Consumers are in control…you just figured this out when?

Just read in Yahoo Business News today that Wall Street is finally acknowledging that consumers, not capitalists, not republicans, not democrats, not international business, not anything other than “CONSUMERS” are in control of things. Right here, right now, we are standing in the midst of a transference of wealth. What shall we do to make it effective so we, the “market consumers” can benefit?

Many will see an opportunity and will find a need and fill it. The economy is about to return to a service base rather than a product or “latest advanced toy” basis. We have become so comfortable with ourselves, that our innovative nature took a back seat to comfort creature mentality and has set us back about ten years.

Here’s the point; if Wall Street is finally acknowledging that consumers are in control and many of the “big boys” are the ones that are the most affected, we have a chance to say, “Ok. No more crap. Let’s get this country back on the road by making sure you’re producing things that are smart. Not just the latest toy, but the latest innovations that prove we can produce just as well just as inexpensively, and let’s make sure we support the ones that do.”

Enough of being led like blind sheep as consumers we have a choice in where the money flows, let’s make wiser choices and effect the right change.

Here’s an example; Hyundai came to this country with a product that was cheap and built pretty cheaply by my standards. They banked…quite well. They turned around and took that and now produce a luxury vehicle that rivals our old friends BMW and Mercedes, and are competing. We as consumers told the other two that rest on their reputations and history, it no longer matters about your name, I want a car I can enjoy and I’m not paying huge bucks for it. I mean really, $400 for a brake job? and only the fronts? Sorry, I’ll go with a well developed smart car that gets major mileage and is light on my wallet.

Since the consumer market is holding a lot of its discretionary income close to home, businesses have to find new ways to market to us to get us to come spend. Else not we will continue to watch the downward spiral of the economy til well into the next decade.

We have Wall Street’s attention, I say we keep it and make something of it by showing them through our voice…our wallets…that we will only support those that will support us wuth better services and products. Now is the time, make it count.

Where’s the money flowing…

Seth Godin makes a real interesting point on his latest blog; where the money is there you’ll find the people working.

Interesting to me that it starts as an end still and then the means justifies it. (almost sounds like the torture debate going on right now)

Here’s a tag to Mr. Godin’s point; if there is money to be made you can well believe that someone is going to be searching for it.

He wrote that things change around once there’s money to be made in any particluar field. He related it to writers becoming publishers which is the reverse of what was. (When the Writer Becomes the Publisher / Seth Godin – 05/2009)

It would seem pretty logical that once the public wants something, they are willing to pay for it, so what is it that you have that they are willing to pay for? What message can you get across to them to tell them what you have is what they need? Many times I see “the best blah blah” or “Number 1 blah blah in the state” C’mon, do you really think that is going to attract attention? If it does, I’d be pretty surprised. Nowadays it’s just not enough. Mr. Godin back in 2003 made refernece to being remarkable(the purple cow). If you have a pizz,a shop fine, so does almost every other coner strip mall, what makes yours so different?

Here in Las Vegas, NV , a local pizza chain by the name of Metro pizza decided to become the “purple cow” of the valley by holding pizza making classes. Their pizza is great, but now they are the teachers of pizza making, and it’s doing very well. People are paying for classes and more are hearing by word of mouth how great their pizzas are. Do you think they can charge a bit more because of that?

Here’s the bottom line: You have to find the flow of money where it is moving and get in front of it. It’s the one time you want to get run over by the flood. Even if you can’t handle it you’ll have known what is was like and can most likey prepare for it better next time. Pizza makers to pizza making teachers,writers becoming publishers, what else can you think of that would set you apart and find you more income for your business through the right marketing message?

Keep it rolling!

Financial help

I was looking at my financial statement earlier this evening and I was thinking…” what the? I’ve got a LOT of empty spaces here…where the heck is my 401 I had from IAB? Why didn’t that get rolled over when I left? Who’s got my money now? CRAP! I have no idea where my money is!! How  does this thing tell me where that…WHAAAT?!?! UGH! SOMEONE HELP PLEEEAAASSEE!!”

Well, I just learned that an unsuspected financial expert has emerged and is going to be blogging on playboy’s site giving the layman a fair shot at making things work, and taking down the man.

Duff McKagan is Playboy’s new Financial Guru, and I for one believe after reading his story about why he was chosen, and a believer that he will be worth more than his weight in gold nuggets!

He comes from a background that most would think he doesn’t know squat. Well, he knows squat and a hell of a lot more.

Keep up on his blog at:

http://www.playboy.com/mt-tb.cgi/20942

Definitely a place to learn more about finances, what works what doesn’t and one of his objectives is to expose the BS in the industry that loves to confound and confuse. I LOVE IT! Finally some straight talk on how to keep it together!

Now where’d I put that last bank statement…..

Open mic..speak up!

Hey gang! So much has been goin on lately that I’ve kinda fallen behind. I apologize for that, and promise to keep up a bit better.

In fact, I’m going to have some guest writers posting about sales and marketing.

They will be young in some cases, some will be veterans…just keep an eye out. Every bit can be of benefit to you whether from  the seasoned vet or from the college intern. (Yeeeess I’ve learned some stuff from them too)

Today though, I wanted to do an ‘open mic’ talk about sales and marketing.

I’d like to know:

What do you do when you approach  a new concept? Where do you take it from there?

How do you formulate a ‘position’ on a new product? Once formulated, how long does it take to get it to market? Does your marketing plan introduce the product as it is ready or do you ‘pre-launch’?

What experiencecs have you had? Successes? Failures?

How did you recover from the hard ones?

Did the good ones last? How long?

This is really a means for you to ‘discuss’ what you found as good and not so good in your experience. I’m not asking for company names or product specifics. You can be vague and general to protect the innocent…lol

I would like some honest input though and perhaps I can take one or two of the examples and stretch them for everyone to see how those experiences can benefit their profession or business.

Keep it rollin!

Lesson in e-Marketing

Wanted to share a recent experience with you as I think it’s real important e-Marketing stuff. I recently had the distinct pleasure of meeting with one of the e-Marketing Gurus of our time; Jim Lillig. By the way that was today at the RIO Hotel. He’s in town for the Affiliate Marketing Summit to be held next week.

It was an interesting meeting as I had pictured meeting with someone that was a younger guy with a lot of interesting fresh ideas about e-Marketing and perhaps some insight as to how to promote our e-Book, “Power Marketing on a Budget Guide”. What I got was a good education on performance marketing!

First off, Jim was a great guy that is a veteran of the e-Marketing genre. (no he’s not old, just quite experienced, in fact he looks really young for his age…and no I’m not telling) He’s been around since the days when people like Yanick Silver and others were taking the e-Marketing courses in Boulder. In fact, Yanick was in the seat in front of him, along with many others If you go to his blog at www.jimlillig.com you’ll see what awesome info he offers his readers!

His latest invention is Offeratti, a CPA network dedicated to helping many gain more out of their ideas and monetize biz opps much easier. He is in the mix with this right now doing business development.

When Jim got a hold of our e-Book, he immediately wanted to meet with us to discuss what we need to do to present this as a B2C product, versus a B2B product.We thought it a good idea to inivestigate and see what he was thinking.

As I sat and listened to him explain what is needed (which is quite a bit let me tell you) to make something like this be worth while to a consumer that is looking to make money NOW not later (which is business thinking) I began to rack up the hours necessary to make this work…hmmm this is going to take about 3-5 weeks once we get concept in place and then programming which is the real pain in the rear.

He agreed. It is an undertaking that can prove to be really profitable, as it follows my favorite business financial model, ROC (Return On Customer).You begin with something that you’re most likely not going to make anything on. (this follows affiliate style marketing at first) then you work on “conditioning” your new customer on buying continually from you. It begins a step by step process of products you provide to a consumer. It eventually ends up having them buy much larger ticket items from you.

With what Jim saw happening, I could see a great implication of growing a business community from a consumer community and even greater still a whole new database of clients that would need our help in getting trained on how to market both on and off line. (gee idn’t it convenient that we happen to be marketing consultants?)

The point I’m getting so far from Performance marketing is that it’s a killer way to monetize an idea much further into an elongated process of marketing continually to a database that you can monetize over and over. Without having to create a new marketing campaign to re-enliven your database!

Think of it this way; if you have an idea that can be developed into a step by step process, or a stage by stage implemented idea, that flows with ease, and can make money well within minutes, performance marketing can help you do the list build, (database) the continual marketing, (This means e newsletters or auto responders) and then the next thing in line to continue making the consumer money, you have then a formula for success!

Add this to Offeratti.com, and you now have a portal to place that idea into, have it watched over by a company that has the M.O.N.K.S (Monetizing, Optimizing, New idea, Keepers) working for you to make sure your idea gets the attention and distribution it needs to their internal network and a whole bunch more. This means your deal gets out to a whole bunch of publishing marketers online that will definitely get your product or service out there so you can get the money flowing! They’re doing it to make money anyway, If your idea rocks, so will your bank account!

I was very thankful to meet Jim, and am very much looking forward to creating this first step to get our e-Book out to a whole new bunch of home based entrepreneurs. The point is, there are many ways to market your idea, product or service. Question is which is right, and are you willing to develop it enough to make it worth while to your customers? Stuff to think about.

oh yeah

Keep it rolling!

Losing its Lustre Part Deux

So anyway, I was having another thought provoking conversation with my friend Jean up in Chicago again…(boy she’s gonna be mad at my bill), and we were still talking about how does one keep motivated on their “baby” that they took the painstaking time to get into, because they wanted to live a better life through their idea.

What came about was a strategic planning and idea mind mapping kind of deal.  It (the conversation) was interesting.

My question was, “What happens when you become bored with your idea that you created and decided to put into an activity that would make you money?”

Her answer ran along the lines of, “Well I would diversify into something that is still within the specialty that I am most comfortable with.” Basically this meant to me, “I’d get a little uncomfortable but not too uncomfortable just to keep things fresh”. Ok I think I could understand that.

She also said that if she absolutely had to, she would learn a new skill. Ok, this is good too. Why not? If you can pick up a new skill in art, or sales, or marketing that you normally wouldn’t use in your daily mode of operation, of course you would be excited again..it’s fresh right? BOORIING…(she’s gonna kill me I know…she reads these before I put them up)

So what happens if you’re the guy that opened a “fill a need” kind of business, and it’s not quite there yet (not profiting) and you just figured out you didn’t really want to do this for a living? What happens to your baby now? I have a friend here in TRCB.com that wrote me about the four “D’s” of business.

Do it / Delegate it / Date it / Dump it

Good thing to do when you’re an entrepreneur that can do start ups really well. There are quite a few of them out there. They can find a need fill it get it rolling and that is their motivation…the drive to create something new, get it profitable and get it gone! (and collect royalties on it for the next ten to twenty years unless, it is a copyright or patent then it’s forever until some jerk decides to innovate on it take your original idea and screw you out of a fortune…LMAO)

So let’s go back to the little guy that started this idea of his, and now has no idea what is next and how he’s to stay motivated enough to get to the second “D”. (Delegate it) What does he do? How does he stay inspired that this is the right thing to do?

Ok start here:

1. Revisit why you started this business in the first place. Start remembering the feeling of nervousness of filing for your business license and in some cases had to really fight to get it…remember that? Remember what it felt like just to conquer that phase of getting open? Good ok next…

2. Figure out when you started to feel bored or your inspiration and motivation started falling off. Don’t focus on it, just realize when it happened and why. What did you do to let it slip like that? Was it a realization that you created something that wasn’t what you really wanted? Was the idea just a passing fling? Do you feel like “Delegating” this business now? (there are dangers in selling a business too early, or giving up on an idea too early…case in point Microsoft’s Windows was Xerox’s idea…hmm)

3. What will it take to get you back to that feeling? Revisit the excitement and joy of owning your own baby. Get in front of a mirror, and start telling yourself, “I got into this because…blah blah blah. I feel GREAT about doing this because…blah blah blah. Point: Retrain your excitement to become a reality in your mind and your body and mentality will follow. Keep the inspiration!

What I have found to be boredom, is merely a phase of “buyer’s remorse” settling into the minds of entrepreneurs that thought the ride would be quick to the top. Well they bought into it, and after having to deal with the MWA’s, they realized that they got into a bit more than they may have bargained for. Well, you’re in. So stay in! Don’t let a phase of boredom steal your thunder…LET IT RIP! Get white Lightning hot about what you’re doing…whatever that is.

I know a guy that sells medical screws…wait let me say that again…MEDICAL SCREWS! What the heck does he have to be excited about? He’s the only guy “selling” them. He’s the one that loves his business! He’s the only guy people like dealing with. Why? He’s excited about what he does, he’s enthusiastic (good salesmanship) and he does whatever he can do keep everyone happy so they do the same for him…ummm duh?

A true entrepreneur takes their idea to the max until they can find no other way to make it work and they are literally forced to stop or quit. (Which with any real entrepreneur is rare to nil…they ALWAYS find a way!) But this is also the means to keep them motivated. Now, they are thinking not so much of “Why did I do this?” but more like “Ok. I want out…how can I get this thing to grow its own legs and get it to run on its own so I can move on….You’d be surprised at what your mind can come up with when it’s challenged like that. (actually some of the best innovations of our era came because of boredom and the will to move on to something else. Don’t believe me? Go look at Fast Company’s latest Innovators honors.)

Don’t forget too, the medical screw guy? He’s banking…any wonder why?

I’d like to conclude this and get back to marketing talk, but I get the feeling I’m gonna get grilled on this a bit more…so be it, this is my motivation; “I love to be challenged, contradicted, told I’m full of it…it’s what makes a great conversation!”

Keep it rolling!

Losing it’s lustre?

So, I was talking with my friend Jean in Chicago. Illinois of course.

She is excited about going back to school and getting back into the market place as a specialty Faux and Mural painter. Not to mention she does fine art too. (I’ve seen a lot of her work and she is extremely talented!)

She has a concern that came to her just recently regarding all the work that goes into a business and how she’s supposed to “do it all”. I told her, “you don’t.” She went silent for a moment… then of course the response came, “What?”

This is where I get to get up on my soap box and tell all you wonderful business owners the fun thing about being in business is…BEING IN BUSINESS! You started this as a means to “live the dream”. You figured that getting paid for something you love to do anyway was a means to an end. The end of having a boss! The start of financial freedom! After working with, or for your closest friends you relaized there’s more needed to find new customers or get more in to your store…so now what?

Once you’ve found out that there’s more to running a business, you begin to find out about MWAs. (What the?) Minimum Wage Activities. If you are doing that most of the time, you are not profitting and you’re certainly not feeling excited about your baby!(business) You have two types of activities and that one every business owner hates but has to do or get done. Well, those kinds of activities tend to take away from the joy of beinig a business owner. But why do it all yourself?

Here’s my point; there’s always a way to get things done by others who’s dream it is to do what you don’t want to. Find them, seek them out, and get them to work with you! Be it a budding book keeper, a college marketing student that can do your marketing research for you. Someone ini your town can run errands for you…whether cheap or free.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying use people for your own purposes. I know people like that too, and they never get anywhere in life or business. Point is plan it out and get to it! If you don’t have to do the MWAs, DON’T!

My friend and I talk a lot over the phone. She taps me for information on marketing planning, and business strategy simply because she doesn’t have the time or the desire to learn all the University Mush I learned. (wait til she gets my bill) Why should she go through all that when she has me to help? This is what I’m trying to share with you; STAY EXCITED! You have to. If you don’t you’ll do what no business owner should do…give up, get down, lose confidence in your business, and feel like,”Am I really doomed to do this for the rest of my life?” if you fall into that category, you’ll have nothing to offer in your product or service, and certainly nothing for your successor(s).

Stressed? Find a way to break away when absolutely necessary. Find a place to get back to the reason you started this whole thing in the first place. You were Excited!

Be the little kid with the new toy…don’t worry about how it works, just work it!

There are those that love to start businesses just to start businesses….ok they fall into a different category of human…”non”. Actually they are the ones that find joy in finding a need and filling it, then letting someone else buy it and run it. (franchises, and business starters, etc.)

You created your business because you believed you could fill a need, be excited about it!There’s a joy in growing a business and watching it grow its own feet and letting it roll!

(By the way, if you do need marketing services, but cannot afford the services, there are other ways to learn how to market your business inexpensively. www.CorporateRainiMakers.com/powermarketing)

Look, whatever you do, just stay excited and motivated however you need to so your progress doesn’t slow down. Keep it rolling!