Survey Yourself Before Going Into Business

1. Why should there be anyone would do business with you?

This could be the very first question that you must ask yourself before anything else. You got to demand yourself to an answer to this. Why the heck on earth would anybody pay for this "Junk" you're selling? Yup, "Junk", as I phrased it. It doesn't matter how good your product is to be, to the eye of others, it's just another piece of product in a sea pool of other similar products.

So, still be very proud of your product or service? Truly you're 100% proud of it? You truthfully and deeply believe people would be dumb by NOT buying from you?

Well...you passed the first barrier! You're ready to start go to next stage.

2. The basic business needs 3 things: Lawyer, CPA, and Creative or crazy fellow, which could very well be you.

Almost every business gets themselves for the first two. It's understandably so. Good creative person are really hard to find, hard to manage, and you'll never sure of what you're paying for.

Every established and sizeable business knows the creative side plays a heavier weight than the lawyer and CPA. CPA's and lawyers can help you when you are up there. But at the early stage when your business is still an infant, your business live or die depending on it's business branding activities in areas like business identities, logos, marketing campaign, advertising copy and business slogans.

Now, are you NUTS enough? Have people been calling you NUTS? If so, you are ready for the next stage! Do give yourself a "Cheers"!

3. Singing for Your Own? You Got To Promote Yourself In Every Possible Way.

Do all of them. Yes, Do whatever possible to get your business name to be up there! Get your Business Brand being noticed by others. There more the merrier!

Business can just comes and go so fast before anybody could hears of them. People are busy, what do they care? They don't care about you and your business. Why should they care? Get serious. Do everything you can possibly and reasonably afford to do. But beware; you must not mislead others because it'll backfire quickly enough to wipe your business off.

Do you "Sing for your own self"? Then you've passed! Move on to next stage...

4. Big Decision: Could You Win The Competition.

It's very likely that you're entering a crowded business market when you first started. Take a hard and closer look at what other fellows are doing; what your competitors are doing right now could affect your business greatly.

At this stage, you got to decide: Are you going for "Head to Head" fight? Competing on better quality? Crazier pricing strategy? Extra Mile Service Level? Better Marketing Campaign? or what else? Or you would avoid all that, and create you own niche, where you are the leader?

If you decided to be offering the same or very much similar product at the same price, but your marketing materials doesn't look half as good as your competitors...hey, you're in deep trouble! If you're charging half compare to others, then it's still alright to "Look" cheap, simply because you are the "Cheaper" alternative where people are looking for.

5. Marketing is basically just a matter Perception.

"Perception" is just another fancy word for thoughts. The thought by the public has in mind all about you and your "Good" or "Bad" business. Good salesmen control the perception more on personal level like putting on neat suit, very nice smile and sincere voice, firm handshake...etc.

And your business marketing campaign need to strive to achieve equivalent level of effects. And it needs to be at a more abstract level by means of having an attractive Business Name, Eye Catching Business Graphics, Professionally dressed-up staff. Any things that just might seduce and persuade a potential visitor to become a paying customer.

6. Your Business Identity; Your Business Equity.

The Business Name, the Logo, the projected Business Look, the public's perception, recognition, or even affection if there is; these are critical to business success. Big businesses routinely pay big buck like million dollars for these aspects for the business.

Your Business Identity must be well organized to target at desired market. It's what termed as the "Face" side, the side which public always sees first. Work on refining it so it works wonders. Improve it to get better and even better, and then protect it, and treasured like your beloved!

Yup, there are so many people who just bought a ready business. But every time they run a new marketing campaign, they tend to fall into trap of projecting a different business image and look. Really, don't ever make such mistake like an amateur.

Consistently stick on to the business branding strategy that your have chosen on the very early stage. This is your Business Equity. By keep changing the business look, you'll get the public confused, and worse still if they see that you don't even have the basic respect for your business identity.

Don't destroy the business equity; you need to be utmost concerned with your business image to the public. It has its own personality. It has to stand out from the rest. It has to send clear signal to the targeted market: "Here We are, Come To Us", "Get Us Today".

Do Love Your Business, just like you love yourself.
James Little shares his thoughts at Business Resources and Suggestion while ventures into online business. Network sites include Top Web Resources Marketplace and Business Centre provides resources for internet entrepreneurs.

James Little shares his thoughts at Business Resources Suggestion Centre (http://suggestionsite.com ) while ventures into online business. Network sites include Web Resources Marketplace (http://topkeyword.info ) and Business Centre (http://businessafe.com ) provides resources for internet entrepreneurs.

To Survey Or Not To Survey

I have learned over the years that when it comes to online marketing as I know it, it's not about what I want in my business.It's really about what people who visit my website want. For awhile I didn't understand that philosophy. How do I find out what people want?

Finding out what people want is not something you, I or anyone else for that matter can pull out of thin air. If we are going to be successful online, even offline in the brick and mortar world, we have to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them onto our potential customers.So how do we do this?

The answer is quite simple yet complex.That is to conduct a survey or surveys.Conducting surveys is simple.On your website you can create forms for people to fill out. If you are going to put a form on your website, I would limit only one form. You do not want to bombard people with forms.Keep it simple as the saying goes.

Do not get too personal in your form.In other words only ask for first name and email. That is it when it comes to their personal information.

Now, from their you can use your own imagination on the rest of the form makeup. Whatever it is you want to sell, make your survey easily accessible on your website. The number of visitors visiting your site will determine the number of surveys filled out and sent to your emails inbox. Its all numbers anyway....whether its marketing a product or service and conducting surveys. This is an excellent way of building lists specific to what people want to buy.

Notice how I said whatever it is you want to sell. What that means is, you don't know yet if you have what people really want. That is the purpose of the survey. To find out if they want what you have. Once you collect the data and you are ready to sell, you have in your hand a ready made list of names specific for that product or service you are offering.

Not too long ago, this year as a matter of fact (2004 currently), I learned what not to do in a survey. I will give you my experience of what not to do and how to remedy this situation.

I recently got married and five of my family and friends took me to dinner two days prior to the wedding. As we were finishing our meal, the manager came to our table and told us that we have been selected to participate in a survey. She told us that if we participated, we would receive $3 off of our next meal. Come to find out, our bill which totaled over $120 collectively, the $3 off was for the entire group at the table. Ok, I think its nice that they offered this, but lets look at the reality of this situation. First of all, $3 off of over $120 does not get anyone too excited nor does it want to make anyone go through the hassle, yes hassle of filling out a survey when they are enjoying a night out with family and friends. Secondly, the odds of us getting together again and eating at this particular restaraunt are slim to none. So what does that tell me? That tells me one of two things. Either someone did not take their eyes off of themselves and put them onto their customers or, they knew the odds of us coming back as a group were slim and it works completely in their favor.That is disturbing to me. Now for my input on a remedy.

What would I do in this situation? Well first of all, everything I stated in the above paragraph, all of my family and friends after we were "selected" kind of looked at each other in amazement and disbelief. We all knew that it was a silly thing to do to come up to us and play us like we were born a few days ago. First, If I am going to get a group to fill out a survey, especially if I have been "selected", and I am going to give them something in return to do so, I would offer the table, say, free desert now. Why do I say this? remember, you are marketing your business....make it work.Make people who just enjoyed the meal and the service go out and tell someone else.Stand up and believe that the way you are conducting your survey is for your customers, not just you alone. Don't try and fool people, were not fooled.If you are going to have a couple fill out a survey, how about buy one meal get the second meal half off. After all, it appears this is a random selection. Not everyoneis doing this. Now, I am not looking for free handouts. As a matter of fact, I would have rather given the manager (and no disrespect to her) $5 to leave. It's obvious to me in this circumstance that this particular establishment does not want to give away anything. They want it to only benefit themselves.But if you are a business and you want true success in surveys, do it right.

The final approach? Instead of offering anything, put surveys out on the table and let people make up their own minds. People like to be left alone and not annoyed. Its ok to ask for the sale, but no means no. If you continue to push someone, they won't come back. After all, would you?

Visit Dave Weeks' website at http://www.etypewriter.com or write to info@etypewriter.com for any comments you may have.

Making Money With Online Surveys

Gone were the days when you had to wake up in the early hours of the day, rush your breakfast, drive in frustrating heavy traffic to get to your office and subject yourself to endless such hasslesYou dont have to do all these anymore. The advent of Internet culture is changing our work culture upside down you can make money staying at home, doing something that you will enjoy and at the same time feel important. The best part is, you can work when you like, enjoying your breakfast or enjoying your favorite TV show. The advantage of deriving income by taking part in online surveys is that you need not have to be working on it full time. You can choose your own work time and that allows you to live your life to the full. Even if you are employed, you can still supplement your income by taking part in online surveys.

Yes! Unbelievable but it is true! You can make money by taking part in online surveys. All that you have to do is to make few choices, express your opinion, and be paid. www.moneymakerbiz.com that has been helping millions to make money through providing an appropriate forum to take part in online surveys is ready to help you too.

Companies conduct paid surveys prior to the launch of a new product to get consumer feedback to ensure success of the new products. In order to gain deeper insight into their product from customers point of view, companies spend an enormous amount of money in gathering information through online surveys. They are willing to invest their money on you because they know that your opinion counts.

However, does this offer you any job security? How constant is the income? How long can one rely on income through online surveys? Analysis of current trend will tell us that these fears are undue fears because the realization of the advantages of online surveys is on the rise. More and more people are seeking recourse to online surveys because of its ability to collect a vast amount of data in a short span of time, reduced hassles on manual efforts to enter and process the data as automation is possible. Online surveys also enable automatic data validation. All the above advantages contribute to remarkable efficiency. Thus, the growing popularity of online surveys can only make you rich, that is precisely what www.moneymakerbiz.com will help you do and you need not have to worry about the stability of your income. You just need a computer, internet access, a valid email id and should have completed 18 years of age to make money through online surveys.

Paul Clark operates his own successful home based business and also coaches others seeking to start their own home based business. For more information visit his website at http://www.moneymakerbiz.com.