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Most small businesses fail within their first twelve months. If you are planning to start your own business, that’s a scary fact!
Does that mean that your business is doomed to fail? Absolutely not! Of course, there are no guarantees, but here are five basic steps that can greatly increase your chances of long term success:
KEY #1: THE BRIGHT IDEA
Typically, business opportunities can be divided into four groups:
- Offering an existing product/service in an existing market.
- Introducing an existing product/service to a new market.
- Offering a new product/service in an existing market.
- Introducing a new product/service to a new market.
Pick one of these models and apply your idea. Having trouble coming up with an idea for your business? The only limit is your imagination. Inspiration can come from anywhere— a hobby that you can turn into a full-time job, a talent you have that can earn you money, or providing a better service than what you always get from your current vendors. Once you have decided what to do, it’s time to examine the market potential.
KEY #2: PASSING THE TEST
Is there a market for the product or service you want to offer? What is currently available? Who are your potential competitors and what do they offer? Do you have the skills necessary to successfully manage a business in your chosen industry?
KEY #3: TO BE OR NOT TO BE?
Gut-check time—Can you make this business work? Do the numbers make sense? Examine closely all of your revenue and expense assumptions. It’s bound to be tough going at first. Can you hold out as long as you need to until your business can afford to pay you a salary? Be critical and honest. You don’t want to jump into something feet first and find out the hard way that the budget just doesn’t work.
KEY #4: LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!
Advertising can be costly so you’ll want to be sure that your advertising budget is spent wisely. That means more market research. Make your best effort to profile your target market and target customer to ensure you aim your marketing at the right group of people, and that your marketing conveys exactly the message you need to communicate to your potential customers.
Up to now, you’ve just laid the foundation. Sooner or later, you just have to get started. So choose a business name, print up some business cards, and get started.
KEY #5: MEASURE IT, MANAGE IT!
It’s a cliche because it’s true: if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Forecast sales and related expenses, then monitor them regularly. It’s the only way you’ll know when you’re veering off course, and it’s the best way to ensure you have sufficient advance notice to avoid, or at least minimize, future problems.
Don’t confuse profit with cash. Keep an eye on your bottom line and, most importantly, always be aware of your cash flow — the cold, hard cash that you have in the bank. Allow for invoice periods (14 days, 30 days etc) when you’re planning your budget.
Remember that the market place has a life of its own, and no one can prepare for every contingency. Put some thought into your idea; make sure that there’s a market for what you’re offering; research, research, research; promote your business effectively; always know what’s going on in your bank account and don’t forget about cash flow!
It’s not perfect but, if you follow these few simple steps, you’ll be miles ahead of many new small business ventures.
General Due Diligence Checklists
Business Acquisition Due Diligence Checklists
Real Estate Due Diligence Checklists
Investment Due Diligence Checklists
Intellectual Property Due Diligence Checklists
If you are serious about building an online business–or any business for that matter–it is critical that you know the law and comply with all regulations that govern your business. Ignorance is no excuse. Failure to know and follow the law can result in severe financial consequences, and may even cause you to lose your business.
Building an email list is an important component of your business strategy if you want to develop a customer base that will buy from you on an ongoing basis. But there are rules that govern what you can and cannot do with email. You ignore these rules at your peril.
The rules are found in the CAN-SPAM Act which, interestingly enough, doesn’t apply only to email. CAN-SPAM applies to all commercial messages. “Commercial Messages” are “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service.” This includes email that promotes content on commercial websites.
To put it simply, all email must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
If you fail to comply you can be fined on each separate email, with penalties as high as $16,000. Thus even a small mailout that is not in compliance can be very expensive.
Here’s a summary of the law’s main requirements…
Click here to read the rest of this article at B2B Affiliate World.
So you have decided to do affiliate marketing to get some extra money. Before you go too far, you must first answer a very important question: will this be a business or a hobby? If you are not sure, consider this: do you want to just make a little bit of money every month so you can have some “mad money”? Or do you want to build something that will provide you with a monthy revenue of $1,000, $10,000 or more? If the answer is “mad money”, then affiliate marketing will be a hobby. Otherwise, affiliate marketing is your business.
If you decide affiliate marketing will be your business and not your hobby, what’s next?
Click here to read the rest of this article at B2B Affiliate World.
Looking for the magic formula for affiliate marketing success? Here it is:….well, actually, there isn’t one. If you want to succeed at affiliate marketing, you have to do the same things you have to do to be successful in any marketing activity: define your market, research your market, satisfy your market. In other words, know who your customers are, learn what your customers want, deliver what your customers need.
The “trick” isn’t to apply new tactics, it is to apply proven tactics to the online market. Let’s take three examples:
Click here to read the rest of this article at B2B Affiliate World.
The other day I was trying to make a payment. I was able to resolve the matter, but not without some minor hassle involving the voice mail. This got me thinking about the insane and annoying corporate voice mail systems we all encounter every day–systems designed for efficiency that only make it harder for the caller to get things done.
To begin with, are you just as tired as I am of hearing that “our menu items have changed”? First of all, who cares? Second, so what? Of what possible use can it be to me to know this? Do the menu options really change so often that I need to know? Just tell me my choices!
Next gripe: …..
Click here to read the rest of Voice Mail Roulette on Kaufmann’s Comments
Below you will find a guest article from Jimmy D. Brown.
If you’re an affiliate marketer, then you’re always looking over your shoulder to see if the competition – your fellow affiliates – are catching up to you. Or, worse than that, you’re looking up ahead trying to catch up with them!
At times any market can be crowded, so selling the same thing to the same group of people means you’re lucky to get just a small share of the market. Imagine having thirty-five Wal-Mart stores in one small town, all competing with each other to get the local business. You get the idea.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. The easiest way to outsell other affiliates is this…
Turn your AFFILIATE offer into a UNIQUE offer!
Click here to read the rest of the article on B2B Affiliate World
There is so much information on the internet today about affiliate marketing, no one could blame you if you thought affiliate marketing was the way to make a lot of money with very little effort. In fact, to succeed at affiliate marketing, you have to make the same effort as you would if you were selling your own product. All that you gain from being an affiliate is guidance and materials. However, if you do not make the effort, it doesn’t matter how great your product is or how good the marketing materials are. Like any business—online or offline— if you don’t make the effort, you won’t make the money.
Think of affiliate marketing as being the online equivalent of franchising. If you opened a franchise operation, but didn’t have the store open at regular hours, or you did sloppy work, or you treated your customers poorly, do you think you would stay in business long? No indeed! It is more likely that the franchisor would terminate the franchise agreement.
Likewise, once you sign up to be an affiliate, you are expected to perform to some degree. If your sales activity is too low, some affiliate marketers will drop you as an affiliate, and why not? They have spent a lot of time and effort developing their product and they want people who will sell it. If you aren’t willing to make the effort, why should they keep you as an affiliate?
So let’s take a look at what you can do to maximize sales. Before we do, answer this question: Once someone has come to your website and gotten the information they were seeking, there are only two things they can do next. What are they?
If you said take action or leave, you would be correct. Obviously, you prefer that they take action rather than leave. But if they are going to leave, then you need to give them some incentive to come back, or at least to allow you to stay in contact.
Keep in mind that selling online is similar to marketing offline in that there are three groups of customers:
- Those that will never buy from you—ever—no matter how well you market your site and product.
- Those that will always buy from you on the first visit, regardless of what you do to your site and product.
- Those that will buy from you eventually, but never on the first visit to your site.
There isn’t much you can do about the first two groups, and the fact is that most of your sales will come from the last group, so what can you do to maximize your sales from these people?
I hope these tips are useful and productive. If I have forgotten anything, or if you have a favorite tip, please leave a comment.
As you consider getting into affiliate marketing and try to decide which ones to join, keep in mind the old adage: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” You need to be able to tell which programs produce results for you. Just as important, of those that produce results, you need to which are the most effective. Over time, you will drop some affiliate programs and add others as you determine which return the most dollars for the time you spend.
Here, then, are some items you want to consider as you choose which affiliate programs to offer your subscribers:
- What is the hit per sale ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics. This factor is extremely important because this will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale.
- How are referrals from an affiliate’s site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system? You need to be confident on the program enough to track those people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you can credit for a sale. The period of time that those people stay in the system is also important. This is because some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. Know if you will still get credit for the sale if it is done some months from a certain day.
- What are the kinds of affiliate stats available? Your choice of affiliate program should be capable of offering detailed stats. They should be available online anytime you decide to check them out. Constantly checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are already generated from your site. Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hit is the one clicking on the banner or text links.
- Does the affiliate program also pay for the hits and impressions besides the commissions on sales? It is important that impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to the earnings you get from the sales commission. This is especially important if the program you are in offers low sales to be able to hit ratio.
- Who is the online retailer? Find out whom you are doing business with to know if it is really a solid company. Know the products they are selling and the average amount they are achieving. The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to know if that program is really for you and your site.
- Is the affiliate a one tier or two tier program? A single tier program pays you only for the business you yourself have generated. A two tier program pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program. Some two-tier programs are even paying small fees on each new affiliate you sponsor. More like a recruitment fee.
- What is the amount of commission paid? 5% – 20% is the commission paid by most programs. .01% – .05% is the amount paid for each hit. If you find a program that also pays for impressions, the amount paid is not much at all. As you can see from the figures, you will now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is important.
These are just some of the questions that needed answering first before you enter into an affiliate program. You should be familiar with the many important aspects that your chosen program should have before incorporating them into your website. Try to ask your affiliate program choices these questions. These can help you select the right program for you site from among the many available.
Advances in technology always bring new opportunities. The internet is no exception for it offers many excellent income producing opportunities–for the scam artists. When I was younger, you could make lots of money working from home just by stuffing envelopes or by selling small ads in the back of magazines. As I got older, multilevel marketing schemes were all the rage. Today, thanks to the internet, and with very little effort, you can rake in thousands of dollars a month in no time at all simply by signing up as an affiliate and putting up a web page. Sit back, wait and let the dollars roll in. Yeah, right.
As the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Recognize the reality. While it is true that some people can make money very quickly from a new business idea, the fact is that to make any kind of decent money from a business, you have to put in the hours and you have to do the work. You have to put in the time if you ever want to make a dime.
Am I saying all affiliate marketing programs are scams? No. I am saying that if you want to make money as an affiliate, first realize and accept that you can earn some serious money, but not without commitment and effort on your part. Is this a business or a hobby, a part time interest?
If it’s a hobby, then whatever you do is enough. But if it’s a business, act accordingly. Identify your niche. Find products to sell. Promote yourself online. Work at it consistently, every day. Nothing happens unless you make it happen.
Once you make the commitment to go forward, approach the business in the appropriate way. Do some research. Make a plan. Where do you start and what do you need to know? Here’s a few things you should consider:
What type of affiliate program? There are a lot of programs out there, promoting different types of products, paying different commissions, targeted at different markets. Who do you want to reach? What type of product would those people want?
How much will it cost? If you pay someone to become part of their affiliate group, club or network–whatever they call it–who is really benefiting? A lot of the affiliate programs I see don’t cost anything to join, so why pay to become an affiliate? Maybe later on, when you are actually making money and can afford to pay for something, and IF there is a really good product with proven income potential, it MIGHT be worthwhile paying. Remember, though, this is a business, and a fundamental principle is, whenever possible, use earnings, not savings, to pay for expenses.
When do you get paid? Most programs pay on some regular schedule, i.e., every week, every month, etc. Some pay you regardless of how much you earn while others only pay you once you have accrued a certain level of earnings, say $100.
In the next post I’ll discuss some of the more detailed aspects of affiliate programs you should consider as well. Until then, go ahead and get started. It doesn’t matter how much you do as long as you do something. Here are specific action steps you can take:
- Buy a spiral bound notebook to use for jotting ideas and taking notes.
- Make a list of the types of products that are of interest to you. If you have no interest in your product, then eventually you will find your business tedious regardless of how much money you earn.
- Make a list of the people who would buy your product. On a clean page, write “Typical Customer” on top, then make a list of the person’s characteristics: age, gender, income level, occupation, hobbies, etc.
- Check out some of the websites of affiliate programs. There are many, but to start I recommend you try ClickBank which is one of the largest and most popular.
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