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14 Business Lessons to Learn From the Olympics

TipTop — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:44:28 +0000

You would’ve had to have been living under a rock not to notice the beauty and the pageantry of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. This particular Olympics was more widely covered by the media than any of the past Olympic Games, and there was plenty of scandal to boot. But what does that have to do with you, you ask? The Games offer a great model to small business owners and are full of examples that you can put to work right away.

Discipline. None of those Olympians could have done what they did without disciplined training regimens. They woke up each morning and recommitted themselves to doing whatever it took to make themselves better athletes.

Consistency. Olympians stand out from other athletes by virtue of the fact that they perform at a high level again and again and again. They practice until they can deliver a perfect performance every time. Do the same in your business and you’ll find success.

Get Back on the Horse. Never let defeat defeat you. When you fail, get back up and try again.

Be Part of a Team. Even athletes competing in individual sports need teams of support behind them. Make sure you have a whole team standing behind you and supporting you as you reach for your goals.

Listen to Yourself. Your inner self knows exactly what you need to do to become successful. So when the crowd gets louder, turn inward to hear what your inner voice has to say. Tune out everything else and let your inner voice guide you.

Details Make the Difference. Every athlete knows that details can make or break a performance. Stepping out just a few inches on a dismount can be the difference between a gold medal gymnastics performance and a silver medal performance. A minimal twist in the body can be the difference between a great dive and a disaster. You’ll only reach your goals when you pay attention to the details.

Give It Your Best. No matter what’s working against you, always give it your best. Give a performance you can be proud of and you’ll find yourself motivated to try again the next time.

Never Give Up. No matter how bleak things look or how tough things get, never give up on your dream. It may take years and years to finally realize your dream, but when you achieve your goals, those years will seem like minutes.

Make a Plan. Once you’ve made your game plan, stick with it.

There’s No Substitute for Strength. Mental, physical, and emotional strength are equally important when it comes to small business success.

Be Big-Hearted. Nothing is more inspiring than an athlete whose heart is in the game, who keeps going even when the chips are down, who shows the world that she loves what she does more than anything else in the world. The same is true in the world of small business. Have a big heart and show it to everyone.

Embrace Your Nerves. It’s perfectly natural to be scared to death when you start out on a new path. Don’t squelch the fear and the anxiety. Let them remind you just how much you care about what you’re doing.

Always Finish. You may be aware long before you reach the finish line that you’re going to come in last, but finish what you’ve started anyway. No one can take you seriously if you throw up your hands in the home stretch and bail out completely. But they will respect you all the more if you just keep going.

Show Them They’re Wrong. The time will come when you’ll hear something negative. Let that negativity fuel your fire to succeed and prove them wrong.

Take these Olympic lessons and apply them to your small business, and then rejoice in your own gold medal!

Seomul Evans is a senior Search Engine Optimization consultant specializing in Meta Search Engines and SEO articles.

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How To Write An Offer & Call for Action

TipTop — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:43:38 +0000

Your offer, even if you’ve already stated it clearly in your headline and elsewhere in your message, must be re-stated at the end of your message. Be clear and be specific so there is nothing left to the imagination of your audience.

Essentially, your offer is “Pay X and this is exactly what you get.” Of course, you need to say it more gracefully than that! So wording your offer is an art in itself.

A really powerful offer can and usually does make a big difference to the results. There’s basically two parts and it’s almost like another type of headline. The offer must make a massive promise, almost to the point of disbelief. Take your biggest promise of satisfaction and put that promise into the offer. That promise is why the person began reading and kept on reading, so it would be silly not to use it again when you’re getting ready to ask for money.

Then you immediately prove it again. Then you make it scarce by limiting the time, or the number available, and restate that this exact result from this type of product can only be achieved from you (your USP). And you add more credibility…impeccable credibility by re-stating the guarantee.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

You should always ask for the sale. Give prospects more than one way to respond.

Call to Action

Your offer must include a call to action. This is where you tell the reader or listener exactly what to do. You can have them:

Order Today!
Respond By…
Send Now For Your Free… Call Immediately!

In your sales letter or ad, you could repeat the full benefits and descriptions of what they are getting and then ask for the order.

Carpe Diem – Seize the Day (and the opportunity to act now)

You’ll notice that in addition to being a call to action, each of these statements calls for IMMEDIATE action. You want to add a sense of urgency to your call to action. Try these action motivators:

Rush the order…
Last chance offer…
Limited time…
Limited quantity…
To those who qualify…

No Risk/All Reward – The Guarantee

At this stage in your message, the element that needs to be considered very seriously is your guarantee. The guarantee can come after your bonus or as part of your reply mechanism.

The guarantee is a very effective closing tool and should be used to make the offer even more appealing. Your guarantee should be totally risk free and the business owner should assume full responsibility and full risk. This makes it much easier for a prospect to make a decision.

Offer a 60-day, 90-day, or a 12 month money-back guarantee. Give the customer two or three times the needed review period to ensure the purchase is non-threatening and non-intimidating. The direct marketing industry has studied this for years and has found that with a longer guarantee you get fewer returns.

Another trick is to include a just-for-trying-us bonus that has a perceived value that is worth more than the price of the product they are buying. Let the customer know they can keep the bonus even if they ask for their money back. In many cases this will triple response. However, it’s always important to test to see if this works for you with your prospects.

Companies that adopt a better than risk-free guarantee find that it is a profit centre in itself. More sales are made with guarantees and the expense of returns is negligible

Strategies like that can explode your small business quickly, that’s why I’d suggest you go right now to http://www.freemarketingbook.org and request a copy of Jonathan Jay’s new book “Marketing Secrets of a Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneur”

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8 Strategies for Pricing Your Products

TipTop — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:37:32 +0000

As a small business owner, you know how difficult it can be to determine appropriate prices for your goods and services. Ask too much and you’ll turn customers off to your business. Ask too little and you’ll be shortchanging yourself. The key to pricing all lies within the psychology of the consumer. Here are 8 strategies for playing into consumer psychology and coming out on top of the pricing game.

1. Promoting Satisfaction. If you haven’t done this yourself then you probably at least know someone who has joining a gym that offers a one-time fee, going for the first few months, and then quitting only a few months after joining, even after paying for a full year! When consumers pay for a service regularly, say once a month, they perceive that service as having more value than a service they pay for only once. And when they perceive that it has value, they will continue to use it. Keep your customers satisfied by implementing monthly charges rather than one-time flat fees.

2. Use Nines. Consumers connect the number 0 to quality and the number 9 to value. So stop focusing on having the lowest price and start pricing your products and services according to this inherent rule. Have you ever noticed how many items are assigned a price of $X.99? That’s because people automatically associate products with lots of nines with high value.

3. Utilize Anchor Pricing. If a consumer is becoming familiar with a product for the first time, she will look to the model with the highest price to help her determine what to purchase for herself. This high price is called the anchor price. Grocery stores use this to their advantage by placing their generic brands next to name brands. Customers use the name brand prices as anchors and then quickly note that the generic brands run roughly 15% less than the name brands.

4. Let Prestige Pricing Work for You. People automatically assume that a higher-priced product is a higher-quality product. Many people are willing to drive out of their way and pay more for a cup of coffee at Starbucks than a cup of coffee at McDonalds, simply because they perceive Starbucks coffee to be of higher value. You can take advantage of prestige pricing by enhancing the packaging and delivery of your products and then charging more.

5. Suggest Prices. When you package several items or services together and then suggest an appropriate price, you increase the chances that customers will buy all of those items together. “Value meals” at fast food restaurants are a great example of this. Consider packaging your products together in a complementary way and then pricing them accordingly.

6. Play Up Small Losses. How many times have you seen commercials offering products that you can pay for in “just three easy installments of $19.99″? People find a price of $19.99 much more attractive and easy to manage than a one-time price of $59.97. And, as mentioned above, they will perceive the product to have greater value if they pay for it over a longer period of time.

7. Stuff the Bundle. If you’ve seen those commercials mentioned in the point above, you also know how popular it is to continue adding other products to the original offer. “If you act now, we’ll also include” they say. The more products you add while keeping the original price the same, the more your customers will perceive that they’re getting a bargain.

8. Play up the Bargain. Everyone loves to feel like they’re getting a good deal, and nothing screams “good deal” like a big old banner reading “Sale” or “Discount.” Always let your customers know how your product compares to the rest of the market, especially if your products are comparable and your prices are lower.

Let these pricing strategies work for you and see how well your business grows!

Seomul Evans is a senior Search Engine Marketing expert specializing in Meta Search Engines and a SEO Blog Articles contributor.

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Strategic Planning for Business

TipTop — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:36:29 +0000

Businessmen and entrepreneurs often are so engrossed with the immediate issues that they overlook most of their ultimate objectives. In result, they end up doing and solving all of the details and problems all at once which in turn leads to a hazy, unclear, and inadequate effect.

When it comes to these instances, a strategic plan is the key phrase that “every” entrepreneur should deal with. Notice that the word “every” is emphasized, for in the business industry, everyone should make a strategic plan. Many of those who venture into business, especially those small time businessmen think that strategic plans are only for the large businesses that can afford the time, cost, and large number of staffs that can develop a sound plan. This however is not adequate for if you are going to venture inside the marketplace, you will have to face “giant walls” guarded with the “big guys” of the business industry.

So in those cases, what should you have to do?

Here now enters the strategic plan. In order to break those “walls” and come face to face with the “big guys”, you will need to play their game.

Setting up a strategic plan means you will have to create an approach – a unique approach – to business that will run through a certain period of time. You may want to create this plan for a specific part of the business or as a whole. However, you would want to make sure first that that your company as a whole is in good relation with the consumers before going through the specific ones. And by the way, there are consultancy firms available who offer strategic planning for business service to help you go through with it.

To begin with, you will have to set the three main components: the vision, mission and objectives of your company.

The primary step is to create a realistic vision for your company. This part shows how you see your business in a short term or long term perspective. This part is the draft that will serve as your tracing marks as you venture into success.

Then, you will have to plan for the purpose of your business which would be under the mission statement. This part may deal with matters like; to ensure good customer service, to provide quality products, to support not only self growth but as well as to the employees, and etc.

The third key element would be the objectives where you will mention the results or needs that the company wants to achieve as a long term or short term goal. This part anyhow should relate with the major expectations of the stakeholders, employees, and consumers.

Underlying the three main components, you now have the clear path to where to go, the next question then would be, “how to get there?”.

Subsequent actions would be the precept on how to achieve the set components. You may want to do a press release, advertise, or execute programs that would ensure a definite result provided that all are lined and connected.

Your business does not end after you have finally executed the action plans to implement your strategy. Actually, this part is where most businesses fail. You will have to follow through whether the whole plan is being implemented or how it is doing. You may also like to create checkpoints to ensure that all are being taken carefully and being worked on efficiently.

Without this single word “strategy”, your business would not have any direction for strategy tells you where to go. As a map, it gives you directions on where to go, though it does not guarantee that you will get there instantly, likewise with the business strategy, it does not give you the assurance that you will succeed, but it does give you the opportunity to succeed!

FutureAfrica is a group of business consultants that offer business improvement, transformation and organizational development services to small and medium sized businesses, corporate and local authorities.

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