The 25-50-25 Formula for Business Success
By Bob Bly
“I was quite eager to learn about marketing, and began reading everything associated with it,” one of my subscribers, KM, told me in a recent e-mail. “However, with AWAI’s Golden Thread e-zine, ETR, and, of course your insightful newsletter, I find myself reading more than applying. How do I sift through the worthy (but time-consuming) information that would benefit my business? Sometimes I force myself to read, fearful I may overlook some exceptional nugget. Help! Where do I stop?”
I hear similar stories all the time…
You are interested in some aspect of marketing - whether it is copywriting, Internet marketing, whatever. But you are overwhelmed by all the information being offered on the subject. (After all, we live in the Information Age.)
So you go “information crazy”… buying every course, attending every conference, reading every e-book, listening to every recording, and dialing into every teleseminar you can find.
Before you know it, a month… six months… or a year has gone by - and you are no closer to your business or career goal. That’s because you’ve spent all your time reading, studying, and learning the thing you are interested in… rather than actually DOING it.
Sadly, you are suffering from a syndrome I call “analysis paralysis.”
All the information you are taking in has overloaded your circuits. You can’t process it all, sort through it, and figure out what to do first. So, instead, you do nothing. You take no action - other than to order yet another course or report to read.
You have become a marketing-information junkie - avoiding the harsh realities of the business world by retreating to your favorite comfy chair with yet another neat marketing book.
You spend all your time reading about starting a business. So there is no time left to actually start or run a business. You are an “armchair entrepreneur” - more enamored with the idea of entrepreneurship than the actuality.
Fortunately there is an easy solution: the 25-50-25 rule. It provides a simple guideline to help you get unstuck.
The rule says there are only three ways to learn a process (e.g., how to start an Internet business) or a skill (e.g., copywriting): studying, observing, and doing. The 25-50-25 rule says that to master a skill or process, and put what you learn into practical action, you must divide your time as follows:
* No more than 25 percent of your time studying - i.e., reading books, going to bootcamps, attending workshops, listening to recordings in your car.
* No more than 25 percent of your time observing - watching what successful people in your field are already doing. If, for example, you want to become a direct-mail copywriter, this means reading and analyzing the direct mail you get in your mailbox.
* At least 50 percent of your time actually DOING the thing you are studying and observing. For example, if you want to sell information products on the Internet, you are spending 50 percent of your time creating your first product… designing your website… or building your list.
The idea is similar to Michael Masterson’s Ready, Fire, Aim approach. He says that you should take action right away, and then learn as you go.
Acquiring business knowledge is a worthwhile activity. But without action, that knowledge is worthless to you.
KM’s worry that, by not reading everything, he may miss a “nugget” of information is accurate: You will never know everything there is to know in your field, or even most of it.
But so what?
You don’t have to know everything - or even most of what there is to know - to succeed in most endeavors.
For example, there are hundreds of strategies for making money on the Internet. But you can make a six-figure annual income online using only a few of them, even if you never bother to learn the others.
In freelance copywriting, there are many top writers who write only one type of promotion. Or work in one narrow niche. And they make a fortune doing so.
When we were kids, our parents and teachers told us to study, study, study. But I see many people today much more enamored with studying and reading about marketing and entrepreneurship than actually doing.
Well, I understand that. Reading about marketing is fascinating - and fun. But the money is in the doing, not the reading.
Follow the 25-50-25 rule, and you’ll be doing - and making money - at least half the time.
[Ed Note: Freelance copywriter Bob Bly is the creator of The Direct Response Letter, the author of more than 70 books, and co-creator of ETR’s Direct Marketing Masters Edition program.
Learn specific strategies for how to take action on all your business and personal goals with ETR’s Total Success Achievement program. It’s not too late to sign up and learn how to make your longest-held dreams come true.
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.]
Deal Making for Dummies
by MaryEllen Tribby (11/8/2007)
My son Connor turned seven years old a week ago Sunday. His birthday extravaganza started Friday at his school with a class party. Saturday, the festivities continued with 15 little boys at our local arcade. When he got home Saturday evening, he was surprised with an Xbox 360 from my husband and me. On Sunday, I took Connor down to the beach to experience his first sunrise, which was more of a present (and memory) for me. Later that day, we ended his birthday weekend with a family and friend gathering at our home.
As I tucked Connor in Sunday night, I asked him what his favorite part of his birthday celebration was. Expecting to hear rave reviews about the Xbox, I was astonished when he replied, “Going to the beach with you, Mom.” As I held back my tears, I asked him why. His answer was simple and honest: “Because it was just you and me talking.”
This got me thinking about all the partnerships and deal making I have done over the past 22 years. The best deals were not made sitting in a boardroom around a huge mahogany table with 10 or 12 people. They were done one-on-one over lunch or dinner with simple and honest communication leading to mutually beneficial agreements.
Early in my career, for example, I worked for a well-known publisher in NYC, and we wanted to partner with another well-known publisher in Boston. We had a great idea for a new product that would benefit both sets of customers. We organized a special task force comprised of marketers, editors, and customer service people. The other publisher did the same. We had in-person meetings that required flying eight people 300 miles to the other publisher’s office. This was followed up by endless conference calls with 12 to 16 people on the phone.
The entire time this was going on, my gut was telling me that this was not the way to do it. But everyone else was convinced that we needed the “collective brilliance” of the team. You do need input from smart people when you’re working on the product… but these meetings were just on contract negotiation. This was just to get the deal done!
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that we never agreed upon the terms (someone would always chime in with a last-minute concern), and hundreds of thousands of customers missed out on what would have been a great product. Plus, both my company and the other publisher lost the potential for millions of dollars in revenue.
Since that time, I try to do all my deals on a one-to-one basis.
My deal making success rate is high because I follow three simple guidelines. These apply to everything from making joint venture deals to developing new departments within the company to hiring copywriters. They even apply to vendor and service relationships, such as e-mail deployment, printing and media buying, and hiring freelancers. Here they are:
Rule #1. Know the person behind the business.
To the best of my ability, I try to meet, in person, everyone I do business with. This is the best way to gauge their business ethics and integrity. I will fly cross-country for lunch, or meet them at an industry event and have a drink. I’m not saying you have to like everyone you do business with, but personal contact helps expedite the deal and solidify the end result.
Earlier this year, I wanted to find a partner who could help our customers understand the importance of product launches. I mentioned this to my friend and business colleague Rich Schefren. Well, it just so happened he was flying to Denver in two days to speak at a conference being put on by Jeff Walker, the foremost expert in product launches. I ended up on the plane with Rich, met Jeff, and three weeks later Jeff was speaking at ETR’s sold-out “Five Days in July” Internet marketing conference.
But this is not an anomaly for me.
My friend and colleague David Cross introduced me via e-mail to Tim Ferriss, the author of The 4-Hour Work Week, and I phoned Tim immediately. After discovering that we were both going to be in New York the following week, we made a breakfast date. Two weeks later, Tim’s articles - including one that you may remember about creating a “paperless life” - started appearing in ETR.
These deals happened fast because not only did I get credible references from Rich and David, two people I respect and trust, I also took the time to meet Jeff Walker and Tim Ferriss in person.
Even if you can’t meet everyone in person, make sure you have reliable references. Always do your due diligence. Make it your goal to understand not just the company you want to partner with but the person behind the company.
Rule #2. Only make deals that will benefit your customers.
You may be passing up millions of dollars initially, but if a deal is not in the best interests of your customers, it will cost you more in the long run in dollars, time, and reputation.
Just this past summer, a “friend” in the industry came to us with a product he had developed. He showed us sales reports from his launch. He showed us his brilliantly written marketing copy. Our first impression was: “Our customers need this. They will love it. And it will be a nice contribution to our bottom line.”
Patrick Coffey, Charlie Byrne, and I told him, “Great. Just send us a sample of the product so we can evaluate it. If it is as good as you say it is, we are sure we can promote it to our customers.”
Well, our “friend” was a bit taken aback. He did not understand why we wanted to see the product when he had already shared his sales report.
We tried to explain that this is our policy - that we had to believe in the product.
He said if we would not just take his word for it, he would take it to our competitor. Well, he did. And we heard through the grapevine that it was a tremendous hit. Customers were buying it up, both parties were making tons of money - and I secretly questioned my decision.
But just recently, the word in the industry is that the product did not live up to the marketing hype. Refunds were coming in like gangbusters, and our “friend’s” new partner does not want to work with him anymore.
Had our competitor lived by the same rule that prompted us to say no to this particular deal, he would not have wasted his resources and lost the respect of his customers.
If you follow this rule, you may miss out on a good opportunity every once in a while. But you will also be able to pass up deals that just won’t satisfy your customers.
Rule #3. Only make deals that will benefit your organization.
At first glance, this rule might seem to contradict Rule #2. On the contrary, these two rules need to work in unison.
Let’s say you are asked to hire a vendor because he is the husband of your wife’s best friend. You know him, and you know his product will be good for your customers. But his prices are outrageous and you can get a better price and equal quality from another vendor. What do you do?
To me, this is a no-brainer. You go with the other vendor. That is a better decision for your company - and for your customers. Never forget: You are running (or starting) a business, and good businesspeople have to make tough decisions.
Deal making takes a lot of time. But it’s worth it, because you want to build relationships that last. You can’t make a good deal without a good partnership. You can’t have a good partnership without a personal relationship. And you can’t build a personal relationship through phone calls or e-mails or in a conference room. Know your potential partner well, understand his expectations and needs, and make sure he understands yours. Both companies will benefit.
[Ed. Note: MaryEllen Tribby is Publisher and CEO of Early to Rise. ETR has created a brand-new Info Marketing program - an all-inclusive, A-to-Z blueprint for starting your own powerhouse Internet business. Learn how to pick a product and set up a website. Discover copywriting secrets from the masters, techniques to help you create an e-mail list, the best ways to market your product, and more. We’ve limited the number of spots to 250, and, as of today, we’ve only got a few spots left. So sign up now to be part of this exciting new program.
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.]
The Secret to Entrepreneurial Success
by Clayton Makepeace (03/7/2008)
To achieve entrepreneurial success, you need five things:
- A product that delivers a benefit people already want at a price they’re willing to pay…
- A strategy that puts your sales copy in front of your best prospects…
- Great headlines and lead copy that compel them to read your sales message…
- Sales copy that convincingly presents the reasons why the prospect should buy and overcomes any objections he might have, and…
- A quick, easy way for him to order.
Now you can do all that with a product that has already been proven to appeal to prospects, and where you’ll go head to head with well-established competitors. Or you can attempt to be a pioneer with something completely new.
If you decide to become a pioneer, you can do items 2 through 5 brilliantly and still fail miserably if your product misses the mark - if it doesn’t deliver a benefit your prospect intensely desires at a price he’s willing to pay. And when you’re a pioneer, your chances of missing the mark are substantial.
Pioneers are famous for winding up with arrows in their keesters. Given the choice, I’d rather compete in an established area.
[Ed. Note: Clayton Makepeace has spent the last 35 years creating direct-mail, Internet, and print promotions that have sold well over $1 billion worth of products. He publishes the highly acclaimed e-zine The Total Package to help business owners and copywriters accelerate their sales and profits.]
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.]
Using Daily Task Lists to Accomplish Your Goals
I didn’t always plan my days. For most of my career, in fact, I didn’t.
I had written goals. And I referred to them regularly. My goals kept me pointed in the right direction, but I was always moving back and forth. Often for no good reason.
Driving to work in the morning, I would think about my goals. That helped motivate me and often gave me specific ideas about what tasks I should accomplish that day. I’d walk into work meaning to complete those tasks… but by the end of the day, many of them were not done.
What happened? The same thing that may be happening to you right now. You sit down at your desk, and there is a pile of new mail in your inbox. You pick up the phone, and 15 messages are waiting for you. You open your computer, and find that you’ve received 50 new e-mails since you last checked. You tell yourself that you will get to your important tasks later. Right now, you have to “clean up” all these little emergencies.
Before you know it, the day is over and you haven’t taken a single step toward achieving your important goals. You make an effort to do something, but you are tired. Tomorrow, you tell yourself, you will do better.
Does that sound familiar?
If so, don’t feel bad. You are in good company. Most people deal with their work that way. Even people who set goals and achieve them. Over the long term, they get everything done. But on a day-to-day basis, they are constantly frustrated.
You can be successful without planning your days… but you will have to work a lot longer and harder. The reason? When you don’t plan your days, you end up working for other people - not just for yourself. You feel that before you get to your own work, you should first deal with their requests.
Starting your day by clearing out your inbox, voicemail inbox, and e-mail inbox is just plain dumb. Most of what is waiting for you every morning has nothing to do with your goals and aspirations. It is work that other people want you to do for them.
If you want to be the captain of your soul and the master of your future, you have to be in charge of your time. And the best way to be in charge of your time is to structure your day around a task list that you, and only you, create.
As I said, simply writing down my goals helped me accomplish a good deal. But my productivity quadrupled when I started managing my schedule with a daily task list. If you use the system I’m going to recommend, I’ll bet you see the same improvement.
I have used many standard organizing systems over the years, but was never entirely satisfied with any of them. The system I use now is my own - based on the best of what I found elsewhere.
At the beginning of the year, I lay out my goals for the next 12 months. I ask myself “What do I need to achieve in January, February, etc. to keep myself on track?” Then, at the beginning of each month, I lay out my weekly objectives. Finally, every day, I create a very specific daily task list.
Here’s how I do it…
My Personal Daily Task List
I begin each day the day before.
What I mean by that is that I create my daily task list at the end of the prior day. I create Tuesday’s task list at the end of Monday’s workday. I create Wednesday’s at the end of Tuesday’s workday.
I begin by reviewing the current day’s list. I note which tasks I’ve done and which I have failed to do. My new list - the next day’s task list - begins with those uncompleted tasks. I then look at my weekly objectives to see if there are any other tasks that I want to add. Then I look through my inbox and decide what to do with what’s there. I may schedule some of those items for the following day. Most of them, I schedule for later or trash or redirect to someone else.
I do all this in pen on a 6″ x 9″ pad of lined paper. I divide the paper vertically to create columns for the tasks, for the time I estimate it will take to do each one, and for the actual time it takes me to complete it. I also create a column for tasks I will delegate to my assistant.
On most days, I end up with about 20 15-minute to one-hour tasks.
I like doing this by hand, in pen and ink. You may prefer to do it on your computer. The point is to enjoy the process.
Because longer tasks tend to be fatiguing, I seldom schedule anything that will take more than an hour. If you have a task that will take several hours, break it up into pieces and do it over a few days. It will be easier to accomplish. Plus, you will probably do a better job because you’ll be doing it with more energy and with time to review and revise your work as you go.
A typical day for me includes two or three one-hour tasks, three or four half-hour tasks, and a dozen or so 15-minute tasks. The kind of work you do may be different, but I like that balance. It gives me flexibility. I can match my energy level throughout the day to my task list.
Ideally, you should get all of your important tasks and most of your less important tasks done almost every day. You want to accomplish a lot so you can achieve your long-term goals as quickly as possible. But you also want to feel good about yourself at the end of the day.
You may find, as I did, that when you begin using this system you will be overzealous - scheduling more tasks than you can possibly handle. So set realistic time estimates when you write down your tasks. And double-check them at the end of the day by filling in the actual time you spent on each one.
When you complete a task, scratch it off your list. One task done! On to the next one! I’ve been doing this for years, and I still get a little burst of pleasure every time.
Creating each daily task list should take you less than 15 minutes. The secret is to work from your weekly objectives - which are based on your monthly and yearly goals.
This system may not work for you, but I urge you to give it a try. I think you’ll like it.
Before your colleagues, competitors, and coworkers are even sipping their first cup of coffee, you’ll have figured out everything you need to do that day to make you healthier, wealthier, and wiser. You will know what to do, you will know what your priorities are, and you will already be thinking about some of them. You will not have to worry about forgetting something important. And you will have a strong sense of energy and excitement, confident that your day is going to be a productive one.
[Ed. Note: Achieve all your personal, social, financial, and business goals with the help of ETR’s Total Success Achievement Program . Learn more by clicking here.
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.]
A Small Business Success Formula
Stuart and I clinked glasses, toasting our upcoming success. It was New Year’s Eve about 20 years ago. My entrepreneurial career had just begun. I was a college student living at home with my mom. I didn’t have much money, but I felt good about the $500 each of us had just invested.
About six weeks later, we’d lost our precious money.
We’d been suckered into investing in a poor business idea. The idea? Buying the rights to distribute video memberships where customers could rent videos through the mail for 35 cents. It sounded good, but there were a couple of catches. For one thing, the customer had to purchase an expensive membership. For another, the customer had to pay an exchange fee on every transaction. (Details that weren’t included in the sales literature we saw.)
Eventually, I picked myself up from the disappointment of that first business failure. But several other failures followed. And they all fit the same general pattern: Identifying a product that seemed great, trying to sell it, and then discovering it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
For the longest time, I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong. In fact, it took me several years before I figured it out and made a major change in the way I did business. That single change had an enormous effect on my success as an entrepreneur. By implementing it, I was able to create a string of profitable small businesses.
What I’m talking about here is a strategy I call the F.A.N. (”Fill A Need”) Formula.
What I had been doing was first coming up with the product or service to sell, and then going out into the marketplace to see if anyone would buy it. But with the F.A.N. Formula, I first studied the marketplace to look for customer needs that were not being met. Only if I discovered a hole would I create or find something and try to sell it.
And it’s not hard. You don’t have to come up with revolutionary new ideas. Sometimes you can find a need for a “bread and butter” type of business that just has to be tweaked a bit to make it stand out from the competition.
My first successful business was a pool maintenance service. I was cleaning my mom’s pool when a neighbor peeked over the fence and said, “Hey! You’re doing a good job!” Then he started complaining about how expensive and unreliable his pool company was.
A light bulb went off over my head. I realized that there was a big need right there in my own neighborhood. And where there is a need, there is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to make money.
I printed up some flyers advertising my “reliable pool cleaning services at good prices,” and began distributing them. Within hours of posting the first ones, my phone was ringing. This led to what eventually became a six-figure business… a nice accomplishment for a college student with no capital.
Later in my entrepreneurial career, I became interested in the ballroom dance industry. While working in a dance studio, I discovered two holes in the market. First, virtually every dance studio in the area aggressively sold “packages” and persuaded clients to learn all the dances. Second, I noticed that it was hard for many busy people to make the time to get into the studio.
So I came up with the idea of “pay as you go” lessons. People didn’t have to buy a package, and they could learn only the dance or dances they were interested in. Plus, they didn’t have to come to a studio. They could take the lessons at home.
My approach was so novel that several major metropolitan newspapers did feature stories about me. (Free publicity!) And the business took off. I was soon earning $40,000-$50,000 a year with it. And since I was only working that business part-time, I was able to develop other businesses simultaneously.
Applying the F.A.N. Formula to Your Own Ventures
Here’s how to start a business with the F.A.N. Formula:
1. Pay careful attention to markets that interest you. Then search out information about customer needs that aren’t being served efficiently.
Keep your eyes open. Just look around for things that annoy YOU. Keep your ears open too. You can sometimes hear about a need that’s not being met straight from a disgruntled customer. (That’s what got me started on my pool cleaning service.) You should also read local newspapers, particularly stories about consumer problems. And articles in national magazines can help you identify trends that could inspire you to come up with a business idea.
2. Once you’ve pinpointed a need in the market, figure out how you can fill it. What will your product or service offer? How will it benefit the customer?
My dance instruction business had three main selling points:
No contracts to sign or packages to buy
Learn only the dances you’re interested in
Convenient, private in-home lessons available
3. Evaluate the feasibility of the business.
Just because you see a need for the product or service you intend to offer doesn’t mean you can sell it profitably. Sometimes, the reason nobody is doing it is because there’s not enough of a market for it. So crunch the numbers first.
With my pool cleaning business, I figured out that by being a “no frills” operator with little overhead I could undercut the competition by about 20 percent. And I found that I could still make an acceptable profit even if I hired other people to do the work.
Operating your own small business is rewarding in many ways. It offers you job security. (You’ll never be afraid of a boss letting you go.) It’s a good way to accumulate wealth. And it allows you to spend your days doing something you can enjoy and be proud of. By using the F.A.N. Formula, your odds of success will increase exponentially. Try it.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is the creator of the Quick and Easy Microbusiness System, ETR’s program for starting a business for under $100. The F.A.N. Formula is just one of the techniques Paul teaches in his “Smallbiz Rocket Launcher Program.” Check out the details here.]
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.
A Quick Start Guide for the Internet Entrepreneur
I recently got an e-mail from a man I’ll call Jim, a longtime ETR reader. His question is probably the most common question I get. If you are interested in breaking into the Internet, pay attention. What I have to say to Jim might give you the information you need to get started.
Jim writes:
“I have been struggling with the idea of starting my own Internet-based business. The question is, how and with what product or service?
“I have been a loyal fan of ETR for many years now, and you guys throw so many sound ideas and businesses at me it gets a little confusing. I would like to start small with some proven methods and techniques and build from there. I do not have countless thousands of dollars to experiment with, nor do I have the luxury of being able to sit in front of my computer day in and day out. I need your help to get me started in the right direction with a system that will hopefully start generating some return fairly quickly.
“I believe in and trust your advice more so than anyone out there when it comes to building an Internet-based business - or any other type of business, for that matter. Please help me make this the year I finally took the plunge and started achieving success!”
Everybody knows what a great opportunity the Internet offers. It is the only medium where someone without a lot of money can start a multimillion-dollar company. There are lots of good programs available that teach the ins and outs of Internet marketing. But choosing the right product or service to market… there’s the rub!
I’m going to give Jim some general advice. And then MaryEllen Tribby (ETR’s publisher and CEO) and Patrick Coffey (ETR’s Director of Internet Marketing) will jump in with some specific suggestions.
Which product to choose is a big question. Not the kind that can be answered simply and quickly. It depends so much on you - who you are, who you want to be, what you know, what you don’t know, etc.
That said, a few general suggestions apply.
First, and most important, it is always best to start a business in or around an industry/area that you understand. So many of the most expensive mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make are “outsider” mistakes - errors that someone with experience in the field would not have made.
Lots of first-time health publishers, for example, spend too much time explaining the disease or health problem they hope to cure. They do so both in the publications they create and the promotions they use to sell those publications. What these novices don’t understand is that the most active health buyers don’t need to know more about their problems. They can find out all they want to know on the Internet - for free. What they need are solutions.
So the first thing you must do is make a list of all the things you know about. Start with the business you are in (or employed by). But don’t stop there. Include all your hobbies and interests too. You don’t have to have any professional experience to know enough about a subject to start a business based on it.
I have a friend who started a successful business providing advice about astrology. She’d never taken a course in it or received certification. But she’d read about it for 30 years, and her knowledge was deep and wide. Because of that, she began her enterprise with a good idea of what kind of astrology she would practice and what kind of products and pricing would work.
Another friend started a successful Internet business selling martial arts information. He was a world-class black belt who had been competing for 20 years. He knew the industry inside and out. So he had some good ideas about new and exciting instructional videos he could produce that really caught fire.
This brings us to my second-most-important suggestion: If you are not an expert at direct marketing, you should become one before you spend a nickel on your new business.
I cannot overstate the importance of understanding the techniques of direct-response marketing. Direct marketing is the primary method for generating profits on the Internet. Other forms of advertising - from public relations to event marketing to social media and branding - are usually not nearly as effective.
Luckily, there are plenty of good information products and educational programs available that teach direct marketing for the Internet. On top of the list, I’d put ETR’s own Internet Money Club, The Magic Button, and Instant Internet Income. But I’d also recommend Bob Bly’s Internet Marketing Retirement Plan.
My third and final suggestion is this: In addition to focusing on an industry you are already familiar with and becoming an expert at direct marketing, you must learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Starting a business can be a daunting task for the beginner. Most of those who try fail. And with good reason: They make some very basic mistakes.
The biggest mistake first-time entrepreneurs make is spending too much of their time and money on all sorts of secondary business concerns (getting business cards, setting up a website, finding a business location). But when you’re starting any new business, your priority has to be on making sales. In fact, at this stage of the game, at least 80 percent of your time should be devoted to selling.
To bring yourself up to speed, I recommend that you read Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat. The book is based on my own experiences with building small businesses. It’s all about how to get your business off the ground and continue to grow it.
Okay. Those are my general suggestions. Now, here’s some specific advice from MaryEllen and Patrick:
To develop your marketing materials, hire a copywriter who has in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of your niche. They should be on the cutting-edge of their specialty and always learning, whether it’s the financial markets or alternative health. “I never hire a copywriter who says they can write about anything,” says MaryEllen.
Do some quick research, then TEST your idea. Says Patrick, “One of the biggest problems I see is that people will take too much time analyzing what market to get into. I’ll talk to people who have been studying one of our programs for months and they’ll say, ‘I’m still in the market research stage.’ In my opinion, market research for a new online business should take no more than a week.”
A week is plenty of time to decide what to sell. In fact, it’s a generous amount of time. At ETR’s annual 5 Days In July Internet Marketing Conference, attendees have to make this decision in a day.
To figure out what market to enter, you need to look for two things:
1. Are people looking for this information?
2. Are people buying this information?
“And,” says Patrick, “you can get the answers to these questions very quickly with a few key strokes.
“One of the best ways to find out who is looking for what is with a free tool like WordTracker. And to determine if people are buying, simply enter a few search phrases for your product in Google. Then check the Web pages of the advertisers that come up. The fact that they’re paying for advertising and selling stuff is a good indicator that the market they’re selling to is buying.
“Sign up for e-mail lists of potential competitors, study their marketing materials, and even purchase some of their products. After that, you immediately begin working on your own offer so you can start testing. That’s what students of our Internet marketing programs who become most successful do.”
Will all the ideas you’ll come up with work? No. But the only way you’ll find out is by trying to sell to the market. If an idea does not work, simply try to re-work the offer or explore a new idea.
Remember that starting an Internet business - just like beginning any worthwhile venture - will take work. In his e-mail, Jim talked about wanting to generate some return “fairly quickly,” despite the fact that he does not “have the luxury of being able to sit in front of [his] computer day in and day out.” You need to have realistic expectations when you begin a new business. And one thing you must be prepared for is that it takes time and energy.
One last piece of advice from Charlie Byrne, ETR’s Editorial and Creative Director: Get started. Now. By no means is this all you need to know about starting an Internet business. But the best way to get it going is to begin. Ready, Fire, Aim. You can take time to adjust your product or marketing later. What’s most important is taking that initial leap.
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.
