Archive for Business Marketing
Are You Still Excited?
Posted by: | CommentsNow that we have entered into February, you may want to take a little time to reflect on all of the resolutions that you wanted to accomplish this year. Things you might have been super excited about in Dec 2011, a time of the year when many business hopefuls become full of ideas, hope and confidence in their existing business or business they intend on creating during the new year?
How are you making out? Are you still following your plan?
Unfortunately many fall off after the excitement of the new year falls and fades away. They retract instead of surging ahead like they should. This causes those who do this, not to accomplish their intended goals.You may think this is the worst thing you can do concerning your business but it isn’t.
Even though abandoning your plans can be a business killer I personally believe that it isn’t the worst thing in the world because you do have a plan to come back to, to tweak and shape and mold until you get it right. Lack of planning is the worst because there isn’t a blueprint for your success and more likely than not you won’t achieve any success. Not having a plan is like going to find treasure without a map with clues and a big red X telling you where it is. You will have no idea where you are going.
Failing to plan really does equals planning to fail. It’s not just a saying. You can’t build a business on a whim, it takes a real commitment and hard work.
You can stop your business from being destined for failure if this is the track your business is on, by planning and following through on your plans. Success is never an accident and is always a result of prior actions taken by YOU!
Don’t build your business haphazardly because what you put into it is exactly what you will get out of it or less. You moves should be well thought out and calculated. Look at the big picture. What is your goal overall? What kind of mini goals will you need to accomplish in order to meet those goals? What is hindering you in areas where you may be lacking? What can you learn to get you over the obstacles that are slowing you down? These are some of the question you may want to ask yourself.
Knowledge truly is power. The more you learn, the more you grow as a person and it trickles down into your business as a result of your hard work and dedication.
Whether your business is MLM, Direct Sales, services, handcrafted artisan or a brick and mortar business, your job on the internet when you are marketing your business, is to gather leads, give value, gain trust and make money. If you are failing to do any of those, your business will fail or the growth of it will be severely stalled. This is turn leaves you disappointed and less likely to try harder. Small successes will boost your business ego and do lead up to the total package.
How can you begin setting up your plan if you haven’t yet? Stop and think. Get out an old fashioned pen and paper if need be and brainstorm. Write down what you intend to accomplish and all of the things that you think are stopping you from accomplishing those goals. Once you find the “what” out, you can begin to figure out the “how” which is your game plan for overcoming all of the hurdles and obstacles. Don’t think that it can’t be done. But if you don’t know what you need to do or what is stopping you, how can you expect to move foreward. It’s near impossible.
Knocking off mini goals on your list will cause you to feel good, give you a boost of confidence and encourage you to keep going even when new obstacles occur. Your business life will not be perfect. If you are waiting for perfect, you might as well give up.
Instead of aiming for unnatural perfection, you will learn to bob, weave and duck your way around things that are hindering you as you increase your knowledge in areas where you may be lacking, figuratively knocking out your obstacles. I personally make it a goal to always keep learning. The more I add to my knowledge banks, the more I can pull out when I need to. Am I or my business perfect, of course not but I’m am consistently aiming to do my best and to increase my best. My best changes over time as I change.
Keep in mind that just like with a real brick and mortar bank you can’t make a withdrawal if you haven’t deposited anything and you can’t get credit if you haven’t applied.
Have you set any goals or mini goals for yourself and your business? Have you taken time to figure out what your obstacles are ? What are you going to do in order to increase the odds of your business becoming and staying successful?
Don’t Fall Victim To A Bad Business Opportunity
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Have you ever had someone hound you to just take a look at their company website or some other promotional material to try to get you to sign up? Were they pushy and obnoxious, almost making you feel like something could be wrong with you if you didn’t see the validity of all they were saying and whip out your credit card A.S.A.P.? If you’re new network marketing and online businesses you may even buy into the hype being pushed at you and feel like you must sign up so you will appear to be business minded, knowing you really lack a sense of what network marketing businesses are all about.
Years ago this happened to me. Like an animal being led to the slaughterhouse I followed wide eyed and naive into a bad business venture. I even recruited others into the business thinking I was creating a better future for myself and helping them too. As I started to learn more, because my upline really couldn’t explain things to my satisfaction, I discovered that I was involved in a bad business opportunity with almost no real way to earn. I became fuming mad. How dare someone take advantage of me! Right. No wrong. Some specialize in taking advantage of others just to pad their own wallet.
When I informed my upline who obviously didn’t know that it was a bad opportunity, I thought she would be grateful. What she told me shocked me. She knew that we were in a bad opportunity but she wanted to make the money she could off of the recruiting. What! This was someone I met online, had talked on the phone with as a friend and she led me astray. This taught me something big time. So what did I do. I immediately, after talking to her, notified my downline that it is was a bad opportunity, explained why it was a bad opportunity and advised them to quit immediately. I also apologized for getting them involved in something bad that I felt was good. I decided that I would never let that happen again.
As a marketer you name can be golden or mud, you decide which one. I was uneducated and not equipped to make the decision to join that company. It’s unfortunate, but it’s not an excuse. There is too much information available today. We have to do our homework. No one will do it for us. The information is out there but there is no internet scam cop who will force us to read and learn. We must take that initiative our-self.
We can’t be blinded by the fancy houses, cars and flashy money that we see depicted in advertising. Many times it’s just for show and isn’t true or they have earned it through unscrupulous tactics like scamming people like you and me, literally just snatching our money away. We can’t make it easy for people to trick us and pull the wool over our eyes. We need to educate ourselves against being taken advantage of and pass that information on because you never know who you might help. You build trust in the minds of others when you help them to learn how to protect their assets.
What is a bad business opportunity? A bad business opportunity is any opportunity set up with scamming you in mind. The opportunity might cost a lot of money upfront or it might not but what all bad business opportunities have in common is that it is almost impossible to earn. For example, one type of scam is earning off of the back of recruits, meaning no real volume is being pushed outside of the company and recruits. When you think of bad business opportunities, many times MLM comes to mind like in an article I read “What’s Wrong With Multi-Level Marketing?” While it is a highly informative article I am not in complete agreement. I feel that it applies to MLM companies ran by unscrupulous scammers but not all MLM companies deserve the bad rap that they get. Any company could be perceived as an MLM if you look at the fact that the owner or ones who where there first have the potential to earn more.
For example, who will earn more?
- The owner of a large cell phone company or a sales representative.
- The owner of a large chain of supermarkets or a cashier.
- Someone who has held their job with yearly raises for the last 20 years or someone who just got hired last week.
Are those scams too? Of course not so just like all businesses are not scams all multi-level marketing businesses aren’t scams either. The article really did hit the nail on the head to show you what scam MLM’s look like. A scam MLM will be run entirely different from one who cares about the those who are representing them and want them to have a real chance to earn. Click here to read an article sharing tips on how to avoid joining a scam business.
(*This isn’t an endorsement from me for any particular business. I’m sharing this to show you the type of bad business opportunities floating around.)
Who will get you involved in a bad opportunity? There are several types of people that will do this. Those who are uneducated about internet scams and network marketing will try to involve you because they don’t know any better. They haven’t had time to do their homework yet or maybe they don’t even know that they should be investigating before they leap. Those heavy hitters who know and don’t care a bit about anything but the cash lining their pockets will also try their best to weasel their way into your life and get you to join them.
When these bad opportunities come out you see them in droves, swamping you with emails that you probably never opted in to get. They start approaching you on social networks when they never had the time of day for you before. You become their target and they have a laser like focus on your wallet. That is the only thing they care about. Lastly we have the unscrupulous creators of these wacked out programs that you will never earn from. Their sole mission is to stack their bank accounts as high as they can on the inside sales (sales by recruits monthly as a part of their quota or upgrade packages) of those who have joined the company in hopes of creating an income. They have it set up in a way that would involve you walking on glass and jumping through fiery hoops. Most people wouldn’t do that in real life, so why do it online? You will lose real money.
When should you look out for bad business opportunities?
- Anytime someone invites you join anything that involves you digging in your pockets.
- Anytime you suddenly see the emails coming in droves about the same business opportunity.
- Anytime you are thinking of upgrading from a “free” opportunity to get to the real wealth that can only be achieved if you whip your credit card out now!
All online business are not bad businesses. There are legitimate ways to earn but you will never know if you don’t investigate until it’s too late and your money is already gone.
Where will you find bad business opportunities? Literally everywhere from PPC ads on major search engines to traffic exchanges and marketing forums. You will find them in the best and the worst of places. These people know how to position themselves and weasel their way into your minds making you feel you have got to get in now, if you let them. Don’t ever let the prestige of a site or traffic exchange, social network or forum make you feel that everything on there is A-OK because it isn’t. Just because someone is widely known on the site or the internet, doesn’t mean that they are ethical. Just because you see someone’s ads constantly and their name all over the place, don’t think for a second that they are not out to trick you. Always do your homework!
Why not just join a bad business and earn a little money while it’s still hot and not found out yet? Well if you plan on being a scammer you would be right on track with that line of thinking. However if you want to be an ethical, trustworthy, business marketer and don’t want to have to keep switching identities like you’re under witness protection, then you know that your good name means everything. You want to be the go to person that people trust. Being involved with scam businesses don’t allow you to do that. It just leads you to the next one, over and over again because once people figure it out, they leave and you are left to start all over again with a new group of suckers or old group of scammers that love your scamming style.
How to tell if it’s a bad business opportunity. Is the product ridiculously overpriced? Is all or most of the product volume coming in from representatives who must purchase huge amounts of product monthly in order to earn, meaning is there a lack of real “customers”? Are the policies and procedures set up in such a way that you have no rights and it outright tells you that they are going to cheat you sometime in the future by having “clauses” that allow them to take your income away after you have built it up, even if you have done nothing wrong? Is there a long list of people on reputable complaint sites with a huge list of unsettled gripea against them.
If it seems unbelievably too good to be true then watch out because most likely it is. If someone is urging you to “just sign up now” hold off and take time to think and investigate so you don’t fall victim to a bad business opportunity.
10 Marketing Tips For Running A Successful Business
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Try putting to use the following network marketing pointers to help your business reach a new level of success. These tips aren’t new but are implemented by most successful marketers.
1. Before joining any company, do your research. Is it a good company with remarkable products and a reputable owner. Better to find out in the beginning before investing your money, time and reputation.
2. Plan out what you intend to do regarding your business. You need to know the what, where, when and why of your business, you already know the who and that is you.
Plan out what you will do not if but when your business takes off. Where will you put your money that you earn? Be sure to invest some back into your business. Do you have plans for expansion? These are just two of the questions you want to ask yourself.
3. Now is not the time to quit your 9 to 5 job if you have one. If you are not bringing in enough money to cover what your job provides and pay the bills it would be foolish to do so at this point. You need money to run a successful business.
4. Start generating leads. Work on your web presence via social networking sites, your personal blog and your autoresponder. Offer a valuable freebie like a series of helpful articles or a report.
5. Make time for your business. You must work your business for it to work for you. Schedule out the time you need to work on your business. Day or night is fine. Whatever works best for you. Be sure to make it a top priority. You can always call your friends or play games online later. You need to firmly establish your business.
6. Practice patience. Rarely when one become an overnight success. Keep working your plan consistently to see growth in your business.
7. Continue to learn and grow as you work your business plan. The more you learn and implement, the more you will grow.
8. Follow up consistently with every potential lead or recruit. The one that you let go could be a winner. Are you willing to risk it?
9. Be reachable as an upline? Can your team members easily reach you when they have questions or problems? If you do a disappearing act so will any earnings you would have had as your team quits one by one. Be available, even if you have to set aside certain times of the day or week.
10. Pay attention to those who are running successful network marketing businesses and in a position you wish to be in. Their tips could prove to be invaluable to you. Sign up for their emailing lists and get ready to soak up what they have to share. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Just sign up for a few, so you have time to read and absorb what you are being taught.
Do You Have A Plan?
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Ever heard of the saying “Fail to plan, then plan to fail”? This logic can be applied to many different aspects of our lives including our home based or brick and mortar businesses.
It really doesn’t matter what type of business you are in. You could sell vitamins, makeup and skincare, candles, knitted socks, crocheted scarves or gold coins or run a small specialty shop and if you have no plan you will not earn.
Excitement only takes you so far. Careful planning and implementing takes you the rest of the way.
Think about the goals you wish to achieve. Write them down. Take a few moments to think about what you have to do to reach those goals.
Your main goal may look something like this if you are in an MLM network marketing company.
Example: Main Goal – To reach super star level in my network marketing company and make a gazillion dollars per month.
Sounds good but without a plan it will never happen. Joining a company and purchasing a kit is simply not enough.
How to reach your goal. Recruit X amount of members and have a total of Y amount of volume sales each month. This will vary depending on what company you are in.
How will you gain new recruits and customers because they are not going to magically come your way?
Even if you cross your arms, nod your head like a genie and wish really hard, it won’t happen if you are running around like a chicken with their head cut off, not knowing whether you are coming or going.
Where do you plan to work your business? Online and offline is where you will want to recruit new team members and gain customers.
Are you actively building your list? Do you have followers who are interested in what you have to say? Have you built trust with others?
What do you need to achieve all of this? You need to create and maintain an online presence.
Next, think about what you need to do to create that online presence. Blogging, social networking and social bookmarking might end up on your list.
Now it is time to implement. The plan doesn’t work you, you work the plan. Set aside a specified amount of time to work your plan. You don’t have to work 24-7 but you do need to work at it.
Try zeroing in on one thing at a time. Create a profile on a few social networking sites and groups but not too many. You need to be able to be active for people to know you are there.
Start one blog and start posting material relevant to the field you are in. You can write out several posts and set your blog to release them at a specified time or . Hire a ghost writer or purchase PLR material if you aren’t naturally inclined at writing to keep a constant flow of ideas and content on your blog.
Continue learning, while you don’t need to follow 56 different gurus it is good to learn from one or two who are in a position that you would like to be in. This is good because they have already been where you are at and know how to get where they are now. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to be successful.
Set aside a time to read and meditate on the things you learn. The more you learn the more you will grow.
Remember that it’s your business and no one is going to make it successful for you. It doesn’t matter how famous or rich your upline is or how fabulous the products are. You must have the drive, gain the knowledge, be consistent and work your plan so your business can work for you.
Does this only apply to MLM?
If you are trying to create an income without having a 9 to 5 job and think none of the before mentioned things apply to you because you are not in an MLM business, you are wrong. If you work 100% for and by yourself, that is all the more reason for you to have a workable plan.
You are your own brand and without a plan, the how, what and where of your business, you will not succeed. You may make an occasional sale here and there, but you will not have the success you desire.
If you sell crocheted scarves, handmade dresses or knitted socks, for example you still need customers just like one in an MLM company does. You also need to sell a certain amount per month to achieve your desired monthly income.
You also need an online presence if you intend to sell via the internet and you need others to trust you before they invest their money in someone they have never heard of.
Time passing should always reflect your growth and movement. If you are standing still it is time to reevaluate and critique your plan. Just as a baby doesn’t stay still in one spot and grows, so should we.
If you are disappointed, frustrated and feel let down in your business, no matter what your business happens to be, take the time to evaluate what you are doing, determine what you can change and make it happen.
Does it really matter how we approach others online?
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You decided for some reason or another that internet marketing is the career for you. You want to work from home and make lots of money. So much money that you never need to take a 9-5 JOB again. Is money all that a marketer should think of, earning money at any cost?
As an internet marketer you do want to make money online and offline as well if possible. Almost every day on the internet, we come across new people as well as connections we have already made online.
When it comes to our opportunity, services or products, does it really matter how we approach and treat others online if gaining a sale is the bottom line? For me it does.
Here are three things you may not want to do if you plan on being successful and not just grabbing a few sales here and there.
1. Messaging others unsolicited in their inboxes. For many this is annoying. Why not start a mailing list where others may opt in to receive your messages?
2. Add a full page ad in the profile or blog comments sections or on someone’s wall. This is not the way to gain a customer. It makes you look pushy because you are encroaching on the rights of another. They have the right to talk about whatever they want on their profile and blog. That could include advertising.
Why would they want your ad on their page or in their comments section, basically stealing their traffic? Why not fill out your own profile properly and make your own friends and connections. You could even set up your own blog with great content and talk about whatever you like in your own space without offending anyone.
3. Don’t hype up the product, opportunity or service just to make a quick buck. Not only will many people reverse the payment but also never take your word again. More likely than not they will spread the word about you.
Be honest. If it doesn’t pay or work or do like you said it would it can be a bad reflection on you. Never lie and say you have personally tried something that you haven’t.
Never bring someone into an opportunity that you already figured out is horrible. Guess what? They will figure it out too. Your reputation is easy to damage and hard to repair so guard it with care. That rhymed, but it’s true.
While being an ethical marketer will not gain you riches overnight it can set you on the path to gaining all that you desire and more.
