T. Harv Eker's Blog, page 19

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Do a little digging and you find out it’s relatively easier to make that million-dollar mission-accomplished by finding an online niche—preferably one that actually excites you at your core—and finding out what that niche want.

Too many people do the opposite—they focus on the hottest product or service and try to blast that out to as many people as possible. There’s an inherent risk in being left holding a bag of goodies nobody wants. Only that’s one expensive bag!

Just like the old-fashioned way, you’re not buying tons of inventory and then hoping that you sell it. You get the orders and the money first, then you deliver. Online, you learn your market’s want or gap in fulfillment, and then you deliver a product or service that market wants. Social media is a great way to learn more about your market (and pull in very qualified leads!) once you’ve established what your niche will be and build your website around it.

As usual, proceed with caution. Not everything can be sold online. Not every want that might be clear and evident can be fulfilled just by throwing up a website.

The late Cory Rudl, one of the pioneers of internet marketing and online businesses, used this analogy. If you had a cure for the common cold, in an easy-to-digest pill form, billionaire might not even apply to what you’d be worth. That product would be everywhere—Seven Eleven, every grocery store, corner store, market, you name it.

Now try selling that online. At minimum it takes at least three to four days for the product to get to you. You’re already over your cold by then. It’s a failure from day one. Don’t start with a product. Start with a market, and then find a product for that market that that market wants.

People spend money on things that they want. It’s an emotional investment. A necessity can be satisfied by the most convenient and cheapest product or service. People are willing to pay more money for wants, but they’re usually very price-conscious with things they have to get or do.

And no different than traditional businesses, there’s the backend after that want is fulfilled. It’s the product or service you sell after they’ve bought the first product from you. That’s where all the money is.

Been to the movies lately? If not, no one can blame you as expensive as it can be to take your family out for movie night. But think about whoever is making all that money at the concession stand alone.

You go up to the counter for a small popcorn (because you’ve already tucked away all the candy you’ll need in your purse or bag), but you leave with a large bucket plus a soda. Why? “Well, you can get this for only 40 cents more … Or this meal-deal that saves you this much money.”

Even fast-food workers are routinely taught to up-sell. It’s no different online—the point is your customers come in for one thing and walk away with more—because you gave them something they wanted from the beginning.

Once you have the customer’s name online, it costs you nothing to sell to them again and again and again. You can make 100% more net income than you are right now by back-end selling.

Do a little digging and you find out it’s relatively easier to make that million-dollar mission-accomplished by finding an online niche–preferably one that actually excites you at your core–and finding out what that niche want. Too many people do the … ... read more

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To know the importance of having a website for your business is one thing. Knowing the purpose behind having a Web presence is a whole other thing.

If your business is already up and running, you'll have to cater your strategies to what you already have in place, particularly in terms of your pre-existing customer base. That means getting them to fill out cards in your physical business, or otherwise enticing them to your website with special offers. Then follow-up emails. We're still talking basic marketing and backend selling—making money on those who are the easiest to sell to—those you've sold to before.

But if you're still unsure of what kind of business you'd like to create, take a good, long look at creating an online business.

What works in your favor is that the easiest way to make money online is to focus on a specific market, find a product that they want, and give it to them. Searching for your best prospects online isn't that much different than offline.

How do you do this? The same way you look for anything else online: surf. Just type it in—for example, maybe you have a passion for scuba diving that you'd like to turn into a business. You find all the news groups, forums, and websites regarding scuba diving. Is there anything that they're talking about a lot? Any patterns where something is wanted but not easy to find?

That's how you find your target market. It may take you a day, a week, a month, maybe longer. It depends on what your market is and what you're trying to find, but whatever the niche, there's a large enough market that's relatively easy to get to. You know where they are, and after some research you'll know that they want something specifically. All the gamers are hanging out in one market. All the sports nuts are hanging out in one market. All the people that are interested in holistic medicine are hanging out in one market. All the doctors are hanging out in one market. It's easier to get people than you might think.

Try getting those people through the local newspaper. If 20,000 people view your ad (theoretically), you'd be doing great to get 10 of them to show interest. Online, you can go right to where all of your target market hangs out. Your target market is sitting right in front of you.

There are tons of people who know enough about the money-making potential of the Web and ask, "So what do I sell online? What's going to be a hot seller?" It's the most common and most fatal mistake.

You never decide on the product. You find an easy, targetable market, find out what they want, and you give it to them. It's the easiest method in the world. You have an instantaneously successful business. It is a no-brainer. It doesn't take any smarts to figure that out.

Anybody out there discovered the power of doing business online recently (I know you're there)? What did you find frustrating, or powerful, or even profound? Did you incorporate a Web presence into an existing business? What have been your greatest learnings? We want to hear from you!!!

http://bit.ly/UltimateInternetBootcamp

http://bit.ly/ClickAndBeFree

To know the importance of having a website for your business is one thing. Knowing the purpose behind having a Web presence is a whole other thing. If your business is already up and running, you’ll have to cater your … ... read more

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It's a virtual road-trip toward business success, the final destination—whatever your next venture will be, because you're done with that last one. It's running on its own, without you.

Until then, cruise control helps. Without cruise control, long road trips would be more tiring for the driver and for those of us with lead-foot, a lot more speeding tickets.

All you need is a dashboard that has the exact read-outs you need to control your business. You pick your top 5 – 10 critical success factors and come up with a system on how you're going to measure them. If you can't think of five, pick that top factor.

If you're measuring lead generation, for example, how many leads are coming in? You gauge leads per week and per month, at least. Now dig deeper. How many leads from each lead source? How much does each lead cost per source? Is one source cheaper and bringing more return than another? When you have benchmarks—like how much you're willing to pay for each lead—you've got numbers right in front of you that tell you how many leads come in and what you pay for them. What do you have?

You have control over your business.

Consistency, predictability, tracking—systems that can be operated and understood by practically anyone. When you can duplicate that, you're on cruise control.

Now take 15 of the most important things you want to track. It might be lead generation. It might be customer satisfaction. It might be cash flow management. If you have a business with labor, labor productivity is a good thing to measure. And then the question you want to ask is what's going to enable you to measure whether or not you are being successful at that?

All you do is establish a handful of gauges, tools, or metrics—whatever you want to call them— for whether or not you're executing that critical factor properly.

We test to make sure it works. We test it backward and forward. You want to make sure you can get to the benchmarks you set from the steps in your system. The good news about systems is they don't require that much training. A good system is where you put that system in someone's hands and they know how to use it.

It can be a simple narrative to describe—for people who like words—how this system works. You do flow charts for people who are the linear and visual thinkers in your business. It's as simple as a check-sheet. Someone else could operate it because all they need to do is go down the list: I did this, check; I did this; check. If you do every step on this check sheet, at the end, you've got a system. That simple!

Note, though, that it's not that easy. There's work required to put systems into practice. Not torturous work; it can be a lot of fun as you refine them. Intuition and creativity can play into this thing, from the artist to the architect. You are the person qualified because you know it inside out. You know all the parts of it. You know what's involved. Your business is you, and you are in control!

What do you think Millionaire Mind community? We want to hear from you!

It’s a virtual road-trip toward business success, the final destination–whatever your next venture will be, because you’re done with that last one. It’s running on its own, without you. Until then, cruise control helps. Without cruise control, long road trips … ... read more

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Your business is you. It's you creating something that wasn't there before; with material results from your intentions, your energy, your essence, whatever it may happen to be at that time. The science of growing it simply means having prepared leadership, development, producers, and administration. As the process evolves, so do your systems for solving frustrations and focusing on those critical factors that matter most.

This is your rich-making vehicle. Like any car, you've got a gas gauge, a speedometer, oil gauge—all the key things you need to know quickly and conveniently if this thing is running properly. You need the same things in your business.

You need the ability to track what's important. There's what is quantifiable and easy to count—like sales—but there are also subjective things where opinions are measured, when the 'qualifiable' becomes quantifiable.

One issue that's gained tons of traction over the last couple of years is going green—especially in businesses—from "cloud" computing to energy consumption's impact on the bottom line.

Some people couldn't care less about the plight of the pelicans in an endangered eco-system (a shame, for sure), but when you can quantify how switching over to energy-efficient equipment can save thousands of dollars, politics goes out the window. Saving the planet is on the same track as the bottom-line.

Also consider, though, the marketing appeal of being able to sincerely tell your market you support green initiatives. Again, the subjective can become countable in response rates.

Put a scale in and it. Customer satisfaction; employee satisfaction—you measure benchmarks, time frames, the ranges you'd like to be in, or what high/low thresholds would signify danger-zones. They sound complicated, but they're really not.

How many sales calls and closes per hour would you like to see? You look at what your sales are per month and compare. Too low? Too high (maybe there's something else not being considered if it's too good to be true)?

You want the salesperson that follows a script, makes the calls and closes the ratio that they should be closing. That can be copied, duplicated, and most importantly, tracked.

If the oil pressure in your vehicle is too high, you've got a problem. If it's too low, you've also got a problem. You want to be in between, yes? What are your operating ranges for your critical success factors?

It might be that you're willing to spend a certain amount of money per employee depending on their role in your business' structure. If you're paying your marketing guy $30,000 more than you really intended, there isn't going to be much speculation on why your profits aren't where you want them to be. Like getting a speeding ticket, you had this gauge that you weren't paying attention to and you exceeded the operating range.

There are things you can count on and physically look at; things you can measure; and real accurate data that you can track—not guess. They're documented. It could be in a manual you pass out to all employees, or one that you've got linked up online.

It takes consistency, predictability, and tracking—systems that can be operated by someone with a base-line level of skill. When you can duplicate that, you're on track to financial freedom.

Your business is you. It’s you creating something that wasn’t there before; with material results from your intentions, your energy, your essence, whatever it may happen to be at that time. The science of growing it simply means having prepared … ... read more

Happy New Year! I am excited to share with you exciting, new journeys and experiences as 2012 reveals itself to all of us.

With each new year comes changes big and small . . . whether we like it or not!  And because change is inevitable, and because we have just entered a new year, I wanted to touch on this subject just a little deeper.

Sometimes we love change, like a new job, a new relationship, or moving to a new city. Sometimes we hate change, especially when it's not our choice or out of our control. In that case, we'd rather stick with what we know, even though it may no longer apply to our reality.

Either way, change is not always easy, is it? Why is change difficult for most of us? Because change means that we are forced out of our comfort zones, which is why it can be so difficult to embrace.

Here's a clue: if what you've been looking for was where you've been looking, you'd have already found it! (Read that sentence one more time, it's a good one.) Doing more of the same harder and longer is usually not the answer. Willingness to change usually creates better results.

It's true—in many ways, reality is what we make it. Regardless if change is chosen or forced, one of the first steps to change is changing how you think. What you focus on expands because not only are you thinking it, but then you're feeling and doing, even if you're not always aware of it.

In other words, if you think change is going to suck, you'll feel that, you'll end up acting like it, then that change will end up exactly as you thought. But if you think, "Something good can actually come out of this," you're inviting more favorable results. Adapting to change then becomes easier and less stressful because you're not focusing on the discomfort of the unpredictable.

This year, when change comes your way (because it will no matter what), treat change as a gift, even when it comes unexpectedly.

Ask yourself, "How can I use this to my benefit?" That doesn't mean ignoring the jarring effect that change can have on how you feel—like losing a relationship, a loved one, or a job—but also make a choice to not stay stuck in a state of loss.

Darwin is often misquoted when people say only the strongest survive. Not true. It's not the smartest. It's those who are most adaptable, quickly adjusting to new situations and circumstances.

The idea is to go with the flow and not only accept change, but embrace it as an opportunity to expand yourself and your life.

EXERCISE:  Make a list of all the areas in your life where changes need to happen in 2012. Make sure your list not only covers the situations in your life, but also your environment and how you personally need to change. Start implementing those changes now with a Warrior attitude of 100%.

Happy New Year! I am excited to share with you exciting, new journeys and experiences as 2012 reveals itself to all of us. With each new year comes changes big and small . . . whether we like it or … ... read more