Three Business Rules You Should NEVER Violate

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One of the reasons I got into teaching was a special notebook I kept throughout the early years of my freelance career.

In that notebook, I wrote down every non-writing rule I came across in business. These were not the tactics and tricks and secrets I was using to actually write copy. All those notes and insights went into different files.

No, this one special notebook was simply called “Nuggets”. I was hanging around stars, geniuses and wizards who constantly spouted little tidbits of wisdom — the guiding rules of their life — and I was astonished that few people were as knocked out by the power of these nuggets as I was.

I started my career as a freelance copywriter in a state of near-utter cluelessness… and I pounced on every shred of advice and insight I could find. I guarded that notebook like it was gold.

There was more to living a good life than just earning big fees as a writer.

As I began to taste success and enter doors previously closed to me, I saw the wreckage of ruined lives all over the place — guys who had achieved great things in business, but whose personal lives sucked beyond belief.

The first decision, I realized, was simply taking the obvious steps to getting your professional act together.

But the next decision was just as critical — and usually overlooked.

You gotta get your mojo together, too.

You must weld the Yin to the Yang.

I can always tell when a copywriting student is gonna go places in this biz — he pays as much attention to the non-writing advice as he does to the specifics of crafting sales pitches. Most are too full of raw ambition to see that “success” needs to be defined… and it’s different for everyone.

Nobody gets out of this world alive.

In the end, it’s not how much you earned, but how well you lived that matters.

And that’s where these “nuggets” come in. Back in the ’80s, there were oodles of books coming out that purported to tell you how to live. The best-sellers were like Robert Ringer’s works — tough, no-nonsense updates on Machiavelli and Sun Tsu’s “Art of War”. It was good stuff… but a little lopsided on the “kill first, ask questions later” model.

If all you read was the hard-core “greed is good” manuals, you might have succeeded at reaching your goals… but there was a good chance you’d be alone at the end of the day. And miserable.

I was fortunate to discover the other side of the “rules for life” literary trend. Og Mandino, for all his sappiness, still delivered a useable message of hope and empowerment. And the Americanized Zen of David Reynolds (”Constructive Living”), when balanced against Ringer’s “take no prisoners” tactics, offered you a breathtaking menu of life lessons that came close to supplying you with what it took to be a complete person.

Still, I noted that many of the basic rules my mentors were relying on each day weren’t represented in the popular books.

So I kept meticulous notes. And I took the lessons to heart.

I’ll share just three with you here. A sliver of insight, culled from a long career at the edge.

I’ve called them “inviolate” rules… meaning, you shouldn’t violate them, ever, if you want to live a super-disciplined life.

But I noticed that even the most disciplined and ambitious and proactive guys I learned from… violated nearly every rule they had, at one time or another.

And that’s another rule: There are always exceptions.

The difference is all about keeping your eyes open, and acknowledging to yourself that you are consciously going against your own rule.

Sometimes, life is like a horror movie. Yeah, you should never go down into the dark cellar after hearing screams… but if you’re the go-to guy in the group, then that’s what you gotta do. Even if doing so goes against the very fiber of your being.

Here are 3 “inviolate” rules that are routinely violated:

Rule #1. No good deed goes unpunished.

It’s astonishing to me how often this rule proves itself. I’m a generous guy, and I was raised to enjoy doing things for people. It’s a habit. When I’m in a position to help someone else out, I often jump up and go out of my way. It’s just my nature — and I’m not alone.

Americans in general — despite our current spate of bad PR in the world — are generous people.

But you cannot do something for another human being with the expectation that you will be rewarded. First, because that diminishes the act of kindness.

And second… because doing something nice for someone often kickstarts a thought process in the person being helped that doesn’t end until he’s convinced you OWE him even more help. More of what you did for him, and more of everything in general.

The psychological roots of this weird thinking are deep, and if you pay close attention you’ll discover that even you have engaged in it. (I distinctly recall being overwhelmed with gratitude at the better-than-I-expected salary I received from a mentor… and, less than a month later, assuming he should also kick in for a new car. I was horrified to realize I was punishing him for kindness… but at least I caught myself, and nipped that ungrateful demon in my head in the bud.)

And yet… I have never stopped doing good deeds. The idea of going through life refusing to be generous just because many people will consider you their private sugar-daddy is… well, it’s an ugly idea.

I’ll continue to violate this rule… but I’ll be ever vigilant to the possible consequences.

Being generous doesn’t require that you be a sucker, too.

If I do something for someone out of the goodness of my heart, and they shit on it… well, fine. They’ve burned a bridge, and it’s not my problem.

And it’s not gonna sour me on helping others.

Rule #2: All clients suck.

This is an easy one. All clients DO suck… because the very nature of being a client means you want something from the person you’ve hired. And as much as that hired gun is a pro — with good work habits and a dedication to deadlines — he still resents the fact that his skills have been bought with coin.

I try to make my freelance students understand that they are, essentially, whores. You take the cash, and work up a rabid enthusiasm for your client’s business and life. You are his new best friend, and you’re in it with him 110%… until you’ve fulfilled your paid-for duties.

Then, you’re outa there like a kid on the last day of school.

And the client, once he has what he needs from you, can’t wait to see the door hit you in the butt (most of the time).

It’s an adversarial relationship. Each side feels they gave it up too cheap.

What’s funny about this… is that YOU suck when you’re own client. Writing for yourself is one of the hardest jobs you’ll ever take on… and you must assume a schizophrenic duo-personality if you’re gonna be successful. Cuz you gotta kick your own ass, and set your own deadlines.

Still… in the end, the savvy freelancers among us all continue to hire ourselves out to new clients… and the smart business owners among us continue to hire new talent.

With your eyes open, and no illusions that these people really are your new best friends, you can make it work.

Rule #3: Do not go into business with friends.

I’ve seen 30-year friendships burst asunder, long-term marriages collapse, and even brothers never speak to each other again… all after making the decision to go into business together.

The trouble is in believing your closeness will overcome all problems.

You know… the way teenagers believe love will conquer all.

If you truly value any relationship, you will build a wall between it and your business life.

And yet… I have consistently violated this well-established rule time and time again.

What saved me… was the reality check I gave myself and the other people in the drama: If this goes bad, I will kill the association where it stands.

And I’ve done it. Over the years, I have tried a dozen times to bring friends into the world of entrepreneurism, and especially advertising. They had nothing going in their lives, were rudderless and desperately seeking a clue… and I gave them one chance to come aboard.

I had a single simple requirement: They had to get serious.

I would bend over backward helping them the entire way — personally teaching them what they needed to learn, overseeing their efforts, being that “secret weapon” watching their backs at all times. I would take them on as a private project, and pour myself into the job.

But they had to get their game on, and do what I told them to do. When it was about business, we were no longer equals (as we were in regular life) — they had to obey, and follow through, and trust me.

Of the dozen I brought into the field… only ONE ever made it a career. The others just couldn’t get past the idea of their friend getting serious about all this… business crap.

The one who stuck it out? I still act like a drill sergeant around him when the subject is business… and he has prospered. And, we still have the friendship, mostly — it’s changed a bit, but we’ve made it work. It’s like putting on a different costume, playing a different role depending on the circumstances.

It can be done. It’s not easy, though. Most people screw it up… and lose the relationship.

I violate this rule just as I do the others — with my eyes wide open.

I’m even partnered up with one of my closest life-long friends… and while we watch out for the pitfalls, there is always the chance it could turn out badly. Money and success can ruin anything.

But in a full life, you choose your battles and you choose your rules.

And even the hard-core rules were made to be broken — if you pay attention.

Still, it’s good to know the rules in the first place. It’s sorta like having a flashlight as you go down those dank cellar steps.

No, wait — it’s like being able to rewrite the script as you go. Maybe not the entire plot, but a lot of it.

Yeah, we do need the stinkin’ rules.

We just don’t have to always follow them.

Stay frosty…

John Carlton, http://www.marketingrebelrant.com/

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Can You Franchise an Unsexy Concept?

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One of the most frequently asked questions that I hear, especially coming from my more entrepreneurial clients, is, “Why would anyone ever buy this franchise?”

This question is usually followed by a series of observations. “Anyone could do it.” “There’s nothing to this business.” “I don’t think this business can be franchised.” And of course, the final underlying question, “Why wouldn’t someone simply do this themselves?”

Their concern is a valid one. Some concepts are simply not well differentiated. Moreover, some of them have low barriers to entry.

So can a business that is not unique still franchise successfully? And if so, how?

The Mindset of the Entrepreneur
Whenever I hear these questions, my first response is to point to some of the undifferentiated concepts that have achieved high levels of success in the marketplace. “What about janitorial services—why have they been so successful?” Then I go through the list. Maid services. Lawn care. Carpet cleaning. Temporary and permanent placement firms. And of course, the list goes on and on.

The fact of the matter is, a significant number of franchise companies are in industries in which their products or services are not readily differentiated.

What these questioning entrepreneurs fail to understand is that, as entrepreneurs, they are the one group on earth that is perhaps the least suited to understand the mindset of the prospective franchisee.

The typical entrepreneur is, at least by my definition, someone who never saw a rule he or she did not want to break. And, in many respects, the entrepreneur is often the last person you would want to be a franchisee. The best franchisees are not the rule-breakers. And, in fact, the truly entrepreneurial are often the least inclined to buy a franchise.

The best franchisees are motivated adopters—people willing to accept some level of risk, but people who, nonetheless, are willing to follow the rules established by their franchisor.

But if the franchisee isn’t buying your “secret recipe,” what exactly are they buying?

Ultimately, what the franchise prospect is buying is a combination of two things: a strong value proposition plus a unique market position.

Developing the Value Proposition
If you are thinking about franchising a business that you feel isn’t particularly sexy or unique, chances are, you have already watched a number of your competitors come and go. Why did they fail, while you survived with a similar product or service? The answer is the system.

The system is the embodiment of all those things that make the ultimate difference between success or failure. Site selection. Lease negotiation. Advertising. Customer service. Branding. Positioning. Purchasing. Pricing. Merchandising. Hiring. Training. Managing. Quality control. Financial management. It can be found in everything from the products you buy to the way your people answer the phones.

When someone buys a McDonald’s franchise, they aren’t doing it because they want the recipe for the “special sauce” on the Big Mac. In fact, they probably aren’t doing it because they believe that McDonald’s serves the world’s finest hamburgers. But few would argue over the quality of their systems—which are among the best in the world.

The best companies not only have developed their systems, but they use those systems to ensure consistency at the consumer level.

And that is what your franchisees want to buy—a consistent consumer experience that has been proven in the marketplace.

And your job, as the franchisor of an undifferentiated concept, is to show the franchisee how to replicate your success. Through some combination of services and support, you need to teach your franchisee how to achieve what you have achieved. That will likely mean the development of training programs, operations manuals, site selection criteria, advertising guidelines and other elements of “the system” that will allow your franchisees to take advantage of the intellectual property you have developed over the years. Moreover, you will want to provide your franchisees with the benefits of your labor and your relationships—the brand, your purchasing power, etc.—that you have developed over the years. Combined, these elements constitute the value proposition that your franchisee will pay you for.

But the value proposition alone is not enough.

Positioning your Concept
Even the most mundane concept can work as a franchise if it can be replicated. But if your system does not have that special “sizzle,” you may have to work hard to sell it.

For those few concepts that are fortunate enough to be “first movers,” their first position in the market can be enough—assuming, of course, that they grow fast enough to maintain brand dominance. But for the rest of the franchisors out there, a value proposition alone will not be enough. The concept will need to be differentiated from others in the marketplace if it hopes to achieve any significant level of success.

Let’s take another look at McDonald’s. On its surface, especially in the early years, it was a simple concept—basically, hamburgers and fries with drinks. And for years after they started franchising, dozens of franchised competitors came and went. All, that is, except for a select few.

Burger King realized McDonald’s had staked out the “fast burger” segment in the market and knew if it were to compete with McDonald’s, it had to differentiate itself in the eyes of the consumer. So it adopted a position that McDonald’s could not attack: “Have it your way, at Burger King.”

The genius of this position was that Burger King had staked out a position to which McDonald’s could not competitively respond. Burger King’s operating system differentiated it from McDonald’s, and McDonald’s was not in a position to revamp its operating system to respond to this new threat. And Burger King prospered.

Over the years, more competitors came and went.

More than a decade later, Wendy’s was able to crack the “Big Two” using a different form of differentiation: marketing. At that time, both McDonald’s and Burger King were heavily promoting themselves to children. Wendy’s succeeded where others had failed by offering “old-fashioned” made-to-order hamburgers and promoting itself to an older audience, using an octogenarian spokesperson asking “Where’s the Beef?” and an offer that included “plenty of napkins”—which is not what the person feeding children may want to hear.

In order to succeed in franchising—especially if you are in a commodity-type market—you simply have to differentiate your concept from those of your established franchised competitors.

That differentiation can come at the operational level (as in the cases of Burger King), in the form of marketing (Wendy’s) or in a number of other forms. Some concepts differentiate themselves in the eyes of their franchisees by offering a lower investment franchise package (a double-drive thru hamburger operation is less expensive to build and operate than is a Burger King).

Others differentiate based on services: both high and low. Some franchisors tout their high levels of service. Some janitorial service franchisors, for example, will actually procure their franchisee’s customers—so all the franchisee has to do is to service the account.

Interestingly, others have taken just the opposite approach. Some carpet cleaning and postal service franchises got their start by promoting themselves as “the un-franchise,” touting minimal fees and minimal intrusion into the franchisee’s day-to-day operations.

Contractually, franchisors can differentiate themselves through a more liberal contract, through reduced fees or royalties (not a particularly good strategy, in most instances), through a bigger territory, or through different support services.

Be Best at Something
In fact, there are numerous ways for franchisors to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, even if they have a relatively undifferentiated consumer offering. But if you want to capture a long-term market position, you need to be perceived as being the best at something.

Retail consultant McMillan|Doolittle, in their groundbreaking work on the EST model for retail success, propose that a retailer needs to be the best at something in order to survive in today’s competitive marketplace.

The model, in grossly oversimplified terms, states that a retailer has to be best in one of five essential areas in order to “win” in the retail game:

• Biggest: a dominant assortment
• Cheapest: lowest prices
• Easiest: high-service orientation
• Quickest: fast-service orientation
• Hottest: fashion orientation

Moreover, the theory states that while retailers can choose to be two of these at once (biggest and cheapest, a la Wal-Mart), they will make a big mistake if they try to be more than two. They hold that the strategy of trying to be everything to everybody leads to a lack of position and a downward spiral in the market.

In franchising, especially when it comes to commodity-oriented concepts, many of these same principles apply. Over and above the need for a strong value proposition, the best franchisors will actively seek to command their desired position in the marketplace. You may find other things to differentiate your concept—or perhaps new ESTs where you can command the high ground.

One thing is for sure: If you don’t know how you want to be positioned in the marketplace, your prospects may end up being educated on your position by your competitors. And that is generally not a good strategy for sales success. For even more information on positioning, read "The Importance of Brand 'Sizzle.'"

---

Mark Siebert is the "Franchising Your Business" coach at Entrepreneur.comand the founder and CEO of iFranchise Group Inc.,a consulting company that helps businesses assess their franchising potential and develop and improve existing franchise systems.

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A Story About An Entrepreneur and the Real Meaning of Success & Wealth

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Rarely has any movie left such a lasting impression on the American public as Frank Capra’s all-time masterpiece --- “It’s a Wonderful Life.” We all know the story and have seen it many times.

On the surface, the movie appears to be a sappy, sentimental film which puts a smile on our face and brings tears to our eyes, every time. In reality, this film serves as a universal story of the enduring human spirit -- filled with many powerful lessons about life, business and money.

It’s our story -- yours and mine. It’s a story about the George Bailey within us all. It reminds us of our own human condition and the deep issues we must confront. Especially at year’s end, the story’s core message nudges us to take inventory of our lives, evaluate our worth and question our place in a world that does not behave as we often expect it.

The REAL STORY Behind the Story … Does This Sound Like YOURS?

As uplifting and inspiring as the end of this film is, “It's a Wonderful Life" has a very dark side as well. George Bailey, played by James Stewart, is a man at the end of his rope. Throughout his life, he has sacrificed his own needs to make everyone else happy.

Young and ambitious, he dreams of traveling the world, and accomplishing great things. However, George must abandon his plans, when his father suddenly dies, and he must take over his dad’s building and loan business to carry on the tradition. It is a well-respected business that genuinely puts people ahead of profit, yet in George’s eyes, it is the chain that ties his life down.

That is just the beginning of George’s spiral downward. One Christmas Eve, $8000 is misplaced by George`s absent-minded uncle, driving poor George deeper into despair. The combination of his own dashed dreams and the prospect of abandoning the town to Potter -- an old, corrupt man who represents the most despicable image of capitalism – sends George into an emotional crisis so large that he contemplates suicide. Rescued by an angel determined to get his wings, George is then shown how much good he contributed to the world, and what life would have been like if he hadn`t been born.

The REAL Message: 3 Profound Lessons About Money, Success and the Purpose of Life

LESSON 1: Failure is in the eye of the beholder. It’s all relative to your goals, expectations and values.

"It's a Wonderful Life” is a movie about a small town guy who thinks he is a failure and wishes he had never been born, It is only by getting a glimpse of what life would be like without him, does George get a major epiphany. “He is not a failure afterall.” He learns that he contributed to the happiness of many people, and that he made a difference.

Good things happen and bad things happen to us all. A bank run happens and someone nearly drowns. Yet, by the end of the movie, George Bailey reminds us -- as business owners -- that no matter what goals and dreams we are pursuing, real success comes from our journey and the lives we touch along the way.

LESSON 2: Our true wealth is measured by the love and support of family and friends. There is no $$ amount that can replace it.

In the beginning of the movie, all goes well for Bailey - a beautiful wife, a few children and a lot of friends. George even pursues his dream of building a village with affordable houses in Bedford. Unfortunately for Bailey, life spirals downhill after the Depression and then bankruptcy. It is at the point when Bailey is unable to handle the burden of all the people's money he cannot repay, he contemplates suicide and ending his misery.

In that moment, all George could see was the “dark” side. He loses perspective of the many blessings still in his life. At the end of the movie, George opens up a book given to him by his guardian angel with a handwritten note: "Remember: No man is a failure who has friends."

We too often fail to truly appreciate and treasure our homes, our family, our friends, and even life itself. Wouldn't it be nice if each of us could learn the lesson, as George did, that life is already wonderful? That where we put our focus determines if it is so?

LESSON 3: We all have a purpose in life. Our purpose is not something we decide. Rather it is something we discover. Through the events of our life, our purpose finds us.

As with George, we all go through life, with a certain amount of struggle and adversity. Sometimes life is frustrating,. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we might even reach the end of our rope and wonder “is this all there is? Why was I even born, anyway?”

George did not recognize his life purpose until he hit rock bottom and questioned his very existence. With the helping hand of his guardian angel, he got to see the truth. The roadblocks that forced him to sacrifice his dreams and instead serve the community where he grew up were, in reality, the stepping stones to living his life’s purpose.

If, like George Bailey, we could see what life would be like, had we not been born, we would realize how truly fortunate we are to simply be in this world. We would discover that every event in our life – no matter how mundane or how difficult -- somehow is leading us down the path of our life purpose.

No amount of personal or business failure, no amount of misfortune, no amount of struggle or turmoil can change the immeasurable value of our lives and the difference we are already making every step of the way. Our smallest contributions are often the most significant.

As we welcome a new year, may each and every one of you, take inventory of your life, through the eyes of George Bailey, and awaken to the real truth, "It’s a wonderful life."

Denise Corcoran - CEO, The Empowered Business (tm) - assists CEOs, executives and business owners in taking a quantum leap from the ordinary to extraordinary … from unrealized dreams to mastering their destiny … from slow growth to exponential results. Subscribe to her monthly ezine - The Empowered Business (tm) - and learn the legendary mindset, strategy and performance secrets of top business achievers. http://www.goldbar.net/go.php?id=7996&c=1738&ac=ezar

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The Biggest Secret To Successful Copywriting There Is

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In the 33-plus years since I created my first little piece of direct response sales copy, I've written considerably more than a thousand direct response ads, television spots and mail pieces.

Because nearly all of them were direct response promotions, each produced an easily measurable and almost immediate result. And over the years, as I studied those results, my approach to strategizing and creating sales promotions began to evolve.

Today, my work process is very different than it was in those early years. My first thought is no longer about the product benefits or even the product's USP. Nor do I begin each project by thinking about all the rational "reasons why" my prospect should buy.

Please don't get me wrong: It's not that I've discarded any of these techniques. They still have prominent places in every promotion I create. But something else has risen to the top of my "to-do" list when creating a promotion — and that change has produced the closest thing to sales miracles I have ever witnessed.

Dinosaurs still roamed the earth when I started my writing career. Back in the early 1970s, there were no computerized mailing lists, no toll-free order hotlines, no affordable fax machines, no FedEx or other overnight delivery services — and no personal mentors or coaches for aspiring copywriters.

Thankfully, I had The Giants to instruct me. I read, re-read and re-re-read the wonderful guides left for me by those who had come before — particularly, Claude Hopkins' Scientific Advertising, Rosser Reeves' Reality in Advertising and John Caples' Tested Advertising Methods.

Thanks to these Giants, I "knew" every ad was supposed to begin by identifying the benefits my product offered to prospects — the ways in which it made their lives easier, richer, and more rewarding.

I knew I should use the most powerful of these benefits to craft a compelling Unique Selling Proposition ... establish it right up front ... and turn it into a mantra throughout my copy.

And I understood the importance of fully developing every "Reason Why" my prospects should buy.

But there was a problem: My only assignments were from fund-raising organizations — groups that had no product to sell and offered little if any direct benefit to the donor!

Giving them money wouldn't relieve your rheumatism, banish bad breath, give you whiter teeth or make you attractive to the opposite sex. Nor would it help you avoid a disaster in the health or wealth departments, or even save you time in the laundry room.

In fact the only tangible, personal result of forking over a ten-buck contribution was that you'd wind up $10 poorer!

Sure — there were vague benefits in the selfless act of giving away money to a worthy cause — like feeling good about the good you were doing. But even at that early age, I suspected that writing an appeal letter or TV spot saying, "Give me money — it'll make you feel good" — wouldn't exactly set the world on fire.

Here again, fate stepped in for me ...

What could possibly be BETTER
than leading with a tangible benefit?

From the age of 16, I had held down a part-time job in a printing plant as a folding machine operator. But this wasn't just any printing plant: Its forte' was printing and mailing appeal letters for a national fund-raising organization.

And since I worked alone on the night shift, I had plenty of time to read every one of those 8-page appeal letters.

They amazed me. At the time, I had no way of knowing the letters were being written by Richard Viguerie, Steve Winchell and Jerry Huntsinger — the "Powers, Kennedy and Reeves" of the direct mail fundraising industry. But I did know that they worked: They convinced people to donate tens of millions of dollars each year to my employer.

Poring over those appeal letters while my folding machine thunked away all night long was a real eye-opener. Whether by instinct or trial and error, these geniuses had figured out that to get a donor to write a check for a good cause, they needed to go beyond the intellect — beyond rational, "reason-why" copy and beyond a snappy USP.

In short, they needed to stimulate powerful emotions about the subject at hand — emotions that their prospects already had gurgling around inside them.

And to do that, they had to begin at a different place: Not with the product, as my reading of the Giants' books had led me to do, but with a clear understanding of the prospect's state of mind and how he already felt about the subject at hand!

Armed with this understanding, Viguerie, Winchell and Huntsinger began every appeal ("sales") letter with a headline and opening that instantly activated their prospect's emotions and made it impossible for him to look away: A shot to the gut ... a kick to the groin or a right hook to the Adam's apple.

And once the copywriters had the prospect's resident emotions working for them, all they had to do was to keep those emotions on their side until the prospect had become as passionate about the cause as the writer was — and the check had been written and mailed.

And as I studied their letters, I realized something else: Viguerie, Winchell and Huntsinger were not stupid men. They were brilliant. They could have chosen the "easy" way — to get rich selling widgets that gave them dozens of tangible benefits to offer their prospects.

But these geniuses had intentionally chosen to specialize in the fund-raising field instead! Why?

Could it be that they knew something I didn't?

Could it be that they understood that the "curse" of having no benefits to sell, no "reason-why" copy to create and no USP to shout from the rooftops ... could really be a blessing in disguise?

Could it be that they believed starting with the prospect instead of the product — setting out to first identify and then activate the strongest emotions the prospect already has — might be a better way to go?

And if so, I asked myself, "What if you could do both at the same time?"

Instead of beginning with the product and merely trusting the prospect to respond positively to its benefits ...

What if I began by thinking about the prospect and how he must feel about the subject at hand — and then carefully crafted every part of my sales message to get those resident emotions working for me?

What if I began by selecting themes that connected most powerfully with those emotions? What if I added a kind of "emotional overlay" to every headline, every opening, every credibility device, every product benefit, every offer and every call to action?

Wouldn't the response be substantially better?

"Hmmmm ...!"

These angels on my shoulders
put millions in my pocket

A decade after I left that printing plant, the 30-something version of myself sat down at a typewriter in a musty basement bedroom in Minneapolis ...

My mission: To write a promotion that would sell rare Morgan silver dollars to subscribers of The Money Advocate investment newsletter.

The Money Advocate was published by a coin company; Security Coin & Bullion. And until I came along, they were doing just fine, using rational, left-brain, reason-why, benefit-oriented copy and a pretty good USP to sell about $360,000-worth of rare coins per month.

So there I sat, staring at a blank page, wondering how to begin. As was their custom by this time, the ghosts of Kennedy, Hopkins and the rest of the classic advertising choir were perched on my left shoulder — as close as they could get to the left side of my brain — chanting, "benefit ... Benefit ... BENEFIT!"

They wanted me to begin logically — by headlining and then focusing on the benefits of investing in rare coins.

Meanwhile, on my right shoulder, Viguerie, Winchell and Huntsinger were doing their dead-level best to out shout them, telling the right side of the brain to begin with the feelings my prospect most likely felt relative to my product: Lead with "emotion ... Emotion ... EMOTION!" they chanted.

So I sat there, turning that old Morgan Silver dollar over and over in my hand. What is it, really," I asked. Where did it come from? Where has it been? What does it symbolize?

Suddenly, I was reminded of the movie Somewhere In Time — in which Christopher Reeves was magically transported through time after seeing the date on a coin. I thought ...

"This isn't a coin, it's a TIME MACHINE!"

"If these coins could talk ..." I wrote, "what wonderful stories would they tell?"

"They would speak of a time gone by. Of the hardy prospectors who mined their silver. Of smoky saloons, honky-tonk pianos, raucous poker games and painted ladies.

"They would speak of freedom. Independence. Honor. The code of the West.

"The Morgan silver dollar was there with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday at the gunfight in the O.K. Corral. And it was on the poker table when Wild Bill Hickock drew his "dead man's hand" and succumbed to an assassin's bullet.

"They only look like beautiful and potentially profitable 'rare coin' investments. And while they are, they are also more: Each is touchstone with our colorful, uniquely all-American history that you can hold in the palm of your hand."

Then, just to keep my left-shouldered, left-brained "benefit" angels quiet (and to give my prospects' spouses a plausible reason why their significant others had succumbed), I included plenty of "reasons why" buying those coins was the smartest thing they could do. After all — they were great investments!

That copy, a two-page flyer, mailed on January 1. Thirty days later, it had brought in $3.6 million in sales — TEN TIMES MORE than my client's purely rational, logic-based, greed-driven approach had ever generated in a single month.

And that was just the beginning. Within one year, my new approach had my client selling $16 million-worth of rare coins each month, making him the single largest rare coin dealer in America — by far.

Flash forward ten more years ...

The 40-something version of myself sat down at his computer on the top floor of my four-story beach house on the Gulf of Mexico ...

I had just completed my second promotion for Health & Healing. The first had been gangbusters, generating eight times the response of any health package Phillips had ever mailed.

Now, it was time to write my headline (yes, I do it backwards) — a way to "grab prospects by the eyeballs" and compel them to open and read my sales copy.

Just to humor the benefit boys, I tapped out the word, "CURES." After all — that was what my copy was packed with and promised more of.

My left-brain angels — Kennedy et. al. — beamed triumphantly.

But what kind of cures were these? Which strong emotion do these kinds of drug-free, surgery-free remedies trigger in my prospects?

"Well," I thought, "The medical industry doesn't want us to know about these alternatives, and even tries to silence people who recommend them.

"So they're ... let's see ... 'prohibited?' No ... 'banned?' No ... 'censored?' Not quite ... 'forbidden?' No ... wait a minute ...

YES! That's it! That's my headline! FORBIDDEN CURES!"

I loved the word "forbidden." It felt like a mischievous child trying something "naughty" for the first time. It also made me feel resentment towards the self-appointed, supposedly superior, paternalistic establishment that believes it's a better judge of what's right for me than I do. It made me feel bound and determined to not just break, but shatter their stupid prohibitions!

And of course, the angels on my right shoulder — the "emotion" boys — loved it, too.

When it mailed, the package beat my control so handily that Phillips' mail quantities reached six million pieces in each 60-day mail cycle. The royalties were so good, I took the rest of the year off and played on the beach.

From genius to dunce
in the wink of an eye

Adding the right shoulder/right brain/ emotionally driven copy techniques practiced by the great fund-raising copy writers ...

... to the more left shoulder/left brain benefit/reason-why/USP approach to copy espoused by the world's greatest advertising copywriters ...

... was quite simply, the single greatest breakthrough of my career.

It was making me richer and more in-demand as a copywriter. And, being young and cocky, I was absolutely convinced that, like Kennedy, Hopkins, Reeves and the rest, I had something new ... something better than anyone had ever thought of before.

But I traded my newfound "genius" status for a dunce hat the minute I began re-examining — and really studied — the ads that Kennedy, Lasker, Hopkins and the other Giants had created during their lifetimes.

These guys may not have said much in their books about the importance of connecting with prospects' resident emotions — but they sure did it an awful lot!

In fact, whether by intent, instinct, or as the natural byproduct of their obsession with selling benefits, they did it all the time!

And as I read their words with new eyes, I even found this, from ad legend David Ogilvy:

"Researchers have not yet found a way to quantify the effectiveness of emotion, but I have come to believe that commercials with a large content of nostalgia, charm, and even sentimentality can be enormously effective."

I felt like a drooling moron. It had been right there in front of me all along — but I had been too obsessed with the nuts and bolts of meticulously identifying product benefits, writing "reason-why" copy and shouting my USP to even notice!

Had I simply emulated what the Giants did — instead of just studying what they said — I would have been miles ahead of the game!

Not only hadn't I invented the technique of identifying and then mobilizing my prospects' emotions to create greater attention, readership and response ...

... it had taken me years to figure out what the Giants had been trying to tell me all along!

Maybe I would have caught on sooner, if, early on, someone had shaken me by the shoulders, slapped me a couple of times and said ...

"People act on their emotions far more often than they do on their intellect alone.

"People buy for emotional reasons far more often than for merely rational ones.

"If you want people to act on your copy and buy your product, first determine how your prospect is likely feeling right now.

"Then, use your benefits as bridges to activate the emotions that will compel him to buy!"

Couldn't have said it better myself!

That's when my work process changed forever.

Put Dominant Emotion Marketing to Work for You NOW!

Instead of beginning like I once had and as many copywriters still do — by identifying product benefits — wouldn't it make more sense to put the prospect and his most compelling emotions FIRST?

Wouldn't it be better, for example, to ...

1. Begin by figuring out what the prospect's resident emotions are regarding the things the product addresses ...

2. Figure out which of those resident emotions are the strongest, most compelling, most "dominant" in his or her life ...

3. Identify the benefits my product offers that will most effectively enhance his strongest positive emotions and/or resolve his negative ones ...

4. Address those benefits in ways that keep the prospect's most dominant emotions working with me — and never against me ...

5. And as you review and edit your sales copy, wouldn't it make sense to keep making this kind of emotional connection at every opportunity?

Hope this helps!

Clayton Makepeace, www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/

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How To Make $400,000 Selling Ice

http://eat-healthy-every-day.blogspot.com/

http://www.iceculture.com

In a sleepy southwestern Ontario town no larger than an intersection marked by a family diner, a small company is doing very big, and very cool, business.

Iceculture Inc., known for manufacturing and selling ice blocks and sculptures, has carved out its biggest single contract ever: $400,000 to build an all-ice restaurant, called Chillout, in Dubai, the first of eight projects the family-run company will produce for Sharaf Group, a Middle East consortium. "This is the single-largest, most lucrative project we have ever undertaken," says Iceculture owner Julian Bayley, a former Fleet Street journalist.

Raising Iceculture's profile internationally may be the greatest benefit of the deal. Despite growing global competition in the ice trade, few businesses have the staff Bayley can throw at a project; a recent Toronto wedding featuring massive ice displays required 22 employees to set up. That, claims Bayley, is Iceculture's competitive advantage. The company's ability to make super-clear ice through a reverse osmosis filtration process that eliminates air bubbles is also in demand.

Bayley, 69, started making ice 18 years ago, when he ran a catering business. The quality of his ice punch bowls impressed ice carvers, who began requesting blocks of ice for their work. This led to clients in the events industry commissioning Iceculture to make elaborate displays, such as beaded ice curtains and ice lounges. As word spread, Iceculture found demand for its creations as far away as Australia and South Africa. But the Dubai project is special. "They are aiming for the wow factor," says Bayley. "They just do not see ice like this in the Middle East."

The ice for the Chillout restaurant will be shipped in freezer trucks from Hensall, about an hour's drive north of London, Ont., to freezer containers aboard ships in Montreal that will embark on Feb. 3 on a 6,500-nautical-mile voyage to Dubai. In total, four containers, each holding about 23,000 kilograms of Ontario-made ice, will set sail to the Middle East. It will take nearly a month to get there, and the $150,000 worth of ice will take eight Iceculture workers about seven days to assemble into an 1,800-square-foot eatery that will open in the first week of March.

Chillout, anchoring a new mall being developed by Sharaf, will be constructed in a large freezer, as Dubai's temperature reaches an average of 28uC at that time of year. Ice will cover the walls and floor of the restaurant, concealing the freezer's appearance. Customers will lounge on ice furniture, cosy up to an ice bar and drink from, you guessed it, glasses made of ice. But they will hold non-alcoholic cocktails: Dubai, excuse the expression, is for the most part dry.

Other large Iceculture clients include NASA--which uses pure ice chunks, cut to exacting specifications, to test ice damage to its shuttles--and Boeing. Though it's the Dubai deal that has the potential to really boost the company's prospects. "This is such an unusual project," says Bayley. "If we do this right, it could mean a lot more business for us." For Bayley, who has gone from sculpting ice punch bowls to dining in the desert on ice, success is a dish best served cold.

[Via - Canadian Business]

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Six ways to keep your business alive

http://eat-healthy-every-day.blogspot.com/

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Starting your own company is a big challenge, but staying positive could be an even bigger struggle.

No matter what kind of business you have, if you are not committed to a "failure is not an option" mindset, you are setting yourself up for failure, says Neil Anderson, president of The Courage Group, a consulting firm for entrepreneurs.

Indeed, only two-thirds of new small businesses survive at least two years, and just 44 percent survive at least four years, according to a study by the U.S. Small Business Association.

To avoid becoming another start-up casualty, the right mental state is crucial.

So when the bills begin to pile up, and clients or customers are few and far between, don't be tempted to throw in the towel. Instead, keep your mind and mission on track.

Anderson offers these tips to help stay out of the failure trap:

Go mental. One of the most important elements to starting a successful business is being mentally prepared. Of course, skills, actions and good old-fashioned luck are also important factors, but it all begins with the right frame of mind.

To that end, stay away from people who are negative and may try to bring you down. Anderson admits that he fired his own girlfriend in the early stages of building his business, because of her pessimistic attitude (the relationship didn't work out either).

She would say things like "you used to make so much more money working for someone else," Anderson explained.

People can be negative simply because they are jealous that you had the courage to follow your own dream, not just talk about it, Anderson asserts.

Virtual reality. Although there will be many ups and downs, a light does exist at the end of the tunnel, and it is bright. By visualizing success, your actions will become more confident. And increased confidence breeds success.

Anderson advises entrepreneurs to think about why they started a business in the first place. Perhaps going back to work for someone else is not an option. In that case, just reminding yourself of the alternatives: being at the mercy of others controlling your life, playing corporate politics or reporting to incompetent bosses should be sufficient motivation to keep your mind right.

It's all about sacrifice. A big component of the "failure is not an option" mindset is knowing that certain personal or financial sacrifices will need to be made along the way in order to achieve your dream. Entrepreneurs who have made sacrifices and prospered did so because they realized early on that starting and building a great company comes with a price.

Risk is not a four-letter word. Keep in mind that success comes to those who recognize risk, are unafraid of it, and will execute on their ideas. If you are risk-averse, your chances of business survival will probably be slim.

"I cashed in all my chips, my 401(k), whatever I could... I was willing to bet it all," Anderson said of his consultancy firm, which he got off the ground in 2001.

A hungry dog hunts better. "My father said that to me at the outset," Anderson said. When clients or customers are few and far between and money is tight or nonexistent, successful past and future entrepreneurs will always find a way to drum up another sale.

When times get tough financially, you really have only two choices: decrease your expenses or increase your revenues.

A roadmap will lead you to success. A business plan, which is a written description of what you are going to do and how you are going to do it, is the entrepreneur's roadmap. It forces you to think about the entire operation and come to terms with the businesses strengths and weaknesses. Entrepreneurs who do their homework increase their chances for business success.

"Don't look at it as a hassle or burden, look at it as an opportunity to survive," Anderson said.

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What You Didn't Know About Payment Systems

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What you don't know can truly hurt your online business. This has never been more true than when you set out to choose an Internet payment systems. It's not so much that making a wrong decision can harm your business irreparably (although, it can); it's that there is so much information to process before you commit to a payment gateway and merchant account provider.

A Quick Review of the Basics
Payment systems — if we may simplify a bit — are the combination of a payment gateway and a merchant account that allow customers to buy goods and services online, and that allow an ecommerce business to process transactions and collect money. If your accounting model is such that your online business must be integrated with an existing enterprise billing system, then payment systems can reflect that need as well.
For our purposes, though, we'll refer to payment gateways and merchant accounts.

According to Webopedia.com, a payment gateway is the "service that automates the payment transaction between the shopper and merchant. It is usually a third-party service that is actually a system of computer processes that process, verify, and accept or decline credit card transactions on behalf of the merchant through secure Internet connections. The payment gateway is the infrastructure that allows a merchant to accept credit card and other forms of electronic payment."

Those payment gateways deliver information to merchant accounts, which in turn provide the structure for your business to receive funds. According to Webopedia.com, a merchant account represents "an industry term for a business banking relationship whereby you and a bank have arranged to accept credit card payments (usually, a local bank can suffice for this kind of relationship). Setting up a merchant account usually involves the bank understanding your business and working with a third-party processor to arrange a mechanism for accepting payments."

Many vendors offer a solution that ties a payment gateway into a merchant account — an all-in-one offering. However, merchants can select payment gateway solutions and merchant account providers separately.

As a general rule, payment gateways aren't an absolute requirement to do ecommerce on the web. You could theoretically take orders from a website and process them manually; entering credit card information into the PoS system you have at your brick-and-mortar store, finalizing the sale and distributing the goods yourself. However, most businesses don't have the time for that type of effort and, therefore, need both a payment gateway and a merchant account provider.

The question is: How in the world does one go about picking a provider for each?

How to Choose Your Payment Gateway/Merchant Account Provider
John Bodine, the vice president of sales and marketing for Authorize.Net, says business owners should choose a provider in much the same way they would any other vendor.

"Get an understanding of who you're dealing with," he said.

Bodine noted that the company's longevity and history should be weighed with as much importance as many other factors. He noted his company has 158,000 merchants that use the Authorize.Net payment systems platform, and has been in business for 10 years — rendering it practically ancient in web years.

However, Bodine also recognizes there is just a ton of information available on the web for businesses to use in the decision-making process. You might start with a basic Google search and then work your way into discussion forums and message boards, looking for recommendations from fellow ecommerce entrepreneurs who have already "been there, done that."

We did just that and came up with a list of common criteria businesses use to make payment gateway/merchant account decisions:

• Does the payment system require a conventional merchant account? Many new businesses without an established credit history might find it difficult to obtain a merchant account quickly.

What type of fraud protection does the vendor offer? Businesses want to protect themselves from charge-backs, the result of a thief using a stolen credit card to make fraudulent purchases.

• Does the vendor make it easy for your business to brand the payment system interface to look like it fits on your website, with your logo, with your colors and design?

• Is it possible to integrate the payment system into an existing billing mechanism?

• Beyond a basic 128-bit digital certificate used for security, does your payment systems provider offer a solution that is PCI-compliant?

• What is the time period between the finalization of a sale and the transfer of funds into your bank account?

• Can your payment systems provider handle global currency?

• Does your payment gateway vendor offer a solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing shopping cart and/or storefront software?

• How much does the solution cost, and how clear is the vendor about the fee structure?

• How easy is it to switch from the vendor's solution to another, should you become unsatisfied with the first offering?

Deciphering Rate Structures
Bodine told of customers who came to Authorize.Net citing dissatisfaction with other vendors' rate structures. Many business owners don‚Aot take a close enough look at the specifics of rate agreements when deciding on payment gateway and merchant account providers.

According to an article on Ourshop.com, there are three basic components of payment gateway fees:
• One-time fees
• Recurring monthly fees
• Transaction fees

The same article cites three components of merchant account fees:
• One-time fees
• Recurring monthly fees
• Transaction-related fees, accrued either per transaction or per an order total

Fee variance is significant, depending on the vendor you choose. For example, customers who select the Authorize.Net platform can obtain quotes from a number of resellers whose rates vary widely. A savvy shopper can find resellers offering rates significantly below a standard market rate. Other vendors, such as PayPal and Cybersource are pretty consistent in terms of fee structure.

An Alternative Payment Solutions Perspective
While Bodine cited Authorize.Net, Cybersource and VeriSign as the big three in the payment-systems marketplace, vendors such as PayPal and Google have made significant headway into what experts call the alternative payment-solution marketplace. In fact, Google has decided not to charge processing fees through the end of 2007 in order to help its Checkout product reach critical mass.

Google's Checkout system allows consumers to enter billing information one time in order to make online purchases a one-click process on ecommerce sites that have made themselves Checkout-capable. While Google has seemingly eliminated the need for a merchant account with its solution, Bodine cautions that it's not the same as an all-in-one payment gateway/merchant account solution.

"We see it as a can't-have-one-without-the-other solution," he said. "They go hand in hand."

What If I Decide To Switch Vendors?
Switching from one payment gateway or merchant account provider to another doesn't have to be difficult. They key is in the provider's customer service capabilities combined with the product's ability to integrate with your existing ecommerce website.

"What is the integration change that will need to occur? That is the key question," Bodine said.
He noted that Authorize.Net has thousands of integration partners and has converted thousands of customers over the years in as little as a couple of days. Bodine said that business owners can gauge how tough it would be to make a change by examining the complexity of the existing ecommerce website: Is there a lot of custom scripting/coding done in your e-store? What sort of conversion tools might a new vendor have to enable an easy switch?

One note, though. Bodine cautions merchants considering a vendor change to remember that moving from one payment gateway provider to another can result in significant information loss. Once the switch is made, valuable sales information history can be lost forever.

To counter information loss, Bodine recommends that merchants "download as many of the reports and details‚" of their transactions with the previous provider as possible before finalizing a changeover.

How to Protect Yourself from a Bad Deal
In addition to plenty of research about services and features from various payment gateway and merchant account vendors, business owners should scour the web for complaints about them. You can be sure that if somebody has had an issue with a payment gateway or merchant account provider, his or her frustration has likely spilled over onto the web in the form of a message-board complaint.

Bodine says most merchant frustration stems from not understanding the fees charged by a provider. As for other payment-systems horror stories, he cautions against believing everything you might find on the web.
"How many of them are true?" Bodine asked.

However, if the business owner understands the fee structure, how the system integrates into the website and is comfortable with the provider's business history, customer support capabilities, fraud protection and payment timeliness, it's likely that he or she will have made a wise payment gateway or merchant account provider decision.

Go to source.

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Lousy Business

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http:// www.louseynitpickers.com/

For M. Evan Parker and Frank Campos, business is pretty lousy these days — and that's just fine.

The Pasadena pair started their in-home lice removal service, Lousey Nitpickers, in July, budgeting $8,000 to launch a website and buy a supply of hair care products, towels and nit combs.

Six months later, the company's revenue is still very small. And like most fledgling entrepreneurs, Parker and Campos face several tough challenges if they are to establish a sustainable and profitable venture, business consultants said.

But with sales steadily expanding, Parker and Campos are optimistic that their business will continue to grow, given the demand from frantic parents who discover their children have head lice.

The firm fields an average of 10 calls a day, some days as many as 25. Most are direct referrals from past customers.

"People don't tend to book us in advance," Parker said. "By the time they call, their child's been sent home from school and they want treatment that day."

Accommodating as many as 90 itchy customers a month can keep Campos, the firm's chief nit-picker, another full-timer and three part-time employees busy from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., shuttling to homes across the Los Angeles area. The two men, who have known each other for a couple of years, found their nit niche after years in the hair care business. A licensed cosmetologist, Parker, 43, had earlier developed and marketed a line of hair products. Campos, 21, had worked at a children's hair salon in Los Angeles. Neither is a stranger to lice.

The bugs are as old as civilization itself, with references in the Old Testament to "the plague of lice." The insects pick no favorites or seasons and plague people of any age, said Vermont pediatrician Barbara Frankowski, who is chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' council on school health. But infestations spread most easily among preschool- and school-age children who touch one another a lot, she said.

"Little kids hug each other and snuggle up close on the beanbag chair in the classroom to read together," she said.

The result: 6 million to 12 million Americans are infested with head lice each year, according to the National Science Foundation.

Given a permanent bull market for nit-pickers, Parker thought an in-home service would be a more cost-effective business than a salon with fixed overhead. His idea is not new. The LiceSquad is a similar service headquartered in Ontario, Canada, and Parker says wealthy families have long been able to afford hairdressers who will make discreet house calls.

He figured there would also be a market among middle-income families.

The strong demand for nit-pickers is also because of the development of so-called super lice, which have grown resistant to commercial and prescription products in recent years.

Lice have built a tolerance to insecticide-based shampoos because the products have not always been left in hair long enough or been repeatedly used as directed, Frankowski said.

That's why Campos and his colleagues rely more on painstaking nit-picking to end the infestation.

Parker initially expected that the company's printed materials and website, louseynitpickers.com, would be its best marketing tool. But by the third month, he said, referrals from customers and schools began multiplying almost as fast as lice themselves and now generate at least 40% of new customers. In hindsight, he said, he wishes he hadn't ordered so many pamphlets.

Jim Lee found Lousey Nitpickers — and his family's deliverance from weeks of lice — by going online.

Lee's 4-year-old, Karissa, started scratching first, in mid-October, then 2-year-old Micah and finally Monica, his wife, 40.

The family had tried a prescription shampoo and two commercial products to kill the pinhead-size critters. For good measure, Monica Lee cut several inches from Karissa's long hair. She also slathered her own long hair with mayonnaise and covered her scalp with a plastic bag, one of several home remedies some believe can suffocate the bugs.

When all that failed, Jim Lee searched on the Internet for lice removal services.

"I figured there's got to be someone who does this," said Jim Lee, 42, head chaplain at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village. "And if not, I said I'll start the business myself."

Campos answered the Lee family's call, in an unmarked Honda sedan. (Parker said he frequently had to reassure embarrassed customers who ask, "You're not going to show up with a big louse on the roof of your car, are you?")

Typically, Campos inspects the head first to assess the degree of infestation, then he shampoos and conditions the hair before settling down to work with his nit comb.

The firm will make a return visit within 14 days in case a nit missed in the initial treatment has hatched. The nit gestation period is a week to 10 days, and getting every last one is key, pediatrician Frankowski said.

The service costs $150 to $200, depending on the number of infested people in the household and the length and thickness of their hair.

Desperate families such as the Lees who say they're only too happy to pay have pushed the firm's revenue to a projected $21,000 in the fourth quarter of 2006 from $12,000 in its first three months of operation.

Although Parker, Campos and Campos' sister are co-owners, Campos is the only one of the three who currently draws a salary from the venture. Parker still works for a hair care products company that manufactures a line of nontoxic, botanically based shampoos his nit-pickers use and sell to customers.

Parker hopes the business will support him full time after a couple of years but acknowledges that "the reality is you have to keep your day job for a while."

Their venture is a good example of how practitioners can apply their expertise to fill another, more narrow niche, said Peter Cowen, a Westwood-based consultant to emerging companies. But having a good idea is not always enough to expand their profits, he said.

Reaching their goal will depend on the firm maintaining solid gross margins, Cowen said. Without guaranteed repeat customers, he said, Parker and Campos need to keep a close eye on their ratio of costs to fees and explore opportunities to franchise or otherwise expand the geographic reach of their venture.

Profitable margins are just one requirement for success, said Ben Martin, an attorney who advises small businesses for the Loyola Marymount University Small Business Development Center.

"Cash supply is another big one," he said. "A lot of people think it's the amount of money a business has on hand," he said, "but it's also the timing — when cash comes in, when it goes out."

The firm's growth so far is, in large measure, because of Campos. With his ready smile and playful manner, the Los Angeles native has charmed many fidgety youngsters into sitting still for the hour or two a typical treatment takes and turned several of his young customers into fans.

One boy recently presented him with a wallet he made from duct tape. Another composed a poem.

Finding employees such as Campos is one of the business' biggest challenges. Parker relies on a number of online job sites, including Monster.com, to advertise for "service technicians."

"If we say 'nit-picker,' it scares them away," he said.

Securing liability insurance was the other major obstacle. Parker said he just wanted a general liability policy because the venture's risks were limited — "We're not using chemicals or sharp instruments." But until State Farm Insurance agreed to underwrite the firm, "nobody knew how to classify us."

A number of area schools have recently hired the company to screen students for lice. That service has quickly become a major source of new customers, Parker said.

Despite that demand, Martin warns that 70% to 85% of small-business entrepreneurs fail after two years. Many who shut their doors were making money, but not enough to earn a decent living. He advises Parker and Campos to be proactive: to use a bookkeeping system that shows them how well they're performing and to get outside advice.

"Business owners are often too close to the process," he said.

For the moment, however, Parker and Campos' venture often generates some awkward cocktail party talk.

"Initially people are really quiet when I mention what I do," Parker said.

"Then all of a sudden everyone has a lice story."

That's when they ask for his business card.

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