Some companies decide to send customers a free newsletter to get an email list. But there are other ways to collect email addresses. Sometimes having a newsletter just doesn’t make any sense for your company. For instance, if you happen to sell dishwashers, how much information could you send your customer, daily, on dishwashers. So, instead here are a few other options for increasing your email list.
You could run a contest. The puzzle, game or task should be easy and straightforward so that you don’t frustrate the customer and you still get their email address in the end.
A great incentive to collect email addresses would be a free eBook. People love getting free stuff, especially eBooks that interest them. Remember, it doesn’t have to be 100 pages long; five to ten pages will work fine.
Surveying the customer is a great way to collect email addresses. You can find out what the customer likes/dislikes, and what they have problems with or need solutions for.
Advertise your opt-in offer in an e-zine or classified ad. It actually doesn’t cost tons of money and if you find the right place to advertise, you could see dramatic results.
Email signatures, or electronic signatures, also referred to as a, sig file is a three to six line footer that you can add to the bottom of each email message you send out with your name, company and a free report with a link attached. You will be surprised how many visitors you get this way. Make sure you track where you are getting your traffic by the different links you send out.
If a customer is interested in downloading an article from your web site, they will definitely have no problem providing their name and email address. They will love to receive more articles from you or have access to a members only area of your site with plenty of resources.
Offer your customers a free course or a free download to collect email addresses. They will love to get something for free. Customers who opt-in when something free is being offered think to themselves what have I got to lose. It a great deal for both of you.
Cruisetocash1 steve whitehead
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Work Your Hidden Profit Potential.
Direct marketing campaigns are truly effective when you precisely target customers likely to buy from you. This is done by Profiling and Modeling prospects and clients.
Dumb mass mailings are replaced with “surgical” campaigns that market to specific customers with accuracy using technology that is now available. Today, it’s possible to collect an enormous amount of information about customers, but to use it effectively you use it in “profiling” and “modeling”.
Both of these techniques are ways of applying external data to possible clients. They can be used to prospect for business or to zero-in on existing customers for your mailing. The goal is to predict behavior based on what you know about your customers.
These two methods are not mutually exclusive, and marketers often use them together. The difference is that profiling data is overlaid against an existing client database, and has a long life span. It can be used for several mailings, and in contrast modeling is used to sharpen the focus of a specific mailing.
In profiling start with the premise that you don’t want to deal with a customer segment, but rather an individual customer. Break up your client segment into clients who share similar tastes and buying habits. Then use demographic and behavioral information to create a useful snapshot of the customer.
Begin to gather this information from your existing customer database noting such things as frequency of purchases, buying habits, responses to marketing offers, and repeat purchases. Then start with your perceived prospects using alternate sources of data from purchased sources. Use all this data to break your customers into clusters that share purchasing traits.
Obviously, profiling and modeling add to the cost of your mailing project. You may wonder why you shouldn’t just stick to the old method of “recency-frequency-monetary” (RFM) analysis. The reason is that for RFM to work effectively you need data on the client’s purchasing habits, and that’s the rub! It only works for your existing customer and is of no use in finding potential clients.
What makes profiling/modeling cost effective is found in three current trends.
Rising mailing costs.
Computers able to compute mountains of data rapidly.
Higher quality customer data available.
In the past, direct marketers could mail out 400,000 mailings to find a strong market of 40,000 (1 customer out of 10 mailings was average). The dramatic increase in the cost of paper and postage has made this practice prohibitively expensive.
Computers today are capable of doing millions of computations per second. This makes analyzing mountains of data possible and not unthinkable anymore.
Higher quality customer data is more available today, and there are more sources available for obtaining it than ever before.
The result is that you can afford to do a lot of number-crunching before you spend a penny on postage. You can also weed out the useless names and mail only to your most likely prospects.
There are 6 factors to consider when building customer profiles:
Affinity profiling – analyzes current buying habits to better match customer to product. Knowing what kinds of product a particular customer is buying gives you the ability to build an “affinity matrix” showing what related products would stimulate more sales from him/her.
Demographic and psychographic data is also used for profiling. Demographics tells you a client is a 29-year-old, unmarried, male who earns $45,000 and drives a 2-year old Lexus. Psychographic data suggests that single young men who buy status-symbol cars are excellent prospects for other highly visible status products. Combining the two types of data yields a customer profile to someone marketing, say, the latest cellular phone.
Lifestyle Coding is used to enhance basic demographic information. Simply put – people in certain demographic categories will likely have similar hobbies and other interests.
Mapping is another useful tool in building customer profiles. Census data, topographic information, geographic coordinates, and zip code+4 postal data can be fed into a computer yielding maps that can be color coded to certain characteristics of consumers in particular neighborhoods.
Cluster Coding is a popular means of grouping people by lifestyle characteristics. Remember hearing the terms “Urban Up-and-Comers, Settled In, and White Picket Fence” used to describe market segments? These are known as “clusters”, each given a score according to affluence, social position, activities, and aspirations.
Survey data – can be used to enhance demographic, lifestyle, and other data to build a profile. This is collected directly from your customers via application forms, surveys, and credit histories. This provides a more personal portrait of the customer than merely census or demographic data.
The Direct Marketer of today has become more of a “surgeon” than a “shotgun hunter”. It’s no longer cost-effective to shoot at 400,000 prospects to get 40,000 clients, and with computers it’s easier to slice-and-dice data today.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
Dumb mass mailings are replaced with “surgical” campaigns that market to specific customers with accuracy using technology that is now available. Today, it’s possible to collect an enormous amount of information about customers, but to use it effectively you use it in “profiling” and “modeling”.
Both of these techniques are ways of applying external data to possible clients. They can be used to prospect for business or to zero-in on existing customers for your mailing. The goal is to predict behavior based on what you know about your customers.
These two methods are not mutually exclusive, and marketers often use them together. The difference is that profiling data is overlaid against an existing client database, and has a long life span. It can be used for several mailings, and in contrast modeling is used to sharpen the focus of a specific mailing.
In profiling start with the premise that you don’t want to deal with a customer segment, but rather an individual customer. Break up your client segment into clients who share similar tastes and buying habits. Then use demographic and behavioral information to create a useful snapshot of the customer.
Begin to gather this information from your existing customer database noting such things as frequency of purchases, buying habits, responses to marketing offers, and repeat purchases. Then start with your perceived prospects using alternate sources of data from purchased sources. Use all this data to break your customers into clusters that share purchasing traits.
Obviously, profiling and modeling add to the cost of your mailing project. You may wonder why you shouldn’t just stick to the old method of “recency-frequency-monetary” (RFM) analysis. The reason is that for RFM to work effectively you need data on the client’s purchasing habits, and that’s the rub! It only works for your existing customer and is of no use in finding potential clients.
What makes profiling/modeling cost effective is found in three current trends.
Rising mailing costs.
Computers able to compute mountains of data rapidly.
Higher quality customer data available.
In the past, direct marketers could mail out 400,000 mailings to find a strong market of 40,000 (1 customer out of 10 mailings was average). The dramatic increase in the cost of paper and postage has made this practice prohibitively expensive.
Computers today are capable of doing millions of computations per second. This makes analyzing mountains of data possible and not unthinkable anymore.
Higher quality customer data is more available today, and there are more sources available for obtaining it than ever before.
The result is that you can afford to do a lot of number-crunching before you spend a penny on postage. You can also weed out the useless names and mail only to your most likely prospects.
There are 6 factors to consider when building customer profiles:
Affinity profiling – analyzes current buying habits to better match customer to product. Knowing what kinds of product a particular customer is buying gives you the ability to build an “affinity matrix” showing what related products would stimulate more sales from him/her.
Demographic and psychographic data is also used for profiling. Demographics tells you a client is a 29-year-old, unmarried, male who earns $45,000 and drives a 2-year old Lexus. Psychographic data suggests that single young men who buy status-symbol cars are excellent prospects for other highly visible status products. Combining the two types of data yields a customer profile to someone marketing, say, the latest cellular phone.
Lifestyle Coding is used to enhance basic demographic information. Simply put – people in certain demographic categories will likely have similar hobbies and other interests.
Mapping is another useful tool in building customer profiles. Census data, topographic information, geographic coordinates, and zip code+4 postal data can be fed into a computer yielding maps that can be color coded to certain characteristics of consumers in particular neighborhoods.
Cluster Coding is a popular means of grouping people by lifestyle characteristics. Remember hearing the terms “Urban Up-and-Comers, Settled In, and White Picket Fence” used to describe market segments? These are known as “clusters”, each given a score according to affluence, social position, activities, and aspirations.
Survey data – can be used to enhance demographic, lifestyle, and other data to build a profile. This is collected directly from your customers via application forms, surveys, and credit histories. This provides a more personal portrait of the customer than merely census or demographic data.
The Direct Marketer of today has become more of a “surgeon” than a “shotgun hunter”. It’s no longer cost-effective to shoot at 400,000 prospects to get 40,000 clients, and with computers it’s easier to slice-and-dice data today.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Help for Entrepreneurs
There’s good news for entrepreneurs who need help but aren’t ready to hire full-time employees. Between January and July 2004, the ranks of part-time workers grew from 24.3 million to 25.5 million according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was also learned that from June to July the increase came from people who wanted to work part-time and not because they couldn’t find full-time employment.
It seems that 1.7 million part-timers hold two or more part-time jobs, and do this by choice. Such workers will be harder to convert to full-time employees because they like the diversity of different jobs.
This all translates into benefits for the entrepreneur who needs help but can’t hire full-time employees. The employment gurus don’t expect this part-time preference to pass anytime soon. It seems that the appeal of a reduced schedule is strong both for seniors and baby boomers nearing retirement. Parents who have interrupted careers to care for their children but still want to work may also explain the boom.
Entrepreneurs should eagerly look to this pool of workers and eagerly employ part-time help. A big reason is that employer-paid health insurance and other benefits add costs equal to more than 50 percent of the average employee’s gross earnings. A part-time employer can get by with a low-cost factor, and still find somebody reliable and efficient.
Looking at the boom of part-timers seems like a win-win situation for entrepreneurs and workers alike. Check the prospect out with your accountant and you may find that you come out a winner and less stressed.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
It seems that 1.7 million part-timers hold two or more part-time jobs, and do this by choice. Such workers will be harder to convert to full-time employees because they like the diversity of different jobs.
This all translates into benefits for the entrepreneur who needs help but can’t hire full-time employees. The employment gurus don’t expect this part-time preference to pass anytime soon. It seems that the appeal of a reduced schedule is strong both for seniors and baby boomers nearing retirement. Parents who have interrupted careers to care for their children but still want to work may also explain the boom.
Entrepreneurs should eagerly look to this pool of workers and eagerly employ part-time help. A big reason is that employer-paid health insurance and other benefits add costs equal to more than 50 percent of the average employee’s gross earnings. A part-time employer can get by with a low-cost factor, and still find somebody reliable and efficient.
Looking at the boom of part-timers seems like a win-win situation for entrepreneurs and workers alike. Check the prospect out with your accountant and you may find that you come out a winner and less stressed.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
HAVE 5,000 PEOPLE MARKET YOUR PRODUCT IN 30 DAYS
An excellent source for distributing your merchandise is by
"independent salesman".
There are individuals who sell on their own and are always on the
look out for good items to carry along with their regular
merchandise.
The best way to contact them is through magazines such as;
Making Profits
6255 Barfield RD.
Atlanta, GA 30328
or
Money Making Opportunities
11071 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604
Insert a good ad in the Classified Section of one of these
publications, for example; "brand new opportunity! Independent
salesman wanted nationwide. For information, contact (your name
and address). You will find yourself receiving thousand of
replies and you can be sure these independent salesman will do a
terrific job of selling for you, as they make money on
commissions only.
Another way is to contact "Wagon Jobbers"
A wagon jobbers is someone who takes any number of products from
different jobbers or manufactures, puts them in the truck or
station wagon and travel along his "route" selling to people whom
he knows will buy from him because they are his customers.
They are excellent salesman, and when given a decent commission,
can do a terrific job of selling your products.
The best way to contact them is to rent a "wagon Jobber" mailing
list from a mailing broker, and then write a detailed letter
describing the product you want to sell and what kind of
financial arrangement or commissions you are offering.
The more people you get to sell, the larger your profits will be.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
"independent salesman".
There are individuals who sell on their own and are always on the
look out for good items to carry along with their regular
merchandise.
The best way to contact them is through magazines such as;
Making Profits
6255 Barfield RD.
Atlanta, GA 30328
or
Money Making Opportunities
11071 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604
Insert a good ad in the Classified Section of one of these
publications, for example; "brand new opportunity! Independent
salesman wanted nationwide. For information, contact (your name
and address). You will find yourself receiving thousand of
replies and you can be sure these independent salesman will do a
terrific job of selling for you, as they make money on
commissions only.
Another way is to contact "Wagon Jobbers"
A wagon jobbers is someone who takes any number of products from
different jobbers or manufactures, puts them in the truck or
station wagon and travel along his "route" selling to people whom
he knows will buy from him because they are his customers.
They are excellent salesman, and when given a decent commission,
can do a terrific job of selling your products.
The best way to contact them is to rent a "wagon Jobber" mailing
list from a mailing broker, and then write a detailed letter
describing the product you want to sell and what kind of
financial arrangement or commissions you are offering.
The more people you get to sell, the larger your profits will be.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Hang On To Top Employees
The best way to keep your top employees is to know them better than they know themselves. Use this knowledge to create the career of their dreams, and they’ll stick to your company like glue. The new “biz-speak” for this is called Job Sculpting.
The concept of Job Sculpting as defined by career experts, Timothy Butler and James Waldroop, in the Harvard Business Review, is that good people will stay only in jobs that “fit their deeply embedded life interests---that is their long-held emotionally driven passions.”
To adopt this strategy, spend a lot of effort listening to your company stars. For each one of them, try to identify what life interests are dominant with them, and then offer them the assignments that satisfy this interest. It may mean simply adding another assignment to the existing responsibilities, or it may mean switching one set of tasks to another employee. It may even require moving your “star” employee to a different position altogether.
To learn what kind of interests you’re looking and listening for, use these 8 identifiable areas:
Application of technology.
Quantitative analysis ability.
Theory development and conceptual thinking.
Creative production.
Counseling and mentoring.
Managing people and relationships.
Enterprise control.
Influence through language and ideas.
If you have a top employee who has been working in the area of customer service, but lately seems dissatisfied, after talking with him/her you might learn they would rather be dealing with the vendors. Your star might be just the answer you’re looking for to find that latest innovative product that could be added to your stock (conceptual thinking), and employee B would rather interact with the customers. By a simple switch of responsibilities, you have two happy employees that feel they’re now contributing to your business and not just putting in time for a paycheck.
It’s always more cost effective for the business, and better for employee morale to keep your existing employees happy with their careers. It takes a toll on your business when you have to fill an empty employee spot with a newcomer who has to be trained in the way your company functions.
Time is money, and time used to train a brand new employee is the highest cost of doing business. However, the time spent by you to find out what will keep your top producers happy to be working for you – is the best investment you can make in your business.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
The concept of Job Sculpting as defined by career experts, Timothy Butler and James Waldroop, in the Harvard Business Review, is that good people will stay only in jobs that “fit their deeply embedded life interests---that is their long-held emotionally driven passions.”
To adopt this strategy, spend a lot of effort listening to your company stars. For each one of them, try to identify what life interests are dominant with them, and then offer them the assignments that satisfy this interest. It may mean simply adding another assignment to the existing responsibilities, or it may mean switching one set of tasks to another employee. It may even require moving your “star” employee to a different position altogether.
To learn what kind of interests you’re looking and listening for, use these 8 identifiable areas:
Application of technology.
Quantitative analysis ability.
Theory development and conceptual thinking.
Creative production.
Counseling and mentoring.
Managing people and relationships.
Enterprise control.
Influence through language and ideas.
If you have a top employee who has been working in the area of customer service, but lately seems dissatisfied, after talking with him/her you might learn they would rather be dealing with the vendors. Your star might be just the answer you’re looking for to find that latest innovative product that could be added to your stock (conceptual thinking), and employee B would rather interact with the customers. By a simple switch of responsibilities, you have two happy employees that feel they’re now contributing to your business and not just putting in time for a paycheck.
It’s always more cost effective for the business, and better for employee morale to keep your existing employees happy with their careers. It takes a toll on your business when you have to fill an empty employee spot with a newcomer who has to be trained in the way your company functions.
Time is money, and time used to train a brand new employee is the highest cost of doing business. However, the time spent by you to find out what will keep your top producers happy to be working for you – is the best investment you can make in your business.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Go For The Gold!
Perhaps you’ve planned it from the beginning, or maybe you’ve taken years to decide. Somewhere down the line will come the time to sell your business, and you want to make sure you come out on top.
“I sold my business” is a magical phrase for entrepreneurs. It conjures up of pictures of wealth, leisure and exciting new challenges. For many entrepreneurs, it’s the goal from day one.
“Selling might not be everyone’s objective when they’re starting out, but it should be” says Ned Minor. Mr. Minor is a transaction attorney in Denver, and the author of “Deciding to Sell Your Business: The Key to Wealth and Freedom.” It seems eventually, every business owner leaves their business either sitting down at a deal table or feet first on a stretcher.
The idea of working until your last breath is not uppermost in our minds when we start out on that exciting roller coaster ride known as “entrepreneurship.” But if you aren’t already planning a more graceful exit, you may come out on the short end of the stick.
When starting a business we’re usually so busy with the details involved in making it an eventual success that selling out is the furthest thing from our minds. But the day you start building should be the day you should start designing your exit. It should be the ultimate goal of your success.
Many entrepreneurs are successive business builders. The fact that they sell one business doesn’t mean retirement for them, it just means the opportunity to start another business that has been lurking in the back of their minds. In fact many entrepreneurs enjoy the building up of a business almost more than the profitable success it becomes.
What does a saleable business look like? It’s saleable if it’s “scalable” says Minor. There are small-and-steady businesses sold every day, but the big bucks come looking for a business that has huge growth potential. Every buyer thinks that he/she is smarter than the seller, and that they can double or triple the present business it’s doing. A business will fetch the best price only when buyers believe they can take advantage of significant future growth potential.
Selling a company’s future upside however, means proving your previous growth and validating your future growth strategy. You should start with 2 years of audited financials to backup the historical growth. Then be prepared to explain your business strategy and how it fits into the overall market. Be it through acquisitions that you’ve grown, then show how many more acquisition targets are still in the market. If through new product development, be prepared to give the details of your R&D pipeline and your ideas for future products.
Now as for buyers, there are two types. There are “financial buyers” who will typically pay a lower price because they have a fire-sale mentality. You need to find the strategic buyers out there, and paint a picture for them. Show them a great customer relationship, a great piece of intellectual property, an advantage in time to market, or a key employee. Show the strategic buyer how one plus one equals three.
Then again, why settle for just one buyer when you could have two? Having another buyer in the wings is a vital strategy in the sale process. Having a strong and visible alternative makes any acquirer sit up and take notice. There needs to be tension to the deal. Each side wants the other to think that they’re about to walk away; it’s the tension that gets the deal closed.
The best buyers are large, high-flying public companies with broad, strategic agendas and cash to spare. Selling to a public company also has other advantages and tangible benefits. Many transactions leave the seller with a fistful of stock, or worse, a long-term payout. A publicly traded acquirer makes an eventual cash payout more assured. Be sure to make your business sale more than a sale of your personal network and capabilities. Make it look like it’s worth the asking price, especially if you’re planning to leave after the sale.
Build a strong management team that can carry on when you’re gone. A team with clear policies and procedures, and a broad customer base which are the underpinnings of value. Your business should not just run without you, but be positioned to grow without you. Make sure your key employees are given incentives to stay on after you go, and make sure you communicate with them during negotiations. It’s crucial to minimize disruption.
The sale of a business is complex. If you’ve been in business for 10 years, then it has 10 years of potential liabilities, lawsuits, and bad accounting. Buyers want to know exactly where the business stands, so extreme diligence and complete disclosure on your part is essential. Sometimes what the buyer requests during negotiations is mind-boggling and you should hire some outside help to put it all together.
Getting the deal closed takes the talents of several people, and here’s a list of who you’re likely to meet on your way to closing.
On the Buyer’s Side:
CEO: The chief executive needs a vision of how the new company will fit into the existing organization.
CFO: This is the detail person, and a professional skeptic. In the long-term view, he/she will take the heat if reality doesn’t live up to expectations.
CPA: The buyer’s CPA (or accounting firm) will validate the seller’s numbers. Don’t be surprised if the CPA doesn’t argue for a lower purchase price based on historical profits. These are the “bean counters” of the deal.
On The Seller’s Side:
Investment Banker: He/she is a professional “quarterback” keeping both teams moving toward the goal. He keeps one eye on the sale price, and the other on the strategic best interests of the business owner.
Transaction Attorney: He’s the referee – there to make sure no one gets hurt. The transaction attorney’s focus is the sale contract, but he/she can also handle communication with the buyer.
CPA: The seller’s CPA should be advising the seller on the personal tax consequences of the deal, and how to handle the after-tax proceeds.
And you thought it was going to be easier to sell it than to start it, didn’t you? Remember, no deal is a sure thing until it’s done! Perhaps the only sure thing is that selling a business is never simple. It can be the most harrowing, and the most rewarding experience in the life of an entrepreneur. Take it slowly, with planning, strategy and guidance. Each step of the process can add value to the company, and get you closer to the finish line.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
“I sold my business” is a magical phrase for entrepreneurs. It conjures up of pictures of wealth, leisure and exciting new challenges. For many entrepreneurs, it’s the goal from day one.
“Selling might not be everyone’s objective when they’re starting out, but it should be” says Ned Minor. Mr. Minor is a transaction attorney in Denver, and the author of “Deciding to Sell Your Business: The Key to Wealth and Freedom.” It seems eventually, every business owner leaves their business either sitting down at a deal table or feet first on a stretcher.
The idea of working until your last breath is not uppermost in our minds when we start out on that exciting roller coaster ride known as “entrepreneurship.” But if you aren’t already planning a more graceful exit, you may come out on the short end of the stick.
When starting a business we’re usually so busy with the details involved in making it an eventual success that selling out is the furthest thing from our minds. But the day you start building should be the day you should start designing your exit. It should be the ultimate goal of your success.
Many entrepreneurs are successive business builders. The fact that they sell one business doesn’t mean retirement for them, it just means the opportunity to start another business that has been lurking in the back of their minds. In fact many entrepreneurs enjoy the building up of a business almost more than the profitable success it becomes.
What does a saleable business look like? It’s saleable if it’s “scalable” says Minor. There are small-and-steady businesses sold every day, but the big bucks come looking for a business that has huge growth potential. Every buyer thinks that he/she is smarter than the seller, and that they can double or triple the present business it’s doing. A business will fetch the best price only when buyers believe they can take advantage of significant future growth potential.
Selling a company’s future upside however, means proving your previous growth and validating your future growth strategy. You should start with 2 years of audited financials to backup the historical growth. Then be prepared to explain your business strategy and how it fits into the overall market. Be it through acquisitions that you’ve grown, then show how many more acquisition targets are still in the market. If through new product development, be prepared to give the details of your R&D pipeline and your ideas for future products.
Now as for buyers, there are two types. There are “financial buyers” who will typically pay a lower price because they have a fire-sale mentality. You need to find the strategic buyers out there, and paint a picture for them. Show them a great customer relationship, a great piece of intellectual property, an advantage in time to market, or a key employee. Show the strategic buyer how one plus one equals three.
Then again, why settle for just one buyer when you could have two? Having another buyer in the wings is a vital strategy in the sale process. Having a strong and visible alternative makes any acquirer sit up and take notice. There needs to be tension to the deal. Each side wants the other to think that they’re about to walk away; it’s the tension that gets the deal closed.
The best buyers are large, high-flying public companies with broad, strategic agendas and cash to spare. Selling to a public company also has other advantages and tangible benefits. Many transactions leave the seller with a fistful of stock, or worse, a long-term payout. A publicly traded acquirer makes an eventual cash payout more assured. Be sure to make your business sale more than a sale of your personal network and capabilities. Make it look like it’s worth the asking price, especially if you’re planning to leave after the sale.
Build a strong management team that can carry on when you’re gone. A team with clear policies and procedures, and a broad customer base which are the underpinnings of value. Your business should not just run without you, but be positioned to grow without you. Make sure your key employees are given incentives to stay on after you go, and make sure you communicate with them during negotiations. It’s crucial to minimize disruption.
The sale of a business is complex. If you’ve been in business for 10 years, then it has 10 years of potential liabilities, lawsuits, and bad accounting. Buyers want to know exactly where the business stands, so extreme diligence and complete disclosure on your part is essential. Sometimes what the buyer requests during negotiations is mind-boggling and you should hire some outside help to put it all together.
Getting the deal closed takes the talents of several people, and here’s a list of who you’re likely to meet on your way to closing.
On the Buyer’s Side:
CEO: The chief executive needs a vision of how the new company will fit into the existing organization.
CFO: This is the detail person, and a professional skeptic. In the long-term view, he/she will take the heat if reality doesn’t live up to expectations.
CPA: The buyer’s CPA (or accounting firm) will validate the seller’s numbers. Don’t be surprised if the CPA doesn’t argue for a lower purchase price based on historical profits. These are the “bean counters” of the deal.
On The Seller’s Side:
Investment Banker: He/she is a professional “quarterback” keeping both teams moving toward the goal. He keeps one eye on the sale price, and the other on the strategic best interests of the business owner.
Transaction Attorney: He’s the referee – there to make sure no one gets hurt. The transaction attorney’s focus is the sale contract, but he/she can also handle communication with the buyer.
CPA: The seller’s CPA should be advising the seller on the personal tax consequences of the deal, and how to handle the after-tax proceeds.
And you thought it was going to be easier to sell it than to start it, didn’t you? Remember, no deal is a sure thing until it’s done! Perhaps the only sure thing is that selling a business is never simple. It can be the most harrowing, and the most rewarding experience in the life of an entrepreneur. Take it slowly, with planning, strategy and guidance. Each step of the process can add value to the company, and get you closer to the finish line.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
Monday, May 5, 2008
GETTING YOUR ARTICLES PUBLISHED
Test Your Idea:
To lead to a sale, your query must convince the editor that you have a clear idea of what you plan to cover in the article, and what approach you ‘re going to take.
So before writing the letter, think your article idea through carefully, and picture yourself describing the article to a friend.
Find Your Angle:
Finding your angle is often a matter of narrowing your topic. A topic like “Sports” is far too general, narrow it to say, “Table Tennis” is better. Often, reducing the story to a single dimension e.g., focus on a key person, place, or event – gives a salable angle.
When your subject is popular, you must give the editor a fresh approach. One way is to take an idea like “Overcoming Failure” and give it a twist to something like “Failure Can Be Good for You.” It needn’t be exotic to sell, something as mundane as “New and Improved” has worked by adding a new ingredient to the usual.
Research Helps:
While many queries can be written entirely from your own knowledge, a little research can pay big dividends by seducing the editor. Facts sell editors on an idea. Editors look for queries with many specifics: Don’t just write that “Last year millions of people suffered from yeast infections.” Tell how many millions – and why!
Research both the topic and the markets you’re aiming it at. A common reason for rejection is because of inadequate knowledge of the magazine.
Shaping Your Raw Material:
After you have the basics:
the idea
the slant/facts, and
the market
then you’re ready to write your query. A good query starts strong, and never lets up until the editor is sold. Follow the two newspaper dictums; The five W’s (who, what, where, when, why) which explains the story immediately, and “the inverted pyramid” which emphasized putting the most interesting information first. You’ll lose the editor’s interest if you save the best for last, and always remember EDITOR’S CUT FROM THE BOTTOM UP!
3 Main Sections to a Query:
The Lead Paragraph
The Summary
The Author’s Bio.
Each has a specific purpose: first, tell the editor what the story is, then why she/he should buy it, and finally who is going to write it.
The Lead – is aimed to hook the editor and make them want to continue reading.
Once you’ve aroused the editor’s attention, move directly to a summary of the article.
Summary - This section should convince the editor that you know where you want to go with the article; it should outline the points you plan to cover or provide factual information about your topic – giving only enough to prove that your story is real. Here you can mention your sources. Tell the editor who’ll you’ll be talking to, and if experts are they on the cutting edge of today’s technology. Also include here a working title for the article. Don’t spend a lot of time trying to get a provocative headline, because titles are often changed by the editor before publication.
Author’s Bio – is where you sell yourself as a writer to the editor now that you’ve sold him/her on the idea. Don’t be bashful; editors expect a bit of sell in the bio. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “I’m highly qualified to write this article because…” if a convincing reason follows. Start your bio with your publishing credits, and include magazines similar to the one you’re pitching if you can.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
To lead to a sale, your query must convince the editor that you have a clear idea of what you plan to cover in the article, and what approach you ‘re going to take.
So before writing the letter, think your article idea through carefully, and picture yourself describing the article to a friend.
Find Your Angle:
Finding your angle is often a matter of narrowing your topic. A topic like “Sports” is far too general, narrow it to say, “Table Tennis” is better. Often, reducing the story to a single dimension e.g., focus on a key person, place, or event – gives a salable angle.
When your subject is popular, you must give the editor a fresh approach. One way is to take an idea like “Overcoming Failure” and give it a twist to something like “Failure Can Be Good for You.” It needn’t be exotic to sell, something as mundane as “New and Improved” has worked by adding a new ingredient to the usual.
Research Helps:
While many queries can be written entirely from your own knowledge, a little research can pay big dividends by seducing the editor. Facts sell editors on an idea. Editors look for queries with many specifics: Don’t just write that “Last year millions of people suffered from yeast infections.” Tell how many millions – and why!
Research both the topic and the markets you’re aiming it at. A common reason for rejection is because of inadequate knowledge of the magazine.
Shaping Your Raw Material:
After you have the basics:
the idea
the slant/facts, and
the market
then you’re ready to write your query. A good query starts strong, and never lets up until the editor is sold. Follow the two newspaper dictums; The five W’s (who, what, where, when, why) which explains the story immediately, and “the inverted pyramid” which emphasized putting the most interesting information first. You’ll lose the editor’s interest if you save the best for last, and always remember EDITOR’S CUT FROM THE BOTTOM UP!
3 Main Sections to a Query:
The Lead Paragraph
The Summary
The Author’s Bio.
Each has a specific purpose: first, tell the editor what the story is, then why she/he should buy it, and finally who is going to write it.
The Lead – is aimed to hook the editor and make them want to continue reading.
Once you’ve aroused the editor’s attention, move directly to a summary of the article.
Summary - This section should convince the editor that you know where you want to go with the article; it should outline the points you plan to cover or provide factual information about your topic – giving only enough to prove that your story is real. Here you can mention your sources. Tell the editor who’ll you’ll be talking to, and if experts are they on the cutting edge of today’s technology. Also include here a working title for the article. Don’t spend a lot of time trying to get a provocative headline, because titles are often changed by the editor before publication.
Author’s Bio – is where you sell yourself as a writer to the editor now that you’ve sold him/her on the idea. Don’t be bashful; editors expect a bit of sell in the bio. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “I’m highly qualified to write this article because…” if a convincing reason follows. Start your bio with your publishing credits, and include magazines similar to the one you’re pitching if you can.
To begin Cruising to Wealth like Steve Whitehead just go and follow the steps he has outlined to sign up today. In no time at all you will be making money and vacationing all at the same time just by following in the steps of Steve Whitehead and Cruise to Cash. If you would like to contact Steve you can call him at 951-805-6332.
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