Business Alone

I will depart from my usual style of posting today to bring you something that might be helpful if you are having difficulty trying to decide what type of home business you might be interested in. I ran across a book entitled: Great Big Book of Business Lists.

The book listed 62 different small manufacturing businesses that entrepreneurs might start at home. I thought the list was worth quoting here as it seemed to be comprehensive and a good starting point for any of you that might be looking for this type of help.

Obviously, it would help to have expertise in your chosen niche . . . however, I can tell you that there are dropshippers available that can send any kind of product to a buyer. So even though you may not plan to actually construct patio furniture, you still have the opportunity to sell it if you can do a good job of finding profitable sources and markets for this product.

Here is the list as quoted:

1- Patio Furniture Manufacturing
2- Online Manufacturer's Directory
3- Kitchen Cutting Boards
4- Bookends
5- Weather Vanes
6- Waterbeds
7- Custom Picture Frames
8- Wooden Signs
9- Scratch Posts
10-Wooden Sash Windows

Experts tell us that web site owners have just 8 seconds to grab the attention of web visitors and then they are gone! 8 seconds is a very short amount of time!

You work so hard to get people to your site, often spending money to drive traffic there, and you can't afford to have folks clicking away because they have no interest in what they see.

Your title needs to be a good one as that is what most people focus on at first glance. It is the largest text (hopefully) and it is the gateway to whatever else is on the page.

Your title needs to be engaging ... it needs to keep the reader on the page and interest him or her in reading more. If it is boring, too plain, confusing, or outside the viewer's interest (off target) you are going to lose that prospect, possibly forever.

Let's examine the specific elements of a great title. A title or headline should be:

It would be a grave mistake on your part to ignore the wants of the women in your niche.

It's easy to get carried away with "male marketing" regardless of what you sell. The Internet is no longer the playground of geeks and male business or entrepreneurial types that we so often associate with solo business.

I have heard the statistic that close to 60% of all online users are women of various ages. I will try to find the reference for you; but regardless of what the exact number is, you need to pay attention to their needs and wants ... especially their wants.

You see, we don't always buy what we need. We typically make purchases of what we want.

Sometimes there's a tendency to evaluate the earning potential of a particular niche by the number of potential customers that are there. Alternatively, entrepreneurs may evaluate the likelihood that a niche will be hot in the future, or possibly offer the potential for higher end products and services.

In either case, and there are other alternatives (like a person's passion for the subject of the niche, or his knowledge of the field, or previous experience in the market, etc.), one must never overlook the importance of focusing on targeting of the audience.

Whether the number of potential prospects is relatively large or small, the best results for your advertising and marketing will always come as you are able to hone in on "the perfect customers" for your products or services.

I've often thought about the myriad of reasons for startup business failure. Because creating and operating a business involves so many details, it's easy to understand why problems galore plague entrepreneurs.

Many mess-ups are not fatal.

The owner can recover from non-crippling problems that result from unexpected circumstances or misjudged steps. Persistence and adaptability are key ingredients in the owner's arsenal of personality traits that are needed to overcome big mistakes.

But there is one very tough problem to correct: a poor choice of the basic business idea.

If the whole subject of your business is wrong - if you have employed an incorrect model - or you have overestimated the "salability" of your product - you could be in for a very rude awakening.

Many entrepreneurs struggle to come up with good ideas. It only takes one, however, to lay the foundation of a profitable business. But don't worry - your idea doesn't necessarily need to be perfect to allow you to start a business.

Here's a tip: instead of trying to think of the exact, final idea that will be the basis of your business, it might help to start out surveying the field. In other words, begin by looking at general areas or industries rather than focused, tight subjects.

Start at the wide end of the funnel and narrow your choices and focus as you move down the funnel toward the small end. There will be a lot of areas or industries that you'll be able to eliminate right off the bat to narrow the field.

Let me tell you about some general categories of Internet business that have historically been of great interest to lots of customers. These are not niches - they're just wide areas or subjects that have proven to hold many potential prospects.

Entrepreneurs are a diversified bunch. They appear in all sorts of sizes, temperaments, ages, and with various backgrounds.

Some produce tons of workable business ideas in a year. Others seem to struggle to come up with one good idea in a decade.

Regardless of where you fit on the continuum, there is a very underutilized place you can go to get all the good ideas you'll ever need to keep you in business for a long time to come.

Go online!

You're asking the wrong person, I'm afraid. I'd like to hear from some of you out there in Internet land that have experience in this arena.

It's not wise to take advice from someone that has never been involved in MLMs or to make an assessment of their value, potential, and advantages or disadvantages.

Let me just set the stage with this short introduction to get you going:

MLM is short for Multi-Level Marketing. It is the type of business opportunity that appeals to many people because the business model and products have already been proven by others who have been successful at it.

Most of the Internet's best marketing minds agree on this philosophy:

"Don't try to create interest and excitement in your prospect for your product. Find an overwhelming desire already in your prospect's mind and fill it."

What does this idea suggest? Simply this . . .

Since the beginning of time, solo business persons have opened and maintained retail stores that sold products to walk-in customers.

Sometimes the stores featured only specialty items, like a bike shop or bakery. Others carried a range of goods (like a mercantile) but remained small enough that one person could man the shop by himself and perform all the daily functions necessary.

There would be goods to order from manufacturers or wholesalers, shelves to stock, customers to wait on, books to be balanced, and cleaning at the end of the day.

Every business begins with an idea. The idea may or may not be your own, but it will determine, to a large extent, the success of your business.

So it follows that finding a good idea, the right idea for you at this time and place, is paramount in your attempt to begin a solo business.

But how do you know whether you have a good business idea or not? How do you know that the product or service you will offer will be something that others will buy?

Maybe you trust your brother-in-law Harvey's opinion that "this business is going to revolutionize the future of every man, woman, and child living in the free world."

There should be a number of considerations that you look at before you set a pricing structure to your products.

But many entrepreneurs don't think much about an overall strategy. They believe they are limited in their ability to set prices beyond a certain range.

Let's say you decide to sell a DVD, for instance, that you produced yourself called "The Ups and Downs of Exploring the Grand Canyon on a Pogo Stick!"

If you play the "we guarantee the lowest prices" game, you will usually regret the decision. Of course, only you can be the judge as to your approach to pricing your products and competing in your niche markets.

But I will tell you that unless you are into razor thin margins and moving lots and lots of products, undercutting competitors is a chancy game - at best.

Here's why:

It's fun to skim through a number of new business plans in a short period of time. I always take special note of the sales projections and compare set against set.

Of course, there is probably no merit in comparing apples to oranges as I'm suggesting I like to do. But it sometimes becomes apparent which prospective owners are attempting to be objective, and which are merely dreaming.

Even if you don't understand specific market demand, you will get a distinct "feel" for the amount of hype and exaggeration that floats around in the numbers and the logic.

There is a tendency among new business owners to price their products and services too low in the hope that they will attract more customers and not be given a reputation of being overpriced.

There are several problems with this strategy.

First, the kind of information business we propose for solo Internet entrepreneurs won't have any direct competition. The products, information and business execution are likely to be very unique and tailored to the owner's personality and experience.

Let's face it, many folks that start their own solo business are first time entrepreneurs. They have no history, background, or training in small business development or operation.

That presents a great challenge - one that can certainly be overcome - but one that must be recognized and met head-on.

You see, operating a business is like most other professions. You don't just declare that you want to be in business for yourself and all of a sudden possess all the skills and knowledge that you need to be successful.

Preparation for business success can come in many ways.

Some follow a regimented career path through college and possibly graduate school to learn the art and science of becoming a business owner.

Others choose to get their education from home study courses, books, tapes, and other media presentations.

Most businesses are started by folks that don't have formal training in business. The school of "hard knocks" is their educational backdrop.

Over the next few posts we will be looking at things you can do in your business to:

- gain the education and experience you need to learn important and useful business skills directly related to your success,

- present your business in the best light as one that is real and credible,

- grow your business beyond being just a startup that doesn't go anywhere,

- expand your mind and your opportunities for new business ideas, new products, and creative solutions to business problems,

You've probably noticed over your lifetime that companies dealing in quality products and services tend to remain in business over a long period of time.

Others that prefer to push inferior products - and sometimes just good or average quality offerings - usually have a much shorter life cycle.

Why is it? Wouldn't you logically think that cheaper and more affordable items would outsell more expensive ones if they both performed the same basic functions?

I'm not suggesting anything like copying or plagiarizing someone's profitable business model and products to push them out of their own chosen niche.

Although this very practice happens all the time on the Internet with cloned or stolen and copied products and services, you should never consider such a blatant attempt to shortcut your way to success.

What I am suggesting is that you put on your thinking cap, get creative, and look at the solutions that successful businesses in other niches come up with to solve the problems they find in that niche.

What you end up doing with what I am about to tell you could have a great bearing on your ultimate future as a solo Internet business operator.

I can't over emphasize this point. I hope you pay close attention and get the message clearly.

Undertaking a solo business is like placing yourself in the pilot's seat of a commercial airliner. Your customer's pay to climb aboard and have you fly them to wherever it is you've advertised.

One of the things that most business owners look for are ways to add value to their businesses.

The usual thoughts are to add more products to the mix of things sold thereby increasing the profit potential. They reason, "More to sell = more sales!"

If you sell other people's products and if you have a source of additional offerings, this strategy may make sense for your business.

But what if you create your own products and can't readily add new offerings? What if you sell a single item and your business revolves around just that product?

II tend to be personally aligned with perfectionists.

I believe in doing the very best I can no matter what I'm doing. I sometimes spend hours on trying to get something right, even though that pursuit is mostly meaningless.

I'm a sucker for puzzles, brain teasers, and word games.

As an entrepreneur, I have to fight this tendency toward perfection and "coming up with the very best solution" all the time.

There is a tendency to believe that in order to have a successful business, you must be better than the other businesses in your niche.

You need to understand that it may be impossible to compete against some businesses in some ways. No matter what you do, they will be better at some things than you could ever be.

But that's OK. There is room for many good businesses in most every niche.

Your challenge will be to pick what you want to be good at, let your customers and prospects know what that specialty is, then execute your business and build your products around that strength.

Don't try to compete in things that you can't excel at. Figure skaters are excellent ice skaters, but their talents may not be of much use to a burly hockey player. They become known for their specially developed and honed skills.

Can you imagine the satisfaction, pride, and profitability you could enjoy if your solo business was something very extraordinary?

Most businesses online these days are comparatively bland. They sell products and services that are accepted by customers and the companies for the most part operate as mirror images of one another.

But once in a great while, a business elevates itself to the apex of its niche because it is so radically different and remarkable as to be incomparable and considered in a league of its own.

There is a huge amount of talk and banter these days about niche business and the necessity to focus your efforts in very targeted segments of your market sector.

There is a lot less open talk about what it means to position your business in a certain way or stance and how to do it within your specialized niche.

"Positioning" very simply refers to the choices you will be making about how you desire your business to be viewed by others. You will be determining your positioning either consciously by the actions you take, or automatically if you don't do anything to influence your position.

You business positioning differentiates your company and brand from others in the same niche, your competitors, by:

If so, you need to do everything possible to increase the amount of traffic, the click-through response rate to your affiliate page links, and the relevance of your content to the product(s) you're promoting.

Typically, affiliates slap up a web page, add a few links, some cut-and-paste content, and forget about the site for a few weeks or months waiting for it to get spidered and included in the search engines.

There is a better way to accomplish affiliate sales. If you pay close attention to the details of your site, like you would if you were selling your own direct marketing product, your affiliate sales can soar.

In 2005 I purchased and read Seth Godin's latest contribution to new age business thinking and culture and immediately was struck by it's logic, practicality and seemingly correct vision of how we must sell our products and services now and in the future.

Seth Godin's book, called All Marketers Are Liars - The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World, is a fun read and certainly challenges traditional thinking about marketing products and services.

According to Godin, successful companies will be those that invent good products worth talking about and then come up with good, believable stories about what they've invented.

Godin writes, "Make your story bigger and bigger until it's important enough to believe."

Another book that I like to recommend to entrepreneurs and existing small business owners is The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, a columnist for The New Yorker magazine.

It was published in May 2004 and has 320 pages. The subtitle is: "Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations."

That's quite a mouthful and suggests that there really is wisdom, influence, and, in particular, power in the thinking and opinions of the masses, either to the benefit or detriment of every society, organization, and economy in the world.

Have you ever noticed a shopping cart full of groceries sitting next to the checkout stand at the supermarket?

I've seen it happen a few times and usually figured that someone simply left their wallet or purse at home and would be back soon to claim their abandoned goods.

It's not a big problem since most stores are accommodating about the oversight.

But online, shopping cart abandonment is a huge problem! No one really knows the extent of this loss to e-tailers, but I have seen some estimates that suggest fifty percent or more of all online sales processes are never completed.

In the previous installment we discussed some of the costs associated with delivering physical products to your customers.

Be careful to study the numbers and understand exactly what it is costing your business on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis to send out your goods.

In most instances, it is best to charge your customers about what it costs you to handle and ship their purchase. The amount can vary a little from your exact cost so that you can standardize and simplify the shipping cost structure you present to your buyers.

Having to ship merchandise out to customers reminds me of the hassle of shaving every morning. It's a part of the daily routine, it's something to be tolerated but it's never enjoyed, and the longer you let it go, the more difficult the chore grows for the next day.

In my mind, having to ship merchandise, keep inventory on hand, box and package products, etc, is one of the reasons I feel strongly about solo operators focusing on information based business only. There is no shipping.

If you ship merchandise, you have to keep merchandise. All of a sudden you are in the warehousing and inventory business that presents all kinds of extra manpower costs, worries and hassles.

By now you understand that the solo information business strategy discourages dealing in physical products that require shipping and handling. These products require human intervention and a lot of financial costs that are the antithesis of the one-person solo Internet home business model.

Nevertheless, many of you will continue to do business in a physical delivery world because of the types of products you sell.

So I have a few suggestions about shipping products that will hopefully help you in your business to avoid the pitfalls and traps that some solo businesses have fallen into in the past.

Most small business owners look for additional sales in increased advertising and marketing.

But there are other strategies to explore and some unique methods of driving more sales in your business without turning up any additional customers.

One of those strategies involves up selling - offering additional products to the sales of your current buying pool. You're not having to locate new first time buyers . . . you're simply selling more to those who buy a product.

A joint venture is simply a partnership created to take advantage of non-competing products or services that are extended to the customers of the partner's business(es).

There are many different ways to set up a joint venture and a lot of variations to the theme, but this is basically how it is structured:

One business will make contact with a non-competing business owner to offer his services or products to the non-competing businesses customers and will offer that owner a portion of the profits of all sales (in return for the privilege of contacting his customer base).

I spoke with a young gentleman today about his dream to start a business. That's not a rare occurrence as I deal in such discussions quite a few times every week.

As we began talking, it was obvious to me that he was passionate about his idea and his plan to take that idea to market.

His reason for contacting me was to find out where he might begin looking for funding to finance his project. It was the next item on his "to do" list.

Entrepreneur is kind of a funny word. It's obviously of French origin. I've been hunting for years to find its English counterpart, but have not yet come up with a suitable substitute.

Maybe we don't need an English word for entrepreneur - it's used so commonly these days in the English language that most business-minded people, at least, have a pretty good understanding of the term.

My dictionary states the word "entrepreneur" comes from the Old French "entreprendre" which means, "to undertake." An entrepreneur is one who undertakes the creation, organization, operation, and risk of a business venture.

I want to welcome my new friend Chris Elliott to the blog and the amazing world of Internet business. Chris is a high school senior about to make a choice between colleges and is interested in entering the business world after school is completed.

Chris reminds me that there is a legion of potential solo Internet business candidates among us - the future business leaders that will blossom in the coming generation.

Most of the attention I pay to solo business owners goes to those who have a wealth of knowledge and experience under the belt. They are folks that already have some life and business experiences in the work place.

The premier search engine Google has come up with several programs that may be of interest to the solo small business owner. But there seems to be some matter of conflicting opinion about whether a web site owner should do anything to send his traffic away to someone else.

Here's the deal: Google allows web site owners to advertise products and services on their web site in exchange for a small referral fee each time a viewer clicks on one of the Google ads.

This is not an affiliate program since Google pays for each click rather than for a product that is actually purchased. In a sense, the web site owner is sharing in a PPC (pay per click) program. Google serves the ads and keeps track of the clicks. The web site owner puts Google's html code on his pages and provides relevant content for Google to match to its advertisers.

Anyone that has searched online for information type products, and even physical products in some cases, has been offered one or more "bonuses" along with the purchase of the main product.

The question you may be asking is this, "Does a bonus offer increase the sale of a particular product?"

You may think that bonuses should naturally increase sales; but that is not always the case.

In this day of increasingly complex e-commerce systems, it seems that there are many strategies that product sellers have at their disposal to increase product sales. The strategy of offering a bonus product is so common now that it may seem like a necessity to follow suit if you want to make sales.

It may be something you do as a matter of routine, but I've seen enough sales letters and web site catalogs that don't do this that I'm convinced some sellers just don't know what they are missing.

I've often spoken of the need to do everything within your power to garner the trust and confidence of your prospects in online selling.

Lots of people are still a little skeptical about doing business online.

And even though many have moved beyond the fear that credit card numbers will be stolen and used illegally, they still have a certain natural tendency to not give their full faith and trust to a new Internet company they have never dealt with in the past.

I read a news opinion column recently that claimed the great benefit of the Internet to small businesses was that it allowed every business to be built on the same footing - low startup cost and potentially unlimited exposure.

The article went on to say that if a business expected to compete in its niche online it had to give a lot of things away for free as that was the expected standard online these days.

Is the Internet business model really that different from the way business is done in the off-line physical world?

Do solo entrepreneurs really have to give away a lot of their valuable information products in order to attract customers and expect product purchases?

One of the greatest secrets to successful solo small business seems to escape many entrepreneurs.

If you are one that can't see the handwriting on the wall, I hope you'll take a lesson from this post.

Here is the secret: women drive most of the purchasing decisions these days, both online and off-line.

Now if you're a small business owner and are paying attention to the profiles of your buying customers, you will have recognized this trend a few years ago.

But it's still surprising to me that so many web site owners never seem to cater to ladies in their business or at their web site.

I've noticed over the years that I've been online (since the mid-90s) a change that's taking place in the way Internet users are visiting web sites.

In the very early days of the Internet, when it was a brand new and very exciting place to visit, most people that surfed liked to move about randomly and quite excessively.

It seems they wanted to go exploring to not only see what kinds of things were available online, but to survey niches and see all the players in them just in case they had a need to return sometime in the future.

It was kind of the same experience as you might have when exploring a new shopping mall or an amusement park for the first time.

You dash from store to store or ride to ride making sure you experience everything you can so you'll know what you like and what is not worth coming back to a second time.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I thought press releases were one of the most effective yet misunderstood tools the business owner had at his disposal to market his business and drive targeted traffic to his products.

No one ever taught us how to write a good press release!

The single most important rule to remember is to focus on the wants of the reader. Write what the viewer wants, what will make him happy, save him time, or solve a problem he has.

Forget what you (the business owner) want. It's not about you.

In addition, here are some simple suggestions to boost your copywriting effectiveness and increase your chances of having the release published:

I have often made the comment, "You are the business." As a small business owner, you are the solo creator, founder, operator, and employee of your business.

Without you, and everything that you know, do, and are, your business is nothing. There is no business if you don't make it so.

I am a proponent of the solo small business strategy because I believe in digital information business as the "perfect" strategy for this day and age, especially for those that want to control every aspect of their life in the business world and beyond.

When you do business as a solo small business owner, you alone are responsible for every aspect of the business.

If there are breakdowns in your product sales, customer relations, or financial management, there's no one to shake a finger at except the guy in the mirror.

Now in a typical "regular" business, each of the employee managers that handle a department like those mentioned above will be scrutinized and evaluated in their performance.

I think this is an important question that every entrepreneur needs to ask of him/herself. I'm not talking about turning a dollar bill into coins.

You've probably noticed that everything related to Internet business changes quite rapidly. It's business at the speed of light, so to speak.

Your niche market changes and morphs over time as new innovations come on the scene and old traditions die out.

You targeted customers change. It is a rarity nowadays to keep the same customers as regular purchasers at your site for more than a couple of years.

You would think most people are rational when spending money on products and services that they find online. After all, the complete information about the product is readily available right on the Internet.

You can also quickly compare prices, shipping, and other factors between two or more sellers to assure you're getting the best deal possible.

I'll admit that I've spent hours online comparison shopping, researching benefits and features, and reviewing the sales pages for just one item I wanted to purchase.

The time I spent online was probably worth way more than the product I was after.

It's only been since the late 1990's that marketers are able to look at the phenomenon of Internet purchasing.

It's really too short a time to accurately begin predicting more long-term trends and patterns that will spill over into the future.

Initially, most online prospects were hesitant to give up credit card information and personal data required to make a purchase. But by about 1998 or so attitudes toward security began changing and customers were more at ease in divulging their information.

As I have watched Internet business begin to grow and mature, I have noticed that certain recurring patterns seem to play themselves out over time.

Observing these patterns and keeping a careful eye on emerging trends will help the solo entrepreneur position himself and his business in a way that will benefit his revenue generation.

One of the true challenges facing every Internet business is the process of turning prospects into paying customers.

Lots of people can be directed to a web site by various means and incentives - but getting those prospects to spend money with your business is a whole different proposition.

How do you optimize your conversion rate - turning lookers into buyers - that certain percentage of surfers that will actually give you a credit card number and deposit their money into your bank account?

We'll save the details and numbered lists of tactics and strategies for another day.

What I wanted to get across as your sole "take away" (bit of wisdom you can use in your business) from this discussion is:

Regardless of the size of your marketing budget, there are some business principles that should guide what you do, when you do it, and how you bring together the various elements of your business marketing.

The tendency for many new small businesses is simply to strike out and begin spreading the word about your product or service in a random hodge-podge manner, jumping from this to that depending upon where you think you'll get the most bang for your effort.

Your marketing "plan" has no real thinking behind it . . . you just figure the best you can do is to spread the word as quickly as you can to as many sources as you can and hope for the best.

Now that game plan certainly beats doing no marketing at all, but it lacks the leveraging power of a unified and comprehensive approach that ties all your different marketing efforts together and cements your brand in the minds of your customers.

Of course the Internet small business has many formats to choose from when advertising its products and services.

I believe using a variety of methods is generally preferable to always relying upon one format. Your customers may tire from the same looking message received repeatedly.

One of the most effective selling formats is the personal letter from you (the small business owner) to the customer. It's a proven strategy that often works better than any other because it's:

(1) personal - most of us are much more likely to buy a product that is personally recommended than one we have no human tie to;

(2) intimate - we feel that a personal letter is not something that would be shared with lots of other people, hence we view it as tailored to our own needs or geared to our own circumstance (even though that may not be the case since the same "personal" letter might be sent to thousands of prospects);

What I am about to say may strike a chord of discontent among many of you . . . but that's okay.

It will bring to light a strategy that many of the Internet's most successful and profitable business persons have adopted on the road to increased business and nice incomes.

I will ask the question again, "Who gives out points for creativity and innovation?"

Most entrepreneurs and new small business owners feel that in order to be successful at Internet business, they must create or invent the next unique and valuable product - something different from all others in the same niche market. I beg to differ.

Now I am certainly not opposed to being creative or innovative, all of the other things being equal, it's a real blessing to have these personal characteristics manifest in your business. . . but . . .

Most often though, success is found in other ways. Here are some examples:

Of course the type of business you run will often dictate the accepted and profitable practices that are used in your industry.

Your brand may be strong enough that having a slogan may be overkill.

But in most new business situations, I think it's preferable to add a useful slogan as opposed to relying upon your business name alone.

I said "useful" and that is important.

Just adding any slogan because it sounds cool or looks good in the logo probably won't help your marketing cause much.

But if you develop a slogan that tells a story and brands your business in a useful way, it can become a great advantage to you over time.

Affiliate programs have proven to be an important additional stream of income for many small Internet business owners.

It is not a "cure all" for lack of sales at your own web site as some self-proclaimed gurus have stated.

You must first determine if adding affiliate sales to your overall marketing strategy is a positive step or one that will detract from your web site's mission.

There are some types of business, and certain niches, where selling other's goods will not help your own cause.

This may seem obvious, but I see this mistake being made all over the Internet - don't sell competing products or unrelated (to your niche) products in your affiliate program.

I like to quiz solo business owners about how they spend their time in a typical week.

That's about the right length of time (seven days) to measure both simple and complex tasks that the owner completes.

I find that most do very little active marketing. I believe that's a big mistake for a small business. But here's an even bigger one:

The tendency for most solo business owners is to focus on extending "reach," the breadth of the company's range of customers. They try to market to prospects that are new to the company.

It seems that when most folks think about starting a new business, they consider what product or service they might sell to the consumer.

Everyone is familiar with consumer goods and most of us relate to them because we use them in our everyday lives.

We see and hear about these products in TV ads, radio spots, in the newspaper, and on signs and billboards.

We naturally begin to think about the products we use and how we might be able to come up with a better version or maybe we think we can sell consumer goods in a more effective way than they are being offered to us.

It might pay for you to change your thinking slightly and begin to contemplate what you might have to offer other businesses.

There are some advantages to avoiding consumers and simply dealing with businesses in your niche.

It seems somewhat incredible that many entrepreneurs go into business without knowing exactly their true business purpose.

Have you ever taken the opportunity to boil down your purpose to its very essence?

"What is my business?" Try to find an answer that covers all the bases in just a word or two. Usually that's a very challenging task.

Your company may sell a number of different products and services and it's purpose may be multi-faceted. Here's maybe a different way of defining what it is that you do.

Most of us have been taught to value "more" over "less." The more we have, the better off we are.

If two of something is good, then surely three of that same thing is better!

In the Internet world, quantity often means little because it is so relative depending upon the context in which it us used. Here's an example.

Most business owners would think that being able to contact 5,000 prospects in a single sales pitch campaign would be a big deal. In the offline world that is certainly the case.

But if your message is being broadcast via email, and you're trying to choose between two options (say, for instance, sending your message to 45,000 prospects compared to 50,000) that extra 5,000 may not be a very significant amount.

I wanted to mention the case for quality over quantity related to renting lists of prospects from a list broker.

You may not have this problem - I hope you don't. If you're super focused and well disciplined, you should be able to avoid digital dust.

I haven't. I fight the curse constantly and usually give in to my quest for that next great resource that's going to propel my business into the heavens.

Digital dust is what all those business tool software and information products turn into over time. It's pretty much worthless, and often turns into a total waste of your business budget.

I guess maybe I'm just a succor for a good sales pitch. I'm the kind of guy a smart product developer can sniff out in a crowded room. Maybe "gullible" is permanently stamped into my forehead.

If you were to hear this complaint (which by the way, I hear very often) what would you guess the business owner was really saying?

Was he saying that he had a great product, but his targeted customers were just too dumb to recognize it and hence they weren't buying?

Or was he lamenting the fact that he was not selling to the right customer niche market?

Or maybe he was charging too much for his awesome product and nobody wanted to buy at that price?

Or could it be that no one was hearing his sales message and seeing his ads and therefore he was not making sales?

Before we get to today's post, let's take a minute to remember the victims of the September 11th tradgedy of 2001. It's hard to believe that it's been six years since we endured that nightmare.

Let's remember what has made our country strong and each do our individual part to continue that heritage of courage, hard work, and a never say die attitude - each an important trait for small business owners.

Okay, we'll move on.

I've been thinking a lot about Internet real estate and branding, and whether they are important undertakings of solo business. I've been asking myself questions like:

- Is it worth the effort and expense for a small business owner to try to establish a brand of some kind for his business?

- In the Internet world of big corporations, net real estate has increasing value. But does that same concept apply to small businesses as well?

- Is there a way for a solo business owner to add value to his property beyond the value of the information he publishes at his web site?

One of the foundations of any successful marketing program is repeated and systematic contact of the prospect.

One initial encounter is rarely sufficient to brand your company in the mind of the customer.

We all are bombarded with literally thousands of marketing messages every day no matter what we do or where we go.

Radio, television, the Internet, newspapers, magazines, billboards, and other venues attempt to grab our attention long enough to flash a message to our brains that the advertiser hopes will "stick" sooner or later.

Most of us learn to subconsciously "tune out" or tone down this constant barrage of advertising. That means there are natural challenges awaiting every business that tries to communicate with their prospects.

I'm convinced that press releases are one of the most misunderstood tools a small business has available to tell its story and drive targeted traffic to its web site and products.

But industry surveys show that the vast majority of all press releases (some estimate the number to conservatively range between 90 and 98%) from small businesses never get past the desk of the editor. Why is that? Don't editors want good releases?

Of course they do. There are a variety of reasons why a release isn't accepted and subsequently published, but the main reason given most often by the editors questioned has to do with the copy that the author submits.

You see, authors write in an effort to put the best light or spin possible on their business or product. In other words, they write from the business point of view, usually with a marketing slant or focus.

I visited a web site last night related to Internet marketing that touted all the methods the large corporations were using to build trust in the company - thereby reducing the fears of customers with the end result of making them more apt to make an online purchase.

There were something like thirty methods of building trust listed, but I was very surprised to notice the lack of mention of using testimonials from satisfied buyers.

In my mind, there are few things you can do that are more important than using testimonials.

So why did this marketing "authority" leave this method out? Who knows? Maybe it was a large corporation "thing," an acknowledgement that the site was too important to place one person's comment in the showroom of this company.

You've probably noticed the proliferation of "how to" content sites and businesses that have sprung up in every niche across the Internet.

The popularity of this business model is undeniable. Find a niche that has customers craving how to do something that is not generally understood and you might just be swamped with more prospects than you can handle.

The reason for all this commotion in the "how to" circles? It's simple - everyone wants to find good solid information that is readily available that can solve a problem that they are having.

You want to know how to diversify your stock portfolio without paying a securities broker? Go online and do some research.

Buying trends emerge online over time to give business owners, product developers, and marketers clues as to the kinds of things that sell and the strategies that perform best in putting the products in the hands of the customer.

One trend that many have noticed of late is the attraction of "simple and easy" with regard to online purchases. It seems that the public prefers to buy products that are easy to use, easy to understand, take little or no set up or skill to activate, and that are simple to maintain.

Why does this trend seem to be so prevalent? Is it that the population is generally lazy? Do we not have the time to worry about learning to use and care for things? Are there better uses of our discretionary time?

Most marketing experts will tell you that they go to great lengths to try to draw the prospect into a sales pitch.

If he remains on the "outside," so to speak, he will not be affected by or overcome with the emotion, motivation and sense of urgency that marketers try to build into their sales presentation.

One of the many and best ways marketers draw prospects into the sales dialogue is to use the word "You" often in their content so the reader begins to feel like the message is directed right squarely at him. The dialogue is personal and engaging.

"You will receive these benefits when you buy the product..."

I have seen a smattering of Internet marketers voicing loud and sometimes passionate opinions that blogs are destroying the Internet. Why?

These blog naysayers suggest that blogs are too ubiquitous, they give every Tom, Dick, and Sally a public platform on which they push a certain agenda, try to sell in a saturated market, and criticize and condemn products they don't like even when their reasons are suspect.

One fellow complained that blogs get into the search results too easily and because of the sheer numbers of blogs (he said "tens of millions") the results are not returning what viewers are looking for.

Online business in today's marketplace has many advantages that the small business has never had in the past.

The challenge for the business owner is to take advantage of these advances and use them to grow his business in ways that direct competitors either don't know about or are too lazy to set up.

The advances are only an advantage if they're put to good use. That's why they are so powerful to you - because you know the strategies and can implement them into your business and others in your niche won't.

Have you ever noticed how customers like to be given very specific instructions or detailed directions from those they consider to be an expert?

I used to work retail in the sporting goods industry when I was a struggling college student trying to get my education and support my young family.

My great passion and hobby was fly fishing and I took every opportunity I could to help fly fishermen who came into the store to become better at "my sport."

I was an evangelist, a mentor, and an instructor for the sport of fly fishing even though the store was paying me to be a salesman.

Of course you would want to do that. Here's why!

Everyone likes to be stroked. We all enjoy the praises of others and the acknowledgement or validation of our own talents and worth.

Even celebrities gush over fans that sing their praises and idolize their image.

You can use this knowledge to your advantage in the online business world.

Here's how you do it and why it's a good idea.

The manufacturers of the industrial era had at least one thing in common: they found that mass production could cut both product costs and production times by substantial amounts when work was compartmentalized and the flow of assembly was orchestrated to bring all the parts together at the proper time (on the assembly line) and sequence.

The expectation remains today that products can be made and delivered to the customer in record time.

You order a digital camera over the Internet today on your lunch hour, even from a dealer thousands of miles away, and you should be able to have it delivered to your front door by noon tomorrow, if all goes well.

One of the surest things besides death and taxes, is the fact that change will occur in your business niche. It's inevitable.

Markets for products and services evolve over time.

Innovations in products and technology create new markets and make previous products obsolete.

Changes in economics, politics, and consumer appetites constantly force upheaval and churning in niches.

It doesn't matter that you have a successful product or a profitable business.

Sooner or later (and it's usually sooner), the market that you're in will change and the profits that you're now amassing will dwindle.

A lot has been written over the past ten years about business owners as risk-takers, and the characteristics or qualities that they possess which allow them to be successful in what they do.

But very seldom does this skill show up on the lists that writers prepare extolling the virtues of the top entrepreneurs.

Yes, persistence, attention to detail, willingness to take a risk, and determination are all candidates for the usual list of "must have" qualities for the successful business man/woman.

But there is another ingredient that I have found to be most important - even crucial - to the success of the creator of small business.

Once you leave the corporate world (or any kind of job where you're an employee for someone else) for the adventure of solo business, it only takes a day or two before you realize that you're standing naked in front of the world hoping that somehow others are going to notice your business.

You're naked because all of the props, network ties, and support infrastructure that typically come with a large organization or business are suddenly gone.

It's like standing on a street corner with nothing more than your naked self to give the world.

Yes, you can replace your props over time and focus the attention away from your own nothingness and exposure . . . but it will take time and a fair amount of effort.

In our previous discussion, we talked about the fact that a new business owner cannot rely upon "the corporation" to provide him with contacts, invitations to events and groups, company resources, credibility, etc.

When you strike out on your own, you're basically naked!

Here are some ideas to help you, as a solo business owner just getting started, develop your own business network and support system.

Here are a few more suggestions of ways to begin a business network of contacts and support if you are creating a new solo business:

7. Own your failures. If you've been an employee of a business that has more than a few employees, you know that often failures in specific campaigns and projects are bantered about without anyone owning up to the blame for the failure.

One person after another deflects the blame from himself and directs it toward another employee.

Soon, the failure is everyone's fault - and thereby - it becomes no one's fault.

Why am I so passionate about solo Internet business?

There are many reasons that I can think of - but there is one that stands out in my mind as being particularly important.

It is the notion that the individual in our society has great personal power.

Some believe that all the business power resides in large corporations. After all, they have the money, talent, and clout to be taken seriously by the public.

They have the wherewithal to perform important research, market to endless crowds, and develop unlimited technological products.

In the previous article, we began our discussion of some marketing tactics that fall under the title of "piggyback marketing."

With this strategy, you have the opportunity to "piggyback" your marketing message with other products, sales messages, a service, or a bill.

Your marketing "piggybacks" with something else that is going to be delivered anyway and can be thought of as a "bonus" or gift by the prospect.

Free coupons are a perfect example of the piggyback marketing strategy.

You come up with an idea for a free coupon to something in your business and offer it as an "include" in the mailing being done by your partner.

/>We are continuing our discussion of some marketing tactics that fall under the strategy called "piggyback marketing."

With this method, you take the opportunity to "piggyback" your marketing message along with other products, sales messages, a service, or a billing.

In essence, your marketing "piggybacks" with something else that is going to be delivered anyway and will be thought of as a "bonus" or gift by the prospect.

We are continuing our discussion of some marketing tactics that fall under the strategy called "piggyback marketing."

With this method, you take the opportunity to "piggyback" your marketing message along with other products, sales messages, a service, or a billing.

Your marketing "piggybacks" with something else that is going to be delivered anyway and will be thought of as a "bonus" or gift by the prospect.

Think back to the time you had your first thoughts about working for yourself by creating a business.

You probably followed your dream and started a lemonade stand out on the front curb, began delivering newspapers so you'd have some spending money, or borrowed Dad's lawnmower to take your lawn care service to the neighbors.

In it's early and very basic form, entrepreneurship means you have an idea of a way to earn some money and you act on that idea or follow through to the point that you do the work and reap the reward.

Both online and offline small businesses can create and distribute product and service offerings very cost effectively with coupons that are designed to do all of the following things:

1- Collect the name and contact information of the respondent,

2- Provide an incentive for the user to contact your business,

3- Brand your company and it's products (services) with your unique tag line, logo, and web site URL,

Marketing your solo business with coupons can be a very effective selling strategy if you incorporate some of the time-proven and tested principles that other marketers have learned about this special kind of advertising.

Coupons can the open the door to better customer relations, more back door sales, and greater communication with your valued customers.

Here are a few more tips that will help any small business owner make his coupon campaign a success regardless of the product or niche he's in:

I was asked this simple question in a roundtable discussion of business owners recently, and to my utter surprise, a very lively dialogue carried on into the night as the group of us debated the challenges and opportunities that affect small business today in comparison with "the way it used to be" just 10-15 years ago.

My opinion, and that of several others that specialize in online business, was that indeed, small business has changed dramatically for those that have discovered and subsequently embraced the new technologies that empower the small business owner.

Every small business owner wrestles with understanding how to increase his business.

The bottom line is this: "How do I bring additional revenue into the company?"

Well friends, you have just two choices: sell more or charge more.

Regardless of how complicated you try to make this puzzle, these are the only two things you can do to increase your business.

Everything else you do supports your ability to make additional sales or charge more for the products and services you sell.

Now comes the critical question: "What can the business owner do to increase sales?"

Often entrepreneurs and small business owners have a difficult time trying to keep from being "stale" in their businesses.

By that, I mean they struggle to come up with fresh ideas, new and unique products, and creative solutions to the problems and wants of their market niche.

Many feel that they must continue to sell the same old things they've always sold, that they have no way of being able to offer brand new services or goods.

Some of you may have seen this on MSN recently, but I thought I would share my synopsis of it anyway for those interested in the "wants" of Internet users.

CNET's Download.com is a library of free and free-to-try software programs and applications for Windows, Macintosh, and handheld devices. It began 10 years ago with 3,000 titles and today has over 30,000 potential downloads.

Here are the TOP TEN DOWNLOADS over the past 10 years:

Every business owner will have his moments when all creativity and unique ideas seem to hit a lull. No matter what the owner does, he just can't come up with anything new and exciting for his customers.

It's at these times that repurposing your content may be the answer until your creative juices begin flowing again!

Here is a simple list of things you can do to get yourself going again.

Did you know there are ways to see what buyers are looking for at any given time online?

The information is free. Smart marketers and product developers ought to keep an eye on the buying public and their wants. Understanding "demand" is one of the pillars of Internet marketing and product creation.

CNET's Download.com is a library of free and free-to-try software programs and applications for Windows, Macintosh, and handheld devices. It began 10 years ago with 3,000 titles and today has over 30,000 potential downloads.

Of all the tricks and strategies that direct marketing professionals have devised over the years to increase sales and push prospects to take action at crunch time, maybe the ultimate trick is employing the "scarcity" factor to a product or service.

When a product is limited (scarce) in availability, it's value skyrockets dramatically.

Most of us understand the reasoning behind using this tactic and I can guarantee you that at least 90% of the online product offers and "launches" that you'll encounter will use one or more scarcity tactics in the sales message to get you to buy.

One of the most overlooked steps in web site publishing, product creation, and article writing is the "chore" of first doing market research.

It's a chore to most people and therefore it is often neglected or shunned altogether because performing the research takes time, a certain amount of "know how" and definitely some amount of your precious time.

But the consequences of not first doing research are almost always negative and will certainly cost you time and money in the long run.

In my travels today I ran across a great site online that should provide a nice resource for you as a small business owner. At the very least, you can use it as a consumer to find just about any kind of product or service imaginable.

Often, solo business owners are in need of a particular service or piece of equipment that may not be available locally or within the surrounding area. Not to worry . . .

This resource I'm talking about is a business directory of sorts. What makes it such a good resource, however, is its search capability. You can search in any state or city in the U.S. and get great information about the business supplying the information.

Now searching for any type of service or product is a breeze. Not only will the search include the name of the vendor, it will also allow you to find all the contact information you need, web sites, email addresses and what kind of local competition there may be for a product.

I am a firm believer that anything can be sold online.

Granted, some types or products and services are a better fit for Internet selling than others; however, I believe that every business needs to have an online presence online.

If you don't believe what I'm saying, think about this: What product or service couldn't be marketed online? What business couldn't include their name, address, phone number, fax number, web site URL, and product or service description online? What business type couldn't advertise what they do online and benefit from it?

Sure, there are some businesses (like car sellers) that can deliver their product as a download or mail order item. However, product or service delivery isn't a prerequisite for an online business. There are still lots of other aspects of every business that can be conducted online.

I would be surprised if there are any major car dealerships in your region that don't have a web site.

Let's spend a minute and see what kinds of businesses thrive online. If we can identify these, they may be a great starting point from which you might decide upon a business niche to enter solo business for yourself.

Every solo business owner has a set of core principles or values that determine how his/her business is operated.

Some owners are very methodical and precise. Others tend to fly by the seat of their pants, so to speak.

No two businesses are run exactly the same.

But regardless of your methods and strategies, there are some very fundamental execution principles that all successful solo businesses seem to adopt.

Some business owners catch onto these ideas quickly. They learn them early on in their business career and adopt them as a daily method of operation.

Others gradually move toward these ideas through trial and error as they learn in their own business exactly what works and what doesn't.

Often I am asked something like the following:

"Where do you look for answers if your web site and business are not successful?"

It seems that lots of business owners these days are moving to the Internet as a way to make a living. No doubt they've heard all the hype and raves about how much money there is waiting for those who want to extract it from the Internet.

Business is a complex thing and any one trouble spot could be to blame for an under-performing entity. And if many trouble spots are present, the task of identifying them all and fixing them becomes a major undertaking.

If your business isn't performing ... or if it is performing but not at the level you expect, here are the ten areas of your business that I would first analyze in order to remove potential trouble spots:

When it comes right down to brass tacks, I would say every Internet business owner should consider herself or himself an information publisher.

It seems to me that all business web site owners need to be publishers of:
a) website information;
b) sales letter copy;
c) site content in the chosen niche;
d) products in digital or hard copy form;
e) blog content;
f) email communications;
g) customer service responses;
h) advertising / marketing copy;
i) articles and press releases;
j) probably other things I'm forgetting about ...

My point is, whether you consider yourself to be an info marketer or not, you really need to pay close attention to your publishing (i.e. putting it out on the net or in emails) and how it can affect your overall business.