A few months ago, I thought I’d found a great new partner to promote one of my sideline businesses: The International Sketch Comedy Championships. Through a friend, I was introduced to a former “A list” actor. He’d had starring roles in some big hits 20 years ago. And I was sure his clout could help take the event to the next level.
My car was embarrassingly dirty. I had been too busy to take it in to be washed, let alone do it myself.
So when I found a business card on my windshield for a car washing service, I was interested. I looked around the parking lot. Only dirty cars had the card.
The card advertised a deal for an introductory wash. Better yet, they would come to the customer’s home or place of business and do the job there. Perfect for me. Couldn’t be more convenient.
I called and set up an appointment.
I used to do something similar with the lawn cutting business I had as a teenager. I would ride around on my bicycle and look for yards with grass that looked like it needed a mowing. When I found one, I’d knock on the door and ask if they would like to hire me.
I had all the work I could handle.
Even in today’s economic environment, you can have a thriving business.
All you need to do is use this “Dirty Car Secret.” You target people who have a strong need for your product or service. If they need it, they won’t be able to do without it. And they will pay you to provide it.
For example, (more…)
My friend George needed a good-sized space for his business – with a reception area, conference room, and a couple of offices. He didn’t want to shell out the money to buy or rent that much space. But he found a novel solution that got him what he needed… almost free of charge.
Here’s how he did it:
After searching around, he determined that it’d cost him about $2,000 a month to rent enough space for his business. Instead, he leased a larger space for $3,000. It had three extra little offices and a large reception area.
He rented out the small offices for $700 each, for a total of $2,100 a month. Then he sectioned off four workstation cubicles in the reception area, leaving room for a receptionist’s desk. He had no trouble renting out the four workstations for $300 each. That’s another $1,200.
His gross monthly income from these rentals is $3,300. Even allowing for a few vacancies during the year, he’s pretty much breaking even on his own rent.
In other words, George has a $2,000-a-month office practically for free.
Using the same general idea, you can keep your overhead down so you can start a business with very little capital.
[Ed. Note: Want even more strategies for starting and growing a business on a shoestring? Paul Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur and publisher who has started over a dozen profitable enterprises. To get more practical small-business tips, check out Paul's "Street Smart" program by clicking right here.
Office space is a secondary business concern, something to think about once you have a proven way to bring in sales and revenue. To learn how to get to that point as quickly as possible, check out Michael Masterson's book Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat.]
“Actually, I’m a total weakling,” I told Bob. “I’ve got a lot in common with the guy in those classic bodybuilding ads who kept getting sand kicked in his face.”
Bob had just commented on how I looked like I worked out a lot – and I sensed that, because I looked so “big,” it bothered him.
We were meeting for the first time, and I wanted to secure a deal with him. I didn’t want him to feel intimidated or get his guard up. (Not that being bigger and stronger is worth much when it comes to business.) So I used an old comedian’s technique to win him over.
Not only did I admit to being a “natural-born” weakling, I told him that I’m a lousy athlete. I said that any strength I had was artificially created through years of working out – and that the moment I stopped exercising religiously, my muscles would melt away with alarming speed.
Bob did just what crowds do in a comedy club when a performer uses this technique. He smiled and loosened up.
People don’t go to a comedy club to listen to some guy on stage who presents himself as being smarter, better looking, and making more money than they do. They go to feel good. And when a comic uses self-deprecating humor, it makes them feel good about themselves. It’s just human nature.
Putting yourself down to build up the other guy works just as well in the business world – whether you’re trying to close a deal, get other people to support your objectives, or win new customers.
Here’s an example of how it works…
John, a real estate multimillionaire, was interested in buying an office building that was about to go into foreclosure. The owner had taken a risk when he bought the building by using almost all his cash for a down payment. Then, when the economy slowed and several tenants moved out, his cash flow slowed to a trickle… and he was in trouble.
When John met with the owner, it was clear that the man expected to take a financial beating on the property – and was blaming himself for the situation he was in. So before John even made an offer, while shuffling through the papers in his briefcase, he chatted about his own “problems.” Shaking his head, John said, “I don’t know how it happened, but I have no control over anything at home.” He confided that his wife ruled the roost – and he felt lucky that she even allowed him to watch football on Sundays.
There was a smile on the owner’s face as he read through John’s offer… and then, feeling very much in control, signed the contract.
Here’s another example…
When Jane was hired as the manager of a retail jewelry store, she expected trouble. The assistant manager was 20 years her senior, and had worked for the company for eight years. Needless to say, he resented having been passed over for the promotion.
As Jane walked through the door her first morning on the job, the assistant manager made some flippant, borderline-offensive comments. The other employees laughed, and Jane knew she had to do something quickly to overcome this potential obstacle to her success.
She could’ve given the assistant manager a verbal lashing in front of everyone, but she knew that would simply make matters worse. Instead, a bit later in the day, Jane asked him to come into her office.
“I’m going to be honest with you,” Jane admitted. “I’m so scared about doing a good job that I almost lost my breakfast this morning.”
The anger in his eyes dissipated as Jane continued: “I know that I’m an outsider, and there must be a ton of things I don’t know that could ruin me. I’m hoping I can count on you – so, together, we can make this the number one store in the chain.”
The assistant manager’s attitude completely turned around. From that moment on, he went above and beyond the call of duty to get the entire staff to support all of Jane’s decisions.
Now before you try this self-deprecation technique for yourself, there is one important caveat: What you say about yourself must ring true, or you’ll completely alienate the person you’re trying to win over. But when used correctly, it is a very powerful tool – and only one of many that I have in my arsenal.
There is nothing more important to a business career than knowing how to deal with other people. If you want to have every advantage on your side, click right here and check out my free report on People Power Skills.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur and publisher who has started over a dozen profitable enterprises. If you're interested in starting a new business with less than $100 in capital, you should take a look at Paul's Micro-Business program right here. It could add thousands to your bank account in as little as 30 days.]
“If I can do that – get the contract signed by next week – can we lock up this deal right now?” I asked.
“Yes, we can,” she answered.
Because I asked that one question, a deal that we’d been negotiating for weeks was instantly done. It’s an old technique, but one worth reminding yourself of from time to time.
When the other party says they want “one more thing”… they’re often telling you that they’re ready to make a deal – and bells should go off in your head. If you can live with the request, you can likely close the deal right then and there.
Recognizing subtle “buying” signs like this one is a skill you should work on developing. I recommend practicing whenever the opportunity arises in your everyday life.
Let’s say you and your wife can’t agree on dinner plans. You really want Japanese, but she’s hesitating. “I don’t know if I want to go out at all,” she grumbles. “We always go where you want to go.”
So you say, “Would you be okay with Japanese tonight if we go to your favorite sushi place – and next time we go anywhere you want to go?”
She nods emphatically… and you’ve got yourself a deal.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur and publisher who has started over a dozen profitable enterprises. To get more practical small-business tips, check out Paul's "Street Smart" program by clicking right here.
Effective negotiation is just one skill you need to be successful in business. To learn dozens of others, use Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat by Michael Masterson as your reference guide.]
There are more opportunities than ever for you to sell reality show concepts to Hollywood. Virtually every broadcast and cable network is aggressively airing as many reality shows as they can.
The reason is simple. It’s cheap to produce them. And if a show catches on – like American Idol, Survivor, or The Real World - it can attract larger audiences than the most popular scripted programs.
This year, the reality show Dancing With the Stars snagged as many as 22.5 million viewers per episode. In comparison, a top-rated sitcom like How I Met Your Mother brings in about 8 million viewers.
The low cost of producing reality shows, combined with their large audiences, equals big profits. According to The Wall Street Journal, each episode of UPN’s Top Model costs about $800,000. Meanwhile, the cost of an average scripted drama is in the range of $2 million.
Why is it so much cheaper to produce reality shows? Simple. The people appearing on them can usually be paid much less than those on scripted programs. In addition, filming is usually done in the participants’ homes, which avoids expensive set construction and labor costs. And they require only a bare-bones writing staff.
If the show is a big hit, the production company can earn enormous licensing fees. The New York Times reports that the production company of American Idol had revenues that grew to $96 million last year from $67 million two years earlier, with gross profit margins expanding to 77 percent from 69 percent.
If you could get in on that kind of action, you’d not only have “made it” in Hollywood, you’d have a nice chunk of change for your “trouble.”
However, you need more than just a good idea. I’ve pitched shows to producers well over a hundred times, and I’ve found them to be surprisingly unimaginative.
They need to be shown precisely what the show will be like.
One of the best tools for doing that is a video “demo.”
Let’s use Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice as an example.
In this show, two teams of celebrities compete by performing a specified business task. The team that does it better wins. One member of the losing team is “fired.” The following week, the remaining celebrities are given another challenge – and this continues until only one celebrity is left.
The celebrities appear on the show in order to raise money for charities they support – plus, they get publicity as a result of being on nationally broadcast network TV.
Viewers watch the celebrities as they go about planning and completing the assigned task. Along the way, there is constant bickering and feuding… as well as plenty of drama.
So, if you were going to make a demo for Celebrity Apprentice, it might look like this:
1. A 30-second clip of Donald Trump telling the celebrities about their task.
2. Several quick sound bytes of celebrities speaking into the camera about how they feel about the task.
3. Some scenes of celebrities butting heads as they try to get the task done.
4. A 30-second clip of their final results.
5. Some brief squabbling while Trump berates the celebrities in the boardroom and then fires one of them.
Almost anyone can produce a demo reel. It has to look fairly professional (i.e., it can’t look like you shot it with your cellphone), but it doesn’t need to be anywhere near as polished as an actual broadcast show.
Fortunately for today’s aspiring reality show producers, high quality video equipment no longer costs an arm and a leg. A basic mini-DV camera can be bought for only a few hundred dollars – and if you don’t want to buy one, you can rent one for even less. Not only that… if you don’t want to shoot the demo yourself, there are many professional videographers out there who charge very reasonable rates.
If you’re interested in creating a video demo to pitch an idea to reality television show producers, here are some tips to get you started:
If you come up with a hot idea for a reality TV show and present it to producers in a professional manner, they will take you seriously – even if they’ve never heard of you before. And, if they like your idea… you could be on your way to a new career in the entertainment industry.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter who's had a multimillion-dollar film produced and released worldwide. He has signed two development deals to produce reality shows with established Hollywood television production companies. For more information on Paul's "How to Break Into Hollywood" program, just click right here.]
When “Winston” asked me to help him promote one of his products, I agreed to mention it in my e-mail newsletter. I told him that all he needed to do was give me a coded link for his landing page.
If you’re at all involved in marketing on the Internet, you know that this is very basic stuff. By providing me with a link that includes a tracking code, Winston would know when a purchase was the result of the promotion in my newsletter. That’s how my profit share would be calculated.
Among Internet marketers, this is like telling an ice cream truck driver that he needs a freezer to keep the ice cream frozen.
Unfortunately, Winston didn’t know what I meant. He brought in his “IT” guy, who didn’t know what I was talking about either.
Eventually, after I gave them several examples of coded links and explained the process in half a dozen e-mails, they got it.
At that point, I was sorry I’d gotten involved. I kept my word and gave Winston’s product a mention – however, I politely passed on any future collaboration.
When you’re dealing with a larger and more experienced company/businessperson, you must make it easy for them to work with you. And a huge part of that is knowing what you’re doing. You don’t have to be an expert by any means, but educating yourself on the basics is key.
If Winston had been prepared, he would’ve given some thought to my needs as a marketer and e-zine publisher. Naturally, I would want to know how he was going to track sales to calculate my percentage of the profits. Other ways he could have impressed me and made me more inclined to do future business with him would have been to show me statistics on how his product has sold to other competing lists and/or sales copy that he has tested and proved to be successful.
If you’re asking for help to advance your career or business, make sure you’re ready if the answer is “yes.” Because you may not get a second chance.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur and publisher who has started over a dozen profitable enterprises. To get more practical small-business tips, check out his "Street Smart" program.
Ready to jump-start your marketing knowledge? Check out Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business, Michael Masterson and ETR Publisher and CEO MaryEllen Tribby's bestselling book.]
There’s a new gal in my sketch comedy group. She’s smart, clever… and will probably not last 90 days.
I’ve seen so many people like her – not only in sketch comedy but in every type of business – self-destruct because of one thing: They spend too much time trying to prove how talented they are. Not by delivering extraordinary results that can’t be ignored, but by boasting about minor successes that aren’t very impressive… criticizing others without being qualified to do so… and giving advice without being asked for it. In general, by rubbing just about everyone the wrong way.
That is not the way to form relationships that will lead you to success. As MaryEllen Tribby said in her article “Is Your Ego Bigger Than Your Skill Set? ” “Whether you are working in a corporate environment or on your own, you should always be building relationships. Relationships with your customers, your competitors, and certainly with your curre-nt and previous mentors. If you take these people for granted… and start putting yourself ahead of them… you’ll be burning valuable bridges.”
It’s worth taking a very candid look at yourself to make sure you aren’t letting your ego get in your way. If you deliver extraordinary results, your talent will be recognized. Forget about trying to prove your value any other way.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a business author and entrepreneur who owns and operates a six-figure Internet publishing company. He also produces the prestigious annual International Sketch Comedy Championships. For more information on his methods for success, check out his Dare to Live Your Dreams program
Discover how to prove your talent and become more successful with secrets used by billionaires right here. ]
My good friend “Will” speaks fluent Japanese. He lived in Japan for more than 10 years and knows the culture inside out. When he visits, he supplements his income by giving English lessons to the local people.
I mentioned to him that I know someone who makes a lot of money with instructional videos that teach Brazilians how to speak English. In fact, I’ve been thinking about creating a similar product for Latin Americans. And I pointed out that, with his knowledge of Japanese, he could easily create and market an instructional video for Japanese who want to learn English.
He was interested, so I explained the basics of how to get started. Will is currently loaded with debt (all the more reason to get a side business going). And because he has no money at all to fund this little venture, I offered to be his partner.
I agreed to produce the video at my expense and market it on my website. All Will had to do was appear in the video doing something he knows how to do very well. He wouldn’t have to put up a dime – and within a week’s time, he’d own half of a potentially very profitable business.
Well, it’s been a month since we had that conversation, and nothing has happened. Will has called a few times to ask a few questions… but there always seems to be something preventing him from taking the next step and coming up with an outline for the script.
Listen – you can always find some reason not to push yourself to move forward with a project. Maybe you’re not 100 percent sure it’s going to work… or you have never done anything like it before… or you have other things going on in your life. But if you let those things stand in your way, the opportunity will slip away and be gone for good.
As Michael Masterson says, “Ready, FIRE, Aim.” As soon as you know you’ve got a decent chance to succeed, jump in with both feet. If you wait for the “perfect” time, it will never happen – and you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering “what could have been.”
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur and business author who has started over a dozen profitable enterprises. For more information on his "Dare to Live Your Dreams" program, click right here.
Need an extra dose of motivation? Proven tools for getting a new venture off the ground? Help moving forward with your goals? Success mentor Bob Cox can give you all this and more. Simply sign up for ETR's Total Success Achievement Program, and let Bob help you turn yourself into the person you've always wanted to be. ]
You should be making it a habit to study your competitors’ advertising promotions. If they’re direct marketers, get on their mailing lists. If they use other channels to market their products, keep track of what they’re doing with those media.
Why bother? Because by keeping an eye on your competition, you can improve your own marketing efforts.
Be especially on the alert for sales promotions that you see over and over again. If your competitor keeps running the same ad… you can be pretty sure it’s working (i.e., bringing in lots of money). That’s your cue to try something similar.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is an entrepreneur and business author who's started over a dozen profitable enterprises with under $100 in capital. For more information on his Street Smart Business Program, click here.
For 12 marketing methods that can help you reach your prospective customers exactly at the moment they want to buy, pick up a copy of the Amazon.com bestseller Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business.]
Just the other day, I had a conversation with a television producer regarding a reality TV project of mine that his group is considering developing. “Rob” told me that they are moving into scripted programming in addition to reality TV. And he mentioned that they have a couple of projects they are excited about, but need rewrites.
I’m a produced writer of a fairly big feature film and have been paid large sums of money for my movie scripts. So you would think I would turn up my nose at the idea of doing a rewrite of someone else’s script. Well, you’d be wrong. I tossed out the idea that to get in the door with them on scripted television, I’d do a rewrite on spec. (This means they would pay me for the rewrite only if they decided to use it.)
Rob was impressed with my confidence in my ability to do a good rewrite. And he ended up agreeing to have me submit an original teleplay that I’m in the process of writing.
Offering your services on spec like this can be a great way to open doors to new business opportunities. (Especially these days, when money is tight.) Sure, you could spend the time to do a great job and – for whatever reason – still lose out on the payoff. But it’s worth the risk.
Give some thought to how you might apply this strategy and give it a shot.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur and produced screenwriter who has started over a dozen profitable enterprises. For more information on his "Street Smart Business Program," click right here.]
Back when my wife Blanca began her first business – a housecleaning service – she was skeptical about including a photo of herself in her ads. So I told her I’d prove it would make her money.
I took a photo of her holding a broom. Then I created two advertisements. One had the picture and the other didn’t. Both versions worked, but the one with the picture outperformed the other by far. It had a 3 percent response rate compared to 1.5 percent for the one without the picture.
Think of it this way. Let’s say you’re selling a $100 product and you make 50 sales with your regular ad every time you run it. If you add your picture to the ad, you could end up doubling your sales – and putting an extra $5,000 in your pocket!
For small businesses, including a photo of the owner (or someone else connected to the company) almost always increases response. If you’re not doing it, I strongly suggest you run a test. It could greatly increase your profits.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur and business author who has started over a dozen profitable enterprises for under $100. For more information on his Cheapskate Marketing Program, click right here.]
When you buy advertising space in a newspaper/magazine or on TV/radio, the salesperson will almost always encourage you to buy a “package.” His argument will be that it’s going to take time for their readers/viewers/listeners to notice you.
In my experience, that is simply not true. If your ad is going to work, it should work the very first time you try it. It is possible that tweaking the ad copy, offer, etc. will improve your response rate. However, simply repeating the same ad for the purpose of making readers/viewers/listeners aware of you rarely achieves a better result.
Unless you have an advertising budget like Coca-Cola’s and can afford to spend your advertising dollars without seeing a direct ROI (return on investment), you should spend money only on space advertising that returns a profit.
So buy space for one ad. If it does well, then you can consider running additional ads.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is an entrepreneur and business author who's started over a dozen profitable enterprises with under $100 in capital. For more information on his Cheapskate Marketing Program, click here.
For 12 marketing methods that can help you reach your prospective customers exactly at the moment they want to buy, pick up a copy of the Amazon.com bestseller Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business.]
Let’s say you’re a roofing salesman and you get a call from a homeowner who’s concerned about a leak in her ceiling. You do an inspection and realize that what she needs is a $500 repair. But $500 is a lot of money. So, to convince her to do it, you might use a persuasion technique called “perceptual contrasts.” You’ve probably read about it in ETR.
Briefly, here’s how it works: You explain to the homeowner that the roof is very old and that replacing it would be the ideal solution. Unfortunately, that costs $10,000. But, you explain, there is another viable option that costs a lot less. The roof can be repaired for only $500. In contrast to the cost of replacing the roof, she now perceives a $500 repair to be a bargain and signs on the dotted line.
Today, I want to tell you about another very effective persuasion technique that’s based on altering a person’s perception. With this technique, you break down a large expense or job into smaller, more manageable units.
For example, I’m sure you’ve seen commercials asking you to sponsor starving children in poverty-stricken parts of the world. The cost to sponsor one child is about $30 a month. But it’s hard to get people to commit to donating that much money. So they point out that $30 a month is less than the cost of buying one cup of coffee a day.
That immediately changes your perception, doesn’t it? Less than a cup of coffee a day? Surely, you can afford that!
This technique is widely used by many salespeople. And the “less than a cup of coffee a day” example is so common that I’ve dubbed it the “Starbucks Break Down.”
Many years ago, I sold a product that was allegedly the “Cadillac” of vacuum cleaners. It was good – but boy was it expensive! At the time, it sold for about $800. Today, I imagine it might go for $1,500.
When I’d demonstrate the machine, showing my prospective customer all the dirt her old vacuum wasn’t picking up, she’d usually be very interested in the possibility of buying one. Until, that is, she saw the price tag.
Then I’d introduce her to the company’s financing plan, which broke down the cost of the vacuum into a series of $30 monthly payments… less than a dollar a day. No, I didn’t use the cup of coffee example. But when I pointed out that, for less than $1 a day, she and her children would be living and sleeping in a much cleaner, healthier environment, the $800 price was no longer a problem.
Say you want to persuade your spouse to lose 20 pounds. Make it sound a lot more doable by telling him that if he can reduce his caloric intake by a mere 500 calories a day – by replacing his usual candy bar and can of soda with a piece of fruit and a bottle of sparkling water – he can easily lose a pound a week.
Or say you want to persuade your teenager to get a part-time job. If you tell him to get off the couch and start earning some money, he’ll roll his eyes. But if you tell him that all he has to do is wash two cars a week at $10 a pop and, in less than six months, he’ll have enough money for that brand-new ten-speed bike he wants… the idea of working on the weekend suddenly seems appealing.
Here are the basic steps to using the Starbucks Break Down technique:
If Amy writes five pages a day of the 100-page e-book the company needs by the end of the month, it will be done ahead of schedule.
Compare the time it will take for Amy to write five pages of the e-book to the time she can save by delegating her least-favorite daily job.
If you tell Amy that she has to write a 100-page e-book in four weeks, it will sound like a daunting task. And once a person has a negative attitude toward whatever it is you want to persuade them to do, it’s going to be hard to turn them around.
So start by telling Amy that you’ve got a great opportunity for her – one that will help her make a huge contribution to the company’s bottom line, get the boss’s attention, and move up in line for a raise. Tell her about the e-book. Tell her that all she has to do is free up a little time by delegating those follow-up phone calls she hates to make… write five pages a day… and it will be done ahead of schedule.
Then watch her eagerly run to her computer to get started!
[Ed. Note: You could be on your way to making between $50,000 and $5 million with your own Internet business. ETR's "confidential playbook" for Internet Riches could help you secure a lifetime free of financial worries. Learn more here.
Paul Lawrence, a successful entrepreneur and author, publishes the "How to Become a Master of Persuasion" program. Get more information right here.]
“Adam” seems like a nice guy. He subscribes to Early to Rise, and, in a recent e-mail, said he is especially interested in my articles about how to get into the movie business. He said that he doesn’t have time to try to get into the movie business himself, but he has tons of ideas. So he would like to offer his ideas to me – and, if I wanted to do something with them, he would get a percentage of whatever money they brought in.
You might think this sounds like an attractive deal for me – but it’s not. Here’s how I explained it to Adam: I get about 20 of these offers a week. Not only that, but I have no shortage of my own ideas that I want to develop. And those ideas are my babies. I only wish I had enough time to work on them all. So do I need his ideas? Nope.
Compare Adam’s e-mail to the one I got from “Cara.” She wrote to tell me that she has the signed life rights of one of baseball’s biggest stars. She also has a finished script based on his story – one she claims was written at a professional level. She wanted to know if I would be interested in helping her market it in exchange for a cut of the profits.
Unlike Adam’s offer, Cara’s seems worth looking at. I asked her to send me a copy of the script and the signed agreement on the life rights. If the script is good, I know I can make a few quick calls and get it seen by someone who might want to produce it.
What’s the difference between Adam and Cara? Cara has a complete package that sounds highly marketable. So by putting in a little effort on it, there’s a chance I could see a big payday. Adam might have some great ideas, but so what? As the saying goes, an idea and 62 cents will get you a phone call.
If you’re serious about making money with your great idea, don’t just offer it up to someone in the hopes that they will be able to turn it into something profitable. You’ve got to do the hard work yourself. Bring them a package that they can help you produce or market – a package that has the very real potential to make both of you a lot of money.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful small-business entrepreneur who has sold and licensed the rights to both intellectual and physical products. The results? He receives quarterly checks for many thousands of dollars in royalty payments from other companies. For more information on his program - which teaches you how to obtain and license rights - click here.]
“Elise” consults for nonprofit groups, and she’s great at her job. Most of her business has come from word of mouth. But Elise knew that if she could channelize her efforts, she could reach thousands – if not millions – of potential clients. So she began marketing her services with a website, e-mails, and postcards.
Her promotional copy was filled with bold claims about how much she could do for her clients – and it bombed.
Why? According to Judy Murdoch, a consultant with the National Business Association, Elise’s failure was likely the result of neglecting to establish trust with her target audience.
Because most of Elise’s clients have come from referrals, she never had to worry about trust. It was built into the referrals. But it’s different when you’re marketing through written advertising channels. “The less personal the communication, the more important it becomes to first establish trust with your prospects,” says Murdoch.
Here are two ways to do it:
* Make bold claims – but back them up with proof. If, for example, Elise had mentioned in her copy that she regularly doubles or triples the donations her clients bring in, prospects would have reason to believe her claims about what she could do for them.
* Provide testimonials from satisfied clients. Testimonials are the written equivalent of the word-of-mouth referrals responsible for building Elise’s business in the first place. By including them in her promotional copy, she elevates her credibility.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful small-business entrepreneur who has started over 12 profitable enterprises. For more information on his Cheapskate Entrepreneurs instructional CD program, click here.
If you're limiting your marketing efforts to one channel, you're severely limiting the money you can make. Discover 12 easy ways to make millions for your business with Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby's Amazon.com bestseller, Changing the Channel. Pick up your copy today.]
In this tough economy, you might be thinking that it’s impossible to find the capital to start a small business.
If you’re hoping to get a business loan from a bank, you’re probably right. But if you’re thinking of getting money from a private investor, nothing is further from the truth.
The fact is that millions of people have money to invest. And they want to get a decent return on their investments. With interest rates so low on CDs and Treasury notes, they are more willing than ever to consider alternatives.
Of course, there’s a catch. In order to get a private investor to consider your small business, you must convince him that the opportunity is sound, with little risk of failure. They way to do it is with a well-thought-out, written business plan that’s loaded with specific numbers and examples.
Here are the basics of a plan that has an excellent chance of attracting the start-up capital you need…
Step 1: Demonstrate the profit potential of the business.
The best way to prove that your business idea is viable is to test it in the marketplace with what Michael Masterson calls “a working model.” That gives you actual numbers to work with to estimate anticipated revenues and expenses.
If it’s not possible to test your product/service on a small scale, you’ll have to do some research to come up with numbers from similar businesses that are already successful in the market you’re entering.
Step 2: Show that there is a substantial – and growing – demand for your product/service.
Use statistics – from census reports, economic reports, the Internet, and relevant news articles – to illustrate the need for your product/service.
If, for example, you want to get a new catering business funded, you might write something like this: “The National Catering Association estimates that, in the past year alone, more than $50 million was spent on catering in our target area. Despite the sluggish economy, the number of events that are traditionally catered – including weddings, graduations, and bar mitzvahs – is not expected to decrease. However, people are looking to keep expenditures down. Which means that our discount pricing and quality service should give our business a strong competitive edge.”
Step 3: Lay out your marketing plan.
If you were able to test a “working model” of your business idea, there’s at least one marketing channel that has already proven to be effective for you. Include your test numbers in this part of the marketing plan, as well as projections for additional channels you intend to try.
For example: “We have done preliminary tests with pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google, and have determined that, using the keywords we’ve already identified, we can generate click-throughs for $8.10 each. It takes an average of 12 click-throughs to secure one new client, which means that we can expect each new client generated through PPC to cost $97.20. The average gross revenue for each new catering client is anticipated to be $800, which gives us a substantial profit.
“We will expand our PPC campaign by testing additional keyword ads. We’ve also been tracking our competitors’ marketing efforts, and have found that they consistently advertise in the announcement section of the local newspaper. We believe this to be a promising channel to test.”
Step 4: Specify your strengths.
Write about your actual experience in this particular type of business. If you don’t have that, explain how the experience you do have qualifies you to run one. Then add anything else that will convince your prospective investor that you will be successful. This could include your educational background, as well as personal achievements that demonstrate you have the intelligence, determination, and desire to make the business work.
When I launched my instructional dance video business, I was looking for investors. I had already produced a homemade video and had sold a few through classified ads, so I had a working model. But I really had no experience in the video marketing business. So in my business plan, I emphasized the success of my private dance instruction business. I made a case that the same skills that made me a successful dance teacher in person would come across on video… that I would be able to teach people to dance in a way that they would like and understand.
Step 5: Outline how the business will function.
You don’t need to go into too much detail here, but you’ve got show your prospective investor that you’ve thought it through. If you’ll be selling physical products, explain how they will be procured, stored, delivered, etc. If you’re starting a service business, describe, in general terms, how the customer will be taken care of.
Step 6: Write out a budget.
Using the actual and projected numbers from Step 1 and Step 3, come up with a monthly budget for your first year in business and annual budgets for the next two years. Be sure to include exactly how and when the investor will be paid.
As you can see, the kind of business plan you use to secure private funding is somewhat different from the formal plan that a bank or venture capitalist is likely to require. Since you probably know your prospective investor, you can make it more personal. You can also make it more persuasive by using a little creativity.
Here’s what I mean…
Many years ago, when I wanted to start a vending machine company and didn’t have any capital, I pitched my idea to a former co-worker. In my business plan, I provided facts and figures indicating that there was a strong potential market for this service. But he was skeptical. So, to show him what those facts and figures really meant, I took him on a drive around town. (I had, of course, scouted it out ahead of time.)
First, I took him to several business locations that had vending machines onsite. We chatted up employees, and they told us that the machines had been around for a while and were very popular with the people who worked there, as well as their customers. Then, to make the case that there was room for more vending machines in the area, I took him to similar locations – lots of them – that didn’t have any.
My investor was convinced. He had seen for himself that the vending machine business was working for others, and that there was room in the market for mine. He gave me the capital I needed to get started… and we both ended up doing very well.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is an entrepreneur and author who's started over a dozen profitable small businesses. He publishes the "Street Smart Business Program," which is filled with the kind of practical advice you'd never get from a typical business college. For more information on the program, click here.
One of the best ways to ensure that your business will succeed? Master the art of selling. Now you can spend two days with one of the top Internet sales experts in the world. Find out how here.]
The letter was from the publisher of a magazine where I’d just placed an ad for an instructional ballroom dance video I’d produced. He informed me that he was pulling my ad. Why? After watching the video, he felt that the quality wasn’t good enough for his subscribers.
This was quite a blow to me. The Internet hadn’t yet developed into the marketplace it is today, and this magazine was the only one that catered to readers interested in ballroom dancing.
I understood why the publisher had a problem with my video. At that time, I had virtually no capital, so I’d videotaped it on my home camcorder and edited it with my VCR. Technologically speaking, it was weak. Still, I believed that people who bought it wouldn’t mind since the content itself was so good.
My video business was temporarily kaput.
Fortunately, I didn’t give up on the idea of selling dance videos. After improving my recording techniques and testing several marketing channels, I ultimately sold many thousands of dollars’ worth. I then expanded into producing other types of instructional videos that have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Steve – an old friend of mine – came out of the army with a few bucks and decided to go into the vending machine business. He bought a couple of machines from a slick company that grossly overcharged him and gave him poor locations. Like me, his ignorance of the industry he was getting into led him to make a big mistake. Unlike me, Steve panicked, sold his machines at a big loss, and never tried to get another business started.
Listen, there is a good chance that you’ll stumble a few times with any new venture. But, if you keep picking yourself up, wiping yourself off, and learning from your mistakes, you will achieve success.
Michael Masterson calls this the Principle of Accelerated Failure. “To develop any complex skill,” says Michael, “you must be willing to make mistakes and endure failures. The faster you can make those mistakes and suffer those failures, the quicker you will master the skill.”
So get out there and fail. Learn from your mistakes. And don’t give up.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a successful small-business entrepreneur who has started over 12 profitable enterprises. For more information on his personal achievement program, Dare to Live Your Dreams, click here.
You can learn more about Michael Masterson's Principle of Accelerated Failure and get his proven advice for taking your business to the next level in his New York Times bestseller Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat. Pick up a copy now.]
Let’s say you come across a great product that you think will be a big seller. You could obtain the rights to market that product – and then license those rights to an experienced marketing company.
Doing this can be very profitable.
The trick to making a really sweet deal is to convince the owner of the product to agree to a strictly back-end deal – where he shares in the eventual profits instead of getting an upfront payment from you. Product owners are sometimes reluctant to do this. But there’s another way for you to minimize your out-of-pocket: You can offer to option to buy his rights.
Let’s say you’re introduced to a guy who has invented a wind turbine that can generate enough electricity to supply 40 percent of the average home’s energy needs. Better yet, it can be sold inexpensively – maybe for a thousand dollars.
The inventor wants $50,000 for his rights (which is reasonable), and is not willing to negotiate a strictly back-end deal. But you’re very confident that this product will be a big seller. So you tell him that you’re willing to pay $50,000, but you need a little time to raise the money.
You offer, instead, to option to buy the rights for $100 against the purchase price of $50,000 within one year. If the owner is uncomfortable with such a long option – and you think you can resell those rights sooner – you can make the terms shorter. Once you have the rights, you resell them to a marketing company for at least $50,000 and a share of the profits they’ll make on the turbine.
If you can get more than $50,000 from the marketing company, you’ll pocket some money immediately (after paying off the owner). If not – assuming you were right about how well the product would sell – you still stand to rake in plenty down the road.
[Ed. Note: Acquiring and then marketing the rights to products is one way to make a lot of money without having to invest much capital. Paul Lawrence reveals his detailed strategies for making money with this business opportunity in his "Getting Rich With Rights" program. Get the details here.]
In this troubled economy, almost everyone can use the security that a side business can bring. I’ve been involved in a low-capital side business for years, and it has been a steady source of additional income for me. It’s something you, too, should consider getting into. I’m talking about the event promotion business.
People spend money on entertainment even in tough times, which makes this a truly recession-proof venture. In fact, according to a Times Ascent article, “It has been observed that during a recession, spending on entertainment actually increases.” In my experience, this has been true – perhaps because people are more in need of an “escape.”
This past October, I produced the third annual International Sketch Comedy Competition. It was held at the world-famous Laugh Factory on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Sketch comedy groups traveled from around the country to compete.
We had a great crowd. I split the $20-per-person admission charge 50-50 with the club, so I went home with a quick thousand dollars. Even better, I recorded the event, and I expect to make as much as $250,000 by distributing the video. Because I had a celebrity host for the event (Barry Williams, who played Greg Brady on The Brady Bunch), there is a good retail market for it.
But I’m not the only person who’s making steady cash by producing and promoting various types of events. One friend of mine, “Ellen,” started out with little martial arts tournaments at clubs. Now, she fills arenas with thousands of seats on a regular basis. “Eddie” makes a nice living putting on karaoke nights around town. The venues pay him $300 to appear for a few hours with his karaoke machine. Then there’s “Jessica.” Aspiring screenwriters pay her a few hundred dollars to attend a two-hour session where they can “pitch” their scripts to film producers. Jessica’s been running these events for years. She rents a hotel ballroom, and has no trouble getting the producers to attend (without compensation) because they’re always interested in fresh ideas.
It requires almost no capital to get started in the event promotion business. It can bring in $500 to $2,000 in a single night. Plus, if you want to expand, there is plenty of room to grow.
Another advantage to this business is that there is such a wide variety of events that you can promote. Concerts and sports events, of course – however, there are many other options.
For instance, if you’re knowledgeable about wine, you could organize wine and cheese tastings. Besides making some money on the admissions, you’d have the potential for additional profits on back-end sales of wines, cheeses, books, wine lovers’ tools, and other related products. If you’re a classic car enthusiast, you could promote an auto show. If you have financial expertise, you could hold wealth-building seminars.
You get the idea.
Keeping Your Costs Low With Joint Ventures
As a newcomer to event promoting, you want to start small. Don’t try to promote a major event at a large theater, stadium, etc. Unless you have some excellent connections, the only way to make something like that happen is to risk a lot of capital.
Instead, one of the simplest ways to get started is to form a joint venture with a small venue. Think of pubs, comedy clubs, dance halls – places that rely on some form of entertainment to bring in customers. Most of these venues have one or more slow nights during the week that they would love to turn into a moneymaker.
In return for promoting an event that brings in a crowd, your joint venture partner will happily pay you a fee or a percentage of the “door” (the admission fees you intend to charge). I’ve promoted amateur comedy club shows where I was paid $1,200 for a few hours of work. I’ve also promoted special ballroom dances where I was paid $500 for two hours. This kind of money may not pay all your bills, but it can be some very nice extra income. Plus, as I said, if you find that you really like the business, you can turn it into a very profitable full-time career.
To secure a joint venture deal with a local venue, follow these steps:
Step 1: Choose an Event to Promote
Start by considering the possibilities in fields where you have some experience. Jessica – who promotes the scriptwriters’ events – has worked in the movie business. I spent several years as a stand-up comic before I produced my first comedy event. But experience isn’t always necessary. Keep in mind that Ellen had zero experience in martial arts when she got started.
Once you’ve come up with an idea that interests you, try to attend a similar event that’s being put on by someone else. You’ll learn more from that than anything else. If you go to an event and you see 200 people there who each paid 20 bucks, you know you have the potential to make a reasonable profit doing the same thing.
Step 2: Identify Possible Venue Partners
Make a list of all the venues that could be joint venture partners for the event you’d like to promote. If you’re a “regular” at any of these places, that gets your foot in the door. It’s even better if you know someone in management.
The first year I promoted the International Sketch Comedy Championships, I had to start from square one. My first criterion for a venue was location. I knew that to give the event prestige, it had to happen in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, or Los Angeles. My second criterion was size. In order to make a decent profit, I knew I needed a place that could seat between 100 and 300 people. By establishing those two parameters, I narrowed down my search.
Step 3: Create a Proposal
When you present your offer to the venue owner or manager, you’re going to want to do it with a formal proposal that lays out all the specifics. You might, for example, offer to promote a concert by a popular local band at a skating rink for 50 percent of the “door” on one of their slow nights.
Step 4: Contact the Venues
Pick up the phone and call the first venue on your list. Ask to speak to the manager or owner. When you explain that you’re calling to talk about promoting an event, you shouldn’t have much trouble getting through to the right person.
You don’t need to be a great salesperson to present your proposal. If they’re not interested in it, move on to the next venue on your list.
It’s all a matter of finding a place that’s not only a good match for your event concept but also, at that particular moment, happens to be looking for a way to build up business.
Step 5: Market the Event
The marketing plan you draw up will, of course, depend upon the nature of the event itself. But here are some ideas to get you started.
• Send press releases to local newspapers and TV/radio stations. I once promoted a ballroom dance event that got a great write-up. My phone didn’t stop ringing, and the event was completely sold out. I actually had to sell “standing room only” tickets.
• See if you can get the venue to promote your event to their customers by putting up signs and mentioning it in their ads.
• Encourage the participants in the event to help you draw a crowd by getting their friends and family to come.
• Don’t forget to place notices in the “Things to Do” sections of local publications.
Remember – even when times are tough, people still need to get out once in a while and have fun. That makes promoting events a great business that can thrive in any economy. And doing a joint venture with an appropriate venue can put you in business with little to no capital… almost instantly.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence has started over a dozen profitable enterprises, specializing in low-capital small businesses. For more easy-to-follow information on how to start your own event promotion business, learn about Paul's event promotion program here.
Starting a business may be easy... but if you don't keep working at it, it will get you nowhere. Discover dozens of strategies that can help you stay on track with your business goals right here.]
Now, there’s a very easy way to get your online newsletter started. Yahoo has a component called “group publishing” that allows you to start your own e-list and publish to that list whenever you want. For free. It’s so user-friendly that even someone with very little technical knowledge (like me) can set it up without any assistance. All you do is go to Yahoo and click on the “groups” link. It’s self-explanatory from there.
With this tool, I began to publish an e-newsletter for screenwriters to promote my screenwriting consulting business. Within the first month, this led to $5,000 in consulting fees, so it really paid off for me. The downside is that all of your messages will include ads from competitors – and you don’t earn anything from them. (That’s how Yahoo makes money with this service. Its software matches pay-per-click ads in its system to your content.) Nevertheless, if you want to start an e-newsletter and don’t want to commit any capital, this is a way to do it.
[Ed. Note: Once you have a list of people who are interested in what you have to say, you can start making money. Learn how to build your list, market to it, and much more with a membership in ETR's Internet Money Club. Our experts will walk you step-by-step through the entire process of setting up an Internet business. Get the details here.
Paul Lawrence is a successful Internet entrepreneur who specializes in low-cost ways to market on the Internet. Get more information on his Cheapskate Internet Marketing Program here.]
I’m an entrepreneur, and I’ve been involved in at least a dozen profitable enterprises over the years. But the business I’ve been in for the last five years is by far the best.
Let me give you an idea of just how powerful this business is. After the costs of creating and selling my products, I am still able to bring in a 95 percent profit. What’s more, this business has proven to be successful… even in a struggling economy. (In 2008, though the economy was crumbling, mine continued to bring in about $12,000 a month.)
I want you to imagine a business where you wake up in the morning, log onto the Internet, and find out how much money you made overnight. That’s my reality… and it can be yours, too.
Many Internet marketing giants are big fans of this business. Michael Masterson, MaryEllen Tribby, Clayton Makepeace, Bob Bly, Dan Kennedy… I could go on and on.
And this business could be perfect for you – especially these days, when start-up money is tight. You can get it up and running with a few dollars, in your spare time, in the back bedroom of your house.
Then, you watch the money pour in.
What is this amazing business?
Information publishing.
If you’re a regular reader of ETR, this should come as no surprise to you. Michael Masterson and the ETR team have been talking about the benefits of information publishing for years.
One of the best things about this business is that you can sell a wide variety of products. I currently market an instructional ballroom dancing DVD… a half-dozen instructional exercise videos… audio courses on subjects like earning money with public speaking and producing your own videos… and written courses on skills like mastering the art of persuasion.
The most common media for information publishing are:
I’ve used all of them and have found them all to be profitable.
Another thing about information publishing is that you can make sales via direct mail, e-mail marketing, or virtually any marketing channel you want to use.
By far the biggest benefit of information publishing is that it costs very little to produce and distribute your products. For example, my instructional ballroom dance DVD sells well at $49 plus shipping and handling. Even in the small wholesale quantities I usually order… maybe a few hundred at a time… the DVDs cost me $2.50 each. Since the shipping and handling charges cover the cost of postage and packaging, this leaves me with a profit of $46.50 – or a margin of 94.8 percent.
The best news is that although this is an extremely lucrative deal for me, my customers are also very happy with it. That’s because they receive a DVD with instructions for four different dances, which they would otherwise expect to pay about $20 each for. So they’re getting $80 worth of video instruction for close to half of the normal market price.
That’s the magic of information publishing: The value is in the information… not in the physical product.
If you want to get into information publishing, here are the basic steps:
• Choose a Marketable Subject
Your choices are almost limitless. I recommend exploring niche subjects so that you don’t have to compete against the biggest players. But make sure your niche isn’t so obscure that there won’t be a market for your products. For example, a video course on how to win at blackjack might have a big enough market of potential buyers to make you significant money. But a course on the best techniques for observing the North American spotted owl probably won’t attract enough customers to keep your business profitable.
• Select Your Medium
You want to choose the medium that will deliver the most effective presentation of your subject matter at a cost that will allow for profitability.
If I decide to hire an “A” list actor and a whole production crew and rent out a casino to film a slick video on how to win at blackjack, my initial expenditure would make it hard to recapture my investment and make a profit… no matter how high my profit margins are. A better medium for a subject like this might be a printed text course with some photos or an e-book.
In the case of my ballroom dancing product, the medium of video offers such a clear advantage that I really had to go with it. But I was able to produce the video for under $1,000, so I was still able to make a healthy profit.
• Identify Your Marketing Strategies
Marketing an information product on the Internet with a website is a great way to do it. But there are many other options. You can take advantage of all the other forms of direct marketing, including direct mail and telemarketing. Additionally, you might consider wholesaling your product to retailers, distributors, or anyone else who might be able to move it for you.
Bottom line: If you’re looking to start a profitable business with unlimited growth potential, huge profit margins, and very reasonable start-up costs, I know of nothing better than information publishing.
One of the easiest ways to start an info-publishing business is to do it online. Here are a few resources to help you get started:
• You don’t need to know much about computers or the Internet to build a business online. In his article “Overcoming the Technical Learning Curve,” Derek Gehl reveals all the technical knowledge you need to get your business up and running.
• Michael Masterson spoke with successful info-marketer Brad Antin about how to start an info-publishing business. Discover Brad’s best advice here.
• Exactly what kind of info-publishing business can you start? Dan Kennedy explores some of the narrow but profitable areas that could make you money in his article “Riches in Niches.”
• For a quick and easy way to get inexpensive traffic to your website, read Alexis Siemon’s article “Fast and Cheap Banner Testing with Google AdWords.”
• You don’t need an e-mail list of millions to start making money as an info-publisher. Learn how to monetize a small list of readers in Brian Edmondson’s article “Making Money with a Small, Responsive List.”
These are just a few of the articles on how to start and grow an info-publishing business that you can find in the ETR archives. Do a quick search on our home page – www.EarlytoRise.com – and you’ll find a wealth of information.
[Ed Note: Entrepreneurial expert Paul Lawrence has created a program that reveals how anyone can get started in the information publishing business with limited capital. For more information, follow this link.
Starting a business may be easy... but if you don't keep working at it, it will get you nowhere. Discover dozens of strategies that can help you stay on track with your business goals right here.]
Whether it’s speaking to a group of peers at a company meeting, a group of potential clients, or a group of seminar attendees who are there to hear you share your knowledge, being a good public speaker can really pay off.
To be truthful, I was nervous about speaking in public when I was younger. Actually, terrified would be more accurate. However, I eventually overcame my fear and now get paid very handsomely as a featured speaker at business events.
The good news is that anyone can learn to be a good public speaker. Knowing how to capture the interest of your audience is a big part of it – and here’s one very effective technique for doing that: Tell them a story.
For example, at one conference, the main point I wanted to get across to my audience – a group of small-business entrepreneurs – was the importance of not overestimating their resources. But instead of boring them by trying to prove my point with a lot of statistics, I related a news story I’d recently read in a local South Florida paper.
It seems that the mangled remains of a giant snake had been found in a swamp. The snake apparently attempted to eat an alligator… and then actually exploded (partially digested alligator chunks were mixed in with the mess), because the alligator was just too big for the snake. “The snake,” I said, “had made the common – and sometimes fatal – mistake that I’m trying to keep you from making: overestimating its capacity.” The story got a big laugh, made my point in a way that my audience would remember, and completely won them over.
Next time you’re going to make a presentation, consider illustrating your point with a story. It’s one of the most effective public speaking tools I know.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is an accomplished public speaker and a successful business author. Get information about his course on how to make money with public speaking here.]
I’m going to share with you a success strategy that can do more to help your career than just about anything else. And most people are doing the exact opposite.
What most people do is identify their weaknesses and then put a great deal of work into improving themselves in those areas. But as John C. Maxwell points out in his book Talent Is Never Enough, you will have a much better chance of rapidly advancing in business if you focus on your strengths.
Let’s say cold-calling is not one of your strong points. It would take a great deal of time and effort to become passable at this skill. But if, instead, you take a skill that you are already good at and you put your energy into becoming even better, you’ll quickly become remarkable.
[Ed. Note: Sometimes the simplest strategies - like focusing on your strengths - can have the biggest results when it comes to your success. Get three more simple yet powerful techniques you can use to get everything you want out of life right here.
Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter, a successful entrepreneur with over a dozen profitable start-ups, and a business author. Discover more about his success strategies here.]
When I was getting ready to promote the 2008 International Sketch Comedy Competition, I needed a celebrity host. I’d been producing this event for several years – but this time, I intended to market a video of it. And I knew that if I wanted to have a chance of doing that successfully, I needed a “name.”
Luckily, I knew how to reach almost any celebrity in film or television. In fact, I was able to secure the services of someone who was a household name and a heartthrob for millions of teenage girls some years ago… and still gets his name and pictures in the media. I’m talking about Barry Williams, who played Greg Brady in The Brady Bunch. While he’s not currently a star, his appearance in my production helped me get the attention of several major video distributors.
If you want to attract attention to an event you are holding – or to a product or service you are selling – having a celebrity attached to it gives you a huge marketing advantage. And it’s not hard to reach them if you know how. Virtually every celebrity has an agent and/or a manager.
IMDB.com has a program that is only about $10 a month and can be cancelled at any time. Once you sign on as a member, you can search for any celebrity and find a listing with their agent and/or manager, including phone numbers and sometimes even an e-mail address. If you contact the celebrity’s representative in a professional way, your offer will be taken seriously and passed along.
[Ed. Note: Getting a celebrity to "back" your product or event is a great way to get prospective customers' attention. For 12 other proven marketing strategies, pick up a copy of Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby's Amazon.com best-seller, Changing the Channel.
Paul Lawrence is a screenwriter/producer with several feature-length film credits. For more information on his "Breaking Into Hollywood" course, click here.]
I had some good news yesterday. The latest product I licensed to a marketing company has brought in about $250,000… so far. So from this one product alone, I will be receiving a royalty that will net me at least a $25,000 profit for the year, although it will probably be more.
Plus, I’ll be getting royalties of between $5,000 and $10,000 from two other products that I licensed in 2008. Which means my total profit for the year from products I’ve licensed to other companies will likely be between $35,000 and $45,000.
The most amazing part of this is that – other than keeping track of what I’m owed – I won’t have to do much more than cash the checks.
I’m not telling you this to boast. I just want to give you an idea of how good this little side business is. And it works for a wide variety of products. (My current deals vary from an educational investment product to a natural health supplement.)
The essentials of the business are fairly simple. You either create your own products or acquire the rights to market other people’s products – products that you believe will appeal to a significant number of prospective customers. Then you approach marketing companies that have more resources than you do, and you sell them the rights to market those products.
This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this business in ETR – but I’ve focused more on how to acquire the rights to the products. Today, I’m going to show you how to find companies to market the products for you.
While it’s certainly possible to make licensing deals with major marketers, I’ve found that it’s much easier to work with smaller direct-marketing companies. Though these companies employ only a few people (because they outsource so much of their work), many of them bring in millions of dollars every year.
That’s the kind of marketer you want. They’re extremely good at what they do – but, because of their small size, it’s easy to get to the person in charge of making decisions. As a result, you can make deals quickly, without being put through a lot of bureaucratic red tape.
How do you find these companies?
The best source I know of is list brokers.
You see, most direct-marketing companies have relationships with list brokers. That’s because they need “names” to market to. And though they may have a house list (names of their own customers), they also need to rent names from other list owners. The list broker is the middleman.
The list broker is very familiar with her clients. In order to be able to recommend appropriate lists to them, she has to know what kind of products they market and how successfully they do it. So if you contact a broker who has a fairly large client base, there’s an excellent chance she’ll be able to connect you with companies that might be interested in your products. (Naturally, you’ll have to compensate her for doing this. But if it leads to a deal, it will be well worth it.)
Here’s how to use list brokers to help you find direct-marketing companies to license your products to:
1. Get names and contact information for list brokers from trade organizations and industry publications. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), for example, has a long list of members who are list brokers.
2. Before you start contacting the brokers, prepare a phone or written presentation that you will use to explain to them (a) what your product is, and (b) that you are interested in licensing the rights to a direct-marketing company.
3. Put together another presentation that the brokers can use to pitch the licensing opportunity to direct-marketing companies that show an interest in your proposal. You will submit this to the brokers, who will then forward it to the companies.
4. Once a broker has found a direct-marketer that is interested in your product, you’ll sign a licensing deal with that company.
[Ed. Note: Acquiring and then marketing the rights to products is a little-known way to make a lot of extra money. Paul Lawrence reveals his detailed strategies for this side business in his "Getting Rich With Rights" program. Get the details here.
For more business opportunities with high profit potential, sign up for ETR's Profit Center Dispatch. You'll get weekly "profit alerts" with specific, proven ideas. Learn more here.]
An insurance agent named Tolbert had a remarkable ability to sell insurance. He’d been trained to sell people the most insurance that he could and he did it well, according to Stedman Graham in his book Build Your Own Life Brand. But although Tolbert was very successful, he was not happy.
Deep in his heart, he didn’t feel right about pushing people to buy more insurance than they probably needed. So, he changed his ways and started telling prospects the truth. If they asked him about policies they didn’t really need, he told them why he didn’t recommend them – even if it cost him a larger commission.
Then something happened that Tolbert hadn’t anticipated. His income didn’t drop. In fact, it shot way up. Turns out his clients had learned to trust him so much that they not only took all their insurance business to him, they enthusiastically recommended him to their friends and relatives.
I’m not surprised. I’ve found that whenever I’ve truthfully told a customer that the product he was interested in really wasn’t right for someone in his particular situation, I may have lost that sale… but almost always ended up gaining a long-term customer who bought many more of my products down the road.
Certain people skills are a crucial factor for success in business – and putting the needs of your customers first is one of them. You’ll find that your own interests will get served in the process.
[Ed. Note: Selling is not about making money – it’s about solving your customers’ problems. Get the skinny on this fundamental marketing principle – plus, dozens more sales strategies that work – right here.
Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter and successful small-business entrepreneur specializing in low-capital business start-ups. Get more information on his strategies for success right here.
It’s Saturday morning, and the biggest party of the year is going down… starting tonight and lasting through Sunday. Somehow, you’ve wangled a spot on the VIP list. It’s in Atlantic City, and your good buddy has arranged a limo – absolutely free to you – that’s leaving in 20 minutes. Trouble is, you have to give a big presentation first thing Monday morning. And you’ll need a good three or four hours to whip it into shape.
Not going to the party is NOT an option. So you’ve got two choices.
Choice #1: You can leave for AC right now and have the time of your life. But pay for it – big time – on Monday. Your presentation won’t be as good as it should be. If you botch it completely, you could lose your company’s biggest client. And that might mean you’ll be out of a job.
Choice #2: You can stick around for the rest of the day and fine-tune the presentation to perfection. That way, you’ll be so well prepared that even if you’re a little tired on Monday, it will go off without a hitch. You’ll protect your job. Heck, you may even win yourself a promotion. But that means you’ll have to shell out about 500 bucks for a last-minute plane ticket to Atlantic City tonight.
If you care about your career, Choice #2 is the obvious way to go. You’re going to have to spend $500, but it’s a way to have your cake and eat it too.
Setting up a situation like this – where there are two choices, but one is clearly the “smart” one – is the basis of the persuasion technique I want to tell you about today. I call it the “Lesser of Two Evils” strategy.
I’m sure you’ve been in a position – both in your personal and your business life – where you’ve had to persuade someone to make a decision that they were not really eager to make.
Let’s say you want to convince a potential client to sign up for your consulting services.
If you simply present him with one option – maybe an expensive contract that will cost $10,000 a year – he may decide to hold off on doing anything. After all, though his business has stopped growing and he thinks you can probably help him, there’s no perceived emergency. If he doesn’t sign with you right now, he has no reason to believe he will suffer any negative consequences.
You don’t want to try to back him into a corner by warning him that if he doesn’t accept your expensive proposal he will not only fail to get his company back on track but may start to face big losses. If you do that, there is an excellent chance he will become even more resistant. (People tend to resist ideas that aren’t their own. It’s human nature.)
Instead, you should offer the prospect an alternative – an additional option that seems reasonable on the surface but is, in some important way, less attractive than the one you want him to choose. And you present that option first.
So, in our example, you start by telling the prospect that you can provide consulting services for only $1,000 a year. You explain that, for $1,000, you can do a lot for him. And you supply him with facts and figures to make this claim credible. Then you point out that you also provide unlimited, full-service consulting for $10,000 a year. You list everything you will do for him if he chooses the full-service option over the less-expensive, limited option. And, again, you supply him with facts and figures to back up your claims.
If you do it right, the prospect will come to the conclusion – on his own – that though the full-service option costs more upfront, it will solve his problem permanently… while the economical option will be nothing more than a band-aid.
Though he may not be thrilled about making the larger expenditure, it will seem like the better choice – the Lesser of Two Evils – because he will perceive that the cheaper alternative has the potential for negative consequences.
The Lesser of Two Evils is sometimes confused with another persuasion technique
called “Contrasting.” But, from a psychological point of view, they are actually quite different. With Contrasting, you first have the other person imagine a scenario that sounds really terrible. Then you tell him the good news.
Let’s say you’re a salesman for a roofing company. You get a call from a prospect who tells you his roof is leaking, and you drive over to give him a quote.
You can see that all he really needs is a repair… but you begin by noting that a whole new roof will cost $15,000. As the prospect shudders, figuring he’s going to have to dip into his pension fund to pay for it, you announce: “But you’re in luck. You don’t need a whole new roof. We can repair your leak for only $2,000.
Had you quoted him $2,000 for the repair upfront, it would have seemed like a lot of money. But now, in contrast to the cost of a whole new roof, it seems like a good deal.
The Lesser of Two Evils approach works better than Contrasting when your prospect isn’t likely to buy into a highly objectionable scenario – either because it’s not believable or because he can’t see how it applies to him.
Take our example of a consultant selling his services. If you start by telling your prospect that businesses in his situation usually require a $300,000 consulting job… and then tell him you can get it done for only $10,000… well, he’ll probably just shrug his shoulders. But if you give him a couple of reasonable options and provide him with enough information to support the decision you want him to make, there’s a good chance he’ll do it.
To successfully execute the Lesser of Two Evils technique, here are the basic steps:
1. Come up with two options for your prospect. Make sure there are logical arguments for both alternatives – but also make that sure the one you prefer is the “Lesser of Two Evils.”
2. When you present the options to your prospect, start with the “greater” evil. That way, when you present the option you want him to choose, he will perceive it to be the one he wants.
3. If you’ve done a good job of making your case, the prospect will make the decision you want him to make almost immediately. If he doesn’t jump on it right away, don’t try to pressure him. Just sit back and be patient. Remember, the effectiveness of this technique is based on the fact that, psychologically, people like to feel that they are in control of their own decisions. If you push them, it’s likely to backfire.
Persuading people to make the choices you want them to make isn’t easy. However, if done right, the Lesser of Two Evils approach almost always works. The icing on the cake is that the people you use it with will be happy with the decisions they made “on their own.”
[Ed. Note: Here's a no-brainer for you. You can keep doing what you're doing, watching your savings dwindle and your chances of retirement drift away... or you can grab the bull by the horns and take charge of your financial future. We'll give you step-by-step support and some of our best advice along the way in our 2008 ETR Information Marketing Bootcamp DVD Library. Learn the details here.
Paul Lawrence is the publisher of the "Master of Persuasion" program, which details dozens of powerful persuasion secrets. For more information, click here.]
If you read the advice of many “small-business experts,” you’ll be told that you should expect to wait at least a year – possibly more – before your start-up can begin to see a profit. That’s what I was taught when I studied business administration in college – and it turns off a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs. “I can’t afford to wait that long,” they think. “I need to make money NOW.”
If the prospect of unpaid bills, astronomical credit card balances, and endless meals of ramen noodles is keeping you from starting a business, read on. Because today, I’m going to tell you how you can have a profitable business in as little as 30 days.
As Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby point out in their book, Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business, the Internet has changed the way everyone does business. But, they remind us, anyone who thinks that the Internet has made traditional direct mail obsolete is quite mistaken. They note: “In fact, in 2007 direct mail spending grew 5 percent. That translates to $58.4 billion dollars being spent on direct mail.”
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if this kind of money is being spent, the profits from direct mail can be enormous. And as someone who has spent his entrepreneurial career focusing on small businesses, I’ve had quite a bit of experience with this marketing channel. I’ve proven firsthand that it’s a way to create a profitable business without a ton of capital – and to do so almost instantly.
I’ve used direct mail to start small local businesses with only a few hundred dollars, and I’ve operated larger businesses that mailed hundreds of thousands of pieces each calendar quarter. What I’ve discovered is that, regardless of the size of your business, you can use direct mail to win customers and make sales.
What’s more, as soon as you find a direct-mail formula that works for you, you will have a profitable business in less than 30 days.
Let’s say your business idea is to sell and install generators that work on solar power. Considering current concerns about energy and the environment, you’re confident that it is a very marketable idea. So now, if you can come up with the right direct-mail formula … you’ll have an instant business.
Here’s how to do it:
Instant-Business Step 1: Choose Your List
As MaryEllen has pointed out time and again, the list of names you mail your promotion to is your most important asset. You can have a top-notch product (a high-quality solar-powered generator) and an incredible offer (a low price and tons of bonuses)… but if you send that offer to a sub-par list, you won’t make a dime. On the other hand, if you have the right list, you don’t even need good copy. Mediocre copy to a great list will always out-pull great copy to a bad list.
If, for example, you mail your promotion for your solar-powered generator to a list of people who have recently lost their homes to foreclosure, you’re probably not going to find many buyers. But if you send it to a list of homeowners who have recently requested information on environmentally friendly energy devices, you could easily make a healthy profit.
To get a good list, you’re going to need a skilled and reputable list broker. If you don’t know someone who can give you a referral, you’ll find many possibilities listed in direct-mail trade publications.
Instant-Business Step 2: Create Your Offer
Your offer is another important part of your direct-mail formula. Even if you have a skillfully written promotion and you send it to the perfect list, if the offer doesn’t appeal to your prospective customers, you won’t be successful.
No matter how many impressive features your solar-powered generator has, it won’t sell if you price it too high or you fail to position it as a good deal (by adding value with your bonuses). So make sure you study your competition to see what’s working for them… and make your offer even better than their best.
Instant-Business Step 3: Come Up With a Blockbuster Sales Promotion
A strong direct-mail promotion can be as simple as a well-written postcard or as complicated as a 30-page sales letter.
Again, study what your competitors are doing… what’s working for them. To get your hands on their promotions, just get yourself “seeded” on their mailing lists. Contact a few of them and ask for information. Or go to their websites and “opt in” to receive information from them. (If it’s not too expensive, you might even want to buy one or two of their products online.) Before you know it, you’ll be added to dozens of related mailing lists and inundated with good (and bad) sales copy that you can learn from.
Instant-Business Step 4: Test
The golden rule of testing marketing copy is to spend the least amount of money possible to determine if the formula works. Most well-capitalized marketers will do a test of 25,000-50,000 names (compiled from an assortment of 5,000-name lists).
If you are that well-capitalized, good for you! Go for it! If you’re not, don’t sweat it. You can test with a lot less.
Some years ago, I was a partner in a mortgage-brokering business. I created an offer and a promotion. And I chose one list of 5,000 local names that were in the income bracket I felt would be most receptive to the offer.
To mail to all 5,000 names on that list would’ve cost $2,500 – which I was reluctant to spend until I knew that the formula worked. So I tested the list by mailing to 500 of the names – at a cost of $250. Well, there was a good response to that test – and we made a thousand-dollar profit. So I mailed to all 5,000 names – which, again, made a profit. Eventually, I sold my share to my partner so I could focus on other interests. But I had established a formula that worked for that business. And he was then able to use that formula to keep expanding it.
Because it is so easy, and inexpensive, to test every element of a direct-mail package (the list as well as the copy), this gives you a mechanism to quickly start a direct-mail business with minimal risk and capital.
And once the formula proves successful, there is no other business I know that can be expanded as easily.
[Ed Note: Starting - and growing - a direct-mail business doesn't require tens of thousands of dollars. Entrepreneurial expert Paul Lawrence has created a program that reveals how anyone can get started in direct mail with limited capital. For more information, follow this link.
For dozens of other ways to reach your customers, and for expert advice on how to write super-strong direct-mail copy, pick up a copy of ETR's 2008 Info Marketing Bootcamp DVD Library. Our panel of world-class Internet marketers will share their inside secrets to making big money online.] [link] ETRmarketing
Do your employees feel like they’re part of the team? Those who do are likely to make a vastly superior effort. The problem is, it’s not always easy to tell how people genuinely feel. But there is a very effective technique that can give you valuable insight.
In general, people reveal their feelings by the way they express themselves. So what you do is observe their choice of words.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: My assistant was telling me about the new orders that came in, and I was very pleased with the way she expressed it. What she said was, “We just got a huge bunch of new orders last night.” My last assistant would have said, “You have some new orders.”
Of course, it’s unfair to make a judgment about someone based on one word. But it’s been my experience that employees who use “we” instead of “you” reveal positive feelings about their relationship to you, your company, and the work they’re doing.
[Ed Note: Being able to understand people is a skill that can make or break a business career. Keep reading here for more information on Paul's People Power Program.]