Building Wealth - Cutting Costs

OK, I want to be clear on this one, I mean you really need to read this book whether you are a salesman or not. I just finished reviewing it and I think it can help anyone that wants more out of life in the way of wealth and simply in the way of happiness. This book was authored by award winning salesmen and entrepreneurs Neil Franklin and Jack Spirko.

They call the book, the definitive book on how to sell and I think they are spot on. It is just that they don’t just teach you how to sell in regard to product as a professional sales person, they also teach you the philosopy of effectively selling yourselves in all walks of life. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book,

“Deep inside you exists another person. That person has the knowledge, expertise, experience, and wisdom to guide you throughout your life. It’s the real you. We use the term real because most of us live our lives as actors, fulfilling various life roles as we have been conditioned to do so since leaving the innocence of childhood“

This book is indeed deep and even a tiny bit spiritual but it is actually very easy to read and understand. I am going to read it again because like most books that are really deep you get more each time you read through it. Here is another quote that might make that a bit more clear,

“As the child matures, the programming by parents and society continues. Now this young adult has to get admitted into a competitive university, get his first job, or possibly ask for a raise if underpaid. The sad part is that at age five, he would have known exactly what to do and would have asked fearlessly.”

Again I highly recommend you have a look at picking up a copy of this book, it is one I can honestly say is worth far more then the cost. Spend just a bit of time learning to adapt some of these principals to your life and indeed the return of investment will be huge. You can even preview and read the first 12 pages of the book at this link.

~ Cost Cutter

Writing a business plan can be a daunting task the first time you do it. So many would be great entrepreneurs have a great idea and need funding for it, some even self fund or boot strap their business and they all have big plans. They will tell you how big their company will be some day or why you should invest your money but most do not have a formal business plan.

Just this last week I was presented with a new idea that I really thought was excellent and the entrepreneur was clearly working hard and committed to getting the product to market. She was excited, smart and full of enthusiasm and of course wanted me to invest in her idea.

Now here is the reality the venture could be huge or a huge flop and that risk is always present so the risk is not why I turned her down. Nope it was the lack of a business plan that did it. She even had great packaging and was lined up to do trade shows and meet some perspective buyers from major retail chains. The risk is still there so I must make a risk assessment as an investor.

How I make a risk assessment

This is pretty simple I know the results if the product totally flops that is a 100% loss right? Yet what a business plan will tell me is what I can expect to see in gross sales and return of investment at various levels of success. How can an entrepreneur expect investment if they can’t even tell me the return I will get and in how long if things go right, mostly right or moderately successful. I need the numbers for all those out comes to weigh the risk reward, without that I can’t even get started.

I also may not understand the market, the supply chain, the competition and the total market cap and opportunity in a new niche.   I need it spelled out and I need to understand the marketing that the company will use to communicate its message to the world. Additionally if I am to put my money or even just partner with assistance/consulting with a company need to know their vision.  More importantly I need to know they understand their own vision. All of these things are addressed with a proper business plan. Even if you don’t want investors you need a business plan to be sure you have your own vision right, your own risk/reward ratio strait and to help you make the right decisions.

How do you do it? Easy turn to one of my heroes in business, Donald Trump for some free assistance. Trump University offers a free How to Write a Business Plan course you can sign up for and lean a ton from. I also recommend the excellent free business templates available from Score. They have templates for business plans, financial work sheets and other needs.

I picked this up from a blog I read about making money online called, MindValley Labs.  The technique is pretty strait forward and should be really effective.  All you do is create a “thank you” message so that anyone that comments on your blog is then immediately asked to join your email list.  That is a nice passive add on form of email marketing isn’t it?
Now to me this is sort of the type of thing we should have all been doing a long time now.  I mean when you get a comment that person is engaged with you there is no better time to ask them to take action then while they are in action.

When I figure out how to do this in Word Press I will post instructions but it may be next week.  If you can figure this out and you blog about it I will post about your blog rather then just telling my readers how to do it.  If you come up with a way to modify Word Press just comment about it below and link to your post on it.  I will then do a full post linking to your post and telling my readers where they can learn how.

Otherwise it will be next week before I have time to get to it.

I am first and foremost a believer on marking online for any and all services and products today. I have marketed everything you can think of online from 20 Dollar informational DVDs to multi million dollar pieces of heavy construction equipment to legal service and even how to make money online products.

That said there is still a ton of power in using “old media” like television advertising so when I was asked to have look at a website that produces and promotes TV Commericals and Infomercials I was happy to do it. The company is called Hawthorn Direct aka, DRTV.

What I really like about Hawthorn Direct is the fact that they are very good at integrating your marketing efforts and tracking the exact results from each campaign.   Nothing is more important in marketing and advertising then knowing your exact ROI for every effort, so for that reason Hawthorn Direct makes my list of recommended sites for business owners.

I am not a big golfer but being active in the business world I know just how many people are totally addicted to the sport. One of my partners is a positive fanatic and would rather golf then even say enjoy a very cold martini (some folks?). So when I was asked to have a look at a web site that provides very cost effective golf tournament software it seemed like something that some of my readers might enjoy.

This site is called, NetHandiCap.com and they offer  really cool software product that keeps track of players statistics and handicaps etc.  It is designed to be used by anyone from say people that own a Golf Course and run tournaments to amateur golfers that small run individual clubs competitions and play where and as they choose.   The platform is browser based meaning it does not hog up your PCs memory or resources and can be access from any PC with an internet connection.  Add to this the fact that it is fully customizable and very affordable and at least for the golfers out there NetHandiCap.com makes my list of recommended sites.

If you own a retail outlet a great way to get a truly honest assessment of your service is to use a mystery shopping company to evaluate you with no bias or confusion.  I recently was asked to check out a web site that provides this type of service called BestMark and I must say I was impressed.   Rather then just sending some mystery shoppers to your store they provide professional consultants that have in-depth experience guiding programs from inception to ongoing execution to analysis to solution implementation.  That all adds up to put BestMark on my list of recommended sites for owners of retail outlets.

What I really like about using a service like this is the completely honest feed back that it provides and how that data can be used to improve your service.  While you are your location you view it via “rose colored glasses” and you have no real idea how the service is when you aren’t there (when the cats away…) and these services put you directly in touch with the reality on the ground.

In my site philosophy I explain in commandments 4 and 5 that I think every person today should be to some degree “self employed” and have some business of their own. Today the easiest way to make that happen is to make your money with internet marketing and one of the best things you can sell are either software that is down-loadable or informational products that can also be downloaded. With that all you need to do is create the product and market it, there is no inventory, no shipping, no real expenses.

To do it right though one thing you will definitely need though is ecommerce software or what is commonly referred to as an online shopping cart.  I was recently asked to check out a site called AmeriCommerce which provides the tools to do this.  I found there software is very easy to integrate and quite robust at the starting price of only 39 Dollars a month and if you need help with integration or even some help with web design they can provide that as well.

I like this platform for a few reasons

• Easy integrations with Google Check Out and PayPal
• Very stable platform that is simple but also robust for power applications as well
• It is search engine friendly
• Offers a ton of features
• Tracks your ROI (return of investment)
• Allows you to set up affiliates programs
• And a ton more

So check out AmeriCommerce if you need a good shopping cart program and the best news is they offer a 14 day free trial with every program so you can be sure of their quality of service before spending any money, for that they make my list of recommended sites.