Archives of Aggressive Small Business Marketing & Advertising

Big thoughts, ideas and how-tos for aggressive, fast-growth businesses and the entrepreneurs who fuel them.

Oct 2004

Lesson #1 I Wish I Knew Before I Started My First Business

I spent almost a year organizing my first business. I devoted all of my spare time and energy to important things like securing the product I'd be selling, and learning about who I was going to be selling it to. I invested an embarrassing amount of money. And then... I discovered what I had to sell would not sell. This is a hard learned lesson for many entrepreneurs who believe the important part of their business is the idea. The idea is important, to be certain. But there IS NO BUSINESS until you have a customer. In most cases, priority number one should be to get the first sale as quickly as possible to prove the business concept you have has legs. If it doesn't, all the planning and strategizing in the world won't do you a bit of good.

Success With Peace Of Mind

A great passage from Napoleon Hill's "Grow Rich With Peace Of Mind." "It is obvious that those who are filled with malice and envy do not have peace of mind; their malice and envy sour their lives. Failure so often hates the very sight of success. Speaking with successful men, I have noticed they speak in complimentary terms of other men who are succeeding. Their attitude is not one of envy, but one of willingness to learn from others. The failure, on the other hand, goes out of his way to find some adverse criticism of the successful person. If he can't find anything doubtful about the way that person does business, then he will pick at some other area. His malice is evident, and so it the sad fact that he not only cannot command what money can buy, but also he cannot attain peace of mind." - Napoleon Hill …(read the rest...)

The Yellow Pages Marketing Exercise

Here's the exercise I give at seminars to illustrate how horrible most marketing is. Just so happens, it uses the Yellow Pages, and I have been getting asked a lot about Yellow Pages marketing lately. If you do not have your own ad in the YP, pick out your business category and do it for the competition. It's pretty simple really... Get your copy of the Yellow Pages and a thick, black magic marker Open to your section On every space ad, scratch out the name, address or location information, and phone number Now, look at the ads that are left and wait for the lesson to appear Ok, ok. I won't just leave it there. Check back tomorrow and I'll explicitly spell out the lesson...

Client education in retail health food stores (and your small business, too…)

The kick from my "red eyes" (coffee w/a shot of espresso) has faded lately. Too many late nights and early mornings I guess. I decided I needed something "new" to level out my energy levels and keep my immune system running on high, even as I subject it to stress. Off to the health food store I go. I walk in and head to the energy section. Grab the supplement that's been recommended to me and make for the counter. Before he rings me up, I ask Jay what else I should be looking at to stay my perky and happy self. Long story short, instead of walking out having spent $20, I lay 10 times that on assorted stuff. I ask what should be the obvious questions: Me: "Jay, how many people buy this energy stuff each day?" Jay: "Oh, that's one of our best sellers. About a dozen bottles …(read the rest...)

Sure, The Yellow Pages Are Dead

Just got off the phone with a client in the midwest. His new yellow pages ad is pulling 7-to-1 (that'd be revenue to expenditure for you folks who don't track your advertising) and his competitors are complaining to the ad rep that his ad is "unfair" because it's stealing their business. Tee-hee. I call that "success." The best part of yellow pages advertising is the extraordinary incompetence of most folks advertising there. If you've got a local business, make no mistake about it: Done well, yellow pages advertising, while competitive and "tricky" ... can be very, very profitable. That said, I fully encourage as many people as possible to scream out that yellow pages advertising is dead. Too expensive. Being rendered extinct due to the Internet. And so on. After all, with every advertiser who drops out due to costs, or, more often, not really knowing how to use the medium …(read the rest...)

Your own personal Zeppelin?

Got my ... err, kidnapped my wife's ... Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog. It came in the mail yesterday, and she is out of town... so I got to go through it before her. (Sorry, honey...) My personal favorite item? Your own personal Zeppelin. Yes, you too can show up to the season's hottest social events in your own 230 foot long, 60 foot wide, and 53 foot tall Zeppelin. For only $10 million dollars. I'm sure someone, somewhere has had Hindenberg-sized dreams for years on end... and will pony up the dough for the creation. As a side note, Neiman Marcus (and Sak's, for that matter) train their sales reps very well. Every 3 weeks, like clockwork, they're calling my wife, offering specials, encouraging her to come in. We live in Virginia and still get calls from reps in Arizona and New York, where she hasn't shopped in over a year! …(read the rest...)

Sign #21 Your Business Is Outta Control

Around 1AM every night I trek over to my favorite 24 hour diner, order their wonderful Caesar salad with chicken and a cup of coffee, and enjoy the quiet while I'm reading, taking notes, or working on a marketing campaign. Tonight, I followed my usual routine of sitting my big bag 'o stuff down, and heading to the men's room to wash my hands. What do I find in the men's room? Some clown is in the stall, presumably taking care of business, and he is yakking away on his cell phone doing a business deal. Look, I get that running a business is a hectic, often stress-filled endeavor. Believe me, I know. But if you can't go to the bathroom without taking a cell phone along with ya... you have problems. Personally, I hate cell phones. Only carry one for outgoing calls, my convenience, not for any incoming calls whatsoever. …(read the rest...)