FreeHandAd.Com - How To Make Money Giving Away Something For Free

Getting Out of a Commercial Lease
Blog of Good Improvements

http://www.freehandads.com/

Advertisers competing for the much desired attention of the college-aged set now have another opportunity to get their ads in the hands of students—and hold their interest for up to 90 minutes. FreeHand Advertising distributes free note-taking paper to students on their way to class. Each page is branded with the same type of horizontal ad you see on websites, only these are visible for at least the duration of a college lecture, and longer if students refer back to their notes (as they should).

FreeHand agents operate at 90 of the biggest college campuses in the United States, reaching up to 3,500,000 students in 32 states, including all major cities. Businesses can select which campuses they want to market to, for local or nationwide campaigns, or to a targeted demographic. Thorough post-campaign reports detail how many sheets were distributed and even include pictures of agents handing them out to students.

Ads can be used to gain visibility, offer coupons, or promote sales, grand openings or other events. Colored and recycled papers are also available, and larger images can be displayed as watermarks. With so many brands and marketers reaching out to this market, note paper is an innovative low-tech solution for grabbing their attention. And free love—giving away ad-sponsored anything—is generally appreciated by those on the receiving side, too.

[Via - Springwise] 

Start Lose Weight
Get Your Website to Profit With the Best Affiliate Programs Available

How a Funky Ice Cream Truck Can Change Your Business

High school entrepreneur program teaches students link between learning and life
Public Speaking Tips: How To Captivate Your Audience!
Designer Adam Ellis has reinvented the ice cream truck. In doing so, he's reinvented a street vending business. Boutique flavors, a chandelier on the inside, and a truck that customers can write on, this is the ice cream truck overhauled, inside and out. An awesomely unique truck begs to be explored, and clearly has something different to offer.

Adam's truck reminds adults of their childhood - but with a twist. Ice Cream trucks have pretty much disappeared from the suburban landscape. What Adam has done is taken a good idea that's expired - and reinvented the concept for a different time.

How does this relate to your business? You're probably looking at something within your environment that you take for granted. That blends into the background. That has long been forgotten, or no longer useful. Examine your business - your marketplace, and your environment, and ask, what could we reinvent? What could we do differently than anyone else in our business?

Perhaps it's something physical, like your lobby, your desks, your dress code or your trucks. But maybe it's a policy manual, an email program, or a project proposal. It most certainly is something beyond your standard advertising and branding collateral. Something that you, or your agency probably haven't even noticed.

And don't be limited to the real world. Many brands assume they're covered with a simple company website. The opportunities for reinvention are especially ripe with your interactive presence, and there's a host of new tools to help you make it happen. How can you use your Flickr page in a different way? Can you incorporate del.icio.us bookmarks into your brand plan? What have you YouTubed?

Being different allows you to capture the interest of potential customers, retain the love of your evangelists, and stand out in your marketplace. And sometimes it's as simple as reinventing the ordinary things right in front of you.

Here's to the ice cream trucks in your future.

Darryl Ohrt is the founder of VIA and the chief contributor to BrandFlakesForBreakfast.com.
Cool Healthy Tips
Entrepreneur targets tennis players

How To Make BIG Money From YouTube Copyright Violators

Flexible hours, extra cash drive Valley entrepreneurs
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http://www.baytsp.com/

A lot of people watch YouTube videos at work. A few are actually paid to do it.

A former bartender named Joe Bersik sits in front of a flat-screen monitor about eight hours a day, pulling up Internet videos. His job is to find pirated material and get it taken off the Web.

Mr. Bersik works at BayTSP Inc., an eight-year-old start-up with big clients like Viacom Inc., the parent of MTV Networks. BayTSP employs more than 20 video analysts -- sometimes called "hashers" -- who watch videos looking for copyright violations.

Tethered to his computer by headphones, Mr. Bersik on a recent day played the music video of R&B singer Akon's hit song "Don't Matter" on YouTube. The logo of the MTV Jams TV channel was visible at the bottom of the clip. The 53-year-old Mr. Bersik watched for a minute then fired an alert to a colleague who sent an email requesting that YouTube take it down.

In about two hours, the video was gone.

Mr. Bersik and the eight men around him staring at monitors are playing a cat-and-mouse game with the people who post copyrighted clips on the Web. Working from a leafy office park on the fringes of Silicon Valley, they are key players in the legal battle over Internet copyrights between Viacom and Google Inc., which now owns YouTube.

Viacom last fall asked BayTSP to keep a running log of clips from the cartoon show "South Park" and other Viacom programs that people had posted on YouTube. In February, Viacom gave the signal to fire off a barrage of "take-down" notices: In a single batch of emails on Friday, Feb. 2, BayTSP requested that YouTube remove more than 100,000 Viacom clips, in a procedure outlined in U.S. copyright law. The clips Mr. Bersik and others identified were cited in Viacom's $1 billion copyright suit filed against Google the following month. The New York media company says it pays more than $100,000 a month to BayTSP, to find infringing videos and have them removed from YouTube and other sites.

BayTSP says it has more than five TV and movie-studio clients but for contractual reasons can't disclose names other than Viacom. The closely held company says it bills clients as much as $500,000 a month to track down illegal copies of software, music and video clips. Every month it sends out more than a million take-down notices.

Other companies have started using automated technology to identify video clips so they don't have to employ a room full of people manually scanning them as Bay TSP does. YouTube, which says it complies with copyright laws by removing clips when their owners request it, is testing technology to keep infringing videos off its site in the first place. BayTSP thinks human beings will always be needed if only to inspect automated results.

"There will always be something that falls into the gray area," says BayTSP CEO Mark Ishikawa, 42, who is also an active race-car driver. The company and Viacom have faced criticism for mistakenly requesting the takedown of noninfringing clips such as parodies and home videos, though BayTSP says its error rate on Web videos is only around 0.1%.

It's in an open, white-walled room close to Mr. Ishikawa's race-car machine shop at BayTSP's headquarters that Mr. Bersik and the other video analysts sit side-by-side combing through clips looking for clients' content. Movie posters with mustaches drawn on actresses' faces and other defacements hang above the desks.

The analysts use special software to scan the new clips posted to YouTube and other video sites a few times a day, creating lists of potentially infringing ones. They can use a separate program to conduct searches for keywords -- such as "Laguna Beach" or character names -- on the sites and either flag a clip for takedown or clear it to stay up.

On a recent day, their manager, Eric Antze, pulled up a clip from Comedy Central's "Chappelle's Show" that one of his colleagues had identified. "This is clearly copyright infringement," said Mr. Antze, 26, as the video began playing on YouTube. He clicked "Send" in a BayTSP software program running on his other monitor, triggering the email delivery to YouTube of a takedown request. When YouTube receives such emails, employees review them and then remove the clips. Mr. Antze, who was a part-time teacher until he started at BayTSP in November, has a sheet showing the logos of Viacom's various TV channels taped to his monitors.

He says BayTSP has had more than 230,000 clips, which users had viewed more than two billion times, removed from YouTube for Viacom alone. When the Viacom takedowns crossed the 150,000 mark, BayTSP bought better chairs and desks for the analysts.

People who post videos use tricks to make it harder to locate them. Some deliberately misspell the names of shows or films to thwart searching. With music videos, they sometimes include the word "remix" in the title, because the media companies often will let videos altered by users stay. Users often figure out and try to work around the rules BayTSP's clients set for what they want taken down.

The users also remain persistent in finding ways to upload videos again each time they're removed. "By the time I send notices and take them down, they'll be reposted," says Justin Hernandez, 27, who focuses on finding feature films for a BayTSP client.

The part-time DJ says he thought the video-analyst job was "too good to be true" when a friend who works at BayTSP told him he could get paid to watch online videos all day. Analyst salaries start at around $11 an hour. Perks include subsidized 25-cent sodas.

BayTSP's analysts say they don't tell friends and family exactly what they do, because they sign agreements not to disclose specifics of their work or the media-company clients. Scott Martine, 26, says his vagueness has led friends to suspect he is in the pornography business.

Mr. Bersik tells people he works for an Internet security company. The amateur guitar player, who has worked here since January, spends much of his time taking down music videos recorded off Viacom's MTV and other music channels. He keeps a dogeared copy of the Billboard music charts printed each Tuesday in USA Today on his desk to give him ideas for songs and artists he should search for.

Some analysts complain of tired eyes, and the tedium of watching the same clips over and over. "The novelty of 'Oh great, I get to look at YouTube videos all day' -- that wears off real quick," says Mr. Martine, who has worked at BayTSP since January. "Are you prepared to watch a million videos over and over again?" Mr. Antze asks job applicants.

The men, mostly in their 20s, play basketball in the parking lot during a 3 p.m. break each day. They combat the monotony by passing links to quirky clips around the office. One recent oddball favorite was a video of a flamboyant German disco-era group performing in Genghis Khan-inspired outfits.

The analysts generally say they have little appetite for YouTube outside of work anymore, however. "By the time I'm done working on it for eight hours, this is the last site I want to go to," says Mr. Antze.

[Via - Startup Journal] 

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Speaking improvements

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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How To Make BIG Money From YouTube Copyright Violators

Home-business rules get tougher
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http://www.baytsp.com/

A lot of people watch YouTube videos at work. A few are actually paid to do it.

A former bartender named Joe Bersik sits in front of a flat-screen monitor about eight hours a day, pulling up Internet videos. His job is to find pirated material and get it taken off the Web.

Mr. Bersik works at BayTSP Inc., an eight-year-old start-up with big clients like Viacom Inc., the parent of MTV Networks. BayTSP employs more than 20 video analysts -- sometimes called "hashers" -- who watch videos looking for copyright violations.

Tethered to his computer by headphones, Mr. Bersik on a recent day played the music video of R&B singer Akon's hit song "Don't Matter" on YouTube. The logo of the MTV Jams TV channel was visible at the bottom of the clip. The 53-year-old Mr. Bersik watched for a minute then fired an alert to a colleague who sent an email requesting that YouTube take it down.

In about two hours, the video was gone.

Mr. Bersik and the eight men around him staring at monitors are playing a cat-and-mouse game with the people who post copyrighted clips on the Web. Working from a leafy office park on the fringes of Silicon Valley, they are key players in the legal battle over Internet copyrights between Viacom and Google Inc., which now owns YouTube.

Viacom last fall asked BayTSP to keep a running log of clips from the cartoon show "South Park" and other Viacom programs that people had posted on YouTube. In February, Viacom gave the signal to fire off a barrage of "take-down" notices: In a single batch of emails on Friday, Feb. 2, BayTSP requested that YouTube remove more than 100,000 Viacom clips, in a procedure outlined in U.S. copyright law. The clips Mr. Bersik and others identified were cited in Viacom's $1 billion copyright suit filed against Google the following month. The New York media company says it pays more than $100,000 a month to BayTSP, to find infringing videos and have them removed from YouTube and other sites.

BayTSP says it has more than five TV and movie-studio clients but for contractual reasons can't disclose names other than Viacom. The closely held company says it bills clients as much as $500,000 a month to track down illegal copies of software, music and video clips. Every month it sends out more than a million take-down notices.

Other companies have started using automated technology to identify video clips so they don't have to employ a room full of people manually scanning them as Bay TSP does. YouTube, which says it complies with copyright laws by removing clips when their owners request it, is testing technology to keep infringing videos off its site in the first place. BayTSP thinks human beings will always be needed if only to inspect automated results.

"There will always be something that falls into the gray area," says BayTSP CEO Mark Ishikawa, 42, who is also an active race-car driver. The company and Viacom have faced criticism for mistakenly requesting the takedown of noninfringing clips such as parodies and home videos, though BayTSP says its error rate on Web videos is only around 0.1%.

It's in an open, white-walled room close to Mr. Ishikawa's race-car machine shop at BayTSP's headquarters that Mr. Bersik and the other video analysts sit side-by-side combing through clips looking for clients' content. Movie posters with mustaches drawn on actresses' faces and other defacements hang above the desks.

The analysts use special software to scan the new clips posted to YouTube and other video sites a few times a day, creating lists of potentially infringing ones. They can use a separate program to conduct searches for keywords -- such as "Laguna Beach" or character names -- on the sites and either flag a clip for takedown or clear it to stay up.

On a recent day, their manager, Eric Antze, pulled up a clip from Comedy Central's "Chappelle's Show" that one of his colleagues had identified. "This is clearly copyright infringement," said Mr. Antze, 26, as the video began playing on YouTube. He clicked "Send" in a BayTSP software program running on his other monitor, triggering the email delivery to YouTube of a takedown request. When YouTube receives such emails, employees review them and then remove the clips. Mr. Antze, who was a part-time teacher until he started at BayTSP in November, has a sheet showing the logos of Viacom's various TV channels taped to his monitors.

He says BayTSP has had more than 230,000 clips, which users had viewed more than two billion times, removed from YouTube for Viacom alone. When the Viacom takedowns crossed the 150,000 mark, BayTSP bought better chairs and desks for the analysts.

People who post videos use tricks to make it harder to locate them. Some deliberately misspell the names of shows or films to thwart searching. With music videos, they sometimes include the word "remix" in the title, because the media companies often will let videos altered by users stay. Users often figure out and try to work around the rules BayTSP's clients set for what they want taken down.

The users also remain persistent in finding ways to upload videos again each time they're removed. "By the time I send notices and take them down, they'll be reposted," says Justin Hernandez, 27, who focuses on finding feature films for a BayTSP client.

The part-time DJ says he thought the video-analyst job was "too good to be true" when a friend who works at BayTSP told him he could get paid to watch online videos all day. Analyst salaries start at around $11 an hour. Perks include subsidized 25-cent sodas.

BayTSP's analysts say they don't tell friends and family exactly what they do, because they sign agreements not to disclose specifics of their work or the media-company clients. Scott Martine, 26, says his vagueness has led friends to suspect he is in the pornography business.

Mr. Bersik tells people he works for an Internet security company. The amateur guitar player, who has worked here since January, spends much of his time taking down music videos recorded off Viacom's MTV and other music channels. He keeps a dogeared copy of the Billboard music charts printed each Tuesday in USA Today on his desk to give him ideas for songs and artists he should search for.

Some analysts complain of tired eyes, and the tedium of watching the same clips over and over. "The novelty of 'Oh great, I get to look at YouTube videos all day' -- that wears off real quick," says Mr. Martine, who has worked at BayTSP since January. "Are you prepared to watch a million videos over and over again?" Mr. Antze asks job applicants.

The men, mostly in their 20s, play basketball in the parking lot during a 3 p.m. break each day. They combat the monotony by passing links to quirky clips around the office. One recent oddball favorite was a video of a flamboyant German disco-era group performing in Genghis Khan-inspired outfits.

The analysts generally say they have little appetite for YouTube outside of work anymore, however. "By the time I'm done working on it for eight hours, this is the last site I want to go to," says Mr. Antze.

[Via - Startup Journal] 

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Ingenious Indeed

How A Lady Stumpled Upon A $100000 A Year Business Working On Sundays.
Your Way To Lose Weight

http://www.ingeniousmedia.co.uk

LONDON -- Past-their-prime rock bands are used to being ignored by record labels and mocked by the music press. But, in Britain, they've found a new groupie: venture capital.

A boutique London investment bank, Ingenious Media PLC, is financing comeback albums. Last month, it signed UB40, a reggae band that had a No. 1 hit in 1988 with the song "Red Red Wine." Other artists working on CDs for Ingenious include veteran rocker Peter Gabriel, and the techno punk band the Prodigy.

The firm, which specializes in media and entertainment deals, pays for the acts' music production, marketing and CD distribution. Its partners came up with the idea to start two funds to back faded groups three years ago. It has raised $79 million.

Fans often fill up concert venues to hear older acts perform their hits, but they typically shun their new record releases. Ingenious figured with the music industry suffering its worst downturn ever, record companies were reducing spending -- and some veteran acts would be eager for more support.

Duncan Reid, commercial director at Ingenious, says it targets British bands, from punk to pop, who aren't signed to big-name labels. Ingenious calculates that there is less upside with these old groups (which is often why record labels pass) but less risk of a bomb.

Ingenious and the artist or artist's manager discuss distribution and marketing strategies together and then hire third parties to do those tasks. "We are in there giving the benefit of our experience and advising and overseeing," Mr. Reid says. Ingenious' records are released globally.

So far, Ingenious has financed 15 albums and agreed to pay for seven more, spending roughly between $400,000 and $2 million each, according to regulatory filings. From that pipeline, two have been released. One, by a Welsh grunge band called The Heights, sold poorly. The other, by 1990s band Travis, is selling reasonably well, Ingenious says. Record labels typically expect 5% of their acts to be profitable.

Ingenious set up two music funds and receives an annual fee for managing the funds and 20% of any profits. But the funds aren't generating profits yet. Tax consultants say that most people are attracted because under United Kingdom law investors in the funds don't have to pay tax on any profits and get a one-time discount on their overall tax bill.

Ingenious's Mr. Reid, a former tax accountant himself, takes an approach to scouting that befits his graying stars. Mr. Reid, 49, doesn't go to concerts to check out bands. Instead, he and his partners at Ingenious rely on sources in the music industry to introduce them to acts looking for financing. The company has also found some new bands through contacts at independent labels.

"We spent awhile putting the word out there that we were doing these deals," Mr. Reid says.

UB40's investment advisers, Coutts, a London-based unit of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, suggested the band see if Ingenious would fund it. UB40's contract with EMI Group PLC's Virgin label ended in 2005. Their business manager, Lanval Storrod, says the eight band members felt other record companies weren't effective at promoting "heritage" musicians -- an industry term for performers over 40.

"The biggest problem for heritage bands is record labels tend to market everyone the same whether they are a boy band or have been around 20 years," says Mr. Storrod. An EMI spokesman said it has a good relationship with UB40.

As one of the world's best-selling reggae bands, UB40's members thought the group was a good bet because sales of its new album would likely cover production and marketing costs even if it wasn't a hit, Mr. Storrod says. The band had an idea that could be tough to market: Its new CD would focus on political and social issues.

Ingenious put up $2 million to make, distribute and promote the album, which is scheduled for release at the end of the year or early next year. Any initial profits will go to the Ingenious fund. Once the fund's investment has been paid back, the fund and UB40 will share any additional profits.

One aspect UB40 likes about the deal: Unlike a record label, Ingenious executives haven't asked for an update on the album or visited their recording studio in Birmingham.

Record labels, hit by rampant piracy and falling profits, have been cutting back on the number of bands they support. With the power of the big record companies diminishing, bands are trying new ways to put out music.

After a 40-year relationship with EMI's Capitol Records, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney announced in March he would join Starbucks Corp.'s label, Hear Music. Mr. McCartney released an album through 10,000 Starbucks coffee stores in June. The release sold 500,000 copies by early August according to Nielsen Soundscan.

In the U.S., some rock acts are also drawing on private-equity support. A & M/Octone Records, based in New York, has backed the rock band Maroon 5 and several other groups. The label is a joint venture with Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group and several private investors.

Big record companies say they aren't threatened by the efforts to produce music without them. Bands "are not equipped with the necessary specialist skills to take care of business" such as hiring producers, designers, photographers and publicists, says Max Hole, an executive vice president at Universal Music Group International, the overseas arm of the world's largest music company by market share. "We are experts in providing these services and skills, which allows the artist to create and make music."

Ingenious was founded in 1998 by theater producer Andrew Lloyd Webber's accountant, Patrick McKenna, a former partner at accounting firm Deloitte & Touche. One of Mr. McKenna's early clients at Deloitte was English singer Peter Gabriel. The two men became friends, and Mr. Gabriel invested some of his own money in the Ingenious music venture-capital funds.

The two men agreed Ingenious would invest in Mr. Gabriel's next album, and in January, Ingenious paid $2 million for a 24.95% stake in Mr. Gabriel's 14th album, scheduled to be released next year. The deal gives Mr. Gabriel control over promotion and distribution of the still-untitled album in North America. Elsewhere, Mr. Gabriel is still signed to the Virgin record label.

Ingenious doesn't ask its rock stars to act like rock stars, something that appeals to the 57-year-old Mr. Gabriel, says Mike Large, chief operating officer of Peter Gabriel's management company, Real World Holdings Ltd. Musicians of Mr. Gabriel's age and experience are "not hungry for the circus of publicity, touring and autograph signing," he says.

"We know we have a great fan base who will buy the record if you tell them it's out there," Mr. Large says.

Dave Goldberg, a music entrepreneur at Benchmark Capital, a U.S. venture-capital investor, says it's too early to say if Ingenious's approach will take off in the U.S. "But we are going to see more and more of these different ways of creating financing for bands," he says.

[Via Startup Journal] 

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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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Chatting over sushi on a week night in the Cafe, seniors Robert Burns and Sarah Schoen seem like typical Bowdoin students—except for the fact that they just made more than $50,000 in profit with their recently founded computer resale business, which was founded just four months ago. And that is only the beginning.

The idea for the business first struck Burns last summer while he was working for the Maine Department of Education in Augusta. He learned of a program through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI), which leases Apple iBook computers for every seventh and eighth grader in the state's public schools. After the computers' four-year leases end, MLTI buys the computers for about $40 each from Apple and sells them at extremely low prices in a surplus warehouse in Augusta.

Burns saw an opportunity for quick profit by updating the computers and reselling them on Web sites like eBay and craigslist.org. Burns, a computer science major, was familiar with easy and efficient tasks like reimaging a computer's hard drive and upgrading the memory chips, which greatly increases the laptops' selling value. In August, Schoen partnered with Burns on his entrepreneurial venture, and together they pooled their savings to buy 12 computers, planning to survive the remainder of the summer on canned spaghetti if their investment fell through.

However, the small-scale Internet scheme was so successful that it quickly escalated into a full-fledged business called Appleton Computers (both a play on the merchandise they sell and a tribute to Burns's first-year dorm). Following a lawyer's advice, Burns and Schoen registered with the State of Maine as a limited liability partnership in order to protect their personal assets. Within two months, Schoen and Burns recruited three Bowdoin friends and Burns's father as investors by offering a convincing sales history and handsome profit shares. The extra cash allowed them to expand the operation, and soon they were selling 90 to 110 laptops a month to customers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany.

Appleton Computers currently boasts a 100 percent customer satisfaction rate on eBay, but the Web site has been less than satisfactory for business. So far, eBay has suspended the business' activity twice without warning or explanation, which significantly disrupted sales.

"We believe that they thought the computers were stolen. It was like: suspend and ask questions later...There was a real lack of communication," explains Schoen. During the three weeks it took to straighten out the matter, the pair would probably have sold well over 40 computers, so the setback was "a major hit."

Another difficulty Schoen and Burns have faced is discerning reliable buyers from scammers. They have been warned of certain groups from Africa and Asia that send fake money orders, so Schoen and Burns personally monitor all the e-mail purchase requests they receive carefully.

Despite a few bad experiences, Schoen enjoys dealing with the customers and occasionally makes generous exceptions in order to please them: "Sometimes we'll get messages saying things like 'I'm a single mom, I'm working two jobs, I could really use this computer, but I can only afford to pay this much' and we'll say 'Okay, you've touched our hearts, that's fine.' Then we'll get a follow up message that says 'This really means a lot to me and it made a big difference in my life.'"

Over Winter Break, Schoen and Burns attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is the largest industry-wide convention.

"We went there to find some more business contacts. We talked to a few people, and we didn't really find too many people who would sell us Apple computers, but we found plenty of people that would sell us other electronics, like digital cameras, so we're toying with the idea of branching out into more than just computers right now," Burns says.

Schoen and Burns also hope to develop their own Internet auctioning Web site and enlarge the business to include textbooks. They want to market the site to students on a budget by posting links on university Web sites. However, at this time both Schoen and Burns are unsure of their post-graduation plans.

"The greatest part about running an Internet business is that you can live anywhere in the country and still operate," Burns said.

Go to source.

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There are seven essential principles that you must practice as an entre-preneur throughout your business life if you are to achieve maximum success. They have been taught and repeated in thousands of books and articles over the years, and here they are.

1. Clarity: You must be absolutely clear on who you are and what you want. You need written goals and plans for every part of your life. As Zig Ziglar would say, you must become a “meaningful specific” rather than a “wandering generality.”

Begin with your values. What do you believe in and stand for? What is most important to you in life? What would you pay for, fight for, suffer for and die for? What do you really care about? Someone once wrote, “Until you know exactly what you would do if you only had one hour left to live, you are not prepared to live.”

What is your vision for yourself and your future? What is your vision for your family and your finances? What is your vision for your career and your company? Peter Drucker once wrote, “Even if you are starting your business on a kitchen table, you must have a vision of becoming a world leader in your field, or you will probably never be successful.”

What is your mission for your business? What is it that you want to accomplish for your customers? What is it that you want to do to improve the lives and work of the people you intend to serve with your products and services? You need a clear vision and an inspiring mission to motivate yourself and others to do the hard work necessary to achieve business success.

What is your purpose for your life and your business? Why do you get up in the morning? What is your reason for being? And here’s a great question: What do you really want to do with your life?

Finally, what are your goals? What do you want to accomplish in your financial life? What are your family goals? What are your health goals? What difference do you want to make in the lives of others? And here is the best question: What would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?

The greater clarity you have regarding each of these issues--values, vision, mission, purpose and goals--the greater the probability that you will accomplish something wonderful with your life.

2. Competence: To be truly successful and happy, you must be very good at what you do. You must resolve to join the top 10 percent in your field. You must make excellent performance of the business task your primary goal and then dedicate all your energies to doing quality work and offering quality products and services.

To be successful in business, according to Jim Collins, author of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don’t, you must find a field that satisfies three requirements. First, it must be something for which you have a passion—something you really believe in and love to do. Second, it must be an area where you have the potential to be the best, to be better than 90 percent of the people in that field. Third, it must involve a product or service that can be profitable and enable you to achieve all your financial goals.

According to the Harvard Business School, the most valuable asset a company can develop is its reputation. Your reputation is defined as “how you are known to your customers.” And the most important reputation you can have revolves around the quality of the products and services you offer and the quality of the people who deliver those services and interact with those customers.

3. Constraints: Between you and your goal, whatever it is, there will always be a constraint or limiting factor. Your ability to identify the most important factor that determines the speed at which you achieve your business goals is essential to your success.

The 80/20 rule applies to constraints in your business. Fully 80 percent of the reasons that you are not achieving your goals as quickly as you want will be within yourself. Only 20 percent will be contained in external circumstances or people.

What are your constraints? What holds you back? What sets the speed at which you achieve your goals? And what one thing could you do immedi-ately to begin alleviating your main constraint? This is often the key to rapid progress.

4. Creativity: The essence of successful business is innovation. This is the ability to find faster, better, cheaper, easier ways to produce and deliver your products and services.

Fortunately, almost everyone is a “potential genius.” You have more intelligence and ability than you could ever use. Your job is to unleash this creativity and focus it, like a laser beam, on removing obstacles, solving problems and achieving your goals.

The essence of creativity is contained in your ability to solve the inevitable problems and difficulties of business life. Colin Powell said, “Leader-ship is the ability to solve problems.” Success is the ability to solve problems. And remember: A goal unachieved is merely a problem unsolved.

The way of the successful entrepreneur is to focus on the solution rather than the problem. Focus on what is to be done rather than what has happened or who is to blame. Concentrate all your attention on finding a solution to any obstacle that is holding you back from the sales and profitability you desire. And the more you think about solutions, the more solutions you will think of. You will actually feel yourself getting smarter by focusing all your energies on what you can do to continually improve your situation.

5. Concentration: Your ability to concentrate single-mindedly on the most important thing and stay at it until it is complete is an essential prerequisite for success. No success is possible without the ability to practice sustained concentration on a single goal or task, in a single direction.

The simplest way to learn to concentrate is to make a list for each day before you begin. Then prioritize the list by putting the numbers 1 through 10 next to each item. Once you have determined your most important task, immediately begin to work on that task. Discipline yourself to continue working until that top task is 100 percent complete. When you make a habit of doing this--starting and completing your most important tasks each day--you will double or triple your productivity and put yourself solidly on the way to wealth.

6. Courage: Winston Churchill once wrote, “Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.” It takes tremendous courage to take the entrepreneurial risks necessary to become wealthy. In study after study, experts have concluded it is the courage to take the “first step” that makes all the difference. This is the courage to launch in the direction of your goals, with no guarantee of success. Most people lack this.

Once you have begun your entrepreneurial journey, you also need the courage to persist. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “All great successes are the triumph of persistence.”

The word entrepreneur means “one who undertakes the risks of a new ven-ture in pursuit of profit.” Fully 90 percent of the population will never have sufficient courage to launch a new venture, to start a new business, to boldly go where no one has gone before. You need, first of all, the courage to begin, to move out of your comfort zone in the direction of your goals and dreams, even though you know you will experience many problems, difficulties and temporary failures along the way.

Second, you need the courage to endure, to hang in there, to persist in the face of all adversity until you finally win. When you develop these twin qualities--the ability to step out in faith and then to persist resolutely in the face of all difficulties--your success is guaranteed.

7. Continuous Action: Perhaps the most outwardly identifiable quality of a successful person is that he or she is in continuous motion. The entrepreneur is always trying new things and, if they don’t work, trying something else. It turns out that most entrepreneurs achieve their success in an area completely different from what they had initially expected. But because they continually reacted and responded constructively to change, trying new methods, abandoning activities that didn’t work, picking themselves up after every defeat and trying once more, they eventually won out.

Top people, especially entrepreneurs, seem to have these three qualities. First, they learn more things. Second, they try more things. Third, they persist longer than anyone else. The good news is that, because of the law of probabilities, if you learn more things, try more things and persist longer, you dramatically increase the probability that you will succeed greatly. If you launch toward your goal and resolve in advance to never give up, your success is virtually guaranteed.

The Ultimate Reward
My friend Jim Rohn once said, “The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire in the first place.”

To have more, you must first be more. For you to set out on the way to wealth and become a self-made entrepreneurial millionaire, you will have to develop many qualities at a higher level than you ever have before. You will have to become an exceptional person. You will have to become more than you ever imagined possible for you.

To realize your full potential and achieve all your financial goals in your own business, you must develop the virtues of integrity, courage and persistence to a much higher level than you have up to now. You will have to practice the qualities of clarity, competence, creativity, concentration and continuous action until they are as natural to you as breathing. You will have to accept complete responsibility for your life and everything that happens to you, and especially for the way you think in every area.

When you develop these qualities and become a completely different person, you will eventually achieve all your goals in life, including financial success. The best part of becoming an extraordinary person is that, if something happens and you lose it all, it won’t really matter. Because you have become a different person, you will be able to make it all back again and more, far faster than the first time.

Welcome to The Way to Wealth. You are about to embark on a grand adventure that may last for the rest of your working lifetime. But if you have the courage to begin and the persistence to endure, nothing can hold you back from achieving all your goals and dreams. If you decide that, no matter what, you will never give up, you will eventually become unstoppable.

Action Plan
Take these steps to get going on your business goals.

1. Decide exactly what you want in life in each area, and write it down. Make your goals clear, specific and measurable.
2. Specify the most important skill you could develop to move you into the top 10 percent of people in your field. Then do something immediately to begin developing that skill.
3. Identify the major constraint or limiting factor inside yourself or in your world that is setting the speed at which you achieve your most important goal, and begin working on removing that constraint today.
4. Determine your single biggest problem or obstacle in your business or personal life. Then focus all your time and attention on the possible solutions.
5. Make a list of what you would want to be, do and have if you had no limitations and you were absolutely guaranteed success.
6. Accept complete responsibility for your life. From this day forward, refuse to make excuses or blame anyone for anything. Instead, take action to make your goals a reality.
7. Reaffirm and visualize your goals of financial success, excellent health and personal happiness as a reality. Remember, the person you see is the person you will be.

Reprinted from The Way to Wealth, Part I: The Journey Begins--Success Strategies of the Wealthy Entrepreneur by Brian Tracy (Entrepreneur Press)

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Many people are just too busy these days for their own good — and that’s fine with Mandy Leeuwen.

The White Marsh resident has opened BizEBodies, a business doing odd jobs that the over-scheduled can’t get around to.

The 26-year-old woman, who holds a degree in public relations, has hired an employee to assist her after just eight months in business.

For advertising, Leeuwen said she has used the consumer Web site Craig’s List, releases to local newspapers and her Web site to generate a clientele of 20 weekly customers and others on a less-regular basis.

She estimated her active roster at 60 accounts.

She does chores like walking dogs, scanning business cards into a computer and picking up dry cleaning from the Washington suburbs to the Baltimore area. Her charge is $25 per hour, including travel time.

“I cater to high-end people, people who are willing to pay me that for whatever they need done,” she said.

[Via - Dane Carson's Blog]

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This report is designed for entrepreneurs, small business owners, independent contractors and anyone who needs to build relationships and develop leads or referrals in order to promote and increase their business.

The information in this report is given based on the assumption that YOU know your product and service inside and out and you have already defined your business goals and have somewhat of a business plan in order.

The next step would be to narrowly and clearly define your target market, your ideal prospect.

Some people believe that their products or services would be perfect for everyone. For example, Mary Kay Cosmetics - no offense to my MK friends or other people in the health industry who say 'anyone with skin' needs a facial or 'anyone who has stress need a massage. Then there are people in the home improvement industry who say, 'anyone with a house' needs my landscaping, my windows, my furniture or my loan, etc.

For most small businesses however (1-5 employees or even more), I don't believe this is the most effective way to try to generate new leads and customers. If you determine the right target market to fit your business, you figure out the best ways to reach them AND if you figure out the best message to reach them with you will be spending your marketing dollars wisely. Business owners who don't plan ahead to figure out who their target market is before they open their doors end up spending a whole lot more money trying to figure it out by trial and error and that's expensive.

Would you shell out $200 for a pair of shoes without trying them on? Plunge into a steaming bath without dipping a toe in first? Of course not-but people do the business equivalent every day. Many an entrepreneur has found out too late that nobody wants to buy hand-quilted Christmas stockings at $24.99 a pop, or that wealthy customers won't schlep to the unfashionable part of town for luxury stationery.

The irony: Conventional market research is expensive (corporations regularly budget tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for it), but no one needs it more than a startup entrepreneur. A couple of marketing blunders won't put a giant manufacturer out of business, but just one can sink an entrepreneur like a bolt of lightning.

Defining Your Target Market

Your "target customers" are those who are most likely to buy from you. Resist the temptation to be too general in the hopes of getting a larger slice of the market. Try to describe them with as much detail as you can, based on your knowledge of your product or service and how it will benefit them.

Step 1: Ask yourself some questions to get started

1. Are your target customers male or female?
Figure 75-80% of your target customers would be which? If it's split, narrow it down another way but more than likely you can narrow down the gender.

2. How old are they?
Give an age range of 10-20 years max, otherwise you might have two target markets. Remember, the marketing messages towards different age groups will be quite different most likely depending on your product or service.

3. Where do they live?
Is geography a limiting factor for any reason? Can you narrow it down to specific zip codes or counties? The larger the geographical area you choose, the more people you will find but the less likely you'll be able to afford to market to all of them so narrow it down and expand out later.

4. What do they do for a living?
You can get a mailing list by industry or profession and specific title for example.

5. What does their specific profession say about their lifestyle?
Is it very busy with little time to shop? Would they be likely to be familiar with the internet for their shopping, researching, news and event information? Would they be commuting more in their car?

6. How much money do they make?
This is most significant if you're selling relatively expensive or luxury items. Most people can afford a latte. You can't say the same of custom murals. Narrow this down to a specific range also and high enough that you will weed some people out or again, you'll have way too many people to afford to market to.

7. Are there kids in the household?
What ages might they be? How many would there likely be? What does this say about their lifestyle - are they carpooling, or soccer parents where they are rarely home? Do they possibly eat out a lot or have less 'family' bonding time? Or are they empty nesters where they might spend more time at home watching television or reading?

Step 2: Get specific

What other aspects of their lives matter? Here are some examples to think about, see how your target market compares or how you can get more specific with them.

* If you're launching a roof-tiling service, your target customers probably own their homes. In addition, they probably own homes with older roofs like shake roofs; you can get a list of homes by their age.

* If you're a realtor, you might be interested in targeting first time homebuyers in which case you might find them to be likely to live in apartments or rentals of which you can get a list of those too.

* If you're selling your own individual artwork but you can't create multiple paintings with the same picture, you may have to sell the unique pieces at local art shows rather than selling them online.

* If you're planning to open a custom-tailoring shop and need busy executives to come for three fittings, you may need to limit it to your local area.

* If you're a direct jewelry consultant needing women to gather for parties in someone's home, you'll want to go where many women meet like mom's groups, women's professional organizations, day cares or grocery stores.

* If you're a business or life coach and want to coach only over the phone then you'll most likely want to do more online marketing and make sure to have a really top notch website since that's mostly what people are going to see for their first impression. You can network locally too but the more 'known' you are in person, the more people will want to do business with you in person. Step 3: Keep your mind open to any information

Keep a list of primary research questions handy, such as:

* Who influences your customers and how? Spouses, neighbors, peer groups, professional colleagues, children and the media can all affect buying decisions. Look for hints that one or more of these are a factor for you.

* Why do they buy? Distinguish between the features and the benefits your product or service offers. Features describe what it is; benefits are what your customers get out of it. The latter is why your customers pay you. Are they looking for a status symbol, a savings in time or energy, a personal treat or something else?

* Why should customers choose you and not your competition? What can you offer that the competition doesn't?

* How do your customers prefer to buy? Many businesses benefit from the broader market provided by the Internet and mail order, while others do better with a physical presence. Don't assume you fall into one category or the other; customers may surprise you.

Step 4: Identify Your Ideal or Favorite Client

Think about your favorite client - who are they, name them, write down everything you know about them, their family status, age, sex, marital status, where they live, where they work, possible income level, their shopping characteristics.

* Do they like to use coupons or shop on certain days? ? Do they call you at the last minute to get something from you?

* Do they value your service/product? ? Is that type of client the most profitable type you have or the most non-profitable and you just like them?

Step 5: Determine their profitability to your business

Which type of clients will make you the most money, bring you joy and refer you tons of business? These are the types of clients you ultimately want, now where are they?

Ask Yourself:

* Who is the most profitable type of client? The one who will make you the most amount of money the fastest and with the least effort - do you like working with them? If not, you won't be totally happy with only this type of person, maybe you need a combination of the two.

* How often will they be able to buy or consume your product or service? If they can only possibly purchase your services every 10-20 years (getting a new roof for example), do you never market to them again after the sale or do you heavily market to them after the sale by every means possible for at least 1 year to get all the referrals you could possibly get out of them in that time?

* How likely are they to know others like them they can refer to you? Normally, very likely, in which case following up with them before, during and after the sale is huge - and if you don't ask for referrals in each stage of the sale continuously then shame on you.

* What is really important to them when it comes to your product or service? Not what you think they should know or like, but actually what they care about, like, ask for, thrive on, are passionate about, etc. These are your target market's "Hot Buttons" and these are what you should be addressing in your headlines, letters and marketing efforts at all times because these are why the client would choose to buy.

Defining your business' target market is absolutely critical to any small business. Everything you do in your marketing, advertising, design, publicity and networking will depend on who your target market is and what matters to them. Making decisions on your marketing and advertising without fully defining your target market or knowing them in depth could be detrimental to your business and you could be making some costly mistakes!

About the Author: Katrina Sawa, Relationship Marketing Expert, helps entrepreneurs and independent consultants build their database of clients and prospects, determine the best ways to market their business to their target market, teach them how to network, develop follow up systems, marketing and advertising plans and find ways to get free or low cost publicity which all lead to more customers and increased sales! Visit her at http://www.ksawamarketing.com/.

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The reason I know so much about being late is because recently, I have been late a lot. So I have been telling myself that each time I am late I have to honestly think about what sort of behavior is causing me to be late, and write it down.

The write it down part is important. For me, writing something makes it more serious. Like I am taking more responsibility for changing something if I write it down. I know I am not alone in this.

I see blogs about losing weight and sticking to a budget, and those people say that blogging about it helps them stick to a plan. I think being on time is a similar type of goal in that you have to think about it every day in order to make a real change in your life.

Hopefully I will not end up writing a whole blog about being on time, especially since there’s such a good one already. Hopefully a post will be enough to get things back in order….

Here are things I’ve come up with for myself:

1. Schedule the event into your calendar.
If you block out time to be somewhere then you won’t be doing something else when it’s time to go. I amazed myself when I tried to do this. I discovered I had enough on my schedule to last 48 hours a day. It would have been impossible for me to be on time for anything.

(Note: If you are a person who is about to recommend to me that I read Getting Things Done in order to be better at time management, here is a link you might like.)

2. Practice saying what you need to say.
Here’s a great thing to say: “Excuse me, I hate to cut you off, but I have an appointment.” It is hard to cut someone off, but they will respect you for sticking to a schedule. The higher up you go in corporate life, the stricter the people stick to a schedule. The good news is that this means it’s perfectly acceptable in work life to say this short speech. Get comfortable doing it at work and then you can do it at home, too. Often saying no takes forethought and practice.

3. Be a time pessimist.
Assume everything will take a little longer than your first estimate. This will either make you right on time for everything, or it’ll make you a little early. People who run early are calm, organized, and always ready. Not a bad place to be.

4. Prioritize.
Some people are late because they simply don’t have enough time to do everything. The only way to change this is to stop doing so much. Face the reality that you cannot get your whole list done. Figure out what’s most important and just get that done. Tell the people who depend on you - like your boss — that you can only do what you have time for, and things at the bottom of the their list of priorities will not get done: a reality check for everyone in your life.

(Another Getting Things Done note: The only people I know who are really good at prioritizing have read the book. Here’s an overview of the book for the uninitiated.)

5. Be honest with yourself.
Why do you let yourself be late? It is disrespectful and makes you look unorganized and out of control. Why are you not getting control over your time. So much about being on time is actually about self-knowledge. Often, we are scared to make the decisions that we must make in order to get control over our time and become someone who runs on schedule. But there is no other way to run a life. To run on schedule is to plan the life you want to live and execute that plan.

[via penelopetrunk.com]

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I am a strong, enthusiastic advocate of direct marketing. For most businesses, small or large, direct marketing consistently delivers the best results for dollars spent. We need to begin with an understanding of direct marketing versus other types of advertising, promotion and marketing. Let's talk first a little bit about the others.

There is institutional advertising. This type of advertising is often intentionally used by big corporations and blindly copied by smaller ones. It essentially says to consumers and/or to stock holders here we are, here's who we are, here's what we do and we're nice guys but it never asks anybody to buy anything or to take any action. It's image building.

Some examples you're probably familiar with include the Goodyear Blimp flying over football games, the IBM TV commercial seen during the Sunday morning news programs and during some sports telecasts, most bank advertising, Time Magazine's signs in airports, this is all pure institutional advertising.

Advertising agencies, consultants and the media love to sell you this type of advertising because there is no possible way to measure its effectiveness. Is it working? Is it paying for itself? Who knows?

The next slightly more sensible approach is what I call 'Non-Measurable Response Advertising.' This type of advertising is trying to sell something but is still basically unaccountable for its results. TV commercials for a particular brand of car fall into this category. The intent of those commercials is to get you interested enough in that car to go to the show room but there's really no way to tell how many people who came to the show rooms this week we're influenced by those commercials.

Would they have come anyway as a result of the dealers own newspaper ads? Who knows? Many smaller businesses get trapped using this type of advertising. Appliance, record, clothing, department stores all run sales ads - here's what's on sale come on in. But they have no means of determining how many people became because of the ads versus how many might of come anyway or how many came from an ad in one media versus the same ad in another.

They can guess. They can take this weekend's higher traffic less last weekend's traffic and attribute the difference to the ads but it gets worse. They advertise the sale via the newspaper, two radio stations and flyers. How do you tell what works and what doesn't? Again ad agencies and the media like to sell this type of advertising because it's difficult for the advertiser to measure the results.

Another type of marketing is public relations and publicity. There are firms who you can retain to prepare press releases and articles about your products or services and your company and work at getting them placed at various media. These firms may also arrange interviews and talk show appearances. Although you can measure them by how much actual exposure they get for you it's generally difficult to then measure how much business came from the exposure. Also in this category is the sponsorship of everything from a little league team to an Indy 500 race car or a golf tournament.

All three of these types of marketing probably have some place in a businesses total marketing plan. It is my firm belief, however that these methods are grossly and deliberately oversold to clients by media and professionals because of there resistance to results measurement. It is also my opinion that most businesses, the owners of small businesses and the executives of large companies stupidly waste outrageous sums of money on these non-measurable marketing options.

I would much rather see money spent where the results can be definitively and accurately measured so the changes can be made to develop successful response levels for every dollar spent.

Dan Kennedy, http://www.dankennedy.com/

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