good to get feedback, good and bad. This way you can correct anything that your customer was not happy with, learn from your mistake, and be sure not to let it happen again with your next customer.

If their feedback is negative or they just are not happy with the product, find out their reasons, be empathetic, and try to resolve the problem as best you can.

3. Follow up with your customer for more sales opportunities.

After your initial meeting with your customer, one of two things happened. Either you got the sale, or your customer left still undecided.

If you got the sale, following up with your customer is important for reasons stated in number two, and also, you now have an opportunity to up-sell. While they are on the phone, ask for permission to go over some of your other products you believe they may be interested in.

If your customer left you still undecided, than this is the perfect opportunity to see if they have come to a decision. If they haven’t, ask if there is anything they would like you to go over again, or, if they thought of any more questions they would like to ask.

A final note . . .

Before a customer leaves your desk or hangs up the phone, make your customer aware of your intentions to follow up with them. If your sales session went well, this should not be a problem.

Following up with your customers is a great opportunity to keep in contact with them, and there is no law that says you can’t follow up more than once.

The more you stay in contact with your customers, the stronger your relationship with them becomes. The stronger the relationship, the more business and referrals you can expect from them. So follow up, Always.

Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of http://www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource site, he is also the owner of http://www.callprospect.com, a mortgage lead company.

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Marketing Plan Need Changing?

2006-04-06T01:03:00.000-07:00

Does Your Marketing Plan Need Changing?
By Joy Gendusa

Change is good, right? Not always. But when is it bad? Is it a question of good or bad? Sounds philosophical. Maybe it is.

Philosophize on this…why would one take something that is going good – no.. great – and change it? Obvious answer is to make it better. Not!

In business or in marketing, change is not always good. When you have certain promotional actions that are in place making things happen, or in better terms, making you money – don’t change them! Why do I say this? Because I see it time and time again.

Someone has a marketing campaign that is bringing in a good return on investment and they up and decide to change their postcard! What?!?!?!?!? Change your postcard – why??????? “Er uh, we just decided to do something different.”

And then some three or four months down the road, they call back with their tail between their legs and ask – no demand to have everything back the way it was before. In this latter case – change is good.

I am not just saying that to say that one should always keep their postcard marketing campaign the same and never change it. Quite the contrary. Change your marketing, change your habits, change your way of life when it warrants it. There is really some truth to the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Maybe it is human nature to want to change everything once something gets going just the way they planned it. Who the heck knows? All I can say is step outside the human-nature box. Change only when things are drastic or when change is warranted.

Drastic circumstances deserve drastic measures. But how do you determine drastic? Sometimes that is really easy. Your company’s income is crashing. Do something! Change! Or better yet, figure out what you changed and get it back to what was working.

How about a plateau? Does that deserve change? Depends on how long that plateau lasts. I have never seen things leveling off and staying level forever. It either goes one of two ways – up or down. I know an optometrist who had a very successful practice in small town USA. He never really marketed. He never really had to.

People knew of him from miles around. Mainly he did PR stuff – a fundraiser here, networking there, etc., etc. His good works made him well known and respected and the community ooo’ed and ah’ed over him so much the paper loved printing it.

But things changed. Malls started opening up. People started shopping out of small-town USA and into the bigger cities. The environment changed. But he didn’t. He still kept a good practice, but you could see something interesting – his gross income started to plateau.

And over time – many years – that plateau gradually started to show where it was really going. I actually don’t have to say where – you’ve got the picture.

Now, would that demand drastic measures? Taking into account inflation, cost of living and other factors that are on the rise – yes, I would say that would demand drastic measures. Did he take them? Not until the direness became all too apparent. But yes, he finally did take them. He started postcard marketing his you-know-what off!

I have another client that is just a dream. They have had the same list for the past 5 years, ever since they have been in business – thirty thousand physical therapists they mailed to over and over and over and over and … They never changed.

They figured if it was bringing in the income it was the thing that was working. And it worked and it still works. And today – they made Entrepreneur’s 100 Hot List for 2005.

So, next time you think about changing your marketing plan, look to see if it needs it. Look at your numbers. Are they improving? Declining? If your income is going up – don’t change one single thing. But if it is going down or flat lining – for heaven’s sake, change!

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998, her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2004 the company did $9 million in sales and employed over 60 people. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. As an Expert Author, she is always willing to share her marketing advice through articles, interviews and speaking engagements; visit www.postcardmania.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Organized And Loving It

2006-03-23T02:52:00.000-08:00

Organized And Loving It – Working At Home In Style
By Diana Ennen

Over the years, I’ve tried it all, different ways to get organized, with much trial and error. Some worked, some didn’t. I tried some of those fancy looking matching desk sets. They looked beautiful and for some, I’m sure they are perfect.

But for me, they took up too much valuable space. Space I needed to proof my work, keep my reference books, or keep those essentials that I use on a regular basis. For me, when I work I want everything within an arms reach. I want to have immediate access to the tools I need to complete my assignments.

I have a corner desk, and on it I have my computer, printer, fax, phone, etc. Beside my desk I have a two-drawer filing cabinet. This was possibly the greatest thing I’ve ever done to organize my business. In it I have my files and supplies that I use on a regular basis, such as, client stationery, client files, a file for my receipts, all personal correspondence, paper, folders, etc.

Whenever these files get bulky with client documents, I simply empty them into the main filing cabinet. For example, my main clients, whom I’ve been working with for 20 years, their files in the main cabinet are quite large. It’s nice to have the smaller file close by with just their recent correspondence. Plus, when I need a folder, an order slip for my books, a copy of my stationery, it’s all right there. AAAHHH, now that’s convenience.

Now for the receipts’ file. I keep it monthly. At the beginning of the month, I simply replace the file with the new month’s file. That way, at tax time, I don’t have to go through a whole year’s receipts and divide it up. It’s already separated.

Here are some other organizational tips you might find beneficial:

Mail—We have a round basket by a small table by the front door. All incoming mail goes in there first. Then when I have the opportunity to sort through it, I get it and put it in its appropriate place. Always pitch anything you aren’t keeping. All business-related mail is sorted and put away immediately. Anything that might need work done on it is logged into my Daytimer and then put in the To Do Bin.

Desk—Your desk should have on it only those items that you use on a regular basis. Look around. What haven’t you used in the last month or two? Start dumping. Find another spot for it. But find the RIGHT spot for it.

No Piling of Anything Allowed. This is one of those habits that can be so easy to get into. Definitely one that I catch myself doing a lot! But I stop myself now because I know it will just be brushed off to the side and forgotten. Too often I miss something important and regret the piling blunder again.

You will be amazed how much more organized you will feel if you just don’t do this one thing. And time yourself. You think you are too busy, but it takes seconds and how long does it take to look for that missing document.

Daytimer—Now this isn’t only for Time Management. Your Daytimer can have a space for all your business cards, appointment cards, etc. How great it is to have all these cards right in the same place. On the date of your appointment, you simply grab the card and off you go. Also, recently I’ve started using the Outlook Express to log in appointments as well. It has a calendar and I can look to it to get a feel for the day and the week to follow.

Three-ring Binders – I saved my best for last. I do a lot of research in doing publicity for clients and also have a lot of e-mails that I need to print and save. I use paper that already has the wholes punched for insertion into a 3 ring binder.

I will print out important research, client e-mails I need to save, work that I’ve done so I can review it later, etc., on this paper and then put it into the proper binders. I have a binder for all clients, research, PR, myself, and miscellaneous. You would be amazed how clearer things are in a binder than tossed in a file cabinet. For my business it works tremendously.

Start the beginning of the day and the end of the day with a clean-up. What a tremendous feeling that is. When you are done with a project, away it goes. When you start the next project, out comes all the material you need.

There’s nothing like the feeling of sitting down in the morning to a nice clean organized desk and office. Once you feel this a couple of days, you want to experience this every day so you’ll take the appropriate steps to make it happen.

About the Author: Diana Ennen, Author; Virtual Assistant the Series, Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA, and Words From Home, Start, Run and Operate a Successful Word Processing Business available at http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com. She also does publicity and book marketing and has published the science fiction thriller, Sledgehammer by Paulo J. Reyes, M.D.

Source: www.isnare.com

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Sooo Close To More Business

2006-03-15T20:27:00.000-08:00

You're Soooo Close To More Business - It's Scary!
By Scott Rauber

Many small business owners are longing for more prospects right now. They are contemplating giving up because they don’t have potential for more income or they’re pondering the plunge of launching their business for the first time. Either way – you are soooooooo close to more business – it’s scary.

Finding prospects for your product and or service is not as hard as most people make it out to be. In most cases you don’t need to unload your income on advertising avenues that are nothing more than bottomless pits. You can usually find them right under your nose and more likely than not you can uncover them without the use of money. All you need is time and hard work.

Here are a few suggestions to help you find some prospects right now:

Quit Cold Calling

Whether you cold call on the phone or face-to-face why not try contacting people that already know, like and trust you. The people that know, like and trust you will; read your emails, take your phone calls, read the mail you send them, return your calls, etc. Most of us overlook contacting friends and family from the past, the far past. Look here first.

Be pinpoint specific and ask for referrals now

If you’ve ever asked for a referral, you’ve probably got the response, “Not right off the top of my head.” as an answer to your request. Last year I asked a client for a referral like this; “Who’s your courier company?” I got the answer, and B-A-M a new client. Be specific when you ask for a referral. Ask for; a neighbor’s name, best friend, who works across the hall, etc. Pick up the phone, call a customer and be specific when you ask for a referral. It works.

Introduce yourself locally

Old-school marketing at it’s best. Now don’t confuse this with cold calling. Take a handful of business cards and introduce yourself to local businesses, just let them know what your business is – nothing else. It’s no different than meeting someone at your child’s soccer game. You simply exchange cards. It’s strange, but when you go “introducing” and not “selling”, people defenses are dropped and you just might find a prospect or two.

If you have a small business, distributorship or are a sales associate, try these 3 tips right now and see if you don’t find a few more prospects.

Much Success,

Scott Rauber, Author and Speaker
How To Find More Prospects Using Little or NO Money ebook www.getmorebiznow.com

What Not To Do . . .

2006-03-04T19:06:00.000-08:00

What Not To Do and How Not To Do IT
By Paul Lemberg

How can you get more done?

Can you really do more than you already do? Is there still room left on your plate for even one more thing? The truth is I don't know anyone (successful) who has too little to do. Not one of my many clients--nor any of my friends, acquaintances, or people I meet on planes--none of them has ever said they have too little to do.

Doing more to get more done is simply not an option.

The answer to doing more is doing less.

Less?

Do less?

Are you kidding? How's that going to help? "I don't get enough done as it is," you say, "and there's always more to do at the end of a day!"

Ask this transformational question: Is each activity you currently do providing the greatest possible payback? Or like many people, are you spending much of your precious time doing things which produce a relatively lower return? The key word is relatively.

To do more, you've got to figure out what not to do.

For most people, 100% of our time is filled with 1) routine day-to-day matters, 2) things we told other people we would do and 3) responding to (sometimes trivial) interruptions. To try to make something important happen, we end up shoving that thing into our schedule.

How well does that work? How well does a five pound bag hold ten pounds of stuff? You get the idea--not very well at all. And, of course, all the important stuff ends up spilling out onto the floor.

For some people, the bag is so full--there are so many to-dos on your to-do list, your reach the uncomfortable state of overwhelm. Your creativity gets totally locked out and your mind can't even consider other, perhaps more important things.

You've got to figure out what not to do.

I've done casual research on this subject asking audiences of executives what things they do that they know they shouldn't. This list of guilty pleasures includes answering emails as they come in throughout the day, handling the company finances, interviewing all candidates for all jobs, purchasing, filing, writing marketing copy and advertisements, signing all the checks, exercising final say on small product changes, and so on.

That's not to say these things aren't important--some are, even vitally so. The question is--are these the most important things for YOU to be doing, especially at this point in your organization's development?

Often when I ask these questions, people respond by saying there is no one else who can do THAT as well as they can.

This thinking is typical of what Adam Smith called "absolute advantage." Smith advocated doing all the things which you do better than anyone else. It is obvious, commonsense thinking. The trap for someone who is by nature highly and broadly capable is that you can end up doing everything, reluctant to let go of anything.

To the rescue is 19TH century economist David Ricardo's Law of the Comparative Advantage of Nations. In a bold, counterintuitive bit of reasoning, Ricardo said to maximize wealth, each country should devote its energy to producing goods they sacrificed the least to create. In other words, Comparative Advantage says to produce the goods which create the highest value per unit of work. Everything else, regardless of how much better you do it than anyone else, should be done by others.

Assume your company makes a sophisticated high value product and you can sell as many as you can make. The product uses several cheap components, which by the way, you can also make better and cheaper than anyone else. Ricardo says that given limited resources (your time, for instance) it is a mistake to manufacture any of the components; each unit of time spent making the cheaper components instead of making the high-valued product costs you money --opportunity cost. To make the most profit, spend ALL your time making the high-value product, and purchase the components.

Ricardo's law boils down to this: do the thing which brings the GREATEST RETURN--and nothing else. That which brings you the greatest value, and only that, is your comparative advantage.

Keep a list of all the separate things you do during the course of a day/week/month. You may think you know, but each time I ask an executive to try this exercise, they are surprised by the outcome.

Make a notation of what you are doing every 15 minutes. Keep this record for as long as you can--at least two or three days; a week or even two will reveal even more. (You must write this down. The process won't work if you try to keep it in your head.)

What have you been doing? Have you been squandering your comparative advantage?

Is each action on your list HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE? Is each thing on your list MAKING YOU MONEY, or CHANGING THE WORLD (at least a little bit?)

No? Most people spend at least some of their time doing low-contribution activities. For most people, even if they consider what are doing important, there are usually even more important things they should do instead.

Once you've understood how you actually spend your time, you have three possible courses of action:

You can dump things--there are always some things which are of such little value that no one should be doing them.

You can delegate important things to capable people in your organization or outsource them to firms which specialize in those things.

Lastly, YOU can do the things which make the largest difference.

Apply Ricardo's principle of comparative advantage. Figure out what specific actions contribute the most and do only those, offloading or dumping the rest. Do the same analysis for each department and each member of your company and create extraordinary results.

To do more -- to get more done in terms of value -- you have to do less.

Paul Lemberg is the president of Quantum Growth Coaching, the world's only fully systemized business coaching program guaranteed to help entrepreneurs rapidly create More Profits and More Life™. To get your copy of our free special report with detailed steps on how to grow your business at least 40% faster, even when you aren’t sure what to do next, go to Paul's business coaching website.

Click here if you are interested in Quantum's Business Coaching Franchise opportunities.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Lemberg

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Small Business Marketing Success

2006-03-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

Fail Your Way To Small Business Marketing Success!
Kevin P. Dervin

Are you willing to fail your way to great marketing Success?

Success is a learning process. It's an ongoing process - a continual quest.

Do you believe that marketing success is a learning process? Then you must be willing to accept that you'll stumble (i.e., fail) along the way - sometimes a whole lot. But if you're willing to pay attention to what works and what doesn't, you can learn from your mistakes. You can fail your way to success!

I hear it all the time from clients as well as other small business owners. "When I put this marketing piece out, it really has to be good. I really need to get it right."

Really? Why is that? I mean if you weren't very good at marketing to begin with, then why does your next piece have to be so good?

What is wrong with making it as good as you think you can and putting it out there? Even if it's not a rousing success you should be able to learn from the experience.

Fear of Failure is such a powerful obstacle to achieving great marketing success. Too often it's what keeps us from realizing that it is absolutely possible for our own small business.

We are taught in school that failure is bad. For a lot of us growing up, that meant anything less that an 80% (certainly less than a 70%) was failure. I know it kept me motivated most of the time.

Then when we get into business, we tend to think some of these same rules apply. And when we fail (or at least we think we fail) with our ideas and our marketing, it's devastating. Failure is bad. We fear it. We don't ever have to want to go through it again.

Fear of Failure can be paralyzing. You might assume that the best way to not fail is to not take a chance in the first place. Ah, but then doing nothing is a sure path to failure. What are you to do?

Be Willing To Fail Your Way To Marketing Success

Failure really isn't bad at all - well at least not if you are willing to learn from it. What if you simply thought of all of your marketing as testing? No, I'm not talking about like those tests back in school where you had to score 80% or higher to succeed.

Let me illustrate with an example. Say you send out 100 direct sales letters and only get two responses. A 2% response rate on a direct sales letter is not necessarily failure. In fact, it may be great success. The value of one or two new clients usually far outweighs the time and costs of producing and mailing the letter - especially if you consider the lifetime value of the client.

But only getting two responses out of 100 sure does feel like failure to many small business owners. Now do you realize that a simple change in your headline or your offer could increase response by over 500%? That's the power of testing. You put it out there and pay attention to what happens. Then you look for the opportunities to increase your results.

I'm not suggesting that you just start throwing your stuff out there to see what takes. Your marketing should be planned and part of an overall coordinated effort. If you follow any of KPD Marketing's work, you know how important I believe analysis and preparation are to success.

No, what I'm suggesting by failing your way to success is a willingness to put your marketing out there and test to see what happens. As long as you're willing to pay attention to (and accept) what works and what doesn't, you can learn what you are doing right and wrong. Then simply refine it and test it again.

Test and Test and Test Some More!

Does anybody think the Wright brothers got it right the first time? Of course they didn't. In fact, we know they tested and failed for years. Even their first real flight would be considered a colossal failure by today's standards. But the Wright brothers kept on testing to continue improving upon what they achieved each time.

The same is true for some of the most successful marketing businesses today. Don't think for a second that their first ideas and first marketing strategies worked flawlessly. They had failures. Some had several failures. Some had major failures.

The Secret to Failing Your Way To Success...

If you fail, you learn. When you learn, you can refine. When you refine, you can test again and eventually you will succeed.

Now, in order to learn from your failures, you must monitor and track your results. You might think you know what's working and what's not, but if you're not tracking anything then I'd be willing to challenge your notions.

Testing and tracking is really not as hard as you might think. It is important to take time to reflect on your failed experiences. What went right and wrong and where could you do things differently to garner different results next time?

Clarify your most wanted response. When you are putting together any marketing piece, or marketing tool, or marketing campaign; determine and be clear about your objective. What do you most want to happen? What is your most desired response?

So often business owners put something together, but they can't clearly articulate what they thought should happen as a result. There is no way to measure or monitor if it worked if you were not sure what was supposed to happen in the first place.

It is not the failure that defines us, but how we respond to failure. We all fail sometimes. Get over it. Don't be afraid of it. Pick yourself up and learn from the experience so you can move forward again.

You just need to be willing to Fail your way to great marketing Success!

About the Author:
Kevin Dervin is focused on helping small businesses that are ready to grow, but struggle with how to consistently attract more clients. He has created www.proven-small-business-marketing-solutions.com to be an online resource for small business owners to share what he has learned and continues to learn. Visit his site for more great marketing information you can put to use in growing your business today.

You can also find Kevin's Kansas City based KPD Marketing practice at www.ABCDgrowth.com and subscribe to his free ezine called ABCD Grow. Everyone who subscribes will get a copy of his free report "Five Fundamentals To Help You Boost Your Service Business And Increase Your Satisfaction!"

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Becoming a Household Name

2006-03-01T20:34:00.000-08:00

The 10 Building Blocks to a Becoming a Household Name
By Kim Nishida

Do you struggle to attract and retain business? Do you yearn to be seen as an expert in the field? In an increasingly challenging market flooded with fierce competitors and extremely savvy consumers, learn how to develop a killer brand that will inspire you, attract loyal customers, and knock out the competition.

1. Identify your values: This is the most critical step and the one most often overlooked in business. Do some soul searching and get a crystal clear idea of what matters most to you as an individual and then as a company. Your values form the base of your company and should influence every decision, from what kind of toilet paper you buy to the business partners you seek.

2. Identify your mission: Once your values are identified, it’s time to write a mission statement. Ask, why does my company exist? What do we aim to do? Write it in simple language that a 12-year old can understand. Do a search on the internet for mission statements and use the most compelling ones as a template. This is the statement that should get you out of bed each morning and inspire you morning, noon, and night.

3. Identify your ideal client: Again, a critical step. Look at your mission and why your company exists at all and ask, “Whom do I serve?” The hard part is getting as specific as possible to the point of potentially turning off a lot of other people. Don’t worry. The biggest mistake you can make is trying to please everyone. This dilutes your service/product so much that you really don’t strike a nerve with anyone. No one will have a compelling enough reason to buy from you. By turning some people off, you attract others who will bond with you for life. And a final benefit to knowing the specifics of your ideal client is you then have a much better idea of where to look for them.

4. Create an emotional connection: Every potential customer wants to know one thing, “What’s in it for me?” In order to compel someone to pull out their money and buy, you need to connect them to you in an emotional way. How are you going to make their life better? What pain is your product or service going to eliminate? Watch some television and notice how the best commercials create an emotional atmosphere. Which commercials get your attention, which ones stick with you, and how do they get their message across?

5. Identify the benefits vs. the features: Know your product/services inside and out. But instead of just listing the features, describe them in terms of how the client will benefit. Remember, it’s all about creating that emotional connection with your ideal client and telling them how you can make their life better.

6. Create an experience: Why should consumers buy from you as opposed to any one of your competitors? What makes you unique? Successful companies are now in the business of creating experiences that enrich lives. Starbucks does not just sell coffee. From the music they play (and sell) to the comfortable furniture and inviting décor they offer, they create an atmosphere that people will pay for above and beyond a beverage in a cup.

7. Commit to a message: How do your values and mission tie into your image? Carefully look at what matters most to you and broadcast that to your ideal client. Once you are clear on your message, stand behind it and don’t waffle.

8. Enforce consistency: This also relates to your values and mission. Once you are clear about why you are in business, maintain your integrity, from the level of service you provide and your logo and printed materials to the way you follow-up with customers and the stamps you buy. Be conscious of every detail and match it to your values, your mission, and your message.

9. Have the courage to reinvent yourself: Even (or especially) if you have been in business for a long time, take the time to ask, who do we REALLY want to be? You might have created your business without being clear about your mission, or your mission might have changed. Or because the climate and the market constantly evolve, you might have hit the target five years ago, but have lost your edge since then. Be brave enough to ask if your current image is right. If not, this is the time to reconnect with your current mission.

10. Lastly, beware of following trends: If you want longevity, don’t fall prey to the seduction of the latest trend. Besides, if something is trendy, it’s probably already too late to jump on that bandwagon. Keep looking inward at what you stand for and forward at how your company will change lives. Build trust by showing you aren’t fickle or easily swayed by the flavor of the month.

Not enough clients for your small business? Kim Nishida, author of the innovative program Conception to Completion helps you realize your full potential. Pick-up your free Success Kit while supplies last at http://www.readytoevolve.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kim_Nishida

Audio Motivation

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Maximize Your Profits

2006-02-25T02:40:00.000-08:00

Customer Lifetime Value - The Key To Maximizing Your Profits! By Larry Lim

The greatest asset to your business is your Customer, specifically, your Customer Lifetime Value.

In my many years in Sales and Marketing, I've met many CEOs and business owners who don't have much clue as to what Customer Lifetime Value is, much less its importance and the impact it has on their bottomline. To most of them, what matters most is to increase revenue by continuously acquiring new one-shot customers.

This is one of the fatal mistakes that many business owners make; it's a sad scenario, but it's also the reality. Let me tell you something: it'll cost you 5 times more to attract a new customer than it is to bring one of your past customers back to you.

I don't know you personally, but if you're a smart business owner, you'll understand that every cent you invest in advertising is going towards acquiring new customers. You'll also realise that once you've acquired the customers, you just can't afford to let them go.

So what's Customer Lifetime Value?

Customer Lifetime Value is defined as the total value, in monetary terms, of your average customers spanning the entire period that these customers are likely to do business with you. It's the potential contribution of your customers to your business over a period of time.

Here's how to calculate your Customer Lifetime Value:

1). Let's say you've 2,000 steady customers and these customers remain with you for an average of two years; for the past two years, your net profit was $700,000.

The Customer Lifetime Value can be calculated as: $700,000/2,000 = $350.

What this means is that over an average customer lifespan of two years, each new customer you could acquire and keep is worth $350 to you in profits.

2). If you do not have the actual figures, you'll have to estimate. As the Customer Lifetime Value will have a significant impact on your bottomline, my advice is that you be prudent and conservative in your estimation.

Why is it so important to you and your business?

Lifetime Customer Value is important to you and your business for the following reasons:

1). Knowing the Lifetime Value of your customers is crucial to you and your business as it serves as a benchmark without which you'll be groping in the dark.

When you know the Lifetime Value of your customers, you can determine how much time, effort and money you can afford to invest to acquire that customer in the first instance.

In other words, you can invest more today to reap a much larger profits later down the road as long as your cashflow is healthy and can support it.

Every marketing campaign that you undertake costs you money as well as reaping you benefits such as increased sales, enhanced corporate image, etc. But how can you be sure that the benefits would outweigh the costs or investments? This is where knowing the Customer Lifetime Value is so powerful - it helps you to determine this even before you launch your marketing campaign.

2). When you realize that customers are actually an ongoing stream of revenue as opposed to a one-shot sale, you can re-focus your marketing efforts.

Instead of contantly struggling to acquire more and more new customers, you can now begin to focus on keeping your existing customers longer and selling to them repeatedly, in other words, repeat sales.

You may spend more like making stronger and more attractive offers than your competition in acquiring new customers now who will be your money spinners tomorrow.

This makes sense because you now know that on average you'll more than make it back over the years that the customers are with you and therefore you could afford to break even or even lose money now in acquiring the new customers.

Start shifting your focus to Customer Lifetime Value and maximise your profits today!

Start to have a proper understanding of Customer Lifetime Value because it's key to the success of your business. It'll allow you to acquire more customers than your competition through better and more attractive offers; it'll dramatically increase your bottomline through more repeat sales and shoot your profits through the roof.Copyright 2004 by Larry Lim, MarketingSphere.com

About the Author
Larry Lim is a practising marketing strategist and tactician who dishes out highly effective marketing strategies and tactics that will enable you to successfully start and grow your business on the Internet.

Check out his Internet Marketing Strategy website that is jam-packed with internet marketing secrets and softwares that will skyrocket your sales, and shoot your profits through the roof.

To read more of Larry Lim's articles, visit http://www.articlesphere.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Larry_Lim

Procrastination Marketing . . .

2006-02-22T23:57:00.000-08:00

Procrastination Marketing -- It Actually Works!
by Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen"

I'm guessing that right now there are several marketing tasks you've been putting off. Perhaps it's revamping your website. Or sending out your first e-zine. Or getting listed in the search engines. Or putting together a media kit.

So why haven't you done it?

Believe me, this is a battle I fight with myself too. But you know what I realized?

Procrastination is NOT evil!

Instead of seeing procrastination as a terrible thing, I now see it as a tool that helps me learn how I work best.

In fact, I've arrived at six different reasons why we all seem to procrastinate. Here they are, along with what you can learn from (and do for) each.

Reason 1: You are procrastinating because you don't enjoy the entire task or job.

Solution: One of my life coaches told me several years ago that if I didn't like doing something, I should "delete it, delegate it, or automate it." What a great way to look at things! I'm a big fan of ONLY doing tasks I enjoy or am good at. The rest I outsource to people who are good at it and/or enjoy it.

Reason 2: You are procrastinating because you don't enjoy a PART of the entire task or job.

Solution: If you're putting off a whole project just because there's one part you don't want to do, figure out how you can get away without doing that part. Again, delete it, delegate it, or automate it.

Reason 3: You are procrastinating because you don't know how to handle the task or job.

Solution: The answer will not drop in your lap. Get help -- a consultant to teach you how, a book or home study course to show you how, or even better, outsource it to someone who can just do it for you.

Reason 4: You are procrastinating because you simply can't find the time.

Solution: Schedule future time to do it, or get rid of other tasks to create the time you need. If you still can't do this, then you need to find someone to do it for you.

Reason 5: You are procrastinating because you feel stuck.

Solution: You may just need to get momentum going. Give yourself permission to do just one small part of the project only. Or do the easiest part first. (That's how I started writing my entire home study course.) This usually creates momentum, and you end up doing a lot more than you intended to!

Reason 6: You are procrastinating because you don't really want to do what you thought you should do.

Solution: This means you may have the wrong objective or strategy in the first place! Is this something you really want to do, or do you just think you SHOULD do it? Or is it an old goal that doesn't fit you or your business anymore? Your answer may surprise you. Let the goal go for awhile and see what happens. : )

Start Paying Attention!

Once you start paying attention to which activities you put off regularly, you'll know sooner when to be stricter with yourself or find help to get those tasks accomplished in a more timely manner.

So take a minute and make your list right now of what marketing tasks you've been putting off! Don't beat yourself up about it, just make a note and figure out how to get them done. (Or delete them entirely. : ))

WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE?
See Alexandria's Small Business Marketing Blog.

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Straight Shooter Marketing' weekly ezine with 18,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at http://www.EzineQueen.com

Audio Motivation

Tap into the same power that today's movers and shakers use, and keep yourself at the top of your Game with dynamic, exciting audio motivation messages. Find out more today at AudioMotivation.com.

Organization, Key To Success

2006-02-20T21:23:00.000-08:00

Organization, the Key to Success
By Michelle Dunn

One of the biggest things you can do to make any business successful is to be organized. Organization helps you work faster, more efficiently, helps you to portray a professional attitude and can make you feel less frantic and more optimistic about your business.

Whether you work out of a home office or a remote office you want to organize your desk, office and if you are traveling for your business, your bags. Let’s start with your bag, do you have a bag big enough to hold all your promotional items, daily items you might need, cell phone, pens, books, keys and/or mail? Is the bag a mess and so heavy it hurts your shoulder?

When you approach a potential client, you want your bag to look great and you want to be able to whip out a business card or brochure instantly to hand to them. Digging through a bag that is overloaded and overflowing is not a professional image.

I like to use a roomy bag that has outside pockets for slipping items in and for easy access. You can also purchase small clear zip top bags, I got mine from Totes. They are inexpensive and come in different sizes. Because they are clear, you can see everything instantly. You should only carry ONE bag.

If you have a tote bag, a planner and a purse, you are not organized. Put items from your purse in one of the clear zipper top bags and put that in your tote, add your planner, your promotional materials, a book, pen and paper and you are ready to go. Everything in one bag, with smaller bags inside to organize. You can see everything at a glance and everything is easily available.

A friend of mine, Susie at The Busy Woman (www.thebusywoman.com) has GREAT organizational bags to fit every lifestyle and business. If you're a busy woman (and what woman isn't?), you MUST stay organized and on top of every little detail in your day, in every aspect of your busy life . . . family, home, office, school, community and even home schooling.

Everyone uses some sort of calendar, day planner system, or to do list. It's finding the right one that used to be difficult, until NOW! Visit her site for tons of useful articles, tips and to see what types of organizational tools she has. Be sure to tell her I sent you.

Once your bag is organized, you can project a calm, professional, successful image to anyone you meet while you are out and about. Your next step is your desk.

Your desk probably has a computer, phone, basic office supplies, papers and books on it. First get some stand up file holders and baskets, plastic bins or in boxes. You can use anything, old shoe boxes with nice wrapping paper on the outside, or with pictures on them that your kids have drawn. Anything to contain the papers on your desk.

Look at your desk and make a pile of the things you use every or every other day. Those are the things you want to keep on your desk or somewhere that you have easy access. Make a pile of everything else and move it to the floor or away from your desk.

Make sure you have an “in” box. You can throw your mail there, and anything that needs instant attention the next time you sit down to work. Use a stand up file and some file folders to make a tickler file. Write the days of the week on the tabs of the file folders and put them in the upright file on your desk. When you do something on Monday and need to follow up on Thursday, put a note in Thursday’s folder.

Each morning, take out that day’s folder and do the work you have in that folder. This is an easy way to be sure to follow up on everything and keep your desk neat and organized. If you use envelopes or stamps every day, keep them in a smaller upright file holder or basket on your desk. Things you reach for everyday can be neatly stored in any type of container on your desk instead of spread all over it.

Hang up an inexpensive cork board to hang up papers or items you refer to all the time, this way they are hanging up and you can just glance up at them to get the information you need. You can also purchase different color folders for different jobs. Red for new jobs, green for things that need to be researched, blue for things that need to be typed etc. Whatever your business is, customize the colors to suit your needs.

You should also organize your computer, remove any old files, emails or pictures you don’t use every day or week, put them on a CD, label it and store it in a drawer on in a CD holder. This can be in your desk, on your desk if you use it often or on a shelf. Put any magazines, articles, books and papers you need to read in a basket, so you will have a basket of things to read, a basket of things to do each day (in-box) such as mail, reply to a letter or jobs.

You might have envelopes and stamps in a small container near your phone and/or a rolodex if that is something you use each day. Remember, the things on the top of your desk should be things you use every day or every other day. Everything else can be stored neatly. For example, here is what I have on my desk:

Computer, phone, stapler, tape, lamp, calculator, envelopes, stamps, return labels, Advil, hand lotion, multivitamins (otherwise I forget to take them!) tissue, promotional book marks and postcards, 2 CD’s I use daily, my tickler file, in box and a box for bills. I have an upright file holder with priority mail envelopes, Notebooks and folders with my mailing lists that I use every day, and invoices that have not been paid for book orders.

I send promotional materials out every day so I keep these items on my desk and handy. I have a file cabinet and bought some inexpensive lined baskets and have one for outgoing mail, so when I fill an envelope and stamp it I throw it in this basket, the next day when I go do errands, I put whatever is in that basket in my bag.

I have a basket of books, papers, reports and magazines I need to read, this is usually overflowing. I have this next to the mail basket and when I take that days mail I also take a book or magazine to put in my bag as well. When I am waiting in a doctor’s office or for my kids to come out of school, I read. I also have a basket of information to include in the 2nd edition I am working on for one of my books.

When I find something I want to add to that book, I throw it in the basket, when I am ready to make the revision’s I will have all the information in one place, MUCH EASIER! I also have a small plastic container with drawers, that I keep my promotional materials in, business cards, book marks, order forms and postcards. When I need something like this, they are all in one place and I can easily take what I need without searching or re-order quickly.

When I get back from my errands, I can easily empty my bag of mail, into my in box, magazines or reports into the basket of things to read and the book or magazine I read can go in the give away or save pile. I try to only keep pages out of magazines instead of entire magazines. You can get cheap 3 ring binders and sheet protectors and include your important pages from magazines or newspapers in that book. I then give the magazines to local business or doctors offices for their clients.

Now look around your office, is it just your office, or maybe your dining room table or a corner of the living room? If it is an office that is a room in your house, how much room do you have? What type of furniture is in there? You can certainly make do with whatever you have.

Think about putting up some sort of petition if you are in the living room, or face the wall or a window away from the TV and family area. You may need at least one file cabinet for paperwork, but try not to print everything out to file, anything electronic, save to CD’s and store that way. You can use different colored hanging file folders for your paperwork that must be filed.

For example, use a different color for personal bills, business bills, receipts, insurance, website information, and anything else you might have. It makes it easy to know what is in each folder at a glance and is good at tax time when you need to have all of your receipts and invoices for your accountant. If you have an empty drawer, use it to store copy paper, printer ink or any office supplies you have, or use a plastic container.

I have a printer stand next to my desk that has my printer on it, and I purchased a 4-drawer plastic stand at Staples for the printer paper, and envelopes, this way it is right under the printer. On the shelves I have baskets. One has shipping products, tape, labels, markers, return address labels and stickers in it. The next shelf has a basket with specialty paper that I don’t use often.

To successfully organize is easy. Things you need:

Containers: baskets, boxes, plastic containers

Folders: color coded or with color coded stickers on them to identify them easily and quickly.

File folder upright holders: Available at any office supply store or department store. You can even get some that hang on the wall for more available desk space.

Once you have these items, you will want to put all your “stuff” in piles of “like” items. All your mailing items together, envelopes, stamps, address labels etc and put them in one container. Put all your bills in another, once you do this, you will have a bunch of containers in front of you with all of your work items in them.

Then you can put them anywhere in your office, when your like items are grouped together and contained, you will not have to search each time you mail something or need to grab something to read.

I was a bill collector for 17 years and one of the reasons I have been successful is because of my organizational skills. I believe you can be more successful when you are organized, and it will get away from you but if you have a base plan, and stick to it, it will work.

Michelle Dunn has over 17 years experience in Credit and Debt collection. She is the founder and president of Never Dunn Publishing, LLC, is a writer, publisher, consultant and the Editorial Advisor for Eli Financial Debt Collection Compliance Alert Newsletter.

Michelle started M.A.D. Collection Agency in January 1998 and ran it successfully until she sold it in December 2004. She owns and runs Credit & Collections.com an online community for credit and business professionals. She has been featured in Ladies Home Journal, PC World, Home Business Magazine, Home Business Journal, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal, Professional Collector, and in Home Based Business for Dummies, Shameless Marketing for Brazen Hussies, she was a featured guest on (NPR) National Public Radio and has been in many newspapers & magazines nationwide.

She has many published articles and 5 published books to add to her list of accomplishments. Visit www.michelledunn.com for more information on any of Michelle’s books and services or email her at michelle@michelledunn.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Never Trust Silent Customers

2006-02-16T01:22:00.000-08:00

Never Trust a 'Silent' Customer
By Sean D'Souza

Imagine you run a pizza parlour. You have all these neighbourhood families that pop in at least once a week for some pizza, garlic bread and Coke. On an average, one customer spends about $30 per week. But let's assume they spend just $20. Imagine you did something that bugged this customer, but he or she never told you about it. What would you stand to lose if they left?

Its simple math: You lose $20 x 50 weeks. That's equivalent to $1000 a year.

If you lost just 10 such customers per month, you'd lose about 100 clients a year.

That's $100,000 that could be in your back pocket if you were a little complaint-conscious.

That Doesn't Happen in Our Business: The Denial Syndrome

Overtly it won't. In a Bain & Company survey of major corporations, they found that on average, U.S. Corporations lose half their customers in five years. Notice, it wasn't 'one year' or 'suddenly'. Clients have a tipping point. They get unhappy bit by bit and then its camel-back-breaking time. So, if you think that all your customers are happy with you-they aren't. It's a basic fact of life.

What's really weird is that you can't measure how much business you're really losing. A study was done on a bank, they found they had as many accounts as they had a year ago. What they failed to measure was how most of the people had 'silently' transferred the money out into other banks and the closure of the account was a last measure, somewhere down the line.

The same thing applies to your customer. Like a patient Buddha, they will seemingly appear to put up with everything, till suddenly you find they don't use you anymore. This is a classic flight of business. You hear nothing of it, till it's almost gone and it takes a mammoth effort just to hold on to the business.

If you look at it from another perspective, you might even be getting equal to or slightly less business from your customer. Naturally this doesn't ring any alarm bells. However, if you've been watching carefully, your customer has probably grown bigger and richer in the past few months or years. If your business with them has not grown exponentially, you are actually LOSING OUT.

No matter how successful your business, you will always have scope for improvement. Best of all, you will always have complaining customers. Don't deny the fact. Accept it and then do something about it.

The Real Reason Why You Lose Customers

Last month we went to KFC to pick up some chicken and chips for dinner. On the way home we discovered that the chicken and the chips were soggy and tasted terrible.

How would most customers react? It would depend on their history with the product, but most people would grumble and simply not go back. We complained. We picked up the phone and called the toll free line at KFC. They asked us to place our order. We said we didn't want to place an order, we just wanted to complain. They said, "We don't take complaints on this line. You'll have to call the manager at the branch where you bought it and talk to him."

Now Why Would I Bother To Go Through All That Trouble?

It's easier to never go back. All that money that KFC spends trying to get new customers is going down the drain and out the back door because they don't have a complaint line.

Most companies act precisely in the same manner. For one, they have no real complaint department. If clients are unhappy, they feel embarrassed to complain and because no route has been cleared to vent their feelings, they avoid it completely.

Then they leave.

Obviously, you can't wait for something to go wrong. Your job is to find ways to get the client to complain. If they complain, you are getting feedback that is extremely valuable and is probably relevant for all your other clients as well. Best of all, empowered with a complaint channel, a well-trained client will complain at every juncture giving you the opportunity to fix the problem and regain their trust.

How Companies React to Complaints

Virgin Airlines CEO, Richard Branson, sometimes makes an appearance at the gates when a flight is late, apologising profusely to all passengers as they check out. How mad would you continue to be if you ran into a situation like this?

Yet most companies detest complaints. Living in their ivory towers, they refuse to believe that any of their clients would leave. So they never ask for feedback. On the rare occasion that clients get mad enough to put it in words, it's too late. Even then, a complaint is treated with nuisance value.

The first step a company takes when dealing with complaints is that they fix it.

Yeah, Right!

Because of their crummy service, the plane took off without you, you missed your meeting and lost more than just your temper. Do you think, just replacing something is going to erase all that trouble? It's going to take much, much more. A simple replacement is never the answer. It has to be a heck lot more than just a numb 'sorry' .

You've got to woo the customer back like you would with the girl that you had your eye on. Going down on your knees and begging for forgiveness is a start. Then you've got to lay it on thick and the thicker the better.

The Problem With Zero Defect

Lots of companies ran themselves into the ground trying to achieve zero defect. In an unpredictable world like ours, that goal is unreal. Even the best of intentions aren't much use if you run into a flash flood. Clients recognise that. However, it's up to you to have a disaster recovery plan in place.

When I say that, I don't mean a grandiose 'in case of a nuclear attack' plan.

At Nordstrom stores across the U.S., salespeople are empowered to do 'whatever it takes' to fix a problem, even if it means going to the store across the street and buying the product at a higher price. It's called the art of immediate recovery, and it assumes that something will go wrong and you will have a Plan B to fix it. The more you prepare yourself for this inevitable event, the less chance the client has to complain.

More often than not, a complaining client is complaining about everything but the product. Ever see people complaining about the food at a restaurant? The principal purpose of the restaurant is food, yet people leave because of loud music, bad service and everything else. Your job is to assume you're a restaurant and find out what your 'everything else' is.

Getting Complaints is Like Winning Lotto!

1) What you need to do to ensure a regular stream of complaints. Dump the feedback form and go out and ask your customer's face to face. Do it regularly and have them know whom they can complain to, if anything goes wrong. There is no such thing as a silent customer.

2) Complaining customers are always very precise. They eliminate the vagueness of feedback forms. Listen to them, act on their complaints. It's not that they want to leave. They want to be wooed back. Fix the problem and then let them know how you fixed it.

3) They're giving you free feedback that would cost a fortune at a research company, so reward them. They've been inconvenienced on top of getting a bad product or service. That inconvenience factor deserves payment in the form of a reward over and above just fixing the problem. Customers who are bought back from the brink are extremely loyal and extremely 'noisy.' Treat them like the asset they are.

4) Remember, it costs eight times as much to get a new customer, than it takes to keep an existing one. Keep them at all costs. Atone for your sins.

5) Rule #1: The complaining customer is always right. Rule #2: When in doubt, refer to Rule #1

Ever wonder why one business wildly succeeds, while another business struggles to get ahead? As a business owner are you totally overwhelmed with constant technology changes? Is it really possible to take age-old psychology and create more customers, more profits and yes...more time?

The most powerful small business ideas, systems and strategies have existed for thousands of years. They've been tried and tested. And you'll find them here at www.5000bc.com -- explained to you in an easy to understand language, that you can implement right away.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Audio Motivation

Tap into the same power that today's movers and shakers use, and keep yourself at the top of your Game with dynamic, exciting audio motivation messages. Find out more today at AudioMotivation.com.

Determination In Business

2006-02-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

Success Mindset
By Matthew Eigbe

Just a dream?

You are lying on the beach with your favourite drink close to your hand, soaking up the warm rays. The ocean lazily rumbling just beyond your toes, palm trees swaying in the light breeze, sheltering your eyes from the sun.

Idyllic? Yes, but it can happen when you have a successful business, especially an Internet business that runs on autopilot.

But if dreams like these are why you want to be in business, forget it. Keep your day job.

Why you will fail

Why? Because the beach is the reward. And to earn that reward you typically work almost beyond endurance at times, and for less than minimum wage. There will often be moments when you will think it's not worth the effort, and you will often be tempted to quit. If the ultimate reward is what drives you, it will seem so far away and, at times, totally out of reach. All you need is to be a little too tired one day, and that will be it. There goes another dream.

Being successful in business is about determination. It's not about things falling into your lap with little or no effort. Sure, it happens sometimes. Those are the stories we hear about; no one wants to talk about their failures; they are kept quiet.

The 95% of Internet entrepreneurs who fail, don't fail because they necessarily have poor ideas, or because they're lazy, or because they lack experience - although this leads some to fail. They fail because they get worn down and give up, because it's too hard, because the sacrifice is too great, because they get tired of the constant unrelieved grind.

But it doesn't have to be so. One of the secrets to success is to choose a business that you love, that you would do for nothing if it was necessary, that you wouldn't mind doing as a hobby. Forget the money, although good prospects are always a worthwhile thing for any business to have if you hope to go beyond the hobby stage.

Loving what you do

Your love of what you do will pull you through the tough times. It will keep you going, make you look for better ways to achieve improvement, help you to concentrate more on your customer than on your bank account.

Don't get me wrong: business is business, and we're in it to make money. But if you are constantly checking to see if you have made some predetermined target in the early days, you will drive yourself mad. You will get discouraged and quit.

But if it is truly something you love to do, you will find the determination to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep improving what you do.

And you will succeed.

Instead of looking at the money side of things, look instead at productivity. If you produced five widgets yesterday, can you produce six today? Or can you produce five improved widgets today? Or can you mechanize part of the process without lessening quality, and maybe produce 10? Or instead market the machine that doubles your production?

What can you add to your knowledge that will improve what you do? How can you give your customers greater satisfaction?

Sam Walton did something beyond giving low prices: he had someone greet shoppers at Wal-Mart as they came in the door. Customers felt more welcome. Just a little thing, but people remembered and appreciated the gesture.

Resolve to do your best

Don't set time limits. Just resolve to do the very best you can, and to constantly attempt to improve, and to give better service or better quality to your customers. Resolve to do this for as long as it takes.

Maybe it will take months, maybe it will take years, but with this determined attitude, you cannot fail. And in the unlikely event you don't make money, you will have fun because you chose to do something you like doing anyway.

Matthew Eigbe has over 25 years experience in consumer marketing and now focuses on network marketing using the internet. He is webmaster at http://www.mattlinks.ws, a site that explains how you can gain Financial Freedom by inviting people to have their own domain name.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matthew_Eigbe

Sales - How You Ask Questions

2006-02-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

It's Not What You Ask – It's How You Ask It!
By Teri Samuels

How effective is your sales approach? The art of question asking is a key element in your selling success. Is your approach putting your customers on the defensive?

Here are two examples. First, we’ll take a look at the “Wrong Approach”.

As my husband’s company was transferring from California to Florida, we found a new home development which we were anxious to visit. Upon entering, we were greeted by a sales counselor whose "approach" left much to be desired.

Within seconds after entering the model home, I was interrupted by a phone call that I had to take. I exited the model and my husband was left with the sales counselor – who, as I learned later - completely overwhelmed him with her rapid line of questioning.

He explained it as the “machine gun” approach making him feel as though he was being interrogated. She (the counselor) never introduced herself, asked for my husband’s name, waited for me to return or took the time to establish any rapport before “opening fire” with her litany of questions.

Here’s a sampling of her questions, delivered in rapid succession:

Where are you living now?
How long have you been looking?
How many communities have you visited?
When are you looking to move?
Do you own a home now?
Do you need to sell your home?”
Do you have children?
Do your have pets?

By this time I had completed the call and was on my way back in to the model home only to be greeted by my husband who was on his way out of the model home, motioning me to leave a business card as they could “sure use the help”.

Needless to say, we never returned to this community which we were initially so anxious to visit. And, we’ll never know whether or not this community would have been exactly what we were looking for.

Good Approach

Upon entering the model home, the counselor should have first introduced herself. The “better approach” could then have gone something like this:

Suzie: “Hello, my name is Suzie. Welcome to XYZ community. Thanks for stopping in today. Could I get both of your names?”

“Yes, Teri and Tony.”

Suzie: “Is this your first visit to our community, Teri & Tony.”

“Yes it is.” (At this point, my phone rang). “Excuse me Suzie, this is an important call that I have to take, I’ll be back shortly.” (At this time Suzie should stop any question asking and begin developing a rapport with Tony until I return. After I return, the questioning/qualifying would go something like this):

Suzie: “Are you looking for yourself or someone else?”

“Ourselves.”

Suzie: “That’s great Teri and Tony, I have a few additional questions to understand your needs. Then I’ll provide you with a packet of info to help explain our floor plans, options, etc.”

“OK.”

Suzie: “In your selection a new home, what’s the most important factor in the decision making process?”

“Location.”

Suzie: “Does this location meet both of your needs?”

“Yes.”

Suzie: “Aside from location, what else is important to you?”

“The layout”.

Suzie: “When you say layout, could you be more specific?”

“Yes, open concept is very important to us.”

Suzie: “Is there anything else?”

“Yes, a large lot.”

Suzie: “Do you live in the area now?”

“No.”

Suzie: “Where are you currently living?”

“California.”

Suzie: “What brings you to Florida?”

“Tony’s company.”

Suzie: “Oh, that’s wonderful, we’re glad you’re here. How about time frames, how soon are you looking to move?”

“Provided we find what we’re looking for, we’re ready to make a decision now.”

Suzie: “Thanks so much Teri and Tony, for helping me help you. I’d like to make a couple of suggestions. Based on the information you provided, I’d like to recommend you spend some time looking at our Sunburst model.

It has a great ‘open feel’ concept. I feel it would meet all of your needs. And, it comes in various elevations. Another benefit to the Sunburst is that we have a model which is just about completed. And, the best part of all - it’s located on a double sized lot.

Of course, I encourage you to look at all of our models and welcome your feedback as that’s important to us. I’ll be available to answer any specific questions you have when completed your tour.”

Can you feel the difference in these two approaches? In any sales and communication setting it’s important to help create an atmosphere of comfort and interest. Please take a moment to review your everyday approach. It could be costing you sales.

CEO - United Sales Training (http://www.unitedsalestraining.com), 20 years as a Professional Sales and Marketing Troubleshooter, Trainer, Recruiter, Upper Level Manager, and Consulting Professional. Dedicated to the "keep it simple" approach.

To receive 1 free mini-consultation via email: tsamuels@unitedsalestraining.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Go For The Win!

2006-02-02T20:56:00.000-08:00

Playing to Win is Different than Playing Not to Lose
By Steve Kennedy

Have you ever watched a football game (or any game for that matter) when one team is winning by a large margin, a blowout, but then the opposing team decides that they have nothing to lose? They throw all caution to the wind and start playing with total abandon.

By taking bigger chances and going for broke, the team starts to score quicker, taking bigger risks and getting better rewards. This team is playing to win. The other team, who was winning by such a large margin, changes its focus, trying to play cautiously and protect their lead.

This is playing not to lose. By the final quarter, the team that is playing to win has caught up to the other team. What seemed impossible a few quarters earlier becomes a reality: they pull off a come-from-behind win.

How did this happen? Fear of losing can take one’s eye off a desired goal.

Let me give you another example from my own life. When I was just starting out in business I was very aggressive. I was willing to put everything I had on the line to succeed (mind you in those days, it was not much); nevertheless, it was all I had.

For each new initiative, I would have to bet the farm on my ideas, and I never hesitated. I was always willing to use my house, my car, my time, anything I had for collateral on my ideas.

As I started to have more success and acquiring a comfortable lifestyle, however, I became less and less willing to risk it. Around 1997, we hit some bumps in the road with one of our major clients, and they decided to put our contract out to bid. I got nervous.

If we lost this client, we would be in a vulnerable position. I decided to purchase another business that would potentially replace that income if we lost the major client.

The point to this story is this: I did not want to buy this other company, and I knew it was not a good idea. I was acting out of fear of losing, however, I did it anyway. Instead of focusing on how to win, I was focused on playing not to lose.

In the end, that decision turned out to be one of my biggest mistakes. The company I purchased not only lost money for us, but it took three years and many resources away from focusing on what we really wanted.

I am not suggesting that you throw all caution to the wind. But when you approach a decision, it might be worth asking yourself, “Are you playing to win or playing not to lose?” When you’re acting to prevent loss, it takes energy away from acting out of a place of good judgment and moving forward to win.

Quotes:

"The more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek opportunity,the more likely it is you will achieve the security you desire." -Brian Tracy

"Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is." - Vince Lombardi

"The goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning." - Reiner Knizia

"Focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear." - Anthony Robbins

Steve Kennedy is a successful entrepreneur and business coach who helps entrepreneurs get better results with less effort. For a free 1/2 hour audio download, free small business resources, to view more articles or to get more information directly from Steve, go to his website: http://www.winningthegameofbusiness.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Kennedy

Offense: Beat The Odds

2006-02-01T19:57:00.000-08:00

Offense: Beat the Odds
By Jan Verhoeff

When in doubt, cut that out! Yeah, yea, doubting Thomas may have had a point in his day, and life may not be what you want it to be, but if you constantly doubt yourself, how can you accomplish anything?

Where is your confidence? What possible good can come from taking the negative aspect of any situation and growing it into acceptance?

Purpose of achievement is to attain a goal. So, if you set your goals and strive to get there, it should be assumed that you are moving toward your goal (at least so far as intent) no matter what you are doing, right?

I vaguely remember an instructor from college saying once, “If there are two ways to take something, always input the benefit of doubt and assume the better more optimistic choice is the right way to take it.”

When watching a football game, one of those great high school starter games, set to determine who starts when the real games begin, I noticed the coach called “defense” only when the team was “protecting” their goal. As long as the team was fighting for more ground they played “offense”. Along the same lines, I’ve heard the phrase, “a strong defense requires a good offense.”

Simply put, if you concentrate more on gaining ground than on protecting your goals, your accomplishments will be greater. Time spent protecting your goals is wasted time, when you could be working toward attaining your goals rather than preventing others from reaching their goal.

In business, if you waste your time focusing on what your competition is doing rather than working toward meeting your goals, you don’t get very far.

Focus your attention on where you’re going. Don’t waste time worrying about where your competition is. You will gain ground while they are watching you. Smile as you reach your destination.

Characteristic of an optimist, Jan Verhoeff leads with vision and power, focusing on where she wants to go. Gain perspective from where you stand, focus your attention on where you want to go, and move forward. Brand your GOAL POST with the journey, let us show you how: eBiz Brand Performance.

The WOW Factor In Business

2006-01-30T23:33:00.000-08:00

The WOW Effect
By Tanya Hacko

Probably the most frequently asked question I hear when people approach us for the first time is: "Why do you have a 500 dollars minimum trade order? I like your jewellery and I am sure it will sell well. But before I place a larger order, I would like to trial a few pieces first, ask my customers for feedback, and then I would be ready to order more".

Fair question. And almost impossible to answer in 10 seconds.

Before I answer, let me ask you something. Have you noticed how some businesses do very well while others struggle to break even? And not only do they appear to make more profit and expand regardless of economic trends, but it also looks like they are having fun while making lots of people happy by taking their money?

Four years ago we relocated to Sydney's lower North Shore. During the first week in our new suburb we started checking basic service providers. It was easy to decide which baker was going to be 'ours' - there was only one within walking distance, as well as only one fruit shop and one hardware store.

But we immediately noticed we had a choice of no less than 5 butchers! All of them had a nice clean shop, with a very decent range of meats. However, one shop stood out 'head and shoulders' above the other four: there was something very special about that place.

What made them very special? They had twice the range of products; everything on display was presented in a very special way; looked fresh, smelled superb; and customer service was the best we had ever received in any butchers shop.

Their butchers wore a clean white shirt and bow-tie, and smiled at us even when we spent just $2.50. In other words, they had created what I call the WOW effect.

What is the WOW effect? Well this is something that cannot be easily measured and described, but you can feel it the moment you walk into a business. It is a magical combination of what's on display (product) and the way the business satisfies your needs - customer service.

Today, we consumers are programmed to expect nothing but the best - the largest, greatest, most efficient, timesaving product. And even if we only need one super gadget we expect it to be presented in a range of colours, shapes and sizes.

Our senses no longer notice and react to one-piece-of-whatever; we only see the stacks and piles, and then, only when they are prominently displayed, not an inch lower or higher than eye level.

This is the reason why (unfortunately) the WOW effect can no longer be guaranteed, even with $500 worth of jewellery! Your 30 or 35 piece display may not be enough to capture the imagination of your buyer. No, there is nothing wrong with your product - you just need more of it before you start being noticed. And before you start selling it.

From time to time we have overseas visitors. We always make sure to take them to "our" butcher, even if they are strict vegetarians. Why? Because we know they will be impressed. The WOW effect is contagious. It simply works.

Regardless of what kind of business you run, you should constantly ask yourself the most important question: do I have what it takes to make my customers happy and satisfied, to make them come back again and to bring their friends?

Am I offering them a range of product that should satisfy their curiosity? Do they have a choice of colours, sizes and styles? What makes my jewellery special and different from competitors?

After 12 years of retailing jewellery I have yet to find a customer who woke up in the morning, grabbed the Yellow Pages and started looking for his/her local "fashion jewellery provider". Although Yellow Pages browsing may work perfectly well for essential goods and services, the harsh reality is that fashion and luxury are not essential to anyone.

It's up to YOU to create that magical feeling about your product, in the hope it will be recognized and appreciated by potential buyers.

I see on a daily basis customers who say 'no' to 20, 30 or 50 designs in a row. And then, all of a sudden, they say 'yes' to the following 3. The tricky thing is that I can rarely guess what someone else finds attractive or pretty.

But if I have enough designs in stock they will eventually say 'yes', and that will make all the difference between making a deal or losing a prospective customer forever.

In other words, when it comes to fashion, glitz and glamour it's never 'about me'. It's always 'about them' . The best you can do as a seller is to satisfy their needs, taste and style, by offering a wide range of designs and providing professional and friendly service - and the WOW magic will follow!

Fantasy Fair is a small costume jewellery wholesale business located in Sydney operated by Tanya Hacko. As an architect by trade Tanya enjoys designing costume jewellery. The philosophy behind Fantasy Fair is simple - beautiful and wearable costume jewellery at affordable price. http://FantasyFair.com.au

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tanya_Hacko

The 90 Day Sales Blitz

2006-01-28T15:31:00.000-08:00

The 90 Day Sales Blitz
By Andrew Rowe

Are you worried about your sales slumping? Are your first quarter numbers looking lower? Is your pipeline looking softer than you'd like it to be at this point even though the economy is strong?

Here's an idea that you can use to quickly pump up your sales. Its' called the 90 day sales blitz. The whole premise behind this is to rally the whole company around doing everything it can to support the sales team to close deals, expand the pipeline, get more opportunities into the forecast, and close deals that have been out there languishing for some time.

Create a sales turn around plan with your team by pulling together everybody from sales, marketing, and operations and figuring out where's the low hanging fruit in the short term that we can go pick in order to bump our sales numbers up in the right direction.

Where are our best opportunities that can close the fastest, what can we do to create more opportunities quickly through lead generation? How do we do direct mail or outbound telemarketing campaigns into our prospecting list?

How can we create a compelling offer that we'd put on our website so that visitors who come through and find us from keyword searches decide that they want to convert and become quick sales leads that can be closed faster.

What can they do to incentivize those that are searching for my products and services to call in immediately and speak to a sales rep? What sort of premiums and bonuses can I give to them to quickly bring me new sales opportunities?

So a good 90 day sales blitz starts by getting all of your people together, sitting down and figuring out, how can we, as a team, pull a rabbit out of our hat by bringing together all of the best knowledge and experience and all of the company's energy and harnessing it towards making short term sales.

A number of ideas that we've seen over the years include short term sales contests and sales bonuses to people who are in marketing for generating the most leads. Also: customer bonuses for bringing in new referrals and doing option upgrades or doing cross sales or up sales.

These are all the kinds of things that you can do to create some short term enthusiasm and rally all of your resources in your company around greatly increasing your numbers. So if you need to do something in the short term to stimulate sales, think about a 90 sales blitz.

If you're like many companies out there that have practiced this behavior in the past, you'll find that with the right leadership, the right enthusiasm, the right incentives, involvement of all of the people in your company, you can really move mountains.

About Cube Management:
Cube Management provides sales acceleration services to emerging growth and mid-market companies in the technology, manufacturing, healthcare and business service sectors. The experts at Cube Management work across the entire spectrum of marketing, sales and business development to provide customized solutions that drive revenue and profit growth. Cube Management combines Strategy, Process & People to produce winning results.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Rowe

Edge Out The Competition

2006-01-27T18:34:00.000-08:00

Promote Your Business By Writing Reports
By Joe Love

One of the best strategies for gaining an edge over your competition and increasing the value of your business to prospects and customers is to write a report. It is also one of the most cost effective ways to promote your business and your expertise.

You can write reports on anything relating to your business that will be of benefit to your prospects and customers. For example, you could write a report on how to get the best use of your product, or how your product or service can increase productivity by 35%.

Reports don’t have to twenty five pages, they can be as little as four to eight pages. Make it as long as it needs to be. To be effective your report needs to be at least four pages long. Anything shorter than four pages comes across as hokey and superficial.

Reports are powerful marketing tools. You can have your free report on your Web site for people to download when they subscribe to your newsletter or buy something from your site. You can use them just as effectively off-line as well. Offer your free reports in your print advertising, give them to your salespeople, and mention them in your radio and television commercials.

When you’re writing your reports give a detailed explanation of the benefits and uses of your product or service. Talk about why your business is unique. Describe how it will make your prospect’s life better. Cite some uses for your products or service that your customers may not have realized.

Then contact a dozen or so of your customers, and ask them what they feel are the best uses for your product or service. Ask them how it saves them money, makes them money, makes their time more efficient, or gives them more success.

If you interview a dozen customers, you may get nine different answers. With some of the interviews, you may want to edit their answers to only one or two paragraphs. With others, you may use a whole page. The point to keep in mind is that you want to showcase the best and most innovative ways your customers are using your product or benefiting from your service.

This is a powerful technique because you are writing in real emotion-filled words how people feel about your product or service. This will connect with the reader, your prospective customer, and move him or her to action.

Writing a report will give you and your salespeople the most convincing list of sales points and benefits you’ve ever had. The material in your report won’t be what you want to tell people about your product or service, rather, it will be from your actual customers and what they care about.

Your reports will also give you a higher appreciation for the value your product or service, or company brings to someone’s life. Perhaps, the single most important benefit of writing a report is that it will give you a better idea of who your customers are and what they really value.

If you’re not a good writer and not very comfortable writing a report, there are some excellent software programs that make it very easy to write a report that looks professionally done. Or you could hire a free-lance writer to put your report together for you.

Writing a report is a valuable tool no matter how long you’ve been in business. They are great marketing tools and it doesn’t take a lot of sweat or anxiety to write a report. The most important reason to write reports is that you’ll have a volume of beneficial information for your prospects.

Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in personal and business development.

Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many of America’s largest corporations, on the subjects of leadership, self-esteem, goals, achievement, and success psychology.

Read more articles and newsletters at: http://www.jlmandassociates.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Love

Productivity Improvements

2006-01-19T11:17:00.000-08:00

Productivity: So Many Small Things
By Robert Abbott

We rarely see stories or articles about productivity in the newspaper or on TV. When we do, it’s usually just another story on the economy that defies understanding.

Which is too bad. Our prosperous standard of living arrived, in large part, because of the ability of companies and organizations everywhere, and for the past several hundred years, to increase productivity.

Productivity simply refers to how much labor or money it takes to create a product or service. If a carpenter can build one house in one month, then the carpenter’s productivity is one house per month. If the carpenter gets new tools or new ideas and does the job more quickly, his productivity goes up.

Every time productivity goes up, the carpenter’s standard of living goes up, too (generally speaking). Here’s another example of how productivity works:

Suppose a British company discovers how to make steel products just a tiny, tiny bit harder. Then a company in the U.S.A. uses this process to make ball bearings that last an average of 423 days rather than 420 days, when they're used in truck axles.

A trucking company that hauls washing machines from Mexico City to Montreal, Canada buys trucks with these better bearings. That means it can haul a load for a few dollars less. In turn, this means the cost of each washer goes down by a few cents.

But, what's a few cents less when you're paying hundreds of dollars for a new washer? What's more, you'd probably observe that you only need a new washing machine once every fifteen or twenty years.

That’s true, but this productivity improvement is just one of the many millions of small improvements we’ve seen since the Industrial Revolution (and some improvements even predate that period).

We also need to remember a couple of other points. First, productivity improvements have a cumulative effect, which is to say they build on each other to multiply the gains. Second, productivity has increased at an unprecedented rate for the past half century.

The most obvious example sits on your desk: a personal computer. Not too many years ago, we prepared letters on a typewriter, one letter at a time. Now, using a computer and word processor, we can select a stock letter from a collection that covers most common issues, add a name and address using mail merge, send the document to the printer, and in seconds a completed letter lands on our desk.

The personal computer, though, is simply the tip of an iceberg. Almost everything mechanical or electrical works better or works faster than its counterpart of 50 years ago. We haven't heard about most of those improvements on the news, for obvious reasons. Individually, they meant little except to people who were directly affected; but collectively they've revolutionized the way we work and live.

Robert F. Abbott is the author of the forthcoming book, Ownership Revolution: How Working People are Buying Up Big Business, from which this article is taken. If you contribute to a pension fund, mutual fund, or whole life insurance policy, you're probably one of the new owners of the big corporations. Find out more at www.TheNewOwners.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Under Promise and Over Deliver?

2006-01-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

We Got It Wrong: Never Under Promise & Over Deliver
By Debbie Jenkins

You know how it is, you believe something for so long, everyone agrees with you, all the books tell you it's true and then suddenly you have a blinding revelation - we've all been duped! You know like my gorilla mates were? (If you're not sure about my gorilla mates then you really need to read the book - we've got a great offer on at the moment!)

And you feel such a chump - how did I ever fall for that - the logic just isn't there - I must have been a fool. Let me explain.

"Under Promise & Over Deliver"

You know the old saying "Under Promise & Over Deliver"? - well, here's the idea behind it.

Buyers these days are ever more ready to complain when something isn't to their liking (yes, even in the UK!) Customers are prepared to walk if you don't deliver when you said you would. Clients are mobile and promiscuous and will change supplier if they can get better service.

So in order to meet these demands, for the last 20 years or so, we've all been applying the mantra "Under Promise & Over Deliver" - for example, tell them the job that'll take 10 days will take 12 and then wow them when you deliver ahead of schedule.

Now, in theory this sounds great - your client can't fail to be impressed at your over delivery! Or can they?

Big Mistake

Now, think about it for a little longer. Mr client comes along and you promise to deliver the project by 2pm on Tuesday, even though you know you can get it finished by Friday. Hey, that gives you the weekend to reflect, Monday morning to add the polish and you can deliver it on Monday afternoon. A great under-promised and over-delivered job! But what actually happens?

The client is delighted - you delivered a day early. But then Mr Client has a few fleeting thoughts; did this mean it wasn't such a complicated project as you'd said? Or could you have actually got it finished by Friday? Perhaps you've over charged him?

Because he's happy you did what you said and within the time scale, he pushes his doubts to the back of his mind.

However, the client now learns to "expect" (that's his job) the service you created in your fantastic under promised way. So, he gives you another project. You give him a timescale and price, again under-promising so you can confidently over deliver with a big smile on your face. The client remembers his thoughts from the last project and asks you to "try a bit harder" on the timescale. You do, because hey, you like the guy. He was really grateful last time.

And so, the next time Mr Client asks you to do something he expects it to be done as fast and efficient and for the same price as before - now he won't be impressed by your over-delivery - this is just his expectation.

And sadly, when you deliver on time and in budget, Mr Client wonders why it took so long. He wonders if he pushed a little harder he could get your price down or your timescale shortened. And he pushes, and he pushes...

You've taught your client that you can do it faster than you've told him. The doubts are there. He wonders if you've lied to him! The shame of it!

And what happens if something goes wrong - if you can't deliver in the real timescale - or the price escalates? Or someone lets you down, or the goalposts change?

The Issues

Now, the issues are a little more wide ranging than the example above.

Some of our clients are even saying that these days in order to get a chance of winning work they have to make big promises (and then work out how to deliver on them ;-)

Quite often the client needs to do her bit to make the project run well - and she'll have her own clients and other things to do!

Increasingly, you're not working on a project in isolation, there may be other suppliers in the equation

This can all lead to dissatisfaction for everyone involved.

So, What's The Answer

Well, taking everything into account, you still need to make promises to your customers, but the answer is in the details. The answer lies in understanding what's important to the client and working with the client to make sure that you can deliver on that. Then over deliver on something you have complete control over.

In our course "Coaches Can!" we talk about the difference between control and influence.

So before I let you into our secret, I'd just like to clarify the difference between Control & Influence. To me, misunderstanding the difference between that which you can control and that which you can merely influence is the biggest reason for client disappointment and feelings of failure.

Control VS Influence (Outcomes and Intentions)

That which is beyond your immediate and complete manipulation is not, whether we like it or not, within our control. So what is within our control?

* Our Emotions and Motivation (although not all of us accept this)
* Our Response To Outside Influences (although not all of us accept this either)
* The Direction We Take In Life
* Every Action We Take
* The Way We Communicate
* What We Say and Do and Promise
* What We Choose To Believe or Ignore
* Inanimate Objects & Tools We Use

Everything else that is outside of us (especially other animals/humans) we can only influence. Here are some examples of things you can only influence...

* Whether Someone Likes You
* Whether People Will Buy
* What Other People Find Important
* Whether People Believe You
* Convincing Someone of Something
* Getting Someone to Do Something (even if you're a hypnotist)

Sure, you can exert enough influence that it seems like control. If someone held a gun to your head, they could probably influence you to do a lot of things. But despite that, they couldn't get you to think different things or feel differently about something because they still only have influence.

Finally, there are some things we have no direct control or influence over... such as the weather, space, time, where we start out in life, but there's no benefit dwelling on the things we cannot do - because it's more empowering to focus on what we can do.

The Solution

You cannot control how your clients feel, but you can influence this. You need to concentrate on explaining the value, rather than the cost. Understanding their real requirements, rather than the standard trotted out time and budget ones. You need to work out what you are in control of and what you can merely influence. And then you need to Over Promise & Deliver on the Promise on those things that are in your control.

Simple ;-)

Speak Soon,

'Dangerous' Debbie Jenkins
mailto:debs@debbiejenkins.com

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Sell Your Professional Opinion

2006-01-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

Be Bold, Branded, and Bespoke - Your Customers Want You to Choose By Doug Emerson

I had been working on a logo idea for several weeks before I finally realized that it would take from several months to never before I came up with something that would work for me. Scanning the Internet for sites that resembled Logos 'R Us, I found one that had a portfolio that I liked. I contracted for 10 logo ideas figuring that there would be at least one that would suit me.

Presto, just like the site said, I had ten ideas in my e-mail box four days later. Gathering input from others, the field was narrowed to one by me. I needed an expert opinion to reassure me, however. I had veteran advertising executive Bill Wheeler take a look at all ten with no other instructions than which one do you like?

To my relief, he liked the same one I did. Unlike me, as an experienced professional he had no problem rattling off the reasons why it would be a good choice.

Choice is what this article is about. Sometimes our customers and clients are looking for a variety of choices; Baskin Robbins offers 31 flavors for a reason. Other times our customers are looking for an answer, a recommendation, a professional opinion. Bill told me a story about how his former business partner, also very experienced with logos and tag lines, would present his logo ideas to clients.

His partner would spend hours on ideas for logos and tag lines and over time, with the aid of years of experience, would come up with the best logo and tag line concept to present to his client.

After presenting the logo and tag line, a client once asked him, " That certainly is a great design, but what other ideas did you come up with?"

The partner paused then responded, " I have put a great deal of work into this design. This is the best. Would you like me to get ideas numbered two through five out of the wastebasket to show you?"

The English have specialty tailors they define as bespoke tailors. Bespoke means "made to order". You get a suit cut just for you.

Bill's business partner was a bespoke logo and tag line designer. Offering too many choices is like putting your customer in a candy store, Bill said. Everything looks good to me in a candy store, too.

In your business, are you offering 31 flavors for products and services that should be bespoke?

The next time you want to close the sale, try starting your closing statement with: “In my professional opinion . . .”

Customers love conviction and courage.

Doug Emerson trains consults and coaches business owners on how to make more profit in less time using 8 key strategies. He writes a free electronic newsletter about the business of life called Getting to the Point. Free subscription available at the homepage. http://www.douglasemerson.com

Check Your Market First

2006-01-09T23:12:00.000-08:00

"New business? Check your market first"
by Cathy Goodwin

You've held a job for ten, fifteen even 20 years. But now you're ready to make a change. Or maybe your company has changed and you no longer feel you belong comfortably.

So you explore the option of a Second (or third or fourth) career..., which means upgrading your resume, making the interview rounds, and finding a new cubicle with another corporate title.

Right?

Maybe not.

For many readers, a Second Career turns out to be a business. Going solo can make more sense than mailing a new round of resumes. If your industry disappears, you're leaving a high-profile job, or you've risen through the ranks, self-employment can be your most realistic option. If you're working for an organization, it's never too early to start asking, "What will I if my job goes away - or I decide to run away from my job?" Once you begin moving in this direction - even in a small way - you'll most likely develop momentum and become really creative. But - what can you do? That's the Number 1 Challenge, my clients tell me.

1. Find a need. As you move through your day, listen for comments like, "I wish I had . . ." Or, "I wish I could find . . ."

Many business writers believe your first step should be finding a need -- not listing your own skills. Marsha Sinetar talks about a man who started a roommate-matching service - after searching for his own roommate to share a nice but expensive house. And according to Tom Stanley, one entrepreneur found success when he realized he could make a lot more money selling truck parts than selling used trucks.

2. Look for opportunities when a marketplace changes.

In Silver City, New Mexico, where I spent several years, some old-timers can't bring themselves to pay three dollars for coffee "with stuff in it." Ten years ago, they tell me, they washed their own dogs and mowed their own lawns. Today, people from New York, California and Chicago want double-shot lattes, dog groomers and lawn care services - and they expect to pay.

Nationally, the career marketplace has changed, as displaced executives recognize that career change skills differ from career growth skills. I find senior managers increasingly seek career consulting - and they're very direct about what they want.

And some companies have moved their writing in-house, adding jobs for writers. Others have cut back on permanent staff and now use more freelancers.

3. Focus on delivery and demand.

When clients consider starting a business - even going into freelancing - they begin with, "Where do I get startup capital?" and "What kind of licenses and insurance will I need?"

These questions are critical - but the answers will be straightforward.

Your real challenge is to identify a market that will pay for what you have to offer.

For example, one client wanted to target medium-sized businesses with a service that would save millions of dollars. Almost any company would benefit, she said. "As soon as they see the numbers, they'll get really excited."

But would they? It's tough to sell yourself in a crowded niche market - but if nobody's interested, you're facing an uphill battle. Convincing customers they have a need can be harder than demonstrating that you fill a need more effectively than the competition.

Once you've identified the market, you have to decide how you'll build relationships and deliver services. You may have a brilliant idea that uses your unique skills - but nobody wants to pay.

Or you may find a creative way to deliver a mundane service. Malcolm Gladwell describes an accountant who found financial success selling donuts to offices, collecting money through an honor system.

In my experience, when clients get excited about reaching a market, the insurance, taxes and licensing chores begin to seem manageable - even effortless.

The big challenge lies in identifying customers who will pay for what you have to offer.

***********************************************

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., helps midlife professionals create small, medium and huge career changes, start a business or start over.

Fr^e Report: Ten secrets of managing a major life change.
mailto:subscribe@cathygoodwin.com
21 days to an Extreme Career Makeover
www.cathygoodwin.com/21days
Contact cathy@cathygoodwin.com or call 206-819-0989

"Imagine how your life would change if you could put it on AUTOPILOT and reach all of your goals automatically!"

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Narrow Focus For Success

2006-01-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

Focus to Succeed
By John Jacobs

If you have a lot of ideas for various products or ways of marketing your product, the way to success is to focus your efforts. You may be very creative and have many ideas for new products or ideas for marketing your product. If you have a lot of ideas, you must learn to focus your efforts on the most profitable and viable ideas that you have.

Being able to focus your attention on the most productive activity is a key to success.

Multi-tasking is a buzz word that gets a lot of attention these days. When you are building a business, you can only successfully work on a few things at a time. Having a lot of ideas can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you treat the ideas.

Don’t become too attached to your ideas. Analyze them with the business part of your mind (left brain). Step away from the idea for a new product and ask hard question about how many people will buy it, how much will it cost to produce it, sell it, and promote it? What resources do you have to produce and market this product?

It is not easy to be objective about your own ideas. You may want to ask others their opinion. Most ideas seem like they are the best idea ever, when you first think of them. If you are going to make an idea a successful reality, it takes a lot of time and effort. If you start with a flawed idea, you can waste years of time trying to make that idea work.

Maybe you have what you think is a great idea for a product but you do not have the money needed to buy equipment or raw materials to make that product. You can borrow money from banks or private sources, or you can look for investors. If you look for money for your idea, you will need to do the research that will prove to others that your idea will be profitable.

You should do this kind of research even if you finance the project yourself. If you do enough research to prove to others that an idea will work, you will have a much better chance of success.

Bounce your ideas off of others. Don’t just present them to people with your own taste. Get feedback from people with different likes and consider what they have to say. Ultimately the decision is yours concerning which items you are going to make and sell, but you may receive some valuable input from someone which will help you to sell a lot more products. Some designers believe that if they consider input from others, they will not be making something totally original.

I am not advocating copying someone else’s idea and calling it your own. But if you want to make money, you have to do what smart business people do. You have to get as much information as you can and make good decisions about what products to make and market. Your products are the foundation for making money with your designs.

The time spent up front to research the potential market for your product is time well spent and will make the difference between making lots of money or being a “starving artist”.

Look at your ideas for products and your possible avenues for marketing those ideas objectively. If you have identified what you believe will be good saleable products, be sure that you are not trying to do work on too many products that are very different in nature. For instance, if you are making beaded jewelry, it is fine to make necklaces, bracelets, earring, or other jewelry item that compliment each other.

The problem comes when you try to do jewelry and other products that are unrelated at the same time. If you can build your jewelry business to where you have people making and marketing your jewelry, then you could start your interior design products line.

Focusing on one product line at a time and how you sell it. This is an essential key to making money with your products. Once you are successful at selling your first line, you can expand your market and increase your sales by selling your product in different ways. Do this and you will have a good foundation for success.

John and Kay Jacobs have been successfully making and selling their own products for 15 years. They operate a booming internet business selling stone beads and pearls. Their experiences selling at wholesale and retail shows and on the internet gives them an excellent insight into successfully making and selling hand-made products. More information for success can be found at http://www.pizazzworks.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Jacobs

Tell Stories That Sell!

2006-01-02T00:21:00.000-08:00

If You Want To Get More Customers, Here's 10 Powerful Stories To Improve Your Ads By Scott Bywater

Remember, as a child lying in bed and listening to stories. Remember how engaged you were. Remember how you never got bored of them and always wanted to learn more.

Well, there's a good reason why... and here's how what you learnt as a young child could help you attract, and keep more customers...

Metaphors and stories have proven to be a powerful way of influencing other people. They are also extremely interesting to your potential customer, and connect with a deeper part of the human psyche.

Here’s 10 of the most powerful types of sales stories you can incorporate into your ads and sales letters…

1. Introductory Stories: These are stories about who you are, why you’re writing to them, and how you have assisted other people and/or businesses.

This is a perfect way to connect with your target audience and generate rapport. Reveal something personal about yourself within the story… and establish credibility and trust.

2. Stories Which Overcome Fears: Everyone has fears of some type. Identify the greatest fears and concerns your customer has. And then show how other people… just like them… who had the same concerns… overcame them, and discovered there was nothing to worry about.

If you’re selling a health product, the client may be concerned it will not work for them. Tell the story of somebody else who felt the same and where they are now. Perhaps incorporate this structure within one of your testimonials.

This is a classic “Feel… Felt… Found” approach. I understand how you feel. My previous customer used to feel the same way. His experience now is…

3. Ego-Enhancing Stories: This type of story shows how people respect and look up to people who use your services, or own your product.

For example, if you were selling a Mercedes Benz… you could talk about a guy who bought one recently and how his colleagues, family and friends were so impressed.

4. Attention Grabbing Stories: These are used to get people to focus on you, your products and how you can benefit them. They explain why your customer should sit up and listen to you… right now.

Here’s an example from a sales letter from a company called “The Supper Club…”

“How can I get in on this deal?”

The question was posed by a Daily Reckoning reader who was referring to a deal I mentioned. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a stock. It was a private deal. And it was too late to get in anyway.

But it’s why I’m writing you today.

5. Product Information Stories: Don’t just list the features & benefits of your product or service. Tell a story which integrates this information.

6. Improved Productivity Stories: Outline exactly how your services and/or products have assisted companies to increase their profits, become more efficient, increase output and reduce down time.

Tell a before and after story of one of your customers. You’ll never guess how much (other customers) business has changed since they started working with us…

7. Family Togetherness Stories: This type of story demonstrates how your product or services has caused families to come together.

8. Money Stories: The idea here is to show people how your product or service will save or make money for your customers.

For example, if you’re a mortgage broker, give a case study of a past customer… and how much money they have saved through swapping over to you.

If you’re a PR company, give an example of how you helped one company get out of a rut

If you’re an accountant, reflect on how you helped a specific customer save thousands of dollars on tax last year… because you’re up to date on all the tax changes.

9. Security Stories: This is a prime example of how you would go about selling an insurance policy. Tell a story about how your products have allowed your customers to sleep safely, and with peace of mind.

This could be used in the insurance industry, alarms, people selling trusts, pest and termite controllers, safe cars like Volvos… or any industry where people buy to feel more secure.

At the same time, it could be used for anybody who helps people to make more money… or ensures reliability. For instance, a marketing company could explain how safe one of their clients feels about their business with all the extra income being generated.

10. Closing Stories: Stories can be used here to close the sale and sum up all the benefits you have to offer.

What stories could you use to promote your business?

All the best,

Scott Bywater
Copywriting That SELLS
Level 12 / 418a Elizabeth Street
Surry Hills, NSW, Australia
1300 88 21 91 / + 61 2 9282 6445

Visit my web site for your complimentary copy of my ebook (valued at $29.95) and free subscription to my ezine "Copywriting Selling Secrets" where you'll discover how to write ads and sales letters that sell. And one's which put money in your pocket over and over and over again.

Here's the address: http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au

Don't muck around. Go there now. You'll be glad you did!

P.S. These stories can also be used extremely effectively through any type of communication: sales, customer service, etc, and not just sales letters.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

"Imagine how your life would change if you could put it on AUTOPILOT and reach all of your goals automatically!"

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How To Sell A Feeling

2005-12-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

How to Sell a Feeling
By John Sheridan

To be totally in tune with the needs of your customers or prospective customers you have to listen to them. Listen to them – it sounds easy enough to do but not everybody gets it right. What you must always bear in mind when you are selling something is that you are not selling an item or object – you are selling a feeling.

I was taught this particular lesson whilst working for a friend who was very much into NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) which studies the structure of how humans think and experience the world. One small part of this vast subject centred on how people can be persuaded to relax and immediately place their trust in you if you use the language they want to hear; how do you know what they want to hear? It’s simple, they will supply the clue, and as I stated previously – you just have to listen to them.

The method is simple; there are some people that are audio dominant and will react to what you say to them; there are others that are visually dominant and will respond more to what they see. The crucial point is that you have to get the language right to get either of these two groups wanting to buy from you. The following examples illustrate how this is done.

Imagine you are working in a store that sells music systems and your first potential customer walks in and says to you, “I would like to look at a CD player please.”

The use of the word ‘look’ suggests that they are visually dominant so your reply must be in the same vein by using ‘sight’ words such as; “Ok sir/madam, let me ‘show’ you this one.” or “Could you ‘see’ this in your lounge?” or “The finish on this model ‘looks’ great.”

The person may not even switch it on but could still end up buying it because it looks good. Using these types of expressions will create a comfortable feeling in the buyer because they perceive you to be on their wavelength; the probability of them buying from you should increase significantly.

For the audio dominant person, the same technique is applied but this time using ‘sound’ words. This time a person walks in and says, “I would like to listen to a CD player please.” “Ok sir/madam how does this one ‘sound’ to you?” or “Can you ‘hear’ the difference between this one and the other?” Again, listen to what they are saying and tailor your conversation to suit.

If you use ‘sight’ words with an audio dominant person, it will create an uncomfortable feeling for them that will possibly result in them leaving the store without a purchase. The same obviously applies to using ‘sound’ words with a visually dominant person; it causes conflicting feelings because the language doesn’t feel right to them. This takes us back to the earlier point that you are selling a feeling and not an object.

It is worth noting that a vast number of people worldwide regard the use of NLP in business as essential but equally there are those who are not entirely convinced of its effectiveness. I have seen and indeed occasionally used the language technique myself but with only a moderate degree of success. I am sure there are far superior and experienced NLP practitioners out there who cannot only close a sale at nearly every attempt, but make it look easy at the same time.

Give it a try and see if it works for you. You may not get any results or you could be a roaring success. Either way, it should be interesting, and with a bit of effort and persistence – who knows?

John Sheridan is a professional proofreader of hard copy items and website copy. He also writes web copy and occasionally accepts small copy-editing assignments. He can be contacted at: mailto:john@textcorrect.co.uk

Website: www.textcorrect.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

"Imagine how your life would change if you could put it on AUTOPILOT and reach all of your goals automatically!"

Now you can with "The Power of Positive Habits," the new book that #1 NY Times best-selling authors Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, John Gray Ph.D. are all raving about!

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Inform vs Excite . . .

2005-12-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

Inform vs. Excite
By John Follis

Definition: excite v. 1 a: to call to activity b: to arouse to feeling 2 a: ENERGIZE b: to produce a magnetic field in 3: to increase the activity of 4: to raise to a higher energy level syn see PROVOKE

A lot of marketing doesn’t do the whole job. It informs, but doesn't excite. The fact is, it doesn't matter if you have the best product if you're not getting prospects excited. If you don't excite your prospect, you won’t sell your product. So, how do you excite your prospect? Start by acknowledging that your prospect isn’t just a prospect. She’s a person with emotions who doesn’t respond with just her head. She responds with her heart, soul, and funny bone. As a marketer, you must tap into the right emotional and psychological nerve that gets your prospect excited.

For example, when Canon wants to sell its new camera to families, they’ll tout its high-tech features, but that’s not ultimately how they’ll sell it. They’ll sell it by associating those features with the things that we, as humans, care about ... a child’s first steps, a great vacation, or a 90th birthday celebration. When Chrysler targets NFL-watching guys with a spot for its new sports car, there’s a reason they use quick cuts, heavy-metal music, and mention it goes 150 mph. Will you drive 150 mph? Doubtful. Does that still excite the macho male libido? Absolutely.

Follis Fact #5 If you want’em excited about your product, you’d better get’em excited about your marketing.

My agency once created a campaign that got people so excited, they took to the streets. The client, Daffy’s, was an off-price fashion retailer. Our outdoor ad read:

If you're paying over $100 for a dress shirt, may we suggest a jacket to go with it?

(The visual was a straight jacket.)

Everyone who saw the ad loved it. Well, almost. Shortly after the campaign broke, an organization called The Alliance for the Mentally Ill informed us that straight jackets and mental illness were nothing to joke about. They demanded that we immediately pull the ads. We were shocked. So, after discussing it with our client, we concluded that The Alliance was overreacting. And, we respectfully told them so.

Undaunted, they elevated the issue by bringing it to the attention of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, as well as the outdoor media companies who posted the ads. Mysteriously, our clients’ stores began receiving disturbing, anonymous calls. Eventually, the story even found its way to The New York Times -- not that we minded. As if that wasn’t enough, when my partners and I arrived at a major industry award show to accept for “Best Outdoor Advertising”, The Alliance members were there waiting for us. Angry picketers crowded the hotel entrance waving posters and flyers condemning both our ad, and our agency. Thankfully, things remained peaceful.

Eventually, we did replace the ad, but not before our client got more press and sales than they'd dreamed of. The moral of this story is worth noting: Despite the fringe few who can, and probably will, make a stink about anything even slightly provocative, sales is always the best barometer of public opinion.

Follis Fact #6 It’s better to upset a few people than bore them all.

Consumers are bombarded with thousands of messages a day, so if a marketer can’t cut through the clutter he’s wasting money. That’s why it pays to be bold. In fact, I tell my clients that if a concept doesn’t make them at least a little nervous, then it’s probably not that good. Bold does not mean irresponsible. A brand image is precious and should be handled accordingly. That doesn’t mean being boring. The challenge is to get people excited, and a smart, bold effort will do that better, and for less money, than something innocuous and uninspired.

As a rule, larger clients with a broad base are much more nervous about doing anything the least bit provocative. Seth Godin says, "Too often, big companies are scared companies. They work to minimize any variation including the good stuff that happens when people, who care, create something special." These companies are layered with middle managers, steeped in corporate politics, and terrified of sticking their neck out over advertising that anyone might perceive as risky. They don’t realize that no one is ever bored into buying anything and it’s a bigger risk to do something safe and boring.

Regardless of size or corporate culture no marketer can afford to lose sight of the purpose of marketing: to reach, and motivate, as many prospects as possible. With that understanding it’s impossible not to offend someone, somewhere, about something. So, rather than ask; "Are we offending anyone?" you might want to ask, "Are we getting anyone excited?"

For John's booklet: "How to Attract and Excite Your Prospects: A Guide for Getting the Best Marketing Results", visit: www.follisinc.com/booklet.htm

John Follis is one of the 12 "Best Advertising Minds of New York" as voted by The New York Ad Club. His campaigns are in 3 college textbooks, he has written for ADWEEK, and he has taught at 3 New York universities. Currently, John works on select projects, consults, and speaks. John may be reached at: john@follisinc.com

For consulting info, visit: Marketing Therapy: http://www.follisinc.com/therapy.htm

For speaking info, visit: Follis Speaking: www.follisinc.com/speaking.htm

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

"Imagine how your life would change if you could put it on AUTOPILOT and reach all of your goals automatically!"

Now you can with "The Power of Positive Habits," the new book that #1 NY Times best-selling authors Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, John Gray Ph.D. are all raving about!

Order this program now. Start plotting the auto pilot course to your dreams! 100% Money Back, Satisfaction Guaranteed As Usual

The Power Of Positive Habits

Turn Your Talent Into Profits

2005-12-12T18:25:00.000-08:00

How To Find Focus And Turn Your Talent Into A Thriving Professional Business by Kendall SummerHawk, Kendall@KendallSummerHawk.com

There are tons of books and articles available to help professionals start up their business, but few that give practical insights on how to nurture your business once it's out of its infancy. At some point, every self-employed professional reaches the same dilemma: how to build a strong brand and grow their business without taking on too many clients, undervaluing their expertise, or sacrificing their lifestyle.

Once your business is established, you have the opportunity to brand yourself as an expert. Start now, and it doesn't take long to begin savoring the lifestyle and freedom you always dreamed your business would deliver.

The biggest asset you have in your business is...YOU! Your time and unique brilliance are the foundation of achieving a highly profitable, deeply rewarding professional business. Implementing the following brand and business strategies is exciting, motivating, and compelling. Once you start on the path of profiting from a great brand and your unique brilliance, you'll never go back to the old way of running your business again.

Here are five strategies to turn your talent into a highly profitable business that lets your passion run free.

Strategy #1 Know Your Unique Brilliance
Your unique brilliance isn't a particular skill, like driving a car or delivering your service. It describes you when you are at your very best no matter what you are doing. It's as if the best moments of your life are encapsulated into one simple statement.

The goal is to one-by-one, ditch, delegate, or redesign every task that falls outside of your unique brilliance. You are now free to use your unique brilliance nearly 100% of the time. What's exciting is that as you hand off each task, you become more and more energized, productive, and profitable. It truly is a magic wand that once waived, delivers the freedom you always dreamed of.

Strategy #2 Know Your Brand
You don't have to hire an expensive brand consultant to profit from a compelling brand strategy. What you do need is a clear, concise brand that makes you instantly known and recognizable. Brand wisdom goes beyond a logo and a tagline. A brand is the promise of an experience. Your brand must immediately evoke strong emotions and tug on the heartstrings of your choice client.

Strategy #3 Create A Championship Support Team
Sure, when you first started your business, you probably did every task solo. But to reach the next level of business success and freedom means building an excellent team. For example, one client increased his revenue by a whopping 300%. How? He credits spending just $100 a month on a virtual assistant, who freed up so much of his time and energy, he was able to focus on bringing in new business. Now that is great ROI!

Strategy #4 Take Time Off
Yes, you read correctly. I guarantee that as soon as you cut back to a four-day work week, your business will change for the better. You'll work smarter, make better decisions, and create new, lucrative opportunities. Working less time shines a new light on how you run your business. Plus you'll enjoy the rejuvenating benefits of increased creativity, relaxation, and fulfillment by getting plenty of R&R during the remaining three days of the week.

Strategy #5 Leverage Your Expertise Into A Compelling Package or Program
Delivering 1-on-1 services is a waste of your time, talent, and profit potential! No matter what business you're in-consultant, coach, speaker, trainer, designer-there are dozens of ways you can package your service. For example, one client, a professional organizer, stopped charging by the hour, and created a package from the individual services she was already delivering. Within one week she had tripled her revenue!

(c) 2005, Kendall SummerHawk.
Kendall SummerHawk delivers client capturing website content strategies plus the nationally renown Brilliance Unbridled marketing program. For more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://www.KendallSummerHawk.com.

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