Hello,
If you're a business person in Nigeria or Ghana, please contact me. I'm looking for a secure drop off and also seeking information about pop up shops, I know that landlords in Africa prefer to let long term but times they are a changing.
Anyway if you're in either of these locations or you have any helpful information please get in touch and we can speak more via email or whatsapp.
Thanks.
Anne.
So since 2008, I've been consulting privately with small business owners helping them craft business models that have helped them reach and exceed the million-dollar mark, pitch million dollar business ideas to investors and just become better business people. In 2010 I decided to stop private consulting though and started working on my own million-dollar vision. So far so good.
Over the course of 18 months I've been heavily using social media, I've begin to notice the need for many business women in particular who could use my expertise so it seemed natural that now I get back into private consulting but this time virtually. So I decided to host a free webinar to introduce my platform and knowledge and to truly add my value to the entrepreneurship conversation.
Making a long story short, the original goal of the program was to give high value content away for 60 minutes and completely free and then do a follow-up webinar with even MORE high content and charge $37. And then a series of follow-up marketing strategies. People were signing up and getting so excited about both webinars, and even paying the fee and enlisting others to join. I created a discount package and everything. It was working but something about it though felt just WRONG!
NO NICKELS AND DIMES AND WASTED ENERGY ALLOWED!
Sure I know the marketing experts would say “well maybe you didn’t go about it the right way” and yes I noticed a few things, but what made me NOT want to move forward with a different strategy to sell was the fact that I didn’t “feel” right selling $37 product.
Even though I knew what I was offering was worth $300,000 or more in potential for the attendees, it felt like I was nickeling and diming and it just felt wrong. I knew that I could easily earn a modest monthly salary off just one webinar, but it felt like I was excerting the wrong energy looking to see how many people registered, if I’d met my profit goals, would I put another announcement out, etc. Yes all the things you should do if you’re launching a product but all the effort I put into it for just a few thousand dollars felt well..like a waste of energy when I knew ultimately what the attendees needed I had to offer them and no I couldn’t offer it for $37 even if 100,000 ppl registered.
THE CLASH OF THE EGO VS SELF-WORTH: ONE WANTS SURVIVAL-MODE THE OTHER LIVE IN WEALTH-MODE
In short, my ego had a major clash with my self-worth and value. And I would argue that many of you solo-preneurs, coaches, infopreneurs, etc have had the same issue (well maybe after this blog post you will). Where my self-worth which has been developed to what it is to day after 15 years was saying “Katrina just give it way please dahling, you don’t need to nickel and dime for quick cash” my ego was saying “but this is good stuff! I need to charge for this are you kidding me??? I’m not going to miss an opportunity to make $3000 in one hour” but here’s the thing, that methodology which I KNEW at the time was against what I truly believed is what many solopreneurs subscribe to. It’s what I call the survival mode or the “me” mode. It’s difficult to see yourself as powerful beyond measure, you’ve just figure out how to get comfortable working for yourself. Now you have to start thinking about millions? Me? All I have is just my brain power and a few skills.
Continue the blog by reading here.
And while you're there, grab my FREE ebook!
We attended this years annual trade show put on by the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is known for its themes and putting on a great show. I don't know if it is the economy or the cloud hanging over their head from the lawsuit that they have lost on two judicial levels, but it was not the same.
This years theme was "Walking the Red Carpet." The Chamber as usual did a great job. They had the red carpet set up complete with backdrop. Kidder and staff were dressed for the event. The vendors this year made NO effort to get into the theme. This year only one or two booths even made an effort by dressing in after 5 attire.
Last years' theme was "The Fabulous Fifties" and the vendors were all in. The winner of the best booth design was very hard to pick. We wanted a hair salon to win. They had cigarette girls and a nail tech who dressed as Madge from the old dishwashing detergent commerical (Dawn I think) she even had a bottle in her pocket. The booths were Fabulous.
I know the economy is in the tank, but if you're going to spend the money for a booth, you have to put your game face on and give your best effort.
If you had spent the money on a booth what would your selling technique have been? Would you have gotten in the spirit of the theme, or would it be business as usual?
I gravitated to those who made an effort. I noticed others who attended did also, even they weren't the ones you originally intended to see.
Are you interested in being a vendor?
Selling your goods or products at
our 7th Annual Black Essence Awards Expo!
When: October 9th 2010
10:00am - 2:00 pm est.
Where: Century Center
120 South Saint Joseph ST.
South Bend, Indiana
(check map quest for location)
Cost: $ 40.00 per table
Contact: Karen Pfeifer 269-934-0941 for registration or more information.
Also, your information will be placed on our vendor list, we will contact you
for our next scheduled events.
Marketing is a contest for people's attention. Traditional mass marketing fights for people's attention by interrupting them. A 30-second spot interrupts your favorite TV show, a telemarketer calls right when you are sitting down to dinner. In the past, this has been quite effective. But now, there's been a paradigm shift. There's too much information - too much going on - and we're being overloaded with interruptions.
Last year, the average consumer saw or heard over 1 million marketing messages - that's close to 3,000 per day. No one can pay attention to that many distractions. So what consumers have started to do is ignore them. So how does a small business owner combat that?
Most small business owners complain that "Nobody knows who we are or what we do!" I know the answer to that predicament: "They don't tell anyone!" And if they are marketing and promoting - they are not doing it effectively. They are forgetting who their customer is (target market) and they give little consideration to how to reach them.
Most companies market haphazardly. They are drawn in a million marketing directions and often fail to create a targeted marketing strategy.
Just like The David Letterman Show - Here's a list of Top Ten Small Business Marketing Mistakes:
1. a different logo, look and tagline with every promotional piece
2. Believing one or two print ads will give a business instant success
3. Not hiring professionals to do a professional job
4. Forgetting to make the most of a first impression
5. Not understanding, defining or remembering your target market
6. Creating a marketing plan but never looking at it or implementing it
7. Neglecting to track marketing dollars - return on investment
8. Ineffective use of time and money with networking and charitable giving
9. Selling features not solutions, benefits and value to the customer
10. Not reserving their domain/URL
Have you evaluate last year's marketing plan or do you have a plan at all?
Planning is the key to effective marketing - but it doesn't have to be complicated or costly.
STOP BEING THE BEST KEPT SECRET. STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD.
Why are some authors doing so much better than others? We've discovered seven key mistakes that most eBook authors make (and in doing so, hold themselves back from major success):
