The single most important thing in your business is...
I seem to find myself having stronger and stronger opinions in my life. Sometimes they drive me forward in my own personal pursuits (financial or otherwise), and sometimes they limit my vision for better or for worse.
I love posting these strong opinions, because when others defend or dissect my opinion, they also use strong opinions. Rather than formulate the opposing view, I get it handed to me in the form of a neatly labeled post. Very convenient.
Recently "X" posted a response, and in said reply he mentioned Leverage as being the king of your business, NOT content.
I couldn't agree more.
Face it. Anyone can think of a million dollar business plan. Anyone can say "well if I created the biggest file sharing site, I'd be rich. If I created the best search engine, I'd be famous".
But what do you bring to the table? What can YOU do, that forces other people to WANT to work with you, to WANT to help you succeed?
The easiest way I can describe what I believe leverage to mean on a daily basis, is something like this:
Say you create an awesome product. You know that one of the easiest ways to drive sales and visitors to your product is to JV, in the form of affiliates. They promote your product to their list, and keep commission.
Simple enough right?
But what's in it for them? Sure, they'll make money. But there are a million other products out there that will make them money. What is your leverage?
Your leverage is usually your own list. You promote to yours, I promote to mine. The bigger the list, the bigger the leverage.
When I created my first product, I got very few replies. Very few JVs, and the ones I got, sucked. I almost threw the concept right out of my business strategy. I focused on adwords, built my own list.
I was randomly approached for a jv, and it was successful. My list grew, I got more, my list grew, I got more.
Now, everytime I open my inbox there are people asking ME, to promote THEIR products. That's MY leverage.
So, what other forms of leverage are there?
Experience! If you know what works, what doesn't, and everything in between, that can be good enough to convince others to work with you, and get what you want. Experience can be quantified in the form of testimonials, portfolios and plain old proof.
Creativity! If you are clever, or smart enough, you can easily create an idea, or a product so good, that it forces other people to notice.
Your Skills! I urge all of the people I come in contact with to have at least one personal skill that they can use as leverage. Mine is copywriting. I don't often do it, but I keep my skills sharp, and whenever I need additional leverage, I fall back on this skill. Maybe I don't have $10,000 lying around for whatever purpose, but I do have $100,000 worth of copywriting knowledge that may be useful!
The list could go on and on, but to me, leverage is what you bring to the table.
What do you think?
I love posting these strong opinions, because when others defend or dissect my opinion, they also use strong opinions. Rather than formulate the opposing view, I get it handed to me in the form of a neatly labeled post. Very convenient.
Recently "X" posted a response, and in said reply he mentioned Leverage as being the king of your business, NOT content.
I couldn't agree more.
Face it. Anyone can think of a million dollar business plan. Anyone can say "well if I created the biggest file sharing site, I'd be rich. If I created the best search engine, I'd be famous".
But what do you bring to the table? What can YOU do, that forces other people to WANT to work with you, to WANT to help you succeed?
The easiest way I can describe what I believe leverage to mean on a daily basis, is something like this:
Say you create an awesome product. You know that one of the easiest ways to drive sales and visitors to your product is to JV, in the form of affiliates. They promote your product to their list, and keep commission.
Simple enough right?
But what's in it for them? Sure, they'll make money. But there are a million other products out there that will make them money. What is your leverage?
Your leverage is usually your own list. You promote to yours, I promote to mine. The bigger the list, the bigger the leverage.
When I created my first product, I got very few replies. Very few JVs, and the ones I got, sucked. I almost threw the concept right out of my business strategy. I focused on adwords, built my own list.
I was randomly approached for a jv, and it was successful. My list grew, I got more, my list grew, I got more.
Now, everytime I open my inbox there are people asking ME, to promote THEIR products. That's MY leverage.
So, what other forms of leverage are there?
Experience! If you know what works, what doesn't, and everything in between, that can be good enough to convince others to work with you, and get what you want. Experience can be quantified in the form of testimonials, portfolios and plain old proof.
Creativity! If you are clever, or smart enough, you can easily create an idea, or a product so good, that it forces other people to notice.
Your Skills! I urge all of the people I come in contact with to have at least one personal skill that they can use as leverage. Mine is copywriting. I don't often do it, but I keep my skills sharp, and whenever I need additional leverage, I fall back on this skill. Maybe I don't have $10,000 lying around for whatever purpose, but I do have $100,000 worth of copywriting knowledge that may be useful!
The list could go on and on, but to me, leverage is what you bring to the table.
What do you think?