July 23, 2009

Make More Money Faster... The Trouble with Pricing...
Networking Your Business for Success... Information
Marketing Web Networking Tips... and More.

Even though it wasn't too long ago, it is certainly difficult to imagine how businesses once ran without the Internet.

I'm especially talking about businesses that have customers spread all across the country and even those that operate all around the globe. Sure, there have been phones and fax machines for decades, but communicating across the country by mail took several days and, if you had to go out of the country, you could expect a much longer wait.

Now, with the Internet at your side, you can communicate with employees and customers in seconds. You can send text, video and audio anywhere, to anyone, and you're almost guaranteed to get it to them in fractions of a second.

The big issue here is not only can you communicate faster, but you're also expected to reply sooner and take action immediately.

Customer complaints via e-mail are expected to be answered in under 24 hours. Many companies even make use of their ability to quickly respond as an additional selling feature added to their products.

What it all comes down to now is a need for speed. When you're dealing online, you need to make quick decisions and take action right away.

This week, take a look at how long it takes you to put your moneymaking plans into action. Your goal is to eliminate wait times and increase your daily actions. Keeping your eye on the clock could be your key to quicker success.

I don't remember a time when I didn't work with others. In high school, I'd get jobs like fixing farmers' fences or cutting the grass -- all more or less solo ventures. But most of the other ones -- working in shops, working on summer work crews, tutoring -- required me to work with others. Save the times I worked with some guys or girls who were difficult, I liked it a lot. My colleagues and I had fun together while completing the jobs for the day, and a lot of my former colleagues are friends I still keep in touch with to this day.

Information marketing is a strange occupation in the sense of how one relates to others. On one hand, you are completely alone, behind your computer, creating your content and info products away from the rest of the world. On the other hand, you are dealing with clients and publication colleagues regularly in order to get your work out into the public forum. It's an interesting professional high wire to be on and, speaking personally, the reason I do it. I get to dabble in both being alone and working with others more or less at my discretion.

Working independently is something you learn how to do on your own. You know your work habits and how you function by yourself, so there's not much advice I can give on that subject. However, I can provide some tips for web communication and some insight on how to properly interact with clients, colleagues, or prospective collaborators on the World Wide Web.

Here are some pointers:

--Searching and Bookmarking: Surprisingly, some people aren't good at exploring the Web unless it involves getting sports scores or, well, other things I won't go into. In business, it's good to know how to search and to apply the same vigor as you would if you were trying to find out who won the All-Star game. If you need information for your content, make sure you know the keywords of your search. For example, if you need specs on a 1963 Ford Fairlane 500, type words like "info, ""specs," "Ford Fairlane," and "1963" into your search engines. When you find the sites you want, use your FAVORITES icon at the top of your Internet browser to bookmark the page. That way you can save and go back to it at a later date. Using these functions will help with repeated and related searches in the future.

-- How Others Can Reach You: E-mail is essential to communicating with your clients and colleagues. When you send out e-mails, always keep footers at the end of your e-mails with your name, position, and contact info, including a link to your web site. It's that much easier for your prospective clients to get a hold of you or your colleagues to call in case of an emergency.

-- E-mail Etiquette: Like to chat in MSN? Send a message on Facebook? Write silly, jargon-laced e-mails to your buddies? Great. But it's better to do it during off-hours. When writing a proposal for a new collaborator, answering a client's query, or even corresponding with a very trusted colleague, keep your writing professional and to the point of the discussion. It's an ounce of prevention that people wind up admiring about you over time.

-- Don't Be Too Keen to Delete: Whatever correspondence you make over the Internet, be it a blog posting or even an e-mail, it's good to keep a record of all exchanges. That way you can stay organized with people you have or have not dealt with over time. Most e-mail providers have a SENT folder that automatically saves your sent messages. Even if you have this, keep a separate folder of all created documents on your hard drive that you can refer to at a moment's notice. Again, it's an ounce of prevention that helps you stay organized with your Web networking.

A lot of people view the Internet as some sort of monstrous monolith that causes too many problems and makes life complicated. It isn't. It's just another tool like your fax machine or telephone. With the right perspective, it can be the tool that will help your information marketing business the most.

You've gotten your business off the ground, you're attracting some great customers and you're starting to connect with other businesses in your area.

You're even feeling great and there seems to be no limit to how far your success can go.

And sustaining the momentum you've put your hard work and effort into should be one of your main priorities. To keep that momentum going, you could focus on extending your business connections. That means reaching out to other businesses in your community or in your field and creating a network that could help support or even grow your business. This could even result in broadening your access to new customers or clients.

There are many ways to meet with local businesses. You can start by contacting your Chamber of Commerce for information. And if you run a store. get to know your neighbors by introducing yourself face-to-face.

The first step to establishing a network of mutually beneficial connections is to focus on starting small, and then to grow your network over time.

You may want to get out there and meet everyone you can. But, in your haste, you could be making too many friends and not creating some possible business opportunities. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with making friends, but keeping your business and your personal life separate is important in helping you maintain your focus on achieving success.

And that means focusing on making the business connections most relevant to you. When you're making those first introductions and creating your network, you are going to want to communicate what exactly it is that your business is all about and what you specialize in. Avoid making a sales pitch and instead offer up the specifics of your products or services and what you are doing to really set yourself apart from the competition.

It is being specific in your needs that will also allow these possible connections to better help you out when the time comes.

The next thing to do is to keep in contact with your network. Offer to add them to your mailing lists or send them an e-mail when something new or important comes up. Be polite and neighborly, but always remember you want them to consider you a serious businessperson, so avoid gossip and keep your e- mails short and to the point.

Keep in mind that part of being in a network means that you may also be needed to offer support. So be sure to keep your new contacts in mind and be proactive when it comes to offering your assistance. You could offer to refer new clients or customers or set up meetings just to exchange ideas.

By helping out and getting involved, you'll be creating relationships that could benefit you and your business for years to come.

** The Trouble with Pricing
By Michael Newman, Self-made Millionaire

One of the most challenging aspects of starting or running your own business is deciding on an appropriate price for your products and services. After all, you need to find that perfect combination of growing your customer base with attractive pricing and making your own ends meet. However, what can be even more difficult is to come up with a way to ask for more money. After all, the last thing your clients want to hear is that you're boosting prices; especially in an economy like this.

With the current slowdown in our economy, coupled with the increased costs of life and doing business, it can be a rather difficult task to ask for a fee increase. After all, your customers are probably struggling for extra cash just as much as you are.

Although it may be difficult, there are ways to come up with a pricing strategy and break the news to your customers that your fee is going up without having to worry about kissing their business goodbye.

If you're starting a new business, it's important to develop a detailed business plan that will take more than just your business into account. Start by writing out what you plan to do, how you want to do it, and foresee revenue, expenses and profits for the first several years. Then, to come up with your minimum hourly rate, add up all your living costs and business expenses and divide it by 20, which is the number of billable hours you should aim for; then compare it to regular market rates.

If you've already got an established business and need to raise your fee, the key is to do it as gently as possible. Start by testing different price points with new customers to get a feel for how high you can go. Remember, do this first with new customers. This will let you develop a good idea of what people are willing to spend, which can give you some bargaining material when you break the news to your existing clients.

When you break the news to existing clients, don't do it over the phone or when you mail an invoice. During a regular meeting, casually mention that the cost of your service is increasing by a certain percentage. Explain why and mention that you hope an agreement can be reached and the relationship can be continued.

Another method to ease any trouble would be to hide any increase. Start breaking up your work, and billing by section. By doing this, you can start with pricing the first task, then charging appropriately for any additional tasks the client will likely request.

Raising prices in business is inevitable, and it will take a combination of patience and planning to do so without losing clients. Informing them in a smart, persuasive manner that proves your worth is the best way to ease the blow.