Tuesday, September 19, 2006

At present the Business Opportunity scene is expanding rapidly.
Seems like everyone is only a step away from becoming a millioionaire!
Fantastically successful marketers send out their promotions. It usually runs like –‘Ten years ago I owed thousands to the Bank, I couldn’t pay the mortgage so I lost my house, I had to make do with an old unreliable car and my wife left me.
Now I have a Swiss Bank account, a villa in Spain and I spend six months of the year in Bermuda. I drive a Ferrari when I’m not using the Porsche and I also have my own private plane.’
Of course we’re very happy for them. We’d love to believe the next bit.
‘I can show you how you can enjoy the same lifestyle. This time next year you could be buying your own million dollar home FOR CASH! If you buy my Business Opportunity for £99. ‘
They even offer you a guarantee that if you don’t think the package is any good you can send it back and get a complete refund.
It must be good, you tell yourself, or they wouldn’t offer the guarantee.
The people who make these claims are not lying. Their claims are true. They did get all the success they claim. And anyone could have the same success.
BUT -
Let’s look at the facts.
Marks and Spencers, Woolworths, Tescos, to mention just three large organisations, all started small as market stalls, cut price shops, etc. selling food products clothing or low cost items of all sorts. They all created millionaires.
But that doesn’t mean that everyone starting that way will be as successful! Anyone might – with hard work, good business brains, and an element of being in the right place at the right time – end up as a business tycoon with a large empire. Most people won’t.
Having said that, most entrepreneurs could get themselves a very respectable income.
When they promote the dream world of pie in the sky they show you where you hope to be but they don’t say very much about what you need to get there and just how difficult it was at the beginning. They aren’t trying to fool you. When you’re successful it’s easy to forget just how hard it was at the start.
So you’ll get suggestions for the promotional material and all the information about marketing that you need –
BUT
They don’t tell you how to

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Is anyone else rather fed up with the length of business opportunity promotion letters these days?
We are told by the various gurus that letters should be at least twelve pages and preferably up to twenty or so. We are told thwey should contain lots of encouraging material as unique selling points and testemonials from people who have had incredible success with whatever system is being offered.
Frankly I get bored with the blurb. The longer the letter the more suspicious and bored I get. Also I find them time wasting. As regards testemonials - well they wouldn't publish comments from unsuccessful people, would they?
Of course I know why we get these long diatribes. Some people are too easily influenced by packaging.
Go round any store or gift shop around Christmas. Everything is packaged to catch your eye. It's still the same old bath foam, chocolate or whatever but with added pretty packaging to catch your eye.
Twelve to twenty pages of blurb is just so much packaging I can do without.
What I want to know from any business opportunity package is
a) What is it?
b) How does it work?
c) How long has it been on the market?
d) How much does it cost?
e) What guarantees are offered for dissatisfied customers?
f) What are the credentials of the person or organisation presenting the opportunity?
g) Any other relevant information.
That should fill about four pages at most.
Happy opportunity hunting.
Theodora
PS Have a look at 'Prospecting for Gold' on www.percydale.com

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Every business opportunity assumes that you have Lists.
Lists are the names and addresses of people you can send your promotional material to and who will hopefully buy from you.
A great idea. But where do you get your lists?
The very best ones are those you've collected for yourself from classified advertising or people who have bought from you before.
These lists will start out very small - but that doesn't mean you can't market your products to them.
Or you can buy lists from list brokers.
This can be expensive but you can find a targeted market. Look at what you must consider if you take this route.
First of all, the list must be of people who have shown an interest in your product.
Secondly, the list should NEVER be more than a year old -preferably three months is the right length.
Thirdly, it should have been scanned for different names - same address, and have been checked for names that have opted out of mailings recently.
Fourthly, most brokers have a minimum number of names you can order and add sometimes a quite heavy financial loading on lists which are below that number.
There are other considerations but that's enough to start with.
Find the answers to all these questions from several brokers before you make your choice.
Don't feel awkward about this because you're a beginner. The brokers have to take care of you because you might end up as a big, successful customer. They need you as much or more than you need them!
Happy listing.
Theodora

Friday, September 01, 2006

Hello again,
I'm rather getting into this blog thing.
Hope somebody reads this andleaves comments. I like to know what people think
Let’s imagine you are a hopeful entrepreneur looking for a good business opportunity.
Choose something that people will want very much. Want is much more important than need when it comes to spending money.
Think about it! If you really need a new washing machine but on the way to the shop you see something just as expensive that you’ve always wanted and with a bit of imaginative thinking you can persuade yourself that it would be silly not to buy it while it’s there – well, which item would most of us choose.
If you can persuade your customers (list) that they both want and need your product, you’re home and dry.
Remember one very important proviso!
You must be convinced that your product will fulfil your customers’ wants and needs. (If you sell them short or try to fool them you won’t last long. Your credibility will have gone for good.)
Amongst the entrepreneurial crowd there is the story of the Californian Gold Rush.
Thousands of hopeful miners flocked to the hills in the search for gold. Most of them found just enough to get drunk on.
The people who really made their fortunes were the people who went prospecting for gold and used what they found to set up a store selling shovels. This was easier than keeping on digging and far more long term because the miners kept on coming. Everybody wanted and needed good, strong, reliable shovels. (A dealer who sold a shoddy shovel would probably have been lynched by angry miners.)
The really successful shovel sellers also provided a map to show the likeliest places to dig. Not all miners chose the same place to dig. Some scratched the surface and decided it was a dead loss. Others dug in the same place but really worked at it and found gold.
And the man who sold the shovel was still the winner because the miner came back to buy other things – a lot of other things because he had made a lot of money.
Your job is to Prospect for Gold and find your own little mine and then market shovels for everyone else to dig as well.
The next instalment will tell you ways you can attract customers.