Category Archives: Marketing

Trade shows, a great source of leads, without even paying.

Bootstrap, Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, , ,

Trade shows, Fairs, Home Shows and such are common all over the nation.  For a small amount of money you can have your small business seen by the masses that come by your little booth.  They can talk to you, and hopefully buy your stuff.

But what if the product you sell is something that mostly businesses buy?  This makes a problem for you, if you get a booth at the show almost everyone who comes by will not own a business that you can sell to, you will spend a lot of time and money with little return.

I looked at this as a bootstrapping entrepreneur and thought this way.  There are 100’s of businesses at this show, most of them have the owner or decistion maker stuck in their booth and on a slow day they have very little to do.  So I figure out which day will likely be the slowest then I go there, I take my business cards and some flyers and start talking to business owners.

Today I went to a home show, I saw a few existing customer but I spent most of my time looking for companies that I could talk to about my products and services.  Of course I sell computers and web design.  Over 20% of the companies I talked to had an imediate need for one of my products or services.  I got their cards, wrote notes on the back and left the event a few hours later with 15 companies that I can call and do business with.  Where else can you make so many quality leads in such a short time, for free while having fun?

I have been doing this with great success for a few years.  A few times I have even had people write me checks on the spot.

So if you are lacking for leads for your business consider this as a great bootstap way to make some instant customers.

Bootstrap your business.

Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Marketing

Every day people start businesses.  Today I am going to talk about the real businesses, not the home based small business that you do part time, but a business where you hire people, you work at it, you create systems and build something that has long term value. This will be the first in a series of blogs about this subject.  HOW TO BUILD A BUSINESS ON A SHOESTRING.  AKA Bootstrapping.

When I see people doing this I see two VERY different type of people.  I see the first type, the people who have worked in the corporate world for a long time who decided they can do it better.  Then I see the people who just have an idea that they think will make a lot of money, and they have the drive and will to make it happen even if they don’t have much money.  The biggest difference between these two is the amount of money they will spend and blow through.

The Corporate Guy

Lets assume that both guys want to start a web design company. (The following is a true story, I know the guy well, the numbers are correct.)   The corporate guy sits down and start to think about what he will need to run his business, he thinks about all the tools he had at his last company and starts to write a list.  He needs a conference room, he need a high end server with redundancy and $10,000 of software to make it all work.  He need high end printers to show samples to customers he need an impressive office so that he can hire the best talent.  He spends $80,000 on furniture and making his office suite look great, he then hires 3 techs to sit down and create logo generation software, scripts to automate the entire interview process with the customer.  All things he was used to.  His techs also generate templates, then he goes out and advertises his services in many different mediums, he started with $150,000 and that is long gone, he has borrowed $100,000 more and has monthly expenses of over $25,000.   He gets some calls and some business but even with $10,000 coming in each month he quickly runs out of money, gets rid of his staff to reduce expenses but it is too late, he can’t pay the bills and after only 10 months he is our of business, he lost his $150,000 the $100,000 of his investor and he has bills to his landlord and other people who gave him things on credit for another $80,000.  And about 300 customer who paid for sites were left with nothing.  (I know all of this is true, he STILL owes me over $15,000)

The bootstrapper.

Next is the story of another guy that I know, he is a bootstraper, a real entrepreneur.  He also decided to build a web design question, he asked himself, “What is the minimum that I need to really function?”  The answer is a nice desk, nice chair with a nice computer loaded with the proper software.  He does not need to host the server locally, he can host it at one of the many hosting companies for about $200 per year or less.  Every time he sells 25 web sites he needs to pay $200 again but that is ok, he will be making money then.   He does not need an office, he can meet the customers at their office, or just over the phone.  He needs very little to get started.  He does not make an automated system for customer interaction, he just talks to them and finds out what they need.  He finds free advertising, and starts getting word of mouth.  His costs are lower so he charges less than the other guys but not too little to kill his business.  He saves most of his money so that his business can grow.

After a few months he has enough money for a small office, he finds a few people who are young and eager to learn, maybe not top talent, but people he can train from scratch and pay less than going rates  People who have a good attitude and are sharp.  He hires some sales people paying them 100% on commission so that he only pays out when he makes money.   9 months into his business he has a few hundred customers a small staff and a nice office.  He brings in 50 new customers a month at an average of $600, making 30k per month, with expenses under 10k per month he is quickly building his networth, and building his company.  He also has a business that can run without him, he can start to take time off, and if he got a bit bigger and put all the systems in writing and have everyone follow it he could even sell the business for huge money.

Findings

I would always invest in a bootstrapper well before I invested in a corporate guy, the problem is that the bootstrappers almost always don’t ask for money but when they do you should listen.  One company that was a bootstrap company, that did everything in house and did it on the cheap was Google.  1000’s of other companies started up in Silicon Valley with tons of different ideas but most were run by people who could simply not be frugal, they needed the fancy cars, and parties and cool offices.  Most of these companies failed.

When you are looking for a company to invest in look to see if they are a bootstrapper.  Don’t be impressed with the fancy office or cars, be scared.  If you are running your own business or looking to start one think about what is really need to make your business money, don’t spend money that you have not made yet unless it is 100% needed.

Over the next few weeks I will write blogs about bootstrapping, simply click on the bootstrap Category to see the other entries.

Awesome Free Swag on the Internet

blogs, Business, Internet, Marketing, , , , , , , , ,

Swag is the cool stuff you get for free when you go to conventions.  (Stuff We All Get) You also see it for many different businesses.  This article says that Swag is there to promote their products, and reward loyal customer, not to make a profit.  This is something that most businesses simply DON’T UNDERSTAND.   In the world of the internet it is rare, most companies simply can not afford to send out free stuff to the world with no return.

And some that do only send free e-swag, the digital stuff cause it costs them almost nothing.  By far the BEST e-swag I ever seen is called America’s Army.  It is a top quality video game, but instead of being sold it is given away for free to promote the US Army.  For the rest of this entry I will only focus on REAL stuff that gets sent to you.

5LBS of FREE CANDY by Southwest Candy – This one is great, I asked for it on monday, got the candy on tuesday via FedEx.  It is really good stuff, I really love the Jelly Belly ones.  They sell candy wholesale, really cheaply.  I will order from them if I ever have a bulk candy need, maybe Oct 31.  Here is a video of a girl getting her free candy.

FREE GREETING CARDS by Send Out Card – This is a great program where you can go online and customize quality greeting cards and then they are sent by postal mail directly to anyone you like.  You get the first three for FREE and after that the prices are cheap.

FREE MAPS – Here is a list of a ton of places where you can get free maps.  Really cool if you plan to travel.  If you would rather have an entire Atlas then click here.

FREE GUY STUFF – Here is a list of 9 things you can send away for.  I sent away for a few of them, the old spice body wash was the only one I received, it was enough for about 2 uses, so I am saving it for my next trip.

FREE LOCAL STUFF – You may or may not know, but Craigslist has a huge section of free stuff.  I have used it a few times when I rather just not pay.  Just look under the for sale section for the word free.  Search in your local area to get your local stuff.

TOTALLY FREE STUFF – This is a huge website with tons of links to free stuff.  Most of these will call you and such, but that is ok.  Go there now to get the full list.

Why you need to understand Elasticity

Business, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Money, , , , , , , , ,

You may have never heard this term, or you may be an expert at it.  Most people under estimate the importance of this subject to their business.  Price elasticity is one of the MAIN reasons that businesses fail or succeed.  When I was growing up I was always told “It is better to make three fast nickels than one slow dime.”  This is what I will get to.

Elasticity is the different demand of a product at different price points.  Let me take a very easy example.  I will use the humble water bottle.  I buy them for less than 10 cents at my local grocery store.  They sell better when cold and it costs about 1 cent per bottle to make it ice cold.  Now we go to sell them, what price do we do it at.  Well many places sell them for $1.  I would make 90 cents each but the demand is low, I may be only able to sell to 5% of the people because most know that is too much.  Now what if I lower the price to 50 cents.  The demand jumps by a lot, I have seen it jump to 25% or more.  Then I offer an option where they can get 3 for $1, and you now get 20% buying 3 and 20% buying 1.   Now let us see how much we make on 100 people.  Option 1, we make $4.50 profit (5*.90).  Option 2 we make $10 profit (25*.4),  Option 3 we make $22 profit (20*.4+20*.7).  Which one would you rather have?  It is a huge difference, and one that most people simply do not notice.  They equate profit per item with over all profit, when in most cases you make MORE profit with lower prices.

You look around all over the place and people just don’t get it.  They sell things for way too much, so they sell very little.  The smaller that a company is the MORE I see this.  Today I went to a local owner operated Asian restaurant, the food was good but we paid almost double what we would have paid for twice the amount of food at Panda Express.  The larger a company the more they understand this, in fact the largest and fastest growing company, Wal-Mart, is built on the concept of Everyday Low Prices.  They do whatever they can to make sure they have the lowest price.

Now many things can effect the elasticity of an item, such as lowering supply or raising demand.  Lets go back to water.  What if you are at a 6 hour long seminar and the ONLY drink is the bottled water, you could price it at $1 and sell a lot of them.  Now what if you had 50 people but only 24 bottles of water, now not everyone can get one and you can charge $2 for each one, people will wait until they really need it or until it is almost out of stock and they will buy.  (They may resent your operation and remember to bring their own water next time they come.)  When something is not elastic it is called inelastic.  In the case of 50 people with only 24 bottles and 6 hours with no drinks you could hold out for $5 a bottle, and at some point people may start to buy.

Elasticity is caused by many things but one of the most common is competition.  If company A sells something for $4 and it is well known this is the price, and you sell the same thing for $4.10 your sales will plummet, but as soon as you go to $3.90 your people will be lining up to buy your item.  Gas companies know this, that is why they watch their competition VERY closely.  But so many companies operate in a vacuum, they have no idea what others are selling the same item for, and they may just be 5% too high, and by dropping their price by 5% they could DOUBLE their profits.  Small restaurants are a very good example.  The local taco stand sells tacos for $3 each, and they are almost always empty, it is rare to even see 2 people in their store.  But down the street taco bell does a similar sized taco, for $1.  Of course the taco stand is better, but is it really 3 times better especially when all you want to do is get full.  Lack of competition also is true, we all have seen the gas station 50 miles from any other selling gas for $1 more than anyone else simply because they know you need to buy.

Another thing that causes changes in elasticity is economic conditions.  When you sell something that is optional, in a time of tight economic conditions your demand will plummet, so you must start lowering prices will do to get your customers back, sometimes you have to lower so much that it no longer makes business sense to stay in business, this is why starbucks just had to close over 600 stores. (It also did not help them that every corner store and McDonald’s started selling quality coffee for 1/3rd the price of starbucks.)

Some things do better when economic conditions are worse, I know many people that are buying more Ramen and Mac and Cheese, it is simply much more affordable if you have $4 gas, less money coming in and you still need to eat.

You also have to think about Complementary Goods.  This is where you must buy A and B together to use them.  Lets think about Peanut Butter and Jelly, and lets assume the only thing you can do with them is make sandwiches.  What happens to the demand of Jelly when the price of Peanut Butter doubles, the demand of both falls, even if jelly lowers the price a bit it will still sell less because the total price of the combo is more.  This is why SUVs sell much less when gas costs $4 a gallon.

So next time you price something look around, see what the market is doing, and don’t be blind to your competition, and for all means don’t over price your product.  One way to test different prices is to have a sale.  (Why do you think large companies have so many things on sale, they often are testing different price points.)

I hope this helps with your business.

July, A record month for this blog and why

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This month has really been a great month for this blog, it looks like Jason Dragon is getting some critical mass. July of 08 had over 2.3 times the unique visitors as the second best month, May of 08. Blogs are suppose to go up but this is a lot faster than normal. July 30 was the best day ever passing July 24 by 6 hits.

The stats say that this is due to a few things. First I started a Computer Entry section which is simply a page that has a list of all the blogs that I wrote on the subject of computer, but this page is very popular, it is on the top 5 of my pages every month. In that section I wrote an article about Laptop computers, and from the day I wrote it it has always been in the top 2 of all the pages. It now is by far the most popular article that I have ever written. But there is an article I just wrote yesterday, about StoresOnline, that had the LARGEST first day viewing of anything I ever wrote, it had more views than my entire blog was getting last month. The subject is something that many people are asking about online.

I also did a few things differently, I blogged a bit more with 14 entries, my previous record was 12. I also added my blog to StumbleUpon, I did not put the links from my blog so I really only got a few hits from that. But the MAIN area where I got more hits was by finding great blogs that had content that was much like mine and if I found a place where I could push the conversation forward, almost half of my new visitors came from that. I also was added to the Planet section of PF Buzz along with many of the top Finance blogs. I also was able to get more hits by adding more tags to my articles, I have about 20% of the hits coming from this. I also added myself to twitter finally, I have been trying it out before I publicize it but you can check it out if you like. I also rewrote my personal webpage at JasonDragon.com.

My best blogging moment of the month was due to a fairly unpopular buy very important blog I wrote, about why our country is in trouble economically. I linked to the Perot Charts site and the right hand guy, Mike Poss, of Ross Perot noticed the link and came to my blog, read it and took the time to email me about it. I always liked Ross Perot so it made me feel good to get this note.

In other blogging news I am still in the race for the 7m7y contest. This is a contest that could be described as mentorship by a really great and successful guy. He is going to mentor only 7 people and he is willing to do it for 7 years. He will help them all become multimillionaires. He will document the process and write a book on it. In two weeks or so the final 7 will be selected, I really hope I am one.

Thank you to all my readers, and all the people that subscribe to this blog, if it was not for you I would not be doing this, and this process has really taught me a lot.

Thanks, Jason Dragon

I am torn between all that is possible

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Marketing, MLM, real estate, , , , , , ,

Right now I feel that I am at a cross roads. I know so much, I know so much that I could never hold down a job, I know what it out there, and working for someone else is not an option. I am a true entrepreneur. Now that being said there is so much out there that I can do but I have limited time and limited focus. I choose to spend a good deal of time with my family because that is a priority. Let me tell you, my readers, what I am thinking about right now.
My main company for over a decade has been Emerald Computers. It was a great business from 1997 until about 2003 but then the industry changed, and got much more cutthroat and less fun. Also the profits dropped out. I lost my passion for it. Passion is a subject I have been thinking about a lot recently. If you do not live your life doing what you have have passion for you are living a wasted life. 80% of people can not stand their job, they can not stand what they now do for a living. 20% of the people their work is their passion, and they love to do it. For years I loved computers, not because of the technology but mostly because I could open peoples eyes up to what is possible and I loved that. But my business did less and less of that and more and more of the grinding out work that was not fun. When the passion left so did the profits. I went from averaging 70 hours a week working my company in 2002 to about 30 in 2005 to almost less than 5 in 2007.

I always was thinking about Real Estate, how it is a business where you make real things that stand there for many years. I know people that drive around a city and point out buildings they had a hand in making a decade before. Also I LOVE the art of the deal, where you negotiate price and terms and come up with a deal. It is like a huge game, trying to get the best for your side in every deal, nothing in business is more fun for me. Real Estate is the land of the largest deals, and the fastest way to make real big money. You can be creative and make transactions by bringing parties and ideas together in unique ways.

Now the problem with real estate is that you need knowledge or you need money. I don’t have this type of money because my computer company took it all, and my knowledge is all theory. I think I know at least 90% of what I know, but every time I think I have it all figured out I find out more I don’t know. Because of this a fear has set in so I do nothing, which is the worst thing of all to do. When you do real estate with no money to invest you will find the deal every now and then but it is far from steady, so I wanted to have something that was more steady.

Because of this I started looking for a MLM, because before Emerald Computers, and even during it I made some good money in the world of MLM business. With all the tools I have for online marketing and communications I figured I would have a huge advantage at any MLM that I would join. So I spent a good deal of time looking into everything that I could do. After looking for months almost all of the major MLM businesses that I saw were promoting a health product that they produced for $5 and sold for $50. I figured out that I really don’t have a passion for doing a MLM that is based on a health product, I think deep down that many of these don’t work, and that even if they do I don’t want to spend my life selling them, I have more important things to do.

So after a while I decided to work with a company called Nouveau Riche. What they do is have a college right down the street from my house. For 1 week every two months they teach a full week of really high quality classes about Real Estate. I bought the CD version of these classes, they were good. Next they provide a community of investors. It all sounded really great, just what I wanted to do. Then I really pushed it hard, trying to find people to invest with, trying to find people to pay to go to the college. They had an event where you could invite people to and they would have a 6 hour sample of classes that were taught by the school. I had been to them in the past, and they were great. At the end they would have a short 30 minute sales pitch for the college. This time there was new leadership and they promised it would be even bigger and better than before. I was really excited. I invited over 100 people. I got 40 people to say they would be there. It was all going well. Then on the day it was backwards, it started out with over two hours of hard sales, worse than if you went to a timeshare. That was followed by even more sales, and then an hour of decent education, followed by 2 more hours of hard sales. The people I had there all felt screwed, and lied to. They wanted education and what they got was this junk. After that day I have not gone to any meetings and have not talked to any leaders in the company, it was a bust for me.

So then I started looking a MLM that was for something that I could stand behind. I set down some rules. First it had to be something that was a good value, it had to save people money or make them money. Next it had to be something that was product driven, I wanted to product to sell the company. (One of my best friends Fred Coit is a big leader in Monavie and they have a great product driven company.) But next I wanted to do something that I would have a passion for. Last I wanted something with no marketing restrictions. You many not know that most MLM companies have many restrictions on how and where you can market, and I wanted something I could hit heavy online, and be creative with my marketing.

After about 2 months of looking I finally decided on SendOutCards, they offered a product that was only 1/3rd the cost of the competition with better service, it was product driven meaning that most people in it only really promote the product. I think that they are the BEST MLM for my style.

Now I am torn. What do I do with my days, I have a computer company, I have a ton of time, energy and passion devoted to getting into the real estate business, which is my true passion. And now I have this new business that is really fun and has a great product. For the last two month I have been floating. I have been like my 10 month old son, I focus on whatever seems the best at the time, but I may change on a whim. Last week a typical day was for me to wake up and talk to a few computer customers, then talk to a real estate agent about some houses then call a few people and tell them about SendOutCards. For the last few months when people ask me what I do for a living I really don’t have a good answer for them. I was at a meeting last Wednesday where I stood up and talked about Emerald Computers and SendOutCards, handed out flyers for SendOutCards and business cards for Capital Active (The Real Estate Company). I must have seemed very confused to some of these people.

So this is where I sit now. Emerald is the business that is putting food on my table, it is what I live on but every time I want to make money I have to trade large amounts of time for it. Sometimes it is easy and I get a call and make $500 in 2 hours, other times I make calls all day and make nothing. SendOutCards could be a huge business and with two months of good effort I could have a team large enough that I could pay all my bills from the money it makes. And Real Estate could make millions with ease and joy if I could get all the pieces to the puzzle together.

So my question for my readers, is this multitasking normal for someone who is a serial entrepreneur, and what would you do? This is interactive so please leave a comment, I will reply to them.

Follow-up is the key to customer growth and retention

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Internet, Marketing, Money, , , , , , , , , ,

Follow-up is the key to getting a new customer.
Sales Statistics
•    48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
•    25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
•    12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
•    Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts
•    2% of sales are made on the first contact
•    3% of sales are made on the second contact
•    5% of sales are made on the third contact
•    10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
•    80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
WHEN ARE YOU GIVING UP ON YOUR PROSPECT?

Follow-up is the key to keeping customers.
Why Customers Stop doing business with you.
•    1% Death
•    3% Move Away
•    5% Buy from a friend
•    9% Sold by a Competitor
•    14% Product Price
•    68% Perceived Indifference

The easy Follow-Up and appreciation solution
So what is an easy way to do both.  You want to keep your image and your marketing message in front of as many customers as possible.  One of the best way to do that is to send out greeting cards.  If you were to send out thank you cards and other marketing to your top 25% of customers you could add as much as 50% to your sales revenue.  If you send follow up marketing messages and cards to your prospective customers you will gain many more customers, and explode your sales volume.

So most people know this, but they don’t do it, because to most people sending out greeting cards is HARD.  They have to shop for them, buy them, write them, stamp them and then mail them.  They have to keep track of what was sent to who and when it was sent.  What if we used the power of the internet to do ALL of this for you.  All you do is log on, select the card, customize it if you wish and click send.  The rest is all done for you.  That is exactly what a great new company called Send Out Cards will do for you.  They have over 8,000 different cards to choose from, organized so that they are easy to find.

Because you are a reader of this blog you have access to a special account where you can get 2 free cards.  All you need to do is go to http://www.sendoutcards.com/az and click on the big red button in the middle.  If you have any questions about this process or if you are ready to take your business to the next level right now email us at dragon@capitalactive.com or call us at 602-579-4919.

Thanks and I hope you act on the message, and take your business to the next level.

The best MLM for me, and why

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Internet, Investment, Marketing, MLM, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I finally did it, after about 3 months of research, investigating, going to meetings and trying to figure out what I wanted I finally selected the BEST MLM that I could find.

I have been in many MLM / network marketing companies, I have been to hundreds of meetings over the last 15 years, I have built teams, I have sold products, I have marketed many things but this is the first time that I stood back, and researched the pros and cons of different MLM concepts. You may remember back in April I wrote a series of blogs about the idea of a MLM. You can read them HERE, HERE, and HERE. I never wrote the last two in the series because I was still doing my research. In the process I actually joined 4 other MLM companies even before I was sold on them and all of them did not pan out. But now I finally found the best MLM company I have ever seen, more on that later.

So what makes this company better than anything else I have ever seen. There are so many reasons why. Read these reasons and compair them to any MLM that you are looking at.

Well first it is a product that EVERYONE can use, it is easy to understand, and everyone has a need for it. It also is something that you can easily prove, too many MLM promote a product that you just have to have faith that it works. (Most nutritional companies.) But for me the MOST important reason I think that this is the best MLM is because it is a great value, cheaper than normal way of doing things, and the reward of using this product is measurable and instant. You can sign up and start making money the same day, and with only three sales you are already in the black, in MOST MLM companies it is very hard to become profitable, in this it is easy. There is no other company doing anything even close to what they are doing. They are old enough to have their act together but not too young to be saturated. They are in a multi-billion dollar industry and with a radical new way of doing things will take huge market share from the two companies that have over 80% of the market share. Another thing I really love, is that everyone who hears about this product says something like “Of course that is a better way to do it, sign me up.”

If you are in a MLM now, or are thinking of joining one read that list and objectively think about how the company you are with stands up to all of these things.

The name of the company is something you probably never heard before. It is Send Out Cards. What they do is print and mail physical greeting cards that you select, customize and order online. It is a great business tool, allowing you to follow up and keep in contact with all of your co-workers, customers and business contacts. It is also a great personal tool, helping you make the people around you feel good. If you would like to try it out right now I have set up a special offer for all of my blog readers, you can CLICK HERE and you will receive a free account where you can send out two cards to anyone you like, you can play with all the features and see how it works.

Even if you are already busy building your own business you need to look at Send Out Cards as a marketing tool for that business. What would happen if you were able to follow up with EVERY prospect 2-3 times? What would happen if you sent a thank you note to each of the top 20% of your customers, how much extra business would they bring in. Think about it, try out a demo now.

I hope this blog shows some light on your journey to success. If you are looking for the best network marketing company around this one may be for you, it may not.

Phoenix Business Expo – What Fun

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Internet, Marketing, MLM, Money, , , , , , , , ,

On June 25th We went to the business Expo. This is a once a year event put on by the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. It had 200 businesses that purchased a space there. One thing they did that I really liked is that they made the price very cheap so that even the smallest business could afford it and they limited each business to only 1 booth. Most were 10×10, about 50 were just a table around the outside and 5 were larger for the sponsors. I have been to many events where some large company buys up 10 booths to show off everything and drown out the competition. None of this was here.

To me this is one of the most fun things I get a chance to attend during the entire year. You get ideas of what other people are doing. You get to see what people think will be successful. You also get to see booths from distributors for many of the MLM’s, it lets you see which ones are popular beyond the internet.

The motto of the expo this year was “Stay Up in a Down Economy”.

The highlight of the expo was a free seminar they hosted. It was all about the new way of marketing, using relationships, the first speakers was Victoria Trafton from the Referral Institute of Arizona. She talked about how it is so important to build up relationships with your customers and get them to refer your business.

The second speaker was Raymond Lambert. He is an expert at using a website called linkedin. Here is his LinkedIn page. I have known about linkedin for a long time now I even created a profile about 6 months ago, but I never realized how big and important it is. After going to his event I would suggest that everyone create a linkedin page. It costs money to get the advanced features but it may be worth it so most people. He really made it hit home that this is a great way for you to build any business you are in, or to just promote yourself.

The last speaker was Dave Barnhart from Business Blogging Pros, here is his blog and his other blog. He has a business where he helps people unlock the power of blogging.  Most of what he said is stuff that I already knew, but I only knew them because I am a blogger and a techie.   After it was over I talked to him for a few minutes and he was very smart and knowledgeable.  He suggested that I try Feedburner, and that I also try Typepad instead of WordPress because it has many more features.  If you are looking for someone to help you blog you can call me for the basics, but if you really want the advanced stuff call Dave.  (He lives only a few miles from my office, I think I will call him later and ask if he wants to market eachothers products)

As a direct result of this Expo I have already wrote over $1,500 in business and I have reminded many previous contacts about our company.  I have upgraded my linked in page, and added more features to this blog.  I also handed out over 100 business cards and collected about 100 so that I can call them this week.  After the expo was over they had a great reception, free food and 2 hours of mingle time with about 400 other business owners.

All and all it was a great event, that I look forward to all year.

Yahoo Groups as a Great Business Tool

Computers, Internet, Marketing, real estate, , , , , ,

I don’t know if you have ever heard of Yahoo Groups.  As the name implies it is owned by yahoo and it is a way for you to build and maintain a group of people.  It is actually very easy to use.  I have been a member of different groups for years now but today I started my own.  I started a group of local people who are interested in real estate investing.  If you are interested in that topic click here to sign up, it is focused on Phoenix Arizona but anyone can join.

There are many things you can do with this group.  It works a lot like a blog.  You can change most everything, and it is very fast and user friendly to set up.  You have the choice of making things private or open.   It will manage members, and send them all new messages in their email.  You can choose to moderate the messages, you can mange who is a moderator.  You can post photos, polls to ask questions, post a community Calendar, have databases to store information that every needs, and you have a section add files that people can download.  (You even get 100MB of free space)

All and all it is really a great service offered for free.  The only semi scary thing is that you don’t have real control, what if yahoo decides to stop offering the service, or what happens if they decide your group as not a good group and they delete it.  I think the chance of both is very slim.  You also run that same risk with wordpress.