Archive for April, 2006
Starting Your Own Business
- by Rick Hendershot
Once you make up your mind you want to go into business for yourself, that leads to a number of important decisions. You know you want to be your own boss, but you’re not sure what kind of business to go into. Here are two different ways of addressing this question.
The “Production Model” of Doing Business
Most of us start out in business by applying what we might call the “production model”. We are all capable of doing certain things — cutting hair, cooking food, framing houses, fixing teeth, designing buildings, etc. — and we set about to sell these services. We ask ourselves “What can I do? What are my skills?”, and then we ask “How can I sell these skills? What products can I produce that take advantage of these skills?”
Many, many people believe the production model is the only way to do business. They believe Kevin Costner in “Field of Dreams” was uttering an important truth when he said “If you build it, they will come.” They just change the words around a bit:
“If I set up my restaurant, people will come.” “If I start building bird houses, people will flock to my store.” “If I set up a lemonade stand, the neighbours will buy some.” “If I learn to be an airline pilot, surely someone will hire me.”
And generally, this works. People go to school to become dentists or engineers or teachers, and they actually end up being dentists, engineers, and teachers. Other people love to cook or make bird houses, so they set up restaurants and craft shops, and miracle of miracles, their restaurants and craft shops are actually successful.
But this is an oversimplification of the marketing process, and distorts what actually happens “on the ground” when a new business is started.
One important reason trained dentists end up with successful practices is because the dental market is tightly controlled to allow only the right number of dentists to graduate every year.
And the reason we can point to successful restaurants and bird house companies, is because we are looking at them after they have been successful. What about all the restaurants, construction companies, and land development conglomerates that were not successful? Their owners were probably equally skilled, and enjoyed cooking and serving the public as much as the next guy. They built it, and nobody — or at least, not enough people — came.
So obviously going into business is not as simple as “If you build it, they will come.” There are factors we cannot control, variables we cannot predict. And once we acknowledge this, we are forced to begin looking for an alternative to the “production model”.
A Real Life Example
Let me give you another example. Many years ago, long before the internet even existed, I had a client involved in the music business. This company had been around for many years, and had grown to become one of the country’s major publishers of certain niche music products. These were aimed mostly at the music-in-schools market, and included things like sheet music, children’s music, and specialty record albums, featuring a stable of relatively low profile artists.
Like most companies, this one had built up a set of “skills”, and had developed specific products and services in response to market demand. There was just one problem. The market was changing and the company was now losing money. My job was to help them sell more of their products.
Sometimes being an “outsider” is not a good thing. It seemed obvious to me that the market was changing, that sales of the old faithful products were doomed to decrease rather than increase, and that the long term answer to their problem was to develop new products in response to new demands, rather then try to flog the old ones. It was hard for me to be a “true believer” in the long term success of the company. It looked to me as though we were fighting a losing battle.
Of course, this was the beginning of the end of our relationship. As I’ve said, my job was to help them sell stuff, not reorganize their company. Most companies have a very difficult time shifting gears, and they certainly don’t want to hear about it from some young whipper snapper who knows virtually nothing about their business. Within a few months we lost the account. And within a year or so the former client declared bankruptcy, and was forced to contract to about 25% of its former size.
I don’t think this is very unusual. Lots of companies — probably most — are successful for a while, and then fall on harder times and are forced to change. My point is that eventually the “production model” stops working, and we are forced to consider alternatives.
The Most Obvious Alternative is the “Marketing Model”
When confronted with these obvious facts of business life, most marketers trot out the theory they learned in Marketing 101. “You must begin with an analysis of your market, determine what people are likely to buy, and then develop products accordingly.”
In other words, the marketing guy (predictably) advocates that the marketing / production process be inverted. Marketing should be used to determine which products are likely to be successful in the market place, not brought in after the horse has left the barn. Marketing should come before production, not after. Don’t worry about what skills you have. Skills can be bought or rented. Worry about what products you can sell. And then figure out how to make them.
The purest application of the marketing model these days is in internet marketing. For example, take Ken Evoy’s instructions in the Site Build It manual where he details how to choose your marketing “niche”. The process goes more or less like this:
1. Choose four or five possible areas of interest you might enjoy. These are your “website concept” candidates ΓΆ?? the type of businesses you should consider going into.
2. Then analyze each of these website concept candidates in terms of the potential traffic you can generate, products you can sell, etc.
3. Choose the one with the best sales potential.
This sounds like a perfectly reasonable procedure. But in fact it is rather revolutionary for most non-marketing people. They are being told “Don’t get “production” underway until you make some important decisions about what people are likely to buy.” This is the “marketing model” in a nutshell.
Problems with the Marketing Model
The “pure” marketing model has one obvious problem. It assumes we are all sitting around a table as consultants with unlimited options and infallible information about all of them. The model seems to assume we can just feed the information into our decision-making machine and have the answer to the question “What should I do?” pop out the other end.
Even committed marketers know it does not work this way. Every person or organization has their own special likes and dislikes, and generally are good at doing some things, and not so good at doing others. Ken Evoy’s procedure addresses this by saying “Be sure to choose something you feel passionate about.” He should probably add “…and make sure you’re good at it too.”
Think of it like one of those industrial food processing units where you put a variety of things in the funnel at the top, and it spits out products at the bottom. What we feed into our business idea processor is not just a bunch of statistics about products and markets and prices, but also information about our own preferences, skills, habits, and experiences.
And we must keep all the ingredients going into the top of the machine in their proper proportion. It’s not just about what people will buy. And it’s not just about what we are good at or what we enjoy. It’s about all of these things at the same time.
About author
Rick Hendershot publishes Linknet News | Get Links to boost your Link Popularity | Cheap hosting - Cheap Personal and Business Web Hosting
April 11th, 2006
Starting an Online Business? Got an Online Business? Get your Thinking Right
- by Penny Shellswell
Have you ever found yourself thinking any of the following: ‘I’m not sure I can do this. I’m putting a lot in and not getting much out. Who’s to say I’ll succeed. After all, most online businesses fail. But I’m a determined person, so I’ll press on with what I’ve been doing and maybe I’ll be one of the lucky ones. Mind you there is so much competition. If I don’t give it a shot, I’ll never know’.
I would like to act as a frank, plain~speaking good friend. My aim is to help you clarify your thinking. This is an essential step, I assure you, that can not only be a new springboard for your online home business but also can save you a lot of soul~searching anguish later.
Having a vision of where you want to go and what you want to achieve will play a crucial part in keeping you focussed.
Jonathan Swift said, ‘Vision is the art of seeing things invisible to others’.
Your vision would perhaps be to have time with your family, may be more than one home, several holidays a year, to play golf regularly and not be at the beck and call of a ‘boss’. Vision is being able to see the kind of lifestyle that you are prepared to commit work to in order to achieve. Your vision is delivered by achieving your goal which might be creating a highly profitable online business.
Albert Einstein said ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’.
Imagine driving the car of your dreams, travelling to exotic places, owning a boat or achieving whatever it is that excites you. Get some pictures stuck up around where you live. Get some holiday brochures, real estate details, go test~drive that dream car. Get excited about the kind of life you would like to lead.
So success begins in the mind. Henry Ford said ‘If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right’. Our thoughts determine the quality of our lives. The mind is always the battleground. It’s where we discuss with ourselves the pro’s and con’s of various situations and ideas. Our emotions and will play a big part too. Doubts, fears and problems can often loom bigger than the advantages. We seek information to help us come to the right decisions.
The kind of people we are will determine how our mind processes all these thoughts directing us towards a decision. The decisions we come to direct us towards our destiny.
We are what we think about. You are now the kind of person you are because of what you have thought about over the years. You have got into a routine of thinking. So, how do you tackle situations? How do you think? How do you arrive at decisions?
Let’s answer a mini questionnaire. Your honest answers to the following questions will help you decide what action you need to take.
1. Are you an optimist? 2. Do you see problems as challenges? 3. Do you face your fears? 4. Do you like your own company? 5. Are you glad to be alive?
The answers to the above questions are indicators of your attitudes. Right attitudes are essential for success. They are an aspect of how your thinking responds to situations, opportunities and challenges.
If you respond positively to the above questions, then you display strong personality attitudes as a potentially successful business owner. If there were some ‘no’s in your answers, then I would strongly recommend reading some books that will help your development.
Dr. Joyce Brothers said ‘Success is a state of mind’.
If success is a state of mind then we need to re~program our mind accordingly. There are a couple of aspects to this. Re~programming our attitudes and Jeff Keller has written an excellent book to help you called ‘Attitude is Everything’. The second re~programming involves the words we use.
Words are powerful. They are literally life or death.
Don Gossett’s book ‘What you Say is What You Get’ provides excellent direction. Listen carefully to the way you speak and the content of what you say. A keen listening ear will quickly see ways to improve. Plutarch, the Greek historian, biographer and essayist who lived in the first century BC said ‘In words are seen the state of mind, character and disposition of the speaker’. 2000 years later his words still ring true.
So, what does all this mean?
1. Have a vision. Set your goals. Write them down. 2. Extract what you need from the recommended instructive books.
Then at the start of every day, and during every day, for the next 30 daysand regularly thereafter, without fail: 3. Look at your vision. Imagine the results of achieving your goals. 4. Practise your new attitudes. Practise the new way you say things and how you say them.
Create New Habits. The upshot? You have the mindset of a winner and your success starts here.
About author
© 2006 Penny Shellswell Helping you develop successful internet work at home business opportunities. Download Free 325 page ebook “Dotcomology - The Science of Making Money Online” and sign up for my Free “Marketing Gazette” at www.LotsMoreComingIn.com
April 11th, 2006
Pick The Right E-Commerce Pack And Put Your Business On Fire
- by Juhani Tontti
1. Businesses need powerful and quick technology and marketing in order for e-commerce to be successful. The objective is to grow your business by making it easier for customers to shop, and if your website’s lack of technology and marketing make it difficult for them, they may as well drive to the supermarket.
2. Before looking at e-commerce solutions, we must first speak about some typical problems of e-commerce. There are many complaints from customers, who have purchased articles online.
There are disorganized sites that are difficult and confusing to navigate; lack of information on the websites including failure to tell customers about special deals or prices.
The inability to pay with the customer’s own currency or payment processor, the inability for the customer to even understand the language in which the website is written; and frustrating and confusing shopping carts and check out procedures.
3. What are some e-commerce solutions? Having a professional looking website will attract customers and make them feel confident in buying. You want your website to be organized, quick and easy to navigate, and if you have an informational website, which is search engine friendly; presents special deals; encourages up selling in a customer-friendly way (such as showing related items or showing items that customers purchased, who also purchased the item you are purchasing); is accessible in the major languages and accepts major currencies; has a user friendly shopping cart and single page checkout, then you won’t need many e-commerce solutions!
Remember, when your business is e-commerce, you want to take all possible steps to make sure you and your product are presented professionally, friendly, and easily accessible.
4. Recovering from the dot com crash in 2000, e-commerce is rising strongly. Stay in the comfort of your home. Spend more time with your family. Be your own boss. The benefits of having a home business are numerous. These are familiar slogans.
That is why so many people try to run their own home business. Being enthusiastic about earning their own income online, these people search to find how they can create their own business. And their own diciplines.
Then they understand that there are so many options for them to choose from. So, what is the best e-commerce package for you? Talking about e-commerce packages, most online merchants have the same basic needs. The trick is to make sure an e-commerce package matches your needs. Causing less frustration, you should also try to find something that will be easy to use.
5. Some important things to look for in an e-commerce package are:
A. Select a provider that will give you a site and hosting company.
Selecting a provider that helps you set up a website and hosts it for you can save you from a lot of frustration. By choosing a website and hosting combination, you are sure that your e-commerce package will not have to be manually altered.
B. A lot of templates
While all templates can be customized, sometimes that just does not work for every business. If there is a large amount of templates to pick from, there is bound to be template for your business.
C. Payments
You need to make sure that the payment options that your e-commerce package uses will match your customers needs. For example if your e-commerce package only accepts Paypal, you will miss out on the customers that do not use Paypal but want to pay with credit card. This will decrease your earnings.
D. Shopping cart
Most people like to see what they have picked into the shopping cart. Customers may also want to change what they want to buy. Perhaps they found something better.
E. Calculation of tax and shipping costs
While most of the customers are not from your own state, tax is not a major problem. Shipping is a different matter. Shipping and shipping time must be calculated for all customers. Customers also want to see what their shipping costs will be.
F. Customer reports
While reports are not useful to customers, they are useful for you. E-commerce packages that offer reports help you track of your costs and earnings. They save a lot of frustration.
About author
Juhani Tontti NetBizMarketer has a passion to co-operate with other NetBizMarketers. Take a look at my sites, which gives a living to me at http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-8851 and http://www.Way2Miracle.com
April 11th, 2006
Simple Secret to Savings: Start with a Single Step
- by Yohana Vargas
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” It’s as true with saving money as with anything else.
These days, we’ve been frightened into thinking we must save thousands of dollars immediately. Most of us simply cannot do this, and the media does us no favors when it makes the situation sound so hopeless that we might as well give up.
Financial planning should be focusing on real people, people who have trouble saving, people who really need the help that instead seems geared towards the wealthy.
As a result, many of us think that if we can only save, say, $10 a month, then it isn’t worth it. Not true! Once you sock away that $10 and realize that you’re still okay, you’ll realize you can put away a little more.
Maybe you increase it to only $20 a month, but that’s $240 a year, plus the interest you’ll receive for putting the money in a savings account or money market. You only need $250 to open an IRA, and that’s a worthy goal.
Even if you stick with $10 a month, that’s $120 a year, and if you think that isn’t much money, you can probably afford to put away more.
The best part of this technique is that you get into the habit of saving. Once you do that, savings can grow and grow as your income increases, your expenditures decrease, or you receive a bit of extra money from your tax return, a work bonus, etc.
Here are a few tips for saving more by starting small:
Pay yourself first. You’ve heard it before, but that’s because it works. When you pay your bills, write a check to yourself. Depositing as little as $5 from each paycheck into a savings or money market account should get you to that initial goal of $10 a month. If that’s painless, increase it to $10 per paycheck. If, after a couple of months, you find $10 is painless, increase it a little more. Keep doing this and you might be surprised at how much you can afford to sock away!
If your employer offers direct deposit, even better. Open a savings or money market account and have at least $5 per paycheck deposited into that account. Again, keep increasing this as you get comfortable with saving the money.
Do you spend $2 a day on coffee, a muffin, or some other inexpensive treat? Do that five days a week for 50 weeks, and you’ve spent $500! Spend a little of that on a coffee maker and some ground or whole coffee beans, and put the rest into your savings account.
When you save money with good deals or coupons, consider putting the difference into your account.
Most importantly, get yourself into the habit of saving, and don’t underestimate the effect of saving just a little. All you need to do to begin the journey is to take that first, single step.
About author
Yohana Vargas is Marketing Project Manager for BondRewards, the online shopping rewards program with the highest payout in America, and the only rewards program that helps Americans save for the future. Visit www.bondrewards.com and shop at over 500 merchants, including Target, Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, Land’s End, and more. You’ll be rewarded with free U.S. Savings Bonds.
April 18th, 2006