Beware of Bad Business Advisors

Maybe you have a lot of resources, and are surrounded by many professionals that you consult with before making decisions. Despite this, before you take business advice from anyone - make sure that they really know what they're talking about.

Just as not all doctors are good doctors, the same goes for financial advisors, lawyers, consultants, accountants, marketers, etc.

Too often, I hear someone say something like: "Well, I talked to my friend who's a lawyer and he said its okay." My response to this is always: "How do you know he's a good lawyer?" Lawyers give bad advice all the time, and passing a bar test doesn't necessarily mean that the person is smart, intuitive or honest.

Before taking the advice of a "professional", be sure to review their history whenever possible. For instance, would you be comfortable taking advice from a lawyer who failed the bar test 10 times before he finally passed it? Would you be comfortable consulting with an accountant who graduated college with a "C" average?

Ask for the contact info of the person's previous and existing clients. Talk with them and ask specific questions. This will always give you a better idea of whether or not you should be taking advice from someone.

I find that nowadays everyone wants to share their "knowledge" and offer their opinions. I've seen overweight people telling others how to lose weight. I've seen people in debt telling others how to get out of debt. And, I've seen unsuccessful business people telling others how to be successful in business.

Listening is never a bad thing, but before you take someone's advice - make sure that they're a reliable resource.

Is Your Landing Page Optimized?

The term "landing page" is used to describe the page on your web site that visitors see first. In most cases, this will be your home page. However, if you run a lot of search engine advertising campaigns - your landing page can be any page of your web site that you want.

The idea is to optimize your landing page so that first-time visitors will either buy into what you're selling or at least inquire for more information. The more sales and/or leads that your landing page produces, the better the optimization is.

Many industry experts suggest split testing - which is when you have several different landing pages in order to determine which one is converting best. Obviously, if one is converting at 30% but another is converting at 65% - the latter would be the most desirable landing page.

However, it's very common for a successful landing page to convert well - but to decrease in conversions over time. In that instance, you would develop more landing pages to test to bring the conversions back up.

Regarding the design and look, industry experts highly suggest to keep your landing pages simple and boring. Animated and graphic-intensive landing pages have consistently produced the lowest conversions, opposed to text-based and basic-looking ones.

Having the right landing page can literally increase your conversions by up to 400%. This alone justifies why you should spend a lot of time experimenting with this.

If you're interested in getting help with your landing page optimization, I highly recommend that you use the services at www.sitetuners.com.

If you want to do it yourself, I recommend reading the following books: Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions By Tim Ash; and Landing Page Optimization For Dummies by Martin and Michael Harwood. Both are available at Amazon.com and in bookstores nationwide.

Bigger Is Not Always Better

Many believe that a company's level of success is based entirely on it's size. This is not always true. Having more employees and large office space doesn't necessarily give you an advantage.

A small company with just one or two employees and no office space can easily be more profitable and can compete with, and often outmaneuver, a bigger company. Even more, a small company can be more simpler and less stressful to manage.

In the age of the dot com, it is very common for successful businesses to be run by one or two people who work at home. These types of businesses can typically generate anywhere from $30,000 - $1,000,000+ a year.

Very different from 10-20 years ago, you don't have to have a storefront to build a business and you don't necessarily need office space. It can all be done virtually.

I know people (Americans) that live overseas and run their businesses online - with all of their customers being in the United States. Not only do they not have to deal with their customers face-to-face, but they don't even have to be on the same continent.

So as you formulate (or reformulate) your business ideas, think big - but also think small. Keep your overhead low. Being able to afford office space, doesn't mean you have to buy into it. And the same goes for multiple employees.

Be determined to run your business in the most simple cost-effective way possible, and whenever possible - keep the size of your company to a minimum.

Are Your Prices Too High?

I work with a lot of authors, and it always surprises me when first-time authors are selling their books for $25. In my opinion, $25 for a book is very expensive - especially when people have never heard of you. Even $20 is just too much.

I've also seen people selling their independent DVDs, CDs, etc for just way too much money. Sadly, these people lose so much on sales because people just don't feel the item is worth that much.

What about the prices for your services and products? Are they too high? Are you losing customers because they feel you are too expensive?

The best way to price whatever it is that you're selling is to look at your competition, and go lower. If your competition is selling books for $15, sell your book for $12. If your competition is selling DVDs for $20, sell yours for $15.

Don't get so hung up on the idea of only making a tiny profit per sale. Which would you prefer - to make a $1 profit on thousands of individual sales, or to make a $0 profit on no sales?

Go with the Walmart method. Underprice your item, and take the lower profit. You'll make up for it in volume.

Make sure to do this the first time around - before you launch your promotional campaign. If people visit your web site and feel your prices are too high, they won't be coming back after you realize your mistake and decide to lower the price. You have to capitalize on their initial inquiry.

A Jack of All Trades - Good or Bad?

Contrary to popular belief, it is perfectly okay to be a Jack of All Trades (or a Jack of Many Trades). These phrases are commonly used to describe an entrepreneur or business owner that possesses many skills and offers many different services to customers.

If this describes you, this is a good thing - not a bad thing. Many well-known entrepreneurs such as Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Ted Turner, Warren Buffett, etc. have several different companies that offer a variety of services. They understand that it's smart to have multiple streams of income, in case one particular industry begins to take a downturn.

Even rap artists have found great success doing this. They own rap labels, film companies, clothing companies, shoe companies, jewelry companies, and often local restaurants in their hometown.

While it is perfectly okay to be a Jack of All (or many) Trades, don't make the fatal mistake of combining all your services into one company. For instance, it's a terrible idea to indicate on your business card or web site that you're a lawn mower, web developer, photographer, and interior designer.

Instead, create a different company (and web site) for each unique service that you provide. This way, your potential customers won't be inundated with services and products that they really have no interest in. They will only see information pertaining to what they're inquiring about.

Also, they will perceive you as a highly-skilled professional that knows what you're doing. If they see too many different services offered, they may assume that you're not an expert at anything - but just have a lot of casual knowledge. That, of course, is not the impression you want to give.

Beyonce Enjoying The Sweet Smell of Success

I'm not a fan of Beyonce's music, but I am a huge fan of her branding and business strategies. This past February, she debuted her new fragrance called "Heat" - exclusively sold at Macy's.

Within one hour, she sold 72,000 bottles. And, after just one month, she has already generated over $3 million in sales.

What's so special about the perfume? Probably not a lot, other than her name being on it. She obviously just has a huge following that will overwhelmingly support her products.

It's no secret that celebrity colognes and perfumes can generate millions in revenue, but Beyonce appears to be headed to the number one spot very fast.

To give you some perspective: Britney Spears' "Curious" and "Fantasy" fragrances netted $24 million last year, and Jennifer Lopez's "Glo By J.Lo" fragrance netted $18.5 million. These are all huge numbers, but Beyonce is on target to do about $36 million or more this year in fragrance sales.

The queen of fragrances, however, is Elizabeth Taylor who's "White Diamonds" line generated a staggering $67.2 million last year alone.

The king is P. Diddy, whose "Unforgivable" line generated over $48 million last year.

Whether Beyonce can top them or not, it would still be an amazing accomplishment for her to get to the number three spot that fast.

You Can Read, But Can You Write?

It surprises me that many entrepreneurs and business owners have poor writing skills. This is often displayed when they write emails, press releases, columns, blogs, books, and more.

Critical mistakes I've seen include improper use of single and double quotes, improper use or lack of commas, and even a lack of periods. I've also seen well-known, reputable individuals write long emails that are not properly divided into paragraphs, and contain incomplete sentences.

I don't consider myself to be a writing expert, but I've learned how to write effectively because I know it can affect my company's revenue.

For instance, I deal with a lot of key executives at major corporations. Can you imagine how they'd feel if I sent them an email with misspelled words? In just a moment's time, they may lose confidence in me and my company.

I also blog regularly and send out press releases regarding my company, with the goal of encouraging more clients to do business with us. Can you imagine how people would feel if the content was poorly written with incomplete thoughts? Again, in just a moment's time, they can be discouraged about reaching out to me.

Always remember that how you write will reflect what people think of you. You can be a great business person, and even a great speaker - but if your writing skills are weak, it can harm your reputation.

You don't have to be a perfectionist and write as if you are being monitored by an English teacher, but you should master the basic writing skills. If necessary, use your Spellcheck and get someone to proofread.

The Pros and Cons of 5-Day USPS Mail Delivery

The number of items handled by the United States Postal Service each year is decreasing by the billions.

It's estimated that by the year 2020, the amount will be reduced by up to 55%. Therefore, the USPS needs to cut costs immediately or the organization will become a victim to a huge financial disaster.

In order to save $3.3 billion annually, the United States Postal Service is proposing to switch to a 5-day mail delivery week. If enforced, mail will no longer be delivered on Saturdays starting in 2011.

Here are the potential pros for entrepreneurs:

1) Reduced and/or more stable direct mail costs
Direct mail advertising via postcards, catalogs, and sales letters are extremely effective for many businesses. However, the costs to mail out these items increase nearly every year because of the USPS' financial problems. If they are able to cut costs by enforcing a 5-day mail delivery, the price of bulk postage could go down. If not, perhaps it won't increase as often.

2) An extra day to pay invoices
Like most entrepreneurs in this economy, many businesses are struggling to stay afloat. Mail not being delivered on Saturday gives them an extra day to pay an outstanding invoice or a bill. One day isn't much, but may occasionally be just enough to get the cash flow needed.

Here are the potential cons for entrepreneurs:

1) Late payments from your clients
Just like you have an extra day to pay your bills, now so will your clients. If you don't receive a much needed check by Friday, now you have to wait all the way until Monday. This can causes problems if your office rent or other expenses are due over the weekend.

2) Less time to organize mail
Credit card companies and other organizations receive thousands of pieces of mail a day, and have hired a Saturday staff to retrieve and process it. If Saturday mail is done away with, this means that these types of companies will only have 5 days a week to get the job done.

3) More airfare
You may or may not be aware of this, but the USPS does not have it's own airplanes like UPS and FedEx to transport mail. They use the same airlines you fly on - Southwest, United, Delta, etc.

If mail delivery is reduced to a 5-day week, many people may stop using the USPS - and may start using another mailing service or just email and fax. If this happens, this could drastically reduce the revenue paid to the airlines by the USPS. The airlines, in turn, may increase airfares to make up the difference.

How To Get Black Radio Interviews

There are more than 400 radio stations across the country that have a combined listening audience of more than 18 million African Americans.

About 75% of these stations have daily or weekly newstalk programs where they interview columnists, experts and gurus on various topics.

Obviously, being interviewed on the radio is a very effective way to promote your company, your book, your organization, your web site, etc.

So how do you get invited on-air?

Here are three proven strategies:

1) Regularly send out relevant press releases.
News programmers and disc jockeys receive and read press releases all the time. The more you appear in the headlines, the more likely it is that they'll invite you on the show. Remember though to send out relevant and meaningful press releases that will not only interest them, but also fit their format. If possible, do this at least once a month!

2) Write and distribute columns.
On a weekly or bi-weekly basis, you should write and distribute intelligently-written columns or editorials. This shows that you're an expert on specific topics, and that you have helpful insight to share. Even more, it shows that you're professional and that you're available to talk on-air.

3) Send out a media advisory.
A media advisory is a brief note to the media informing them that you are available to discuss certain topics. For instance, if it's National Diabetes Week and you are an expert on the topic - you can distribute a formatted note to the press letting them know that you're available for interviews to discuss your organization and/or general tips for diabetics. For the correct format of a media advisory, search online for "media advisory template".

Applying these three strategies when using my BlackPR.com press release distribution service should produce the results you want!

Are You Your Worst Enemy?

There are many factors that can contribute to a business failing: lack of advertising, poor management of staff, bad customer service, tax trouble, etc. However, many entrepreneurs don't realize that sometimes the problem is the one thing you never think of: you.

That's right, it could very well be true that you are your company's worst enemy.

Perhaps, your personality is too aggressive and you turn potential clients away. Or maybe your personality is too soft and you aren't convincing enough to potential clients.

Or could it be that you're too lazy and lack work ethic? Or maybe you work too hard and are always too tired to pay attention to new opportunities.

Or maybe you're too stubborn. Could it be that you're ignorant and slow to adapt change? Or maybe you change too much and people can't keep up with you.

Or maybe you blame others, instead of taking responsibility and accountability when things go wrong. As a result of your denial, perhaps you're making the same mistakes over and over again.

Conduct an honest self-analysis. Be determined to find your "blindspots". Ask others what they think about you as a business owner, and how you run your company. Listen closely to what they say, and take action.