When Not to Save Money

Issue #2392

• WEALTHY: How much is your time worth? (Robert Ringer)
• HEALTHY: Stop neglecting the biggest muscle group in your body (Craig Ballantyne)
• WISE: Ben Franklin on the value of time

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• How to get an instant edge in the market (Michael Masterson)
• 7 things your graphic designer should know (John Forde)
• It’s Fun to Know… about yet another space station breakthrough
• Add "durance" to your vocabulary

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"Time is money."

-Benjamin Franklin

When Not to Save Money

By Robert Ringer

A few days ago, while reading an article in Time about how to lower stress, I was reminded of the words of wisdom that a centimillionaire friend of mine once shared with me. He explained that in the past, when things got tough in one of his businesses, he focused on slashing overhead to the bone.

Nothing was too small to escape his attention – terminating the delivery of bottled water, handing down an edict to his staff to use fewer paperclips, buying lower-quality copying paper, hiring a less-expensive janitorial service… and so on.

The result? Every time he declared war on expenses, the savings he realized had almost no effect on the fortunes of his business. He finally recognized that you don’t make money by cutting overhead. Making money is a direct result of the amount of time you spend creating valuable products and marketing them. Marketing is the engine of every successful company, because it leads to sales – and sales lead to profits.

It all gets down to how you spend your time. Would you rather spend it focusing on problems or opportunities? Any overhead, no matter how small, is a problem if your income isn’t high enough to cover it. And, in theory, no amount of overhead is too high if your income is great enough to cover it – preferably many times over.

The reason this crucial point came to mind as I was reading that Time article is because I truly believe that worrying about nominal expenses is a huge stress generator. I say that because I used to do it to an extreme.

I once knew a woman who would drive 15 miles to save 79 cents on something like a bottle of shampoo. If she bought 10 of them, she might save $7.90. Which sounds good until you factor in the extra hour it might have taken her to get to the store that had the lower price. In addition, there would have been stress involved if she had to fight her way through heavy traffic to get to that store.

Pennies may add up to dollars, but the time required to save those pennies can add up to a lot of stress – and enough stress might just add up to serious illness or premature death.

Early in my career, I began to reassess some of the ways in which I was saving on expenses. I came to realize that in order to make intelligent decisions when it comes to saving money, time and stress should always be factored into the equation.

Following are some examples of "money-saving" habits that I eliminated from my life as a result of this reassessment.

When I lived alone for a while in my twenties, I did a lot of grocery shopping. I bought a lot of fruits and vegetables in those days, and, after I brought them home, often found some spoilage. Instead of throwing out the spoiled items, I would pack them up, take them back to the supermarket, ask to speak with the manager, and return them for a refund. It was a time-consuming undertaking, to say the least.

When I finally thought about what I was doing, I estimated that by getting those refunds, I saved, on average, a couple of dollars a week – or about $100 a year. Without realizing it, what I was telling myself was that the many hours I was investing in returning spoiled fruits and vegetables were worth less than $100 a year! Needless to say, I stopped.

Another example was my habit of carefully reviewing the bill when I ate in restaurants. It took me a long time to recognize two things about restaurant tabs: First, they are seldom incorrect. Second, on those rare occasions when math mistakes are made, the errors are in the customer’s favor as often as in the restaurant’s. In other words, a wash.

But even if you end up on the short end of restaurant-tab mistakes, how much in the hole could you possibly be over a period of 40 or more years if you didn’t take the time to scrutinize every check? $100? $200? $300? I doubt it would be as much as $300, but even if it were, that would average out to only about two cents a day over 40 years. I don’t know about you, but a few minutes of my time is worth a lot more than two cents.

A more recent money saver that I finally backed away from is the dreaded "rebate" game. As you are probably all too painfully aware, it’s a game played relentlessly by computer software companies. All you have to do is read the voluminous instructions, fill out a form that asks you for information that includes everything but birthmarks in private places, cut off the box top from the software package, put it together with your original receipt, and mail it in. Then the software company sends you a rebate of $50 or so – in about eight weeks.

Doh! I finally woke up to the reality that my time and effort is worth far more than the money I was saving by being a rebate addict.

Yes, time is money. How much is your time worth?

Let me make it clear that I don’t believe in profligate spending. But I do believe in factoring in time and stress when it comes to saving insignificant amounts of money. I know that turning your back on saving money flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but the reality is that many so-called savings are nothing more than illusions when juxtaposed against the loss of time and the damaging effects of stress.

[Ed. Note: The more money you make, the less you need to worry about a few dollars here and there. You can increase your income many times over with the treasure chest of proven ideas, strategies, and techniques Robert Ringer has packed into his best-selling dealmaking audio series. Learn how to make penny pinching a thing of the past right here.

And sign up for Robert's Voice of Sanity e-letter here.]

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Uniqueness Matters: How to Differentiate Your Product from the Competition

By Michael Masterson

Think of your primary product. Now answer these two questions: Is there something about it that is better than the other products of its kind? Do you emphasize that advantage in your marketing?

If you answered yes to both questions, be happy: You have an edge over your competitors.

If you can’t compete on price – and most new businesses can’t – then you have to compete with the product itself. And that means positioning it as somehow different from and better than other products of its kind. You do that by establishing a "unique selling proposition" (USP) – identifying a feature or benefit of the product and presenting it as if it were unavailable anywhere else.

To help you come up with a strong USP, here are three points to consider…

The Best USPs Have the Appearance of Uniqueness:

The feature or benefit you decide to promote with your USP does not necessarily have to be unique to your product, but it does have to seem like it is. If, for example, you’re a tailor and you wash and iron every item of clothing you mend, make the washing and ironing your USP. Other tailors may be performing those same services – but if they’re not mentioning it in their advertising, it will make you appear to be the only one.

The Best USPs Have a Trendy Appeal:

The appearance of uniqueness is not enough. If the feature or benefit you’re promoting is not desirable, it will do you no good to promote it. The best USPs are those that tap into trends. The big screen on Apple’s iPhone, for example – a feature emphasized in all its ads – played into a growing demand for bigger and more technically refined TV screens.

The Best USPs Are Conceptually Simple:

If your product’s USP is trendy, it is almost certainly simple too. Very few complicated things ever become trendy. Plus, keep in mind that you have to sell the USP – and nothing sells well that is difficult to explain. The Fedex slogan – "When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight" – is a great example of a conceptually simple (and highly successful) USP.

Uniqueness matters in the marketplace. So make sure you have a USP for every one of your products that makes it stand out in your customers’ minds.

[Ed. Note: Simple direct-marketing techniques like the one Michael just described can help you skyrocket your sales. Find out how you can get proven "shortcuts" to expert-level marketing from two men who know more about the subject than anyone on the planet.]

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The Look That Sells

By John Forde

Graphics and design are a vital part of any sales letter. But before you let your graphic designer take over, make sure you keep this in mind:

• Always, always, always ask your designer to read the copy. I’m blown away by how many don’t. And it shows. Boy, does it show.

• The general rule is that good design can’t make bad copy work, but bad design can destroy the performance of good copy.

• Fancy design isn’t always good design. Your first aim is readability. Your second is to make sure the copy isn’t obscured by the design. Good design makes the copy look and feel easy to read.

• If you throw your finished sales piece onto a table with other finished sales pieces… and it disappears into the pile… you’ve got a problem.

• No screened images behind text. No screened images behind text. Did I mention? Please avoid screened images behind text.

• When in doubt, cut graphics before cutting copy. Really. By the time the designer gets a piece, the copy should be airtight. Or close to it. Graphics are less important than the written message. That’s just the way it goes.

• Designers need to understand the motivations of their target market just as much as marketers and copywriters do. There’s no way to be a good designer when you’re working in a vacuum.

Follow these guidelines, and the design of your sales pieces will always enhance – not detract from – your sales message.

[Ed. Note: Your new business can be profitable much faster with the mentorship of an experienced business builder. Experts like copywriter John Forde give you everything you need to make a business grow and prosper. All you have to do is put their secrets into action.

And for more marketing strategies, sign up for John's free e-letter, The Copywriter's Roundtable.]

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A Neglected Metabolism-Boosting Move

By Craig Ballantyne

If you want to burn a lot of calories, you need to do a lot of resistance-training exercises for the back of your body, not just the front. Your entire upper back is one of your biggest muscle groups. By exercising this important area, you can burn more calories than if you just train your chest and stomach muscles.

A lot of folks have trouble training their upper backs at home because they don’t have a chin-up bar. But you can effectively train your back with a simple dumbbell exercise called the Dumbbell Row.

For the exercise, you need a dumbbell (between 7 and 50 pounds – depending on your level of fitness and strength) and an exercise bench. (A sturdy couch will do in a pinch.)

First, kneel on the bench with only your left knee. (Your right foot should be on the ground.) Bending at the waist, place your left hand on the front of the bench. Your right leg should be slightly bent, your foot flat. Hold the dumbbell in your right hand. Your right arm should be hanging from your shoulder. Your back should be flat and your abs braced.

Pull the dumbbell up and back, so your elbow is bent at a right angle and your upper arm is parallel with your back. Keep your elbow close to your side.

After each set, switch sides.

Do 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions per arm 2-3 times per week to boost your metabolism and burn belly fat. If you want to see this – and other upper-back exercises – in action, check out this video on YouTube.

[Ed. Note: Resistance training is a MUCH more effective way of burning fat and getting fit than long, slow cardio. Learn more here.

And for a free source of fitness ideas, nutrition tips, and motivation, sign up for ETR's natural health newsletter.]

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It’s Fun to Know: Space Station Breakthroughs, Part 3

We’ve told you about two rather peculiar experiments being overseen by Japanese astronauts at the International Space Station: the planned launch of a paper airplane into Earth’s atmosphere and the successful flight of a boomerang inside the station. Well, the Japanese have now topped themselves.

Japanese brewery Sapporo Holdings plans to brew beer using barley grains that were stored on the space station in 2006. The process will yield about 100 bottles. Scientists – whose focus, to be fair, has been on the effects of space travel on the grain, not on the beer – say the experiment will yield important data about growing food in space. This might become necessary as humans spend longer and longer periods traveling the solar system.

(Source: Agence France-Presse)

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Word to the Wise: Durance

"Durance" (DUR-unts) – from the Latin for "to endure" – is imprisonment or restraint by force. It is usually used in the phrase "durance vile."

Example (as used in the Jerusalem Post): "As any ex-con emerging from durance vile eventually realizes, things haven’t remained the same on the outside while he was doing time."

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008

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