March 2009 Archives

I had a very good March 2009. Business is very good and so here is a gift for you.

I write a weekly letter "Money Does Buy You Happiness" to my mentoring group students about investing in Michigan real estate, starting and growing a business, on the lessons I have learned on being an entrepreneur for 7 years now in Michigan.

One page. Easy to digest. One topic per week.

I would like to send that newsletter to you every week. Nothing to buy. No obligations.. Just my way of saying Thank you and if it inspires you to kick some butt in 2009 - well send me an email and let me know how it worked out for you.

Email me your mailing address, at mark@markijlal.com and you will start getting this weekly letter First class mail, starting from next week.

It will come in an oversize cream color envelope on every Thursday.

I just got off the phone with two of my good friends. One in Michigan. One in Indiana. Two States that are hit hard by automotive industry meltdown in the recent years and probably not the States that come to mind when you think, " Hottest Places To Start A Business" type of list that gets published in business magazines all the time.

One of them works full time, in Industrial Sales. Another one, had a business that was related to the auto industry and it was going nowhere for the last three years and finally, last year, with a very heavy but determined heart, he shut it down.

I called both of them in early January to see what they were up to in the New Year and both of them asked me about some business ideas they have been tossing around. They also wanted me to give them some ideas on how to talk to their families about the plan of starting a new business smack dab in a recession.

I liked one idea better than the other for both of them. Told both of them what I thought the pros and cons were and if I were doing it how would I go around launching the business. We brainstormed 3 big marketing strategies on the spot and thought that should be enough for the launch.

As far as launching or even thinking about starting a new business during a recession - my only comment was, "Play your game." Do whatever you have to do and then some. Hustle. Go out and meet people, as most are not moving. Put up a website that sells. Make phone calls. Make lots of noise. Shake the trees and see what falls down. Don't worry about anything. Don't pay attention to anything. Just do what you know is right for your business. Start. Tweak. Execute.

That was around three months ago. After couple of frustrating slow ignition, they are both off to a roaring start. Turns out that even during recessions, people got to eat, people got to go places, people got to sell what they are selling, people need to run businesses, buy and sell real estate, get married, have babies, live their lives.

And they are all looking for help that you can provide.

Here is the conversation that happens all the time with me; with people thinking about starting a new business in Michigan; with people who recently launched a new business and trying to grow it; with people who have been in business for a while and trying to survive and thrive through the new season we are in.

They all want to know about the tools I like.

What kind of service to keep track of incoming leads? What is the best website to do this or do that? Where do I buy my domains? What kind of camera is good for shooting video for YouTube? Wordpress or Movable Type? Facebook or Twitter? Who is printing my postcards? Who can incorporate cheaply? iPhone or Blackberry? GTD or yellow legal pad?

I am still waiting for somebody to actually tell me about his or her business and then ask me WHO is the best customer their business should be all about? WHO should they be pursuing with all their might, day and night, everywhere they can?

Spending time thinking about WHOM you want to do business with would seem to me the most important thing when you are starting and working to grow your business.

We don't need an About Us page on our websites. We need an About Who page.

Susan emailed and asked for a list of the something you can do now, to improve your business. Here they are:

1. Join Twitter and use it like your life depends on it.
2. Learn Facebook and setup a business fan page for your business.
3. Ask all your customers - past and present to follow you on Twitter and friend you up on Facebook.
4. Join LinkedIn
5. Make a video of your business and use Tube Mogul to put it everywhere.
6. Redo your website. Work very hard to make it look completely unlike your competition.
7. Google the words your prospects could be typing in to find you right now. Do you show up on Page 1? Hire somebody to make your website more search engine friendly.
8. Setup a free account with Google Local Business Center for your business. Upload pictures, links to your video and your business information in it.
9. Do the same with the local centers at Yahoo and MSN.
10. Take lunch to your local Chamber of Commerce. Schmooze. Be nice. You want them to invite you and come and give a talk to their members.
11. Join Toastmasters.
12. Learn how to use a Flip camera.
13. Look around in your drawers. You have lots of business cards. Take 10 cards out everyday and call them up and ask them if there is anything you can do for them because you realize that times are tough and may be, just may be you can do something for them?
14. Call your small local newspaper and ask the business reporter if they might be interested in doing a business profile on you.
15. Read religiously five really good blogs every day. Alltop has them all. Skip the newspapers. You will not miss out on anything.
16. To people coming to your website or calling your office - making an offer to give them an incredible piece of information in exchange of their email or address. That is called lead generation.
17. If you already have #16 in place then take a cold hard look at it. When was the last time you tweaked with it? What can you do to make your prospects jump up in joy when they get it?
18. Who else is selling to the people you want to become your customers who is not in direct competition to you? Make a list. Call them up and see if they are interested in doing a joint venture with you.
19. Ask five potential customers to tell you bluntly what they think about your website? Your business voice mail? Your business card?
20. Change your business voice mail.
21. Start every day, instead of checking news sites and getting depressed, by calling somebody you know and cheering them up. It works like this: inspire others without any hope of returns and your day just become better by itself.
22. Read four good business books starting with these authors: Seth Godin, Dan Kennedy, Zig Ziglar, David Allen.
23. Find three things from each of these books that you can start using right away in your business.
24. Work with independent contractors a lot? Take some of them to lunch. Ask them if there is anything you can do to help them. Tell them the customers you are looking for.
25. Join a local entrepreneur group and this is important: PARTICIPATE. Be the five percent who don't just selfishly look for inspiration without giving anything back.
26. Look for somebody who is doing really well, is like you, and is in a different State. Call them up and tell them what you have been up to and see what they have to say about the things you have been doing. Don't ask them what they are doing. Just tell them what you have been up to and note what they have to say about it.

Once in a month around the 14, I wait for a white envelope to come to my mailbox. When it does arrive, I stop everything I am doing and go and hide somewhere for an hour and read it obsessively. That white envelope contains some of the best strategies about marketing, running a business, entrepreneurship that you find anywhere in the planet.

I am of course talking about Dan Kennedy's No B.S. Marketing Newsletter. $50 per month, sixteen pages, black ink on white paper, no fluff, just straight and harsh true writing that any entrepreneur who is interested in making their business prosper; rough times or boom madness, should be reading and implementing seriously.

Recently Dan wrote that there is ALWAYS something you can do now, to improve your business.

I have been thinking about his words a lot lately.

It is really easy to get lost in the noise when you turn the T.V and hear political pundits predicting the end of days, as we know it. Almost all of us know somebody who is in trouble right now, lost a job, lost their home, have too much debt.

But it has been seven years since I quit my job and started my own business and even when Dow was 14,000 only a short while ago, I don't remember anybody knocking on my door that particular day and bringing me an brown bag with some cash in it for me to spend.

So why would somebody bring me money today when Dow is not at 14,000?

Whether you are starting a business or growing an existing one, I know for a fact that Dan is right once again: there is ALWAYS something you can do now, to improve your business. Work on your website to make it rank higher on Google ahead of your competitors, shoot a video of your business and spread it all over the Internet, make your lead generation package better, ask yourself on how can you make a customer happy and start executing on that list...

I can think of at least 20 things I can do to improve my business, recession or no recession, starting from today.

That to me is a better use of my time and my energy on a gorgeous Michigan day like today.

Please somebody give this guy a TV show. We need more of him in Michigan.