cleanhoods
-
Content count
1,422 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
7
Posts posted by cleanhoods
-
-
7 Small Business Marketing Tips
by Bob Leduc
Here are 7 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help any small business find customers and generate sales quickly.
1. Don't Advertise Like a Big Business
Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business can't afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales... now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising - and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.
2. Offer a Cheaper Version
Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.
3. Offer a Premium Version
Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service ...or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.
7 Small Business Marketing Tips
by Bob Leduc
Here are 7 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help any small business find customers and generate sales quickly.
See What $75 of Free Google Ads Can Do For Your Business. Try It Now!
Learn modern prospecting techniques that work! Free 37-pg PDF download.
Promote Your Product or Service. Highlight Your Company. 100% Free!
Janitorial and Floor Cleaning Free estimate 704-347-6812
1. Don't Advertise Like a Big Business
Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business can't afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales... now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising - and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.
2. Offer a Cheaper Version
Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.
3. Offer a Premium Version
Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service ...or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.
4. Try Some Unusual Marketing Methods
Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.
5. Trim Your Ads
Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that some of your short ads generate a better response than their longer versions.
6. Set up Joint Promotions with Other Small Businesses
Contact some non-competing small businesses serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their products or services to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This usually produces a large number of sales for a very low cost.
7. Take Advantage of Your Customers
Your customers already know and trust you. It's easier to get more business from them than to get any business from somebody who never bought from you. Take advantage of this by creating some special deals just for your existing customers... and announce new products and services to them before you announce them to the general market.
Also, convert your customers into publicity agents for your business. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising - and it is much cheaper.
Each of these 7 marketing tips provides a simple, low-cost way for any small business to find customers and generate sales quickly.
-
Government Losses to Top $1 Billion After Congress Fails to Reach Deal on FAA
Published August 03, 2011
| Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The government is likely to lose more than $1 billion in ticket taxes because lawmakers have left town for a month without resolving a partisan standoff over a bill to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The government already has lost more than $200 million since airlines are unable to collect taxes on ticket sales because the FAA's operating authority has expired.
The Senate recessed on Tuesday until September, erasing any possibility for quickly resolving the issue. The House left Monday night.
Caught up in the partisan acrimony are nearly 4,000 FAA employees who have been furloughed. The FAA also has issued stop work orders on more than 200 construction projects, threatening the jobs of thousands of other workers. Air traffic controllers, however, remain on the job.
The debacle could have had an upside for airline passengers because ticket taxes, which typically average about $30 on a $300 round- fare, are suspended during the shutdown. But airlines decided to pocket the windfall. Within hours of the shutdown on July 23, most airlines raised their fares by amounts equivalent to the taxes that disappeared.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called airline CEOs to complain and lawmakers have sent letters demanding the fare hikes be reversed and the profits be placed in escrow. But their howls have largely been ignored. Airlines collectively lost about $440 million in the first six months of this year, according to the Air Transport Association.
Some passengers will be due tax refunds if they bought their tickets and paid taxes before the shutdown, but their travel took place during the time airlines no longer had authority to collect the Airlines and the Internal Revenue Service are quarreling over who will handle the complicated and expensive process of getting those refunds to passengers.
President Barack Obama implored Congress on Tuesday to settle the dispute before leaving town, calling the stalemate "another Washington-inflicted wound on America."
LaHood, a former GOP congressman, conveyed the same message in a series of private meetings on Capitol Hill and in phone calls to lawmakers, but was unable to clinch a deal.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the FAA, held out the possibility that if the Senate were able to pass a bill acceptable to Democrats, it could still be approved by the House using obscure parliamentary procedures, and sent to the White House.
But his House counterpart, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., ruled out that possibility. The only way left to end the shutdown is for the Senate to agree to a previously passed House bill containing $16.5 million cuts in air service subsidies to 13 rural communities that some Democrats — particularly Rockefeller — find objectionable.
"The only one holding this up now is Mr. Rockefeller," Mica said. One of the 13 communities that would lose subsidies is Morgantown, W.Va.
The entire air service subsidy program costs about $200 million a year, roughly the amount the government lost in uncollected ticket taxes in the first week of the shutdown. The program was created after airlines were deregulated in 1978 to ensure continued service on less profitable routes to remote communities. But critics say some communities receiving subsidies are within a reasonable driving distance of a hub
Subsidies per airline passenger range as high as $3,720 in Ely, Nev., to as low as $9.21 in Thief River Falls, Minn., according to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Republicans were trying to force Democrats to accept policy concessions they would be unable to enact through normal legislative procedures. Democrats tried repeatedly over the past two weeks to pass a bill extending the FAA's operating authority without the subsidy cuts, but were blocked by Republican senators each time.
"Republicans are playing reckless games with airline safety," Reid said in a statement. "We should not let ideology interfere with making sure that Americans' air travel runs as smoothly and safely as possible."
Underlying the subsidy dispute, was a broader, more politically-charged dispute over a provision inserted by House Republicans into a separate, long-term FAA funding bill. The FAA's last long-term funding bill expired in 2007. Since then, Congress has been unable to agree on a long-term plan. The agency has continued to operate under a series of 20 short-term extensions.
Democrats said the air services cuts were being used as leverage to force them to give in to the House on a labor provision, which the White House has said Obama would veto. They see the provision as part of a national effort by Republicans, both in Congress and in state capitals, to undermine organized labor.
The provision would overturn a National Mediation Board rule approved last year that allows airline and railroad employees to form a union by a simple majority of those voting. Under the old rule, workers who didn't vote were treated as "no" votes.
Democrats and union officials say the change puts airline and railroad elections under the same democratic rules required for unionizing all other companies. But Republicans complain that the new rule reverses 75 years of precedent to favor labor unions.
"Democrats have to decide if they are going to be the handmaidens of the labor unions in every policy," Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Senate GOP leader, told reporters. "Every now and then they should put the American people first instead of their constituency."
Read more: Government Losses to Top $1 Billion After Congress Fails to Reach Deal on FAA - FoxNews.com
-
China Joins Russia in Blasting U.S. Borrowing
Q
By Bloomberg News - Aug 3, 2011
China, the largest foreign investor in U.S. government securities, joined Russia in criticizing American policy makers for failing to ensure borrowing is reined in after a stopgap deal to raise the nation’s debt limit.
People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said China’s central bank will monitor U.S. efforts to tackle its debt, and state-run Xinhua News Agency blasted what it called the “madcap” brinksmanship of American lawmakers. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said two days ago that the U.S. is in a way “leeching on the world economy.”
The comments reflect concern that the U.S. may lose its AAA sovereign rating after President Barack Obama and Congress put off decisions on spending cuts and tax increases to assure enactment of a boost in borrowing authority. China and Russia, holding a total $1.28 trillion of Treasuries, have lost nothing so far in the wake of a rally in the securities this year.
“It’s probably frustration more than anything else for China,” said Brian Jackson, a senior strategist at Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong. While the nation has concerns, “they realize there’s not a lot of options for them out there and so they need to keep buying Treasuries.”
China held $1.16 trillion of Treasuries as of May, U.S. Treasury Department data show. The nation has accumulated the holdings as a by-product of holding down the value of its currency, a policy U.S. officials have said gives China an unfair advantage in trade.
Treasuries Gain
Expressions of concern about the fiscal health of the U.S. and the impasse among lawmakers have failed to dent global demand for the securities, with yields on 10-year notes declining to the lowest levels since November. Two-year yields fell to a record low in Tokyo trading today.
Investors in Treasuries earned 3.12 percent in the three months ending July 31, based on Bank of America Merrill Lynch data. That means a $10 million holding earned $312,000 in the period.
China’s central bank welcomes this week’s legislation that raised the U.S. debt limit, preventing a default, and will “closely observe” the implementation, Zhou said in a statement on the central bank’s website today. Xinhua said the move “failed to defuse Washington’s debt bomb for good,” in a commentary dated yesterday.
Standard & Poor’s indicated last week that anything less than $4 trillion in deficit cuts would jeopardize its AAA rating for the U.S. The measure enacted by Obama yesterday threatens automatic spending cuts to enforce $2.4 trillion in spending reductions over the next 10 years.
‘First Step’
Obama said yesterday the debt measure was a “first step” on a path that must also include increasing revenue. The $14.3 trillion debt ceiling will be raised by at least $2.1 trillion.
“They are living beyond their means and transferring part of the problems onto the world economy,” Putin told a youth camp at Lake Seliger outside Moscow Aug. 1. “In a way, they are leeching on the world economy.”
Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings say their AAA credit ratings for the U.S. may be downgraded if lawmakers fail to enact deficit-reduction measures and the economy weakens. China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. today cut its grade for the U.S. to A from A+ with a negative outlook.
“China hopes the U.S. administration and the Congress would take responsible policy measures to handle its debt issue,” Zhou said. He highlighted the global role of U.S. Treasuries, saying that any “large fluctuations and uncertainties” in the market for the securities would undermine financial stability and hinder the world economic recovery.
‘Madcap Farce’
The Xinhua commentary said that the higher debt ceiling and plans to reduce spending were not enough to make any sizable dent in the nation’s fiscal burden. It referred to a “madcap farce of brinksmanship” before the agreement was reached.
A previous Xinhua commentary on clashes between Republicans and Democrats said that “the ugliest part of the saga is that the well-being of many other countries is also in the impact zone when the donkey and the elephant fight,” referring to the symbols often used for the Democratic and Republican parties.
Obama signed the debt-limit compromise yesterday. The measure raises the ceiling until 2013.
In his statement, Zhou also commented on China’s foreign- exchange reserves, which are the world’s largest at more than $3 trillion.
The Asian nation will continue to “seek diversification in the management of reserve assets, strengthen risk management, and minimize the negative impacts of the fluctuations in the international financial market on the Chinese economy,” Zhou said. China will also take “effective measures to maintain relatively rapid growth to safeguard economic and financial stability,” he added.
-
Great video....it is true and easy to fix the problem we are all in the middle of... Congress and the senate needs to stop spending the peoples money,giving peoples money away,free to ship other countries products to us but our products cost to enter theres..and this country worries about the world but forgets itself..we need to worry about us for a bit i am sure the world will understand, see we are the bearing in the gears and if the bearing is sticking the gears wont work properly so all the gears are affected but when we are running smooth the world runs smooth.
-
When a cut is not a cut
By Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) - 08/01/11 12:15 PM ET
One might think that the recent drama over the debt ceiling involves one side wanting to increase or maintain spending with the other side wanting to drastically cut spending, but that is far from the truth. In spite of the rhetoric being thrown around, the real debate is over how much government spending will increase.
No plan under serious consideration cuts spending in the way you and I think about it. Instead, the "cuts" being discussed are illusory, and are not cuts from current amounts being spent, but cuts in projected spending increases. This is akin to a family "saving" $100,000 in expenses by deciding not to buy a Lamborghini, and instead getting a fully loaded Mercedes, when really their budget dictates that they need to stick with their perfectly serviceable Honda. But this is the type of math Washington uses to mask the incriminating truth about their unrepentant plundering of the American people.
The truth is that frightening rhetoric about default and full faith and credit of the United States is being carelessly thrown around to ram through a bigger budget than ever, in spite of stagnant revenues. If your family's income did not change year over year, would it be wise financial management to accelerate spending so you would feel richer? That is what our government is doing, with one side merely suggesting a different list of purchases than the other.In reality, bringing our fiscal house into order is not that complicated or excruciatingly painful at all. If we simply kept spending at current levels, by their definition of "cuts" that would save nearly $400 billion in the next few years, versus the $25 billion the Budget Control Act claims to "cut". It would only take us 5 years to "cut" $1 trillion, in Washington math, just by holding the line on spending. That is hardly austere or catastrophic.
A balanced budget is similarly simple and within reach if Washington had just a tiny amount of fiscal common sense. Our revenues currently stand at approximately $2.2 trillion a year and are likely to remain stagnant as the recession continues. Our outlays are $3.7 trillion and projected to grow every year. Yet we only have to go back to 2004 for federal outlays of $2.2 trillion, and the government was far from small that year. If we simply returned to that year's spending levels, which would hardly be austere, we would have a balanced budget right now. If we held the line on spending, and the economy actually did grow as estimated, the budget would balance on its own by 2015 with no cuts whatsoever.
We pay 35 percent more for our military today than we did 10 years ago, for the exact same capabilities. The same could be said for the rest of the government. Why has our budget doubled in 10 years? This country doesn't have double the population, or double the land area, or double anything that would require the federal government to grow by such an obscene amount.
In Washington terms, a simple freeze in spending would be a much bigger "cut" than any plan being discussed. If politicians simply cannot bear to implement actual cuts to actual spending, just freezing the budget would give the economy the best chance to catch its breath, recover and grow.
Doug Black reacted to this -
I am sure the congress and senates own money is managed and spent correctly.......so easy to spend other peoples money and vote YES to raises and so on.
It is weird where ever you look they are spending unnecessary money..for example the roads around NC are being repaved and shouldered....why? The roads was fine but heck we get free fed money why not spend it... they say helping the people get back to work but all they are doing is keeping the government working not the people.
If we the people dont make enough money we will not spend money and then if no money is spent less money comes into the governments hands. Government forgot who pays them and it isnt the rich and well off it is the working class people,the self employed small business owner,you know us!
-
My opinion is they need to cut there wasteful spending!!
-
Congress is considering raising the debt ceiling with cuts to be determined in the future. However, because tax revenues currently exceed interest payments on the debt with money to spare, it is actually possible for Congress to not raise the debt ceiling and to focus solely on reining in spending. Following the poll from earlier today, do you think that Congress should raise the debt ceiling or just cut spending?
-
Fire Chief Scott Burnette says 37 year old Captain Jeff Bowen died this
afternoon fighting a fire at a medical building near Mission Hospital.
Another firefighter Jay Bettencourt was taken to a hospital in Augusta
with serious injuries. Seven other people, including 6 other
firefighters, were taken to the hospital, many suffering from heat
exhaustion and smoke inhalation. The fire is now out, and investigators
are trying to determine a cause.
Bowen was a 13 year veteran of the Asheville Fire Department. He was married and had 3 children. WLOS ABC 13 News :: Top Stories - Firefighter Dies after Fire at Medical Building in Asheville
Thursday, July 28 2011, 07:27 PM EDT please have your thought and prayers for the familys involved and our brothers
Marko
-
I shared this advice because it relates to me and how i run my business.
I really enjoyed this read and realized the reason i have became successful is because of my personality to my customers and not being afraid to me.
I dont come into a sale as a fake business man with fancy this and that and offering customers lies of state of the art equiptment, i offer my customers me and the truth of how the process works and offering them a fair price of what" i "would pay for the service. I never worry about what the others charge i charge what the job is worth. Just charge what you feel is fair and leave it at that they will call.
Always be truthful, be fair, and if you have a bad vibe walk away you "dont have to" do it. You dont have be fancy just be you.
Marko
-
1. Selling to the wrong people.
While sales are important to the survival of any business, you don’t need to push your business on everyone you meet, including friends and family. Furthermore, it’s a waste of time to try selling to people who simply don’t need what you’re offering.
Selling to the wrong people includes trying to sell to everyone. Some customers are much easier to sell to than others. For example, my wife does web consulting for small businesses, and she’s learned that some clients are much harder to work with than others. If a potential customer is broke and obsessively worried about every nickel they spend, if they want a web site but don’t know why, or if they simply don’t understand the Internet well enough, they won’t be a good client in the long run. Feel free to say no to customers that are more trouble than they’re worth. Let your competitors sell to them instead. You’ll save yourself many headaches, and you’ll free up more time to focus on serving the best customers.
Just because someone is interested in doing business with you doesn’t mean you should accept. In my first year in business, I probably said yes to at least 50% of the people who approached me with a potential business relationship. I wasted a lot of time pursuing deals that were too much of a stretch to begin with. I accepted lunch invitations from random business people who just wanted to “see if there’s a way we could do something together.” Virtually none of them made me a dime. If you think a meeting is pointless, it probably is. Don’t network with random people just because you think you’re supposed to network. Today I accept such invitations less than 1/10 as often. If an offer doesn’t excite me right away, I usually decline or ignore it. Most relationships simply aren’t worth pursuing. Learn to say no to the weak opportunities so you have the capacity to say yes to the golden opportunities.
2. Spending too much money.
Until you have a steady cashflow coming in, don’t spend your precious start-up cash unless it’s absolutely necessary. I started my computer games business with about $20,000 cash (my own money), and it went fast; shortly thereafter I was using debt to finance the business. Unfortunately, the original business model didn’t work, and it took five years before the business was generating a positive cashflow. I soon learned that every dollar invested in the business was another dollar that eventually had to be recouped from sales.
In 2004 I started this personal development business with only $9 cash even though I could have spent much more on it. No fancy logo, no snazzy web design, no business cards or stationery. I paid to register the domain name, and that was it. That’s as much as I was willing to spend before I started generating a positive cashflow. All other business expenditures came out of that cashflow.
Your business should put cash into your pocket, so before you “invest” money into it, be clear on how you’re going to pull that cash back out again.
Obviously some businesses require lots of cash to start, but in the age of the Internet business, you can very easily start a lucrative business for pocket change.
3. Spending too little money.
It’s also a mistake to be too stingy with your cash. Don’t let frugality get in the way of efficiency. Take advantage of skilled contractors who can do certain tasks more efficiently than you can. Buy decent equipment when it’s clear you’ll get your money’s worth. You don’t have to overspend on fancy furniture, but get functional furniture that helps you be more productive. Don’t use an antiquated computer with outdated software that slows you down if you can afford something better.
It takes time to develop the wisdom to know when you’re being too tight or too loose with your cash, so if you’re just starting out, get a second opinion. Often the very thought of getting a second opinion makes the correct choice clear. If you can’t justify the expenditure to someone you respect, it’s probably a mistake. On the other hand, there are situations where it’s hard to justify not spending the cash.
4. Putting on a fake front.
Many one-person businesses refer to themselves as “we.” That’s something a lot of new entrepreneurs do, but it isn’t necessary. There’s nothing wrong with a one-person business, especially today. My games business has mostly been a we over the years, but my personal development business is still an I. My wife’s VegFamily Magazine business is a we, since she has a staff working for her, but her web consulting business is an I. It’s perfectly OK to refer to your business as an I when you’re the only one working in it. Pretending that you’re a we when you’re really an I is a bit silly. It’s not going to gain you any respect in a way that matters. Promoting yourself as an I may even be an advantage today, since people will know the buck stops with you, and if you make a promise, you’re the one who will carry it out. Promises from a we sometimes aren’t worth very much.
If you’re a newly self-employed person, don’t pretend you’re anything else. Price your products and services fairly for your level of skills and talents. Some newly self-employed people think they must become actors. The business they promote to the world is pure fantasy. Trying to fool your customers in this manner will only backfire. If you’re so desperate for business that you need to lie, you shouldn’t be starting your own business. If you can’t provide real value and charge fairly for it, don’t play the game of business. Develop your skills a bit more first.
5. Assuming a signed contract will be honored.
I’ve made this mistake more than I care to admit. I’ve had signed contracts with supposedly reputable corporations, and they weren’t worth squat when the CEO decided he wanted out of the deal, even for completely dishonorable reasons. Sure I was in the right, but did I want to go to court to enforce it? No, I’d rather continue doing meaningful work.
A signed contract is just a piece of paper. What’s behind a signed contract is a relationship. If the relationship goes sour, the contract won’t save you. The purpose of a contract is to clearly define everyone’s roles and commitments. But it’s the relationship, not the paper, that ultimately enforces those commitments. When I understood this, I focused more on relationships and worried less about what was on paper, and my business deals went much more smoothly. Once you start falling back on the paper, the deal is already in trouble. Creative (and lucrative) business deals almost always stray from the paper contracts that represent them. One of my attorneys, who had worked on dozens of game development deals, told me that no deal he worked on ever followed the contract exactly; most weren’t even close. And these were big money deals in many cases. Business relationships are similar to other personal relationships — they twist and turn all over the place.
Written contracts are still necessary, especially when dealing with larger corporations where people come and go, but they’re secondary to relationships. Just don’t make the mistake of assuming that the contract is the deal. The contract is only the deal’s shadow. The real deal is the relationship. Keep your business relationships in good order, and you won’t have to worry so much about what’s on paper.
It’s sad but true that there are loads of scoundrels in business. Many of them hold titles like CEO, President, and CFO. There are indeed people out there who seem to care about nothing but money, and they will lie, cheat, and steal to get it. In recent years some of the more despicable ones have gotten themselves indicted (or are already behind bars). But there are plenty of others to whom the word honor has no meaning. For example, in the computer gaming industry, it isn’t unusual for large publishers to feign interest in certain games and string the developers along. They give the developer every indication that a deal is pending, but all the developer sees are delays and false verbal promises. In reality the publisher only wants to keep the game off the market to keep it from competing with one of their own titles; they hope to cause the developer to miss the next Christmas season or to run out of cash and cancel the title altogether. It happens. Business, especially the entertainment industry, is not for the timid.
6. Going against your intuition.
Intuition is just as important in business as it is in other settings. You’d be amazed at how many gigantic corporate deals are green-lighted or red-lighted because of some CEO’s gut feeling. While you might think that logic is the language of business, that’s far from reality. If you base all your business deals on hard logic and ignore your intuition, most likely you’ll be in for a world of hurt.
We humans aren’t very logical to begin with. We simply don’t have enough data to make truly logical decisions because business deals depend on human beings, and we don’t have a logical system for accurately predicting human behavior. Not being able to predict how other humans will behave is a pretty big gap in our logic. And intuition has to fill that gap. The real performance of human beings is what makes or breaks business deals. But to assume everyone will perform as expected is unrealistic in the extreme. No deal ever goes perfectly.
It’s hard to say no to a deal that seems juicy by the numbers when my gut is saying, “You’ll regret it,” but more often than not, I later see evidence my intuition was right all along. Sometimes I just get a bad read on someone, and then years later, several people I know are complaining about being ripped off by that person.
Intuition is a critical part of the decision-making process in business. Since business deals depend on relationships, you need to get a read on the other people involved in any deal you consider. If you get a bad read, walk away. If you get a good read, proceed with caution.
7. Being too formal.
I’ll say it again. Business is built on relationships. In some settings a certain degree of formality is appropriate, but in most business situations being too formal only gets in the way. Business relationships work best when there’s a decent human-to-human connection behind them.
I think it’s a mistake to be too formal even when looking to establish new business relationships. If someone mails me a letter that starts with “Dear Mr. Pavlina” and then goes on to explain a long-winded business proposal, I’ll usually just trash it, especially if it uses the word “we” a lot. Better to fire off an email with a “Hi Steve,” and just ask me very informally if I’m interested in the kind of arrangement you’re seeking. It saves time and opens the door to a real human relationship. Human beings don’t want to build relationships with faceless corporations. They only want relationships with other human beings… sometimes animals too I suppose.
Treat your business relationships like friendships (or potential friendships). Formality puts up walls, and walls don’t foster good business relationships. No one is loyal to a wall… except the one in China.
Formality is boring and tedious. People want to enjoy their work. If someone address me like a computer, I’ll respond in kind — by hitting delete. But if someone demonstrates they have a real personality and a good sense of humor, a connection is far more likely.
8. Sacrificing your personality quirks.
In the early years of running my games business, I took myself too seriously and assumed that I had to act “businesslike” … whatever that meant. Being self-employed was a weighty responsibility, and other people were counting on me. Sink or swim, right?
I started my games business in my early 20s, and people in their early 20s are invariably weird. But I assumed that as a business owner, being weird wasn’t appropriate or acceptable. So most of my business letters and emails looked like they were written by the same people who created Microsoft’s EULAs. The job title of “President” really went to my head. I learned how to function without a personality.
It took a number of years, but eventually I became comfortable just being myself, especially after my games business became profitable. Now that I’m a blogger, my personality quirks and unusual experiences are strengths. My personal oddities give this blog a unique flavor. If I were to take myself too seriously and write more formally, this blog would be very dull and would likely lose much of its audience.
It’s perfectly OK to be your own weird self and to inject your own unique spirit into your business, especially if you’re in your teens or 20s. Don’t be afraid to be more like Steve Jobs… and less like Steve Ballmer. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. Ultimately you’ll enjoy your work much more if you attract the kinds of customers and partners that want to work with you for who you are — warts and all. Send the people who only want to work with androids to your corporate competitors. They deserve each other.
If other people can’t handle your weirdness, too bad for them. Focus your energy on the people who can.
9. Failing to focus on value creation.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the purpose of a business is to make money. But the real purpose of a business is to create value. While it’s possible to make money in the short run without creating much value, in the long run it’s unsustainable. Even criminal organizations have to create value for someone. When you know your business is just sucking value away from others without providing anything in return, it will erode your self-esteem, and the business won’t be much fun to run.
Why does your business exist? It exists to provide some sort of value, both for you and your customers. The better you understand what value you’re trying to provide, the better you’ll be able to focus. The basic value provided by my games business was cerebral entertainment. The basic value provided by StevePavlina.com is personal growth. Too often business owners aren’t clear on what value they’re trying to provide. They just sell stuff and hope for the best. That’s a lousy business model. The world doesn’t need more selling or more stuff. But it always needs and wants genuine value creation, and that’s where you should direct your efforts.
Presently this web site contains over 400 free articles. That’s a lot of value creation. Thousands of people visit each day to receive some of that value. Helping people grow is the business’ primary aim.
10. Failing to optimize.
Although value creation is essential to a sustainable business, it’s equally naive to assume you can simply focus on creating value, and the rest will take care of itself. You may build a business that provides good value but loses money. As a business owner, you need to find a way to deliver your value in a cost effective manner. Most likely your first attempt will be very suboptimal. You’ll waste too much time, money, and resources trying to produce and deliver your value. That’s OK though. Many businesses start out that way. Just don’t let yours stay that way.
Once you have a particular business process in place, pull it apart and re-optimize it from time to time. Look for ways to make it more efficient. Can you get it done in less time? At less cost? Can you do it less frequently? Can you outsource it? Can you dump the process altogether?
I used to process credit orders for my games business manually. I started the business in 1994, and when I’d receive an order through the mail or via my web site, I’d use some software to input and run the orders by modem. At the end of each month, I’d manually tally the sales. That worked fine when sales were low, but it became burdensome as more products were released and sales increased. Several years ago I upgraded the process such that online orders were fully automated, including instant delivery of the game download. All orders are recorded in a database, and I can view real-time reports to see how sales are doing for each product. It took some work to set this up, but it was well worth it. That one optimization saved me a lot of time and effort, and I don’t have to pay high fees for a third-party order processing service.
Don’t fall into the trap of using archaic methods for doing routine tasks that could be automated, including inventory management, billing, accounting, order processing, communications, and marketing. If you find yourself doing the same repetitive tasks month after month, make sure you put some effort into optimizing them. Not optimizing is like throwing time and money down the drain. It’s often much easier to save time and money than it is to create them.
An Internet business has abundant opportunities for optimization because it’s so easy to try new things and measure the results. In the first year after launching this site, I experimented quite a bit with Google Adsense. Many people don’t like the ad layout on this site, but it’s the most effective layout I’ve tried so far. I use it because it works. Adding the donations page was another optimization. Some people click ads, some people donate, and some do both. So even though value creation is the primary aim of the business, this is still a for-profit business and needs to generate income in order to be sustainable. If I don’t eat, I don’t write. More money means more resources for ongoing value creation. So value creation and optimization go hand-in-hand.
It takes significant effort to build a successful business, but it’s also a tremendous growth experience. I know many people who have quit their jobs to run their own businesses. Many of them didn’t do as well as they’d hoped, but I don’t know any that regretted taking the plunge. There’s simply no substitute for holding the reins of your own destiny.
-
I love seeing videos like this we are so privileged to have men and women like this!!
-
Could be the unloader ...... trash in it or just needs replaced.
-
30 weight non detergent for the pump and 30 weight detergent for the motor. Regular or synthetic is fine all depends what you can afford.
-
Thats what i was r thinking Russ when i first noticed the post. Propane should burn clean heat is most likely the problem. Go to the place customer bought the siding ask if they got the paint to touch up the spot,this is probably the best option besides replacing.
-
They also have a matching top but i didn't get it yet my top from Northern still okay but i will get the matching one when ready for sure the quality is just the best.
-
Best i found for the work i do is item #: 4T239 from Grainger.Very good quality long lasting once you feel these and where them you will see. Mine are about 2 years old ruff looking but still usable. It has a rubber coating used by emergency services as well.
Oh and the seams are still together will not come apart on you.
-
VIRUS ON FB using YOUR pictures. It says
you've been tagged in a picture, wants you to click on a link to see it.
Then hacks into YOUR computer & ALL YOUR ACCOUNTS including BANKING
& other secure accounts. It DESTROYS YOUR COMPUTER. Once hacked
into your comp, it sends e-mails to your friends telling them they have
...been TAGGED in pics & starts the process again. PLEASE RE-POST
URGENT
Marko
-
This video hits the heart just shows how dangerous of an job we all are in...
Marko
-
Cold cutting
Marko
-
Big toy..
Marko
-
Neat turbo..
Marko
-
This is pressure washer art the nearest thing i have seen........
Marko
-
Here is a easy way to carve pumpkins.
Marko
Proud of My industry After 27 Years
in The Club House
Posted · Report reply
Congrats you all... any amount counts for our children...and any help is truly appreciated. Keep the hard work up all and never give up!!!