Well, what a crazy few weeks!

Big thanks to everyone who played along at home during the recent public launch of ‘ProfitHacks’ – I really appreciate everyones feedback to the videos, participation in the insane livestreams, the standing ovation from those who were at the ‘Experts Industry Association’ conference where I spoke, and especailly to all the launch partners for supporting and promoting the program to thier communities. [It was extremely humbling that some of the smartest people I've learned from over the years, felt that my program was worthy of thier endorsement - Dan Kennedy, Brian Tracy etc etc ]

Given my day-to-day is primarily the ‘real world businesses’, I learned so much about doing an info-product launch, and will break it down in/on an upcomming edition of the PreneurCast show… to share the learnings I had.

But for those who missed the party, (the product is currently closed as we start the Q+A sessions next week), here’s a list of links to some of the cooler stuff we did, content partners released and conversations I participated in as part of the launch.

There is a tonne of take-away lessons and learing here for you to swipe + deploy in your own businesses, without having to invest in the course itself.

Enjoy!

http://eddale.co/profithackswebinar/
Ed Dale and I did a jam packed webinar titled ‘How To Go From Working Full Time To Your Own Business Without Doing It The Hard Way’ – we’re we talked about the transition a lot of entrepreneurs face when moving from the stable paycheck to the ‘self employment’ world.

http://www.noblesamurai.com/…/is-this-the-new–seo/
The amazing team over at NobleSamurai, did a number of substance rich blog posts (and videos) talking about, thier area of expertise, SEO and how a number of the core fundamentals of ProfitHacks supports and overcomes a lot of the challengers ‘SEOers’ are currently facing.

http://www.noblesamurai.com/…/how-to-uncover-an-extra-…-day-to-grow-your-business-profits-3362/
Antother great post by the Samurai bots on productivity. Did you know a report by McKinsey & Company in July 2012 found that the average worker spends 28 percent of their week managing email – That means out of a five day week, you spend about a day and a half answering email! INSANE !!

http://www.noblesamurai.com/…/how-to-create-high-quality-products-fast-3400/
I love this post by Eugene and the team. Linking (pardon the punn) Roger Bannister’s beating of the 4min mile with business and productivity.

http://profithacks.com/live/highlights/
This is a replay of the final livestream we did as part of the launch. Yes there is a hard pitch near the end.. but the first half of the video is all content; particularly focused on “A Blueprint to ProfitHack Your Business” – It covers the process, system and steps I suggest ‘newbies’ follow while working to make the transition from pay-check to entrepreneur.

http://successsculpting.com/1356/secret-productivity-hacks-to-increase-productivity/
in this podcast with Stephen Pierce, for ‘The Success Sculpting Show’ I discussed the concept of Core Vs Mechanics; and how this one distinction can free you up from unnecessary tasks in your day. How to be more productive as an entrepreneur and employee. The importance of leverage; and how to really apply it for massive productivity gains. Why you need to start relaxing and exercising more, to increase productivity at work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziKIixRERuk&vq=hd720
In this webinar Eugene from Noble Samurai and I answered lots of BIG questions their community were asking, including: What do I do if I’m just starting out and can’t afford to employ a team? I’m just dipping my toes into Internet marketing – where do I start? How and where do I find a trustworthy, affordable VA? What’s the best way of increasing quality, targeted traffic to my website? How do I create good quality content in a short amount of time?

http://profithacks.com/mindset/
As part of taking Profit Hacks to market, we did a intenal beta-launch to some of Rich Schefren’s clients… This video except is taken from the morning session of a closed-door client day we had in Florida; where business owners from all over the world who were applying the ProfitHacks strategies in thier projects come to hang out, network and get one-on-one support from me and the team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJnP3LfzJKU
In this exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from our beta-launch livesteam, Rich and I give the story behind the Profit Hack system… and how you can use it to get the maximum amount of leverage (and profits) in your business with the least amount of effort. This Directors Cut also features clips from real-live people who were already using the Profit Hacks strategies to “revolutionize” their businesses.

http://carriewilkerson.com/how-to-work-86-less-days-per-year/
This is one of many guest posts I wrote for our support partners (affiliates) during the launch. This article focuses on how saving 86 days of work per year can be achieved but only if you change ONE element of your work processes.

http://www.profithacks.com/experts-academy-interview/
While I was hanging out in California at the ‘Experts Industry Association’, New York Times BestSelling Author Brendon Burchard and I had a conversation about ProfitHacks and how it applies to coaches, speakers, authors etc etc.

ProfitHacks Launch: The Best Bits… is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
Don't miss out on the comments people like you have left, view this post online here: ProfitHacks Launch: The Best Bits…

I hear it so often from many deluded would-be successful entrepreneurs, cutting themselves off at the knees with their own short-sighted self-sabotage, thinking this is a huge temptation but couldn’t be more wrong.

Not only are ALL, and I repeat and reinforce, ALL businesses fundamentally, mechanically the same when it comes to marketing, lead generation and sales.

It’s a ‘not-so-secret’ success trait practiced by the highest-earning entrepreneurs: to ‘Swipe + Deploy’, ‘Translate + Transfer’, ‘Mix, Match + Mold’ strategies, ideas and examples from outside their field into their business to gain competitive edge and create breakthroughs.

This is especially true of “online marketers” unwilling to even acknowledge that there is no such thing as an “online business,” their blinders limiting them to see that the internet is just another medium, that marketing and business principles are true no matter what the media — online, retail, e-comm, blue-collar tradie services, etc. (and it’s just as true for traditional industries’ inability to adapt or embrace ideas from the online world).

If you are incapable of, or bluntly, too darn lazy to examine information, case studies and campaigns from businesses markedly different than your own and deploy it to your business for self-gain, you, frankly, lack a vital key entrepreneurial skill.

As Dan Kennedy puts it:

Unfortunately, most business owners behave as if Amish: mentally staying in their own little box, suspicious of the outside world.

Do I really need to roll out the overused example of McDonald’s “ethically swiping” the drive-thru idea from the banking industry to reinforce the point? I sure hope not.

To this point, I encourage to take action today, open up your eyes, look around, and see if you can find one idea, one way a business (that’s not in your industry) is generating leads, converting those leads, or monetizing their products and services that you can put in your mental filing cabinet for use in your business be it now or in the future.

You should always be on the lookout, proactively building this swipe file of implementable ideas.

And to that, here’s a case in point, wheeled out for you on a silver platter so you have no excuse to move on it.

It’s a new report from the team behind the awesomely named app development company Secret HQ Games called App & Game Monetization Guide.

It’s a 50+ page report, covering 50+ ways to monetize an app…

…and it’s only $1.

http://www.preneurmarketing.com/app-report

I personally want to help you build this habit of looking in different industries and verticals. So if you invest $1 in this guide, add it to your swipe-and-deploy library, and if you can’t get one single lesson or idea that is transferable to your business or industry, I’ll give you a 500% ROI. Yep, I’ll PayPal you 5 times your investment… A whopping $5.

See, I know my metrics. If that sort of guarantee is what’s needed to get you thinking the right way about your business, building the right habits, and taking action today, it’s worth it. I’ll still be profitable, you’ll be profitable and thank me for it (and that’s a lesson for another time).

So here’s your call to action, or call to arms if you will.

Invest $1 in your business, in your swipe file, in the correct commandment, “My business is NOT fundamentally different.”

Yes, the app industry is essentially new, but the “business” of selling games, entertainment and generating buzz is centuries old. There ARE many lessons in this little gem of a book that is applicable to ALL businesses, industries and in particular, your marketing.

Check it out:
http://www.preneurmarketing.com/app-report

“But My Business Is Different!” is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Hey Gang…

I just wanted to get this out before Hurricane Isaac hits the Florida coast.

If you missed the 6-hour live video broadcast I did with Rich Schefren on productivity, my workflow hacks and leveraged content creation, they’ve posted a highlights video over at:

The unsolicited comments from the Livestream were amazing:

I have learned more here in the last few hours than on any free event ever before.

Thomas F.

You have over-delivered guys! Motivational.

Pat S.

One of the best days this year! Learned so much on how to move my business forward.

Ana

This was amazing, business shifting day of content that was time very well spent!

Lynn P.

I never thought I’d hear this kind of training in such detail.

Marlayana

I’m grateful you’ve made this available for free cuz I know it (sic) worth a lot of money.

Crisiti

Incredible training today. Great info – wonderful delivery. Many, many thanks.

Christine E.

We covered a lot of ground over the original 6 hours, but the team have cut out all the crappy bits, the small technical glitches, plus the rants and tangents to just the highlights.

If you’re interested, check out it out here:
http://www.strategicprofits.com/profithacks/video-2/

From rainy Florida,
Pete

Missed the Profit Hacks Livestream? Here’s the Highlights… is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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As I mentioned in my last guest post…

If you want to move your business online or even start your business from scratch, you need credibility.

In other words, you need proof.

Proof that you can do what you do what you say, proof that you can help others, and proof that you can help someone worse off than your prospects do it.

In fact, that’s step one to marketing an online business.

Fortunately, there are many strategies you can use to develop your credibility as a marketer and an entrepreneur and provide proof that you can do what you claim.

Today, I’m introducing you to six of them…

#1 The Powerful Demonstration

What It Is: An over-the-top demonstration that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that either you’ve honed your chops to perfection, or your product is capable of making magic happen.

I wrote about this in my blog post about Billy Mays when he passed away.

When done correctly this type of demonstration is MUCH more powerful than a sleuth of testimonials.

In fact, earlier this summer, Pete and I showed how powerful this could be on our Profit Hacks livestream.

We took several content-generation tasks that most people find difficult, time-consuming and expensive. Specifically, creating several blogs, videos and other pieces of content.

Then we showed how Pete could get all that done through outsourcing for pennies on the dollar.

With this live demonstration, we proved you could have blogs written, videos produced and even a podcast recorded by only investing 15 minutes of your time.

And in short, it worked.

By showing how we could accomplish the biggest time-sucking activities and business boosting activities in 15 minutes, Pete had hoards of new clients wanting to buy his new Profit Hacks course.

You can copy this strategy by filming 2 or 3-minute videos of yourself doing a live demonstration in your area of expertise. Trust me, it will be just as effective.

Why It’s Powerful: Prospects discount and distrust testimonials more and more each day. But show them how you can magically solve one of their pressing problems in a way that makes them say WOW and you’ve got them.

With a demonstration, your prospects can see themselves solving their problems or getting the results as easily as you’ve just shown. So they see themselves creating the same result in the same way.

And this is powerful stuff.

You’ve made what they (previously) thought as difficult – as something easily done. And who doesn’t want that?

#2 Results In Advance

What It Is: This distinction comes from Frank Kern. And it’s a doozy. Here’s the concept – let’s say your prospects have to achieve 10 sub-goals to reach their main goal.

Then in your free content you help them take that first step, and achieve their first sub-goal.

So, let’s say your prospects want to make money online by having a massive list of prospects and sending them offers.

In this case, if your prospects were wet-behind-the-ears, step one would be helping them get a website up with a squeeze page.

Why It’s Powerful: The power of momentum is a magical thing. We’ve all experienced it.

When you taste initial success, your belief you’ll achieve your goal skyrockets and you redouble your efforts.

It’s like when you first go on a diet, and the next time you weigh yourself you’re 5 lbs. lighter! You think “IT’S WORKING!” and you find it easier to stick to your diet that day because of the perceived progress you are making.

Of course, if you’re the person that’s responsible for giving your prospects their initial win, then you’re the person that will lead them to the promise land.

And they’ll buy your products and services because they’ve gotten a taste of what you can do for them.

#3 Marquee Clients

What It Is:  You’ve seen consultants do this for years listing all the big companies they’ve consulted for.

And the reason they still do it… because it works.

I became the “Guru to The Gurus” because I’ve coached many of today’s top Internet marketers. And I don’t think it’s too surprising the incredible number of clients I got because of it.

Think about it: You’re on Guru X’s list – you’re impressed with his success and his knowledge.

Then you find out he had a coach when he first started out – one that helped him get incredible results.

Wouldn’t you immediately seek that very same coach out? Of course you would.

Why It’s Powerful: With the right marquee clients, prospects naturally assume if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me. Especially when the prospect aspires to get the same results of those marquee clients.

You probably heard that old saying “No one ever got fired for buying IBM” – just take that sentence to its natural conclusion and you’ve got the point.

#4 Track Record

What It Is: An impressive array of previous accomplishments.

In investments it’s about picking winner after winner. In health it might be the first to expose effective alternative approaches. In my business, Strategic Profits, it’s the results we’ve achieved ourselves.

One of my mentors, Michael Masterson, built a 100+ million dollar company in his 30′s, and a totally different 350+ million dollar company in his 50′s.

Is there any wonder why advice from Michael is valued more than from others who haven’t achieved his level of success? I think not.

Why It’s Powerful: A great track record shows: You’re a step ahead of everyone else. You’ve got a high success rate, and you do it consistently.

Who doesn’t want to be around success like that? Ultimately you want to be the “go-to” person in your field for your prospects and clients – and one of the easiest ways to be that person is to advertise your successes.

#5 Powerful Association

What It Is: If you associate with powerful people then it’s assumed you’re powerful…

If you associate with great marketers then it’s assumed you’re a great marketer… if you associate with the rich and famous then it’s assumed you’re rich and famous too… and so on.

Also, when you partner with big name players, often times their credibility extends to you.

In fact, even when you interview enough thought leaders you’re seen as a thought leader.

How To Do It: If I was just starting out in a niche – this is one of the tactics I would immediately leverage.

I’d create a blog… begin posting… then head over to Amazon and buy the most popular books in my niche.

I’d read them, and then approach the authors to interview them about their books.

Almost every author is willing to be interviewed about their books – and when you ask insightful questions (proving that you’ve actually read their books) a friendship is likely to develop.

I’d post the interviews as soon as I did them. And when I had enough of them I’d put them all in a free report with a snazzy introduction and conclusion from me.

Whamo… instant credibility by association.

Why it’s powerful: It’s simply human nature to assume that if those people (whoever those people are) seem to think you are worthy then so will I.

#6 Unique Mechanism

What It Is: Gene Schwartz went through a very thorough explanation of this in his book:  Breakthrough Advertising.

I also wrote about how Billy Mays used this in the blog post I wrote about his life.

Here’s the gist of it:  A mechanism is a new way, unique method, new system, or approach to getting the benefit your prospects desire.

Why It’s Powerful: Having a new way to achieve a result makes getting the result more believable to all your prospects who already tried other approaches.

So there’s an immediate increase in the believability of your promise.

Bottom line: No matter which method you choose, you need proof to get the credibility you need. So pick a strategy and get started.

To higher profits and beyond,
Rich Schefren

Six Simple Ways to Build Your Credibility as an Entrepreneur is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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If you’re numerically challenged, don’t panic.

It’s basic maths, and I’m even going to give you a free tool that does all the number-crunching for you.

The reason I’m telling you this now is because I don’t want you to skim down the article, see a bunch of numbers, and immediately hit the “back” button. Despite initial appearances, this isn’t going to be a complicated article to understand.

But it is one of the most important articles you’ll ever read.

And I really, really want you to read, apply and benefit from this.

Simply put, what I’m about to reveal can almost double the profitability of your business.

And who’s going to say “no” to that?

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the beginning.

The 7 Levers of Business are specific aspects of business that are each directly linked to your profitability. We refer to them as levers because, if you “pull” on any of these elements by improving them, even slightly, your profits will increase accordingly.

The 7 Levers of Business are…

1)      TRAFFIC: Every person that visits your website or walks into your store adds to your overall traffic. Basically, we’re talking about first-time visitors.

2)      OPT-INS: This refers to individuals within your traffic who take a step that goes beyond that of merely looking, but comes before the buying stage. On a website, this might refer to people who register their email address through a lead capture form; in a shop, this could be someone who tries on an item of clothing in a changing room.

3)      CONVERSIONS: This is the percentage of your “opt-ins” who take out their credit card and commit to spending money.

4)      ITEMS PER SALE: Nice simple one – this is the average number of items purchased by each customer.

5)      AVERAGE ITEM VALUE: To get this figure, divide the total value of all the items you’ve sold in a given period by the total number of items sold in that same period.

6)      TRANSACTIONS PER CUSTOMER: On average, how often do customers make repeat purchases?

7)      PROFIT MARGIN: After you’ve subtracted the cost of making sales, what’s the average profit margin of each sale as a percentage?

Before we go any further, the first question you should be asking yourself is, “am I able to calculate each of these elements?” If not, drop whatever you’re doing because your business is in trouble.

Unless you have a way of calculating this information, then you have no way of knowing if your business is even profitable. You could, without being aware of it, be making a loss on each sale and every customer purchase is driving you closer to bankruptcy!

To be clear, I’m not saying you should be able to quote, at a moment’s notice, the latest precise numbers for each of these seven levers. But you should at least have the resources in place to be able to sit down, and in a reasonable amount of time, work out your current metrics.

If you don’t have the necessary resources, you should install Google Analytics, talk to your accountant, or do whatever you have to do to get the numbers for each of the seven levers.

Next comes the fun part.

I’m sure it won’t come as any shock to you if I said that increasing one of these levers by 10% will increase your profitability by 10%.

Obvious, right?

So, if we increase all seven levers by 10% each, by how much will our profitability increase?

Most people would answer “70%”.

But they’d be wrong.

Increasing all seven levers by 10%, actually increases overall profitability by…

94.8%

Yep, profitability almost doubles!

If you’re mathematically-inclined, you probably already understand why this is the case.

Otherwise, let’s work through an example to prove that this is the case.

CLOTHES STORE EXAMPLE

Imagine that you own a clothing store and you’re going to work out your metrics for the last 12 months.

1)      TRAFFIC: 100,000 customers walked through your door during the last year.

2)      OPT-INS: 20% of your customers try on a garment in the changing room. That’s 20,000 opt-ins altogether.

3)      CONVERSION: 20% of people who try on a garment go on to make a purchase. 20% of 20,000 opt-ins, equals 4,000 customers.

4)      ITEMS PER SALE: Let’s keep it simple and say that each customer purchases one garment. So, 4,000 garments were sold to new customers.

5)      AVERAGE ITEM VALUE: Let’s say the average item value is $100. Total sales are $400,000 ($100 × 4000 garments).

6)      TRANSACTIONS PER CUSTOMER: Again, keeping it simple, let’s say that you don’t currently receive any repeat business, so the number of transactions per customer is 1. Total sales are still $400,000.

7)      PROFIT MARGIN: After wages, energy bills, and purchase of stock, your profit margin on each sale is 50%. Your net profit, then, is $200,000 (50% of $400,000).

Straightforward so far?

Good. Now let’s look at what happens if we increase each lever by a mere 10%.

1)      TRAFFIC: 100,000 customers increased by 10% comes to 110,000 customers.

2)      OPT-INS: You increase your opt-in rate of 20% by 10%, bringing it to 22%. That means that 24,200 people (22% of 110,000) try on a garment.

3)      CONVERSION: You increase your conversion rate of 20% by 10%, bringing it to 22%. So, your total number of sales is now 5,324 (22% of 24,200).

4)      ITEMS PER SALE: A 10% increase of 1 item per customer is 1.1 items per customer. This simply means that one in every ten customers purchases two garments. Total items sold are now 5,856 (1.1 x 5,324 – rounded down).

5)      AVERAGE ITEM VALUE: Average item value has increased from $100 to $110. Revenue is now $644,160 ($110 x 5856).

6)      TRANSACTIONS PER CUSTOMER: As with items per sale, this increases to 1.1 which means one in every 10 customers now comes back another day to make a second purchase. Revenue is now $708,576 (1.1 x $644,160).

7)      PROFIT MARGIN: Margins have increased from 50% to 55%, which makes your net profit $389,716.80 (55% of $708,576).

And there’s your proof.

In the first example, your net profit was $200,000. But in the second example, by increasing each lever by just 10%, your net profit increased to $389,716.80, almost doubling your bottom line.

Aside from being a rather cool mathematical trick, the significance is that this strategy allows you to double your profits, simply by slightly improving your existing numbers.

This is far easier than the alternative.

If you’re receiving 100,000 visitors a month to your website, setting out to double that to 200,000 is difficult.

Really difficult.

But increasing your traffic to 110,000, a relatively small 10% increase, is much more achievable, perhaps by spending a little more on PPC or a little more time improving your SEO.

The same is true of your sales conversion percentage.

Doubling your conversion rate is also difficult to do, but improving it by 10% can be achieved by testing some different headlines, or by adding a trust seal.

You could aim to focus on just one lever per month, for seven months.

And at the end of that time, you’ll have almost doubled your profits.

This strategy is so much easier than trying to fix everything at once. Spend a whole month on just one lever and you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

We could spend a whole article on each lever, considering how it can be improved. However, what you often find is that, when you focus on just one aspect of your business, you quickly notice leakages, namely areas where you’re underperforming due to something that can quickly be fixed or improved.

Before you know it, you’ve made a 10% increase and you’re ready to move on to the next lever.

Oh, and by the way, although increasing each lever by 10% almost doubles your profits, increasing each lever by 20% increases your profits by…

Wait for it…

258.3%

If you want to run some numbers of your own, there’s a free calculator that you can use at http://www.7leverscalculator.com/.

7 Levers of Business (or How to Double Your Profits) is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Credibility… Believability… Proof…

You need more of it. That’s what everyone says. There are even entire books and courses written on how to get it.

But you know what I say? It’s this:

Boosting your credibility is necessary but it’s always much easier if you do one thing.

I’ll explain what that one thing is in a moment. First let me introduce myself.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Rich Schefren.

I’ve been in the business world for over 20 years now, and during that time I’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs grow their own businesses (and grown three multimillion-dollar businesses of my own).

I’m known as the “Guru to the Gurus.” I got that reputation because I’ve coached 90% of the gurus in the Internet marketing industry today, and personally helped all my clients build their credibility.

And over the years, I’ve found boosting your own credibility is always easier when you…

Improve Your Substance

What I mean by that is…

Keep focusing on making your products or services better. Make all your products and services as great as you can. Strive ever and ever to create more value for both your prospects and clients.

What’s that? You say you are already doing that? And you’re not getting all the notoriety and recognition you deserve? And it’s costing you sales and profits daily?

Then let me show you how it’s done.

Today we’re going to drill down into all the particulars of proof. How to best leverage it to enhance your believability and credibility.

First, I want to share an incredible gem Dan Kennedy shared with me. Pay careful attention, because this one is a game changer.

The Game Changer

You see, most marketers think there’s only 1 level of proof. But they’re wrong.

There are, in fact, three levels of proof. Here they are:

1. Proof you can do it
2. Proof you can help others to do it
3. Proof you can help someone worse off than your prospects do it

Now, obviously, all three are important.

But don’t you know, it’s the third type that is often the most difficult to get and the most explosive in generating blockbuster sales.

Here’s why:  Low self-esteem is epidemic. So even when you prove you can do it, and you’ve helped others do it too, your prospect may not believe you can help them do it.

Why? Because they believe they’re…

Beyond Hope.

And that, my friend, will stifle your sales more than you might imagine.

Up till now, you could often rely on testimonials to plug this leak in your sales.

And so in my next post, I’m going to share a plethora of ways to establish more proof.

Consider it a smorgasbord of vehicles to pick and choose from. And while you might not use all of them in any one campaign, the more you do use the more bulletproof your positioning will be.

And, more importantly, your prospects will have…

Confidence You Can Solve Their Problems

Make sense?

Keep in mind there are tons of ways to build up the proof that you have what it takes to solve your clients’ problems.

I have six specific ways to build credibility that I give my own business clients. I’ll get into those in my next guest post here.

In the meantime, if you want to know more about how to use your past experiences to build credibility, check out my post on How to Leverage Your Strengths.

To higher profits and beyond,
Rich Schefren

P.S. Right now, Rich and I are gearing up to launch a new course – Profit Hacks. In this course, we reveal how we manage to run our entire ‘Internet Marketing Businesses’ in just a few minutes every day – leaving plenty of time to run our other businesses, make time for family, and train for triathlons (well that last one is just me). For now, this product is closed to new clients, but we’ll let you know right here when this product is available once again.

Marketing an Online Business? Step #1 – Create Credibility is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
Don't miss out on the comments people like you have left, view this post online here: Marketing an Online Business? Step #1 – Create Credibility

But triage is actually found in all walks of life. Including business.

The word “triage” comes from the French word “trier” which means to separate or select. So, in business terms, triage is about allocating limited resources in the best possible way.

If you’re a multibillion-dollar company with endless resources that can be thrown at every problem, then triage may not be necessary, but for everyone else with finite money, staff and time, business triage is something we have to do, almost on a daily basis.

We have to decide what to spend our time on, what jobs to give our employees, and where to spend our marketing budget, equipment budget, and so on.

But here’s the thing…

If the concept of business triage is something you’ve not really thought about before, then you have a problem. If you’re performing business triage on a regular basis without being fully conscious of exactly what it is you’re doing, then you’re more likely to make emotional, rather than logical decisions.

And as we’ve discussed before, emotional decisions can be a problem.

Medical personnel are trained to assess their patients so they can make accurate decisions about whom to treat first based on logic, rather than emotion. They can’t decide to treat John first because he’s a buddy, and they can’t decide to treat Mary first because they really enjoy removing bullets from an open wound.

They have to make logical decisions that give them the best chance of achieving the best possible outcome.

Try looking up “triage” on Wikipedia and you’ll discover that different countries, all over the world, have their own specific triage systems in which medical personnel are trained to help them make the right choices.

Shouldn’t your business have a triage system as well?

When work starts piling up and multiple problems occur simultaneously, wouldn’t it be smart to have a set of rules that allow you to dispassionately decide what to focus on first?

Let’s have a look at a couple of examples in which business triage can help you make smart decisions.

 1. Falling Profits

Your sales forecast for the year is turning out to be wildly optimistic.

Something has to be done.

You boldly decide to drop $10,000 on a national radio advertisement campaign.

A trickle of new customers arrives as a result, but not enough to cover the marketing spend, and you’re now in a worse position than when you started.

The mistake you made was assuming that the problem was a lack of new leads, when this is only one part of the sales funnel.  What about website bounce rates? Sales page conversion rates? After-sales care? Refund rates?

Immediately assuming the problem is a lack of leads, in medical triage terms, is akin to treating the first patient you find without examining all of the other patients to see if there are conditions that require more urgent treatment.

If you’d analysed every aspect of your sales process, you’d have discovered that 70% of your visitors were abandoning the sales process when they arrived at the checkout page, indicating that there’s something seriously wrong with the structure or technology on that page.

It’s all too easy to panic and make a knee-jerk decision, when what you should be doing is stepping back and viewing the whole picture before making a decision.

You still have a decision to make, usually along the lines of, “do I tackle the biggest problem first or the problem that’s easiest to fix?”

But in this case, a 70% drop-out rate on your checkout page is easily recognised as the biggest problem and, as it turns out, it’s just a browser compatibility snafu that is quickly fixed.

The 70% drop-out rate drops to just 5%, which means your sales will more than triple.

And the fix cost you a heck of a lot less than $10,000.

Of course, this business triage process is impossible if you’re not measuring every aspect of your business. You can track almost everything with Google Analytics, and it’s free to use.

So, no excuses.

2. Business Focus

You’ve outlined seven different strategies for improving the profitability of your business. But which one do you focus on first?

You figure out which strategy is going to have the greatest impact on your business and plough all your energies into it.

It’s a big job though. Six months later, and the project still isn’t complete. The business is running low on funds and you begin to fear that your business may fold before you can reap the fruits of your labour.

The mistake you made was assuming that the most powerful – and most complex – strategy was the best place to start, when three of the other strategies you’d considered could have been knocked out in less than a month, busy adding to your bottom line while you turned your attention to the larger project.

In medical triage terms, that’s like immediately treating the sickest patient that requires nine hours of complex surgery, while three other patients die from something you could have fixed in five minutes.

The problem stems from focusing on the outcome, and not giving consideration to the work required to get there.

When moving your business forward it’s often smarter to begin with the low-hanging fruit, achieving some quick success, before moving on to more long-term projects.

Triage is used in all branches of medicine, but triage on the battlefield is perhaps the most unusual. At times the medic will ignore the most seriously injured sickest patient, reasoning that it’s unlikely that any treatment will be effective. Far better to spend time on patients who are critically ill but, if treated, have a good chance of survival.

I’d hate to have to make decisions of that kind, but doesn’t it emphasise the importance of not immediately responding to what’s in front of you, and using your training to make smart choices.

What both of the above examples have in common is that they involve stopping everything, standing back, and viewing the whole picture.

Not some of the picture. Not some of the bits you like, while ignoring the tricky stuff.

You must be calm and collected, assess the issues, assess what needs to be done, and finally consider the context (link to article “How do People See Your Business – Context is Everything”).

Performing Business Triage (Don’t Get Emotional) is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Not because of the whole “maths is complicated” thing, but because what those numbers reveal can highlight problems that are difficult to solve.

You’ve probably heard the expression:
You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

Well, this is especially true in marketing.

You have to know your traffic numbers. You have to know your conversion rates. You have to know which members of your sales team are performing.

The numbers might not make for pleasant reading, but this only emphasises the importance of paying attention to them.

This “head in the sand” reluctance to consider the facts isn’t a phenomenon unique to small businesses. Medium, and even large, companies can be equally as guilty of this form of denial.

For example…

A little while ago I worked with a company who were looking for some help with their marketing.  They told me three things:

1)      Their website was converting at 6%.

2)      Most of their business came from repeat customers.

3)      They’d recently generated 800 new visitors through AdWords, but it wasn’t proving to be a profitable marketing exercise.

I should probably add that I knew the person who helped them with AdWords, and he really knows his stuff. So I was confident that the AdWords campaign was managed properly.

But from just those three facts, I knew there was a problem.

Can you spot what it is?

…

The answer is that the 6% conversion is probably incorrect.

How do I know this?

Let’s look at the numbers.

If the website is converting at 6%, then the 800 new visitors arriving through AdWords should have resulted in…

800 x 6% = 48 new customers

Since most of their business comes from repeat customers, it’s safe to assume that many of those 48 new customers will make repeat purchases.

Now, at the time, I didn’t know what the average profit per customer was, but assuming it was just $100, that AdWords campaign should have represented…

48 customers x $100 = $4,800

Based on those numbers, unless they were paying in excess of $6 a click (not bad if you’re a mass tort lawyer, but ridiculous for everyone else), the AdWords campaign should have been a profitable one.

So, from that, my hunch was that the 6% conversion rate was inaccurate and probably artificially inflated by including sales from existing customers.

The takeaway?

Basing your business decisions purely on overall conversion rates is very, very foolish.

The larger lesson from this example is that your understanding of your business is limited to how well you know your numbers.  The more data you have, the smarter the choices you can make.

It’s important to know how well your website converts new visitors because this enables you to calculate the cost of generating a new customer. But it’s equally important to know how many of your customers make repeat purchases because this allows you to calculate the life-time value of a customer and, in turn, how much you can afford to spend on marketing.

These calculations can make a huge difference.

Let’s work through an example:

Your website converts at 10% (congrats!) and the profit you make from each sale is $100.

So, 100 visitors will result in 10 customers, with a total profit of $1000.

The average profit value of each visitor is worked out as…

$1000 profit, divided by 100 visitors, equals $10.

This means that, as long as your marketing spend works out at less than $10 per visitor, you’re going to turn a profit.

So far, so good.

But, if you also know that 50% of your customers purchase a second time (for simplicity’s sake, we’ll say that the second purchase is the same value as the first), then that means 100 visitors will, in the long run, results in 15 sales, pushing the total profit up to $1500.

Now, the profit value of each customer looks like this…

$1500 profit, divided by 100 visitors, equals $15

Providing those conversion rates are consistent, you now know that you can increase your marketing spend to as much as $14.99 per visitor and you’ll still turn a profit. Albeit a very small one.

What’s interesting about the above example is that, if you didn’t have the data on repeat spends, you wouldn’t be able to calculate the life-time value of a customer, and the amount you’d be willing to spend on marketing would be reduced by a third.

If you’re in a very competitive market, this knowledge can mean the difference between leading the pack, and languishing at the back.

Successful business people know their numbers but they also understand the value of viewing them in the correct context. Google Analytics is really helpful in this regard because it allows you to attach filters to your data.  You can, for example, generate separate reports for first-time visitors and repeat visitors.

Don’t just look at one number. Consider them all, and consider them in context.

Numbers are crucial. But you have to be prepared to put the time and effort into measuring and analysing everything.

Understanding Your Business Metrics (Consider ALL the Numbers) is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Earlier today, I hosted an incredible livestream with the “Guru to the Gurus,” internationally known business coach, Rich Schefren in South Florida.

Right in the middle of this livestream, I recorded a quick podcast for the Preneur Community.

(That’s a quick profit hack of mine – taking a livestream or interview and turning it into a podcast. And right now, we’re turning that podcast into videos, and even articles like this one.

…Like I said, productivity on steroids.)

And during this podcast, Rich and I revealed something that I want to share with you here…

It’s the importance of demonstrating things to your clients. That’s what we were doing during this podcast, and during that livestream.

Now why do you want to do that? Let me explain…

It’s All About Proof

If you’re marketing anything, you need some way to show your audience that not only do you know what you’re talking about, but also what you’re suggesting actually works.

Now of course, you can do that with testimonials, or case studies.

But a demonstration is so much stronger. It’s the show, don’t tell that gives everything you do a “wow” factor.

It takes a certain amount of confidence to say “I’m going to do this right now and show you it works.”

I’m going to work without a net right now, and I won’t fall while you’re watching.

And you’re going to see the outcome right here, and now.

So you need to think about what you could demonstrate that would show your prospects that you are the expert to follow and get advice from.

For example, if your expertise is teaching people how to get appointments through cold calling, you could film yourself picking a random number out of the phone book, and calling them.

If you got the appointment right there with your audience watching, that would be infinitely stronger than any testimonial ever would be.

Because you just showed you can actually deliver on your promises.

You just demonstrated to your prospects – who are desperate to learn cold calling – that you can teach them how to do exactly what they need.

Another demonstrations that I like to tell my followers…

If you were a locksmith, you could easily put $5,000 in a locked box in the middle of a busy strip mall and say if anyone can get into it – they get the $5,000.

That’s a powerful demonstration that will help you draw a crowd and followers.

A Demonstration You Can Use Again and Again

On the livestream, Rich gave another type of demonstration.

In his business, he has coached a large majority of the largest, most popular Internet Marketers in the world.

In his marketing, Rich can truthfully and legitimately list these big superstars as his past clients. Any future clients can look at that list and recognize these names who have paid Rich thousands to get his strategies.

That’s a demonstration of competence and authority.

When you have that kind of powerful demonstration, you can get a much higher buy-in from your prospects.

When you can do this type of live or even past demonstration, it shows you have the chops to do exactly what I say I can.

So next time you’re looking for that “wow” factor if your marketing, think show don’t tell – it will pay off huge, I promise.

Show, Don’t Tell: The Importance of Demonstration is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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Being an entrepreneur means going to sleep knowing you’ve finished everything you need to do for the day—yeah right!

More likely, if you’re an entrepreneur, when your head hits the pillow, you’re immediately thinking of employees, projects, deadlines, revenues, your competition, your need to network—need I go on?

Thoughts of things you SHOULD be doing start popping up—and that’s why a lot of entrepreneurs get their best ideas at night—when they’ve hit the sack, and their mind is wandering about all the things the need to get done.

The myth here, one that I see many business owners believing, is that that’s how it SHOULD be! That all entrepreneurs must toss and turn all night worrying and stressing about tomorrow, because that’s the nature of owning a business, right?

Wrong.

I’m going to completely debunk this myth, and show you why you can and should be getting a good night’s sleep regardless of how many businesses you own.

Tossing and Turning

For most of us internet marketers, when we’re tossing and turning, we’re worrying about things like blogging, social media, market leadership—activities that need consistency, and that if done right, can bring in a huge revenue boost.

You know that if you had a blog that was being posted to on a daily basis with good content, people would become loyal readers of your blog and over time you would have a following.

That would mean boosted revenues for you, and more money in the future.

So the question is why don’t you have that?

Up until now, your choices have been:

1. Spend an abhorrent amount of time doing it yourself—and maybe not even at the best quality.
2. Outsource the work, cheaply and quickly—which means sacrificing your integrity and putting out content that really makes no difference…

What my close associate and millionaire entrepreneur, Pete Williams, has figured out is that you don’t have to make any of those concessions. You don’t have to spend a lot more time and money—and you definitely don’t have to sacrifice your integrity.

In just a bit, ’ll show you how with a few simple techniques—perfected by Pete—and one other person on your team, you can create fresh, valuable content every day…

Giving you the edge as a market leader and getting your audience to know, like and trust you.

So lets get down to the nitty gritty…

I’m going to break down one of our Profit Hacks that will show you how to build market leadership and how to blog daily, in just a few minutes per day.

And just for clarity, a Hack is a way around. It’s a shortcut.  It’s a way of getting an outcome that might not be traditional.

Kind of like computer hackers—except at Strategic Profits we’re hacking business models and processes.

If you can hire one person, or bring on a partner, to help you with these hacks, your workload will be cut in more than half, and your revenues will double.

If you’re not at the point where you’re ready to bring more people on to your business, you can use the same hacks on your own, as you begin to build and grow your company.

So let’s say you do have someone you can hire or work with—we’ll call this person your Virtual Assistant.

Market Leadership

In this example, have your Virtual Assistant (VA) go out and search the forums that are active in your niche.

Next, have your VA find the questions you like (trust me, over time your VA will get better at spotting which questions you answer to and which ones simply don’t pertain to your expertise) and send links to each of the questions in one email.

Take a quick look at the questions. Pick the ones you can answer with confidence and record your answer as an audio file (there are several free apps online that will do it for you), and send it back to your VA.

Now, your assistant can transcribe your answer (don’t forget to have him/her remove all the “um’s” and “uh’s”), post right onto the forums, and even combine all of your answers into one, valuable blog post, Podcast for iTunes, a press release, etc.

The integrity is still there because it’s your voice and expertise that you’re recording… And yet you’ll only spend 3-5 minutes a day to have your blog updated daily with your own, original content.

And that’s what I’m talking about when I call these little practices “Profit Hacks.”

You know that having a blog filled with your good posts on a daily basis would help your business and that by not doing it, you’re missing out on potential income.

And now, you don’t have to worry about having the time to blog, either.

So the idea is that we are able to do a lot more in much less time and less work, all while making a lot more money thanks to these Hacks.

And using these hacks leaves you with a lot more free time simply because of the how efficiently things are getting done, so that is a big element in this blog post.

This is just one of the hacks we feature in our Profit Hacks program. Here at Strategic Profits, we apply tons of shortcuts to our processes from content creation, to market leadership, to team building.

So next time you’re lying in bed, tossing and turning about everything you need to get done for your business—remember, it’s just a myth. You can work half as much for twice the profits!

To higher profits and beyond,

Rich

Forget Outsourcing—Your New Virtual Assistant Will Cut Your Work Load in More Than Half! is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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