Books, billboards, news

releases, website content,

magazines and magazine

articles, posters and

displays, newspaper

columns, surveys, signs,

 postcards, brochures, 

commercials, promotional

 emails, direct mail, photo

captions, jingles, branding

themelines, package labels,

training curricula, promo

literature and exhibit

 materials, webinars, sales

presentations, seminars 

lyrics, booklets, speeches,

 ebooks, blog posts, scripts

  business plans, marketing 

 strategies, love letters,  

manuals, greeting cards,

and matchbook covers

Ever write any of these yourself? How’d it come out? Did you get the results you wanted? What happened? Are you a skilled writer? An experienced wordsmith? Probably not. If you’re reading posts on this blog site, it’s because you’re an entrepreneur, a small business or professional practice owner, manager, or principal, a student, or a leader.

If you fit any of those kinds of career descriptions, odds are that you are marketing a product, service, or idea (or some combination) and the daily challenges of keeping your business or organization moving forward leaves little room for you to indulge in fantasy of seeing yourself as a talented writer. And you’re smart enough to know when to get help.

One telling characteristic of successful entrepreneurs, in fact, is that they know how to pull their ideas forward while leaving necessary professional services up to professionals they engage — CPA, attorney, management consultant, and more often than not: creative services, especially writers and designers.

Entrepreneurs, after all, are the catalysts of business and the economy. They are agents of change. They serve as mirrors of society wants and needs. They alone are responsible for new job growth (not corporations, and certainly not government). As a result, entrepreneurs are also the most sensitive of business people, and the quickest to recruit outside expertise when they see the need.

Small business owners are far more in touch with reality than their big business counterparts who are obsessed with analyzing what message content and structure communicates best, and sells.

They recognize that one dot or small sweep of a design line, or one word can make the difference between sale and no sale. (And remember, with online content: WORDS are still King!)

Entrepreneurs respect and appreciate the value of expertise.

So the list above is not just a teaser or composite of writing applications. It is a list of real business-related (yes, even love letters!) writing needs that most entrepreneurs are confronted with at one time or another. It is also a list of writing applications that anyone you hire to write for you should have experience with, at least most of them.

I know. I’ve written all of the above many times over. And I can tell you that a marketing writer who hasn’t written a book doesn’t know how to tell a story, and stories sell. A website content writer who hasn’t written radio and TV commercials has no sense of writing concise, punchy stuff that’s short, sweet, and memorable . . . and “short, sweet, and memorable” sells!

Someone who’s never written a billboard hasn’t even a clue about how to write branding lines because the discipline is the same:  Aim for 7 words or less and tell a story in those 7 words or less that has a beginning, middle, and ending . . . and is persuasive. Ah, then comes the opposite: Direct mail. In direct mail, the more you tell, the more you sell — that means, literally, a blanket of billboards.

Writing emphasis must always be “you” focused (not “we”). It must attract attention, create interest, stimulate desire, bring about action, and deliver satisfaction. It MUST ALWAYS answer the question: “What’s in it for ME?” All writing –even an instruction manual– represents an opportunity to make a sale and/or create a favorable impression.

The writing you have now?

Does it work as hard as you do?

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US  931.854.0474

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

IN SEVEN WORDS, WHO ARE YOU?

If you can’t answer that question for your SELF and

for the business you own or operate or represent,

odds are no one else can answer it either…

and it’s a good bet that things are

probably going nowhere fast!

Think about this:

With very rare exception, every great branding line, theme line, identification line, logo line, jingle line, motto, slogan,

and email “Subject” . . . is 7 words or less.

This is not to suggest that websites and online articles should be short. Remember, that just because you have great graphics to offer or viral- bound videos or Earth-shattering embedded links included doesn’t mean you can expect sales or even attention.

On the Internet,

Graphics may serve to attract attention, and maybe even stimulate desire, but words are what sell. Words bring about action. Words deliver satisfaction. Words alone can answer the only “radio station WII-FM question” every consumer has with every purchase:

Successful exceptions to the 7-words-or-less identity formula are few and far between, and are usually the product of creative and manage- ment teams that work days on end —often weeks or months. The right words do not come easy, especially for those branding lines that succeed at breaking the 7-words rule of thumb.

Examples that come to mind are often created with intentional violation of limited word memorability by going way over the top (like the purposefully-long catchiness of ACE Hardware advertising phraseology and rhythm) . . . or by segueing a 7-words-or-less message directly into a memorable piece of music (like Farmers Insurance: “We are Farmers… dum, da, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum”). Yes, and sometimes one small extra word will cut it: “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”

But REALITY? Reality is that “7 words or less almost always work best” . . . which is why the challenge attached to coming up with those words is so daunting. It’s not a matter of going into a closet with an armload of junkfood, and emerging a couple of hours later with the “genius” one-liner.

The kinds of 7-words-or-less combinations that work magic (“Do it!”, “I’m lovin’ it!”, “America runs on Dunkin’”, “Should I stay or should I go?”, “It’s in you!”, “Thank heaven for 7/11”,  “We’ll leave the light on for you”— Add your own!) are most often born only after weeks or months of studying the products, services, markets involved, and even then creating an innovative little twist on the most provocative way to represent the message.

Consider that it’s long been the ad agency absolute rule for successful drive-by billboards to max out at 7 words because more than 7 cannot typically be read and absorbed at parkway speed. The same is true for email subject lines. Here, by the way, in case you missed it, is a “Clear Channel” billboard with no words OR graphics… just their name on the “provider plate” at the bottom:

Most ideal, of course, is:

A)  to have 7-words include the brand or company name (but it needs to be a natural fit; forcing it defeats the purpose), and/or

B) to use a (good taste) double entendre whenever possible, and

C) to, of course, rhyme when the occasion permits.

The trick is to make it all flow in a natural way… especially in the use of humor! When anything seems or feels forced, it defeats the purpose… and will usually backfire.

Here’s an assignment you can do, and grade yourself on: Carry a piece of paper with the first 7 words you can think of that describe your SELF and the first 7 words you can think of that best describe your business. Look at it every day for a week and as you do, edit it, change and substitute words. Keep at it even after you think you have an “Aha!”

(BUT BEFORE YOU KISS YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR BECAUSE YOU HAVE JUST PRODUCED BRILLIANCE, and just for curiosity, how do your two sets of words compare?)

[Hint: You’ll wish you had done this pen to paper and kept each scribbled out version along the way. That scenario learning curve far surpasses electronic notepad use.]

MUCH more about all this in quick take-home thoughts that span decades of successful branding experiences can be found –no obligation, no tracking cookies, no arm-bending, no strings attached, no bombardment of followup emails, no deals— just good free input stuff at https://www.halalpiar.com/todays-branding-tip/

# # #

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”    [Thomas Jefferson]

Hal@Businessworks.US         931.854.0474

Guidance to 500+ Successful Business Startups

Creating Record-Sales for Clients Since 1981!

Cold Calls Jolt Business

With FEARLESS! Reality

Love it or hate it, there is nothing like a bunch of cold sales calls to snap a ho-hum corporate or entrepreneurial business attitude into a realm of FEARLESS! reality. (Sorry, had to sneak in the link to my big project!)

It’s the place where the proverbial rubber meets the road, but typically gets dismissed as trivial, or “jittery” or time-wasting (“Other people are paid to do that!”). It’s oh so easy to wave it away with comments like: “I already did that stuff” or “I’m way past that” or “who needs it?”… or some other lame excuse.

But truth is that –something like a cold shower– it’s a great wake-up experience, a terrific way to recharge batteries, and it will definitely flash you back to what’s really important in business: HOW you communicate with a prospect to turn her or him into a grateful and loyal customer.

This does not happen with marketing automation.

It does not happen via email.

It does not happen on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook.

It doesn’t happen with clever advertising or cataclysmic branding lines.

Those may all be contributing factors that lead up to a purchase decision, but –in the end– it happens in the flesh, in person or on the phone, or through a referral from someone who’s been sold in person or on the phone. It often occurs when an online-generated order is easily and pleasantly placed — or bungled. A prospect becomes a customer when perceived value of your product or service rises to the surface.

If your marketing program is not delivering the sales you believe are possible, lead your support team to the sidewalk and make cold calls. Have them all make cold calls. Be reminded of the importance of listening 80% of the time, of addressing energy to the prospect’s concerns, issues, questions, observations, not yours. If your team needs some refresher points or sales training first, do it. Or bite the bullet and recruit some outside help. A fun/challenge attitude helps!

Then talk about the process, about what happened with each encounter, about the time and effort involved, and start to adjust your sales program and approach to reflect what you and your team learn from the experience . . . 2-3 days of pounding the pavement will be well spent, even as it may seem wasteful.

The best time to put this exercise to work is when things aren’t working the way you think they should. Can you and your team spare the time? The next question is the answer: Can you spare the lost or inadequate sales? Remember when you strip away all the decorations, the reason for being in business is to engage and nurture and please your customers. And even when this consciousness is present, there’s a tendency to overlook street smarts learning.

Cold sales call selling is like an electric jolt reminder. And if you stay open-minded and pay hard attention to what you and others learn from the process, your business will grow.

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

Higher impact. Lower costs.

——————-

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

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.

# # #

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 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

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

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?

# # #

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

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.

# # #

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?

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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.

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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

Open Minds Open Doors

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

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

C O N F I D E N C E

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

Confidence has two meanings.

In relation to business, we think about the assurance of self. Self-assurance means one believes in oneself enough to trust their decisions. They take measured risks and can make hard decisions because self-assured people believe they have the capacity to act correctly.

The second definition of confidence is to hold something close and keep it in secret. When I tell you something in confidence, I trust that you will not broadcast it. The term “con man” in the vernacular means someone who pulls tricks someone else. But it derives from the term “confidence man” or one who acts in secret.

It requires both types of confidence to run today’s entrepreneurial business in the New Economy.

First and foremost, entrepreneurs in the New Economy need the self-assurance to operate in the global environment, make assessments and act quickly. After all, the universe loves speed and the spoils go to the person able to grab opportunities as they arise. Even more accurately, the spoils go to the entrepreneur who grabs opportunities just before they arrive . . . to the entrepreneur who trusts herself.

He sees markets that don’t yet exist or envisions ways to serve existing markets in ways that others do not see. The ability to act on unrealized markets and opportunities ahead of their manifestation requires much self-assurance.

And importantly, spreading self-assurance is the mark of a true leader. It requires only a consistent and mindful effort to use inspiring language in daily electronic, telephone, and in-person conversations. Go here for a starter list!

The second definition of confidence, the ability to hold things closely and quietly, also plays an important role in entrepreneurial success. All of the advantages of the global market on the Internet everywhere, always and everything, also mean that the opportunities that are not yet realized are also evident for anyone who has eyes to see.

For someone who imagines the possibilities, it is important to hold your vision close to your inside team long enough to realize it but briefly enough to bring it into full realization before someone else does.

Quick, quiet, assured. These are among the most confident and most meaningful behaviors of the new entrepreneur at the top of his or her game.

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C’mon back MONDAY 9/28 for Day 15 —

DO YOU REALLY KNOW ENOUGH TO MAKE IT ALL WORK?

# # #

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving for 2 hours) $99 LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR: “Accelerating Your Business Growth and Development.”

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 what successful entrepreneurs need to be thinking and doing NOW. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details and to reserve your seat!

———-
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!