Whether you operate a retail store, a service business, a mail order operation, or an Internet marketing business, you can measure the effectiveness of your advertising.

1. Which Publications Produce Profits?

When new customers phone or visit you, ask how they found out about you. They might say they found you through your yellow pages ad or your newspaper ad.

Record the responses and resulting sales from each ad. Then, analyze whether each particular advertisement is producing the desired results.

If an advertisement consistently produces profits for you, keep running it. On the other hand, if an ad consistently performs poorly or produces a loss, discontinue it.

In mail order, you can key each ad so that you can measure the resulting sales from each publication.

For example, you could add “Dept. A” to your name or address in the ad to indicate the July issue of a particular magazine. Key it as “Dept. B” for the August issue of the same magazine. “Dept. C” could indicate the July issue of a different magazine you advertise in.

Thus, as orders come in, you can track the response and sales made from each advertisement. From that information, you can easily determine the profitability of your ad in each publication.

2. Which Ads Produce Profits?

Not only can ad tracking show you which publications are profiitable to advertise in, but it will also help you measure the effectiveness of the ads themselves.

If you change your ad, and the results for the new ad are consistently better or worse, you can take the appropriate action; either continue or discontinue the advertisement.

Change only one element in an ad at a time.

For example, if you decide to change the price, don’t change the headline. Otherwise, you won’t know if the difference in results was due to the changed price or the changed headline. For greater certainty, change only one thing at a time when testing your ads.

On the Internet, you can use tracking software and services that will aid you to determine the source of your sales and the effectiveness of your advertising, article writing, and other activities.

So, whether you operate a retail store, a service business, a mail order operation, or an Internet marketing business, use ad tracking for increased profits.

Ad Tracking Increases Your Profits is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

We often hear managers complaining that their employees aren’t productive, don’t listen and just can’t consistently get the job done. As a youth sports coach, I hear coaches with similar complaints—the kids don’t listen, don’t know where to go and don’t try very hard. I can’t relate. The boys on my team are usually focused, do what I ask of them, and work hard. As a business owner, my employees are focused, do what I ask of them and work hard. What am I doing that is different from the rest? And what can this teach you about running a successful small business?

As a coach, I make my boys’ jobs very simple. I ask only two things of them. I ask them to master one shot and I ask them to be aware of what is going on around them. Of course we work on defensive and offensive strategy, but both of those revolve around the two keys that I gave them for success—awareness and mastery.

I teach awareness by constantly asking them to be aware of where the ball is and at the same time to be aware of their teammates are and where their opponents are. I teach them how to see the ball and their opponent when he doesn’t have the ball. Sounds simple, but for ten year olds this is work.

I teach mastery by assigning homework to each boy. The second week of practice, they have to show me a spot on the court from which they can make a shot every time. I don’t care if it is from just two feet under the basket. I want them to know they can make it every single time. As the season progresses, they may gradually move their spot further and further out, but I still ask that they be able to make their shot every time unguarded in practice.

These two simple concepts have a tremendous effect on the boys during their games. They have incredible confidence in their ability to make shots because they “know” that they will always make it. I don’t need to yell at them like other coaches about where they should be on the court because they have developed awareness of what they are doing and seeing. Now let’s see how you can use this in your successful small business.

As a business owner, I put these two key principles to work in training my employees. From the first day on the job, I work with them to be aware of what tasks are needed, what I expect of them, how I want customers treated, etc. And I ask them to master tasks and customer scripts. Once they are mastered, I open it up for them to adlib just like with my players. When correction is needed, it is usually in one of these two areas. They are either unaware of what is needed or they haven’t mastered the task at hand.

Not only does following these two concepts make it easy for me to get results with my players and employees, it also brings incredible results. My first team lost only one game all season and my employees rarely lose a sale. My businesses and products win awards earned by my employees. And, as a bonus, everyone enjoys themselves with this simple structure. I knew I was doing it right when the father of one of my boys told me that his boy enjoyed practice so much that he chose to come to practice instead of going to see our professional basketball team play one night. And I know it works with my employees because they show up on time happy, focused and ready to work. Remember, awareness and mastery are two essential keys to a successful small business.

Awareness And Mastery – Two Essential Keys To A Successful Small Business is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

This tickler file uses inexpensive index cards and a simple file box. You will need the following items to create your own index card sales tool. I found everything I needed at my local office supply store. The total cost was around $25.00.

- A box to store the index cards
- Monthly 3″ by 5″ index tabs
- Daily (1-31) 3″ by 5″ index tabs
- Alphabetical 3″ by 5″ index tabs
- A ton of white ruled 3″ by 5″ index cards (you don’t need a photo, right?)
- A bunch of colored 3″ by 5″ index cards (pick your favorite color)
- A small case to carry your in your pocket

Once you have purchased the required supplies, you can organize your 3X5. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that you are assembling your 3X5 on January 1st. If this is the case you would first organize your tabs in the order below (front to back):

- January tab
- Daily tabs 1-31
- February – December monthly tabs
- A-Z alphabetical tabs
- Blank index cards – white and your favorite color

All of your cards should now be in the file box and the first thing you should see is the January tab.

Next, you should start creating cards for your leads. In the beginning, this is going to take some time (assuming you have a lot of leads). You might choose to use one color card for prospects, one color for customers, another for personal contacts, etc. If you are not going to organize your contacts by color, you will only need white cards. Nonetheless, you can either copy your contacts information onto the cards or simply staple their business card to one of the index cards.

The system works like this.

Let’s imagine it is January 1st. and you attend a networking event where you meet a potential client. You get this lead’s business card at the event and you want to contact him/her on the 2nd., so when you get to your office, you staple the leads business card to a white index card and drop it behind the “2″ tab and then go home for the day. After all, it is new years day and you have been working hard to create your new sales system and you attended a networking event.

So, you arrive at work on January 2nd. and open up your tickler file. The first thing you should do is move the “1″ tab back behind the February tab. You will always be rolling the system forward like this, so that the first tab you see in the box represents the most current month, then the most current day.
Now, you go to the tab for today (Jan 2nd.) and find the card for the lead that you met at the networking event yesterday. You call the lead and learn that he/she is out of town until January 6th. so you make a note which says, “1/2/05 – Mr. Lead is on vacation till 1/6″. Now you drop the card behind the “6″ tab for the month of January.

You will continue to roll this lead forward in the system, making notes at each step, until the lead either turns into a customer or asks you to leave them alone.

When the lead turns into a customer, I staple their business card to a colored card and place it behind the appropriate alphabetical tab. If their is another opportunity with this client, I move the colored card back to the dated section and move them through the process again.

Of course, as you add more people to your pipeline, you might not get to contact everyone on the day you have them slotted for. Just move them to the next day’s slot at the end of the current day so you contact them tomorrow.

You will not want to carry around a huge metal box full of index cards, which is why you want to have a small index card wallet or box, so if you are going to be on the road or out of the office, you can simply grab your cards for the day and go.
Not just for salespeople.

While the system is great for salespeople, it also is a great tool for those of us who are focusing on networking. I actually use three different colored cards and use white for leads, blue for clients and red for my networking contacts (patriotic, I know). On the red cards, I write either 7, 14, 30, 45, 60, etc in the upper right hand corner of the index card to remind myself how frequently I want to contact the person, so I simply move the card forward based on the number on the card. If I want to contact someone every seven days, I move the card ahead a week after I make contact.

I hope this system works well for you. If you have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to send them to me through my website (http://www.stephenlabuda.com).

A Tickler File For Sales And Networking is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

I mean, can we agree that managers MUST plan to do something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of theirs that most affect their operation?

And especially so when they persuade those key outside folks to their way of thinking by helping to move them to take actions that allow their department, division or subsidiary to succeed?

But it takes more than good intentions for any manager to alter individual, key-audience perception leading to changed behaviors, something of profound importance to ALL business, non-profit and association managers.

He or she needs a plan dedicated to getting every member of the public relations team working towards the same external audience behaviors which insures that the organization’s public relations effort stays sharply focused.

The plan could be based on a foundation that looks like this: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished.

Results can materialize faster than you might suspect.For example, bounces in showroom visits; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; customers making repeat purchases; prospects starting to work with them;membership applications on the rise, and capital givers or specifying sources looking their way.

Watch the real performers at work. They find out whoamong their key external audiences is behaving in ways that help or hinder the achievement of their objectives. Then, they list them according to how severely their behaviors affect their organization.

Next they must determine how most members of that key outside audience perceive the organization. If the resources to pay for what could be costly professional survey counsel aren’t there, Ms. or Mr. manager and his or her PR colleagues will have to monitor those perceptions themselves. Actually, the PR folks should already be quite familiar with how to gather and assess perception and behavior data.

Doing so means meeting with members of that outside audience and asking questions like “Are you familiar with our services or products?” “Have you ever had contact with anyone from our organization? Was it a satisfactory experience?” And if you are that manager, you must be sensitive to negative statements, especially evasive or hesitant replies. Watch carefully for false assumptions, untruths, misconceptions, inaccuracies and potentially damaging rumors. When you find such, you will need to take steps to correct them, as they inevitably lead to negative behaviors.

Now comes the challenge of selecting the specific perception to be altered which then becomes your public relations goal. You obviously want to correct those untruths, inaccuracies, misconceptions or false assumptions.

The core reality of the whole drill is that a PR goal without a strategy to show you how to get there, is like corned beef and cabbage without the cabbage. It’s justnot the same. So, as you select one of three strategies (especially constructed to create perception or opinion where there may be none, or change or reinforce it,) what you must do is insure that the goal and its strategy match each other. You wouldn’t want to select “change existing perception” when current perception is just right suggesting a “reinforce” strategy.

Now the time has come when you must create a compelling message carefully constructed to alter your key target audience’s perception, as specified by your public relations goal.

Remember that you can always combine your corrective message with another news announcement or presentation which may give it more credibility by downplaying the apparent need for such a correction.

The content of the message must be compelling and quite clear about what perception needs clarification or correction, and why. Naturally you must be truthful and your position logically explained and believable if it is to hold the attention of members of that target audience, and actually move perception in your direction.

Occasionally, folks in the PR business will allude to the communications tactics necessary to move your message to the attention of that key external audience, as “beasts of burden” because they must carry your persuasive new thoughts to the eyes and ears of those important outside people.

Luckily, there is a wide choice because the list of tactics is lengthy. It includes letters-to-the-editor, brochures, press releases and speeches. Or, you might choose radio and newspaper interviews, personal contacts, facility tours or customer briefings. There are scores available and the only selection requirement is that the communications tactics you choose have a record of reaching people just like the members of your key target audience.

Of course, you can always move things along by adding more communications tactics, AND by increasing their frequencies.

Right about now, the subject of progress reports will arise,but you will already be hard at work remonitoring perceptions among your target audience members to test the effectiveness of your communications tactics. Using questions similar to those used during your earlier monitoring session, you’ll now be on sharp alert for signs that audience perceptions are beginning to move in your general direction.

Throughout, keep your eye on the core of this approach: persuade your most important outside audiences with the greatest impacts on your organization to your way of thinking. Then move them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary prevail.

Thus, instead of measuring the rather narrow results achieved by the tactical subsets of your public relations program like special events, brochures, broadcast plugs or press releases, you will have discovered the only true measure of public relations: the results of your strategic efforts to alter individual perception among your key outside audiences leading to changed behaviors, helping you achieve your managerial objectives.

PR’s Only True Measure is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

As a Champion, I know that you heard this statement many, many times. Get ready to learn what Knowledge truly means! Let’s begin by breaking down this word.

Know: You must know your business, which means you must know the power of Network Marketing. You must also know how to prospect and recruit Champions, handle objections and deal with rejection. Most importantly, you must know in your heart that you can and will achieve your dreams in the industry of Network Marketing.

L – Listen: You must listen to those that have walked in your shoes. For example, a football coach that coaches a NFL team usually has many records under his belt and has proven himself as a Champion in the game of foot ball. You wouldn’t see a world renowned hockey player coaching a NFL football. In Network Marketing, you wouldn’t take direction from anyone that has not built a group of their own. There are many so-called coaches out there attempting to coach Network Marketers yet they have NEVER built a group or made any money in the industry. You must listen and learn from those that have been where you are now and have gone all the way to the top!

E – Edge: You must have the edge and live on the edge to truly succeed in your business. That means you are willing to dedicate yourself to your business and become the best that you can be. This includes filling your mind with motivational, business building strategies on a daily basis to constantly be one step ahead of others in the industry. You must also attend events, seminars and boot camps hosted by those that have built a Networking Marketing group. This will give you the “edge” that you need to be more successful than other Networkers or other entrepreneurs.

If you live by these keys, then Knowledge when applied to your business will create Action and rock your future! Make today the day to truly understand the word Knowledge.

Find Your Why & Fly,
John Di Lemme
www.FindYourWhy.com

Knowledge When Properly Applied… is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

Yeah, the products and marketing methods are changing constantly, but the driving force that motivates sales remains unchanged… so do the 4 things that steal sales right out from under your nose.

1. The “I don’t need it” attitude.
Let’s face it… need has little to do with what people buy or don’t buy in the American culture. Want has everything to do with whether they do or don’t buy. The most crucial aspect of getting a high number of sales is targeting the right market. It does little good to advertise to people who really aren’t interested.

What are you advertising? Where are you advertising? These two questions go hand in hand. If you’re trying to sell hunting gear, it would make little sense to target mothers with small children. Sure a FEW of them hunt, but your return for the cost of advertising is going to be pretty low. Pay attention to what your target audience reads, and invest your advertising bucks wisely.

2. The “I can’t afford it” attitude.
In a few rare cases, that may be true, but usually “I can’t afford it” can be interpreted as, It’s not high on my list of priorities.” We can usually find the money for the things we really want.

Go ahead and MAKE your product or service a priority. Dramatize the benefits they’ll experience, sweeten the deal until it’s irresistible, and put a deadline on it. Make it “too good to pass up!”

3. The “I’m in no hurry” attitude.
Procrastination is criminal in the marketing world. Yeah, procrastination steals money right out of our pockets! The customer comes… he sees… he wants… but when he puts it off, he never does get around to buying!

What happens in the short time after he walks out without the purchase? Time quietly fades the emotions that were driving the sale, and the desire to shell out the dinero for your product soon fades away entirely.

Don’t let them leave without making the purchase. Now you can’t put a gun to their head and force them to buy, but you can make a deadline on the special. A “take it or leave it” offer just might inspire the procrastinator to act now.

4. The “I don’t trust you” attitude.
Buying is risky business, and most people fear making a foolish investment more than they fear never getting the product. You can allay those fears simply by implementing a few tactics that evoke trust and confidence for the buyer.

Offer an unconditional money back guarantee. You’ll effectively eliminated the risk factor that holds many consumers back.

Use testimonials to let prospective customers know that you do deliver, and a satisfied customer can say it way better than you ever could.

Be open to communication. Hey, when they know someone is willing to answer any question they have, the uncertainty evaporates.

Don’t let these four thieves steal any more of your profits. Deal with them effectively… get them out of the way!

4 “Sale Thieves” You Need To Be On The Lookout For is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

1. Cut the Slackers!
“Carrying dead-weight employees? Lose them now!” Ever tried to run a marathon whilst towing an old tire? This is what it’s like trying to grow a productive business with unproductive (or unmotivated) employees. Not only will they not add value to your bottom line, they’ll drag other ‘productive’ workmates to their level. Cutting a slack worker (legally of course) will actually increase the productiveness of other workmates.

2. Cut the Paper!
“Start a war against paper!” Do you need to print that email to read it? Or that brief? Reduce office clutter on desks and encourage better use of digital filing. Ask clients to email files rather than send faxes, and printed media. Use a web based project management or time tracking solution rather than paper based timesheets. Get the drift – saves trees too!

3. Cut the Time!
“A task can take both 10 minutes and an hour!” Have you noticed that if you give a task (i.e.: write a proposal) to an employee and they have a day to do it, they will, but if you give them 3 days to do the same task, guess what, they’ll take 3 days! Put tight and exact deadlines (i.e.: Wed 3:30pm) on important tasks, and your staff will become more productive.

4. Cut the Expenses!
“Plug all the holes in your cash flow!” Make a list of all general expenses in your business. Next to each one, write one of the following: Need it, Review it, Cut it. Take this list to either a receptionist or employee with some free time. Have them work down the list firstly on the expenses to ‘Cut’. This will create immediate savings. Then have them ‘Review’ the expenses you need, but perhaps could get a better deal on. ‘Trimming the fat’ every 6 months can help you create profit.

5. Target Different Work!
“One project for $20,000 or ten projects for $2,000 each”. Look at the type of work you’re targeting. Is it worth targeting a different type or value of work? Most businesses just ‘do what they’ve always done’ rather than looking for more profitable types of revenue. Think hard about other more profitable work your business can do with its available resource.

6. Don’t Work Late, Come in Early!
“A clear mind is a productive mind!” Outside of work, this time should be used to recharge. Don’t take extra work home, rather just go home, relax, play golf, go for a run, enjoy the family & come in early to do that extra work. Not only will you work better after relaxing, but your family life will improve!

7. Motivate Staff, Offer Incentives!
“Staff priorities are not the same as manager priorities!” Managers, Owners & Directors have different motives and priorities than staff. Just because you are excited about your business doesn’t mean the staff are. Your mind is on the bottom line, whereas staff think of their pay, and they’ll get paid whether they perform or not. Motivate staff with performance related bonuses such as money, time off & job flexibility.

8. Hire multi-skilled workers!
“Enlarge your skill base without the cost!” It’s better to have two designer/developers, than a designer and a developer. Multi-skilled workers, by nature are generally better problem solvers, more flexible and more productive than single skilled workers. You’ll also have more options for work delegation and due to an increased skill base will be able to take on a wider range of projects.

9. Clean your Desks!
“Start the Week Fresh”. Make it company policy that every Friday, before staff leave, all loose paper is to be filed away or organized in racks, drawers, folders or cabinets. A messy workspace is a messy mind. By having staff organize their desks on Friday, when they start on Monday, they’ll get straight info focused work, rather than looking at clutter wondering where to start. More productive time!

10. Clean your Digital Files!
“Make it easy to find information!” Searching hard drives and servers for information can waste a lot of productive time. Designate a tech employee the job of tidying the server. Have them organize files logically into client folders, archive or remove old files, check everybody has good network access and tidy the other staffs’ desktops and PCs.

11. Prioritize Your 20%’ers!
“Do the important things first!” Most people procrastinate on the 20% of the tasks that create 80% of the revenue. At the end of each day, make a list for the next day. If you have 25 tasks, list the 5 most important revenue generating tasks (the 20%’ers), then list the 5 most urgent tasks (usually admin). By working through the 20% items first, you’re working ‘on’ the business (growth), rather than ‘in’ the business (maintenance).

12. Review your Services!
“Your services should be team players, not just expenses!” Do you consider your accountant, or lawyers an expense? Or do they truly add value? A good accountant will save you more money than they cost. With so many accountants, lawyers, printers, couriers etc available, are you sure you are working with the best you could be? Every 6 months you should review your external services with this question in mind: “Are they helping or hindering my business?”

13. Systemize your Processes!
“How can I do it easier, faster, and cheaper?” As a matter of habit, always look for ways to systemize processes. Create templated emails, templated forms and documents, a ‘roles and responsibilities’ chart, use process automation applications, digital timesheets, auto responders, automatic payments etc. Almost every process in your business can be creatively systemized to be easier, faster, and cheaper! If you systemize 3 processes a month, that’s 36 processes a year – what a difference!

14. Use Remote Workers!
“Only pay for what you use!” Every staff member not only costs a salary, but also a chair, a desk, a computer, power, square footage, coffee in the kitchen etc. By using remote workers and contractors, you’ll save money and maybe not even need a huge office. They’ll even pay for their own coffee!

15. Learn to Delegate!
“Work on your business, not in it!” If you are a manager, you should be spending at least 80% of your time working on growing, systemizing, trimming, and strategic planning. Are you spending too much time on menial tasks and grunt work that can be delegated? If so, learn to delegate (or use contractors) as this will free your time to concentrate on the big picture – “Growing your business and making it profitable!”

15 Tips To Streamline Your Business And Become Profitable In 2006 is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

Here are a few to try NOW!

1. Never try to sell expensive items from a small classified ad.
Use the two step method. Request the reader visit your site
for free information or email an auto responder address
for more details where you will respond with longer
ad copy to effectively sell your product.

2. Study how other marketers write their sales copy. This is a no brainer. Simply study the ads in newsletters you are subscribed to.
Or surf to a few of the free classified ad sites and study the ads placed there. Don’t copy their ads word for word but use them as an effective design to write your own adverts.

3. Advertise in the right Newsletter. That’s right. This is basic stuff. Don’t place your ad for cooking lessons in a Sports Trivia Newsletter. Or High Tech EBooks on Java-Scripting in a Romance
Writers Newsletter.

4. Target several appropriate publications. Subscribe to the
publications and study their classified ads for several editions
before placing your ads. Practice writing adverts following their
basic ad writing guidelines.

5. Advertise in more than one publication at a time. Why?
You want to pull in as many interested readers as possible in
order to make sales.

6. Change your ad copy if it’s not working. If people read the same old
ad copy in the publication every month they will get bored and
probably ignore your copy. It’s human nature to do this.
Freshen up your copy with new headlines, different lengths, new
wording, power words, appropriate humor, details, interesting facts,
testimonials.

7. Key your ads to find out which ones are working. Or simply have
several email addresses or auto responders and calculate which
email address receives the most response to your ads.

8. Keep records of everyone who responds to your ads. Follow up
with appropriate messages about your product. Of course give
them the option to opt out of receiving further correspondence.

9. Free Classified Ad Sites are a great way to test your ad
writing skills before placing paid ads in publications online.
Study how other marketers at these sites write their ads.
Respond to their ads to see how they further market their
product. Don’t forget to set up a free email account
especially to handle your request.

10. Study offline publications. And, advertisements you receive
by snail-mail to see how they put it all together. This will
help to build your ad writing skills and confidence in your copy writing abilities.
80% of All Advertising Is Wasted Due To This Common Mistake

You’re flipping through this publication as you wait for your latte, when suddenly you decide to stop and read an ad. What made you stop? I’ll bet it was an attention grabbing headline.
It is a scientifically proven fact that 5 times as many people read headlines as read the body copy of an ad. So with the headline, an advertiser has spent about 80% of their advertising dollar. It doesn’t take a genius to realize then the headline is the most important part of any ad.
Yet, most small business advertising is wasted for lack of an effective headline or, worse yet, no headline at all. Don’t make this same mistake.
The headline is the first thing that your reader or prospect sees when they open your letter, browse a magazine, or flip your postcard. In that moment, (about 3 seconds) your reader decides whether or not to read any farther.
So first and foremost, any advertisement you produce must have a headline and your headline must grab your reader’s attention immediately. If you don’t grab them by the throat and hold them right away, you never will.
Writing powerful headlines takes some hard work but it can be done if you follow some simple guidelines.
1. Your headline should give the reader a reason to stop and read now instead of later – a carefully chosen word or two can create urgency
2. Your headline should communicate something the reader considers valuable – they need to be able to justify the time spent reader your ad
3. Your headline should scream how you might offer something that is unique or at least interesting
4. Your headline should point to something very specific for the reader – use facts and how to’s
Using these points as a guide to create your headlines allows you to create headlines that hook your reader quickly, offers them a benefit they want, and gives them a reason to read on.
Never use boring, conventional or overused statements and never use a headline to trick your reader into looking on.
Attention Getting Power Words for Your Headlines
Look at powerful headlines and you will see that many contain one or more of the following words that sell.
Discover Easy Free New Proven Save Results Introducing
At Last Guarantee Bargain Easy Quick Sale Why How To
Just Arrived Now Announcing
Start of by writing some headlines that clearly communicate your promise, benefit or USP. Then look for ways to make them even more powerful by adding a power word or two and checking if they contain at least 3 of the guidelines provided above.

10 Effective Advertising Tips! 80% of All Advertising Is Wasted Due To This Common Mistake. is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

One way to avoid this swamp, though, is to do a Joint Venture with established eBay sellers. This allows a JV partner to build her own mailing list and sell products off eBay.

There are multiple advantages to this way of doing business on eBay:

1. The biggest uncertainty for would-be eBay sellers is what products to sell. Sometimes vendors risk large sums of money on untried products, only to lose their investment, become sour and give up. With a Joint Venture there is no risk except for a few hours of time.

2. Since there are no auctions listed on eBay, no one can steal copy or pictures from JV sellers – because there is nothing to copy. In effect, we become invisible – no one even knows we exist and this hidden aspect has many advantages.

3. eBay JVs are usually done with a digital product that can be instantly downloaded. This is great for any entrepreneur because inexpensive autoresponders mean that her entire business is handled via autopilot. Contrast this with the usual way of doing business on eBay which involves mailing dozens, hundreds or even thousands of boxes.

4. eBay and Paypal have lots of rules. It’s easy to break some unwittingly, and even the most honest seller does so from time to time. A JV merchant isn’t answerable to eBay, however, but only to her customers.

5. A JV seller never directly lists on eBay, thus avoiding eBay and Paypal fees.

6. Successful Powersellers have large numbers of customers and there are lots of administrative details involved. Implementing a sales system can cost time and money because without attention to detail packages won’t be mailed in a timely fashion, payments won’t be accurate, items will be sent to the wrong buyers, and so on. A JV partner eliminates all of that because all transactions can be funneled through a hands-off system.

7. eBay selling lives or dies through the ‘feedback’ system. Negative feedback can kill sales instantly and lack of feedback causes buyers to hesitite and choose other sellers. Feedback is totally irrelevant to a Joint Venture seller because she is using the reputation of carefully chosen other sellers. She knows in advance that their feedback is high quality or she doesn’t do deals with them.

8. Inexperienced sellers sometimes drag wiser merchants into price wars. In a panic over sales, they foolishly slash prices, beginning a chain reaction that results in bare bones bids that allow no one to make any money. A Joint Venture seller floats serenely above such hiccups in the marketplace.

9. Best of all, a JV seller doesn’t settle for a one time sale. She concentrates her efforts on a mailing list of happy customers that she can sell to again and again and again. In this way, not only is she ensuring repeate profits, but she gets paid for creating this list, rather than having to pay someone else for names.

With its 147,000,000 registered users, eBay is the best source of targeted, Net-savvy buyers on the web. By putting together Joint Venture deals with established sellers, anyone can add large numbers of qualified buyers to their database efficiently and inexpensively.

9 Reasons To Do Joint Venture Deals On eBay is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com

1. Determine your business. What are you selling?

This question isn’t as easy to answer as you may think. For example, Nike is in the sportswear business, but the truth is that when you buy a pair of Nike shoes and a t-shirt at the mall you’re buying a lot more than sportswear — you’re buying an image, a feeling. You’re buying the Nike brand. Richard Thalheimer, the former CEO of The Sharper Image and the founder of RichardSolo.com, has worked in specialty retail for more than 30 years. When asked what business he’s in, he’ll tell you “convenience” or “innovation” before he specifies any particular industry, and he’s built one of the most powerful brands in America. Keep in mind, there’s more to a product than, well, the product. Your brand is what sets your product apart from your competitor’s.

2. Select your market. Who are you selling to?

This step is a bit less interpretive as the first, though equally important. Who are you selling to? or more importantly, what do you know about this person? Understanding your consumer is a key to success. What do they do? Where do they hang out? What do they watch on television? These are just a few of the questions that you should be able to answer about your consumer. Knowing the answers to these questions can answer a lot of questions of your own when it comes to a devising a marketing strategy. Richard Thalheimer understood his market for The Sharper Image, probably as well as they understood themselves. From an article in the LA Times, Tracy Wan, who was president and chief operating officer under Thalheimer says “Richard has the amazing ability to figure out the things that people want to have.” This ability to perceive your consumer’s desire can only be a result of knowing them like your neighbor.

3. Create a marketing strategy. How do you speak to these people?

This is a culmination of understanding your brand and your consumer. As mentioned in number two, understanding your consumer can answer a lot of questions concerning your marketing strategy: Where should you advertise? What’s the voice of your brand? What kind of prices are reasonable for this demographic? In order to engage your consumer, a.k.a. sell your product to them, you must know where your advertisements will be noticed, how to speak to them, and how much they will be able to spend, among many of things. Really, this step should have been combined with the last because who your market is dictates your marketing strategy entirely.

4. Learn by example. Seek advice from those who have done it.

There are many books written by professionals who have already started their own business and have been successful in doing so. One that comes to mind immediately, as we’ve already mentioned him a couple of times, is Richard Thalheimer. “Creating Your Own Sharper Image” shares the story of how he grew his tiny office supply company, The Sharper Image, into the thriving enterprise that it has become today.

Remember, building a successful business in not all about the dollars and cents. Equally as valuable is you brand equity and your ability to engage your consumer, which is only attainable by understanding them. Assuming there is a demand for your product, and you can compete with the other brands, following these four steps shall guide you in the right direction.

~Ben Anton, 2008

Build Your Business With Four Easy Steps is a post from: Business Blog | Lilamitre-arte.com