marketing inspiration

Five Steps in Creating Profitable Customer Relationships

2008-09-03T21:28:00.000+07:00

By: Christian Fea
Recognizing a customer life cycle and aiming for these distinct steps in your customer retention strategy is an important building block to your company's relationship marketing scheme. A relationship marketing platform puts the customer at the central focal point of your business, and thinking in terms of a customer life cycle and how to move your customers through these distinct stages will help you select, target, and retain a strong customer base.

A customer life cycle may vary depending on your company and what types of products and services it sells. Your customers will have a different buying cycle depending on what you sell. For example, if your company sells coffee, the life cycle and re-order time will be different for your customers than it would be if you were selling contact lenses or shoes. If your business gets customers on a monthly renewable buying scheme, your customer life cycle will be slightly different from a company who has customers purchasing roughly quarterly or every six months.

Given these parameters, there are five stages in a customer life cycle that are readily accepted and agreed upon. These are the natural procedures that a customer goes through when considering a purchase, making a purchase, using a new product and staying loyal to a product and company. You may need to alter your customer lifecycle scheme, but these five steps are a good way to get started.

Step 1: Reach

The first step in a customer life cycle is to reach out to prospective clients. You need to think in terms of how to gain a new clients attention.

Step 2: Acquisition

Acquisition is the step where you show a potential customer what your company has to offer. Once you have the attention of a potential new client, you must engage them to keep their interest.

Step 3: Conversion

Conversion is the act of turning a prospect into a paying customer. It sounds a bit underhanded, as though you are trying to "convert" a client from a competing company to yours, but this is just a technical term. The goal here is to convert someone who is merely considering a purchase to actually making a purchase.

Step 4: Retention

Retention in the customer life cycle is exactly what it sounds like: you want to figure out how to retain and keep this new customer as a repeat client. You'll need to focus on things like personalized attention, offers and customer service to make an impression with your new client, and inspire them to keep purchasing from you.

Step 5: Loyalty

Loyalty is distinct from retention - at first glance they may seem like the same thing, but they are not. Retention is about turning a new customer into a repeat customer, creating a personal loyalty. But loyalty in the realm of a customer life cycle applies to word of mouth. If you can get your existing customers to recommend your products and services to other people, this is what really helps to create a loyal following.

Developing a customer life cycle and thinking in terms of this cycle every step of the way is an integral part to a successful relationship marketing plan and will help ensure the success of your online business.

Joint Venture Marketing + Camouflage Marketing = Increased Sales

2008-09-03T21:26:00.000+07:00

By: Christian Fea

Joint venture marketing and camouflage marketing together form a great strategy that will bring success to your Internet business. Joint venture marketing is a type of marketing and advertising that centers on forming a partnership with one or more other business to maximize profits for all of the companies involved in the partnership.

Camouflage marketing is implementing the use of a well-known trigger where people draw conclusions about the nature of something based solely on its appearance. It is human nature to do this, and the combination of joint venture marketing and camouflage marketing uses this principle to maximize marketing strategy for the utmost benefit to the parties engaged in the enterprise. This combination of joint venture and camouflage marketing can:

- Bring qualified prospects and leads to your website
- Maximize offline prospects
- Minimize your out-of-pocket costs

Camouflage Marketing

Joint venture marketing is a fairly straightforward concept to grasp, but camouflage marketing is a newer concept, which requires a bit more attention to understand.

Camouflage marketing is a way of marketing that is hidden (hence, camouflaged) in everyday language and images. It implements a psychological mechanism that is at work all the time in the human brain, where we draw conclusions about the actual nature of something based solely on its appearance.

This form relies upon the old belief that "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck." This principle is at work in our brains all the time and is the basis for many of the split second decisions that we as human beings make all the time.

Make your advertisement look like an article

Camouflage marketing, in combination with joint venture marketing, can create a tremendously successful campaign - especially in how your advertisements come across to potential customers. One trend that helps lend credibility to your advertisement is to craft your ad so that it looks like an informative article; this will lend credibility to your product and ultimately get more people to pay attention to your ad and your company.

The format of an article promises substantial and factual information, which will make your advertisement more authoritative. The editorial style carries the weight of integrity with it, as well as a positive emotional trigger, which can mean a boost in your sales!

This concept may initially sound a little suspect - as though you are manipulating your customers. This is not the case at all! Most people know when they are looking at an advertisement vs. a scholarly article - there is no trick here. The thing that you are capitalizing on is the illusion of a factual, editorial article. And, let's face it, all marketing and sales is about creating an illusion; we know that the pretty watch or the sexy car isn't going to improve our looks or our love lives, but that is the way that many products are marketed, and what we, as a consumer society, happily buy into.

This type of camouflage marketing, combined with joint venture marketing, has the possibility of taking your business to a new level.

Dr. Carl Sagan, (1934-1996) famous astrophysicist

2008-09-02T16:53:00.000+07:00

" The idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is only in the Vedas in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology (age is billions of years). A millennium before Europeans were willing to divest themselves of the Biblical idea that the world was a few thousand years old, the Mayans were thinking of millions and the Indians billions."
Dr. Carl Sagan, (1934-1996) famous astrophysicist

Broadcast Your Message with Self Promotional Products

2008-09-01T20:40:00.001+07:00

Who needs self promotional products? Anyone that is selling or promoting anything.

What most self-promoters need is a way to keep their name and contact info in front of their prospects or "suspects"; in short they need a message that keeps on messaging.

We all have received promotions in the mail, by visiting salesfolk or at trade shows. At most trade shows, some businesses even give out custom bags so attendees have a place to put all their promo stuff; a promo bag to hold all those promo handouts.

Why do businesses bother with promotional materials? The simple reason is they work by spreading messages, themes and images and keeping those messages in front of those that have been targeted.

Let's say you are a plumber that gives out magnetic business cards so folks can stick them on their refrigerators. Most plumbers have their business name and contact info on their trucks.

A self promotional plumber may also have his magnetic business cards stuck on his truck with a sign "Please Take One".

Sure it's a silly idea and you may laugh. But plumbers that use this strategy report they usually replace all their magnetic cards every day.

Magnetic cards are cheaper than mass media, almost as cheap as some standard business cards, and have a lot more 'staying' power.

And it makes sense if you have ever needed a plumber.

The key is to look at your sales process and sales cycle and determine where promotional products can be leveraged to deliver your message. Most promotional product campaigns fail because they fail to focus first and foremost on the desired results.

Before purchasing your promotional products determine how and to whom you will deliver them. This will help you narrow down your choices for appropriate products.

"And don't forget to track your results so you can improve" adds Wilcox.

Not only is there an endless array of self promotional products but also a seemingly endless way to "package" or merchandise your self promotional messages.

Take promotional caps. There are caps of all colors and styles. Some can have custom logos embroidered with a 3-D effect and even messages printed on the edge of the bill.

Given the right strategy many people could be wearing your self promotional caps. Strategy is why it is important to think through your desired results first.

Self promoters are strategic, not reactive. For instance, farmers in the Salinas Valley give their farmworkers company logo caps at the end of the growing season.

The idea isn't that the farmworkers will return to Mexico for the winter and wear their caps everywhere spreading the company message; the cap logo is simply a promotional reminder of the farm's name and where to go for work at the start of spring season.

Self promotional products can take many forms. There are pens, HiLiters, letter openers, staplers, badge holders and dog tags. There are memo pads, PDA holders, calculators, clocks, radios, mugs, coasters and water bottles.

You can try backpacks, tote bags, coolers, velour pouches, tape measures, knives and flash lights. And key chains, pill cases, first aid kits, luggage tags, combs, fans and pedometers.

And candles, shampoo, hand lotion, hand sanitizers, lip balm, sunscreen and bug repellant. And golf tees, balls, towels and totes. And more.

It is helpful to remember that not all promotional items need to be useful like calendars or pens. You can also try fun items like stress balls, yo-yos and piggy banks. My favorite are those clear balls that flash when bounced. Next to food and chocolate.

Food and candy are always popular. How about gum, mints, gourmet food, cookies, coffee, hot chocolate, ice tea and bottled water. Customers, prospects and suspects love to eat and drink! But then again, don't we all?

And what if your promotional targets are chocolate lovers like many of us? You can try chocolate wrapped in foil, coins, sports balls, squares, gift sets, bars, truffles or custom molds.

And of course the more traditional magnetic business cards, notepads, calendars and even custom business cards. That's a lot to think about so where to begin?

Start with your sales and promotional cycle and see where your customer and prospect "touchpoints" or points of contact are. Your message's desired result may be a phone call, an appointment or an e-mail inquiry.

Use your self-promotional products to leverage or "convert" to the next step toward your desired promotional results.

With focus and attention to results, self promotional products can add power and zip into your promotional campaigns.

Thinking and Communicating with Pictures

2008-09-01T20:34:00.003+07:00

Dan Roam is an expert in helping people think and communicate with pictures. His theory is that anyone with a pen and a piece of paper (for example, a napkin) can explain even the most complex business ideas as well as communicate better with customers, vendors, and employees.

I caught up with him just after he published his new book, The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures.

1. Question: What problems are you really talking about solving with pictures?
Answer: All of them: business strategy challenges, project management issues, resource allocation problems--even personal problems--can all be clarified, if not outright solved, through the use of pictures. And the pictures we're talking about are simple ones. If you can draw a circle, a square, an arrow, and a smiley face, you can draw any of the problem-solving pictures I talk about.

2. Question: If all of us have innate visual talent, why don't we see more pictures in business?
Answer: Wall Street dictates that business is a numbers game, and things like P&L, OPEX, and market cap are the obvious numbers to measure. Given this view, the business world believes that people who succeed are analytically driven, and that repeatable, measurable, and quantitative, "left-brain" skills are what make a great business person.

Because it feeds the beast, this model becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy--but one that is only half right. By neglecting the importance and development of innovative, synthetic, and creative "right-brain" skills, businesses often fail to account for their own breakthrough people, ideas, and strengths and in turn misunderstand their own success.

Vision, unlike spoken language, is not localized on one side of the brain. Visual thinking demands, and takes advantage of, everyone's innate "whole brain" abilities. In board rooms and business schools everywhere, people instinctively know this, but since "looking, seeing, imagining, and showing" have never been measured or taught, few business leaders recognize their own skills.

3. Question: What's the hardest part in getting businesspeople to take "visual thinking" seriously?

Answer: There's nothing hard about convincing businesspeople of the power of pictures once they see it in action. The hard part is convincing them that they can do it themselves. Most people are uncertain about solving problems with pictures because they are uncertain about their own ability to draw. I spend much of my time convincing the skeptical that even if they draw like a kindergartner, that's good enough. In fact, when we were kindergartners (before we could read and write) we were already accomplished visual thinkers.

My point isn't to patronize or belittle our advanced educations; it's just to point out that we already knew how to do this--how to discover ideas and share them through pictures--long before we developed our sophisticated verbal skills. Visual thinking in all its forms--looking, seeing, imagining, and showing--is an innate skill that we all share. And it's a crime that so few people, and effectively none in business, have been encouraged to develop these skills beyond what we were born with.

4. Question: What is the neuroscience behind this?

Answer: Recent breakthroughs in vision science have indicated that there are multiple "vision pathways" along which the signals from our eyes travel into and through our brains. Each pathway keys off different visual cues in the environment--one pathway looking to identify the objects around us, another understanding where they are, another determining how many there are, another watching for changes over time, etc. This process takes place in parallel, breaking the entire visual world down into discrete elements that we initially process independently, and then only later "see" in our mind's eye as a whole.

What's fascinating is that if we reverse the process and create pictures in the same way--breaking down any problem and its corresponding picture into distinct "who," "what," "how much," "where," and "when" elements, we can convey the "how" and "why" to anyone in a way they will understand.

5. Question: Why are some problems hard to see and others not?

Answer: Complexity is always the challeng-- especially when many aspects of the problem are masked by others. If we see a cup with a hole in the bottom, we can quickly deduce the cause of the puddle on the floor. The only trouble with "obvious" solutions is that the world is complex, and complex things tend to be obvious only after someone else shows them to us. That the earth rotates around the sun is obvious to us now, but it took tens of thousands of years for people to see it.

The reason is because we can't see everything. Our eyes are always right on the verge of being overwhelmed with visual stimulus, so our minds spend a lot of time keeping stuff out. That's why we gravitate towards the simple. If we can "get" something quickly, then we can move on to something else.

But we need to be careful with "simple." A simple idea can be just as bad as a complex one. We do ourselves a lot of harm when we confuse "clarity" with "simplicity." By taking the time to look at a problem, really see what's going on, imagine what might not be visible, and then show our discovery to someone else, we will see more clearly what's going on, and won't be fooled by the first "obvious" explanation.

6. Question: What is an example of how a business problem was solved with a sketch?

Answer: The most famous business napkin is the route map of Southwest Airlines. When businessman Rollin King and lawyer Herb Kelleher sat down in 1967 in the St. Anthony's Club in San Antonio, their intent was to drink to the successful closing of King's previous airline. Instead, King picked up a pen and--drawing a triangle on a bar napkin as he spoke--said, "Wait a minute. What would happen if we created an airline that only connected Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio?" The world's most profitable airline was born.

My personal favorite is still a work in progress. I've spent time with the senior executives of Peet's Coffee and Teas helping map out the company's growth and business operating strategies. In number of coffee retail stores, Peets is second after Starbucks, but it is still orders of magnitude behind: one hundred and sixty stores to Starbuck's fifteen thousand. Clearly there is the opportunity for Peets to grow, but Peets has long been known as the "best" coffee available. So the question remains, How do you grow without giving in on quality?"

We're created a simple back of the napkin sketch that outlines Peet's approach to maintaining quality while growing, and it has been circulated around the company so that everybody gets it and sees exactly where they fit into the "quality chain."

7. Question: Why do you recommend that people throw away their PowerPoint presentations?

Answer: I'm not Edward Tufte: I don't say that using PowerPoint makes us retarded. What I do say is this: when it comes to PowerPoint--or Keynote or Open Office or Google Docs--don't throw away the software, but do throw away the mindset. PowerPoint is just a hammer, and in the same we don't blame the hammer if a building falls down, we shouldn't blame the software if our communications suck. When it comes to organizing and idea and structuring a storyline, PowerPoint is a fine tool as are mindmaps, Visio, and lots of other applications. But when it comes time to discover, develop, or share an idea, nothing is more powerful than a simple picture drawn live in front of--and ideally with the participation of-- our audience.

Aside from the cognitive and neurological science behind my statement, the fact is that when an audience sees an elaborate and polished presentation, they instinctively believe it is done and have a very hard time adding anything constructive to it. On the other hand, when they see the picture coming together in front of their eyes, regardless of how simple or ugly it may be, they emotionally respond and participate.

8. Question: Why do you recommend throwing the computers out of meeting rooms?

Answer: I love technology. I'm as much of a geek as you can find anywhere--in fact, as a hobby on weekends I use high-end 3D drawing programs to create super-detailed illustrations of spacecraft for the National Space Society. That said, we've gone completely overboard in relying on our computers in all aspects of our thinking and working processes, especially when the use of our machines actually inhibits our innate abilities.

I created every picture in my book with nothing but a Sharpie and a stack of blank paper. There is a time and a place for all the tools we have available to us, and a meeting of the minds is the last place we need a computer. Interacting with a keyboard and proscriptive software doesn't add anything to our ability to think, and in fact interferes with many of our baseline cognitive abilities especially when spontaneity, intuition, neurological connectivity, sharing, and instant communication are key.

9. Question: Aren't artistic people better at this than business people?

Answer: Some people are better at visual thinking than others just like some people are better singers, runners, or code-breakers. But that doesn't mean we don't all hum in the car, jog in the park, or play Suduko. For the average business person to neglect his or her innately remarkable visual skills simply because someone else might be even better is a terrible waste of ideas and ability.

I'm not saying visual thinking is the only way to think nor am I saying that it always the best way. What I am saying is that any problem can be made more clear through the use of a picture, and it is always worthwhile to sketch out a problem--if only for a minute--just to see what emerges.

10. Question: Why is it important for us to break down visual thinking into your process of "look, see, imagine, and show"?

Answer: Every time I walk into a business meeting, workshop, or seminar somebody always says, "I'm not visual; I can't draw." My response is that if that person is visual enough to walk into the room and find a place to sit down, they're visual enough to understand everything we are going to talk about and to find value in it. I've never been let down.

The importance of understanding the four steps of visual thinking--looking, seeing, imagining, and showing--is that it makes clear that drawing is only a tiny part of visual thinking, and it comes at thevery end of the process, not at the beginning. Visual thinking is like a game of poker: we look at our cards, we see the patterns, we imagine what our winning hand would look like, we show our winning hand, and we rake in all the money.

11. Question: How do you think visual thinking will transform business in the next decades?

Answer: We're just at the beginning of an enormous and inevitable trend that is going to take over business operations and communications and will have huge impact on the design of the tools we use for both. There are three mega-trends in the world of business: globalization, information overload, and staggering increases in complexity.

As globalized supply chains and emerging markets flatten the world, as information overload becomes the status quo, and as communication channels proliferate, the complexity of business problems is only going to increase. There's more data out there in more forms and languages than ever before, and there's a greater need for businesspeople to make good decisions quickly and communicate their thinking to others.

A recent issue of Fortune has an eye-opening article on Boeing's new 787 and how it is literally being built around the world. Here you have arguably the most sophisticated and complex machine ever created, and it is being assembled to tolerances of a millionth of an inch and fractions of a penny on thousands of assembly lines in dozens of countries by people speaking dozens of languages. All this is possible only because the whole thing--the plane, the processes, the project--is mapped out in countless pictures.

Becoming comfortable with and confident in our visual abilities--improving our ability to look at complex information, see important patterns emerge, imagine new possibilities, and clearly show those discoveries to others--is going to become our most valuable asset. Looking just a short time into the future, visual thinking will significantly alter how business gets done in three ways:

1. Help us make better decisions faster. Within the next few years we will see most business analytics delivered in immersive graphic formats that allow for simultaneous manipulation of individual numbers and visualization of complex interactions and outcomes. There are many companies out there now like Tableau and Business Objects building these tools, and even plain-Jane Excel has enormous potential given the graphics processing capabilities of even the most basic business personal computers.

2. Help us communicate our decisions and visions more effectively. As more businesspeople become more aware of the power of pictures as a communications tool, more tools will become available to help create meaningful charts, diagrams, timelines, maps, and flowcharts--both alone and as teams. The great issue here is to first understand what we want to show and what our audience is willing to see and only then boot-up the machines.

3. Help our teams execute those decisions more efficiently. Project managers have always known the power of a visual timeline to ensure everybody knows what they're supposed to be doing when. The problem is that the product manager was the only one who knew how to understand the chart they created--to the rest it looked like a wall of hieroglyphics. Several companies are now working on interactive, team-created timeline tools of infinite scalability. Such tools will allow for globally distributed groups to be in instant visual contact with their project and each other and to monitor whatever needs to be happening at the level of detail that matters most at that moment.

Five most important lessons I've learned as an entrepreneur

2008-09-01T20:23:00.000+07:00

This is my last posting for my friends at Sun Microsystems, and I'd like to leave you with something to remember me by: a list of the five most important lessons I've learned as an entrepreneur.

1. Focus on cash flow. I understand the difference between cash flow and profitability, and I'm not recommending that you strive for a lack of profitability. But cash is what keeps the doors open and pays the bills. Paper profits on an accrual accounting basis is of no more than secondary or tertiary importance for a startup. As my mother used to say, "Sales fixes everything."

2. Make a little progress every day. I used to believe in the big-bang theory of marketing: a fantastic launch that created such inertia that you flew to "infinity and beyond." No more. Now my theory is that you make a little bit of progress every day--whether that's making your product slightly better, increasing your skill in one small way, or closing one more customer. The reason the press writes about "overnight successes" is that they seldom happen--not because that's how all businesses work.

3. Try stuff. I also used to believe that it's better to be smart than lucky because if you're smart you can out-think the competition. I don't believe that anymore--this is not to say that you should strive for a high level of stupidity. My point is that luck is a big part of many successes, so (a) don't get too bummed out when you see a bozo succeed; and (b) luck favors the people who try stuff, not simply think and analyze. As the Chinese say, "One must wait for a long time before a Peking duck flies into your mouth."

4. Ignore schmexperts. Schmexperts are the totally bad combination of schmucks who are experts--or experts who are schmucks. When you first launch a product or service, they'll tell you it isn't necessary, can't really work, or faces too much competition. If you succeed, then they'll say they knew you would succeed. In other words, they don't know jack shiitake. If you believe, try it. If you don't believe, listen to the schmexperts and stay on the porch.

5. Never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn't do. This goes for customers ("fill out these twenty-five fields of personal information to get an account for our website") to employees ("fly coach to Mumbai, meet all day the day you arrive, and fly back that night"). If you follow this principle, you'll almost always have a good customer service reputation and happy employees.

I hold these truths to be self-evident and hope that you can use them to kick butt and change the world.

The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs

2008-09-01T20:05:00.000+07:00

(Since I've antagonized the venture capital community with last week's blog, I thought I would complete the picture and “out” entrepreneurs to begin this week. The hard part about writing this blog was narrowing down these lies to ten.)

I get pitched dozens of times every year, and every pitch contains at least three or four of these lies. I provide them not because I believe I can increase the level of honesty of entrepreneurs as much as to help entrepreneurs come up with new lies. At least new lies indicate a modicum of creativity!

“Our projections are conservative.” An entrepreneur's projections are never conservative. If they were, they would be $0. I have never seen an entrepreneur achieve even her most conservative projections. Generally, an entrepreneur has no idea what sales will be, so she guesses: “Too little will make my deal uninteresting; too big, and I'll look hallucinogenic.” The result is that everyone's projections are $50 million in year four. As a rule of thumb, when I see a projection, I add one year to delivery time and multiply by .1.
“(Big name research firm) says our market will be $50 billion in 2010.” Every entrepreneur has a few slides about how the market potential for his segment is tens of billions. It doesn't matter if the product is bar mitzah planning software or 802.11 chip sets. Venture capitalists don't believe this type of forecast because it's the fifth one of this magnitude that they've heard that day. Entrepreneurs would do themselves a favor by simply removing any reference to market size estimates from consulting firms.
“(Big name company) is going to sign our purchase order next week.” This is the “I heard I have to show traction at a conference” lie of entrepreneurs. The funny thing is that next week, the purchase order still isn't signed. Nor the week after. The decision maker gets laid off, the CEO gets fired, there's a natural disaster, whatever. The only way to play this card if AFTER the purchase order is signed because no investor whose money you'd want will fall for this one.
“Key employees are set to join us as soon as we get funded.” More often than not when a venture capitalist calls these key employees who are VPs are Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun, he gets the following response, “Who said that? I recall meeting him at a Churchill Club meeting, but I certainly didn't say I would leave my cush $250,000/year job at Adobe to join his startup.” If it's true that key employees are ready to rock and roll, have them call the venture capitalist after the meeting and testify to this effect.
“No one is doing what we're doing.” This is a bummer of a lie because there are only two logical conclusions. First, no one else is doing this because there is no market for it. Second, the entrepreneur is so clueless that he can't even use Google to figure out he has competition. Suffice it to say that the lack of a market and cluelessness is not conducive to securing an investment. As a rule of thumb, if you have a good idea, five companies are going the same thing. If you have a great idea, fifteen companies are doing the same thing.
“No one can do what we're doing.” If there's anything worse than the lack of a market and cluelessness, it's arrogance. No one else can do this until the first company does it, and ten others spring up in the next ninety days. Let's see, no one else ran a sub four-minute mile after Roger Bannister. (It took only a month before John Landy did). The world is a big place. There are lots of smart people in it. Entrepreneurs are kidding themselves if they think they have any kind of monopoly on knowledge. And, sure as I'm a Macintosh user, on the same day that an entrepreneur tells this lie, the venture capitalist will have met with another company that's doing the same thing.
“Hurry because several other venture capital firms are interested.” The good news: There are maybe one hundred entrepreneurs in the world who can make this claim. The bad news: The fact that you are reading a blog about venture capital means you're not one of them. As my mother used to say, “Never play Russian roulette with an Uzi.” For the absolute cream of the crop, there is competition for a deal, and an entrepreneur can scare other investors to make a decision. For the rest of us, don't think one can create a sense of scarcity when it's not true. Re-read the previous blog about the lies of venture capitalists, to learn how entrepreneurs are hearing “maybe” when venture capitalists are saying “no.”
“Oracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat.” Larry Ellison has his own jet. He can keep the San Jose Airport open for his late night landings. His boat is so big that it can barely get under the Golden Gate Bridge. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are flying on Southwest out of Oakland and stealing the free peanuts. There's a reason why Larry is where he is, and entrepreneurs are where they are, and it's not that he's big, dumb, and slow. Competing with Oracle, Microsoft, and other large companies is a very difficult task. Entrepreneurs who utter this lie look at best naive. You think it's bravado, but venture capitalists think it's stupidity.
“We have a proven management team.” Says who? Because the founder worked at Morgan Stanley for a summer? Or McKinsey for two years? Or he made sure that John Sculley's Macintosh could power on? Truly “proven” in a venture capitalist's eyes is founder of a company that returned billions to its investors. But if the entrepreneur were that proven, that he (a) probably wouldn't have to ask for money; (b) wouldn't be claiming that he's proven. (Do you think Wayne Gretzky went around saying, “I am a good hockey player”?) A better strategy is for the entrepreneur to state that (a) she has relevant industry experience; (b) she is going to do whatever it takes to succeed; (c) she is going to surround herself with directors and advisors who are proven; and (d) she'll step aside whenever it becomes necessary. This is good enough for a venture capitalist that believes in what the entrepreneur is doing.
“Patents make our product defensible.” The optimal number of times to use the P word in a presentation is one. Just once, say, “We have filed patents for what we are doing.” Done. The second time you say it, venture capitalists begin to suspect that you are depending too much on patents for defensibility. The third time you say it, you are holding a sign above your head that says, “I am clueless.” Sure, you should patent what you're doing--if for no other reason than to say it once in your presentation. But at the end of the patents are mostly good for impressing your parents. You won't have the time or money to sue anyone with a pocket deep enough to be worth suing.
“All we have to do is get 1% of the market.” (Here's a bonus since I still have battery power.) This lie is the flip side of “the market will be $50 billion.” There are two problems with this lie. First, no venture capitalist is interested in a company that is looking to get 1% or so of a market. Frankly, we want our companies to face the wrath of the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice. Second, it's also not that easy to get 1% of any market, so you look silly pretending that it is. Generally, it's much better for entrepreneurs to show a realistic appreciation of the difficulty of building a successful company.

The Virus of Low Motivation

2008-08-21T18:00:00.002+07:00

The other 'fuel' of self development process beside willingness is motivation. Beware, low motivation could impact on the stagnation of self development. Motivation itself is categorized into two types, internal and external. Internal motivation has more crucial function for self improvement.

One of the main indicators which could be seen from someone who has low (internal) motivation is that person usually does anything not seriously. Sometimes, they do not look sincere on what they have done. Even, they do not focus enough on what they do, as a result, they lack goal orientation. Almost all activities they do are not set into feasible target orientation.

a. Remember, it would be not fair for us if our efforts need extra resources just to collect a poor achievement. Imagine that we already lose by using our productive periods on unproductive works. Imagine on how much money already spent resulting in those bad results. Imagine how stressed we are. So, could you realize that our condition is actually a critical situation? It will need more intensive care and extra cost, wont it?
b. We could also come into our entrapment itself. It might happen when we have success and perhaps it is the best achievement in our environment. I call it a "Winning Syndrome". A kind of manner which might appear when someone feels overexcited and oversatisfied when he/she has been a winner, at the condition when he/she feels that he/she does not need to work hard to reach that.
c. The lazy behavior is one explicit form of low motivation. It could be built by one’s own personality and mindset, even might also as an accumulation of some visions which resulting in a conclusion that 'Not everybody, even most of us, does not get a good appreciation when we show our best performance.' So, based on this opinion, some people feel that they do not need to enforce themselves to show their best performance..

The Virus of Low Confidence

2008-08-21T18:00:00.001+07:00

Feeling confident is a very crucial factor to have a great acceleration and shorten period of self development process for each phase. The machine of self development needs enough and continuous supply of 'confidence oil' to make its engine run faster.

In my opinion, there are 3 major reasons why people have not enough confidence. Those Are:

Irrational Fear. One of the common confidence barriers is irrational fear,- being afraid to fail before trying.

Lack of Self-achievement Understanding. Some people act too hard for themselves so that they have no enough time to look at their own achievement, to understand it, and to appreciate it themselves.

Environmental Factor. To be confident, one needs some supporting factors such as supporting environment. For some people, they try to lock themselves from being initiative and more active. One of the factors is shyness.

After knowing and understand those reasons, what should we do then? Try to implement these:

a. See ‘mistake/error’ from more constructive side,- and based on these points; (1) By knowing and realizing our mistake/error faster, we have more opportunities to fix it faster and better. (2) human nature is relative and has a correlation with the change of time and self-development process.

b. Know yourself development process and its result at each stage,- After that, try to appreciate your own achievement, make some evaluation, improve, revaluate, improve, revaluate, and improve!

c. Create a fair environment set,- which allows everyone to have the same chance/opportunity to exist.

The Virus of Low Willingness

2008-08-21T17:59:00.000+07:00

The process of developing needs some actions. And some actions would not come true without any willingness to do so. And now, let me make it simpler. The machine of self development needs enough and continuous supply of 'willingness oil' to start their engine so that it can operate well.

To have a good supply for the system to deliver the oil of willingness, we must understand its overall distribution mechanism. After that, we can observe, take some tests and diagnose for some possible 'error tasking' which make it unable to run well. These are what we call some possible reasons which make people have low willingness. In my opinion, there are 3 major things which have to be controlled more seriously. Those Are:

The Historical Disappointment and Trauma Accumulation. Normally, every person has a lot of bad things happening in their life. Everyone always has some experience of feel disappointed. But not every person can control and manage it well, so that even for some people, feeling bad in a long period could be harmful and dangerous. Because, for some people, the memory of some bad experiences could construct a build of Trauma.

Low of Confidence. For some people, they try to lock themselves from being initiative and more active. One of the factors is shyness.

Avoiding Every Difficult Conditions which Entail " Hard Work". Do you remember a jargon which tells us "a problem couldn't be solved just by avoiding it" ?. Exactly, you're right, actually we have a very dynamic life. Problems always accompany us. So, we cannot just be static and try to escape from the process of finding solutions.

After all, by knowing and understanding those reasons, what should we do then? Try to implement these:

a. See ‘willingness’ from more constructive side,- and based on these points, (1) Try to do anything better,- do not just stay silent or complain the conditions. Make your life meaningful, that's what we call 'make our life to be attractive'. (2) By initiating, You have already got a big chance to be the first. REMEMBER: Be First, Be Best, and Be Different !

b. Every process starts from the 1st step,- read this: "Successful people actually feel the same boredom as the failures, BUT successful people do something boring and they succeed in passing it."

c. Never be afraid of failing, - because failing is a a very good lesson which can be very crucial to your self development process to be successful..

3 Simple Rules on Stock Investing Success

2008-08-19T22:47:00.001+07:00

by Marie Claire

When looking for good companies to invest in, following the crowd can sometimes work for a few weeks or possibly even months, but this is a good way to get burned. Listening to the "experts" does not equal research.
No matter how knowledgeable these people may sound, you can get just as good a prediction from a psychic by calling one of those 900 numbers. A stock market expert’s predictions are nothing more than a simple guess, and your guess is as good as theirs. With stockbrokers often rewarded for activity, not successful investments, it's critically important to make sure you believe that what you're doing is right. Chasing others' opinions may seem logical.

To avoid the crowd mind-set, he said simply follow these three most important lessons:

1. Buy stocks with a margin of safety.

2. A stock is part of a business.

3. The market is there to serve you, not instruct you.

The first lesson usually makes the headlines. It means that you should buy stocks for less than they're worth. Learn to leverage your own abilities and you can live the life you dream.

5 MINUTE LEADERSHIP COURSE

2008-08-19T22:41:00.001+07:00

by Marie Claire

Lesson 1

All the organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who was in charge.

"I should be in charge," said the brain, "Because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen."

"I should be in charge," said the blood, "Because I circulate oxygen all over, so without me you'd all waste away."

"I should be in charge," said the stomach, "Because I process food and give all of your energy."

"I should be in charge!" demanded the rectum, "Because I'm responsible for waste removal."

All the other body parts laughed at the rectum and insulted him, so in a huff, he shut down tight.

Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, and the blood was toxic. Eventually the other organs gave in and all agreed that the rectum should be the boss.

The Moral of the Story:

You don't have to be smart or important to be in charge... just an asshole!!

Lesson 2

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings.

The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs.

When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor.

Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you $800 to drop that towel.'

After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.

The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs.

When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?'

'It was Bob the next door neighbor,' she replies.

'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?'

Moral of the story:

If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 3

A priest offered a Nun a lift.

She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.

The priest early had an accident.

After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.

The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest apologized 'Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.'

Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, 'Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.'

Moral of the story:

If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Lesson 4

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.

They rub it and a Genie comes out.
The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.'
'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.'
Puff! She's gone.

'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.'

Puff! He's gone.

'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager.
The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch'

Moral of the story:

Always let your boss have the first say.

Lesson 5

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.
A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?' The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.'
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:

To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson 6

A turkey was chatting with a bull.

'I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree' sighed the turkey, 'but I haven't got the energy.' 'Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?' replied the bull. They're packed with nutrients.' The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:

Bull Sh*t might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson 7

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story:

(1) Not everyone who sh*ts on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of sh*t is your friend.
(3) And when you're in deep sh*t, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

Lesson 8

WHAT EMPLOYMENT ADS REALLY MEAN

"Competitive Salary" - We remain competitive by paying less than our competitors.

"Join Our Fast Paced Company" - We have no time to train you.

"Casual Work Atmosphere" - We don't pay enough to expect that you will dress up.

"Must be Deadline Oriented" - You will be six months behind schedule on your first day.

"Some Overtime Required" - Some time each night, some time each weekend.

"Duties will Vary" - Anyone in the office can boss you around.

"Must have an Eye for Detail" - We have no quality control.

"Seeking Candidates with a Wide Variety of Experience" - You will need to replace three people who just left.

"Problem Solving Skills a Must" - You are walking into a company in perpetual chaos. Haven't heard a word from anyone out there. Your first task is to find out what is going on.

"Requires Team Leadership Skills" - You will have the responsibilities of a manager without the pay or respect.

"Good Communication Skills" - Management communicates poorly, so you have to figure out what they want and do it.

Knowledge Management For Real People

2008-08-19T22:38:00.000+07:00

by Prof. Roger Schank & Dimitri Lyras

Knowledge Management (KM) means different things to different people.

Based on its experience and on the existing large body of knowledge management literature, the team decided that knowledge management software should provide virtual “places” where users can organize information, services, and tools to support their particular needs, while at the same time maintaining and updating information in a more general context.[1]

Or, in other words, Lotus thinks KM is the creation of a communal library. This notion of KM as the construction of a communal library is made clearer by a recent IBM publication touting something Satyam developed for the petroleum industry called Spandan, which is “a complete knowledge management (KM) portal built from several IBM Lotus and IBM WebSphere software products.”[2]

Spandan consolidates all the knowledge in the R&D organization into a central knowledge repository, organized in a taxonomy that makes sense to everyone," says Agrawal. "It captures lessons learned and best practices as they're created or refined. It enables users to quickly find both explicit knowledge, such as knowledge in documents, and tacit knowledge, such as knowledge in discussion threads or in an expert's mind through a single unified search. And it combines all these functions with collaboration features, such as instant messaging and teaming, that help people work together in context with knowledge.

Of course, there is a problem with communal libraries, ones that are created by the users of a system or the knowledge workers in a company. Not everyone wants to contribute to them. In fact, not everyone wants to even bother using them. Companies often have to resort to forcing people to use them and to contribute to them.

Satyam proudly announced its solution for this:

Satyam configured Spandan to automatically award knowledge-points, or "K-points," to scientists as they contributed to the system, and to tally and publish K-points for each scientist at the end of every quarter. Maybe more important, Satyam preloaded the system with knowledge and data that was most important to the scientists. "We populated the repository with the previous five years of project reports, technical data sheets, tour reports and all documents types they identified as the ones they consulted most," says Agrawal. "This made them start using it, and once they saw how useful it was to be able to find important information quickly, they were motivated to add more."

Their message is clear. If you make people use a collaborative library they will. (And otherwise they aren’t likely to.) Personally I haven’t been in a library, virtual or real, in twenty years. Guess I wasn’t offered enough K-points.

(Of course some people do contribute to communal encyclopedias like Wikipedia. But it is a really small proportion of the community does so.)

What is the real issue in KM? This is easy to answer.

Libraries are about your attempts to find information outside your normal activities. Well-indexed libraries make information easier (though often not easy) to find.

In life, the bulk of information finds you in the course of your every day activities, when you interact with other people in the enterprise, or when a colleague needs your help on a problem. Or, most importantly … when you are reminded of something you have already experienced. There are two points to be made here.

1. People do not usually seek information – it seeks them.
2. When people do seek information, their greatest source of information is themselves and they find what they need without actually having to try.

Any KM system that hopes to work in a real world where people act like people and not like members of a community where they have to play their part in order to get K-points needs to be built around the following principles:

1. Information finds the user by knowing what the user is doing and therefore knowing what information the user might need.
2. Users do not ever try to add information into the KMS. Their work is naturally part of the KMS and is added automatically.
3. The KMS knows what it knows and is getting smarter all the time.

For people who work in the real world, the key issues must find them in their natural environment without expect them to start searching for them.

It takes special circumstances to get people to contribute to the library. Here it is, again from the cited IBM article:

But like most expert communities, the oil company's R&D scientists were reluctant at first, and saw knowledge sharing as a potential threat. "The scientists were worried that contributing and sharing knowledge would lessen their importance in the organization," Agrawal says. "For example, if one scientist was the exclusive expert in a certain area, and a question in that area came from the Parliament or the Ministry of Petroleum, that person got his or her chance to shine and to feel important. Our challenge was to convince them that they became more important by contributing, rather than hoarding."

Scientists in any industry are not even remotely like people who work on real life everyday jobs. Scientists publish papers about original ideas and they worry that those ideas will be stolen. People with more normal jobs worry about doing their jobs properly and receive information and work within the bounds of e-mail and an enterprise software system. They do not expect to do research in a library like a scientist would. And, they may not even know when they need more information, while it might be very important for the enterprise if they did. These are very dissimilar worlds.

Any KMS for the normal world of work must understand and have a detailed model of the world in which that work is taking place. If the knowledge to be managed is shipping knowledge, then the KM system must know about shipping in detail so that it doesn’t even for a second think that a bridge procedure refers to a card game, and it cares about weather information if and only if a ship it cares about might encounter that weather. A KM for shipping needs to know about issues about particular ships, and ships like those ships, and what to do about similar issues when they happen in new circumstances. In short a KM for shipping must serve as a corporate memory that knows more than any one individual might know. It must track what is going on in daily events and relate what is going on at the moment to what has gone on in the past to see if it can help manage goal conflicts and hence manage risk.

In order to use such a KMS, the system must use indices that find knowledge that are intuitive. But, what is intuitive in one line of work is not intuitive in another. For shipping the system must speak shipping language and use shipping concepts to index shipping information. Any system that did not d o this would be about as useful as hiring a librarian who specialized in English literature to catalogue you companies knowledge.

In a KMS that uses roles and tasks to describe actions there is an implicit assumption that given an action, it is reasonable to expect another particular action to follow.

The organizational principles of a KMS for real life tasks must contain predictions and expectations about the normal flow of events in standard situations. Whenever an expectation derived from that structure fails, its failure must be marked. Problems must be stored with respect to the action sequence in which they took place. Real world corporate processes are not like science. These processes are predictable and understood. The question is not how to manage document flow but how to manage processes for opportunity and for risk. KM for industry is not KM for scientists.

The problem for KM in the corporate world therefore, is to make use of the organizing principles in a work situation and utilize them in a KMS that organizes the information in that domain. These organizing principles will certainly be about roles and tasks and the goals associated with them. The ways in which goals can be satisfied or blocked and the plans that are used to execute those goals must be the cornerstone of any KMS.

[1] The Lotus Knowledge Discovery System: Tools and experiences
W. Pohs G. Pinder C. Dougherty M. White, IBM SYSTEMS JOURNAL, VOL 40, NO 4, 2001

[2] Satyam’s IBM Lotus KM Solution helps petroleum company fight change with knowledge, (IBM publication on the web)

How people manage knowledge

2008-08-19T22:36:00.000+07:00

by Prof. Roger Schank & Dimitri Lyras

Human experts do not have static memories. They can change their internal classification systems when their conception of something changes, or when their needs for retrieval changes. People change their focus or their interests and the things they think about and remember change as well. For the most part, such changes are not conscious. People do not typically know the internal categorization scheme that they use. They can do this without even realizing they have done it. This is what a dynamic memory is all about – getting smarter over time without realizing it. The acquisition of new knowledge actually makes experts smarter, while it often just makes knowledge management (KM) systems slower.

People seem to be able to cope with new information with ease. We can readily find a place to store new information in our memories, although we don’t know where or what that location is. This is all handled unconsciously. We can also find old information, but again we don’t know where we found it and we can't really say what the look-up procedure might have been. Our memories change dynamically in the way they store information by abstracting significant generalizations from our experiences and storing the exceptions to those generalizations. As we have more experiences, we alter our generalizations and categorizations of information to meet our current needs and account for our new experiences.

Despite constant changes in organization, we continue to be able to call up relevant memories without consciously considering where we have stored them. People are not aware of their own internal categorization schemes -- they are just capable of using them.

The question for KM is how to make systems more like those of people. Human memories dynamically adjust to reflect new experiences. A dynamic memory is one that can change its own organization when new experiences demand it. A dynamic memory is by nature a learning system. No KM system learns. But they need to learn in order to actually work properly.

The underlying question is how knowledge is structured. People structure knowledge when they build any KM system by inventing a set of categories to put documents in.

But, what categories do people use inside their own heads?

People use knowledge structures, ways of organizing information into a coherent whole, in order to process what goes on around them. Knowledge structures help us make sense of the world around us. What knowledge structures does an expert have and how do they acquire them?

Understanding how knowledge structures are acquired helps us understand what kinds of entities they are. Learning depends upon knowledge and knowledge depends upon learning. I have discussed scripts many times over the years. A script is a simple knowledge structure that organizes knowledge we all know about event sequences in situations like restaurants, air travel, hotel check in, and so on. We know what to expect and interpret events in light of our expectations. But do we use this kind of structure to manage knowledge?

If something odd happens to us in a restaurant, how do we recall it later? Let me count the ways. We would recall it if we entered the same restaurant at another time or if we had the same waitress at a different restaurant, or if we ate with the same dinner companions (assuming we ate with them rarely.) It is clear that an incident in memory is indexed in many ways. One set of indices is the “people, props and places” that appeared in an incident and are associated specifically with that incident.

But there is more abstract indexing method that goes beyond the “people, props, and places” type of index. Those indices are about actions, results of actions, and lessons learned from actions. These indices matter greatly in a KM system. If they do not exist no one will learn anything from a description of an event that has lessons in it beyond those about the people and places of that event.

One set of abstractions about actions involves roles and tasks. Organizing information around role and tasks allows events to be easily accessed if one has an implicit understanding of the roles and tasks involved in a given situation.

Beyond using an organizational scheme involving roles and tasks, human experts can do something that is quite significant. They can abstract up a level to organize information around plans and goals. To put this another way, if the waitress dumped spaghetti on the head of someone who offended her, you should get reminded of that event by the 3 Ps and also if you should happen to witness this event in some other setting. But, far more importantly, you should get reminded of this event if you witness the SAME KIND OF EVENT another time. The question is what does it mean to be the same kind of event? Whatever this means, it would mean different things to different people. One person might see it as an instance of “female rage” and another as an instance of “justifiable retribution.” Another might see it as a kind of art.

The key issue is to learn from it. Any learning that takes place involves placing the new memory in a place in memory whereby it adds to and expands upon what is already in that place. So, it might tell us more about that waitress, or waitresses in general, or women in general, or about that restaurant and so on, depending upon what we previously believed to be true of all those things. New events modify existing beliefs by adding data to what we already know or by contradicting what we already know and forcing us to new conclusions. Either way, learning is more than simply adding new information. Since information helps us form a point of view, when we add new information it changes the information we already have.

The question is: how do we find the information we already have? This answer depends upon how it was indexed (or categorized) in the first place. Learning depends upon the initial categorization of what we know and may involve changing those categorizations in order to get smarter. A KM system that does not do this will never be very smart and will fail to absorb new information in significant ways.

What are the knowledge structures that human memory uses?
Higher level knowledge structures, about more complex issues than those dealt with by scripts, hinge upon the notion of abstraction and generalization. Scripts are specific sets of information associated with specific situations that frequently repeat themselves. Scripts are a source of information, naturally acquired by having undergone an experience many times, yielding the notion of a script as a very specific set of sequential facts about a very specific situation. Scripts allow one to organize low level sequential knowledge in a KM. Higher level, more abstract notions, enable learning because they allow sharing of knowledge across script boundaries.

Consider “fixing something.” Is this a script? Not really. There might be many scripts each dependent upon what you are fixing. But, if we treat each instance of fixing something as different from every other one, how will we get smarter as a result of having fixed something when we encounter something different that has to be fixed? It is reasonable to assume that people who fix things do get smarter about the process each time. They learn. The question is “how?”
In any knowledge-based understanding system, any given set of materials can be stored in either a script-organized or plan/goal- based form. If we choose to give up generalizability, then we can use a script based organization for a KM system. This is more efficient in the short term. Knowing a great deal about a discrete set of roles and tasks in a human organization is a good way to organize information within that organization.

But information organized by scripts never transcends the boundaries of those scripts. Any knowing system must be able to know a great deal about one script without losing the power to apply generalizations drawn from that knowledge to a different set of issues within the system.

A script, and any other memory structure, should be part of a dynamic memory, changeable as a result of incorporating new experiences. Any structure proposed for organizing information within a KM must be capable of self-modification. Such modification comes about as a result of new events differing in some way from the normative events that a script describes.

When new information is placed in a dynamically organized KM, if that information simply amplifies or clarifies the script to which it belongs, then it is simply added to it. On the other hand, when a new event modifies the script, its difference must be noted. And its difference must be applied to all structures to which it is relevant.

By utilizing general structures to encode what we know in memory, a system can learn. Given enough modifications from a script, an intelligent system would begin to create new general structures that account for those differences. That is, just because an episode is new once, it does not follow that it should be seen as forever new. Eventually we will recognize what was once novel as “old hat.” To do this, we must be constantly modifying our general structures, which, as we have said, is what we mean by a dynamic memory.

All this depends on detailed information, like scripts, that describe the processes in a situation. To put this another way, there cannot be, at least for quiet some time, generalized KM systems that work for every industry or every enterprise. The backbone of intelligence is knowledge of situations. You don’t ask a novice to captain a ship, nor do you ask a beginning salesman to call on your biggest account. An organization knows quite a bit about the processes involved in these situations. We can say what a ship captain does, not simply, but we can say it. And, we can say what a salesman does. Further we can say the experiences a company has had with selling into a particular company or with a particular client or with clients who are like a prospective client.

There is a lot of knowledge in an enterprise that can be used to organize new knowledge that is coming in. People understand new knowledge in terms of what they already know. A smart KM system must know a lot of about an industry and a particular enterprise before it starts up. This is hard but by no means impossible. And it is the future of software – namely software that really knows a great deal about your business.

Simply put, any business could use someone who knew all about every job, and every person doing that job and every experience the company had had in the past and what its goals and plans were at the moment and could use all that knowledge to know what to do with new information it has just received. That senior citizen of the company used to exist, and he can exist again. Only this time he will be a computer equipped with a very new kind of KM system one that is not about document retrieval but about delivering just in time advice to those who need it.

How Much Life Insurance Do I Need?

2008-08-19T22:33:00.000+07:00

Calculating the amount of life insurance you need is a lot like planning for your retirement. You need to figure out your financial goals, calculate how much income is necessary for those goals then figure out how much money you need to make that income happen.

Please note: this only applies to term insurance. Universal insurance (which I don’t recommend by the way) is an entirely different product. Term insurance is insurance where you pay a monthly or annual premium for an amount of insurance for a set amount of time which will be paid into your beneficiary if you die. For example someone might buy $250,000 of insurance which is valid for ten years. If they die within those ten years then the $250k will be paid to the beneficiary or the estate.

Calculate how much life insurance you need

I’ll use myself as the example on this calculation. My wife doesn’t work and we decided that our goal for life insurance was to get enough to ensure that she wouldn’t have to work again. This doesn’t mean retiring in luxury but making enough money to pay the bills and hopefully have a similar standard of living to what we have now.

Annual Living Expenses
First thing to do is figure out how much money is needed to maintain our current lifestyle. We kept track of our expenses for the first six months of this year and determined that our basic living expenses are about $32,000 per year. This does not include mortgage payments or any other debt payments since they will be paid off with the insurance. Since the plan is for my wife not to work and she won’t qualify for any government pensions for quite a few years we need enough insurance to be able to pay off our debts and then generate $32k net income per year which is about $35k gross assuming a portion will be coming from Canadian dividend stocks. I’m assuming that any of the $32k in expenses that are because of me, will be able to cover expenses for our one child. If you have more kids then you might want to increase the annual amount to compensate for this.

Required Portfolio Size for self-insurance

How much do you need to generate $35k per year? The normal figure for retirement planning is to use the 4% rule. I think for this purpose assuming that you can take 5% of a portfolio is safe enough that you won’t run out of money. So therefore $35k is 5% of $700,000. We need enough insurance to make sure that we end up with a portfolio of $700k and no debts. If my wife worked then I would subtract her income from the $35k amount.

Currently we already have a portfolio of $230k and our debts are about $200k.

Therefore: insurance needs = final portfolio amount + debt – current portfolio = $700k + $200k - $230k = $670,000. In fact I have about $750,000 of insurance which is too much.

Summary:

Calculate a gross income desired according to your financial goals. Use taxtips.ca for guidance regarding taxation amounts.
Use the following formula: insurance amount = (gross income desired – survivor income) / 0.05 + total debt – current portfolio.

A couple of points. I use the divisor of 0.05 but if you want to be more conservative then use 0.04 (4% rule).

I’m assuming in my example that the beneficiary is reasonably young and won’t collect any type of pension for a long time. If the survivor will be older ie 50+ then you might want to increase the divisor to 0.06 because they will be eligible for government pensions which will eventually reduce the amount of insurance income necessary.

When I talk about taking 4% rule or 5% rule this refers only to the amount of money withdrawn from the portfolio in the first year. Every year after that is the initial amount adjusted for inflation. Ie in the example above, the withdrawal in the first year is $37k. If inflation is 3% then the withdrawal in the second year is $37k + 3% = $38,110. In the third year you would take $38,110 = 3% = $39,250.

You’ll notice that two of the main factors in determining the amount of insurance needed are current debt and current portfolio value. Because of this there is no point in stressing out about the perfect amount of insurance to get because that ideal amount will change every year. This is why you don’t want to get too much insurance – more about that tomorrow. Generally speaking if your debt is going down and your investment portfolio is going up then your insurance needs are going down so if you buy too much insurance today, then in a few years you will have way too much insurance.

Another thing to avoid is to have too much insurance for too long. You might need $750k or even a million dollars according to your plan but you probably don’t need it for 20 or 30 years. Try to figure out how long you need this insurance for and buy accordingly. In my case I bought $500k for 10 years (plus $250k I already had from a group plan) and after that I might only need $250k for about another 5 years or so. Once I’m retired or close to it (hopefully in about 15 years) then I won’t need any insurance at all because our debts should be zero and our investment portfolio will provide all the necessary income.

Insurance Poor and Self-Insuring

2008-08-19T22:32:00.000+07:00

by Fours Pillars

I had a grandfather who would worry about the potential problems that might crop up in life, and bought extensive amounts of insurance to try to protect himself. He felt this was the prudent, safe way to navigate life. In part due to the extensive insurance coverage he purchased, he was never able to save very much money, had to work at an intensely physical job (he was the caretaker at a cemetery) well into his late 60’s (because he couldn’t afford to retire) and died from a heart-attack on the job.

Who says hard work never killed anyone? That’s why Mr. Cheap avoids work like the plague (and because of this has a pair of the softest hands around…).

An alternative approach to life may have been to purchase insurance to deal with catastrophes, save all of the other money that you may have spent to insure against minor emergencies, then dip into these savings if a minor emergency occurs. This is called self-insuring and it’s a very good idea.

A series of commercials out right now (in Toronto anyway) show an insurance agent going about their life when they’re approached by someone who enthusiastically starts asking them about all the things insurance protects them from, then starts brow-beating the reluctant agent to sell them some insurance. In real life (off the TV), insurance agents tend to be very hard-sell. People work hard to sell you things you don’t need. I rarely get the hard sell when I’m looking at bread and eggs in the grocery store.

Future Shop / Radio Shack / Best Buy type stores push their extended warranties hard. They do this because it’s a bad deal for consumers and is likely to be pure profit for the store.

Years ago a woman came to visit my parents and tried to convince them to buy life insurance on my father (who was the sole breadwinner at the time). My mom told the sales-woman that she’d completed teachers’ college and that her diploma was all the insurance she needed if something happened to my dad (she’d go back to work). The saleswoman didn’t have an answer to that and that was the end of that sales pitch.

Look over your insurance and see what you can live without. If your DVD player breaks, are you going to be in dire straits? No, then don’t get insurance. If your car breaks a headlight, can you afford to pay $75 to get it repaired? Yes, then raise your deductible. Are you a couple with two incomes, no kids and life insurance? Why would the surviving spouse need cash in case of death? Would the bulk of your wealth go up in flames if the family home burned down? Then maybe it’s a good idea to get insurance with a VERY high deductible to deal with that risk.

If your view of insurance is “wouldn’t it be nice to get a bit of cash if this happened?” then you aren’t purchasing insurance, you’re gambling. And much like casinos, the insurance company has a lot of very smart people working very hard to make sure they come out ahead of you. Sunlife and Manulife employ so many nice people (who will reluctantly sell to you if you beg them), maintain such large buildings and pay such a nice rising dividend because they take in more money then they pay out. An insurance company couldn’t operate if this wasn’t the case.

Top 10 Indonesia Richest Man

2008-08-10T20:54:00.000+07:00

According Globe Asia's Billionaire Club, the number of Indonesia's billionaires nearly double over the past one year, from 8 person to 15 person in 2008. Their total net worth was a staggering $37.5 billion, which was mean $16.5 billion higher in 2007.

You can see the 15 person Indonesia Richest Man here

1. Aburizal Bakrie (61 years old)
Assets : up to $9.2 billion
Company : Bakrie Group (Energy, Property,Telecommunication, Plantations)
One of his telecommunication company is Esia. This product so famous with cheapest price calling and one of the pioneer for cheapest price calling in Indonesia

2. Budi Hartono (67 years old)
Assets : up to 6.8 billion
Company : Djarum Group (Cigarettes, Banking, Property)
Djarum cigarettes is one of his popular product and one of popular cigarettes in Indonesia.

3. Eka Tjipta Widjaja (85 years old)
Assets : (up to $3.8 billion)
Company : Sinar Mas Group (Plantations, Pulp and Paper, Finance, Property, Forestry & Mining)
One of famous plantations in Indonesia PT. SMART, Tbk own by this man. The products such as Filma Olein and Kunci Mas Olein.
From pulp and paper, the popular product is Sinar Dunia Paper.
Eka Tjipta has retired from active involment in the Group and responsibility has been handed over to his four sons, Teguh Ganda Widjaja, Franky O Widjaja, Indra Widjaja and Muchtar Widjaja.

4. Sudosono Salim (93 years old)
Assets : up to $3.04 billion
Company : Salim Group (Food, Plantations, Telecommunications, Property)
His plantations company, PT. PP London Sumatra (Lonsum) is the second biggest plantation and CPO producer in Indonesia. The company is now managed by his son, Anthony.

5. Putera Sampoerna (60 years old)
Assets : up to $2.42 billion
Company : Sampoerna Capital (Telecommunications, Plantations, Investment)
Putera Sampoerna has sold his one of his company, PT. HM Sampoerna (cigarettes) to Philip Morris in 2005. Now he invest he try to focus to investment ofshore, including a casino in London and Insurance Company in Israel.

6. Rachman Halim (61 years old)
Assets : about $2 billion
Company : Gudang Garam (Cigarettes, Plantations)
Gudang Garam cigarettes is one of the famous product in Indonesia. This company is the second biggest cigarettes maker.

7. Sukanto Tanoto (58 years old)
Assets : up to $1.43 billion
Company : Raja Garuda Mas (Pulp and Paper, Plantations, Investment)
This group company a privately held holding company based in Singapore.

8. Eddy William Katuari (57 years old)
Assets : up to 1.21 billion
Company : Wings Group (Consumer Goods)
Wings Group is the second biggest consumer goods producer in Indonesia, making soaps, detergents and noodles.

9. Prajogo Pangestu (57 years old)
Assets : up to $1.2 billion
Company : Barito Pacific (Timber, Petrochemical, Mining)
Last year, according Globe Asia, Pajogo Pangestu was listed as a king of Plywood Industry.

10. Murdaya Poo (67 years old)
Assets : up to $1.1 billion
Company : Berca Group (Property, Manufacturing, Power Plant, IT)

How to achieve prosperity

2008-08-10T20:26:00.002+07:00

Money is the most important when it comes to financial matter. All of us need money to live in this world, not unless you live in a forest with no civilized people around you. Now since money is very important to us, it is just right to study and learn on how to handle money. Money is everywhere but the problem is we do not know how to manage and get it. There are many books and online resources on how to create money and how to manage it. Investing and doing business are ways to manage money. Savings and budgeting are also money management.

Some people are not aware that using credit cards out of spending is the best way to stay in debts. But using credit cards has also some big advantage like applying for loans and other emergency expenses. Managing money includes insurances and pension for retirement. How would you retire comfortably will depend on how much you invest and save money today. Many people have better and big take home salary but when it comes to saving and investing they have small or worst none. Like for example before you could have a business and investment, you must first save money and plan on what to do with it in order to generate more income. Even if you have small monthly salary you could still save by setting aside 10% of your take home salary. Your 10% should be invested in a business or anything that will generate more than 10% or better 20% if you can. After a few years while adding 10% each month, you will be surprised that your salary will not matter anymore because you have a better business or investment income.

After you established your business, it is now time to resign to your regular job and concentrate on expanding your business but don not forget to expand your knowledge in business and investment. There are many new things and ideas that will come and your old system might not work anymore so better to stay abreast on new things to look for new opportunities that abound.

Leveraging your time and man powers to your advantage will help you become rich. Study about leveraging if you master the value and used of accounting and investing. Accounting is very important in order for you to trace and get in touch with money. Here you will know about your assets and liabilities to know your present value. Investing is the next thing in order for you to earn more money. There are many kinds of investing like real estate properties, merchandising, stock market related business and maybe you could create your own business and brand it. Branding is very important in business in order for potential costumers to buy your products.

Use your credit cards wisely and don’t forget your insurance and mortgages by visiting websites that has it all and you could even ask for free quotations. The best way to learn it in your own convenience is to subscribe in it for a newsletter using RSS. Health and wealth are easy to achieve if you are serious and interested to gain them.

Networking With The Media: Give If You Want To Receive

2008-08-06T20:10:00.001+07:00

I just returned from a wonderful week at two powerful net marketing conferences.

One of the key functions that happen at these type of conferences is networking. In fact, unlike most industries where people use networking time as an excuse to catch a quick nap, savvy nap needers skip out of the sessions instead of skipping the networking time.

And once again, I learned the key rule of networking - give if you want to receive.

It was very plain to see who subscribed to which networking philosophy at this conference.

There were the "may I have your business card" people - who's conversations never lasted more than 3 minutes before exchanging business cards and they're off to the next victim. Those people are forgotten as quickly as the conversations ended.

There there were the "I want something from you so I'll just be blunt and straight out ask you for it" people. Their level of success was equally as dismal, as I'm not doing business with someone I don't trust, even if their offer is pure gold. (Though I must admit, sometimes I fall into this trap myself.)

Then there were the people who engaged in substantive conversation about your business and life and theirs, creating a relationship upon which future transactions can be based. These people enjoyed pretty good success.

Then there were the platinum players - those who walk around giving freely of their knowledge and ideas, not looking for return.

I experienced both sides of this powerful method several times during the week. Here's a couple of examples:

First was a conversation I had with copywriter Michel Fortin. We started talking about the sales letter for one of my products, and the conversation quickly turned into a critique/brainstorming session on how to improve its response. In about 10 minutes he came up with 10 ideas that will definitely kick that site to a much higher level of sales and profitability.

I didn't pay him for the work, nor did he ask for compensation. Plus a few days later he went out of his way to introduce me to someone else which will hopefully result in another business partnership.

I can guarantee you that Michel is now on my short list for copywriters next time a project comes up. He gave, and someday, he will receive. Here's a link to his site, use it if you're looking for a copywriter who generates results.

The other conversation of note was with the lovely Leslie Karsner of goromance.com/

Leslie specializes in helping people improve the level of romance in their relationships. She's bright, innovative and fun to be with, and she offers some great products that I recommend to those trying to inject some more romance into their relationship.

I commented to Leslie that I had some thoughts about her business, and that we should get together and talk. She took me up on it at lunch. In about 15 minutes, we went wild on her business, exploring strategic alternatives, bridging her current offerings into totally new markets, and even renamed one of her books.

It was one of those exhilarating conversations where everything just flows. Of course, most of these ideas weren't new to her, but they helped to confirm thoughts she was already having.

Will I ever hear from Leslie again? Absolutely.

Will that relationship put money in my pocket? Probably not directly.

However, and this is key: I'm convinced that God keeps a balance scale that measures what we give versus what we get in life.

And that scale is always tipped in our favor.

In other words, any time we give, God rewards us with greater blessings than those we gave away.

It's just one of those laws of the Universe. If you want to receive, then give.

That's why tithing, service, and loving work.

And it's also the way that networking is supposed to work.

Now, of course, wisdom is a good thing, and the banker is happier if we give him our mortgage payment every month rather than saying that we spent the month just giving everything away for free.

One place this works especially well is with the Media. So many of us mistakenly believe that the media should only be bothered when we want coverage. Consequently, we're always asking to receive without giving.

But journalists need information too. And what better way to generate a relationship with journalists than to give them stuff.

What can you give to journalists?

- Story ideas: call them and let them know of a hot story that you couldn't possibly contribute to, but wanted to pass along the idea.

- Leads: steer them to people who are more qualified than you to answer a question. And even if you are qualified, give them additional resources too.

- Pre-written content: give them pre-written stories (tip sheets, quizzes, articles, etc. - *not* press releases) so that they can simply lift your work and file it without having to do any work. (for more hints on this powerful strategy, which is a fantastic way to generate ink, see our reports:

How to Write Tip Sheets That Catch the Media's Attention

Briefs, Fillers and Quizzes: The Shortest, Easiest Articles You'll Ever Write

and
How to Write How-to Articles that Position You as an Expert

One other point - when we say give, we don't mean giving stuff, food, or even tickets to games. That is seen in most media circles as a violation of ethics standards. Give them something really valuable - something that will help them to better complete their job, get promoted faster, and remember you in the future when they have even more power.

Want more information on how to network effectively? Check out our report How To Reach Your Business and Career Goals Through Professional Networking

Good networking!

The Top Seven Strategies

2008-08-06T20:09:00.000+07:00

Whether you’re concerned with business-to-business, or business to consumer, whether your organization is large or small, commercial or nonprofit, these are some fundamental questions around your Website and technology strategy that should be addressed.

Otherwise, you risk missing opportunities, and not maximizing the return on your investment in your online presence.

If you haven’t visited your own Website for a while, look at it again in light of these questions:

1. Does your Website present an appropriate image of your company?
Marketers talk a lot about branding, and consistency of message. Does your company site reflect how you’d like your customers to feel about your business? Is it sophisticated, and professional looking? Does it speak directly to visitors in language that they’ll understand, and in ways that relate to their issues and needs?

Image is also about public relations. Publicity is a powerful marketing tool, and reporters are increasingly looking for stories and information online. Does your Website offer a media center? Does it offer comment on current events in your industry? Do you face up to the bad news, and spin it to your advantage?

2. Does your Website suggest potential for new or currently untapped markets?
In almost all the sites that I’ve consulted for, we’ve identified markets or audiences beyond the “real-world” customer base of the business.

This may be because the site extends the geographic reach of your marketing. If you have good content on your site, it may also be because visitors looking for your subject area find you in search engines, and come to read your articles and white papers.

Either way, if you find many “non-traditional” visitors to your site, you should assess whether they constitute a possible new market area for your business.

3. Does your Website suggest potential for new products or services?
A clear understanding of your visitor needs may also encourage you to consider new products or services. On the Web, bundling expertise into downloadable, for-sale content provides valuable new revenue streams for many businesses and non-profits.

You can find great clues for development ideas by tracking the keywords entered into your own site search engine. These show what visitors expect to find on your site – and therefore what they expect your company to offer.

4. Does your Website provide continuing added value for existing customers?
Most site owners focus on acquiring new customers, and fail to maximize the opportunities to support and service existing ones.

These include password-protected areas where your clients can follow the progress of their projects, share documents with you, etc. Personalization and pre-populated forms (i.e. which are automatically filled in with the customer’s details) help to create a feeling of value, and save time for your visitors.

Check the average response time for a contact from your Website. One of the top complaints about major company sites is that e-mails are not answered in a timely (hopefully 24 hours or less) manner.

5. Does your Website support your internal operations and employee needs?
This question relates to whether you’re making the best use of all available technologies, and integrating them with your online operations.

Example applications to consider include:

Instant messaging, fast becoming a serious business tool

Knowledge bases – continually updated databases that can provide automated customer support on a 24/7 basis

Streaming media, perhaps for just-in-time training or on-the-spot manuals for your operatives

Intranets and extranets, which are really just fancy names for password-protected employee and client areas

6. Does your Website integrate fully with your “real- world” activities and processes?
One of the most frustrating visitor experiences is to complete a form, an application, or to submit a search on your Website, only to receive an error message.

Customers want the security of an e-mailed purchase confirmation. They want to know that they’ll be taken off your mailing list quickly and without the need for multiple requests.

With the complexity of technology and programs today, sometimes a change to a seemingly unrelated system can wreak havoc. Do you regularly check all the input forms and processes on your site to ensure that no unexpected gremlins have crept in?

7. Does your Website provide you with a justifiable return on investment?
This is probably the most important question of the seven, and possibly also the most difficult.

That’s because the answer depends on a clear understanding of the goals of your site, both in direct financial terms, and in other less tangible benefits, such as name recognition.

The keys to evaluating ROI, to improving your site, and often to further business development ideas can be found in your traffic reports. These show what visitors are looking for, how long they spend on the site, where they go, where they leave, and what rate of response you get to the various calls to action.

These reports can be daunting – a mass of figures, graphs and URL’s. But I’d strongly suggest that someone in your organization should understand them. Otherwise, you’re shooting in the dark with your Web investment.

© Philippa Gamse. All rights reserved.
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Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant and professional speaker.

8 strategies of Wise Negotiators

2008-08-05T20:25:00.000+07:00

LET’S look at the most profound yet subtle strategies for wise negotiating…as practised at the top.

PICK YOUR BATTLES CAREFULLY

CEOs who sell and negotiate successfully know that sometimes even the most valiant fight may not be worth the potential loss it entails. They know it’s up to them to assign value to the campaign they decide to take on or decline — not outside forces like sales vice-presidents or prospective customers. In other words, good CEOs are more likely to ‘walk’ when they sense there will be no alternative to a bad deal. They don’t negotiate a deal just to say they’ve negotiated something.

LEAVE NO LOOSE ENDS

Once they take on a negotiating project — or any project, for that matter, — CEOs ensure everything on the ‘hot list’
gets taken care of. They can’t afford to leave any loose ends at a negotiating session, and they commit to following through on all their commitments. You’ll want to do the same.

KNOW WHEN TO ASK, NOT JUST WHAT TO ASK FOR

Successful CEOs know that you can’t reap what you don’t sow. Their actions always seem to be in accordance with the ‘ebb and flow’. They get involved early in important deals, they know when to wait, and they know when to push. This trait comes in handy at negotiating sessions.

DON’T TAKE SHORTCUTS

CEOs have certain values that they just won’t compromise. That’s not to say they are stubborn, but they do know how, when and where to draw a boundary. Ill-advised departures from guiding principles can carry huge costs, the most important of which are non-monetary: lower self-worth, lower esteem, damaged reputation and damaged self-image, to name just a few.

TURN ENVY INTO ENERGY

Successful CEOs are happy with what they have and who they are. That doesn’t mean that they don’t want to grow and prosper. They just know the importance of being happy with what is taking place in here and now. That may not seem like a trait for successful negotiations, but it is. Envy saps energy and poisons relationships; admiration of another’s positive traits and accomplishments is a supreme compliment that helps you focus on what you need to improve in your life, your business, your relationships, your finances — and your negotiating posture.

AVOID OTHER PERSON’S PROBLEM(S)

This is a great (and simple) ‘negotiating tactic’ that many CEOs mention. This tactic is all about not inheriting someone’s unresolved problem as your own. If one had a dollar for every time one heard “We don’t have that amount of money in our budget,” or “We don’t have a budget,” or “Your price is too high,” or “I don’t have the authority,” or “We can’t move forward right now,” or “We need this by no later than next Monday,” one would be a millionaire. Look at all these typical responses again, and one will see that each is an attempt to put the buyer’s issues onto the seller’s list of problems.

Instead of fighting the problem, putting it off until ‘later on’ in the negotiations or throwing a new one into the mix, what would happen if one approached the problem from the standpoint of finding a solution — of acting as a consultant with the responsibility of finding an outcome that makes both sides happy?

DO CEOS SWAGGER?

To think, sell and negotiate like a CEO, you must understand that more than anyone in an organisation, the CEO has the ultimate walk-away power. The power to walk away is the most profound negotiating tactic that a CEO will use. He/she basically says “I am totally willing to pass on this opportunity.” There is a big difference in that thinking Vs “I am going to get the price as low as I can before I buy.” Walk-away power takes the opportunity past the point of no return. The winning party will convince the other party that they can and will walk away from the relationship (buy or sell). Keep in mind that the goal here is not to actually ‘walk’; the goal is to get the other party to do whatever the ‘walking’ party wants them to do.

ASK FOR THE STARS

Asking for more than is expected (moving beyond expectations) is a great trait of CEOs. You’ll be able to see this one coming if you’re a salesperson because you’re already conditioned to the “do whatever it takes to get the sale” mentality. CEOs know this, too. Therefore, be prepared, and you may even want to use this yourself when you’re on the ‘seller’s’ side of the table. By doing so, you’ll be modelling an important CEO negotiating trait.

Success - Tips for Entrepreneurs

2008-08-05T20:23:00.000+07:00

1. Understand that you as an Entrepreneur is responsible for everything that happens in your business. You cannot delegate that responsibility.

2. The attitude of the Entrepreneur is reflected in the employees working in the business. If you don't like the attitude you see in your employees – look in the mirror.

3. Personal growth and business growth are not the same but they are closely related. When you stop growing as a person you stop growing your business.

4. Know that you don't know everything. It is not possible. When you come to that realization, investing in trusted advisors makes so much sense and it becomes an easy decision.

5. Life is short. Enjoy what you do and others will see that and be attracted to you. It is fun to work with and be around someone who is positive and excited about what they do. If you don't like what you do, find something else to do.

6. Give others credit for their contribution to your success. Everyone loves to be a part of something bigger than them selves and to be recognized for their contribution to the overall success of the organization.

7. Know that your success is tied directly to how well you motivate, manage, inspire, sell and encourage people. Your success, especially as you grow your business comes through the performance of others.

8. If you can't measure it how do you know it works? Measure everything.

9. You must understand how the business you are creating will help you create the life you want. There can be no misunderstanding. True success lies in creating a business that is consistent with and supports the life you want to create.

10. Develop a passion for your work and have fun!

Improving Customer Loyalty

2008-08-05T20:18:00.001+07:00

With the holiday's fast approaching, online retailers have a greater opportunity than ever to generate sales and improve customer loyalty among site visitors and purchasers. In today's post, you'll learn how to build loyalty among your consumers, and as a result, increase the lifetime customer value of everyone you do business with. In the following article, Omaro Ailoch provides some great advice on improving customer loyalty...

Online shopping has quickly outstretched traditional shopping for popularity and overall spend. One of the big advantages that consumers gain online is the ability to comparison shop across multiple vendors (in different areas) for the best deal. However, for the e-store owner or service provider, this can make it difficult to survive without offering the lowest prices and the greatest deals. Decreasing prices has an obvious effect on your revenue and profit so it is vital that you aim for the right target market and attempt to build customer loyalty.

Customer loyalty means repeat business and repeat customers offer the lowest marketing spend requirements. As such, improving customer loyalty can vastly reduce your spend and increase your ROI. Many of the methods of retaining customers for your website are developed from tried and trusted methods used by large organizations and businesses offline.

Know Your Target Markets

By really getting to know and understand your target markets you will have a much greater understanding what it is that they're after. By learning this kind of information you will be better placed to send out relevant after-sales communication and entice your buyers to buy more.

Know Your Competitors

Knowing what your competitors are selling and for how much will help you determine the best prices for your own products. If you have a good customer retention rate it is often possible to increase the amount you pay for a new customer or reduce your prices without affecting your overall profit too much.

Customer Service

Perhaps the first aspect that many of us consider when looking at customer retention rates is customer service. You must supply a high level of customer service. If you go the extra mile for your customer, they will go the extra mile to come back to your site. Being polite in all communications is only a very small part of good customer service. Everything from your website content to complaint responses need to be well thought out and geared towards retaining customers.

Branding

The more synonymous your website becomes with the products or services you sell, the more likely that people will return to your site. Make sure that all of your web pages, emails, newsletters, invoices, and other forms of communication include your web address at the very least. Make it memorable and don't chop and change designs and logos unless a re-branding is deemed absolutely necessary.

After-Sales Communication

There is an art to after sales communication, and it is an art that you need to learn to master. So, your website operates online, but that doesn't mean that the whole of your business has to. If you sell digital products that are downloaded then ensure that emails and all online communication includes your branding. If you sell physical products, then your paper invoices, and everything down to your packing labels should also be branded.

Get Your Visitors Involved

Involving your site visitors will help to bring them back to your site time and time again. Web 2.0 applications provide a plethora of ways to involve site visitors. Blogs, forums, and any interactive tool will help to make your site bookmarkable. Even for visitors that don't take action while on your site, you will attract them back more frequently, and the more exposure a visitor has to your website, the more likely they become to make a purchase.

Why Customer Loyalty Is Important To Your Business Website

Return visitors or return customers are one of your greatest assets. You've already done a lot of the hard work with your preliminary marketing campaigns. Ensure that everything from your website to your email newsletter to your packing slips are effectively branded with your website details and always uphold the highest level of customer service and communication. If you can get your site visitors more involved in your site then you stand to profit even more from customer loyalty.

About the Author: Omaro Ailoch is a senior software engineer, an entrepreneur and the founder of OC IT Services a highly skilled California based web development, design, and search engine optimization firm.

Should You Be Doing More Direct Marketing?

2008-08-05T20:10:00.000+07:00

Maybe you've heard that marketing spend related to direct mail continues to increase year over year. This isn't just the result of increasing postal costs. In fact, marketers continue to increase spend online and off. Much of this growth in use has been driven by the increasingly important role of the internet in direct marketing.

How to determine if direct marketing is right for your business.
Direct marketing can be an strong lead/revenue driver for your business if implemented as part of an integrated marketing campaign. As with any traditional marketing vehicle, you'll have to consider the four basic pillars of marketing:

1. Message. Develop a message that is unique, grabs attention, and is aligned with your overall goals and objectives. Having the right message is essential for both online marketing and off line marketing but especially important in direct mail. Just like an email message, your first order of business will be to get your prospect to "open the mail."

2. Audience. Are you targeting the right audience? For example, generation X and Y loves to get mail. If your prospects are within this group, you'll have an easier time of reaching them through the mailbox. Additionally, consider who the ideal segment is for your message, product or service. Don't spend your time targeting people who are not interested in what you have to offer.

3. Offer. What's your offer? Why should I open your piece of mail or buy from you? Carefully think about the offer you're providing to your would be customer. Strong offers produce strong results. Make your offer clear and time bound. Offers that expire drive more activity than those with no end date. Your offer should drive people online for quick purchase or ask them to call an 800# for this special offer.

4. Timing. When are your prospects most likely to buy? Perhaps your product is seasonal or maybe it would make a great gift around the holidays. Time your promotion around the buying cycle not your own agenda. Doing so can have a positive impact on conversion rates and result in significant improvements to your overall marketing effectiveness.

If you're considering direct mail, start small and do your homework. Determine your target market, acquire a list, put together a compelling offer and send. Be sure to measure your results. Once you have, try to improve conversion rates with each successive mailing. When trying to improve upon results, test one element at a time (ex: offer). Changing too many variables will not give you the information you need to improve your campaigns going forward.

Improve your marketing: three ideas

2008-08-05T20:07:00.000+07:00

Marketing your products and services is an ongoing job.

It never ends. Marketing is an continuing process that should become part of your daily business activities.

No one can simply get up in the morning and say, "I'm going to do some marketing today", as if that will bring clients and customers to their door.

One way to market your business is to provide superior service. Over the long term, strong customer service will keep your existing customers happy. It will also add many more new ones.

A strong track record for going that extra mile for your customers will attract new business like a magnet. In effect, you are saying. "Try us and we'll provide service that no one else will!"

A second idea is to "customize" your products and services to fit your individual customer's needs. You may be offering much the same items and services that your competitors do, but you can make yours as specific to the customer as possible.

Phone or visit your existing customers, and ask them about your products. Find out what they like about them. Ask what they don't like, and how they would like them changed and improved. Perhaps they may have suggestions that would make your product or service more convenient or easier to use.

Put this do it yourself market research to work by redesigning your products, adding new ones to your sales list, and dropping items that no longer are uselful to your customers. You will not only find happier customers, but more of them!

A third concept is to build strong customer relationships. Develop a personal bond with your customers. Make them feel they are part of your business family. Emphasise their importance to your company, and how you are there to help them in their lives. Treat every customer and client as important and they will reward you with their loyalty and referrals.

By employing these simple but ongoing ideas, your business can grow without spending a lot of money. In place of cash, you are sharing yourself and helping your customers meet their personal needs.

That's the best marketing system of all.

The Power of Partnering

2008-07-31T23:36:00.003+07:00

by Kelley Robertson
Author, Professional Speaker & Trainer
Robertson Training Group

“Get the sale at any cost.”
“Make more calls.”
“Tell them what they want to hear.”

Sales professionals in virtually every industry are under tremendous pressure to close sales. It is not uncommon for them to hear comments similar to ones above from their sales manager, supervisor, or boss. But this approach does not create trust with customers and does not encourage repeat business or a lasting relationship.

A more effective approach is to develop a partnering relationship with your clients. This means working with them to help them achieve their goals and objectives. Simple in theory, this strategy requires a completely different approach. Here’s what I mean.

In the majority of sales meetings, the sales person looks for ways to position his or her product/service so that the prospect will buy it. However, a partnering approach means putting your goals and objective aside. It means focusing 100% of your attention on your customer. It requires a self-less mindset because there are situations when the best solution is not yours.

In fact, it may mean telling your customer to contact a competitor. I experienced this just a few days before writing this article. A subscriber to my e-zine contacted me about delivering a particular service. Although I may have been able to help her, I knew someone who could better meet her requirements. It was mentally difficult, but I made the decision to refer her to my competition.

Partnering also means that you provide exceptional follow-up to ensure that your customer is completely satisfied with their purchase. This does not mean you make just the obligatory follow-up call. It means you explore their actual use of your product and/or service and help them maximize its full potential.

A client of mine was experiencing less than favorable results after implementing a new program into their business. We scheduled a follow-up meeting with the management team, because as the vendor, I knew that the answers lay in the execution of the program. During the meeting we explored several ways to improve their results and one of the solutions required me to provide additional follow-up.

Although I could have charged this client for my time, I knew that it made good business sense to absorb the cost of this follow-up because my primary objective was to help my client achieve the best results possible. Subsequent meetings indicated that this investment was worth it as my client began discussing how we could take this initiative to the next level.

The challenge with this concept is that most sales people want some form of instant gratification. But this approach does not offer a direct or immediate payoff for the sales person. However, from a business perspective, it makes good sense.

It is also important to note that you don’t necessarily have to give away this additional service. A few sales trainers I know (including myself) incorporate telephone coaching into their proposals. They charge for this service but they position it as a way for the company to improve their results. They demonstrate how this additional investment will drive more dollars to their clients’ bottom line. Ultimately, your goal should be helping your customers and clients improve their business results. Here are a few points to consider.

Focus on their goals and objective instead of your personal agenda (closing the sale). If necessary, recommend another supplier or vendor who offers the exact product/service your client needs.

Follow-up. Contact your customer and talk to them after they have made their purchase. Ask them if they are getting the desired results. If they aren’t, look for ways to help them maximize their results. Offer additional support. Give them extra resources. Help them get the best results possible.

Incorporate a systemized process into your sales pitch or proposals. People will pay for extras providing they see that value that is brought to their organization. Send information to your customers on a regular basis without being asked. I like to send articles that are relevant to my clients on a regular basis. This demonstrates that I am looking out for their interests, rather than my own. I prefer to send articles written by other people, not just the ones I write.

Zig Ziglar once stated, “You can get anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.” When you help your customers achieve their goals and objectives you become more than a supplier or vendor. You become a preferred partner. And this will prevent your competition from overtaking you in the marketplace.

Create a checklist of the additional services you can offer to your clients to help them achieve their goals. Helping your customers reach their objectives will help you increase your profits.

One word of caution…this is a process, not a quick fix. This strategy does take time to generate a return. However, it is well worth the investment.

Copyright: Kelley Robertson

6 Effective Ways to Generate PR for You and Your Business

2008-07-31T23:30:00.001+07:00

Are you interested in successfully growing your business while not breaking the bank? Public relations is exposure that you get for your company, product or service that you do not pay for. The best ways to get the most bang out of your PR strategy is to:

*Appearing as a guest on tv or radio
OR
*Being featured in a newspaper or magazine

The only costs that you encounter when using PR is the ones that result from using a firm (please check out our 2 Part Series 'How to Choose the Right PR Firm for You' for some top tips on how to pick an effective firm to fit your needs). But if you choose the most skilled and experienced firm, or just decide to do the work with your own team , PR can help you meet your targets without costing you lots of money.

Now here ae 6 effective ways as to how you can begin to immediately generate valuable PR for your business, products or services!

1. What About a Book? Writing books is not just for Donald Trump and Steven King anymore! If you are an expert business and write a book you will be able to use it as a vehicle with the media . " If you write a book you will have a fantastic vehicle and calling card ", says Marsha Friedman. " A book gives you instant credibility as an expert in your field: to your customers , prospective customers and amongst your industry peers. Most importantly, it opens the door for you to the media."

If you watch TV, listen to the radio or read newspapers and magazines, then you are being exposed to numerous authors who have used this PR trick to their advantage!

2. Position Yourself as an Experts. TV, Radio and Print are all mediums that are hungry for news worthy content. Obviously, this is why people stay interested in listening, watching and reading. Marsha Friedman says, "The media is constantly following the media. " Want to use the media? W

ell then start paying attention to it. Friedman adds, " Stay abreast with all of the latest news by watching TV news, talk radio and reading your local or national newspapers. Search for issues or news stories that tie in with your business or message." By doing this you will be ahead of the pack when it comes to your successes with the media.

3. Appear as a Guest on Radio. " A great public relations vehicle for your company is to be interviewed on a talk radio show. This way you can have a conversation about your company, product or service with thousands, if not millions, of consumers nationwide ", says Marsha Friedman. "

If you are small firm or large multinational corporation, you should do as many talk radio interviews that is humanly possible. " Talk radio is very attractive from a PR perspective because:

*It appeals to an affluent, educated and attentive target audience
*It is much cheaper than advertising
*It is a great opportunity to sell your product
*The host (who has a dedicated listening audience) provides a solid "Third Party Endorsement" to your product or services
*As you will be presented as an expert in your field, talk radio lends further credibility to your message
*Appearing on a talk radio show enables you to really tell your story

4. Be a Guest on a TV Show. Television really builds on all of the positive effects that radio can have. Marsha Friedman says, " As viewers expect to see celebrities on TV, when you appear as a guest on a TV show your credibility goes sky high."

5. Be Featured in Print. Ever looked at a newspaper article and have the desire to get your company some print exposure. You can absolutely get this sort of coverage! The power of the print media is phenomenal. "Print is a goldmine for PR ". Here's why :
*Anything written is perceived to be true.
*Newspapers and magazines represent a huge portion of the buying audience .
*A plethora of niche publications - there's truly a long list of publications to target. If you are adequately prepared with quality materials, your print PR campaign will be a successful one !

6. Become a Public Speaker. Want to try a pretty different way to get some excellent public relations for your company, product or service? Try becoming a pubic speaker! " Speak to community groups, Chambers of Commerce, events and trade associations to 'create a buzz' about you and your company," says Marsha Friedman. "The more opportunities you get to speak publicly, the more word of mouth that you will generate .

Just make sure you have a media kit to give them about your company, product or service in case they show up!"

Hopefully these methods will not only get your excited about an upcoming public relations campaign, but also give you an idea as to other ways to let people know about your product.

2 Quick Tips to Great Press Releases

2008-07-31T23:24:00.002+07:00

If you are struggling to get the media interested in your press release, you are not alone. Many people believe that you write a release, send it over to the producer at a radio station and wait for the avalanche of phone calls. Then, when you get no response, you call up the station who promptly tells you that they never read it!

If you want your radio press releases to grab the attention of producers...here are two quick tips to crafting an effective press release!

1. Topic Overview

Once you have gained attention with your eye-catching headline, topic summary, and talking points, it is time to present your full show idea. This is when to position yourself as an expert on the topic.
Do not write a sales piece here. Write the show. Work the author's name, personal quotes, and book title into the overview. Use the following liberally to build your topic and profile: statistics, testimonials, current facts, specifics from relevant news stories, and professional credentials. Use anything that will interest the producer, the host, and their audience. Try to limit this section to no more than a page; the ideal range is four to six paragraphs with no more than four sentences in each one.

A Topic Overview for a show on pets would read as follows:

For some people, "cute" is the only criterion they follow when choosing a new pet. But deciding which pet to adopt based solely on the animal's appearance can set new "pet parents" up for disaster. After all, puppies don't look quite so cute when they're chewing your furniture! Lack of foresight is one of the top reasons an estimated 6 to 8 million unwanted pets end up at local animal shelters each year.

Enter pet expert Jane Doe, author of the new book about pets.

As a bonafide animal lover, she wants to help prospective pet owners understand how to make the best decision when choosing a new pet and to recognize that adopting a pet is a lifetime commitment and responsibility that requires much thought and planning.

"There's no denying the attraction to a cute puppy or kitten," says Jane. "But people need to be fully prepared for what's truly involved in caring for that animal. Realistically speaking, they are bringing a child into their home. If you don't have the temperament, the schedule, or the space requirements to meet those needs, you should consider a pet that does fit your lifestyle."

Another important factor that often goes overlooked is how children in a family will interact with a new pet. Pets make wonderful companions for children and can help teach them compassion, responsibility, and respect for all living creatures, as well as boost their self-esteem. But it's important to determine ahead of time what type of animal best suits the household and what role each family

2 Quick Tips to Great Press Releases

2008-07-31T23:24:00.000+07:00

Broadcast Your Message with Self Promotional Products

2008-07-28T17:55:00.000+07:00

Promotional Custom T-Shirts: How to Create a Buzz

2008-07-28T17:54:00.000+07:00

Custom T-shirts can be useful for promoting people, ideas, or events. A shirt can not only display any of these things; it can also get people talking about them. It only takes a little time to figure out the best way to use the shirts to create a buzz.

You may want to promote just about anything. If you are in a band, you may want to get people out to hear you the next time you play. You could use custom T-shirts to bring people into the club. If you are supporting a local politician, you can use a shirt to get their name into the public eye.

Your school or local children's sports team may be headed for a championship in another city. By selling custom T-shirts, you can make people aware of the event. The more people that know, the more people might come to cheer on your team. Even a store grand opening is an event that can be promoted with custom T-shirts.

The key to a good response is to make the custom T-shirts unique and desirable. By naming and dating the event, they become a collector's item. Get them in colors that are appropriate to the subject. Put unusual images and snappy sayings on them. Leave a little to the imagination. Then people will take notice of the topics of the custom T-shirts and ask questions.

There are several ways you can distribute your custom T-shirts. One way is to get them out to places that people will be walking and mingling. This gives people a chance to talk up the shirt to each other. Outdoor markets or street fairs are good places to go with your merchandise.

You can also make your shirts more sought after if you limit how many people get them. You could give them out in only a few venues. Perhaps you could give away a few on a radio show. The ninth caller gets a shirt if they answer a trivia question about your candidate or band, for instance. You can make the questions easy, yet it brings up the subject for everyone and gets the custom T-shirts out to a select few.

Marketers have long known that colleges are places ripe for new ideas. If your environmental campaign needs a boost, get your custom T-shirts onto a college campus and people will soon be hearing about it. Your political candidate will be discussed. Your band will have a larger audience.

The idea is to get people interested in your people or ideas. Once you have them on the hook, it is up to you to keep them. Your band will have to play well, your candidate will have to have good ideas, and your environmental campaign will have to make a difference in the world. If you are up to the task, you can use custom T-shirts to bring the people to you.

Social Entrepreneurship is about Innovation and Impact, Not Income

2008-07-25T23:55:00.001+07:00

by J. Gregory Dees

-- Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
Having worked in this field for a while, I am always delighted to find that people are increasingly familiar with the term "social entrepreneur." Too often, however, they identify social entrepreneurship with nonprofits generating earned income. When the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship named Linda and Millard Fuller of Habitat for Humanity and Wendy Kopp of Teach for America, among others, as outstanding social entrepreneurs, it must have confused many people. Both organizations are well known, but neither of them is known for its earned income strategies. They rely heavily on grants and donations. In fact, these social entrepreneurs are masterful at attracting philanthropic donations. What makes them entrepreneurial is that each of them has pioneered creative ways of addressing social problems and marshaled the resources to support their work. Habitat mobilizes volunteers to build affordable houses for the poor. Teach for America recruits talented college graduates to teach in economically distressed schools. Schwab was following a view long endorsed by Bill Drayton at Ashoka that social entrepreneurship is about innovation and impact, not income. This view is well grounded in entrepreneurship theory (click here for details), but not sufficiently appreciated in the U.S.

Despite efforts to spread an innovation-based definition, far too many people still think of social entrepreneurship in terms of nonprofits generating earned income. This is a dangerously narrow view. It shifts attention away from the ultimate goal of any self-respecting social entrepreneur, namely social impact, and focuses it on one particular method of generating resources. Earned income is only a means to a social end, and it is not always the best means. It can even be detrimental-taking valuable talent and energy away from activities more central to delivering on the organization's social mission. Though it is very popular right now, it is just one funding strategy among many and must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The key is finding a resource strategy that works.

Focusing on earned income leads people to embrace the problematic idea of a "double bottom line." Profits should not be treated with equal importance to social results. No amount of profit makes up for failure on the social impact side of the equation. Any social entrepreneur who generates profits, but then fails to convert them into meaningful social impact in a cost effective way has wasted valuable resources. From a management point of view, the financial "bottom line" is certainly important, but it is not on the same level as social impact. Social entrepreneurs have only one ultimate bottom line by which to measure their success. It is their intended social impact, whether that is housing for the homeless, a cleaner environment, improved access to health care, more effective education, reduced poverty, protection of abused children, deeper appreciation of the arts, or some other social improvement.

Many activities that generate earned income are not entrepreneurial at all. Earned income has become commonplace. In fact, if religious congregations are excluded, earned income has exceeded donations as a source of funds for public charities in the U. S. for many years now. Hospitals charge fees for medical services; private schools charge tuition; performing arts groups sell tickets; many museums charge admission and often have gift shops in their lobbies. No one thinks of these practices as examples of "social entrepreneurship" even though they all involve generating earned income. It would be absurd to give a social entrepreneurship award, for instance, to a major hospital simply because of its extremely high percentage of earned income from patient fees and the record profits at its gift shop and parking garage. Yet, this would be a logical implication of taking earned income as the yardstick of social entrepreneurship. High levels of earned income are often not innovative and may not be correlated with high levels of social impact.

Any form of social entrepreneurship that is worth promoting broadly must be about establishing new and better ways to improve the world. Social entrepreneurs implement innovative programs, organizational structures, or resource strategies that increase their chances of achieving deep, broad, lasting, and cost-effective social impact. To borrow from J.B. Say, the eighteenth century French economist who first popularized the term "entrepreneur," they shift resources into areas of higher productivity and yield. Habitat persuades volunteers to shift their time from recreational activities to building a house. Teach for America persuades bright college graduates who did not major in education to devote two years of their careers to teaching in schools that have a difficult time finding teachers. This resource-shifting function is essential to progress. As Peter Drucker has said, "What we need is an entrepreneurial society in which innovation and entrepreneurship are normal, steady, and continuous."

"No amount of profit makes up for failure on the social impact side of the equation. Any social entrepreneur who generates profits, but then fails to convert them into meaningful social impact in a cost effective way has wasted valuable resources..."

Of course, some exciting forms of social entrepreneurship use earned income strategies to achieve social impact. We should encourage social sector leaders to explore innovative financial strategies that make their organizations more effective in serving social needs while leveraging social assets. Creative efforts to harness business methods to serve social objectives are often entrepreneurial in the best sense of that term. Consider Grameen Bank that was built around an innovative approach of using peer-groups to improve the economics and effectiveness of micro-enterprise lending as a tool to fight poverty in Bangladesh. Or consider Delancey Street Foundation, a residential community of hardcore substance abusers in San Francisco that runs several businesses to provide productive employment to community members and generate funds for the organization. These are powerful examples of how social sector leaders can blend business methods with social objectives. What makes them entrepreneurial is not the source of income, but their innovations and their impact.

Earned income ventures are socially entrepreneurial only when they have a social purpose beyond simply making money. If social entrepreneurship is to be distinctive in any way, it must be because social objectives matter in how the venture is organized and managed. If the only way a venture serves your mission is by generating funds, it may be business entrepreneurship, but it is not social entrepreneurship. If I start a bakery to make money that will be used to support my sailing hobby, we do not call the bakery a "sailing venture." Likewise using the proceeds of the bakery for a social purpose does not make it into a "social" venture. It is a social venture only if social considerations are integrated into its objectives and management. A purely moneymaking venture can be managed using straight business principles. It makes no difference if the owner intends to use the cash generated by the venture to buy a bigger sailboat or to serve the homeless. True social ventures often require a more complex skill set than straight business ventures.

Only if we can embrace a definition of social entrepreneurship that focuses on innovation and impact, we can put funding strategies in their proper perspective. It is not surprising that people are drawn to the earned income definition of social entrepreneurship. Resources are scarce and social needs are great. Everyone wants to explore new avenues for generating resources and earned income seems promising. Unfortunately, some social sector leaders appear to be more concerned about attracting resources and sustaining their organizations than they are about assessing, sustaining, and improving their social impact. They assume they are doing a great job on the social side and that they deserve the additional funding, often without much systematic evidence. These are risky assumptions. Finding ways to sustain organizations that are not cost-effectively delivering social value is a terrible waste of energy and resources. Social sector leaders should look for creative resource strategies that enhance their impact, rather than simply sustain their organizations. By embracing a definition of social entrepreneurship that focuses on innovation and impact, we can assure that social objectives are taken seriously in the entrepreneurial process. In the end, social entrepreneurship must be about creating social value, not simply about making money.

The 13 Worst Marketing Mistakes

2008-07-24T23:55:00.000+07:00

by Jonathan Gray

Are you disappointed? Your ads drawing minimal results?

Well, I've got great news for you, because we're going to change that forever right here, and right now!

Let me show you which mistakes are killing your profits. And precisely how to correct them. And you'll soon have a powerful set of weapons to make sure all your efforts generate cash.

Mistake #1 – Marketing To The Wrong Audience: Even with the world’s best product, copy and price - if you try to sell it to the wrong people, you'll flop.

Mistake #2 – Assuming You Know What Your Customers Want: Listen to what your market has to say. Offer products based on your customers' answers.

Mistake #3 – Focusing Your Copy On You: Customers don't care about your product. So talk directly to their problems, needs and desires.

Mistake #4 – Assuming You Know What Your Customers Value Most: Poll your customers. Then adjust the benefits in your copy accordingly.

Mistake #5 – You Think Your Ad Or Your Product Are Important: Forget about your ad and its fancy layout. Concentrate on hitting your customers right between the eyes with the most potent benefit you have to offer.

Mistake #6 – Blindly Accepting Your Mail Will Reach Its Destination: Did you know that huge quantities of email are being dumped as spam? Remember, if your mail doesn't reach its destination, you can't sell!

Mistake #7 – Blindly Accepting That People Will Open Your Mail: How many of us run through our inbox with our finger on the delete button? So follow the rules that ensure your mail gets opened.

Mistake #8 – Assuming You Have Your Prospect's Undivided Attention: You're competing against everything that vies for your prospect's attention –other businesses, and their work, family, and hobbies.

So write hard-driving, persuasive pieces packed with so many benefits, your prospect can't help but be interested.

Mistake #9 – Being Deceitful Or "Standing Too Close To The Shade": Unfortunately, some get swept away by their own greed. Better to solve your customers' problems, help them, and deliver more than you promised. And you'll sleep well at night!

Mistake #10 – Failing To Track Your Results: You should key your ads, sales letters and news releases to track precisely what's working and what isn't - which marketing efforts to stick with and which to modify or abandon.

Mistake #11 – Not Having A Profitably Planned Follow-up Campaign: It's much easier and less costly to sell to someone who's already bought from you than it is to bring in new business.

Follow up from every sale. Strike while the iron is hot. Send follow-up mailings at least every quarter. Build on their trust in you.

Mistake #12 – You’re Trying To Sell Unrelated Products: You can't follow-up effectively with unrelated products. Pick an area to specialize in and offer the best group of related products that you can.

Mistake #13 – Changing Your Marketing Out Of Boredom: If the market continues to respond to your promotions, don't change it!

Motivational techniques to get you where you want to go

2008-07-20T23:12:00.001+07:00

By: Ros Oliveira

Most of us want to be successful at something. Whether you wish for monetary success, or simply to lose weight, be a better parent or have a successful affiliate website, you have to be motivated and committed to succeed.

The power and ability to succeed is in all of us - all it takes is the motivation to get something happening. Because unless you take action, your dreams of success will remain just that - dreams. Jason Gracia in his well-known book The Motivated Mind gives you an instructional guide on how to turn your dreams into success.

Learning how to take action, get motivated and stay that way is the key that will drive you to succeed and these simple motivation techniques will help you get what you want out of life.

Plan to succeed

Successful people are goal oriented. They plan their goals, then work in incremental steps to achieve those goals. Your goals need to be specific, realistic and achievable. Visualize your goals so that they become real, then write them down and keep them somewhere as a daily reminder of what it is you're aiming for.

To stay motivated, you need to feel inspired and excited about what you are aiming to achieve. If you can't get excited about your success goals, you'll never find the inspiration and motivation you need to take action to change your life.

If your goals don't excite you, then you've chosen the wrong goals. Go back to the drawing board and think about what it is that inspires and excites you, then you'll have a goal you can work towards.

The longest journey begins with a single step, so plan on adding one new positive step to your daily routine each day to move you towards your goal. Adding one positive step each day will help you take control of your future and rid you of past negative habits.

Set aside 15 minutes each day to review your goals and the progress you have made. Measuring your progress will keep you inspired to achieve the results you want and help you recognize problem areas that may need work. Acknowledging your achievements is a way of patting yourself on the back for a job well done.

Believe in the possibilities. Don't allow your fears to stand in the way of your future success. Acknowledge the fact that everyone feels fear when they step outside their comfort zone. As the old adage says, "Feel the fear, then do it anyway!"

10 Differences Between Advertising and Public Relations

2008-07-18T23:43:00.002+07:00

By Apryl Duncan, About.com

If you're searching for a career or trying to promote your company, you may have questions about advertising vs. public relations. These two industries are very different even though they're commonly confused as being one and the same. The following ten properties just scratch the surface of the many differences between advertising and public relations.

1. Paid Space or Free Coverage
Advertising:
The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published.

Public Relations:
Your job is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, you're focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/services.

2. Creative Control Vs. No Control
Advertising:
Since you're paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ad.

Public Relations:
You have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your info at all. They're not obligated to cover your event or publish your press release just because you sent something to them.

3. Shelf Life
Advertising:
Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over and over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than one press release.

Public Relations:
You only submit a press release about a new product once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor won't publish your same press release three or four times in their magazine.

4. Wise Consumers
Advertising:
Consumers know when they're reading an advertisement they're trying to be sold a product or service.
"The consumer understands that we have paid to present our selling message to him or her, and unfortunately, the consumer often views our selling message very guardedly," Paul Flowers, president of Dallas-based Flowers & Partners, Inc., said. "After all, they know we are trying to sell them."

Public Relations:
When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, they're seeing something you didn't pay for with ad dollars and view it differently than they do paid advertising.
"Where we can generate some sort of third-party 'endorsement' by independent media sources, we can create great credibility for our clients' products or services," Flowers said.

5. Creativity or a Nose for News
Advertising:
In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials.

Public Relations:
In public relations, you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media.

6. In-House or Out on the Town
Advertising:
If you're working at an ad agency, your main contacts are your co-workers and the agency's clients. If you buy and plan ad space on behalf of the client like Media Director Barry Lowenthal does, then you'll also interact with media sales people.

Public Relations:
You interact with the media and develop a relationship with them. Your contact is not limited to in-house communications. You're in constant touch with your contacts at the print publications and broadcast media.

7. Target Audience or Hooked Editor
Advertising:
You're looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldn't advertise a women's TV network in a male-oriented sports magazine.

Public Relations:
You must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event.

8. Limited or Unlimited Contact
Advertising:
Some industry pros such as Account Executive Trey Sullivan have contact with the clients. Others like copywriters or graphic designers in the agency may not meet with the client at all.

Public Relations:
In public relations, you are very visible to the media. PR pros aren't always called on for the good news.
If there was an accident at your company, you may have to give a statement or on-camera interview to journalists. You may represent your company as a spokesperson at an event. Or you may work within community relations to show your company is actively involved in good work and is committed to the city and its citizens.

9. Special Events
Advertising:
If your company sponsors an event, you wouldn't want to take out an ad giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where your PR department steps in.

Public Relations:
If you're sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event.

10. Writing Style
Advertising:
Buy this product! Act now! Call today! These are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product.

Public Relations:
You're strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media.

The Successful Entrepreneur

2008-07-15T22:43:00.001+07:00

Here we go again. The root cause of small business success or failure is not due to a lack of knowledge or capital, it is due to a poor fit between the owner and the chosen venture. The successful entrepreneur always enjoys a good relationship with the business.

Now, there are only two ways to achieve a "good fit" between an entrepreneur and a business. The first is pure luck (which is most often the case). The second comes from consciously exploring who we are and how we might connect to the world of self-employment. It's really no different than analyzing one's career options or choosing a mate. Oh boy, what an analogy; a true one. In reality, 75% of adults don't like their jobs, more than 50% of all marriages end in divorce, and three out of five businesses fail. All of which means we don't do a very good job of analyzing things that are important in our lives. Nevertheless, in business, if we spent half as much time getting ready personally to undertake a venture as we do writing business plans and visiting with attorneys and accountants, we would succeed far more often.

When you reduce anything to its essence, the concept of fit is what life is all about. Why do certain marriages last while others fail? Why do our true heroes linger long in years doing what they do best, and all the while being observed with vigor and enthusiasm? It's simple. There exists a good fit. Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa most likely were not daydreaming about blissful retirements in the Bahamas. They found their work, their mission, their purpose, and they stayed with it. Entrepreneurship is no different. You have to find out what you like to do, what you were born to do, and then do it. It is a simple, but overlooked notion that people do better with activities that utilize their natural skills and talents. Understanding who we are and what we are good at will direct us toward more logical life choices. When we take the time to travel the road of self-discovery and act on the things that we come to learn about ourselves, we simply live more productive, satisfying lives.

The very first step toward success as an entrepreneur is recognizing that we possess enough independence to leave the perceived safety of traditional employment. The second step is giving ourselves permission to reflect deeply on what we want out of life and out of a particular venture. As just stated, marriages, businesses and careers are failing all around us, and it is only in the "minority" of cases that we find success. Shame on us for being so stupid when all that is required is forethought and gut wrenching self-analysis that simply ends with one question. "Given all that I can find out about the business, career or mate I am considering, am I honestly excited about performing all the tasks associated with that relationship?" If the answer is "NO", there is NOT a good fit. Let's assume that you want to open a restaurant because you love to chop, trim, broil, bake and sauté. OK, apparently you are great in your kitchen, and all your friends insist that the world should have access to your culinary talents. But what happens if you are not blessed with people skills? Well, folks the restaurant business is first and foremost, a people business. If you don't enjoy interacting with them, you better take a hard look at catering. Get the idea?

Various members of my family have been involved with restaurants, manufacturing, real estate, insurance, building, printing, and consulting, among other businesses. To be sure, each one of these ventures that proved successful involved a loving relationship.

Playing ostrich when preparing for business ownership normally results in a death sentence. In order to achieve success as an entrepreneur we must first know ourselves. This is the first step. The Focus Program for Emerging Entrepreneurs was developed for just that purpose – helping prospective entrepreneurs know themselves better “before” leaping into business ownership.

copyright: Nicholas A. Bibby

7 Key Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur

2008-07-15T20:50:00.000+07:00

By: Kristine Geimure

Being an entrepreneur is about more than just starting a business or two, it is about having attitude and the drive to succeed in business. All successful Entrepreneurs have a similar way of thinking and posses several key personal qualities that make them so successful in business. Successful entrepreneurs like the ambitious Richard Branson have an inner drive to succeed and grow their business, rather than having a Harvard Business degree or technical knowledge in a particular field.

All successful entrepreneurs have the following qualities:

1 Inner Drive to Succeed
Entrepreneurs are driven to succeed and expand their business. They see the bigger picture and are often very ambitious. Entrepreneurs set massive goals for themselves and stay committed to achieving them regardless of the obstacles that get in the way.

2 Strong Belief in themselves
Successful entrepreneurs have a healthy opinion of themselves and often have a strong and assertive personality. They are focused and determined to achieve their goals and believe completely in their ability to achieve them. Their self optimism can often been seen by others as flamboyance or arrogance but entrepreneurs are just too focused to spend too much time thinking about un-constructive criticism.

3 Search for New Ideas and Innovation
All entrepreneurs have a passionate desire to do things better and to improve their products or service. They are constantly looking for ways to improve. They're creative, innovative and resourceful.

4 Openness to Change
If something is not working for them they simply change. Entrepreneurs know the importance of keeping on top of their industry and the only way to being number one is to evolve and change with the times. They're up to date with the latest technology or service techniques and are always ready to change if they see a new opportunity arise.

5 Competitive by Nature
Successful entrepreneurs thrive on competition. The only way to reach their goals and live up to their self imposed high standards is to compete with other successful businesses.

6 Highly Motivated and Energetic
Entrepreneurs are always on the move, full of energy and highly motivated. They are driven to succeed and have an abundance of self motivation. The high standards and ambition of many entrepreneurs demand that they have to be motivated!

7 Accepting of Constructive Criticism and Rejection
Innovative entrepreneurs are often at the forefront of their industry so they hear the words "it can't be done" quite a bit. They readjust their path if the criticism is constructive and useful to their overall plan, otherwise they will simply disregard the comments as pessimism. Also, the best entrepreneurs know that rejection and obstacles are a part of any leading business and they deal with them appropriately.

True entrepreneurs are resourceful, passionate and driven to succeed and improve. They're pioneers and are comfortable fighting on the frontline The great ones are ready to be laughed at and criticized in the beginning because they can see their path ahead and are too busy working towards their dream.

Tips to maximise your franchise recruitment budget

2008-07-14T23:05:00.000+07:00

You don’t have to allocate an enormous budget to get good results and recruit franchisees. But you do have to be clever and plan ahead, says marketing and PR specialist Sarah Dyer.
This is the most ideal time of year to start planning for the year ahead to take advantage of the peaks of the franchise industry. Below, I will briefly look at the main aspects of creating a campaign that maximises budget, measures return on investment and can create the most benefit. In the next few issues of the Select Your Franchise newsletter, I will go into more detail on each aspect.
Planning, planning and more planning
We can’t state enough how important it is to plan your campaigns in advance. Many magazines will offer an early booking or series discount with good free editorial space to those franchisors that can produce well written case studies or interesting, fresh stories. It is often the same for online advertising with deals of booking so many months and getting some free.
It is a well known fact that advertising is best done over a long period of time whether this is on or off line. It builds your brand in the public domain and exposes your key messages to your target audience who will find it increasingly harder to ignore you when they have seen you for the 10th time!
In the franchise industry we have magazines such as Making Money, What Franchise or Business Franchise which are most effective if used more than once. Yet be realistic about this: whether you have £2k or £10k to spend over the year on magazine advertising, then spread it out across several issues to gain regular exposure and always discuss editorial opportunities.
We feel that it is better to have an increased number of slightly smaller adverts with negotiated free editorial space booked in advance, than fewer larger adverts booked at late notice.
Measure your return on investment
A simple spreadsheet is better than nothing when measuring the return on your investment. You can calculate this in several ways. To calculate the worth of free editorial space achieved over any period, it is best to look at the space that you have achieved and work out how much that same space would have cost you if it were paid for advertising space.
Ongoing market research
Again, this doesn’t have to be made into a complicated procedure. We recommend speaking to 5 existing franchisees, 5 that went to interview stage and 5 that were just spoken to on the phone and received information. Ask them all where they looked for information about franchising, how they found your franchise and most importantly ALL the places that they found your franchise that influenced them. They may have finally enquired through your own website and therefore be labelled a ‘website enquiry’ but what you should be interested in is how they found your website. Did they read an article in a magazine? Did they visit an exhibition and collect some literature? Did they read about you online?
If you can continually refine the combination of marketing and communication channels that are used for your franchise recruitment campaign then you will become more and more successful.

Don’t forget…
• Plan your annual franchise recruitment cycle in advance
• Book any advertising in advance to make the most of early space and series discounts
• Offer good quality case studies which are current and interesting
• Track the return on your investment using a simple spreadsheet or system that you are comfortable with (something is better than nothing)
• Always, always ask prospects how they found out about you

Finding and Keeping Good Franchisees

2008-07-14T22:56:00.001+07:00

By Greg Nathan

Most franchise relationship problems can be traced back to the selection stage. At some stage, someone – either the franchisee or franchisor – has gotten the wrong impression of what is required to make the franchise relationship work.

For instance, a franchisee may not have understood what he or she has to do to drive their business to success. (Perhaps they think their franchisor should be doing the driving.) Or the franchisor may be ignorant of certain attributes that are going to ultimately undermine a franchisee’s success. (These can range from personality characteristics such as a low tolerance for frustration through to financial problems.)

There are two common pitfalls in the field of selecting people:

1. We fail to clearly define what we are talking about.

2. We tend to make decisions based on invalid information.

Let’s look at these more closely.

Defining what we mean
When discussing human behavior, we often use or hear statements such as “She is a team player,” “He is passionate about his work,” “She has no integrity,” “He has a bad attitude,” and so on. The assumption is that everyone shares the same meaning of what we are talking about. However this is seldom the case.

One often-quoted management principle says, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” True enough. However, before you can measure something, you have to first know what you are measuring. So, when we are talking about human behavior, we need to be a specific as possible and define what we mean.

What do we mean by success, for example? I define a successful franchisee as someone who:

1. Runs a profitable business; i.e., they know how to control their costs and maximize their sales.

2. Builds a base of satisfied customers; i.e., they understand that building a business is about people feeling good about dealing with you.

3. Supports the franchise’s systems and brand. (A franchisee who makes a lot of money but is continually bad-mouthing or undermining your franchise system is not what I call a successful franchisee because they are not going to last long.)

What makes a successful franchisee?
A question on the minds of many franchisors is “What makes a successful franchisee?” After researching this question, I have found that successful franchisees consistently do a number of things that can be grouped into four key areas.

Firstly, they keep track of information and trends that tell them how their business is performing. This of course means they can use a computer, read figures and they spend time each week tracking their performance against set criteria.

Secondly, they set achievable goals because they are outcome focused and slightly competitive by nature. It is said that luck is where preparation meets opportunity. A successful franchisee takes advantage of opportunities to promote and grow their business because they have a vision for the future of their business.

Thirdly, they understand that all the analysis and visioning in the world won’t get them anywhere unless they are prepared to work hard and maintain high standards of service delivery. This means they keep organized and plan their life so they can sustain the long hours and family sacrifices necessary to launch and sustain a successful small business.

Finally, they understand that business is ultimately about people and that unless they gain the support of the people on whom their business depends, they have nothing. I am not just referring to customers but also their staff, their family, their suppliers, their franchisee peers, and even their franchisor.

The man who could not find his keys
The following story illustrates the other common trap in selection, (making decisions based on invalid information):

One night while taking his dog for a walk, a fellow came across a neighbor who was scrambling around on his hands and knees under a street light outside his house.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

The man on the ground explained that he had lost his car keys

Being a good neighbor, the fellow with the dog offered to help. After 10 minutes of crawling around the ground, the keys were still not to be found.

“Are you sure you dropped them here?”

“No. I dropped them in the garage,” was the casual response.

“So why have we been searching for them on the nature strip?”

“It’s dark in the garage stupid. The light’s much better out here!”

When it comes to selecting franchisees, it is not uncommon for franchisors to do the equivalent of looking under the street light for a sign that a person is suitable.

For instance, they look at attributes that have little relevance to success in the business and ignore attributes that really do hold the key to success or failure. The reason for this of course is that relevant information may not be readily visible or might require extra time, energy and inconvenience to uncover.

What are you looking for?
The point is this. When selecting franchisees, you need to be clear on what you are looking for and then have good systems in place to direct your mind to look for these things in the right places – and not just from your comfort zone.

Take for instance the phenomena known as “The Halo Effect.” This is where we make decisions about a person based on a generalization from an unrelated aspect of their personality, behavior or background. For instance, a candidate’s uncle might be the highest performing McDonald’s franchisee in the state. Impressive? Maybe. But what does this tell you about their suitability to your business? A candidate may be attractive and have a great smile. But what does this tell you about their ability to handle pressure, manage staff, use a computer, resolve conflict, keep organized, and so on? In a word – nothing.

By the way, here are a few tips on how to protect yourself from the Halo Effect.

Keep an open mind during initial interviews or discussions. Be slow to make generalizations based on first impressions or one piece of information.
Be prepared to change your opinion in the face of new information. Don’t treat the assessment as a test of your superior psychic or intuitive abilities.
And of course, have an objective and clearly defined attributes profile to compare people against. This is a specific list of qualities and characteristics you are looking for because these have been shown to correlate with success.
Franchisors that invest in thorough, systematic and professional selection processes and follow these up with good training and induction systems can be reassured that they have spent their time and money wisely. Because they will have gotten the two fundamentals right – being clear on what you are looking for and making judgments based on good information.

The real business of the franchisor
This brings us to understanding the real business of the franchisor. I define this as:

“Putting people into business and providing them with the systems and support that enables them to achieve their personal and financial aspirations.”

In other words, as a franchisor you are really in the systems, training and motivation business. Technical excellence and produce innovation may get you started but it is certainly not enough to sustain long-term growth and prosperity for you and your future franchisees.

So now we know the sort of person we are looking for – (someone who analyzes how their business is tracking, who is prepared to put in the hard yards, who sets goals, and who has good people skills) – how do we find such people?

Like most of the challenges we face in life, the answer to this question is usually staring us right in the face.

Let’s talk about customers
Just for a moment, let’s talk about customers

Anyone who has built a successful business understands that, in a sense, all customers are not equal. Some customers spend more with us, pay their bills on time and even recommend us enthusiastically to other customers. On the loyalty ladder, we call these latter people “advocates” and they are the most cost-efficient way of building a business you could ever find. It is estimated that if a business focused more on building advocates, it could easily double its profits.

The opportunity here for franchisors wanting to market their franchise is obvious. The most cost-efficient and powerful method of “selling more franchises” is to build advocates out of your existing franchisee base. People tend to mix with people who are similar to themselves so who could be better to find you new franchisees than your existing good franchisees?

Let’s pursue this line of thinking further and applying what I have called here, the seven laws of loyalty.

Law #1 – Deliver outstanding quality and value
If you don’t get this right, there is no way you can ever build advocates, because nobody wants to recommend a shoddy product to a friend or colleague.

How does your franchise system stack up in the product/service quality stakes? Do your support systems add value to your franchisees’ businesses? Do you return phone calls when you say you will? Does your franchise provide a good return on investment? Are your franchisor executives competent in their roles? Does your system deliver on its promise? Would your franchisees answer “yes” to the following questions?

“If I had my time over, Would I buy this franchise again?”

“Would I recommend this franchise to others?”

Law #2 – Be sensitive to moments of truth
I define a moment of truth as when a person is vulnerable in some way and you make an effort to assist them. This is the single most powerful way to build loyalty. Think of your own experience where someone has helped you when you were feeling exposed in some way. How did you feel? Grateful? Encouraged? And would you go out of your way to put in a good word for this person? You bet you would.

When a franchisee is vulnerable and needs a hand, do you go all out to support, reassure and motivate them and in doing so, build an advocate? Or do you use this as an opportunity to show them how tough you are and in doing so, alienate them for life?

Law #3 – Offer transformations
Any marketer will tell you that people are not interested in products or services – they are interested in having their needs met and transforming their lives in some positive way. For instance, they may want to be successful in the eyes of others, to belong to a group of like-minded people, to enjoy challenging work, to have a sense of independence, or to have a happier family life. Does your franchise system offer people the opportunity to experience such a transformation?

Remember – you are in the business of providing people with the systems and support that enable them to achieve their personal and financial aspirations. Or at least, that’s what you’re supposed to be doing.

Law #4 – Become an expert in your people
The more you know about a person, the more likely they are to be loyal to you – providing of course you do not abuse this knowledge. Do you treat your franchisees as individuals with unique interests, needs and goals? Do you keep track of their level of business development and give them appropriate support? Do you understand their behavioral style and treat them in a way that they like to be treated? Or are they all just a bunch of “franchisees” who have a job to do and obligations to fulfill?

Law #5 – Be a pleasure to deal with
How is it dealing with your organization compared to the numerous other franchise businesses that are available? When someone inquires about your franchise, are you straight-forward and easy to communicate with? Does your promotional literature provide comprehensive answers to their questions? Is your franchisee selection process a thorough, enlightening and pleasant experience? Or is it an unprofessional ordeal where potential franchisees feel they are always second guessing you or wondering what happened to their confidential application form in which they have disclosed their intimate financial details?

And what about your dealings with your existing franchisees? Do you genuinely want your franchisees to be successful and do you show this concern through your actions? A franchisee who thinks you genuinely care about their success is far more likely to recommend your franchise to others than someone who feels all you are interested in is your weekly royalty check.

Law #6 – Be Consistent
People want to know who they are dealing with. If you are a different person every time they meet you, and have different types of deals going with different people, you will leave them wondering. If you want to earn the loyalty of others, they must be able to see you as honest and fair. And for most people, consistency is equated with fairness.

Is your company consistent in its dealings with franchisees? Do you walk the talk with your company’s values? Do you stick to your agreements? Are you consistent in your behavior – or are you up one day and down the next?

It’s great to be innovative with your ideas, products and services providing you are consistent with your values, attitudes and behavior.

Law #7 – Grow from within
Here’s a thought for franchisors that have franchise systems requiring a reasonably high level of technical competence. You probably already have a pool of high caliber potential franchisees already working within your system.

I am of course referring to the staff of existing franchisees. Sure, it may take them a few years before they are ready financially or personally to take on the responsibilities of a franchise. But why look out when the answer is within? I would much rather find a way to finance good people who I know into my franchise than take a risk on a stranger.

Because some franchisees may be reluctant to lose their best employees, clever franchisors provide incentives for existing franchisees to act as mentors who will encourage their employees to become their franchisees of tomorrow. What better people to back into your system than those who know how your system works and who have a proven track record of performance.

What we are talking about here is a virtuous cycle because, by offering these people a powerful career opportunity, you are also building your advocates of tomorrow.

Water your own lawn
I guess my message is that if the grass seems greener on the other side of the fence, maybe you need to put more effort into watering your own lawn.

In other words, you want to attract strong inquiries from high caliber people; then you are best to focus your efforts on building advocates from within. Not only will these people be the most cost-effective form of advertising you could ever hope for, but in delighting them you are also laying the foundation for a truly awesome franchise system that will surely stand up to the inevitable strains and stresses of franchising life.

A Five Stage Personal Selling Process

2008-07-13T20:35:00.002+07:00

Stage One - Prospecting.
Prospecting is all about finding prospects, or potential new customers. Prospects should be 'qualified,' which means that they need to be assessed to see if there is business potential, otherwise you could be wasting your time. In order to qualify your prospects, one needs to:

Plan a sales approach focused upon the needs of the customer.
Determine which products or services best meet their needs.
In order to save time, rank the prospects and leave out those that are least likely to buy.
Stage Two - Making First Contact.
This is the preparation that a salesperson goes through before they meet with the client, for example via e-mail, telephone or letter. Preparation will make a call more focused.

Make sure that you are on time.
Before meeting with the client, set some objectives for the sales call. What is the purpose of the call? What outcome is desirable before you leave?
Make sure that you've done some homework before meeting your prospect. This will show that you are committed in the eyes of your customer.
To save time, send some information before you visit. This will wet the prospect's appetite.
Keep a set of samples at hand, and make sure that they are in very good condition.
Within the first minute or two, state the purpose of your call so that time with the client is maximised, and also to demonstrate to the client that your are not wasting his or her time.
Humour is fine, but try to be sincere and friendly.
Stage Three - The Sales Call (or Sales Presentation).
It is best to be enthusiastic about your product or service. If you are not excited about it, don't expect your prospect to be excited.

Focus on the real benefits of the product or service to the specific needs of your client, rather than listing endless lists of features.

Try to be relaxed during the call, and put your client at ease.

Let the client do at least 80% of the talking. This will give you invaluable information on your client's needs.

Remember to ask plenty of questions. Use open questions, e.g. TED's, and closed questions i.e. questions that will only give the answer 'yes' or the answer 'no.' This way you can dictate the direction of the conversation.

Never be too afraid to ask for the business straight off.

Stage Four - Objection Handling.
Objection handling is the way in which salespeople tackle obstacles put in their way by clients. Some objections may prove too difficult to handle, and sometimes the client may just take a dislike to you (aka the hidden objection). Here are some approaches for overcoming objections:

Firstly, try to anticipate them before they arise.
'Yes but' technique allows you to accept the objection and then to divert it. For example, a client may say that they do not like a particular colour, to which the salesperson counters 'Yes but X is also available in many other colours.'
Ask 'why' the client feels the way that they do.
'Restate' the objection, and put it back into the client's lap. For example, the client may say, 'I don't like the taste of X,' to which the salesperson responds, 'You don't like the taste of X,' generating the response 'since I do not like garlic' from the client. The salesperson could suggest that X is no longer made with garlic to meet the client's needs.
The sales person could also tactfully and respectfully contradict the client.
Stage Five - Closing the Sale.
This is a very important stage. Often salespeople will leave without ever successfully closing a deal. Therefore it is vital to learn the skills of closing.

Just ask for the business! - 'Please may I take an order?' This really works well.
Look for buying signals (i.e. body language or comments made by the client that they want to place an order). For example, asking about availability, asking for details such as discounts, or asking for you to go over something again to clarify.
Just stop talking, and let the client say 'yes.' Again, this really works.
The 'summary close' allows the salesperson to summarise everything that the client needs, based upon the discussions during the call. For example, 'You need product X in blue, by Friday, packaged accordingly, and delivered to your wife's office.' Then ask for the order.
The 'alternative close' does not give the client the opportunity to say no, but forces them towards a yes. For example 'Do you want product X in blue or red?' Cheeky, but effective.
So this is the Five Stage Personal Selling Process. Now have a go at it yourself by completing the lesson.

Personal Selling

2008-07-13T20:35:00.001+07:00

Personal selling occurs where an individual salesperson sells a product, service or solution to a client. Salespeople match the benefits of their offering to the specific needs of a client. Today, personal selling involves the development of longstanding client relationships. In comparison to other marketing communications tools such as advertising, personal selling tends to:

Use fewer resources, pricing is often negotiated.
Products tend to be fairly complex (e.g. financial services or new cars).
There is some contact between buyer and seller after the sale so that an ongoing relationship is built.
Client/prospects need specific information.
The purchase tends to involve large sums of money.
There are exceptions of course, but most personal selling takes place in this way. Personal selling involves a selling process that is summarised in the following Five Stage Personal Selling Process. The five stages are:

1. Prospecting.

2. Making first contact.

3. The sales call.

4. Objection handling.

5. Closing the sale.

Marketing Communications

2008-07-13T20:32:00.002+07:00

Marketing communications is a subset of the overall subject area known as marketing. Marketing has a marketing mix that is made of price, place, promotion, product (know as the four P's), that includes people, processes and physical evidence, when marketing services (known as the seven P's).

How does marketing communications fit in? Marketing communications is 'promotion' from the marketing mix.

Why are marketing communications 'integrated?' Integrated means combine or amalgamate, or put simply the jigsaw pieces that together make a complete picture. This is so that a single message is conveyed by all marketing communications. Different messages confuse your customers and damage brands. So if a TV advert carries a particular logo, images and message, then all newspaper adverts and point-of-sale materials should carry the same logo, images or message, or one that fits the same theme. Coca-Cola uses its familiar red and white logos and retains themes of togetherness and enjoyment throughout its marketing communications.

Marketing communications has a mix. Elements of the mix are blended in different quantities in a campaign. The marketing communications mix includes many different elements, and the following list is by no means conclusive. It is recognised that there is some cross over between individual elements (e.g. Is donating computers to schools, by asking shoppers to collect vouchers, public relations or sales promotion?) Here are the key of the marketing communications mix.

The Marketing Communications Mix.
Personal Selling.
Sales Promotion.
Public Relations (and publicity).
Direct Marketing.
Trade Fairs and Exhibitions.
Advertising (above and below the line).
Sponsorship.
Packaging.
Merchandising (and point-of-sale).
EMarketing (and Internet promotions).
Brands.
Integrated marketing communications see the elements of the communications mix 'integrated' into a coherent whole. This is known as the marketing communications mix, and forms the basis of a marketing communications campaign.

What is Marketing?

2008-07-13T20:32:00.001+07:00

Some basic definitions of marketing and the marketing concept.

There are many definitions of marketing. The better definitions are focused upon customer orientation and satisfaction of customer needs.

Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others
Kotler.

Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably -
The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

The CIM definition (in common with Barwell's definition of the marketing concept) looks not only at identifying customer needs, but also satisfying them (short-term) and anticipating them in the future (long-term retention).

The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price -
Adcock.

This is a snappy and realistic definition that uses McCarthy's Four Ps.

Marketing is essentially about marshalling the resources of an organization so that they meet the changing needs of the customer on whom the organization depends -
Palmer.

This is a more recent and very realistic definition that looks at matching capabilities with needs.

Marketing is the process whereby society, to supply its consumption needs, evolves distributive systems composed of participants, who, interacting under constraints - technical (economic) and ethical (social) - create the transactions or flows which resolve market separations and result in exchange and consumption.
Bartles.

This definition considers the economic and social aspects of marketing.

The Philosophy Marketing and the Marketing Concept.
The marketing concept is a philosophy. It makes the customer, and the satisfaction of his or her needs, the focal point of all business activities. It is driven by senior managers, passionate about delighting their customers.

Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the customer's point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise.
Drucker.

This customer focused philosophy is known as the 'marketing concept'. The marketing concept is a philosophy, not a system of marketing or an organizational structure. It is founded on the belief that profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs and desires.
Barwell.

The achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs better than the competition.
Jobber.

Implementation of the marketing concept [in the 1990's] requires attention to three basic elements of the marketing concept. These are: Customer orientation; An organization to implement a customer orientation; Long-range customer and societal welfare.
Cohen.

Now that you have been introduced to some definitions of marketing and the marketing concept, remember the important elements contained as follows:

Marketing focuses on the satisfaction of customer needs, wants and requirements.
The philosophy of marketing needs to be owned by everyone from within the organization.
Future needs have to be identified and anticipated.
There is normally a focus upon profitability, especially in the corporate sector. However, as public sector organizations and not-for-profit organizations adopt the concept of marketing, this need not always be the case.
More recent definitions recognize the influence of marketing upon society.

Basic Definitions: Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales

2008-07-13T17:57:00.001+07:00

by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

It's easy to become confused about these terms: advertising, marketing, promotion, public relations and publicity, and sales. The terms are often used interchangeably. However, they refer to different -- but similar activities. Some basic definitions are provided below. A short example is also provided hopefully to help make the terms more clear to the reader.

One Definition of Advertising
Advertising is bringing a product (or service) to the attention of potential and current customers. Advertising is focused on one particular product or service. Thus, an advertising plan for one product might be very different than that for another product. Advertising is typically done with signs, brochures, commercials, direct mailings or e-mail messages, personal contact, etc.

One Definition of Promotion
Promotion keeps the product in the minds of the customer and helps stimulate demand for the product. Promotion involves ongoing advertising and publicity (mention in the press). The ongoing activities of advertising, sales and public relations are often considered aspects of promotions.

One Definition of Marketing
Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the needs of your customers and getting value in return. Marketing is usually focused on one product or service. Thus, a marketing plan for one product might be very different than that for another product. Marketing activities include "inbound marketing," such as market research to find out, for example, what groups of potential customers exist, what their needs are, which of those needs you can meet, how you should meet them, etc. Inbound marketing also includes analyzing the competition, positioning your new product or service (finding your market niche), and pricing your products and services. "Outbound marketing" includes promoting a product through continued advertising, promotions, public relations and sales.

One Definition of Public relations
Public relations includes ongoing activities to ensure the overall company has a strong public image. Public relations activities include helping the public to understand the company and its products. Often, public relations are conducted through the media, that is, newspapers, television, magazines, etc. As noted above, public relations is often considered as one of the primary activities included in promotions.

One Definition of Publicity
Publicity is mention in the media. Organizations usually have little control over the message in the media, at least, not as they do in advertising. Regarding publicity, reporters and writers decide what will be said.

One Definition of Sales
Sales involves most or many of the following activities, including cultivating prospective buyers (or leads) in a market segment; conveying the features, advantages and benefits of a product or service to the lead; and closing the sale (or coming to agreement on pricing and services). A sales plan for one product might be very different than that for another product.

The Many Faces of Love

2008-07-11T17:53:00.000+07:00

By: Jim Clemmer

"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." — Albert Einstein

Like leadership, love has many faces and forms. Both are states of being that defy easy definitions or how-to formulas. Pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, describes one face of love, "I'm passionately involved in life: I love its change, its color, its movement. To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, to have houses, music, paintings — it's all a miracle." Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia outlines another face of love when talking about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

Highly effective leaders are in love with the organization, community, or team that they work or live in. Their love is expressed in a deep desire to see that organization, community, or team grow to its full potential. Leaders love the people they work with enough to contribute to their growth and development. That doesn't mean we always like or agree with everyone. As with relatives, we often don't get to pick and choose neighbors, teammates, bosses, and the like. Some of them aren't people we'd invite to dinner or choose as a friend. However, leaders love their organization's greater purpose and see its products or services contributing to a bigger world that they love. That love — and desire for growth and development — extends to everyone involved.

Love of others starts with love of self. The desire to see others grow and develop starts with our own personal growth and development. If we're not leading a meaningful life, it's hard to help others find meaning. If we don't feel a sense of connection to a bigger purpose or being, it's hard to unify others. Spirit and meaning are an inside job. Inner growth is part of our spiritual renewal process. Our soul craves it.

Since the beginning of civilization, humans have pursued growth. We've restlessly tried to do and have more and more. For most of the history of the western world, growth has been expressed in the outer, material world — possessions, territory, money, economies, etc. Our environmental awareness and shifting values are now showing us some of the limits to outer, material growth. We are now moving to a stage of inner, spiritual growth. This is new territory. But like those who were part of the industrial revolution, we are just getting an inkling of the awesome power and exciting new world the Inner Revolution will open up for us in the next few decades.

Copyright: www.clemmer.net

You, Too, Can be a Salesperson

2008-07-09T23:50:00.000+07:00

by C.J. Hayden, MCC
Author/Master Certified Coach
Get Clients Now

I am not a sales and marketing guru. I've written two books on marketing and taught thousands of people how to sell themselves, but really, I don't know more about sales and marketing than most of you.

What I know how to do is talk to people, all kinds of people -- restaurant owners and waiters, CEO's and receptionists, entrepreneurs and kindergarten teachers. I don't try to sell these people anything; we just have a conversation. But sales happen as a result.

In my book "Get Clients Now!" I define marketing as telling people what you do over and over. That's part of the secret right there. I've seen too many business owners fail because they simply don't speak up about their business. Or else they tell someone once what they do for a living, and then think they never need to mention it again.

But there's another piece of the sales and marketing puzzle that often gets left out. When you talk to someone about your business, you need to be direct, authentic, and unattached to the outcome.

Clients and students often ask me questions like, "What do I say when I call Mr. Big to find out if he's ready to buy?" They're shocked when they hear my answer: "Hello, Mr. Big, have you decided to purchase our product?"

Or maybe the question is how to follow up with someone you met at last night's event who expressed some interest in your service. My suggestion is to say: "When we spoke last night, you seemed interested in my services, and I'd like to continue our conversation."

What do you do when you fear that the client doubts your qualifications? How about: "You seem a bit unsure of my qualifications to do the job, and I'd like to address that. What are your concerns?"

These are all conversations. You ask a question; they answer. They ask a question; you answer. It's like a friendly tennis match -- all you have to do is keep the ball in the air, and nothing is at stake.

But that's the catch, isn't it? You think there's a lot at stake. What if you don't get the contract, the client, the money? So you make the conversation overly significant, put on your marketing face and your selling voice, speak someone else's words... and the result is anything but direct and authentic.

What impact does this have on the person you're speaking with? The opposite of a direct approach is an indirect one: devious, underhanded, sneaky (check your thesaurus). The opposite of authentic is inauthentic: phony, fraudulent, insincere. Isn't this exactly what you have always been afraid of -- sounding like a used car salesman or telemarketer reading a script?

Scripts are for rehearsals. In a meeting or on the phone, keep some talking points in front of you, but don't read. Every word should be one you would use in normal conversation -- use instead of utilize; fix instead of rectify; help instead of facilitate. Get to the point quickly, and tell the truth about it. "I'm just calling to introduce myself," is not only an ineffective pproach, it's a lie.

Show a sincere interest in people by asking questions about their goals and problems. When you see a place where your business can help, don't hesitate to say so. Be respectful of people's time and really listen to what they say. Respond to what you heard instead of continuing to the next item on your agenda. Don't be afraid to toot your own horn while staying true to who you are.

But these are just tips for changing your behavior. The real key is in your attitude. If you can recognize that being indirect, inauthentic, or attached to the outcome is causing you to lose sales instead of make them, you'll have a powerful incentive to do things differently.

Bill Gates

2008-07-08T17:31:00.000+07:00

Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in a family having rich business, political and community service background. His great-grandfather was a state legislator and a mayor, his grandfather was vice president of national bank and his father was a lawyer.

Bill strongly believes in hard work. He believes that if you are intelligent and know how to apply your intelligence, you can achieve anything. From childhood Bill was ambitious, intelligent and competitive. These qualities helped him to attain top position in the profession he chose. In school, he had an excellent record in mathematics and science. Still he was getting very bored in school and his parents knew it, so they always tried to feed him with more information to keep him busy. Bill’s parents came to know their son's intelligence and decided to enroll him in a private school, known for its intense academic environment. It was a very important decision in Bill Gate's life where he was first introduced to a computer. Bill Gates and his friends were very much interested in computer and formed "Programmers Group" in late 1968. Being in this group, they found a new way to apply their computer skill in university of Washington. In the next year, they got their first opportunity in Information Sciences Inc. in which they were selected as programmers. ISI (Information Sciences Inc.) agreed to give them royalties whenever it made money from any of the group’s program. As a result of the business deal signed with Information Sciences Inc., the group also became a legal business.

Bill Gates and his close friend Allen started new company of their own, Traf-O-Data. They developed a small computer to measure traffic flow. From this project they earned around $20,000. The era of Traf-O-Data came to an end when Gates left the college. In 1973, he left home for Harvard University. He didn’t know what to do, so he enrolled his name for pre-law. He took the standard freshman courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard's toughest mathematics courses. He did well over there, but he couldn’t find it interesting too. He spent many long nights in front of the school's computer and the next day asleep in class. After leaving school, he almost lost himself from the world of computers. Gates and his friend Paul Allen remained in close contact even though they were away from school. They would often discuss new ideas for future projects and the possibility of starting a business one fine day. At the end of Bill's first year, Allen came close to him so that they could follow some of their ideas. That summer they got job in Honeywell. Allen kept on pushing Bill for opening a new software company.

Within a year, Bill Gates dropped out from Harvard. Then he formed Microsoft. Microsoft's vision is "A computer on every desk and Microsoft software on every computer". Bill is a visionary person and works very hard to achieve his vision. His belief in high intelligence and hard work has put him where he is today. He does not believe in mere luck or God’s grace, but just hard work and competitiveness. Bill’s Microsoft is good competition for other software companies and he will continue to stomp out the competition until he dies. He likes to play the game of Risk and the game of world domination. His beliefs are so powerful, which have helped him increase his wealth and his monopoly in the industry.
Bill Gates is not a greedy person. In fact, he is quite giving person when it comes to computers, internet and any kind of funding. Some years back, he visited Chicago's Einstein Elementary School and announced grants benefiting Chicago's schools and museums where he donated a total of $110,000, a bunch of computers, and provided internet connectivity to number of schools. Secondly, Bill Gates donated 38 million dollars for the building of a computer institute at Stanford University. Gates plans to give away 95% of all his earnings when he is old and gray.

copyright: www.buzzle.com

JERRY YANG & DAVID FILO (YAHOO)

2008-07-08T17:30:00.000+07:00

The History of Yahoo! - How It All Started...
Yahoo! began as a student hobby and evolved into a global brand that has changed the way people communicate with each other, find and access information and purchase things. The two founders of Yahoo!, David Filo and Jerry Yang, Ph.D. candidates in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, started their guide in a campus trailer in February 1994 as a way to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet. Before long they were spending more time on their home-brewed lists of favorite links than on their doctoral dissertations. Eventually, Jerry and David's lists became too long and unwieldy, and they broke them out into categories. When the categories became too full, they developed subcategories ... and the core concept behind Yahoo! was born.

The Web site started out as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" but eventually received a new moniker with the help of a dictionary. The name Yahoo! is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," but Filo and Yang insist they selected the name because they liked the general definition of a yahoo: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth." Yahoo! itself first resided on Yang's student workstation, "Akebono," while the software was lodged on Filo's computer, "Konishiki" - both named after legendary sumo wrestlers.

Jerry and David soon found they were not alone in wanting a single place to find useful Web sites. Before long, hundreds of people were accessing their guide from well beyond the Stanford trailer. Word spread from friends to what quickly became a significant, loyal audience throughout the closely-knit Internet community. Yahoo! celebrated its first million-hit day in the fall of 1994, translating to almost 100 thousand unique visitors.

Due to the torrent of traffic and enthusiastic reception Yahoo! was receiving, the founders knew they had a potential business on their hands. In March 1995, the pair incorporated the business and met with dozens of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. They eventually came across Sequoia Capital, the well-regarded firm whose most successful investments included Apple Computer, Atari, Oracle and Cisco Systems. They agreed to fund Yahoo! in April 1995 with an initial investment of nearly $2 million.

Realizing their new company had the potential to grow quickly, Jerry and David began to shop for a management team. They hired Tim Koogle, a veteran of Motorola and an alumnus of the Stanford engineering department, as chief executive officer and Jeffrey Mallett, founder of Novell's WordPerfect consumer division, as chief operating officer. They secured a second round of funding in Fall 1995 from investors Reuters Ltd. and Softbank. Yahoo! launched a highly-successful IPO in April 1996 with a total of 49 employees.

Today, Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet communications, commerce and media company that offers a comprehensive branded network of services to more than 345 million individuals each month worldwide. As the first online navigational guide to the Web, www.yahoo.com is the leading guide in terms of traffic, advertising, household and business user reach. Yahoo! is the No. 1 Internet brand globally and reaches the largest audience worldwide. The company also provides online business and enterprise services designed to enhance the productivity and Web presence of Yahoo!'s clients. These services include Corporate Yahoo!, a popular customized enterprise portal solution; audio and video streaming; store hosting and management; and Web site tools and services. The company's global Web network includes 25 World properties. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Yahoo! has offices in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Copyright: Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved

WALT DISNEY

2008-07-08T17:28:00.000+07:00

Ada satu gagasan yang selalu mengusik pikiran Walter Elias Disney, yaitu gagasan bekerja sendiri. Terutama karena ia mendengar bahwa sebagian karyawan akan tidak diperlukan bila musim sibuk berlalu. Ia gembira dengan prospek itu karena dua hal. Pertama, ia ingin berdiri sendiri, dan kedua, ia sangat ingin melakukan sesuatu yang baru dan orisinil, tidak hanya memenuhi keinginan bos dan para pelanggan.

The Wonderful World of Disney adalah gambaran seseorang yang telah berhasil mencapai segala sasaran cita-citanya. Kehidupan Walt Disney dapat diringkas dalam pedoman yang diikuti oleh semua orang kaya. “Barang siapa ingin sukses, harus bekerja berat, pantang menyerah, dan lebih mengikuti kegandrungan”.

Pada tahun 1985, Disneyland menyambut pengunjungnya yang ke-250 juta. Walt Disney yang besar, penerima 900 tanda kehormatan; 32 Oscar; lima Emmy; dan lima doktor honoris causa; perintis sejarah animasi, dan salah seorang manusia terkaya di dunia. Ia telah mewujudkan impian-impiannya jauh melebihi harapannya yang paling muluk.

Walt memulai usahanya dengan mendirikan agen seni periklanan bersama seorang temannya, Ube Iwerks. Pelanggan pertamanya adalah suatu rangkaian restoran. Disney dan temannya berhasil membuat kesepakatan dengan restoran untuk membangun bengkel kerjanya di bangunan restoran baru itu, tanpa membayar sedikit pun. Sebagai imbalan, mereka harus membuat poster-poster iklan untuk restoran tersebut.

Di samping bekerja untuk memenuhi kontrak, mereka bebas mengerjakan proyek lain. Untuk menarik pelanggan, Walt merancang suatu rencana khusus. Ia akan menawarkan jasa seninya ke suatu toko atau perusahaan atas dasar freelance, hubungan lepas. Kapan pun ada pekerjaan semacam itu yang harus dikerjakan, Walt dan temannya siap memberikan jasanya kepada perusahaan. Dalam waktu singkat, cara kerja semacam itu memungkinkan Walt dan temannya menabung cukup banyak uang yang tak mungkin dikumpulkannya andaikan hanya bekerja pada satu perusahaan saja.

Bisnis ini tampak memberikan harapan besar. Tetapi, Walt tergiur untuk mencoba memenuhi impian sejak masa kenak-kanaknya, yaitu membuat animasi kartun. Disney akhirnya bergabung dengan KC Film Ad Company yang memegang tanggung jawab atas segala aspek iklan film. Perusahaan menyadari kemampuan kartunis muda ini, sehingga tak lama sesudah mulai bekerja, Walt diberi tugas membuat poster seorang pria yang mengenakan topi mode mutakhir. Walt menggambar poster itu, tetapi hidung orang tersebut digantikan dengan gambar bohlam! Ketika poster itu ditampilkan di layer, bos berseru: “Akhirnya muncul sesuatu yang baru di tempat ini. Saya sudah bosan dengan wajah-wajah cantik ini.”

Keorisinilan dan visi Walt tentang barang-barang di sekelilingnya membuat beberapa teman dan atasan kurang senang. Mereka iri dan menganggapnya pengacau. Oleh sebab itu, mereka tidak mau membiarkannya mencoba suatu teknik baru untuk menyempurnakan kartun-kartunnya. Ia mempunyai gagasan cemerlang, membuat beberapa lukisan dan seluloid, lalu memotret dan menumpuknya, dan akhirnya memfilmkannya. Namun, pimpinan tak mau mendengarnya. Mereka merasa, cara kerja yang lama sudah cukup memberikan hasil sampai saat itu. Mereka tidak melihat alasan untuk mengubah teknik-teknik mereka, karena dengan cara itu pun para pelanggan sudah puas. Walt Disney tahu bahwa ia benar. Setelah berbulan-bulan membujuk bosnya, Walt akhirnya diperbolehkan membawa pulang salah satu kamera perusahaan untuk melakukan beberapa percobaan.

Di sebuah garasi kosong yang sudah dirombak jadi studio, lelaki kelahiran Chicago, 5 Desember 1901 itu mulai membuat film-film animasi pendek dengan menggunakan teknik hasil rekaannya. Ia kemudian memperlihatkan hasilnya kepada seorang pemimpin bisokop terkenal. Orang itu sangat terkesan. Sketsa-sketsa dan teknik film Walt sangat berbeda dengan yang sudah-sudah. Film kartunnya yang pertama segera diputar di bioskop-bioskop.

Semula kartun-kartun ini dimaksudkan untuk menggantikan iklan-iklan agar penonton terus menikmati apa yang muncul di layar, selama selang waktu. Walt menyebut film-film itu “Laugh-O-Grams”. Film-film kartun Walt disenangi penonton dan sejak itu di Kansas City, Walt Disney tidak lagi diejek sebagai si orang muda eksentrik, tetapi disegani. Gajinya naik. Dalam waktu singkat, Disney menjadi orang terkenal di kota itu.

Ia mengembalikan kamera yang dipinjamnya dan membeli kamera sendiri dengan uang simpanannya. Film-film kartun menjadi semakin populer. Walt Disney menyewa ruang kantor yang lebih luas untuk usaha kecilnya, Laugh-O-Grams Corporation dengan modal awal $15.000. Ia mempekerjakan beberapa magang dan seorang salesman untuk mempromosikan Laugh-O-Grams di New York City. Impiannya untuk mandiri menjadi kenyataan pada waktu ia baru berumur 20 tahun.

Ia kemudian memutuskan untuk keluar dari KC Film dan bekerja sendiri sepenuhnya. Tetapi, sukses tidak terjadi begitu saja. Biaya produksi tinggi dan sikap perfeksionis Walt Disney (yang membuatnya menanamkan kembali semua uangnya untuk memperbaiki hasilnya), di samping pasaran yang sangat terbatas, segera mengakibatkan kebangkrutan.

Ini merupakan masa suram dalam hidup Walt Disney. Ia tidak memiliki uang sedikit pun dan terpaksa tinggal di bengkel. Makan dan tidur di sebuah bangku kecil, satu-satunya perabot yang ia miliki. Lebih buruk lagi, sekali seminggu ia harus pergi ke stasiun kereta api untuk mandi.

Akhirnya ia berhasil mendapatkan kontrak pembuatan kartun animasi untuk mendidik anak-anak tentang pentingnya menyikat gigi. Pada suatu malam, dokter gigi yang memesan kartun ini datang menemuinya dan mengajaknya ke kantornya. “Tidak bisa,” jawab Disney. “Mengapa?” tanya dokter itu. “Karena saya tidak punya sepatu. Satu-satunya sepatuku ada di tempat tukang sepatu untuk direparasi, dan saya tidak punya uang untuk mengambilnya.”

Meski menghadapi keadaan yang serba menyusahkan. Walt Disney tidak putus asa. Ada sebuah gagasan di otaknya. Pada suatu malam bulan Juli 1923, dengan membawa semua uang di dalam saku baju setelan tuanya dari kain minyak berwarna abu-abu, pemuda kurus kering ini naik kereta api menuju Hollywood. Ia bertekad kuat untuk menjadi orang penting dalam dunia perfilman.

Ketika tiba di Hollywood, Walt Disney hanyalah satu di antara banyak orang yang mengharapkan terwujudnya cita-citanya. Kakaknya, Ray, tinggal di California beberapa waktu lamanya, dan ia dengan senang hati mengundang adiknya tinggal di rumahnya. Walt mulai mengunjungi studio-studio film. Ia bersedia bekerja apa saja, asal ada hubunganya dengan perfilman.

Untuk maju dalam suatu bidang keahlian khusus, orang harus masuk ke dalamnya, apa pun pengorbanannya. Disney menyadari, betapa sulitnya masuk ke studio-studio film Hollywood. Sebelum dirinya, banyak orang lain yang melamar kerja, tetapi ditolak. Namun, ia tidak patah semangat. Kalau ada orang lain yang berhasil masuk, mengapa ia tidak? Di matanya, ada dua macam orang: Mereka yang merasa kalah dan terlantar bila tak bisa menemukan pekerjaan dan mereka yang dapat mencari penghasilan dengan cara apa pun dalam masa sulit. Disney selalu berusaha keras agar termasuk dalam golongan kedua.

Pengalaman mengajarkannnya bahwa orang harus sepenuhnya mengandalkan diri sendiri. Ia kembali ke papan gambar dengan kemauan keras untuk mencari tempat bagi dirinya. Ia menggambar film-film komik untuk dijual kepada pengusaha bioskop. Ada seorang pemilik gedung bioskop yang begitu tertarik, sehingga membeli berseri-seri film komik. Ia bahkan memesan rangkaian cerita Alice in Wonderland yang mulai dibuat oleh Walt Disney di Kansas. Kepada Disney ditawarkan uang $1.500, jauh lebih besar dari yang diharapkannya. Rangkaian seri Alice in Wonderland ini diputar berurutan sampai tiga tahun. Dari hasil penjualannya, Walt Disney bisa membeli rumah, bahkan membangun studio film sendiri. Sesudah film Alice in Wonderland, Walt menciptakan makhluk kecil cerdik yang disebutnya “Mickey Mouse”, nama yang diberikan oleh istri Disney, Lillian Bounds. Mickey Mouse dengan cepat menjadi bintang tenar di seluruh dunia, bahkan lebih terkenal daripada banyak bintang Hollywood. Meski demikian, para produser awalnya menyambut kedatangan Mickey dengan kurang bersemangat.

Ketika itu, film berbicara mulai muncul dan orang memboikot film bisu. Disney pun bereaksi. Bersama kelompok pembantunya, ia memperkenalkan suatu metode baru untuk mensinkronkan suara dan animasi. Walt terus mencari teknik-teknik baru untuk memperbaiki kemahirannya. Ia menerapkan pula proses teknik warna yang baru. Dengan teknik baru ini, ia tak perlu lagi menggunakan kombinasi dua warna. Dalam film Bambi, ia menggunakan 46 rona warna hijau untuk hutannya. Kartun berwarnanya yang pertama, Silly Symphony, membuat para penggemar film kegirangan.

Disney makin menyadari, kalau ia mau terus berkarya dengan skala yang lebih besar, ia harus membangun suatu kelompok berotak cerdas. Artinya, ia harus mengelilingi dirinya dengan asisten-asisten pintar, yang mampu menawarkan produk bermutu. Untuk memantapkan diri, ia harus melatih sendiri para asistennya.

Disney merasa, para kartunis yang bekerja padanya terlalu sering menggunakan cara-cara tipu daya kuno. Satu-satunya cara mengubah keadaan ini adalah dengan membuat kursus-kursus latihan bagi mereka. Tujuannya, memperbaiki mutu lukisan dan teknik animasi. Ketika perusahaannya semakin besar, ia memutuskan pada 1930 untuk mendirikan sekolah sendiri, tempat ia mengajarkan segala teknik animasi kartun kepada calon-calon kartunis. Sekolah itu segera tampak seperti kebun binatang. Soalnya, untuk membuat tokoh-tokoh kartunnya lebih realistik, Disney mengubah ruang kelasnya menjadi laboratorium biologi kehidupan nyata dengan berbagai binatang. Hewan-hewan itu diamati oleh para siswa dalam aneka perilaku dan sikapnya. Pengamatan ini akan membantunya pula untuk membuat film-film dokumenter tentang keajaiban alam pada masa mendatang. Pada 1938, Disney memperkenalkan film animasi panjang tajuk karangannya yang pertama, Snow White.

Tidak lama sesudah itu, ia membangun studio film modern di Burbank, California, dan mempekerjakan 1.500 tenaga..Disney tampaknya telah mencapai apa yang diimpikannya. Setahap demi setahap, ia menjadi apa yang diinginkannya dahulu. Ia hanya bekerja dengan baik kalau ada hambatan yang harus diatasi. Ia khawatir bila segala sesuatu berjalan terlalu lancar, terjadi perubahan mendadak dalam situasi ini.

Setelah Perang Dunia II, Ray dan Walt Disney menerima beberapa kontrak dari ketentaraan untuk membuat film dokumenter dan poster perang. Usai, perang, Disney Studios makin sibuk, dan Walt semakin mencurahkan perhatiannya pada keahlian seninya. Ia sering bekerja sampai larut malam. Konon, ia sering membongkar-bongkar keranjang sampah kertasnya untuk melihat isinya. Katanya, potongan-potongan kertas ini seringkali mengandung gagasan besar. Pada masa itulah Walt Disney menciptakan film-film besarnya, seperti Cinderella, Peter Pan, dan Bambi.

Pada 1950-an, impian fantasmagorik Walt Disney-Disneyland mulai berkembang. Semua temannya, terutama bankir-bankirnya, menyatakan bahwa proyek ini gila-gilaan. Namun, ketika Walt Disney akhirnya memutuskan untuk proyek tersebut, tak ada seorang pun atau apa pun dapat mengubah keputusannya. Sekali lagi, Disney menunjukkan bahwa impian manusia dapat menjadi kenyataan. Gagasan menciptakan Disneyland muncul, ketika ia berjalan-jalan di taman dengan kedua putrinya, Sharon dan Diana. Ia membayangkan sebuah taman wisata sangat luas tempat anak-anak dapat bertemu dengan tokoh kartun yang mereka sayangi.

Disneyland akhirnya terwujud di Anaheim, California, pada 1955. Hari itu merupakan hari besar bagi Walt Disney. Ia berkata, andaikata ia tidak mendengarkan dirinya sendiri, tamannya ini tidak akan selesai. Inilah, akhirnya, sesuatu yang dapat ia sempurnakan terus-menerus.

Sumber: Buku pintar tokoh-tokoh bisnis

You Are Not Alone

2008-07-07T23:15:00.000+07:00

by Lisa Martin, The Working Mother’s Coach
Founder & President, Briefcase Moms

When you think about it, no one who ever accomplished anything great did it by themselves. Other people encouraged and supported them along the way.

Take Oprah Winfrey, she is a powerhouse woman doing truly wonderful things for other women. She is able to do so much for so many because she places her trust in others to help her make it happen.

The same holds true for working mothers. Having a support team will make it easier and less stressful for you to balance the competing priorities of motherhood.

A support network can take many forms and may include family, friends, book club members, co-workers, business colleagues, industry associations and strategic alliances. How your support team is structured will depend on what works best for you.

You might find that a monthly supper club plus memberships in a couple of industry associations meets your needs. Or perhaps weekly email and telephone calls with business colleagues are ideal. A good support team will evolve with you. The right people will come and go depending on the current circumstances of your life. If you experience any major life changes such as a career transition, birth of a child or move to a new location you will most likely want to adjust your support network accordingly.

Women who are the most successful at balancing work and life have built up a support network, but more importantly they have established an "inner circle." Creating an inner circle means surrounding yourself with people you trust who are invested in supporting you to be your best. Those individuals closest to you such as your life partner, a favorite aunt, dear friend, mentor and coach form the basis of an effective inner circle.

Let these people into your life and ask for their support. Share your fears, frustrations and dreams with them. They will provide a different perspective, give you valuable insight and often make decision-making simpler. Having an inner circle means you don't have to go it alone.

© Copyright 2007. Briefcase MomsÒ. All rights reserved.

A Forgotten Secret Marketing Tool

2008-07-07T23:13:00.001+07:00

by Terry Williams
President of Terry Williams & Associates

I've been marketing online for a couple of years and it never ceases to amaze me that this one marketing tool is seldom used and remains to be an effective Secret Marketing Tool. What am I referring to you ask? Well let me tell you! I have received hundreds of responses to my marketing efforts and many reply with the same comments in regards to follow up. Yes FOLLOW UP! This is the Secret Marketing Tool that many businesses forget and don't use it to their potential.
Follow Up Marketing takes on two separate entities. First there is follow up with your existing customers and second, there is follow up with your potential customers. Many online marketers out there do not use these two tools to their benefit and it probably costs them thousands of dollars every year in sales and profits. So lets take a look at these two methods of marketing and find out how to use them to your benefit in your marketing efforts.

FOLLOW UP WITH EXISTING CUSTOMERS
There have been quite a few studies completed on this topic and the underlying message they reveal is that many businesses do not follow up with their existing customers. Take a moment with a piece of paper and pencil and figure out your advertising and marketing costs. Make a list of where you advertise your product or service. Most of you will have on your list, newsgroups, online classified sites (both free & paid), newsletters, web sites, banner advertisements and also regular newspaper classified advertising.

Now just take one of these advertising mediums. For example, newsgroups, since thousands currently advertise on them and they are free. Well not necessarily! Even though it doesn't cost you to place the ad, there are other costs you must consider. There is your Internet Access, your time to write the advertisement and sales letters and your time to access the newsgroup and place the advertisement. So lets say, for example, that it costs $19.95 for Internet Access and 10 hours to write your advertisement and sales letters and 1 hour to access and place your advertisement on the newsgroup. Bill your time at $20/hr. That totals $239.95. That's quite a bit of money right!

Now let's say you make some sales and created $500 in profits from those sales only considering the cost to produce and ship your product. Now take out the advertising and marketing costs of $239.95 and you made $260.05 in profits for those customers. Not bad for one day! But don't forget about the $239.95 as it cost you that amount to get those customers. The point here is that it costs every business quite a bit of money to create a sale and a customer.

Now you just added a new product to your product line and begin to advertise it just as your other product. Those costs we just discussed might be a bit lower as you don't have to spend as much time on preparing advertisements and sales materials since your getting better at advertising and marketing. But your response might be lower, because it is a new product, increasing the costs of advertising and marketing the new product.

Why not lower your costs and have a better than average chance to produce more sales? How you ask, by FOLLOWING UP with your current customers. Don't you like to shop at the same places? Yes we all do because if we are treated right and received a good product or service, then we will come back and buy again and again and again. However, many online businesses seem to forget to send out a mailing to their own customers! These are people who determined that your initial product and company were better than your competition and bought from YOU! So ask them to buy again! You can make special offers to existing customers or whatever marketing offer you want, but DO NOT FORGET THEM. You increase your chances of repeat sales which will lower your advertising costs and create more profits!

Simple, effective and powerful, following up with your customers WILL produce results.

FOLLOW UP WITH POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS
Now the second piece of the secret, following up with prospects. This is where I get quite a bit better closure ratio than I do from my initial offer. I receive responses every day telling me that they became my customers mainly because they received some follow up. My customers go on to tell me that they look at many different offers and many businesses just email the information and they never hear from them again, while I take the time to follow up a number of times. Many potential customers like this type of carefully planned, understanding marketing technique. It shows that you are concerned about your business and want to create happy customers instead of looking for the quick buck.

You need to take some time and make some initial decisions in developing your follow up process as you don't want to make your prospects feel as if they are being harassed or pushed into making a decision. So let me give you a few tips to go about following up with potential customers that I have found very effective.

1. Determine the number of times you want to follow up with each prospect. Base your decision on your pricing and degree of difficulty in explaining your product or service. A general rule of thumb is the higher the price and complexity of your product or service the more times you will need to follow up.

2. Determine how often you want to follow up. The same rules above apply here. You want your prospect not to forget about you but you also want them to have some time to consider your offer.

3. Set up a follow up tracking system. Make a system of exactly how you are going to set up your follow up system and how to keep track of what your are doing and where you are at with each prospect.

4. Develop your follow up letters. Take some time and carefully write these letters. You want to pass along to your prospects that you are only trying to ensure they fully understand your product and offer so they can make an informed buying decision. Don't use hype, just provide facts and possibly add bonuses or special offers. Remind them they were interested in your product or service and requested information in the beginning of your letter and make your subject in the email something that refreshes their memory of your product or service. This will make sure they don't think you are sending them unsolicited emails.

5. Your last follow up letter. In this letter make sure you thank them for considering your product or service and let them know it will be the last letter they receive from you and take them out of your follow up files. If they want you to continue they will let you know.

6. Always honor the prospects request. If they ask for more information then by all means provide it and if they ask to be removed then make sure you do just that. If you don't, you will have just created some very bad press and they will let their friends know about it. Remember a happy customers tells 3 and a mad customer tells 10 and on the Internet you might even multiply that by thousands.

So there you have it a simple and effective marketing technique that is easily implemented and can produce incredible results. Don't let this become "A Forgotten Secret Marketing Tool".

5 Steps to Relationship Marketing Success!

2008-07-06T23:24:00.000+07:00

By Claudia Temple

What's their secret? Certain Web designers in your field of vision have hardly skipped a beat during the post-dotcom downturn. Meanwhile, you're sweating a bit more than you enjoy about where the next project will come from. How did this happen?

Take a close look at some of your neighborhood service firms to see how well they're prospering. Doubtless everyone has cut back in the last year or two --- that's just common sense. But there might be another reason why some companies are surviving while others shrink.

In good times and bad, savvy business people have but one focus --- the customer. They know it's much more cost-effective to sell more services to an existing client than to fund new customer acquisition. Their client list is their most valuable asset, but more than that, they develop long-lasting relationships by keeping in touch -- in good times and bad.

Relationship marketing delivers many benefits to a design firm, big or small. Slowly but surely, as you build your client and prospect list, you'll be able to reduce marketing expenses, build referrals, and grow your business in step with your clients' needs.

1. Change your Perspective from "Here's what I do" to "What do you need?"
The cornerstone of successful relationships is to discover precisely what your clients need and want.
Your clients say they need a Website. But what they mean is they need to increase sales revenue. You can develop the right kind of site to do that, but only if you understand your client's basic needs. You find those out by asking questions: lots and lots of questions!

2. Recognize your Vulnerability
In the midst of a project, you might be in touch with your client several times a week. But it's the time between projects that is crucial to relationship-building. Once the work is done, you drop out of that enviable top-of-mind awareness position. Over time, your client isn't as likely to think of you as their first port of call for a solution to their problem. This is when you're most vulnerable to replacement by a competitor.

Fortunately, an affordable solution can help you retain those clients you worked so hard to acquire.

3. Keep in touch
It's such a simple concept, but keeping in touch often sinks to the bottom of the 'to do' list. The single easiest way to keep in touch is to publish an email newsletter. Ask clients to subscribe and insert a subscription box on your site to capture email addresses of prospects who like the look of what you're doing.

The secret to a good newsletter is to avoid blatant self-promotion, and instead offer valuable information to your subscribers. With their permission, you have the opportunity to drop into their email boxes every month with news, tips, case-studies, FAQs, and other relevant info that subtly promotes your services, reinforces your brand, educates your clients, and builds trust.

4. Position Yourself as an Expert
So many Web designer sites are elegant portfolios, and while they look great, they don't say anything.

Words matter. Prospective clients are looking for more than thumbnail images of sites you've built. Your job is to tell them how you can meet their needs. Your Website is the perfect place to start, but the focus must be on the client, not on you.

Include white papers on design issues, special reports, case-studies, and links to other resources that will educate your clients on the inner workings of design. Be careful to avoid jargon, overly technical concepts and acronyms. If you're publishing an email newsletter, use it to introduce this new content and bring subscribers back to your site.

When you are perceived as an expert, you become attractive to prospects who use the Web to research. They see you as someone who has answers to their questions, and who can help solve their problems. Not only that, the added site content should also improve your search engine rankings.

5. Grow to Meet Client Needs
Websites are hardly stand-alone entities that need an occasional tweak. For most businesses, they're but one tool amidst many that are used to build brand, inease revenues or minimize costs. And by offering more tools that help your clients reach their goals, you become more valuable. Build affiliations or strategic relationships with copywriters, photographers, search engine marketers, and other specialists whose talents will benefit your clients.

The Payoff
The benefits of a relationship marketing approach go both ways. Your client views you as a valuable consultant, rather than a cost center. Your potential for increased revenues and a long-lasting relationship is real.

There's payoff for you, too, including reduced marketing expenses measured in both time and money. If you can retain more clients for longer periods, you'll trim costly space advertising and other marketing costs.

If you ask, you'll get more referrals from your clients. Priceless word-of-mouth endorsements from satisfied customers will result in new business which magically walks in the door.

You won't even have to request client testimonials. You do include several on your Website... right? Start by recognizing when you receive a spontaneous testimonial, whether it's in an email, thank-you letter, or a conversation. Ask your client if you may use his words and name in your brochure and on your site, with a link to his business. Most often, the answer is yes. Testimonials are a critical piece of successful service marketing and worth their weight in whatever precious metal you value.

Case-studies will be a breeze and add a powerful marketing tool - perfect for your Website or for inclusion in printed marketing materials. Follow a 'situation -- problem -- solution -- benefits' flow to highlight how you solved the client's problem, stressing the benefits the client now enjoys as a result of your work. Use a handful of client case studies in industries you're targeting for new business development. Examples of "just like me" situations help prospective clients understand exactly how useful your services are.

Relationship-focused marketing isn't something that will happen overnight. It requires a change in thinking and some discipline along the way. Your email newsletter won't do much good unless you publish it regularly and the content is valued by your subscribers. But the rewards can be significant. And the truth is that no matter how wonderful you are, clients go away. Their businesses close down, change focus, or are sold.

But if your objective is to build relationships instead of Websites, you'll be one of the designers in business for the long run.

Four Common Deal-killers

2008-07-04T23:41:00.000+07:00

by Geoffrey James

Merger negotiating rarely follows a predictable script, yet some of the same problems derail big deals every time. Here are four of the most common traps — and how to avoid them.

Problem 1: Unreasonable Preconditions
Example: The CEO of the acquired firm insists there will be no merger unless you guarantee he’ll be able to run the combined firms.
Risk: If the demand is real and not a bluff, you don’t have a deal.
Avoidance Plan: Make it clear at the beginning of the negotiation that everything must be on the table if there’s going to be an eventual deal.

Problem 2: Strategic Leaks
Example: While you’re still negotiating price, an article appears in the trade press quoting a “knowledgeable source” that the final deal will be in the high end of the negotiating range.
Risk: Destroys trust on both sides.
Avoidance plan: Insist that the negotiating teams be as small as possible. Point out, prior to negotiating, that untimely leaks may scuttle the entire discussion.

Problem 3: Delay Tactics
Example: Key people from the seller’s negotiating team are unavailable when you want to have a substantive meeting.
Risk: The seller’s company could be slowing the process down purposefully, perhaps seeking to generate another bid.
Avoidance plan: Start the negotiation with an explicit timetable agreed to by both parties.

Problem 4: Musical Chairs
Example: The people on the other negotiation team change from meeting to meeting.
Risk: New faces can easily result in reneging of previously agreed-upon issues.
Avoidance Plan: Obtain a commitment prior to the first meeting that the same players will be involved on both sides.

Marketing Plan

2008-07-03T23:37:00.001+07:00

The information for this article was derived from many sources, including Michael Porter's book Competitive Advantage and the works of Philip Kotler. Concepts addressed include 'generic' strategies and strategies for pricing, distribution, promotion, advertising and market segmentation. Factors such as market penetration, market share, profit margins, budgets, financial analysis, capital investment, government actions, demographic changes, emerging technology and cultural trends are also addressed.

There are two major components to your marketing strategy:
• how your enterprise will address the competitive marketplace
• how you will implement and support your day to day operations.
In today's very competitive marketplace a strategy that insures a consistent approach to offering your product or service in a way that will outsell the competition is critical. However, in concert with defining the marketing strategy you must also have a well defined methodology for the day to day process of implementing it. It is of little value to have a strategy if you lack either the resources or the expertise to implement it.

In the process of creating a marketing strategy you must consider many factors. Of those many factors, some are more important than others. Because each strategy must address some unique considerations, it is not reasonable to identify 'every' important factor at a generic level. However, many are common to all marketing strategies. Some of the more critical are described below.

You begin the creation of your strategy by deciding what the overall objective of your enterprise should be. In general this falls into one of four categories:
• If the market is very attractive and your enterprise is one of the strongest in the industry you will want to invest your best resources in support of your offering.
• If the market is very attractive but your enterprise is one of the weaker ones in the industry you must concentrate on strengthening the enterprise, using your offering as a stepping stone toward this objective.
• If the market is not especially attractive, but your enterprise is one of the strongest in the industry then an effective marketing and sales effort for your offering will be good for generating near term profits.
• If the market is not especially attractive and your enterprise is one of the weaker ones in the industry you should promote this offering only if it supports a more profitable part of your business (for instance, if this segment completes a product line range) or if it absorbs some of the overhead costs of a more profitable segment. Otherwise, you should determine the most cost effective way to divest your enterprise of this offering.
Having selected the direction most beneficial for the overall interests of the enterprise, the next step is to choose a strategy for the offering that will be most effective in the market. This means choosing one of the following 'generic' strategies (first described by Michael Porter in his work, Competitive Advantage).
• A COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY is based on the concept that you can produce and market a good quality product or service at a lower cost than your competitors. These low costs should translate to profit margins that are higher than the industry average. Some of the conditions that should exist to support a cost leadership strategy include an on-going availability of operating capital, good process engineering skills, close management of labor, products designed for ease of manufacturing and low cost distribution.
• A DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY is one of creating a product or service that is perceived as being unique "throughout the industry". The emphasis can be on brand image, proprietary technology, special features, superior service, a strong distributor network or other aspects that might be specific to your industry. This uniqueness should also translate to profit margins that are higher than the industry average. In addition, some of the conditions that should exist to support a differentiation strategy include strong marketing abilities, effective product engineering, creative personnel, the ability to perform basic research and a good reputation.
• A FOCUS STRATEGY may be the most sophisticated of the generic strategies, in that it is a more 'intense' form of either the cost leadership or differentiation strategy. It is designed to address a "focused" segment of the marketplace, product form or cost management process and is usually employed when it isn't appropriate to attempt an 'across the board' application of cost leadership or differentiation. It is based on the concept of serving a particular target in such an exceptional manner, that others cannot compete. Usually this means addressing a substantially smaller market segment than others in the industry, but because of minimal competition, profit margins can be very high.

Pricing
Having defined the overall offering objective and selecting the generic strategy you must then decide on a variety of closely related operational strategies. One of these is how you will price the offering. A pricing strategy is mostly influenced by your requirement for net income and your objectives for long term market control. There are three basic strategies you can consider.
• A SKIMMING STRATEGY
If your offering has enough differentiation to justify a high price and you desire quick cash and have minimal desires for significant market penetration and control, then you set your prices very high.
• A MARKET PENETRATION STRATEGY
If near term income is not so critical and rapid market penetration for eventual market control is desired, then you set your prices very low.
• A COMPARABLE PRICING STRATEGY
If you are not the market leader in your industry then the leaders will most likely have created a 'price expectation' in the minds of the marketplace. In this case you can price your offering comparably to those of your competitors.

Promotion
To sell an offering you must effectively promote and advertise it. There are two basic promotion strategies, PUSH and PULL.
• The PUSH STRATEGY maximizes the use of all available channels of distribution to "push" the offering into the marketplace. This usually requires generous discounts to achieve the objective of giving the channels incentive to promote the offering, thus minimizing your need for advertising.
• The PULL STRATEGY requires direct interface with the end user of the offering. Use of channels of distribution is minimized during the first stages of promotion and a major commitment to advertising is required. The objective is to "pull" the prospects into the various channel outlets creating a demand the channels cannot ignore.
There are many strategies for advertising an offering. Some of these include:
• Product Comparison advertising
In a market where your offering is one of several providing similar capabilities, if your offering stacks up well when comparing features then a product comparison ad can be beneficial.
• Product Benefits advertising
When you want to promote your offering without comparison to competitors, the product benefits ad is the correct approach. This is especially beneficial when you have introduced a new approach to solving a user need and comparison to the old approaches is inappropriate.
• Product Family advertising
If your offering is part of a group or family of offerings that can be of benefit to the customer as a set, then the product family ad can be of benefit.
• Corporate advertising
When you have a variety of offerings and your audience is fairly broad, it is often beneficial to promote your enterprise identity rather than a specific offering.

Distribution
You must also select the distribution method(s) you will use to get the offering into the hands of the customer. These include:
• On-premise Sales involves the sale of your offering using a field sales organization that visits the prospect's facilities to make the sale.
• Direct Sales involves the sale of your offering using a direct, in-house sales organization that does all selling through the Internet, telephone or mail order contact.
• Wholesale Sales involves the sale of your offering using intermediaries or "middle-men" to distribute your product or service to the retailers.
• Self-service Retail Sales involves the sale of your offering using self service retail methods of distribution.
• Full-service Retail Sales involves the sale of your offering through a full service retail distribution channel.
Of course, making a decision about pricing, promotion and distribution is heavily influenced by some key factors in the industry and marketplace. These factors should be analyzed initially to create the strategy and then regularly monitored for changes. If any of them change substantially the strategy should be reevaluated.

The Environment
Environmental factors positively or negatively impact the industry and the market growth potential of your product/service. Factors to consider include:
• Government actions - Government actions (current or under consideration) can support or detract from your strategy. Consider subsidies, safety, efficacy and operational regulations, licensing requirements, materials access restrictions and price controls.
• Demographic changes - Anticipated demographic changes may support or negatively impact the growth potential of your industry and market. This includes factors such as education, age, income and geographic location.
• Emerging technology - Technological changes that are occurring may or may not favor the actions of your enterprise.
• Cultural trends - Cultural changes such as fashion trends and life style trends may or may not support your offering's penetration of the market

The Prospect
It is essential to understand the market segment(s) as defined by the prospect characteristics you have selected as the target for your offering. Factors to consider include:
• The potential for market penetration involves whether you are selling to past customers or a new prospect, how aware the prospects are of what you are offering, competition, growth rate of the industry and demographics.
• The prospect's willingness to pay higher price because your offering provides a better solution to their problem.
• The amount of time it will take the prospect to make a purchase decision is affected by the prospects confidence in your offering, the number and quality of competitive offerings, the number of people involved in the decision, the urgency of the need for your offering and the risk involved in making the purchase decision.
• The prospect's willingness to pay for product value is determined by their knowledge of competitive pricing, their ability to pay and their need for characteristics such as quality, durability, reliability, ease of use, uniformity and dependability.
• Likelihood of adoption by the prospect is based on the criticality of the prospect's need, their attitude about change, the significance of the benefits, barriers that exist to incorporating the offering into daily usage and the credibility of the offering.

The Product/Service
You should be thoroughly familiar with the factors that establish products/services as strong contenders in the marketplace. Factors to consider include:
• Whether some or all of the technology for the offering is proprietary to the enterprise.
• The benefits the prospect will derive from use of the offering.
• The extent to which the offering is differentiated from the competition.
• The extent to which common introduction problems can be avoided such as lack of adherence to industry standards, unavailability of materials, poor quality control, regulatory problems and the inability to explain the benefits of the offering to the prospect.
• The potential for product obsolescence as affected by the enterprise's commitment to product development, the product's proximity to physical limits, the ongoing potential for product improvements, the ability of the enterprise to react to technological change and the likelihood of substitute solutions to the prospect's needs.
• Impact on customer's business as measured by costs of trying out your offering, how quickly the customer can realize a return from their investment in your offering, how disruptive the introduction of your offering is to the customer's operations and the costs to switch to your offering.
• The complexity of your offering as measured by the existence of standard interfaces, difficulty of installation, number of options, requirement for support devices, training and technical support and the requirement for complementary product interface.

The Competition
It is essential to know who the competition is and to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Factors to consider include:
• Each of your competitor's experience, staying power, market position, strength, predictability and freedom to abandon the market must be evaluated.
Your Enterprise
An honest appraisal of the strength of your enterprise is a critical factor in the development of your strategy. Factors to consider include:
• Enterprise capacity to be leader in low-cost production considering cost control infrastructure, cost of materials, economies of scale, management skills, availability of personnel and compatibility of manufacturing resources with offering requirements.
• The enterprise's ability to construct entry barriers to competition such as the creation of high switching costs, gaining substantial benefit from economies of scale, exclusive access to or clogging of distribution channels and the ability to clearly differentiate your offering from the competition.
• The enterprise's ability to sustain its market position is determined by the potential for competitive imitation, resistance to inflation, ability to maintain high prices, the potential for product obsolescence and the 'learning curve' faced by the prospect.
• The prominence of the enterprise.
• The competence of the management team.
• The adequacy of the enterprise's infrastructure in terms of organization, recruiting capabilities, employee benefit programs, customer support facilities and logistical capabilities.
• The freedom of the enterprise to make critical business decisions without undue influence from distributors, suppliers, unions, creditors, investors and other outside influences.
• Freedom from having to deal with legal problems.

Development
A review of the strength and viability of the product/service development program will heavily influence the direction of your strategy. Factors to consider include:
• The strength of the development manager including experience with personnel management, current and new technologies, complex projects and the equipment and tools used by the development personnel.
• Personnel who understand the relevant technologies and are able to perform the tasks necessary to meet the development objectives.
• Adequacy and appropriateness of the development tools and equipment.
• The necessary funding to achieve the development objectives.
• Design specifications that are manageable.

Production
You should review your enterprise's production organization with respect to their ability to cost effectively produce products/services. The following factors are considered:
• The strength of production manager including experience with personnel management, current and new technologies, complex projects and the equipment and tools used by the manufacturing personnel.
• Economies of scale allowing the sharing of operations, sharing of production and the potential for vertical integration.
• Technology and production experience
• The necessary production personnel skill level and/or the enterprise's ability to hire or train qualified personnel.
• The ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power.
• The ability of the enterprise to control the quality of raw materials and production.
• Adequate access to raw materials and sub-assembly production.

Marketing/Sales
The marketing and sales organization is analyzed for its strengths and current activities. Factors to consider include:
• Experience of Marketing/Sales manager including contacts in the industry (prospects, distribution channels, media), familiarity with advertising and promotion, personal selling capabilities, general management skills and a history of profit and loss responsibilities.
• The ability to generate good publicity as measured by past successes, contacts in the press, quality of promotional literature and market education capabilities.
• Sales promotion techniques such as trade allowances, special pricing and contests.
• The effectiveness of your distribution channels as measured by history of relations, the extent of channel utilization, financial stability, reputation, access to prospects and familiarity with your offering.
• Advertising capabilities including media relationships, advertising budget, past experience, how easily the offering can be advertised and commitment to advertising.
• Sales capabilities including availability of personnel, quality of personnel, location of sales outlets, ability to generate sales leads, relationship with distributors, ability to demonstrate the benefits of the offering and necessary sales support capabilities.
• The appropriateness of the pricing of your offering as it relates to competition, price sensitivity of the prospect, prospect's familiarity with the offering and the current market life cycle stage.

Customer Services
The strength of the customer service function has a strong influence on long term market success. Factors to consider include:
• Experience of the Customer Service manager in the areas of similar offerings and customers, quality control, technical support, product documentation, sales and marketing.
• The availability of technical support to service your offering after it is purchased.
• One or more factors that causes your customer support to stand out as unique in the eyes of the customer.
• Accessibility of service outlets for the customer.
• The reputation of the enterprise for customer service.

Conclusion
After defining your strategy you must use the information you have gathered to determine whether this strategy will achieve the objective of making your enterprise competitive in the marketplace. Two of the most important assessments are described below.

Cost To Enter Market
This is an analysis of the factors that will influence your costs to achieve significant market penetration. Factors to consider include:
• Your marketing strength.
• Access to low cost materials and effective production.
• The experience of your enterprise.
• The complexity of introduction problems such as lack of adherence to industry standards, unavailability of materials, poor quality control, regulatory problems and the inability to explain the benefits of the offering to the prospect.
• The effectiveness of the enterprise infrastructure in terms of organization, recruiting capabilities, employee benefit programs, customer support facilities and logistical capabilities.
• Distribution effectiveness as measured by history of relations, the extent of channel utilization, financial stability, reputation, access to prospects and familiarity with your offering.
• Technological efforts likely to be successful as measured by the strength of the development organization.
• The availability of adequate operating capital.

Profit Potential
This is an analysis of the factors that could influence the potential for generating and maintaining profits over an extended period. Factors to consider include:
• Potential for competitive retaliation is based on the competitors resources, commitment to the industry, cash position and predictability as well as the status of the market.
• The enterprise's ability to construct entry barriers to competition such as the creation of high switching costs, gaining substantial benefit from economies of scale, exclusive access to or clogging of distribution channels and the ability to clearly differentiate your offering from the competition.
• The intensity of competitive rivalry as measured by the size and number of competitors, limitations on exiting the market, differentiation between offerings and the rapidity of market growth.
• The ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power.
• The enterprise's ability to sustain its market position is determined by the potential for competitive imitation, resistance to inflation, ability to maintain high prices, the potential for product obsolescence and the 'learning curve' faced by the prospect.
• The availability of substitute solutions to the prospect's need.
• The prospect's bargaining power as measured by the ease of switching to an alternative, the cost to look at alternatives, the cost of the offering, the differentiation between your offering and the competition and the degree of the prospect's need.
• Market potential for new products considering market growth, prospect's need for your offering, the benefits of the offering, the number of barriers to immediate use, the credibility of the offering and the impact on the customer's daily operations.
• The freedom of the enterprise to make critical business decisions without undue influence from distributors, suppliers, unions, investors and other outside influences.

Copyright : Business Resource

How Visioning Changed My Life

2008-07-02T23:19:00.000+07:00

By: Jim Clemmer

Soon after the completion of Disney World someone said, 'Isn't it too bad Walt Disney didn't live to see this'. I replied, 'He did see it — that's why it's here'." — Mike Vance, creative director, Walt Disney Studios

Visioning is where my personal effectiveness quest began. In 1974, when I was just starting my straight commission Culligan sales job, someone recommended I read Claude Bristol's book TNT: The Power Within You. The book sparked such an intensity of energy, excitement, and profound new awareness that I couldn't get a good night's sleep for almost a week. Even now, as I thumb through the book and recall that turning point in my life, a shiver runs up my spine.

Published in 1954, this was Claude Bristol's second book (his first — which I read later — was The Magic of Believing). Both books were based on his decades of searching for a deeper understanding of, and applying, what he called "mind stuff." This work came from his experience as a journalist studying and reporting on the full spectrum of spiritual and religious movements (especially fringe groups), building his own wealth and career as an investment banker, and his study of thousands of books on "the science of thought."

Here are just a few of the many key passages and ideas from TNT that started my self-leadership juices flowing (the emphasis shown is his):

"Picture the force! It is the explosive force of a mental picture of what you want in life, given by you to your subconscious, touched off by faith in yourself and faith in God. Whatever you picture, within reason, can come true in your life if you have, sufficient faith in the power within! That's your TNT — a mental picture of what you want and the faith that you can and will get it . . . we do not think in words. We think in pictures!

The universal language is feeling . . . this creative power operates like a magnet. Give it a strong, clear picture of what you want and this creative power starts to work magnetizing conditions about you — attracting to you the things, resources, opportunities, circumstances and even the people you need, to help bring to pass in your outer life what you have pictured . . . what you picture in your mind, if you picture it clearly and confidently and persistently enough, will eventually come to pass in your life . . . there is a universal law in the mental realm, 'like attracts like'."

TNT awakened me to the enormous power between my ears that I wasn't using. I began reading many books and magazine articles on these topics and I attended presentations and workshops given by many of the leading authors, trainers, and speakers. I bought dozens of audio tapes on this and related "mental attitude" topics.

A strong early influence was personal development speaker and author, Zig Ziglar's, audio tapes and his book, See You at the Top. In his book he wrote about the importance of "seeing the reaching." He went on to state, "The world has a way, not only of stepping aside for men or women who know where they are going, but it often joins and helps them reach their objective."

Over the next few years I used these approaches to build a successful sales and management career, quit smoking and biting my finger nails, lose weight and get into better physical shape, develop my writing and speaking skills, and help build Achieve into a top national training and consulting firm.

I even changed from being a "sickly kid" (I would miss weeks of school each year) to not missing a single work day because of sickness for a period of nearly 20 years. I blew my record with a number of ailments, unprecedented depression, and "sick days" in 1993 when the picture of my career future was the foggiest it had ever been.

Once the picture of my preferred future cleared up, so did my attitude and health. Our thoughts become things and really do manifest themselves in our lives.

Bringing New Products to Market

2008-07-01T19:47:00.000+07:00

by David Mammano

Otherwise known as the idea train, an entrepreneurs' way if thinking is her biggest strength and, if not carefully managed, could be her biggest curse.

I probably have a new idea every day. And at the time I have it, I usually get so excited that I think it's the next best thing. In mind, at that time, I have just made Steve Jobs look like an amateur.

Ok Dave - whatever...

But, at the same time, some of my ideas are pretty good. I wouldn't have a successful business if they weren't. And of course, some of my ideas are....let's say, put on hold.

If I actually acted on all my ideas, my company would have imploded a long time ago. One can stretch a company too thin where it begins to lose focus. I started in this direction a few years ago. A member of my team made a comment to me that was very enlightening. She said, "I feel as though lately we are growing like a shrub instead of a tree."

It was a very powerful statement and made me think about pruning the shrub so we can grow like a tree again. And we have.

Now when I have ideas, I present them to my managers first to flesh them out. This can be a frustrating experience because entrepreneurs and managers think differently, thank God. If he's smart, the entrepreneur has surrounded himself with detailed managers who can say no to him when appropriate. Most entrepreneurs don't like their ideas to be grilled and possibly put on hold or nixed for the benefit of the company. So, he will give his managers the right to set him straight if the idea is not the best for the company at that time; or needs to be altered/killed.

Of course, I can do whatever I want within my own company. But in my mind, it's not my own company. If I don't have the buy in from management and the rest of the team the idea will never take shape.

So here is my 10 step plan on how to entrepreneurs can deal with their ideas:

1) Marry well. Your spouse should be the first one to tell you if the idea has merit or if you're smoking something. You can save your team a lot of time if your spouse can nix the idea first. My wife has a special talent to see through my special"forest" and if I am in "DaveLand" with one of my ideas, she'll let me know. "DaveLand" is actually a great place! The sky is red and there is fun everywhere (and great food), but it's not for everybody...

2) Hire well. It's obvious, but some ego maniacs surround themselves with minion-like people. I have empowered my team to challenge me and let me know when I am getting off course. If I did not do this years ago, my idea train could have derailed the company.

3) Develop a process to discuss ideas with your management team. Form a R&D committee or just have a discussion at your weekly manager meeting

4) Explain the opportunity or problem to solve and see what they come up with first.

5) Present your thoughts at a very high level. Don't get tactical yet. Just the 50,000 foot view.

6) Be calm. Don't try to "sell" your idea. Stick to discussing the opportunity in a calm, rational way and let the conversation flow. If your managers feel they are being sold an idea, their BS meter may go off. This could really change the direction of the discussion.

7) Ask them to pitch the idea back to you. Then ask, "What does it look like when we, as a company, execute this idea really well and so that it doesn't strain the company?"

8) On a white board, brainstorm all the reasons why you shouldn't move forward with the idea. Then, list all the reason why it's a good idea.

9) Listen half as much as you talk.

10) Be ready to walk away from the idea, or alter it.

It seems like a lot to go though, I know. Many entrepreneurs might be reading this and saying, "Bull! The reason I started a business is to do whatever I want, whenever I want!" That may work if you are a one man show. But if you have people working for you, you'd be smart to rely on their intelligence to guide you. Hopefully, that's a big reason why you hired them.

Another big reason to go through this process is the actual execution of the idea. Traditionally, entrepreneurs are builders of ideas but not always great at seeing them through. You'll need your team to embrace the idea if you expect them to execute it well.

Bottom line; make sure you allow really great passengers on your idea train who can help you drive.

Enjoy your ride. (www.marketingscoop.com)

Jay Abraham

2008-06-26T18:23:00.000+07:00

If you're attacking your market from multiple positions and your competition isn't, you have all the advantage and it will show up in your increased success and income.

Roman Abramovich Quotes

2008-06-26T18:20:00.000+07:00

The goal is to win. It's not about making money. I have many much less risky ways of making money than this (buying Chelsea football club). I don't want to throw my money away, but it's really about having fun and that means success and trophies.

Roman Abramovich: Russian Oil Billionaire

2008-06-26T18:16:00.001+07:00

Roman Abramovich (Roman Arkadievich Abramovich) is a powerful Russian oligarch and oil billionaire, who was born on October 24, 1966 in Saratov, USSR (Russia). He lost his parent when he was a teenager and became adopted by uncle. Abramovich had a difficult childhood. He served for the Soviet Army and was educated in the Industrial Institute, that is based in Ukhta.

Early 90 s marked a privatization and free enterprise establishing, and Abramovich was one of them people who started business. In a period of few year he has established 5 enterprises, however Abramovich was accused of criminal activities. In 90's Abramovich was protected by the Russian president Boris Yeltsin.

Abramovich gained the majority shareholder in an oil company called Sibneft and in the aluminum producing company called RusAl (it is the largest in the world). Additional to his business and commercial activities Abramovich is involved in politics as well. He was the elected representative of Chukotka in the Russian Duma (1999) and Abramovich has made lots of investments into Chukotka region.

Roman Abramovich owns an English Premiership football club Chelsea F.C. since 2003.

In the year 2005 Abramovich was named as the wealthiest man in Russia (Forbes Magazine research).

Abramovich is interested in Formula One and due to his Jewish background Abramovich supports projects in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv

Copyright: Popmonk.com

Anthony J. Robbins: Famous American Motivational Expert

2008-06-26T18:12:00.000+07:00

Famous for : Being a best selling self help author, coaching world leaders, holding energy packed seminars, and for being the big smiling guy on them annoying television infomercials.
Robbins details : Born - USA February 29, 1960 Lives - USA
Book Reviews : Awaken the Giant Within - Tony Robbins Books

Anthony Robbins (Tony Robbins) is a best selling self help author, motivational speaker, and advisor to many world leaders, sports professionals and business people. He is an internationally recognized personality and has appeared on countless infomercials, television interviews, talk shows, radio programs, and has even appeared as himself in the romantic comedy "Shallow Hal" starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black.

Tony Robbins was born on the 29th of February 1960 (leap year), California, USA. He became determined to change his life after a particularly low period in his life where he was struggling to pay his bills, over weight and without direction.

Robbins transformed his life and developed systems to change the lives of thousands more. Neuro-linguistic programming or NLP became an integral part of Robbins' current philosophy and teachings. His popular motivational technique "neuroassociative conditioning" was developed from the teachings of NLP.

Anthony Robbins gets his message out to an international audience of millions through his best selling motivational books, audio programs, motivational seminars, motivational coaching and the philanthropic work that he and his companies do with the less privileged members of society. Some of his popular motivational products include:

Awaken the Giant Within: Book & Audio Program
How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical, and Financial
Best selling self help book where Tony Robbins sets out to teach the reader strategies to achieve success in life, overcome phobias, improve relationships, and to make lasting change by eliminating destructive habits.

Unlimited Power: Book & Audio Program
The New Science Of Personal Achievement
Robbins shares some of his Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques to learn how to eliminate phobias in minutes, create rapport with strangers, and to duplicate the success of others.

Anthony Robbins has created an almost fanatical group of followers worldwide with people prepared to pay thousands of dollars to attend his motivational seminars and workshops, but he also has his critics. One area critics talk of is his firewalking workshops where participants are encouraged to walk barefooted across hot coals. Critics say it is simple logic and not the power of the mind that gets people across the coals without burning their feet.

Robbins is also an active and generous philanthropist. The "Anthony Robbins Foundation" had its beginnings in Robbins giving out bags of groceries anonymously to impoverished families at Thanks Giving each year. The organization now feeds more than 500,000 people each year worldwide during Thanksgiving, Easter and December holidays. Inspiration, education and training are also delivered to disadvantaged people in society.

Copyright: Woopidoo.com

Success is Easy, But so is Neglect

2008-06-24T16:51:00.001+07:00

People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year period of time while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people.

They said it probably really wouldn't matter. If I had to sum it up, I would say what I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. Six years later, I'm a millionaire and they are all still blaming the economy, the government and company policies, yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.
In fact, the primary reason most people are not doing as well as they could and should, can be summed up in a single word: neglect.

It is not the lack of money - banks are full of money. It is not the lack of opportunity - America, and much of the free World, continues to offer the most unprecedented and abundant opportunities in the last six thousand years of recorded history. It is not the lack of books – libraries are full of books - and they are free! It is not the schools - the classrooms are full of good teachers. We have plenty of ministers, leaders, counselors and advisors.

Everything we would ever need to become rich and powerful and sophisticated is within our reach. The major reason that so few take advantage of all that we have is simply, neglect.

Neglect is like an infection. Left unchecked it will spread throughout our entire system of disciplines and eventually lead to a complete breakdown of a potentially joy-filled and prosperous human life.

Not doing the things we know we should do causes us to feel guilty and guilt leads to an erosion of self-confidence. As our self-confidence diminishes, so does the level of our activity. And as our activity diminishes, our results inevitably decline. And as our results suffer, our attitude begins to weaken. And as our attitude begins the slow shift from positive to negative, our self-confidence diminishes even more ... and on and on it goes.

So my suggestion is that when giving the choice of "easy to" and "easy not to" that you do not neglect to do the simple, basic, "easy"; but potentially life-changing activities and disciplines.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn (Copyright Jim Rohn International)

www.Woopidoo.com

World's Best Brands Review 2006

2008-06-24T16:46:00.000+07:00

The branding company Interbrand and the BusinessWeek magazine have teamed up again to rank the world's leading super brands. The best brands in 2006 are a lot like the ones featured on the list in 2005, except for some jostling from long established companies and just a few new comers finding themselves on the elite 100 list. The United Kingdom based exclusive clothing and apparel company Burberry and the Japanese based car manufacturer Lexus (owned by Toyota) are the only new kids on the block, with the former taking 98th position and the latter rocketing straight up to 92nd position.

At the top of the best one hundred brands there is very little change from last year. There are no changes at all until 7th position, with Toyota moving from 9th last year to 7th this year.

The top 6 are long established brands with a global reach and marketing strategy that has been difficult to challenge. The fizzy drinks maker Coca-Cola has clung to the title of the best brand in the world with it's ever present marketing campaign and a range of innovative new products. The remaining top 6 brands include Microsoft (2), IBM (3), General Electric GE (4), Intel (5), and the phone manufacturer from Finland, Nokia reclaiming position 6.

Interbrand ranks each brand by calculating the net present value of the earnings the brand is expected to generate from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006. More than one third of the brand's earnings must be derived from countries other than where they are based and they must have earnings of at least 2.7 billion dollar before they are even considered. Their marketing and financial data must also be publicly available and they must be recognized by people outside of their customer base.

This is the 6th annual brands list that Interbrand has put together in association with BusinessWeek. Notable winners for 2006 include the Internet giant Google with a 46% increase in brand value, Starbucks with 20percent, eBay with 18percent, and Motorola with an 10percent increase in value. While the biggest losers list included Gap with a drop of 12 places and a 22 percent decline, Ford with 16percent, Kodak with 12percent, and Heinz with a 10percent decline in brand value.

CEO of Interbrand, Jez Frampton said "In the majority of cases, those who made the ranking are proactively managing their businesses through a brand lens. They have recognized that their brand should be the central organizing principle given the incredible value they represent. The need to measure and manage brand performance continues to be a critical priority for senior management as evidenced by the incredible interest shown in this ranking.”

Copyright Woopidoo.com

World's Best Brands Review 2007

2008-06-24T16:41:00.002+07:00

The branding firm Interbrand and the BusinessWeek magazine have teamed up again to rank the world's leading super brands. For the seventh consecutive year the number one brand in the world is the brown fizzy soft drink of Coca-Cola. The global giant is slowing though as the company is spending a lot of time focusing on the healthier beverages that people are continuing to choose over the classic Coke beverage.

The Internet search engine and advertising company Google was the biggest gainer on the global brands list for 2007 with a 44 percent increase in brand value. Google is ranked 20th with a brand value of about $17.8 billion. Last year they had a brand value of $12.3 billion and were ranked 24th.

Business Week spoke with Google's vice-president of marketing David Lawee to ask him about the meteoric rise of the company. Lawee says his job is made easier by the quality of the products that Google releases; "When you have a great story to tell, you just have to tell it. Your job as a marketer is infinitely easier. We have a great story to tell." He also said "The challenge for us is to continue to outdo ourselves. That's a challenge for a lot of brands. Brands aren't static things. They're like people. They grow, they learn, they evolve. Now we're almost 10 years old. We know we have a lot to learn. But we're trying to be our own person. That's a little bit different from the way branding used to be done."

This is the 7th annual global brands list that Interbrand has put together in association with the BusinessWeek magazine. Notable winners for 2007 include the Internet giant Google with a 44% increase in brand value, the Spanish owned clothing brand Zara with 22%, Apple computers with 21%, Nintendo with 18%, and the Starbucks coffee giant with a 17% increase in value. While the biggest losers list included the American car maker Ford with a drop of 17%, Gap clothing brand dropped 15%, Kodak with 12%, Pizza Hut with 9%, and the mobile phone maker Motorola with a 9% decline in brand value.

Interbrand ranks each brand by calculating the net present value of the earnings that the brand is expected to generate. More than one third of the brand's earnings must be derived from countries other than where they are based and they must be well recognized outside of their main customer base. Their marketing and financial data must also be publicly available which excludes large privately held companies like Visa. Airlines are excluded, as are pharmaceutical brands this year, and insurance companies have been allowed this year for the first time.

When talking about the measuring of brand value, Interbrand's Group Chief Executive Jez Frampton said they have "always placed great emphasis upon the need for a balance between the logical and the creative. Brands, after all, live in our heads and our hearts. But ultimately, brands are value generators for business. Increasingly, we need to understand how brands deliver value and use this information to better inform business decisions."

In a report put out by Interbrand, they said "Leaders plan for their success by creating, managing and implementing strong strategic visions that make businesses stand out and command attention. The successful brands recognize and commit to this as a cycle of activity, prospering while they deliver economic value to the brand and their organization."

Copyright by Woopidoo.com

World's Best Brands Review 2008

2008-06-24T16:39:00.001+07:00

BrandZ has released their third annual list of the top 100 most powerful brands in the world, with the Internet search engine Google coming in at number one. The dollar value of the Google brand has increased by 30% to an estimated $86.1 billion according to the BrandZ Top 100 list.

The marketing research firm Millward Brown Optimor created the BrandZ Top 100 list to measure the dollar value of the largest brands worldwide. The list shows that a company's value is not just in it's people, factories, or machinery, but also in the brand of the product or service being sold. Brandz top 100 shows that a brand can be measured, managed, and grown to benefit the company.

The top five most powerful brands of 2008 have remained the same as last year, with all 5 brands increasing their value by at least 15%. After Google is the General Electric brand in second position with an estimated brand value of $71.4 billion. Microsoft was third on the Brandz Top 100 with $70.89 billion, the soft drink Coca-Cola was fourth on the list with a brand value of $58.2 billion, and China Mobile reclaims its 5th position with a value of $57.2 billion.

Technology was a standout performer on the list with major tech brands like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Apple, HP, Cisco, Oracle and Intel all increasing in value. The technology brands on the BrandZ Top 100 list increased in value by 33% over the past 12 months. Mobile phone operators were the only category of brands that performed better than technology, with a brand value increase of 35%.

CEO of Millward Brown Optimor, Joanna Seddon said "This year’s brand ranking demonstrates the importance of investing in brands, especially in times of market turmoil. Strong brands generate superior returns and protect businesses from risk. Our data shows that strong brands continue to outperform weak ones in terms of market share and share price during recessions."

Copyright by Woopidoo.com

Independent Contractor vs. Employee

2008-06-21T01:01:00.000+07:00

by J. Christa Thomas, Lawyer

A recent trend has been for employers to try to classify employees as independent contractors. I am aware of many instances where employers have tried unsuccessfully to categorize an employee as an independent contractor. When the employee failed to remit Canada Pension Plan, income tax or Employment Insurance Premiums, the Minister looked to the employer for the unremitted payments. More importantly many of these employers have found themselves being audited by the Minister of National Revenue.

The mere existence of a formal Independent Contractor Agreement is not determinative of the issue. Regard must be had to all aspects of the relationship. In determining whether an individual is an employee, courts look at the following factors:

(i) whether the employer had the power of selecting, controlling and/or dismissing the individual;
(ii) whether the employer had the right to exercise power of control over the individual;
(iii) ownership of the tools;
(iv) chance of profit; and/or
(v) risk of loss.

If the person would likely be classified as an "employee" one must have regard to the employer's liabilities. An employer is entirely liable for source deductions relating to an employee, such as income tax, Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance Premiums and Employer Health Tax.

If an individual is an independent contractor, he/she will be responsible for his/her own remittances of Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance Premiums and income tax. The Minister of National Revenue may at any time reassess the individual on the basis that the individual was not an independent contractor but was an employee. This often occurs where the individual has not or can not make the required payments. The Minister could then, in the absence of payment by the individual, require the employer to remit contributions on behalf of the individual.

Notwithstanding the fact that an Independent Contractor Agreement has been executed between an individual and an employer, if the individual's employment is terminated the individual may still claim damages for wrongful dismissal and the relationship between the individual and the employer will be subject to the scrutiny of the court to determine whether the individual was an independent contractor or an employee. If found to be an employee, the individual may also look to the employer for unpaid vacation time.

The Power of Passion

2008-06-19T17:47:00.001+07:00

By: Jim Clemmer

"A passionate interest in what you do is the secret of enjoying life, perhaps the secret of long life, whether it is helping old people or children, or making cheese, or growing earthworms." — Julia Child, American cooking expert, author, and television personality

The French call it joie de vivre, which means joy or love of life. We wrestled long and hard with putting into words the core values that brought us together and define the kind of organization The CLEMMER Group aspires to be. The first cornerstone of our four core values is Passion. Our definition describes our own aspirations and a key quality we find in highly effective leaders:

The CLEMMER Group is brimming with joy of life. We are passionate and we have fun. We have a contagious, positive outlook. We give and get deep meaning from our work. We experience life with an ever-increasing depth. We nurture the hearts and souls of each other and those we serve.

We celebrate our successes along the way. We cultivate the seemingly unnatural — but vital — skill and habit of appreciating and being thankful for what we have and what we've accomplished. We don't just focus on the mountain of unattained goals yet to be climbed, we periodically stop to enjoy the view from the vantage points we've reached.

We believe that organizations, systems, processes, and technology serve people, not the other way around. We love and celebrate the richness of life and infinite human potential in the services we provide and the way we live.

The author and poet, Samuel Ullman, wrote, "Age may wrinkle the face, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles the soul" (now there's a scary thought — just imagine the leathery, shriveled souls of apathetic people). Enthusiasm is a word that comes from ancient Greek meant "having the god within." Enthusiasm, passion, and love are key drivers in our lives. When we connect with our inner spirit, we feel the most intensely alive. During these moments, our inner voice whispers, "this is the real me."

A teacher was discussing a picture of a family with her first graders. One little boy in the picture had different color hair and skin than the other family members. One student suggested that he was adopted. A little girl, Jenny, chimed in, "I know all about adoptions because I was adopted." "What does it mean to be adopted?" asked another first grader. "It means," answered Jenny, "that you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy."

Passion and love are affairs of the heart, not head. We aren't rational creatures. Take parenting for example. Some days the decision to become parents seems so irrational as to be insane. On those "doubt days," it's easy to understand why some animals eat their young. Credit card bills or election results point to a few more cases of less than rational decisions. Humans use thinking and reason to solve problems and make plans. But it's our hearts more than our heads that move us. Most so-called "rational thinking" is merely justifying actions that start with our feelings. We often make decisions that "feel right," then start looking for the "facts" to support them.

In many organizations, what's often called leadership is really management. Activities such as planning, analysis, problem solving, strategy, process improvement, goal setting, measurement, and such are critical. And they call for good intellectual thinking. But for all their importance, they don't add up to leadership.

Leadership is emotional. Leadership deals with feelings. Leadership is made up of dreams, inspiration, excitement, desire, pride, care, passion, and love. The areas of our lives where we show the strongest leadership — including our communities, families, organizations, products, services, hobbies, and customers — are where we're most in love.

Attracting Perfect Customers and Clients

2008-06-18T23:10:00.000+07:00

How many times have you thought "I need more customers!"?

If you find that you often feel that you need more customers, then consider this...

85% of new businesses fail within the first five years of operation, and, of those that survive, another 85% will fail within the next five years? The major contributing factor for these failures is that these businesses have focused their resources on finding or "targeting" customers to serve.

There is a common belief held by most business owners that all of their business problems would be solved if they could just figure out the secret to "finding and getting more customers."

And, that is their biggest mistake!

The never-ending search for more customers requires an abundance of people, time, and money... resources which are usually in short supply in most businesses. In such an environment, the effort put forth to "find" customers is actually depleting the business of its energy, creativity, and enthusiasm...commodities required to serve these customers in a satisfying way. And, since dissatisfied customers do not return, the business must keep finding more customers to replace those they have lost.

So, with each repetition of the cycle, the business has less and less ability to provide the level of service that would satisfy the types of customers it originally intended to serve. So, the number of complaints the business receives continues to increase...and eventually, the complaints outweigh the compliments. The word spreads throughout the community. It becomes harder to find customers to serve. Debts then exceed profits. The business fails.

Conversely, those 15% that succeed have structured their business in a way that "attracts" only perfect customers and clients.

I invite you now to replace the thought "I need more customers" with the conviction that "I now attract only perfect customers."

What's the difference?

It's the difference between a successful business and one that struggles to survive. It's the difference between a profitable business and one that pinches pennies. It's the difference between a thriving business and one that is hanging on by a thread.

The Lighthouse Test

How can we tell if our business is structured to "attract" customers to serve?

There is a simple test. We call it the Lighthouse Test.

Imagine a lighthouse standing strong and erect on the rocky shores of a beautiful ocean. On this particular day, the water is calm, the sky is blue, and there are many boats out to sea. Yet, out in the distance, there is a storm cloud forming on the horizon. It is coming closer to shore very quickly. The sky is getting darker, the waves are getting rougher, and many of the boats are being tossed about on the water. As the rains and the winds pick up strength, so does the power of the beam of light emanating from the lighthouse. Some of the boats, anxious to move quickly to a quiet and protective harbor, are relying on this beam of light to guide them safely to the spot. The darker the skies become, the brighter the light shines.

Please also notice that not all of the boats are in need of this beam of light to guide them to safety.

Some have more confident captains and crew, while other boats have equipment that can handle the storm effectively.

Now, imagine that the lighthouse gets upset because some of the boats are choosing not to come to its harbor. Because it wants to protect and serve all of the boats in the sea, it sprouts arms and legs and begins running up and down the beach, waving its arms, doing its best to catch the attention of all the boats. What would be the result?

Most likely, the boats that were depending on the light to guide them would by now have been destroyed in the chaos and confusion caused by the light moving up and down the beach Other boats, led by their curiosity, may come closer to shore to get a better look at the spectacle of a lighthouse running up and down the shore, and then head back out to deeper waters. While others would be perfectly content to stay where they are...out at sea. The end result, very few boats are served safely and securely.

The test lies in asking ourselves when, as business owners and managers, how often are we the lighthouse standing securely on the shore attracting the boats (customers) to us with our light and how often are we running up and down the beach looking for boats (customers) to serve?

WHEN WE ARE LOOKING FOR CUSTOMERS TO SERVE, WE FIND "CUSTOMERS FROM HELL"

When we are looking for people to serve, we must expend a lot of energy. First, we have to figure out where we are most likely to find the greatest number of customers. And, then we must spend more time and money experimenting with the right way to catch their attention. And, once we've caught their attention, we then must convince them that we have what they want. By the time we have actually found someone who is willing to try what we have to give them, we are exhausted!

So, when this customer tells us that they are not completely satisfied with our products, our policies, or our pricing, we are more than willing to make compromises to satisfy them ... truth be known, we are simply too tired to put up a fight. Thinking that we have won the war, we feel we can afford to let them win these smaller conflicts...especially in light of what it would cost us to go out and hunt down another customer to replace this one.

Yet, if we had more strength and solvency, we might be more willing to listen to the tiny inner voice that says, "Be careful...this one could be more trouble than their worth. This is a customer from hell."

Yet, we ignore the voice because we need to make back the money we spent on our marketing and sales program. Or, we convince ourselves that these customers must be perfect for us because they responded to our advertising or clicked on our hyperlink, or we are afraid that the competition will serve them if we don't. Inevitably, though, the voice turns out to be right. By the time we end our tortured relationship with this customer, we feel that no amount of money in the world would have been enough to compensate us for the cost of the experience. We blame the customer for the poor quality of the interaction, but the truth is that, as business owners and managers, we are solely responsible for who we chose to serve.

And, when we create advertising campaigns or promotional strategies that fail to clearly convey the bright light of our unique business distinctions, we find customers that other businesses should be serving.

As soon as we hear that tiny inner voice warning us that we have found a "less-than-perfect" customer, it's a signal that our own distinctive light has gone out. It no longer has the power and brilliance to attract only perfect customers and clients.

Take a moment to picture one of your most perfect clients -- the one person with whom you most enjoy working. If you're like the majority of business people, the client you describe as perfect is the one who respects and values your time, trusts you to have his or her best interests at heart, comes to you with realistic expectations, happily pays what your product or service is worth, is intelligent, trustworthy, and sincere, and refers your business to their friends and family. Perfect customers make you feel needed, appreciated, respected, and understood. Even more, they reconnect you with the passion and purpose that puts joy in your work--the very reason you got into your business in the first place. And, when you think about it, these perfect clients often come to you easily; there was an immediate spark of attraction and connection with this client as if synchronicity brought you together at the perfect time and place.

So...are all of your clients or customers perfect? If your answer is "no," then consider a new marketing model... one that transforms your approach, attitudes and behavior to create the synchronicity that easily attracts perfect clients and customers to your business.

The Strategic Attraction™ process works for every business, just as successfully as it has for Dan Krohn, attorney.

"After working with the Strategic Attraction™ process to identify my perfect client, I became convinced that there are indeed more than enough such perfect clients to keep me busy. The work started to flow in, and it's been coming in at an increasing rate ever since. What's more, I have the extraordinary pleasure of working almost exclusively with clients whom I like -- a luxury few attorneys ever experience!"

Copyright 2001 PerfectCustomers Inc.

How to Make Internet Marketing Work for You

2008-06-18T23:09:00.001+07:00

By Laura Lake, About.com

Internet Marketing can attract more people to your website, increase customers for your business, and enchance branding of your company and products. If you are just beginning your online marketing strategy the top 10 list below will get you started on a plan that has worked for many.

Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy.
Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques.
Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively.
Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs.
Request a free web site analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant.
Build a responsive opt-in email list.
Publish articles or get listed in news stories.
Write and publish online press releases.
Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site.
Use email autoresponders and handle your e-mail efficiently and effectively.
By following the above tips you'll be on your way to creating a concrete Internet Marketing Strategy that could boost your business substantially.

The Art of Attracting A Perfect Romantic Relationship

2008-06-18T16:47:00.000+07:00

How to Know if You Are a Searchlight or a Lighthouse

How many times have you thought that dating is too hard and you will never find that perfect person?

PerfectCustomers, Inc., is a catalyst for a new reality in relationship-building known as the Strategic Attraction Planning Process™, to empower people to replace the thought "It's hard to find that perfect person for me" with the conviction that "I now attract only the most perfect relationship to me." Most people agree that looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right takes a lot of energy. First, you must figure out where you are most likely to find the type of people you are interested in dating. And, then you must spend more time and money experimenting with the right way to catch their attention. And, once you've caught their attention, you then must convince them that you are what they want.

So, when this prospective mate tells you that they are not completely satisfied with you -- your qualities, your interests, your friends, your personality, etc. -- you are more than willing to make compromises to satisfy them ... truth be known, you are simply too tired from the chase to put up a fight. Perhaps, thinking that you have won the war, you feel you can afford to let them win these smaller conflicts...especially in light of what it would cost in time and energy to go out and hunt down another prospective mate to replace this one.

Yet, if you had more strength and confidence, you might be more willing to listen to the tiny inner voice that says, "Be careful...this one could be more trouble than its worth."

Perhaps, though, you ignore the voice because someone has told you that you are being 'too picky.' Or, this person has more potential than the last one. Or, you don't want to consider losing this person to the competition. Inevitably, though, the voice turns out to be right. By the time you end your tortured relationship, you feel that no amount of money in the world would have been enough to compensate you for the cost of the experience.

PerfectCustomers promotres that this is the inevitable result when you approach dating as a game to be won -- and it's up to you to find the prize.

THE LIGHTHOUSE TEST

PerfectCustomers suggess taking the "Lighthouse Test" to determine if you are ready to give the game and begin using the universal Law of Attraction to bring the relationship that is a perfect fit for you right to your door.

Imagine a lighthouse standing strong and erect on the rocky shores of a beautiful ocean. On this particular day, the water is calm, the sky is blue, and there are many boats out to sea. Yet, out in the distance, there is a storm cloud forming on the horizon. It is coming closer to shore very quickly. The sky is getting darker, the waves are getting rougher, and many of the boats are being tossed about on the water. As the rains and the winds pick up strength, so does the power of the beam of light emanating from the lighthouse. Some of the boats, anxious to move quickly to a quiet and protective harbor, are relying on this beam of light to guide them safely to the spot. The darker the skies become, the brighter the light shines.

Notice that not all of the boats are in need of this beam of light to guide them to safety. Some have more confident captains and crew, while other boats have equipment that can handle the storm effectively.

Now, imagine that the lighthouse gets upset because some of the boats are choosing not to come to its harbor. Because it wants to protect and serve all of the boats in the sea, it sprouts arms and legs and begins running up and down the beach, waving its arms, doing its best to catch the attention of all the boats. What would be the result?

Most likely, the boats that were depending on the light to guide them would by now have been destroyed in the chaos and confusion caused by the light moving up and down the beach Other boats, led by their curiosity, may come closer to shore to get a better look at the spectacle of a lighthouse running up and down the shore, and then head back out to deeper waters. While others would be perfectly content to stay where they are...out at sea. The end result, very few boats are served safely and securely.

PerfectCustomers states that the test lies in asking yourself what percentage of time do feel like the lighthouse standing securely on the shore attracting the boats (prospective partners) with the power of your inner light and how often do you feel as if you are running up and down the beach looking for boats (prospective partners) to meet?

PERFECT POTENTIAL PARTNERS COME RIGHT TO YOUR SHORE

Take a moment now to consider the qualities of a prospective partner that you would descirbe as perfect for you. Some of the qualities you might include about this person is that they are some one who respects and values your time, trusts you have his or her best interests at heart, and comes to the relationship with realistic expectations. Perfect partners make you feel needed, appreciated, respected, and understood. Even more, they reconnect you with the passion and purpose that puts joy in your life.

According to PerfectCustomers, the key to ensuring that you are only attracting the most perfect potential partners lies in the asking of four simple questions which comprise a Strategic Attraction Plan™.

1. What Are the Qualities of My Most Perfect Partner?

2. What Makes My Perfect Partner Tick?

3. What Do I Want My Perfect Partner To Expect Of Me?

4. What Do I Have To Improve To Be More 'Attractive' To My Perfect Partner?

That's it. The Process is very simple. And, PerfectCustomers, Inc., guarantees that shifts will occur within 48 hours of answering these four questions. In addition to the thousands of their clients who have had amazing results with this Process, they believe that this Process is the key to their own successful marriages. In fact, Stacey met her husband of 10 years within two days of creating her Perfect Partner Attraction Plan. They were engaged within 3 weeks and married within four months of their first meeting.

The most perfect relationship is the one that supports us in being everything we are meant to be in this world and beyond. This may be a radical concept for those of us who believe that we have to sacrifice ourselves in order to have a relationship. We are simply inviting you to play with this Plan and see what happens. Are you ready to play?

For more information on how to develop your Perfect Romantic Partner Strategic Attraction Plan

What Does Success Mean To You?

2008-06-13T15:27:00.000+07:00

by: Brian Bartes
When you think of “success” what comes to mind? Maybe you think of a business owner with a wife, two kids, a dog, and a white picket fence surrounding a big suburban house? Maybe you think of a single, up-and-comer businesswoman with a fancy apartment in the city and a closet full of designer clothes? In reality, “success” is what makes you happy, not what makes society happy. Perhaps the two individuals in the examples above are successful—but only if they’re happy.

People view success very differently. Let’s say two women both in their early thirties have comparable account manager positions in an advertising agency. One, named Kristy just returned from maternity leave, and the other Lynne has no children and is focusing on her career. Kristy is very content because she is able to put in her eight hours a day and then go home to her baby. She likes her job, but she is working just to collect a paycheck. She isn’t looking to advance her career. Lynne is very ambitious and has many professional goals. She’s working overtime and taking on extra projects to prove herself to management. She’s often praised for her determination and good work ethic. When comparing the two employees side-by-side, Lynne “appears” to be the more successful employee because Kristy does only what is required of her to get the job done and Lynne goes above and beyond. However, in actuality both employees feel that they’re successful in their own minds. What does success mean to you? Maybe it means:

• Raising a family.

• Spreading the word of God.

• Climbing the corporate ladder.

• Sending your kids to college.

• Serving your country.

• Staying sober.

• Traveling the world.

• Helping the less fortunate.

• Running a marathon.

• Buying a sports car.

• Skydiving to conquer your fear of heights.

If you haven’t determined what success means to you, you might feel lost. You might wonder what your purpose is in life. You might try to figure out in which direction you should go. So, how do you determine what success means to you? Try this simple approach:

1. Take time. Take some time and really think about what makes you happy.

2. Make a list. List what you need to do to achieve this happiness.

3. Break it down. Break down the steps into achievable tasks, so you can actually see the progress you are making.

4. Evaluate your progress. Success doesn’t happen overnight. Keep close tabs on your tasks and make sure that you are not only following through with them, but that they still support your goal of happiness.

5. Reward yourself. Reward yourself for progress and completion of a job well done! When you know what success means to you, you will feel purposeful, fulfilled, and content. You won’t worry about keeping up with other people or trying to live by their standards. You should also respect other people’s definitions of success. So, do what makes you happy and you can say “Yes, I am successful!”

About The Author

Brian Bartes is a top personal and business success coach. His bi-weekly newsletter is filled with strategies that support you in achieving greater success in your personal and professional life. Subscribe today at his website, http://www.lifeexcellence.com/. This article may be used with the author’s name and website included. Please email a link or forward a copy of the publication if published.

7 Key Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur

2008-06-13T15:09:00.000+07:00

By: Kristine Geimure
Being an entrepreneur is about more than just starting a business or two, it is about having attitude and the drive to succeed in business. All successful Entrepreneurs have a similar way of thinking and posses several key personal qualities that make them so successful in business. Successful entrepreneurs like the ambitious Richard Branson have an inner drive to succeed and grow their business, rather than having a Harvard Business degree or technical knowledge in a particular field.
All successful entrepreneurs have the following qualities:Inner Drive to SucceedEntrepreneurs are driven to succeed and expand their business. They see the bigger picture and are often very ambitious. Entrepreneurs set massive goals for themselves and stay committed to achieving them regardless of the obstacles that get in the way.
Strong Belief in themselvesSuccessful entrepreneurs have a healthy opinion of themselves and often have a strong and assertive personality. They are focused and determined to achieve their goals and believe completely in their ability to achieve them. Their self optimism can often been seen by others as flamboyance or arrogance but entrepreneurs are just too focused to spend too much time thinking about un-constructive criticism.
Search for New Ideas and InnovationAll entrepreneurs have a passionate desire to do things better and to improve their products or service. They are constantly looking for ways to improve. They're creative, innovative and resourceful.
Openness to ChangeIf something is not working for them they simply change. Entrepreneurs know the importance of keeping on top of their industry and the only way to being number one is to evolve and change with the times. They're up to date with the latest technology or service techniques and are always ready to change if they see a new opportunity arise.
Competitive by NatureSuccessful entrepreneurs thrive on competition. The only way to reach their goals and live up to their self imposed high standards is to compete with other successful businesses.
Highly Motivated and EnergeticEntrepreneurs are always on the move, full of energy and highly motivated. They are driven to succeed and have an abundance of self motivation. The high standards and ambition of many entrepreneurs demand that they have to be motivated!
Accepting of Constructive Criticism and RejectionInnovative entrepreneurs are often at the forefront of their industry so they hear the words "it can't be done" quite a bit. They readjust their path if the criticism is constructive and useful to their overall plan, otherwise they will simply disregard the comments as pessimism. Also, the best entrepreneurs know that rejection and obstacles are a part of any leading business and they deal with them appropriately.
True entrepreneurs are resourceful, passionate and driven to succeed and improve. They're pioneers and are comfortable fighting on the frontline The great ones are ready to be laughed at and criticized in the beginning because they can see their path ahead and are too busy working towards their dream.

The secret of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) success

2008-06-13T15:08:00.000+07:00

By Badrishah (See below)

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a very well known restaurant in the world. It is rated at number 60 as the world most well known brand by BusinessWeek (McDonalds at number 9 and Nescafe, 23).

Its history spans almost 80 years when it started at Corbin (Kentucky-USA), in the 1930s. During this period the United States was under The Great Depression with almost 25% unemployment rate. The hard time was probably one of the biggest factor in forcing Harland Sanders ("The Colonel") to start experimenting with various mix of spices and herbs, trying to get the best formula for his recipe. (If we still remember the Asian Economic Crash 1997-2002, one of the last remaining business that kept going during the recession was the food industry).

By 1939, the recipe was already perfected and the Colonel had expanded his restaurant to accomodate 142 seats. This was a fairy large restaurant, the size is equivalent to several tennis courts.

However there was one problem. The WAITING time! It took almost 30 minutes for the chicken to properly cooked. Turn the gas bigger and you risk of having the chicken cooked on the outside but still red with blood inside.

Saved by the Pressure Cooker

Thanks to technology, in 1939 pressure cooker was introduced. Pressure cooker allow liquid to boils at higher temperature. Water for example normally boils at 100 degree Celcius, but with a pressure cooker the sealed lid doesn't allow air or liquid to escape and enable water to boils higher at 125 celcius.

This significantly shortened the time for cooking and as an added advantage, the nutrients (hence the taste) are retained making the food more delicious. Since the boiling point is much higher, this would also kill more germs and make the food last longer.

It should be noted that The Colonel spotted the pressure cooking technique just weeks after it was introduced. This means he was always looking for ways to improve the taste and the time it takes to cook the famous kentucky fried chicken.

Time means money.
Every minutes saved means less time waiting and more satisfaction to the customers. This would also encourage a first time buyer to become repeat customers.

The Colonel is also a smart guy. He can read the writing on the wall. By early 1950s, he probably heard rumours that an Interstate Highway is going to be built BYPASSING his town. This could have a devastating effect on his business. He is now probably under serious dilemma. When the Interstate was finally opened in 1955, it caused a huge diversion of traffic away from his town.

Owning a big percentage in a small town VS Owning a small percentage in a large country.

Seeing an end to his business, the Colonel auctioned off his operations. Confident with the quality of his fried chicken, the Colonel started travelling from town to town franchising his recipe. He visited countless restaurants, promoting his recipe by cooking fried chickens for the owner and the workers.

The first franchise was awarded to Pete Harman of Salt Lake City. A handshake agreement stipulates a payment of a nickel to the Colonel for each chicken sold. This is one of the real strength of the franchise system. It provides a stream of money albeit the sum is initially very small.

Building a franchise network is like building a pipe for money to flow to you. In the beginning, the cost is huge because you have to set the infrastructure, digging the earth, linking pipes, bypassing obstacles etc. In the beginning the volume of water flow (money) in your pipe is also dismal.

After a few years of hard work, the effort will start to bear fruits. A penny here, a penny there, ten pennies from this town, a hundred pennies from that city, a thousand pennies from this district, ten thousand pennies from that state and it happen EVERY DAY! Before long it started to make a huge impact on your income.

The KFC secret recipe: Does it matter?

It is an open secret that the KFC is made of a mix of 11 herbs & spices. Using modern spectrometer, we can blast the Colonel spice with X-ray photoelectron or burn them with a specially designed gas and study the result.

With a database of results made with similar technique using all spices & herbs known to mankind, it would take just weeks before we could identified the exact names and percentage of those 11 spices. However, DOES IT MATTER?? Does it really matter to know the exact names and compositions of those spices?

An average businessman would think the secret recipe is so valuable and willing to pay millions for a copy of it.

A genius businessman would not pay even a penny!!

It is the franchise system, not the spice recipe.

Have you been to a night market ("pasar malam") and tried the fried chickens sold by the hawkers? Have you ever been to a small restaurant or a foodstall and found out that the fried chicken was so crispy and delicious?

Then you were wondering why this small time businessman did not make a fortune out of his "secret recipe"!

The next time you visited the restaurant again, did you notice that:-
• sometimes there was nobody to take orders
• sometimes it was closed without properly giving a notice in advance
• sometimes the table was in a mess and nobody to clean even after 5 minutes you were seated.
• sometimes the sink was dirty and choke full with food residual.
• sometimes the fried chicken was overcooked, and at other times it was undercooked.
• sometimes the fried chicken was too hot and at other times it was not so spicy.
What is the point?

The "secret recipe" represent only a small percentage of the success of the KFC franchise. If I were to give a percent, it may not represent more than 20% of the total success.

THE SUCCESS IS DUE TO THE FRANCHISE SYSTEM!!

In a franchise system, everything is documented and there are strict rules for running the business. For example:-
• The chicken must be cooked in a pressure cooker and left for 15 minutes
• The size of each of the chicken parts must at least 8 cm wide and weight 300 grams
• The chicken must be marinated overnight
• The age of the chicken when they were slaughtered must be between 60-70 days
• The minimum size of the restaurant must be 24x60 feet
• The color of the logo, the chair and the table must be yellow and the floor is dark grey.
• The toilet must be cleaned every 3 hours.
• The sink must be cleaned every 30 minutes
• The windows must be cleaned every morning
• Food left unsold after 15 minutes must be discarded.
• The worker must wear company-shirt and trousers. No jeans, corduroy or leather.
• 5% of gross earning must be used for local advertisement
• 1% of gross earning must be used for national level advertisement
• 3% must be used for R&D to develop new recipes & local brand.
• The food must also be offered in discounted packages (e.g 2 chicken, 1 fries, 1 glass of pepsi)
• The food can be ordered seperately / "ala carte" but no discount applies.
• The restaurant must have air-condition.
• Etc.. etc..
This long list of standard operating procedures is actually the key to the success of the franchise. The long list is actually an accumulated wisdom and know-how the franchise system have developed after a few decades of operation.

Finally we found the holy grail!!

THE "SECRET RECIPE" of KFC SUCCESS IS ACTUALLY THE WHOLE FRANCHISE SYSTEM!!

About The Author
Badrishah is an ex University Sains Malaysia (USM) student who spent 1 year studying franchise system & the success and fall of businesses.
He is a member of MFA online forum.

2005-2007 Copyright Reserved

What motivates people to buy franchises

2008-06-13T15:06:00.000+07:00

The top two motivating factors for Australians planning to buy a franchise before 2010 are the potential to earn and the enhanced lifestyle offered by the change of career path, a recent survey found.

In the national independent online survey, commissioned by Mortgage Choice, of people in the 25 to 55-year age group earning $60,000+ per annum, the top reason for running their own franchise was ‘income potential’. However, running a very close second was ‘improved lifestyle’.

Interestingly, the top two choices for 25-30 year olds were ‘improved lifestyle’ and ‘flexibility with the ability to control your own time/movements/etc’ — ‘income potential’ was third — while the top two for the 51-55 year group was ‘income potential’ and ‘channelling your experience into your own business’. For them, ‘improved lifestyle’ was fifth on the list of priorities.

Mortgage Choice National Manager Corporate Affairs, Warren O’Rourke said this stark contrast in responses for the older and younger generations was not so surprising. “Australian society is realising more and more that Generation Y and the younger Generation X want to work to live, not live to work,” he said.

“The objective of the survey was to determine drivers of behaviour when it comes to Australians looking to purchase a franchise. We wanted to take a good look at the current temperature of the market for potential franchisees.”

Overall, the top three reasons for respondents planning to run their own franchise business were: ‘income potential’, chosen by 47.3 per cent of respondents, ‘improved lifestyle’ (45.3 per cent) and ‘flexibility with the ability to control your own time/movements/etc’ (44.5 per cent). The next few were: ‘looking for stimulation, challenge and personal achievement’ (45.0 per cent), ‘security of being your own boss’ (40.03 per cent), ‘channel your experience into your own business’ (26.7 per cent) and ‘more time for family’ (25.0 per cent).

So which industries’ franchise numbers will we see growing as a result of these franchisee-to-be? Australians who love their food will be very pleased.

The most popular response to the question regarding franchise system industries being looked at to buy within was ‘retail — food, restaurants and cafes’. This was the most popular option for every age group apart from the 51-55 year group, whose top option was ‘business and professional services’ (chosen by 47.81 per cent).

Overall, 27.2 per cent said ‘business and professional services’, 21.2 per cent said ‘health, beauty and personal services’, 19.2 per cent chose ‘domestic services’, 19.0 per cent said education and training services’ and 18.6 per cent said ‘financial services’.

It is worth noticing how the interest in ‘white collar’ franchising continues to grow with a healthy percentage of respondents considering business and professional services and financial services as viable options.

Bringing New Products to Market

2008-06-13T15:05:00.000+07:00

The Entrepreneurs Strength and Curse
by David Mammano

Otherwise known as the idea train, an entrepreneurs' way if thinking is her biggest strength and, if not carefully managed, could be her biggest curse.

I probably have a new idea every day. And at the time I have it, I usually get so excited that I think it's the next best thing. In mind, at that time, I have just made Steve Jobs look like an amateur.

Ok Dave - whatever...

But, at the same time, some of my ideas are pretty good. I wouldn't have a successful business if they weren't. And of course, some of my ideas are....let's say, put on hold.

If I actually acted on all my ideas, my company would have imploded a long time ago. One can stretch a company too thin where it begins to lose focus. I started in this direction a few years ago. A member of my team made a comment to me that was very enlightening. She said, "I feel as though lately we are growing like a shrub instead of a tree."

It was a very powerful statement and made me think about pruning the shrub so we can grow like a tree again. And we have.

Now when I have ideas, I present them to my managers first to flesh them out. This can be a frustrating experience because entrepreneurs and managers think differently, thank God. If he's smart, the entrepreneur has surrounded himself with detailed managers who can say no to him when appropriate. Most entrepreneurs don't like their ideas to be grilled and possibly put on hold or nixed for the benefit of the company. So, he will give his managers the right to set him straight if the idea is not the best for the company at that time; or needs to be altered/killed.

Of course, I can do whatever I want within my own company. But in my mind, it's not my own company. If I don't have the buy in from management and the rest of the team the idea will never take shape.

So here is my 10 step plan on how to entrepreneurs can deal with their ideas:

1) Marry well. Your spouse should be the first one to tell you if the idea has merit or if you're smoking something. You can save your team a lot of time if your spouse can nix the idea first. My wife has a special talent to see through my special"forest" and if I am in "DaveLand" with one of my ideas, she'll let me know. "DaveLand" is actually a great place! The sky is red and there is fun everywhere (and great food), but it's not for everybody...

2) Hire well. It's obvious, but some ego maniacs surround themselves with minion-like people. I have empowered my team to challenge me and let me know when I am getting off course. If I did not do this years ago, my idea train could have derailed the company.

3) Develop a process to discuss ideas with your management team. Form a R&D committee or just have a discussion at your weekly manager meeting

4) Explain the opportunity or problem to solve and see what they come up with first.

5) Present your thoughts at a very high level. Don't get tactical yet. Just the 50,000 foot view.

6) Be calm. Don't try to "sell" your idea. Stick to discussing the opportunity in a calm, rational way and let the conversation flow. If your managers feel they are being sold an idea, their BS meter may go off. This could really change the direction of the discussion.

7) Ask them to pitch the idea back to you. Then ask, "What does it look like when we, as a company, execute this idea really well and so that it doesn't strain the company?"

8) On a white board, brainstorm all the reasons why you shouldn't move forward with the idea. Then, list all the reason why it's a good idea.

9) Listen half as much as you talk.

10) Be ready to walk away from the idea, or alter it.

It seems like a lot to go though, I know. Many entrepreneurs might be reading this and saying, "Bull! The reason I started a business is to do whatever I want, whenever I want!" That may work if you are a one man show. But if you have people working for you, you'd be smart to rely on their intelligence to guide you. Hopefully, that's a big reason why you hired them.

Another big reason to go through this process is the actual execution of the idea. Traditionally, entrepreneurs are builders of ideas but not always great at seeing them through. You'll need your team to embrace the idea if you expect them to execute it well.

Bottom line; make sure you allow really great passengers on your idea train who can help you drive.

Enjoy your ride.

Tung Desem Waringin drops cash from plane

2008-06-12T21:25:00.000+07:00

An Indonesian businessman has scattered 100 million rupiah ($10,700; £5,406) in banknotes from a plane to promote his new motivational book.

Tung Desem Waringin said he would rather share money for a promotional campaign with people who needed it.

His plane flew over a sports field in Serang city, 60km (40 miles) west of Jakarta, dropping four loads of bills of small denomination.

Crowds had been gathering after rumours of the stunt spread on Saturday.

Mr Tung, 42, admitted his scheme was a little "crazy", but said he wanted to create "a rain of money" over Jakarta.

He had been refused permission to conduct the flight over the capital amid security concerns.

Millions of Indonesians live below the poverty line and distributions of free food and aid regularly draw large crowds.

Basics of Marketing

2008-06-10T00:44:00.000+07:00

Basically, you might look at marketing as the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the needs of your customers and are getting value in return. Marketing analysis includes finding out what groups of potential customers (or markets) exist, what groups of customers you prefer to serve (target markets), what their needs are, what products or services you might develop to meet their needs, how the customers might prefer to use the products and services, what your competitors are doing, what pricing you should use and how you should distribute products and services to your target markets. Various methods of market research are used to find out information about markets, target markets and their needs, competitors, etc. Marketing also includes ongoing promotions, which can include advertising, public relations, sales and customer service.

Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the needs of your customers and getting value in return. Marketing is usually focused on one product or service. Thus, a marketing plan for one product might be very different than that for another product. Marketing activities include "inbound marketing," such as market research to find out, for example, what groups of potential customers exist, what their needs are, which of those needs you can meet, how you should meet them, etc. Inbound marketing also includes analyzing the competition, positioning your new product or service (finding your market niche), and pricing your products and services. "Outbound marketing" includes promoting a product through continued advertising, promotions, public relations and sales.

Niche Marketing

2008-06-06T20:35:00.000+07:00

Definition: A portion of a market that you've identified as having some special characteristic and that's worth marketing to

Creating a good niche involves following this seven-step process:

1. Make a wish list. With whom do you want to do business? Be as specific as you can: Identify the geographical range and the types of businesses or customers you want your business to target. If you don't know whom you want to do business with, you can't make contact.
These days, the trend is toward smaller niches (Targeting teenagers isn't specific enough; targeting male, African-American teenagers with family incomes of $40,000 and up is. Aiming at companies that sell software is too broad; aiming at Northern California-based companies that provide internet software sales and training and have sales of $15 million or more is a better goal.

2. Focus. Clarify what you want to sell, remembering this: a) You can't be all things to all people and b) "smaller is bigger." Your niche is not the same as the field in which you work. For example, a retail clothing business is not a niche but a field. A more specific niche may be "maternity clothes for executive women."
To begin this focusing process, use these techniques to help you:
· Make a list of things you do best and the skills implicit in each of them.
· List your achievements.
· Identify the most important lessons you have learned in life.
· Look for patterns that reveal your style or approach to resolving problems.
Your niche should arise naturally from your interests and experience. For example, if you spent 10 years working in a consulting firm, but also spent 10 years working for a small, family-owned business, you may decide to start a consulting business that specializes in small, family-owned companies.

3. Describe the customer's worldview. When you look at the world from your prospective customers' perspective, you can identify their needs or wants. The best way to do this is to talk to prospective customers and identify their main concerns.

4. Synthesize. At this stage, your niche should begin to take shape as your ideas and the client's needs and wants coalesce to create something new. A good niche has five qualities:
1. It takes you where you want to go--in other words, it conforms to your long-term vision.
2. Somebody else wants it--namely, customers.
3. It's carefully planned.
4. It's one-of-a-kind, the "only game in town."
5. It evolves, allowing you to develop different profit centers and still retain the core business, thus ensuring long-term success.

5. Evaluate. Now it's time to evaluate your proposed product or service against the five criteria in Step 4. Perhaps you'll find that the niche you had in mind requires more business travel than you're ready for. That means it doesn't fulfill one of the above criteria--it won't take you where you want to go. So scrap it, and move on to the next idea.

6. Test. Once you have a match between niche and product, test-market it. This can be done by offering samples, such as a free mini-seminar or a sample copy of your newsletter.

7. Go for it! It's time to implement your idea. For many entrepreneurs, this is the most difficult stage. But fear not: If you did your homework, entering the market will be a calculated risk, not just a gamble.
Once your niche is established and well received by your market, you may be tempted to rest on your laurels. Not a good idea. Ask yourself the following questions when you think you have found your niche--and ask them again every six months or so to make sure your niche is still on target:
· Who are your target clients?
· Who aren't your target clients?
· Do you refuse certain kinds of business if it falls outside your niche?
· What do clients think you stand for?
· Is your niche in a constant state of evolution?
· Does your niche offer what prospective customers want?
· Do you have a plan and delivery system that effectively conveys the need for your niche to the right market?
· Can you confidently predict the life cycle of your niche?
· How can your niche be expanded into a variety of products or services that act as profit centers?
· Do you have a sense of passion and focused energy with respect to your niche?
· Does your niche feel comfortable and natural?
· How will pursuing your niche contribute to achieving the goals you have set for your business?

New Definition of Marketing

2008-06-06T20:17:00.000+07:00

AMA releases new definition of marketing

Chicago—The American Marketing Association (AMA) has unveiled a new definition of marketing to reflect the discipline’s broader role in society.
The new definition reads, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

It will be used as the official definition of marketing in books and taught in university lecture halls nationwide, according to the AMA.

“One of the most important changes to American Marketing Association’s new definition for marketing is that marketing is presented as a broader activity,” said Nancy Costopulos, CMO of the American Marketing Association. “Marketing is no longer a function—it is an educational process.”

The previous definition read, “Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.”

—Kate Maddox