Marketing Your Business - Online and Off Line

Your Small Business Needs A Mobile Website in 2012

2011-11-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

As Millions of your potential customers purchase iPhones, iPads, and Android-based devices in 2011, you will be hind the curve if you have not created a mobile version of your small business website in 2012.

Go ahead. Check yourself out. Use your Iphone or Android phone and see what your website looks like on the phone. Probably not that great or usable, and the navigation is probably impossible to use. Google is now providing device information in the analytics. We checked on one of our restaurant clients and 25% of all traffic to their website was coming from mobile devices. We checked a bike shop and 15% was mobile. Mostly iPad and iPhone, but plenty of Android, too.

So, you and I need to make our websites look pretty and useful on this fast growing way to communicate and advertise. And there are things about the reasons for using a phone that need to be updated as well. For instance, having an autodial feature on page one.

The cost will vary depending on who does the work and how complex the work turns out to be, but we should be able to deliver a conversion for under $1000 in most cases.

2012 To Do List for Small Business SEO, SEM, and Traditional Marketing

2011-11-26T08:23:00.001-08:00

If you are a small business, marketing has become more critical than ever. As more and more brick and mortar sales go to the internet, Search Engine Optimization based on local business approaches, Search Engine Marketing for small business, and traditional small business marketing techniques must all be employed to reach your customers.

It is a normal human condition to wait until the last minute to do things. I certainly fall into the normal range in that regard. But, at least for 2011 I am turning over a new leaf in that department. Here is a list of goals for 2012 that I will apply to my business, and that very likely apply to every one of your businesses. Over the next 30 days, these will be detailed out at on this blog. Be sure to subscribe or set up a feed so you don't forget to see the rest of the story.

While our marketing company, Randy Kirk and Associates does not generally take on project based work we are going to make an exception for two types of products over the next 90 days. It is so critical for most of you that you have Mobile Websites and Mobile Apps, that we are going to take those projects. The balance of the items on the list are all things that we do, but are only offered as part of an ongoing retainer.

As always we are offering free DIY advice for all these elements on this blog. Please help yourself.

For almost all of us, excellent execution on even a portion of this list would result in a 20% increase in sales or more.

1. Mobile website appx $700
2. Mobile Ap appx $750 plus $70 a month
3. Add Google Plus Page and Google+ to all online resources
4. 50 online videos
5. Double email list - Send out 12 - 48 emails
6. 10 blog post per month. Videos will create most of those
7. Mobile blog
8. Reputation management
9. Maintain or improve rank of primary website and Google Places
10. Use push notification on text list and Apps
11. Improve Customer Service
12. Add a profit center
13. Improve margins
14. Improve closing ratio
15. Continue to increase activity on all Social Media
16. Continuous effort on back links to websites and videos

Game Changers - Siri, iPhone4S, Apps

2011-11-08T17:45:00.000-08:00

In 1994, I read about the coming internet and told my business partner that we would want to get a website for our company as soon as they were available. It was clear that the world wide web was going to change the way we did business.

We may be on the verge of another such moment in history. Some companies will take advantage of an opportunity to be on the cutting edge of this new way to be engaged with current and potential clients. Others will wait to see if it really is the next best thing.

Let's lay the groundwork. Is there any doubt that IPads, IPhones, and Androids are going to be more important for search than desk tops and laptops? Mobile devices are now the constant companion of a huge percentage of the population and the numbers are increasing exponentially by the day. Siri and other voice recognition administrative assistants will complete the transition. One week using my new iPhone 4s has made it clear to me that we are in a new era.

If you are going to communicate with your existing clients and reach out to new clients, it is going to be through mobile devices. And the tool will not be your website in mobile mode. It will be another Steve Jobs invention…the mobile app.

Until now, the mobile app has been generally used for fast ways to access content like the stock market or the weather, to play games, or to do calculations. But by combining GPS, telephone, text, and voice commands, the mobile app provides amazing new functionality in the way companies and their clients will work together.

You can create your own mobile app using various free or inexpensive online tools, and it may even be possible for you to get those apps approved by Apple and Google for inclusion in their app stores. We have now added this capability to our business tool kit in case you'd rather not learn a new trade.

It Isn't the Economy, Stupid

2011-06-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

Overcoming the Economy …... No Excuses

Almost without exception, our businesses aren’t large enough for us to convincingly blame the economy for our circumstances right now. I have had phone calls from every imaginable kind of business suffering during this downturn. In almost every single case, the real reasons for their dire straits can be summarized as follows:

Making Money From the Last Recession

1. No Marketing At All - In most cases older businesses have completely forgotten how hard they worked to get their sales up to 2006 levels. They stopped marketing and the world changed.
2. No Dexterity - No business niche stays the same for a year much less a decade. New product or service decisions can cost money and involve risk, but companies need to stay fresh. Staying with outdated products or services is the riskiest of all.
3. No One Is Selling - Some one in your organization needs to be able to close the deal. Order taking might work at the height of the economic curve, and even then I don't recommend it, but right now sales folks should be the most critical hire you make.
4. Owner is Internet Challenged - If the owner is unwilling to keep up with rapid-fire changes in online marketing and computer based business practices, someone on the staff better have that job.
5. Exhaustion - Pushing a rock uphill is no fun at all. Especially if you're doing it all alone. Every business owner in this climate needs someone to help with the pushing, and provide some optimism on a bad day.

On the other hand I have a long list of clients who are up substantially in sales and profits since 2008. My own company has grown from a one person business with 8-12 clients to a solid company with 30 clients and nine associates making some or all of their living from our business.

If you're blaming something or someone for your lackluster or downright horrible sales performance, review the list. What adjustment can you make this week to break out of the slump.

We First Video Brings Down the House at Traffic Geyser Social Media Marketing Conference

2011-06-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is such an amazing video. Enjoy.

YouTube Videos Custom Produced for Your Business As Low As $100 Each

2011-05-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

Which would you prefer for your next ad if all the costs were the same? Mail, Newspaper, Radio, or TV? Nobody questions to reach and power of television compared to radio or print. That very fact is being dramatically exhibited every single day as everyone from the local handyman to Pepsi and Apple utilize the most important component of social media, YouTube, to advertise and promote their products and services. Are you taking advantage?

We will produce 6 short videos for you, edit them, add music, text, links, descriptions, great titles, and upload them onto YouTube and other video depositories for just $600. These can be done in your facility if you are within a one hour drive of Los Angeles International Airport. Or we can do them remotely (it's a secret how we do this.) if you are in another city. Call us Now at 310-910-1848 to get started.

Over 50% of my incoming phone calls are from YouTube videos and I have multiple websites, blogs, articles, pr releases, and other content all over the web. Many of my clients are experiencing exactly the same thing.

Your videos will show up on YouTube Search. This is the second most important search engine after Google. But the good news is that your video will also show up on Google Search. Sometimes even on the first page.

Moreover, our videos are high enough quality that many of our clients place these videos on the front page of their website. They almost always use the videos as the reason for a post on their blogs. You can also put them up on FB. One video can result in multiple uses. We'll show you how 6 videos might result in your company being found on 100's of search results for the keywords you care about.

The reason YouTube is so amazing as an advertising resource is that your potential clients are more likely to trust your company if they see you telling the story. We train our clients to come across on their own YouTube videos as very authentic and trustworthy. By using multiple videos you are also able to show that you have a depth and breadth of knowledge that gives the potential customer the confidence they need to pick up the phone or come to your store.

Call us today. Remember $600 is all it takes to get started with 6 videos. Call 310-910-1848 right NOW!

Marketing in 2011 - The Brave New World Of Small Business Marketing

2011-04-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

I can't find my Yellow Pages Book. No idea where it is. I used to take two newspapers and 10 magazines. I worry about the young kids who are still trying for mag subscriptions door-to-door. Remember commercials on TV. Some still Tivo through the commercials. Now I Hulu on my IPad. The Airline Magazines don't get touched anymore as everyone turns on their mobile devices. Amazon, Ebay, and other online retailers may not ever get all the retail business, but don't tell the bookstores that.

And what about the pace of change? Who can keep up? I can tell you that as a marketing professional, we spend hours per week just reading about the changes and the possible impact. Facebook ads, Google Places, YouTube channels, the Google Panda change, Smart Phone effect.

Small business owners who do their own marketing are more foolish than the proverbial lawyer who handles his own legal matters. At least the lawyer has training. But the statistics tell the tail Somewhere around half of all small local businesses do not have a website at all. Another huge percentage of those who do have a website are not visible. And the ones that aren't visible are probably so old and out of date they wouldn't convert visitors into action if they ever got anybody to show up.

Every stat I see says that YouTube and Email to a customer list represent the highest potential return on investment for any marketing that a small business might undertake. Would you like to venture a guess as to the percent of lawyers, accountants, bakeries, and pet shops, much less restaurants and hotels have done anything with YouTube or even have an email list.

If you are reading this and you resemble these remarks, check out how we can help. You can hire a $250,000 per year marketing executive and a full staff of marketing experts for just $750 a month. We will keep up to date on what you need both online and off line, and we have the skills to provide you with the results you need to make the phone ring and the door swing.

Read the details of how we can help you with your small business marketing here or just call me now at 310-910-1848. No receptionist. No salesperson. You'll talk to me.

Facebook Fans vs Google Places

2010-05-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

What is a small business owner to do? There are only so many hours in the day. For today, the most important thing in advertising for small businesses is free, except for the time it takes to do it right. Google Places (formerly Google Local Business Center) is one place where your visibility almost guarantees phone calls. For a step-by-step guide as to how to set up your listing on Google Places and how to optimize that listing, check out my new blog How to Optimize Your Google Places Listing.

This writer believes that Facebook Fan Pages will rule the world. They might someday, so take some time to read this entire article (2500 words.) Here is an excerpt.

400 million people already are on it and Facebook accounts now for 1 in 4 pageviews that occur in the United States. That’s an order of magnitude larger than Google on both a traffic and unique visitor level. They’re doing something right to encourage people to create profiles on the site and also encourage repeat usage.
And the creation of a personal profile is really no different than creating a website– whether for yourself or your business.
All Facebook has to do is tell these 400 million people: “hey, want to create a page for your business in one easy step?” No need to create a new account, as we already have your information. It’s fast, free, and easy– plus, you already trust Facebook with most of your information already. So why not?

Internet Marketing Using YouTube to Get Page One Listings on Google Search

2010-02-17T18:27:00.000-08:00

Nothing is working like YouTube to get consumers and businesses to take action. Google Local Business Center listings are very important, as are listings on other local search engines like Yelp, Yahoo.local, and Yellowpages. A great website is important, too, as (see a Youtube video on how to create a website from a marketing perspective). But nothing offers the versatility for such a low cost as YouTube videos. Here's 10 ways to use YouTube videos to get clients to take action. Randy Kirk is president of Page1Listings.com. He is the author of "Running a 21st Century Small Business," published by Warner Business Books. For more like this about marketing your small business, see Randy's business blog.

1. Yelp.com and CitySearch both maintain that having a YouTube video on their listing for your company doubles the likelihood that the visitor to your listing will take some kind of action. What their claim leaves out is that a poorly created video will not produce those kinds of results and might have a negative effect. On the other hand, there are dozens of other good reasons to create one of more YouTube videos for your local small business other than its effect on Yelp.com.

2. Not every business, but most, will generate more customer calls and decisions to shop if the client has a reason to trust you. The written word is good at this, because folks tend to trust what has been made permanent on paper or screen. But you can really increase trust by allowing your customers to hear and see your personal passion about your products and services through a video. Here is an example of a video that creates trust. The client works for a mortgage broker, and therefore trust is critical. In this video Bill Rayman, mortgage expert, explains the benefits of an FHA mortgage.

3. The internet is hungry for information. If your YouTube video has information that your client base is seeking, they will find the video to get that information. Here is a great example from another client who helps writers with the details of self publishing. This video on publishing a children's book creates trust and gives great information.

4. YouTube has a search function. If you create a great title for your video, add a good description, and provide relevant keywords in the title, description, and tags, your potential customers will find you through the search mechanism on YouTube. They may also find you because you are related to other searches they undertake and videos they watch. This client also needed to create trust and provide information, but getting the title right was everything. Check out the video title on this upscale bike shop in Palos Verdes, California who is now almost sold out on doing bicycle fittings.

5. YouTube videos show up on Google Searches and other similar search engines. It is not uncommon for a thoughtfully keyworded YouTube Video to show up higher than your $5000 website. In fact, Google is making a concerted effort to "mix media" on page 1 search results. That's why you now see news, images, videos, local search engine results right on the top page. It is now estimated that a YouTube video is 27 times more likely to show up on page 1 of a google search for your important keywords than your website. Here is an example of an IRS tax resolution company with their YouTube video on page 1

6. By adding YouTube videos to your Google Maps Local Business Center listing, MerchantCircle listing, Yelp.com and others that offer this servie, you improve your ranking on those local search engines, and that helps to improve the ranking of your website. Now you can also list videos on Fan pages of Facebook.

7. You can add your YouTube video to your website or blog as a URL link, like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-0VIHJCRk, or as an embed like on this insurance company website, or this mortgage agent's blog, or our own small business marketing blog.
and this and this. By putting the video on your website, you generate far more chances of it being seen. This is where you can really build trust and increase reasons for your customer to shop with you.

8. You can add your YouTube video to your blog, your facebook, you can Tweet about it, and you can socially bookmark the original video, the article on your blog, and the facebook entry. All of these increase the chances of the video being seen, and also benefit your activities on these other web tools.

9. Daily Motion and other video depositories similar to YouTube may pick up your video and add it to their listings. But if you don't want to wait and see if they do so, you can upload the same video to each one. Or you can use an aggregator like tubemogul.com to put the video up on numerous of these sites all at once.

10. A single YouTube video that we did for a client for less than $300 resulted in the sale of at least one $6000 bicycle. This is just one of many such examples. The best part is that the YouTube video is listed on page one of a Google search for Specialized Transition and is going to still be selling bicycles for this client a year from now.

While most of the videos shown above are live action, you can do a great job with still pictures and good superscripting. We have a client who sells neon signs and LED signs who had a great scrolling LED sign he wanted to do a video about. Having a speaker would have been fine, but totally unneeded. Here is a fantastic use of video to sell a scrolling neon sign.

You can create your own YouTube video. But I caution you that it needs to be thoughtfully created, edited, superscripted, titled, keyworded, described, and uploaded. Please take a look of one recently created for an apartment management company in San Pedro California. A video like this might cost $300.

Page1listing.com has now created a new product that provides the creation of YouTube videos from concept through upload to YouTube and provides a complete package of internet marketing approaches like the 10 above.

Kirk's List Offers Hot Deals to Los Angeles Business Owners - Also Free Advertising

2010-02-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

Top of the Page - FHA Mortgage 3.5% Down

Today's best offer comes from Bill Rayman at Mortgage Capital Partners, the largest mortgage lender in Los Angeles. Bill has a special offer, but first he wants to remind everyone on Kirk's list that the First Time Home Buyers tax rebate ends April 31. This is a great opportunity to get into the housing market with 3.5% down, a super low interest rate, and housing prices that will never be seen again. Here is a video about the FHA opportunity.

Bill is offering your choice of a 3 day Cruise or a NIght on the Town for TWO to anyone who brings him a mortgage referral that results in a contract. The night on the town includes dinner on restaurant row or equivalent, a show, and a limo for 4 hours.

Top of the Page - Learn more about Bill Rayman and fill out an instant mortgage application at http://www.MortgageHelpLosAngeles.com or call Bill (direct) at 310-295-6213.

YOUR NAME HERE FOR FREE - NC! - $0.00

No kidding! The rest of the ads on this Business-to-Business newsletter will be FREE. So Easy! All you have to do to reach over 1000 other business owners is to send me your ad of up to 500 words.

May I recommend that your ad be VERY SPECIAL. If you want to get this group to jump up and down over your business offerings, give them something to shout about right now!!

SPECIAL OFFER! It's already free. What more can I do?
The first 50 who send me ads will qualify for a free YouTube Video of their business (up to 2 minutes). YouTube videos are 27 times as likely to be on page 1 of a Google Search than your website.

Check Out The Rest of These Ads. Use These Resources and They Will be More Likely to Buy From You.

Give an Electra Beach Cruiser Away

The Electra Beach Cruiser is one of the most sought after bicycles in the market today. If you are planning a promotion to your customers, your staff, or in conjunction with an event held by a charitable or civic organization, here is your chance to get an Electra Tank Type Beach Cruiser at 30% off MSRP.

Palms Cycle just a 1/2 block north of Venice Blvd on Motor Ave is making this special offer. Palms Cycle is the oldest Bike Shop in Los Angeles. Owner Cap Rancier is the 2nd generation to run the shop. Palms Cycle is a great resource for Road BIkes, Mountain Bikes, BMX bikes and specializes in Fixed Gear Bikes. They are also well known for creating very unique bicycle for the fixed gear crowd and for movie props.

Check out this video to learn more about Electra Beach Cruisers.

Get a NEON or LED Sign Direct From the Manufacturer

BestBuyNeonSigns.com has every kind of Neon Sign, LED sign, and even an exclusive SMART Sign. Do you need an open sign, exit sign, special custom sign with you Name or Logo?

Eddie Takahashi is the owner of BestBuyNeonSign.com and he wants to offer Kirk's List a special better than any other offer he has ever provided. Take the lowest price on any Neon, LED, or Smart Light you find on his website, then take another 10% off of that. This offer is limited to one per customer. And you can only get this offer if you send him a forwarded copy of this email.

You can, of course, pass this offer along to a friend by forwarding this email to them.

BestBuyNeonSigns.com even carries the new scrolling and programmable LED signs. The 10% discount applies to these as well.

See a video here about the Smart Signs which look like neon, are brighter than neon, more flexible in terms of what you can show on a sign, and even cheaper than neon.

Call Eddie at 626-818-4329

Local Company Stands Behind Their No Name Printer Ink

I have two pet peeves. I don't like to pay for parking and will happily walk eight blocks to avoid a $2 parking bill. I also need a Tums after paying for brand name printer inks. I understand they sell us the printers cheap to make money on the ink. But REALLY!

So I tried the no name ink a couple of times. OMG! Not a great move. That is, until I found Rob Cota at WeFixPrinters.com. Rob tells me he has "done the research" into the generic inks and was ready to recommend I use one. A year later, I'm still saving BIG $$$ on those generics.

Rob is so confident that he'll earn your ink business he'll give you one free cartridge of black HP or Epson Printer Ink with ANY purchase. Let me repeat that. ANY purchase. Like you could buy one and get one free. That is 50% off. Robs Website is WeFixPrinters.com and his phone number is 310-937-4588

Investment GURU Works on Percentage!?!

Back in the day when there were real journalists trying to get news, the old saw was that Dog Bites Man was not a story, but Man Bites Dog was. Today the Man would probably have to make a stew out of the dog to get a headline. Anyway. Amin Khakiani is so sure of his investment strategies that he is willing to tie his earnings on your portfolio to your success. If you don't make money, he doesn't either. Now that is a story worthy of a headline!

Amin has a pretty healthy client list and over $5m under his watchful eye. He posts his results daily on his website and Twitters them, too. So you can keep track of him for a week, a month, or a year before you give his capabilities a try. His standard deal is 1-2% of your total portfolio per year, but right now you can be a part of his trial run at 10% of your gain. Minimum investment $50,000.

He says all new customers from Kirk's List get a 2 POUND bag of chocolate covered pomegranates just for signing up. Call Amin at 310-370-0495.

Go to FPMCapital.com

TAX TIME! SAVE BIG on TAX PREP!

It might seem really simple these days to do an online tax return, but clearly the online systems can miss opportunities for you to save. Now, Mike Montano at Demetriou, Montano, and Assoc., is going to make it so darn cheap to use a tax preparer that the decision will be a total no-brainer!

Basic State and Federal (Standard Deductions) Normally $85
Kirk's List recipients ONLY $60.00

State and Federal with Schedule A Normally $199
Kirk's List Recipients ONLY $149.00

If you have larger tax issues, like unpaid taxes, prior years' returns not filed, or the IRS calling, Mike can help you with this, too. You hear their ads on the radio all the time regarding helping you solve tax problems.

Call Now 310 581-2900
http://www.taxrepair.com

This Could Have Been Your AD Right Here - Free! Really!

Just send me 500 words max. You can send six words if you want, but 200 - 500 is probably more likely to sell something. I will write an ad for you, but that is NOT FREE! Write it yourself! Save the dough for some printer's ink or a nice cruiser bike.

The next email of cool specials could come tomorrow or next week depending on how many folks send me their 500 words. So if you don't want to get more cool offers like this a few times a month or even a few times a week, opt out now. You can do that down at the bottom of the page.

For those who think this is a very, very cool new idea, send this to 10 of your friends and I will send you a thank you note and really mean it. They can sign up by clicking on this link, or by just sending me an email saying "sign me up." I am a simple guy.

Promotional Products and Advertising Specialties are Excellent Low Cost Ways to Increase Traffic and Sales

2009-08-27T10:02:00.001-07:00

Look around your house. You probably have dozens of pens, refrigerator magnets, key fobs, drink coasters, note pads, calendars and other items that carry the brand of a local business owner. You might generally think of these items being associated primarily with real estate and insurance salesmen, but in fact the promotional products business has 70,000 distributors and 20,000 suppliers offering 700,000 products that can be imprinted, embossed, or otherwise labeled with your identification.

For twenty of the past twenty-two years I have been manufacturing and selling bicycle water bottles (aka sports bottles, squeeze bottles.) My company sold close to 100,000,000 bottles during that time to everyone from the local pizza parlor to the US Army, from State Farm Insurance to Curves, and from the Girl Scouts to the local little league. During those years I was featured in articles within the industry on various aspects of providing a better approach to the sale of promotional products that would deliver better results.

Most sellers of promotional products are very happy to ask you what you want, then hope they have the best price. You see, almost all promotional products salespeople can offer you the exact same 700,000 products. And you may think that the most important thing to you is whether the pen costs $.79 or $.89. As a marketing professional, I see it from a completely different perspective. Here is how I suggest you make the purchase

First, consider what your goal is in purchasing the promotional product. Commonly the reason you are buying the item is because you did it last year, and you ran out. But, did the item actually result in any kind of new business for you. If you can identify the result you hope for (e.g. more phone calls, repeat sales, employee motivation, customer retention, direct mail response, salesman's leave behind, trade show traffic builder, or new product billboard) then you might decide that a pen at any price is not the right product. So with 700,000 products to choose from, a more thoughtful and marketing driven consultant might have some highly unique ideas to suggest.

Over the years I developed a concept called the perfect promotional product. Each time you need an item for a promotion, you may not be able to find an item that meets all these criteria, but it is still a great place to start.

1. Demographics. Who am you trying to appeal to? Men, women, young, old, athletic, couch potato, hip, not so hip, student, church member, vacationer, outdoorsman, etc. The product should suit the demographic you are hoping to reach.

2. Utility. You should try for maximum utility. When they get it home (if they get it home,) where, how, and how often will the product be seen so that the ad can be viewed. Some items only last a day. Some items last for years. Some are used once. Some are used repeatedly (think coffee mug.)

3. Other eyeballs. A plus for this new perfect promotional would be if it would get seen or be used by someone in addition to the intial recipient. When it is used, will it be seen? Is it cool enough to show off? Will others in the household use it? Beach balls and water bottles come to mind.

4. Pallet. The more possible colors the better. Having a low minimum order quantity for custom colors would be a nice touch.

5. Fast turn around. The promotional products industry has become very fast at order turn around time. Try to have at least a week to play with.

6. Large area for art. The larger the better. Of course, there are applications where the client wants their logo or design to be subdued. The larger the billboard is to begin with, the more that a pretty large logo still doesn't appear obnoxious. Pens are not very good at this. Calendars are.

7. Four color art possible. Even better would be if the product can also be printed with multiple spot colors beyond four, so that cartoon art, or several logos with different PMS colors can be used.

8. Multiple locations for the art. Two is better than one and almost always adequate.

9. Small and ships cheaply. For the first time we have an element that is conflicting with other goals. (Small, but large billboard.) But maybe it is an item that can be unfolded.

10. Perceived value compared to cost. Wouldn't it be nice if you could find an item that the average person would look at and think was $10 in the stores, but you could buy it for $.90? That doesn't happen often. In fact, maybe never. However, the perfect promotional product would have a very high perceived value compared to its cost.

When we help you with your promotional product needs we take all of this into account and also help you devise methods for tracking the results.

Using Your Website to Increase Traffic and Sales for Your Local Business

2009-08-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Most websites created for local businesses are merely online brochures providing a description of products and services offered at the business. The website has potential to do so much more as explained in the video below. A market driven website designer or developer will provide you with the other four key components of an excellent website.

Ten Reasons for Using YouTube for Local Small Business Internet Marketing

2009-08-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

Yelp.com and CitySearch both maintain that having a YouTube video on their listing for your company doubles the likelihood that the visitor to your listing will take some kind of action. What their claim leaves out is that a poorly created video will not produce those kinds of results and might have a negative effect. On the other hand, there are dozens of other good reasons to create one of more YouTube videos for your local small business other than its effect on Yelp.com.

2. Not every business, but most, will generate more customer calls and decisions to shop if the client has a reason to trust you. The written word is good at this, because folks tend to trust what has been made permanent on paper or screen. But you can really increase trust by allowing your customers to hear and see your personal passion about your products and services through a video.

3. The internet is hungry for information. If your YouTube video has information that your client base is seeking, they will find the video to get that information.

4. YouTube has a search function. If you do a good job of Titling your video, creating a good description, and providing relevant keywords in the title, description, and tags, your potential customers will find you through the search mechanism on YouTube. They may also find you because you are related to other searches they do and videos they watch.

5. YouTube videos show up on Google Searches and other similar search engines. It is not uncommon for a thoughtfully keyworded YouTube Video to show up higher than your $5000 website.

6. By adding YouTube videos to your Google Maps Local Business Center listing, MerchantCircle listing, Yelp.com and others, you improve your ranking on those local search engines, and that helps to improve the ranking of your website.

7. You can add your YouTube video to your website as a URL link, like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-0VIHJCRk, or as an embed (see below). By putting the video on your website, you generate far more chances of it being seen. This is where you can really build trust and increase reasons for your customer to shop with you.

8. You can add your YouTube video to your blog, your facebook, you can Tweet about it, and you can socially bookmark the original video, the article on your blog, and the facebook entry. All of these increase the chances of the video being seen, and also benefit your activities on these other web tools.

9. Daily Motion and other video depositories similar to YouTube may pick up your video and add it to their listings. But if you don't want to wait and see if they do so, you can upload the same video to each one, or you can use an aggregator to put the video up on numerous of these sites all at once.

10. A single YouTube video that we did for a client for less than $300 resulted in the sale of a $6000 bicycle. This is just one of many such examples. The best part is that the YouTube video is listed on page one of a Google search for Specialized Transition and is going to still be selling bicycles for this client a year from now.

You can create your own YouTube video. But I caution you that it needs to be thoughtfully created, edited, superscripted, titled, keyworded, described, and uploaded. Please take a look of one we did recently for an apartment management company on this page. We can do a video like this for you for $300. If you are not located within driving distance of our headquarters, you may need to send us some raw footage or we can work from pictures and create a slide show with voice over.

Give us a call. We can dramatically impact your business with a single YouTube Video

Using Press Releases (PR) to Advertise and Promote Your Local Small Business

2009-08-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

Getting in front of the press has never been easier or harder. The traditional press release is almost dead, but the new wave methods are not sufficient in themselves to get major regional or national coverage. If you are interested in getting press coverage for your event, new product release, special, change in personnel, or any of the many, many reasons for sending out a press release, take a minute to review the following. It could save you thousands of dollars.

If you are releasing a new movie or automobile, have the latest invention that will solve the energy crises or cure cancer, or you are attempting to establish a national brand most of the old rules apply, but there are some new ones. You will not turn to Page1Listings.com for this type of release. You need an experienced professional PR firm that has connections...lots and lots of connections. You see, because of the new rules for lesser PR events that follow below, the press has more than enough news coming their way to fill their ever smaller newspapers and magazines. So, these editors have put up more walls between themselves and small PR producers than ever in the past. This means that unless you have one heck of a story, or you are connected, you are not going to get the time of day from most mainstream media: print, TV, radio, or even internet.

On the other hand, let's say you have a great new idea, or you're going to have an event that has a potential to be of interest to 1000, 100,000, or a few million folks. Getting your information out to narrow interest groups is simple and no longer requires massive PR expenditures. You can do some of it yourself, although a professional can increase the chances of wide exposure very substantially. If you are a writer, and you know something about the structure of a Press Release, you can easily put it up on PRlog.org absolutely free of anything other than your time. I have tried as hard as I can to find other truly free web based press release sites, but all the others are either too painful or have too many tricky ways to get you to pay something. (Do you want a picture? Is it more than 800 words? Do you want it to be targeted to more than one interest group?) PRlog.org is 100% free and no tricks. Not only that, due to their size and presence, their releases commonly place very well on Google Search.

Now the tricky part. Like any other web based effort, your press release needs to have key words in title, description, and content. But you also want the release to be compelling and interesting to the press and to your target group. And, what are the key words that you should use? Now that the Press Release has been put on PRLog.org, what else should you be doing to get the word out? How can you maximize the results of this PR campaign.

Your PR release placed on PRLog.org or other "free" or paid internet services will be seen by 1000's of people, many of whom will be bloggers, internet news sources, and traditional media. That is, if the release is properly created and promoted. There are still industry and local news organizations that you can contact to reinforce your interest in having the news published in their online or traditional media products. Most of this you can do yourself. And I'm pleased to provide you with this short primer for DIY. If you'd like some help, you can check out examples of some of the press releases we have done recently by going to http://pressroom.prlog.org/Local_Biz_Marketing/

Here is a short video that offers some additional ideas

If you would like us to write your press release, please know that it will be written from the standpoint of a marketing professional, not a reporter. We will design the press release to maximize the potential for being read, but also being acted on. This means that we will be very conscious of your organizations goals and expectations, and make every effort to see that the presser fits in with other elements of your campaign. We will do independent research regarding your article to flesh it out and make it readable and likely to be seen on Google and Google news. We will research key words and report back to you for your input on which keywords to emphasize. This entire effort commonly costs less than $500.

Give us a call and let us help you get the word out!

Dream Maker Has Inspirational Message for Local Small Business Owners

2009-08-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to their graves with the song still on their heart... Thoreau

Business is never easy, and for the local small business owner just keeping up with changes on the internet is a full time job. In this video Randy Kirk speaks to the methods that time-strapped small businesses can get visible on the web.

Bing, Caffeine, Google Maps Local Business Center, Hot Frog - What You Need to Know

2009-08-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

Change. The word is on everyone’s lips. It was the central theme of the just past political season. It is currently the underpinning of legislation being pressed on Health Care and Energy policies. Alvin Toffler in his talk of ever accelerating waves of change foresaw a time when change would be so rapid that the vast majority of the population would give up trying to keep up. Has the internet brought us to that place? For the local small business owner, the answer would
seem to be a resounding yes.

Marketing a small business in 2009 is complex beyond understanding, or at least the average small business owner thinks so. Internet marketing is now the primary driver of traffic to local businesses who supply goods and services to consumers (B2C) and to other local companies (B2B). Strategies for being visible on the internet change so fast that even many experts have difficulty keeping up.

In just the last three weeks, we have had the merger of two major internet forces. The resulting new search engine, Bing, raises new questions about how to stay relevant. Not surprisingly Google has responded with Caffeine, a faster, more sophisticated engine. Google
Maps Loca l Business Center, Yelp, YellowPages.com, CitySearch, MerchantCircle, and over 65 other national Local Search Engines (LSE's) duke it out for their share of search for products and services at the local level. HotFrog, a more recent launch, goes from obscurity to solid contender in just weeks, after Merchant Circle did the same within months.

Randy Kirk, CEO of Page1Listings.com spelled out the current situation: "For the local bakery, restaurant, lawyer, or general contractor, the ability to be seen on page 1 of a Google Search has
dropped exponentially in the last 24 months. Where a well designed website with decent Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may have provided that visibility two years ago, the LSE's now control most of the top 10 - 20 positions on most searches, not specific business websites."

Page1Listings.com President, Ollie Danner laments: "Unfortunately, the LSE's content is pretty awful across the board. When you go on even the best of them, a search for Italian Restaurant in Las Vegas will commonly include many, many listings that have nothing to do with
Italian Restaurants. Moreover the consumer may or may not realize that reviews on these sites may be "flames" (bad reviews) created by competitors. We realized this need for better results for local businesses and created local search engines directories such as
www.GoToKern.com and have plans to roll out close to 100 such GoTo sites in the coming months."

What can the local business owner do? Kirk, author of "Running a 21st Century Small Business" answers: "For many, the answer has been to move to other methods of advertising and promotion that are throwbacks. There is a lot more networking taking place. This is not
just the kind found on Facebook or LinkedIn, but real, face-to-face interaction with others in groups like LeTip or BNI. Where 20 years ago the major local business group might have been Rotary or the Chamber, today businesses are being far more explicit in what they hope to gain from membership in a business club. They want a business connection that will result in dollars in their pockets"

This new direction has spawned networking meetings that are similar to speed dating clubs. Twenty to 40 local owners will meet and spend five minutes with each of the other attendees seeing how they might be able to connect and do business together.

These ideas are useful and can produce business. But for many businesses, not being visible on the web is the kiss of death. So how can these small businesses possibly keep up with the change. Kirk points out, "there is a growing group of companies who specialize in visibility issues. We have created one such company that will use up to a dozen different methods to get our clients on page 1 of Google searches for key words that matter to them.

Danner adds: "We have used YouTube videos, PR releases, Flickr., Blogs, Craig's list, and many other methods. Of course there is still a need for an outstanding website, and for many businesses, we can get them excellent visibility with their website. We also concentrate on
those 72 Local Search Engines. We make sure that our clients are on all of them and that they're listings are optimized on those LSE's.

"While there are some other companies doing what we do, we believe that we are unique in that we employ a full-on marketing department to make sure we are creating the greatest potential for a return on the client's investment. Even with those resources being employed, our services are priced starting well under $1000."

But what about the changes? Won't there be another new LSE like HotFrog emerging next week or next month? Won't Bing and Google and other search engines be changing how they rate businesses almost monthly? Besides, the small businessman in this climate has to be constantly
changing, too. How will he be able to communicate his latest invention or idea or product to those 72 search engines.

Kirk acknowledges that it isn't easy: "We have to stay on top of all these changes every single day. The local owner does not have the luxury of doing that. So we offer them a service for about $100 a month that makes sure they stay up to date. We even call them from time-to-time to check on changes that they might not have called in to us. We insure that they will stay on page 1, and stay relevant."

So how do companies that need the kind of service you are offering find a quality provider? Kirk concludes: This is just one part of the change we are in. We don't know of anyone else that does what we do. We invite competition, because we can't possibly do this for 5,000,000 small businesses. We're even willing to create partnerships with others and teach them what we know. For now, we just try to handle all the business that is coming our way."

For more on Page1Listings.com visit their website or call 800-708-1748.

Los Angeles Marketing Consultant offers Cross Promotion Case Study

2009-07-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in creating a major promotion and you are long on time, but short on money, here is an example of an almost free cross promotion we did for a local retailer as part of a grand opening. This case study example could be used any time in conjunction with an event, no matter how small.

The central element in the promotion was a raffle. We wanted to involve the local high school in that the retailer wanted to attract that age group to his new location. After a few phone calls we were able to find one of the performance groups at the school that was trying to raise money for an out-of-state competition. It could have been the band, the choir, the art department, but in this case it turned out to be the audio-visual department.

We set a goal to raise $10,000 and decided to sell the raffle tickets for $5 each in sets of 20. The students would do all the selling. We recommended that the students pay $100 for the pack in advance and then sell the pack to recover their investment, then return the signed stubs for the drawing.

The students then asked their own parents and friends parents if there were products that could be donated from local businesses they knew. Of course, the prizes would be listed on the raffle tickets as publicity for those donating major prizes.

We also canvassed other retailers in the area to gather even more prizes. We ended up with a very nice list including products, tickets to sporting events, free lessons at local music shops and karate studios, and dinners at restaurants in the area.

The students had no difficulty selling the tickets and raising the cash. In fact, they could have raise substantially more. Each day for several weeks the students announced the entire event over the PA system during homeroom, including the name of the client.

Our client paid for the tickets. The cost was under $300 for the 2000 tickets. On each ticket, the largest words were the name and address of the client.

For less than $300, the client became a great friend to the school, made dozens of contacts, had multiple announcements to the 2000 students, teachers, and administrators at the school, and received multiple impressions from the 10,000 tickets that were handed to consumers in their neighborhood.

And since this was a major event, many individuals attended the event to see if they won, which created more crowd and excitement for the grand opening.

If you wanted to do this promotion at -0- cost, merely get a co-sponsor to pay for the tickets.

Major New Program Offered for Local Search Engine Listings and Optimization

2009-03-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

Are you currently listed on the top 15 Local Search Engines. Number 1 is Google Maps. Being on that map can mean a huge increase in business. Number 2 is MerchantCircle. Knowing how to maximize your presence on MerchantCircle is almost certain to bring you customers. There are 13 other major local search engines (LSE's). Each one has a unique way of getting your listing to show up well. We know those unique methods. Check out this video or just call right now for more information about how we can help you through this process and add $$$ to your sales and profits. 310-920-9649

Grand Opening Event Comments by Client re: Randy Kirk & Associates Execution of Plan

2008-12-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

We are very thankful to have a nice video from Steve Bowen of PV Bicycle Center in Palos Verdes Estates making some super thoughtful comments about the outcome of his Grand Opening. He asked me to "general" the entire event based on a plan that I provided him. The end result was over 1000 visitors over 4 days, attendance by the president of his primary vendor, Specialized Bicycle Company's Mike Sinyard, and a great time by all. Here are his comments

PR Release Special's Great Response Results in Change of Strategy for Los Angeles Marketing Consultant

2008-11-28T15:33:00.000-08:00

When I started Randy Kirk and Associates, I saw potential in becoming the marketing arm for small companies that they could not normally afford. With a background in almost every imaginable form of marketing except TV and bill boards, my theory was that I could analyze the marketing approach for companies with less than 50 employees, make recommendations, and help to execute marketing decisions for $500 - $1000 per month. This compared to hiring a full time person for this job at $80,000 up.

While this has been a solid business plan, and has resulted in a very quick accumulation of 15 clients, I decided to try an experiment last month. I sent out a special on just one type of marketing that I do to around a list of prospects, friends, and others. The offer was to do a single PR release for $149. For the most part, PR agencies wouldn't even talk to a new client for less than $2000 in budget. A single release would take the average writer a minimum of 3 hours to research and compose. Then it needs to be sent to several targeted media outlets with a personal follow up.

Therefore, even a freelance beginner would have to charge $200, and a serious, experienced PR person would charge at least $500. Unsurprisingly, the response was fast and brought serious new business into the company.

Using that result, I am now offering a menu of specific marketing products for the first time. And each of them is being offered at prices that are the equivalent to buying a 42 inch Flat Screen for $300.

Go to this page for a compete rundown of the offers including SEO, Blog Creation, and setting up companies on local search engines.

West Los Angeles Clients of Randy Kirk & Associates Marketing Consulting and Services Company

2008-10-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Peachheaders and others who may be looking for outstanding product and service providers on the West Side of Los Angeles. If you call or drop by any of these companies, would you please indicate that you are there by my recommendation.

Palms Cycle - I have known the owners here since the early 70's, and the family has owned the shop since the 50's. You can be certain of getting good values on bicycles and accessories here, but you will also find the owners to be charming and enthusiastic about helping you. They are very community minded, helping with various police agencies and childrens groups, and they are the primary bicycle sponsor of the 2009 AIDS LifeCycle Ride. Ask for Cap or Candace. You can find more on their website, their MySpace, or their blog.

I forgot the mention, visit and take your kids just to see the almost 100 vintage bicycles they have on the floor or hanging from the walls and ceilings. Also ask to see the bikes that have been used in movies, music videos, or other theatrical events.

Ida Kendall - Hypnotherapist - Not just your average hypnotherapist, Ida is a California Certified instructor of Hypnotherapy.

She has been a leader in the development of new approaches to speeding up the process of improved mental or emotional health. Known as brief therapy, other mental health specialists are using techniques an tools taught by Ida that bring improvement in areas such as weight control, addiction, overcoming fears, improved motivation, depression, and stress (including post traumatic stress.) One of her specialties is the use of hypnosis to dramatically improve the likelihood of successful implantation during in vitro fertilization. Studies show a 60% improvement in implants.

Other methods used in her Santa Monica Studios include Transformation Breathing, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), and NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming)

Visit her blog for video information on her approaches. Visit her website for dates and times of classes and groups.

Thuy Le - Realtor -

As hard working as she is delightful to be around, Thuy is an associate of the Sotheby's Intl Realty business. You know them as holding auctions for the most exquisite art in the known world. They are also the leading real estate agency in the US for helping clients to buy or sell the most presitgious adresses around the world.

Thuy is a graduate of Wellesly College and an active member of the alunae association and the Jr. League. She currently resides in the Marina Del Rey area, and concentrates her real estate efforts there. However she is quite capable of handling your real estate needs for residential, investment, or leases throughout Santa Monica and the entire West LA neighborhood.

Visit her blog for articles she has written and videos she has created on opportunities in short sales and foreclosures during this unusual market. There are also other commentaries on current market conditions.
Michael Campbell - Chiropractor - When you visit some healers today, there is commonly a feeling of hurry. You get to sit around and wait, but once your finally seen by a practitioner, time's a waistin'. Dr. Campbell prides himself on doing just the opposite. While utilizing the very most modern equipment and methods in chiropractic, Dr. Campbell knows that his best chance of helping you feel better is if he is fully informed about your condition.

Dr. Campbell also believes that there is too much emphasis on machines today, so he is more inclined to spend more time with hands on methods, and he is a specialist in deep tissue repair.

In addition, Dr. Campbell sees the body as being like a bridge stood on end. From a structural engineering standpoint, this is a difficult maintanance problem. And since there is a foundation at only one end of this virticle bridge, the feet are a key ingredient in keeping the structure in balance. Therefore Dr. Campbell is an expert in Orthodics. He warns against DIY methods in drug stores and shoe botiques. For a very small amount more, you can use an engineer to produce orthodics that are customized for your feet and body. Learn more at his website.

The Best Plumber You Ever Had - I used to do all my own plumbing. That was before the flood. $1000 deductible later, the Pergot floor and the silk rug will really never be the same again. Now I use Vincent. He and his crew are ready to do it all. He and I discussed hot water heaters the other day. Did you know you're supposed to drain them once a year? And there's this gizmo you should replace when you drain it. Aren't you glad to know that. Now that I know it, I doubt if I will do it.

So, the best idea is to call The Best Plumber You Ever Had about once a year to just go through the house and check things out, do the regular maintanance, and you probably won't need him for a year. His website is here.

2 Learn English - If you teach English as a second language or English as a Foreign Language, or if you know someone who does, this couple has been creating books, card decks, games, and teaching aids for decades. They have now amassed a huge collection of widely used materials in one easy website. Visit here for the details.

Hard Economic Times Require Strategic Changes - SPECIAL OFFER 310-920-9649

2008-10-09T16:25:00.000-07:00

Almost every potential client I have called in the last few day in Los Angeles, Culver City, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, or even Las Vegas is feeling the downward pressure on sales. Consumers are putting their hands in their pockets, wondering how this "crisis" is going to play out. I've been around for about 5 of these troughs, and quite frankly the 1979 days of 21% interest and 18% inflation was quite a bit more terrifying, at least so far.

The last thing you want to do in a tough selling environment is reduce marketing efforts. You should increase your marketing effort to take advantage of your weak competition and gain market share.

My clients pay me a minimum of $495 per month to help them with comprehensive marketing consultation. I help them with everything from employee hiring and motivation to mailings, door knob hangers, and outdoor signage. I even provide them with pens and t shirts with their logos printed on them. But today, most traffic is generated from some form of internet activity. And a huge part of what I do for my clients is to make sure they are VERY VERY VISIBLE when someone tries to find them using Google, Yahoo, etc.

Right now, folks are a bit short of marketing dollars, so I've created a solution. I call it DIY Marketing. I will provide you with easy, step-by-step instructions that will allow you to be easily found on Google search with the key words that matter to you. Here is a short video that explains it in detail.

So you see, if you do the actual work (or have an employee or your teenager do it), your cost will be only 1/3 of what I normally charge. And if you work really fast, your cost could be even less. See, every time you finish a module, I'll send you another one. There are about 20 of these tutorials for internet development. If you finish all 20 in 30 days, your cost will be only $169 total.

Call right NOW! 310-920-9649 or email RandyKirk77@gmail.com

Local Business Search Engine Optimization in Los Angeles is All the Rage

2008-07-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

As my new Marketing Consulting Business gets off the ground (I'm about 70% of my maximum client base), I have discovered that the local business Search Engine Optimization business is where the future is for most of my clients. As discussed elsewhere on this blog and on my SEO blog, the hard copy yellow pages are dead. No one uses them to find the wedding planner, the bike shop, or the computer consultant anymore.

Most shoppers who are unclear about where to purchase their next bicycle or garbage disposal go straight to the web. They may just need to see where there is a close supplier, in which case google maps is right at the top of the page. They may want to review quality and pricing for the product or service, and there are dozens of websites doing that. Now, in Los Angeles, there are at least 10 local search engines like Yelp, City Search, and City Voter who not only give you a snapshot of the business, but invite folks to write reviews.

All of these local search engines are competing for top page or top 25 ranking on a key word or key phrase ranking with the websites of the companies themselves. So if I have a website design company and pay $2500 for a nice website, then pay a SEO consultant a bunch more money to try and get me in the top 10, the power of all these other websites might keep me down in the third or 4th page.

For my personal searches, I now have my preferences set at 50 responses instead of the 10 that is the default. This allows me to quickly find actual businesses instead of local search engines.

For my clients, it means they need to be sure they are represented on all those local search engines. It took me two hours yesterday to get one client up on all of them. But that $250 for that client will be paying dividends for years to come.

Then I need to find other methods for getting high positions, not merely the website. Blogs, YouTube, Flickr.com, Forum posts, and a dozen other tricks of the trade create a full frontal assault that usually results in something being on page 1. That's why the name of my new website is http://www.searchPage1.com.

Marketing Consulting In West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Culver City

2008-07-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

It has taken me 4 months, but my marketing consulting company is finally ready for prime time. I have a new website for my marketing consultant business in West Los Angeles, that hopefully makes sense to people. The URL is http://www.searchPage1.com. The intent of the new company is to offer something that is in a total new niche. Comprehensive marketing services for small local businesses and non profits. A smarter marketing consultant would would be attempting to land some of the powerhouse companies around the West LA market. There are plenty of dotcom and high tech businesses within walking distance of my home.

But I've decided to pursue about 30 small businesses who no one else is interested in. Of course, there are web designers, pay per click salesmen, yellow page folks, and local adsmiths that want the $200,000 -$2,000,000 in sales companies. But they have a specific product to sell, and thus a biased sales pitch. My approach is to carefully hear the clients hopes, dreams, and desires for their business, and then sculpt a custom package of web effort, print ads, customer service programs, e-mail blasts, employee training, door knob hangers, community involvement, profit center development, niche assessment, and so on.

I think this is a totally new approach. And it is working. My current client list of 10 are all experiencing improved marketing visibility, and in most cases, dramatic increases in business. After less than 90 days.

Maybe you are one of those small businesses that could use a boost in traffic right now. I'm just an email (RandyKirk77@gmail.com) or a phone call (310-920-9649) away.

West Los Angeles Marketing Consultant Explains His Out-of-the-box Methods

2008-07-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

From my front door I can be in Santa Monica, Culver City, Beverly Hills, Downtown Los Angeles, Torrance, or Long Beach within 20 minutes. Within those cities lie some of the most powerful marketing and communications companies on the planet. Each one is fighting for the consumers attention and their dollars. All of them are using the web, even the presidential marketers.

How does a small local hair stylist or computer repair shop compete in that powerful space? There was a time when the great democratizer was the phone book yellow pages. But they are a force no more. The web was supposed to level the playing field, but has it? Only if you know how to use it.

Here is a short video that gives some examples of how I was able to get my clients to top positions on the Google Search Pages using YouTube. It is only one of the unique ways that I can help you become visible on the web. And the cost is less than $500 a month.

http://www.searchPage1.com RandyKirk77@Gmail.com

Niche Marketing - Try a Biodegradable Plastic Water Bottle - Health and Save the Planet

2008-06-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

Grocery store bottled water is under fire. Disposing of millions of plastic bottles after only one use was never a good idea, but now cities are creating all kinds of restrictions on the use of these bottles.

All plastic water bottles were getting bad publicity over the last few months because of scares related to BPA in Polycarbonate bottles made by Nalgene and others, and because of notices with regard to disposable PET water bottles about potential algae growth when using those bottles more than once.

For the most part, the news got things right, although certainly not close to 100% right. One thing that is clear, and only a few news resources got this part wrong, LDPE, squeezable sports bottles are very environmentally friendly. And because of a major breakthrough in technology, they are friendlier to mother earth than ever.

First, LDPE bottles tend to be reused by their owners for up to 5 years. During this 5 year period, an individual using throw away bottled water containers might dispose of 3000 or more little 16 ounce bottles. That is a significant savings in carbon footprint among other things, like MONEY savings to the user.

2nd, LDPE bottles are 100% safe for use with food. Many products such as mustard, come packaged in LDPE bottles.

Now, comes the breakthrough. A new additive offered by Californialine makes these bottles 100% biodegradable in LANDFILL!!

In any business, when there is a huge demand for a new direction ... in this case bottles that are safe, don't create a massive misuse of resources, and don't fill up the landfills with plastic that will be there in several centuries ... smart businesses grab hold of the niche and attempt to exploit the opportunity.

Since these bottles can be printed with the company brand, there is even greater benefit. Any company can print 150 or 500 and hand these out to promote their store and be seen as being "green." Some companies will be able to sell these to their customers WITH their brand on them, creating a promotion and a profit at the same time.

Now for a bit of truth in advertising. Those bottles above are examples of the kind of bottles that can be 100% biodegradable. I owned the company that made those bottles until August of 2007 when I sold it. A few months ago, I found the additive that makes them biodegradable while on the payroll of the new company. Now I am selling the bottles as part of my marketing consulting business. If you need water bottles or if you need marketing help of any kind, give me a ring. 310-920-9649 or email RandyKirk77@gmail.com

Biodegradable Plastic Water Bottles
Plastic Water Bottles
Environmentally Friendly Water Bottles
Sports Bottles
Bicycle Water Bottles
Green
Scientific Breakthrough
Biodegradable Plastic in Landfill

New SEO Business For Local Businesses

2008-05-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

Almost every SEO firm in the US is after the big corporations. Sure, that's where the big money is, and the big challenges. Something big is happening however, and that is the need for local businesses who would have used the Yellow Pages in years gone by to drive new traffic, no longer have that option. This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why discounters, chains, and big box stores are killing the mom and pop enterprises.

That may all be about to change. Google has been steadily improving the Google Maps Local Business Center. This allows a local merchant, lets say a music shop, to get all the normal Yellow Page info on the web FOR FREE. Even Coupons. Now, if a local customer is looking for this merchant, the can choose... music store city name.... and get a quik little google map that lists the local merchants who provide such a service. Google has attempted to find all such stores by using their own search engine capability, but it is not all that good. The merchant needs to go into the Local Business Center and CLAIM their business. Once claimed the merchant can edit, add to, choose categories, even upload pictures and YouTube video.

You can do all of this yourself or you can give me an email or phone call and I can help you through it (special right now $99.50) My normal minimum fee is $1425 for three months of marketing service. But I'll help you with this for a low fee to establish a relationship.

For more info see my blog http://seo4localbusiness.blogspot.com/

Book Review - The World Is Flat

2006-12-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

Ten times, at least, this book stared out at me from the bookshelves of my local Barnes and Nobel or the airport shop. Ten times I couldn't part with $25. The good news is that I finally bought it for $15.79. The bad news is that I could have started using the material inside this miraculous book much earlier had I not been so cheap.

The premise of the book is fairly simple and may cause you to think, as I did, "Oh! That's obvious! I don't need to spend money and time to find out that young people in India are doing customer service and support jobs for major tech companies. I know that some companies in the advertising specialty industry are using Russian, Chinese, and Vietnamese artists to do production art. I know that the best way to get a package from Los Angeles to London overnite is UPS.

What I didn't know was that UPS now handles fulfillment for Nike, computer repairs for Toshiba, and assembly for Nikon. What I didn't think of was that I could actually outsource almost my entire office operation to India. I received a complete education in how I could have kept and even increased my business with Target, K Mart, Toys R Us and others by getting some of our products made off shore, packaged, labeled, and bar coded exactly as these companies wanted. We decided we did not have the core competancy to handle the exacting details required by these retailers. But Asian supplier do, and they are only too happy to work with US importers as middlemen to the majors.

Almost every page was an eye-opening experience. The writing is totally accessible to the non-technical reader. For non-fiction the material is very engaging.

I love to prognosticate about the future, and believe that a large part of leadership is based on an ability to be future oriented. In The World Is Flat, Friedman gives us plenty of ideas about what the future might look like. He does this from both a business and a geopolitical standpoint. If your not into politics, you can skip lightly through these sections. However, they are extremely instructive in understanding such issues as why S. Korea does so well and Saudi Arabia is so backward.

In other posts I have tried to persuade those who read these virtual pages that the future of the smallest businesses are just as threatened by a failure to keep up with the kinds of changes Thomas Friedman illustrates throughout the book as are major corporations like Ford.

If I had a rating system from 1-10 for business books, this one would get an 11. You should just click right here and buy it now. (Full disclosure. I make 6% if you buy the book through clicking on that spot. I also make 6% on anything you buy at Amazon if you go to Amazon through my blog. This fact, however, in no way shades my opinion of this book.)

I will have more to say about Thomas Friedman and The World Is Flat in future posts.

The Power of Incrementalism

2006-02-28T22:30:00.000-08:00

If you ever tried to tackle a really big job? One of those jobs where the goal looks overwhelming like losing 100 pounds or writing a Book? How about making 1000 cold calls! Surely that would be a great goal to set. There is a big secret to getting these kinds of things done, and with low anxiety.

You have to do it a piece-at-a-time over time. You need to agree in advance how long you will take, and how much you will do each day, week, or month. When I write a book, I estimate the number of pages, lets say 250. I can write 2 pages an hour, so that is 125 hours. I can set aside an hour a day Monday-Thursday and two hours on Saturday. So I have 6 hours per week. So, 22 weeks to write the first draft. It is no longer an elephant in my plate. Just today's quarter pounder.

Want to make a 1000 cold calls. Do it in 250 days (50 weeks X 5 days) at 4 calls per day. Couldn't possibly take more than 1 hour per day to make those 4 calls. If anyone reading this has the slightest doubt that your business would increase substantially as a result of making 1000 cold calls next year, please leave your comments.

Sales success
Small Business
Management
Personal Motivation

"Running A 21st Century Small Business" Gets 1st Review

2006-02-27T17:57:00.000-08:00

I may not post every review, but hopefully you'll indulge my posting those as nice as this in the Houston Chronical.

I don't know if this review caused it, but the book moved from #160,000 best selling to 5,600th best on Amazon. If you and all your friends go buy one, maybe we could get into the 100's!

Do You Make Decisions Based on the Fear-Greed Curve?

2006-02-25T10:08:00.000-08:00

I can’t take credit for the following concept, and I can’t quite remember who said it previously. However, it makes such sense, and is far more understandable to the average person than supply-demand. The world economy is driven by the fear-greed curve.

Gasoline Prices got you down. Want someone or something to blame. It is so easy to blame big, nasty corporations who want to rip of consumers, neighbors across the continent or around the world who are driving gas guzzlers, or the Bush administration for not taking some action (the action would depend on your political point of view.)

However, I propose that the real culprit is the natural way of mankind. We are driven by many things, but two of the most powerful are fear and greed. The major energy corporations are afraid to invest in new equipment, exploration, etc., because they are afraid the price will come back down to $12 a barrel. (Remember the last energy price bust and what it did to Texas banking?) However, as the price stays high, some of the competitors in the energy biz (be it companies or countries) get greedy, and try to increase markehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gift share by lowering their price. Others then become fearful that they will lose market share or end up with mountains of inventory, so they lower their price also.

As the price goes up, the greed factor also plays in. Some companies or countries artificially raise the price to see what the market will bear, and are all too willing to take advantage of shortages, real or imagined. This only works for a while, because at some point, somebody is going to start adding capacity to maximize profit (greed.)

You act the same way on a smaller scale in your business and personal life. Think about it. Our company's products are primarily made from plastic. The plastics we purchase are based on natural gas. The cost of natural gas spiked in the fall as did our costs. Now the price of natural gas has plummeted by 30%, but our costs have gone down by less than 5%. The major plastics producers have not yet been hit by the fear part of the curve.

In the meantime, I am trying to figure out how to price my product. Catalogs in the advertising specialty industry usually get mailed before the first of each year. But I have not even printed mine as of Feb. 25. I fear raising my prices and losing market share. I also fear losing margin. But if my costs were to drop 30% would I lower my selling prices? Would my competitors?

Energy Pricing Boondoggle

2006-02-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

Speaking of energy prices, I buy LDPE by the carload. The underlying raw material is natural gas. Our pricing almost doubled last year, and is only creeping down a bit at this point. There are many components to this whole mess, but among them:

Actual Supply and Demand
Perceived Supply and Demand
Fear by major purchasers creating hoarding
Greed by major suppliers creating false shortages
Unrest drives up futures markets
And my own personal touch - I think the major countries who supply energy are creating the crisis of the week to keep prices high. One week its Russia, then Venezuela, then the middle east, then Africa. I even suspect there are phone calls: "Your turn."

No, I'm not a wacko conspiracy theorist, but check out the news over the last two years. With the exception of Katrina, the rest of the spike in pricing can be attributed to the "news" of the week spooking futures.

Top 10 Business Oppty's of 2005

2006-02-21T15:29:00.000-08:00

Best Business Opportunities for 2005

The Business Coaching Craze

The World of Business Brokers

Garage Organizer's The Last Frontier

Smart Clothing

Medical Transcription Services A Doctor's Best Friend

Trash Removal One Man's Treasure

Anti-Aging Spas Are Forever Young

The Student Boom Helps College Admissions Consulting

Translation Services More Than English

Everything's Poker

For details on any of these, go here

Business
Small Business
Opportunity
Entrepreneur
Business Start up

Rule 10 from Sam Walton - Not necessarily in this Order

2006-02-18T22:59:00.000-08:00

This would be closer to the top in my list.

Rule 10: Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you're headed the wrong way. I guess in all my years, what I heard more often than anything was: a town of less than 50,000 population cannot support a discount store for very long.

Business
Small Business
Building a Niche in business
Sam Walton business ideas

Control Costs and Expenses - Rule 9

2006-02-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

Rule 9: Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. For twenty-five years running — long before Wal-Mart was known as the nation's largest retailer — we've ranked No. 1 in our industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales. You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.

Comment: If your costs of materials is 3% less than your competition, you can sell 3% lower, make 3% more at the same sell, or put 3% more into advertising. WalMart did all of these things at one time or another.

Business
Small Business
Accounting
Profits and Losses
Business success

Sam Walton - Rule 8 - Do Even More than 101%

2006-02-17T22:40:00.000-08:00

Rule 8: Exceed your customer's expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want — and a little more. Let them know you appreciate them. Make good on all your mistakes, and don't make excuses — apologize. Stand behind everything you do. The two most important words I ever wrote were on that first Wal-Mart sign: "Satisfaction Guaranteed." They're still up there, and they have made all the difference.

Comment: This story is told over and over by all effective leaders. If your customer expects the phones to be answered by a human voice, give them a human voice and one that can actually handle their needs. We have a policy that all customers and vendors have full and unfettered access to our top administrators.

Customer Service
Small Business
Business success
Marketing

Listen - God Gave You Two Ears and Only One Mouth -

2006-02-17T22:39:00.000-08:00

Rule 7: Listen to everyone in your company and figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front lines — the ones who actually talk to the customer — are the only ones who really know what's going on out there. You'd better find out what they know. This really is what total quality is all about. To push responsibility down in your organization, and to force good ideas to bubble up within it, you must listen to what your associates are trying to tell you.

Business
Small Business
Business Strategies
Marketing
Management
Employees
Customer Service
Human Resources

Walton Must Have Had Plenty of Chances to Practice Rule 6

2006-01-28T22:37:00.000-08:00

Rule 6: Celebrate your success. Find some humor in your failures. Don't take yourself so seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have fun. Show enthusiasm — always. When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you. Don't do a hula on Wall Street. It's been done. Think up your own stunt. All of this is more important, and more fun, than you think, and it really fools competition. "Why should we take those cornballs at Wal-Mart seriously?"

Over the years we have used this approach at trade shows. Among other things we had a three ring circus, a 400 square foot bike shop with roof, windows, and faux brick walls, a cemetery for our helmet line with epitaths for those who didn't wear helmets.

Business Success
Small Business

Spread Appreciation Everywhere You Go - Rule 5 from Mr. Walton - Thanks Sam

2006-01-27T22:35:00.000-08:00

Rule 5: Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. A paycheck and a stock option will buy one kind of loyalty. But all of us like to be told how much somebody appreciates what we do for them. We like to hear it often, and especially when we have done something we're really proud of. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free — and worth a fortune.

Words of Praise are great. A little gift or card or public notice is even better.

Promotional Products
Marketing
Small Business
Business gifts
Success

Communicate - Rule 4 from Sam Walton

2006-01-23T22:32:00.000-08:00

Rule 4: Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, the more they'll understand. The more they understand, the more they'll care. Once they care, there's no stopping them. If you don't trust your associates to know what's going on, they'll know you really don't consider them partners. Information is power, and the gain you get from empowering your associates more than offsets the risk of informing your competitors.

Training, short agenda driven meetings, phone, fax, e-mail, web site, blog, PR releases. If you don't know how to do these things learn.

Business Communication
Small Business Success
Customer Service
Management
Human Resources

Motivate - Rule 3 from Sam Walton

2006-01-18T22:31:00.000-08:00

Rule 3: Motivate your partners. Money and ownership alone aren't enough. Constantly, day by day, think of new and more interesting ways to motivate and challenge your partners. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Make bets with outrageous payoffs. If things get stale, cross-pollinate; have managers switch jobs with one another to stay challenged. Keep everybody guessing as to what your next trick is going to be. Don't become too predictable.

Partners means everyone who you touch. Employees, suppliers, customers, bankers (ok, bankers don't like surprises)

motivation
Small Business
Management
Business Strategy

Walmart Founder Sam Walton - Rule 2 for Success

2006-01-17T22:14:00.000-08:00

Rule 2: Share your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners. In turn, they will treat you as a partner, and together you will all perform beyond your wildest expectations. Remain a corporation and retain control if you like, but behave as a servant leader(my emphasis) in your partnership. Encourage your associates to hold a stake in the company. Offer discounted stock, and grant them stock for their retirement. It's the single best thing we ever did.

Make sure you have profits before you start to share. However, you can be a servant leader from the day of your first hire.

Leadership
Business Success
Small Business
Management
Customer Service
Business Strategy

Rule #1 From Sam Walton - Zeal

2006-01-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

Very likely if you get this one right, you won't need the rest.

Rule 1: Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don't know if you're born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it. If you love your work, you'll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you — like a fever.

Sales enthusiasm
Committment equals success
Business Success Principles
Small Business

The Top 10 Great Qualities of the Entrepreneur that Cause the Most Problems

2006-01-14T13:46:00.000-08:00

Category: Entrepreneurs, Small Business, Home Office (AA3)

Originally Submitted on 10/11/96.

It's easy to criticize an entrepreneur, especially if you're married to one, work for one or are coaching/consulting one. Entrepreneurs, like any pioneer, have their own set of (always evolving) rules and strategies. Many entrepreneurs are successful in spite of themselves. The key in working well, and enjoying, entrepreneurs is to fully understand their weaknesses, because these are often their biggest strengths, although YOU may not think so! Here is a list of weakness and the strengths that they "are."

1. Can't focus, lots of ideas, runs in circles.

If the entrepreneur could focus, they'd be a bookkeeper (no offense to bookkeepers; I was a CPA for years). The entrepreneur's currency is ideas, often a flood of ideas. This is good. Encourage MORE ideas, don't try to pin them down. When they feel your support in challenging them to come up with more and BETTER ideas, the flow is restored and they'll find the one to really NATURALLY focus on. Really. The reason they can't focus is that they haven't yet flushed out all of the half-baked ones.

2. Not good with details.

Duh. Why should they be. Sure, it would be great if they would focus on details, and in fact, many entrepreneurial-types fail or have lots of stress (think ValuJet's CEO), specifically because they won't or cannot sweat the details. But given many won't deal with details well, suggest they give up even trying. Sure, this may create a mess, but challenge the entrepreneur to solve the mess as if the mess was a new business! That'll get 'em thinking! (Entrepreneurs are like kids; it's good to divert them.)

3. Feel odd, different, alone, strange.

Entrepreneurs are simply wired differently and they SHOULD feel this way, because it's TRUE and there is nothing wrong with it at all. In fact, if you can help the entrepreneur to relish their unique, contrary, leading edge ways, you'll help them feel better about themselves (their different-ness), which will increase the flow of ideas and success. Educate the entrepreneur to understand not just themselves as individuals but to understand about the species called Homo entrepreneurs.

4. Good at starting business, bad at running them.

This is very true of many entrepreneurs, but you know, many entrepreneurs think that they have an obligation to run their businesses and become a great manager. 90% will never be great managers; they shouldn't even try -- too much stress on everyone! The solution: Help the entrepreneur to set a "sell date" right now, so they know they're getting out and when! This relieves some of the pressure and also forces the enterpreneur to create a sell-able company vs one that is just a monument to their ego (and I mean this lovingly). It's essential that you and the entrepreneur get that there's no reason an entrepreneur can't start and sell 25 businesses. Selling is not failure; it's good business and lets the entrepreneur play instead of being saddled with responsibilities that they just don't want, but feel that they should have. Help the entrepreneur to "get" that they'd really rather NOT run their business and that they prefer to start new ones. This will turn a perceived weakness into a profitable strength.

5. Chaos reigns in the company.

This is fairly common, for several reasons. First, the entrepreneur LIKES chaos and is unlikely to attract or be able to hire a manager that is cross-platform: able to both manage the people/operations and ALSO be able to put up with the personality or constant flow of ideas and changes that the entrepreneur is likely to have. A solution is to design the company so that it can afford the chaos and the financial stress that chaos usually brings. A second solution is to educate the entrepreneur and staff that chaos CAN be good business and not to worry about it. Another solution is to ask the entrepreneur to solve the chaos problem by thinking of it as a foundering business that the entrepreneur has purchased. His/her job: Turn it into a profit center! This will get the juices flowing. Another solution is to help the entrepreneur to create fully automated and foolproof systems, usually managed by outside contractors or vendors who are not IN the business day to day. This works well, because it forces the employees/owner to use the systems, which are mostly computer based. Boys will be boys and it's better to save them from themselves sometimes! Systems do this. Remember: Creation IS messy! It shouldn't have to be, but often is.

6. They fail. And fail again.

This one's tricky if you look at the failing business as a problem or as a reflection on the entrepreneur's ability and strengths. In this case, their weaknesses were bigger than their strengths and the business failed. But, just like a kid has to fall a couple of times when learning to ride a bike, so do entrepreneurs fail as they learn how to be successful. Remember, it's the SPARK that the entrepreneur has that is the REAL source of profitability. It's just that there is often a learning curve as the entrepreneur learns to compensate for his/her weaknesses by delegating, outsourcing, maturing, and learning new skills. The Spark usually wins in the end. Note: Just like you can't really tell much to an adolescent because "they know it all," you often can't tell much to an entrepreneur because they DO know it all! Don't try to parent the entrepreneur; you'll lose. Just love them and be there when they fail. That helps them learn faster.

7. They exaggerate and are too optimistic.

This is good! Encourage the entrepreneur to exaggerate as much they want to. This is a reverse way to get them to tell the truth. It works. Exaggeration and pipe dreaming are as important to the entrepreneur as faith and believing are to Christians and other religions. It just comes along with the lifestyle. It's part and parcel. It's hard to have one without the other. Entrepreneurs are so out in front of the rest of us that they NEED to exaggerate how well things are going, in order to keep the faith -- hey it's lonely out in front (or in left field, depending on how savvy the entrepreneur is!). Exaggeration, pipe dreaming and denial are the tools and comforts of the trade of entrepreneurism. Sure, many entrepreneurs grow through this, but don't try to take away their blankie until they're ready. They need it.

8. Always at the edge financially.

This one's a toughie, because of the "unnecessary" stress it can cause to the entrepreneur, the business, employees, families. What I've sought to do is to educate the entrepreneur who is always at the edge that there is an emotional dilemma that they are trying to heal, via their business. The psychological source of this "always at the edge" may be an addiction to adrenaline, the pleasure/high of "pulling it off" at the last minute, or the high that victory brings, the need to be better than everyone else/compensate and even the inability to establish a reserve of cash and time so that they function without this stress. In my own case, I pushed so hard that I was always just barely making it, even though sales kept growing significantly. When I learned that this was because of self esteem (technically, a "havingness level" problem -- meaning that I couldn't let myself "have" what I was earning), I was able to make a couple of minor changes and establish such a healthy reserve that I am set for life (and can play with projects such as these Top Ten Lists!). The traps the entrepreneur will fall into is to increase their lifestyle just as quickly as their company grows. Mistake. But, back to why being at the edge financially is such a strength. It's because the entrepreneur has proven, time and time again, that they are resourceful, can survive and bounce back from adversity. This is GREAT! Now, direct the entrepreneur to direct this energy into creating a healthy savings account instead of leveraging so much, and you'll have a successful entrepreneur.

9. Family of the entrepreneur suffers.

Another toughie. You didn't just marry a man/woman or a businessman/woman. You married an ENTREPRENEUR! And he/she didn't come with instructions, warning labels or antidotes. Oops! If entrepreneurial genes were find-able in the DNA, they'd be considered a strong, strong drug. Reality aside, it's best that you develop your own strong interests and let your husband/wife do their own thing. You'll always be #2 (well, maybe #1 and a half). You can have a great marriage if you get this.

10. Sales dip.

Sales dip because the entrepreneur has turned over some or all of the sales function to others. Take this as an invitation for the entrepreneur to get back to selling, where they usually shine.

About the Submitter
This piece was originally submitted by Thomas J. Leonard, Infopreneur, who can be reached at thomas@thomasleonard.com, or visited on the web. The original source is: Top Ten Creation Call, October 1996.

Small Business
Business and Marriage
Business Stratgies
Sales Success
Management
Entrepreneur

CoachVille Trains Coaches World Wide

Copyright 97, 98, 99, 00, 2001 CoachVille

When Sam Walton Speaks - People Listen

2006-01-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

I love the internet. There is so much free info available. As an author, I do worry a bit about the future of publishing for profit. There are too many writers like me who are willing to put out information for free.

Another free list I ran into yesterday offers Sam Walton's top ten elements of success in running a small business. My new book has a top ten list, and I'm proud of that list. I think it has real merit. But, if I'm honest, you probably will put more stock in Sam Walton's list than mine. If you want mine, it will cost you $11 on Amazon

As for the WalMart founder's list, I will provide that over the next month or so, one item at a time. I think that will make it more meaningful. I'll start in a few days.

Today, I will give you one of mine. Nothing Happens Until Something Is Sold.

What Are YOU Afraid Of? It May Be The Determinant in Your Political Views

2005-12-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

Are you afraid of Islamic Terrorist striking the US or US interests? Are you afraid that human caused global warming is going to result in a global catastrophe? Are you afraid that some kind of illness (AID's, Bird Flu) is going to wipe out big chunks of population? Are you afraid that the Chinese, or the Indians, or the Europeans are going to take over our position as economic engine of the world, resulting in a lowered standard of living for us? Are you afraid that the Bush administration is desiring some kind of extra level of authority that might result in truly reducing freedoms in America? Are you afraid that licentious behavior with roots in Hollywood and branches in San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, and Miami is going to destroy the family as we know it and undermine the entire culture? Are you afraid that Walmart or Google or Bill Gates or Time Warner/HBO are trying to take over the world? Are you afraid that Indian, Chinese, and Mexican workers are going to take away your job. Or, if not your job, your brother-in-laws job?

Depending on what you are truly afraid of, you will likely vote for the folks that are fighting on that front. Or at least seem to be. Personally, I'm much more afraid of the potential for cultural decline and foreign mischief by tyrants than I am by anything else on the list. Why, because I have witnessed the results of both many times in my lifetime, and read the history of the world until now. I'm a bit concerned, for the same reasons, about our economy and how it will compete in the future, but not even to the level of being alarmed.

That's why I'm a Republican. The R's are very interested in those three things. The D's aren't. They are more interested in things that have never happened, but might. It makes no sense to me.

Baby Boom Wealth Transfer - Major Trends Shaping the Future

2005-11-28T14:35:00.000-08:00

The baby boom’s leading edge is turning 60 this year. That means roughly speaking, 1,000,000 more adults will turn 60 each year than has been the case prior to the baby boom. Now, of course, this has been true of this age group for 60 years. They have been impacting schools, politics, consumer spending, and much more as they have moved through the age groups like a pig in a python.

One need not be a prophet to predict that the coming dramatic increase in us old people will result in great business opportunities in health care, leisure living, and golf clubs. However, there is a little talked about impact that may be the biggest headline of all.

The baby boom’s parents are just about to transfer the biggest stack of wealth in the history of the world to their kids. With the USA’s current average life expectancy at 79 or so, at least one parent of most baby boomers are still alive and trying like crazy to spend their money on themselves.

What will be the impact of this wealth transfer to this huge population bulge? Will they be even more hedonistic than now, lavishly spending the money on themselves? Will they become philanthropic, believing that they can secure a place in heaven by spending some of their money on others less fortunate? Will they merely accumulate more bucks in preparation for handing down an even greater largess to the smaller X gen that follows?

How the boomers deal with this mountain of dough will have enormous impact on the US and World economy over the next 10 years. Getting a handle on that trend and its effects may greatly impact your own personal fortune. What do you think the effect will be? Have you figured any of this into your company projections or plans?

How Many of These Attributes Do You Have?

2005-11-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

Borrowing heavily (ok, outright copying) from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, below are the attributes of leadership that he found when interviewing 100's of successful leaders.

1. Unwavering Courage and self confidence
2. Self Control
3. Keen sense of Justice
4. Definiteness of Decisions
5. Definiteness of Plans
6. Habit of doing more than one is paid for
7. Pleasing Personality
8. Sympathy and Understanding
9. Mastery of Detail
10. Willingness to assume full Responsibility
11. Cooperation

The Wealth Transfer Effect - How Will It Effect You and Your Business

2005-11-23T11:05:00.000-08:00

Baby Boom Wealth Transfer

The baby boom’s leading edge is turning 60 this year. That means roughly speaking, 1,000,000 more adults will turn 60 each year than has been the case prior to the baby boom. Now, of course, this has been true of this age group for 60 years. They have been impacting schools, politics, consumer spending, and much more as they have moved through the age groups like a pig in a python.

One need not be a prophet to predict that the coming dramatic increase in us old people will result in great business opportunities in health care, leisure living, and golf clubs. However, there is a little talked about impact that may be the biggest headline of all.

The baby boom’s parents are just about to transfer the biggest stack of wealth in the history of the world to their kids. With the USA’s current average life expectancy at 79 or so, at least one parent of most baby boomers are still alive and trying like crazy to spend their money on themselves.

What will be the impact of this wealth transfer to this huge population bulge. Will they be even more hedonistic than now, lavishly spending the money on themselves? Will they become philanthropic, believing that they can secure a place in heaven by spending some of their money on others less fortunate? Will they merely accumulate more bucks in preparation for handing down an even greater largess to the smaller X gen that follows?

How the boomers deal with this mountain of dough will have enormous impact on the US and World economy over the next 10 years. Getting a handle on that trend and its effects may greatly impact your own personal fortune. What do you think the effect will be?

Quicken Offers Great Free Info

2005-11-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

I almost hate to tell you about this site. Once you go there you may not feel a huge need to come back here. However, I'll take the chance that my folksy method will be very helpful for you in places where their material might be a bit dry.

In any case, no matter where you are in your small business experience, visit this spot for some useful stuff.

Peter Drucker Favorite Quotes According to Author Bob Nelson

2005-11-19T18:27:00.000-08:00

With the Passing of Peter Drucker, much is being written about he vast body of work. Here is a nice short list of some Druckerisms worth pondering. It was listed as a comment in a blog that I've mentioned before, 800-CEO-READ Blog. If you are not actively working the blogosphere for info, you are missing a bunch of great stuff.

So here is the list as produced by Bob Nelson, author of many best selling business books, including 1001 Ways to Reward Employees.

I've read many of Dr. Drucker's books (and listened to most of them on audio) and would have to say Managing For Results is my favorite. He helped me realize that simple insights can be very useful to others and to not shy away from those I had about managing people and organizations.

It was Dr. Drucker's tome, Management: Tasks, Resposibilities, Practices that had one of his insights about rewards that grabbed me and helped me realize that managers needed to have new and many ways to reward and motivate their staff:

"Economic incentives are becoming rights rather than rewards. Merit raises are always introduced as rewards for exceptional performance. In no time at all they become a right..." (p 239)

Some of my other favorite Drucker insights include:

"What is our business?
Who is our customer?
What does the customer consider value?"

"You can't manage what you can't measure."

"Managing is getting work done through others."

"Ask people what two things they can improve."

"Today, knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement."

"The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker, but of the manager."

"Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations."

"Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable. Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."

"The best way to predict the future is to create it. What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that's another matter. Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes, but no plans."

The list could go on and on...

Bob Nelson, Ph.D. & author

Prognotication - Future Gazing - Naval Contemplation

2005-11-19T15:38:00.000-08:00

Call it what you will, from time-to-time I will provide my own special take on what the future holds. I promise not to rehash anybody else's stuff. This will all be original, and probably way off base. Here's the first one.

NOBODY WILL LEAVE THEIR HOUSE ANYMORE

According to Wired Magazine, Americans now live in twice as much square footage per person as the did 50 years ago. This last month saw the introduction of 4 new ways to watch TV. Movie attendance is down. Home delivery of Pizza and Chow Mien is up.

I've been in the bicycle industry for 34 years. Parents aren't buying bikes for kids anymore. They're buying electronic games.

My wife and I like to go out, just the two of us, every Friday night. Choices, even in LA, are: restaurant, movie, play. She says to me last Friday: "Why don't we just do on demand using our 85" TV with theatre equal surround sound. (I have been accused of exaggeration once or twice.) But, you can now buy a projector for $2500 that will pretty much cover your wall with fantastic clarity and depth. Sound systems for under $1000 are phenomenal. And you don't have to worry about cell phones going off or folks talking through the whole thing.

If the TV and the game console don't have it, the computer does. By two years from now, it will all be the same thing anyway.

SO! Question? How will folks never leaving their house effect your business?

CEO BLOG - Picking the Title

2005-11-18T11:21:00.000-08:00

The title can be of any length, and search engines will look at your title for information about what your site is all about. They assume that a title is going to be very descriptive of the site. Your customer will be more interested in the first few words of the title.

For instance, you could have just Promotional Products Sales as the title. Your customer who bookmarks this would clearly know what you are when he looks at his bookmark list. Or it could be the name of your company, e.g. Idea Man. It could combine those with the company name first or the descriptive words first. But you don't need to stop there. Add some more descriptive words. These will not show up in the bookmarks because there is only so much space. But the search engine spiders will see them. So, as an example, if you were in the advertising specialty business, your title might be something like Promotional Product Sales - Idea Man - Imprinted Advertising Specialty Products - T Shirts - Mugs - Water Bottles.

Put a hyphen between each idea or phrase. This also helps the search engine to know where to categorize you.

You can change your title all the time. Those who bookmarked you under the old title will still see you that way. But a change might boost you on a search engine.

Set Up a CEO Blog - It Is ALL the Rage

2005-11-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

Setting Up Your Own Blog in 15 Minutes

I am the proud owner of 5 blogs. Three of them get postings almost every day. The other two are waiting for their day in the sun. With all that experience, I am still no expert on setting up a blog, just an amateur. However, if you are just starting out, I am the perfect person to get you started. I will also list various places you may want to visit on the web that will broaden and deepen your understanding.

1. Who to use as a host? With 50,000,000 blogs already up and running, it may not surprise you that there are lots of folks who would like you to be part of their blog hosting program. The largest is Blogger. You'll notice that my site is a Blogger site. If you click on the little blogger thing up in the left corner, it will take you to a place where you can register your blog name and URL, set up a template, and start posting in about 15 minutes.

I like Blogger because it is easy, free, owned by Google, and will likely continue to offer the best easy site management available. However, there are many other choices.

Many of my blogging friends use typepad. http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/ It is also supposed to be easy (maybe not quite as easy) and potentially offer a few things Blogger doesn't. It costs a small amount per month.

Here, for instance, is a recent article with several of the best tools listed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4737671.stm

How do you pick a Title, Name and URL. Future posts will cover these issues

Collection Approaches part II

2005-11-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

My bookkeeper does most of the collection work, but those who hit 75 days or so get to my desk. I spend about 15 hours per month on collections. There are a few reasons for this.

1. I get a personal view of whether to keep extending credit to the slow pay account.
2. The customer knows we are serious about collecting. Most folks are still at least somewhat intimidated by the "president" title.
3. I will spot trends of slow payment early. If good customers start to pay slow, it may portend something amiss in the business climate.
4. There are other reasons for slow pay that I want to know about. Maybe the customers are getting poor product or service and this is an act of rebellion. Maybe someone isn't posting credits. One time we had a rash of slow pays, and it turns out that we didn't mail invoices while the bookkeeper was on vacation.
5. I find out if my bookkeeper is doing a good job of collecting.

We have been sending out our first late notices at 60 days. This goes against my own teaching and most collection advice I have read. We are going to move that back to 45 days and see what the results look like. I will report later.

Credit Policies and Collection Methods

2005-11-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine had this to say: To a salesman, a sale takes place when the customer says they think they want to buy. The sales manager wants to see an actual purchase order. The Vice President only believes it when it ships. The President only takes notice when its paid for. The controller finally joins the party when the check clears.

So, how does one make sure they get paid. I'll throw out a few ideas today, and save a few for another day. (Tricky way to get you to come visit me again.)

1. Never ship the first order on open account. (Occasional exceptions allowed, but rare.)
2. Get FIVE credit references. Everybody keeps three good ones no matter how bad they pay.
3. Ask for a personal guarantee. You need home address and phone number. Try for the SS#.
4. Send a friendly fax reminder two days before the invoice is due. Call 5 days after it is due. Always say that you just want to be sure that they received the product and that everything was satisfactory, or that you wanted to be sure they received the invoice. Don't use any "collection" attitudes until about the 3rd call.
5. Have available and offer Credit Card payments.
6. Offer a strong discount for early payments. The earlier you collect an invoice the more likely you are to get paid. I know that is sort of like saying you always find something the last place you look. It is obvious, but it is a critical collection rule.

If you do all of the above, I assure you that you only have rare collection losses. But as promised, I will offer another list on another day. For those of you in sales. This matters to you. If your company doesn't collect, they may not be able to pay you. The best sales people are also the front line of good credit practices.

Resume of Randy W. Kirk JD

2005-11-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

Education:

UCLA - BA Psychology with emphasis is Social Psychology
UCLA Law - Juris Doctor with emphasis in tax and business law
UCLA Business - Classes in advertising and marketing

Employment

ABUS Security Locks - Joined company as part time independent rep, calling on retailers. Within 6 months was asked to become sales and marketing manager. Built company sales from $400,000 to $1.2 m in two years. Helped company establish sales in ten industries that they were not yet selling.

Atlas Lock Company - Founded the company in my garage. Within 2 years company was doing over $1 m in sales with 3 salesmen calling in California and Arizona.

AC International - Cofounded company in partner, Terry Brown's, garage to sell tire liners. Company quickly took sales to over $3 m, and eventually reached $5.5. Established tire liner brand with 95% market share. Water bottle line eventually reached 40% share in bicycle industry and was leader in advertising specialty market. Largest maker of bicycle style bottles in the US. Sold in August of 2007. Worked on transition team through May of 2008.

Writing and speaking

Articles - Wrote extensively for Locksmith Ledger, Bicycle Business Journal, American Bicyclist, and Bicycle Dealer Showcase. Contributed article for Inc Magazine.

Speaking - Featured speaker for over 10 years in Bicycle Dealer Showcase shows and Interbike Shows.

Books

Principles of Bicycle Retailing - Self Published - out of print
Principles of Bicycle Retailing, the Second Edition - Infonet Publishing - still available
Bicycle Dealer's Guide to Getting Rich in the Recession - Infonet Publishing - still available
Principles of Bicycle Retailing III - Infonet Publishing - still available, reviews on Amazon
When Friday Isn't Payday - Warner Business Books - Inc Magazine called this one of three best business books of 1994 with front page story. Still available.
Running a 21st Century Small Business - updated version of When Friday Isn't Payday - Warner Business Books - over 4 star (out of 5) average in reviews on Amazon - still available.

Family

Married with 4 children and one ward. Six grandchildren.

Community

Active for 17 years in Sunrise Optimist Club of Santa Monica
Very Active for last 17 years with Venice Baptist Church

Letters of recommendation, both business and personal, upon request.

Grassroots Marketing

2005-11-09T21:30:00.000-08:00

Found this site with a list of the top ten books (according to the blogger) on grassroots marketing. I haven't read any of them, but have seen a lot of comment about Purple Cow.

In general I'm pretty impressed with this blog. You might want to check out the top ten list and then link around a bit.

Google Your Name

2005-11-09T16:44:00.000-08:00

Go ahead. Put your name in the Google search engine. Do you show up in the top ten? Top 50? Top 100? Now try my name, Randy Kirk. Do you think it would help your business to have your name at the top of the list in Google?

As important as it is today, I think it will be huge in the future. As the internet becomes more and more complex, you are going to want a "personal portal" where you can send folks that will get them to all of your activity. If you can say: "just Google my name" you have created that portal for free.

Well, not totally free. In order to have your name recognised by Google, your name needs to appear on the web. One of my friends has a name that is much more common than mine. Mike or Michael Williams. But if you Google his name, using either first name, he is in the top three. He has only one blog (a very good one), but he also paid for Google advertising in the right column for a while. Doesn't cost much, because no one is competing for that keyword.

The other aspect that isn't free is the time spent on the blog. However, if you have a website, you can put names on that. You can also get listed on association websites. If you send out PR releases for web news groups, and they print your PR release, it will help move your name up the list. You can also participate in forums. Note that one of the reasons my name is seen in the top listings is from participating in a forum.

Get busy. You may be shocked at how many others have your same name. Start building your very personal brand now. In 2006, I'll be reporting on a new aspect of communication and selling that will make this branding even more important.

Choose THE CHOICE by Og Mandino

2005-11-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

Are you currently hitting your sales goals? Are you setting any? Are you satisfied with your income? Are you happy with your career progress?

You might think that since I write these articles that I have it all figured out. But truly, just like you, I need to constantly refresh my knowledge. When it comes to selling especially, there is a tendency for salesfolks to forget one or more of the principles which are critical to sales success.

So, while I was on vacation, I started to reread some of the success and motivation classics. My library contains quite a few, and some of them are so old they are almost falling apart.

THE CHOICE by Og Mandino was the first one I picked up to reread. Unlike many other writers of this genre, Og doesn't give you a list of things to do, or set out an outline of approaches or methods. He tells you a story. In THE CHOICE, you get a glimpse into the life of Mark Christopher, the youngest VP of sales for Treasury Insurance Company. And Mark is faced with a choice that would get anyone's attention.

Through this parable, Og Mandino touches your heart as well as your brain. The goal of any such work is to stimulate the reader to greater levels of achievement. But once again, Mandino is a little different than most. He offers lessons that will increase your earning power, but the lesson includes considerations for balancing other aspects of your life with your career.

Find THE CHOICE and other excellent books by Og Mandino at all the usual place. Highly recommend that you make this book required reading for all executives and sales staff.

A Brain Cell Here, A Brain Cell There

2005-11-05T19:37:00.000-08:00

I think I would be on safe ground to say that salespeople are more vulnerable to substance abuse than the general population. I would extend this observation to include gambling, sexual addictions, and prescription drug abuse. Before you get upset, consider:

1. Sales people are commonly called on to entertain clients or to be part of outings that include drinking, gambling, and even drugs or sex. The availability of these activities provides lures into which those with predilections for abuse can be snared.

2. Sales is often very high stress. Abuse of alcohol, drugs, or sex often starts with moderate use to numb the senses when things are not going according to plan.

3. Road trips provide a huge temptation to experiment with behaviors without anyone being the wiser. Las Vegas even advertises this idea "Whatever Happens in Las Vegas Stays in Las Vegas."

4. Sales types are often people pleasers. They want to be liked and to be doing what the in crowd is doing. This reduces the resistance that we might normally put up to overdoing things.

5. The average sales person can easily afford to indulge in these behaviors. To make things even easier, much is offered for free or can be put on an expense account. I have personally seen a salesman put sexual expenses on the company credit card. He was terminated.

Hopefully it goes without saying that overuse of any of these can result in a substantial drop in your effectiveness. How do you protect yourself against a potentially career destroying decision to indulge beyond your limits?

A. Know yourself. Nobody knows they are susceptible to addiction in some area until its too late. However, check the warning signs. Are you likely to indulge because you are hurting and need to cover the pain? Are you inclined to do things because everyone else is? Are you finding it hard to stop a certain behavior when everything in your soul is telling you it time to stop? Are you spending money you don't have on the activity? Are you lying to your wife, boss, or other significant other in your life about what you are doing? Are you hiding your use from others? Are you embarrassed or ashamed? Have you done stupid things as a result of the habit that brought about problems later? Has your job been effected? Have you answered the above questions honestly?

B. Set boundaries. Before you head for the party, decide in advance how many drinks you will have. If you don't hold to that limit, see number A above. If you consistently don't hold to limits you set, stop doing the behavior entirely.

C. Establish accountability with someone. If you are concerned about one of these areas, ask someone to hold you to your plan. In order for this to work, the person who takes on the task must be someone who you respect enough to have an impact.

D. If you have been hiding the evidence from your spouse, avoid the kinds of opportunities that were giving you a hiding place. If you are doing porn, for instance, don't be home by yourself for long periods of time. Tell the hotel desk you want the adult channels deactivated. Or, better yet, admit the behavior to your spouse and ask for help in ending the problem.

E. Take a look at the big picture. What is more important? Your income, your spouse, your kids, your reputation, your health, OR drugs, sex, and rock'n roll? I'm not trying to be a poop, here. But I have enough stories to write an entire book about folks I know who had massive potential that are badly messed up now, or who are still recovering.

The Labor Shortage is Upon Us Again

2005-11-04T22:32:00.000-08:00

I can't speak for the rest of the country or even all of California, but here in Southern California we are short of qualified workers. This is especially true of entry level people. Our company is currently finding it absolutely impossible to find third shift workers, and forget minimum wage.

Even at the local Home Depot the workers are demanding $100 a day. So why is there such a huge disconnect between the booming economy, the low unemployment rates, and the attitudes of the public as measured in the consumer confidence index? It can only be explained by main stream media, and its effort to undermine this president at any cost.

Don't look now, but the last time the labor pool dried up (1999), we had to have a recession to correct things. I'm terrible at making predictions about the timing of such things, but keep your eye on the quality of customer service where you trade, both as an owner, and as Joe consumer.

Big piece of evidence - We're having trouble getting call backs from COPIER SALESMEN!?!

Every Mass Correspondence Must Be Delightful

2005-11-03T21:53:00.000-08:00

Time to send your customer list another mailing or e-mailing or faxing? It may be the time because:

A. You send one out at this time every month (week, quarter)
B. You haven't done one in a while, and you need the business
C. You've never done one and it seems like a good idea
D. The person on staff who usually does it is out, and you have to do it.

Whatever your reason for sending out a mass correspondence, even if it is an expected and highly anticipated piece, don't send it if its boring.

Don't Get Junked

Because what you are sending out is generally seen as a sales piece, even if there is non-commercial content, you are always on the thin line of being discarded. If you aren't in the mood, or have nothing interesting to say, but you go ahead and send some lukewarm blah anyway, you have further tipped the scale with regard to your next piece. The second time is death. The third strike, you're out.

This can also be true even if your material is pretty smart and pithy, but too narrow to appeal to everyone on the list. You'll note that this blog moves around from things about selling to marketing to web sites to e-mails to even personal stuff. That is intentional. You might not be interested in the first post on the page, but when you scroll down, hopefully you'll find one or two articles that keep you coming back.

Make it Delightful

Conclusion. Everything you write to your customer should be written with one question in your mind: "Is this delightful?" Don't always count on your own stuff being great when there is so much material on the internet available for outstanding content.

P.S. If I write something really boring, please note in the comment section. : )

Blog on CEO Books

2005-11-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

Most CEO's are avid readers. If that's you, check out this site. Kate's blog keeps you informed about new books that might be of interest. Hopefully, since I'm giving her all this great PR, she will review my new book when it hits the shelves in January.

More on the new book another day.

Top Ten Blogging Mistakes - Business Owners Tutorial

2005-10-31T19:55:00.000-08:00

Blogging for Dummies. Idiots Guide to Blogging. Both in one. And Free. If you are in business and not yet blogging, you need to get started now. There is no less expensive way to talk to your customers. You will see upcoming posts on this subject.

But here is a great place for you to start if you don't have a blog, or if you've been putting up posts for a while, but need a quick tutorialJakob Nielsen's Alertbox

I have already applied some of the advice found at Alertbox in this post. See if you can spot the new approaches.

Landing the BIG Account

2005-10-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

How to Sell the Majors

Every sales professional who is interested in earning a substantial living salivates at the idea of landing the "big account."
For most of those same salesfolks, however, the idea of making that call is about as appealing as eating crushed glass. The best part of such a fear on the part of most means that the few who are willing to take the risk of rejection at the top levels have fewer competitors.

I first learned this concept in high school. I wasn't the prettiest face on campus, didn't letter in any sports, and weighed a wopping 105 pounds at 5'10" when I graduated. Somehow, though, I was able to date all the most prized young women. As I reviewed this unlikely combination, I could see that most of my male friends didn't even have the nerve to approach the top prospects.

So, lesson one - Make the call. The worst thing they can say is, "no." But they can't say, "yes" until you make an offer.

LESSON TWO

Be prepared. Know your stuff, and review sales motivational literature before a major call. This buyer is used to hearing from people who are professional. Make sure you know obvious things about the company, and maybe hit the internet in advance to learn some less obvious things. Be certain to ascertain the need. Do not just jump in with product ideas or details of how you can offer better service or price or terms or whatever. Find out what this buyer needs that he isn't getting or may not have even thought about before you arrived.

Buyers in big companies are more likely to be interested in their job track than in the company. Be sure as you listen to the needs, you take into consideration how this will make him look good. How will you save him time? Who, exactly, will be interested in his success or failure on this project?

LESSON THREE

Make sure that your company is prepared to deal at this level. Are there demands and requirements that are beyond the scope of your company's infrastructure? Can you handle the financing? Will they require so much of your time that you will mishandle your smaller accounts? Have you established a solid base of Suppliers who you can count on for quality, on time delivery, and rushes.

LESSON FOUR

Do you have a large enough base of business to be able to not be dependent on a single account. When we first opened our business, we decided we would not go after any majors until we had $1,000,000 in sales from solid small and medium sized accounts. From that point forward, we also have tried to limit our exposure from any one account to 10% of our total business. That way, if they change buyers, go out of business, or have a very bad year, we still have 90% of our business coming in strong.

Seasonality

2005-10-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

Much of what I write in this place is advice that is well researched and tested by blood, sweat, and tears. Today I take on a topic which I know a lot about, but which continues to be a thorn in my side. From talking to many of you, I know that most, if not all, advertising specialty professionals also fight the battle of revenue fluctuation by season.

As of today, our company only sells bicycle style water bottles. If this product was only used by bicyclists on bicycles, it would be pretty clear that sales would be much stronger in warm months than in cold. However, as this product became a major player in the promotional products industry, the usage changed dramatically. Our bottles are now seen in gyms, offices, warehouses, kitchens, living rooms, and autos. They are used by golfers, toddlers, walkers, oldsters, and even teenagers. Our largest end user categories are home centers, pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, banks, transportation companies,military recruitment, and fast food chains.

So we thought (silly us) that our seasons would flatten out. Honda should need just as many bottles in January as they do in July. Of course, many of you could have warned us that November to February is not so terrific for mugs or pens either.

So what are the answers? Do we get used to the idea that we will buy our Christmas gifts on credit cards that offer no interest/no payments until April? Here is my short list. I'd be interested in hearing what you've come up with.

1. To some extent we may have to live with seasonality. That may mean that we lower overhead during those months, or that we squirrel away money during the good days.

2. Offer discounts to major customers who will warehouse product for year round use anyway. We have several customers who buy 100,000 or more bottles per year. We offer them better pricing to take product October-February when our equipment and people might otherwise be idle. This frees up our resources for those who can only take product in season.

3. Develop specific off season markets. For water bottles we found that gyms, schools, military recruiting, and retail promotions were year round businesses. We put more emphasis on these groups. This year we have started to develop concepts that turn water bottles into gifts, greeting cards, and calendars.

4. Get a part time job at Macy's for the Holidays. (Just kidding.) But that is my whole list of ideas. This blog can be a place where we in the industry share ideas that can benefit everyone. So just hit the comment button and tell us how you manage your off season.

Getting Real About Illegal Undocumented Immigrant Aliens

2005-06-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

Almost no one I know (I live in West Los Angeles, CA., and run a factory in South East LA) wants to forcibly send home 8,000,000 or 20,000,000 individuals who have come to live in our country by means outside of our laws. This includes the very conservative company that I keep that overwhelmingly opposes illegal immigration. There are, I believe, several obvious and not so obvious reasons for this.

First, as the liberals like to point out, those horrible Republican industrialists need these poor unfortunate folks to exploit in their businesses. Putting aside for a moment the likelihood that many of the industrialists who are doing the exploiting in industries like entertainment, hotels, electronics, and the rag business are most likely liberals, there is a great need for workers to do the jobs our teenagers won’t. Unlike President Fox's assertion, there is no one racial or ethnic group that is avoiding dirty or tedious work. Rather, as any society improves its standard of living it becomes harder to find workers for dirty industries.

So, it isn’t the captains of industry that need these workers, it is the economy itself. A quick look around the globe and at history will show how rich nations import poor workers seeking to improve themselves to take the jobs that the well-to-do locals no longer want or need to do. If we send back even 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 of these workers in the next 12 months, our economy will take a major hit.

Moreover, no one can claim (except teenagers) that these workers are taking their jobs. We have had almost full employment for all but a few dozen months since 1983.

Second, the opinion leaders commonly have a vested interest in one or more of these undocumented individuals. They may be working for the family as a maid, nanny, or doing elder care. The person in the family charged with finding reliable employees for these kinds of duties would be hard pressed to let “their illegal” go home.

Third, almost everyone has at least one personal friend or relationship with someone who is here illegally. It may be an employee, a coworker, a school friend of the kids, someone at church, or a relative. Even if all the "others" were sent home, it would be heartbreaking if this “good” undocumented friend had to go, too.

Less obvious, the average American isn’t replacing himself through his children. Like Japan, Europe, and Russia, the population of those born in America is decreasing. The only reason our overall population is increasing is because of immigration. For the two thirds of the population whose most significant nest egg is their home, there would not be these increases in values, therefore net worth, if it weren’t for the demand created by 8-20 million folks who need a home.

There! I’ve said it!. Nobody else will. Even the most wild-eyed anti-illegle-alien ranters know deep down inside that were not sending anyone back. Or, if some are going back, it will be those who overstayed visas, not those who came inside the trunk of a car.

That having been said, it may or may not be realistic to continue this level of border crossings indefinitely. Maybe there has been some kind of study done that would show whether or not we can sustain 1% growth per year through legal and illegal entrees. If so, I haven’t seen it or seen it mentioned. Certainly, even Hillary agrees that the process needs to change so that we don’t have 5% or more of our population hiding from the law.

Therefore, I would propose that the first step in this process needs to be an all out effort to plug up the holes in our borders and our procedures. Unlike others who want to round up people or fine business owners, the crucial beginning must be to keep the problem from getting bigger. Amazingly, I think that if the hyperbole and angst could be tamped down for a minute or two, almost everyone could agree to a massive effort to crack down on border crossings.

The technology is there. Between motion sensors, laser fences, unmanned drones, and other available methods, the job can be done. It would take money and resolve, but it just seems that such an effort would get overwhelming support.

If we can control our borders there would be a monumental sigh of relief, followed by an ability to discuss in a reasoned way what to do about those who are here. It would be totally pollyannic to believe that the most rabid of the alien haters would suddenly decide its ok to do amnesty. But from my hearing of the talk shows, reading of the blogs, and talking to other conservatives, the only real argument against amnesty is that it will act as an incentive for more illegal traffic. Stop the traffic, end the argument.

How to approach amnesty? Another day. Maybe another commentator.

Best Books on Selling

2005-05-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

A future post will list the best ever sales books. None will be mine.