Marketing the first business of every Start Up

Looking at the information kept by organizations that keeps stats on the success of businesses, it is quite clear that most businesses fail and fail miserably. And there are many reasons given but a few rise to the top on list after list.The lack of sufficient capital, poor management, not enough business knowledge on the part of the owner, poor location, too low of a price point.One of the primary reasons though why many businesses fail that is almost never mentioned is poor marketing. There are multitudes of new business owners opening their doors everyday with great hopes and expectations having spent money on everything you could possibly consider;  wonderful locations, plenty of stock, top notch equipment, a ready staff of employees etc. etc. Yet they do not even have an advertising budget; not a real one.And they have no marketing plan.  And no vision of how they will communicate to all that they are now born into the business world, with wonderful new products and services with which they intend to bless the world.

The thing which makes this all  the more strange is that in building these shiny new businesses they are leaving behind the most important component of all; the customers.  For to leave behind the marketing is to leave behind the  customers.Robert Kiyosaki in his Rich Dad series, shows us a picture of what he describes as the pyramid structure of a sound business. Not counting the outside walls of the pyramid, which are Leadership, Team and Mission, Communication or marketing was second only to Cash Flow. And Cash Flow is a must to keep the doors open.

Communicating (marketing) is what brings in the money which pays the bills. It is that which will determine whether or not the business will expire prematurely from infant mortality. It has been said that starting a new business is like jumping out of a plane without a  parachute while proceeding to build one before you hit the ground.  New businesses start out with a certain amount of capital, the business must be up and running enough to support itself before the start up capital runs out.

 A mature business that has been up and running for years should have excellent marketing channels and should invest a set percentage of its resources into continuing to communicate with its prospects, its customers, its vendors and those who live within the community in which it operates.The resources that are available to invest are both time and moneyith mature businesses, there are different ideas about how much should be invested toward marketing. Really it depends on goals, marketing efficiency and other factors, but 10%, 15% or 20% can be considerations.

For new businesses though, much higher numbers should be allotted and  definitely greater amounts of time.  And of course care should be taken to conserve all monetary resources as much as possible, always thinking “how can I acquire that without cost” before saying” how can I buy it”.But after all expenditures have been paid  for the week or the month or whatever, massive amounts of both time and money should be cleverly put into the communications (marketing) of the business. Really after the necessary time that is needed to keep the business going has been put in, all of the other time available can be invested into marketing.

As a matter of fact, a new business is really in the marketing business more than it is in its main enterprise in a way.And for all of those owners of start ups who go home nights unsure and not certain , let them resolve to spend the upcoming weeks focusing  primarily on bring in new prospects. And let them change their titles for a while from President of Operations to President of Marketing.

And before long they will be  happy campers with money flowing richly  into their bank accounts and a  list of all the cool things which they must consider doing as they move forward to set up fully their great new ventures.

As I said when I started this post, all stats that monitor new businesses confirm the fact that most fail and fail miserable. But I would love to see a similar survey conducted on  businesses that puts  Marketing/Communication on the top of their priorities.

A Few Basic Marketing Thoughts

Today, I would like to discuss a few things about Marketing. The main thing that I would like to accomplish here is to get the spirit of marketing going. But when I say Marketing, I do not mean just any kind of marketing but I am considering really direct marketing, mixed with guerrilla marketing, mixed with bootstrapping.
I feel that this is the kind more suited to small independently owned businesses as opposed to very large corporations. I am sure that there are some who do not know what guerrilla marketing is so I would like to discuss that briefly. Guerrilla marketing is  marketing that is of a bootstrapping nature mixed with direct response marketing mixed with a certain mindset which I shall expound on later.

So now we have direct marketing, guerrilla marketing and bootstrapping. These are all very good activities for the small business owner. And these are skill areas of business that owners should definitely seek to master seeing they help to keep  cash flowing into the business.

First it is probably best to focus an eye to what direct response marketing is then add to that a word about bootstrapping and then finally add a brief comment about the guerrilla effect to all of that. These all work so wonderfully at promoting a business and of making successful marketing such a doable thing for the small enterprise.

Direct marketing is more accurately, direct response marketing. The main purpose of it is to get a response toward a sell from a prospect or a customer as opposed to say brand awareness or brand building. A large corporation might spend 3 million dollars for a commercial during the Super Bowl and during that spot not even present any special offer or seek to elicit a response to buy. It might  only present  a funny spot to get the company’s name out in front of the audience.

For example Pepsi Cola has spent millions over the years on brand building so that people will be aware that Pepsi is still alive and kicking. Large amounts of money is spent for it to continue to be a  “Brand Name product”.  Small operations should not use much of there resources focusing on building a brand at least not at first.
Only  three beautiful Terrier pups left, from great breed stock, offering them at a 25% discount, won’t last long, call me fast at 555-will-b-gone-soon”.

Now this is a great ad that seeks to elicit a response and this is how small businesses should advertise. This is one of the principles of direct marketing which will definitely put money in the bank. Now let’s look at what you see many times from small operations, which should really be avoided.

Tim’s Automotive Repair… we provide full car care services..we do brakes, oil changes, Tune-ups, diagnostics..We are located at the corners of “Anytime You Decide to and…” Take your Time To  Come On Down”

Now millions and millions of dollars of small  business money go to ads just like this one which makes no real offer and elicits no feelings of urgency to respond. Because no directive is given to respond, there is usually very little response. And lots of money is as a result left on the table…. Smaller operations can not afford to do this.

Now good direct response marketing strategies should definitely be incorporated with bootstrapping.  And bootstrapping , according to Guru Marketer Seth Godin, is really a mindset more so than a financial condition. It arises from the thought that the business should start out profiting almost immediately and that investments in the business should be basically financed  from the revenues from the business.  And that business owners should always first ask “how can I get that.. or how can I do this… without having to use money”.

So mixing bootstrapping with direct response marketing turns out to be a beautiful combination in small and even mid-size operations.

And lastly, adding the guerrilla marketing effect produces a three component powerhouse which provides a great foundation upon which to launch and run a business. I say guerrilla marketing Effect because this kind of marketing is really and foremost a certain kind of business ingenuity.

Ingenuity as in the word ingenious and in the word genius. Guerrilla marketing is to market with a real, down to earth.. common sense genius that is closely in touch with the common man. And so this wise common sense approach is able to produce decisions that  outwit big business bureaucracies and also other small operations who fail to use such an alert ingenuity. So here you have a few items that bode well for the small businesses who take advantage of them. And they all work really well in the area of customer procurement; which is Marketing.

The Psychology Behind Setting Up A Successful Online Business

In creating a simple fishing pole setup, you need to consider what you are trying to accomplish. You have to look at the big picture first, and then you need to know the actual pieces that make it happen Well first you need to realize that you are setting up a 3 part system, just as Vick talked about. And so you first need a product that you absolutely believe in. Why do you have to absolutely believe in it ecause sales is the transference of feelings. And the main feeling that you are seeking to transfer is confidence; certainty. And you will not be able to communicate confidence or certainty about your produce or service if you do not have it yourself.  Believe it or not, we are not able to communicate confidence, or certainty or sincerity or true concern, or anything, if we do not truly have it ourselves. So you need to first have confidence that what you are selling is something that you would recommend to your very dearest friend. Because it increases greatly your power to influence and to sell. business guru, always asks the question Why this question? I believe it is because she understands the power and the energy of certainty and confidence and she never wants her attention to be removed very far from this focus. And so… we want our actions and activities… what we do and what we sell… to add energy and power to our business and our lives also. have sold things that friends of mine needed and wanted to buy from me because they had a lot of confidence in me as a person.  But I did not really want to sell it to them because I didn’t feel good enough about the produ  use to sell Natural Gas contracts door to door. I sold a locked in price for 5 years based on the assumption that Natural Gas prices would remain high and go even higher. Even though I was selling that locked in price,  for some reason, I never bought the product for myself and I was buying natural gas for my own home everyday. I knocked on the door of a sweet lady one day who invited me in and offered me lunch. I sat down to lunch with her and her brother.

We had a great lunch. She called her daughter while we were having lunch and told her about what I was selling. And her daughter came over and I signed up both she and her daughter to a 5 year Natural Gas contract. The price of gas had already dropped that year but it was thought that it would go back up. Now, I did not know anything about the Natural gas market or anything about world gas supplies or supply expectations. I was just out there selling these five year contracts.   Well, Natural Gas prices fell like a rock. The price went low and has since remained that way. That sweet lady and her daughter were locked into a gas price for 5 years that was three times higher than what regular customers were paying. Many times, accompanied by bad feelings, I think of that lady and her daughter. So it is important that you find products to The last thing that I will say about products that you might choose to market  is this. In order to make money with a simple fishing pole or a super sophisticated funnel for that matter is that you need more than one product.You need front end low cost products. Mid priced products and very high end expensive products. You have to realize two things here, one is that people want to buy. People have money and they are engaged in constant daydreaming everyday trying to think of things to buy. And they are going to buy.

Reason Why You Will Probably Fail Online

When talking about simply and quickly setting up an online business, what are the biggest things that stand in the way of getting this done?  One thing is realizing the need to have this as the primary goal in the first place…To get started simply and quickly….  Another one goes back to the holy grail.. the subject of Traffic. If you are looking to set up an online business so that you can make money to transform your life and the lives of your loved ones, Have you made the decision that you are going to do it using free traffic strategies? Why do people choose free traffic over paid?

If You had an uncle who was going to bank roll your marketing. He was going to finance your traffic for you. He was going to buy you all the traffic that you needed to get your business up and rolling,  would you take him up on his offer or would you say No thanks, I would rather go with free traffic. Firstly why do you like free traffic? Ask yourself, why do I like free traffic? I have asked myself that question. Why did I like free traffic?  I think part of it was the desire to become a writer. I think many of us in the internet marketing space like the idea of creating content and making money from it. We like the idea of writing an article or making a video,  publishing it and getting rich from it….Sexy ! When I went to College, I attended a small liberal arts school, Lawrence University in Appleton Wis. It is a small college but a rich college. It use to be called by some the Harvard of the mid-west. Many of the student who attended there had a dream of becoming writers. This was something they considered mainly because they came from a world where their parents and neighbors actually were writers.

They came from the world of the educated elite. The world of Professorships and elite schools. One of my friends whom I sometimes hung out with was Michael Updike the son of John Updike. Anyone who knows anything about American literary writers knows that John Updike is a legend and a giant. I came from the South side of Chicago….. During my years in college, I never had a dream of becoming a writer but many of my College friends did. Many of them wore the professor like clothes and actually smoked pipes at different times, projecting out the image of their dreams. It is an interesting thing to watch a nineteen year old holding an academic conversation while smoking a pipe . I did not know at the time or had really considered it, but they had a desire to create wealth. To become millionaires by writing out the thoughts and ideas that were in their heads… To create wealth from our minds, thoughts and  ideas is a beautiful thing. I believe many, of the people who start a blog, have this desire. A desire to bless the world with the beauty and the power of their ideas and thoughts. To release something new into the world that will add value to it. And to get rich doing it. I did not come from a world where my dad or my friend’s dad or a neighbor down my street was a writer. Like I said, I came from the South side of Chicago. So at the time, the idea of becoming a writer and of making money from it was not something that I had ever considered, even though I had been a writer on my high school’s newspaper. I once wrote an article for the school  paper.  A comic piece about a blind date with a girl named Big Bertha. I had people hollering at me in the halls reciting back to me different lines from the article that was particularly funny to them. I received in fact a tiny bit of popularity in my school, at that time as a writer, yet I never thought at all of what it might be like to become someone who wrote out the ideas in their head to become a millionaire from it. But, I say all of that to say this, I believe that the desire to make money from writing or even something like doing videos, is one reason why someone might choose free marketing over paid marketing. Because the very things that make up free marketing strategies are also the things that are a basic part of what it means to distribute content and be a publisher/writer online. But what is the motivation of someone taking pictures of money and posting it on Facebook in an effort to recruit a down line or to make a sale. I think that his only motivation has to be simply to recruit a down line or to make a sale. That person is only trying to have a business….. He is endeavoring to make money…..

The person who is spending his time link building or social media marketing or using SEO and keyword searches to rank on Google, guest blogging, article marketing, posting comments, building PBN’s, spinning content, what is the reasons behind all of theses different activities? I can only think of two reasons that a person would do these things. One, it is to rank in the search engines to get traffic back to a website because that individual desires to be a publisher, a successful writer, who creates quality content that also creates for him wealth. The other has a desire to get traffic back to a website, so that he can primarily make money… It’s business! Now, for those who desire to become writer-publishers, like I said, I can understand why they would use the Free traffic methods. They are creating an entity, a website on the internet. And web search is the fundamental way that you publish. It is how your message expands in the online world. But why would someone whose main purpose for being online is to have a business and to make money, why would they engage in free marketing strategies.There is one other reason I just thought of, it is because they like it. Seo, link building, ranking sites, this is fun for a lot of people. And some know how to do it with a degree of success.      And a very tiny fraction, with million dollar success.And I understand that…. Be happy…… do what you like……. and make money doing it.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Trading

Samsung has hit hard earlier this year with Galaxy S6 and S6 with its Galaxy Edge, Galaxy S6 active is now finally official. However, Samsung Galaxy S7 is still not official, but just rumours. Less elegant than the S6, reinforced this model offers the same features with a much more impressive battery. Samsung Galaxy S6 Active, Enhanced version of its flagship smartphone. The element-defying version of the Korean flagship was just unveiled as an AT&T exclusive in the US.
Aesthetically speaking, for sure, it does not look anything like its two older smart phones. It is much less pretty to look at, even, but this is not surprising because its hull was reinforced to withstand bumps and drops. In addition to the IP68 certification and mil-STD-810G (for resistance to water, shock and dust proof), The high-end equipment of the Active is confirmed. It has, like the S6.
If you need a phone resistant and able to assist you in all your adventures, then it may hold your attention. Especially it is accompanied by a new application – Activity Zone – who can give you valuable information about your environment.
Samsung has opted to keep the same specs. The Active Galaxy S6 is well equipped with a Super AMOLED 5.1 inch display capable of a type definition qHD (2560 × 1440), with Exynos 7420 Octa-core 64-bit processor. Supported by 3 GB of RAM. The storage space reaches 32 GB and it will unfortunately not be possible to extend it through a micro SD port.

For the photo sensor, and it will feature, we can count on a 16 mega pixel on back of a smartphone and a front camera of 5 megapixels. Double tapping the home button will bring up the camera, low light video, high clear zoom, virtual shot, slow motion, fast motion, pro mode, We discover, however, that the battery of the new Galaxy is much better capacity than the S6 with 3500 mAh against 2550 mAh only. It will thus need only half an hour to fill half. Video Definition recording (in pixels) 3840 x 2160, GPS Software Google Maps, Navigation, Wi-Fi support 802.11n / AC, With bonus, the wireless charging, the possibility of regaining 50% of battery life in 30 minutes and that, when the gauge displays only 10% make calls and send text messages for another 24 hours. Finally, it works with Android 5.0.2 Lollipop.

Make Your Business Visible On The Web With Online Business Directory

No matter how small or large an organization is, it always tries to gain exposure for its targeted clients. And with the advent of the internet, the World Wide Web has become one of the major platforms for such businesses to gain visibility. When a business wants to become visible on the web effectively, then one of the most tested ways is to get registered on an online business directory. All the major search engines give a lot of importance to these business directories and hence, posting your business in such directories will definitely attract more customers towards your products and services.
Features of an Online Business Directory
An online business directory is not the only place where people can locate your business, however, it is one of the most popular places for people to view different businesses. It actually has overshadowed the offline directories which were very common few years back. These online directories have a lot of features and let us now see what they are:
Customer Friendly: These online directories are user-friendly than the offline ones. Any person can easily go through it online and with the help of its self-help guide, finding out the desired information is not at all a tough job.Huge Date Classification: The offline directories have the limitations of the number of pages, however, there is nothing of that sort in the online directories. All the data can be organized easily on the web pages.Easy to Add/Remove Data: If you have already published your business on the online directory, you can always add or remove any particular feature of your products or services. You can make the updates on a daily basis and this is what is more interesting about these online directories.

When you opt for online directories, you will not have to pay for any publishing or distribution costs. Hence, this is indeed a cost effective option for all the business owners.
Eco-Friendly: When we use any kind of book, it means that each and every page is the result of deforestation. However, the online directories are eco-friendly. No tree is being cut in order to make these directories.Easy Promotion: You can always add your company’s website with your business listing on the online directories. This way, the views can directly jump to your website to get a detailed knowledge about your services or products. This means that you will be able to promote your business in a much easier manner.Apart from all the above listed features, you can also enjoy a much higher SEO rank if you include your business in these online directories. The search engines give a lot of priority to these listing sites than any business website. So, you should no more think any further and add you business to these online directories. This way, you will easily be able to attract probable customers towards your products and make profit.

How Unethical SEO Service Providers Bad-Name Professional SEO

I remember back in 2009 when I was learning Search Engine Optimization, our trainer said that SEO has already started to become a field that everyone thinks he/she can do it. Just like we used to have so many (self-proclaimed) web/graphics designers, now you can see hundreds; even thousands of individuals claiming that they know SEO better than experts out there.I do not have any problem with that. Not as long as these SEO spammers do not bad-name and rob SEO clients. I can list a number of reasons why Search Engine Optimization is not for everyone. And believe me, I can prove it.

1. Starting From The Basics, They Don’t Have Any Base

That’s right. The majority of these SEO gurus have not ‘learned’ Search Engine Optimization the proper way. In fact, they have just ‘studied’ it as a topic and they got this crazy idea that anyone can do it. Of course SEO is not that hard or confusing that only selected people can do, but the key point here is to study and learn things the right way; from the basics.

Simply by reading couple of articles on the Internet and participating in couple of Internet Marketing blogs or forums can not make anyone a SEO specialist or a guru at all.

2. False Guarantees, Short-Term SEO Results, Spammy Techniques And Other Lies

When these low profile SEO’s have no clue about how to compile an SEO strategy or how to execute website optimization process, they will do what is obvious—they will mess things up for their clients; bit time. And that’s not all what they do. They lie almost about everything to their clients. They lie about ranking techniques they will be using, they lie about the results a client is expecting to see, they even lie about ranking their websites in a short span of time. Now ethically it is very wrong to misguide and make false commitments with clients for the results they will never see; at least not soon enough.

If I like Google even a little, it’s because of their constant search engine algorithm updates. Such updates have made it easy to track shady and spam SEO practices. Of course spammers can get short-term SEO results and rankings in Google using various Black Hat optimization techniques, but eventually they will be tracked and penalized by the big old G (Google).

How These People Negatively Affect To Authentic And Professional SEO Community

Just like in any other profession or business, people with unethical practices also bring in doubt the good ones. Same thing happens when clients are approached by legitimate SEO service providers. The businesses are more concerned about their online business and they are extra careful in selecting the right SEO company for their website marketing project.

But fortunately there are authentic ways an ethical SEO company can prove to be the right provider for the client. Most businesses ask for references and past SEO projects a company or a service provider has worked on. This minimizes the risk of becoming a victim of any shady search optimization company and it results in client satisfaction as well as winning the project.

What You Need To Do (As A Professional SEO Specialist)

Stay firm. Don’t let these spammers walk on your line. Keep learning and moving forward with latest SEO trends and marketing techniques. I can tell you one thing that identifying a fake SEO is very easy in today’s world as you can instantly tell by the way they talk about SEO and link building techniques. So be happy that you are different and far better than them.

As far as SEO projects and clients are concerned, the business community is now also mature enough to trace if they are being conned or scammed by a fake SEO service provider. Eventually you will see improved number of clients as long as your SEO techniques are not shady and obsolete.

To those who are new to the Internet Marketing world and want to learn things the proper way, there are lots of free and trusted resources out there and you can definitely learn a lot from these sites. Sites like WarriorForum and WickedFire should be your top learning platform when it comes to learning SEO.
If you have anything to add or share your experience about something relevant to this post, please leave your comment below.