Here is my Golden Rule of 5! These are the things you need to keep in mind when identifying potential joint venture partners.

1. Both you and your joint venture partner should share the same ideal client or customer. Meaning, that both of our “ideal” clients have the same wants and needs and hot buttons. The value of the JV partnership goes up significantly when the demographic and psychographic characteristics of our ideal client overlap.

2. These clients must be “willing and able” to buy. This means are they willing to buy what you have AND are they able to do so financially. One of the best places to position yourself as a JV partner is at the back end or as part of an upsell or downsell or bonus after someone has jsut checked out of your partner’s online or offline storefront. These people were willing and able to buy the initial product from your partner, so they are warmed up to buy yours.

3. Your JV partner must understand the value of marketing. Signs of this are: Do they advertise? Do they make offers?  Do they have some kind of a marketing system in place that allows them to attract prospects through lead generation and convert them into clients or customers?  And they should be looking to see if you do as well.

4. Your ideal JV partner should have a target or prospect list to communicate with and to make offers to. Ideally you and your partner should have a list close in size to each other, but that might be challenging, and that’s ok. You can still do things to solve that imbalance.

5. You should have a product or service that solves a need that your JV partners’ existing product or service doesn’t, AND that gets their client closer to where they want to be. It must have a high perceived value. So For example, If my ideal client is a small business owner and I have a product that teaches them how to identify and develop JV partnerships but in my product line I’m missing a series of scripts on how to approach a JV, then an ideal JV partner for me would be someone who could write scripts and offer them to my clients or prospects. So, in a sense, that JV is filling a hole or a gap in my existing product line that gets my small business owner clients closer to where they need to be–which is to get more clients through JV partners.

Every business, regardless of size should have the following plans clearly established and operating in their business.  Part of being a small business owner is the ability to step out of working IN your business and spend some time working ON your business as a manager.  These are the management tools that you want to be using:

A GAP Analysis which specifically looks at where you currently are in relation to where you want to be in major areas like revenue, profit, new customers, profit margin, etc.  This is a little broader than just writing down your goals. It actually identifies the gap that currently exists in where you are and where you want to be.  Common mistake: business owners don’t establish very specific, measureable targets for their business.

A SWOT Analysis is an excellent way to identify your personal strengths and weakness or those of your organization (even if you’re a one-man show).  Knowing these can help you to get the support you need to manage the weaknesses so you can focus on the strengths.  And clearly knowing the opportunities and threats that exist in your external environment or marketplace gives you the ability to navigate around real and perceived threats that can exert pressure on your business so that you can focus on seeking out the opportunities to move your business forward.  Common mistake: business owners don’t think through the implications or the opportunities associated with their SWOT.

Every business needs Revenue Plan that identifies and lists all of the products and services that your business offers to the marketplace and their unit price.  The total of your revenue plan should be at least the difference in your GAP analysis between where you are and where you want to be.  Any shortfall will need to be supported by more customers or a higher volume of sales from existing customers.  Common mistake:  business owners think that have only one product or service.

A Marketing Plan is critical.  It consists of a detailed plan on your different lead generation and marketing initiatives as well as their schedule and a budget.  A good marketing plan has each marketing initiative scheduled out on a calendar with a task list and an accountability tracker.  Common mistake:  business owners never develop a marketing detailed enough that they can use effectively as a tool.

An Operating Budget.  An operating budget takes the results of your revenue plan and identifies all of the businesses expenses and cash needed to generate and support that revenue.

Done effectively, these plans are all related to each other, meaning that a well developed, practical revenue plan depends on the GAP of where you are to where you want to be.  And, you can’t have a realistic operating budget without a marketing plan.

This can all be quite simple to put together.  An hour a week at the end of a year is 52 hours spent working ON your business.  I’d say that’s a pretty good use of time.Wha

–by Rick Lugash–

I couldn’t believe it either!  But 56% of all Yellow Page looks ups are still done in the print edition—that big yellow book with the “thump” factor of 10.  Apparently, this is still a very effective way of reaching your clients.  I recently interviewed Barry Maher,  Author of “Getting the Most from Your Yellow Pages Advertising: Maximum Profits at Minimum Cost” and credited with helping thousands of small businesses get the most effective Yellow Page advertising possible.  Here are some questions and answers on Yellow Pages advertising from a recent interview I did with Barry.

Q:  As a business owner what’s the first big question I should be asking myself on whether or not to advertise in the Yellow Pages?

A:  Are your prospects looking in the Yellow Pages when looking to get your service? If so, then yes, you need to be there.  Also, if your competition is advertising there then you should be.

Q:  How much should I be spending on my Yellow Page ad?

A:  It’s very easy to over-spend on your advertising in terms of bigger and bigger ads, larger headlines and more directories.  You should spend enough to be effective and only what you can afford.  A good indicator is what your competition is doing.  The ad needs to be big enough to make an impact and it doesn’t have to be the biggest one on the page.  If your competition has only a bold listing then a bold listing is adequate for you. But, if your competition has a quarter page ad, so should you.  You want to be at least as effective as your competitor.  The biggest thing to remember and what many small business owners neglect to do is test, test and test.

Q: What is an effective return for my ad?

A: If your ad is making you money, keep the ad.  A good return is anywhere between 4 and 7 times what you’re paying for the ad.  And again, you must be tracking this.

Q:  What do I need to know about creating my ad?

A: The right headline is critical—a headline that will grab your prospects attention. Don’t put your company’s name and address across the top.  Your prospect only cares about what is important to them.  In the Interrupt, Engage, Educate and Offer model, we use the headline to interrupt, engage and grab their attention.  We want to educate the prospect on what differentiates you from the competition.  And, always have some kind of an offer or call to action.

Q:  How should I use my Yellow Pages ad rep?

A:  Many ad reps are going to want to design your ad and copy with their standard template. Don’t make that mistake.  I recommend taking out a sheet of paper and start writing down the reasons someone would want to do business with you and how you differentiate yourself.  That’s the copy that should go in the ad. When designing the artwork, work with the artist or the graphics person at the Yellow Pages.  If possible, hire someone to help you with the copy and the layout of the ad.   You should use your ad rep to determine the spec for your ad and helping you place your order and getting it published.

–by Rick Lugash–

A few digest issues back we did a piece on the value of referrals and 7 part process to get referrals today.  This week we want to talk about a cross-promotions strategy you can use with businesses around you.

Think of businesses around you, either physically or virtually that could be considered complimentary to your product and where your product could also compliment theirs.  Here are some examples of businesses whose products compliment each other:

Nutritionist and Tennis pro

Voice coach and personal trainer

House painter and Electrician

CPA and local Google ad rep

Consider approaching one or several of these businesses about a joint promotions strategy to attract new customers.  Tip:  consider approaching a partner who you know is an active marketer for their business. Here are the simple steps to execute a joint promotions strategy:

1. Approach the complimentary-product business owner about a joint promotions opportunity whereby you would email, or direct mail a promotion to each others’ list.  The lifeblood to any business is their current list of customers or clients AND the business owners relationship with that list.
2. The promotions should come from the business that owns the relationship with the customer.  So in the case above the house painter would be the one emailing or direct mailing the cross promotion offer to his own list.
3. Decide on an offer or “call to action” that you want your new prospect to take advantage of.   It might be a discount on your product or service, an offer for a free trial, a request to sign up for a free report or white paper, an invite to your open house, etc.
4. Create a message that compels your referral partners’ customers to express an interest.  Hit on one of their hot buttons or one of the problems that keeps them up at night.  Be receptive to solving their need.  Make sure that your affiliate partner endorses you in the email.  Remember it’s the quality of the relationship between the affiliate partner and their list that will serve you well.
5. After the email goes out, have a mechanism to measure results.  It could be as simple as someone coming into your store and saying the word “aardvark”.  This way you know that that person was referred to you by your affiliate partner.  Make sure when they take advantage of your “call to action” that you get them on your list.
6. Rinse and repeat with other business.

Keep in mind that the sizes of your lists may be quite different.  The CPA might have a list of 3,000 and the electrician might have a size of 700.  There are solutions to this inequity, like sending multiple emails from the partner who has a smaller list.

Small Business Factoid:

3% percent move away

5% percent develop other friendships

9% leave for competitive reasons

14% are dissatisfied with the product or service

68% quit because of an attitude of indifference toward the customer by the owner, manager, or some employee.

Every marketing study since the creation of marketing studies has confirmed that the cost of bringing back an old customer is less than acquiring a new one.  The question is how do you run such a resurrection campaign?  You have to check out these three very creative headlines to win back old clients, from Mike Lorence of Small Business Blackbelt who helps clients double their cash flow in 9 months.

smallbiz is moving/ be ahead and look behind /always ask, what’s next?
submitted by: Audrey Garcia @gawdyaudrey

Our topic this week is “Small Business Growth.” So post an update sharing your thoughts on how to best grow a small business! We’ll start you off with the first line – “To grow a small biz…” - and just fill in the rest!

To grow a small biz / make the most of resources / spend less than you make

After you complete your haiku, enter the following hashtags: #smallbizhaiku #smallbiz #businessgrowth

If you do one step before the other you change the outcome. Hence, the popularity of recipe books.  And, If you still don’t believe me, try putting together a piece of IKEA furniture out of order.  Building a business is both art and science.  The science part is where you bring YOU, your personality, your personal brand, your secret sauce.  A small business takes on the personality of its leader.  The science part is the series of predictable steps you use to grow.  So what are those steps in that recipe?  Ask yourself these questions as you’re building your business.

1. Do I have a precise understanding of the specific target market I serve? Can I clearly articulate their needs and wants and hot buttons and fears and what keeps them up at night and what they really want?  Do I understand how they make a buying decision?
2. Do I communicate effectively to my target market?  Is an understanding of the things in item 1 above present in all of my marketing material, the way I verbally tell people what I do, in my email messaging in the way my product or service is branded?  From my target market’s perspective does the entire customer and prospect experience of my business serve to make their life better and solve their deep-rooted problem?
3. Does my product or service actually meet the wants of that customer? Would my target market say so?
4. Do I have a system in place that consistently delivers new prospects to my door step using one of the many lead generation strategies both on line and off line?  If someone asks me how I get leads can I specifically tell them what strategies are in place? Do I track how well that system performs?  Do I measure results?  Do I know how much it costs me to acquire that lead?
5. Do I have a system in place that converts a prospect to closed business?  Do I let them try or experience my product or service first?  Do I ask for the business?  Can I easily and confidently counter any buying objections that the prospect brings to the surface in the sales process?  Do I measure those results as well?

When you start to examine why companies fail, you can typically point to a breakdown in of these broadly-define sequential steps:  General Motors failed at number 1 (consumers wanted smaller cars); Pets.com failed at number 3 (pet owners didn’t want to pay for shipping 20lb bags of dog food).  Many small business owners are brilliant at steps 1-3 above because they’re skilled at what they do and know their market, but fail at number 4 and 5.

Of course there’s a lot more detail about the micro-steps in the sequential process above, but that’s basically a business-building recipe that creates a predictable result.  How well are you performing in each of these areas?  Leave your feedback here; we’d love to know.

When we look at small business marketing strategies we tend to think of PR as one of those, hard-to-measure, “where do I start?” activities that leaves us scratching our heads and then onto the next one.  Here’s an amazing resource.

We wanted to introduce our readership to Jill Lublin, recognized PR insider, author and speaker who has put millions of dollars in free publicity in the hands of thousands of small business owners.  Jill teaches small business owners how to leverage the power of the media to gain exposure, establish yourself as an expert and stay top of mind with clients and prospects.  In her latest book, Guerilla Publicity that she co-wrote with Jay Levinson –father of the Guerilla Book series, Jill talks about the ten most powerful things to attract publicity

http://www.jilllublin.com/articles/10_tips.php

This is not a headline you’re likely to see in any newspaper soon, but we did want to invite our readers to participate in the Small Business Haiku Wednesday on Twitter.  For those of you who don’t remember, the Haiku format of Japanese poetry is 5 syllables / 7 syllables / 5 syllables, like this:

Marketing minds rock (5)

But sales close all deals  (7)

Small biz must have both (5)

We announce the week’s topic on Monday and announce the winner on Friday.  Wednesday is the day you Twitter your entry with the hashtag #smallbizhaiku.

We want to congratulate last week’s winner, WooEB News www.wooeb.com, #wooeb with the entry:

small biz is loyal / tenacious and determined / thinks outside the box

This weeks topic is:  Small biz is….

Ok, we’ve already given you the first three syllables of the first line.