Business Articles & News

Prospecting stinks

2006-04-22T03:52:00.000+07:00

Prospecting stinks. Don't you agree?

Most companies tell you to make a list of 100 of your closest friends and family members.

Then bug the crap out of them until they sign-up for your opportunity. A few of them give in because they feel so sorry for you.

That's just plain stupid...

If a product or service can't stand on it's own, then it's no wonder why those companies can't make any money.

All those tricks, games, and stupidity has ruined the reputation of network marketing for many people.

I'm so glad I found a completely different system. All you have to do is follow a few simple steps, and then let automation take over.

It's that easy.
If you're interested in making serious money in network marketing the right way, then check out this Smart Program website TODAY.

Packaging for the Leap from Shelf to Hand

2006-03-02T03:34:00.000+07:00

By Laura Denman

Package design is not decoration. Did you know that 80 percent of all purchasing decisions are made in-store? As traditional media is being revolutionized right before our eyes, your packaging will most likely be the first introduction a consumer has to your product and we all know how important first impressions are. Your package is a valuable asset that can make or break the sale of your item and should be considered as important as the item itself. After all, no one is even going to try your product if the package is not appealing…there’s simply too much competition to choose from.

Let’s review four key packaging attributes that should be considered prior to making any packaging decisions. Innovation, Visibility, Content and Appeal.

Innovation
The buzzword in product development today is innovation. You can only color and shape a toilet brush in so many ways before you have to start considering how to change the mechanics of the product, thus the invention of disposable heads. The same theory can be applied to packaging design.

Take Target’s pharmaceutical packaging for example. For years your pills were delivered in the same cylindrical bottle with the same small text and illegible instructions. Hopefully you didn’t have more than one family member with prescriptions or else your medicine cabinet really became confusing. With the innovation of Target’s bottle, not only do you know whom the prescription is for by the color band but also the name of the medication as it is clearly indicated on the top of the bottle. Target’s slimmer bottle design allows for a better fit in your cabinet and easier-to-read text on a non-curved surface. Target’s innovation of the pill bottle was a great way to kick off their new pharmacy and draw a following of consumers who were looking for a better experience.

Visibility
The visibility attribute sets your product apart from your competitors. Before beginning a package design project, a category audit should be conducted. It is important to discover who your shelf neighbors are and what attributes they possess in order to design for difference.

Think about the vegetable aisle in your grocery store. Everything is green. Yes, it must be green or the consumer will not buy it. Shoppers expect green for their vegetables and red for their sauces … there is no getting around that. So what can someone do to stand out on a shelf with those kinds of constraints? How about simplify. Recently Publix redesigned their generic items. Not only do the Publix products retain the bargain look, but the simplicity of the design actually makes the product stand off the shelf in a world of green. It is not the most elaborate design but it is perfect for a brand of that price point. Their redesign jumps off the shelf far quicker than many of their counterparts.

Content
Examine the difference between Nordstoms and JC Penney. You walk into Nordstroms and your senses are immediately affected. The sound of a piano player in the middle of the store and the fact that you are not bombarded with sale items or cluttered aisles of merchandise allude to a feeling of elite. You immediately sense that the store is upscale. Now think about JC Penney, you can barely walk through the store without knocking something over nor can you see past 10 feet in front of you as the aisles of merchandise are stacked high. This environmental scenario will tell you that somewhere in JC Penney there is a bargain for you. Neither of these scenarios is incorrect. It is all about your brand and how you want your product or service to be perceived.

Content for packaging works similarly. If you clutter your package with flashy stickers of “New!” or “As Seen on TV”, expect to set your product to a lower price point. On the contrary, develop a package with a sleek design and less clutter, expect a perception of higher quality and set your product at a higher price point. Remember, you still must uphold your brand promise. Putting junk in a nice box does not change the fact that it is junk.

Appeal
Lastly, the most important attribute is appeal. The word attribute is used loosely in this case, as appeal has to do with the combination of Innovation, Visibility and Content. After you have examined these key attributes, you must determine if your solution is appealing. The best way to determine appeal is to conduct research specific to your objectives.

As television ad viewers and radio listeners decrease due to a recent shift in lifestyle habits, the importance of your package speaking for you is immeasurable. Your package is akin to a first impression of your product and company. Uniqueness, appearance and content determine whether a person is worth engaging in conversation and the same goes for your product. Make sure that your product can easily make that leap from shelf to hand.

Laura Denman is the Strategy Director for XO Create! who provides expertise in package design for the youth market. XO Create! assists organizations in positioning and moving product through compelling packaging solutions.

Advertise on TV with Minimal Budget

2006-02-26T05:28:00.000+07:00

By Robbie Darmona

TV advertisements are often considered as expensive and unaffordable. That comes mainly from the great respect people have for the television as a media. It is admitted that TV plays the biggest role in our lives, as a regulator of our public opinion, and a navigator of our social behaviour. Ever since its invention, television has become so vital a part in our daily routine, that a world without TV sets is almost impossible to imagine.

We are all deeply aware how important advertising on TV can be for the new and inexperienced in the business. Advertising is the only way that you and your firm can show to the world and convince it that your products or service is worth buying. Using the powerful television media, you may become literally invincible before the rivalry if you often advertise yourself on TV. But at the basis of the question we find an utterly unsolvable paradox: on the one side, advertising on TV is badly needed by smaller and unpopular firms. On the other, due to the lower budget, it is exactly the smaller firms that cannot afford to pay the taxes for advertisements on TV. This the-richer-getting-richer-the-poorer-getting-poorer question can easily be solved if smaller firms took a certain marketing strategy.

First of all, successful advertising on TV depends on the audience that watches the advertisement. If you like to attract a specific audience, you may advertise on the special broadcasts, watched by the public. You don’t need to fall in despair if your firm cannot afford to advertise on TV’s most watched evening news. Sometimes you need to take on the more modest strategy of attracting just a specific audience: for example, if you are a vet, try to advertise during a broadcast for dog-lovers. Most of the people who watch popular TV shows won’t be attracted by your advertisement, because their tastes are miscellaneous. You needn’t waste your money on advertising with the only purpose to become well-known to everyone.

The second thing is the opportunity for TV advertising that cable televisions offer. Yes, their rates of public interest are lower and fewer people watch them. But you omit something very important: the phenomenon of chaotic pressing of buttons on the remote. For many people browsing aimlessly the TV channels is a way to relax and relieve the stress. The chances that some day a potential client will catch your advertisement on an unfamiliar cable channel are much higher than you suppose they are.

Another thing you can do to advertise on TV is bargaining for discounts with the cable operators. Bargaining helps, as long as you stand assertively for your rights to be advertised on TV. You needn’t be bashful during a deal, and don’t let the sales managers neglect you. Broadcasting is a shark business, only the brave see it through. What is more, there is a trend of TV ad rates dropping off. Many sales managers are forced to reduce the price of a package with commercial slots in various TV shows and programs. Following the advice to start haggling with a cable television, many smaller businesses have reduced the tax for advertising at 3 dollars per TV spot.

There is always a way to get things bloom, even in the cold climate of TV advertising. Just remember that you are a representative of the best firm and your products are of finest quality: and doors will start opening before you knocked on. Advertising on TV can be really fun, if you know how to start the negotiation.

Article by Robbie Darmona - an article author who writes on a wide variety of subjects.

A Sure-Fire Way to Take Your Business from Ordinary to Mediocre

2006-02-25T13:17:00.000+07:00

By Trish Lambert

Content is king when it comes to marketing on the Internet. You try to keep visitors coming back by providing free content: Articles, reports, newsletters, ebooks, ecourses, and the list goes on and on. Any market, any industry--search on a key word, and you will find a passel of sites with copy in all shapes and sizes.

So content is king and there's already a lot of content out there no matter what market you are in. Is it any surprise that the latest gimmick being used by eager but talent-challenged web businesses is to do what I call "reverse plagiarism?"

Here's how you reverse plagiarize:

Search key words for the type of content you want to make your own.
Shop among the results to find articles, reports, ebooks, or other items that fit your market and your own business.
Capture them (or buy them if you need to, it's a small investment).
Then hire a copy writer to rewrite them just enough to keep search engines from highlighting your quasi-original work.

And Voila! You now have your very own content to provide and sell on the Internet! Wow!

This is biologically accurate "viral marketing," with content mutating as it replicates across the Internet. And it is being practiced by the hundreds (if not thousands) of mediocre businesses every day, all around the world.

This tactic skirts the edge of ethics. OK, so it isn't illegal. You're not going to get sued, since there's no law against having "extremely similar" content to someone else. But it's a parasitic practice where you suck off someone else's work and knowledge. If a business owner can justify doing this kind of thing, what other corners are they going to cut? Is this someone I want to do business with, either as a customer or a vendor? No.

And besides the fact that karma will eventually get you, if the stuff you are lifting to reverse plagiarize is really good, it is highly likely that your customers and prospects have already read it in its original form. No amount of thesaurus-aided rewriting is going to hide the cadence, organization, and overall tone of the article. It's going to be an obvious derivative.

On the other hand, if the stuff pull isn't all that great to begin with (which begs the question of why you'd be using it in the first place), all you're going to do with that thesaurus is create more mediocrity. Why would any business that wants to attract customers think that generating more low quality content is going to do the trick? Add to that the chance that you'll add more inaccurate or misleading information to the Web.

Either way, how does practicing this kind of not-quite-cheating enhance your image in the marketplace? What does it really say about your business ethics and professionalism?

If you want content for your site, do this instead:

Scope out what you want and hire a good copy writer who will give you a decent fixed price for the content you've listed.
Make sure they understand what you want to say, who will be reading it, and what results you are looking for.
If your own expertise and knowledge of market are needed, dictate into a digital recorder or have your writer interview you while they record.
Then, turn them loose to get the job done. You will end up with truly original content that represents you accurately.

You can use a service like Copyscape to make sure you don't end up having somebody plagiarize you. The reverse plagiarists, unfortunately, will replicate undetected--in this case, I guess you have to just figure that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and hope for the best.

Trish Lambert , principal of 4-R Marketing LLC, is an experienced marketing consultant and creator of the 4-R Marketing Model™ for service businesses. Very much a "non-conformist" in the marketing world, Trish produces measurable results with marketing that drives revenues for her customers.

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2006-02-14T12:28:00.000+07:00

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HONESTY IS A SPIRITUAL QUALITY THAT CANNOT BE EVALUATED IN TERMS OF MONEY.

2006-02-09T19:32:00.000+07:00

There are many practical reasons to practice honesty. It requires far less effort to be truthful than to be deceitful, and in the long term the risks are fewer and the rewards greater.

But in today's complex society, the boundaries of acceptable behavior have been blurred until they are sometimes indistinguishable.

Laws and codes of ethics establish minimum standards of behavior. Make sure you establish standards for yourself that exceed such minimums, a standard below which you will not allow yourself to fall, regardless of what others may do or say.

Your own set of standards will allow you to decide quickly and easily upon an appropriate course of action when faced with a difficult problem.

By Napoleon Hill

How Much Is Your Second Income Costing You?

2006-02-07T23:41:00.000+07:00

By Erica Armstrong

Most families choose to be two income producing for very good reasons. In the lowest income groups, it is probably a matter of economic necessity. There are many cases where mothers work as their partners employment lacks security or offers few benefits. Usually the second income earner is doing to in order to elevate the families standard of living.

Many families with two incomes are able to economize, but the reality is they do not. If you are trying to evaluate the true value of a second income, you would be well advised to ask yourself these questions.

Could you make large cuts in your food bills by gardening and freezing home grown produce and by cutting out pre-packaged convenience foods? Also cutting down on eating out and ordering in food would save a tidy sum in many families.

Another area to examine is how much can be saved by shopping around when purchasing household appliances. A golden rule is to get at least three quotes per machine from different outlets, and one of them should be a quote from an internet supplier.

When you calculate the true value of a second income, don’t forget to work out your taxes both ways. State taxes and individual deductions will vary.

If you decide you want to scale back, and give up one income, then you must be absolutely sure that you are willing to actually economize in the ways you factored in to your calculations.

If you wish to achieve a single income lifestyle, then be aware that you will need to plan ruthlessly. It is not a matter of luck. If you would like to work less outside the home, and evening in front of the fire with a calculator and a glass of home made wine could prove very revealing.

Build or Buy? The Ultimate Question

2006-02-01T07:54:00.000+07:00

By C Bradshaw

The old phrase comes to mind, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." There are a million other phrases that come to mind but I won't bother you with them.

In a nutshell many companies feel that they can build something internally versus going outside the company. There could be many reasons for this, "we control the code" or "we'll save money", etc... But the real question that should be asked is TCO or "Total Cost of Ownership." What's it going to cost you to build versus buy?

The reality of this situation shows itself only too late for most companies who make the unwise choice. There are a miriad of consulting firms out on the web who are chomping at the bit for an opportunity to get your business. Why should you try to take on a large project in an attempt to save a few bucks, or feel that you control the code when at the end of the day, outsourcing will yield all of these things and more for most.

It really boils down to the scale and scope of a project. If you have a project that you really feel your company can handle internally and keep TCO down then by all means go for it.

However, if you have any second thoughts at all about the project you should really think about outsourcing. Unless you are a development firm you really should be spending your energies on whatever you do best, which probably isn't programming.

There are hundreds if not thousands of quality companies out there who can do it better and much cheaper than you can; not to mention get your product to market faster.

There are hundreds if not thousands of quality companies out there who can do it better and much cheaper than you can; not to mention get your product to market faster.

Intelligent Optimism Wins In Today's World

2006-01-18T22:49:00.000+07:00

By: Eileen McDargh

The reality of today's world seems to leave little room for optimism. Almost every news story can lead because it does bleed. We hear of critical food shortages in Africa, daily gang deaths on city streets, the profiteering from child pornography, and the climatic disasters prompted by global warming. Health care costs move up faster than a hummingbird in flight and more children now spout profanities as a regular part of speech. With such negativity, no wonder a 2004 U.S. government survey found that depression afflicts one in 10 adults 14 days a month or more.

You probably get depressed just reading the opening paragraph. But wait! There is hope. Not the cock-eyed optimism that became fodder for a song from the musical South Pacific, but rather what psychologists in France are calling "intelligent optimism." Such optimism does not deny the reality of today's world, but rather seeks to LEARN how to fashion a life amid such difficulties. Martin Seligman, the psychologist who had made optimism and happiness his life's work, would agree with the French: optimism can be taught.

Consider these basic steps:

(1) Focus on what you can control. Don't get carried away by circumstances you cannot change. You might not change global warming but you can control your energy consumption. You can't stop the downsizing in your company but you can arm yourself with marketable skills.

(2) Reframe the event so that you are not a victim. There is always another way to view a situation. The flight cancellation that caused me to miss (and forfeit) a major engagement was not "planned" to "get" me. It just was. My choice is to figure out what I can do to help the current client and what I will put in the place of the cancelled work.

(3) Think "enough". When we concentrate on what we don't have, we miss all the many things we do have. The truth of the matter is that if you are reading this article, you do have enough computer power. You do have enough intelligence. You do have enough time.

(4) Cultivate optimistic responses. Like a farmer tending a field, optimism will never grow unless it is watered, fed, weeded and nourished. We all have days in which negativity can take over. And, sometimes, that is a WISE response because it keeps us grounded in reality. Just make sure it is reality and not the imagination making extraordinary leaps into conjecture. Weed out that conjecture. Ask what you can DO to see a result that gives you a sense of power. If we don't cultivate such intelligent optimism, be aware of reality and willing to find options, then we might do what Alexander Graham Bell warned. "Stare so long at the closed door we fail to see the one that is opening."

(5) Remember the power of generations. Children of depressed parents are more prone to depression. Children of optimists are more prone to be optimists. What do you choose to pass along? Even if your parents were negative, you can break the cycle with stopping, freeze-framing a situation, listening to the negative self talk, and then literally giving yourself a different message. Yes, this takes practice but you can make it a habit if you work it over time.

Ultimately, intelligent optimists understand that change and chaos are given. They know that "this too shall pass". In the meantime, they CHOOSE to take whatever action they can within their own sphere of influence and then settle back. It is enough.

@2005, McDargh Communications. Publication rights granted to all venues so long as article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links are made live.
Named by Executive Excellence Magazine as one of the top 100 thought leaders in business, Eileen McDargh, CSP, CPAE authored one of the first books on work/life balance. Eileen is an award winning professional speaker, consultant and facilitator.

How Creative Branding can Help Boring Businesses

2005-12-30T23:22:00.000+07:00

By Audrey Nezer

I come across a fair number of clients who apologize for their companies… “We’re sorry that manufacturing label paste is not the most interesting thing in the world.” Or, “There’s nothing we can do to stand out… we’re in the business of finding cheaper ways to for demolition customers to dump trash. We don’t dump the trash. We just research the cheapest way for them to dump their own trash. It’s really dry stuff.”

Yes, neither of these companies is selling gourmet food, creating colorful board games, or packaging imported tea. Photographers often hear, “I’m not remotely photogenic,” to which they usually respond, “It’s my job to take a good picture—you just be you.” Design is the same. You do your job well and you know your market. It is a designer’s job to make you look interesting.

The potential for creativity is everywhere. Just because you’re in a boring industry doesn’t mean you can’t be creative and use design to make your organization more effective and successful. Industries that support creative design include food, lifestyle, and entertainment. Industries that don’t generally support creative design (the boring ones) include construction, accounting and law. If you are in a boring industry, you’re actually in a better position to benefit from having a creative brand, or even just a slightly controversial brochure or ad. That’s because your industry simply hasn’t caught up with the rest of the world in terms of creative marketing. For example, great packaging abounds in the supermarket. It’s harder to get a new cereal box on the supermarket shelf than it is to become a brain surgeon. The saturation of product packaging at a grocery store leaves little room for any new idea to stand out. On the other hand, a gravel yard or an accounting office is expected to be boring. What would happen with if the gravel company got a little creative in the form of humor or style in their sales materials? What if the accounting office created materials that were stylish and made tax season a little friendlier? As long as a company doesn’t go too overboard and sacrifice trust, creative marketing can only help.

How about the company that researches the costs of waste disposal? They need to look at what they do from a different angle. Bottom line is they save their demolition customers money by informing them it will cost less to haul garbage 100 miles to a landfill in Walla Walla than dumping it in the city transfer station which charges much higher fees. They prevent their customers from throwing away money. And there it is — play with the idea of throwing away money, dumping money, and the creative ideas start to pour in. They can tell their customers to stop dumping money in a clever, well-designed package.

I once re-branded a construction supply company. Construction supply is not a very progressive, creative industry, but the new owner of the company is an innately savvy marketer. His store is only a few blocks from Safeco Field and Seahawks Stadium. He rents his parking lot during games. Knowing his market is full of sports fans, we developed a promotion rewarding his customers with free game tickets and parking when they give his company a certain level of business. The summer promotions have the feel of baseball game—a little retro with clean, bright colors. He stands out in his industry; very few companies like his take advantage of the fact that no one expects clever, well-designed promotions from a construction supply company, let alone free game tickets and parking.

There was once a time when a pen was a Bic, a stapler was painted steel, a computer was a big metal box, ketchup lived in a glass bottle and a paperclip was a paperclip. With the help of design (and, of course, technology) these products are no longer confined to their prescribed forms. Pens come in all sorts of ergonomic shapes, colors, and materials; staplers come in animal molds sized for a child’s pocket; computers now cheerfully match the décor in which they live; ketchup squirts from squeeze bottles and even comes in blue; and paperclips have more variations than there are pages in the Library of Congress. Those items have evolved. However, some items still haven’t: most offices I visit still have the same heavy, scratched metal file cabinets found in a guidance counselor’s office in 1975, suspended ceilings are still tiled with the same textured tiles hung high above in circa 1955 high school auditoriums, and our society has accepted the fact that paint comes out of a can that will invariably crust over and dry out whatever leftover paint we hope to save for touchups. (One manufacturer has introduced a plastic pouring bottle with a screw-top lid and another company makes little sponge-top bottles to store paint for touchups, but stores still stock their shelves with cans).

Design has touched many thousands of the products we use every day. It has transformed the food industry and the entertainment industry. Design created an industry now known as "lifestyle." But like the file cabinet, suspended ceiling tiles and paint can, many organizations still believe that design lives in the realm of toy stores and supermarket aisles. If you work for one of them, it’s your turn to let creative marketing make you a more effective, efficient, and successful organization. Who knows? I just may make you the leader in transforming your entire industry.

Audrey Nezer is an award-winning graphic designer in Seattle, Washington. Her company, Artifex Design, creates playful, edgy and effective marketing and communication materials for companies and organizations throughout the United States.

DISCOUNT 10% - 20% - NATAL - TAHUN BARU

2005-12-27T18:49:00.000+07:00

Sebelumnya dengan tulus saya mengucapkan Selamat Natal 2005 bagi Sahabat yang beragama Nasrani
Dan Selamat Tahun Baru 2006 Bagi Sahabat semuanya

Menyambut Natal dan Tahun Baru Kami mengumumkan Discount utk semua produk dibawah ini.

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Silahkan Forward Informasi diatas kepada rekan/sahabat/keluarga Anda supaya mereka juga merasakan manfaat dari informasi ini. Dan tidak lupa kami mengucapkan terima kasih bagi sahabat yang berkenan menyebarkannya.

Salam dan Tetap Semangat!
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Entrepreneurialism : Stop Looking for a Job and Start a Business

2005-12-19T23:06:00.000+07:00

By Matt Bacak

You are equally as frustrated with phoning the HR departments of Companies that you know could use someone with your skills, only to be told, “We are not hiring right now, could you call back in six months maybe something will open up.” A friend suggested that maybe you should start up a business. It's a thought, you have excellent skills acquired in your last position, you are very familiar with the competitive marketplace, and you feel that you have compatriots who would join you in starting a new business.

What Are The Benefits Of Starting A New Business?
1. Self-satisfaction.
You will have the inner satisfaction of starting your own new business and watching it grow. You've been very frustrated at not being able to find a satisfying job and your new business will give you a renewed energy of purpose and motivation to succeed.

2. Freedom.
One thing you will often hear from small business owners is that they appreciate the freedom having their own business has afforded them, compared to when they worked for someone else. As the owner of a business start-up, you will have the freedom to make all the decisions regarding the development of your business. While an employee of your previous company, you may have lamented the fact that you were not listened to and the decisions made by your managers were not always what you considered worthy. As a new business owner, you should have the freedom to prove what you have always known, that you are a good manager and that you know the industry extremely well. You also are aware that this knowledge alone will not be enough, because you realize to start a new business you will have to be well financed and have a clear and concise business plan covering short and long-term goals.

3. Financial benefits.
If everything goes as planned, as a new business owner you will have every opportunity to increase your ability to make more money. Have your accountant draft a safe and secure way of drawing your salary to insure a fair return for your efforts while at the same time keeping the finances of the new business as the number one concern.

4. Personal returns.
Besides the self-satisfaction of watching your new business grow, you will begin to get returns on your personal investment. Personal investment is the amount of time and energy that you will put forth to accomplish your new business goals. You will likely find yourself working harder and longer hours as you continue to develop your company strategies. However, the increased effort and hours will be directly related to your own new business's accomplishments and therefore filter back to you personally. You will likely feel a sense of accomplishment never garnered in your previous position.

5. The challenge and the risk.
As an entrepreneur, you have an inherent liking of challenge and should understand the risks that accompany starting a new business. You will have to employ all business techniques that are available to you to reduce risk and overcome challenge. Starting a new business will constantly present new and varying challenges whether it is market deterioration, financial concerns or human resource situations, and you will need to manage and meet the challenges with sound decision-making.

You have just learned a handful of the benefits of starting a new business; the rest is up to you. Meet the challenge.

Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets To Unleash The Powerful Promoter In You!

Small-Business : Work Your Small Business Dream

2005-12-18T04:40:00.000+07:00

By Angela Booth

Nothing in life happens until you do something. Think, hope, plan, worry and ask as many questions as you like, but to reach your dreams you must take action and keep taking action.

Because I teach writing skills, I receive at least four e-mail messages a week with a variation of "I want to write for a living, but…."

Half the lovely people contacting me have made some writing sales; the other half are aspiring writers. What's amazing to me however, is that all of them know what to do. The aspiring and pro writers know how to get their work in front of editors, or if they're copywriters, they know that they have to market themselves.

BUT ---

There's always the "but".

They're still unsure.

I'm convinced that they imagine that there's a secret. Once they know what the secret is, everything will be magically clear to them, and they’ll feel in control, knowing that at least $2K a week or more will keep rolling in. Then all they'll need to do is decide whether they'll vacation in the Bahamas or Tahiti this year.

There is a secret. Here it is in five words: GET STARTED, THEN KEEP GOING.

The poet Goethe said it better:
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

A famous novelist once said that writing a novel for him was like driving through the night with only the light of his headlights for guidance. However, what he could see in his headlights was more than enough for him to write his book.

The "Get Started Then Keep Going" secret applies not just to any small business, but to any dream you have. You're not given a map. How could you get a map? The world's changing every second. However, you're given a dream, and you're always given knowledge of one step you can take today. That's all you need.

Once you do something, things start to move you toward your dream, and they’re always a surprise.

All you have to do is remember your dream, keep it constantly in mind, and then confidently (or with craven cowardice, it doesn’t matter) do just one thing RIGHT NOW. And then do the next thing. And the next thing after that.

If you want to super-charge your movement to your dream, promise yourself that you'll do five things every day that will move you toward your dream.

=> Coping with your emotional roadblocks

Maybe you're too exhausted to move towards your dream. Constant exhaustion indicates an emotional energy leak. You can plug your leaks and get around your blocks.

Here are some common blocks and how to get around them:

Block One: Your expectations
You have a dream, and you think you know how it will evolve. You don’t know. You can’t know. All your expectations do is get in the way. Drop your expectations. Think about your dream, and get excited. The minute you start thinking that you know how your dream will evolve, just refocus on the dream again, and the next action you have to take.

Block Two: Envy and jealousy
Don’t compare yourself with anyone else. If you truly knew all the details of the person's life you're busy envying, chances are you wouldn’t want his life. Be grateful for everything you have.

Block Three: Taking on too much
You can have it all, but not all at once. If you're studying, raising three small children under five, and want to run a small business in your spare time, get real. Hold your dream until you finish your course and the kids are in school.

Block Four: Assuming
Ask, don't assume. You want to send out 100 direct mail letters, but ---- (fill in your assumption here).
Send out the letters if that's what you see in your headlights. Do it.

Block Five: Negative thought patterns
Negative thoughts are like weeds. They grow, until they choke the life out of your spirit.

Here's the good news: once you can spot a negative thought, the thought dies. It can’t survive with your attention directly on it, because then you can challenge it. So when you spot a negative thought, smile. You're winning.

Just for today, give yourself a break and work your dream. What can you see in your headlights? Go and do it right now.

Here's another quote from Goethe to inspire you to action:
How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

By Angela Booth : Author of many books, including Making the Internet Work for Your Business, copywriter and journalist Angela Booth also writes copy for businesses large and small, and consults on search engine marketing. Angela has written copy for companies in many industries, ranging from technology and real estate to the jewellery trade. Her clients include major corporations like hp (Hewlett Packard), WestPac Bank, and Acer Computer.

Internet-Marketing : King Kong Size Link Building Tips

2005-12-18T03:59:00.000+07:00

By Mark Walters

After recent changes in search engines ranking mechanisms, relevant link building has become one of the most important ways of Search Engine Optimization. Now it is almost as important as having a web site loaded with good content.

Why do you need link building?

It's simple: the more relevant links to your website the more important your site appears to search engines and that should lead to better your page ranking. Search engine spiders are restlessly traveling through the Internet, constantly evaluating existing web pages - the keywords they use and the number of relevant links to your website. Because now relevant links are deemed more important than keyword density, some one way and relevant link building strategy is necessary if you hope to get to the top 10 or at least top 100 of web pages in your category.

While you have to create your own link building strategy that will fit into your situation, there are a few general tips. If you follow them, you will avoid many common link building mistakes and you can hope for greatly improving your website ratings in just a few weeks.

1. Use short URLs
When you submit your link to other sites that have a theme relevant to yours, make sure that offer a short URL. You can speed up the link building process by almost 50% if only you would use shorter URLs. Most webmasters will agree on adding a axbxcxex.com link, but won't accept a link that will look like axbxcxexg.com/articles/general/index.php/id=brnd. Even if your link building strategy relies on submitting deep links, they need to be as short as possible.

2. Be careful with redirect links
No site owner likes redirects. If you want to make your link building easy and fast, you should avoid them every time it is possible. They are often used to avoid long URLs, but it's often a deadly mistake. Instead of redirects, you may consider simplifying your website map and making the URLs shorter. While it may be easier for your web site builder to have long addresses, every sophisticated link building strategy calls for making them as short as possible.

3. Keep the same URL over time
Don't change your URL unless you have really good reason to do that. If you do change, you will have to do all that link building again from the beginning. Even if you redirect from your old web address to the new one, you have to consider the possibility that many webmasters delete redirect links from their websites. As a result, you can expect that you will lose about 25% links just because you've changed your website URL.

Just what are the searching engines looking for in the way of relevant links? No one knows for sure, but common sense tells us that links from a gardening site to a dirt bike site are not complementary.

Put yourself in the shoes of someone searching for gardening information on the internet. They come to your gardening site and feel they've found helpful information. Oh look, they think, there's a link there by pansy graphic. I'll just click that and get more good information. Yeow, what does a girl in a bikini sitting on a dirt bike have to do with gardening? … And there goes your credibility with your viewer and the search engines.

It appears that the value of links is swinging to a reasonable number if good quality links rather than a thundering heard of indiscriminant links from anywhere.

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Team Bulding : Harnessing the Power of Teams

2005-12-17T06:30:00.000+07:00

By Jim Clemmer

"Teams help ordinary people achieve extraordinary results."

A certain man had several sons who were always quarreling with one another, and, try as he might, he could not get them to live together in harmony. So he determined to convince them of their folly by the following means. Bidding them fetch a bundle of sticks, he invited each in turn to break it across his knee. All tried and all failed: and then he undid the bundle, and handed them the sticks one by one, when they had no difficulty at all in breaking them, "There, my boys," he said, "united you will be more than a match for your enemies: but if you quarrel and separate, your weakness will put you at the mercy of those who attack you." Union is strength.

As this Aesop's fable illustrates, even weaker people are powerful when united in a strong team. It's one of the most effective ways to mobilize and energize people. Teams are a key way to get people participating and involved. That leads to higher levels of ownership, commitment — and energy. Numerous studies of North American change and improvement efforts in organizations have shown that major gains in quality, service, or productivity are driven by huge increases in participation and involvement levels throughout those successful organizations.

Effective team leaders develop a group from what it is into the team that it could be. That takes a focus and skill set that is new and different for most team members and leaders. Since the beginning of the industrial age group leadership has been based on the military model of command and control. We managed groups by pushing and forcing them. At best we got compliance and conformity. At worst we set up huge "we/they" gaps that lead to union/management conflict and lots of other problems. Group ownership, shared goals, creativity, and participation were minimal. In the bad old days, the boss' idea of participation was like the kid who rode the sled down hill and "shared" it with his teammates to take it back up again.

Today's highly effective teams have a broad ownership and participation in the team's tasks and how everyone works together to achieve them. Team members and leaders share responsibility for the effectiveness of the team. One of the best indicators of the strength of a team is the "We to Me" ratio. How often do team members and leaders use "we" and "ours" instead of "I", "me" and "mine" in their conversations?

Despite all the team talk of the last few years, few groups are real teams. Too often they're unfocused and uncoordinated in their efforts. We developed the following set of questions from our consulting and team development work. This team assessment and planning framework helps newly formed teams come together and get productive quickly or it assists existing teams to refocus and renew themselves.

Why do we exist (our purpose)?
Where are we going (our vision)?
How will we work together (our values)?
Whom do we serve (internal or external customers or partners)?
What is expected of us?
What are our performance gaps (difference between the expectations and our performance)?
What are our goals and priorities?'
What's our improvement plan?
What skills do we need to develop?
What support is available?
How will we track our performance?
How/when will we review, assess, celebrate, and refocus?

Teams develop answers and related action plans around each question. This approach has proven to be much more effective than artificial team situations, outdoor adventures, or theoretical discussions of group dynamics. Bringing a team together with a shared focus and taking action to make it happen is a powerful way to mobilize and energize

Marketing : Follow Up And Turn Prospects Into Clients

2005-12-17T03:20:00.000+07:00

By Angela Booth

How long does it take to get a client? First, the client has to become aware that we exist, and then that we can solve his problems with our products or services. That growth of awareness is a slow process. It takes time.

Let's say you've just sent out a batch of 200 letters, introducing yourself to businesses in your state.

You wait, happily anticipating at least a few phone calls.

Nothing.

You must follow on the 200 letters you sent out. They were simply an introduction.

If someone tells me they sent out 200 letters, I know they should have managed to collect from two to five new clients from the exercise. No excuses. Marketing is a numbers game, and worst case scenario, if you send out 200 letters, and follow up diligently, you will get at least two new clients.

Where most businesses let themselves down is in the following up process. They either don't follow up at all, or they follow up in a hit or miss fashion. They fail to even attempt to build a relationship with prospective clients. It's amazing that some of these businesses survive at all.

I'm as guilty of this as everyone else. I get busy too, and let follow-up activities slip. However, if I send out a new mailing, I make a real effort to follow the process through, because I know if I don't, I've just wasted the time and the postage it took to make that mailing.

=> How to follow up
Here's how to follow up:

Have a marketing goal for each month. For example, my marketing goal this month is to get five new clients, and follow up with clients I haven't heard from for a year. It's important to have this kind of over-arching marketing goal each month, because it helps you to gain perspective. Each mailing, each phone call and each e-mail message isn't as important as the overall picture, the amount of persistent marketing you do each day, week, and month.
The process begins. You send out your mailing of 200 letters.
A week later, follow up with phone calls. Making all the calls, including getting back to the people who didn't answer the phone because they were in a meeting, on vacation, or whatever will take you another week.
Send out material to those who requested it.
A week later, follow up with the people you sent material to.
A month after the initial mailing, send another mailing to everyone from the original 200 who expressed any interest at all, no matter how slight that interest was.
A month after that, send out another mailing, or make phone calls to ALL the prospects who were interested from the first mailing. This means that you've contacted the responsives from the 200 you sent the original mailing to at least THREE times.
Six months after the first mailing (it's now three months since they heard from you) follow up with another mailing.
Three months later, follow up again.

How many clients will you get from that original mailing of 200? My guess, over 12 months, you'll get at least TEN. Twenty would be excellent. (Remember that from two to five is the very least you'll get.)

Now, let's imagine that over the next two years, each of those ten clients spends $500 with you. Conservatively, that's $5000 from one mailing to 200 prospects.

It's also $5000 you won't earn unless you work on building relationships by following up with your prospects. So when you send a mailing, remember that you need to follow-up. That's where the money is.

Author of many books, including Making the Internet Work for Your Business, copywriter and journalist Angela Booth also writes copy for businesses large and small, and consults on search engine marketing. Angela has written copy for companies in many industries, ranging from technology and real estate to the jewellery trade. Her clients include major corporations like hp (Hewlett Packard), WestPac Bank, and Acer Computer.

Marketing Article : What Is "Value" To Your Customers?

2005-12-17T02:49:00.000+07:00

By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Perhaps it’s only fitting to mark the passing of one of my professors, Peter F. Drucker, by meditating on one of his favorite, and I believe, most important questions.

Whenever my classmates and I would boast about our products, our technologies, our specialized experience, or say anything at all self-serving, he’d swiftly bring us back to reality by noting: “All of that is fine, but what is value to your customers?”

In other words, it didn’t matter if we believed we beat the pants off our competitors by having more branches in more places. If we couldn’t argue convincingly to the internationally famous Father of Modern Management that our customers agreed with us, those branches, no matter how sparkling and expensive, were of no consequence, whatsoever.

In fact, by focusing at all on our own opinions, instead of actively monitoring and measuring our customers’, we err in two ways. We waste time and resources looking inward, which is decadent, and we insulate ourselves more and more from the only people who really matter in business—customers—who pay our bills and provide opportunities.

Value isn’t always obvious, Drucker would point out. We may think we’re providing one satisfaction when the customer is really deriving another, more significant satisfaction to him.

Take a modern gym, such as Bally’s or 24-Hour Fitness.

Their generally accepted purpose is to “get people into shape,” if you ask most of the people who work there. Certainly, many people buy memberships for that stated purpose. But there are lots of other reasons people sign-up.

For some, it’s a social outlet, for others, a sanctuary where they can set their own pace, relax, and escape the demands of family and co-workers. For a few, it’s a chance to preen, to show-off their abs or biceps or whatever the muscle de jour happens to be.

If you observe most members, they’re in no rush to move from station to station. They linger, and their heartbeats seldom seem to reach that magical aerobic moment when calories happily burn away.

If they’re pushed by the staff or by other patrons to work harder or faster, they rebel, if only silently.

They want to get into shape their own way, which of course, isn’t always technically feasible, but many folks con themselves into thinking that they’re progressing. Their victory is walking through the gym’s door, not in becoming an Adonis.

To run a financially successful gym, one would have to accept these customers and make it possible for them to maintain their illusions, because these illusions are satisfactions to them. Illusions constitute “value,” in the Druckerian sense.

He was fond of telling us how his young niece requested a special gift for her birthday, which provided no functional utility at the time--her first brassiere. Instead of dismissing this request, he understood it as a desire to feel more grown-up, and he honored her wish, giving her a truly valued gift, and great joy.

Not only do we have to ask the all-important value question. We need to re-ask it, if we hope to keep pace with and to retain our clientele.

Realities change, sometimes suddenly. GM’s biggest SUV looks very different when the price of gasoline spikes. Bally’s has to stay on top of trends, and offer Pilates or yoga classes, depending upon what seems to be in demand. It can’t say, “We’ve always run dance classes, and that’s it!”

Being guided by customer sensibilities can be very scary to some businesspeople. It requires us to challenge tradition and preconceptions, to open up, to ask questions, and to renounce authoritarianism. We need to be willing to really understand the viewpoints of others, and to cater to them, to serve them the way they want to be served.

We need to be prepared to abandon our favorite products, the ones that have defined us and nurtured us, when there is the hint that they no longer deliver value to the customer.

That’s tough, and that is part of the legacy of Peter Drucker.

As former GE CEO Jack Welch said, Professor Drucker had a knack for asking the right question, usually a deceptively simple one, that could add tremendous clarity and value to one’s business.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. Gary’s programs are offered by UCLA Extension and by numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He studied directly with Peter Drucker at Claremont Graduate University, for two and a half years, earning an MBA, in the process. When he isn’t consulting, Gary can usually be found in Glendale, California, where he makes his home. He can be reached at gary@customersatisfaction.com