Wannabe Entrepreneur

A "Please Help" Post

2008-04-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

But nothing serious. A friend of mine and I have started a website, that will allow you to keep track of your expenses, and even alert you to when you're reaching a you-defined limit. You can add money spent records to your account via text messaging from your cell phone (to an email address, not a phone number yet), or online.

Lots of other features, regarding tracking personal finances are in the works, but in the meantime, we need testers! So if you're the type that keeps track of personal expenses, please, in the spirit of friendship, and entrepreneurship, sign up (we only ask for username and password, nothing else), use the site, and let us know of anything you like/dislike or any errors you encounter.

Visit the site at www.MyWifesMoney.com

Thanks!

Tagged Like A Ragged Fence

2008-02-21T07:09:00.000-08:00

Weird got me so I must participate.

The Rules:

1. Grab the nearest book (that is at least 123 pages long).

2. Open to p. 123.

3. Go down to the 5th sentence.

4. Type in the following 3 sentences.

5. Tag five people. (Or three, or whatever)

"The first (and most cumbersome) is to format the value portion of the hash element into something recognizable, such as a comma-separated list. Whenever you store the hash element, you assemble the list into a scalar by using join, and whenever you retrieve a value from a hash, you split the scalar back into a list by using split. This method is cumbersome and error-prone."

My part would have been more interesting, I think had I not done this while at work LOL.

I tag:
1) Agincourt, because he lives to blog.

2) Anthony, because he'll whine if I don't include him :-D

And the following because they're totally hot:

3) Eerily Like Jane
4) Karyn
5) Kenpo Angel

Back In The Saddle Again

2008-02-21T06:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, so after being a total failure at promotional product sales, I needed a small time period for the entrepreneurial dream to revive itself. Personally, I blame gas prices for the last failure. I chose promotional products because it was something I could do part time, and because past ventures failed (in my personal belief) because of my fear of selling. Well, I countered that fear, and I'm proud of my accomplishments in this last venture. What was lacking this last time, was marketing. I had to do it old school, to make sales. I got out there, canvassed, and cold called like crazy. Whenever I could get some time with people (and not get the cold shoulder), I'd make sales. And I did it MY way. No pushing, or manipulating. Just excitement and belief in the products. I'm 100% confident that I could do it again. But next time, market myself and products better, so I can get calls instead of making ALL of them.

After gas prices went up, all my expenses went to cold calling. I just wasn't getting the customers fast enough to support it. But WHAT A RIDE!

I didn't blog because this is an entrepreneur's blog. I wasn't pursuing anything, and wasn't planning to go back at it too soon, I needed a job. Sadly, I wasn't having a lot of success there, plus fractured my ankle (requiring surgery), and I got attacked by bees and stung over 100 times (another hospital stay) which led to some depression for a bit, another reason to not want to blog.

Fast forward to September of last year, and I finally got a job. I work as a programmer for the county community supervision and corrections department. I've got a lot done here, which has made me well liked by my superiors -unlike my old boss. A nice reminder that anyone ... anyone, can be a manager someday, no training required, or provided. Suck at your own speed.

So now I'm a happy camper at work, and the dream is full throttle again. My friend Ron has had his entrepreneur spirit revitalized for some reason, and has a couple of software projects in mind using cold fusion development for internet and intranet applications. He's included me in this, and gotten me fired up again. We sat down and designed the database for the project, but most of the development has been done by Ron thus far (I'm still learning cold fusion and have to download an editor). We spend time talking about theoretical features of the first project, and Ron's developing them into a tangible, visible output faster than I possibly could. He credits cold fusion's abilities over his own ... I'm not convinced yet.

So that's my newest venture, we'll see how well it goes. In the past, I've wanted to post commentary on politics, humor, etc and didn't because I thought it didn't belong here. But WTF kind of thinking is that? Is it not part of the entrepreneur spirit to make the rules, not follow them? It's my blog, and the rules are mine alone to make or break, so just a heads up, I'll be traveling outside of the title's scope on occasion. It'll be more fun that way too.

Cred to my friend Weird for the cyber kick in the ass to get back to this. Thanks bud!

Pounding The Pavement

2006-07-06T09:59:00.000-07:00

While I can never give up on the dream of one day being an entrepreneur, facts are facts. I have to go back to work. Sadly, that's not going too well either. The only good thing about it is that it seems that most companies prefer that you submit your resume online.

The wife doesn't want me to take "just any job". She's only interested in benefits, not income. She thinks taking a job near minimum wage would screw me more than being unemployed (make the resume look nice). Plus, she doesn't want to have to go back to chipping in as much with the house work. Me, I'm interested in money.

The wife's stance is both good and bad. If I could find some way to make money doing some temp work or something, then I could quickly bounce back into chasing the dream, but jeez Louise, that's not easy to find either. Here I have this amazing spouse that's extremely supportive of my pursuit, yet I need some cash to get going again.

For IT jobs, they only want to hire specific language experience. It doesn't matter that programming is programming, there's little learning curve between programming languages. That's like saying that if you work on Fords, you're somehow incapable of fixing a Chevrolet.

If you've studied any Microsoft visual language, OOP, and C++, you've little to learn to change from one language to another. I don't get it, but hey, I'm not an HR guy. Nor will I ever be, I'd rather be a man whore. Not really, but being an HR guy would totally suck nuts.

The latest business opportunity I'm researching is one called Ocean Pacific Wood Products. You can set up your own store, or sell to businesses like nurseries that don't carry their own line of outdoor furniture, and give them a taste of the profit. I like the products they offer, the profit margins, and the support the company claims to provide. Now I need to visit some places to see if there's even a brick and mortar establishment where I can set up a deal like I've described.

I've also thought about getting a local guy selling those wood kid playsets, and also a sun canopy contractor. I can create a brochure/flyer, and get in with a credit company so I can put "we finance" on the brochure.

So that's where I'm at so far! The journey/struggle continues, only it's looking like I'll have to fantasize from my cubicle again!

Stop The Senseless Pain And Terror

2006-06-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

If you do any sales for a living, this site will make you feel better. Just a heads up, it's a site selling sales coaching or something, but what's cool is they're offering prizes for the best 'worst cold call' story told. The stories are where the best reading lies.

Now This Opportunity Looks Interesting

2006-06-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

I found this business opportunity online. While it's funny in so many ways, I think I can make it work. I'd even venture a guess that it'd be easier than past sales jobs I've done. Firstly, mom and pop owners are loads easier to approach cold than big corporations. And many a mom and pop establishment generates lots of traffic to their businesses. I think the key word here in dealing with this subject is to gently discuss the product, rather than my typical WYSIWYG, "over the top" approach.

I would definitely want to call them "feminine hygiene products" instead of "snatch pads." I also think the wife would appreciate my not discussing her own personal menstrations with potential clients, especially those that live in this little suburb of ours.

Then there's the whole working for charity, yet earning a living at the same time. That's noble! I don't necessarily have to become wealthy to do major good! I like that. Biggest problem I see is going to my 20th High School reunion coming up soon, and having to answer the "so what do you do for a living?" question. That may be the second biggest problem, I'm not sure. I have a ton of friends that will pounce on this one LOL.

Next Step

2006-05-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well the promotional products have been good to me, but not real good. I close sales when I can get in with the decision maker, but the difficult part for me has been getting to him/her. I can say with confidence that the customers that I have in fact earned, are mine, and won't be swayed by any others in the same business. So my strengths in sales are closing, and customer relationship building. I'm also not afraid of cold calling. My weaknesses are getting past "the gate keeper", and rocky road ice cream.

So the work and effort in the sales game I've chosen isn't paying off in the ways that I'd like. BUT I'm learning tons, and have grown a strong appreciation for the business. That being said, I'm not making enough, fast enough to keep me playing 3-6 Hold 'Em at the Kickapoo Casino in Eagle Pass. Oh yeah, then there's that 'help support my family' thing.

Well in the course of developing customer relationships with my clients, it has been mentioned that I have a former career in computer programming. This has resulted in requests for web page development, and computer repair. At first, I was doing it for no charge, but that's a thing of the past.

Long story short, I figured I'd start up a local computer repair business. It turns out there is no service being offered in the town I live in (the town in which I live?). Repair techs are driving in from San Antonio, and charging top dollar for repair. My friend Weird, from Slacker Nation, offers a full realm of computer consulting in Colorado. He brought me up to speed on some quality software to use for service calls. (Sincerest thanks again!) My father made me up some flyers (I guess he was bored), and Uncle Jesse offered to hook me up with some signs to advertise the new business.

Because most of my friends are computer nerds, and because I've worked in the profession (ugh, I shudder at the memory), I have contacts and help abound! Most of them are tech whores for the right dollar amount, so if and when the business grows beyond my ability to provide service by myself, I can half the service fees with them, and have a strong service base. I already have a win-win scenario, now lets just hope I'll have to tap that resource.

So I'll still be out selling promotional products, when there are no repairs or service to be done.

I'll still be a home based business, with the goal of making enough to rent a location, sometime down the road.

I'm hoping that one or the other will take off to the point that I'll have no choice but to drop the other. But for now, I think the combination of the two will keep me from cubicle beelzebub. So keep your fingers crossed for me! LOL

This is perfect!

2006-05-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving on a family camping trip, but I got this in an email, and just had to blog it before I left. This is the difference between satan's cubicle hell (boss) and entrepreneurs (leaders).

BOSS or LEADER ?

If you're put in the position of authority, will you be a "boss" or a "leader"?

The Boss drives his men, the Leader inspires them.

The Boss depends on authority, the Leader depends on goodwill.

The Boss evokes fear, the Leader radiates love.

The Boss says "I", the Leader says "WE".

The Boss shows who is wrong, the leader shows what is wrong.

The Boss knows how it is done, the Leader knows how to do it.

The Boss demands respect, the Leader commands respect.

Being A Whiner

2006-05-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

Mark Cuban had a great article that should inspire any wannabe entrepreneur. Click here to read it, and start whining!

Keep Your Hands Off Our Angels

2006-05-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

Keep Your Hands Off Our Angels

In Public Policy, Economics and Entrepreneurship

It seems that the federal government is bound and determined to stick their hands into our entrepreneurial economic expansion. The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship reports on two competing bills beginning to wind their way through Congress.

Congressmen Don Manzullo (R-IL) and Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) have recently introduced H.R. 5198, the Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE) Act of 2006. This legislation would create a 25% tax credit for individual angel investors or partnerships that invest in qualified small businesses. The credit would be available for investments up to $250,000. Another take on the angel investing issue comes from Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). Along with numerous colleagues, the minority leader of the House Small Business Committee has introduced H.R. 4565, the Angels Nurture Growing Entrepreneurs into Long-Term Success (ANGELS) Act of 2006. H.R. 4565 would create a new Office of Angel Investment at the Small Business Administration. In addition to promoting angel investing as an innovative practice, the Office would make investments (of up to $2 million) to qualified angel groups.

I have a better idea. Stay away from our private equity markets, and instead focus on unwinding the mass of existing government regulations and over 60,000 pages of tax code that only inhibit free enterprise. If government wants to help entrepreneurship all the research shows that they should get less involved, not more involved.

There Are No Experts

2006-04-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

I enjoy reading. I find reading about small business to always be informative, and motivational. Most of them "jive" with each other, on how to run a business, how to make sales, how to get things going, etc. But one thing that most "experts" can't do, is be uniform in their definition of "entrepreneur."

One book, pretty much stated that a difference exists between an entrepreneur, and a small business person. Entrepreneurs were only those that built up huge conglomerates, brought in venture capitalists, and then sold off the business once it were worth quite a few million. All others were "small business" people.

Another one was pretty much of the opinion that if you do anything -anything to earn extra cash in addition to your main stream income, you're an entreprenuer.

To me, an entrepreneur is someone that's always felt that he could do things a bit better, or run a staff better. It's someone that wants the freedom to work as often, or as little, as they want. Someone that wants the effort they put in, to mean something more than the same paycheck of the guy that does just enough to not get fired. And yes, I think it also involved making better money than your job. It's a belief that in this country, if you work hard enough, or be creative enough, you can earn wealth.

That's my motivation. My belief of what an entrepreneur is, is what drives me. If fail this time around (and the odds say I will), I think in order for me to stop altogether, and never pursue the dream again, I'd have to change my definition of entrepreneur. Or change my belief that becoming one, is possible.

I admit, in the rough days of the chase, I kind of wish I could trick my brain into one of those mindsets. Then I could robotically do whatever kind of work, take my paycheck and go home. Go home, and never try to contribute to the world, or to my family. But that'd be kind of like going to a steak house and ordering a salad. There's too much "out there" to tempt you. Terrible bosses for one. Working somewhere that treats its employees and/or customers like garbage is another, And successful entrepreneurs that prove the dream can work. So, I carry on! :)

Those Poor, Poor Kids

2006-04-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

I went to a place called "Hu Hot" a little while ago. It's a Mongolian stir fry type of place where you have a slew of ingredients, usually organized by food type. You have your veggies –celery, baby corn, onions, cilantro and so on. You have your meats –beef, chicken, pork, lamb, squid, etc. And finally, you have your sauces … which I couldn’t recall the wild names and massive selection. This is an all you can eat place, so the line can build up at times, but at the end of it all, is such a wondrous display of teamwork.

The employees at this place are teens, and young adults working around a massive flat grill. It’s at least 15 foot in diameter, with like five workers around it. The cooks will take your bowl, and flop it onto the grill to let it start sautéing, and steaming. Another guy will come around at some time to give it a good mix, and then do the same on the flopped bowl next to it, and so on in succession. It’s really a cool thing to watch. Another guy will go around and mix, flop, or take a finished mixture, put it into a bowl, and serve a steaming pile of mock Chinese goodness to a customer. And still another will spray some cleaning stuff (I’m assuming water) onto the grill, scrape it quickly to a super clean area waiting to be flopped upon once again. The guys are doing all of this, while being courteous to one another, being courteous to the customers, and not stepping on each other’s toes, all at amazing speed!

At first I stood there, watching in awe. It was like watching music being performed, it was just a brilliant system. After a short while, I started to feel sorry for these guys. I could hear some of their conversations, and I do believe that every last one of them were either university students, or high school students already accepted into a university. First I thought about the beer guzzling, getting flashed by girls on spring break, having pizza for breakfast days that lie ahead, and then I started thinking about these kid’s futures.

You see, they’ll go on to college, graduate and find a nice corporate job. One with a retirement plan, whoa boy! No doubt programmed by their parents as I was –go to college, get a good job, stay there until you’re too old to do it. If that’s your idea of living a good life, mazeltov. I’m not one to criticize … okay, I am but I’m not criticizing right now, that’ll come in a minute.

The problem comes when these guys, who are now no stranger to what true teamwork is, in business. Get the job done, get it done well, and make sure the customer’s needs are met, if not exceeded. They’re used to everyone pitching in to get the job done, and doing that job to the best of your ability. And when they get that exciting job, sporting a tie, decorating their cubicle, going to happy hour on Friday, playing at the office bowling night, they’re eventually going to be so entirely disappointed. They’ve already seen teamwork at it’s best (on the job). And w0hile they expect team work, and fun on the job, they’re going to be hit right across the mouth with bureaucracy, and catty people that will do anything to kick you down a notch to make themselves look better. They’ll be overjoyed at their first “meeting in the conference room” until they see that it’s only purpose is to suck management’s ass by mentioning inane subject that has nothing to do with getting things accomplished. They’ll think they’re part of a team until someone steals credit for their ideas, and their work. They’ll lose the smile on their face when they realize that doing a good job, doesn’t mean anything, that it’s all a game of politics, and how you play it.

I felt sorry for them, at first. They were part of a team that was like a well oiled machine. Everyone was doing a job unto themselves, but it was in unison with each other, to complete one task, complete it quickly, and complete it well. But then I thought, “well these guys will know what true teamwork is like. They’ll have degrees and they couldn’t possibly become corporate drones!” So come to think of it, I think Hu Hot might be perfect entrepreneur training. Then I envied those guys. They’ll have learned the lesson a bit deeper than I did at that age, and just might be able to deprogram themselves while they’re still living with their parents.

Promo Products Outpace Ad Spending, Now Greater Than Cable, Outdoor, Online Display

2006-04-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

Promo Products Outpace Ad Spending, Now Greater Than Cable, Outdoor, Online Display
by Joe Mandese, Monday, Apr 17, 2006 8:06 AM EST
Falk AdSolution
U.S. AD SPENDING MAY HAVE trailed the growth in the U.S. national economy last year, but another form of marketing - promotional products - grew faster than the GDP, and that ad industry too. Spending on promotional products jumped 5.1 percent in 2005 to $17.8 billion in 2005, according to estimates released Friday by the Advertising Specialty Institute, a trade group representing major distributors and suppliers of promotional products - everything from apparel to pens and mugs emblazoned with corporate logos and brand messages. By comparison, U.S. ad spending rose only 4.6 percent, according to Universal McCann's estimates; and only 2.9 percent according to ZenithOptimedia's estimates, the two leading chroniclers of ad spending on Madison Avenue. Promotional products are only one component of an even larger consumer and trade promotion industry, which periodically vies with conventional advertising for share of marketing budgets. Based on ASI's new data, promotional product spending in the U.S. is now greater than cable TV ad spending, is twice as large as Internet display advertising and five times greater than outdoor advertising outlays. That comparison was drawn with TNS Media Intelligence's most recent 2005 ad spending estimates for those fast-growing media.

According to ASI, 2005 was the second consecutive year of record ad spending by promotional products marketers, and the third year of growth since the sector ebbed in 2002, following an overall marketing recession in 2001.

Another Opinion of MLMs

2006-04-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

Jeff Cornwall, from The Entrepreneurial Mind blog wrote an article on MLMs that I enjoyed. It's a short post, but a darned good summary of MLMs. Those at the top of the pyramids prey on people that want desperately to be entrepreneurs. I just wonder how many dreams are squelched as a result of their misleadings and scams. How many will never again attempt to fulfill their dream?

Make All The Mistakes You Can As Soon As You Can

2006-04-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

Robert Kiyosaki said in one of his books, something to the effect that attempting to run your own business is the best education you can get in running a business. He encouraged the reader (in this case, me) to just go out there, and do it. He even quoted Henry Ford, when he was at the top of his game, and a billionaire. A billionaire for that time was beyond riches that even Bill Gates has ever known. When a reporter asked Ford what he would do if he lost everything he's ever had. Ford replied that it would take him about 5 years to get it back. The reason given was because Henry Ford had already blazed the path to being a billionaire. He already knows how to do it, so doing it a second time, for him, wouldn't be all that difficult.

I find things like this highly motivating. I know, it's not all that masculine, but things like this are what have made me a "self motivator" in seeking entrepreneurship. Since I quit my job, I'm happy with the time and effort that I've put into the pursuit of my goals and dreams. I'm just not yet happy with the results.

My partner, one of my best friends since childhood, just doesn't see things the way I do. I wanted to pursue sales and marketing (basically communications), I wanted to conquer it. I want the knowledge of sales and marketing to pursue any venture in the future. I truly, wholeheartedly believe that I can earn a million dollars in my pocket, but ... baby steps.

In keeping with the motivational wisdom Kiyosaki imparted, I wanted to jump head first into sales and marketing, and get my trial (education) by fire. My partner is more manufacturing oriented. He wants to not outsource so much, and bring the printing in house, as much as we can, to increase the profit margin. I went along with it, because hey, it's a partnership. We took 3 months in pursuit of knowledge and experimentation of screen printing. We learned a TON, and can now screen print, but it took too long. I lost site of my own personal goals, while trying to accommodate my business partner. I never in my life had a desire to be a manufacturing engineer. When I quit my job, I wanted to use the time I was allotted to set things in place so that I'd never have to go back to working for somebody ever again. Now, through nobody's fault but my own, I may have to admit defeat and go back into cubicle world. I have a month. I'm hoping to make enough sales this month, to keep me afloat for one more month, and so on. I don't know if I'll be going at it alone or if my buddy is going to back me up and contribute to the ride or not. I'll let you know. But I can't let the partnership be an obstacle to my own desire and ambitions. Plus, I really enjoy using my blog to tell sales stories gone bad.

The worst thing about going back to working for someone else is the way computer programmers seem to be perceived by Human Resources' cubicle pilots. It seems to be that if you have professional experience in say, VB6, you're somehow not qualified for a VB.net job. Or if you worked on C++, you're somehow not qualified to work in a Java shop. It's ridiculous! In addition, it doesn't matter what your competency level in any given language is. Unless you've done it professionally, you might as well not even list it on your resume. My professional experience is in a proprietary mainframe language, so the market looks slim. Since my degree is in electronics, I'll probably wind up with a job installing cable or something. That stinks in one way, because the pay won't be anywhere near that of a programming job. On the other hand, some physical activity on the job just may help me work of the tons of fat that I put on while working as a computer programmer. I think the worst part is that my friends will start calling me "Kirk The Cable Guy" ... GIT R' DONE!

Moving Along

2006-02-28T18:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I finished the website for Makela Fence. Critique and reviews are welcome. I basically modified a style sheet template, and had to do photo editing to complete the site. I'm confident in my html knowledge, but the photo editing thing took awhile.

The past two weeks have been rough! My mother went in for knee replacement surgery, and my wife just yesterday had her gall bladder taken out. We have quite a few orders to fill right now, so the timing of all this wasn't that great. If you take out the fact that my wife's in pain right now, it's actually pretty cool. Normally, if I had this much work to do (house work, taking care of the wife, visiting mom, and work for money), I'd be stressed and overwhelmed. But I've dreamed about being a true entrepreneur for so long in my life, that I just can't help but totally dig the ride.

Earlier today, I thought to myself, "we have to do the dry cleaner's store front vinyl, screen the decals and magnets, cut vinyl for that customer, make up a sign for that store, and put the finishing touches on the website. Man there's so much to do ... COOL!!!!!!!!" That pretty much sums it up too. I'm just ecstatic that my dream is being fullfilled. We're still bootstrapping it, big time. No money coming into our pockets yet, because we keep buying equipment for the business, but that's pretty awesome too. We have ASSETS! WOOOHOOO!

On the downside though, there's been quite a few people close to me, and that the wife works with that have been kind of quick to attach a "bum" label on me. The fact that we didn't have health insurance and the wife got sick just increased that attitude, and the fricken lectures. Few understand what I'm trying to accomplish. Few can actually see that this is the truest path to financial freedom, not to mention the freedom that allows me to be a better husband and father. We just had bad luck with the timing. But the pressure is ON, and on big time. I need to produce, produce, produce, and fast. The nagging, the "see I told you so", the lectures ... has increased exponentially now, so I have to work even harder. Don't stop and smell the roses until much, much later. Focus more on incoming cashflow. So sadly, I don't have a lot of time to "make it" now. If unsuccessful, I guess I'll have to rename this blog to "used to be entrepreneur," and it'd pretty much just be a big ol' bitch session about my corporate job, the hours, the "lots of people would love to have your job" mentality, and all that happy horse hockey.

So to quote Randy Quaid, "I'll git back t'ya wit more details"

Business Savants

2006-02-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

I've never been one to really hide the fact that I don't know something. It's never appealed to me to "fake it," at least not in my adult life. I like learning new things, so I'd ask questions whenever I didn't know something. Even to the point of irritating others at times. Since starting my wannabe venture, I've ran into an odd type of entrepreneur, the business savant. All of them are making more money than we are, but they're still somewhat ignorant of all the specifics and details of what they do.

One guy, a sign maker, produces his product mostly by silkscreening, was just absolutely amazing. We've affectionately refered to him in private as "Uncle Jesse" because he looks like the hispanic version of Uncle Jesse from The Dukes Of Hazzard. I stop and get coffee at this little Mexican restaurant by my house, each morning, and there he is. He has breakfast with his wife and adult kids, each and every day. And he pays for the whole shebang. It's a nice reminder of one of those freedoms of being an entrepreneur. While most people are chatting around the office coffee pot, and trying to get it together to start the work day, he's just got up about 30 minutes ago, and is now sitting down to a long family breakfast at his favorite restaurant. Way cool.

The guy is an artisan, when it comes to silkscreening. Silk screening is something we're trying to do in house, and actually make a decent profit margin from products for a change. I've been to "Uncle Jesse's" place. It's a converted house with a sign. Every piece of furniture in it is homemade. The desk, his work areas, all made out of untreated, unpainted 2x4's and plywood. He is a fricken genius at using his graphics software, yet he can't use one single technology term correctly. And he doesn't care to. He does "just fine thank you." Mention the term entrepreneur and he'll fan his hand at you. Just try talking business with him. He blows every bit of it off. "My wife/son/daughter/accountant handles that, I don't know." Yet he started by himself and did every bit of the work himself for quite a few years. He just eventually hired his family. He did it all himself without knowing ... anything!

He showed us these enormous signs, that he silk screened. I asked him how the heck he did that, and the guy happily and excitedly took us out back to one of his ... umm .. silk screening stations. It sat under a deck-like covering, yet there was no deck to stand on, only the dirt. Sitting under the homemade awning/covering was an old pool table, with this humongous screen sitting on top of it. The screen frame looked like it was made out of old landscaping timbers or something. Tied to each front corner was a piece of rope, which went up to the beam in the "ceiling", through a pulley and down to a cinder block. That was his counter weight. There was no environmental controls, no dust protection, no rain protection, nothing. He had a squeegee that went across the short width of the pool table, that he and his assistant both use at the same time to run the ink through the screen. He had drying racks that he made out of any piece of spare lumber he could find, just sitting out there under the elements. And his signs were beautiful! John is a newbie at silkscreening said that this man violated every rule he was told about proper silkscreening. Yet the guy went on and on about this three thousand dollar order, that four thousand dollar order, etc. He walked outside and pointed to business after business of the signs he made.

He showed us an amazing photo album of the work he'd done for small and absolutely huge businesses. We even told him, we wanted to do signs, and he just didn't care. He's got a reputation in the business, so we're just not going to get his customers. He told us everything we wanted to know and then some. Of course we'll pass along any high end quantity of business that we can't handle, over to him, but he doesn't really know that either. He was just as happy as you please to tell us anything we wanted to know, and then some.

He also said that he doesn't advertise one bit. One hundred percent word of mouth. And here I am pounding the pavement to drum up business. Working it online and off, cold calling at every opportunity. Sure, there's some money coming in, but not like this guy. Now "Uncle Jesse" is the most extreme example of what I'm talking about, but I'm meeting people just like him all over town. You couldn't get them to "talk shop" about business, they have no idea. And they're too busy helping customers and making sales to go find out.

Quite a humbling experience, let me tell ya. I thought I was learning so much by just doing and reading. Now I find out that maybe I'm a bit too anal about things and I should just shut the hell up, and sell.

The more money you have, the easier it is to start your own business.

2006-01-24T20:10:00.000-08:00

I was selling promotional products when I was given a really good price on a vinyl sign cutter. I thought I did good research. I thought, "Wow, I can make signs, automotive graphics, and decals! Cha-ching! It really was a good price, too.

Well after we got the cutter, inventoried everything, got familiar with it, we went out just like I do with specialty advertising products. I was cold calling, telling people about the new weapon we've added to our arsenal of products and services that we could now provide. But it turns out, that a boat load of people own sign cutters.

There are people out there, that know absolutely squat about computers, but know enough to use it to cut vinyl. And they're everywhere, like boners in a gay dance club. Selling at prices that aren't even worth your time, in my opinion. If it would take you, say 4 hours to design, cut and install a company name, trade license number, and phone number on both doors of a truck, maybe add a small logo here and there, you should charge for your time. But most guys "out there" are doing it for pennies. I guess they figure some money is better than no money.

You can't just buy a sign cutter, and boom, you're in business. Not like if you had, say a restaurant on a busy street. You may not make a profit the first day you open, and yes, you need to market it to the local area, but you will have customers on opening day. That is, if you're not a moron. To own and operate a successful sign business, you need to do just like you do in promotional products. You need to take a good long time to establish relationships with people, so that they'll think of you whenever, if ever the need arises. And then they need to like you enough to not go to the guy doing it for pennies.

We found them all over the place. They're in every flea market in town. There's huge sign franchises in town, there's mom and pop ones on every major road. So if you want to go into the sign business, it's not like a restaurant, where you'll have customers your first day.

So now in addition to clocks, and in addition to signs and banners, we do silk screening. Our possible profit margin is increasing slowly with a growing in house production. However, you can buy an industrial silk screening machine, for about five hundred dollars. You can by a flash dryer, for five hundred dollars, and all the chemicals you need for about a hundred dollars. So for about 1500 bucks, BAM! You're a silk screening business. And yes, like signs, silk screeners are everywhere. And again, the only way to get customers, is to call on them. Which many people seem to just hate. I often hear people say, "if someone came in my place of business to sell me something, I'd tell them where they can stick it!"

Entrepreneur magazine write about this "turn dirt into dollars" business opportunity in one of their many lists. I checked it out as best I could. It's a full stationary unit, that steam cleans carpets. It's not your typical "hook it all up to a big van" type steam cleaner. There's carpet dying stuff too, to fully rejuvenate carpets and upholstery. They even claim to offer guarantee of income, in writing. It's a great sales pitch, and they have wonderful copy. So good, I couldn't help but be tempted. You could charge about 200 bucks for an average sized house, and clean an average house in an hour "or two." The price is just above six thousand dollars. But the more I thought about it, the more my limited experience was telling me it might not be such a great idea. This is a sign cutter, or silk screening set up all over again. If it's $6,000, there's quite a few people that can afford it, and in a short time, people will be steam cleaning carpets for 20 bucks.

If you had a lot of up front, start up money. You'll have sales on your first day. If you have millions to spend on your own Mc Donald's franchise, then the day that Mc Donald's opens, you will show income on the books. If you have the money to open a clothing store in a mall, you'll have sales the first day you lift up that metal gate and start letting people in your store. But if you want to be in business, and figure that you can use your current income to finance it as things come along, welcome to the sign making and/or silk screening business.

Cold Calling Can Be Gruesome!

2006-01-18T21:46:00.000-08:00

This guy, Steve Chittenden told someone online that, "Cold calling can be grueling and the success rate is usually low. Everyone has to develop a method that works for them, which is also to say that no method works for all."

And that's it exactly. I know a LOT of people that were able to cold call a lot more often after someone told them that each "no" puts them that much closer to "yes". For me, I look at cold calling as a celebration of my entrepreneurship, and it makes me reflect on my current freedom, not having to play the political office dance ritual anymore, and the results of the company dependent on my own efforts. But before I reached that mental state, I hated cold calling and could barely show a moticum of effort. Last week, I cold called 200 attorneys from the yellow pages. I got nothing for my efforts except the belated realization that when cold calling, don't call attorneys, the filthy buggers. But lesson learned, and I'll call 200 of some other occupation tomorrow. Because I can do that.

I know that I'd already mentioned my cold calling 200 attorneys. But talking to a lawyer is worse than walking through 20 feet of hot burning coals to prove your manhood. I'll take the coals over cold calling those egocentrics any day of the week!

Side Note:
My partner was getting his haircut, and I almost razzed him about shaving his head, or getting a dye job to some ridiculous color. And the reality of it hit me. He CAN do that! It's his choice, but he's a entrepreneur, the choice is his. Of course he's really not big on change, and anything to draw physical attention away from his intelligence, so hell would freeze over first. But the important thing is that we CAN do odd things. That's what it's all about. We have the ultimate freedom. Next step, acheive ultimate paychecks!

Oh Just ... Be Quiet, Please!

2006-01-13T21:41:00.000-08:00

I don't mind advice, generally. I certainly don't have all the answers, or I'd already be rich. You never know who has what kind of suggestion that might make all the difference in the world. Entrepreneurship isn't rocket science, but it's not the simplest thing in the world either.

I like when I tell people what I do, and we discuss, and a suggestion or two will come out. Most often, it's just kind of placed on the table for me to take, or leave and that's cool. What really ticks me off to no end though, are the ones that have never reached a single level of success in starting their own business, but act like they just absolutely know beyond any doubt, how things work. I've met computer techs that know accounting, better than any CPA. I've met programmers that know more than any certified business attorney with a legitimate bar number, all the legal ins and outs of business. They're somewhat militant that they know this stuff too. They'd be offended if I ever said, "I'm going to talk to an attorney/CPA on that." They're like "why's that, I already told you what you need to know" either in words or facial expressions. It's amazing to me. What's typically even more wild, is these same people have the same dream I do. They want to start up, and own a successful business all their own. But they've barely stepped foot into the arena, if they've stepped at all. And somehow, I'm supposed to listen to them?

Everyone is proud of their knowledge. Whenever someone learns something new, they want to test others about it, present it to others, or just make statements of fact a la Cliffy from Cheers: "Well ya know Normy, the first entrepreneur was a postal carrier." I think it's human nature, personally. And it's also human nature to want to be right. I guess most people hate to be proven wrong, or to sound like they don't know what they're talking about ... or something. But where does the assume fact, then pass on "knowledge" act stem from? People think they know something, and then just throw it out there as proven fact. What's going on there? Oh well, I'm just venting, like the kid that asked to many animals how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop, the world may never know.

So far this year I've had more online sales than face to face. And I've found that true business relationships are built just as easy online as they are offline. The year is starting off okay so far. The goals right now are to do what we can to go beyond the 20% margin. John and I looked at taking some silk screen classes, so we can do more in house manufacturing. I also cold called two hundred attorney's offices this year. That was a complete and utter waste of time. So if you're considering going into the specialty advertising business, my first bit of advice is to steer clear of the sharks ... errr, lawyers unless you get there by referral. They're cheap and mean, and typically not interested in promotional products.

I also think maybe fate is trying to tell me not to abandon my old profession. What's funny is that I tried to start a web design business about five years ago, and it failed miserably. Now that I'm focused elsewhere, I've been flat out asked about 10 times to write web pages for different businesses. So I'll be adding web design to my services, and in effect will have to add more to my webpage, to offer those services. Check out http://monvalleyfitness.com/ for one I recently reworked. I wrote the page about 5 years ago, and was happy with it back then. But it was done using frames! How five years ago is THAT??!! It's funny how you can be so proud of a project at one point, and then so embarassed by it a short time later, huh? So ... I won't be heavily advertising it, but web pages have an okay cost to them, to finance other things, business related. I think I'm making a wise move here. Time will tell.

Sales Closing Techniques No Longer Work

2005-12-24T23:08:00.000-08:00

I didn't write the article, let that be known. It's definitely worth sharing, so check it out, here

Merry Christmas!

Zig "the jerk" Ziglar

2005-12-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

Well I posted here about the clocks. Word of mouth sales were good. We went through option after option, racking our brains for a method of selling the rest, and if they sold well, getting more supplies and selling more. My partner took a clock with a Masonic emblem on the face to his father (a Mason), who really, really liked it. That meant that the next formula in the sales process, is to get referrals. To John, that means simply saying, “please tell your friends” and ending it right there. To me, it means asking for numbers. Do as much of the job as I can for the customer. Just give me the names and numbers of people you’d think would like the clocks as much as you like yours, and I’ll take care of everything else.

John thought it was pushy, and a bit rude, so I asked around. The first person I asked was his wife. The idea made her go ballistic! "That's just rude, crazy, pushy and downright wrong! I'd be pissed if anyone ever did that to me!" I quote Hawkeye, in one of my favorite episodes of M*A*S*H*, “Umm, put down one ‘No’ ”.

So I asked my wife. Same answer, same tone. “If someone did that to me, I’d be royally ticked off at them! I’d just be thinking ‘I can’t believe he did that to me!’ “. I asked other people too, mostly friends. The typical answer was pretty much the same, and all of their replies to the question contained the two word phrase, “did that.

What is “did that”? What, exactly is that, and why is that so terrible? Answer: send a salesman over. Salespeople are evil, salespeople are bad. Okay, I can accept that, salesperson equals vulture, all salespeople are jerks. And I too would be pissed if someone sent a jerk my way. And why are they evil? Because most of us, at one point in time, have felt conned, or ripped off, or made to feel exorbitantly uncomfortable, by a salesperson.

I tried to convey that no one is sending a salesperson to their friend’s house, they’re sending me. And while they all knew good and well that I would never intentionally make someone feel uncomfortable, the fact that I would arrive all ‘salesman like’ is enough. That’s an automatic aura of unease.

All the same, we’ve all purchased from salespeople before, and we all will, in the future. So there’s a problem. How do you sell, while never making a client uncomfortable?
At this point, I don’t have a clue.

Why is there a stereotype of salespeople anyway? I think it can all be summed up in the phrase “hard sell”. At one point in time, we’ve all had some jerk use a phrase like “if you really love your family,” or “if you purchase right now,” or “would you like one, or two?” when you never implied that you’d like any. These are all tactics and tricks of the “hard sell.”

Why these tricks ever came about, I’ll never know. But I know who propagated it. Zig fricken Ziglar. His whole life has been pushing hard sell tactics, under a different name. He won’t say, “hard sale,” he’ll say something like “convincing a client of their need.” He won’t say “handle objections” he’ll say something like “objections are just invitations for you to tell them more about the product” or “objections are just misunderstandings.” No, jerko, that’s hard selling.

I was forced to reflect back to when I did door-to-door sales, selling security alarms. The day I resorted to the hard sell as taught to me by Zig Ziglar … and it worked … is the day I quit. I didn't like myself very much afterwards. But I didn't realize that so many had been burned so hard in the past, that the term "salesman" is now so tainted, and synonymous with "asshole" to the majority of people.

So the next option on the list: direct mail. We’ll make up a clock that we feel will appeal to a certain target market, get a list, and mail out flyers. See if we can get orders that way. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Bootstrapping Is An Honorable Way To Start Up

2005-12-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

"I define Bootstrapping as the act of starting a business with little or no external funding. Bootstrappers don’t write lengthy business plans, chase deep-pocketed investors, or indulge in overly academic market research exercises. Instead, they focus all of their considerable energy, brainpower, determination and skills on creating a business that can actually succeed in the real world." - Greg Gianforte, CEO, RightNow Technologies

Did you ever notice that bootstrappers in business are the most under appreciated, when it comes to business resources? I've found one site dedicated to bootstrappers in a quick google search. Just one! And it's more motivational and informative than a provider of resources for the bootstrapper.

We need more than a definition of bootstrapping, and singing the praises of boostrappers that have "made it" (yes, we know that Michael Dell is one of the most famous bootstrappers). We need marketing tips, inexpensive adversiting, networking, and freelance exchanges.

I was called by a friend the other day, who is bootstrapping his own catering business. He's got a huge paying gig coming up, and needs an assistant. It pays cash money that night, plus tips. I'll probably walk away with about two hundred bucks that night. That's good advertising money, for my business. My commission checks thus far go right back into my business, for various things, but mostly to build more business. An ad here and there, thank you cards, etc. That two hundred dollars will help things to progress for another month for me. I'm all out of my own specialty advertising products to give to my customers, so now I can happily make an order of product for my company, to pass out once things heat up again next month.

Now there's freelancing websites out there, we have entrepreneur magazine, and a multitude of others. But do any exist solely for the business bootstrapper?

The idea of doing Santa pictures along side corner street vendors was presented this past friday to me. I think the idea was inspired by my huge gut, but that's neither here, nor there. Had the idea came at the beginning of the month, I could be making bank right now, selling Santa pictures for 1/2 the price of the mall pictures. It's a nice way to make money during a typically slow month in my business. If a resource for bootstrappers existed, then this and other ideas to make a quick buck and fund more business expenses, maybe more bootstrappers would "make it."

I guess I just identified a possible need in the marketplace, I don't know. If you're a budding entrepreneur without an idea, that's one you can pursue and research. See if my idea has any merit. Just be sure that if you take the idea, and "make it," that you come to me for your specialty advertising, or promotional product needs, darn it!

Being a boot strapper takes loads of ambition and relentlessness. I'm proud to pull myself up this way. My acquaintance, "weird," posted here that I shouldn’t call myself a “wannabe” anymore. Well I won’t change the name of my blog, that’s marketing suicide, but if I were to actually change it, it’d be “bootstrapping.”

If you have any ideas for bootstrappers to make some extra money, post it. I’ll make a separate page and link to it from the blog. Giving you full credit, of course!

Custom Clocks

2005-12-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

Here's a copy of the flyer we made for clock sales. Just thought I'd share. Right now, we're debating on the best way to sell them to the public. Choices are: To hit businesses, and drop off a flyer. Then go back and see if anyone there wanted to place an order; To post them around the area in places that have public bulletin boards. To set up a table out in John's front yard, like a yard sale; To set up a table at a busy intersection. John made a huge copy of the flyer ... like 3 feet by 2 feet to display.

Right now, all our sales have resulted from word of mouth. But I want the BIG money! ;)

Selling To Jerks

2005-12-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

So there's this huge industrial looking business. It's got a building the size of an aircraft hangar out there, and a piece of metal pipe about five feet in diamter sitting off to the side, rusting. A small building sits in front and there's a sign. Which leads me to believe it's a commercial business. Perhaps they'd be interested in marketing their business with specialty products.

I walk in, just as happy as you please, because, I'm an entrepreneur! I'm ready to take on the world! I'm working for myself, out there, creating my own results. "How are you today sir? May I speak with the person in charge of purchasing your advertising?" Nothing wrong with that approach, is there? Well the reply I got was "that'd be me, and we're not interested" and he didn't even look up at me. Okayyyyyy, now here's where it gets hairy.

My initial reaction, to myself, was "move along, he's a jerk." But all the sales books don't tell you to do that. You should stay, and "overcome the objection," the books say. So I come back with, "okay, do you have competitors?" To which he rudedly replied, "of course I do, everybody does, and we're not interested." Now books and tutorials would be proud. This guy was being an ass, and I stayed, like a glutton for punishment. "wouldn't you rather your business name be in your customers eyes more often than that of your competitor?" This time he got more stern, but still he answered, "of course I would, but we're not interested." So at that time, I thought books be damned, I'm leaving. I did find it funny a little, too. I worked hard to supress a laugh as I walked out. I didn't let him get me down in the slightest, but I did have to ponder about how we're struggling to get off the ground, and there's a guy that's a real jerk, owning a business big enough to have to support a doghouse for a 747. Is that what it takes? Do you have to be a jerk to "make it?"

Anyway, so I have a problem. According to sales books, I should have overcome all of that, and pushed past it, to find the "real reason." Then I should have built a relationship of trust with him, perhaps visit him up to 8 times, and finally get an order. But why? Why would I want to get to know this guy in the slightest, or even bother to get to know him? I don't want his business, the guy can make a business out of kissing my ass.

A lot of sales books also say, "it is twenty percent of the sales people on this planet/in your company/ in the sales profession ... that make 80% of the money." Well if I have to work with jerks like THAT, you can keep his money. I'll settle for 79% of the money.

Life Truly Is The Greatest Teacher

2005-11-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a ride! So much has happened, and so many lessons learned, I’m not sure I can report it all.

John and I went out scouting locales to set up and sell signs, banners, and car decals. It didn’t take a lot to realize that the market is saturated with “sign guys.” The realization of that was quite disheartening. Even more disheartening than the time I was eight, and found out the pro wrestling was fake! One reason why it was such a let down is because every beginning business book out there tells you to analyze your market before you launch. We didn’t do that, we let our gut tell us what to do. Lesson learned!

I did see one guy with the busiest booth of the entire flea market selling car decals. I call them “thug decals” which is stereotyping, I know, but that’s my word for it. I’d imagine a lot of teens will love the decals, and as old men once referred to teens as “whippersnappers”, I’m now referring to them as thugs, mostly for my own jocularity. If they want a decal of frogs having sex in various positions, and they have the money, then they shall have it. They’ll walk away happy with their newest purchase, and I’ll sit there wondering why their parents haven’t beaten some sense into them. My God, I sound like I’m 80!

So we haven’t given up on finding a location, but there was a realization, that our efforts and attempts are pretty much just a smidgeon above that of Avon, or Mary Kay sales rep. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Those pink caddies ARE earned, that’s for sure. But if anyone wants to get into the business of specialty advertising, and some in house printing of vinyl signs, car decals, buttons, banners, etc, they need a thousand bucks, and some computer literacy. That’s it. Avon and Mary Kay dealers don’t necessarily need the computer literacy, and it costs fewer than 200 dollars to get set up. So it’s like I said, we’re just a tiny bit above that. I do think though, that life has taught me now, that the more you get to invest in your business startup, the easier time you’re going to have in becoming successful in your venture. Lesson learned.

There are people in my business, people selling Avon, selling Mary Kay that earning a ton of cash. I’m committed to my business right now, and I have faith that I can make a go of it. Not only just to make a show though, I’m talking be a leading sales rep in the industry. I have that much determination, and belief in entrepreneurialism. I have that strong of a belief in myself. But the realization of where my current station is was a bit disheartening. It also means that the money will come, later. I have to build relationships, build sales, build routes, and prospect my butt off. I’m ready for the challenge, but another huge lesson learned here.

John was a bit disheartened too. So much so, that he wanted to search for a product that we could sell, and earn us both some “Christmas money.” The idea for that came, because business tends to slow during the holidays, and sales along with it. But Christmas … “stuff” sells wildly this time of year. Well we thought we’d look into custom clock manufacturing. Put a family photo, a nice picture, an organizational logo, what have you, on a clock. Well since December is right around the corner, we don’t have time to price hunt clock parts from various manufacturers, set up an account, and wait shipping time to get parts. So we went to Hobby Lobby. They wanted 5 dollars for just the clock mechanism. Considering that the substrate would run more than that, we realized, in very short order, that we couldn’t go this route.

While driving home, John came up with the idea of hitting what we now call “the China connection,” a.k.a. a national dollar store chain. John figured if a whole clock could be picked up for less than 5 dollars, we could just use the mechanism inside those (they’re all the same), to make our clocks. So we found these super generic, black and white clocks. Eight and a half inches in diameter, no frill, clocks. Well we soon realized that we could just customize these exact clocks, add more life to them, and sell them at a flea market or something. So John went to work. I left him after we made a Sponge bob clock (for internal use only), a Masonic one, a heraldry shield one, and a “H.I.M.” one for his daughter. The response from family and friends was pretty high. So this time, we did follow the books, we did market research. In the process of doing the research, John sold 14 clocks, just asking people for their opinions of them. And he’s not the salesman of the group. So we went out and bought a bunch more generic clocks. I sold one sight unseen when a friend called, just because it has the Masonic symbol and his lodge number on it. So okay, we’re on to something. Of course we had to have the text book “partnership disagreement” on how to go about selling them, but we’re agreed on hardcore sales attempts up until Christmas. We worked on some brochures for it yesterday.

I had the idea of offering clocks with kid’s portraits in them, at private daycares. We still need to iron out the details, but we figured would have enough time to hit between two and four daycare facilities before Christmas. That will be some good money in the company kitty. Next year, we’ll make bank, because we can ramp up sooner.

I also placed ads in some classified ads that started the day before yesterday. So far, we got one call. A guy looking for magnetic signs for his landscaping business. I gave him a price, he asked for proofs, and John and I cooked up 3 possibilities, which we emailed to him by about 9 am this morning. We’ve yet to hear back from him, I guess he found someone else, I don’t know. I tried calling a few times throughout yesterday and today, but got no answer, so we’ll have to wait and see. If that’s the only reply I get in the next 2 weeks, that’ll be the last of those ads!

Today, word of mouth got us 8 more sales on clocks.

I think that’s everything, in the short version. So much has been happening so fast, it’s hard to remember it all. I think I need to blog more!

Marketing Online

2005-11-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

The following is just summary of my research into online marketing. If you find it useful, cool. If you feel I'm missing anything, PLEASE comment.

1. Signatures
In ANY email you send, in any forum you post on, make sure that your URL is present. Joke emails being the best, they get forwarded hundreds of times. Putting a small, quick comment about your product/service and the URL at the end will generate hits.

2. Blogs
Start up a second site, or on your business site, put up a blog. As often as you can, and as interestingly as you can put it, write about the day to day business qualms, exciting events, stressful moments, and WHENEVER possible, humorous events. Post links (link exchange, they'll link to you) to other small business/home based biz/entrepreneur blogs.
Changing content on a web page keeps it interesting, and keeps people coming back.

3. Link Exchange
Work with other websites to put links to their site for a link to your site in exchange.

4. Register with the search engines yourself
Put your keywords on EVERY SINGLE page you put up, and register each page with the search engines. Be sure to put the words YOU want your page to show up in search engines with yourself, and see what the top hit’s keywords are. I totally suck at this part of it. There are search engine optimization (SEO) companies, that will help you get high search engine rankings. I might try one.

5. Articles
A few points I want to make:
I) Write articles on the product/service you sell. On the main page of your site, put up and articles link, and post each article as an independent page WITH your keyword meta tags on each one. Register each of these with the search engines as well. "Experts say" you should try to include your keywords into the article at about 5%. In any article YOU write, you should include a footer at the end. Example:

Need content? You may use this article at your website, or in your newsletter. The only requirement is inclusion of the following sentence - Article by Kirk Otto of www.MakeYourCompanyVisible.com - a premiere source for promotional advertising products.

In your footer be sure to include a LIVE link to your website. The link should
contain your best keyword phrase as the anchor text. In other words, the
sentence should contain a keyword based hyperlink to your website. This will
help search engines determine what your site is about. As the links grow, your
ranking will continue to improve for that keyword phrase.

II) If you can't write your own articles, find ones that others have written, that allow you to republish. Again, make your own web page for it, and put your own keywords in the metatags. Submit each page to the SE's. OF COURSE each page must have a link back to the home page.

III) If you write your own articles, submit them to every place that accepts them. There are LOADS of sites out there that do. Just put "submit articles" into google, you'll see. I recommend only submit to places that allow my footer, giving me full credit for the article.

IV) Keep your articles subject specific (the subject being your product or service). This will help establish you as an authority on said product or service.

6. Cheap marketing
The only way to get clicks is if people know you're out there. Marketing materials such as pens, pencils, rulers with the url out there are fairly inexpensive in bulk. Plus tasteful car tags bumper stickers, etc are good too.

If you have family or friends that are willing to contribute to your success, get them to use the decals or id plates too.

Don't forget about business cards. Get a lot, get them often. Pass them out whenever you can get away with it while not looking like an overbearing ass
If you have toll ways or paid parking that you use, pay for the guy behind you, and tell the attendant to give them your card.

Using offline, or traditional marketing techniques to get internet traffic has been termed "bricks for clicks".

7. Read! Read! Read!
Marketing and motivation (in my opinion) are the two most important aspects of small business. You should always have a book about marketing, or entrepreneurism, or web development on you at all times. Read ALWAYS, whenever you can ... in the waiting room at the Dr's office, whenever you're eating alone, whenever you're "on the pot", etc. My favorite used bookstore knows me by name, and they tell me when I walk in the door of the newest marketing or entrepreneur books in stock. I buy there, and the used books on amazon to keep prices down. I then resell them to the used bookstore, but keep the ones that are highly motivational, or chock full of good ideas. I'll reread these books often.

8. Pay for Google ads (adware)
They are great, and not too pricey.

9. Networking
Join the chamber of commerce, and as many small biz groups as you can -make friends. www.meetup.com is great! I'm a member of the home based business group, the entrepreneur's group, and the small business group. My participation has resulted in great info from more experienced people, and offers of free services. Whenever possible, give others in the group the right to bid on what you’re farming out. They’ll return the favor.

Related Humor

2005-11-22T07:34:00.000-08:00

People from my old job are sending me emails like the picture shown, and this little gem. My old boss fits about 99% of these.

You know you are CORPORATE GHETTO if three or more of the following are true:

1.. You don't officially start working in the morning until you read your emails & had your coffee/tea.

2.. You have at least one drawer/cabinet that contains more food than office supplies.

3.. Not only do you know all the security guards, janitors, mailroom clerks and cafeteria workers, one of them has asked you out on a date.

4.. Your version of a conference call is when you call your friends/relatives and plan what you are doing for the weekend.

5.. The only time your man/woman picks you up from work is on payday.

6.. Friends and family members call you at work to cuss you out because you didn't answer your phone quick enough.

7.. You paint/cut your nails at your desk.

8.. When you're on a personal call, you laugh so loud your co-workers on the other side of the office come and ask you what's so funny.

9.. You have pictures on your wall with you and your friends at the club.

10..To beat the system, you have codes for personal calls that let's someone know to call you right back. (Let the phone ring two times and call me right back)

11.. You give your out-of-town friends your company's 1-800 number.

12.. Before calling in sick, you rehearse your sick voice and sick story several times out loud.

13.. Coworkers inquire how your father's surgery went that required you to be out for days and you don't even know who your daddy is.

14.. You use the company's postage machine to stamp your personal mail.

15.. Your kid's school supplies all have your company insignia on them, you order personal supplies for you and your kids.

16.. You call in sick on payday Friday and send your cousin to pick up your paycheck. (Now THAT'S REAL ghetto!! Get direct deposit!!)

17.. You contribute $1 to the office Christmas party, eat the most food and take a platter of lunch meat and potato salad home to your family for dinner.

18.. Before someone uses your telephone at your desk, they have to wipe the chicken grease off the handset.

19.. You call in sick on Friday because you went out on Thursday.

20.. You don't like your supervisor and a couple other coworkers and you tell them off on a regular basis and wonder why you haven't been promoted.

21.. You get your haircut/hair "did" on lunch and come back two hours later and then ask "Was anybody looking for me?".

22.. You cuss your creditors out for calling you at work.

23.. You come to work on Friday's dressed for the club.

24.. You create/bring up DRAMA in your office and/or create animosity amongst other employees.

25.. You tell half a dozen other employees to take breaks with you only when time convenience for you...& they're already busy working.

26.. Your kids call your job and say to the operator, "can I speak to my Mama"

27.. You start your ghetto ass gossip in a professional workforce environment.

28.. When you stay/milk the overtime hours just to pay for your new BMW/Benz/Hummer.....or even worst..a used bucket!

29.. When you work for a company that even your supervisor/manager IS ghetto...& you're still there!

30.. You are sitting there reading this instead of getting your work done......& forward this message to all your friends/relatives that ARE ghetto!

Vonage, Sales, and Brian Tracy

2005-11-20T21:43:00.000-08:00

If you're not aware, let me be the first to clue you in. Vonage sucks tremendously! On the scale of suck, Vonage is over the top. I can't find the appropriate words to describe the deep, deep level of sucktensity in which Vonage sits. It's quite easy to order their service, but don't you dare need something after that initial transaction. You'll sit in violent levels of anger, on hold forever with them, if you dare ever want to change or modify your account. I won't bore you with the details, because I repeated those details about a trillion times to the entire country of India. So be warned. What's most ironic about them, that will send you into a frenzy of enraged laughter, is during the time you'll spend wasting your life away while on hold, the automated message will occasionally say, "join the revolution!" That's just too, too funny. I've never spent that much of an obscene amount of time on hold, ever, with SBC. Not once! What is it exactly that I'm revolting against? Convenience? Easy account modifications? People that can understand me, and can do just a bit more than read "the book" responses? Vonage may take my money ... but they will never take ... my freedom!!!!

Okay, so the Braveheart reference is too much, but oh well. Lesson learned, I guess. Incidentally, because it’s so drastically difficult to terminate an account with them, and they FINALLY managed to get their heads out, the number is still the same, (210) 568-5800.

New subject, I went out and cold called a lot. I got a sale here and there, but it wasn’t exceptional. And exceptional, is the goal. I finally have the freedom to passionately chase my dreams, and I want top results. I’m willing to work for it, I’m open to suggestion, and excellence is the only option. When you don’t get what you’re chasing, you have to stand back and evaluate your performance, and then form a new plan. I realized that though I’m handing out brochures and business cards like crazy, no one is calling me. If I don’t make the sale right then and there, I don’t make the sale at all. I realized that the people buying from me are the ones that I get to spend about 10 to 20 minutes visiting with. If I just handed my card, brochure and said a few quick words, the result was that I was out 1 card, and 1 brochure.

So last Wednesday, I started phoning my prospects, asking for an appointment. I told them I’d need about 10 minutes of their time. The theory is that if I’ll have 10 minutes to explain what it is that I do, and to find out what it is that the prospect does. Hopefully I can dig for information, and look for any problems my products can solve. Let them know that I’m a trustworthy person that they’ll be glad they did business with me. I got appointments for Tuesday, nothing for Monday. So again, evaluate what you’re doing and modify the plan. Mondays I guess are good days for telemarketing for appointments. No one wanted to schedule appointments on Friday, so that leaves Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays for making sales calls. I really need to figure out a way to get Friday and Saturday appointments, because 3 days seems too little. Also, I should target some “after 5” appointments as well. They say you should get 2 appointments per hour, so 3 days of selling, that’d equate to 48 appointments, in an 8 hour day. I’d better get good at telemarketing!!
Lastly, let’s talk about Brian Tracy. I’ve read some of his books, listened to some of his audio books. He’s a sales/business guru, and he’s effectively marketed himself that way. When you read/listen to his books, you find yourself thinking, “Well that makes perfect sense!” I guess you could say I’m a fan. But I’ve never attended any of his seminars. It’s been suggested, quite often, in the past that I attend not only his seminars, but Zig Ziglar’s, and Tony Robin’s. But have you seen the cost of these things? Once you do, you’ll be thinking you wish you had a spare arm and leg.

Brian Tracy makes this one point. What if it’s worth it? What if spending a thousand dollars, will get you an immediate ten thousand dollars you wouldn’t have normally earned? Would it be worth it? Well, heck yes! DUH! And that’s the problem.

The Brian Tracy organization showed up at a networking luncheon I attended on Friday. They gave this great presentation. They gave us all there, a discounted price (from $399.00 to $299.00). They let me make installment payments. So there I sat, pen in hand, nervous as all hell. If it IS worth it, I’ll gladly pay. But how do I know?

Another thing Brian Tracy says is that it’s important that you educate yourself, and re-educated yourself in the field which you want to become “the top” in. You should be reading all the books, listening to audio books, and going to seminars. In no time at all, you’ll be quite knowledgeable in your chosen subject. Great ideas, great advice. Or is it just a marketing ploy, to get me to his darned seminar?!?!

Well I went ahead and signed up. So much of what I’ve been doing lately (business wise) has been a heavy, uncertain risk. And so far, that’s working out well for me. So in the spirit of risk taking, I dove right in, head first. I’ll let you know if I feel it was worth it or not. I so-o-o-o-o hope I don’t regret it.

Looks Like I Picked a Bad Week To Stop Sniffing Glue

2005-11-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

Well, the past week and a half has been eventful, to say the least. The day I quit my job was the day I gave myself to “veg.” That’s it, one day. Then its rock n’ roll time. Get out there and cold call my lily white butt off. Start marketing like crazy, do some mail outs, start up some business card list collection campaigns, and -to steal a line from Pretty Woman, “Work it! Work it! Work it!” I’m highly self motivated! In addition, my awesome wife tells me that if I’m willing to handle the domestic duties, then she’ll be ever so patient in my waiting to rush right out and get a job. Always the giver, she is. Anyway, I now have a small window of opportunity now, to pursue my dreams 100%, and if successful, never again have to work for anybody besides myself. So I thought I’d take the remainder of the day that I quit to relax, and gear up for tomorrow and the rest of my life. Then all hell broke loose.

As I sit on my couch, feeling very odd. Stress and relief, yet anxiety and panic, all mixed together, but mostly content and relaxed. I saw a flash of light, in the dining room. I get up to find out what the heck happened, and discover that the electricity blew in the dining room, master bedroom, and master bath. I check the breaker, its fine. Okay, so we’ll let that go, back to relaxing. Once the kids are content and no longer want to play with me, I start troubleshooting the electrical. Now instead of boring you with the play by play from this point on, let me just give you the highlights. I did get to spend about 4 hours working the next day, then I was called to pick up my son at daycare because he has diarrhea. Get home, and my daughter has a fever and nausea. The rest of the week is filled with doctor visits, cleaning up poop and vomit like crazy, administering toddler drugs like they’re strung out or something, febrile seizures, THREE emergency room visits, late night panic, emotional carnage, water heater on the fritz, wife getting sick, wife’s grandmother passing away, people calling to ask why I’m not at work anymore, and DHL screwing up my Vonage phone delivery . Out of all that, I really couldn’t stand the tears, and constant crying. Just endless wah-wah-wah, and I’m not talking about my kids, I’m talking about me. I hate hate hate seeing my kids so sick, and sitting there feeling so helpless. What a week!

I also heard a rumor from a former fellow employee, that the old boss is into voodoo. So with the stress of all that’d been going on, I did manage to forget that I don’t believe in that crap. I had a good laugh with myself, when I remembered, and I called myself many a synonym for idiot. With all this piling up, one couldn’t help but think about it. Or wonder if the “higher power who I choose to call God” was punishing me for quitting, or giving me blatant signs that I couldn’t have picked a better time, because I got to be home and helpful during all of this.

Well I did manage to fix my electrical and water heater problems, and by Wednesday, my son completed his reign as poop master of the universe, and my wife was mostly just sick and sleeping with my sick and sleeping daughter. So I managed to get some business done. In two days of selling, I managed to hit the 50% mark of my last 2 months part time sales total, so I’m back in “happy as hell I quit my job mode”, for the most part. My wife and daughter seem to be on the road to recovery, so we’ll see what next week holds. I’m not holding my breath for being able to work this weekend, but maybe I can get out there full force by Monday.

Like Sands Through The Hour Glass

2005-11-04T21:04:00.000-08:00

Well, at my "real job", things were terrible, and my boss started to focus on making life hell. It all began when I was first handed a policy by my boss' boss. A list of reasons why we could be disciplined at work. One of the issues listed, quite proudly and boastfully by my boss, was gossip. It's not allowed. I signed a statement saying I received the paperwork, and filed it away. A year later, I was asked to sign a document, stating that I witnessed a fellow employee, gossiping.

Now I did in fact witness the act. From a good for morale, decent, team playing, hard working guy with a family to support. What I was asked to do was to support high school cattiness, from a boss that was promoted because she's friends with the next boss up in the food chain. She's not qualified, not even in the slightest sense. Not technically, not in her leadership skills, power to motivate, or project management knowledge or experience. I've witnessed her 'in action', and she's severely lacking in all categories. She wanted this guy gone, because the big giant head (boss' boss) doesn't like him, because he filed a grievance because some employees got free parking, and others didn't. They couldn't do the dirty work themselves, so they came to me. And my hand to God, they actually used the term "stand up guy."

So that's when the bullying, and harassing kicked into overdrive. On one occasion, I was actually told "be good, and make some more coffee, mmkay? Thank youuuuuuuuuuu!" On another occasion new documentation system was implemented, which I had no idea how to do. The logical thing, in my eyes was to ask for training, which I did. I was told to "stop being so close minded, and just do it!" My boss, the queen of the ~~doctored~~ completely fabricated timesheet, would question me on 15 minute "discrepancies". She'd tell me to do one thing, and then complain when I documented it on my timesheet. The final straw came when she told me a month ago, after I complained about having no tasks assigned, I was instructed to document it on my time sheet under "departmental tasks", and then wednesday trying to order me to charge the man hours under another department's budgeted time. In other words, make them pay for my doing nothing, and getting nothing for it in return. These weren't the only things.

Her husband was up for what they call a promotion (it's not. you have to interview for the promotion, and your prior skills and experience don't come into play at all), and so was another girl. The girl was doing a competent job of project lead, which boss' husband hadn't done before. Looks pretty good during the old interview, doesn't it? Well the boss didn't like the girl's ability to look better than boss' husband. Boss couldn't say anything about it and expose her nepotism, so what'd she do? Told everyone I had a problem with it. Adding fuel to the fire being wrought upon me by management, because my following procedures and protocol and filing a grievance. So now management is ticked at me for having a spine and not signing their beloved document, and because they thought I had a problem with them appointing someone as a project lead.

Get this one: I was once ordered after hours to attend the boss' birthday party, and then she told everyone that I invited myself. The lies just got thicker and thicker every day. I seriously don't get how people like that can sleep at night.

Sidebar -I consider myself to be a christian man, but the above is in a nutshell why I have a problem with organized religion, and only attend church on rare occasions. I've met quite a few people that talk about God, and how much Jesus has changed their lives, and how important religion is to them. And every one ... and I do mean every single one that I've met has done something underhanded, and coniving, and hurtful to others. And then were quite satisfied and content with their own actions. But I digress.

So now I'm anxious, nervous, thrilled, excited, and fearful all at the same time. I have a business, I have customers. I just need to increase my customer base, increase my sales, amd boost my salary up so I don't have to go find another job. Then I can thumb my nose forever at the corporate workplace and that 'treat employees like garbage' mentality. Talk about a fire lit under your keyster. So if you or anyone you know is in need of marketing items ... if you believe in the American way of entrepreurism, now would be the time to let me know. Remember, a calendar will put you in your customer's eye for 13 months. Not much outside the realm of promotion marketing products can do that, especially at the prices of most of these items.

By the way, the business name is now Johkir Marketing (pronounced Joker). Also, while in the learning phases of sign making we made a fairly detailed Spongebob. He's on the back window of my van right now. As a custom product goes, he's not bad. As a professional marketing product, it's bad, and needs to be redone. Eventually he'll say something about Johkir Marketing Products, and will remain there until the legal eagles at Nickelodeon find out and issue a cease and desist order. Then maybe we'll make a vinyl copy of that, and place it in the window, who knows?

The Utopia of Chaos

2005-10-31T13:04:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here on break, yet stuck at my "real job", trying extremely hard to focus on what I get paid to do. But my mind is just draaaaaging my thoughts over to my business, and the conscious part of me doesn't even want to resist. The sign equipment is supposed to arrive any time now. My partner and I still have to come up with a company name, and logo, so I can register the DBA. I met him at lunch, picked out some new flourescent lighting to install in the garage, so now that task is added to the "to do" list -install lighting. We'll need new business cards! Okay, we can't get that until we get the name & logo taken care of, and we really shouldn't jump at business cards without the name. I have to get a fishbowl for the "drop your business card" marketing campaign I have in mind, then we need to make up a nice sign to put in the fishbowl, before I talk to any restaurant managers. I need to print up some mailouts, but first we need a company name and phone number which I can't/shouldn't do without a DBA, but first we need to decide on a fricken name! I have those referrals to contact, so I can't go install the lights until wednesday, but when will we get to check out the new sign equipment if we're doing all this other stuff?

Somebody pinch me, I'm having the time of my life!!! It's hectic, I don't know how we're going to get it all done, but MAN it's a blast!!! I'm in my own business! I actually have CUSTOMERS!!! I'm actually earning money ... in my own business!!!! It's awesome! As bad as things get at my "real job", no matter how much the boss decides she wants to play with her pawns and feed them to the dog, I still can't stop smiling. The business is a serious blessing in that matter, because without it, I think I would have snapped a long time ago. Now I just think about the percentage of my paycheck that I get to use as "marketing money" and I find the stomach to stick it out.

And I did actually get the phone account taken care of, so the business number is 1-(210)-568-5800. But don't be surprised if we answer it with a simple "Hello?", because .. y'know, that whole name thing. We though about "Two Fat Guys" but that's played out. One friend said, "that's a good name, but what if one of you loses weight?" Pshaa right!

Others that came up were "Apple Valley Promos/Products/Promotions", because John lives on Apple Valley, I used to live on that street, and Apple the computer company started in their garage. It works well. There was Johnkirk, and Kirkjohn (sounds a lil like Upjohn).

John thought of "Tuchums", kind of a hidden spelling of "Two Chums". My wife said it sounded perverted, like a body part name or something. Two other ideas were "Eye Catchers" and "Banner Promotions", which are both good. I liked "Visual Promotions" or "Visual Promos". This one I like best but not because the name is cool, but because John and I have this whole story (long one, I won't bore you) revolving around the mathematical symbol "V-dot", which we could use as our logo.

So to sum up my professional life, my job sucks, I hate it. I dread going in in the mornings, and it takes everything I have not to get up and walk out. The business is moving forward in the steps my business partner and I have decided to attempt to take it, and it's utterly chaotic. A new toy is arriving any minute now if that darned UPS driver would hurry the hell up, and I'm like a kid trying to sleep on Christmas eve. We need a name, logo, dba, business cards, and 2 marketing campaigns to get moving on, and so little time in the day. And I'm having a total and complete blast!!!

I Bought Sign Making Equipment

2005-10-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well I just spent the most money at one time ever for my business today. I totally feel that this will generate income for me, so why am I shaking? I guess I'm afraid of messing up? Things have been going quite well for me, better than my past attempts at running a business, so maybe I'm afraid that this mistake will set me back?

I'm both excited, anxious and scared to death all at the same time. It's odd, because I've had nothing but strong support from my wife, my friends, and family, so why am I so nervous?! I bought the equipment via paypal, and I AM afraid of getting ripped off, but this nervousness is beyond that. Ah well, the only option is to suck it up and move on, right?

Well anyways, the equipment should be in my hot little hands early next week sometime. If it's not here by close of business wednesday, I'm going to be really really nervous! So there it is, and if you need a sign, banner, or automobile decal made, let me know! .... PLEASE! LOL

Making Decisions!

2005-10-22T17:54:00.000-07:00

Well I was offered a really good price on an automated vinyl sign cutter. I asked about a million questions of the guy selling the equipment, and finally made the decision to buy. I've been asked about 6 times in the 4 months I've been in business, if I made signs. I sold them, but I can make a higher profit if I make them myself.

I also made a verbal partnership agreement with a friend that's been out of work for over a year. He'll do the "onesy twosey" manufacturing, and help process orders for customers, after I make the sale. He's offered up his garage as a base to do work out of. It sounds like a win/win situation, so we're going to give it a try. The only bad part about it all is that I spent the day helping him clean out his garage, to get it ready for the incoming equipment. I could have been out prospecting and selling and making money, but I prioritized. I figured helping get the "HQ" fixed up would help to increase sales in the future. My new partner, John, agreed to do some of the grunt work in helping me increase marketing. For me, that means mail outs, initially. I can get more print outs done, more envelope stuffing and can actually make it to the post office in time to start the mailouts. All stuff I couldn't do to much of, because of time constraints.

In the past week, those were some stressful decisions! I've learned from my own attempts at entrepreneurship in the past, that just because your gut tells you it's a good idea, doesn't mean it actually is. So I've been going through some emotional stress. Excited (stoked), and anxious at one minute, then scared as hell the next. I hope I'm making the right decision! I feel that I am, but hell, who knows?

The holiday season is fast approaching, so I'm going to be out suggesting holiday cards to send to clients/customers, and calendars for the consumer based businesses. I think I might go ahead and market some gourmet candy as well. Not sure yet.

Since my duties for the onset of the new partnership will be to just get orders (i.e. marketing and selling), I'm thinking sales will start increasing big time.

Side bar, I've had people try to make things terrible for me, at my day job, since I've started my own side business. Be it envy, anger, or them feeling hurt for some reason, I don't know, and don't really care. But since I've started up my own business, there hasn't been a day that's gone by where I'm not just overjoyed. It just goes to show that pursuit of your goals/dreams is the key to happiness in life. Mine happens to be entrepreneurism. I've kept my overhead extremely low, so with the exception of the first month, I've turned a profit every month. Those numbers aren't enough to quit my day job yet ... but it's a step in the right direction! And when that day comes, I'll have a dilemna in how I'm actually going to leave. I know I'll be leaving with a simple resignation letter. But will that letter be "hey, it's been real, nuttin' but love for ya, but I resign" in so many words, or will it be a picture of my middle finger with the caption, "later bitches!"? I'm not sure yet, but with each passing day, the desire for option two is growing.

Management != Leadership

2005-10-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

You see it on occasion. That guy, that's actually happy with his job. And I fear for your personal safety if you dare talk bad about that guy's boss, or the company he works for. That guy, works for an entrepreneur. Inside every entrepreneur is a man that has either 1) worked for and was treated like garbage by a boss, or 2) seen a true leader in action, possibly worked for one. There's higher numbers in group 1 than 2 I think.

The entrepreneur boss, has a fridge full of free cokes, bottles of V-8, an office supplied coffee machine. The entrepreneur boss will listen to a receptionist, janitor, salesman, or engineer, it doesn't matter. All they have to do is walk up to the entrepreneur boss and say, "I have an idea". Then he or she is all ears. The entrepreneur boss gives 2 weeks vacation, but also closes up shop during Christmas, Easter monday.

The entrepreneur boss not only reflects on making things better, making product better, making service better. He or she reflects on being a better leader. The entrepreneur boss listens to others that have loyal players on their team. He asks successful leaders with happy followers for ideas, theories, opinions on good leadership, he mentors.

The entrepreneur boss raises a company that kills big corporate competition in sales, service, satisfaction. Big corporations come in, wave all kinds of cash at the entrepreneur, and at that point, he's an entrepreneurial success. He sells it all, eager to face his next business challenge, and his employees cry as they watch him pack up his stuff. Then really interesting shit starts happening.

Big corporate doesn't examine what was done. They come in, and what do they do? They make changes. Free refreshments? That won't look good on the bottom line! If the employees want coffee, let them go to Starbucks, or bring in their own coffee makers. If we must supply coffee, sell it from a machine, and in a paper cup. They don't like the freedom the employees have, there's no accountability, put in a time clock! These employees need to know their place, management doesn't have time to socialize with people that ... clean for a living. Close during christmas? That's THREE weeks vacation, I don't think so. Two weeks pay is too much for a bonus, just get them all a turkey. Employees are only motivated by 'iron fist' management styles and practices. Let them know who's boss.

Then a year down the road, either they're sitting back wondering what went wrong, blaming someone else for the decrease in profits since taking over. Or, they're doing just fine, with an entirely new crew. But that's okay too. The entrepreneur boss just started a new company, and most of his former crew is begging to go work for him.

I think it was in Rich Dad Poor Dad that said, "people will work only hard enough to not get fired", and "companies pay the minimum amount to keep you working" (paraphrased). Thank God that entrepreneurs are running the exception. Maybe someday others will get the point.

Prospecting At Church

2005-10-17T05:58:00.000-07:00

I went to church with no intention other than attending services. I do carry some business cards with me, but not to give out during prayer or something. You just never know where the day will take you, and if I happen to see a car advertising a business in a parking lot OTHER than at church, I'll put a card in the window. But what about at church?

I saw some of my customers at the service, and of course said hello after it was all over. They're good people, I wanted to say hi. While chatting with them, they introduced me to their son in law who owns his own business. They told him how we met, and he asked if I did construction yard signs. I told him yes, and he asked for a card. I hesitated, yet still gave him one. Was I wrong? It felt a bit odd to me, doing business while still in the building where religious preaching was going on. Every other day of the week, it's a show barn, but today it was church. What should I have done? What would you have done?

What it is that I do

2005-10-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

I'm having trouble in my sales and networking attempts to relate to people just exactly what it is that I do. A corporate type would know, when I say "specialty advertising products" or "promotional marketing products", but I've been focusing on "mom and pop" small business for starters. I'm not focusing too much on big business until I can get the nervousness and kinks worked out of my own presentation skills.

I've found that I usually only have a few seconds to describe what I do when I just walk in on a company before they get that skidishness themselves. You know, that "holy shit a salesman!" barrier that goes up. I don't do high pressure sales. Ideally, I'd love to say, "this is what I do, if you have any need for my product or services, please let me know". But most think I sell pens and calendars, which I do .. do, but it's so far beyond that. But if I were to tell a prospect "I have over 750,000 products", is that enough? That's why I've adopted the slogan, "I can put a logo on anything". I think it sums it up, I'm just not sure it's friendly enough. And I've still had friends talk about something their friend is doing ... and they'll say he bought amount of something to distribute, and I go, "DUDE! I sell that!" My friend typically goes, "ooooh, I didn't realize".

I'm open to any comments on this subject! How can I better tell people what it is that I do?

The picture is included on post because 1) it shows the diversity of product I sell, and 2) I find it funny that this is being offered. Where would you put this? I'd think either in your bedroom, or your office. If in your office, I'll bet quite a few people would drop by and waste time shooting when they should be getting some work done. Definitely effective marketing, in my opinion. If you're marketing to college students. It'd be great for a dormroom, or lobby of a dorm, it'd work great, but in an office? I think "the big boss" in any office might be slightly ticked at the company who's logo appears on this product. Ohhhh, Corona! The company that caused a 10% decrease in last month's work.

Entrepreneurs, the Prey of Scam Artists

2005-10-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

So Many of Us Dream Of Owning Our Own Business

This can lead to a string of failed businesses trailing behind, like a trail of clothes leading to the shower after a hot, dirty day of work. There are tons of reasons why so many of us strive for the life of business owner. While there are such a multitude of reasons, many are common across the board. Typically they can all be grouped into categories such as financial gain, more time, more day-to-day independence, a general thought of “I can do this better than they can!”, or a desire to be in charge of our own destiny, just to name a few. These are glorious and valid reasons, and it’s what makes America stand apart from so many other countries.

There is, however, a negative side to so many people wanting the same thing. We’re a market all to ourselves. We’re a demographic. The fact that there’s so many of us means there’s a demand. And demand is typically met with supply. Ordinarily, that isn’t a bad thing. When you combine home-based or small business desires and goals with the internet, things get bad. And I do mean bad. The trouble is that you have to sift through piles upon piles of stinky garbage (websites) in order to get to something that has any value. I guess people that are marketing a product to a determined entrepreneur feel that we must be duped into buying their product. I admit that there are good sites out there. They give you great information, because they truly have succeeded on their own, and want to get the word out. For free. But I’ll bet the ratio of good honest home-based or small business sites to ones that are trying to sell you something or just flat out scam you out of your money are 1 in10,000. I’m going to cover some of the more common typical scam sites I’ve personally ran across in my quest to find a business venture that I could believe in and run with.

Luckily, none took my money. But my daily intake of spam has nearly tripled as a result. I guess things could have been a lot worse. There have been times that I’ve stared for what seemed like hours at a website’s “give us your credit card information” page, scared to death.

“Is this a scam? I don’t want to throw money away!” “What if it’s the real deal?” Finally I just got ticked, and became a major skeptic of almost all of them. And I still get taken from time to time. So let’s cover some of the more common types.

Ads That Go Nowhere

Oh, they will go on, and on, and on, and on, and- for the love of God, stop it! They’ll tell you every single thing you want to hear, except one thing. What they’re actually trying to sell you. More often than not it’s a beautiful ad. Lots of bright colors, big fonts, dollar signs, and at least one good looking person on it: Ken, Barbie, or mommy. Yes, I’m a bit sarcastic, but if you waded through hundreds of these things, and I’m willing to bet that many of you have, you’d be a bit snotty about it too.

Barbie is often associated with health or cosmetic network marketing products. If you join Barbie’s team of highly motivated individuals you too can clean your toilet with hundred dollar bills. There are big promises there. First you have to fish through pages and pages of Barbie not only telling you how rich she is, but she’s telling you how “You Can Do It Too!” You can almost smell the cheerleading perkiness, and white smile, it’s so thick. Barbie will skip telling you the specific products she’d like you to sell, the rules of what you can or can’t do to sell it, and the prices are far, far more expensive than a common over the counter product. She will eventually tell you all about it ... for a fee. She also won’t tell you just exactly what you’ll be getting for your money. Your money will be called something like “the amazing low price of”. So to summarize Barbie, its this. “Hi! I’m beautiful and rich! If you want to be like me, pay me and then I’ll reveal exactly what’s behind door number one!” I don’t trust anyone that’s trying to sell me something first, then tell me what I bought later.

Ken is usually pictured sitting on a car worth at least $250,000, with a shit eating grin on his face. He’s going to sell you a mystery product that will make your dreams come true. He’ll tell you flat out, “I am so unbelievably rich!” What he won’t tell you is exactly what he’s selling, or how he’s going about becoming rich. In the most general terms, he’ll tell you what he’s done to become rich. He bought the unknown product! Then he’ll tell you, “It is that simple!” Ken will also hint like you wouldn’t believe that all he did was buy the product, and wait for the check. Often he’ll tell you that he got his first check the day he bought the invisible, yet to be mentioned product. He might give the product a name. The Zed-zed-zed marketing plan! The gitchy gitchy goo package of infinite wealth! That’s all you’ll get but if you act right at this very second, you’ll get a discount on umm … this thing, umm … that we’re selling.

Then there’s mommy sites. Oh, those loving cuddly mommies. They wouldn’t possibly steer you wrong, would they? Of course not, they’re moms! Now, of all three mentioned here, the one with the most legitimate sites on the internet are work at home mom sites. I hate to bag on “mommy” too much because there are so many stay at home moms that have reached a level of success beyond that of their previous “9 to 5” careers. But it still deserves mentioning here, because this demographic of work at home moms is constantly growing in size. There are a lot of support and well wishers from other moms. But you have to know where to find them. It bears mentioned that because work at home moms are such a large demographic, they are preyed upon by internet scam sites.

Impossible Promises

Above all others, impossible promises get my blood boiling. Because basically what they’re doing is hoping that you’re stupid. I’m certainly no business expert, but I can guarantee you this. I’ll never, not once, ever think or act as if my customers, or potential customers are stupid. I’d like to think that anyone wanting to go into business for themselves, already knows that the customer is your bread and butter. Given some of the treatment I’ve received by people when I’m the customer makes me believe that not everyone knows how to treat a customer well. Everyone knows you can’t throw mud at your customers.

If someone tells you they bought a product or system for getting rich, and then in the same breath tell you that they got a check the very same day they bought said product, not only are they lying to you, but they also think you’re stupid. I don’t mean to say that you can’t make money the first day you start your business. But unless the guy is going to deliver you a box of apples within the hour and tell you to go outside on the corner and sell them, how are you going to make money on a product that fast? It just doesn’t make sense.

Whatever product it is, and you won’t know until you give them your money, I’m sure that you can’t sell anything for them so fast, that their accounting department can cut you a check, mail it to you, and it wind up in your mail box, all before the mail service stops for that day. It’s just impossible.

How To Do This, How To Do That

A lot of people will market their own products by writing articles. It’s a great marketing idea. There are absolutely tons upon tons of articles that will tell you, or give you advice on running your own business. Some of these articles are invaluable, because those that aren’t patronizing jerks, honestly want to give you a product of value, even though it’s free. But there’s an extraordinarily enormous pile of worthless so called “information” out there. Most of which can be immediately filed in your folder labeled, “DUH!”

An example would be an article called “How to Earn $$$ on the Internet!” Well great, good catchy title, something I’m interested in. But then you’ll see about 400 words basically saying, “First get a website. Get a domain name. Sell something on that website, and then market it.” Well thank you, King Obvious. There’s 3 minutes of my life I’ll never get back, all because you want me to go visit your website.

Ways to Avoid a Scam or a General Waste of Your Time

My advice to anyone who hasn’t gotten too far into home-based or small business research on the net is to first, buy a book. I can’t speak enough of the value I’ve personally found in the “For Dummies” and “The Complete Idiots Guide to” books. They are an amazing resource of information, in my opinion. Most importantly are the links that most of these books provide you. I often sit and read these books with a notepad and pen in hand. I jot down any websites mentioned (there are usually quite a few) and go from there. These books, in conjunction with the websites listed therein, are good enough to get you started. After reading just one of these books and visiting the sites it provides will do two things. One, it will point you into the direction of the actual goal you seek. Two, it will give you the ability to recognize truly helpful text from pure solicitation garbage.

The "Profession" of Network Marketing

2005-10-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

There are tons of network marketers out there with their template web sites and baloney sales pitches. It's getting to where the term network marketing or multi level marketing in the online world is synonomous with the word SCAM. They email you, PM you on message boards, call you, and the one I love .. INTERVIEW you for their pyramid. HA! What a joke.

Is it technically a profession? Of course it is. But any network marketer (MLMer) should accept the fact that the amount of spam on the internet, baloney promises, false claims, and uncomfortable face to face pressure has soiled a great many people's attitude about MLMs.

If you want to impress me with your pyra- ... errr .. Networking company, here's a few tips:

"Earn $25,000 in a day" may be possible, but probably only one person's ever done it, so stop advertising it like all you have to do is sign up, and it's yours.

Stop showing me pictures of your 6,000 sq ft house and your porche, because most MLM'ers are driving minivans paid for by their spouses with their "9 to 5" job. If you want to make such claims, how about whipping out a gangster's roll of cash from your pocket? Or picking up the check for my glass of iced tea. I'm sure it won't break ya there, millionaire.

Stop saying "we do all the selling", or "there's no selling involved". That's a lie, and we all know it.

Few products can legitimately be called revolutionary. A new skin creme, or healthy fruit drink is not one them.

Stop trying to sell me a product that's twice the cost of what I can pay for a similar item at the grocery store.

If you're going to make claims of how much money you make, show up with a check stub. Otherwise, I don't believe you.

If your network upline tells you to fake like you want to buy something, just to get a salesman to your house for you to attempt to recruit, RUN. Doing so is underhanded, and rude. It will not help you in the long run. Leave the coniving 'anything for money' attitude to huge corporate big wigs. It doesn't help us "little" people.

If you're going to make the claim that the company you represent was listed as a top 10 Fortune 500 company, or rated in Forbes, provide proof.

If you're going to tell me that Donald Trump said that if he had to start all over again, he'd choose your company ... provide proof. And by proof I don't mean that some quixtar/amway/prepaid legal/avon guy said Trump said it. I want to see proof.

If you spend 2 hours on the phone with somebody, don't lie and say you make a living solely from your MLM, and only work 10 hours a week. It's a lie anyone with common sense can see through.

If you want to actually make GOOD money with an MLM, you have to have a dynamic personality. Notice Ben Stein hasn't reported success in an MLM.

Stop touting that MLM is the wave of the future. They've been around for about 30 years now, and they've barely made any mark on the economy, or the way our economy runs. You don't have to believe everything you're told by your MLM. For that matter, you don't have to say everything they tell you to say, when pitching your company.

In conclusion, let me say, I don't care for the term "network marketing". I don't have an up or down line at all, I sell directly to business and marketers. Asking for a referal from any of their friends, and asking YOUR friends for referrals to anyone they know, is network marketing, or "networking". It shouldn't refer just to the Amway guy.

Okay, So I Started A Blog

2005-10-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well so many successful online entrepreneurs recommend a blog, so here's mine. I like to write, but who knows if I can keep a reader's interest? It's not like I'm going to be promoting this site too much anyway. I have my own site to promote, why would I want to invite people to this one?

I so figure this will be a decent online diary of sort, of my own trials and tribulations of a wannabe. If not for anyone, then for myself, for posterity. Or so I can look back later and laugh at myself.

I call myself a wannabe because I'm taking the easy route. I haven't hocked my house, car, or first born. I bought into a "business opportunity" for 85 bucks, and ya get what ya pay for. Because I put so little into my startup, that means the success comes from a ton of sweat equity. I've been provided the product (specialty advertising products), marketing materials, a smidgeon of training, and set off into the wild to learn as I go. Building up a business one customer at at time. But that's part of the appeal.

I attribute a large percent of my failures in previous attempts to my lack of marketing and sales skills. My past failures have been enough to make me want to never ever think about starting my own business again, but you can't run from your dreams. I tried to drown it out, I tried to fake it, I tried to run from it. Those methods will work on some smaller, lesser intense dreams like "having steak for dinner tonight". The dream of owning my own successful business, and acheiving a better than middle class salary won't go away, it's far too intense. It's just as intense as my desire as a kid for the coyote to catch the roadrunner, or for Gilligan and crew to get off the island. I also believe too strongly in capitalism, and entrepreneurship to squelch it. It's the answer to everything!

I searched and searched for over a year for a business I could work part time. I got a ton of pitches from Multi Level Marketer's, and quite a few businesses that wanted a big fat wad of cash to get started. But I had to find something that fit my precise needs. I couldn't dump a lot of money into it, my wife would have given me a sex change in my sleep. I couldn't quit my job for the same reason. But I also wanted a challenge. A challenge beyond limiting myself to one breakfast taco in the morning. So while looking to fit my exact business requirements, I also researched marketing. I read marketing book after mareketing book, and soon became fascinated by it. I loved the success stories about entrepreneurs who thought outside the box when it came to marketing. So by sheer luck I found promotional advertising. It's quite the challenge. And I think if I'm going to go any further in pursuit of my dreams, this is one I have to succeed in first.

It's marketing my own business, and it is selling product. I have formed two strong opinions, based on previous experience at failure. And they are that good selling, and good marketing are essential to my future successes. I found validation for that opinion in the book $ales Dogs when it said, Rich Dad's advice was, "If you want to enter the world of business, you must learn how to sell." If I can pull this off, then I know I'll be able to enter any other business venture in the future. So bring it!!!! I'm attacking it full on!