Business Not as Usual

Blog post 091312

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Do you ever think your business may be stuck in ruts your success wheels carved in the road years and years ago?   The law of primacy tells us, “What you learn first you remember longest.” Do you think you may be trapped by what you learned long ago in school or when you first started your business?

Except for some exceptional face-to-face meetings I conduct my entire business on the Internet and have done so for several years. I keep outside meetings to a minimum and they are usually with people not comfortable with doing business from a distance. I can understand that discomfort and do all I can to help those digitally challenged.  The time I used to spend (read waste) in meetings, travelling to meetings, preparing for meetings, and so on I now spend on actually running my businesses and learning how to be better at what I do.

Using the Internet for business is a mystery for many people, especially those in traditional niches who think having an Internet presence is limited to stagnant web sites, occasional newsletters or trying something on Facebook or Linkedin. Sorry, but when you think like that you are losing out to those who know how to be successful in 2012, no matter what their industry.

The Internet is more than a game changer.  It is better than rail travel in the days of covered wagons.  It is better than when the telephone changed our method of speaking to one another.  The Internet levels the playing field for everyone in the world wanting to make a better life and earn enough to play in that world they create.

Think of what you would have to do BI (Before Internet) to get a client in St. Louis if your business was located in Dallas, Chicago or Spokane.  Suppose you live in Kearny, Nebraska and someone in Budapest, Hungary would like to have exactly what you produce.  How would that Hungarian ever know about your product or service, not to mention making contact and effectively purchasing? Today the Internet gives you worldwide opportunity to engage everyone interested in your product or service, close the sale and ship the goods in minutes.  That’s makes all 2,267,233,742 internet uses in the world prospects for your product or service.  Suppose, just suppose .000001% of those people make a $10 purchase.  That’s $22,672.  What was the cost of sale?  Nada, if you know what you are doing on the Internet.

 

I’m amazed how so many people I meet do not want to spend a nickel on training or hire people who know what they are doing. It reminds me of tight fisted business owners I’ve worked for who simply hated paying top sales people when the sales person’s income was based on products shipped to customers.  Sell nothing, make nothing.  Sell a lot, make a lot. Give me a commission salesperson with a reasonable base (one should never, ever be able to live on the base) and I am the champion for them to make millions a year. To me this is nothing more than simple common sense.

So, let’s get back to the Internet. How do you reach those people around the world? Ah, grasshopper, the answer is found among all places, on YouTube.  Yes, that web site your children go to when they want to see funny animal tricks or stupid people jumping off buildings into swimming pools and often missing the target.

For a business value of YouTube look at this video:

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Now, what do you think of the Internet and YouTube as a place to engage your future clients and update current ones?  Send your questions on this and other posts to info@joearo.com.