Small Business Marketing, Coaching & Consulting

Small Business Marketing – How Boutiques Pamper Top Customers And What It Means To Your Business

Jay Simcic — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:35:11 +0000

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal details how independent boutiques are pampering their customers. They offer a different outlook on making a purchase. While most people are shopping in an attention deficit world where they want everything now, these boutiques are specializing in custom customer service. They are treating their clients to service they can’t find in mainstream retail stores.

It actually reminds me of full service gas stations. Sometimes you just don’t feel like getting out to pump your own gas. Sometimes you just want to pay a little more for top notch service.

And you know what. That’s totally ok.

Here’s an example from the article of what some of these boutiques are doing for their customers…

When John Cannistraro pops into Louis, a specialty luxury store in Boston that’s run by Debi Greenberg, the great-granddaughter of the founder, the store will repair clothes he has purchased there. “I walk around in my T-shirt for awhile, and they fix my button,” says the 50-year-old construction engineer.
When a client of Louis wanted a dress from chic label The Row in a size the store didn’t have, Ms. Greenberg went online and bought the dress at Barney’s.
Such service helps boutiques compete in an increasingly tough environment. Their rivals include fashion brands’ own stores and big chains, with their broad selections and generous return policies. Online retailers are cutting into business, too, as shoppers have less time for trips to stores.
Source: Wall Street Journal

So, what does this mean for your small business and your current marketing campaigns?

It means that you should consider providing top notch, custom customer service to your customers and clients. Or you could offer this over and above type service to everyone comes in.

The process itself turns into good marketing.

Why?

Because when you begin doing things out of the ordinary and doing things that catches people’s attention, you will be talked about. And when you’re talked about you will inevitably get more business.

The possibilities and ideas around this concept become endless.

This type of service at all costs based concept could flow into any business even if you’re business is service based.

The bottom line… when you treat people right, people talk. And you never know who’s watching.

Look at it this way, these boutiques were watched, talked about, and now have coverage in the Wall Street Journal.

Tell me that’s not going to bring in some new business.

That PR is free marketing for their small businesses.

Consider putting something in place like that in your business.

Enjoy and prosper,

Jay Simcic

PS: Get your Profit Leak Audit and turn on the revenue spigot!

Small Business Marketing Techniques For Profits–Netflix Customers See Red

Jay Simcic — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:08:58 +0000

There are tons of ways to market a business for increased profits. The one I’m going to focus on is raising price. It’s often times a method business owners cringe at but when you think about it, it’s one of the fastest ways to increase your bottom line profits.

Small Business Marketing Techniques That Work The Netflix Way

So let’s dig into raising price. One way to do it without worry is to unbundle items you’ve previously had bundled.

Let’s say you have a current offering that combines two products and the price is $10. You can unbundle those two products and charge $10 for each if the value can stand on it’s own. You should support the unbundle with the reason why you’re doing it.

Most people worry about what their customers will think and they also think they’ll lose customers. But there’s nothing to worry about.

Why?

Because now you’re charging $10 for both items. You would have to lose 50% of the business who were buying those products to get to where you are now. Chances are you will lose some but the price increase will ultimately make you more money.

Let’s look at the example of Netflix. They just announced they are unbundling their offering and charging more for each of them. Here’s an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal…

Netflix Inc. boosted by 60% the price of its cheapest movie-rental plan that includes streaming and DVD rentals, triggering an outcry among customers who still use the disc format despite the growing popularity of online movies.
The Los Gatos, Calif., company said it will no longer offer a $9.99-a-month plan that allows members to stream an unlimited number of movies over the Internet and to rent one DVD at a time. In its place, Netflix subscribers will have to pay $15.98 a month for a plan that combines an existing $7.99-a-month streaming-only movie service with a new $7.99-a-month DVD-only rental plan that lets them check out one disc at a time.
Dan Rayburn, an analyst at research firm Frost & Sullivan who follows digital media, said the move “makes no sense,” predicting it will push people like him who pay $9.99 a month for Netflix streaming and DVD services—often leaving a red DVD envelope from the company unopened for months—to switch to the company’s $7.99 streaming-only plan. Mr. Rayburn said customers that make such a switch can rent DVDs from kiosks run by Coinstar Inc.’s Redbox and others for $1 a night when they can’t find a title on Netflix’s streaming service.

Subscribers will soon pay $15.98 a month to rent DVDs and stream.
Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey acknowledged some members will be upset over the price increase. He declined to say whether Netflix expects most customers to switch to the streaming-only plan. “We still believe it’s a terrific value,” he said of the new $15.98 plan.
In its blog post, Netflix said the price change was prompted by the continuing popularity of the DVD format among consumers. “Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs,” it said in the post.
It also has more expensive streaming-and-DVD plans that allow customers to have more than one disc out at a time.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has made it clear he sees Netflix’s streaming service as the future of the company. Netflix isn’t even bothering to launch DVD-rental services as it expands its streaming service into new territories outside the U.S., such as Canada and Latin America.
Source: Wall Street Journal

Essentially what they’ve done is unbundled their service. They have just increased the amount they are going to get from their customers by 60%. I can’t imagine one bit that Netflix didn’t think this through. If they thought they were going to lose more customers than they would gain from the price hike then they wouldn’t be doing it.

I’m certain they will lose some customers but I firmly believe the company will come out ahead in the long run. Eventually the consumer will forget this happen and gladly pay the price without even thinking about.

For goodness sake, it’s their movies we’re talking about. They can’t live without their movies, can they.

The same philosophy holds true for your product or service. Identify areas that you can unbundle in order to effectively raise your price. Have a reason for it and justify it with a reason why. Engage your customers often and keep them coming back for more. You may just notice an increase in profit this year.

Enjoy and prosper,

Jay

PS: Let’s take a look at where you can increase prices. Get your Profit Leak Audit now.

Small Businesses Marketing–Is the Recession Over

Jay Simcic — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:36:07 +0000

Many small businesses are still struggling with a stagnant economy. Reports being made indicate that it’s the big public companies who are making out with huge profits and outlooks of growth.

It’s the folks on main street that are suffering. They’re having difficulty growing and don’t have a plan to grow.

Here’s an excerpt from The Wall Street Journal…

Many big public companies are likely to report strong second-quarter profits, but that isn’t the story on Main Street, where small businesses are grappling with jittery customers, rising costs and tight credit.

Small business owners are struggling to get enough loans to grow their businesses or hire people, even as they face rising commodity prices, WSJ’s Sarah Needleman reports. (Photo: AP Photo.)

The owners of many small businesses say economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures have led them to delay hiring and capital expenditures. Seventy percent have no plans to expand their staffs over the next 12 months, according to a recent U.S. Bancorp survey of 1,004 U.S. companies with annual revenue of $10 million or less.

While about half projected higher revenue a year from now, 78% said the U.S. economy is still in a recession, and many expected it to remain there next year. In May, for the third month in a row, the optimism index of the National Federation of Independent Business declined.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

In that article it goes on to describe how some small businesses have been able to get lines of credit to continue operations and maintain inventory but the funds were not enough to expand hiring.

While I can understand this situation I firmly believe that many of these businesses are looking over massive opportunities sitting dormant within their company. And they don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to leverage them.

They should be able to start directly with their current customers. Then they can move to past customers who haven’t done business with them in a while. They could even optimize their current marketing to improve their overall ROI.

All these things cost pennies compared to traditional advertising.

Knowing this should put some small business owner’s minds at ease. You see, they talk about taking it slow and not making big jumps and that’s fine because when they realize that they’re sitting on a gold mine of opportunity inside their own business they will see that increased growth doesn’t have to happen because you’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars into advertising. And as they grow they will in turn have the cash flow and ability to begin hiring again.

My other criticism of this WSJ article is that they offer no solutions. They only focus on a negative slant, which does grab eyeballs but never gives a viable solution to the problem. I understand they can’t offer every business one solution in one article but how about talking about the options that are out there.

Stop feeding the negative machine and begin giving hope with an eye to the future for the small business owner’s who are reading this.

Enjoy and prosper,

Jay SImcic

PS: If you’re one of those small business owners who wants to market through this recession without feeling a punch in the gut then you should consider getting a Profit Leak Audit.

How Martina McBride And The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular Can Help Your Business

Jay Simcic — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:43:42 +0000

Yesterday was U.S.A.’s Independence Day. For those of you that celebrated I hope you enjoyed it.

Me and my family watched some fireworks and hung out with friends. It was a great time.

Now, down to business.

You must think I’m nuts…

What does Martina McBride and her performance at The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular have to do with you and your business.

Well, let me give you a quick excerpt from the article…

If you happened to catch the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular last night on CBS, you saw Martina McBride filling in for Lionel Richie, who had been announced as the headliner of the July 4th concert festivities.
Why McBride?
She wound up being a last-minute fill-in for Richie, who has been completing his upcoming album as well as performing back-to-back concerts and suffered strained vocal cords, which left him unable to perform, according to CBS.
Source: USA Today

Ok, now that you have a little bit of context, you can read the rest over at USA Today if you would like, you’ll see that the plan didn’t work out the way it was designed. The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular had to work on plan B to get their show off without any major problems. That’s where Martina McBride came in.

Now, I’ve got to imagine that there was a backup plan and that Martina knew about the event just in case something bad happend . As you can see it did and the secondary plan worked out.

This type of planning should be what you have working in your business. Have backup plans.

I’m not talking about things like backing up your computer or having a fire safe… although those are good ideas. What I’m talking about is getting past small mistakes and learning from them.

For instance, mistakes in your marketing and your communications to your prospects and customers.

Nothing has to ever be perfect. It just has to work.

Mistakes are not a big deal, it’s when you don’t follow through on something that you have to worry about.

For instance, if the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular didn’t have a backup plan they would have had many unhappy people on their hands and it would have probably affected next years performance. But because they came through with something, even though it wasn’t what was planned, Martina McBride saved the day.

Here’s an example in your business. Let’s say you tell a prospective customer that you will follow up with them tomorrow at 4pm. Then you get caught up with work and forget to make the call. Your prospect was waiting. They’re probably not happy.

What do you do?

One option would be to ignore the situation and never call them back and count them as a lost customer. The implications of this are much greater than just losing one customer but we can talk about that another time.

Another option would be to call the prospective customer back and pretend like nothing happened. That’s not so good either because you’ll be giving your customer some signs that they may not want to do business with you.

Or, you could call your prospective customer, own up to the mistake, apologize, and make good on what ever it was you needed to come through on. At that point you’re coming from even footing. You’ve owned up to your mistake, the customer can then take it or leave it. They can’t hold it over your head because you’ve come clean so to speak.

That is the type of approach we should all take in our businesses.

Have a plan B if you can.

If not, own up to the mistakes and move on.

By doing that you’ll probably gain a customer for life.

Be sure to comment with any questions you want answered about your business. I’ll do my best to include it in some of my blog posts.

Enjoy and prosper,

Jay Simcic

PS: Give me a shout when you’re interested in boosting your revenue and uncovering new found profits. All you have to do is get a Profit Leak Audit.

Guerrilla Marketing Ideas For Any Business

Jay Simcic — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:26:23 +0000

In this short article you will discover 7 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas you can use in your business.

It will give you a few marketing resources to find untapped areas of profit, how to find more customers and generate sales quickly. And all it takes is a little action.

1. Madison Avenue Style Marketing May Not Be For You

Most businesses that have million dollar budgets use name recognition and image advertising to brand their business. All you have to do is open up popular, mainstream magazines and get an idea of what I’m talking about. Main Street businesses need to work within their budget in ways that brand themselves and get results at the same time. That’s why it’s important to over communicate to your prospects and customers.

The more you communicate the more you’ll be able to be the one your customer or prospect thinks about first. The numbers dictate that it takes between seven and twelve communications before someone makes a buying decision. With that being the case, it’s obvious that many small businesses are selling themselves short in their marketing. Many think it takes one run and they’ll be good to go.

It’s time to communicate and do more with your marketing. Communicate often and always give a call to action in everything you do.

2. Offer A Lower Priced Option

Please don’t get me wrong. I did not say to lower your price. I said to offer a lower priced version of your offering. What that means is you should make an option that costs less than your regular option but also has less value than your regular option.

Think about it like car dealerships. You can get a lower priced car but you’re going to lose the GPS, the floor mats, and some of the bells and whistles. If those extra things mean enough to you then you’ll buy it. If not, then you’ll get the lower priced version. In either case you’re not reducing the value of your offering by just lowering your price. Your prospect ends up getting exactly what they want. And that’s exactly what you want to do.

3. Offer a High Priced Option

This is the reverse of what we just talked about. In this case you’ll add bonuses or extra value to your offering and in return you’re also increasing the price. Now you should have a total of three options. Something for everyone. You’ll have three tiers for folks to choose from and be able to help people make decisions.

Keep in mind that for one specific offering you don’t want to have more than 3 options. Having options are good but having too many options is very bad. Having too many options sends people into paralysis and that’s exactly what you don’t want. So to make sure you get the most bang for you buck only offer a maximum of three options to your prospects. Of course, don’t believe every word I say, go test it for yourself.

4. Get Crazy In With Your Marketing Methods

Start brainstorming ideas that could go viral. Viral marketing is one of the fastest ways to get people talking. Most of the time that only happens when you’re doing something that makes people talk about you.

It could be getting obscure media exposure. It could be sponsoring a major event and getting press or lots of folks talking about your involvement. Remember, marketing can take on many forms. It doesn’t always have to be newspaper and magazine advertising.

It could be a matter of getting crazy postcards done up. Maybe you make yourself into a bobble head. Think about outlandish things and start getting attention. Once you get attention you can then begin a conversation. Until you get someone to engage you, you’ll just be talking to yourself.

5. Small Business Advertising Doesn’t Mean BIG Ads

Decrease the size of your ads. If your ad communicates the right message, just because it’s huge doesn’t mean it’s going to work or not. Try decreasing your ad size and delivering a powerful message. You might find out that your message becomes so clear, so concise and so effective that you get more return on your marketing investment.

Don’t do what everyone else is doing just because everyone else is doing it. Test and find out what works for you and what doesn’t. If you are going to swipe ideas from other companies don’t go to your industry for ideas. If one person in your industry is marketing a certain way then the chances that other companies in your industry are doing are pretty high.

Instead, look outside your industry. Go find marketing ideas from other industries and get them working in your business. You may find that because it’s so new to your industry you get even more attention than you thought possible. Tunnel vision can be a killer. Be open minded and begin looking to places you’ve never looked for ideas before.

You’ll gain a whole new insight into marketing when you do.

6. Design Lucrative Joint Ventures With Your Industry Peers

Competition doesn’t have to be competition. Those that are not competition and those that are can become your joint venture partners giving both of your companies the ability to profit in a huge way. Not only that but it opens up the concepts of sharing lists and expanding your prospective client and customer base.

Think about it, all you have to do is engage an industry peer that benefits both of you and it could turn into a six-figure payday. You can make offers to each of your lists. You can offer great deals, give endorsements of each other, and begin communicating and sharing with your current customers what is going on and the new partnership you’ve created.

By creating this type of partnership you open up a new world of expansion for your prospects. Now they can have an almost one stop shop for their needs. And you could be brokering that deal. The same holds true on the other side. When you create partnership instead of worry about competition you’ll realize greater benefit in the long run.

Your goal should be to identify at least peers in your industry that you can connect with for lucrative joint venture deals.

7. Leverage Your Current Customers

It is your current customers who know you. It is your current customers who like you. And it is your current customers who TRUST you.

Because of that it’s important that you enroll your customers into your vision and long-term goals. Get them to spread the word about your business. Give them incentive. Celebrate your customers. Get them having fun with you and you’ll find they want to do more with and for you. That’s how you integrate your customers into your business.

Build customer loyalty and solid referral programs and just from those alone you could see your bottom line profits begin to skyrocket. Remember, this doesn’t have to be difficult. All it takes is a little thought and a few ideas to engage your customers. Invite them into your world and have them invite others. It will only benefit both of you.

Each of these 7 guerrilla marketing ideas can stand on their own. And when you combine them all into your business, optimize them for maximum profit, it finally becomes possible to see geometric growth in your business

Jay

PS: Take an opportunity now to find out that a Profit Leak Audit can help you grow your business.

How To Get More Business In The Next 90 Days

Jay Simcic — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:57:00 +0000

Wondering How To Get More Business?

Tossing… turning… sleepless nights. At one time or another nearly every entrepreneur or business owner has wrestled with the thoughts and ideas of how to get more business to come in. Often times they feel trapped, like they’ve tried everything.

But have they?

Have they exhausted all means possible.

Do they just need a few good marketing ideas?

What you’re about to get is not an end-all-be-all list of ways to get clients, customers or patients but it will be a list of things you can implement now so that you can begin seeing more clients, customers, or patients… more revenue, and a boost in profits within the next 90 days.

Referrals

Getting referrals can be one of the fastest methods for generating more business for any company. Start talking to your customers, clients, or patients and ask them for referrals. Some people feel funny asking but considering you have the ability to help people, you can explain that they don’t have to mention the word referral. All they have to do is let people they know that you are available to help them. Educate your clients on the best way to ask for referrals. And most of all, always treat them with the utmost respect.

Customer Reactivation

Get your customers back. They’ve gone somewhere. They may have left because they moved. Some may have left because it’s a matter of out-of-site-out-of-mind. Others possibly left because they felt they were wronged. All you have to do is ask them to come back, apologize for whatever it was you did (even if you didn’t do anything wrong), and make them an offer they can’t refuse. Do this and I’d bet you get a percentage of them to come back. Just by communicating to them will be one thing more than what most businesses do to get clients back.

Endorsements

Get your colleagues to endorse you. Who do you know that would say good things about you? Your current clients? How about the professionals you do business with. Connect with as many people as you know and ask them to mail to their list of clients, customers, or patients. Explain that you will write the letter and cover the cost of the mailing. Explain that you will give them a percentage of any business you get, if it’s legal to do so. By doing this you’ll get the ability to expand your customer base. You’ll want to follow up regularly but you should be doing that anyway. This is a great way to pick up new clients.

Customer Appreciation Events

Get customers to come in and bring in others. The way you do that is with customer events. Show your appreciation. Make super special offers, have door prizes, make it a fun experience for everyone and you’ll be remembered for a long time to come. Make sure you let them bring people with them. That will be the key because now you’ll be able to impact many more people. Get their names, addresses, and email. Start building communications with them and you may gain new customers for life.

Get Leads From Your Competitors

Call up competitors and non-competitors alike and ask for their unused leads. You can also make them incentivized offer giving them a new stream of income. You’re probably wondering why they would give you leads. The truth is, at first they may not. But when they realize that they have the ability to gain an additional stream of revenue by using you then it may get their greed glands pumping. You see, it’s not like you will be stealing them. The idea is to compliment what they are doing and give them the ability to monetize prospects and clients who are not making them any money currently.

Get Leads From Your Vendors

How many times have you gone to your vendors and asked for referrals? Probably not many if at all. But guess what? They more than likely have large lists you can leverage. All you have to do is show them that you will treat their list with utmost respect and courtesy if they are willing to offer you referrals. You can also provide them another source of income by incentivizing. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Telemarketing

Hire a phone sales person or outsource one to perform cold calling. Most people don’t like to cold call. The good thing is you don’t have to do it yourself. You can drum up more business by hiring out to do the hard stuff then you can come in and close. If you don’t want to do any sales then you can always hire a sales person. Use your strengths and hire out for everything else.

2-Step Lead Generation

Leverage your articles and documentation to provide a report that educates and sells your products or services. Use that report to attract people who want to do business with you. You can use a website to collect names and emails. You can use direct mail and order forms to deliver these reports in physical format. Leverage these tools to build your list. As you build your list it’s important that you communicate and build a relationship with your list. Use these tools to educate and sell.

Loss Leader

Give away stuff at low cost in order to up-sell them on the back-end and with follow-up sales. You have to look at what your offerings are and determine what works for you. Every small business is different. You might be selling a product. Someone else might be selling a service. And if you look and search enough you should easily be able to find a loss leader that works for your business that attracts clients, customers, or patients. Once you get them as a buyer for your loss leader its your job to continue to market to them over and over again.

These are just a few methods you can use to generate leads. This is definitely not a full list of how to get more business but I’d be willing to bet that if you implement just one of these you should be able to generate more business within 90 days.

How One Business Doubled Revenue In 6 Months

Jay Simcic — Mon, 02 May 2011 18:59:05 +0000

Imagine this…. what would you do with all the extra money if you were able to double your revenue in 6 months or less?

One business did just that by implementing just one critical small business marketing tactic.

Most business owners would be ecstatic to see a 10% return but this guy saw double.

What’s even better than that is, it was sustainable. It wasn’t just a one time shot in sales.

So what did this business owner do you ask?

He did two things.

One… He started collecting the contact information of every person who made a purchase.

Two… He followed up with them regularly with offers and invitation for events.

That’s the power of follow-up.

On top of that he wasn’t using some crazy technical CRM solution either. This guy was using index cards and guest books.

All he would do is invite everyone who made a purchase to write down their info and in return he would make them sweet deals and invite them to company events.

He was only able to get 50% of his purchasers to give out their information. And with only 50% success he was able to turn that around and double his revenues.

I know it sounds crazy but it’s true.

But don’t take it from me.

Here’s a short clip from about.com that stresses the importance of follow-up…

The main purpose of marketing strategies like public speaking, writing articles, getting publicity, networking, promotional events, and advertising is to gain visibility. (A secondary purpose of the first three strategies can be to gain credibility.) Why do you want to be visible? It’s not just so people will know who you are and what you do, it’s so they will do business with you.
If someone has already expressed interest in doing business, call them. Do it now. Memorize this rule — following up on hot, or even warm, client leads is always more important than marketing for more visibility.
Source: About.com

The key concept you should take away from this is not only to implement a proper and systematized follow-up program but to ask the question, “Is there a better way to do things?”

Ask yourself the right questions and you’ll be given the right answers. You just have to be open to what you find.

Small business marketing isn’t rocket science. Yet some business owners make it out to be only because they are working in their business instead of on their business.

Make a note and go implement this right away.

Enjoy and prosper,

Jay Simcic

If you would like to take your business to the next level, get more clients, customers, patients and increase your overall revenue and profit then you should get a Profit Leak Audit today.

Are You Kidding Me?

Jay Simcic — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:18:00 +0000

The sky is falling…

I can’t believe what I just read.

Wal-Mart CEO has said that their shoppers are running out of money. And he’s worried. I have to call BS on this one but here’s an excerpt to make you laugh a little.

Wal-Mart’s core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.
“We’re seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure,” Duke said at an event in New York. “There’s no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact.”
Source: CNN

Whatever…

No one is running out of money and if they are, it’s not because of gas prices. And I can’t believe that Wal-Mart CEO is worried.

I would imagine that Wal-Mart is seeing a drop off in purchases isn’t because of gas prices. I think it’s because they aren’t showing their consumers value. They forgot how to differentiate on something other than price.

Why should I shop at Wal-Mart when I can shop at Target for almost the same price. Especially when Target staff is nicer, the stores are cleaner and there isn’t a comedy website focused on the “People of Wal-Mart”.

It’s bad when you get a website like that talking about you.

It’s even worse when you can walk into your local Wal-Mart and see it for yourself.

I remember walking into a local Wal-Mart and deciding, I’d rather pay the few extra pennies to go somewhere else because this experience SUCKED!

What’s the lesson here?

Differentiate your company on something other than price. Find something worth talking about and leverage it.

Enjoy and prosper,

Jay Simcic

Why Meetings Suck

Jay Simcic — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:57:49 +0000

When you have a scheduled meeting and the other person is a no show, is it that big of a deal?

I don’t know.

Some people think so.

Other’s could care less.

The problem, the way I see it, it’s time that can no longer be used for something more productive or joyful.

It seems that every time we turn around people are “wasting” their time.

Playing solitaire on the computer.

Talking on the phone about nothing.

Is that real happiness? Is that getting something done.

Stop using meetings as an excuse for inaction. You don’t need to meet on everything.

Try it… if it doesn’t work, don’t do it again.

It’s that simple. Many business owners fall into a trap of planning, meeting, and planning more. How about you start acting and doing.

Stop saying, “This won’t work in my company.” And instead try it. Then if it doesn’t work, you have a leg to stand on.

So, in a nut shell, go do SOMETHING.

If it works, keep doing it.

Enjoy and prosper,

Jay Simcic

Why Now Is The Time To Raise Your Price!

Jay Simcic — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Have you heard of the placebo effect?

That’s one reason you should raise your price now.

I’m not joking

There were studies done on how the placebo effect works and it’s proven that it truly does work. Where it gets very interesting is when the placebo effect is brought into the mix with price.

It has been reported from studies that price will be a factor on pain as well as quality. For instance, if you gave out pain meds and to one group you sold them for $2.50 a pill and the other group you sold them for .10 a pill… the folks who bought the pain meds at $2.50 will have better pain relief than those at .10.

I know it sounds crazy but it’s true.

The same holds true with quality. Think about when you buy a pair of shoes or a pair of jeans. There’s an unconscious thought of quality or cheapness based on the price tag. If you bought a pair of shoes that costs $5, chances are you will already have a preconceived notion that those shoes are junk or low quality. On the other hand if you bought a $100 pair of sneakers you expect a certain amount of quality.

That same thing happens to everything. These are split second decisions going on in our minds when we buy.

Those are just a few of the reasons you should consider increasing your price.

Let me give you another pretty drastic example.

If I were to offer you my Profit Leak Audit for $250 you probably wouldn’t value that as much as if I offered it to you for $25,000.

I would bet that you are asking yourself different questions in your own mind at each of those price points.

At the lower end you might be wondering if the low price point is congruent with low value.

On the other side, if you’re being charged $25,000 you want to know you’re going to get value. That’s a fairly large amount of money to separate from not knowing what you’re going to get. That’s a reason for risk reversal, but I’ll leave that for a different time.

For now, you’re wondering if you should consider a profit leak audit for that price… will you get $250,000 worth of value. Jay says he will help me find 10x the value. He guarantee’s it. Why not?

Now the question becomes that of affordability, what type of businesses I’m targeting and who can afford it.

Think about how Wal-Mart, Target, and Nordstrom operate.

They each appeal appropriately to a different audience. And each has a different price point of folks they target. But each can raise their price by 5%, 10%, or even 20% without too many people batting an eye. And that extra revenue goes directly to the bottom line.

Many business owners are afraid to increase their price by 10%. They think they’re going to lose customers. Sometimes you might but you have to evaluate if the increase in price brought you more ROI regardless of the lost customers or not. Many companies do it all the time without a problem. It’s up to you to test it and see how it works out for you.

So, in a nutshell you have different areas of price to look at. You should consider who your target market is demographically speaking, then you need to evaluate if you can raise your price and what the impact is to your bottom line.

Enjoy and prosper,

Jay Simcic

PS- Find hidden assets in your business. Get your profit leak audit now and uncover at least $50,000 in hidden revenue.

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