Take a QUICK step back.

Take a DEEP breath. 

 Take stock of your SELF.

If your business is your life, you are obviously not in academia, not a corporate type, and not some government flunky. Only true entrepreneurs make their businesses their lives. And only true entrepreneurs need a crowbar to separate the two. This is good and bad. Good because you increase the odds that your business will succeed. Bad because–in the process–you increase the odds that you, the person, may not  succeed.

You need a “HOW GOES IT?” meeting

with your SELF — now, today, tonight, at

sunset, or tomorrow morning at sunrise!

You need to not make excuses for delaying it. At the rate government continues to ravage America’s 30 million small businesses, you cannot afford to go past this coming weekend. I know, I know, you have a family deal coming . . . you have to charge your iPad . . . your dog pushed you into stepping where you should have scooped . . . it’s your only chance to see  Lady Gaga . . . there’s a Shark Tank special . . . it’s year-end something or other . . .  it’s . . . STOP! Take some deep breaths.

This is not a half-baked suggestion to do some fancy inventory of your customers, branding program or finances, though it’s hard to do too much of that. This is an informal step-back-out-of-the-woods assessment point in time which successful entrepreneurs with healthy businesses make a habit of practicing every couple of months (at least quarterly).

• Start with a quiet place where you will not be interrupted for two hours by cell phones, radio or TV reception, machinery, other people or barking dogs. (Sunrises are great!) Walk on the beach, through the woods or in a quiet park . . . or just sit parked in your car, but –given today’s day and age– remember to not “look suspicious.” 😉 Bring a pen and notepad (NO keyboards or keypads!).

• Write down one single sentence that best describes where your business is right now. Follow that with another sentence that best describes where you are right now — physically, mentally, emotionally. Be honest. It’s just for your brain. No one else need ever see this piece of paper.

• Next , write one single sentence that best describes where you believe it’s possible to take your business within the next six months. Follow that sentence with another one that best describes where you believe it’s possible to take your SELF (physically, mentally, emotionally) within the next six months.

• Spend the next hour studying these four sentences and diagramming HOW (the process; the steps) you think you need to take to get from one to the other, and HOW you see them coming together or interdependent on one another. Then write down the three action steps you’re willing to take right now (AS you review your diagram) to get started moving from where you are to where you’re headed. Prioritize them.

_________________________

Two hours out of your life that will positively improve your life (and your business) and you just saved all that business consultant and psychotherapy money.

You can be your own best shrink! (Unless you choose to put off having a “HOW GOES IT?” session with yourself —  in which case, the couple a hundred bucks an hour fees will probably be a worthy investment.)

_________________________

P.S. When you get good at this process, start introducing it in your “big picture” work with employees and key customers. Everybody loves having the opportunity to participate in doing positive attitude-focused diagnostic workups and developing treatment plans aimed at improving work options and customer service performance.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

hal@businessworks.US

R  E  A  L   C  H  A  N  G  E

DOESN’T TAKE TIME.

IT JUST HAPPENS!

And the reason for such thought diversity between what small business represents and upholds, and the self-aggrandizing departure words of America’s Speaker of The House today has to do with the same reason small business has been under constant blindside attack by the government since 2008.

. . . our federal government is devotedly invested in management by consensus, where everyone involved must agree at least somewhat with every decision. This approach to problem-solving and getting things done has been religiously adhered to by all U.S. Government agencies. It has infiltrated the management behaviors of many if not most in funding-sponge academia, and in the upper ranks of many if not most failing lethargy-infested corporations.

Consensus-seeking management theory (like other “dead soldiers” e.g., Theory A and Theory Z and group hugs) might have solved problems and gotten things done decades ago in the “Hippy” years of the 1960s and 70s. But they simply do not work any longer in today’s world.

“Entrepreneurialism” and small business innovation –which thrive on maintaining a sense of urgency and taking REASONABLE risks– continue to be the true solution-directions that work. Yet they are consistently undermined by shortsighted government agencies that are relentlessly invested in maintaining the status quo.

Waiting for change instead of making change may have a place in history, but can no longer be tolerated as a modus operandi. There just is no time for such nonsense as waiting. ENTREPRENEURS ARE THE AGENTS OF CHANGE!

We live in a world of impatience.

Forward motion that plods

is backward motion.

When small business and entrepreneurs are punished with over-burdening taxes and unnecessary government rule and regulation intrusions designed to do nothing except further the cause of interventionist government in our lives, it proves itself more inadequate and less representative of the reasons it exists every day . . . in fact, every minute.

As the government continues to prove it’s own inadequacy, misguidance, and misdirection that have led to outright thievery of freedom, to outright undermining of our very economy (and knowing our economy is literally and unarguably dependent on small business growth and development), it is indeed time for change.

But REAL change–the kind that happens now, the kind that makes a difference, the kind that underscores the life/liberty/pursuit of happiness foundation of our country must be encouraged, not squashed, not stepped on, not bidden good riddance. It must be nurtured.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to get their heads out of the sand and stars long enough to realize their sand and stars are being eroded by slow, gradual, plodding change fostered by years of government intrusions and restrictions on small business growth and development.

It’s time to acknowledge that staying immersed in the sand and stars actually serves to allow, actually encourage and reward long-term politicking — politicking intentionally aimed at lining political pockets and underwriting meaningless wasteful programs that create greater business, family, and individual dependency. It does this by not paying attention to what’s swirling around the rest of you while your head is focused on business growth and development.

It’s easy to pick your pocket while you’re

bent over, star-gazing through a telescope.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners can no longer afford to feign ignorance or not take action . . . even if it’s simply speaking up and out more to others. Unless some changes happen quicker, our small business-dependent economy is destined for extinction. If you rent your workspace, there surely comes a time when you need to tell the landlord about a water leak or temperature control. Responsiveness is the entrepreneurial key to success. It’s time to step up to the plate and go to bat for CHANGE.

ADDENDUM EXCERPT FROM THIS BLOG (August, 2011 !):

It means taking just long enough to visit or write a couple of letters or emails to politicians about why you think small business matters. Take just enough time to support those who support your ideas about why small business matters. Why? Because small business does matter. And because it matters that we all step up!

Imagine the impact: 

THIRTY MILLION

(Estimated Total U.S. Small Business Owners)

visits and letters and emails calling attention to the economic recovery role of small business and why government must invest in small business –not with more wasted cash handouts– with tax incentives for innovation and tax incentives for job creation.

# # #

Keep your head cool and your feet warm . . . and thanks for your visit!

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

hal@businessworks.US

And perhaps you thought “Whew! This is the end of the 30 Days.”

But guess what? It’s just the beginning of The New Economy . . .

Entrepreneurs,

it’s time to get moving!

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY by Peggy Salvatore

The next 7 steps you need to take now. Now? Now!

Over the last 29 days, we’ve discussed the ways in which yesterday is over, and today’s markets are not the same as they’ll be tomorrow. You need to be ready to pivot.

If you haven’t yet, you must be ready to continually assess and adjust and re-position as conditions change. Success loves speed. That’s because the New Economy is knowledge-based, nimble, and driven by technology—with the Internet as its infrastructure.

Old rules don’t apply.

If you’re an entrepreneur in this environment, working alone is no way to navigate this wild frontier.

You need to plan for the unique challenges and issues you will face in all facets of your business – marketing & competitive analysis, sales, finances, vendors & sourcing, labor & management, training & employee development – not to mention how to balance your business drive with your personal life to achieve maximum performance.

If you are just beginning or partway down the path already, make sure you keep these 7 STEPS TO ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS on your mind and in your pocket:

• Define realistic objectives – Besides “realistic, make sure your goals are also specific, flexible, due-dated, and in writing (even if it’s simply on the back of an envelope) . . . keyboarding simply doesn’t cut it if you’re truly serious about pursuing your vision of the picture you mentally paint for your enterprise five or ten years from now.

Write down your realistic/flexible/specific/due-dated goals that will lead you to that vision. If you feel you’re not getting there, simply adjust something about your goals (due date, sales numbers, whatever). Being able to make goal adjustments is exactly why it’s important to keep them flexible. Just put your pen to the back of another envelope!

• Create hands-on strategic plans – have 90-day plans as well as a one-year plan. You can count on delays, screw-ups, people problems, government interventions, market changes, inopportune news events. Don’t trow away your plans. Just keep adjusting them. Let reality dictate.

• Employ winning entrepreneurship tactics – Figure out what’s working, what’s worked in your market. Master the art of permanent beta

• Work with all your critical stakeholders – customers, employees, vendors and investors . . . and especially customers! See problems as opportunities. Demonstrate your trustworthiness daily . . . people trust actions not words.

• Motivate employees to share your enthusiasm – share your vision and work in tandem with your people to help them create team goals.

• Take Care of Your SELF! – without your good health and well-being (including not taking yourself too seriously), even plans etched in stone will do you no good!

• Stay alert to new connections and new opportunities – but don’t “jump” at any of them for the sake of money alone, no matter your financial need. This is hard to understand when someone waves cash at you (and you’re living on peanut butter sandwiches) . . . until you’ve been swindled or until you discover that you’ve underestimated your budgeting. You may never fully understand the need hold back when you’re feeling broke. But it’s more likely than not to happen. If you’re not a world-class underwater combat swimmer, stay away from dreaming about Shark Tank! Reality, remember?

# # #

Watch for 30 More Days to the New Economy where

we look at today’s people and businesses that are crushing it.

In the meantime, come back next week to catch Hal’s newest small business, branding, marketing and entrepreneurship commentary

# # #

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With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

EDUCATION and TRAINING

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY by Peggy Salvatore

Over the last few weeks, we discussed the knowledge worker, the learning organization and human capital. All these concepts are built on this one essential tool which is the basic education and formalized training of yourself and your team.

“Real value” starts with solid foundational learning that begins almost at birth because there is so much to know, and we now finally know so much more about how we learn.

Real physical learning —beyond mother, father, sibling and caregiver learning— usually begins in preschool and is enhanced by formal elementary school or home school teaching of young children. By the time young teens enter high education, their paths are often clear.

In the U.S., as children grow into the teen years, the opportunities begin to splinter into specializations in the forms of publicly-funded magnet and alternative schools –and for those who can afford it, private schools– where education is usually more competitive and tracked toward certain university programs.

Some foundational learning can be had online but most still exists almost entirely in a physical setting or classroom building.

But, aha! Much university learning is moving more online which means that both the entrepreneur and his or her team may have specialized learning opportunities to be shared via a global online university.

Private, for-profit online universities often do not have the rigorous entry requirements of a physical university, but the coursework is comparable.

Ongoing adult learning is facilitated through the workplace, often supported by the workplace (or self-driven) using free, non-degree materials available through organizations online.

Nothing speaks more loudly about the way humans seek fulfillment and self-actualization than the proliferation of for-profit online universities, professionally sponsored educational forums and classes, and private businesses dedicated to providing educational products for personal and professional development.

Many private corporations (like the two examples cited below) have been paving the way in recent years with their own in-house proprietary universities:

• In Delaware — parented by BURRIS LOGISTICS the leader in refrigerated trucking services, BURRIS UNIVERSITY — uses community college facilities near its headquarters to teach courses on personal and professional development (including communication and motivation skills) to regular gatherings of managers from BURRIS offices nationwide.
• In New Jersey — 9-State commercial cleaning industry leader HEITS Building Services www.HEITS.com uses it’s own online HEITS UNIVERSITY curriculum to train and certify all employees in subjects like Eco-friendly customer care, bacterial health cleaning, regulation compliance cleaning and maintenance, and equipment and chemical safety . . . and to reinforce franchise owner coaching programs.

In a knowledge-based economy, workers are lifelong learners and achievers.

As an entrepreneur, you will be a lifelong learner absorbing massive amounts of information coming at you. Some of your education will be used just to give yourself and your organization the ability to sort and curate information coming at you in order to more effectively hone in on what’s relevant for driving your own business forward.

Take advantage of being an educated consumer of lifelong learning. That mindset allows you to intelligently filter and absorb the onslaught of information you need to be a true entrepreneurial leader, and to operate effectively in the New Economy.

# # #

C’mon back FRIDAY 10/16 for Day 29  —

ENTREPRENEURIAL HEALTH & WELLNESS. How’s yours?

# # #

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With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

COMMUNICATIONS  NETWORK

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY written and published by Peggy Salvatore

Your communications network needs to be at the very

heart of your business model in the New Economy.

A communications plan with your team and your customers is no longer just a “nice to have.” It is absolutely essential to your survival.

It doesn’t matter whether your products are virtual or physical, you need a full-time communications network in place to keep your business stabilized and viable.

Your communications network is based on your Internet provider but only starts there. Communications includes the platform for communicating, the software that you use, the web of relationships that you have, and your people as well as technical communication skills.

Beyond a reliable Internet connection, you need to be running software that is compatible with everyone else. Most of the web-based communications platforms run for everyone, just about everywhere. And they are easy to use. Your communications platforms need to be universal because building and maintaining productive relationships with customers and team members depends on platform functioning in addition to how you “come across” to others.

It’s best to start with a reliable email service. Then add a service that allows you to deliver large files such as Dropbox, or another file transfer protocol provider. Next, add a team-friendly platform where you can gather everyone for face-to-face virtual meetings (e.g., Skype, Go To Meeting, etc.). Finally, you’ll want to  layer any number of software programs that enhance your experience, and set to work honing your personal listening and presentation skills.

In concert with developing your email, messaging and meeting services, social platforms, and personal communication skill platforms, you’ll need to be thinking about how to be–or have someone close to you be–a centralized axis for keeping all those around you in the strategical planning and tactical action steps loop.

Even if you are technically savvy, expect to have a technical support person or three at your disposal. If you have someone whose job it is to manage the technical communications issues upon which your Internet business relies, it frees you to concentrate on the pieces that you can’t replicate which is all the value that your specialty brings to the marketplace.

I am always impressed and amazed at the stories of entrepreneurs who dedicated nights, weekends and months to mastering communications platforms to build their business. But at some point, sooner rather than later as revenue arrives, it is a good idea to liberate yourself from maintaining the networks upon which your business depends and put that into professional hands.

Your ability to communicate with your customers and your staff is the lifeblood of your business in the New Economy.

You cannot afford to jeopardize your customer communications flow and consistency simply to save a few dollars, or because you think that you can do it well enough. “Well enough” isn’t good enough as you become a bigger player, even a marginally bigger player (unless you’re just faking it)!

Put your money into development of an ongoing communications platform as one of your first investments. It is one investment that can make the difference between life and death for your business. Remember: HEARING IS NOT LISTENING!

# # #

C’mon back WEDNESDAY 10/14 for Day 28  —

What’s your plan for keeping sharp and tuned in? You’ll need more than a grinder and a radio.

# # #

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Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role in History as an Entrepreneur

IMAGINE YOUR

LEARNING ORGANIZATION

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY by Peggy Salvatore

The rapid acquisition and deployment of knowledge means that all organizations that plan to survive also have a process for knowledge acquisition, retention, management, and transfer in their business plan. Forward thinking organizations today consider themselves learning organizations.

As an entrepreneur in the New Economy, even though you may be small, your responsibility is to not only know what is going on but to contribute to the body of knowledge.

• Remember: All the Internet Joe’s around the globe are learning and building this ship together so sharing what you’ve learned and what you are developing (without, of course, revealing trade secrets like product ingredients and proportions or your intended branding or marketing approach) is part of that responsibility and defines in part your value as a member of the global business community.

There are TWO PARTS to this knowledge acquisition and sharing. One is the internal knowledge of your individual product or service and the second part is the external learning about the infrastructure you are building either deliberately or inadvertently by participating in the New Economy.

PART ONE: Internal knowledge

Whether you are operating alone, with a handful of close team members or a cast of 100s, you need to store and transfer knowledge about product development, marketing, deployment and all other aspects of your business to assure continuity.

When you’ve built a global community of customers, they will have questions and need support. Codify, iterate, revise, update, repeat. Consider yourself in a constant state of beta.

• Remember: We said that one of the advantages Internet Joe has is the ability to be agile and nimble. This requires a state of continuous learning which is a mindset of quality improvement. Because you aren’t taking a large organization with you, when you learn something new, as an Internet entrepreneur you are able to capitalize on that information and pivot instantaneously.

PART TWO: External knowledge

The intimate relationship you develop with your customers through their personal communication devices is the basis of your ongoing learning. You are learning what works, what they like about your product and service, what needs improvement and when you haven’t hit the mark.

Your systems and connections are creating the need for the kind and amount of infrastructure required to build the New Economy. When you share what you need and what you’ve learned about commerce with others in the online business community, the network grows.

What we know changes every minute!

. . . and what you do with it will be different

than what someone else does with it . . . So consider

recording it . . . sharing it.  That process puts the next

step on the ladder within reach for all by raising

the net worth (and the stakes) for all players.

# # #

C’mon back TOMORROW 10/7 for Day 22 —

“Financing Your Business” isn’t like car dealership

or retail mattress and furniture “Financing”!

# # #

SPECIAL   A N N O U N C E M E N T

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LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE… Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

IMAGINE   M A N U F A C T U R I N G

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY written and published by Peggy Salvatore

The flexibility of the global markets – everywhere, everyone, all the time – means products and services can be delivered from your place of business on the Internet to the customer’s location in the same way.

VIRTUAL products (e.g., software, books, music):

already a natural medium.

PHYSICAL products: now becoming a natural medium.

3D printing allows many kinds of products and parts to be assembled on site by downloading software to build products by the customer. Customers only need the material to create the products on location.

One of the issues with matching mass production to local markets has been transportation and warehousing of raw materials and finished products. 3D production eliminates, or will soon eliminate, one or more of these transfers for a wide range of product-based businesses.

Efficient production puts factories near the source of raw materials which could be halfway around the globe from your market. With global markets, raw material processing happens near the source of materials which are then delivered to where products are produced at the customer site.

Throughout history, efficiencies have grown markets.

This development is no different.

While assembling products onsite requires only the transfer of raw materials to the customer location, the expansion of markets grows the number of end users.

Economic development happens more rapidly in areas that now need mainly an Internet connection and a reliable source of power to become a viable market for your products – both virtual and physical.

The limiting factors remain the availability of power and water. The new entrepreneurs believe those problems can be solved, and they are actively seeking answers.

As noted earlier in this series, we are very early in the New Economy and are still building the infrastructure so much of the opportunity is building the virtual roads and rails into the future.

Even in situations where finished products are mass produced and need to be transported, robotics simplifies production. Robotics reduces the number of humans needed to assemble products and, consequently, also the number who need to be trained as assemblers, as programmers, and as equipment calibration specialists.

Local education and workforce availability is

not a major factor in locating a factory today.

Since line-driven powered machinery was invented, workers have revolted against automation fearing for their jobs. However, in each instance, the quality of peoples’ lives have improved, as well as the quality of products produced, and people’s time is collectively –presumably, for those outplaced– freed for higher level pursuits.

The promise of manufacturing in the New Economy turns on how you view progress. You’re likely to have one of two views of the world:

• View 1: You believe advances solve problems, make solutions available to more people, and raise all of humanity in waves.
• View 2: You believe knowledge is finite, all that can be known is already known, and we can’t solve our problems because our known resources do not meet everyone’s needs.
  

Entrepreneurs (Especially INTERNET entrepreneurs)

in the New Economy hold fast to View 1.

They believe that what lies beyond the known frontier

is the place where advances for humanity lie.

Internet Joe senses what is there and moves toward it

because he knows problems=opportunities,

and he knows it’s his choice.

# # #

Where does the past still control the present in your business pursuits?

C’mon back TOMORROW 10/6 for Day 21 —

 Imagine INVENTORY and DELIVERY. . .

# # #

SPECIAL   A N N O U N C E M E N T

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LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE… Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

I M A G I N E     S A L E S $ $

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY written and published by Peggy Salvatore

Organizations frequently couple sales with marketing, and we’ll do that here, too. When you’ve defined your markets, you have the basis of a sales program. When your market is global, your sales program can actually be UNcoupled to some extent.

As noted yesterday in “Imagine Marketing,” your customers are connected to you by a personal communication device that delivers content which is highly individualized. Your sales strategy needs to be the same.

For example, if you are selling a weight loss system, you aren’t reaching a single imagined customer concerned about his or her weight with standardized sales material content. You reach an individual with personalized content. You can deliver emails customized with the name of prospects by leveraging the power of email lists.

(We’ll explore the mechanics of this in the next book.)

You can also individualize your approach using your website with a “click here for patients”, “click here for physicians”, “click here for caregivers” approach to sales. As your potential customers “click here”, they can further individualize their search for your products and services by drilling down into your website.

It is possible to individualize your approach to customers for a very low cost per touch using email and websites.

As discussed in earlier posts in this 30-Day series, this is where Internet Joe holds an advantage over large corporations as an entrepreneur. By leveraging social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, your product automatically has viral potential. Internet Joe makes personal connections with people around the globe and they are all potential customers.

With a few power users among your followers,

you can get exposure to 250,000 people . . .

which very quickly expands to millions.

 On a planet with already 3 billion Internet-connected individuals, you have tapped into only a small fraction of potential customers and already have exceeded a 20th Century salesperson’s wildest fantasies.

Bricks and mortar . . . Uber-ized* and Bnb’d**

Even if your business is based on live customer interactions, such as with a restaurant or hair salon, your bricks and mortar enterprise needs an Internet presence to exist. If someone visits your town and looks for pizza, they will search for restaurants online and your business needs to be there. As a plumber, you may not think you are an Internet Joe, but online presence still makes the difference between survival and massive opportunity.

• *Think of the online/chargecard-based Uber* (private driver car service) business model . . . for drivers plugged into the system, Uber provides income previously only possible with the reach of the old “looking for a ride to California” bulletin board postings.
• **Consider the online/chargecard-based Air Bnb** (temporary home rentals) business model . . . for homeowners plugged into the system, Air Bnb provides income previously only possible for local realtors.

Sellers can be anybody with an Internet connection, but Internet Joe is a true entrepreneurial businessman leveraging the power of the Internet to grow sales opportunities with the immense power of global markets.

# # #

C’mon back MONDAY 10/5 for Day 20 —

Do you believe humanity’s advances solve humanity’s problems . . . OR

that problems are not solvable because all that can be

known doesn’t meet everyone’s needs?

# # #

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With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

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Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

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Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

Side note: In editing Peggy’s book chapters for blog adaptation, I’ve found her style to be surprisingly (for an economist leadership expert, itself, to me, an oxymoron) engaging. Today’s topic, however, encompasses the object of my business teething and career so I feel compelled to spotlight a bit of the professionalism of marketing. Factoids (such as the components of marketing and the distinction between creating and stimulating desire, for example) are seldom addressed or positive-ized in economic treatises or website meanderings. Thank you. Enjoy the journey! Hal

Imagine Marketing

One of the great advances of the 20th Century was the development of the field of marketing. As industrialists were able to mass produce clothing, cars, homes and candy bars, they sought a method or methods to promote those things to a public who may not have known that they needed or wanted them.

Psychology and sociology combined with imperatives to maximize business profitability and the science of markets was born. Where markets existed, they were maximized. Where markets did not exist, they were created. Yet marketing is not a creator of society wants and needs. It is simply a reflection of society–a mirror of what already exists.

You know you need a home but you probably didn’t know you need or want a certain type or brand of kitchen appliance or configuration of closets until marketers educated you about the differences in price, performance, design, function, impressions, and longevity.

You know you need a car to get to work, but marketers let you know which models and styles were available so you could choose those that would best serve your practical functional and budget needs as well as those that best meet the conscious or unconscious emotional wants you most closely identify with (e.g., power, status, sex appeal, safety/service focus, family/parental focus, environmental/energy focus, etc.).

Marketing attaches meaning to the products and services we consume. Think of marketing as a big umbrella over a broad spectrum of marketing functions, which include sales, advertising, branding, pricing, packaging, promotion, merchandising, public relations (news releases, events, media communications), and more. Marketing also raises life necessities to luxury levels for a price.

Marketing does not create desire because humans already possess desire. Marketers stimulate desires that already exist. Marketing sometimes prompts us to purchase or consider purchasing products and services we didn’t know we needed or wanted until subliminal interests are created for them, and our desires are stimulated.

By the mid-20th Century, mass production meant that businesses could create enough products to satisfy the desires of mass markets. Mass communication through a mix of limited channels (using television, radio, magazines, direct mail, and outdoor and transit billboards) standardized desire for mass produced products.

The Internet changed the whole world of marketing. The Internet is a personal communication device. What comes through my computer is as different as what comes through yours as we are. No two computers deliver the same content because the content is a reflection of the fingerprint of the user. One user accesses religious content, another pornography, and yet a third spends most of her or his time surfing the net for the best price on handbags, shoes, or on hunting and fishing equipment and gear.

How do you market to EACH individual on his or her personal communication device?

Like finance, we’re rewriting the discipline of marketing while we’re practicing business in the New Economy.

As an Internet entrepreneur, you find your markets by searching for people who are interested in buying what you are selling. You contact them through social media using list serves, groups, email blasts and subscriptions, blogs and connectivity/referral platforms . . . following where each thread leads. When you pull on a thread, it will lead to a tapestry of related interest groups. As a business person, the end of each thread is a potential customer.

The hardest job of Internet Joe is to refine his product or service to meet the needs of a specifically defined target market within the potential of a global customer base. Expect that it could take time to refine your approach. You will go through several iterations before you hit on exactly what specific flavor of what you offer appeals to which specific individuals.

In the New Economy, your customers are in New Zealand and Newfoundland. Get to your keyboard and go find them.

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C’mon back tomorrow 10/2 for Day 19 —

It’s all about SALES, SALES, SALES, and more SALES.

# # #

S P E C I A L    A N N O U N C E M E N T

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving)

LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE . . . Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY written and published by Peggy Salvatore

Imagine Finance

Financing in the New Economy has two radical differentiators from the old days. One is the way in which you attract investors and the second is how much it actually costs to start up your Internet business.

Direct Access to Investors
Remember the good old days (say the first decade of the 21st Century) when prospective entrepreneurs seeking funding would schlep their slide decks into a startup incubator and make presentations to veteran investor gatekeepers who doled out wisdom about business plans, management teams and boards of directors?

• Gone? Not quite. Still the #1 startup funding path? No longer!

With crowdsourcing and crowdfunding ideas like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, you can fund your idea by throwing it out to the Internet and letting the investors come to you. You can raise a little money taking donations and small sums from interested Internet friends and advocates, or you can raise serious millions using more structured funding mechanisms that require investors to meet certain criteria.

• For an entrepreneur in the New Economy, this simply means that Internet Joe can bypass more traditional and restrictive funding mechanisms and go straight to the public. Or combine them both and aim for Shark Tank!

Startup Investment is Minimal
As an entrepreneur in the New Economy, Internet Joe has nearly limitless and cheap/free resources at his fingertips – those fingertips tapping on the keyboard. You can start up a business idea with minimal capital. And you can get world-class advice for the price of an Internet connection.

• I will explore some of these resources in greater detail in the next book, but for now suffice to know that there are brilliant people sharing their startup knowledge for nothin’. The saying “you get what you pay for” does not hold in this case.
• This rich vein of Internet resources is the exception that proves the rule. In fact, the incredible free startup advice and business acumen, market research and tools to reach a global market cost close to no money at all. Remember the more you chase money, the less time and energy is available to make your business work!

In his program, Product Launch Formula, Jeff Walker shares the secret that you can actually sell products that you haven’t yet developed. You sell the product then develop or produce it in response to buyers. The only catch–the big asterisk–is that you better know what you are doing so you can deliver when the time comes. Selling lamps? You’d better be able to produce them when the orders come rolling in.

• The idea is not sleazy; it’s actually excellent business advice that has been around for decades: Develop your prototypes and first generation iterations of products and services in cooperation with your customers.
• By designing products as you sell them, you are developing products the marketplace actually wants and needs.

Transactions: Global, virtual, no boundaries
A favorite New Economy guru is Ray Kurzweil, the innovative genius who wrote the seminal work regarding all things future, The Singularity is Near. In his 2005 epic work, he straightened out my main misconception about the global economy. I had been stuck in the idea that all money and value is tied to concrete productivity. I was just plain wrong.

• Kurzweil perceived that the value of the Internet changed the definition of value. Money has changed because it is now a fluid concept based on the nearly limitless possibilities of the global computer mind which creates exponential relationships that expand past our individual ability to make connections.
• Given that premise, he predicted the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) would triple in ten years. In 2005, it stood at a then-unprecedented 10,000 and, to some, was wildly over-valued–the stock market tripling seemed ludicrous.
• Then in 2008, the global economy crashed and bubbles like the real estate market burst. Also, the dry bulk index hit an all-time low, indicating that global shipping crashed. What did the DJIA do in response? It rose, and continues to rise.

Traditionalists scratch their heads. But futurists just sit back and wait because they know that the measure of value has changed and the DJIA reflects latent value as the economy rearranges itself. In 2015, the DJIA stood at 18,000 and traditional watchers shook their heads saying it continued to be overvalued.

For those who are stuck in the worlds of the dry bulk index and the movement of tangibles in the market, the stock market ascent appears to be smoke and mirrors. When I read Kurzweil I understood, finally, that my attachment to things like physical products and national monetary systems were outdated.

Finance in the New Economy is global and virtual, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Quite the opposite. The inherent value in the instantaneous transmission of knowledge and the ability to transact with anyone, anywhere, anytime has reinvented the basis of the financial system.

As Internet Joe builds his business on this very solid foundation of the virtual New Economy, he is plugging into nearly limitless abundance.

The new rules of finance have yet to be solidified. Entrepreneurs are writing them AS they build the New Economy.

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C’mon back TOMORROW 10/1 for Day 18.
YOU think great MARKETING that works is simply pulled out of a hat?

# # #

S P E C I A L    A N N O U N C E M E N T

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving)

LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR:

“ENTREPRENEURS ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE . . . Accelerating Your Business”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn how YOU match up with what successful entrepreneurs are thinking and doing RIGHT NOW. Get ideas you never imagined. Gain the traction you need within 2 hours — not days or weeks or months. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details, to explain your business pursuit focus and to reserve your seat! $99 total for 2 hours. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

———-

For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!