Issue #2170
- WEALTHY: Triple-digit returns by skipping across the pond (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: People aren’t the only things getting fatter… take a look at your plate (Jon Benson)
- WISE: An Arabic proverb about trust
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- 4 ways to deal with getting what you always wanted (David Cross)
- My plan for becoming more reliable (Michael Masterson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about a new twist on domain names
- Add "detritus" to your vocabulary
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Business Without Borders
What do American newspapers, Barbie dolls, houses, haircuts, diners, and wine have in common? They’ve all bombed when an attempt was made to take them overseas. Some American products just don’t appeal to the rest of the world. But others – like movies, iPods, office buildings, Starbucks, and beer – have no trouble going global.
In the media world, American newspaper companies are stuck with their local customers. No wonder they’re doing so badly. Can movies be any different? Sure. Even when they bomb in the U.S., they can still make tens of millions of dollars overseas via theaters and video.
American home designers and builders? They have no choice but to ride the ups and downs of the U.S. market. Office designers and builders? They can (and have) become huge international companies, designing and building soaring office towers all over the world.
There’s a world of customers for companies with products that, with a tweak here and there, can conquer world markets. Heck, "American Idol" is a hugely successful multi-billion-dollar franchise, but only by extending the franchise to dozens of countries.
Investing in small- and medium-sized U.S. companies with the aptitude and products to go global gives you one of the best chances to make triple-digit returns down the road.
[Ed. Note: ETR's Investment Director Andrew Gordon is the author of nearly a dozen books on energy markets, global countertrade practices, and the hot growth sectors of China and Russia. He's the editor of INCOME, a monthly financial advisory service that uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much-higher-than-average profit potential.]
"Trust in God but make sure your camels are tied up"
Arabic Proverb
Too Much of a Good Thing
By David Cross
Living our dream is quite different from dreaming it.
For one thing, there’s a lot more poop than my wife and I had considered when our farm was still a dream. Then there is the daily deluge of eggs, which we’re now selling (organically fed, $2 a dozen). And we’ve got enough goat milk flowing in to bathe Cleopatra for a month – even after making some of the most delicious feta cheese you’ve ever tasted.
We’ve always dreamed of having our own farm and being able to live entirely off the land. And we’re getting close. Self-sufficiency in food, electricity, and water is our five-year "we must be mad" goal. I’m amazed at the number of friends who, after seeing what we’ve started here, remark that they’d love to do it, too. Very few will venture to do so, but I’ve realized that there’s a growing market for day-long seminars at our small farm to give people a taste of a self-sufficient lifestyle without them actually having to live it every day.
A One in a Thousand Chance
You should, indeed, be careful what you wish for. Surely it could come true… and then what would you do?
Success can be a little overwhelming, to say the least. Case in point: In September, Led Zeppelin announced that they would be playing only one concert this year – in London in November. (I suspect it was a cunning marketing ploy, and they’ll actually be touring.) There were only 20,000 tickets available and, within hours of the announcement, it is estimated that 20 million people attempted to register for them. The Web server hosting the registration site crashed and has been intermittently unavailable or extremely slow ever since.
I’ve seen a similar thing happen to companies I consult with.
A couple of years ago, for example, International Living scooped an article about retiring abroad, which appeared on the home page of MSN. Within two hours, MSN had pulled the link, because International Living’s Web server could not handle the demand – over 300 times the website traffic that was normally expected for that time of day.
Offline, two examples stick out. One was the result of a PR campaign I developed for a client in the UK. After being featured in a television report, their phone lines were jammed with inquiries for three days solid. The other one was the result of my first appearance on QVC. I sold out all the company’s stock, and QVC wanted us to re-run the product right away. But the company’s lead time on that product was weeks, not a few days.
All of these serious problems were created by the realization of that big dream – the dream to come up with a blockbuster offer, something that would have customers pouring in.
Am I telling you to pull back on your marketing efforts just because success might be too much for you to handle? Of course not. But most new entrepreneurs are taken completely by surprise when their start-up business takes off suddenly – and you don’t want that to happen to you.
Just as you should have a "what if" plan to deal with things that could go wrong, you need to have a plan that allows you to deal with sudden success.
So let’s look at four "what ifs" that you should plan for in advance.
1. What if so many people suddenly start visiting your website that it crashes?
First, you have to know what your limits are. So have someone "load test" your website to find out the maximum sustained number of visitors it can support. If you get a link from a popular portal or news website (like MSN or Yahoo), the traffic can be thousands of visitors per second. How quickly could you move to a new server or have your Web-hosting company upgrade either the server or the size of the connection to it?
Many websites are now built with a content management system or blogging software that uses a database to store content. However, this method may not be fast enough. It’s possible to speed up an otherwise slow server by a factor of 10 or more by using what is known as static HTML pages or files. This eases the load on the server and can get you out of a scrape if sudden success descends on your website.
You can also redirect incoming traffic for a specific page at your site that may crash your smaller Web server – just during the initial traffic flood. Let’s say your website has a page that is linked from an article on AOL or The New York Times website. Have your webmaster create a copy of that single page and put it on another Web server or another domain, off your regular Web server. Then have him direct all incoming traffic for that page to its copy on the external server. You can remove the redirection when traffic subsides.
2. What if you suddenly get floods of customer e-mails?
If e-mail is the primary way for customers to contact you, and your business is prominently mentioned in a newspaper article or other media, you could get a deluge of inquiries/orders for your product that you won’t be able to answer for days. Meanwhile, those customers will be expecting an immediate response from you.
Plan ahead by setting up an autoresponder message that will be sent – automatically and instantly – to every one of those customer e-mails. Something like this: "Thank you for inquiring about our revolutionary super-organic, beef-flavored, never-lose dog Frisbee. We’ve had a phenomenal response, and we may be unable to answer your e-mail personally. You can buy the Frisbee here [link to your website], but hurry. Stock is limited!"
Not quite as good as an instant, personal response to a customer e-mail – but better than not replying for a week.
3. What if your product is oversold?
Having too much supply and not enough demand is worrisome. Having too many orders and not enough stock is an equally frustrating problem. It pays to know where you can obtain additional stock in a rush. You might also want to identify outsourcing suppliers you can turn to. From time to time – perhaps during a lull – it’s a good idea to test the ability of various manufacturers to produce high-quality versions of your products.
4. What if you’re understaffed?
When orders are pouring in, you must have trusted people to whom you can turn, possibly at a moment’s notice. It’s worthwhile training and retaining good people ahead of time, and having them work a day here and there filling orders or handling customer calls when someone is away or on vacation.
Insurance When You Need It
Having a contingency plan for sudden success in your business is like an insurance policy. And, as the saying goes, "Nobody needs insurance until they really need it."
So don’t be afraid of sudden success. Prepare yourself by knowing how you will cope with it when it hits – and keep on promoting your business!
[Ed. Note: David Cross, Senior Internet Consultant to Agora Publishing in Baltimore, is one of the core contributors behind ETR's new Internet business-building program. If you're interested in profiting from all the benefits of starting an online business, click here to join our priority notification list.]
Let the Demise of the Dollar Lead You to 1,000% Gains
As the dollar continues to erode, so will the accounts of those who rely solely on the usual stocks and bonds. But the demise of the dollar won’t be a calamity for everyone…
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My Plan for Becoming More Reliable
In some ways, I’m a very reliable person. I’m very loyal. And I’m very responsible. But in many other things – such as returning phone calls in a timely manner, getting to meetings on time, and remembering appointments – I’m hopeless.
I make up for my deficiency by apologizing profusely and then giving more than I promised in the first place.
That said, I’m the first to admit that having a reputation for reliability is an extremely valuable asset – and I intend to do something about my shortcomings in that regard. I’m going to start, today, by making a commitment to do the following:
- To improve my record of returning calls, I’m going to block out adequate time each day on my calendar for doing nothing but that. I’m going to shut the door. Tolerate no interruptions. Get to it and get it done.
- If I can’t provide what is being asked for in a timely manner, I’m not going to put it off in the hope that I’ll have time to try later in the day. I’m going to respond immediately (during my blocked-out time), saying that I intend to provide an answer by a certain date. Then I’m going to put that deadline on my task list.
That’s the plan. If you share my shaky reputation for reliability, perhaps you’d like to try it out along with me.
[Ed. Note: Get Michael Masterson's insights into becoming successful in your business and personal life, achieving financial independence, and accomplishing all your goals on his brand-new website. You'll find updates on all of Michael's books, news on upcoming ETR events, Michael's blog, and room to send in your comments and questions. Check it out today.]
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Portions Nearly Double in Size
By Jon Benson
Everything is bigger in America – larger plates, larger ovens, larger clothes, and larger insurance policies to cover our larger health care bills. And it’s all related to America’s serious problem with portion sizes.
Researchers from the University of Michigan found that, over the past 50 years, portion sizes in the home have increased 42 percent for processed foods and decreased about the same percentage for foods high in fiber.In short, more junk, less Roto-Rooter. More empty calories, less thermogenic calories. Plus, we’re talking larger amounts of food.
Restaurant portions make those stats look cheery: up 220 percent.
The same study revealed that decreasing restaurant portion sizes to "near" the size they were 50 years ago, done slowly over the course of several months, did not affect customer satisfaction. While the study stopped there, I can tell you from many years of professional experience that a smaller plate with whole, unprocessed, tasty food on it will satisfy most any palate – more so than a huge plate of nothing but nutritional detritus.
Keeping this in mind, you should consider taking the issue of portion control seriously. The best way to do it is to put only the food you plan to eat on the table.In many over-fat households, the dinner table looks like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Do about five minutes of math and a few extra minutes of work and put the food on the plates, not in large serving containers from which the family can continue to graze.
[Ed. Note: Jon Benson, a lifecoach and nutrition counselor who specializes in helping individuals discover a life-altering mind/body connection, is a contributing writer for ETR's free natural health e-letter. His work in the field of post-40 fitness and mental empowerment has helped countless thousands. Learn how you can do the same at www.fitover40.com or www.mpowerfitness.com.]
It’s Fun to Know: A New Twist on Domain Names
An emerging trend finds tech-minded parents registering Internet domains in their children’s names soon after they are born. Some parents even discard a name choice if the Internet address is not available. Since their children are too young to type, much less surf the Web, the parents use the websites to showcase photos, videos, and blog entries about their babies. They believe the domains will help their kids establish an online identity when they are older. Meanwhile, experts recommend that these sites be password-protected to avoid giving too much information to child predators.
(Source: CNN)
You CAN learn to become wealthy!
Success is not encoded in an individual’s DNA and does not transfer from father to son or mother to daughter. It is a process – and learning the process is a major KEY to setting up for success.
Today I’d like to offer you two complimentary reports to help you get started: "How To Get What You Need To Succeed In Life" and "Simple Guidelines for Creating Abundance In Your Life."
There will be many steps you take towards your goals where it will feel like you’re taking two steps forward and one step back. You will have breakthroughs, triumphs, and opportunities to overcome adversity.
But to keep moving forward, you just might need a friendly kick-in-the-pants every once in a while. Here’s how to stay energized towards action and success every day of the year.
- Charlie Byrne
Word to the Wise: Detritus
"Detritus" (dih-TRITE-us) – from the Latin for "to wear away" – is another way of saying "debris."
Example (as used by Jon Benson today): "I can tell you from many years of professional experience that a smaller plate with whole, unprocessed, tasty food on it will satisfy most any palate – more so than a huge plate of nothing but nutritional detritus."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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