The Most Important Tip for New Business Startups

One of the newsletters I subscribe to and always make a point of reading is Michael Masterson’s "Ready, Fire, Aim" dispatch.   It’s smart, engaging and no-nonsense insight into how Michael thinks and looks at business, and is a fast, easy read.

For example, today he mentioned the basics of starting a business that new entrepreneurs should be focused on:

• Know the top-selling products in your industry.
• Know what marketing methods the most successful companies use.
• Understand what your optimal selling strategy is.
• Know what the best offers are for the market you have targeted.
• Understand what a house file is and how to build it.
• Know why you shouldn’t use brand marketing when starting out.
• Have a very good idea of which marketing channel will work best.
• Be prepared to spend 80 percent of your time, money, and efforts to make your first profitable sales.

This really resonates with me.  Lately, I’ve been emphasizing to many of my clients how important it is to focus on understanding the market, knowing your customers’ deepest needs and desires, and using your competition as an ultimate resource to (a) prove there is a market, (b) identify the features and benefits customers value; and (c) how you might position your own products and services in the market to fulfill an unmet need.

It’s a tough sell.

Usually clients want to go straight to tactical questions.  "Yeah, but how do I get my website up" or "How do I create an ebook" and so on. 

I get that.   Having a site online, or an optin page ready to collect email addresses gives the feeling of progress.  We can DO something, and after a while, we can SEE something.

Strategy and research don’t give us that same visceral feeling of success.  It’s mundane, laborious, work with no tangible results.

The challenge is that without the clarity that market research provides, your beautiful website and product graphics and world-leading content may not be relevant in the market to which you promote.  Think of it like trying to sell a hamburger to vegetarians.  Great product, wrong market.

So I urge you now: slow down on the implementation just long enough so you get real clear that all your time, money and effort will produce a product or service that has the greatest chance of success.  Take a month to understand your market fully, and save yourself from losing money over years of frustration.

And please take special note of the final bullet: "Be prepared to spend 80 percent of your time, money, and efforts to make your first profitable sales".

My heart breaks to watch so many well-intended entrepreneurs invest in professional development, continuing education, a myriad of $97 products that end up on the shelf, or trying each new marketing tactic that some guru or another made a million dollars on last month. 

In no time, they are tens, even hundreds, of thousands of dollars in debt trying to get the business off the ground – with no income to offset these expenses.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a BIG fan of continuing education and development.  But at the start of a new business – especially if you’re a novice entrepreneur – cash is king.  All those advanced strategies and indirect marketing techniques can come later, when you have the business assets (cash, large list, industry relationships, experience, etc) that will make them work.

If you’re just starting out, or if you’ve been at it for a while and not seeing income, consider the following:

- Don’t spend anymore money on anything that doesn’t directly produce sales – unless it comes from the PROFITS you generate from those sales.

- Budget your expenses and know where you apply your funds, what results you expect, and by when.  Don’t talk yourself into going over budget because what you’re buying has a fuzzy, indirect or unmeasurable impact on generating more sales.

- Become familiar with the lowest cost, or free, marketing strategies and use them first.

- Focus most of your early time, energy and money on creating products and services, and promoting those products and services.  Everything else is secondary until you are sustainably, predictably, profitable.

- Focus on direct-response marketing.

- Adopt the paradigm that "everything is a test".  Don’t get down about things that don’t work out as planned.  It’s not about you – it’s just more market data that you can use.  Review the results, then quickly correct and continue on course until you get the results you expect.

You know enough, and you are enough to get started now.  Act quickly, but wisely.

To your fulfilling success,
Lou

Technorati Tags: business, marketing, entrepreneur, advice, tips, internet, coaches, coaching, small business

Are you making this big teleseminar mistake?

I have a mantra – my ABR mantra – that I share with all my clients when they do teleseminars.

Before I reveal the mantra to you, the big mistake people make and how to avoid it, let me first ask you this…

If you knew that by adding one simple step to your teleseminar checklist, you could:

• mutiply the benefits of any teleseminar you did;
   
• drive massive marketing visibility for you and your business at virtually no extra time or cost to you; and 
   
• create a stable of high-quality products that could strengthen your brand and provide additional streams of income to your business

wouldn’t you do it?

The ABR mantra, which stands for "Always Be Recording" is the secret to doing just that.

Seems like a simple thing, and it is.   But why is this so important?

Because once you have a teleseminar recorded, it creates the possibility for repurposing that teleseminar into many other forms, media and channels of distribution.

"Repurposing", in it’s simplest sense, simply means converting into a new format or media, so as to be used for a new purpose.

When you record your teleseminar, you set in motion a domino effect of repurposing benefits.

For example, MP3 recordings can be quickly repurposed into CDs, transcripts, slide shows, screencasts, streaming audio, and more.

Then these newly created formats can be further repurposed into physical products, courses, programs, workshops, speeches, articles, blog posts, social media content, and much more.

In turn, these repurposed products can be turned into social marketing content, articles, blog posts, slide shows, screencasts, videos for youtube and other portals, member area content, home study courses, optin page incentives, and so much more.

From a single teleseminar comes all this opportunity to create content for your marketing and promotions, for your listbuilding, and for your products and services. And it all starts with the highest quality audio recording of a teleseminar.

So please: "Always Be Recording" your teleseminars.

And, just as importantly, avoid the big mistake people make when recording their telesemianrs: not doing a second, backup recording. 

(You see ABR also means "Always Backup Recordings".Pretty deep, eh?)

There’s no worse feeling than to hold a great teleseminar, with an important guest perhaps, and suddenly realize that the audio recording failed, or stopped because it ran out of time, or didn’t get started for some reason.

And there’s no great sense of relief and joy than to know that you have nothing to worry about, because the backup recording captured every single minute of the call.

With your recording in place, you can not only set your repurposing machine into action, but you can also avoid the embarrassment of having to call your very important guest and ask to re-do the call. (Did you just feel that shiver down your spine?)

So from now on, promise me won’t you? Always record every teleseminar you do, and always backup your recording.

It won’t even break your bank.  I use WebAudioAcrobat.com to backup all my recordings. For less than $20 a month, I am able to record an unlimited number of calls.

For the orginal recording, I use the built-in recording feature of either my current favorite free conferencing service FreeConferencePro.com, or my ab-so-lu-tely indispensable Instant Teleseminar service.  

Please take a deep breath now. Sit in a relaxed posture with your hands on your lap, palms open and facing upwards. Close your eyes and repeat after me:

ABR, ABR, ABR, ABR, ohmmmmmm…

One Door Closes, Another Opens…

The door that’s closing…

The Authority Marketing Intensive starts on Monday, but we’re already in full swing this week, getting sites set up and success mindsets established.  And, if the program wasn’t already a massive overdeliver … I received two AMAZING surprises that I’m bringing to the program (a gift from the universe to help me deal with the 170% oversubscription to the prgoram – thank you)!

If your online marketing isn’t delivering the results you envision, and you’re ready to let me help you put a proven business building system in place — you’ve got one more day to check out the details on the blog and register at http://powerupcoaching.com/mistakes-entrepreneurs-make-telewebcast/

The door that’s opening…(but just for a day!)…

If you want to double your productivity in just 90 days, and feel more confidence, joy and self esteem in the process … do yourself a favor and check out what I consider to be The World’s Best Productivity Program. 

Sounds like a big claim right?  See for yourself.

But please do it today – program registration is opening for just one day to allow some participants who were bitterly disappointed when they didn’t get registered in time for the last one…

 

“Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make” – Q&A

Q&A About "Biggest Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make" Telewebcast

Biggest Entrepreneur Mistakes … And How To Avoid Them

I'm Mad and I Ain't Takin' It Anymore! I've got good news and bad news for you today…

The bad news is: You're overwhelmed, you don't know where to start, you can't get reliable outsourcers, you have to do it all yourself, you have big goals but no money.

You're great at what you do, but after spending so much time and money on all these courses, seminars and training … you're just more confused than ever, and starting to downright hate what once was your entrepreneurial passion.

You've been told how easy it is supposed to be, but it's sinking in that this may not be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In fact, with each new course, each new training, each new product, each new "Next Best Thing", you get further and further in debt – financially and emotionally – but you are only more confused than ever.

In fact, instead of being hyper-motivated and moving forward with ease and joy…you are just downright paralyzed. I see how it erodes your confidence, how it diminishes your self-esteem.

I see you second guessing yourself and wondering if you'll ever make it…if you even have what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

That makes me so mad … and I ain't takin' it anymore! I'm here to tell you:

You CAN make it.

You DESERVE to make it.

The world NEEDS you to make it.

…and I'm willing to help you prove it to yourself, once and for all.

The good news is: It's not your fault and you are not alone.

I hope you can feel my passion about this, because it's the most personal, heartfelt letter I've written in years.

You see, given the way that marketers are taught to promote "The Magic Bullet" you are being set up to suffer, struggle and be overwhelmed; only to wind up frustrated, disappointed, even broke.

It's almost a foregone conclusion of "Magic Bullet" marketing.

But you don't have to buy into this short-term, opportunistic pursuit of "the next big thing".   You don't have to succumb to chasing each "Bright New Shiny Object" – a target which is, by design, elusive.

There are effective, proven, long-term business strategies that will to help you sort it all out, get you productive fast, and make your business successful – without pulling your hair out or chewing your nails to the bone.

Strategies that will not only work, but are more critical than ever, in this economic climate of fear, uncertainty and doubt.

The only question is: are you ready – and I mean really ready – to finally break through to the success you desire and deserve?

Yes? Great! Then…

Claim your complimentary VIP guest pass to a PowerUp Coaching client and subscriber exclusive telewebcast Date: Friday, October 17th Time: 3pm Eastern Time (according to Time.gov)

This event is over now…check here for a replay.

In just 90 minutes I'll reveal these proven long-term strategies to you as I discuss:

• The biggest mistakes many enterpreneurs make;
• Why they're making these mistakes – in spite of themselves;
• How to avoid or fix these business-killing errors; and
• How to put an "Authority Marketing System" in place and turn your business into a google-loving, client-attracting, money-making, people-helping, world-changing machine… in just 30 days!

Expect some cold doses of reality – some hard hitting truth.

Because, well, it's just that important.

Right now – that truth will cause you to avoid business failure in this deepening recession. That truth will set you up to stay in the game for the long haul. And that truth will empower you to ride the inevitable wave of recovery and success down the road.

Think of it like like that awful-tasting cough syrup. You know the one – tastes awful, but it works.

Come with an open mind and you just might see a few powerful ways to get your business healthier and more profitable than ever – fast.

Ready to end your stress and struggle? Good! Reserve your complimentary VIP 'front-row' seat now….

“Wake Up Productive” Deadline Today…

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