My blog has moved! Redirecting…
You should be automatically redirected. If not, visit http://www.business-powerpack.com/ and update your bookmarks.
eBay is an enormous site where almost anything can be sold.
Funnily enough I've just discovered that you can blog within your eBay account.
So I've created a new competition for my first post on my eBay blog.
We'll see how well it goes!
Wow! That was rapid, faster than a speeding bullet or a rocket at lift-off.
I mentioned yesterday that my standing in the Google search results competition for the coolest guy on the planet in the whole universe had plummeted like the proverbial stone.
Good news today is I'm back at page 3, at search result 24.
Still aways to go to get that ultimate accolade though.
Move over Brad Fallon I'm coming through!
The coolest guy on the planet competition is still going strong.
My position in it has dropped a lot.
I talked about the competition for the coolest guy on the planet in February 2007 when I was 24th out of 1,040,000 results.
If you put "the coolest guy on the planet" in quotes and search for it in Google I'm still a very lowly 97th.
I blogged about the coolest guy on the planet being Seth Godin in March 2007 and I noticed that someone "borrowed" the entire post to put onto their own Wordpress blog called "Olga Naomi Review" which is now suspended! And since then I've plummeted from 21st position to 182nd.
Coincidence? I think not...
Anyway hopefully now the splog (spam blog) is suspended I may start to retrieve my slightly dinted online reputation.
I've been coaching and mentoring for 10 years now and I see three types of people and a pattern of their actions that emerges from coaching.
The three types of people are:
People ask me to coach them for any number of reasons, and they include:
In fact you name it and people ask me for my thoughts on it.
So do I have all the answers then? Obviously the answer to that is no! Often I know how to get to the answer. That can be by analysing the clients business and/or career or by ringing up some trusted associates in related fields and asking for their answers.
Once my client has the answers at their finger tips the three types of people come into play.
Those that take action just get on and do it. They make sure they get their money's worth from their coaching.
The rest simply jot it down in their notebook, or add it into their computer file.
The ones who delay action may delay it so long that the reason for taking the action has passed or the action costs significantly more than if actioned earlier. They may end up paying for an ineffective action.
The people who say they'll take action and don't are paying for the privilege, after all they're paying for coaching. And coaching becomes a significant cost for them as there is no upsurge in profits to balance the coaching fees.
As a coach you do try and push people to take massive immediate action. In the final analysis you really can't lead a horse to water and make them drink.
The lesson is, if you know you delay action, or really don't take action make it clear to your coach before starting your relationship. That way the coach can tailor what they say and how they say it to really help you take some useful actions.
Remember on two previous posts we talked about sustainable marketing and how your stationery was killing the environment? And by the way costing you more money too!
In the most recent post we talked about the way stationery is printed affects the environment. Now I want to talk about how you can market more sustainably and save money at the same time! Hurrah!
There are a number of routes to sustainability success. These include the following:
Any of these not only use more sustainable marketing they also save money too.
Let me use a couple of them to explain how they help sustainable marketing.
Using PDF format for brochures means clients can quickly change their brochure to reflect what they’ve discussed with their prospect. The prospect gets it via email as soon as it’s completed and drives the whole buying process much more quickly.
Orienting the brochure to the prospect gives the relationship more impact. The prospect sees the agency understands their unique situation. It’s also easier for the prospect to send the brochure around their organisation for discussion.
There are other ways to get even more buy in with a PDF brochure but I’ll leave that to your imagination.
And the net result a massive saving in printing costs and much more flexibility in use.
In November 2006 British Telecom moved to e-billing for its customers. 160,000 customers decided to get rid of paper bills. That meant:
Other institutions, such as The Halifax, have also moved to e-statements. And of course Internet banks such as Egg and Smile already had the e-statements in place for their customers.
Agencies can join in the e-billing opportunity by creating invoices and orders electronically. Thus cutting out print, ink and paper costs.
All my own consultancy and coaching bills are produced and sent electronically. It makes life easier for everyone and saves a fortune in special paper and filing.
In summary it takes investigation to discover different ways of operating that mean that marketing is made more sustainable.
As always, the bottom line remains important. And it’s only by ensuring that the benefits of moving to a sustainable way of marketing are highlighted and shown to agency and client staff will they be taken up with any enthusiasm.
I waited until Mrs Squirrel went out to do some nut shopping.
Armed with my trusty squirrel prodder (nice long broom handle) I went into them loft to "encourage" the baby squirrel to vacate its penthouse suite.
I was giving it some grief by flashing my 500w light at it and prodding it when it got near. Then suddenly it sailed through the air, missed the rafter it was aiming for and plopped through the open loft hatch.
Hurrah. It zoomed to the end of the landing and hid under the blanket box. I raced round closing all doors and other avenues of escape and then used some large pieces of cardboard to create a guide to the front door.
Then I went back with the squirrel prodder, prodded him from under the blanket box he immediately tried to scoot up the wall but fell down. He then raced downstairs and through the hall and porch guided by said pieces of cardboard and out into the great blue yonder.
I phoned my neighbor and asked if we could chop down the offending branches the squirrels were using to get to the roof. He hauled out his ladders and saw and we spent a happy 10 minutes removing the squirrel stairs.
Satisfied I went home. a job well done.
The next morning we heard squirrel noises. Both squirrels had returned. We hadn't cut enough of the branches down to stop them coming in. And worse Mrs Squirrel has created a new nest!!
How did they get in with no squirrel stairs? I found out fairly quickly, they were using a branch that wasn't even close to the roof to launch themselves from. We need to chop the whole tree down, or kill the squirrels!
The saga continues...
The Apprentices were given the task of designing, making and selling sweets to children visiting London Zoo.
Just to make things more difficult the manufacturing facility was located 70 miles from London.
This task really sorted out who could organise and communicate the best.
I was immediately under-impressed by Adam when he suggested that they keep everything simple. So what should the theme at a zoo be? Animals ...
Come on a little, just a little, more thought could have come up with loads more interesting, intriguing and attractive themes. Here's a few that are coming straight off the keyboard as I type, dress as:
Ok that's enough. Would any of these have frightened the kids like the animal suits did? Very probably not!
In line with keeping everything simple Adam asked the confectioners about using organic and natural products for the sweets and was told that would increase the costs. So he immediately squashed the organic idea. Without finding out how much more it would be or whether they might be able to get a nice premium price for it.
The sweets they went for were an orange boiled sweet lolly and an animal paw chocolate lolly.
Their ingredients were pretty much natural until someone in the team (Adam?) decided to move away from keeping "everything simple" and added jelly diamonds to some lollies and hundreds and thousands to others. That meant the lollies couldn't be labeled as "natural"
Adam wanted to get the maximum number of sweets made which meant staying a long time at the confectioners. Sophie complained bitterly.
Then there was the stupid mistake made when Adam told Natalie to get labels made up called Orange Tiger lollipops and she called them Natural Orange Lollipops instead. The result of that was the team had to withdraw the lollies from sale until the zoo decided what to do about the labeling.
The wrong location was chosen, is this an ongoing theme? Luckily Simon suggested they moved to a much better location.
So onto the sales.
Sophie was useless at sales. She just didn't know what to say and was obviously uncomfortable. She said that parents had been approached 3 or 4 times already. In the boardroom she said she didn't like selling if it wasn't value for money. Is she completely naive? You can't assume value for people. Value is their own perception. If people don't think there's value in a product, guess what? They don't buy it!
Here's a thought: Next time someone does a task like this maybe they should also give out fun and free "I've bought one from X team" labels so that people are intrigued by the labels and the team doesn't try and push for more sales. Parents might even buy sweets to get the labels to stop being harassed by the other team!
Adam managed to wind up several people on his team by "coaching" them on how to sell better. I do agree that coaching is a good thing. For it to have worked it would have been better to have a 15 minute group meet where everyone tells the one thing they do that improves their sales. Then go and do it.
Adam dressed as a lion wandered around checking up and... coaching! As an experienced salesman this is the task he should have been on selling full-time. As it was he didn't and the result was that they ended up giving away the sweets they made at the end of the say.
What Adam did do well was to get the maximum amount of product out of the materials they bought.
What could he have done better? There's so much ...
The net result was that they lost by £10. And yet they needn't have. All that Adam had needed to do was sell lollies rather than wander aimlessly scaring children.
Ghazal seemed to be trying to do everything herself. She watched the chocolate, she designed the sweets, she made the monkey lollipop sweets.
It was only when Margaret pointed out that time was moving on and that she needed to get a production line going that Ghazal woke up and started to get others involved more.
Tre and Kristina were doing the marketing for the product and hung around in a stick wholesaler trying to get him to reduce his price. Like he said why would their budget be be important to him? Eventually they bought the sticks at the original price and complaining all the time took them the 70 miles to the confectioners. Why hadn't Ghazal simply rung up the confectioners and asked what they thought they needed before they left London and where the best place to buy labels, cellophane and sticks was?
In trying to do everything Ghazal stayed with Jadine to watch the chocolate melt - it takes 2 hours. Unfortunately because Ghazal hadn't given Jadine the role of chocolate watcher they both wandered off and missed the point at which they could use the chocolate. So they had to wait another 2 hours!
The theme they chose was the cheeky monkey and had the cheeky monkey lolly and fudge. Tre and Natalie did a good job getting nice bright tee shirts advertising the product which was completely spoilt by everyone having to wear a bit of fur. Why? All that happened was that they got hot and hid the message on the tee shirts.
So onto the sales...
Tre said he would target fat people! Hmm. He's not politically correct is he? But even so he's cutting down his market by a lot.
Kristina gave children lollipops and forced the parents to cough up for them. After all she'd probably reasoned the parents didn't want a scene of their children being forced to give up their sweets broadcast nationwide. As she said she wasn't there to make friends - you can say that again. I wonder if she ever has repeat customers? What she was doing was borderline ethical.
Ghazal's team had managed to produce a very paltry number of sweets compared to Adam's and priced them at £2.50 and yet managed to sell them all. So obviously price is not particularly a problem!
Ghazal seemed to be under a lot of pressure and didn't really manage her team particularly well. She managed to get Tre's back up but I'm beginning to think a saint would get Tre's back up. Although he did manage to refrain from too much shouting this week.
Natalie lied and said that the lollipop label mistake was not her. Well we'd all just seen it on TV and Sir Alan had been briefed so he knew all about it too. Naughty Natalie! She'd have been fired if there wasn't someone who admitted they didn't really belong there.
Sophie, as much as admitted that she couldn't work for Sir Alan. She didn't like selling, "where it wasn't value for money". Like I said before value is what the buyer sees not what the seller thinks.
After all someone who's a millionaire but who needs a drink of water or they'll die will pay anything, a thousand, a million pounds to get that drink. Overpriced? To the person who has a lot of water, yes. To the millionaire? No, it would save his life.
Sophie was just a complete fish out of water in the commercial world. She didn't realise that sometimes you need to burn the midnight oil to get things done. Or that you need to act as part of a team. Or that your mistakes impact on the whole team. She was the right one to fire this time but Natalie's card is marked, because Sir Alan doesn't need an apprentice without ethics!
As you know horse drawn buggys started to die out as the craze for automobiles really got motoring (sorry about that one!).
A natural consequence was that the buggy whip died off too. Tough on buggy whip manufacturers of course.
Now, think about the Internet...
The Times has just reported that Britain's second biggest chain of DVD rental shops has said it will "substantially" miss it's targets this year.
Firstly that should be no surprise to anyone who sees all the offers for DVDs by post, no hassle, post paid and you don't get fined for keeping them too long.
Secondly, Internet downloads - both legal (in the form of Netflix in the USA) and illegal (pirated copies) - means that people can watch any film they want, at their convenience.
Thirdly in the UK Virgin and HMV have reduced the prices for DVDs.
Finally, cable and satellite channels are providing huge back catalogues of films that you can watch whenever you like. Which is even less hassle than getting DVDs by post.
In the end the DVD rental shop (remember when it used to be video rental shop?) is getting less and less custom because their previous customers now have easier options. So they take them.
Is there anyway the DVD rental shop can survive? I think the answer is that it's most unlikely because the new distribution channels are so much faster and easier to use.
Just like cars were faster and easier to use - with no mucking out! And at the time fuel was cheap.
And of course there are...
The very top lesson is don't invest in DVD rental shops, if bog standard film rental is their service.
The next lesson is business continually evolves. So check you're not selling buggy whips.
For the final lesson remember what Drucker said? He said, "Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation."
Innovation is what drives a business forward and keeps them connected with their customers. And prevents them staying in the buggy whip manufacturing business.
Perhaps you read my previous post on email: Outlook Folder Structure For The Clinically Organised?
If not this post's an update on using junk mail checking software and a great book on using email more effectively. And remember even though I speak from an Outlook perspective the principles apply to other email clients too.
There are a lot of programs around that remove spam or junk mail from email folders. Outlook itself offers tools to do it and up to Outlook 2002 it's pretty limited.
Filling the gap the tools I've used are:
SpamBayes was an effective spam remover but didn't eliminate all of the spam emails and let through some even after extensive training (showing it emails I didn't want to get). However, it did the job more effectively than the email rules I'd set-up for Outlook so I continued to use it.
Then ZoneAlarm (the makers of my personal Firewall) combined their firewall with their own spam filter software. And as soon as I turned it on the spam dropped nicely and I now have very little coming through. The slight downside I've noticed with ZoneAlarm is that there are a few emails routed to the spam folders even though they're actually legitimate. Just something I keep an eye on and a lot less trouble than checking all the spam!
How many of us have ever made an email faux-pas or received one from someone?
A useful book called Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home aims to help you produce better emails that get understood more quickly and defuse situations that email can create
It's currently shooting up the best seller lists
The only issue I have with this book is that it recommends smileys, icons you can add to emails to represent your mood/attitude. In my own experience I found that smileys in a business situation can come over quite badly and even patronisingly.
If you check out the Amazon page for the book you can see what silly things one of the main people involved with the disaster management for Hurricane Katrina said and even how the authors themselves got into an email spiral whilst communicating with their book editor.
Do we need a book on how to best use email? See for yourself and check the reviews for Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home at Amazon site.
The Amazon advert for the book is shown below:
Haloscan implemented track backs for Blogger an ice age ago. I couldn't spare the time to learn about and implement it.
Luckily I came across an easy to follow blog post on "how to add Trackbacks to blogger."
Now this blog has the word track after the tags on each post.
As you probably know a trackback aids in linking blogs. Usually to acknowledge and build on something you've seen in a blog or something that someone has seen in your own blog.
I've always thought Trackbacks seemed too much work so I've noted interesting posts (such as my previous post about Michel Fortin's List of Top Copywriters) and that seems to have worked pretty well.
Anyway I'm looking at trackbacks as a bit of a test to see whether it's worth the extra work.
I'll let you know!
Michel Fortin provides a list of copywriters blogs that he reads. His own blog is a must read for any aspiring business owner or copywriter.
He's missing one thing that I think would help everyone even more...
It would be great to see some of the ezines or sites he reads where someone doesn't have a blog. For example I read Gary Bencivenga's ezine and obviously the late, very great Gary Halbert's letter site. Neither of whom have blogs.
I've been getting people landing on this blog looking for hints and tips for producing brochures.
And of course they want to have brochures that sell.
In all the time I've been writing brochure, white paper, case study and web copy I've gathered together a lot of useful information. As I've gone along I've also added posts to this blog to help business owners with time on their hands to write their own copy!
So in the interests of helping anyone else that needs copywriting information allow me to give you a few of the links around this blog that give tips on brochure copy, Ad and web copy.
There are many more links than this, so have a check yourself too.
Then after I'd looked for these links I realised that you probably want to know where other useful stuff is too.
So the blog contains other copywriting resources and links to FREE books on subjects by Jay Abraham (stealth marketing), Ted Nicholas(copywriting), Brad Fallon(SEO) and others. All of these books will help you increase your profits.
And of course check out my Amazon book recommendations too (button at the top of the post) for motivating and inspiring books by Dragon's Den favourite Duncan Bannatyne and business knights Sir Alan Sugar and Sir Richard Branson.
Enjoy and prosper.
Remember when we last talked about sustainable marketing we looked at how PlanetArk and the Direct Marketing Association in the UK are publicising the message of sustainability. And we also noted the conflict of interest that arises with direct mail.
Now I'd like to look at how stationery and how you use it affects the enviroment.
Marketing and marketing related activities consume a vast amount of ink and paper. There are at least 4 ways. These include business cards, letters, bills and brochures which all affect the environment:
Paper production has a major environmental impact on forests when paper fibre is produced from trees cut from virgin forest without replanting. The good news is that you can encourage sustainable paper use by choosing printers who only use paper from European forests where more trees are planted than felled.
The most common inks are petroleum-based. Using these can creates large quantities of volatile organic compounds. (VOC).
Vegetable dye inks are more sustainable. They’re cleaner and brighter and more rub resistant than petroleum-based inks. They produce much less of the volatile organic compounds. And they’re the same cost as petroleum based inks.
Many printers use a dampening solution with high levels of a solvent called isopropyl alcohol (IPA). IPA contributes to the Volatile Organic Compound emissions.
Again there is an environmentally friendly alternative. The printer can use a waterless printing process. That means a dampening solution isn’t required and therefore no IPA is released.
Chlorine is used to bleach paper to make it white. The side‑effect is that carcinogenic organic compounds are produced that are toxic to life.
Of course there are plenty of chlorine-free papers that can be used instead.
The problem of course is that historically printing presses have been a major capital investment. That means the printer is not going to scrap or sell the press until they’ve had their money’s worth out of it. Any other way is commercial suicide. That means unless you search out environmentally friendly printers you’re constrained by the machinery and printing process of the printer you’ve chosen
Next time I'll look at exactly how you can improve your marketing sustainability with little or no effort and with a considerable cost saving! Until then.
The Apprentice candidates were handed £200 and told to get themselves a business and make money. The team making the most money winning.
This is another of those tasks which needs marketing strategy!
That means think about what sort of things you can sell which have a market. Bearing in mind that you can switch to running a second business during the day.
It was immediately obvious that both teams (or their leaders) were so desperate to get going doing that they hadn't thought very hard about what to do.
So how did it all go this week?
Tre's style of management is really quite antagonistic and based on the assumption that everyone but him is swinging the lead!
Unfortunately I've noticed that such a style of management becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Tre's team decided that they would hire a van load of tools and "tidy" gardens in Richmond. So what was wrong with that?
Let's list exactly what's wrong:
Tre spent some time bad mouthing people. I know the editing makes things look more black and white than they really are but I do think Tre is the most obstructive and useless person in Eclipse. Before Jadine was moved to Stealth she would have had my vote. In fact put them on a team together and that would be pure comedy!
When the evening arrived the boys returned their tools and went on to singing for their supper and other stuff...although I'd lost interest in what they were trying to do by then.
Eclipse did win the task by almost doubling the money Sir Alan had given them.
Naomi appeared to be out of her depth and was not helped by Jadine digging the knife in at every opportunity.
Unlike last week their strategy was weak to non-existent. Whoever decided that facepainting was a good idea needs their head examining and the taking round the corner and shooting.
Look at it this way. My wife is a semi-pro face painter - she does it on a volunteer basis and has painted hundreds if not thousands of children's faces. We both immediately saw the problems with choosing face painting:
Then to cap it all Naomi decided to sell kisses (by calling them kissograms, which they obviously weren't). As Sir Alan pointed out what they did bordered on working in the second oldest profession. And that's not really business in the accepted sense! In fact selling kisses was where the girls got the most money. Although they actually made very little from it.
Gerri was fired because she'd come up with the wrong locations. But really the whole face painting idea was a bad one and Gerri should have turned that back to Naomi. During the firing session Sir Alan had asked Gerri who she thought he should fire and rather than answer the question - which would immediately have let her off the hook she ummed and ahhed and so Sir Alan then came back and asked her why he shouldn't fire her? A question she seemed badly prepared for.
When she answered Sir Alan she replied as though it was totally her fault they'd lost the task. It wasn't. As I said it was the wrong task and she should have put that point forcibly and explained why - that is no location has many children around during the school day! But she couldn't and because she couldn't she was the right one to go.
As Sir Alan noted Jadine has her card marked for being a bad influence on any team she's in. I can't wait for them to get down to two teams of two and for her to be in one team with Tre - sparks will fly!
I've been away from email for several days and when I returned I found an email telling me Gary Halbert had died.
To say I was shocked was an understatement.
So I checked the copywriters board (a forum), sure enough there it was.
He'd only just restarted his Halbert letters and it sounded as though his only problem had been his vision, which was now sorted out!
Gary was one of the greatest copywriters I've read. His advice was pure gold too.
Any business owner needs to read those letters, not just copywriters.
Rest In Peace Sir Gary!
The Queen visited Manchester yesterday (Thursday 5th April) to give out Maundy money at the cathedral to 81 men and 81 women(81 is her age). Hannah, my eldest daughter, was pleased to be selected as one of a group of Brownies sent to represent Manchester.
So we set-off at 9:30am to get into Manchester to wait until the Queen arrived.
Hannah had a great day. She got to speak to the Queen and was then interviewed by almost every television channel known to man. Including ones from the USA and Australia.
Of course we've recorded the news and her moment of fame. As have some of our friends ("just in case").
As Hannah said, the interviews will prepare her for when she's a famous singer. Good luck to her. she's 9 at the moment so I think we've got a couple of years before the world tours start.
Anyway, I managed to catch a glimpse of the Queen and everyone around me was really excited. I would have seen more but I and quite a lot of other people were waiting at the Cathedral door nearest the Mitre pub thinking she's come through that one. Especially as there were a lot of us...
No, she obviously came out of the front door - which is rarely used. The rare occasion being a wedding or the Queen. Doh!
Anyway, today's Good Friday so technically I'm not even blogging. Have a good Easter and I'll probably do a few posts over the Easter.
But don't hold your breath!
Enjoy your Easter eggs too!
