Kris Hunt

Many people would love to own their own business. Some business can be started on a part-time basis and move to full time as the business grows. With Multilevel Marketing the prospects of building a large business after starting small does happen.

If you do not have much cash to start with in the first place, this is definitely true. If you are strapped by low finances, this is especially true. This is particularly truthful if you’ve a minimum sum of money for a start-up. If you don’t take in a good deal of hard currency or separate cash in the first place, this is emphatically true. If you are trounced by depleted funds, this is especially genuine.

The chance that multi-level marketing household business enterprise provides cannot be topped by any other home business. You can work at home, in free-and-easy clothing and never worry about having office hours. In effect you can bring in more money than those who employ you.

Once an MLM business is established and well under way, a typical week might take 3 to 5 hours of some form of enjoyable work to keep your network running smoothly. Thats it. Your working day is finished.

You do not have to be an Einstein to build and make a network efficient and profitable. There is nothing magic, or potions that will ensure success.

Several years ago, simply the sentiment of MLM associate programs; franchises and home business concerns were plenty to scare the mass away. The rationale? Altogether the additional hours that people had to put in to make matters take place.

The most dependable way to take on multi-level marketing is to analyze it. It’s up to you the seller to apply those acquired skills to your own MLM business organization and network.

This is a business concern and thus must be addressed like a business. If it is handled as an avocation it will pay like an avocation. There are no free footsteps to being a MLM achiever, only small steps of scholarship and diligence.

You will have to spend time and some money, it is a simple fact. Realize that some free things are not likely to be effective in building a business. Some may, but generally in business a lot of free strategies do not work. Therefore it is most adept to interpret before hand that you’re going to expend some time and revenue. It is that elementary.

Find a product or service that you really like. Join a company that sells just that. Then build your own MLM home business using a system that can work using the internet. If this is like the other types of business, you will need the necessary business skills to run their new venture to ensure its success.

In that respect are no singular or exceptional skills called for to run a multi-level business organization. Several skills that peradventure may be required can be ascertained in time. Offered resources attend to accelerate the cognitive process of developing a business.

For anybody who would want to start a home-based business, MLM makes good business sense. The start up costs is generally low, and there are always good training systems in place.

In that respect are several benefits to a MLM household occupation. It cost next to zero to get cracking, you even get an established system like that of a dealership opportunity and you can be in net income in calendar months instead of years.

If you’re working a 9 to 5 job and you desire to build towards an additional income, you should follow up on a MLM home founded business enterprise.

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The emergence of the web and people looking for additional income, has paved the path for multi-level marketing companies to double up the last 10 years.

With this maturation and involvement in network merchandising, a lot of fresh companies have formed to unite with, older multi-level marketing companies.

You don’t need to be concerned about if your company surviving the ups and downs of business. Prefer with wisdom when choosing a multi-level marketing company. If a multi-level marketing company has embodied itself well and has been around for a while, it will most probably abide in years to come.

If you’re searching for MLM longevity, there are no guarantees whatsoever, but being established does amount amount to something for a multi-level marketing company. You could be distinguished at building up a organization, and earn fantastic sums of money quickly.

If you are thinking of starting a side career in MLM, or just want to see how your current company measures up, take note of the critical things to look for when choosing an MLM company.

Companies who have already paved a path within MLM are worth looking at. Look for companies who have been in business for at least 2 to 5 years. You are looking for a stable MLM company that has everything in place.

The second thing to look for is the one in charge of the company. Who is the president, and who are the directors? What is their track record? Have they spent time in the network marketing industry, or are they new to it all? What businesses have they been involved with in the past?

When you start a new business you want to get all the facts, especially if you plan to spend a lot of years with that company. You want to know the character of the people you are in business with. Do not worry if you don’t know every answer, you can easily email or phone the company to find out answers to important questions.

In addition to this, the products should be competitively priced, and somewhat unique.

In conclusion, the more automatic the multi-level marketing company is, the more beneficial. They ought afford you a individualized company internet site that you are able to advert candidates to. A candidate should be able to get through to you by that page.

And the multi-level marketing company should deliver a serial of emails that follow through with your candidates.

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If you’re like me, you’ve had plenty of experience with BAD customer service. Just think about the last time you had a bad experience with a product or a service.

Perhaps the product or service did not live up to the sales pitch. Maybe the company was unresponsive to your calls or emails. Maybe they did not do what they said they were going to do. Or they gave you the run-around when you called to report a problem or ask a question.

If you think about it, all of these negative experiences boil down to one thing, a lack of customer service. And a lack of customer service usually stems from a lack of customer focus. It seems many businesses have simply lost sight of who they are really in business to serve.

Instead of the old saying, “the customer is always right,” many businesses seem almost bothered by customers these days. In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret from my early ad agency days. We used to have a saying, “this business would be great, if it wasn’t for the clients.”

How ridiculous is that?! We wouldn’t have had a job if it weren’t for the clients (I’m older and wiser now!). Yes, sometimes clients can be difficult, but they are the reason we are in business. Our job is to serve them. If they are upset, we should welcome the opportunity to find out why, and use that information to improve our product or service.

Yes, sometimes you’ll run into some yahoo who is being totally unreasonable and you just have to deal with it. But very often, client complaints uncover a problem or something we can improve upon.

So make it a point to really listen to your customers. Make a commitment to treat all your customers well. After all, giving great customer services is one of the best and cheapest marketing tools available. When you treat your customers well, or even better, when you deliver beyond their expectations, you will be rewarded.

Those happy clients are the same clients who will happily refer you. The opposite is also true. If you disappoint a client, or don’t deliver what you promise, or you just plain treat them badly, they will likely tell everyone they know how horrible you are. In fact, those disgruntled clients are more likely to talk about you than your happy clients. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it usually works.

The good news is, it’s not hard to give great customer service. You simply have to be aware and make it a priority. Following are 10 tips to help you offer stellar customer service.

(1) Be accessible

Your customers should be able to get a hold of you, or someone in your company, if they have a question or if they need service. Provide multiple ways for your customers to get in contact with you, such as email, phone, mail or fax.

(2) Respond in a timely manner

Make it your policy to return all phone calls or emails within 24 hours. And, if you cannot commit to that, then determine what timeframe you can manage and let your customers know upfront they can expect to hear back from you within that amount of time.

(3) Listen to your customers

Often when a customer calls or writes to complain, they just want to be heard. In fact, sometimes, just listening is all you need to do. Take the time to listen to what your customers have to say before you start responding or defending your product or service. They may just have a point.

(4) Treat your customers with respect

Even if the customer on the other end of the phone is acting irrationally, or being rude, don’t lower yourself to their level by reciprocating. Treat everyone with respect and you will be respected in return. Plus, you never know when someone’s just having a bad day, and they happen to be taking it out on you (we’ve all done it).

(5) Don’t argue with your customers

You can never win an argument with a customer. Because if you do win, you’ve more than likely alienated the customer and you’ve lost their business. We all know the customer isn’t really always right, but instead of focusing on what went wrong and defending yourself, focus on how you can solve the problem or fix the situation.

(6) Honor your commitments

If you say you will answer emails, then answer them. If you offer a guarantee, then honor it. Nothing spoils a customer relationship faster than being promised something and not getting it.

I got a nice email last week from a client that made me realize just how important this is. Here’s what he wrote:

“Many thanks for your prompt and comprehensive reply. Your personal interest, caring and enthusiasm is clearly apparent. Most company owners invite you to respond and promise to reply personally, they seldom do so …”

Yes, it took me some time to respond to his email. But I promise email support to all clients who purchase my 10stepmarketing System and therefore it is important to honor that commitment. If I ever get to the point I can no longer respond due to the volume of requests or other time commitments, I will stop offering this service, not just stop responding.

(7) Do what you say

If you say you’re going to call someone on Tuesday, call them on Tuesday. It’s as simple as that. If you want your customers to trust and believe you, you have to follow through and do what you say.

(8) Focus on making customer relationships, not sales

The long-term success of your business rests on your ability to make long-term customer relationships. If you sacrifice relationships to make short-term sales, your business will be short-lived.

(9) Be honest

Don’t exaggerate the results your product or service will provide. Don’t promise things you cannot deliver just to make a sale. I see hype all over the web these days; everything is a quick fix or a silver bullet. It suckers people into buying the product, and then the product doesn’t deliver. Think that customer is ever going to make another purchase from that business? Not likely. Be honest and direct about what your products and services can deliver.

(10) Admit when you make a mistake

No one’s perfect. We all make mistakes; it’s part of learning. So when you do make a mistake, don’t try to cover it up or deny it. Just admit it and if necessary, do something to make the situation right. Your customers will appreciate it and they’ll be more likely to stay customers.

So how does your customer service measure up? Are you practicing these 10 steps and offering stellar customer service? If not, I challenge you to take your service up a notch. Approach it like Ken Blanchard and instead of just being satisfied with happy customers, create “Raving Fans” (a great little book if you haven’t read it).

Commit to putting these 10 tips into practice. Get to know your customers. Make them the focus of your business. It’s one of the keys to marketing success and best of all, it doesn’t cost very much!

(C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa

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20-year marketing veteran Debbie LaChusa created The 10stepmarketing System to help small business owners and solo-preneurs successfully market their business, themselves without spending a fortune on marketing. To learn more about this simple, step-by-step program and to sign up for her FREE audio class and FREE weekly ezine featuring how-to articles, tips and advice, visit www.10stepmarketing.com

What would you do if you knew that you could change your results in an instant? Would you create more money? More fun? More freedom? The ideal relationship?

I’d like to share with you a story about John.

John, a real estate agent, listed 2 properties. Three months later John was quite frustrated that these two properties hadn’t moved quickly. He had tried everything - lowering the prices, advertising, leaving the house open all weekend long, sprucing up the listing, etc.

The worse part of all was that no one was even showing them!

John became sullen. He had succumbed to buying into the negative stories about the real estate marketing being bad. He started to tell everyone he came across how bad the market is and talked non-stop about how his money source was drying up. He started to feel sick a lot and had no energy. It was almost as if John had given up somehow.

So I let John in on a little secret.

It isn’t a new secret to everyone, but it seemed to be new to John.

What you focus on expands. If you don’t like your results, you need to change your thoughts.

OK, many of you might think this is really simple. And John did too. He challenged me and said, literally, ‘That’s Crap! How can changing the way I think about something change my results? Are you saying that I can create my cold? Or that I created the house sales to slow down?’ Well, yes, sort of.

Here is the deal. There are laws that work all the time, no matter what, just like gravity. If you know how to work with the law, you will be tapped into the secret that will get you everything you dream about. If you don’t, you will continue to feel frustrated and overwhelmed with life. I’d like to share my insights on this secret with Six Steps To Create an Instant Shift in Your Results.

1. Change your thinking. This is where it all begins. Knowing that the law of focus means that what you think about will expand in your life, then if you aren’t getting the results you want, it would make sense to focus on what you DO want, right? Right.

2. Feel what it is like to live the outcome NOW. Sometimes thinking positively isn’t enough. That’s why affirmations alone don’t’ always work. In the ULTIMATE Business Breakthrough Intensive we conduct a process that helps you feel what its like to really live a life of ultimate success. That feeling sets off an electric vibration - almost like a magnet. Imagine all the juicy details of your life as if your desired outcome is already there!

3. Reverse engineer the vision. Reverse engineering literally means ‘take apart a finished product to see how it works.’ In all of my coaching programs I teach people how to see the result they want, then put themselves out there in their mind and look back over who they needed to be and what they needed to do to actually achieve it. It’s easier to see the steps this way.

4. Be in focused action. Take action to support feeling as if it’s already real. If it’s about attracting money, you must begin to make choices in your head as if you are already wealthy. I’m not saying spend money you don’t have. I’m saying you may need to create new habits, new to-do lists, or make new choices to be in alignment with being wealthy. If you keep doing what doesn’t work, you can’t energetically connect with the new results you want.

5. Get grateful. How often during the day do you focus on what you already have? Do you think, ‘I’m so lucky that I have my own business?’ or are you focused on everything you don’t have? Do you cherish the people in your life or do you ruminate about the partner who left you last? Being grateful is part of how you shift away from what you don’t want and turn on the attraction magnet.

6. Surround yourself with yes’s. This little trick is worth thousands. You must create an environment where focused ‘yes’ thoughts can occur. If you are a farmer who needs a crop of beautiful corn to grow would you plant it in cement? No, you would plant it in fertile soil and give it lots of water and sunshine. If you are planting new seeds of positive outcomes in your life but you continue to surround yourself with negative, limited thinking people and situations you will choke off the new growth. Or at a minimum, find a lot of weeds in your garden that stifle you.

Here is what I want you to do now.

Think of ONE THING that you would like different in your life right now. It could be money, new opportunities, time off, a new client lead source - whatever. Now, make a commitment to clearly define this new outcome in your life and when it will be true. Then every day for 14 days, follow the ’shift’ process above. Now just get ready for amazing shifts in your life. You might even notice them today.

What ever happened to John?

Four hours after John put the ’shift’ process into action; he called me and said, ‘I sold the condo today. And I’ve had 10 calls on the house and two potential offers coming into tonight.’ I asked John what changed and he said, ‘I did. I changed my attitude about these houses. I sat there and I saw myself selling those two houses today. And this time, something was different. I felt it!’

Now it’s your turn. Time to get your shift and achieve all your goals.

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About the Coach:
Melanie Benson Strick, The Entrepreneur?s Success Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.
If you?re ready to stop working in your business and start working on your business, go to www.virtualteambuildingsecrets.com to learn the secret to growing your company to a six and seven-figure success without employees or a 90-hour work week!

Studies have shown that successful business entrepreneurs possess these characteristics:

1. Self-confidence

This is that magical power of having confidence in oneself and in one’s powers and abilities.

2. Achievement Oriented

Results are gained by focused and sustained effort. They concentrate on achieving a specific goal, not just accomplishing a string of unrelated tasks.

3. Risk Taker

They realize that there is a chance of loss inherent in achieving their goals, yet they have the confidence necessary to take calculated risks to achieve their goals.

Business entrepreneurs are people who will make decisions, take action, and think that they can control their own destinies. They are often motivated by a spirit of independence which leads them to believe that their success depends on raw effort and hard work, not luck.

So which of these three main characteristics is the most important? Believe it or not, it has to be self-confidence. Without self-confidence, nothing else is possible. If you don’t believe in your abilities, then the first challenge that arises may knock you off the path to achieving your goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind for maintaining a higher level of self-confidence.

Positive Thinking

Well, it all starts with a positive attitude, doesn’t it? Believing that something good will happen is the first step. Negative thinking simply is not allowed. You must truly believe that there are no circumstances strong enough to deter you from reaching your goals. Remember too, that positive thinking can be contagious. When positive thinking spreads, it can open doors to new ideas, customers, friends, etc.

Persistent Action

Now all of the positive thinking and believing in the world is useless if it is not applied towards a goal. You have to take action, no excuses are allowed. This action must also be persistent. Trying once and then giving up is not going to be enough. Keep at it one step at a time. If you can’t get by a certain step, then find a creative way to try again or just go around it.

At the beginning of this article we identified a few traits that are common among successful business entrepreneurs. You should be able to look ahead and see yourself where you want to be. Now just maintain a strong belief in yourself and your skills, stick with it, and don’t give up. If you can do that, you’re already half way there!

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Hans Hasselfors is a successful business entrepreneur and internet marketing consultant. Get the net working for you. Join a community of like-minded authors and publishers and make your living online. Become a member of our article directory. www.SubmitYourNewArticle.com

Have you ever felt paralyzed by a fear that kept you from taking action? Or maybe you have a goal, project or commitment that you somehow continue to avoid ? over and over and over again? These are signs that one of the False Fears may be present.

False Fears are the head games we play on ourselves that keep us from taking the action that would cause us to achieve the level of success, wealth and achievement we desire.

Here are the Four False Fears that I see surface the most:

1. I Might Lose Money

This is the fear that if you take a risk that you might lose money, or worse yet, become bankrupt, lose everything and have to sleep in a box on the street. The truth is you will lose money. That?s part of the game. We all make choices that we wish we hadn?t or in hindsight become a loser opportunity. The bigger truth is you will make more money than you ever lose ? if you run your business with the proper return on investment strategies. You must choose to focus on and remind yourself that being an entrepreneur is about honing the skill of discernment between what has profit potential?and what is just a good idea.

2. I Might Lose my Freedom

If I get more successful, will I have to give up: my time, traveling, ability to do what I want, time at the beach, etc? Well?maybe. That?s up to you decide. The real problem isn?t that you will get too busy and have to give it all up. It?s getting clear first about what it?s important to you, what you want your lifestyle to be like, then creating a business that supports your goals. Without this step, 94% of entrepreneurs will just jump in and get busy making stuff happen (notice I didn?t say making money.) You don?t have to give up your freedom if you get successful. You just have to be willing to create a business that supports your freedom!

3. People Won?t Like Me

That?s right. Some people won?t like you. They are the same people who will never buy anything from you, will always complain about the President and no matter what you do, they will find SOMETHING to grumble about. You can?t please everyone. What makes you happy? What is that you do well that other people want and need? Figure those two pieces out and do them a lot ? no matter what anyone else thinks.

4. I Might Fail

That?s good, actually. If you are failing, then you are determining what doesn?t work. Successful people get back up and try something else, something that DOES work! Everyone is going to fail because failing is part of the testing process. If you let yourself get stuck at ?what if I fail? then all you will experience is not knowing what could have happened. What?s the worst that could happen if you do fail? You pick yourself up and try something else. Best case scenario? You are a huge success? I like those odds a lot!

Can you relate to at least one of these False Fears? If you said, no, I?m not sure I believe you. Every successful entrepreneur I?ve coached has encountered one of these fears. That?s a good thing. It means you are paying attention to the roadblocks in your way.

If you find yourself facing one of these False Fears, here is how you can ?flip the fear? to a positive energizer.

Step One. Acknowledge the fear is just that ? a fear. Fear is not real, it?s just a story we make up about a future possible outcome.

Step Two. Create a worst-case and best-case scenario. Take yourself into the future and imagine the best and worst that could happen. My guess is that the worst case is something you could find a way through and the best case is worth taking the risk for.

Step Three. Create a new truth. Get real about what the truth is. As one of my clients says, ?Call a friend (or your coach) and get a reality check.? Your mind will play powerful tricks if you let it so stop being your own roadblock and get back on track!

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About the Coach:
Melanie Benson Strick, The Entrepreneur’s Success Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.
If you’re ready to stop working in your business and start working on your business, go to www.virtualteambuildingsecrets.com/secretweapon/ to learn the secret to growing your company to a six and seven-figure success without employees or a 90-hour work week!

Imagine if there was an information marketing bootcamp where you learn how to make a fortune by selling infoproducts and other forms of infopreneuring.

What would you give to be at such an event, studying from expert infopreneurs who use the tactics daily to build information empires?

Well, I’ve been at a few information marketing bootcamp style events, and have gained some insights into the process of marketing infoproducts. I’ll share a few of them with you in this short article.

Lesson #1 from the Information Marketing Bootcamp - Give First

The Internet is a vast, rapidly growing resource of information. Several million people toss out their information for others to access and benefit from. What makes your information different? Why should people want your information? How can you create the perception of higher value for your information?

The simple answer - give it away. Not all of it, but a fair representative sample. Enough to prove that your information is good, valuable and relevant to a potential customer.

Lesson #2 from the Information Marketing Bootcamp - Create Value

Information is supposed to be valuable. That’s what sets it apart from raw data, which is merely a cluster of unconnected bits and pieces. An infopreneur takes this data, turns it into useful information and then makes it available to people who want it.

But in the process of creating infoproducts and then marketing them, you as an infopreneur can add different levels of value. Most infopreneurs are content doing the bare minimum. By creating even more value for your clients, you’ll easily set yourself apart, and that is the best form of information marketing you can use.

Lesson #3 from the Information Marketing Bootcamp - Licence Content

An information marketing model I’ve not seen taught often, or even used extensively, is leverage. It means doing something that not only works that once, but also has an extended advantage that continues or scales up to higher levels - without requiring you to do anything more.

For example, if you sell an ebook, you get paid once. But if you licence your ebook to other users, so they can sell it and get paid for doing it - then you get paid on an ongoing basis for your content… for as long as others use it!

You can do the same with content on your website, in your newsletter or articles you publish. Extending the value of your information is smart marketing.

Lesson #4 from the Information Marketing Bootcamp - Bundle for Benefit

Another information marketing tactic that works well is to bundle together products and/or services to add greater impact to your infoproduct.

If your primary product is a guide on setting up a website, you can bundle it together with a web hosting service, a software product that helps create websites easily, and a collection of graphics to add color and appeal to the sites your buyers build.

By simply bundling together related products and services, you have created a user experience that’s higher than your infoproduct alone can offer. This ‘trick’ I first learned at an information marketing bootcamp 2 years ago has resulted in a bottomline boost to my infopreneur business of at least 10% per year.

That’s a lot - and each of the methods listed above have the potential to give your business a similar boost too. There are many more too, and that’s why as an infopreneur you should always be in ‘learning’ mode, studying other resources on information marketing and if possible attend information marketing bootcamps - so you can give your business that critical competitive edge.

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Internet infopreneur Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian has helped hundreds of business owners build online information empires. He shares powerful tips, ideas and secrets about achieving success and building massive wealth from information products in his “Internet Infopreneur Tips”
ezine. Register for free at InfoProfitz - www.InfoProfitz.com/ad.htm
- or send any email to infopre-tips@aweber.com

Remember what advertising was like in the days before the internet?

It was all about advertising on TV or placing ads in magazines and newspapers, right?

Well, guess what?

Such ?offline? advertising tactics and methods did not actually crawl away into a corner and die with the advent of the word wide web.

Now we have the 12 Month Millionaire project to prove it!

And, boy, does it prove it!

The main guy behind the project, the guy that I would guess is the 12 Month Millionaire himself, literally earns more than the heads of half a dozen of the worlds top business corporations combined.

Let me try putting that another way.

He once typed out a four page sales letter and, using offline advertising tactics, rather than those that are currently more prevalent online, he managed to get to a stage where he was earning $8 million A MONTH, from the sales of a $60 product!

That is some record and it sure a heck makes the 12 Month Internet Millionaire project one to watch.

For me, as an internet marketer, it is especially interesting seeing how this guy goes about selling, simply because there are so many lessons to be learned.

Granted that a lot of the basic ideas behind the 12 Month Millionaire project were originally derived from direct mailing and catalog sales companies, but the guy has tweaked and twisted them brilliantly, so that they fit today?s market place perfectly.

Now, my business is based on products and services that are overwhelmingly internet based, but I do conduct quite a bit of local marketing offline, so I do know about offline marketing for online businesses (you can get my free report below, which gives you the secrets behind most of my most effective methods)

For example, I have an internet marketing training site that I do not advertise online at all.

The competition online is simply too hot, and so I keep it ?hidden? offline, and, so far, it has been doing really well.

And here?s the thing that really hit me about what I have heard so far of the 12 Month Millionaire product.

So much of what the guys behind it are doing is the stuff that our fathers and grandfathers were doing twenty, thirty, perhaps even forty years ago, except these guys have built a very modern ?edge? into the methods and marketing tactics that they are using.

Now, as someone who is very active in sales and marketing in all of its different guises, I do sometimes find it somewhat depressing to see the slew of ?make a million overnight? products that constantly hit the market

The 12 Month Millionaire, despite its slightly ?flashy trash? title, is not one of these.

It really does contain some very solid information about what offline marketing tactics will work in today?s marketplace, and those that will not.

It shows you, in other words, that even if your business is 100% net based, you should still not ignore the possibilities of using offline marketing methodology, the stuff that did, after all, work pretty well for hundreds of years!

So, in conclusion, yes, I use offline advertising and marketing tactics already (and I do not mind telling you about some of my favorite tricks in my free report!) but the 12 Month Millionaire has taught me an awful lot more, as well as reminding me of a lot of stuff that I had basically forgotten over the years.

The 12 Month Millionaire is well worth looking into, if you are interested in marketing your business in a different way.

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Steve Cowan is an Asia based business expert with over 30 years business experience behind him. You can download Steve?s free report 25 Top Offline Advertising Tips For Online Businesses here and read Steve?s detailed review of the 12 Month Millionaire project by clicking on the title.

In an earlier article, entitled ?Your Own Business: The First Steps,? I discussed what the initial nuts-and-bolts steps are in starting a business. In it, I made the assumption that the soon-to-be entrepreneur had already decided on a business but needed some direction on what to do next.

The response to that article has been positive, but the most common question asked of me is ?Okay?but how do I actually decide what business is right for me?? So I now want to take a step back and see if I can offer a little direction in helping the anxious entrepreneur make an educated choice.

Most businesses are basically selling a product or a service. My focus will be on products for the most part, but much of what follows can easily be applied to services. The main thing to remember is that if you are offering a service, then you are expected to be an expert in that service. If you are not a good plumber, accountant or massage therapist, then do not choose that as your business! That is, unless you take the time to learn and study first.

Whether your business is a product or service, always be sure you are offering the best you possibly can. Excellence creates value and value creates repeat business and positive word-of-mouth.

I also wish to address another issue that I get questions about. Many people have said to me that I don?t talk about business plans, business models, complex marketing plans and such things that are in all the other books or articles. My answer is that such things eventually need to be done, especially if you plan is to take out a huge loan just to get started. If your particular business idea dictates such formalities upfront or if you personally feel more comfortable doing them first, then by all means do so.

But I believe many people are trying to start small businesses using whatever limited capital and time they already have. That is to whom I am addressing my suggestions. I feel that if you spend all of your time writing business plans and feeling everything needs to be perfect then you?ll never get the business actually launched. Spend your time getting the business started small and perfect it as you grow. The following steps will help you build towards all that other stuff, but will get you the important information you need to know faster.

That being said, be sure you have enough time and capital to get it started and ready for growth. Keep your overhead low so you can compete until you are established. I should say keep overhead low for you, but spend what is needed for customer satisfaction. Be sure you set it up according to the local, state and national regulations. Seek support from professionals as needed, including accountants and attorneys.

Analyzing a Businesses? Potential

1) Selecting Your Product (or Service)

While you are getting started, I feel it is generally more effective to focus on a specific product, product category, or customer base. This allows you to provide for your customers better by specializing and should also reduce your marketing costs since it should make it more cost-effective to reach the people who desire your product or service.

You will also find that your business and quality of life will be better if they are products or a service you are passionate about and in which have some expertise. If your business idea is a service, you probably know what you?re good at and do not need to follow this next step.

Write down a list of products that interest you and you know something about. Focus on what you can basically make a part of your life. For instance, I enjoy the feel of pashmina and cashmere products, and I enjoy interacting with others who are the same. I had also been to Nepal and Kashmir a few times and welcomed the opportunity to make visiting those countries a part of my business life. This made building the family pashmina and cashmere business, The Pashmina Store, much more interesting and fun.

The list should not be too long, maybe five items or so. Remember that this is about focus.

2) Research the Existing Market and Demand

Obviously, you?ll never get any business or make enough profits if there isn?t a large enough market for your product or service. You?ll have to decide if the market is big enough by yourself. That decision will depend on what your expected profits will be per customer, your marketing costs, and how much money you wish to make.

To get an idea of the market for the products on your list, simply look at the existing companies out there. You can do this by looking in your local phone books or just driving around town. If you intend to market outside of your local area, such as an ecommerce business, do some searches in Google and/or Yahoo to see what the results are. Doing these things gives you an idea of who you competition would be, how they market, what their products and prices are, and just how many there are.

Keep in mind that if there are a lot of companies, it doesn?t mean you can?t compete. Conversely, if there are not many companies, it doesn?t mean that it is not a good business for you. You may be a pioneer! But it is a good idea to get a general idea of the potential demand for each product on your list.

One great way to do this is using a wonderful tool that Yahoo Search Marketing offers. It tells you how many searches have been conducted for your keywords in the last month. It also gives you other related keywords and the demand for them as well. An incredible wealth of knowledge for free.

Keep in mind that Yahoo is much smaller than Google in terms of the number of searches. If Yahoo has a good number of searches for certain keywords, it is likely to be several times larger at Google.

Once again, it is up to you to decide if that market is big enough. If you can make a larger profit margin, then typically the market can be smaller. If the profit margin is smaller, then you will have to sell more to make a living.

3) Learn More About Who Buys the Product or Service

As you do steps 1 and 2, you?re going to start learning about who actually buys the product or service, but it helps to dig a bit more. Be sure you are learning about the decision maker in the purchase of the product or service. For example, the decision maker for a children?s product is probably a parent. The decision maker for a type of men?s clothing may actually be the women behind the man.

By knowing about the customer, you?ll start to learn just how much it might cost to reach them with your marketing message, what their expectations are, how much they are willing to pay, and where they shop now.

A good way to learn more is to visit the competition and observe. Also, look at where they advertise. Talk to a salesperson where they advertise to learn even more. Find out the advertising costs at that time as well. You may quickly discover that it will simply be too expensive for you to get to the customer. That doesn?t mean to give up; it might just mean you have to consider new and cleverer ways.

4) Discover the Wholesale and/or Initial Costs

In order to get an idea of the potential profit margins and your initial costs, you will have to know what your products may cost you at wholesale, what your minimum order will be, what set-up costs may be involved, shipping costs, if there are any customs fees, and/or other initial costs ? such as any specialized equipment you may need just to get started.

Most of this involves finding out who your wholesale suppliers and/or manufacturers are and contacting them to ask questions ? and don?t be afraid to ask questions. As long as they know you are serious about your business and future success, they should help answer all of your questions about what may be involved.

Be realistic with them, it does nobody any good to brag about how you?ll be good for tens of thousands of orders if you know you?ll have to start with an initial order of 100. Find out what their minimum is, what the price will be, other costs involved, etc. Ask about where price breaks are so you know how your inventory costs will be affected as you do grow.

You cannot expect free samples on your first call with them so don?t be offended and do be prepared to pay for them. But do get the samples if you can. You?ll probably find that you won?t be going with the lowest cost provider since their product may be of a lower quality or their service leaves much to be desired. The cheapest product does you no good if your customers dislike it or you can never get a reliable stock sent to you. It may take time, but you?ll be in business for the long term if you offer your customers reliability and quality. In order to deliver this to your customers, your own suppliers have to do the same for you.

You may discover liquidators as you research sources of product. These types of suppliers are not typically going to be long-term, reliable sources of product since they only offer what is on the liquidation market at any given time. You may consider them for a one time deal if the quality if right, but don?t expect them to be your long time supplier for any particular product.

Some Pointers

When you are researching and choosing the best products for your business don?t ?fall in love.? Remember to never get too attached to a particular product, concept, location, supplier, manufacturer or such. If you do this, you?ll lose site of reality and try to make the facts fit your desired outcome. If the numbers don?t add up, then don?t do it.

Since I?m not in the business of selling you anything, I can use the words that franchises and business opportunities avoid like the plague ? ?work? and ?sell.? Yes, you will have to work to be successful. Yes, you will have to sell to be successful. Selling is not just the normal concept of the salesman pitching a product and desperately trying to make the deal. It is much more complex than that. It is not a single transaction or one-off deal.

In business, as in life, you are always selling. You must sell yourself through your appearance and personality. You must sell the potential customer on just considering your business or product. You must continue to sell yourself even after the sale with excellent customer service and attention to any problems or issues that may arrive.

Remember what I said at the beginning about focus. Keep yourself focused for success. Focus your business on a product, service, customer group, or other such thing. By focusing, you truly are an expert and can serve your market better.

When you know what you business is going to be, focus even harder. It will be tempting to think the grass is greener doing some other business. You?ll never launch any business this way. If your research convinces you that something is a good product with a good market, stick with it and move forward. Don?t waste your time on activities not related directly to your business. Focus your attention on making yourself successful in the business you chose. You control your future, don?t let others give you second thoughts or steer you away from your objective.

Finally, never underestimate the power of organization. It seems so simple, but since the majority of your competition probably isn?t that well organized this is a simple way to beat them right out of the gate. By being organized, you?ll know just who to turn to when something goes wrong. By being organized, you?ll know where to go when the unexpected happens. Keep notes on your research, keep notes on your suppliers, keep notes on your customers, keep notes and know where they are. Keep organized, period.

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The cashmere pashmina business has been a success for entrepreneur Blair Rhodes with one of the leading luxury retailers in North America, The Pashmina Store. The company offers a wide variety of pure cashmere pashmina shawls and wraps and pashmina and silk blended fashion accessories.

The top Internet marketers (those guys and gals that you want to get to joint venture with you) are extremely busy people. They have not been sitting around anticipating the day that you and your idea would land on their doorstep.

They all have starting times and quitting time is when they can?t go one more step or answer one more question until they can grab a few hours of sleep.

That really is the way that the top Internet marketers work…those who do not work like that are not the top Internet marketers. They have a phone stuck to one ear and another call on their speakerphone at all times. Their inboxes are flooded with joint venture offers as the song says… once a day… everyday… all day long.

In order for a new marketer to get the attention of one of these top Internet marketers, they must not only have a great product and a great package of commissions and incentives to offer, they must have some credibility themselves or their offer won?t make it past the first cut.

A new marketer is sometimes inclined to think that because he or she has been blessed with a truck load of charm and the ability to sell iceboxes to Eskimos that they are practically guaranteed success in the world of Internet marketing… .not so… not so at all! Everybody only gets to type words on the World Wide Web. Charm, an engaging smile, a firm handshake, an honest face mean less than nothing in Internet marketing. Those attributes might make you your mama?s little darling and the apple of your daddy?s eye but they aren?t worth squat on the net.

Credibility is all that really matters when you get right down to the nitty-gritty of Internet marketing. Without credibility, the new Internet marketer will quickly turn into the failed Internet marketer.

Why Most New Infopreneurs Fail (No Credibility!)

So many times newbie Infopreneurs come into the world of Info Marketing bright eyed and bushy tailed fully believing that the only thing that they need in order for them to make their first million is to convince one of the top Internet marketers to join them in a joint venture. They are partly right. Getting a top Internet marketer to join them in a joint venture would certainly help… I?m not so sure about the ?million? part.

If you say, ?get a top Internet marketer to do a joint venture with me? really fast, it sounds easy. It isn?t easy. First of all, the top Internet marketers are very busy people, as well as, very sought after joint venture partners. Their inboxes overflow with joint venture proposals every day.

The new Infopreneur may well have written a killer info product. He or she may, also, have it packaged in the best way possible and have a top-drawer sales letter. The joint venture proposal may contain a great commission and incentive package… .and it can still get deleted without a second glance by the top Internet marketer that it has been sent to. Why? Simply because the sender has no credibility… that?s why.

The new Infopreneur fails most often because he or she fails to realize the importance of establishing their own credibility before they even begin to approach the top Internet marketers with joint venture proposals. They haven?t done their homework and they haven?t paid their dues.

These new Infopreneurs haven?t had any articles published. They haven?t posted to blogs or forums. They haven?t taken any of the steps required to even begin establishing their own Internet credibility… and then they can imagine why the top Internet marketers aren?t interested in a joint venture.

Think! Credibility! Credibility! Credibility!

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Boomer Arnold has 18 years in Sales and Marketing. Has been buying and selling resale products on the internet since 1999.
Main Site: www.master-resale-rights.com