Markets & The Dynamics of Competition
Today marketing is not the same as it was in the ‘60s or ‘70s, because there are enough products to satisfy customer’s needs. In fact customers are “hyper-satisfied”! Companies have segmented the market until it has become almost too small to service profitably.
Distribution is now largely in the hands of giant corporations such as Wal-Mart and Costco. There are more brands and fewer producers, products “life” have been shortened, and it’s cheaper to replace than to repair - all complicating the process further.
Marketing has always started with identifying the needs of your customer, but many companies are now focusing on the product. They focus on what category it falls into, and then what sub-category (for instance pudding and then what flavors). By focusing on the product, companies then focus on who’ll use the product, and those considered “not using” are excluded from the picture. In doing this, you’ve just given your competitor a target market.
You may have captured 75% of your “user market” because you have a USP (unique selling position) i.e.; more flavors, more convenient packaging, longer shelf life, etc. But why can’t YOU also take care of the other 25% instead of your competitor?
To do that, requires a new way of thinking known as “Lateral Marketing”. Stop thinking about how you can keep the 75% in love with your product (Vertical Marketing), think about drawing in the 25% of the market that wasn’t your customer. This is done by innovative thinking. This may be seen as further “segmenting” the market-place, but at the same time it’s making it bigger.
Let’s say you sell soap. You’ve captured 75% of your market because of some formulary development that makes more suds with less product. The 25% that your competition is trying to capture would rather spend less for soap, than use less. Your method of also capturing that 25% is to start thinking “innovation” and not different product.
Lateral Marketing works within the original category of product and complements it, not competes with it. You could come up with a soap with more bleach, with less foam, fragrance free, with more foam. You can innovate by size – selling in large economy packs, selling in individual packs, and do this without ever changing the formula of the product. This type of marketing works best for mature markets with no growth (after all, what new uses can you come up with for soap). It also can create markets from scratch, requires greater resources, and may redefine your company’s mission and business focus.
This innovative method of marketing doesn’t create “new” categories or markets, it always occurs “within” the category where the idea originated. If you’ve done everything right, you’ve garnered the 25% of customers that might have got away and it didn’t require a lot of overhead – you’re still producing soap!
Entrepreneur Resources Blog is the premier source for everything small business ...Articles, news, tips... by Ravinder Tulsiani
Friday, May 6, 2011
Good Companies Grow No Matter What
Good Companies Grow No Matter What
Every business demands growth, and double-digit growth is the dream of every dedicated business owner, even when lackluster results show up at quarter’s end.
Most entrepreneurial business owners need a guide to navigate their way toward substantial, sustainable growth. It can be done even in a slow economy as demonstrated by such companies as Harley Davidson, Starbucks, and WalMart. Even smaller companies such as Paychex and Oshkosh Truck have been able to make gains in revenue, gross profits and net profits.
Here are 5 disciplines of sustained growth:
1. Retain Your Customer Base: Keep the growth that you have already earned by coaxing customers into complex relationships that make it a hassle for them to switch to your competitor. Tailor your products/services using data gleaned from your customers giving you an advantage. Proactively managing customer defections will help you anticipate and pre-empt them. Bonding with customers wherever emotion is tied to an interaction is another great way to retain them.
2. Gain Market Share at the Expense of Your Rivals: Give customers a reason to abandon a competitor’s product/service for yours. Do what it takes to lower the switching costs. Pulling customers away from a competitor can be difficult, so you must devote many resources to raiding their customer base. Offering higher value and quality are crucial to this end. Buying a competitor is another way to do this.
3. Exploit Market Position: Show up where growth is going to happen by spotting it early. This can be done by watching the industry for shifts in buying criteria, product or service innovations, and population trends. You must be able to spot positioning opportunities to make the most of them by continually using a systematic approach to the process.
4. Invade Adjacent Markets: Before moving into a nearby market, decide whether it offers significant long-term growth and profitability. Determine whether you have an advantage over a competitor, and ensure you can match its standards of quality and value.
5. Invest In New Lines of Business: If you take this approach, never overpay for a new line. You must find simple strategies instead of complex ones, and partner with the new business by assessing its leadership team and balance sheet.
Although a successful growth portfolio might not include all five of these disciplines, it must contain more than one. Only a balanced growth portfolio can keep an organization growing when the market shifts dramatically.
In closing I wish a happy and safe Memorial Day to all my entrepreneurial buddies and readers. Drive carefully!
Every business demands growth, and double-digit growth is the dream of every dedicated business owner, even when lackluster results show up at quarter’s end.
Most entrepreneurial business owners need a guide to navigate their way toward substantial, sustainable growth. It can be done even in a slow economy as demonstrated by such companies as Harley Davidson, Starbucks, and WalMart. Even smaller companies such as Paychex and Oshkosh Truck have been able to make gains in revenue, gross profits and net profits.
Here are 5 disciplines of sustained growth:
1. Retain Your Customer Base: Keep the growth that you have already earned by coaxing customers into complex relationships that make it a hassle for them to switch to your competitor. Tailor your products/services using data gleaned from your customers giving you an advantage. Proactively managing customer defections will help you anticipate and pre-empt them. Bonding with customers wherever emotion is tied to an interaction is another great way to retain them.
2. Gain Market Share at the Expense of Your Rivals: Give customers a reason to abandon a competitor’s product/service for yours. Do what it takes to lower the switching costs. Pulling customers away from a competitor can be difficult, so you must devote many resources to raiding their customer base. Offering higher value and quality are crucial to this end. Buying a competitor is another way to do this.
3. Exploit Market Position: Show up where growth is going to happen by spotting it early. This can be done by watching the industry for shifts in buying criteria, product or service innovations, and population trends. You must be able to spot positioning opportunities to make the most of them by continually using a systematic approach to the process.
4. Invade Adjacent Markets: Before moving into a nearby market, decide whether it offers significant long-term growth and profitability. Determine whether you have an advantage over a competitor, and ensure you can match its standards of quality and value.
5. Invest In New Lines of Business: If you take this approach, never overpay for a new line. You must find simple strategies instead of complex ones, and partner with the new business by assessing its leadership team and balance sheet.
Although a successful growth portfolio might not include all five of these disciplines, it must contain more than one. Only a balanced growth portfolio can keep an organization growing when the market shifts dramatically.
In closing I wish a happy and safe Memorial Day to all my entrepreneurial buddies and readers. Drive carefully!
What About Commonality?
Diversity, diversity, diversity! Some people, political types in particular, are trying to make “diversity” our defining characteristic. Has anyone thought of approaching the topic from the point of “commonality”, a bonding point of view, rather than “diversity”, a dividing point of view? Using the term “diversity” appears to me to mask a hidden and potentially sinister agenda to divide and control us. The parties pursuing this line seem more interested in playing the “blame game” and law suits by using “diversity” to categorize color group rather than individual capability.
We are all unique because DNA has billions of variations which make us so, but our opportunities are not. Humans share only a few dozen needs and desires, at best, but we have a history describing how others have solved similar problems. However, today’s use of the term “diversity” tends to make some feel like victims who only use history as an excuse.
Positive self-worth is an important attribute to every person, but it comes from assuming responsibility for tasks and seeing them completed successfully. Without responsibility, we drift in a sea of self-doubt, but many are using “diversity” as a way to avert this responsibility.
“Sensitivity training” is a negative method assuming certain color groups must have special treatments for special needs. Bull! We are all special and should be treated accordingly. Special treat of sensitive groups simply allows them excuses and the escape from responsibility. The basics of Management 101 states – “don’t give responsibility without authority, or authority without responsibility.” That’s the training needed in place of “sensitivity”.
The United States thrives on individuality which has been the sparkplug of our society. When we meld this individuality with teamwork, as in companies and corporations, we have a powerful engine. Combining individual initiative and other talents with organizational management has led us to become a world leader.
Why not stress “Commonality?” Let’s find ways to cooperate and multiply our individual talents to accomplish meaningful tasks. Let’s look at what each can provide to gain the mutual goal? Let’s join together to:
• Define mutual needs/wants, desires.
• Gather resources available.
• Develop, build, execute, and monitor a plan to this end.
We are all unique because DNA has billions of variations which make us so, but our opportunities are not. Humans share only a few dozen needs and desires, at best, but we have a history describing how others have solved similar problems. However, today’s use of the term “diversity” tends to make some feel like victims who only use history as an excuse.
Positive self-worth is an important attribute to every person, but it comes from assuming responsibility for tasks and seeing them completed successfully. Without responsibility, we drift in a sea of self-doubt, but many are using “diversity” as a way to avert this responsibility.
“Sensitivity training” is a negative method assuming certain color groups must have special treatments for special needs. Bull! We are all special and should be treated accordingly. Special treat of sensitive groups simply allows them excuses and the escape from responsibility. The basics of Management 101 states – “don’t give responsibility without authority, or authority without responsibility.” That’s the training needed in place of “sensitivity”.
The United States thrives on individuality which has been the sparkplug of our society. When we meld this individuality with teamwork, as in companies and corporations, we have a powerful engine. Combining individual initiative and other talents with organizational management has led us to become a world leader.
Why not stress “Commonality?” Let’s find ways to cooperate and multiply our individual talents to accomplish meaningful tasks. Let’s look at what each can provide to gain the mutual goal? Let’s join together to:
• Define mutual needs/wants, desires.
• Gather resources available.
• Develop, build, execute, and monitor a plan to this end.
Commission or Bribe?
Commission or Bribe?
Supposed you’ve decided to move part of your business overseas, those administrative fees could look like illegal bribes.
Let’s say that to open a manufacturing plant in Southeast Asia you need a permit from the local government. A government agent there offers to get you the permit within a week – and his commission will only be $1,000. Back off! Watch your step here. In many countries, kickbacks and bribes have long been the accepted cost of doing business. However, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), enacted by Congress in l977, prohibits bribery of officials in other countries.
It’s illegal to make payments, offers or even promises of anything of value to foreign officials to obtain or retain business or get an advantage. It’s also illegal to make such payment to a third party (say the official’s wife or sibling).
For over 20 years the United States was the only country trying to prohibit bribery to foreign officials. U.S. companies complained they faced either bribing foreign officials and risking FCPA prosecution or losing the contract.
Since then, with the urging of the US, international organizations have enacted treaties and conventions aimed at stamping out this practice. The European Union, the United Nations, and the World Bank have adopted resolutions and policies against corruption which has helped to level the playing field.
You don’t want to get tangled up in bribery! The problem is it’s rarely easy to tell whether a proposed payment is actually a bribe. For instance, the FCPA doesn’t prohibit “grease payments” which are fees paid to foreign officials to expedite the actions the government would eventually take anyway, such as issuing a routine permit. But suppose you need a permit to build an oil pipeline, and a government agent asks for a few thousand dollars for advising you on environmental issues and compliances to make sure you get the permit. Would that be a “grease payment,” or a bribe for the officials to look the other way?
In light of the new rulings and laws, people of authority rarely ask for bribes, but they may ask for a small payment for advice on doing business there. For instance, if a government agency asks your company to build a park or pave a road in exchange for approval, that wouldn’t count as a “bribe.”
This whole scenario is further complicated by the layers of people it might take to get a job done. So, if you hire an agent to work with an agent abroad, how do you know he isn’t paying bribes and implicating your firm in corruption? Know what the deal should cost, so you can tell if money is leaking out.
Because complying with the many overlapping laws is tricky, don’t try it alone. Hire a lawyer with experience in international business to help you through this minefield.
In fact, it makes one wonder whether it wouldn’t be better just to stay on your home turf! Such is the way it goes when you start doing business overseas.
Supposed you’ve decided to move part of your business overseas, those administrative fees could look like illegal bribes.
Let’s say that to open a manufacturing plant in Southeast Asia you need a permit from the local government. A government agent there offers to get you the permit within a week – and his commission will only be $1,000. Back off! Watch your step here. In many countries, kickbacks and bribes have long been the accepted cost of doing business. However, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), enacted by Congress in l977, prohibits bribery of officials in other countries.
It’s illegal to make payments, offers or even promises of anything of value to foreign officials to obtain or retain business or get an advantage. It’s also illegal to make such payment to a third party (say the official’s wife or sibling).
For over 20 years the United States was the only country trying to prohibit bribery to foreign officials. U.S. companies complained they faced either bribing foreign officials and risking FCPA prosecution or losing the contract.
Since then, with the urging of the US, international organizations have enacted treaties and conventions aimed at stamping out this practice. The European Union, the United Nations, and the World Bank have adopted resolutions and policies against corruption which has helped to level the playing field.
You don’t want to get tangled up in bribery! The problem is it’s rarely easy to tell whether a proposed payment is actually a bribe. For instance, the FCPA doesn’t prohibit “grease payments” which are fees paid to foreign officials to expedite the actions the government would eventually take anyway, such as issuing a routine permit. But suppose you need a permit to build an oil pipeline, and a government agent asks for a few thousand dollars for advising you on environmental issues and compliances to make sure you get the permit. Would that be a “grease payment,” or a bribe for the officials to look the other way?
In light of the new rulings and laws, people of authority rarely ask for bribes, but they may ask for a small payment for advice on doing business there. For instance, if a government agency asks your company to build a park or pave a road in exchange for approval, that wouldn’t count as a “bribe.”
This whole scenario is further complicated by the layers of people it might take to get a job done. So, if you hire an agent to work with an agent abroad, how do you know he isn’t paying bribes and implicating your firm in corruption? Know what the deal should cost, so you can tell if money is leaking out.
Because complying with the many overlapping laws is tricky, don’t try it alone. Hire a lawyer with experience in international business to help you through this minefield.
In fact, it makes one wonder whether it wouldn’t be better just to stay on your home turf! Such is the way it goes when you start doing business overseas.
Cheap Web Site Traffic
Every online company knows that without traffic to their site, they go broke, quickly. There are many ways to get cheap web site traffic. One way is pay per click advertising, where you pay per click through to your site, but you do not know if the customer is going to purchase your product, so you do lose some money with that. Another way is to request links from other relevant, high traffic sites. Links to other well established sites is like personal recommendations, where you establish credibility fast, which increases the chances that they will buy your product. You must be persistent enough with some sites, though. You want to download the alexa toolbar, which gives you information about a website, such as traffic rating, ranking, contact info, site stats, related links, etc.
You can get free advertising by giving away free expert content to relevant sites itching for some new, fresh content. Web site owners are always looking for fresh content. Make sure you write a bit about the author and your web site or product. As long as it is not competing with theirs, they will not mind. You can post on these sites:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.freesticky.com
www.ideamarketers.com
www.findsticky.com
You can become an active expert in a newsgroup that is industry related. A newsgroup is an online forum where people share information and common interests. When you post, you are literally talking to your potential customers. These people do not want to be sold something; they want information from gurus, about the topic they are interested in. Make sure you have a sig file, or signature and start establishing relationships and prove your expertise. Stay with newsgroups that do not accept advertisements. This is also a great way to gather feedback from your website, straight from the horses’ mouth. You can reinvent it if you need to and fix it accordingly. When you post informative articles, people will begin to look forward to your posts, and eventually you may want to direct these people to your brand new newsletter.
You can get free advertising by giving away free expert content to relevant sites itching for some new, fresh content. Web site owners are always looking for fresh content. Make sure you write a bit about the author and your web site or product. As long as it is not competing with theirs, they will not mind. You can post on these sites:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.freesticky.com
www.ideamarketers.com
www.findsticky.com
You can become an active expert in a newsgroup that is industry related. A newsgroup is an online forum where people share information and common interests. When you post, you are literally talking to your potential customers. These people do not want to be sold something; they want information from gurus, about the topic they are interested in. Make sure you have a sig file, or signature and start establishing relationships and prove your expertise. Stay with newsgroups that do not accept advertisements. This is also a great way to gather feedback from your website, straight from the horses’ mouth. You can reinvent it if you need to and fix it accordingly. When you post informative articles, people will begin to look forward to your posts, and eventually you may want to direct these people to your brand new newsletter.
Chargebacks
If there is one word most Internet marketers quiver at the sound of, it is chargebacks. A chargeback is a dispute over a charge -usually an unauthorized or fraudulent charge- between the customer and the company. The merchant must pay back the entire amount along with any credit card fees. This amount is automatically deducted from your merchant account. There are three main problems about chargebacks that concern the merchant: 1. they lose the payment -and also the inventory if it was sent, 2. the fees associated with every chargeback are between $15 to $25, and worse of all 3. chargebacks don’t look good, and you may lose your merchant account. Merchant services are pretty finicky; they do not just hand out accounts to anyone.
The customer could either be dissatisfied with the product, or there could be a duplicate order, or it could be fraud. Whatever the reason may be, it is crucial to your online business to keep chargebacks to a minimum. One way to stop chargebacks is to stop fraudulent orders by checking to make sure the order seems legit. This may mean you may have to call each customer to confirm the order. You do not want to accept an order if it appears fraudulent. Be suspicious, because in the end, receiving too many chargebacks will damage your profit line.
If, on the other hand, your customer is simply dissatisfied with the product, give them a call and send them an email. Ask them what it is they didn’t like about the product. Ask them if there is anything you can do for them to satisfy them. If they still seem reluctant to drop the chargeback, your last resort would be to ask them if they wouldn’t mind dropping the chargeback and you can offer them a full refund. Most people wouldn’t mind this option. You will find that a simple phone call to the upset customer may actually turn things around in your favor.
The customer could either be dissatisfied with the product, or there could be a duplicate order, or it could be fraud. Whatever the reason may be, it is crucial to your online business to keep chargebacks to a minimum. One way to stop chargebacks is to stop fraudulent orders by checking to make sure the order seems legit. This may mean you may have to call each customer to confirm the order. You do not want to accept an order if it appears fraudulent. Be suspicious, because in the end, receiving too many chargebacks will damage your profit line.
If, on the other hand, your customer is simply dissatisfied with the product, give them a call and send them an email. Ask them what it is they didn’t like about the product. Ask them if there is anything you can do for them to satisfy them. If they still seem reluctant to drop the chargeback, your last resort would be to ask them if they wouldn’t mind dropping the chargeback and you can offer them a full refund. Most people wouldn’t mind this option. You will find that a simple phone call to the upset customer may actually turn things around in your favor.
MAKE MONEY WORKING FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME
MAKE MONEY WORKING FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME!
How many times have you heard that phrase, pitch, advertisement, or
whatever? Lots, I'm sure. It is used so much because marketers know that
staying home and making money is the fondest dream of millions of people.
And why not? Did you know that the majority of fatal heart attacks happen
at 9 a.m. Monday morning? It's true. It seems a lot of people would
rather die than get back to the old grind after a weekend of freedom.
So when someone offers an opportunity or plan for you to take your job and
shove it, yet still make enough money to live and pay all your bills, it
sounds blissfully irresistible.
Of course, bliss and reality are always two different things. Is it
really possible to run a business from your own home that is more than a
hobby or source of part-time income? Can you get rich working out of your
own home? Can you really trade your cubical and necktie for blue jeans and
the comfort of your own den?
Well, for your information, home-based businesses are one of the fastest
growing kinds of enterprises in America today. As this is being written,
some 40 million Americans are doing at least some form of work out of their
homes, and the numbers are rising rapidly. According to the U.S.
Department of Labor, as many as 70 million people will be working out of
their homes by the year 2005. Government studies have indicated that as
much as 75% of all work done in this country could eventually be moved
home.
The overwhelming majority of home workers, however, are not exactly getting
rich. The average work-at-home American earns less than $15,000 per year.
That may not be bad as a supplement to a spouse's full-time income, but
let's face it, fifteen grand in and of itself is not much better than poverty.
As master marketer and author Dr. Jeffrey Lant said: "Frankly, I never saw
any benefit to staying home and being poor."
Lant, without so much as a business card, became a work-at-home
millionaire, and is a perfect example of what truly can be achieved if you
are serious about chucking your day job, staying home, and not settling for
peanuts in exchange for your freedom. You can have it all -- you can stay
home and make as much -- and more -- money than your current job provides
you.
In this report, we are going to outline and discuss five key rules on how
to work at home and make big bucks, no matter where you live. After these
five rules, we'll talk about the most important aspect of any business,
whether it be home-based or a giant factory -- cash flow. Starting your
own business out of your home is all about attitude and inspiration, but
all the attitude in the world won't help you without money!
1. It Takes Commitment
Is it any secret in America that most people detest their jobs? Study
after study proves that most people simply dread going to work Monday
morning, and they live for the freedom of the weekend. But even that
freedom is not pure because we know that it is only temporary. It's hard
to enjoy a Sunday evening when the Monday morning alarm clock is just a few
hours away.
It makes sense that people hate their jobs. Everyday, there is a lot of
butt kissing that needs to be done. There are endless meetings which
usually accomplish nothing. There are pointless interruptions, a lot of
drifting this way and that, and lot of idiot supervisors who do nothing but
waste your time and then dog you for not accomplishing your share of work.
There are co-workers you hate, and who would stab you in the back in a
minute if it meant a raise for them instead of you.
When you work for someone else, you live a regimented life. Your body may
not want to get up at 7 a.m., but you have to be at work by 8 a.m. so you
lurch out of bed with a head full of sleep.
People who choose to work at home are doing more than just escaping the
yoke of their master; they have made a deep, firm, life-altering decision
which says that health, happiness and prosperity depend vitally on the
freedom to work for ourselves, and in doing so in the comfort of the home.
We want to really emphasize that fact that to be successful in a
work-at-home situation, you have to be nothing less than a fanatic; a
zealot, who is utterly committed to making work-at-home not only a
successful venture, but a profound commitment for life. You must be
convinced that a return to an outside office job would be the equivalent of
a spiritual death sentence.
Many people hate their office jobs, but they have made an inner compromise
with themselves. They have convinced themselves that their job is "not so
bad," pays the bills, and that they can stick out because they have to.
If you want to be truly successful at quitting your day job, there cannot
be any room for such compromises in your soul. You have to take the
attitude that to work any longer at your hateful job is akin to fouling
your inner being with a spiritual cancer the will sicken and kill you.
2. Eliminating the Home-Office Mentality
To move our work home, however, does not mean we eliminate every single
thing about the traditional American office. Rather, we should select what
is useful and what is not.
It's a mistake to quit your job and go home with a "home-office" mentality.
By this we mean thinking small, and believing that you will automatically
sacrifice a decent income in exchange for your freedom. Please! Do not
think small!
To quote Jeffrey Lant again: "Too many home-based practitioners fail to
understand the benefits that accrue because of the professional style they
have selected. They focus on the "home" part of the business rather than
the "business" portion, and as a result are doomed to small incomes."
Working at home provides many benefits. We can save a lot of time because
we don't need to commute and we have more control over our schedule. We
can save a lot of costs because we don't have the overhead requirements of
larger businesses. We can cut our stress -- and so have more energy --
because we avoid many of the characteristic problems of life in the late
20th-Century office. We must work these advantages to our profit.
3. Your International Headquarters
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that if you sit at home alone at
your empty kitchen table, eventually, the "whole world will come to you."
Well, today you don't need the great mind of a philosopher to make the
entire world come into your living room. What you need is a phone jack.
We live in a unique time in history. Satellites, fiber optics, the
integrated circuit and other communications miracles means that you can be
just about anywhere in the developed world and establish communication with
anyone.
The telephone, the fax machine, the computer, the modem -- all of these are
not only affordable by any middle-class citizen; they are the key to
eliminating your need to drive a hectic freeway everyday to get to a place
of business outside your home.
With these devices at our disposal, we should allow ourselves to "think
globally." Too often, home-based businesses focus on the narrowest market,
the neighborhood, the county, the city or state. This is fine if you are
providing a local service and are content with a certain moderate level of
income. But if you want the big bucks, you should not think small. Also,
you should not believe that, just because you are home-based, you cannot
compete with the big guys.
The purpose of any business is to seek assess and seek out every possible
market for its products and services, to ascertain whether these markets
have the ability to buy these products/services, to determine whether there
is sufficient profit in these markets to warrant approaching them, and,
once positive assessment has been made, to launch a sustained marketing
campaign that gets a significant percentage of this market to purchase the
product or service in question.
Your home telecommunications machines will not only enable you to do this,
but they can also help you overwhelm larger, more cumbersome traditional
businesses that are your competition.
As a home-based entrepreneur, you will not have all of the disadvantages of
your more traditional competitors: no office rent, equipment or expense;
no employees to pay salaries and fringe benefits for; no time wasted on
meetings, employee problems, paid sick leave, etc.
All the money your competitors spend on heating the office and buying
furniture could better be spent on the actual marketing itself.
As a home-based business, you will be already positioned where the
traditional business is currently struggling to move: toward the lowest
possible overhead and the greatest possible concentration of dollars on
products/service development and product/service marketing.
So, a home-based business takes full advantage of three major goals of
modern business success:
(1) Vastly reduced overhead
(2) Easy access to a global market
(3) Full advantage of telecommunications.
To not have the basic telecommunications toys -- computer, modem, fax, and
telephones is impossibly stupid. Still, even in this day and age, many of
people strongly resist the one element that is undoubtedly the heart and
brain of any successful home business -- the computer. The computer is so
important in fact, we have made it a category all itself.
And remember, learning to use a modern computer is easier than learning to
drive a car, so you have no excuse not to plunge forward.
4. The Computer
You should pay close attention to what computers can do for you in your
plans to escape your job and make your work-at-home dreams come true.
People who want to run a home business usually have a very small staff -- in
fact, a staff of one -- yourself! The rest of your needs are handled by
independent contractors, depending on the kind of business you are in and
the services you need.
To run a serious, truly global home business, a computer is as necessary as
oxygen is to life on earth. Those who try to fool themselves into thinking
they will ever make a serious go of their home-based business without a
computer are sadly mistaken.
Computers give you two primary advantages:
(1) They enable you to store large amounts of data and to sort by data
field so that you can easily get the information you need.
(2) They enable you to develop a pattern document for every situation
you'll ever be in in your business. To run a home-based business
successfully, you must anticipate just what situation will emerge and
prepare accordingly.
A business is based on a characteristic series of situations and a
characteristic set of things that happen -- or that do not happen. You
must be prepared with the proper document for each situation. Once you
have established all the protocols, and have experienced all the situations
associated with your kind of business, the time will come when running your
business is, in large part, a repetition of certain key tasks. Computers
are all about handling repetition swiftly and efficiently.
But the computer is much more. Today, by connecting a computer to the
phone line with a modem, your machine becomes more than a data storage
system and repetitive task handler. It becomes a multi-task, multi-level
communications processing center that connects you to the globe.
Such things as e-mail, on-line services, the Internet, the Web and more
can't help but revolutionize the way business is done. If you do not
become a part of it today, you certainly are going to suffer for it greatly
in the near future.
If there is an effective way to market products on the Internet or any
other on-line venue, no one has truly discovered it yet. The only people
making money on Internet marketing are the people who are selling the
concept of doing it. If you have a product or a service and expect to
reach millions of buyers through computer screens, you are sadly mistaken.
The Internet is definitely where a lot of innovative things are happening.
It's a great place to exchange ideas, find out what hot, what's not, and
stay on the cutting edge whatever your particular business is.
5. Your Business Hours
If you've been paying attention to the first four points, you're well on
your way to becoming a successful home-based business owner. Now we don't
want you to blow it by thinking you can keep banker's hours.
The global market is a 24-hour per day market, and a 365-day per year
market. Let the others sleep late on Saturdays and take Sundays off.
Those times could be your day to move and corner loads of customers that
the others miss.
You should get up earlier and quit work later. You should be open for
business on holidays and be available 24-hours a day either personally or
through your answering service.
"But wait a minute!" you might be thinking at this point! "I thought that
working at home was all about freedom and an end to drudgery. This sounds
like nothing but endless work!"
Well, here's the thing. For most of you who quit your regular jobs to go
to work for yourself, you'll discover something magical. You'll discover
that when you are working for yourself, when you are building your own
business, a lot of what you does not seem like work at all.
The great writer Jane Roberts said, "Inspiration is its own motivator."
Running your own business is all about being inspired 24-hours-a-day. When
you stop selling your body and soul to some company or corporation and
start giving your energy to yourself, work has a way of turning into
inspiration and play.
The perfect work for you is that which you don't think of as work, yet
doing it makes money and provides you with the bread and shelter of life.
You'll see what it's like if you make a true commitment to being self
employed, put all your energy into it, and stick with it for the long run.
How many times have you heard that phrase, pitch, advertisement, or
whatever? Lots, I'm sure. It is used so much because marketers know that
staying home and making money is the fondest dream of millions of people.
And why not? Did you know that the majority of fatal heart attacks happen
at 9 a.m. Monday morning? It's true. It seems a lot of people would
rather die than get back to the old grind after a weekend of freedom.
So when someone offers an opportunity or plan for you to take your job and
shove it, yet still make enough money to live and pay all your bills, it
sounds blissfully irresistible.
Of course, bliss and reality are always two different things. Is it
really possible to run a business from your own home that is more than a
hobby or source of part-time income? Can you get rich working out of your
own home? Can you really trade your cubical and necktie for blue jeans and
the comfort of your own den?
Well, for your information, home-based businesses are one of the fastest
growing kinds of enterprises in America today. As this is being written,
some 40 million Americans are doing at least some form of work out of their
homes, and the numbers are rising rapidly. According to the U.S.
Department of Labor, as many as 70 million people will be working out of
their homes by the year 2005. Government studies have indicated that as
much as 75% of all work done in this country could eventually be moved
home.
The overwhelming majority of home workers, however, are not exactly getting
rich. The average work-at-home American earns less than $15,000 per year.
That may not be bad as a supplement to a spouse's full-time income, but
let's face it, fifteen grand in and of itself is not much better than poverty.
As master marketer and author Dr. Jeffrey Lant said: "Frankly, I never saw
any benefit to staying home and being poor."
Lant, without so much as a business card, became a work-at-home
millionaire, and is a perfect example of what truly can be achieved if you
are serious about chucking your day job, staying home, and not settling for
peanuts in exchange for your freedom. You can have it all -- you can stay
home and make as much -- and more -- money than your current job provides
you.
In this report, we are going to outline and discuss five key rules on how
to work at home and make big bucks, no matter where you live. After these
five rules, we'll talk about the most important aspect of any business,
whether it be home-based or a giant factory -- cash flow. Starting your
own business out of your home is all about attitude and inspiration, but
all the attitude in the world won't help you without money!
1. It Takes Commitment
Is it any secret in America that most people detest their jobs? Study
after study proves that most people simply dread going to work Monday
morning, and they live for the freedom of the weekend. But even that
freedom is not pure because we know that it is only temporary. It's hard
to enjoy a Sunday evening when the Monday morning alarm clock is just a few
hours away.
It makes sense that people hate their jobs. Everyday, there is a lot of
butt kissing that needs to be done. There are endless meetings which
usually accomplish nothing. There are pointless interruptions, a lot of
drifting this way and that, and lot of idiot supervisors who do nothing but
waste your time and then dog you for not accomplishing your share of work.
There are co-workers you hate, and who would stab you in the back in a
minute if it meant a raise for them instead of you.
When you work for someone else, you live a regimented life. Your body may
not want to get up at 7 a.m., but you have to be at work by 8 a.m. so you
lurch out of bed with a head full of sleep.
People who choose to work at home are doing more than just escaping the
yoke of their master; they have made a deep, firm, life-altering decision
which says that health, happiness and prosperity depend vitally on the
freedom to work for ourselves, and in doing so in the comfort of the home.
We want to really emphasize that fact that to be successful in a
work-at-home situation, you have to be nothing less than a fanatic; a
zealot, who is utterly committed to making work-at-home not only a
successful venture, but a profound commitment for life. You must be
convinced that a return to an outside office job would be the equivalent of
a spiritual death sentence.
Many people hate their office jobs, but they have made an inner compromise
with themselves. They have convinced themselves that their job is "not so
bad," pays the bills, and that they can stick out because they have to.
If you want to be truly successful at quitting your day job, there cannot
be any room for such compromises in your soul. You have to take the
attitude that to work any longer at your hateful job is akin to fouling
your inner being with a spiritual cancer the will sicken and kill you.
2. Eliminating the Home-Office Mentality
To move our work home, however, does not mean we eliminate every single
thing about the traditional American office. Rather, we should select what
is useful and what is not.
It's a mistake to quit your job and go home with a "home-office" mentality.
By this we mean thinking small, and believing that you will automatically
sacrifice a decent income in exchange for your freedom. Please! Do not
think small!
To quote Jeffrey Lant again: "Too many home-based practitioners fail to
understand the benefits that accrue because of the professional style they
have selected. They focus on the "home" part of the business rather than
the "business" portion, and as a result are doomed to small incomes."
Working at home provides many benefits. We can save a lot of time because
we don't need to commute and we have more control over our schedule. We
can save a lot of costs because we don't have the overhead requirements of
larger businesses. We can cut our stress -- and so have more energy --
because we avoid many of the characteristic problems of life in the late
20th-Century office. We must work these advantages to our profit.
3. Your International Headquarters
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that if you sit at home alone at
your empty kitchen table, eventually, the "whole world will come to you."
Well, today you don't need the great mind of a philosopher to make the
entire world come into your living room. What you need is a phone jack.
We live in a unique time in history. Satellites, fiber optics, the
integrated circuit and other communications miracles means that you can be
just about anywhere in the developed world and establish communication with
anyone.
The telephone, the fax machine, the computer, the modem -- all of these are
not only affordable by any middle-class citizen; they are the key to
eliminating your need to drive a hectic freeway everyday to get to a place
of business outside your home.
With these devices at our disposal, we should allow ourselves to "think
globally." Too often, home-based businesses focus on the narrowest market,
the neighborhood, the county, the city or state. This is fine if you are
providing a local service and are content with a certain moderate level of
income. But if you want the big bucks, you should not think small. Also,
you should not believe that, just because you are home-based, you cannot
compete with the big guys.
The purpose of any business is to seek assess and seek out every possible
market for its products and services, to ascertain whether these markets
have the ability to buy these products/services, to determine whether there
is sufficient profit in these markets to warrant approaching them, and,
once positive assessment has been made, to launch a sustained marketing
campaign that gets a significant percentage of this market to purchase the
product or service in question.
Your home telecommunications machines will not only enable you to do this,
but they can also help you overwhelm larger, more cumbersome traditional
businesses that are your competition.
As a home-based entrepreneur, you will not have all of the disadvantages of
your more traditional competitors: no office rent, equipment or expense;
no employees to pay salaries and fringe benefits for; no time wasted on
meetings, employee problems, paid sick leave, etc.
All the money your competitors spend on heating the office and buying
furniture could better be spent on the actual marketing itself.
As a home-based business, you will be already positioned where the
traditional business is currently struggling to move: toward the lowest
possible overhead and the greatest possible concentration of dollars on
products/service development and product/service marketing.
So, a home-based business takes full advantage of three major goals of
modern business success:
(1) Vastly reduced overhead
(2) Easy access to a global market
(3) Full advantage of telecommunications.
To not have the basic telecommunications toys -- computer, modem, fax, and
telephones is impossibly stupid. Still, even in this day and age, many of
people strongly resist the one element that is undoubtedly the heart and
brain of any successful home business -- the computer. The computer is so
important in fact, we have made it a category all itself.
And remember, learning to use a modern computer is easier than learning to
drive a car, so you have no excuse not to plunge forward.
4. The Computer
You should pay close attention to what computers can do for you in your
plans to escape your job and make your work-at-home dreams come true.
People who want to run a home business usually have a very small staff -- in
fact, a staff of one -- yourself! The rest of your needs are handled by
independent contractors, depending on the kind of business you are in and
the services you need.
To run a serious, truly global home business, a computer is as necessary as
oxygen is to life on earth. Those who try to fool themselves into thinking
they will ever make a serious go of their home-based business without a
computer are sadly mistaken.
Computers give you two primary advantages:
(1) They enable you to store large amounts of data and to sort by data
field so that you can easily get the information you need.
(2) They enable you to develop a pattern document for every situation
you'll ever be in in your business. To run a home-based business
successfully, you must anticipate just what situation will emerge and
prepare accordingly.
A business is based on a characteristic series of situations and a
characteristic set of things that happen -- or that do not happen. You
must be prepared with the proper document for each situation. Once you
have established all the protocols, and have experienced all the situations
associated with your kind of business, the time will come when running your
business is, in large part, a repetition of certain key tasks. Computers
are all about handling repetition swiftly and efficiently.
But the computer is much more. Today, by connecting a computer to the
phone line with a modem, your machine becomes more than a data storage
system and repetitive task handler. It becomes a multi-task, multi-level
communications processing center that connects you to the globe.
Such things as e-mail, on-line services, the Internet, the Web and more
can't help but revolutionize the way business is done. If you do not
become a part of it today, you certainly are going to suffer for it greatly
in the near future.
If there is an effective way to market products on the Internet or any
other on-line venue, no one has truly discovered it yet. The only people
making money on Internet marketing are the people who are selling the
concept of doing it. If you have a product or a service and expect to
reach millions of buyers through computer screens, you are sadly mistaken.
The Internet is definitely where a lot of innovative things are happening.
It's a great place to exchange ideas, find out what hot, what's not, and
stay on the cutting edge whatever your particular business is.
5. Your Business Hours
If you've been paying attention to the first four points, you're well on
your way to becoming a successful home-based business owner. Now we don't
want you to blow it by thinking you can keep banker's hours.
The global market is a 24-hour per day market, and a 365-day per year
market. Let the others sleep late on Saturdays and take Sundays off.
Those times could be your day to move and corner loads of customers that
the others miss.
You should get up earlier and quit work later. You should be open for
business on holidays and be available 24-hours a day either personally or
through your answering service.
"But wait a minute!" you might be thinking at this point! "I thought that
working at home was all about freedom and an end to drudgery. This sounds
like nothing but endless work!"
Well, here's the thing. For most of you who quit your regular jobs to go
to work for yourself, you'll discover something magical. You'll discover
that when you are working for yourself, when you are building your own
business, a lot of what you does not seem like work at all.
The great writer Jane Roberts said, "Inspiration is its own motivator."
Running your own business is all about being inspired 24-hours-a-day. When
you stop selling your body and soul to some company or corporation and
start giving your energy to yourself, work has a way of turning into
inspiration and play.
The perfect work for you is that which you don't think of as work, yet
doing it makes money and provides you with the bread and shelter of life.
You'll see what it's like if you make a true commitment to being self
employed, put all your energy into it, and stick with it for the long run.
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