Within the last month alone, I have read that small businesses fail at a rate of anywhere between 65% to 80% in their first five years of operation! I’m sure industry studies vary, but these numbers are troubling to me and should be to you. I have to believe if you are reading this, you either have a small business now, or are contemplating the idea.
Let’s look at these numbers more closely. If you’ve been on the internet any time at all, you’ve most certainly heard that industry experts claim 95% of “all” internet businesses never realize an appreciable income. In addition to a couple years now on the internet, I personally have knocked around the retail business myself for more than thirty years. My educated guess would be that retail business failures fall into the upper end of the industry estimates (the eighty percentile), and service oriented businesses into the lower sixty-five percentile.
Is there anything you and I can do to project ourselves into the success column here? Is it all about the type of business we choose? Our overall education? Amount of money to invest? Location-location-location? Luck? Of course, all of these variables factor in. But, there is so very much more to it than that.
It’s about:
1. Defining accurately each and every one of the many effective, and especially the underused, marketing techniques existing within your particular industry.
2. Leveraging as many as possible of these resources available for maximize return, while keeping investments of money and time to an absolute minimum.
3. Knowing why most advertising fails.
4. Learning the principles of viewing your business through your customers eyes, rather than your own
5. Effective use of point of sale equipment or staff to build a contact list that will keep your best potential source of exponentially increasing profits, your satisfied customers, buying from you over and over and over, as well as more often at increasingly higher ticket prices.
6. Identifying your market with laser-like accuracy to increase leverage.
7. Establishing credibility and a reputation of integrity.
8. Procuring testimonials from satisfied clients or customers.
9. Knowing the lifetime value of a customer to increase leverage.
10. Developing a unique selling proposition, something unorthodox, something no one else is doing.
11. Using effectively the seven powerful words that are essential in any printed advertising.
12. Learning how to write powerful sales ad copy.
13. Learning how to use space ads properly, newspapers, magazines, trade publications, etc.
14. Knowing the mistakes made in most of today’s direct mail and the myriad of other mistakes made regarding direct marketing.
15. Knowing how to write, properly format and where to direct effective press releases, an awesome form of free publicity.
16. How to get maximum use of your yellow page advertising.
17. How to best use your telephone for incoming and outgoing marketing.
18. Properly using post purchase reassurance to minimize returns and to create back end sales.
19. Turning refunds and complaints into a profit rather than a loss center. 20. It’s about “THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX”.
Okay, I could go on and on, but I trust you get the idea. If the finer points of a lot of the above are fuzzy to you, though, even essentially a different language than you speak, you are in the vast majority, believe me. I sincerely hope you are beginning to see why a small percentage of businesses can thrive so “magically”, while a disturbing majority fail so miserably and thoroughly.
I have owned and operated two shopping mall based retail clothing stores, three wholesale clothing and shoe businesses, an internet based wholesale business and an internet based marketing and retail business. Also, I have been a PGA Golf professional for over thirty years, so I have, in addition to the aforementioned, managed or overseen the management of seven golf operations. With this amount of differing experience, I truly thought I knew a fair amount about business, advertising and marketing. Then I found out, almost by accident, and not that long ago, that I was woefully wrong.
How’s that for a profound admission? Ironically, all of these businesses I owned or managed, (save for the two internet businesses which are only into their third year now), lasted more than five years. Luck, I guess, because I sure didn’t know “jack” about the finer arts of maximizing my business leverage!
There’s that word again, leverage. I have now come to the conclusion that leveraging everything, even the most minute angles available to any given industry, is the secret to ultimate success in “any” business.
So, there you have it, the reasons most businesses fail. They don’t maximize their potential leverage, don’t even scratch the surface in most cases. Is it any wonder the statistics are this dire? But, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist level philosophic to succeed, I am living proof of that. You do, though, have to put forth a modicum of effort to educate yourself. It doesn’t cost that much, and it doesn’t take all that much time. Unfortunately, it would take way more space than is available in a simple newsletter article to explain even the basics of leverage as it relates in this context, but I can maybe help a little.
Fortunately for me, about three years ago, when I decided to try my hand with an internet based business, I felt the need to go back to “school”. At that time, however, I thought my mission was to discover how effective internet marketing differed from my previous, extensive experience in off line promotion. Was I ever wrong!
I researched diligently and uncovered some really good stuff, all right. Much of it from industry experts like Corey Rudl, Ken Evoy, Terry Dean, Marlon Sanders, Joe Vitale, all giants. The most profound information I discovered was penned by two primarily offline marketing educators, however, Bob Serling and Jay Abraham.
Oh, to have come across the teachings of either of these leveraging experts years ago. I might be lying on a beach somewhere, or navigating an exotic golf links right now instead of typing at my computer. Wow is me. Not really, I love typing at my computer, but still, I would have been a far wealthier typist, I’ll wager.
I’ll also wager, there are not more than a handful of individuals out there who know even a modicum of what either of these two individuals could teach them. You’d truly be astounded at the infinite detail “leveraged marketing analysis and implementation” can encompass! unless you’ve been fortunate enough to attend a seminar by, or engage in a marketing consultation through one of them. Since you are reading this article, I feel that is unlikely.
Jay Abraham charges $3000 per hour of phone consultation. Ouch! Bob Serling’s clients pay between fifty and sixty grand for his services on average. Not that practical for any of us. In actuality, how I came across the limited teachings of Jay Abraham I have been privileged to read, was through an invitation to attend an Abraham 3 day workshop. The tab on this one was a mere $5000, a bargain of huge proportions according to the material I received. It did fill up fast.
The conference just passed, I missed it due to prior commitments, was hesitant because of the cost, really, anyway, but I’m sure it would have paid for itself quickly. I did get some nice promotional content for considering it, however. A telling point, though: to get the information these gentlemen have to offer, there are thousands willing to pay through the nose for it!
What’s my point? Well, that business is not all that easy. It can require a pretty substantial investment, also. Remember, I’ve owned two pretty good sized mall stores in a major city. Whether you are a service professional, a physical retail business owner, or an internet info product retailer, you have a substantial investment in your business, even it is primarily your own time. You owe it to yourself to know everything and more-far more-than your competitors. The type of information I am talking about does not come from a free ebook, either. You’ve got to invest to get it. From the cost of these expert consulting services and workshop seminars, and the fact they so often sell out, a lot of individuals out there are investing seriously in their respective businesses. That is a fact!
It is also a fact, the majority of businesses that started up this year, will not be around in five years. Make sure yours is not one of them. Find out how to leverage your business potential, and find it out now.
A few grand for gaining this know how may be a pipe dream for you. It is for most of us. And, from what I know, Jay Abraham does not have a whole lot of printed material out there. But Bob Serling does, and the cost of a fairly extensive course, probably all you’ll ever really need to know, is less than one small, marginally effective newspaper ad. There’s much information about Bob Serling’s material at
http://www.marketbetter.com/dodserling.htm. Check out the home page while you’re there, also, for many expert articles pertaining to succeeding in business. Best wishes and good marketing success from Dear Old Dave.
Copyright 2002 By D. A. Bolick (Dear Old Dave)
Dear Old Dave is President of A-D Trading Publishers And Marketers and has owned or operated over ten retail, wholesale and golf-related businesses. He is a Webmaster, Author, PGA Golf Professional, Gourmet Cook and a very serious student of Internet and Conventional Marketing. DOD publishes “Small Business Owners Unite!”, a free, opt-in Newsletter on helping you to sell more of your products. Sign up or view more articles at http://www.marketbetter.com/
