You know how football coaches talk about “the basics”? This is the most powerful and succinct diagram and explanation of “the basics” for marketing that I have ever seen, and in keeping with Perry’s policy of simply giving away good stuff to build relationships, there is no sales pitch here. Well worth checking out. Go here.

Excellent piece by Karyn Greenstreet. Visit her blog here.

(Do you really?)

Many small business owners say they “hate” marketing. How can that be? Without marketing, a small business will fail.
 
Here’s my analogy:  Marketing is like diapers.  No one leaps for joy at the prospect of changing the the baby’s diapers, but everyone wants a healthy, happy baby, so they do the work they dislike because they want the outcome they desire.
 
Well, marketing is like diapers in the small business world. You must do marketing so that people can learn about your products and services. Some people love to do marketing: they see it as creative and challenging. But many dislike doing it — hate doing it — for various reasons. Keeping your mind focused on the goal of success, you will do whatever needs to be done, instead of resisting it.
 
In the world of coaching, when we hear a statement that doesn’t quite feel right, we coach our clients by asking clarifying questions, trying to get to the core of the situation. With clarity comes understanding. With understanding comes release of resistance and “stuckness.”
 
Let’s get clarity:
 
1. Do you feel marketing is sleazy? Some people are concerned that they’ll appear manipulative or slimy if they do marketing, and be perceived as a used-car salesman.  Now be truthful: is that really likely that your audience will think that way about you? You are a smart, savvy person. As a consumer yourself, you know which types of marketing you hate to receive, and as a business owner you simply won’t do any technique that makes you feel annoyed or distressed. Trust your gut: if you are turned off by a specific marketing technique, your audience probably is, too. Simply don’t use those techniques.
 
2. Are you uncomfortable with marketing? Sometimes people say they “hate” something when in reality they either don’t understand it, are confused by it, or feel they don’t know enough about it. Once you create your marketing plan, go ahead and take a class or buy a book on the specific marketing techniques you will be using. Every small step you take to learning more about your chosen marketing techniques — even 15 minutes a day — helps lead you away from confusion and more towards competency.
 
3. Are you overwhelmed by the marketing choices? At my last count, there are 29 traditional marketing techniques and an additional 40 internet marketing techniques. No wonder you are confused! How do you choose among so many? This is where a strong marketing plan comes into play. A marketing plan takes you through the process of strategically choosing the right marketing techniques based on your audience and your message.
 
4. Are you overwhelmed by the amount of work? Marketing can be very time-consuming. Consider that among the 70 or more marketing techniques available, there are some that take a small amount of time, but yield big results. Still, if you do not have the time to do your own marketing, find a virtual assistant who can take over some of the marketing tasks for you. If you can’t afford a VA, choose marketing techniques that fit your budget and your lifestyle.
 
As they say, action alleviates anxiety. If you are feeling stressed about your marketing, get your marketing plan in place, learn about your chosen marketing techniques, and trust your gut that you’ll know if the yuck- factor makes you shy away from certain marketing practices.

Perry Marshall, Adwords maven extraordinaire, posted a question on his blog. The comments are powerfully informative.

Social Media: Anyone actually making money with it? I’ve got a serious question for you today.

Are you *making money* (and not merely making Friends / Fans / Followers) Twittering, Facebooking and Bookmarking?

Is anybody you know making money Twittering, Facebooking and Bookmarking stuff?

Is anybody you know reliably or predictably making sales, doing that stuff in any kind of systematic fashion?

I seriously want to know.

What are you actually doing? How well is it actually, measurably working?

Post your response in the comment form below. I’d like to hear from you.

Thanks-

Perry

Read comments

Recently, it has become more widely acknowledged that long-term economic recovery and growth in this country isn’t going to come in the form of bailouts or stimulus packages, but instead in our ability to innovate and create new high-growth businesses. As Tom Friedman wrote in a recent column, “We might be able to stimulate our way back to stability, but we can only invent our way back to prosperity.” (New York Times, June 28, 2009)

So if we’re looking to support that economic savior, The Entrepreneur, what are we looking for? One common legend implies that most tech entrepreneurs are young, college drop-outs. So my colleagues Vivek Wadhwa from Duke University and Raj Aggarwal from University of Akron and I decided to investigate the folklore, and ended up debunking some of the more pervasive myths surrounding entrepreneurship. More

One of the Internet marketing businesses most widely promoted is that of ebooks. The general idea is, write an ebook on some topic that is of interest to a market; put up a sales page; promote it; and watch your PayPal account grow.

It’s a great model, and it has worked for numerous people. But the number of people for whom it has not worked, or only generated $10/month, is huge.

I bought an ebook by Alexis Dawes that says she only writes ebooks that address “desperate buyers,” people with a real need. She describes how to find such groups and what to tell them, and tells of her successes and failures. Her ebook is 176 pages long, fun to read, and full of powerful information. Click here to go to her sales page. (Of course, it comes with money-back guarantee, etc.)

Please post comments on your impressions, whether or not you get the book.

I get Roy H. Williams’ Monday Morning Memo and always read it. There’s always powerful stuff in it, and this one is no exception. I’m reprinting the whole thing here, unchanged, without permission, because I think you should subscribe to it too. It’s free.  – Joel

Magic of the Elbs

Did you know I’ve been writing these Monday Morning Memos for 15 years now?  And in all that time:

1. There’s never been a Monday when I didn’t send a Memo.

2. I’ve never repeated a Memo that had been previously sent.

I’m going to break that second rule today because I think it’s what you need.

Last week the Wizard of Ads partners gathered for 3 days of planning
and training. When Paul Boomer told me he hadn’t made any progress on
his book since our last meeting, I told him about the magic of the elbs.

Later, as I was preparing my opening comments for the upcoming class at Wizard Academy, Checklist for Your Journey of 1,000 Miles, I realized that what the attendees would need most is the magic of the elbs.

Then, when I was reading a play-by-play analysis
of how America was sucked into a whirlpool of economic doubt by
subprime lending, it occurred to me that nothing can reverse a
whirlpool like the magic of the elbs. That sucking downward into
darkness is reversed to become a fountain into the sky.

“Hey Stupid,” I said to myself, “you need to
resend that memo. It’s been 7 years and the people who read it have
mostly forgotten it. This is the magic America needs today.”

So here it is, repeated from October 27, 2002:

Makers of miracles have magical little helpers. Is there a miracle you’d like to make?

Would you like to learn the magic of the elbs?

Elbs are Exponential Little Bits, tiny but relentless changes that
compound to make a miracle. The power of an elb lies not in its size,
but in its daily occurrence. For an elb to work its Exponential magic,
the Little Bit must happen every day… every day… every day.

Every day.

Funny thing… When daily progress meets with
progress, it doesn’t add, it multiplies. To harness the magic of
Exponential Little Bits you must learn to ask yourself, “What
difference have I made today?” And never go to sleep until you have
done a Little Bit to move yourself closer to your goal. But you must do
a Little Bit every day, no matter how tiny the thing might be.

Exponential Little Bits work both ways. They can lift you up or hold you down. There is much power in the ELBs.

Start with a dollar. Double it every day for just
20 days and you’ll have 2,097,150 dollars. But if you diminish each
day’s total by just 10 percent (a Little Bit) before the next day’s
doubling, you’ll amass only 793,564 dollars. Diminish each day’s
doubling by 35 percent and you’ll have only 56,784 dollars – a holdback
of 95.83 percent.

There’s a line in Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”
that says, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it
down! I could say ‘Elves’ to him, but it’s not elves exactly, and I’d
rather he said it for himself.”

Is there a wall between you and your miracle?

I could say how to bring it down.

But I’d rather you said it for yourself.

Roy H. Williams

PS – Let us help you get started. Wizard Academy has the next 2 months
jam-packed with classes and workshops that will brighten your future. 
Take a look at WizardAcademy.org.  Go there now. Think of it as a tiny
thing with profound potential, your first Exponential Little Bit.

I really like what I’ve read of Alexis Dawes’ stuff. She is down-to-earth, authentic, and funny. Click here to get her free e-book on business journaling. It is worth reading!

A GOOD SALESPERSON …

sets the agenda … dominates the conversation … closes the sale!

A GREAT SALESPERSON …

asks great questions … listens well … offers supportive help to the customers direction / dreams …
           closes the sale!



Thank you for passing this on to a friend!

The Internet offers huge opportunities, in bewildering array. The main challenge it presents is that of getting lost in the abundance of opportunity. There are ebooks, courses, membership sites and much, much more, all promising to educate you and get you rapidly on the road to quick riches.

Well, it is true that quick riches are possible–but not likely. However, slow and responsible building toward a steady income, in the time you have available to you, and with minimum outlay of cash, is definitely possible. You just need a plan, and a little bit of education.

I’d like to offer you two possibilities to consider:

1. Dr. Ken Evoy’s Site Build-It. Ken is a retired MD in Canada (actually, I think he’s moved to Anguilla) that created a system for “regular folks” to follow. He calls it, among other things, “the way of the tortoise.” It offers huge amounts of education; an active forum of thousands of users; a money-back guarantee; and more. You use their web-based software for setting up your site, and it’s very easy.

It costs $300/year/website. Go to the site; there’s a lot of free stuff you can download, and it is all reliable information. Here’s my link:

http://bit.ly/DHKfE

2. Among the many courses on Internet business, I’ve found one that is honest, realistic, direct, and easy to understand.

This course has 10 modules; they come to you as both MP3s you can listen to, and PDFs that are transcripts of the recordings. They are all conversations among several top marketers with grade-A credentials, including one highly-focused psychologist. In addition, you get a page of “Truthprints,” their name for a step-by-step walk through each of the lessons.

This course will take a while to go through. It is amazingly thorough, yet down-to-earth. I consider it to be worth much more than the sales price.

To go to the sales page for the course, go to http://bit.ly/3avEPR and scroll to the very bottom of the page. There, in small letters, you’ll see “Beginners.” Click on that. Note: It comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee–and you keep the course, even if you request a refund.

There are many, many, many other approaches, and I’m certain that quite a few are good. But these two are at the top of my list. They both introduce you to the broad range of possibilities and give explicit instructions on how to get started at minimal expense.

You’ve been an employee for a while; maybe a long while. You’re thinking that it may be time to consider other possibilities, like starting your own business. I want to help you think through the possibilities.

I created this site and its resources for people like you. I’ve been my own boss for more than 30 years. Most of my clients have been employees, so I have knowledge about what that is like.

There are many different sides to the employee/entrepreneur issue, among them (in no particular order):

• Income stability
• Career development
• Responsibility
• Job satisfaction
• Employee benefits
• Skills needed
• Investment/commitment

Each of these points merits some attention.

Income stability. With a job, it’s binary–you either have the job or you don’t. If you have it, you know what your salary, bonus, and benefits are. If it is gone–well, it’s gone.

As an entrepreneur, it’s variable. You can make it relatively stable, but you need to stay on top of things. If revenues drop or expenses increase, you must–and can–take some action to change things. But you can never lose sight of cash flow; it’s all up to you.

Career development. As an employee, your employer takes responsibility for keeping your skills up-to-date and making sure you are moving ahead in your career, for your own benefit and that of the firm.

As an entrepreneur, you decide what you need to learn, when, and how. You decide what’s right for you.

Responsibility. The responsibility of an employee is to do his or her job well. An employee’s responsibilities are clearly outlined, and their boundaries are also clear.

When you own your own business, everything is your responsibility. That means whatever happens or does not happen is completely up to you.

Job satisfaction. Both employees and entrepreneurs can experience good job satisfaction. But for the entrepreneur, the rewards for a job well done can go far beyond appreciation or advancement, financially.


Employee benefits. Health insurance, 401k plans, and so on are commonly provided by employers. The self-employed person must budget for these, and make sure they can afford what they need.


Skills needed. When you work for someone else, they will specify the skills you must have to fill your position. When it’s your business, there are no pre-set requirements. You determine whether your skills are up to the tasks at hand; you decide if to acquire new skills, or to outsource the work.

Many employees who were previously perfectly content in their positions are now considering entrepreneurship as an alternative, either because they have been laid off and see this as an opportunity, because they are concerned about such an eventuality, or because they don’t like their job and want to try something else.

Entrepreneurship offers no guarantees. But it offers the potential of tremendous satisfaction, self-determination, and financial rewards. Becoming a business owner is not a decision to undertake lightly. It requires commitment, patience, and perseverance to do well.

But the barriers to entry are quite low, and there is help available for anyone seeking it.