According to MyVenturePad’s Daniel Kehrer, “sole-proprietors – the most dominant form of small biz ownership – are 10 times more likely to be audited than other business entities.” In fact, every form of small business return, including LLCs, partnerships, and S-corporations are the targets of new enforcement efforts by the IRS, which believes huge amounts of small business income goes unreported each year.
Read how you can avoid an audit by the IRS >>
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Even some of the most successful small business owners are seeing their sales slow down in this economy. As a smart entrepreneur, you know that marketing is the key to successful selling. It’s the engine that drives your profits.
Has your marketing stalled?
How can you get things running again and get your sales and profits back on track?
Discover how to power up your marketing ideas in this economy >>
I was at my grandmother’s place in Maine with my roommate Rex one summer during college. She had offered us the use of her aging 1949 Jeep while we were there. We thought it would be a blast to take it for a spin. There was only one problem.
After a winter of neglect, the old rusty Jeep wouldn’t start. I had no idea what to do. I was about to give up and walk away when Rex stopped me. “It’s not that complicated to get one of these engines running again. It’s either a fuel problem or an electrical problem. We just have to figure out which it is and then we can fix it ourselves.”
With that mindset, we checked the battery, spark plugs, fuel lines, and fuel pump. We finally traced the problem to a dirty carburetor. Once Rex showed me how to approach the problem, with some basic tools we were able to get the Jeep running again.
Troubleshoot your marketing the same way. If you’re not getting all the sales you want, the problem is either leads (the fuel) or conversions (the spark that turns leads into profits).
Not reaching your sales goals? You need to fix your leads or your conversions.
Discover how to get your marketing up to top speed >>
Ready to repair your marketing problems and get your marketing engine running again? Start with these basic diagnostic questions:
Leads
1. Do you use a free offer to get qualified prospects to contact you?
2. Is your free offer compelling? Do at least 1 out of 20 people who are exposed to it contact you?
3. Do you feature your free offer prominently on your web site so that 10% of visitors to your site contact you?
4. Are you using a client-focused marketing message that explains in 10 or 12 words what benefit you provide?
5. Do you have a no-cost referral strategy for extending your reach and helping more people learn how you can help them?
Want more leads and sales? Start here >>
Conversions
1. Do you have an automated follow-up process in place to convert leads to sales?
2. Are your sales processes, your sales conversations and sales copy structured around product features or your prospects’ problems? If you’re focusing on product or service features, you’re doing it wrong.
3. When you get a prospect to the point of purchase are you using an up-sell strategy to maximize your profits?
4. Do you have a system for cross-selling clients to maximize the dollar value of each client?
5. Are you currently testing ways to increase your conversion rates? If you’re not, you may be leaving a large portion of your profits on the table.
Interested in converting more prospects and closing more sales? Find out how >>
If you answered no to any of the above, your marketing is missing key parts. Add them to get your profits pouring in.
Like your car engine, marketing is a system. If it’s not bringing in the level of profits you want, the fastest way to restart it and get it up to top speed is to figure out what part of the system isn’t working.
Start by determining whether it’s a problem with leads or conversions. Once you know that you can identify whether the problem is your offer, your marketing message, or your closing process. And often, just by fixing one element of your marketing, you can get the whole system running and easily double your income.
Don’t let this economy slow you down >>
– Charlie
P.S. Current car engines are a lot more complicated than the 1949 Jeep that Rex and I got running again. But don’t let new technologies distract you from the basics. You can still diagnose your marketing engine and fix it. Need a hand?
Discover the simple system for maximizing your leads, conversions and profits >>
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It was the day after Thanksgiving when I lost my pants. I was headed in from Connecticut to New York City with my fiance to explore what was then a still-emerging art gallery scene in Soho. We were enjoying the trip in but things started to go wrong when we got off the subway.
We’d misread the subway map and got off one stop too early. That wouldn’t normally have been a problem, but when we emerged from the subway station, rain was coming down in buckets. We had rain jackets but no umbrella, and the temperature was just above freezing.
By the time we’d walked a few blocks, our jeans were soaked through and we were both shivering and miserable. We were too cold to spend the day wandering around soaking wet. The choice was, either to give up and go home, or do something about our wet clothes and try to save our day together in the city. We opted for the latter.
What would you have done?
We stopped at a corner store, bought a newspaper and went looking for a way to dry our pants. A block away, behind a heavy metal door, we found a tiny laundromat with just three washers and dryers.
We peeled off our wet jeans behind the newspaper and popped them into a dryer. We sat down to wait, trying to be as discreet as possible about our state of undress. (Newspapers are handy in such situations, but to tell you the truth, the New Yorkers around us didn’t even blink when we took off our pants.)
Thirty minutes later, we had warmed up, our jeans were dry, the rain had let up and we were back on track. We’d salvaged what could have turned into a really bad day.
Ever have something bad happen that turned into something good?
This current recession is like a cold rain. It’s soaking lots of people’s profits, and anticipating a difficult year or two is downright unpleasant.
Want to find simple solutions to salvage your business plans and dreams? You can do it.
The email I’ve been getting over the last three months falls into two distinct camps. The first group is paralyzed by fear and worry. They’re watching and waiting, and they’re unhappy.
The second group of people are worried, too, but they don’t feel stuck. They are highly motivated to find a way out of the problems the recession is causing them.
These smart business owners, people like you, know they need to adapt to these challenging conditions, improve their business practices, and look for new opportunities to maintain profits — or even grow.
Last year, during the first year of this recession, my clients on average doubled their sales. You can do the same by taking action now.
Contact me by filling in the application for my one-on-one mentoring program. This program isn’t for everybody. It’s for qualified business owners who can show me a track record of past success, and who are motivated to find solutions to today’s problems.
Want in? I’ve only got two spots open.
Start here to schedule a time to talk >>
– Charlie
P.S. Don’t lose your pants in this recession. Do something about it.
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Struggling to bring in new business? Wish you could generate more leads and clients without having to deplete your cash reserves in this tough economy?
Whether you’re just starting out or have a well-established business, the truth is that some of the most powerful ways to grow your business can be had for free! And these work whether you’re netting $50,000 a year or $10,000,000 a year in business.
Here are three no-cost, high return ideas you can take to the bank in this tough economy:
1. Give Away Something For Free
I use a simple report I wrote to bring in an average of 60 leads a day or over 400 each week. Each week my list of qualified prospects grows. I spent a few days writing the report but after that my lead generation costs went to zero.
Business Week ran an article last year about Chipotle’s successful giveaway marketing strategy. The fast food restaurant chain has handed out tens of thousands of free burritos and tacos as way of building a loyal clientele. In just one day Chipotle gave away 6,000 burritos when they opened a mid-town location in Manhattan.
This customer-satisfying strategy cost them $35,000, just about the same amount they would have spent for a half page black and white ad in The New York Times.
Let your prospects sample your ideas or your products. It’s the fastest way to help people understand the value of what you provide, to trust you and to want to do business with you. Chipotle has leveraged this strategy to become one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the country. Imagine what this marketing strategy could do for you!
Ready to generate more leads and make more money this year >>
2. Create Compelling Offers
In this economy your offers need to grab your prospect’s interest and prompt them to act right away. Special time limited or limited availability offers are what the retail chains are using and you can use too.
People buy your products and services based on their perception of value. Whether you are charging five dollars or five thousand, your prospects need to be convinced that the benefits you provide will outweigh the cost.
To stimulate sales place your offer in the context of your target market’s concerns. Once you’ve clarified how your product or service meets their concerns the value of your offer will be apparent.
Creating a compelling offer is an art and involves blending the following items together to create a sentence or two which will move people to take action, whether it is contacting you or making an immediate purchase.
Include the following items to create an offer that helps sell:
Name – What you are selling
Benefit – The problem it solves
Credibility – Why they should buy from you
Value – How useful it will be to them
Guarantee – Your promise to them
Motivation to Act – A reason to take advantage of your offer today.
Want to know all the secrets to winning more clients and more business >>
3. Get Others to Promote Your Business for You
The goal in marketing is to reach more prospects, get them to trust you and understand the value of your products and services. What’s the fastest and least expensive way to do this?
Get others to promote you.
That’s right. No matter what you’re product or service there are other businesses that offer non-competing products and services to the same target market. Join forces with them and get them to promote your company and you’ve instantly extended your reach, leveraged the trust relationship they have with their list and all you need to do is clarify the value of your service or products.
How do you find other businesses willing to promote yours? Let me give you a few examples.
You’re an athletic trainer. You could partner with someone who provides sports massage or nutrition counseling. Even weekend warriors will benefit from this combination of services. You promote each other and all of you could double your clientele without spending a dime.
Or if you own a web site that sells shoes, you could offer a $25 discount coupon with each sale over $75 that your customers can use at another site that sells socks, and vice a versa. You both generate more sales and make more money without actually spending a penny.
Or if you’re a voice coach working with aspiring executives you could partner with a leadership or sales coach. If you each provide your partner with the marketing collateral they need to promote you, your cost is minimal and you both double your marketing reach.
Each time you partner with a business that has a broad customer base, you’ll dramatically increase your sales and profits. And you’ll do so virtually for free.
There are dozens of other ways to position and expand your business, strategies that work whether you’re just starting out or you’re growing a well-established business.
– Charlie
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WARNING
This email isn’t for the faint of heart,people who can’t face the music, or stomach the truth. In short, don’t read another word of this email unless you want the unvarnished truth about your business and your profits.
Still reading?
The majority of businesses this year will decline in sales and in profits just as they did last year. And even worse nine out of ten people will come up with some excuse, in most cases a totally lame one, about why their business sales and profits are down.
What are the most common excuses?
– It’s the economy.
– Fewer people are buying.
– I’ve tried everything and nothing I do seems to make a difference.
SORRY! I don’t buy it.
If the above was true, then why did some businesses, in addition to the bankruptcy lawyers, grow last year and why are they continuing to grow in leaps and bounds this year in 2009?
Yes, the economy is in a slump and on average sales are down and most people, 9 out of 10, just keep doing the same things over and over. They keep marketing their business the same way they would in more prosperous times and what do you know – it doesn’t work.
Only one out of ten people, and I’m hoping you are one of them, has the smarts to know that if their business isn’t growing and if sales are shrinking, that they need to change the way they market their business. For these people, the people who seek out and find the profit-building strategies that work in any economy, success is almost guaranteed.
Not everyone’s business is tanking in this economy, many grew their profits by 50 to 100 percent or more last year, and you can do the same.
One client, Ed from California emailed me Tuesday morning to apologize for not getting his assignment done this week. Why? His business is up by 300% compared to last January and he’s swamped with new clients.
Some people like to run around like Chicken Little waiting for the sky to fall, others seek out answers.
Which type of person are you?
If you’re a solution seeker instead of excuse maker here’s three simple steps to keep your business on track and make this year your most profitable:
1. Stay Confident
The biggest mistake you can make is to lose confidence in your products and your services. Starting to doubt your unique competitive advantage and your ability to improve your marketing could kill your business. You’ve lost the race before the start. Like a bear smells fear, your customers will notice your hesitancy and they’ll buy from a competitor who appears confident of success. They’ll steer clear of you and you’ll lose even more business.
2. Focus On Your Core Strengths
Obviously you’re doing business in a very different economic climate than you were a few years or even a few months ago. The marketing strategies that may have helped you stay afloat in the past could easily sink your business this year.
To succeed in this economy, your small business needs to be more focused and specialized. Big companies like Circuit City who sold a bit of everything are closing their doors, but I see this happening to small businesses as well. Small companies that try to provide too many products or services are struggling. And for good reason; prospects can’t figure out what they excel at.
On the other hand, businesses that target a specific service or product are holding their own. I’m hearing that business is steady and, in some cases, growing. Online, many niche services and products are growing too, including online bookkeeping, online virtual assistants and niche information products.
3. Find Out How To Attract More Buyers
There are plenty of buyers out there. All you need to do is attract a few more. The first step to increasing your profits in the next 12 months is to find out how to:
• Help more people know how you can help them,
• Gain their confidence so that you can give them what they want,
• Give them an urgent reason to buy.
To make it easier, I’ve created the lowest cost way to access the strategies you need to maximize your profits in less time this year. I’ve put together a monthly mastermind program to show you exactly what works and how to do it.
If you think you’ve got what it takes…I’ll be looking for you to fill in the application next week when the program opens.
Make sure to apply as soon as the Mastermind program opens. If you’ve put yourself on the Mastermind VIP list, you’ll get access on Monday a day ahead of everyone else. Make sure to watch for the email Monday about where to apply.
If you haven’t done so already and want early access to apply, use this URL in the next few minutes and get access to my free telecall next week >>
But wait there’s more. Right.
In order to join the Insider’s Marketing Mastermind group, you’ll have to qualify. This is an exclusive group. I can only accept 25 people into the program. To be considered, fill in the application, and then on the next page, submit your deposit. Jessica will be interviewing all applicants and we’ll let you know asap whether you’re one of the lucky ones to get in.
In the mean time remember to sign up as a VIP for the free telecall scheduled for the 29th, where I’ll be sharing the #1 Profit-Building Idea for 2009 >>
-Charlie
P.S. Forgot to add yourself to the Mastermind VIP list to apply for early acceptance?
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Are you ready to make this a blockbuster year?
I’ve been getting a lot of email from people wanting to know how to get into my new Mastermind VIP Group that will launch in just a few days.
If you missed it, the URL to get early access to apply is >>
Like you, they all want to know, “How will it benefit me and my business?”
If you’ve been in business for a year you know that clients and money don’t just drop out of the sky, particularly in a down economy.
You know that you need an effective marketing strategy to attract clients and earn more. You know that you need to have a way to attract clients, a way to clarify the value of your products and services, a way to get clients to trust you and a way to close the sale.
And you may even know that with an effective follow-up strategy you can increase your profits by 300% or more.
You also know it can be tough trying to go it alone. You wear many hats during the course of your day. But what if I could share proven ways to bring your success closer to reality and faster too?
A major benefit to you is, you will be part of an elite group which is greater than the sum of its parts. Having access to many minds makes it easier for you to win. You’ll have the benefit of receiving decades of proven in-the-trenches strategies which have worked not only for me, but for other group members as well.
You are not alone. Think of it as having your own private think tank of like-minded people you can bounce your business ideas off of. All with out incurring the cost of hiring outside consultants or traveling to seminars. Your time will be well-spent focusing on your business.
And of course I’ll be there to give you a kick in the pants if you need it to get going. In other words you will be held accountable for reaching your goals.
My Mastermind VIP Group offers you the best chance of success in reaching your goals in the shortest time possible. And making a nice profit along the way.
I’ve got news for you, whether you realize it or not-it’s crunch time. This is the year where you either make it or break it. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just look around. Maybe your business is already feeling the pinch.
It’s been said “When the going gets tough the tough get going”.
Do you think you have what it takes to ride out the coming storm by yourself? If you do then good luck. I hope you make it.
But if you’re ready to ride a tidal wave of prosperity within the security of an elite group of marketing savvy entrepreneurs-led by yours truly-then there is only one thing you can do.
Again, if you haven’t signed up for early access to apply start here >>
Make a decision now to take a stand against failure and defeat. Together we have unlimited power.
I’ll be making another major announcement in a day or two. Stay tuned.
In the mean time, imagine yourself not only achieving all of your most adventurous business goals, but easily reaching the peaks you’ve only dared dream about. That’s real power.
Go here now for a little inspiration on making a breakthrough with your business >>
-Charlie
P.S. Keep an eye on your inbox for another major announcement very soon.
Here’s 3 more business breakthrough ideas >>
P.P.S. Your best shot at business survival this year is to utilize the strength and power attainable in my Mastermind Group. Together we’ll apply tactics and strategies used by only one in a thousand business owners. Imagine yourself at the top of your field.
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How can I generate more leads, more sales and make more money?
That’s the one marketing tip I hear struggling entrepreneurs and small business owners asking for. Do you know the answer?
The answer is simple. Give your prospects a chance to test out your expertise, your products and your services. This is the fastest way to demonstrate the value you offer and to develop the trust you need from a prospect to make a sale.
Say you’re in the market for a new car (lucky you, in this economic climate!). You walk into a car showroom – in my case it’d be the Audi dealer’s – and what do you want to do before you make any decision to buy?
You want to take at least one car out for a test drive, see how it handles, check out the leather seats to see how comfortable they are and even test the GPS, and the other bells and whistles.
Now imagine that when you walked into the showroom, the sales associate told you you couldn’t touch the car, get in it or take it for a test drive; all you could do was look at it.
What would you do? You’d leave and go find a dealer that had their head screwed on right. It’s hard to imagine a salesperson that wouldn’t let you test out a product or service.
Yet that’s what most business owners do: they try to sell their products and services without giving prospects a free test.
Too often business owners worry so much about their profits they they lose sight of the face that profits come when their prospects experience the benefits of their product or service. Big mistake!
In fact, the more you give away to prospects the more money you’ll make in return.
Now I’m not talking about giving away your products. I’m talking about giving your prospects a taste of your knowledge or your services so they can get to know you and trust you.
For example, you’re getting this newsletter because I gave you a free ebook. And it wasn’t something I just threw together; it represents some of my best ideas. This simple giving strategy has prompted over 40,000 people to add their names to my mailing list.
You may use an initial free offer simply to build your database of prospects like I do, but at some point you’re going to want to prompt your prospects to buy. What kind of offer will motivate people to buy?
Again, give away something for free or for practically free:
* Oreck successfully sold one of it’s vacuums by offering it free for the first 30 days along witha $130 iron as a gift.
* Time magazine’s online offer is: “Subscribe to TIME! Plus, get 6 months more for 1 cent!”
* Cingular offers “Free Camera Phones” when you sign up for a 2 year agreement. Other phone services “give away” free minutes when you sign up.
* Send people a check. AT&T mailed out 200 million checks to former customers and 10 million became clients again. By cashing the check, prospects agreed to sign on with AT&T.
* A local Stamford, Connecticut investment adviser gave away a free workshop and grew their assets by $20 million.
* Google gives away its top quality search services in order to attract viewers for the unobtrusive ad space they sell.
* Charles Schwab gives away access to its select list of mutual funds.
* As a skier, this is one of my favorite offers; Andes Tower, a small ski area in Kensington, Minnesota, started a free after-school program three evenings a week that included transportation to the hill, equipment and lift tickets for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. In other words, they gave away everything and then some. The benefit? Their ski shop immediately sold out of every piece of junior equipment (for 7th-12th
graders).
The long term benefit is that they’re grooming a generation of kids who love skiing. They’ll be back with their parents to buy more gear as they grow. And who knows? Down the road they may be back with children of their own.
Want to supercharge your small business marketing and your profits?
The more you give away in terms of perceived value, the more money you’ll make.
Give something away that your prospects need. Give away ideas your prospects can use and help them understand when and how to use your products and services. It’s the best-kept secret to success.
This year I gave away more free ebooks than every before. The result? 2008 has been my most
successful ever.
Give to Get! That’s the core marketing tip. Put it into practice and you’ll see your profits soar, too.
What is your Give to Get strategy?
-Charlie
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Just one month left and we’re in the midst of the holiday shopping season. Are you on track to make your revenue goals? Should you just sit back and wait for 2009 so you can get a fresh start?
Regardless of how you did the rest of the year, whether you’re on track to make 2008 your best year ever or you’re sales stagnated, don’t quit yet. December can still be your best month.
The days are counting down, with less than 30 left in the year. NOW is the perfect time to apply these last-minute holiday marketing strategies to end the year on a high note.
Time is running out… don’t procrastinate, take action today!
You’ve got just a few weeks left to achieve your small business marketing goals for this year, don’t let them slide by and wish later you’d done something to maximize your profits.
Apply these 4 low-cost and no-cost small business marketing strategies TODAY!
Strategy #1: “Target Your Sales Copy to What’s On People’s Minds”
Most people are thinking about giving and wondering two things:
* What would make a great gift for my son or daughter,
* What would make a great gift for my spouse,
* What would make a great gift for my father or mother in-law.
… and they’re wondering
* What should I put on my own holiday list,
* What gift should I give myself this year, Yes, a lot of people, while out buying gifts for others, buy gifts for themselves too!
You get the idea. Don’t assume people know what they want to buy. I’m often at a total loss myself as to what to buy for my 22 year-old son. So whether you sell to businesses or direct to consumers, help them out with your sales copy by targeting the questions that are on your customers’ minds at this time of year.
Strategy #2: “Use the End of The Year To Up-Sell & Cross-Sell Clients”
December 31st marks the end of 2008 and while it’s just a day on the calendar, it has a strong emotional effect on your prospect’s and clients. People see it as a clear ending and Jan 1st as a new beginning.
At the end of December people tend to reflect a little bit on their past performance and on their aspirations for the coming year. This is the perfect time to tap into their psyche and get clients to review their needs, what worked and didn’t work, and what they’d like to do better next year.
Whether you sell consulting services, or flat screen TVS, the end of the year is an ideal time to cross-sell and up-sell your products and services.
Strategy #3: “Strengthen Your Relationships with Prospects and Clients”
Your primary small business competitive advantage is the number and strength of your relationships with prospects and clients. Use this time to show your appreciation to them. How?
* Tell them. Thank them for their business and loyalty. Gifts are nice but ultimately it’s the thought that counts. Make sure to let them know you value their business and enjoy working with them.
Unless you’re the only source for a product or service clients can always find someone else to buy from. The best way to prevent this is to maintain a strong relationship and this starts with saying thank you.
* Send your most valued clients a gift, but not just any gift. For years I had an investment advisor who each Christmas sent me something from Tiffany’s that cost hundreds of dollars. As you may know by now, I’m not a Tiffany’s kind of guy and ended up returning almost every one of these to the store.
The key is to give something that your client would appreciate. It’s hard to lose with food. In my case I would have been much more impressed if my investment advisor had sent me something that was 25% as less expensive like a lift ticket or ski lesson at my favorite ski resort.
Strategy #4: “Offer Special Deals For A Limited Time Only”
The end of the year is fast approaching and everyone likes a deal. The problem is we all tend to procrastinate. What’s the solution?
You have the products and services prospects want. Now all you need to do is motivate them to buy.
Combine special offers with limited time availability. If you have a website you can put a countdown timer on your offer sales page to increase the sense of urgency.
Just use the links below to find code you can easily add to your web pages and include your countdown clock. There are tons out there. Here are three.
http://www.christmasbuzz.com/countdown/
(the site I grabbed my Santa countdown from)
http://www.countdownclockcodes.com/christmas-countdown-clocks/
http://www.7is7.com/otto/countdclock.html
That’s it!
Four easy, no-cost ways to increase your end-of-the-year sales and beat, or at least get closer, to your goals for the year.
And don’t forget the countdown clock is ticking for YOU too. If you’re at all interested in getting into the Monthly Marketing Mentoring Program for 20% off the first month, you can… if you take action today!
Go ahead and “play Santa” and buy yourself access to this wealth-building program, but act fast if you want in. There are were only 15 holiday specials left last time I looked. And whether these sell out or not, this offer ends on December 20th.
-Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing That Gets Results
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What’s happened to your sales this past year? Are sales increasing or are you struggling to find buyers?
The temperatures have turned cold here in New England, and there have already been two snowfalls in the mountains. In Vermont, where I ski, the bears have hunkered down for the winter.
Does it look like your buyers are hibernating, too?
Are you thinking of pulling back on your marketing because of it?
Your answer to the first question may be “Yes”, but your answer to the second should be “No.” While your prospects may be more reluctant to make a purchase, there are still plenty of buyers out there. Cutting back on your marketing is a surefire way to lose even more sales and money.
Want to make money this year instead?
Take these three steps to keep your business on track and make next year your most profitable:
1. Stay Confident
The biggest mistake you can make is to lose confidence in your products and your services. Start to doubt your unique competitive advantage and your ability to improve your marketing, and you’ve lost the race before the start. Like a bear smells fear, your customers will notice your hesitancy and they’ll buy from a competitor who appears confident of success. They’ll steer clear of you and you’ll lose even more business.
Unless you compete directly with huge corporations on the scale of a Microsoft, there are plenty of people buying. What you need to do is attract more of them.
Ready to find out how to attract more clients? Start here >>
2. Focus On Your Core Strengths
Obviously, we’re doing business in a very different economic climate than we were a few years or even a few months ago. The marketing strategies that may have helped you stay afloat in the past could easily sink your business this year.
To succeed in this economy, your small business needs to be more focused and specialized. Companies like Circuit City that sold a bit of everything are closing their doors, but I see this happening to small businesses as well. Small companies that try to provide too many products or services are struggling. And for good reason; prospects can’t figure out what they excel at.
On the other hand, businesses that target a specific service or product are holding their own. I’m hearing that business is holding steady and, in some cases, growing from a whole host of people including: voice and data technology providers, and even from some real estate developers. Online, many niche services and products are growing too, including online bookkeeping, online virtual assistants and niche information products.
Discover how to grow your business this year >>
One of my clients is an organization that has been in business for two years providing innovative treatment to people with alcohol problems. Using the website strategies I showed them, they had their best week ever last week. This is a surprise since I’d think the economic news would be driving people to drink instead of to a cure.
Over a decade ago management guru Tom Peters advised business leaders to “stick to your knitting.” Finding the thing you do best and sticking to it is still one of the keys to success. For example, while many banks are struggling because they took big risks with subprime mortgages, the First National Bank in Orwell, Vermont is thriving. They stuck to what they knew well, only providing loans to people who they were confident could pay them back. The result? They maintained a positive cash flow and now more customers are flocking to their doors. This year loans are up 22.6% and deposits up 7%.
Even in the abysmal real estate market there are success stories. Everest Development in Denver offered 135 luxury condos for sale at prices ranging from $500,000 to $2 million and sold 90% of the properties earlier this year. Of course location and amenities were key, but these people knew their market.
You, too, can succeed by focusing on your strengths. Discover how >>
3. Find Out How To Attract More Buyers
At the risk of being redundant, I’m going to say it once more. There are plenty of buyers out there. All you need to do is attract a few more.
The first step to increasing your profits in the next 12 months is to find out how to:
• Attract more prospects
• Clarify the value of your products and services.
• Gain prospects’ confidence.
• Motivate prospects to buy, and buy today.
To make it easier, I’ve created the lowest cost way to access the strategies you need to maximize your profits in less time this year. I’ve put together a monthly mentoring program to show you exactly what works and how to do it.
Interested in making more money this year? Find out how to do it >>
On average, most small businesses will see their profits decline this year. Your business doesn’t have to be one of them.
You’re more ambitious than the average business owner and smart enough to look for ways to take advantage of the situation. Small businesses with the best marketing win every time; be a winner in this economy by finding out what works.
Stay confident, focus on what you do best and find out the fastest ways to attract prospects and convert them to buyers, and you’ll maximize your profits this year.
-Charlie
Small Business Marketing in any Economy
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Have you been watching TV or reading the newspapers? The bad economy makes great headlines, and they’re full of it. You can’t miss hearing or reading about how terrible it is for business. But if that’s all the news you’re getting, you are missing the good news.
The good news about this economy is plentiful. It just doesn’t make great headlines on TV.
It’s true: Many businesses will struggle or even fail during this downturn… but at least ten percent will prosper. That’s right: At least one out of ten businesses will see their profits grow!
Want to be one of those ten that attract more clients and profits? Find out how >>
Every week, I talk to entrepreneurs and businesses that, despite all the bad news in the press, are holding steady or even growing in this economy. And, they all have one thing in common: Their efforts are clearly focused on 3 simple ideas I’ll share with you below.
For most business owners, it’s not a lack of ideas that is the problem. It’s knowing which ones to use. So today I’m going to give you the keys to the kingdom: the three key ideas to use whether you’re thinking of starting a business or have been in business for decades.
These are the three most important ideas I’ve ever shared, and I recommend you read them and then tape them to your forehead, or rather to your computer monitor, and use them to focus your efforts, so you maximize your sales and profits this year and for the rest of your business career.
The 3 Keys to Ultimate Business Success
1. Needs
Whether you sell sunglasses, hearing aids, sports training, legal services, or financial advice, the place to focus is on your prospects’ needs. I know one entrepreneur who thought that the sunglasses parents were buying for their young children were a joke. So she came up with a line of quality unbreakable sunglasses for young kids, and her business is growing like wild.
Every product or service you create and market should be designed to meet an apparent or perceived need of your target market. No need, no sales. High perceived need, high sales.
The same is true of your marketing. It should be focused on your prospects’ needs. Focus your marketing on yourself, and you’ll struggle forever. Focus on what they want, and you’ll get their attention and their business.
Discover how to transform needs into profits >>
2. Relationships
Your biggest competitive advantage isn’t the quality of your products or services; it’s the number and strength of the relationships you have with prospects and clients. It’s the amount of confidence you command. So, where should your marketing be focused?
Focus 80-90% of your marketing efforts on relationship-building activities.
Typically, most marketing is aimed at getting the sale, not at building relationships or confidence. Big mistake! People need to first know you and trust you before they’ll buy from you. They need to be sure you’re the best company to buy from, and your product or service does what you say it does. Where confidence flows, money follows.
How do you gain someone’s confidence so he or she will buy from you? You help them get to know you through repeated contacts and demonstration of your expertise.
Find out how to build relationships for business success >>
3. Profits
Most entrepreneurs and business owners’ attention is squarely focused on increasing sales when instead they should be focused on profits. This can be a fatal mistake, skewing your marketing efforts and distracting you from what you should be paying attention to.
In the past few years, Washington Mutual had amazing success increasing the sales of mortgages. And as you know now, they lost money on each of these and, ultimately, caused the bank to fold.
Whether you are testing a headline, an ad, a sales letter, a website, an upsell strategy, or a followup strategy, the question you should be focused on is, “What will help us maximize our profits?” Yes, you could send out ten thousand postcards and get a few more sales, but if your response is low, your marketing costs are going to decimate your profits.
The solution to making more is to continually test and improve everything you do to market your business, so that each month, you’re generating more leads, more sales and yes – more profits.
Want to maximize your revenue? Discover how >>
That’s it! Needs, Relationships, and Profits.
Tape those 3 words to your wall, and if every day you ask yourself the following five questions, then you’ll be headed in the right direction.
– What are the needs of my prospects (perceived or real)?
– How can I do a better job of fulfilling those needs?
– What am I doing to start more relationships with prospects?
– What weekly and monthly activities am I doing to strengthen relationships with prospects and clients?
– What elements of my marketing am I testing and what would work better to increase profits?
Interested in finding out how easy it is to increase your profits? Apply here >>
– Charlie
Small Business Marketing Success in Any Economy
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