TheBusinessCommandos.com

One of the fastest ways to grow your business is to give your products away for free allowing people to try before they buy. With this strategy you must know your lifetime customer value.

Let’s use a hairdresser as an example. The average value of a sale when a client comes in is $60. Minus the $20 cost to service the sale, which leaves $40 in profit. A client returns on average 8 times per year, which makes them worth $320 in profit per year. And on average each client stays with the business for 4 years, which makes every new client that comes in the door worth $1,280 on average to the hairdresser.

If this hairdresser offered his service FREE for first timers, in most cases he is giving away $60 to make $1,280. Not a bad deal at all!

Too many business owners and entrepreneurs today still struggle with this concept, but as you can see with this example, providing you know your numbers and the odds are stacked in your favor, it makes good sense to give your product away for free to attract more new business.

I also know of a Deli that used this concept when they first opened for business. They did their maths and figured rather than spend a fortune in advertising, it was cheaper to give away FREE lunches for a whole week, which they did and their business went Gangbusters from day 1.

Now a key concept to employ when using this strategy is to combine some magnetic marketing with it to help get the new client into the habit of shopping with you. Here’s what I mean; If we use the hairdresser example, the first step involves giving away the first haircut free, then before they leave hand them a coupon to be redeemed in the next 60 days for a special offer for their next haircut. Then when they come back the second time do the same again with either the same offer or a different offer to attract them back to you and after that the majority will stay on as repeat clients.

There are countless other examples of this powerful strategy and I’m sure you get the concept.

Yours in success,

Aaron Parsons.

P.S. The Ultimate Entrepreneur Boot Camp is only a week away, only a few seats left, book yours now at:
http://www.TheUltimateEntrepreneurBootCamp.com

Take away selling is when people can identify how buying from you can benefit them, but it’s not easy for them to reach you. It’s like they can see it, but they can’t have it, which makes them want it more.

One of my clients who uses this strategy well is a farrier and in the farrier business it is unheard of to have to make an appointment every 6 weeks with the farrier. Well that’s exactly what my clients have done, they’ve essentially said if you want to do business with us this is how it has to be, which has helped position them at the top of their field.

Think about it, which farrier would you think is best, the one that you can call up today and get an appointment or the one that you have to book in regularly 6 weeks in advance.

Nobody wants to see the wise man at the bottom of the mountain, so position yourself at the top of the mountain.

What you’re essentially projecting is that they need to qualify in order for you to work with them.

Before the sale your prospect can see it, but can’t quite get their hands on it.

After the sale is when they get to see all and get full access to you.

Take way selling is extremely powerful from a psychological perspective. Everybody wants what they can’t have and also like to be a part of an exclusive club.

Yours in success,

Aaron Parsons.

P.S. The Ultimate Entrepreneur Boot Camp is almost here, there’s people coming from all over Australia and even some from New Zealand and the United States. Here’s your chance to discover the ‘Missing Link’ to your success… Secure your seat at: http://www.TheUltimateEntrepreneurBootCamp.com

Time your most priceless asset! It amazes me the amount of people who get blinded by the value of money and don’t think twice about wasting their precious time. The thing is once you spend your money it is quite easy to get back when you know how, but when you use a portion of your time it is gone forever.

Particularly in the field of entrepreneurial education that I have personally invested thousands of dollars in myself to fast track my learning curve. I still see countless people avoiding investing in an education package that will shave 10 years off their learning curve because of the financial investment, which is very cheap in most cases.

And the crazy thing is by the time they spend 10 years learning the slow expensive way, things will have changed and they will need to move on to something else.

The smart entrepreneurs don’t think twice about investing in themselves and one of the biggest benefits is if something happens and the money gets lost, those who’ve invested in their own knowledge will soon have the money back again because they know how to acquire it.

A great example about time management comes from a college professor; He sat a bowl on the desk in front of the class and filled it till it was piled up and overflowing with big rocks. He asked his class is the bowl full?

(more…)

With all the negatives flying around at the moment who better to listen to than the worlds greatest investor… Here’s an article I’m sure you’ll find valuable from Warren Buffet.

Buy American. I Am. by Warren Buffett

The financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.

So … I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.

Why?

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now. (more…)

As it was put by the great Henry Ford -
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t you’re right”

If you find yourself reading book after book, attending seminar after seminar and still not getting your desired outcome this may be the most important article you ever read…

Every person on the planet has a part of their brain that acts as a centre of arousal and motivation.

This powerful part of your brain is called your reticular activating system (RAS) and it works by filtering the barrage of information supplied by all your senses and passing on only what is believed to be the important stuff.

The great news for you and all of us is that it can be trained… Click Here (more…)

Who better to listen to in the current economic environment then the great man himself… Warren Buffet. Watch this video and pass it on to your friends.

Yours in success,

Aaron Parsons.

The harsh reality is that we live in a nation of cynics and justifiably so when you look at the facts. People have been lied to and cheated too many times.

Bill Clinton the former president of The United States, blatantly lied to the people who voted him into office and entrusted him to lead them.

In Australia a lot of people link the word entrepreneur to Alan Bond, etc.

The list of reasons why people are so skeptical today is long, which brings us to the all important point of PROOF!

You must back up everything you say with proof that what you say is true. People will be thinking why should they believe you and it is up to you to back up every statement you make with an abundance of PROOF!

You can do this with any of the following; (more…)

Time your most priceless asset!

It amazes me the amount of people who get blinded by the value of money and don’t think twice about wasting their precious time. The thing is once you spend your money it is quite easy to get back when you know how, but when you use a portion of your time it is gone forever.

Particularly in the field of entrepreneurial education that I have personally invested thousands of dollars in myself to fast track my learning curve. I still see countless people avoiding investing in an education package that will shave 10 years off their learning curve because of the financial investment, which is very cheap in most cases.

And the crazy thing is by the time they spend 10 years learning the slow expensive way, things will have changed and they will need to move on to something else.

The smart entrepreneurs don’t think twice about investing in themselves and one of the biggest benefits is if something happens and the money gets lost, those who’ve invested in their own knowledge will soon have the money back again because they know how to acquire it.

A great example about time management comes from a college professor; He sat a bowl on the desk in front of the class and filled it till it was piled up and overflowing with big rocks. He asked his class is the bowl full? (more…)

Retaining team members in the 21st century is a large problem for a lot of businesses. Business owners are required to be more entrepreneurial in this area and embrace out of the square creative thinking to retaining team members and maintain an entrepreneurial culture.

In this segment we will cover some keys to retaining and attracting quality team members. It really comes down to marketing, but on an internal basis, rather than an external basis as the case with clients.

Start with the basics:

• What are your target markets (teams) needs and wants?
• How do they currently feel about the organisation?
• What can the organisation offer them?
• How can the organisation translate what they have to offer into benefits for team members?
  And finally the big one…
• What is your team marketing USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? – Why are team members going to want to work for you rather than someone else?

Richard Branson’s Virgin Blue are a great example of what we are talking about (at the time of writing). Generally Qantas staff get paid substantially more than Virgin staff, however Virgin have created a fun and happy environment to work in, that people want to be a part of and are happy to be paid less to be a part of that culture.

The truly great Entrepreneurial organisations satisfy the 3 key attributes to attract and maintain team members, which is summarised as GEL;

GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES – Growth is one of the 6 human needs, hence their must be growth opportunities for team members within your organisation to keep them happy. Everyone wants to grow in one way or another.

ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE – Team members want to work in a fun, happy and healthy work environment with good conditions and be a part of an entrepreneurial culture.

LEADERS CHARISMA – Team members want to work for charismatic leaders. If team members respect and like who they are working for, they are more productive. The days of the army sergeant major type of leadership are long gone.
Make some notes on how you can improve in making your business the work place of choice for team members.

Yours in success,

Aaron Parsons
http:/www.BusinessGrowthGuru.com

In business having a database of clients that you’ve built a good relationship with is one of the most valuable assets any business can have. As a lot of online marketers say, “The money is in the list!”

If you want proof of the value that’s in a database, I’m sure you can remember just a few years back when Google purchased Youtube for $1.6 Billion, and Youtube hadn’t made a profit at that stage.

Building your database is an ongoing task, remember it’s all about building the relationship and staying in contact with your prospects so that you are their when they are ready to buy. A good point to keep in mind when building your database is that each time you get a new addition to your database it is future profits, now I’m not saying that you will sell to everyone that enters your database, how ever you will obviously sell to a percentage of your database. So if you’re struggling to see the value in focusing on your database, just think of it as future revenue.

There are many different strategies you can use to build your database and let’s start with some traditional offline business examples;
The most popular for a traditional bricks and mortar business is to run an in-store competition where people enter their details into the draw to win a prize that can be something you’ve packaged up in house or you may even offer a holiday to more attention. This allows you to capture peoples details so you can stay in contact with them and send out special offers to generate more business.

Here’s an example from a café business I worked with; (more…)