April 7, 2010

Why You Should Keep a Watchful Eye on Your Competition...
Leading Employees with Strong Personalities... A Partnership
for Success... Get Handy for Info Marketing Success... and More.

Your competition isn't just what stands between you and millions of dollars. It can also be one of your best resources to help you become more profitable down the road.

Learning what your competition is doing and what they are lacking can save you a lot of effort with market research, and can keep you in the competitive mix. You can benefit a great deal by knowing what the other person is charging and offering. You need to keep up with the competition at the very least; but, to succeed, you need to rise above them, and the proper research can be the key.

For instance, if you are on the Internet, then you have a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips. As much as you might think the Web is for online poker and jokes of the day, the Internet is actually there for information. We live in a great age for business, because information is readily available.

You can search for your competition through industry associations, which often list all their members, as well as through directory sites like YellowPages.com (www.yellowpages.com) which is an online phone book that you can search by state and category.

When you get yourself a list of the competition near and far, search their individual web sites for relevant information. When doing so, I want you to be objective. So, look for the good, the bad, and the ugly (as might be the case for the web site itself).

Look for things like:

-- How they are pricing their products/services

-- What products/services they are offering

-- Special offers and discounts

-- Who they serve

-- What they lack and how you can fill that gap

-- What you lack and how you can use their ideas for your own business

--The image they are projecting to the customer; look at the name, logo, slogan, etc.

-- Their customer service

Don't forget to look at the actual web sites, because, if you haven't already, you need to start thinking about getting a web site of your own. Look at the things that make certain web sites more effective than others, and what your competitors are offering through their web site, like the ability to order online.

Use your competition as a resource to bring you above and beyond what is already available to the consumer. If you see what your competitors are offering, then go one step further. You can track pricing so that you can remain competitive while still watching your budget, and you can see who you should be targeting and how far your business could stretch.

I want you to get the most out of your business. It's not enough just to break even. You should always be striving for success and making your business as profitable as possible. So use every resource at your disposal and make the competition help you.

Sometimes in your career, you will be surrounded by strong-minded individuals. Though this generally makes for an extremely productive environment, it can also sometimes make for a difficult situation if you have to manage these strong-minded individuals.
 
With too many strong personalities in your midst, it can be tough to get people to do what you need them to do -- and in the manner that you believe it needs to be done. Strong personalities come with strong opinions, and this can result in a lot of competition.

As a leader, you need to be able to make decisions and stick by them. However, in this type of situation, it can be a lot harder to do that with other decisions being tossed around. It's one thing to be a business owner who leads your staff, but it's another thing entirely to lead a group of your co-workers in completing a task.

The first thing that you need to know is that you have been chosen to manage a task because your employer trusts you. This should be a big boost to your self-confidence. You know that you are skilled enough and dependable enough to get the project completed in the way that your boss needs it to be completed.

You have to keep this in mind when you're leading people who consider themselves to be leaders, as there may be resistance to your new role. You need to be confident in yourself and your abilities, and you need to express it to your team.

If you face resistance, then you need to be strong and stand behind your decisions. If you waver, some people will take advantage of your weakness. You must show them that you are comfortable in a leadership role and that all your decisions are essentially final.

This, of course, doesn't mean that you shouldn't be open to suggestions. A good team works together to produce the best possible result, but in the end, the project leader is responsible.

You have to accept that the members of your team will have suggestions and that they will want their opinions heard and considered. A good leader listens and considers the suggestions of his team.

You need to show respect to your team members and allow them to play a role in the project. You are there to manage those roles as best you can.

A good leader listens to the people around them. They are able to hear someone's suggestion and take the best points and most usable parts from it. That's why they are in the role they are -- because they are able to bring out the best in people.

The best way to get your team to work well together is to utilize each individual's strengths. People appreciate when someone acknowledges the tasks they excel at, so delegate accordingly. Put people in the roles that will allow them to shine -- it will help the project get completed efficiently.

You also have to be willing to show your appreciation for your team. Your team members know what their tasks are and how to do them, but it doesn't mean that they don't want to be acknowledged for going above and beyond the call of duty.

You have to take on difficult tasks and excel at them if you want to get noticed. It would be easy to allow the members of your team to take over, but you have to remain in the leadership role and avoid being steamrolled by these strong personalities. If you can manage your team well, it will be all the better for you when it comes to impressing your employer.

If you've been operating your own business for a while, there are certainly some things you must love. For starters, you don't have to worry about a boss breathing down your neck and monitoring your every move as you sit there, trapped inside your cubicle. Another benefit is that you make the rules and all the big decisions. If you say something, it happens. End of story.

Of course, things aren't all they're cracked up to be when you're working for yourself, either. The paychecks may not be frequent and the work may require more time than you'll ever have. However, the most frustrating parts of owning your own business are these two factors: not knowing how to take your operation to the next level; and not knowing how to compete with the other guys.

These are two issues that have kept many an entrepreneur awake at night, wrestling with the frustration of their next move to take the business further. One option that is commonly overlooked is forming a partnership with an existing business or individual.

Now calm down. Collect yourself. It's not as bad as it sounds. In fact, it may be better than you'd ever think it could be. Remember, you won't be working for someone; you'll be working with them.

How could you possibly make more money working with someone else than you could on your own? Easy.

For starters, let's say you run your business out of a rented location. By opening up with someone else, whether in their location or yours, you have the potential to cut your overhead costs by more than half -- that equals more money in your pocket before you've even made your first sale. After all, a goal of any business owner is to keep operating costs as low as possible.

Along with the lower operating costs, you'll no longer be in competition with each other (if your new partner is a fellow business owner in the same industry). This means you'll either be able to corner the market (in a sense) or put up a bigger and better fight against your leading competition. So, instead of losing customers to another business, they will become your customers. Not only will you have doubled your customers (at least), but with the extra money you're saving with lower overhead and increased sales, you'll be able to put more money into your marketing efforts to expand your customer base even further.

Tomorrow, I'll continue with benefits that a partnership can bring to your business.

** Get Handy for Info Marketing Success
By James Burt, Online Marketing Expert

You always admire what you can't do. I took a job one summer
in a small town hardware store/auto repair shop. After an
employee ruckus, I was sent out to the auto shop to replace a
fired installer. I got to get grease on my hands, breathe the
cigarette smoke in the lunchroom, and just watch the repair
guys do their job while instructing me when I could help. It
was pretty hands on and a lot of fun.

The guys who worked there were pros. While they showcased
a tough exterior, they often didn't even need the diagnosis
report from the front desk to know what was wrong with
whatever car was being brought in. They just knew. Without
any instruction, they'd set about doing the job as quick as they
could.

I always wished to have that kind of intuition. It's something
that a lot of people say is lost on my generation, adding that
we were just too educated. But me, I think that it's something
certain skilled people are born with, generation upon
generation. If you have it, you are blessed with an ability that
requires little schooling and can be utilized in application over
and over again.

Trades people who have the ability to fix things at a moment's
notice are more in demand now than ever. Cars, computers,
electronics, carpentry...all of these items are filled with things
that break. When they break, those who know nothing about
how to fix them are truly up the creek. They need the
information on how to fix it themselves or where to go to get
things fixed. In short, they need a pro.

Tradesmen's secrets are very important to information
marketing. Someone who has years of experience or even a
newbie with the most up-to-date information on new trade
secrets is needed by those in trades and those outside of them.
Everyone uses the same consumer goods and, when these
goods go amiss, we need real info on how to deal with them.

Perhaps you are a tradesman. Perhaps you are one of these
people who know how to communicate repair, modification,
and other trade related info to those of us who are, well, shall
we say, "unskilled." If so, here are some outlets for a good
tradesman's info marketing business:

--- Automotive tips: This is obvious. Everything from changing
your own oil, to how to readjust your tappets, to getting the
correct replacement parts for an import vehicle. People need
this info. While cars are fun to drive fast, they also have a nasty
habit of breaking. Consumers want a quick resolution for these
problems at a low cost. If you can provide this, your info will
be well appreciated by a great number of the public.

--- Plumbing and home repair: Like your car, your home is
your pride and joy. You work hard to pay for it and keep it
working. And it does, until a water main busts or something in
the breaker box decides to give out. Hiring a repair guy and
getting decent parts can put a large dent in your finances. Thus
a good info marketer with home trade info is pretty much
needed -- someone who can give out info on how to do or how
to get good home repairs at good prices. That someone might
be you.

--- Tool and die: I had no concept of manufacturing until
getting a tour of my sister's boyfriend's factory. He showed me
how industrial parts are made and how they are used to keep
modern manufacturing moving along. Funnily, he mentioned
that tool-and-die guys are always willing to show others how to
do basic home parts repair and often want a format to keep up
with related trade news. Again, someone who can provide this
info might be you. If you are hip to the latest manufacturing
news, how the industry is changing, and what opportunities are
available to tool-and-die makers, get a regular info newsletter
or compendium going. You will be servicing people just like
you.

--- Computers and electronics: I took physics right up to my
second year of post-secondary. There was lots of theory and it
was interesting, but I only wished I had some application for
how electronic parts actually worked. Resistors, transformers,
and microchips were all things that seemed vital to our
existence and one could only benefit from by knowing more
about them. That said, electronics and computer savvy techs
stand to be very successful info marketers. Their regular
information on modern electronics is valuable to both industry
people and those of the general public who have a soldering
gun and the desire to fix their own circuits. If this info type is
you, I would advise immediate info marketing dispersion. Or,
to put it more simply, get what you know out there now!

They say trades are back in a big way now. Skilled pros are in
short supply and are needed by a public that is unskilled. That
alone should be enough for you to take your trade knowledge
to great information marketing heights. What you know is
valuable to everyone!