At the beginning of the year, The New York Times profiled several investors. Their stories were similar.
As a result of the market plunge in 2008, Cindy and Eric Canup had to put off their dream of “buying land in Northern California or Oregon.” Joe Mancini had to put off his retirement. Robert Paynter, a retired Wachovia executive, said the past year made him feel as if he were witnessing his own death. (more…)
I’m so old, I’ll betcha my tie has gone in and out of style at least five times.
Not that I pay much attention to such things, mind you.
My professional life revolves around marketing trends. And there again, my advanced age means I’ve seen many promotional styles over the years. (more…)
It takes courage to turn away a paying customer. But sometimes that is what you should do.
Let’s say you have a business that repairs car brakes. You have three mechanics who work for you. One of them is a master mechanic. He can do just about anything. Someone comes into your shop and asks you to repair his muffler. You could use the business, so you take the job. (more…)
When the swine flu scare first hit the newspapers, people were nervous. Then the government jumped in. They told us that swine flu was not very contagious. And they said it wasn’t even serious. “Don’t worry about it,” we were told.
I was skeptical. And I was right. (more…)
What I am about to tell you is the most important thing you will ever hear about starting a business. (I have probably started more businesses than anyone I’ve ever met, so please forgive me for sounding like a know-it-all.)
Ready? (more…)
For 30 years, I’ve been having the same conversation with my partners. The subject is: What do our customers want from us — doom or zoom?
In today’s essay, I pass along a bit of brilliance from Dan Kennedy. It helped me understand why, for example, harping on our lousy economy can be hurtful to your advertising.
After that, I explain why budgeting is no way to save money, where I get some of my best ideas, and why three squares a day might be making you fat. (more…)
Only the faint tick of the grandfather clock broke the silence as I waited for him to acknowledge my presence. He’d summoned me to his office to discuss the great idea I’d outlined in a memo only last week. So new in the company, yet already meeting with the Managing Director! (more…)
Contrary to what the Obama administration would like you to believe, the Great Recession is alive and growing.
Businesses are going bankrupt right and left. And those that aren’t tanking are seeing their profits diminish. This trend will probably continue. So if you are struggling to make profits and are hoping the economy is going to come roaring back, forget it. (more…)
Your staffers may try to dazzle you by producing voluminous white papers, complex analyses, etc. So what? These days, anyone can find huge amounts of data on the Internet on any topic. And it’s a big waste of your time to dig through it to find something you can use. (more…)
BK, MN, BB, and I were talking about mergers and how companies are managed afterward. The doomed AOL/Time-Warner combo (and split earlier this year) came up.
This got very quickly into the question of how much forward thinking a CEO should do. (more…)
Consumers aren’t looking for brand-new products. They are looking for clever new adaptations of products they already know and love.
What does this mean to you as an entrepreneur? (more…)
Before you optimize your website or buy pay-per-click (PPC) traffic, you should perform “keyword due diligence.”
That means you must check to see that Internet users are actually searching for information on your product by using the same keywords you assumed they would use.
When I tell this to people, they often pooh-pooh it. “It’s not necessary for us to do keyword research,” they tell me. “We know our industry. We know our products. And we know what words our customers would search on.” (more…)
I sent a memo to a client last week, telling him about a clever advertising campaign that one of his competitors is using. I had inside info that the competitor is making a lot of money with it.
My client’s response was to tell me what is wrong with what his competitor is doing. And then to explain why his program is “much better.” (more…)
Important Sales Insight: People often feel guilty about saying “no.”
After you’ve spent time trying to persuade them to buy something, they feel bad about just saying “no.” They may say “no,” but there is lingering guilt for having wasted your time. (more…)
You know those parents who say they want to be their children’s “best friends”?
You know the ones I’m talking about. Those obnoxious moms and pops with six-pack abs and designer jeans who have fun smoking pot with their kids and passing them candy-flavored condoms. (more…)
How can you get your key employees to quickly develop the skills and talents they need?
How do you get them to understand what you understand?
In short, how do you get them to succeed?
These people can make your future immensely richer, fuller, and happier. But much of what they eventually give you depends on how good you are at providing them with advice and direction in a way that makes them feel motivated instead of discouraged. (more…)
If you are lucky enough to be in the company of a successful businessman, don’t waste his precious time — and yours — chitchatting about baseball.
This is a rare opportunity that should be treasured. So take advantage of it. Ask good questions, such as: (more…)
Last month, I spent less than one hour adapting a simple one-page sales letter to be e-mailed to 215 people who’d recently done business with one of my clients.
The e-mail was simple. Basically, it said:
“Thank you for your recent purchase. Now I’d like to give you preferential pricing on a product I think can bring you higher value.”
The results? $5,402 in quick sales. That’s $25.13 for every person who received the e-mail.
And that’s just one of the times I’ve done this. (more…)
Depending on your product and your target audience, using improper English in your sales copy may make it work better.
The trick is to really know your prospect. Actually picture him or her in your head. Then pretend you’re having chat with that person while you write. A “conversation” with a retired Midwestern farmer (more…)
According to most “serial business builders,” bad hiring and firing decisions are among the most serious mistakes entrepreneurs make. These include:
1. Not spending the time and energy to recruit the very best employees
2. Not paying close enough attention to an executive’s performance
3. Waiting too long to fire someone
Think about the people who report to you. How would you rate them? Good? Very good? Excellent? Are they better than you at what they do? Can you think of anyone who could do the job better? (more…)
One of the most important business skills is almost never talked about. It is speed.
In Ready, Fire, Aim, I explain that the faster you get good ideas to the marketplace, the better your chances of succeeding. And the faster you can get almost anything done, the less it will cost you.
You don’t want to sacrifice quality for speed. But you don’t want to slow things down to get them “perfect” either. (more…)
Twenty-five years ago, when Jay Abraham and I were relatively young men in this business, we shared the tips and techniques we discovered. He’d give me his best new idea. And I’d give him one of mine in return.
One of the ideas he shared with me was already an old one at the time, but it was not something I had been using and so it was new to me. (more…)
What captures your attention?
A pretty face? A televised car chase? The smell of baking cookies wafting through the room?
It doesn’t take much.
And what holds your attention?
That’s not so easy, is it? It takes something that has a more direct impact on your life. Satellite images of a hurricane bearing down on your town, for example. Or watching your children play. (more…)
There is an important Web metric that you should be tracking in your Internet marketing business — but probably aren’t.
It is the “evaporation rate.”
The evaporation rate measures how many names you lose from your subscriber list — by the week, month, or year.
How do names evaporate from your list?
It’s simple. (more…)
When Mary Kay Ash retired from her job in 1963, she took her life savings, $5,000, and opened her own business. Boy did it pay off! Mary Kay Cosmetics is now a billion-dollar company.
Or take Hugh Hefner. He financed Playboy with $8,000 in loans from 45 family members, friends, and other investors. Today, he’s a mega-millionaire. (His famous mansion, alone, has been appraised at $45 million.) (more…)
In matters of grammar and usage, it’s not always easy to know what’s correct.
In France, a government-run Academy serves as the official authority. Here in America, no single authority has been appointed to give us definitive answers. We must consider various sources, sometimes conflicting, and make our own decisions. (more…)
The year was 1937…
The Great Depression was still taking a heavy toll. Prices and profits were low… international trade was down by two-thirds… millions stood in line for jobs that didn’t exist.
But not everyone was suffering.
A young man by the name of Elmer Wheeler was paid $5,000 for coming up with nine simple words.
You see, at the time, Texaco was looking to sell more motor oil to their customers. Too many people, without giving it a second thought, said “No” when a service station attendant asked “Check your oil today?”
Wheeler suggested replacing “Check your oil today?” with “Is your oil at the proper level today, sir?” (more…)
To promote herself and her business, JL wants to write a book.
But she isn’t quite sure how to get her book into print.
“It feels like getting a book published is challenging,” she writes. “Would it not be easier to self-publish?”
Others have asked me the same question over the years. “What’s better?” an interviewer asked me just the other day. “Self-publishing or traditional publishing?”
It’s the wrong question. (more…)
David Carradine. Ed McMahon. Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson. Billy Mays. Karl Malden. Steve McNair. The Grim Reaper is on a roll.
What might the deaths of these high-profile people have in common with the likes of Gary Hart, Gary Condit, Jim McGreevey, Mark Sanford, and John Edwards, among others?
Or how about Lyndon Johnson, Spiro Agnew, and Richard Nixon?
Or G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, Mark Fuhrman, Wayne (Dog) Chapman, and Don King?
Answer: Things change!
We do not live in a static universe. Nor do people or situations remain at a standstill on our little speck of cosmic dust. Mountains erode. Riverbeds dry up. Technology moves forward. The economy fluctuates. Even laws change.
Who could have predicted that the celebrities I listed in the first paragraph of this article would all be gone within a one-month period? (more…)