Will Your "Business" Be Around In 2 Years?

I've been going back through some old IM stuff that I have had for awhile. Two of them really stuck out and were kind of related.

One was Rich Schefren's presentation at Stompernet where he talked about the myth of a lifestyle business. Instead, you have to build the business first, and then the lifestyle will follow. He goes onto say that the internet is very much like the Infomercial business in it's infancy. And that there used to be infomercial conferences just like IM conferences...now, they are all gone because in order to do an infomercial, you need a million bucks.

And just today, I was listening to an old Corey Rudl and Dan Kennedy interview where they talk about offline/online advertising. Kennedy again brings up the infomercial business and said that in the early days, people made millions with a cheap camcorder and floodlight. There was no back-end and no up-sells..they simply made money by selling a $100 product. And they only made money cause it was cheap to get the message out there.

I don't know about your markets, but when I started 5 years ago, I had some competition that had been there for a few years. We all had pretty crappy websites. But as time went on, their website stayed the same, while mine improved. I sought out cheaper products, I built the email list, I added upsells, I formed JV's, I became a wholesaler, etc. And eventually, those other companies faded away.....most of the biggest players in my niche were not there 5 years ago. They were crushed by people that came along with more sophisticated business models.

If you're been paying attention, you would've noticed it with lower barrier to entry online businesses. Ebay is a good example. So is "Writing". How many Writers post here trying to make the case for more money? The smarter writers have either offered value add services (submission, SEO, Social Media, etc) or moved up the value chain.

So, it's not all doom/gloom, but this is definitely something that newbies to pay attention to. If I was starting over, here's what I would do.

Remember, competition gets GREATER over time. I had a buddy that used to be an arbitrage trader. He'd trade mini-S&P in different markets and capitalize on discrepancies. He made good money for a few years, then abruptly was put out of business when the opportunity was gone.

Here's what I would suggest..

--Build your business around a valuable product/service-- There's no getting around this part. HONESTLY look at your site. Don't just "put together a free report"...give GREAT value. The websites I read over and over and refer people to are the ones that have tremendous value. It probably seems more difficult to do this, but it's way easier in the long-run.

---Build equity in your business--Email lists, affiliates, licensing or wholesale, mailing lists, supplier relationships, testing data, analytics, process maps, etc. Those are all assets for your company. Either now or when you sell.

---Tweak--This can mean a lot of things. Tweak your ads, improve the process in your company, email marketing, etc. As time goes on, your business should become a more fine-tuned machine.

---Track--I know average order sizes, % of people that buy my upsells, how many people buy again, how much a mailing list prospect is worth, etc. Knowing that allows you to CRUSH your competition that is too lazy to figure that out.

---Go Offline--I know in this forum, "Offline" typically means selling IM to local business. But you should consider it, if possible, to your own business. Sometimes the simplest little thing have a profound impact on your business. For years I wondered why people put those little signs all over the place when you drive. Then finally I wanted my lawn aerated for cheap and remembered a sign I saw, so I drove back there to look at it. It gave me a lightbulb moment and I started printing the signs up and hired someone to put them all over during my peak season. UNREAL how much traffic/sales that drove in. I have more examples, but that's just a few.

---Build in a viral component--This sometimes can be hard, but if you can you want to do this. I sell a product that is somewhat hard to find in traditional retail outlets. And it's something that MOST people want. So the product is naturally viral. So it was important for me to just SELL MORE and BRAND my products. That alone made it easy for when people were looking to purchase.


So, in closing. I don't really expect that many people who are throwing up affiliate sites by the dozen to really take note. Because you kinda have to hear the message at the right time in order to take it to heart. But I would encourage you to step back and listen to some "Big Picture" thinkers (kennedy, schefren, kiyosaki, gerber) to get perspective. Because TRUST ME...it might not seem like it at the time, but it's FAR easier to make money with ONE business than multiple. (Don't read that to mean you can't have multiple).