One Unique Way To Get Other Businesses To Gladly Promote Your Business

Have you ever wished you had some help promoting your business?

How would you like to have other businesses in your area GLADLY helping to promote business for you?

Sound like a far-fetched idea?

Well,  in this short post I will show you how it’s actually possible for you to do this with non-competitive business in your area…

There are three incentives that you use to encourage other businesses do this for you…

Three Incentives:

1. Make it something that is financially beneficial to them and at no extra work or cost to them.

2. Make sure it’s something that won’t cause them to lose income or customers.

3. Make it something that their customers want and will benefit them.

Think about it.

If a business approached you with a proposition for something that you could offer your customers that they want and would benefit them, but would also bring you in extra income (without any real extra time or effort on your part-  and wouldn’t cause you to lose income or customers)…

Wouldn’t you be interested?

I bet most of you would.

Here’s how you can offer something like this to other business and use that tool as a way to promote your business.

1. Think of other business that deal with your same customers, but are not direct competitors. (To start think of where your customer goes to purchase before, during or after they purchase from you.)

2. Begin to think of what information these customers need and want to help them to get more of the end result you and these other businesses help them achieve. Think of what common problem they’re trying to solve by doing business with your business and these others.

3. Put together an information product (book, ebook, report, audio, etc.) that gives them this information. (*I’ll show you how to find experts who will GLADLY write this for you!)  Make sure it’s branded as “brought to you buy…” (your company), so that it promotes you and your business.

4. Offer this information product for other businesses to sell to their customers and allow them to keep the majority of the profits. (60/40?)

A twist would be to contact these business beforehand and tell them you’re creating this infoproduct before you create it.  Tell them that if they’d provide some of the info (they can be one of your “experts”) that they can promote their business with this product also.

This will take some of your time, but if you use my method of getting others to write the infoproduct for you, then the end result would be more than worth it.

You’d have a product that encourages other businesses to promote your business while even bringing in a small extra income stream for you.

If you’d like to learn more about how to get experts to do this check out my FREE eclass this Wed. Nov. 4th…

“How To Create An Info-Product That Will Please Your Customers, Promote Your Business, And Even Establish You As An Expert”

http://www.recessionsolution.com/eclass/

 

The 7 Invisible Qualities You Need To See Your Business Succeed In A Recession” Quality #4

In order to survive and prosper in a recession, you definitely need effective methods, because without them you don’t have much of a chance.

But you also need to possess certain unseen, or “invisible”, qualities if you want to be able to guide your business towards success in a recession.

This blog series will focus on what I’m calling “The 7 Invisible Qualities You Need To See Your Business Succeed In A Recession.”

So far we looked at the first 3 qualities, which are persistence, courage and intense desire. (See 1st post here. See the 2nd post here.  And see the 3rd post here.) I also took a quick break to cover “The Major Barrier To Success (In A Recession Or Out)” here.

Today, we’ll look at the fourth invisible quality you need to possess to succeed in a recession.

The last quality I talked about was the need for a strong desire to do what you’re afraid of. If you want to succeed in a recession, then you’ve got to get MORE FED UP than AFRAID! 

YOU’VE GOT TO WANT TO SUCCEED MORE THAN YOUR FEAR TO ACT!

Alright, now that we’re all up to speed, are you ready for the fourth invisible quality to success in a recession?

*The fourth invisible quality is belief.

You’ve got in believe what you’re doing so much that you’re more afraid NOT to do it, then to do it! You’ve got to believe that what you’re wanting to do is worth doing and that doing what you’re doing will accomplish what you want!

In the book, “The Power Of Focus” (click here to see the book) by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Les Hewitt, they say, “To overcome fear you must have faith in the outcome.”

If you want a good example of how belief helped someone to succeed, then I have a great story for you…

The Invention Of Vaseline
It the late 19th century there was a young chemist named Robert Chesebrough who sold kerosene. He got his kerosene from the oil of sperm whales, but by 1859 he was put out of business.

In 1859, Robert Chesebrough took off for a Pennyslvania oil field to “strike it rich.” What he came back with made him rich beyond his wildest dreams.

But he DIDN’T become rich from OIL!

Oil field workers had told him about this “sticky stuff” that stuck to the drilling rigs. The riggers hated this stuff – it caused the drilling rigs to seize up.  For all the problems this substance caused, the riggers found one small use – when rubbed on a cut or bruise it helped it to heal faster.

He bottled the stuff up and dragged it back to his Brooklyn laboratory. He began a search to duplicate the petroleum-based lubricant, and by trial and error, he was able to extract the key ingredient – the translucent material we now know as petroleum jelly.

But it had to be tested, and tested it was. He needed a guinea pig to test it out on. But who could he use?

Chesebrough cut his OWN hands and arms, burned himself with flames and acids and each time he would then cover them with his new gel.

ALL the self-inflicted wounds responded to his petroleum jelly and were healed!

Satisfied that his new grease had healing properties, he took to the road with his own medicine show, but first he named his gel. Using the German word for water (wasser) and the Greek word for oil (elaion) he came up with “Vaseline.”

He took it out on the road and would demostrate it by cutting or burning himself and then applying his vasleine.  He also showed his audience the healed scars from past experiments.

Amazingly this worked!

Soon he was selling a jar a minute, and when these ran out people begged their druggists to order more from Chesebrough. It was used for everything: chest colds, chapped hands, nasal congestion, and even to remove stains from furniture.

*By the turn of the twenty century it had penetrated the American market and was entering Europe, and Chesebrough had become a very rich man!

Although its miracle properties were eventually debunked (it really healed because it sealed wounds from bacteria like a band aid), Chesebrough himself was always a true believer. He lived to age 96, revealing shortly before he died the secret to his longevity: *Every day of his life he ate a spoonful of vaseline! (* Not recommended! DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME! )

Cheesbrough succeeded because he believed so much in his product/idea that he refused to give up!

Do YOU want to succeed in a recession? Do you want to overcome fear — the major barrier to success?

If you do, then one of the 7 invisible qualities you need is belief.  You believe in your product or idea so much that you let nothing stop you!

Stay tuned.  Next, we’ll look at the 5th invisible quality that you need.

In the meantime, subscribe to this blog at the upper right or follow me on twitter, so you can get the update on when the next post is up!

Can you do me a favor?

If you enjoyed this post, then please link to it from your blog or tweet the link to your followers.

Comments are always welcome too.  Post your thoughts on fear below.  Thanks!

@scottaughtmon

New Form Of Advertising From Bing.com On NBC’s The Philanthropist?

Is it just me or did others catch what happened on NBC last night?

NBC debuted their new show “The Philanthropist” at 10pm PST, which  I thought it was pretty good.

But what caught my attention was the commercial for Bing.com.

As they went to commercial they would show a short commercial, but with a twist.  It was a commercial that added to the storyline, but then promoted Bing.com.

One Example:
In the show, the philanthropist decided to go to Nigeria to help a village there.  They cut to the commercial and it was a scene where the philanthropist’s body guard walks into the room and tells the philanthropist’s assistant that he needs to get to this village in Nigeria.  She mentions how she loves to see what different pictures from around the world show up on Bing’s main page each day and says it relaxs her.  Shen then types information into Bing and the commercial ends and goes onto regular commercials.  The show comes back on and they have the info and are heading to Nigeria.

They did this for at least 3 different commercial breaks.  They would break for commercial and have another short added segment with the actors using Bing.

Now think about how different this is…

I’ve seen product placements.  I’ve seen commercials that reenact scenes from shows.  But this was neither.

This was a commercial filmed on the set of the show, with actors from the show, that was a small addition to the storyline (and a part of the storyline)!

From my perspective, this seems like it could be a whole new form of advertising.

I don’t know how effective it will be to get people to actually use http://www.Bing.com, but I paid attention to it much more than a regular commercial!

What do you think?  Any ideas on the effectiveness of such advertising?  Anyone ever see anything like this before?

The 7 Invisible Qualities You Need To See Your Business Succeed In A Recession” Quality #3

Sorry I stopped the series for few weeks.  With the school year ending for my boys, kindergarten graduations and a wedding and visit to Legoland in-between, I got too busy to post! 

In order to survive and prosper in a recession, you definitely need effective methods, because without them you don’t have much of a chance.

But you also need to possess certain unseen, or “invisible”, qualities if you want to be able to guide your business towards success in a recession.

This blog series will focus on what I’m calling “The 7 Invisible Qualities You Need To  See Your Business Succeed In A Recession.”

So far we looked at the first 2 qualities, which are persistence & courage.  (See 1st post here.  See the 2nd post here.)  I also took a quick break to cover “The Major Barrier To Success (In A Recession Or Out)”  here.

Today, we’ll look at the third invisible quality you need to possess to succeed in a recession.

In a recession, a lot of business owners become afraid.  They’re afraid to do something.  They’re afraid not to do something!

Fear paralyzes them and so they don’t do anything.  In most cases doing nothing is only going to lead to things getting worse! 

Fear becomes a MAJOR barrier to your business succeeding in a recession.

So how do you conquer the barrier of fear?

Intense desire is the enemy of fear. The first way to conquer fear is by having a strong desire to do what you’re afraid of.

Let me explain…

“Mom! Put down that car!”
You’ve probably heard the classic story about the mother who is able to lift a car off her child that is pinned under it. Do you know the story I’m talking about? The reason she was able to is because of adrenalin.

But there was one other reason…

She wanted to save her kid MORE than she worried about lifting the car!

*If you want to overcome the major barrier to succeeding in a recession, then you’ve got to want to succeed at this MORE THAN you’re afraid of failing!

How can you get a strong enough desire for something so that fear can’t stop you?

There are a few ways. I’ll tell you the first one right now, but the other one will be revealed in the next post….

1. The first way is to get so mad and fed up with your current situation that your desire for something different/better is stronger than your fears!

It all changed for me in October 2001.  I had ideas about how to make money online before, but I never did anything about it.

Why?

I was afraid.  I was afraid of FAILURE, REJECTION, UNKNOWN.  They were keeping away from taking action.

But there was a night when everything changed.

I think it was Oct. 16th, 2001 I had come up with the idea to interview 20 of the top business and marketing experts and get them to reveal their methods for surviving and prospering in a recession.

I had decided to title this book, “How You Can Survive And Prosper In A Recession“. (Click the title to see it.)

But at this point in October, it was all just an idea. I really believed it would be a good e-book, but I was afraid. I soon had incentive!

You see, my wife and I had just had our first child (a boy!) and my wife and I both wanted her to be able to stay home with him. The only problem was: WE COULDN’T AFFORD IT!

I was a youth pastor on the San Francisco Peninsula (Silicon Valley) and there was no way to survive on just my salary alone. 

At this point, I had spent 3 years studying everything I could get my hands on to learn how to effectively market online and off.  And I had used some of these ideas to grow a niche site to 5,000 visitors month.  But I needed to go to the next level with my knowledge.

So my little boy and wife became my incentive! I was fed up. I needed the money MORE THAN I was afraid of what would happen if I’d do this!

What happened?

3 months later that e-book was a REALITY and I was getting *rave reviews* from top marketers about it!

I learned and perfected a little-known method for getting almost any expert in almost any field to write a book for me.  I learned a skill I can use over and over to create an unlimited amount of information products.

And guess what that action caused? 

It caused other incredible opportunities to start to happen!  I was later interviewed on a teleconeference, with top experts, and asked to explain how I was able to put together an ebook with such top experts.

Why did these things happen?

All because I got MORE fed up than I was afraid!

*If you want to survive and prosper in a recession, then your first step is that you’ve got to get more fed up than afraid.  You’ve got to have the third invisible quality: an intense desire to succeed.

Next, we’ll look at the 4th invisible quality that you need.

In the meantime, subscribe to this blog at the upper right or follow me on twitter, so you can get the update on when the next post is up!

Can you do me a favor?

If you enjoyed this post, then please link to it from your blog or tweet the link to your followers.

Comments are always welcome too.  Post your thoughts on fear below.  Thanks!

@scottaughtmon

3 Great Quotes On Action…

Below are some quotes to inspire you to action.

Pick one of these and write it down somewhere and let it inspire you to action!

Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they be executed.

Elbert Hubbard:
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.

The Irresistible Offer – What You Need To Succeed In Or Out Of A Recession

Without this business doesn’t exist.
Without an irresistible one, your business won’t succeed.

What am I talking about? An Offer!

In a recession, an irresistible offer is not just helpful, it’s necessary!

If you want to read a great book on this then check this one out…

“The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less” by Mark Joyner

Alternative To Slashing Your Prices In A Recession…

This post will be short, sweet and to the point.

In a recession, slashing prices drastically might seem like a good idea, but is not a good way to go if you want your small business to survive and prosper in a recession.  You need all of the revenue you can get during this time.

Why not do the opposite?

Instead of just slashing your prices, why not INCREASE the value of the product or service you are selling?

Figure out ways you can add something that has low (or no) cost to you, but high perceived (and actual) value to the customer.

What simple things can you add to what you’re selling?

Here are some ideas…

-You could add free training on how to effectively use your product or service to get the most value out of it.

-You could add some sort of additional discount on another product or service you offer.

-You could offer your customer a “viral coupon”. What I mean is that you could offer a special coupon to customers who purchase another of your products or services that gives them a good discount (not huge slashed discount), but they also get a coupon that they can share with a friend that would allow their friend to enjoy the same product or service at the same special discount.

These are just a few ideas.  You’re only limited by your imagination!

Look around at what value added offers appeal to you and try to do something similar!

Do this today and watch what happens!

19 MORE Methods To Help Your Business Survive & Prosper In A Recession

Below are the final 19 methods from my blog series “38 Methods (from 38 experts) To Help Your Business Survive And Prosper In A Recession”.   You can see the first 19th methods here.

How To Win One Of Final 4 Sets Of My E-manuals:
I’m giving away 30 sets of my two e-manuals called, “How Your Business Can Survive And Prosper In A Recession.”  to 6 winners.  

(NOTE: 2 people have already won.)

Why does each winner get 5 sets of the e-manuals?  You can have one of the sets for yourself and give away 4 sets on your blog to your twitter followers, or to your customers.

How to enter to win:

1. Post a comment below and tell me your favorite of the FINAL 19 methods listed here below.
2. I will put all of the entries into a website that will randomly draw the winners.
3. I will draw and announce the first 2 winners on MONDAY, MAY 18th.  On that day, I will also announce how the final four people can win a set.

19 FINAL Methods:
**Click the methods below that are red links to read my further advice on how to implement these methods.**

20. Falling into the “it can’t be done” trap. Instead of looking for new opportunities and ways to expand, companies try to batten down the hatches and ride it out.

A recession can be a great opportunity if one keeps their eyes open and not retreat into a defensive mode.

21. Give greater attention to your best clients – Those customers who have proven that they will support your business during good times and bad are always important, but particularly important during tough times. They are most likely to be the source of badly needed revenues so give them special attention.

22. Send out a press release each month. Media are always looking for stories.

23. Focus on public attitude shifts by staying on top of trends like popular keywords, news headlines, and top selling products. Position your products and marketing accordingly to take advantage of existing customer awareness.

24. Keep Tight Tabs On Everything. Test everything. Make sure every ad you place is earning a profit and generating leads.  Don’t ever allow yourself to place any ad you can’t track, no matter how lucrative it could be.

25. Survey my customers and get them to tell me what they want and how they want to receive it.

26. “Gather your team together. Do a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) with key members. Think strategically.”

27. “Implement creative and inexpensive methods of advertising and marketing to increase your customer traffic, like employee referral bonus programs, customer referrals, in store specials, drawings and give-aways, flyers, articles, etc.”

28. “Make company goals known by the whole team so that everyone is focused on the same mission.”

29. “Economize on expenses. Meet with your CPA and go over your expenses.”

30. “Make sure your suppliers are solid financially. This is no time to tell your customers that you can’t get their goods on time because your supplier went belly up.”

31. “Improve the deals with your suppliers. Anxiety about losing accounts during recessions makes some suppliers highly cooperative.”

32. “Slim down the product line. In general, almost every company has too many SKUs, or their equivalent. Does Coca-Cola need 14 varieties of Coke? I believe they would sell just as much Coke with half the number of SKUs. Furthermore, reducing the product line would save money in production and distribution.”

33. “Join LinkedIn or the social network of your choice. Use it to trade tips & info. Give first, and then you’ll get back useful tips and leads.”

34. “My further suggestion would be to find a product that you personally have an interest in and promote that product and category. I started a line of horse books because I had purchase an Arabian stallion.  I went into a riding goods store and asked for books on Arabian horses. There were only hard cover books.  I asked the salesperson where the paperback books were on horses and was told there weren’t any.  That was a golden opportunity and I published a line of 70 horse books as fast as I could.  My horse became a champion and well known in the Arabian horse world.  My books were sold around the world and in the 17,500 riding good stores in America.”

35. “Train key people in the business. Real world education is the best investment any business can make.  This includes books, tapes and seminars.”

36. “Use downtime for new product development. Have you considered writing a book that will set you up as an industry expert by the time the slump is over?    How about online information products for those people that cannot afford your services and will do it on their own?”

37. “Upgrade your own skills. Tough times are a great opportunity to read more, study more and learn more about your business and about leadership in general.

38. “Ideally, I would broker joint ventures exclusively and not run a conventional business, unless I could leverage the resources in that business and reduce the overhead significantly.”“By aggressively working on your own personal growth you’ll stay more motivated, energized… and you might run across an idea or technique that brings a substantial return to your organization.”

REMEMBER: Post your favorite in the comments to win!

Did You Want To Win One Of These Too?

Did you hear?

I’m giving away 30 sets of my 2 e-manuals  “How Your Business Can Survive & Prosper In A Recession” to 6 winners.

(One set for the winner and the other four to give away on their blog, website, to their customers – or even twitter followers!)

I already picked two of the winners and they have their e-manuals.

YOU could win one of the next two sets easily.  Here’s how…

All you have to do is post what I ask for in the comments section of this post.

**You still have a chance to enter the contest for the 2nd set of ebooks.

Go here to see what to do to enter to win!

Did you miss “The Missing Ingredient To Success” Pt. 1?

Last  week I posted something on this blog that I think could help you experience a new level of success in your business.

It’s what I call simply “The Missing Ingredient To Success” Part 1.

There is one ingredient that is consistently overlooked in the pursuit of success in business (and success in other areas of life).

If this ingredient would be added it could cause you to experience a whole new level of success.

Click here to listen to it now if you don’t believe me.  You’ll believe me after you hear it!