Fishing is the oldest industry on earth. If we look back in time, we could literally see our ancestors trading their catch for goods and services. Fishermen back then probably challenged their own conventional wisdom by seeking fundamental change. A change that transformed the way we do business today.

When we glance at our current economic situation, the predetermined agenda sits inside our collective consciousness. We often feel like doing business is miserable and unfulfilled. This psychological path is why we are brainwashed into thinking our products and services will sell just by giving it a name. Names are nothing but jargon, and features are only components of the solution.

The fishermen knew of this early on. People had to eat. They expressed the benefits upfront and then ended it with proof. If businesses tell the consumer what they are getting and why it’s the right approach we wouldn’t be breaking communication rules for more sales!

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We must first determine which things in life are most valuable to us. We also must determine our feelings about such things as patriotism, pride, love, freedom, excellence, ownership and tolerance.

These are values in society; the moral, ethical and fundamental judgments that we, as individuals, deem important.

Without a clear system of values for ourselves, it is impossible to believe in something with a passion that has no value to us.

Once we have established our individual value system, we are then able to determine how we can achieve success based on our priority of values.

It’s like holding one hand up to accomplish what we desire on the other. Without a value system we can never move forward. Why? Because we may be doing business without increasing our potential for success!

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Breaking news about unemployment will remain in the forefront longer than expected. Businesses today are forced to restructure their entire operations. Unfortunately, this means a loss of jobs. Eventually, benefits and income will run dry.

This vicious economic cycle spirals out of control. The after effects leave us with empty store-fronts, vacant factories, and commercial buildings. No other company will occupy these sleeping giants, also known as the “White Elephants” of the industry, because they are a maintenance nightmare.

Workers who are fortunate to keep their job must face new challenges. Job positioning and worker experience becomes critical for survival. For example, the African Gazelle must wake up everyday on the run in order to stay alive. The Cheetah must wake up and run faster than the Gazelle if it wants to eat!

A stagnate enterprise of any size must develop new worker experience values among its workforce. It must wake up to the fact that company cheerleaders are no longer effective. Increased productivity within the current labor force will help define the new bottom line. Create better job training that’s easy to understand. One that clearly links objectives to strategies and is specific, but measurable.

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I’ve been studying and writing ad copy for 30 years. My eyes and ears have experienced tons of advertising messages. Some are out of the ordinary to say the least. Take a look at what’s around you. Every consumer product is branded with some type of logo, either on Television, in a newspaper, magazine, flyer, or on the product itself. A few however, stick out like a sore thumb. It’s like the winning team waving a victory flag after a close game!

Advertisers want to be noticed, and with today’s economic turmoil, some go to the extreme to get attention. In fact, these oddball promotions made a huge impact on their business.

Here’s my top ten of all time…

#10. Bald Head Web Address: I’m sure you’ve heard of people placing advertisements on their body parts up for the highest bidder on eBay, Right? Well, recently I attended a fundraiser for our local homeless shelter. I noticed this well dressed young man walking up to donate. He wasn’t wearing a hat and was completely bald. Except for the tattoos around his head. His entire head was tattooed with many web site URLs. I approached this young fellow and asked him how many web addresses were on his head. He said, “26 total.” And that he was working on one more. He told me he owns a tattoo parlor, and he gets $250 per URL. I then asked, “What happens if one of those web sites dies off?” He replied, “I’ll get rid of it for another advertiser!” Go Figure.

#9. Going Out Of Business: A long time clothing store decided it wasn’t working out with the state of the economy. The store owner came up with the idea of placing two dump trucks back-to-back in front of the building. Both trucks were loaded with fake clothes and other items that appeared in the store. A huge sign stretched from bumper-to-bumper: “Going Out Of Business Sale. One Week Only. What Don’t Sell Will Be Hauled To The Dump.” They reported selling every single item from 60-80 percent off.

#8. Fishing Tournament Trailer: A popular fishing club that hosts a tournament trail at one of our local lakes has a one-of-a-kind trailer. They use it to haul around their gear, tents, scales, and other items needed for their fishing tournaments. It’s a 12 foot tandem axle panel trailer loaded with small ads all over the sides, back, front, and even the top. Each ad represents a sponsor. A one foot square logo with address and phone number covers the entire trailer. From a distance it looks like the trailer is camouflaged, but when you get a closer look, it’s littered with advertisements. In fact, is has so many ads it took me 30 minutes just to glance at all. And I thought Pixel advertising was so unique!

#7. Beauty Solon Hair Knots: During a business trip, I stumbled upon a small, yet busy Beauty Solon. I decided to get a quick hair trim before the meeting. I walked inside and was fortunate to get a chair. One of the young ladies finished with her client and motioned for me to come forward. While she was trimming my hair, I noticed a tall, well dressed female mannequin standing only a few feet away. But, the hair was full of twisted knots and made of several colors. The mannequin stood upright, pointing to what appeared to be a special looking shampoo and conditioner. I asked the young lady, “What is with the knots in the mannequin’s hair?” She explained to me the shampoo and conditioner will help eliminate tangles and will aide in bright and colorful hair. She further stated that since they placed the mannequin in their Solon they couldn’t keep it on the shelves. Only two packages were available and I witnessed a sale right before my eyes!

#6. Rotating Car-On-A-Pole: An auto parts facility (junk yard) has what it takes to be noticed. Approximately 60 feet high sits a Voltswagon that rotates on top of a huge 36 inch diameter steel pole. The junk yard is roughly a quarter mile off the highway and can be seen while driving past the entrance to their road. Their name and phone number is displayed on both the car and the pole itself. The car stops rotating after 5:00 PM when the junk yard closes. And, that’s exactly what is says on the sign: “Junkyard Closed When Car Stops.”

#5. Sawmill Giant: A replica of Paul Bunyan stands handsomely holding its ax in one hand, while pointing the way to the sawmill with the other. Only thing is, it towers above 25 feet!. The name of the sawmill is on its chest with a dark colored beard, hat, suspenders, bluejeans, and work boots. If you have trouble finding the sawmill, just look for big Paul Bunyan by the Highway. Believe me, you can’t miss it.

#4. Audio and Video Store: A 1957 panel van is outfitted with enough sound system to hear miles away. But, buried beneath the speakers is a lift away console, which emerges into a full surround sound theater. Once inside two people can sit comfortably and watch their favorite video on four wide screen Television monitors. This incredible mobile entertainment center is simply awesome to see and hear. And, of course, their advertisement is beautifully displayed on the exterior. But, that’s not all this fancy shop engages in for advertising. Once a week they place their entire catalog on two FULL pages of the newspaper – under the Obituary section – the most read section of any newspaper. WOW – That’s nearly 250 products!

#3. Real Estate Broker Lights: While driving through a nice rural neighborhood one night, I noticed a house that had Christmas lights lit up all over the place. Bright lights were on the chimney, gable ends, doors, windows, and even on the brokerage sign. Here it is July and this house is brighter than Yankees Stadium at night. I wrote down the phone number off the signage and called the broker the next day to see if the house was available. The broker answered and told me the house was sold an hour ago!

#2. Port-O-Jon Rental T-Shirt: One day nature called while on a construction job site. While inside the Port-O-Jon, a truck pulls alongside and a worker begins to clean each one out. When I made my exit, the worker stood ready to clean the one I used. He had a bright red t-shirt on with BIG black letters that said the following: “You Dump – We Pump – Give Us A Call.”

#1. Direct Snail Mail Smell: A local furniture store mailed me a sales letter one day. This was a regular two page letter that outlined many super bargains. But, that’s not all that accompanied the letter…it had a wonderful perfume aroma. I read it over and checked out the envelope and began to sniff. I thought, “Boy, does this letter smell great.” I knew the couple who owned the furniture store, so I decided to give the owners a call to see what they were up to. I told them both I received their letter with a strong perfume smell to it.

They told me a surprising story. John and Kristy tried direct mail in the past, but failed every time to yield a good return. This time, John asked Kristy if he could barrow her best bottle of perfume as he prepared to mail 5000 sales letters. John carefully sprinkled a few drops of this expensive perfume on each letterhead. They both took part inserting the letters into the envelopes and sealed each one with postage.

Approximately three days later, John started to receive customers and began to make sales. He coded the letter with instructions to bring in a coupon for the items on sale. In fact, they sold out the bargain item, then worked on selling out their entire inventory of kitchen tables and chairs, mattress sets, and sofas. This popular furniture store sold $32,000.00 worth of furniture in two weeks time – all due to the smelly sales letters. However, it dealt a not so rosy smell to women of the house. It appeared the women had something to say to their husbands, why they were receiving such a smelly letter, and who sent it. Nevertheless, John and Kristy had an astonishing 72% open rate!

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Expressing how much you value your customers are worth every penny and effort to retain their loyalty. Any company who doesn’t take care of their customers is a darn fool!

Approximately 60 miles away from my office sits a small country store that strongly believes in caring for their customers. Every year the store owner brings in country cookers to brew up their favorite stew, BBQ, and other tasty treats.

A small group of ladies also bring home cooked pies and pastries for the crowd to enjoy. There’s even more home cooked goodies available, and served hot while various local bands play music for all ages. People dancing, eating, and swapping fish stories – what a Day!

It’s a special time of the year when people from around the community and abroad come together to fellowship and have fun – all because of one store owner’s compassion for great customer care. Each year is filled with something new with vibrant foods always present. And to top off the day, each event manages to gather dozens of new customers.

Showing your customers you appreciate them simply makes good business sense. It reinforces a common bond between your business and the customer. It’s a time when you must make a great impression and say, “Thanks for being such a loyal customer.”

The greatest thing about this is you can do it, too. Don’t limit yourself by saying, “this won’t work in my business.” You have viable ways to do this no matter what business you’re in. Don’t make excuses. Just think about who makes money when you make money. Care for your customers and they will care for you!

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I sat down with Internet marketing professional, Abe Cherian to grill him on what makes his Internet Empire so unique and profitable. I wanted to get a real, in-depth approach to his many long hours of hard work.

With fluctuations in the economy, business decision making becomes critical to survive. What Abe shared with me about his unique selling advantage and his profitable enterprise with powerful management tools paved the way to critical elements of modern Internet business thinking.

Steven: Millions of people from various cultures feel they need to know more ways to survive. One such way, as you mentioned earlier, is for them to take their own entrepreneurial journey. What do you say to someone who comes to you asking for this type of advice?

Abe: Great question, Steven. Entrepreneurship is not really a means to survive, but an opportunity to thrive. I mean, no body dreams of just ’surviving.’ Often times, dreams are about huge successes.

To be an Entrepreneur means turning ones dream into reality.

Being an Entrepreneur also means, a person who organizes and manages any enterprise. An employer of productive ideas and labor. A person who creates further prosperity, jobs, and opportunity in the community. A person who brings in value to the marketplace.

To me, that is a huge responsibility.

The good news is, Entrepreneurship is ‘initiated’ by a person. Nobody is born as an Entrepreneur, but any one can ‘initiate’ it.

The good news is, anyone can learn the skills necessary to run an enterprise and bring value into the marketplace.

Today we as humans have a tremendous opportunity to use powerful communication tools, and access to great information for little or no money.

Sooner or later, you will learn that, ‘knowing’ is one thing, but having the tenacity to ‘act on that knowledge’ is what makes every day people turn into entrepreneurs.

I would say to any one, who is pondering on the idea of starting a business, act on it quickly. Once you decide that this is the path that you want to take, then it becomes a journey. But, what a journey it will be.

Steven: Thinking back when you first started your business, did you have any idea you were going to become successful by doing what you are passionate about?

Abe: I have heard from other successful people, that when you do what you love to do, you will most likely enjoy success. Like most people starting out, my goal was financial freedom, but I did not have a clue that it could happen so quickly.

Success means different things to different people. I think success comes in stages. When you reach your goal of financial freedom, then success means something much greater than money.

I have a lot of work to do.

Steven: Realizing that we are still in a recession, and that millions of workers are out of a job, what impact have you seen in the Internet advertising industry as a whole from online companies going out of business? And, does it actually impact you at all?

Abe: Jim Rohn said…

“Life and business are like the changing seasons. A major lesson in life to learn is how to handle the winters. Winter time allows you to get stronger, wiser, better. The winters won’t change, but you can.

Think like a Farmer. For a farmer, springtime is his most active time. It’s then when he must work around the clock, up before the sun and still toiling at the stroke of midnight. He must keep his equipment running at full capacity because he has but a small window of time for the planting of his crop. Eventually winter comes when there is less for him to do to keep him busy.”

Fortunately, following the turbulence of winter comes the season of activity and opportunity called springtime. It is the season for entering the fertile fields of life with seed, knowledge, commitment, and a determined effort.”

Jim’s attitude and philosophy has a lot of Impact on me, and how I run my business. Watch out, spring time is coming soon! And then harvest time, and winter again for sure. The cycles are never going to change. It hasn’t for over 6000 years.

Steven: With so much business creation, start ups, and product development information available on the Internet, what sets your business apart from other Internet media marketing companies? I mean, you’re one of the leading experts in this field, what has been the key to lasting this long?

Abe: During the California Gold Rush in the 1840’s, a lot more entrepreneurs made money by selling ‘picks’ and ’shovels’. The Internet is still in the gold rush period, and my business sells them ‘picks’ and ’shovels’ that makes it possible for entrepreneurs to make profits, (tools and channels necessary for the wealth miners on the Internet).

When I started this business in 1998, I knew it was going to be a Journey of a lifetime for me. Quiting was not an option for me. I guess that is the main reason, why my business lasted over 10 years. It is one of the best things that happened in my life, so I feel no need to stop now.

Steven: I’m going to switch gears on you and would like to know your thoughts about building relationships and the core to your lead generating success. Without displacing any secrets, what core model would you consider vital to your business?

Abe: I think ‘consistency’ and ‘discipline’ is probably the best practice for building relationships and generating leads. If you are consistently searching and providing the best solutions for your clients, in a highly disciplined way, then you will see growth in your business.

The models that we use are no secret. It’s about working on strengthening the pillars that hold up the fort. The pillars are your model.

For a business to sustain and bring value into the marketplace, the first and most important model to put in place, is your ‘Cash Flow Model.’

The “cash flow model” we use are as follows, in order…

1. Front end lead generation product
2. Relationship building and support
3. Subscription products
4. Advanced relationship building
5. Up sells and one time offers
6. High ticket services
7. Constant improvement in systems and products

Pretty basic stuff. But, it is powerful if you apply it in a consistent and disciplined manner. That is why I value ‘Consistency’  and ‘Discipline’ as the core practice. Models may change from time to time, but with any model, again, consistency and discipline is the key.

Steven: I remember one conversation you and I had years ago about social networking. It was lengthy and full of ideas. What is your take on the social networking craze, and what adjustments have you made in your business to fit in?

Abe: Social Networking is one of several ‘Pillars of Marketing’. It is powerful, but it is only one of several channels to keep your ‘lead generation funnel’ stocked.

At Multiple Stream Media, we use almost all major Social Marketing channels, like Twitter and MySpace — but we have realized that ‘hosting’ a Social Networking platform gives you the most leverage of time. We launched http://www.startupnet.com with that in mind, and have been experiencing a viral growth because of it.

Anyone can start a social networking website that is geared toward a specific market with the help of Social Networking platforms like the Ning Network, (ning.com).

It’s Exciting.

Steven: You are the true pioneer of multiple stream media. Many other Internet marketing firms still believe email is the driving force behind the success of their online business. What challenges have you faced and overcome using email as technology advances?

Abe: According to a survey we did on our blog, (Msmediablog.com) a month or so ago, email marketing still rules the roost. Here are the results:

Question: What 3 Internet Marketing tactics will you emphasize most in the next 3 months?

Option 1: Email Marketing – 63%
Option 2: Pay-per-click – 57%
Option 3: Social Networking – 48%
Option 4: Blogging – 34%
Option 5: SEO Optimization – 31%
Option 6: Offline Advertorials – 8%
Option 7: Video Marketing – 8%

Email marketing has it’s challenges; but with any challenge, there are other sub-industries who take advantage of the opportunity, and come up with solutions. Email companies can now take advantage of ‘Certified Email’ services like Goodmail.com to obtain more deliverability.

Entrepreneurs who wish to profit from Email Marketing without worrying about major deliverability issues and spam, can use the list management service that we provide, http://www.imediamarketingtools.com to boost sales and build relationships.

Steven: Obviously, the best website with the best offer doesn’t necessarily mean people will purchase from you. How do you know what tools online business owners want?

Abe: True, creating a great offer is only the first stage in marketing. In order for people to purchase your product, you obviously have to find strategies that will give you maximum leverage in reaching your target audience.

Entrepreneurs now have a tremendous opportunity to use powerful communication tools, and access to great information for little or no money.

Testing is key, and there are many tools available to test and determine what will work for you. We offer tracking and survey tools with the iMediaMarketingTools.com service.

Tools are available for every stage of marketing your website.

Steven: I understand you are accepting one-on-one consultations with people who haven’t quite discovered their dreams or aspirations. How do you manage to nurture someone new to the Internet business model where they learn to empower others to become good at it, too?

Abe: For years, my team and I have been helping many aspiring entrepreneurs understand and take advantage of the Internet Medium to grow their business.

We offer free phone consultations, and one-on-one webinars on how to correctly use the tools to profit from their efforts. Anyone can call us and seek help. (845) 247 2565 Ext2.

I am working on publishing a book that will nurture, and empower, hidden dreams, and aspirations, from within people and motivate them to take action toward the first step (Stage One) in their Entrepreneurial Journey.

As you already know, Steven, I approached you for help with this book. Your experience in Marketing, and as a Journalist and writer, I realize that we can make this information available to thousands of people globally.

There are many business books available about success and self help.

What I want to share with others in this book, is my own experience in building an online business from $0 to 1 Million in sales. It’s a combination of my story and a how to book.

Steven: In closing, online advertising has challenges like any other business. Where do you see promotion on the Internet headed to in 2012?

Abe: Business owners in any Industry face challenges. Challenges are opportunities to learn. Without obstacles, no business will know what to avoid. The online advertising business is no different.

In 2012, it will be the same. Marketers will still want to find ways to promote their products. Consumers will still buy and consume goods and services. Authorities will still put in place rules and regulations that creates a safe environment for online surfers. Nothing will change. There will be huge opportunities, there will be challenges.

The only change that will happen is within YOU.

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All businesses possess special techniques for survival in their daily operation. Any business owner will tell you they must know every little thing about their it in order to make it successful.

In today’s competitive marketplace, a business operating solely by a staff of managers have tough decisions to make. Their high profile recommendations to invest in research and development plays an important role towards profitability.

These important decisions are usually submitted to the owner(s) before final approval is made. As a business owner in the current economic climate, it pays to know every key element for operating a successful business.

Many long hours of planning makes sure that nothing is missed. A knowledgeable owner must be able to answer any question on demand to properly solve any problem with a solution. Most owners choose to consult with their managers, staff, or employees to seek advice before making a final decision.

This is a good thing, because ideas or suggestions are hardly ignored. Some owners even hold weekly meetings to capture business revenues and to build better quality products or services for continued growth.

One common mistake owners try to improve on, but many fail to implement, is updating management procedures. These are always changing due to fluctuations in the economy. A more efficient way to remain profitable is to set a standard of operating procedures and implement key elements with a company policy.

Regardless what type of business it is, an employee, or even a customer often will raise a question or problem for the business to solve. This is when decision making at its best comes into play. The solution always comes from the top – the owner! If a different solution is given by someone other than the owner, and it turns out to be wrong, nobody is to blame but the one in charge for this mistake.

These key strategies must be in place to manage a successful business:

- Take control of Your business.
- Know how to dramatically improve profits.
- Provide the critical elements required by investors, leaders and buyers.
- Develop your own unique selling advantage.
- Operate a profitable enterprise with powerful management tools.
- Stay ahead of your competition – always.
- Make your business plan the heart and soul of your operation.

In order to eliminate the frustration of not knowing everything about your business, you must establish your inner instincts. Never give up and always diversify your knowledge. The easiest way to do this is to think back when you first started your business, and remembering those times of failure. If you want your business to succeed, you have no other choice. Always know where you’re going and remember where you’ve been should be your theme.

To look is one thing. To see what you look at is another. To understand what you see is a third. To learn from what you understand is still something else. But, to act on what you learn is all that really matters.

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For those businesses with similar competitors eventually learn they must establish their own unique brand. In fact, there should be a huge difference between your business and others doing the same work. I can tell you from first hand experience that being different and more efficient at the same time will not only be more productive, but it gives your customers more purchase options.

Questions you must ask yourself are:

a) Should I offer my customers something for free?
b) Can I offer solid guarantees and still make a profit?
c) Will my years in business make a difference?
d) Should I really charge for after hours work?
e) Must I invest in new breakthrough equipment?
f) Should I offer special financing options to my customers?
g) Will my bottom line increase if open weekends and nights?

Consumers want more bang for their buck during a recession. They will not purchase from you unless they receive some kind of benefit. First time customers need to be told how they will benefit by doing business with you. Regardless if you own your market, do you know

what makes your business stand out from the rest?

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Most businesses have no idea what it takes to get just one customer. They are so busy trying to include their marketing budget into a percentage of their sales, that during a recession they cut their ad budget. This is a huge mistake.

The very principle to continue advertising at their current level, they will eventually get their customers. But, how well do they know what one customer is worth? Calculating your customer’s worth is basically done by taking the average sale number, your profit per that sale, how much additional profit a customer is worth to you, and determine how many times they come back and buy. You will want to be very conservative when adding this up.

Next, figure out what a customer costs by dividing your marketing budget by the number of customers it produces. If you spend $1,000 on marketing and you get 1000 customers, they are costing you $1 a piece. Prospects are the same. Maybe out of that $1,000 you get 10,000 prospects for $.10.

Calculate how many sales you get for so many prospects. The percentage of prospects that actually become customers. This will be your closing ratio. If you get 10,000 prospects and you have 1,000 customers, it’s a 10% closing ratio.

Additionally, the marginal net worth of a customer is figured by subtracting the cost to produce that customer from the profit you expect to earn from them over their lifetime. Your goal should be spending less to get customers through your acquisition cost. However, this method is one way to generate customers in a short term.

The key is to try and do business for free on a front end sale where you will be attracting new customers. This will ultimately be the driving force to cut back back and reduce how much it cost you to get them. Every business right now wants as many new customers as they can get, but noody really knows how much a customer is worth. So, they end up NOT knowing how much they can spend to get one.

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As new home owners scramble to survive in a struggling economy, finding a decent, well constructed home becomes increasingly critical. One company provides tools for survival amidst major competition and economic crisis.

Most home markets are challenged in today?s struggling economy. One national and international kit Home company has discovered a vital tool designed to help them survive and edge out competition.

All Kit Homes has developed a way to help home owners survive amidst pressures from the economy, natural disasters and major competitors. The company provides a new practical home ownership plan which saves 20% – 40% construction time without delay.

Each unit is constructed in a controlled environment. Each home is assured with a great level of quality control with only 20% moisture by the time it arrives on the construction site. This construction technique also eliminates the cost of on-site theft and vandalism. Bulk purchasing abilities have been developed to reduce costs, and this savings is also passed to the home buyer. Costs are further reduced because there are no wasted materials likewise on conventional job-sites.

“Our homes are much different from other homes. They are basically built the same by any other contractor, but with well constructed, high quality materials in a factory controlled environment,” says David Edwards, President of All Kit Homes. “The method we use has no tolerance for error, and this revision allows simple, but fast erection and reduces the site costs and total cost of their kit.”

Purchasing a total pre-constructed package significantly cuts exaggerated local labor costs, and reduces the time required for completion. This lowers construction loan costs and allows the home to be sold, or moved into more quickly.

Hand built items cannot logically be competitive, cost-wise with assembly line style material. The more time saved the more dollars saved. Time is money. Furthermore, the home which is factory constructed, the less local labor which in turn is cost prohibitive in most areas.

“We are finding more people around the world do not know the full concept of open panel construction. A home kit is faster and more economically safe than prefabricated or modular homes,” says Edwards. “This allows sufficient time to prepare the home site and have the foundation ready when the package arrives.”

Obviously, quality craftsmanship, energy efficient and reduced per square foot cost are major factors. However, today’s consumers demand something more than dull, rectangular living modules. They demand contemporary design, eye appeal, and luxury. All Kit Homes is proud to say that these kit homes, not only meets this demand, but also exceed these requirements.

About All Kit Homes.

All Kit Homes is a national and international distributor/contractor of High Quality, Affordable, Custom Panelized Homes – Shipped World Wide.

All Kit Homes, Inc. (http://www.allkithomes.com)

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One of the most effective and painless ways to save money without altering your standard of living is by earmarking earmarked money. Money that can add up to thousands of extra dollars, which can give you an unusually strong boost towards a better savings plan.

When you get down to the last couple of coupons in your loan payment book, don’t think about the extra cash you’re about to have. Instead, think about a personal savings plan vehicle into which you can divert it, or into a high interest account where you can hold it while you analyze other possible investments.

After the loan is paid off, keep writing a check to yourself and desposit it where it will do you some good. You won’t miss the money since it has been going out anyway. You will be surprised at how fast you can accumulate extra funds to help save you more money.

Ultimately, saving money from a one time or intermittent expense should be everyone’s goal. For example, you may have been paying off your student loan for the past 10 years at $75 a month. Or for two years you may have been sending your doctor $100 a month for a minor surgery.

Let’s say you finance your car for three years, but trade it in every five years. During the intervening two years, where does the installment money go?

These payments are fixed expenses budgeted into habits like any ordinary rent or mortage payment. But, what’s shocking to know is they aren’t fixed. They come to an end, and when they do, where does the money go? For most people – it evaporates!

These expenses exist in:

–Mortages, which some people do actually pay them off.

–Furniture and appliance payments.

–Home improvement loans.

–Various types of insurance.

–Medical bills.

–Day care and nursery schools.

–Other related travel, bed, board, books, uniforms.

–Tuition for private schools, universities, housing.

Finding more money doesn’t just stop there. Knowing the metrics to become a superior saver moves into what to look for in mark-ups and business services.

Because of the necessity for stores to arbitrarily mark up the price of their products and services, it’s extremely important that you never assume that listed prices are set in stone. Only under highly unusual conditions is there no reason for you to get a price reduction.

Mark-ups on some goods and services include:

– Jewelry and Furniture 100%

– Computer Software 40%

– Computers 40%

– Toys and Games 40%

– Mattresses 40%

– Economy Automobiles 10%

– Luxury Automobiles 25%

These money saving areas has multiple paths that can lead you to even greater savings. Remember, the more money you can pay yourself into a savings account, the more you will learn how to make saving money a wonderful habit!

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Advertising in magazines and newspapers can play a major part in growing your business. But many people go at it the wrong way. In fact, many people conclude that advertising in these type of publications don’t work for their business. However, it doesn’t need to be this way. Most people are so busy they simply don’t have time to understand how magazines and newspapers work.

If you can take a little time to really understand the concept of how to make it work, you’ll be on your way to move ahead of your competitors, because most people truly don’t.

1. Magazine and newspaper advertising is vastly different from all other advertising types, and must be treated as such. This type of advertising can (and should) be a superb lead generator, but remember you are competing head to head with dozens of your competitors. There’s no other marketing or advertising tool where competition is so fierce. Even though advertising in these publications presents you with the challenge of competing against all your competitors, you can guarantee 99% of them have ads that are ineffective. That’s your edge. As long as you follow each of this you’ll steal business from right under their noses.

2. Recognize when people find you, because they’re already looking to buy. People using magazines and newspapers (whether free of paid) are immediately excellent prospects for you. Whenever someone looks at your ad they’re interested at your product or service. This cannot be said in all other forms of advertising or marketing. When you advertise in the local newspaper your ad needs to grab the attention of the reader and convince them they need you.

With magazine advertising your ad still needs to grab the attention of the reader, however, your reader is already interested in your product or service. Therefore, your goal is not to convince them they need you, but to ensure they choose you over and above your competitors. Hopefully, you’ve learned how important it is to use a headline in all your advertising. That doesn’t mean your headline is the name of your business. This is probably the biggest mistake 99% of businesses make with their ads.

3. You must prepare in advance. Many people leave the creation of their advertisement until the last moment. They say, “Just repeat last years ad,” or “Will you create something for me?” – are things that are said all too often. Unfortunately, if you want your advertising to be successful, you have to spend time on it. This has to be just like all your other marketing and advertising tools. If you do you’ll benefit greatly – I guarantee it. And please don’t ever ask the magazine or newspaper reps to design your advertisement. They design about 60% of the ads, and they all look the same. This generally means unsuccessful and they don’t truly understand what makes a successful ad.

4. Your ad must be big enough to get your offer and message across. The owners, directors or partners of many businesses are simply happy to put short or single line entries, semi-display, or in-column ads in the magazines or newspapers, and then conclude it don’t work.

Here’s a reality check: Single line entries, semi-display ads or in-column ads don’t work. They hardly ever cover their cost. Why? Because you can’t say enough about your product services to convince people they should be buying from you or at least talking to you. Don’t fall into the same trap. Your ad needs to be big enough for you to tell the prospect why they should be calling you – and not someone else.

5. Understand the multiple ad rule. Magazines and newspapers group together different businesses in the same product or service page, and people know they are going to have a good selection of companies to choose from. It therefore stands to reason in 95% of cases every person looking for your business will follow this rule. They’ll choose one, two or three companies to call or visit. Therefore your advertisement MUST ensure your company is chosen in this case.

6. You must achieve rule five or else. If you don’t achieve rule Five, your advertisement will sit on the page and blend in with the rest. There will be no hope of gaining interest – it’s as simple as that. The only reason why magazine and newspaper advertising flops is because the ads fail to stimulate the prospect into calling or stopping by – over and above the rest of the competition. It stands to reason that if your ad doesn’t entice people to call – it will fail. I know this is obvious, but when you take a look at most of the ads in these publications it seems most people don’t understand this basic assumption.

7. You must create your ad with one purpose in mind – to achieve your primary objective. This last rule ties all the previous rules together. It’s the “mechanics” of your advertising. Your ad should be created to achieve your primary objective. For many, this is to receive a phone call from the reader, or a website visitor. For others it could be for people to walk into their premises or store. The key is this…your ad should be created to fulfill this one primary objective – and this one objective only.

Many people try to achieve several things with their advertising. You’ll never achieve great success if you take this approach. One objective means one outcome. The outcome YOU want.

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Selecting photographs and artwork is an element that can set the tone or image of your marketing campaign, but you don’t want them to be the overriding factor unless you are selling artwork. Photographs and artwork can make dramatic statements. If they are treated incorrectly, they offer no value and might be costly.

You don’t have to have photographs or original artwork in your marketing piece to get your desired goal. The proper use of typefaces, colors and white space plus simple graphics and clip art can add to the overall effectiveness of your marketing material. Should you choose to include photographs and artwork, there are some guidelines to follow.

Budgetary constraints can often dictate whether or not you use photographs. There are several ways you can incorporate photographs into your marketing pieces. You can use four color (full color), dual-tone (two-color, half-tone, reproduced from a one color photograph where the photo is originally black and white and in the printing process another color is added) which makes it tinted. Or simply use black and white.

Four color photographs are more expensive to reproduce than the other ways. They do require four color separation charges by your printer. If you can afford this process think carefully about your selected photograph. If it’s a little out of focus it won’t look any better once it’s printed. Dual tone is less expensive although the photograph will not be full color. It will appear to have color, or at the very least, be more colorful than a black and white photograph.

Black and white photos reproduce the best when they have a lot of contrast. Careful consideration needs to be taken when choosing color, dual tone or black and white. I have found that the most effective choice for an entrepreneur’s business is a simple black and white photo of the owner or a black and white photo of the owner and a customer or client.
This can build credibility.

In addition, if you use a photograph in your material, it draws the reader’s eye to that photo, so you must take that opportunity to put a caption underneath the photograph. This is a mainstay rule. Always include a caption with a photograph. Putting together your marketing material with all the right Ingredients is a lengthy, but worthwhile process. If you have someone else put it together for you, make a checklist for them. Using photographic images with the following will produce the desired results you’re looking for.

Do not use all capital letters – All capital letters will get more attention, but slow down the reading speed of the person and thus their comprehension. It doesn’t give a natural flow to your marketing piece. If you want to emphasize a certain word or a group of words, italicize them or bold them. In your headline or subhead, you can use a bigger type face than the rest of the body text. You might just capitalize the first letters of each word.

Do not fill up all the space you have to work with – If you cram too much information into a given space, it is difficult to read and the reader might lose interest. White space can be an effective design tool that will draw the reader to specific information that you wish to emphasize. However, don’t confuse this with an advertising agent when designing a space ad. Make effective use of your space in telling your story and listing benefits, but you don’t want to pack it together so closely and tightly that when a prospect looks at it, the eyestrain is so bad they don’t want to read it. There is a balance to achieve.

Do not use too much reversed type text where the background is black and letters white. You might use it sparingly to emphasize one idea here and there. Usually, it can be used to draw attention to a particular item. If it’s used for too many things, it loses its effect and nothing will jump off the page.

Do not use more than two typefaces (3 maximum). Too many type faces will cause confusion and slow the reader down. Two will draw attention to different pieces. Maybe one typeface for headings and subheadings, and one for the body text. That’s usually all you need. These two typefaces should have some contrast. The body text is usually in a “Serif’ type font and the headline and subheads are in a “Sans Serif’ type. A common type of font used is a Courier font and a Times New Roman.

Do not waste white space – Wasted white space occurs when there is a hole created somewhere in your layout that is not really part of your design. A white hole of space which has other elements all around it really differs from using white space in a good way and it will draw attention to itself instead of to a headline or a picture or body text available.

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It is extremely important to keep accurate records in any form of email marketing. It is only through these records that you can determine which ads pull the best, which advertising lead is the most enticing, and how well your product or service is selling.

Good records are the follow-up of good testing!

Keep copies of all ads and conversion material in a spreadsheet or a reliable file. You may also include in that file, or a separate folder, a record of all of the addresses you have used. The separate records per addresses or publication will help you to compare which ads are bringing in the profits.

You may have your own way of filing these ad campaigns. You’ll need a separate document for each ad you place. At the top of the document, place the name of the publication the ad appeared in, the issue number or date, the date the issue was placed on sale, the address, the size and cost of the ad, which ad you used, and the price of the product or service. This will be needed to calculate your profits later.

The main body of the document has two main categories – inquiries and sales.

First, the number of days should be listed in a column at the left. These don’t necessarily coincide with the days of the month, rather, start with the first days responses came in.

The subheads under “inquiries” should be:

- Date Received
- Number Received
- Running Total

The subheads under “sales” should be:

- Number of orders received
- Running total
- Cash sales
- Running total for cash sales

These records will help you figure out the responses to ads, orders from sales copy, and how much money you’re making.

To calculate the cost per inquiry, divide the cost of the ad into the number of inquiries received.

To find the cost per order, add the total of sending the sales copy to the cost of the ad and divide that by the number of orders received.

The ratio of conversion is the number of orders compared to the number of inquiries. For example, if you get twenty orders from one hundred inquiries, the conversion is twenty percent.

How To Calculate Profit

This is total the amount of cash sales. That is your gross profit. Subtract the cost of the product or service, mailing, conversion of the ad. That is your net profit, the one that counts. Just stick with it and you can watch your profits grow larger with each ad – each conversion – each sale.

How To Segment Your List

Building a email list for your business should be a top priority. It is the most important marketing tool where you can build a mailing list and segment them according to your geographic, demographics, psychographics and product benefits for your target market.

No email list is ever going to pull as effectively as your own email list created from thousands of prospects that your business will have the opportunity to market to, as well as the hundreds of customers who have tasted or selected or used one or more of your products or services.

Just names and addresses aren’t enough. You need to segment your prospective client email list like the big mailing houses do.

The way you do this is ask your clients and prospects their preferences. Why they purchased? Their reading habits? Their spending habits? You could ask them where they heard about you? TV? News? Interent? Radio? Paper? Other?

As soon as they become a customer, you record their purchase whether it was this particular product or that product, this service or that service. Track every purchase, every phone call you make to them, and everything else you’ve ever talked to them about on your computer.

You need to know how long they’ve been a customer. Whether they’re current on their payments. Whether they respond to an advertisement. What other subsequent purchases they’ve
made? What caused them to make those purchases? Was it a letter you sent, a follow-up? The list goes on, and on.

You want to be able to improve and offer them more things based on the pieces of information you know about them. You can segment your customer file as:

- Calculate the value of your customers. This is the value of every lost name that you don’t capture.

- Capture names through registrations, drawings, coupons, free subscriptions, consultations, charge card verifications, and photocopy their checks.

- Design surveys, registrations, etc. to solicit personal information from your customers regarding those variable, important pieces of information for your business.

Of course, testing your campaigns will allow you to clarify and organize many of the foundational procedures and processes of any business. These concepts and processes, though basic and often lost in routine are ones that, if mastered, could potentially bring you immense wealth very quickly.

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Most small businesses are more flexible organizationally than ever before. They have set aside their cultural and organizational differences to predominantly better equip their company with quick decision making, where risk taking is encouraged and failure is merely an education.

A company with conventional free advertising methods usually find it a generally unsatisfying experience. They utilize every part of their imagination and energy to be a guest on radio and television talk shows. They produce and distribute advertising circulars on all the free bulletin boards at coin operated laundries, grocery stores, and beauty or barber shops.

What they eventually find, is that increasing complexity in their company has resulted in inflexibility and slow decision making processes. The more routine free advertising methods have a tendency towards internal conflict and stratification, as well as a leadership that would tend to emphasize capital investment as a solution to all problems.

Consumers have acquired organizational habits that are not well aligned to the needs of a tough economy, therefore, they discover undesirable traits or behaviors found in many organizations. They have become smart consumers in the movement towards centralized control. This characterizes a typical consumer goods business, and will carry with it limited coordination among departments and divisions resulting in a weakened sense of market trends and increased dissatisfaction.

Free Advertising must embrace the initial contact and emphasize that your product or service would be of interest to the listeners or viewers of the program, perhaps even saving them time or money. This also must carry an increased willingness to seek appropriate alliances and partnerships that will provide convergence to the integrated business model required to overcome these mismatches in our current economic culture and outlook.

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