How I Fell Off My Horse and What I Learned
October 30, 2007
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I have been busy working on a special project for a new client. I have licensed my Internet Marketing Safari seminar to help a company in Florida generate leads for their business. Which explains why I have not been writing as much.
Wondering what the Internet Marketing Safari is about? It is all about lead generation.
Lead Generation Seminar
This seminar is a version of a seminar I used in my Web Development company before I sold it in 2003. The seminar is sold to business people who want to learn how to track, hunt, and capture new customers using their website and Internet marketing strategies.
Track Record
From 1995-1998 I delivered the original Marketing Safari seminar weekly in Edmonton, that’s about 150 3 hour seminars. They were always small groups of 10-14 people who invested $39 and 3 hours to learn how to create a marketing plan. It was fun to do and I met some great people.
Asking for More
People would come up to me afterwards and give me positive feedback. Some would inquire if there I had more programs. In the early days, I did not have anything else but quickly developed a series of seminars that I began to promote - a seven seminar series I called the Entrepreneurial Edge.
Repetition: A Great Teacher
The Marketing Safari seminar was a great teacher. When you spend 3 hours with 1,500 people on the same topic you see trends and patterns. In the beginning I adjusted my seminar weekly based on the feedback and questions I was getting. As I became more proficient in delivering the seminar the Marketing Safari Seminar became a great lead generator.
After awhile I no longer had to make any changes or adjustments to the seminar - I just delivered the seminar based on the proven model. The biggest shift came when I started to end the seminar with a soft sell on the seven seminar series. As I followed up with people, half of them would go on to enroll in the Entrepreneurial Edge. Eventually, my close ratio rose to 80% and I could predict my income based on the number of people who attended the Marketing Safari seminar.
I Wore Myself Out
In those days I did a lot of public speaking and was speaking 20-25 times per month (including my seminars). I just wore myself out. In February of the fourth year I got a doozie of a cold and ended up with pneumonia and on my back for 3 weeks. I had no choice but to cancel all my seminars and speaking gigs.
A New Treadmill
The business never really recovered and in an effort to get control of my life I focused 100% on coaching and consulting. As I look back I never should have stopped the Marketing Safari seminar. I just needed to move it from a weekly to a monthly seminar. People would have waited and I would have had a larger seminar. More people, less work - except I had lost perspective.
When you have been on your back for three weeks and still not feeling 100% you go into survival mode. Consulting seemed like easy money compared to the grind of speaking 20-25 times per month. Once I got on the consulting treadmill, it was hard to get off. When I had gigs I was busy making money and I was too busy to do a seminar or other promotions. When the gigs ended, I would run out and start promoting and networking to find the ‘next client’.
Shift Focus: Coaching
I began to experiment with offering a blend of coaching and consulting. It worked great and the clients enjoyed learning from my wide industry experience (32+ industries). Eventually, I shifted my focus 100% to coaching. Back in those days coaching was very new and business coaching was even rarer.
In 2004 I was one of six founding members of the Professional Business Coaches Alliance (PBCA) and have never looked back. Business Coaching offers a great income, lifestyle, and time to work on my own projects to develop and grow my business. Today the PBCA numbers almost 100 coaches from around the US, Canada, and the UK.
Lessons Learned
When you fall off the horse get back on. Pay attention, make adjustments, and never quit.
Yes, I plan to offer the Internet Marketing Safari in 2008 as a live webinar.
Value of Blogging
October 17, 2007
Continuing from my post Is blogging a marketing or networking activity? When does blogging become a distraction? Michael Martine, the Remarkablogger asks Call to Business Bloggers: How Does Blogging Help Your Business? You can take the poll and/or blog your answer.
Visit and take part in his poll and share your thoughts. I voted that blogging gets me more “customers/sales”, what say ypu?
The Secret To Recruiting Echo Boomers (Generation Y)
October 16, 2007
Who are Echo Boomers? They are the children of the baby boom and are known as Generation Y, the Echo Boomers, or the Millennials (choose your favorite label). They were born between 1977 and 2002. They are increasingly becoming known more and more as the Entrepreneurial or “E” Generation.
Writing my new book on Business Planning I included a lot of information on one of the growing problems for small business owners - recruiting and retaining employees. When it comes to recruiting young people (Echo Boomers) to work in your business. Back in 2000, I identified this trend, now I decided it was time to offer business owners some practical suggestions for dealing with this very real challenge.
Service, Innovation, and the Customer Experience
Customers demand value and service. You deliver on these demands through people. Either directly (customer service) or indirectly. People are your most valuable asset, but it is difficult to quantify the impact. Value-added and return on investment (ROI) are also difficult to assess.
Tips Dealing With Baby Boomers’ Kids - The Echo Generation
The baby boomers’ kids are called the echo generation. These kids grew up with the Internet, bits and bytes. They’re not afraid of technology. In fact, they embrace it. More so than their parents. Where the child passes the parent in adoption and use of technology is known as the ‘generation lap’. However, there is one important point - they do not see the Internet as technology anymore than a car, radio or refrigerator.
They have become an authority on the Internet, the single biggest innovation in our society. This net-generation is curious, intelligent, focused, willing to adapt to change, self reliant and confident. They have been told that it will be hard to find jobs. This group could well be the largest generation of entrepreneurs. Because they are net-intelligent, they love to collaborate, work together and share information. After all, what good is knowledge and information if it cannot be shared?
Echo Generation - They Know What They Want
They want to make a difference and will not put up with being manipulated by the system or being taken advantage of. After all, they can easily organize on the net! This generation could become an extremely politically active group with significant clout and power. They believe the employer-employee relationship could be reinvented. When they think of employment, they see it as:
- Self-Employment.
- Contract work.
- Temporary work.
- Work from home.
- Contingent arrangement.
- Flexible and mobile.
Stimulate Them!
The echo generation is looking for challenging, exciting and stimulating opportunities. They need an environment of collaboration, and they will naturally develop. Remember, your human resources have a free will. They can up and leave and take their knowledge with them.
As a business owner, it is important to manage the knowledge as well as the information and data. Old style boomers that are technophobes managers will be washed away by a wave of media savvy, confident and peer-oriented workforce. Businesses must avoid this generational displacement. Either boomers will learn from the younger generation or be replaced by them.
This will also be a demanding generation of customers. They have knowledge and power, and they know it. It will not surprise me to see them demanding a portion of revenue generated from the sale of information that is gathered about them online.
Seven Sales Questions And Ideas To Help You Prepare For A Sales Call
October 16, 2007
Preparation for a sales call or a meeting with a new potential client is just as important as the meeting itself. Read more
Two Blogging Books, Two Reviews, in One Post
October 10, 2007
When I think about people writing a book about blogging, part of me wonders why this stuff would not be on a blog? There is just something about holding a book, sitting in a comfortable chair, and your favorite beverage - that sitting and reading on your computer screen cannot replicate.
Two Books, Two Approaches
Today I am reviewing two books on the topic of blogging. Both are by people I respect as bloggers and nice people. Each of these books are unique. “What no one ever tells you about Blogging and Podcasting” by Ted Demopoulos contains 101 tips and real life advice from “People who successfully leverage the power of the blogosphere” that Ted interviewed. Whereas, “Blogging Tips, What bloggers won’t tell you about blogging” is authored entirely by Lorelle VanFossen, a seasoned author, writer, and Wordpress scribe.
Blogging Tips
When I got Lorelle’s book, I was surprised when I opened the package because the book is the size of a full sheet (8.5″ X 11″) and that got my attention right away. It contains 98 pages including the introduction there are eight chapters. Each chapter contains a number of self contained tips headed with an easy to read typewriter font and a small square box that can be used to “check” the items I wanted to come back to later - I found 25 tips that I wanted to review and implement.
The book is very thorough and easy to read. In the beginning she asks some great questions that made me stop and think. Other sections include Blog Structure and Design, Building Blog Content, Blog Writing, Blog Interaction & Community Building, Blog SEO and Page Rank, Blog Administration and Management, and Blogger Rights.
I would recommend Blogging Tips for everyone new or experienced. You can bet you will be much better informed and have a list of actionable tasks too.
What no one ever tells you about Blogging and Podcasting
Ted’s book is 211 pages and well organized considering it contains tips and advice from 101 different bloggers. Like Lorelle’s book it offers real world advice that covers a broad range of blogging topics. Some of my favorites are # 58 Great Bloggers are Great Conversationalists and # 59 Evangelizing Your Blog. This book is one I like to open at a random page, read it, and take action.
Ted’s book can also be read from front to back as it is organized into eight parts, they include The Basics, Some Business Uses of Blogs and Podcasts, Planning Your Blog, Making Money, Promoting Your Blog and Tracking Statistics, Podcast Specific Topics, Other Blog and Podcast Recommendations, and The Future.
Ted’s book is a very interesting read because each ‘chapter/tip’ is as unique as the person Ted interviewed. Your time will be well spent in Ted’s book as it will give you good cross section of tips from 101 successful bloggers.
Personally, if I was a beginning blogger I think I would prefer Lorelle’s book, “Blogging Tips” due to the continuity that you get from one author. For a taste from the good old blogosphere Ted’s book cannot be beat. Either book will serve you well, do yourself a favor and buy two of “Blogging Tips” and two of “What no one ever tells you about Blogging and Podcasting” because then you can give one of each away as a gift!
Forget About Business Productivity - Focus on Business Effectiveness
October 9, 2007
Many entrepreneurs joke that perhaps they have ADD. For the record a lot of very successful entrepreneurs had ADD and they got a lot done.
Is ADD, a.k.a. AD/HD an Entrepreneurial Trait?
I Google’d AD/HD and Entrepreneur and ended up at the AD/HD website at about.com They have an interesting article, but one sentence got my attention… Read more
Small Business Wake Up Call? Odds are Better in Las Vegas!
October 4, 2007
I have been thinking a lot lately about business metrics and how we entrepreneurs measure business success. I have been writing online since 1998 and generally consider myself to be relatively successful online. In the last month or so I have started to look at all my activities more objectively. Specifically, I have been asking myself:
“What has been the Return-on-Investment (ROI) of all my marketing and sales activities?”
What I did not expect was that my mind set toward this topic needed a reboot, system re-install, and attitude adjustment.
Addicted to (Mostly) Meaningless Statistics
I discovered that the interactive nature of blogs and the plethora of online social media tools had lured me into the online ‘conversation(s)’ and slowly began to measure my success by simply being involved in the ‘conversation’.
This started a dangerous tendency toward counting blog comments, subscribers, and visitors i.e. (mostly meaningless) blog and web site statistics as an success indicator.
Subsequently, I have decided that I need to apply more practical and meaningful business success metrics. For example, I am thinking about tracking new customers, serious sales leads, or new revenue as meaningful business success metrics.
Online Businesses Need to Use More Stringent Business Success Metrics
I feel a bit sheepish admitting to my lapse of applying more practical, stringent, and revenue generating metrics (i.e. statistics) to monitor the effectiveness of my marketing and sales activities. Then I remembered this post titled It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Thriving, an except:
The Greatest Risk of Business Failure Lies Between Years Two to Four… there is more risk to the owner of a business between the years of two to four than a startup… 38% of those who made it past the second year, closed by the end of the fourth year… we cannot ignore the reality that after six years 62% of the businesses that started six years earlier ceased to exist.
The Odds are Better in Las Vegas
A 38% chance of succeeding in business past the sixth year is not that great. In some cases entrepreneurs would be better off taking their chances in Las Vegas. In his book, Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall shares the probability of winning a game in Vegas:
- Slots: 32%
- Horse Racing 41%
- Blackjack (as usually player) 45%
- Roulette 47%
- Blackjack (perfect strategy and card counting) 50%
He goes onto to say that 68% of the people who gamble play the slots, which have the lowest probability of winning. Doh! Via It’s Time to Stop Surviving and Start Thriving
Didn’t Realize I was such a Gambler
If horse racing, blackjack, and roulette yield better odds than starting and owning a business for six years, I think it is time we entrepreneurs wake up and get real. Start measuring all marketing and sales activities using better measurements:
- Ratio of Dollars Generated compared to amount invested.
- Value of time invested in versus the profit created.
- Number of new customers by type of marketing and sales activity.
I am sure there are other measures and key performance indicators, but this would be a good place to start. In my case, I discovered that my best ROI was generated by:
- E-Mail Newsletter, which I mistakingly discontinued a few years back.
- Podcast, again something I stopped doing.
- Referrals, fortunately, my clients still love me and referrals are priceless.
I gave myself a kick in the ass and am in the midst make small incremental changes to restore those previously successful and profitable strategies. Here is my question for you:
“What are you doing to correct your falsely held belief, assumptions, and flawed tactics that are not generating profitable, measurable results?”
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