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Make Money Blogging is a post from: Work From Home

Sometimes your potential boss or your boss decides to set up a meeting or interview in a strange place, such as a hotel lobby. First things first, get there early, find a comfortable, quiet place and sit calmly while waiting. You should take a few steps around to release some tension too.

If an interviewer wants to catch you off-guard, they will arrange a business meal at a local restaurant. At this meal, there are some key points you need to keep in mind. Your social graces will be observed and you will be considered as a whole person. Most of the time, a meal interview is the second interview, so you are under strong consideration and also intense scrutiny. Over ordering food or drink can signal poor self-discipline, which will call into question your judgment and maturity. If you are rude to waiters and bus people it shows that you will not get along with subordinates and thus, poor leadership skills.

First of all, you will want to avoid alcohol because it fuzzes your mind and cognition. If you do have a light wine, never order more than one glass. Water is a much better choice, but if your interviewer is ordering alcohol, you may want to also.

Smoking is tricky. If your interviewer is a smoker, and he/she lights up, you may join, but never light up during a meal.

Never order something really messy, like spaghetti or sloppy joe, and never speak with your mouth full. It is easier to order the same thing that your interviewer does. Do not change your order once it is made and never send the food back. Do not order expensive food. Don’t order anything with bones.

Finally, if the waiter puts the bill in front of you, do not touch it. It is the interviewer’s duty to pay it; you should never offer to share payment. Thank the host for the wonderful meal.

The Business Meal is a post from: Work From Home

Author Michael Jeffreys personally interviewed 15 top motivational gurus in 1997 for his then upcoming book. After talking to gurus from Brian Tracy to Dr. Wayne Dyer, he distilled 8 Secrets to Success they all agreed upon. These secrets are still good today and are as follows:

1. Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life – In a society where people blame everything from their parents to the government for failure, those who don’t buy into this mentality or succumb to the “victim” thinking succeed. To blame something or somebody outside yourself is saying they have control of your life and not you. Someone else’s opinion of you doesn’t have to become your reality.

2. Live Your Life On Purpose - What separates motivational thinkers from the unsuccessful is that they believe they’re doing what they were put her to do. The difference between this and just living, is that the latter is just getting through the week with the least problems. But when you live your life on purpose, your main concern is doing the job right. For the entrepreneur this means finding a cause you believe in and building your business around it.

3. Be Willing to Pay the Price - Be willing to pay the price for your dreams. Wanting a big house, a luxury car, and a million dollars in the bank is all very nice, and everyone wants these things – but are you willing to pay the price to get them? This is one of the major differences between the successful and unsuccessful.

4. Stay Focused – Every day we’re bombarded with hundreds of tasks, phone calls, messages, and everyone competing for our time. Focusing requires giving up something in the present because you are investing your time in something that will pay off big-time down the road. Jack Canfield and Mark Hanson were turned by 30 publishers when they submitted the first “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book. Instead of giving up, they stayed focused on their goal and did four or five interviews per day for radio, TV, and newspapers, for five days a week for a whole year. Eventually, a small publisher decided to take a chance, and of course now it’s a best-seller that spawned an entire series that have sold more than 10 million copies.

5. Become An Expert in Your Field One striking factor all successful people have in common is how seriously they take their profession. They strive to be the best at what they do, and do almost anything to improve. If someone followed you around all day with a video camera at your business, would it be a tape you’d be proud of or embarrassed about? Make the decision today to work at being the best in your field. How? By finding out what the “best” in your field are doing, and do what they do.

6. Write Out a Plan for Achieving Your Goals - Write out an action plan/map for how you’re going to achieve your goals. Trying to reach your goals without a plan is like trying to drive from Los Angeles to Chicago without a map. A goal that isn’t written down is merely a wish or fantasy.

7. Never Give Up - Never, never, never give up. When you’re fully committed to achieving your goal, giving up is not an option. You must be willing do whatever it takes to make it happen. The power of perseverance is an awesome force. As someone once said, “inch by inch it’s a cinch”. Think of the lowly inchworm – if it pondered the length of the trip from start to finish before it started, it probably would never move. To a worm’s point-of-view, the garden path must look like a trip to Mars. Never give up! Keep on going like the Eveready battery bunny, and pretty soon you’re there.

8. Don’t Delay - Nobody knows how much time they have left to accomplish their dreams, and we must remember that we don’t have forever. The clock is ticking, and sooner or later your number comes up and you’re gone. Successful achievers know this too, but they don’t view it as a “negative”. Achievers use it to “spur them on”. They go after what they want as energetically and as passionately as possible, for as long as they have.

I had a friend who used to say, “Today is a check – cash it! Yesterday is an I.O.U. – forget it! Tomorrow is a promissory note, don’t bank on it!” I think that’s a pretty good summation of life, so go out there and cash in on that “today” check.

Success Secrets Still Valid is a post from: Work From Home

and re-write it for a shorter, money saving effective ad.

"Think small".

DO FOLLOW ALL THE RULES when writing your classified ad. Use

these ideas.

Attention Interest Desire Action

DO USE A NAME with each classified ad including your envelopes.

DO NOT CHARGE for sales letters or circulars.

DO BE HONEST with all your classified ad claims.

DO IDENTIFY your product.

DO WRITE YOUR CLASSIFIED AD simple, clear and direct.

DO USE WORDS EVERYONE KNOWS and everyone will understand what

your are saying.

DO USE A WORD that will benefit a reader.

DO NOT OVERPRICE your product.

DO ADVERTISE FREQUENTLY. Constant exposure creates a familiar

offer with better response.

DO OFFER A MONEY BACK GUARANTEE in your classified ad,

salesletter or circular if possible. An excellent sales

technique!

DO TEST YOUR AD in 2 or 3 smaller, low cost publications.

Record results. Code each ad.

DO READ PUBLICATIONS that relate to your product. Write for ad

rates, paid circulation, discounts and closing dates. Keep

records.

DO HAVE ALL YOUR LITERATURE AND PRODUCTS ready for mailing when

your ad appears in the publication of your choice. Do not delay

in responding.

DO USE THE COPYCAT METHOD. Do what other successful advertisers

are doing. Only with a slight twist, idea or offer.

DO RUN SEVERAL ADS worded differently. Keep records of results.

DON'T OVER ADVERTISE. It can be expensive. If you want to, do

it gradually.

DON'T PRETEND YOU KNOW ALL THE ANSWERS. Because you don't.

Take time to find out what you need to know.

DON'T TRUST YOUR MEMORY. A thought will leave you as quickly as

it came. Always write down a good idea. NOW!

DON'T PLACE YOUR AD in the wrong classification.

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY on ad words to amuse or entertain, but

use words to persuade, inform and sell your product.

DO USE A SHORT BUSINESS NAME. Make it easy to pronounce and

remember.

DON'T FORGET THE M.E.D.I.C.S. Motivation. Enthusiasm. Desire.

Image. Creativity. Success!

DON'T GIVE UP. If your ad doesn't pull after a fair exposure,

try re-writing it. One or two different words may do the trick.

DON'T SPEND THE PROFITS. Re-invest the money in more continuous

advertising.

DON'T FORGET, an ad that offers "FREE DETAILS" means writing a

sales letter or circular.

AVOID HIGH TYPESETTING COSTS AND MISTAKES

Getting your price lists, brochures, catalogs or newsletters

typeset does not necessarily have to be a costly procedure.

Keep in mind that the main cost in typesetting is the time

involved in setting type. By minimizing the time needed to

create a typeset piece you can effectively keep your cost down.

The following suggestions can help reduce your typesetting

expense.

Know what you want the FIRST time around. Have a picture in

your mind. Trial and error can be costly. Don't have a

typesetter set it one way, then decide a different format would

look better.

Reduce and eliminate author's corrections by thorough proofing

and re-proofing.

Avoid minimum charges by combining small jobs and having them

set at the same time.

Try to use one family of type to save time and money by avoiding

font changes. The consistent look is better.

Give explicit instructions on marking up copy: type styles,

column widths/margins.

With a large job, such as a brochure or annual report, request a

style setting proof sheet to get approvals before the entire job

is done.

Avoid super rush jobs, especially if you don't really need them.

Avoid lengthy corrections on the phone. You might end up paying

for corrections later that could have been avoided if you had

done your editing on proof sheets.

Get the layout finished and approved before having type set...

the same goes for copy, of course.

Avoid the use of "run-arounds" (reducing the width of the copy

to make room for a photo in the column, for example). If you do

use them, use simple shapes, boxes, squares.

Avoid the use of curved or angular type. Type reading left to

right on a page (for example, this report) is faster and less

expensive to set than copy that is set in a curve or running

sideways on the page.

The use of unjustified text and captions is less expensive than

justified because it sets quicker, costing less time.

Don't depend on the typesetter to read your mind. Be specific.

WRITING CLASSIFIED ADS is a post from: Work From Home

There’s an old adage that says, “if you stick around long enough – things will change.” Well, I have and they did!

If you’ve been around as long as I have, then you can remember when you told people who asked that you were in “Direct Sales” – they pegged you about two steps above a snake oil salesman. I’m happy to tell you that has all changed, and to buy and sell in the comfort of a home setting is at the heart of direct sales today.

Latest available figures from the Direct Selling Association (DSA) shows more than $28 billion for the direct-selling industry in 2002, and an estimated 13 million independent direct salespeople. This was an increase from $22 billion in 1997, with 9.3 million salespeople.

Neil H. Offen, DSA President, attributes this growth to having more people involved and a more sophisticated industry. He claims there are more college graduates as consultants, and the industry being global and more attractive to Wall Street investors and Venture Capital groups.

Direct-sales consultants, though still primarily made up of women, are becoming more diverse. The male contingent is steadily growing from 10% in 1990 to 25% today. This is attributed to the growth of new products such as vitamins, food supplements, long-distance telephone service, etc., that are not perceived as typically female-centric products as cosmetics and housewares were.

With all the growth, entrepreneurs still have to deal with the stigma that direct-sales opportunities are like pyramid schemes. Pyramid schemes require you to lay out cash for the right to recruit others. There is usually no product involved, and profits for those at the top levels come solely from new recruits.

Direct sales, on the other hand, involves selling legitimate products or services and the profit goes to the seller and his/her recruiter. At the higher levels of a direct-sales company, consultants have a group of recruits selling below them from which they receive commissions – also known as a downline. (Affiliate offers on the Internet are a copy of this concept.)

Successful entrepreneurs in direct selling concentrate on customer satisfaction and company warranties to distance them from any stigma. DSA President Offen suggests ways of checking out the legitimacy of a company by asking about the kinds of warranties and protection they offer. Ask other consultants and customers how their problems and issues were treated. And even if the company has a good track record, make sure you absolutely love the product you’ll be selling because that will determine how successful you are.

Here is a list of questions that should help you determine whether a company is shady or just plain wrong for you:

• Is the money you’re going to make come primarily from recruiting or selling a product? Recruiting is generally part of direct selling, but your primary income as a consultant should come from sales. If the company is only discussing recruiting – be suspicious.

• Do you risk financial loss by being involved with the company? Almost all direct-selling companies require minimal starting costs – usually $500 maximum. Watch out for schemes where people make money solely from selling startup kits.

• Would you buy the product if you weren’t working for the company? If you don’t see a compelling reason to be a customer, you probably don’t want to sell the product either.

• Does it sound too good to be true? Be wary of get-rich-quick schemes, such as making a million dollars in 6 months. Investigate company literature, reputation, consultants and customers before you get involved with any opportunity.

• Is the company a member of DSA? This association has a one-year application process for new direct-selling companies and on-going regulations for all members. This ensures good business practices. You can check out the DSA Web site at www.dsa.org for industry information.

Mary Kay Cosmetics is one of the most well-known direct-selling companies in the industry and it took Lise Clark of Greenwood Village, Colorado, nearly 20 years to reach one of the highest levels in the company. She started her business in 1984 at the age of 26, planning only to sell the cosmetics over the holidays, but her sales income soon outstripped what she was earning working several other jobs. She went into the business full time and, today, she expects her area unit sales to hit nearly $2 million by the end of 2004.

Despite any negative associations consumers might have with direct-selling entrepreneurs, the industry is alive and well today. Find the right company with a great product or service, and the highest ethical standards, and you could be on your way to fulfilling your entrepreneurial dream.

Snake Oil Anyone? is a post from: Work From Home

Like it or not, the first impression people get from you is your appearance. When engaged in an interview or you are already hired, you always want to look best. Clean cut, professional looking people get treated like a professional. How you dress sends specific signals to people. Let’s start from head to toe for women. First of all, never wear too much jewelry or makeup. One item of jewelry is enough. A small ring on one finger, or small earrings is plenty. No big loops ladies. Makeup should be conservative, just plain powder or concealer and barely any eye makeup. No lipstick is appropriate at an interview. It is just not professional. The woman’s suit should be wool, linen, or cotton/polyester. Stick with navy, gray, and medium blues, at least for the first interview. As for blouses, solid colors and natural fabrics, such as cotton or silk look clean and professional. A scarf says a lot about a business woman; it is a powerful status symbol. Shoes should never be open toed and stay within 2 ½ inch heels, nothing faddish or multicolored. The color of your shoe should be the same or darker than your skirt. Pantyhose should always be neutral skin tones, nothing outlandish, unless you are interviewing in the fashion industry. A briefcase is an excellent choice for a business woman, but don’t bring along your purse too. It looks awkward trying to juggle them around. You should choose either brown or burgundy, black or navy, either one is fine. You do not want to ever distract the interviewer with your outfit, makeup or accessories. Last but definitely not least is your personal hygiene. Bad breath, dandruff, body odor, and dirty unmanicured nails do not give a good impression. When it comes to body odor, you are what you eat. If you consume a lot of garlic, onions, cilantro, and junk food, not only will it show in your skin, but it will seep through your pores. Gross. Make sure you eat a natural healthy diet so you always smell pleasant.

Business Dress – Women is a post from: Work From Home

Today, most people access the internet for information, products and services. All entrepreneurs have turned their attention to the World Wide Web because it reaches so many people so quickly. Sales are increased dramatically and expenses are not necessarily smaller, but different. If a company had a small shop in a rural town, they would have employees and other expenses. If this same company had an online business, they would probably not have as many employees on the clock. They may have the same amount of expenses but they would be different. There would be advertising costs, web design costs, search engine optimization costs, affiliate or joint venture costs, among others.

Nevertheless, selling products or services online has become very popular for many new entrepreneurs ranging in all ages, even as young as 15. If you run a small business online where you sell an information product, such as an eBook, you can write the eBook yourself as a guru on the topic. For example, let’s say you studied religion in college and got a PH.D in this subject. You write up an eBook explaining a drastic point of view concerning scriptures. You make sure it is information packed and very good quality. You sell it for 14.95 dollars to whoever is interested and you get their email address so you can forward them new updated info. You now have an email list so you can keep in contact with your buyers and possibly sell them other products in the future. You keep track of all your sales, you take care of customer service, and you handle everything. Guess what? You keep 100 percent of the profits.

Obviously, some companies are MUCH more complicated than that. But you get the picture; online marketing is a piece of cake. All you need is an idea and an internet marketing business plan of action. In other words, you do not need millions to start up a company on the internet. All you need is a great idea and the drive to do most of the work yourself.

Internet Marketing Introduction is a post from: Work From Home

As I said in my last column, like it or not we are all salesmen. Our lives are made up of a series of “sales presentations”, otherwise known as presenting ourself in the best light possible. Whether we’re out for a job interview, trying for a raise, or just convincing our employees that a job must be accomplished – you are making a presentation.

To become masterful at it can be summed up in the acronym IPRESENT! In my last column we covered the steps “I” through “E”:

• I – involve your audience

• P – prepare your audience

• R – research your arsenal

• E – explain “Why?”

Let’s finish the acronym today.

“S” stands for State (mental) Management. The mental state of the successful presenter must be congruent with the message. If you don’t believe that, try giving a pep talk to your sales force when you’re depressed – it won’t work! You must be aware of and manage your own mental state and that of your listeners or communication channels will not be open. I don’t have space to elaborate on methods of doing this, but here are a few key hints. First, “AAI” – act as if. Act the way you want to feel, it’s amazing how this works. Use music to set the mood if necessary, dress the part, and reduce your anxiety by whatever method works for you. Remember that you’re the one in charge, and presentation mastery isn’t about being perfect – it’s about achieving your objective.

“E” is for eliminating the unknowns. Fear of public speaking ranks high on most people’s list of worst fears. You may find you’re unusually nervous, develop poor voice tone or negative body language, and be unable to respond to audience feedback. Managing your anxiety permits you to focus on your audience and their needs. The basic approach to do this is the asking ourselves a list of “what if?” questions. Another way to overcome our fear is to take ownership of the situation. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Double check your notes, and prepare yourself.

“N” is fudging a little by using the second letter of the word “know” – as in kNow Your Audience. Whether it is one person or many that you are presenting to you must do three basic things: Meet their needs, reduce tension, and avoid mistakes. A good knowledge of the listeners will give you a chance to tailor your objectives to meet their needs. This also allows you to reduce the “audience-presenter” tension so they will focus on what you’re saying. With a clear knowledge of your audience’s views you’ll be sensitive to potential “hot buttons”.

“T” stands for “Tailor Your Presentation Throughout”. Boring listeners leads to missed objectives or total failure. You must be flexible and responsive to your audience. To do this you need to use techniques that will give you audience feedback; you must diagnose the cause of the problem you’re addressing, and finally you must choose the solution to act upon.

When you’re presenting watch for non-verbal behavior such as clock-watching, foot-tapping, and cat-napping. When any of these are present get some feedback with, “Is it too warm in here?” or “Should I pick up the pace?” That breaks the attention or lack of, of the audience and brings them back to your talk. One important thing to remember is that the mind can absorb no more than the seat can endure. Sometimes a simple thing like taking a short stretch break will solve the problem.

The techniques for achieving your most desired outcomes are at your fingertips, when you remember that life is a series of presentations.

A Salesperson of Your Life – Pt. 2 is a post from: Work From Home

How many times have you heard that phrase, pitch, advertisement, or

whatever? Lots, I'm sure. It is used so much because marketers know that

staying home and making money is the fondest dream of millions of people.

And why not? Did you know that the majority of fatal heart attacks happen

at 9 a.m. Monday morning? It's true. It seems a lot of people would

rather die than get back to the old grind after a weekend of freedom.

So when someone offers an opportunity or plan for you to take your job and

shove it, yet still make enough money to live and pay all your bills, it

sounds blissfully irresistible.

Of course, bliss and reality are always two different things. Is it

really possible to run a business from your own home that is more than a

hobby or source of part-time income? Can you get rich working out of your

own home? Can you really trade your cubical and necktie for blue jeans and

the comfort of your own den?

Well, for your information, home-based businesses are one of the fastest

growing kinds of enterprises in America today. As this is being written,

some 40 million Americans are doing at least some form of work out of their

homes, and the numbers are rising rapidly. According to the U.S.

Department of Labor, as many as 70 million people will be working out of

their homes by the year 2005. Government studies have indicated that as

much as 75% of all work done in this country could eventually be moved

home.

The overwhelming majority of home workers, however, are not exactly getting

rich. The average work-at-home American earns less than $15,000 per year.

That may not be bad as a supplement to a spouse's full-time income, but

let's face it, fifteen grand in and of itself is not much better than poverty.

As master marketer and author Dr. Jeffrey Lant said: "Frankly, I never saw

any benefit to staying home and being poor."

Lant, without so much as a business card, became a work-at-home

millionaire, and is a perfect example of what truly can be achieved if you

are serious about chucking your day job, staying home, and not settling for

peanuts in exchange for your freedom. You can have it all -- you can stay

home and make as much -- and more -- money than your current job provides

you.

In this report, we are going to outline and discuss five key rules on how

to work at home and make big bucks, no matter where you live. After these

five rules, we'll talk about the most important aspect of any business,

whether it be home-based or a giant factory -- cash flow. Starting your

own business out of your home is all about attitude and inspiration, but

all the attitude in the world won't help you without money!

1. It Takes Commitment

Is it any secret in America that most people detest their jobs? Study

after study proves that most people simply dread going to work Monday

morning, and they live for the freedom of the weekend. But even that

freedom is not pure because we know that it is only temporary. It's hard

to enjoy a Sunday evening when the Monday morning alarm clock is just a few

hours away.

It makes sense that people hate their jobs. Everyday, there is a lot of

butt kissing that needs to be done. There are endless meetings which

usually accomplish nothing. There are pointless interruptions, a lot of

drifting this way and that, and lot of idiot supervisors who do nothing but

waste your time and then dog you for not accomplishing your share of work.

There are co-workers you hate, and who would stab you in the back in a

minute if it meant a raise for them instead of you.

When you work for someone else, you live a regimented life. Your body may

not want to get up at 7 a.m., but you have to be at work by 8 a.m. so you

lurch out of bed with a head full of sleep.

People who choose to work at home are doing more than just escaping the

yoke of their master; they have made a deep, firm, life-altering decision

which says that health, happiness and prosperity depend vitally on the

freedom to work for ourselves, and in doing so in the comfort of the home.

We want to really emphasize that fact that to be successful in a

work-at-home situation, you have to be nothing less than a fanatic; a

zealot, who is utterly committed to making work-at-home not only a

successful venture, but a profound commitment for life. You must be

convinced that a return to an outside office job would be the equivalent of

a spiritual death sentence.

Many people hate their office jobs, but they have made an inner compromise

with themselves. They have convinced themselves that their job is "not so

bad," pays the bills, and that they can stick out because they have to.

If you want to be truly successful at quitting your day job, there cannot

be any room for such compromises in your soul. You have to take the

attitude that to work any longer at your hateful job is akin to fouling

your inner being with a spiritual cancer the will sicken and kill you.

2. Eliminating the Home-Office Mentality

To move our work home, however, does not mean we eliminate every single

thing about the traditional American office. Rather, we should select what

is useful and what is not.

It's a mistake to quit your job and go home with a "home-office" mentality.

By this we mean thinking small, and believing that you will automatically

sacrifice a decent income in exchange for your freedom. Please! Do not

think small!

To quote Jeffrey Lant again: "Too many home-based practitioners fail to

understand the benefits that accrue because of the professional style they

have selected. They focus on the "home" part of the business rather than

the "business" portion, and as a result are doomed to small incomes."

Working at home provides many benefits. We can save a lot of time because

we don't need to commute and we have more control over our schedule. We

can save a lot of costs because we don't have the overhead requirements of

larger businesses. We can cut our stress -- and so have more energy --

because we avoid many of the characteristic problems of life in the late

20th-Century office. We must work these advantages to our profit.

3. Your International Headquarters

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that if you sit at home alone at

your empty kitchen table, eventually, the "whole world will come to you."

Well, today you don't need the great mind of a philosopher to make the

entire world come into your living room. What you need is a phone jack.

We live in a unique time in history. Satellites, fiber optics, the

integrated circuit and other communications miracles means that you can be

just about anywhere in the developed world and establish communication with

anyone.

The telephone, the fax machine, the computer, the modem -- all of these are

not only affordable by any middle-class citizen; they are the key to

eliminating your need to drive a hectic freeway everyday to get to a place

of business outside your home.

With these devices at our disposal, we should allow ourselves to "think

globally." Too often, home-based businesses focus on the narrowest market,

the neighborhood, the county, the city or state. This is fine if you are

providing a local service and are content with a certain moderate level of

income. But if you want the big bucks, you should not think small. Also,

you should not believe that, just because you are home-based, you cannot

compete with the big guys.

The purpose of any business is to seek assess and seek out every possible

market for its products and services, to ascertain whether these markets

have the ability to buy these products/services, to determine whether there

is sufficient profit in these markets to warrant approaching them, and,

once positive assessment has been made, to launch a sustained marketing

campaign that gets a significant percentage of this market to purchase the

product or service in question.

Your home telecommunications machines will not only enable you to do this,

but they can also help you overwhelm larger, more cumbersome traditional

businesses that are your competition.

As a home-based entrepreneur, you will not have all of the disadvantages of

your more traditional competitors: no office rent, equipment or expense;

no employees to pay salaries and fringe benefits for; no time wasted on

meetings, employee problems, paid sick leave, etc.

All the money your competitors spend on heating the office and buying

furniture could better be spent on the actual marketing itself.

As a home-based business, you will be already positioned where the

traditional business is currently struggling to move: toward the lowest

possible overhead and the greatest possible concentration of dollars on

products/service development and product/service marketing.

So, a home-based business takes full advantage of three major goals of

modern business success:

(1) Vastly reduced overhead

(2) Easy access to a global market

(3) Full advantage of telecommunications.

To not have the basic telecommunications toys -- computer, modem, fax, and

telephones is impossibly stupid. Still, even in this day and age, many of

people strongly resist the one element that is undoubtedly the heart and

brain of any successful home business -- the computer. The computer is so

important in fact, we have made it a category all itself.

And remember, learning to use a modern computer is easier than learning to

drive a car, so you have no excuse not to plunge forward.

4. The Computer

You should pay close attention to what computers can do for you in your

plans to escape your job and make your work-at-home dreams come true.

People who want to run a home business usually have a very small staff -- in

fact, a staff of one -- yourself! The rest of your needs are handled by

independent contractors, depending on the kind of business you are in and

the services you need.

To run a serious, truly global home business, a computer is as necessary as

oxygen is to life on earth. Those who try to fool themselves into thinking

they will ever make a serious go of their home-based business without a

computer are sadly mistaken.

Computers give you two primary advantages:

(1) They enable you to store large amounts of data and to sort by data

field so that you can easily get the information you need.

(2) They enable you to develop a pattern document for every situation

you'll ever be in in your business. To run a home-based business

successfully, you must anticipate just what situation will emerge and

prepare accordingly.

A business is based on a characteristic series of situations and a

characteristic set of things that happen -- or that do not happen. You

must be prepared with the proper document for each situation. Once you

have established all the protocols, and have experienced all the situations

associated with your kind of business, the time will come when running your

business is, in large part, a repetition of certain key tasks. Computers

are all about handling repetition swiftly and efficiently.

But the computer is much more. Today, by connecting a computer to the

phone line with a modem, your machine becomes more than a data storage

system and repetitive task handler. It becomes a multi-task, multi-level

communications processing center that connects you to the globe.

Such things as e-mail, on-line services, the Internet, the Web and more

can't help but revolutionize the way business is done. If you do not

become a part of it today, you certainly are going to suffer for it greatly

in the near future.

If there is an effective way to market products on the Internet or any

other on-line venue, no one has truly discovered it yet. The only people

making money on Internet marketing are the people who are selling the

concept of doing it. If you have a product or a service and expect to

reach millions of buyers through computer screens, you are sadly mistaken.

The Internet is definitely where a lot of innovative things are happening.

It's a great place to exchange ideas, find out what hot, what's not, and

stay on the cutting edge whatever your particular business is.

5. Your Business Hours

If you've been paying attention to the first four points, you're well on

your way to becoming a successful home-based business owner. Now we don't

want you to blow it by thinking you can keep banker's hours.

The global market is a 24-hour per day market, and a 365-day per year

market. Let the others sleep late on Saturdays and take Sundays off.

Those times could be your day to move and corner loads of customers that

the others miss.

You should get up earlier and quit work later. You should be open for

business on holidays and be available 24-hours a day either personally or

through your answering service.

"But wait a minute!" you might be thinking at this point! "I thought that

working at home was all about freedom and an end to drudgery. This sounds

like nothing but endless work!"

Well, here's the thing. For most of you who quit your regular jobs to go

to work for yourself, you'll discover something magical. You'll discover

that when you are working for yourself, when you are building your own

business, a lot of what you does not seem like work at all.

The great writer Jane Roberts said, "Inspiration is its own motivator."

Running your own business is all about being inspired 24-hours-a-day. When

you stop selling your body and soul to some company or corporation and

start giving your energy to yourself, work has a way of turning into

inspiration and play.

The perfect work for you is that which you don't think of as work, yet

doing it makes money and provides you with the bread and shelter of life.

You'll see what it's like if you make a true commitment to being self

employed, put all your energy into it, and stick with it for the long run.

-30-

MAKE MONEY WORKING FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME! is a post from: Work From Home

Today, with the average consumer now spending up to $26,400+ for a new car,

consumers realize the importance on investing in lower priced used cars.

With millions of buyers entering the used vehicle market every year, a

wealth of opportunities exist for anyone looking for extra income, or a new

and lucrative full-time career. They key to making a lot of money in this

business is to buy low, and sell at a huge profit. This report will show

you how to get started down the road to riches as a used car dealers.

Operating your own used car business

The goal of many people is just to make a little extra income. If you

consider $1,000 to $3,000 or more for a single sale in one month to be

"extra income" you could easily make that in your spare time without much

effort.

On the other hand, you may be one of those people who want to be their own

boss. While it's true that the risks are often greater than if you just

worked for someone else, it's just as true that risks and rewards go hand

in hand. If you're willing to take the plunge, the potential returns are

also greater. If you have a bit of the adventuresome spirit and some

confidence in your own skills and abilities, operating your own used car

business may be the ideal way for you to make big, big money!

Advantages of owning your own business

The opportunity to express your own ideas and do things exactly as you want

are among the primary advantages of operating your own business. The

challenge and excitement of running your own operation also ranks high on

the list. Another big advantage is that you will receive all the profits

generated by your time and efforts. The potential exists to develop a

part-time business into a full-time career that produces an income you

never thought possible.

Skills and abilities needed

The same type of personal skills that are necessary to successfully work

for someone else are also required to be successful in working for

yourself. Personal skills involve being conscientious, dedicated,

determined and persistent. Good human relation skills are also important.

There is also another type of skill that is necessary: It involves the

ability to manage and organize your activities and possibly those of others

if you hire salespeople to work for you. This skill should be taken very

seriously because it organizational ability that can make the difference

between huge success and total failure.

Finally, you will need technical skills. These are the skills that include

the knowledge to perform activities involved in the used car business. It

is this combination of technical, personal and management skills that will

make your operation successful.

Getting your used car business established

Whether you are operating your business on a part-time or full-time basis,

people will expect you to provide the type of service any consumer expects.

They will also associate the type of service they can expect with the

image you create for your business. This image will be the impression you

make on others.

For example: Will people perceive you as handling high-medium, or

low-priced vehicles? Will your used cars appeal mostly to the rich, the

poor, or the middle class? Do you sell something for everyone or do you

specialize? (Just pick-ups, just vans, etc.)

Any positive image is fine as long as you are consistent in everything yu

do within the scope of that image. The image you create will largely set

the tone for all your business activities, including selection of a

business location, types of vehicles handled, prices charged, etc.

Selecting a location

If you are going to buy one or two cars at a time for resale on a part-time

basis, then working right from your home shouldn't pose a problem for you.

However, if you intend to eventually have a large, full-time business

operation, the most important ingredient in your success or failure could

be your location. What constitutes a good location varies with the type of

business. But in the used car business it means being highly visible in a

high traffic area, and being situated so that driving customers can get to

you. In many cases, the location yo consider ideal may not be available,

or if it is, the cost may not be practical. In that event, you will simply

have to select the next best location you can find and that is affordable.

Then you will have to male a strong advertising and promotion work to make

customers aware of who you are, and what you are selling, and where they

can find you.

Whether you select a location at your home or in a business district, you

must make certain you are operating within city and county zoning

ordinances. Zoning ordinances are regulations specifying what each parcel

of land within a community can be used for. In the location you decide on

is not zoned for the type of business you want to start, you can appeal to

the zoning commission to obtain a "zoning variance." If approved, you

will be allowed to use the property for your business.

How to locate used car supplies

To get started in the "Buy low, Sell for Huge Profits" used car business,

you will have to locate suppliers. In some cases you will be able to buy

directly from individual car owners. At other times, you will go to

independent auction houses or attend U.S. Government Auction Sales where

you can often purchase vehicles for pennies on the dollar.

An independent auction offers vehicles of owners who want auctioneers to sell

by getting buyers who are at the auction house to bid against one another. Generally, there is a minimum bid set. The person who offers

the highest bid over the minimum set has the winning bid. The seller,

however, also has the right to sell the vehicle below the minimum bid if he

chooses. Incredible bargains can be found at independent auction houses.

Independent auction house sales take place throughout the U.S.A., many on a

weekly schedule. For additional information on auction house locations

refer to your telephone directory under "Auctions" or "Car Auctions," write

to:

National Auto Research

P.O. Box 758

Gainsville, GA 30503

(404) 532-4111

(800) 554-1026 (Except Georgia)

N.A.D.A. Used Car Guide Co.

8400 Westpark Drive

McLean, VA 22102-9985

(703) 821-7193

(800) 544-6232

(800) 523-3110 (in Virginia)

U.S. Government Auctions

A wide variety of personal property either no longer needed, or seized by

the Federal Government is periodically placed on public sale.

The Department of Defense and the General Services Administration are the

principle government sales outlets for surplus property. As items become

available for public sale. catalogs and other types of announcements are

distributed to people who have expressed an interest in bidding on the

types of property being offered.

Sales generally are on a competitive bid basis, with the property being sold

to the highest bidder. Among the many thousands of items sold are

automobiles and other vehicles of every imaginable make and model. In

fact, tens of thousands of vehicles are sold by the government at public

auctions throughout the country every year.

How can there be so many vehicles for sale? Because the government is so

huge that it's difficult to even comprehend just how much property is

amassed for resale. In fact, the government seizes, confiscates and

forecloses on property that results in many millions of pieces of property

every year, and that number continues to grow.

Incredibly, the government isn't a private business that is interested in

making a profit on the items it sells. The government is mostly interested

in eliminating enormous stockpiles of seized and surplus vehicles and other

properties. As a result, many thousands of vehicles are offered to the

public through government auctions at a fraction of their actual value.

This is where you can buy just about any modelof vehicle you want at

super-huge savings and make gigantic resale profits.

How to Get on the Government's Vehicle Auction Mailing List

Both the Government Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of

Defense maintain mailing lists on persons interested in seized and surplus

property sales. People on these lists are sent catalogs and other sales

announcements in advance of sales and give the opportunity to inspect the

vehicles and submit bids.

Each GSA regional office maintains a mailing list for sales of property

located in the geographical area it serves. For general information about

sales conducted by GSA, or to be placed on the mailing list, write to any

of the following addresses.

The Department of Defense maintains a centralized mailing list for the

sales of its property located in the United States. The Defense Surplus

Bidders Control Office, Defense Logistics Service Center, Battle Creek,

Michigan 49016 maintains this list.

GSA Customer Service Bureaus

National Capital region

GSA Customer Service Bureau

7th and D Streets, SW

Washington, DC 20407

Serves: District of Columbia, nearby Maryland, Virginia.

Region 1

GSA Customer Service Bureau

Post Office & Courthouse

Boston, MA 02109

Serves: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, RHode Island,

Vermont.

Region 2

GSA Customer Service Bureau

26 Federal Plaza

New York, NY 10278

Serves: Ne Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands

Region 3

GSA Customer Service Bureau

Ninth and Markt Streets

Philadelphia, PA 19107

Serves: Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia

Region 4

GSA Customer Service Bureau

75 Spring St., SW

Atlanta, GA 30303

Serves: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina,

South Carolina, Tennessee

Region 5

GSA Customer Service Bureau

230 S. Dearborn St.

Chicago, IL 60604

Serves: Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin

Region 6

GSA Customer Service Bureau

1500 E. Bannister Road

Kansas City, MO 64131

Serves: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska

Region 7

GSA Customer Service Bureau

819 Taylor Street

Forth Worth, TX 76102

Serves: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas

Region 8

GSA Customer Service Bureau

Bldg. 42-Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

Serves: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming

Region 9

GSA Customer Service Bureau

525 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94105

Serves: Samoa, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada

Region 10

GSA Customer Services Bureau

Auburn, WA 98002

Serves: Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington

How to Determine the Value of Used Vehicles

Whether you attend and auction or purchase a vehicle outright from a seller,

you must know what it is worth. The best way to determine a vehicle's

average market- trade-in or wholesale value, average loan or average retail

value is to subscribe to N.A.D.A. Official Used Car Guide, published

monthly by the National Automobile Dealer's Used Car Guide Co., 8400

Westpark Drive, McLean, VA 22102-9985. Write for current subscription

rates.

N.A.D.A. also publishes guides as follows: Official Older Used Car Guide

... Official Used Car Trade-In Guide ... Official Title & Registration Book

... Official Recreation Vehicle Guide ... Official

Motorcycle/Snowmobile/ATV Personal Watercraft Appraisal Guide ... Smaller

Boat Appraisal Guide ... Official Larger Boat Appraisal Guide ... Official

Mobile Home Appraisal Guide and Mobile Home Appraisal System.

A weekly used car market guide is also available from: National Auto

Research, P.O. Box 758, Gainsville, GA 30503. Write for current

subscription rates.

Regional Classifications

The average values listed in the N.A.D.A. Official Used Car Guide are based

upon reports of actual transactions by dealers and auction houses

throughout each area for which a guide is published. A used car guide-book

normally includes (1) Domestic Cars (2) Imported Cars and (3) Trucks.

Manufacturer's names are listed alphabetically.

Securing Licenses and Permits

City, county, state and/or federal licenses or permits are often required

before entering a particular business or service operation. Often these

are issued solely as a fund-raising measure, and therefore, are easy to

obtain by submitting a fee.

On the other hand, licensing is also used as a method of regulating the

competency of those entering a particular field and to protect the public

from shady operators. In some cases an exam is administered, and moral and

financial requirements may need to be met as well.

In the used-car business, most states require that you obtain a dealer's

license if you are buying and selling vehicles for the purpose of making a

profit. However, you are not required to apply for a license if you only

make an isolated or occasional sale. You are not considered to be in the

business of selling motor vehicles in that event. "Isolated or occasional

sales" in many states means the sale, purchase, or lease of not more than

five motor vehicles in a 12-month period.

Once you began to sell more vehicles for profit that is allowed by your

state law on an annual basis, you should apply for a Dealer's License by

contacting your state department of public safety of department of motor

vehicle.

Check with your attorney or other city officials to determine what licenses

and permits are needed. Simply start up a business without having the

proper authorizations can result in severe penalties, and you could be

forced to discontinue operations.

Many states and some cities and counties require that sales taxes be

collected. The state sales tax permit is available from the State

Department of Revenue. City and county permits are available from the tax

department in those jurisdictions.

Even though a certain amount of "red-tape" must be tolerated to obtain some

licenses and permits, this is usually a one-time occurrence. Then, it's

just a matter of submitting an annual renewal fee.

-30-

How to Make Money Buying and Selling used Cars is a post from: Work From Home

Motivating yourself to excel at your job or to be an example to your employees, should not be something you do only when the spirit moves you. It’s an ongoing process that should include every facet of your business life. This means your mental attitude, physical well-being and appearance, work atmosphere, your interaction with others (clients and employees alike), and your off-the-job environment.

Motivational experts get paid big bucks to tell professionals, striving for success, that they must constantly examine these factors. How do you do that? Follow the 5 tips that follow, and watch the changes.

1. Maintain a Positive Attitude – Let’s realize that life is only 10% of what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. We’re responsible for our own actions and attitudes, and changing them when appropriate. When you’re around people/things that are uplifting and positive, you feel that way. You have more confidence in yourself, and know you can change whatever needs changing. If you can make your workplace such a place you’ll find happier workers and higher production. You might even find your employees look forward to coming to work!

2. Leave Personal Troubles Home - Everyone has problems, but they don’t belong at work. Turn your attention and energy entirely to your on-the-job tasks. This will actually be good for you because you’ll get a mental break from your troubles.

3. Create Positive Affirmations - The reason for writing goals for your business is the same as creating positive affirmations on paper. What your eyes see and ears hear, your mind will believe. Try it! After you’ve written them down, read them aloud to yourself – and do it every morning when you get into work. You’ll be amazed at what happens. Come up with a set of new ones every month. Statements such as, “I’m an important and valuable person,” or “I know I’ll make good use of my time today.” Repeating them out loud everyday at a set time will help reinforce positive actions.

4. Make Sure Break Times Are Really Break Times - This is an area where most bosses/entrepreneurs fall down. You become so intense about the project or situation you’re working on that you don’t ease up. Thinking that it’ll be solved in the next few seconds, and then you’ll get a cup of coffee can lead you right up to quitting time. Regularly adhering to a specified break schedule, even if you’re the boss, releases the tension. If you work on a computer this is even a greater problem because before you realize it – you’ve been working in that same position for hours. The best answer to this is to set yourself a reminder on your appointment calendar for every 2 hours, and let the computer reminder chime send you the alert to move around.

5. Exercise, Exercise, Exercise - I know that lately it seems that “exercise” is the cure-all to every physical ailment or your love life, but despite that there is some truth to that ugly word. By “exercise” I don’t mean that you should go out and join a gym and spend your lunch-time, 3-days-a-week there working out. What is really beneficial and workable is that at those chiming alerts from your computer, get up and walk around your desk or room. Maybe go outside and get the mail and enjoy the sunlight (if you’re an entrepreneur that has a home office), or just get up and do a few stretches. Concentrated, tense thinking – typing - plotting plans - or whatever your work, makes all those muscles tighten up and knot up. Then when we move we “ooh” and “ouch” because we’ve knotted up into a ball of tension. Periodic stretching, even at our desk, or just getting up and walking over to the window and getting a different view can help. One of the greatest disservice modern business décor has done to us, is making our offices pristine, sleek, unencumbered spaces. There is nothing more relaxing than getting up from your desk and walking over to a peaceful, serene, seascape or pastoral painting and just drinking it in visually. Momentarily transporting your mind out of work and into that place does wonders. A few good paintings and less shiny chrome in offices would benefit us all.

It only takes a little concentrated effort on our part to keep motivated and productive, which leads to success. I know you’re going to hate hearing this, but it’s true anyway – and that is, “WHEN LIFE GIVES YOUR LEMONS – MAKE LEMONADE!”

Five Easy Steps to Staying Motivated is a post from: Work From Home

The general dress code guidelines for men during an interview are that they wear suits in navy blue or dark blue. This is preferred over gray or charcoal gray. Sometimes brown can be acceptable but not on the first interview. Usually, the darker the suit, the more authority it carries. But beware; a man should never wear black to an interview unless he is applying as an undertaker. A two piece suit is acceptable as is a three button single breasted jacket. What matters most is that the suit fits well and it is good quality. The trousers should fit comfortably at the waist and a slimmer fit is preferred. There should only be a slight break where the trouser hits the shoe. If your ankles are showing, they are way too short.

A man at an interview should always wear a long sleeved shirt either in white, cream or pale blue. Monograms are not a good decision on the first interview. If you tend to perspire often, cotton shirts are the way to go professionally cleaned and starched. The higher the cotton content, the better the shirt will look. Make sure your shirt fits the neck properly and that the sleeve cuff ends just at the wrist. All your interview clothes should be professionally cleaned and pressed and ready to go.

Ties that are cheap looking do not give off a good first impression. A pure silk tie makes the most powerful professional impact, has the best finish and feel, and is easiest to tie well. The tie should complement your suit, not match it. No outlandish, flamboyant ties are necessary. The length of the tie should be extended to your trouser belt.

Shoes should be brown or black leather. No other materials or colors are acceptable. Socks should complement the suit, blue, black, gray, or brown. A briefcase is a symbol of authority, which makes a strong professional statement. Brown or burgundy are the colors of choice.

As with women, men’s jewelry should be kept to a minimum. No visible body piercing or tattoos -if you can help it.

This clean cut, well manicured image says a lot about a professional man. He should smell wonderful, have a nicely trimmed hair cut and appear clean and crisp. Good luck.

Business Dress – Men is a post from: Work From Home

Every online company knows that without traffic to their site, they go broke, quickly. There are many ways to get cheap web site traffic. One way is pay per click advertising, where you pay per click through to your site, but you do not know if the customer is going to purchase your product, so you do lose some money with that. Another way is to request links from other relevant, high traffic sites. Links to other well established sites is like personal recommendations, where you establish credibility fast, which increases the chances that they will buy your product. You must be persistent enough with some sites, though. You want to download the alexa toolbar, which gives you information about a website, such as traffic rating, ranking, contact info, site stats, related links, etc.

You can get free advertising by giving away free expert content to relevant sites itching for some new, fresh content. Web site owners are always looking for fresh content. Make sure you write a bit about the author and your web site or product. As long as it is not competing with theirs, they will not mind. You can post on these sites:

www.ezinearticles.com

www.freesticky.com

www.ideamarketers.com

www.findsticky.com

You can become an active expert in a newsgroup that is industry related. A newsgroup is an online forum where people share information and common interests. When you post, you are literally talking to your potential customers. These people do not want to be sold something; they want information from gurus, about the topic they are interested in. Make sure you have a sig file, or signature and start establishing relationships and prove your expertise. Stay with newsgroups that do not accept advertisements. This is also a great way to gather feedback from your website, straight from the horses’ mouth. You can reinvent it if you need to and fix it accordingly. When you post informative articles, people will begin to look forward to your posts, and eventually you may want to direct these people to your brand new newsletter.

Cheap Web Site Traffic is a post from: Work From Home

Today, there are hundreds of enterprising men and women who

write simple research papers (known in the mail order trade as

FOLIOS) and sell them by mail. In the pages that follow, you'll

be shown how you can do the same. You'll be shown how to select a

subject, how to research it, how to write it, how to get it

printed, and how to sell it.

There are four ways to sell it. If you are new to folio

selling, You'll be shown which of the four ways would be the best

for you. Read what follows very carefully and

very thoughtfully. THERE ARE NO CATCHES.

EXACTLY WHAT IS A FOLIO?

A folio can be called a booklet, a pamphlet, a report, a

newsletter, a guide, an instruction manual, a plan, a

manuscript, etc. etc. A folio is simply an easy-to-understand

manual which shows the reader "How To" do something that he does

not already know how to do. Most folios show the reader...

* How to start or expand a hobby

* How to develop new abilities or qualities

* How to start a new business or expand an old one

* How to prepare for a new career

* How to make or save money

* How to spend leisure time.

A well written folio is authoritative, factual, and helpful. It

should be written in simple, easily understood language. It can

be anything from a brief two-page mimeographed report to a

professionally printed book bound in hardback cover. People who

purchase folios by mail are interested in the information they

contain. Seldom do they care what brand of paper the

information is printed on.

WHAT KIND OF FOLIOS ARE NOW BEING SOLD BY MAIL?

Pick up almost any magazine at a newsstand that carries

classified advertising and you will find ads written by people

who are selling their folios by mail. Here are sample ads from

magazines lying here on my desk.

"Be secure, confident, successful! Learn the secret of personal

power $2.00"

"Why grow old and die? Li Chung Yun lived 256

years. You could too! learn how - $2.00"

"Secrets of the Spirit World! Only 60 cents postpaid!"

"Guide to Witches Covens - $2.00"

"Traffic Tickets? Beat them, step by step method. $1.95

postpaid."

"Learning Bridge? Send $2.95 for small 20 page guide."

"Fluorescent Tubes rejuvenated at no cost. Instructions $1.00."

"Learn the secret of making every pair of slacks you sew fit

perfectly, Only $1.00"

HOW TO WRITE A FOLIO

"10 Wonder Working Prayers. Enrich, strengthen your life!

$1.00 guaranteed."

"Enjoy camping inside your Volkswagen. Do it yourself Plans -

$2.00'

"Homemade Cheese! Hard soft, and cottage! Make it yourself!

Easy. Delicious. Complete instructions, recipes $1.00"

"Toronto Area Job Opportunities - $1.00"

"Ship in Bottle. Instructions, Drawing. $1.00"

If you can produce a "How to Do It" Manual that is NOVEL,

INTERESTING and genuinely HELPFUL, you can do what the

advertisers above have done. You can print it yourself and sell

it by mail!

WHAT SHOULD YOU WRITE ABOUT?

You should write

* ONLY on subjects that REALLY interest you, and

* On subjects that you already know something about.

For example, if you just love to cook, write a folio on cooking.

If people like the first folio they buy from you, they will buy

other folios in the future, as long as they are on the same

basic subject. If you write on a subject that really does not

interest you very much, you will be bored to death by the time

you get to your third folio!

Ask yourself what do I do with my spare time? Write a folio

about THAT!

HOW DO YOU RESEARCH THE FOLIO?

Make yourself an expert on the subject! Talk to friends and

neighbors. Ask questions. Read books, newspapers, and magazines

on the subject. Ask your librarian for suggestions. As you

read, KEEP NOTES ON EVERYTHING. When you have read everything

you could lay your hands on, sit down and study your notes.

Read them over slowing and carefully. Then lay the notes aside

and think about the whole subject for a day or two. You will be

amazed at what your mind will do with the subject if you have

research it thoroughly!

HOW DO YOU WRITE IT?

Here's a tip from a professional writer. Sit down and pretend

that you are a person who knows absolutely nothing about the

subject. Write down FIFTEEN QUESTIONS that such a person might

ask you. Then write out, in your own words, the answers to the

fifteen questions. Do not try to be literary! When you are

finished, lay it aside for a day or two.

Then re-read it with a red pencil, crossing out all unnecessary

words and sentences, inserting a new point here and there.

REWRITE the whole thing, and you will be amazed to discover that

your folio is ready to be published!

HOW DO YOU GET IT PRINTED?

Type it as neatly as possible on 8 1/2 x 11 WHITE typing paper.

Single space it, leaving two lines between each paragraph. Take

it to a local PHOTO-OFFSET printer who will make a few hundred

copies for you, very reasonably, usually within 24 hours. If

you have more than four pages, have it printed on both sides of

the paper. It will lower your printing costs slightly, and it

will save you extra postage in the future. To give your folio a

professional touch, have it printed on canary yellow, pink, or

light green paper.

HOW DO YOU SELL IT?

There are four ways:

1. DIRECT FROM ADS IN MAGAZINES AND TABLOID PAPERS. If

economically possible, sell it for $1.00 or $2.00 per copy.

(Occasionally $3.00.) Write a brief, eyecatching classified ad

asking those interested to send their orders directly to you.

If your ad is novel, believable, and of genuine interest, you

will be surprised at how many people will do this. If your

folio is about stamp collecting, advertise it in the stamp

collecting papers. If it is about Astrology, advertise it in

the Astrology magazines - to do otherwise is fatal. Be sure to

run your ad in at least three issues. If you have never sold

folios by mail, I sincerely suggest you use this method.

2. ADVERTISE FOR INQUIRIES. If your folio is quite elaborate

and must be sold for $3.00 or more, use this method. Write a

brief, tempting ad describing your folio, and offer free

details. Then mail literature describing the folio to those who

answer the ads. Don't expect more than one inquiry in ten to

buy it from you.

Here are ads placed by folio writers in a recent issue of the

National Enquirer, who use this method:

"Never Won anything? Anyone can win sweepstakes contests! Free

details." "Overweight? I lost 53 pounds. Easily.

(Permanently!) New Method. Information Free.

"Troubles? God can help! Free information." "Make money

clipping newspapers at home spare time. Details Free."

3. DIRECT MAIL. If you have written a folio showing how to get

inventions patented, you could purchase a list of amateur

inventors, and mail your sales literature to each individual on

the list. If you are lucky, you'll sell your folio to about one

person in every twenty-five. Direct mail can be very effective

for experienced mail order operators, but it is usually far too

costly for the beginner. It can easily cost you several hundred

dollars for each one thousand letters you mail.

4. SELLING THROUGH AGENTS. If you are willing to sell your

folio in small wholesale quantities, or if you are willing to

drop-ship folios for mail dealers, then you might find this the

most effective way to market your folios. Below are some ads

placed by folio writers in a recent issue of Specialty Salesman.

"Sell Health Books Mailorder! Write"

"Sell Books by Mail! 400% Profit!"

"Sell Books by Mail. Complete dealer set-up. 25 cents"

"Free Newsletter! Sell Books by mail! We wholesale, dropship."

Some of the above ads have been running ten and twenty years,

indicating that this could be a very successful way to market

your folios.

500 NEW FOLIO IDEAS!

Over the past two or three years folios have been developed and sold by mail. I

You are free to use any idea on this list. Items have not been hecked

to see if any of the titles have been copyrighted. If they

have, create a new one. Also, you are free to change the titles

around to suit your own situation. For example, "Summer Jobs in

Nevada" could become, "Summer Jobs in New York City". I'm sure

you get the point.

Good luck to you!

MARRIAGE

Plan your Wedding Now!

Plan your Honeymoon

What to Wear at your Wedding

Cooking Tips for Newlyweds

Do you need a Marriage Counselor?

Living on a Budget

How to Survive Divorce

How to Get a Divorce

Teach your Husband to Cook!

Organize your Housework

Alimony Laws Made Simple

How to be a successful Father

How to Win a Fight with your Husband

Marry a Man with Money

Poor Men make Better Husbands

FAMILY AND CHILDREN

So, You're Expecting a Baby!

Does your Child take Drugs?

Don't Spank your Child!

Select the Right Names for your Baby!

Inspire your Child to Learn

Can your Boy Defend Himself?

Listen to Your Child

How to Raise an only Child

Teach your Child to Read

Choosing a Baby-sitter

Loving an Adopted Child

Keep your Child Busy!

Tell your Child about Sex

How to Select a Baby Doctor

Understanding your Teenager

Which Summer Camp for your Child?

Teach your Son a Trade

Facts about Childbirth for Husbands

FAMILY PROBLEMS

A Parents Guide to Dangerous Drugs

Save Money on your Clothing Bill

Mother's Guide to Thrift Shop Buying

Where & How to Apply for a Loan

Better Health through Better Eating

How to Trace your Family Tree

Families without Fathers

Does your Child Eat Right?

What Unwed Mothers Should Know

SALESMANSHIP

Ten Ways to Close a Sale

Sell it at the Flea Market!

Is selling for You?

Ten Successful Selling Tips

How to Improve your Sales Technique

Why People Buy

How to Sell Sporting Goods

Positive Thinking makes the Difference

Directory of Direct Selling Firms

How to Get Leads by Telephone

How to Recruit Salesmen

ENTERTAINING AT HOME

How to Throw a Cocktail Party

24 Ideas for your next Birthday Party

Make your next Shower a Real Success!

How to be a Gracious Hostess

The Office Party Guide

Turn an Ordinary Meal into a FEAST!

How to Make Better Cocktails

BEAUTY

Glamour Tips for Teenagers

Beauty Tips for the Expectant Mother

Every Woman Can be Beautiful

Apply Make-up like a Professional

Your Personality makes the Difference

What Color is Best for YOU?

How to Achieve the Natural Look

Choosing the Right Hair Style for You

ASTROLOGY

How to Chart your Horoscope

Selecting a Career through Astrology

Astrology and your Marriage Mate

Apply Astrology to your Daily Life

Astrology Made Simple

Your Future is in the Stars!

How to Read the Zodiac

GARDENING

Build your own Greenhouse

Grow what you Eat!

How to Grow Gorgeous Roses

Beginners Guide to Landscaping

How to Grow Food in an Apartment

ANTIQUES

Introduction to Antique Collecting

Facts about Antique Auctions

How to Sell Antiques

Let's Go to an Antique Show

How to Become an Antique Dealer

Directory of Antique Publications

How to Detect Fake Antiques

How to Restore Antiques

WRITING

Writing Mystery Stories

How to Write Poetry

Writing Gags for Television

How to Write for Newspapers

Start a Writers Club

Opportunities in Ghost Writing

Can you Write Science Fiction?

How to Write for Trade Papers

Writing for Children

Today's Market for Short Stories

How to Write for Religious Magazines

How to Plot a Novel

Selecting a Literary Agent

How to Write Book Review

How to Review Plays and Movies

Become a Music Critic

What they NEVER Tell you in Writing School!

HOME DECORATING

Decorating Tips for Your Bedroom

Thirteen Ways to Beautify your Kitchen

How to Decorate your Windows

Decorate Like a Professional!

Patios Can be Beautiful

Beginner's Guide to Drapery Making

Wallpaper makes the Difference

Glamour in your Bathroom

Selecting Plants for your Home

PHOTOGRAPHY

Repair your own Camera

Photo Retouching for Beginners

Become a Professional Photographer

How to make Better Home Movies

Selecting the Right Camera for You

Build your own Dark Room

Become a Wedding Photographer

Where to Sell your Photography

CHURCH

Sermon Outlines for Busy Pastors

Fund Raising Ideas for your Church

Twelve Ways to Increase your Church Attendance

Projects for Vacation Bible School

How to use Chalk Talks Effectively

How to Prepare a Sermon

Put some ZIP into your Church Bulletin

Every Parishioner - an Evangelist!

Choir Practice Can be Fun

Keep the Older Members Happy

Teaching Tips for Sunday School Teachers

Have you been Called to the Priesthood?

Religious Vocations for Women

Plan a Prayer Breakfast

AUTOMOBILES

How to Tune you own Car

Save Money on Auto Parts

Revitalize your Transmission

How to Test a Car Before you Buy!

Repair the Brakes Yourself

PETS

How to Raise your Kitten

Tricks your Dog can Learn

Build your own Aquarium

Fashion Tips for your Poodle

How to Operate a Dog Kennel

How to Start a Pet Shop

Dog Grooming Opportunities

How to Win at the next Dog Show

Do Snakes make good Pets?

The Successful Way to Raise Rabbits

TRAVEL

Overcome your Fear of Flight

How to Obtain a Passport

Vacation Planning Tips

Travel Tips for Honeymooners

Let's Go Camping

Ghost Towns you should See

How to Survive in the Wilderness

Vacationing in the Desert

Plan a Hiking trip

GAMBLING

How to Become a Blackjack Dealer

Job Opportunities in Las Vegas

Gambling Secrets Revealed

Win at the Race Track!

How to Play Keno

Baccarat for Beginners

Roulette Self Taught

Why Gambling should be Legalized

Handbook for Poker Players

How to Win at 21

Better Bingo!

Improve your Pinochle Game

How to Cure a Compulsive Gambler

ART

How to Paint Landscapes

Make your own Picture Frames

Oil Painting for Beginners

Working with Acrylics

Introduction to Water Colors

How to Exhibit your Paintings

How to Buy Art Supplies

How to Model for Art Classes

How to Sketch Portraits

Working with Chalks

STAMP COLLECTING

Start a Stamp Collection

Stamp Mixtures can be Fun

Organize a Stamp Collectors Club

How to Find a Stamp Collectors Club

Stamps by Country or Topic - Which

How to sell your Stamp Collection

Let's Visit a Stamp Auction!

How to Sell Stamp Packets by Mail

Start an Approval Business for Stamp Collectors!

Recognizing Rare Stamps

Investing in Stamps

HANDCRAFTS

Working with Leather

Pottery Making for Beginners

Make your own Jewelry

How to make Beautiful Dolls

Introduction to Metal Enameling

How to make Puppets

Making a Potter's Wheel

Craft Projects for pre-school children

Profits in Indian Jewelry

How to make Stained Glass Windows

Like Working with Beads?

Make your own Christmas Cards

Directory of Wholesale Handicraft Supplies

How to Build Doll Houses

Christmas Decorations You can Make

Knitting & Crocheting Ideas for the Beginner

Selling Handmade Crafts at Art Shows

Candlemaking for Beginners

Weave your own Rugs

The Art of Shellcraft

Selling Handicrafts on Consignment

Needlepoint for Beginners

Decorating Glass

The Art of Papier-mâché

An Introduction to Ceramics

Conducting Handicraft Classes

Create your own Ear Rings

54 New Quilt Patterns

Making Gifts from Throw-aways

The Basics of Macramé

Decoupage: An Introduction

What you can make from Macramé

Christmas Crafts for Children

Bread Dough Art for Beginners

NEW CAREERS

How to Ask for a Raise

Write your own Resume

Earn Money Tutoring

Dance your Way to Stardom

Your Future in Physics

Careers in Astronomy

How to Dress for Job Interviews

Become a Professional Astrologer

Raising Funds for Profit

Gun Repairing as a Career

Opportunities Unlimited for Commercial Artists!

Have Fun! Be a Ski Instructor!

Job Opportunities in Law Enforcement

Can YOU Manage Apartments?

Become a Book Finder

Writing for Small Town Newspapers

Opportunities in Advertising

Become a Professional Librarian

Are you a BORN Mechanic?

Is there a Place in Television for You?

Show Business Opportunity Guide

Your Place in the Electronics Industry

Environmental Careers

Your Aptitude and your Job

A Career in Nursing for You!

How to Break into Public Relations

Air Freight - Transportation of the Future

Be a Management Consultant

Your Future as a Travel Agent

Opportunities for Part-Time Workers

Wanted! Aviation Mechanics

How to Succeed in a Job Interview

Summer Jobs in Nevada

Job Opportunities for Women in Alaska

Can you Counsel Alcoholics?

Guide to Professional Acting Schools

How to Become a Recording Artist

Finding Satisfaction in your Job

Should you be a Social worker?

How to be a Strip Tease Dancer

MONEY MAKING IDEAS

How to Run a Garage Sale

Making Money with old Comic Books

Start a Shopping service

How to Start a Trade Paper

There's Money in Turquoise

Cash in on Today's Hobby Market!

Investing in Real Estate

Twenty Ways to Get Rich Quick!

How to be your own Boss

Turn your ideas into DOLLARS!

Your Town Needs a Typing Service!

Open an Art Gallery

How to Start a Delivery Service

Collecting Bills can be Profitable

How to Start a Mobile Home Park

Start a Bookkeeping Service

Penpals are Big Business!

Cash in on the Nostalgia Craze

Form your own Rock Group!

Start a Resume Bureau

Teach Children How to Dance

Profits in Auctions

Business Enterprises for College Students

HOBBIES

Collect Coins for Fun and Profit

Chess: Self Taught

Boat Building for Beginners

Let's Go to a Boat Show!

Bicycle your Way to Better Health

How to Repair your Bicycle

Let's Motor Bike!

How to Join a Motorcycle Club

How to Repair your Motorcycle

How to Enter a Chess Tournament

Start your own Chess Club!

How to Collect Military Medals

200 Things you can Collect

Collecting Paper Weights

Gun Collecting as a Hobby

Collecting Nazi relics

Guide to Antique Car Collecting

How to Collect Gems and Minerals

Become a Silent Film Buff

Model Railroading: An Introduction

How to Collect Old Postcards

How to Build Model Airplanes

Collecting Postmarks

Go Fly a Kite!

How to Perform Magic Tricks

Gardening - America's Number One Hobby

Guide to Seashell Collecting

Tips for Radio Hams

Collect Bottles for Fun and Profit

How to Collect Autographs

Collecting Old Automobile Manuals

Do you Collect old Magazines?

Book Collecting for Beginners

PERSONAL PROBLEMS

Protect Yourself from Muggers

Protect your Home from Burglary

How to Handle Obscene Phone Calls

How to Say "No" to a Salesman

Defend Yourself from Rape

How to File for Bankruptcy

How to Sublet Your Apartment

How to Sell Your Home

Investing in Jewelry

What YOU Should Know about Banking

How to Buy Stocks and Bonds

Get Creditors Off Your Back

What Credit Bureaus Know about You

How to Balance Your Checkbook

How to Save on Your Hospital Bills

SPORTS

How to Enter Professional Football

Improve Your Swimming Strokes

Can You Handle Racing Cars?

How to Play Better Baseball

Wrestling Holds: An Introduction

Guide to Ski Resorts

Amateur Boxing Guide

Know Your Hunting Rifle

Let's Go Trout Fishing

Tennis for Beginners

Keep in Shape! Bowl!

Treasure Hunting Can Be Fun

Let's Go Deer Hunting!

The Thrill of Salt Water Fishing

Jog Your Way to Health

How to Lift Weights

Build Your Own Gym!

Ice Hockey: An Introduction

Play Basketball!

Are You Interested in Wild Game Hunting?

Body Building Tips

What to Wear in the Jungle!

OCCULTISM

Witchcraft Secrets Revealed

True Mystical Experiences

Your Handwriting Reveals the Real You!

ESP for Beginners

Yoga for Beginners

You Can Change Your Destiny

An Introduction to Hypnotism

Relax! Learn to Meditate

MISCELLANEOUS

The Hitchhikers Manual

You Can Be a TV Contestant!

Facts Every Inventor Should Know

How to Enjoy the Opera

Living in a Mobile Home

How to Read Blueprints

How They Make TV Commercials

Are Your Employees Stealing from You?

How to Prepare a Publicity Release

Understanding the Stock Market

Effective Lecturing for Beginners

All about Mutual Funds

How to Pass a Lie Detector Test

Get Free Publicity for your Business

How to Pan for Gold

How to Select the Perfect Gift

How to Remove Tattoos

How to Learn Tattooing

Sewing Tips (From a Professional!)

Make Your Own Cheese

Directory of UFO Groups

Build Your Own Canoe

How to be a Ventriloquist

The Florida Flea Market Guide

101 Ways to Decorate a Cake

How to Identify Counterfeit Money

Guide to Professional Cooking Schools

Facts about Franchises

Twenty Ways to Get your Name in the Paper!

How to Meet Celebrities

Guide to Radio Talk Shows

How to Adjust to a New Neighborhood

Recipes for Homemade Jelly

How to Conduct a Political Campaign

How to Hold a Fashion Show!

How to Move - Easily, Economically

Handbook for Street Musicians

How to Mold Public Opinion

How to Spot a Potential Suicide

How to Train a Hunting Dog

HEALTH

Ten Old-Fashioned Cold Remedies

Facts about Arthritis

My Life with Polio

Ten Ways to Cure Insomnia

Recipes for Diet Candy

Fasting is Good for You

Are You Facing a Nervous Breakdown?

How to Care for your Skin

-30-

HOW TO WRITE A “HOW-TO” FOLIO is a post from: Work From Home

Americans throw away enough paper in a year to build a wall 12 feet high from New York City to Los Angeles. This fact is from earth911.org, a public service Website that focuses on recycling issues. Now that’s a lot of paper!

Despite the hype that computer makers fed us a few years ago, the computer has NOT decreased the paper used in most offices today. According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Clean Your Files Day Program, the average citizen uses 1 ½ pounds of paper per day. The average office employee uses 10,000 sheets of paper per year according to

the Environmental Defense Fund.

Now that’s just the figures on paper. What about the ink cartridges and cell phones that are tossed into landfills each year. No matter how you slice it, recycling today is big business.

Whether it’s glass, paper, plastic, steel, ink cartridges, computers, magazines, cardboard boxes, cell phones or another material, recycling products reduces waste and cost, and saves energy and resources. So why isn’t your business utilizing a recycling program?

Many small business owners feel overwhelmed when asked about recycling, but it needn’t be daunting because there are a lot of resources available. Many of them are just an Internet click away. Some that you might look at are:

www.earth911.org

www.epa.gov/recyclecity/

www.greenofficerecycling.com

www.obviously.com/recycle

www.nre-recycle.org

www.recyclingtoday.com

There may also be businesses nearby you that have “been there and done that” and may be willing to share advice, strategies, plans, and programs. Why reinvent the wheel when you can duplicate it?

Here are 18 steps that will help start your recycling program, and help your business become a good corporate citizen:

1. Make the decision to start. Believing that a recycling program is positive and beneficial to the business must exist as the foundation.

2. Get “buy-in” from other manage-ment and employees.

3. Decide if you need a “designated” recycling coordinator. This could be a volunteer who feels strongly about the subject.

4. Find a mentor or model. Find a business similar in size that has a successful program and ask for help.

5. Create a program plan. This should include goals and measurable objectives.

6. Know what can be recycled – what to collect and what to toss. There are regulations as to what can and cannot be recycled.

7. Understand recycling and educate the team. Tell your employees why you want to recycle, why it’s important and what’s expected of each employee.

8. Determine a collection method. Decide from the beginning whether recyclables will be commingled or separated by source.

9. Make recycling convenient and easy. Don’t skimp on collection bins, for example. If a bin is easier to find than a trash can than your program is bound to work.

10. Choose a method for removal. Here in Santa Clarita we’re fortunate to have our own trash companies alert about recycling and willing to assist citizens.

11. Establish program guidelines. Keep it simple and foolproof for employees.

12. Launch your program and get team “buy in”. Make it fun. Schedule a kick off program, or even a company-wide contest to name the program.

13. Implement! Now it’s time to put the program into practice. Purchase and place bins, label recycling areas/bins. Make sure you place signs about what is recyclable and what isn’t in the same vicinity as the collection bins.

14. Promote and market your program. Keep the momentum going among your employees. Some companies even offer incentive programs to recognize individuals or departments for their efforts.

15. Evaluate the program periodically. Analyze your program’s effectiveness and let team members know the result. How much waste is being saved? Is it reducing costs? Are supply expenses lower?

16. Keep it going and build on the program. If you started with just paper, now extend it to plastic/ink cartridges, for example.

17. Publicize successes. Internally promote the program with workers via a newsletter or email. Externally, use it for a PR boost by sharing results with local and trade publications with a Press Release. Hey, great advertising!

18. Close the loop. Buy recycled content products for your business, reduce waste in the office, and reuse materials when possible.

The start of a new business year is the perfect time to start a recycling program in your business. It’s just what’s needed to re-energize holiday-worn workers, and make them feel like a part of your company’s planning team. Happy Recycling!

Are You Building A Wall? is a post from: Work From Home

If you want to make more of your talents - live up to your full potential

- you have to learn to use them. You have the power to change your habits

- to acquire new skills and fully use the skills you now have. You can

improve your performance, your productivity, and the quality of your whole

life.

What makes a high achiever? Is it luck, intelligence, talent, dedication?

All of these things figure in - they all make a difference. But we all

know intelligent, talented, hard-working people who do not consider

themselves very successful or even happy. And we know people who are not

exceptionally bright but seem happy and successful.

So there must be something else, some secret to success. Actually there

are several secrets to achieving your peak performance - living up to your

full potential.

Your success at business, friendship, love, sports - just about anything

you try - is largely determined by your own self-image. Your unhappiness

is something you choose. So, you're thinking no one chooses to be unhappy.

Well, maybe not - but you have to consciously choose to be happy,

self-confident, and successful.

Happiness is elusive when we go after it directly. So is self-confidence.

Both seem to be more "side-products" than something you can achieve in and

for itself. So how, then, can consciously choosing to be these things be

of any value? Well, the secret is to focus on other things.

First, focus on your potential. Begin by making a complete and accurate

assessment of your potential. To do this you must take an inventory of

yourself - you will make a few lists. Sit down and make a list of all the

things you can do well. Be honest with yourself. When that list is done,

make a list of all the things you like to do, even if you think you can't

do them well. Then, make a list of all the things you would like to do, if

you could. Now list your hobbies.

Then, go back to the list of things you can do well. You are probably

being much too hard on yourself. Most of us are. We have this little

voice in our heads telling us things like: "You're so dumb," or "You can't

learn to do that," or "You never do anything right," or similar nasty

things. And even worse, we listen to that voice as if it's telling us the

gospel truth. So now, shut off that voice - you can do it - and add a few

more things to the list of things you can do well. Pretend you are your

best friend - it's amazing how much more forgiving and charitable we are

with our friends than we are with ourselves. Now that you are your best

friend, you should be able to add a few more items to your "do well" list.

But do be honest - don't list things you feel you really can't do well.

Next, go to your list of things you like to do but you feel you don't do

well. Speaking as your own best friend, do you think there are some things

on this list that could be moved to your "do well" list? There probably

are. If you like to do it, chances are you do pretty well at it. Treat

your hobby list in the same manner.

Next, go to your list of things you would like to do if you could. Ask

yourself, "Why can't I do this, if I'd like to?" Put your reasons on

another list. OK. So you have a lot of lists going - what good is that

going to do? Well, you have just made an assessment of yourself. If you

have been truly honest in making these lists, it may even be a fairly

accurate assessment. Probably it isn't, but that's OK. This assessment

isn't carved in stone. It's subject to change. But for now we will work

with what's on the lists. At least you have a place to start.

Look over your lists again. You are focusing on all the things you feel

you can't do and the reasons why you can't do them, right? Well, don't.

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN DO - FOCUS ON YOUR POTENTIAL. Make it a habit to

focus on your strengths. Don't forget to include your undeveloped

potential, as well. Train yourself to focus on your potential instead of

your limitations.

Now that's not to say that you should ignore your list of reasons for not

doing some of the things you would like to do. Not at all! But look at

them from the viewpoint of your strengths. For instance, you'd like to

play basketball but you think you are too short, so you don't even try. In

this case, you are looking at it from the viewpoint of your limitations.

Now, when you look at it from the viewpoint of your strengths, you would

say, "Well, I may be pretty short to play, BUT I am fast. I can handle the

ball well. I have a lot of stamina. I can't change being short, but I can

refuse to let my limitations overcome my strengths."

You see the difference? Focusing on your limitations lets those

limitations make your decisions for you. Focusing on your strengths lets

YOU make the decision. To go back to our example: when you've decided to

overcome your height limitations to play basketball - something you really

want to do - you will be more determined to develop your strengths to

compensate. You will do well, because you will be doing what you really

want to do and you will be determined to develop the full potential of your

strengths. Very few people concentrate on fully developing any of their

strengths. That's where you will have the edge. You know your true

disadvantages but your determination, your singleness of purpose, will

inspire you to fully develop the talents and skills you do have.

OK. You probably have no interest in playing basketball. Then go to your

assessment of yourself. What do you have a major interest in? What do you

have a natural aptitude for? Go for it. Devote yourself to something you

really like to do. Don't choose something just because you think you could

make more money at it than you could by doing something else that you would

really rather work at. You won't work to develop your full potential. You

may start out with enthusiasm, but you will soon flag. It will be a chore

to go to work. You'll probably find yourself hating to go. It'll be

difficult to work on improving your skills because you don't like what you

are doing. You probably won't be working up to your potential. Your

success will probably be limited by your growing lack of interest and your

happiness will surely be affected.

If, however, you devote yourself to something you really like to do, you'll

enjoy your work, you'll be enthusiastic, and you'll probably find yourself

working on improving your skills just for the sheer joy of it. You will be

working to reach your full potential. You'll probably soon find you are

making more money at this truly interesting occupation than you ever

dreamed possible. And because you like what you are doing, you will be

happier.

When you know you are working to your full potential and you enjoy your

work and begin to feel successful, you will find that self-confidence and

happiness soon follow.

But, you must be realistic and honest with yourself. If you set goals that

you can't possibly reach, you are setting yourself up for failure. You

will make yourself frustrated and unhappy. The key here is a realistic and

honest assessment of your potential.

Although most people will be unnecessarily harsh in their assessments, it

is easy to become too hopeful when you start breaking down barriers. If,

for instance, you're extremely interested in and fond of music and would

love to be a singer, it would be unreasonable to set a singing career as

your goal if you can't sing a note (some talents are inborn). But if you

are knowledgeable about the music business and would be happy being

involved in some other capacity, then it would be reasonable to pursue a

career in the business.

Be wary of making otherwise perfectly reasonable goals unattainable because

of stringent time frames. When you set a goal, you will most likely set

times for achieving certain steps along your way to achieving your final

goal. Even if you don't set the time frames formally, you will probably

have a pretty good idea of how long you are giving yourself. It's wise to

sit down and formally set these goals. Think about it and give yourself

reasonable time to achieve them. Make a deal with yourself to view these

time limits as flexible.

Don't get discouraged if things don't work out as planned. Sometimes

finding our place takes both time and error. All of us experience failures

of one magnitude or another. The key is to view the failures as a learning

experience - if nothing else, failures teach us what not to do. Remain

flexible. As long as you keep focusing on your strengths and potential,

the right thing will come along - and probably sooner rather than later.

But don't quit at the first sign of boredom. Even if you have truly found

your niche, you will not feel enthusiastic 100 percent of the time.

Don't worry about others - don't compare your progress with that of others.

No matter how successful you are, there will be someone else who, to you,

looks like she's got it made - who looks like she's getting where you want

to go faster and easier than you are. Maybe she is. Maybe she isn't. Who

cares? Focus on your own achievements. Work to develop your skills and

talents to their full potential. Compete with yourself - your short term

goals should be based on today's accomplishments. If you have reached

Point A today, make Point B your next objective - improve yourself and

don't worry about the other guy.

OK. You have decided what your ultimate goal is. Make sure it is a

definitely defined goal. "Someday I want to be famous" just won't cut it.

Define exactly what you want to do. Define a reasonable time frame. Know

what you have to do to get there. You don't need to know every little

detail, but you do have to have the big picture and many of the details.

If you have a goal in mind but don't know what it takes to reach it, then

you need to find out. Do some reading, talk to people who know, ask

questions and LISTEN to the answers. Think that sounds like a lot of work?

Well, remember what you are preparing for - your success and happiness.

Surely you want to put a little effort into that! Anyway, a little

reseach into what it will take for you to reach your goals isn't too

difficult.

Train yourself into making this "research" the next focus of your life.

You will be focusing on your strengths, on your purpose, and on learning

and doing. If you have chosen a goal that is right for you, focusing on

these things and devoting the necessary time should not be too difficult.

It may take a bit of self-discipline at first, but your determination and

interest will carry you through until the focusing process becomes a habit.

When you have a real desire to accomplish something, initiatative should

only require an occasional shove - but you may need to give it a nudge now

and again.

Get into the habit of visualizing your success. Now sitting around and

daydreaming in generalizations about it is not what we mean. You need to

visualize specifics. To return to the basketball example, daydreaming

about being carried off the court on your teammates' shoulders is just

daydreaming. Picturing in your mind how you will work a play if your

opponent makes a particular move, picturing your exact response to it, is

visualizing specifics. If you run through specific moves in your mind, you

will be prepared when the need for those moves arises.

Don't be afraid to use your imagination to visualize new and better ways to

accomplish things, as well. Here in your mind, you can try doing things in

ways that are different from the usual. This is a creative process - you

may have heard of creative thinking. Training yourself to think creatively

is largely learning to let your imagination work on methods that are

different from the "way things have always been done." It's breaking away

from the idea that a thing can be done effectively in only one way. It's

looking at a problem from all angles. Just play a game of "what if." Ask

yourself, "What if I did this thing this way?" It's OK to get a little

crazy sometimes. But, you must also spend some of your thinking time at

specific visualizations of the moves you need to make to accomplish your

goals.

Visualizations are important but actual physical practice of your skills is

important, too. Practice the boring little skills that are necessary as

well as the skills that you enjoy. Don't let yourself rely on just the

things that come naturally and easy to you. Develop your limited

potentials as well as those that you feel are your assets.

Work on developing the more general attributes that are important to almost

any goal:

Success comes more easily to those who have a pleasing personality. This

is not to say that you should bend to eveyone's wishes or scrape and bow.

Rather, develop an attitude that is respectful of other's opinions but true

to your own beliefs. Be flexible - don't be so rigid that you can't accept

another's opinion when it is superior to your own. Be willing, even eager,

to learn from others. Changing your opinion in light of more facts is a

sign of strength of character, not weakness. Be willing to extend a

helpful hand, be a team player. Develop a sense of humor. Be polite and

caring - but be your own person.

Learn to guard against emotional responses. You are susceptible to errors

of judgement when you let your emotions get in the way. Of course,

everything we do is done based somewhat on our emotions, but strong

emotions have little place in decision making. Hold your emotions in

check. Try to delay decisions if you are in an emotional state. Learn to

ignore your emotions and use reasoning to arrive at your decisions.

Develop the habit of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm works like a magnet - it draws

people and success. It's a pleasing personality trait that people like to

be a part of. It seems to be contagious - the people around you become

enthusiastic, too, and become more cooperative. Enthusiasm sparks

initiative and singleness of purpose.

We've talked of working to develop habits - the habit of focusing on your

goals, the habit of focusing on your strengths, the habit of learning and

"researching," the habit of visualizing, the habit of enthusiasm. Now we

will talk of habits in a little different light - breaking them. First,

assess your habits looking for the ones that may be displeasing to others.

Offensive habits can hold you back from success - they are often a part of

an unpleasing personality. Look for things like grumbling or grunting at

people instead of answering, gazing at anything but the speaker when

conversing, smirking or sneering when you don't agree - anything that is an

automatic, displeasing mannerism. It will be very difficult to assess your

habits accurately. After all, a habit is something that we do without

thinking much about it. You will have to spend some time at this and be

very conscious of yourself. Ask someone you trust to help you with this

assessment. It may take a lot of work to break yourself of displeasing

habits. Try substituting a different, more pleasing behavior for the habit

you wish to break.

OK. You have set definite goals, you have a definiteness of purpose, you

have researched and know the specific steps to take to achieve the goals,

you have resolved to be flexible and to develop a more pleasing

personality. Now what?

Well, just because you have a clear purpose, know what you want, are

willing to work on developing your potential, and willing to be a nice

person, success will not drop into your lap overnight.

You will probably find that one of your first steps in achieving your goals

will be to take a job somewhat below where you hope eventually to be. But

you've already analyzed the steps to your goal, so you presumably have

planned for this. However, you do want to advance and, of course, as

quickly as possible.

As you advance toward your goals, you will undoubtedly run up against some

difficult people (maybe even difficult bosses), and there will be times

you'll need to deal effectively with them. Since you are working on

becoming a nice, enthusiastic person and a team player, you already have

half the battle won. Your attitude is as important as the other guy's

attitude when you are dealing with difficult people.

Always keep in mind that your job is a training field for you. You are

getting paid as you learn the things you need to know to achieve your

goals. Pretty good deal, right? If you view your job as a paid

opportunity to advance toward your goals, you will be an asset to your

boss. You will also be a happier, more productive person. Viewing your

job in this manner will allow you to view the difficult people you will

inevitably need to deal with as an opportunity to grow. From them and the

situations they create, you will learn to negotiate with, side-step around,

and draw out the best in others without letting yourself become upset.

Each time you successfully deal with one of these people you will gain

confidence and probably friends to add to your support network. The skill

of negotiating with difficult people and the confidence you have gained

from these encounters comes in handy when you are ready to ask for a

promotion or raise - even if your boss happens to be a nice person.

Successful negotiation is not a contest of wills - it is working together

to solve a problem or come to an agreement. It is an opportunity to learn

how others feel about the issue.

Always be prepared. Know who you are talking with. Always know as much as

possible about the person. Know about the person's marital status, family,

hobbies, education, difficulties, attitudes, and whatever else you can

learn. The information may give you an understanding of the person. If

you know the circumstances, you will more easily find the most effective

way to get your point across. At the very least, the information will make

the person seem more familiar which will give you more self-confidence.

Know the issue - not just your opinions about it. Be able to back up your

opinions with reasons and research. If you are asking for a promotion,

know the demands of the job in question. Know and be honest about how much

of the job you are already qualified to do and how much additional training

you will need. If you may not be as qualified as someone else applying, be

prepared to negotiate for a smaller-than-offered salary until you are fully

trained - remember the training is worth a lot to you. Be enthusiastic and

focus on your strengths - don't boast but give an a simple and accurate

listing of the strengths you feel make you a good candidate for this job.

The strengths you cite can and should include specific job related skills,

your present accomplishments on the job, your interest in the field (not

just this job), your enthusiasm, your ability to work as a team member, and

other personal traits that will be an asset on the job.

Always enter into negotiations with a calm and reasonable manner. Don't

let emotion and emotional outbursts have a place at the negotiating table.

You must be in control of yourself if you want to get your point across.

People are more likely to listen to your views if you present them in a

calm and reasonable manner. Present your ideas with conviction but don't

try to intimidate others or be demanding. State your views simply,

completely, and orderly. When you are expressing an opinion rather than a

fact, use a qualifying "I think" or "In my opinion." When others are

expressing their views, listen carefully and ask questions if something

isn't clear. Don't disagree until you are sure you understand their

position. When you do disagree, do so in a pleasant non-threatening way.

"I see what you mean, but . . ." or "I can understand why you think that,

but . . ." are a couple of good ways to begin a statement of disagreement.

Be courteous and leave them a chance to save face.

Be prepared to face people who are not calm and reasonable. Don't let them

get to you. Remain calm and reasonable and even be a little sympathetic.

Let's say you have entered into negotiations with your boss for a raise and

he blows up with, "I can't afford to give you a raise. This business isn't

exactly a gold mine. Don't you realize how tough times are?" Remain calm.

Put yourself in his shoes. Try to find something you can agree and

sympathize with. For instance, look sympathetic and agree, "I know you

have a lot of expenses and you work hard to keep this business going. It

must be really difficult for you sometimes." This will probably not be the

response he expects. It will probably take the wind out of his sails.

Most likely he will calm down, and since you are sympathetic to his

problems, he'll be more willing to listen to you. If you remain calm,

reasonable, and sympathetic, he will calm down. When he is calmer, discuss

with him the reasons you are a valuable asset to him. Don't threaten but

calmly and reasonably discuss the bargain a small raise is. With that

small raise, he'll be keeping a happy and fully trained employee who knows

the company. When you consider the expense of finding and training another

individual, giving you a raise is a bargain for your boss.

Play "Let's Make A Deal." Be prepared to deal. Don't expect to get

everything you want. If you are willing to gracefully make some

concessions, you will be more likely to arrive at a satisfactory deal.

After all, a negotiation has at least two opposing sides. This means

someone else has something they want, too - even if that something is

simply to leave things as they are. Arrive at a compromise that everyone

can live with. Remember, you are working at long-range goals, and you may

be negotiating with them again.

Developing your potential more fully is a key to happiness and fulfillment.

Although we have primarily discussed this in terms of a job, these same

concepts can be used in many other areas of your life.

In developing your potential to it's fullest, you will want to become a

more efficient person - get more done in less time - so you can take full

advantage of the opportunities that you make for yourself. You will note

that most effective, successful people seem to accomplish a great deal.

It's true that this is partly due to enthusiasm, but there's more to it.

The first barrier to efficiency is procrastination - putting off getting

started. Sometimes you know you are procrastinating. You may not want to

do the task at hand so you keep putting it off until tomorrow. The thing

to do is to look at it from a different angle. If it'll have to be done

sometime, tell yourself, "why not do it now, and get it off your back."

And that's just where it is! On your back dragging you down. Putting

things off makes everything harder to do. If you keep putting things off,

you'll soon have several things piling up, and then the sheer number of

tasks you have backed up will make it seem impossible to ever get caught

up. This affects everything you do try to do.

Sometimes you don't even realize you are putting things off. You may keep

yourself extremely busy doing things of little importance to unconsciously

give yourself excuses for doing the things you really should be doing. You

say to yourself, "Look how busy I am. I just can't get everything done."

But the result is the same as when you know you are procrastinating. It

soon bogs you down. All you are doing is "running in place."

So how do you beat procrastination?

The first step in beating procrastination is to admit to yourself how often

you do it and assessing your methods of doing it. Not very difficult,

really, when you become aware of the tactics some of us use to hide from

ourselves what we are doing.

The key in overcoming procrastination and becoming more efficient is

organization. Plan ahead. Know what you want to accomplish today, this

week, and in the long haul.

Make lists. The lists for today will probably be more detailed than the

longer-term lists. That's OK. Now look over the lists and rank the tasks

in order of importance. Make three or four groupings based on importance.

Within each group, star the things you least like to do.

Each day you will have a "today" list to work on. Tackle the tasks that

are most important first. If you have several "most important" tasks on

your list, take on the least liked things in that grouping before you do

the better liked ones. When you have accomplished a task, check it off.

You'll be surprised what a good feeling you have when you check things off.

What a sense of accomplishment! It's an incentive to do the next task on

the list. When you have completed the tasks in the first grouping, begin

on the list of next importance. Again do the starred items in that group

first. Keep on checking things off as you get them done.

Do you see what is happening? You get the most pressing, least liked tasks

out of the way early in the day when you are fresh and rested. As the day

goes on you will feel less and less pressure. You have reserved the less

important tasks for the end of the day when you will be more tired.

With this system you will have not only increased your efficiency but also

reduced some of the stress in your day. Stress can get in the way of

efficiency. Your new efficiency will help you develop your potential. It

is, in fact, a part of living up to your potential.

Another important part of efficiency is in delegating work. If you are in

a position where you have assistants or designated people under your

supervision, you need to learn to delegate. If you are not in such a

position yet, you still need to know - since you're working on developing

your potential you very likely will be some day.

Delegating work is difficult for many people. Some find it hard to ask

others to do things for them - others find it hard not to demand that

others do tasks. Delegating is an art.

First, you need to realize that the people under your supervision are

PEOPLE. Seldom, if ever, should you demand - that takes away self respect.

In order to achieve a happy and co-operative crew, you need to help them

build self-respect and self-confidence. A happy and co-operative crew is

an asset to you. Demands do not promote self-respect and co-operation.

Oh, it's probably effective to demand in the short run - but in the long

run you will be better off to gain co-operation without demanding.

People who are asked to do a task, are given explanations and clear

instructions, and are praised for a job well done will grow in

self-respect. They will also respect you as a good supervisor. If you

hesitate to ask for their assistance, your crew will feel that you do not

trust them or have faith in their abilities. This affects their

self-respect and, as a reaction, will affect their respect for you, as

well.

When you delegate work, don't delegate just the "junk" tasks. Your crew

needs to be given some important tasks to do as well as unimportant ones.

The important task gives them a sense of the respect you have for them and

the faith you have in their abilities. It's a good idea to save some

"junk" tasks for yourself. Perhaps the most respected and effective boss

is the one about whom the crew says, "She never gives us anything to do

that she wouldn't do herself." Why? Because, by her actions the boss is

saying that, though her position is above theirs, she is still just "plain

people."

Delegation of tasks is important because you can gain in effectiveness and

get more done if you properly supervise a crew. Don't feel embarrassed or

hesitant about delegating work. If it helps you to shine, it helps your

crew shine, too. A well-run, effective department is a credit to the whole

team. With proper delegating, you can help your crew achieve their

potential as well as achieving your own.

All of us have untapped potential - perhaps even areas of genius - that we

have neglected to develop. Whether your concept of success has to do with

business, love, friendship, sports, a combination of these or something

else, more fully developing your potential will help you achieve your

goals. If you can learn to assess your potential, set realistic goals,

and go after those goals with determination, organization, and purpose, you

will use your potential more fully, gain confidence, and be a happier and

more successful person.

How To Live Up to Your Greatest Potential is a post from: Work From Home

Some companies decide to send customers a free newsletter to get an email list. But there are other ways to collect email addresses. Sometimes having a newsletter just doesn’t make any sense for your company. For instance, if you happen to sell dishwashers, how much information could you send your customer, daily, on dishwashers. So, instead here are a few other options for increasing your email list.

You could run a contest. The puzzle, game or task should be easy and straightforward so that you don’t frustrate the customer and you still get their email address in the end.

A great incentive to collect email addresses would be a free eBook. People love getting free stuff, especially eBooks that interest them. Remember, it doesn’t have to be 100 pages long; five to ten pages will work fine.

Surveying the customer is a great way to collect email addresses. You can find out what the customer likes/dislikes, and what they have problems with or need solutions for.

Advertise your opt-in offer in an e-zine or classified ad. It actually doesn’t cost tons of money and if you find the right place to advertise, you could see dramatic results.

Email signatures, or electronic signatures, also referred to as a, sig file is a three to six line footer that you can add to the bottom of each email message you send out with your name, company and a free report with a link attached. You will be surprised how many visitors you get this way. Make sure you track where you are getting your traffic by the different links you send out.

If a customer is interested in downloading an article from your web site, they will definitely have no problem providing their name and email address. They will love to receive more articles from you or have access to a members only area of your site with plenty of resources.

Offer your customers a free course or a free download to collect email addresses. They will love to get something for free. Customers who opt-in when something free is being offered think to themselves what have I got to lose. It a great deal for both of you.

How to Build your Opt-In List is a post from: Work From Home

The most important aspect of any business is selling the product or service. Without sales, no business can exist for very long.

All sales begin with some form of advertising. To build sales, this advertising must be seen or heard by potential buyers, and cause them to react to the advertising in some way. The credit for the success, or the blame for the failure of almost all ads, reverts back to the ad itself.

Generally, the "ad writer" wants the prospect to do one of the following:

a) Visit the store to see and judge the product for himself, or immediately write a check and send for the merchandise being advertised.

b) Phone for an appointment to hear the full sales presentation, or write for further information which amounts to the same thing.

The bottom line in any ad is quite simple: To make the reader buy the product or service. Any ad that causes the reader to only pause in this thinking, to just admire the product, or to simply believe what's written about the product - is not doing its job completely.

The "ad writer" must know exactly what he wants his reader to do, and any that does not elicit the desired action is an absolute waste of time and money.

In order to elicit the desired action from the prospect, all ads are written according to a simple "master formula" which is:

1) Attract the "attention" of your prospect.

2) "Interest" your prospect in the product

3) Cause your prospect to "desire" the product

4) Demand "action" from the prospect

Never forget the basic rule of advertising copywriting: If the ad is not read, it won't stimulate any sale; if it is not seen, it cannot be read; and if it does not command or grab the attention of the reader, it will not be seen!

Most successful advertising copywriters know these fundamentals backwards and forwards. Whether you know them already or you're just now being exposed to them, your knowledge and practice of these fundamentals will determine the extent of your success as an advertising copywriter.

CLASSIFIED ADS

Classified ads are the ads from which all successful businesses are started. These small, relatively inexpensive ads, give the beginner an opportunity to advertise his product or service without losing his shirt if the ad doesn't pull or the people don't break his door down with demands for his product. Classified ads are written according to all the advertising rules. What is said in a classified ad is the same that's said in a larger, more elaborate type of ad, except in condensed form.

To start learning how to write good classified ads, clip ten classified ads form ten different mail order type publications - ads that you think are pretty good. Paste each of these ads onto a separate sheet of paper.

Analyze each of these ads: How has the writer attracted your attention - what about the ads keeps your interest - are you stimulated to want to know more about the product being advertised - and finally, what action must you take? Are all of these points covered in the ad? How strongly are you "turned on" by each of these ads?

Rate these ads on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the best according to the formula I've given you. Now, just for practice, without clipping the ads, do the same thing with ten different ads from a Wards or Penney's catalog. In fact, every ad you see form now on, quickly analyze it, and rate it somewhere on your scale. If you'll practice this exercise on a regular basis, you'll soon be able to quickly recognize the "Power Points" of any ad you see, and know within your own mind whether an ad is good, bad or otherwise, and what makes it so.

Practice for an hour each day, write the ads you've rated 8, 9 and 10 exactly as they've been written. This will give you the "feel" of the fundamentals and style necessary in writing classified ads.

Your next project will be to pick out what you consider to be the ten "worst" ads you can find in the classifieds sections. Clip these out and paste them onto a sheet of paper so you can work on them.

Read these ads over a couple of times, and then beside each of them, write a short comment stating why you think it's bad: Lost in the crowd, doesn't attract attention - doesn't hold the reader's interest - nothing special to make the reader want to own the product - no demand for action.

You probably already know what's coming next, and that's right. Break out those pencils, erasers and scratch paper - and start rewriting these ads to include the missing elements.

Each day for the next month, practice writing the ten best ads for an hour, just the way they were originally written. Pick out ten of the worst ads, analyze those ads, and then practice rewriting those until they measure up to doing the job they were intended to do.

Once you're satisfied that the ads you've rewritten are perfect, go back into each ad and cross out the words that can be eliminated without detracting from the ad. Classified ads are almost always "finalized" in the style of a telegram.

EXAMPLE: I'll arrive at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon,

the 15th. Meet me at Sardi's. All my love, Jim.

EDITED FOR SENDING: Arrive 2pm - 15th - Sardi's.

Love, Jim.

CLASSIFIED AD: Save on your food bills! Reduced

prices on every shelf in the store! Stock up now while

supplies are complete! Come on in today, to Jerry's

Family Supermarkets!

EDITED FOR PUBLICATION: Save on Food!

Everything bargain priced! Limited Supplies! Hurry!

Jerry's Markets!

It takes dedicated and regular practice, but you can do it. Simply recognize and understand the basic formula - practice reading and writing the good ones - and rewriting the bad ones to make them better. Practice, and keep at it, over and over, every day - until the formula, the idea, and the feel of this kind of ad writing becomes second nature to you. This is the ONLY WAY to gain expertise in writing good classified ads.

DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENTS

A display or space ad differs from a classified ad because it has a headline, layout, and because the style isn't telegraphic. However, the fundamentals of writing the display or space ad are exactly the same as for a classified ad. The basic difference is that you have more room in which to emphasize the "master formula."

Most successful copywriters rate the headline and/or the lead sentence of an ad as the most important part of the ad, and in reality, you should do the same. After all, when you ad is surrounded by hundreds of other ads, and information or entertainment, what makes you think anyone is going to see your particular ad?

The truth is, they're not going to see your ad unless you can "grab" their attention and entice them to read all of what you have to say. Your headline, or lead sentence when no headline is used, has to make it more difficult for your prospect to ignore or pass over, than to stop and read your ad. If you don't capture the attention of your reader with your headline, anything beyond is useless effort and wasted money.

Successful advertising headlines - in classified ads, your first three to five words serve as your headline - are written as promises, either implied or direct. The former promises to show you how to save money, make money, or attain a desired goal. The latter is a warning against something undesirable.

EXAMPLE OF A PROMISE: Are You Ready To Become A Millionaire - In Just 18 Months?

EXAMPLE OF A WARNING: Do You Make These Mistakes In English?

In both of these examples, I've posed a question as the headline. Headlines that ask a question seem to attract the reader's attention almost as surely as a moth is drawn to a flame. Once he's seen the question, he just can't seem to keep himself from reading the rest of the ad to find out the answer. The best headline questions are those that challenge the reader; that involve his self esteem, and do not allow him to dismiss your question with a simple yes or no.

You'll be the envy of your friends is another kind of "reader appeal" to incorporate into your headline whenever appropriate. The appeal has to do with basic psychology: everyone wants to be well thought of, and consequently, will read into the body of your ad to find out how he can gain the respect and accolades of his friends.

Wherever and whenever possible, use colloquialisms or words that are not usually found in advertisements. The idea is to shock or shake the reader out of his reverie and cause him to take notice of your ad. Most of the headlines you see day in and day out, have a certain sameness with just the words rearranged. The reader may see these headlines with his eyes, but his brain fails to focus on any of them because there's nothing different or out of the ordinary to arrest his attention.

EXAMPLE OF COLLOQUIALISM: Are You Developing a POT BELLY?

Another attention-grabber kind of headline is the comparative priced magazine headline: Three For Only $3, Regularly $3 Each! Still another of the "tried and proven" kind of headlines is the specific question: Do You Suffer From These Symptoms. And of course, if you offer a strong guarantee, you should say so in your headline: Your Money Refunded, If You Don't Make $100,00 Your First Year.

How To headlines have a very strong basic appeal, but in some instances, they're better used as book titles than advertising headlines. Who Else wants in on the finer things - which your product or service presumably offers - is another approach with a very strong reader appeal. The psychology here being the need of everyone to belong to a group - complete with status and prestige motivations.

Whenever, and as often as you can possible work it in, you should use the word "you" in your headline, and throughout your copy. After all, your ad should be directed to "one" person, and the person reading your ad wants to feel that you're talking to him personally, not everyone who lives on his street.

Personalize, and be specific! You can throw the teachings of your English teachers out the window, and the rules of "third person, singular" or whatever else tends to inhibit your writing. Whenever you sit down to write advertising copy intended to pull the orders - sell the product - you should picture yourself in a one-on-one situation and "talk" to your reader just as if you were sitting across from him at your dining room table. Say what you mean, and sell HIM on the product your offering. Be specific and ask him if these are the things that bother him - are these the things he wants - and he's the one you want to buy the product...

The layout you devise for your ad, or the frame you build around it, should also command attention. Either make it so spectacular that it stands out like lobster at a chili dinner, or so uncommonly simple that it catches the reader's eye because of its very simplicity. It's also important that you don't get cute with a lot of unrelated graphics and artwork. Your ad should convey the feeling of excitement and movement, but should not tire the eyes or disrupt the flow of the message you are trying to present.

Any graphics or artwork you use should be relevant to your product, it's use and/or the copy you have written about it. Graphics should not be used as artistic touches, or to create an atmosphere. Any illustrations with your ad should compliment the selling of your product, and prove or substantiate specific points in your copy.

Once you have your reader's attention, the only way you are going to keep it, is by quickly and emphatically telling him what your product will do for him.

Your potential buyer doesn't care in the least how long it's taken you to produce the product, how lone you have been in business, nor how many years you've spend learning your craft. He wants to know specifically how he is going to benefit form the purchase of your product.

Generally, his wants will fall into one of the following categories: Better health, more comfort, more money, more leisure time, more popularity, greater beauty, success and/or security.

Even though you have your reader's attention, you must follow through with an enumeration of the benefits you can gain. In essence, you must reiterate the advantages, comfort and happiness he'll enjoy - as you have implied in your headline.

Mentally picture your prospect - determine his wants and emotional needs - put yourself in his shoes, and ask yourself: If I were reading this ad, what are the things that would appeal to me? Write your copy to appeal to your reader's wants and emotional needs/ego cravings.

Remember, it's not the "safety features" that have sold cars for the past 50 years - nor has it been the need of transportation - it has been, and almost certainly always will be the advertising writer's recognition of people's wants and emotional needs/ego cravings. Visualize your prospect, recognize his wants and satisfy them. Writing good advertising copy is nothing more or less than knowing "who" your buyers are; recognizing what he wants; and then telling him how your product will fulfill each of those wants. Remember this because it's one of the "vitally important" keys to writing advertising copy that does the job you intend for it to do.

The "desire" portion of your ad is where you present the facts of your product; create and justify your prospect's conviction, and cause him to demand "a piece of the action" for himself.

It's vitally necessary that you present "proven facts" about your product because survey results show that at least 80% of the people reading your ad - especially those reading it for the first time - will tend to question its authenticity.

So, the more facts you can present in the ad, the more credible your offer. As you write this part of your ad, always remember that the more facts about the product you present, the more product you'll sell. People want facts as reasons, and/or excuses for buying a product - to justify to themselves and others, that they have not been "taken" by a slick copywriter.

It's like the girl who wants to marry the guy her father calls a "no good bum." Her heart - her emotions - tell her yes, but she needs to nullify the seed of doubt lingering in her mind - to rationalize her decision to go on with the wedding.

In other words, the "desire" portion of your ad has to build belief and credibility in the mind of your prospect. It has to assure him of his good judgment in the final decision to buy - furnish evidence of the benefits you have promised - and afford him a "safety net" in case anyone should question his decision to buy.

People tend to believe the things that appeal to their individual desires, fears and other emotions. Once you have established a belief in this manner, logic and reasoning are used to support it. People believe what they "want" to believe. Your reader "wants" to believe your ad if he has read it through this far - it is up to you to support his initial desire.

Study your product and everything about it - visualize the wants of your prospective buyers - dig up the facts, and you'll almost always find plenty of facts to support the buyer's reasons for buying.

Here is where you use results of tests conducted, growing sales figures to prove increasing popularity, and "user" testimonials or endorsements. It's also important that you present these facts - test results, sales view, and not that of the manufacturer.

Before you end this portion of your ad and get into your demand for action, summarize everything you've presented thus far. Draw a mental picture for your potential buyer. Let him imagine owning the product. Induce him to visualize all of the benefits you have promised. Give him the keys to seeing himself richer, enjoying luxury, having time to do whatever he would like to do, and with all of his dreams fulfilled.

This can be handled in one or two sentences, or spelled out in a paragraph or more, but it is the absolute ingredient you must include prior to closing the sale. Study all the sales presentations you have ever heard - look at every winning ad - this is the element included in all of them that actually makes the sale for you. Remember it, use it, and don't try to sell anything without it.

As Victor Schwab puts is so succinctly in his best selling book, How To Write A Good Advertisement: Every one of the fundamentals in the "master formula" is necessary. Those sitting across from him at your dining people who are "easy" to sell may perhaps be sold even if some of these factors are left out, but it's wiser to plan your advertisement so that it will have a powerful impact upon those who are "hardest" to sell. For, unlike fact-to-face selling, we cannot in printed advertising come to a "trial close" in our sales talk - in order to see if those who are easier to sell will welcome the dotted line without further persuasion. We must assume that we are talking to the hardest ones - and that the more thoroughly our copy sells both the hard and the easy, the better chance we have against the competition for the consumer's dollar - and also the less dependent we will be upon the usual completely ineffective follow through on our advertising effort which later takes place at the sales counter itself.

ASK FOR ACTION! DEMAND THE MONEY!

Lots of ads are beautiful, almost perfectly written, and quite convincing - yet they fail to ask for or demand action form the reader. If you want the reader to have your product, then tell him so and demand that he send his money now. Unless you enjoy entertaining your prospects with your beautiful writing skills, always demand that he complete the sale now, by taking action now - by calling a telephone number and ordering, or by writing his check and rushing it to the post office.

Once you have got him on the hook, land him! Don't let him get away!

Probably, one of the most common and best methods of moving the reader to act now, is written in some form of the following:

All of this can be yours! You can start enjoying this new way of life immediately, simply by sending a check for $XX! Don't put it off, then later wish you had gotten in on the ground floor! Make out that check now, and "be IN on the ground floor!" Act now, and as an "early-bird" buyer, we'll include a big bonus package - absolutely free, simply for acting immediately! You win all the way! We take all the risk! If you are not satisfied, simply return the product and we will quickly refund your money! Do it now! Get that check on its way to us today, and receive the big bonus package! After next week, we won't be able to include the bonus as a part of this fantastic deal, so act now! The sooner you act, you more you win!

Offering a reward of some kind will almost always stimulate the prospect to take action. However, in mentioning the reward or bonus, be very careful that you don't end up receiving primarily, requests for the bonus with mountains of requests for refunds on the product to follow. The bonus should be mentioned only casually if you are asking for product orders; and with lots of fanfare only when you are seeking inquiries.

Too often the copywriter, in his enthusiasm to pull in a record number of responses, confuses the reader by "forgetting about the product," and devoting his entire space allotted for the "demand for action" to sending for the bonus. Any reward offered should be closely related to the product, and a bonus offered only for immediate action on the part of the potential buyer.

Specify a time limit. Tell your prospect that he must act within a certain time limit or lose out on the bonus, face probably higher prices, or even the withdrawal of your offer. This is always a good hook to get action.

Any kind of guarantee you offer always helps you produce action from the prospect. And the more liberal you can make your guarantee, the more product orders you will receive. Be sure you state the guarantee clearly and simply. Make it so easy to understand that even a child would not misinterpret what you are saying.

The action you want your prospect to take should be easy - clearly stated - and devoid of any complicated procedural steps on his part, or numerous directions for him to follow.

Picture your prospect, very comfortable in his favorite easy chair, idly flipping through a magazine while "half-watching" TV. He notices your ad, reads through it, and he is sold on your product. Now what does he do?

Remember, he's very comfortable - you have "grabbed" his attention, sparked his interest, painted a picture of him enjoying a new kind of satisfaction, and he is ready to buy...

Anything and everything you ask or cause him to do is going to disrupt this aura of comfort and contentment. Whatever he must do had better be simple, quick and easy!

Tell him without any ifs, ands or buts, what to do - fill out the coupon, include your check for the full amount, and send it in to us today! Make it as easy for him as you possibly can - simply and dirert. And by all means, make sure your address is on the order form he is supposed to complete and mail in to you - your name and address on the order form, as well as just above it. People sometimes fill out a coupon, tear it off, seal it in an envelope and don't know where to send it. The easier you make it for him to respond, the more responses you'll get!

There you have it, a complete short course on how to write ads that will pull more orders for you - sell more of your product for you. It's important to learn "why" ads are written as they are - to understand and use, the "master formula" in your own ad writing endeavors.

By conscientiously studying good advertising copy, and practice in writing ads of your own, now that you have the knowledge and understand what makes advertising copy work, you should be able to quickly develop your copywriting abilities to produce order-pulling ads for your own products. Even so, and once you do become proficient in writing ads for your own products, you must never stop "noticing" how ads are written, designed and put together by other people. To stop learning would be comparable to shutting off from the rest of the world.

The best ad writers are people in touch with the world in which they live. Everytime they see a good ad, they clip it out and save it. Regularly, they pull what makes them good, and why they work. There's no school in the country that can give you the same kind of education and expertise so necessary in the field of ad writing. You must keep yourself up-to-date, aware of, and in-the-know about the other guy - his innovations, style, changes, and the methods he is using to sell his products. On-the-job training - study and practice - that's what it takes - and if you have got that burning ambition to succeed, you can do it too!

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

1. WHAT'S THE MOST PROFITABLE WAY TO USE CLASSIFIEDS...

Classifieds are best used to build your mailing list of qualified prospects. Use classified to offer a free catalog, booklet or report relative to your product line.

2. WHAT CAN YOU SELL "DIRECTLY" FROM CLASSIFIEDS...

Generally, anything and everything, so long as it doesn't cost more than five dollars which is about the most people will pay in response to an offer in the classifieds. These types of ads are great for pulling inquiries such as: Write for further information; Send $3, get two for the price of one; Dealers wanted, send for product info and a real money-maker's kit!

3. WHAT ARE THE BEST MONTHS OF THE YEAR TO ADVERTISE...

All twelve months of the year! Responses to your ads during some months will be slower in accumulating, but by keying your ads according to the month they appear, and a careful tabulation of your returns from each keyed ad, you will see that steady year round advertising will continue to pull orders for you, regardless of the month it's published. I've personally received inquiries and orders from ads placed as long as 2 years previous to the date of the response!

4. ARE MAIL ORDER PUBLICATIONS GOOD ADVERTISING BUYS...

The lease effective are the ad sheets. Most of the ads in these publications are "exchange ads," meaning that the publisher of ad sheet "A" runs the ads of publisher "B" without charge, because publisher "B" is running the ads of publisher "A" without charge. The "claimed" circulation figures of these publications are almost always based on "wishes, hopes and wants" while the "true" circulation goes out to similar small, part-time mail order dealers. Very poor medium for investing advertising dollars because everybody receiving a copy is a "seller" and nobody is buying. When an ad sheet is received by someone not involved in mail order, it is usually given a cursory glance and then discarded as "junk mail."

Tabloid newspapers are slightly better than the ad sheets, but not by much! The important difference with the tabloids is in the "helpful information" articles they try to carry for the mail order beginner. A "fair media" for recruiting dealers or independent sales reps for mail order products, and for renting mailing lists, but still circulated amongst "sellers" with very few buyers. Besides that, the life of a mail order tab sheet is about the same as that of your daily newspaper.

With mail order magazines, it depends on the quality of the publication and its business concepts. Some mail order magazines are nothing more than expanded ad sheets, while others - such as BOOK BUSINESS MART - strive to help the opportunity seekers with on-going advice and tips he can use in the development and growth of his own wealth-building projects. Book Business Mart is not just the fastest growing publication in the mail order scene today; it's also the first publication in more than 20 years to offer real help anyone can use in achieving his own version of "The American Dream" of building one's own business form a "shoestring beginning" into a multi-million dollar empire!

5. HOW CAN I DECIDE WHERE TO ADVERTISE MY PRODUCT...

First of all, you have to determine who your prospective buyers are. Then you do a little bit of market research. Talk to your friends, neighbors and people at random who might fit this profile. Ask them if they would be interested in a product such as yours, and then ask them which publications they read. Next, go to your public library for a listing of the publications of this type from the Standard Rate & Data Service catalogs.

Make a list of the addresses, circulation figures, reader demographics and advertising rates. To determine the true costs of your advertising and decide which is the better buy, divide the total audited circulation figure into the cost for a one inch ad: $10 per inch with a publication showing 10,000 circulation would be 10,000 into $10 or 10¢ per thousand. Looking at the advertising rates for Book Business Mart, you would take 42,500 into $15 for an advertising rate of less that THREE TENTHS OF ONE CENT PER THOUSAND. Obviously, your best buy in this case would be Book Business Mart because of the lower cost per thousand.

Write and ask for sample copies of the magazines you have tentatively chosen to place your advertising in. Look over their advertising - be sure that they don't or won't put your ad in the "gutter" which is the inside column next to the binding. How many other mail order type ads are they carrying - you want to go with a publication that's busy, not one that has only a few ads. The more ads in the publication, the better the response the advertisers are getting, or else they wouldn't be investing their money in that publication.

To "properly" test your ad, you should let it run through at least three consecutive issues of any publication. If your responses are small, try a different publication. Then, if your responses are still small, look at your ad and think about rewriting it for greater appeal, and pulling power. In a great many instances, it's the ad and not the publication's pulling power that's at fault!

WRITE ATTENTION GETTING ADVERTISEMENTS is a post from: Work From Home

Strange as it may seem, our life is made up of a series of “sales presentations”. Sales may not be your gig, but if you’re the boss you’re making presentations everyday. Be it a pitch to your Board, announcing a policy change to employees, selling an idea to your spouse, or just trying to win others over to your point of view – you need to punch up your people skills for winning pitches.

Human nature is such that people support solutions that they help create, so involve them by allowing your audience to participate with questions or ideas. It goes without saying that to not involve key people is risky, because messages can be misunderstood. Your plans may be derailed before they begin if sufficient “buy-in” is lacking. Use lots of open-ended questions in your presentation to draw out the silent type.

Preparation is a key to success. Prepare your listeners to what’s coming during or before your presentation. Try these pre-meeting tactics:

• Assign task-related pre-work. This could be pre-reading or study of a problem, and the preparations of possible solutions. An example could be, “go and visit three kinds of accounts before the meeting.”

• Make pre-meeting contacts with those invited by email, phone, or in person. You might want to try an informal survey to get people’s position on the issues at hand.

Remember support on key or controversial matters can be established ahead of time by lobbying, if you know where to lobby.

Do your research! People who make it look easy and are effective presenters have a hidden arsenal. This is an arsenal of up-to-date, organized material that can be accessed quickly in ready-to-use form when needed. They have the stats to back up their ideas, and they have a mental arsenal of stories, examples, jokes, and ice-breakers to use when needed.

Your physical presentation could include tangible items relating to the issue such as recent articles clipped from newspapers or magazines, photographs, reports, and demonstration property. To become masterful in this art learn to maintain resources you can access for just the right thing at the right time.

The next thing you must do is to explain “why?” The single most powerful thing you can do to convince your audience of something is to provide a convincing reason why they should do what you suggest or believe what you say. People want and need a clear “WIIFM” – “what’s in it for me?” – to be able to react positively to what you want them to do. It’s extremely important that you deliver a vision of benefits. Hearing the “why” won’t automatically generate a “yes” to your proposition, but it’ll open the door for receptivity to your idea.

Knowing and accepting the “why” satisfies a basic need that we all have – to understand the purpose of our actions. Use the words “because” or “so that” in your presentation and then finish the phrase. When your subject matter is controversial or likely to generate emotions, it is essential that your “why’s” be tested in advance. Ask some people you trust or that are on your “team” to play devil’s advocate to help you with your logic and arguments.

These are just the first four points for making successful presentations. There are eight of them in total, and we’ll look at the other four in my column next week. For now, let me leave you with this thought.

Life is a sales job from beginning to end. From the moment that we discern how to get approval as children, winning friends at school, getting our first beau, getting our first (and subsequent) job, getting engaged and married, achieving our goals, and anything else you can think of in between – we’re selling ourselves or our ideas all along the way. Who said you weren’t a salesperson?

You’re A Salesperson in Your Life! is a post from: Work From Home

An average mailing by a small, one person mail order company is

generally about a thousand pieces, and many such operators

rarely mail more than a hundred pieces per week. If you know

your conversion statistics, you know that the order return on

mailings is about 1% to 2% when using a rented list of names, up

to 5% or more when mailing to your own customer list.

Using those figures, the response rate would be about 2 orders

from a mailing of 100 when using a cold list, and about 5 to 10

orders when mailing to your own customer list for each 100

pieces mailed.

Contrast this to a major catalog mailing house such as Miles

Kimball, Hanover House, Lillian Vernon, Johnson-Smith or L.L.

Bean, each of whom might consider a mailing of six million

pieces a month or every few months.

Keep in mind that these are catalog merchandisers - mass

mailers, not manufacturers. Not publishers. Mailers!

They BUY what they sell from somebody. It could be from you!

WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING FOR?

Catalog houses are owned and operated by extremely sharp people

and they are highly selective in the products they choose for

inclusion in their catalogs, so to even be considered, your

product must pass some pretty rigid tests:

1. Since some catalog companies specialize in a certain type of

merchandise, they will choose only what they think their

customers will buy.

2. Virtually all of them will want to test-market a product

(possibly only a hundred or so) before making a complete catalog

mailing. If the test shows promise, they will purchase a large

quantity (1,000 to 5,000 or more) for their roll-out mailings...

and continue to purchase such quantities as long as the product

continues to sell.

3. Catalog mailers want to deal as close to the original source

as possible, such as inventor, the patent owner, copyright

holder, manufacturer or publisher. The reason for this is simply

that these are people who can offer them the largest discount on

quantity purchases. If you are merely one of many dealers who

had to purchase the product from a wholesaler who purchased from

a distributor, who purchased the product from the manufacturer,

you would not be in a position to offer the lowest price to the

catalog company.

4. The item in question should be new and unique, not something

that's been around for years. Naturally, it should be a good

mail order item.

HOW YOU CAN QUALIFY FOR ACCEPTANCE

First and foremost, you must look and act the part of an

established, professionally operated business. This means you

must have printed stationery with a company name that coincides

with the products you are offering, and all correspondence must

be typewritten.

If that seems trite and elementary, you would be surprised to

see how many companies receive scribbled hand written notes on

ruled paper with wording such as "I would like you to include my

product in your catalog." Sorry, it just doesn't work like that.

Even if you are not the actual inventor or manufacturer of the

product you are selling, you can qualify to have it included in

a large mailers' catalog where everyone can profit from it.

Imports are very popular catalog sellers, for instance, so if

you locate a new item from overseas, you can arrange to become

the U.S. distributor. Yes, it means a sizable investment for

stocking inventory, but if you have faith in what you plan to

sell, it should be worth investing in.

Before offering it to any catalog mailer, however, it would be

in your best interest to test-market the item yourself. You

certainly don't want to offer a "loser" to a major catalog

mailer. You'll want to be sure this is something that will sell,

so everybody is happy with the deal. Perhaps even more

importantly, it will bond your relationship with the catalog

companies and they will be eager to do business with you the

next time you come up with a new product.

PRICING YOUR PRODUCT

This is crucial. A price that's too high means it will not be

accepted; priced too low and you will not make a profit - no

matter how many are sold.

Keep in mind that some catalog mailers specialize in low priced

($10 or less) items, while others have geared their sales to the

higher bracket of $50 or more. When making a list of catalog

houses to approach, check their catalogs for prices of their

current merchandise.

There are three basic levels of retail prices:

1. The pre-established price by owner or manufacturer

2. Actual dollar value based on production costs

3. Perceived value by prospective buyers

If you are not the primary source for your product, the

manufacturer may have already set the retail price along with

distributor and wholesale discounts, so you will have to work

those figures in any deals made with catalog companies.

Assuming you have pricing control (granted by the original

source, or you are the originator) you can set the retail price

according to the production costs which can be a 5-to-1 or 10-1

ratio. If the item costs $1 to make, you can set a retail price

of $5 or $10 on it, depending on what you think it is worth to

the consumer.

SIMPLIFY YOUR PRICE STRUCTURE TO COMPANIES

The most common price structures are usually set in various

quantities like dozen or gross; or, 100, 500, 1,000, etc. Don't

use these price structures when trying to interest catalog

companies in your product. Right from the start, give them your

rock bottom lowest possible price.

For examples, if your usual prices are:

100 @ $4.50; 500 @ $3.75; 1000 @ $2.75 and 5,000 @ $1.95

give them your 5,000 quantity price no matter how many they

order for their original test. Even if they only want 100 for

testing, give them your $1.95 price - but be sure to tell them

this is your lowest price that is for regular 5,000 quantity

purchases, so they know they're getting the good deal.

TIME TO CREATE YOUR PROMOTIONAL PACKAGE

Company buyers are busy people, so you'll want to make your

presentation quickly, clearly, and distinctly, eliminating all

fluff and extraneous material or wording that might tend to bog

things down.

Here's what you'll need:

Descriptive folder or flyer about the product (Information sheet)

Glossy photo of the product

Possible advertising copy (although they will probably re-write

it)

Terms of your sale, including freight charges

Brief cover letter

(Optional) Sample of your product IF it is small, light weight,

inexpensive, and if you think it will impress the company.

Send this mailing package via First Class Mail!

How many of these promotional packages should you mail? Only you

can answer that question, but here's a tip: Don't expect only 10

or 12 to produce much response for your product. It might

require 50 to 100 or even 500 such mailings before you begin to

see worthwhile results. Of course, a lot depends on the product

itself and whether it is for the general public or restricted to

a more selective audience.

Whenever possible, try to determine what type of merchandise

each catalog house offers before sending them your offer. If

they cater only to men and your product will be used primarily

by women, why waste time and money? The same would apply to a

low priced item such as $5 offered to a catalog house whose

clientele happened to be sophisticated or wealthy people

accustomed to buying merchandise in the hundreds of dollars.

Match your product with the catalog company's line as closely as

possible.

HANDLING THE BUSINESS

If your product is a good one and if you have made a good

impression in your promotional materials, sooner or later you

will get an order for a trial quantity.

Fill the order promptly. Use sturdy boxes and have your own

shipping label (printed with your company name & address) on

each carton, typing the catalog company's name and address with

the customer's shipping number above the name.

SELLING ON CREDIT

Unlike the conventional mail order business, selling to catalog

houses is not a cash-with-order type of operation. It's

conducted on credit, so you'll need invoices to send to your

customer after shipment has been made. There are a few

variations of credit terms, but the best for you will be

"Payment due EOM or 2% discount within 10 days. "EOM" means end

of the month following the date of shipment.

Use your best judgment whether you will ship prepaid or bill

your customer for the shipping charges.

HERE'S A FINAL TIP

If you can get some free publicity for your product along the

way, it can help you reach catalog houses in addition to

bringing you additional sales.

Check magazines that are read by the type of people who will use

your product and look for departments such as "New Products."

Many magazines carry such a department under different titles.

Send a publicity package to the editors which will include the

glossy photo of your product, News Release that tells who will

be interested in the product and why, and a brief cover letter.

If you get a few magazines to accept your offer, they will give

you a mention in their New Products department. This will in

turn bring you a few or a few hundred orders, depending on the

circulation of the magazines and how much demand there might be

for your product.

More importantly, it can link you up with some catalog houses.

They often scan magazines looking for new products to be

featured in their catalogs. Thus, instead of you contacting

them... they will contact you.

The end result is that it can bring you many retail orders as

well as attract a few catalog house buyers who will ultimately

sell your product in their catalogs.

If each catalog house mails 10 million catalogs a year, and your

product is featured inside, I shouldn't have to tell you how

many products can be sold this way. Better stock up now!

GET YOUR PRODUCT LISTED AND SOLD THROUGH is a post from: Work From Home

Maximizing profits involves cost-cutting methods of selling

your products. We are assuming for this article that you, like

most marketers are specializing in information and publications

marketing.

The best way to increase sales cheaply and effectively is to

offer more items at any given time, and here's how to do it. By

all means examine every commission circular you see for

possibilities. It might be worth carrying. Camera-ready

circulars are available for most of the publications you see in

your mailbox, and all you need are a group of them on file that

can be reprinted as needed.

In all cases, we repeat, DO NOT rubber-stamp your commission

circulars. Insert your name and address with dry type such as

Pres-Type, Geotype or Letraset. A professional appearance is a

must.

If you've been in business for a while, you already know what

your bestsellers are and how to test new items. If you have

reports collections and other good items that are not such hot

sellers, keep your leftover circulars and include them WITH

PRODUCT when you fill an order from your home. Include as many

as you can up to the postal limit that applies to the product,

and you're basically sending it free of charge.

As you have probably seen by now, we advise all our customers to

shop wisely but to continue learning about the business, and if

you have a slow-moving product which is nevertheless is an

excellent item for a small order dealer to own, this is an ideal

way to move it.

It's an excellent idea to include a freebie when doing a direct

mail. This works especially well if you're handling a lot of

popular items. Chances are a good many of your packets will go

to people who try to get on a number of lists to keep abreast of

the latest offers, and since so many of them are so vague,

they'll be much more responsive to someone who can give them an

idea of what they'll be receiving.

If you currently handle chain letters and report collections of

dubious value, it might be cheaper to drop them altogether than

to continue to include them, even if they do make you a small

profit. First time buyers are truly shocked when they see some

of the terrible scams going around in mail order, and you'll

lose them forever if you turn them off, which is never your

intent.

You can make this absolutely painless. You might like to try

putting your best reports on the backs of your best circulars,

maximizing the value of each sheet of paper. If you're not

doing it now, you had better try doubling up your circulars at

the very least.

One of the best follow-up offers you can give your non-dealer

customers, and you can tell which if your customers is a dealer

and which is not by the kinds of items they order, is a quality

book catalog. Melvin Powers, DAX and others offer excellent

dealerships in unusual books, and they pull extremely well on

follow-ups.

The catalogs themselves are usually fairly heavy and not

cost-effective without a quality mailing list (a rare bird

indeed) or unless you can get cash up-front for printing and

mailing. You'll probably wind up buying some of these books

yourself! If you're marketing fairly common items. you've got

to have an advantage, something that makes your offer look

better than comparable offers for the same items.

Unquestionably, the best advantage is a lower price. Free

bonuses and rebates won't cut quite as well. The reason is

simple enough. The customer might be sold on an item to begin

with, but he may be waiting for a better deal to come along. If

you're the lowest bidder, you'll get that sale. These sales

will not come right away in most cases. They will be trickle-in

orders, made by the customer after filing your circular and

waiting to see who can match the price.

We feel much of the information offered by mail is ridiculously

overpriced when introduced, and we have on file dozens of

examples of some people offering item X at five, then, even

nineteen times the best price offered by others with the same

product.

If you've been enclosing your own envelopes with return

addresses when you send out advertising, you might try a

half-and-half mailing to see if they're really pulling more

orders.

Traditional schools of thought say the return envelopes,

especially the business-reply type which allows you to pay the

postage for the customer, do pull orders.

However, most people use plain printed #8 envelopes without

business-reply marking, and especially for the small operator

specializing in a few selected items, it may be a poor

investment. If so, it's cutting into your profits and taking up

valuable weight in the envelopes better served by a circular.

Adsheets can be good investments, but in most cases you'll only

really profit from them if you're offering something you've

developed yourself which can be sold through other dealers.

Adsheets are generally advertising's version of the pyramid

plan. They circulate only among small time dealers, each trying

to get the other to sell what he's selling. Still, if you can

put a new twist in the advertising, and run a short ad in

selected adsheets (most dealers receive a large number, and

subscribing to several dozen is wasteful) asking for full

purchase price when they order, and NOT requesting information,

you could still do a profitable business, although the cost

involved adds up to much more than the usual $1 for a one-column

ad. You have to figure your costs in preparing the ad and

getting it to each publisher.

If you have an article you've developed yourself and you want to

put a big push on, a great number of dealers will print and mail

your circulars with theirs. The cheapest deal is to have their

ad printed on the back. Many of these firms will take your

money and run, however, so it would be smart to call and write

first, get references from happy customers, and talk to them.

If he won't reveal his customer list and still claims to do a

good job, well, need we say more?

Don't be afraid to compete with other dealers in a print and

mail deal if you've got a good product, but you do your

homework. It is probably the most cost-effective way to reach a

large number o dealers, but take care that you choose a

reputable dealer.

Multilevel enthusiasts know that many of the better multilevel

programs requires substantial amounts of literature to fully

explain. If you're not prepared or equipped to expend the time

and money required to let every mail prospect know about the

programs you're using, why not make up a small half page

circular which briefly outlines each program, and offer to

refund postage for anyone interested in learning more? That

cuts your expenses, gives you inquiries of real value and should

take no considerable dent in your eventual downline.

This takes five minutes, costs pennies, and give your commission

circulars a personal touch that also looks professional.

Please stop writing hand-written notes and changes of copy on

your commission circulars! Save those hand-written notes for

leaders. A close matching letraset message will print

beautifully and get the message across much more effectively

than a freehand note. When using letraset, take care to make

the heading on a separate set of paper, clip the heading and

tape it with Scotch brand magic tape (we recommend Scotch

because it has a lower peel strength than competitive

translucent tapes and is easier removed).

Don't do your first heads directly onto the circular or you'll

end up with minor mistakes that detract from the impact. Notice

how sloppy the "K" looks, and how small a mistake it took to

make it that way? (Believe us, your clients will notice

mistakes like that!).

One cost-cutting method we do not advise is folding your

circulars so an outside surface is empty, taping it and mailing

it like a newsletter, without an envelope. It looks just plain

shoddy. One thing that does look good, however, is the white

9x6 envelope instead of the usual wheat-yellow manila envelope.

Anything different makes an impact.

Speaking of different, try a few of your circulars in two

colors, perhaps red and black, especially those which many other

dealers are using. It does pull more orders on a competitive

item. And don't forget about using colored stock for a few

sheets (NEVER for your personal notes), but not too many.

If you want to keep your customers for repeat business, don't

become a commission agent for mailing list firms unless you have

thoroughly researched and used their lists yourself. We

personally know of one firm which advertises premium lists, and

offers a very attractive dealership, but they have no trouble at

all selling our name to no fewer than 25 people in a four-month

span who all offer the same product! Those poor people wasted

not only the cost of the list, but the cost of the mailing as

well, and that is an absolute travesty.

By all means, use your personal letters to inform the paying

customer of services you've had success with. This tells the

customer you're serious about his satisfaction and if he

experiences the same success, he'll trust you enough to order

from you again.

And if you know of any popular plans that are no good, and you

have seen that the customer might be considering such a plan

from a letter or group of purchases which indicate he's

heading in that direction, tell him to steer clear.

Finally, and this is absolutely vital to getting reorders, know

exactly what you are offering. If you're selling books, own a

few of them and read them. If you're selling plans and reports,

check them out to make sure they really do what they claim. You

are doing your customers a horrible disservice by advertising

Plan A as one of your biggest sellers (which may be true) when

it's an outdated piece of junk and maybe something you have

never even seen.

If you're selling gifts from catalogs or other related

merchandise, there are really only two things we can advise that

will cheaply help sales.

First, if you're selling catalogs and having your orders

dropshipped from the supplier, write the home office and tell

them you'd like to establish contact with other distributors to

help each other increase efficiency.

It is highly unlikely this request will be turned down. The

supplier is every bit as interested in increasing sales as you

are, and will probably be happy to send you the names and

addresses of some of the company's top producers.

Establish regular correspondence with these people and exchange

information on what campaigns and techniques are working for you.

If you're selling products for which you are the prime source,

don't hesitate to send advertising for your other products when

you fill orders from newspaper or magazine advertising. If you

don't have other products, work an exchange program with other

sources and sell their products on commission, and drop-ship the

orders from the source of supply.

SUPER SALES BOOSTERS YOU is a post from: Work From Home

Everybody wants to make more money. In fact, most people would like to hit upon something that makes them fabulously rich! And seemingly, one of the easiest roads to the fulfillment of these dreams of wealth is mail order or within the professional circles of the business, direct mail selling.

The only thing is, hardly anyone gives much real thought to the basic ingredient of selling by mail - the writing of profitable classified ads. If your mail order business is to succeed, then you must acquire the expertise of writing classified ads that sell your product or services!

So what makes a classified ad good or bad? First of all, it must appeal to the reader, and as such, it must say exactly what you want it to say. Secondly, it has to say what it says in the least possible number of words in order to keep your operating costs within your budget. And thirdly, it has to produce the desired results whether inquiries or sales.

Grabbing the reader's attention is your first objective. You must assume the reader is "scanning" the page on which your ad appears in the company of two or three hundred classified ads. Therefore, there has to be something about your ad that causes him to stop scanning and look at yours! So, the first two or three words of your ad are of the utmost importance and deserve your careful consideration. Most surveys show that words or phrases that quickly involve the reader, tend to be the best attention-grabbers. Such words as: FREE... WIN... MAKE BIG MONEY...

Whatever words you use as attention-grabbers, to start your ads, you should bear in mind that they'll be competing with similar attention-grabbers of the other ads on the same page. Therefore, in addition to your lead words, your ad must quickly go on to promise or state further benefits to the reader. In other words, your ad might read something like this: MAKE BIG MONEY! Easy & Simple. We show you how!

In the language of professional copywriters, you've grabbed the attention of your prospect, and interested him with something that even he can do.

The next rule of good classified copywriting has to do with the arousal of the reader's desire to get in on your offer. In a great many instances, this rule is by-passed, and it appears, this is the real reason that an ad doesn't pull according to the expectations of the advertiser.

Think about it - you've got your reader's attention; you've told him it's easy and simple; and you're about to ask him to do something. Unless you take the time to further "want your offer," your ad is going to only half turn him on. He'll compare your ad with the others that have grabbed his attention and finally decide upon the one that interests him the most.

What is being said is that here is the place for you to insert that magic word "guaranteed" or some other such word or phrase. So now, we've got an ad that reads: MAKE BIG MONEY! Easy & Simple. Guaranteed!

Now the reader is turned on, and in his mind, he can't lose. You're ready to ask for his money. This is the "demand for action" part of your ad. This is the part where you want to use such words as: Limited offer - Act now! Write today! Only and/or just...

Putting it all together, then your ad might read something like this: MAKE BIG MONEY! Easy & Simple. Guaranteed! Limited offer. Send $l to:

These are the ingredients of any good classified ad - Attention - Interest - Desire - Action... Without these four ingredients skillfully integrated into your ad, chances are your ad will just "lie there" and not do anything but cost you money. What we've just shown you is a basic classified ad. Although such an ad could be placed in any leading publication and would pull a good response, it's known as a "blind ad" and would pull inquiries and responses from a whole spectrum of people reading the publication in which it appeared. In other words, from as many "time-wasters" as from bona fide buyers.

So let's try to give you an example of the kind of classified ad you might want to use, say to sell a report such as this one... Using all the rules of basic advertising copywriting, and stating exactly what our product is, our ad reads thusly:

MONEY-MAKER'S SECRETS! How To Write winning classified

ads. Simple & easy to learn -should double or triple your

responses. Rush $1 to BC Sales, 10 Main Anytown, TX 75001.

The point we're making is that: l) You've got to grab the reader's attention... 2) You've got to "interest him" with something that appeals to him... 3) You've got to "further stimulate" him with something (catch-phrase) that makes him "desire" the product or service. 4) Demand that he act immediately...

There's no point in being tricky or clever. Just adhere to the basics and your profits will increase accordingly. One of the best ways of learning to write good classified ads is to study the classifieds - try to figure out exactly what they're attempting to sell - and then practice rewriting them according to the rules we've just given you. Whenever you sit down to write a classified, always write it all out - write down everything you want to say - and then go back over it, crossing out words, and refining your phraseology.

The final ingredient of your classified ad is of course, your name, address to which the reader is to respond - where he's to send his money or write for further information.

Generally speaking, readers respond more often to ads that include a name than to those showing just initials or an address only. However, because advertising costs are based upon the number of words, or the amount of space your ad uses, the use of some names in classified ads could become quite expensive. If we were to ask our ad respondents to write to or send their money to The Research Writers & Publishers Association, or to Book Business Mart, or even to Money Maker's Opportunity Digest, our advertising costs would be prohibitive. Thus we shorten our name Researchers or Money-Makers. The point here is to think relative to the placement costs of your ad, and to shorten excessively long names.

The same holds true when listing your post office box number. Shorten it to just plain Box 40, or in the case of a rural delivery, shorten it to just RRl.

The important thing is to know the rules of profitable classified ad writing, and to follow them. Hold your costs in line.

Now you know the basics... the rest is up to you.

WRITE PROFITABLE CLASSIFIED ADS is a post from: Work From Home

People with money seem to be on a binge to prove their status and

flaunt their wealth by staging large, catered parties. As a

matter of fact, in some circle of affluence, a party or social

get-together isn't considered an event of any significance unless

it's a catered affair.

With the same kind of reasoning, businesses of all sizes are

using catered lunches, cocktail parties and dinner meetings to

build their images and increase company sales. It's a matter of

keeping up with the competition in promoting a company and/or

product.

On a smaller, but just as busy marketing scale, more and more

working mothers are paying to have catered birthday and

graduation parties, as well as wedding receptions handled by

caterers. The reasons are simple to understand--if she's working

outside the home, today's mother just doesn't have the time or

the energy to do all the planning and staging of a memorable

party.

Besides those reasons for turning everything over to a caterer,

working mothers feel a little guilty about the time away from

their children they lose because of their jobs. Thus, they're

ready and willing to make it all to them by paying for a lavish

party the child will remember for years to come.

Caterers handle everything from birthday parties for children, to

breakfast in bed and intimate candlelight dinners for two, to

company dinner parties for 50 and wedding receptions involving a

thousand or more guests. This kind of entrepreneurial business is

definitely growing and becoming more popular with people of all

income levels.

An imaginative caterer in a large metropolitan area can easily

gross $150,000 per year, while a small part-time caterer in a

small town can count on at least $10,000 to $15,000 per year. One

small, but very ambitious caterer is reported to have grossed

$250,000 after only 2-years in the business!

You don't need special education or training to become a

successful caterer. You do need a affinity for people and a kind

of intuition as to what people enjoy in different environmental

settings.

A quick survey of successful caterers across the nation shows

that began with zero capital by working out of their homes. The

basic starting up investment would appear to be around $500, with

some big spenders capitalizing their idea with as much as $15,000

in order to get off to a fast start.

This seems to be an ideal business for an ambitious couple to

start and operate with very little capital investment required.

One person can spend his time hustling up business while the

other would do the planning, organizing and actual catering.

As with any business, your success will be directly related to

the soundness of planning and the working of that plan.

Understand exactly what your client wants, and give him what he

wants in the way of service that reflects upon the client in a

complimentary manner.

Basically, you can start with an advertisement in your local

newspapers. This advertisement need not be much more than a

simple announcement: Creative Catering-Specializing in personal

service- We can handle any party or special event from start to

finish-no idea to small or too large- Your satisfaction is always

guaranteed! We can handle everything for you.. Call us, and let

us make your parties worth remembering...

Naturally, the first thing you want from anyone calling to ask

about your services, is that anyone calling to ask about your

services, is that person's name, address and phone number. Then

you want to know what kind of party or event they have in mind.

As soon as you have this information, relax a little bit and

inquire to find out about the person or the company--the

people--sponsoring the party and their ultimate goals or reasons

for the party.

If it's to celebrate birthday, graduation, anniversary or a

wedding reception--finding out about the interests, background

and ambitious of the guest of honor will be of value to you in

your planning. Taking a few minutes to learn everything you can

about whoever the party is for, and the people giving the party,

will also make it much easier to close the sale than any sales

pitch or special persuasive tactics.

People like to talk about themselves, and they especially like to

tell everyone why they're honoring someone, even when they

pretend to keep it a secret who initiated the idea. So, it's

important that you be a good listener, that you have the ability

to get people to talk about themselves, and that you take notes

on the things they tell you.

This same principle applies to business people, regardless of

who's talking to you or the purpose of the catered affair. The

more polished and adept you can become in getting your prospects

to talk about themselves, the more information relative to their

background you can elicit, and the more you listen; the better

your parties will be, and the greater success you'll attain in

the catering business.

You take the information you glean from this first interview and

plan/organize the event on paper. This means you're going to have

to have contacts or at least working relationships with

innumerable service businesses.

If your client wants to stage a birthday party for a 12-year

old---he or she greets the guests as they arrive, makes sure

everybody knows who he is---then what about party favors---a soft

drink and a conversation leader until all the guests arrive--the

opening of presents--ice-cream and cake--and games to play, a

thank you gift for coming, and a reason to end the party at a

pre-determined time...

Do you greet the guests, does the mother or father, or the little

boy or girl? Where do you come up with the party favors at less

than regular retail prices? Where are you going to get the soft

drinks-your cost and the glasses or paper cups to serve them in?

What about ice? What kind of games to play? Who'll be the

conservation leader? Will there be a clown or someone special to

keep everything moving according to plan? Where do you get the

ice cream and cake? What games to play? How to get everyone

involved? And finally, a feasible and polite reason for ending

the party and sending everyone home...

All this takes planning, organization, and if you're going to

make a profit, a definite awareness of cost control. Get it all

down on paper as a proposal to the people who want to pay you to

carry it off. Figure out your costs, the time involved in putting

it all together, and then get back to your prospect.

Always leave room for changes in your proposal. In fact, expect

them--invite input and suggestions from the client--and always

have an alternate idea in your mind for each of those on your

written proposals. Discuss your proposal with the client just as

you would a script for a television show, make the suggested

changes and ask for a 50-percent advance deposit. From there,

it's just a matter of following your plan.

Regardless of size or type of party--whether your client is a

working mother or a giant corporation--the format is always the

same: initial inquiry, interview, your proposal, 2nd interview

for any changes, agreement, deposit, staging the party itself,

and your final payment. As mentioned earlier, success in this

business comes from your planning--having a lot of contacts--and

working your plan.

An important word of caution: Try not to get "boxed in" to

setting or even revealing a tentative price until you've had a

chance to listen to what the prospect wants, to study your own

capabilities, and to make a formal written proposal. If a

customer wants to know how much you charge--and if you feel it

necessary in order to eventually close the sale--you can tell him

50 to 100 dollars per hour, plus expenses, and of course,

depending on the type of event the customer wants.

As for how much the average party costs, again tell him that it

varies anywhere from 50 to 5,000 dollars.

Always keep in mind that you are a professional, and that if the

ordinary person had your knowledge, contacts and ambition to do

it himself, he wouldn't be calling you on the phone. He needs

your help for any number of reasons. You specialize in this kind

of work or service just as a doctor specializes in medicine and a

lawyer in legal matters. Therefore, you should, and do expect to

be paid accordingly.

Something else--this business thrives on word-of-mouth

advertising--referrals--and thus, is direct "freeway' to the kind

of customers where money is of no concern. However, on order to

gain access to this market, your business emphasis has to be on

service.

This means the capability of handling everything for the

customer, from having the invitations printed and sent out to

cleaning up after the last guest has left. Businesses and people

in the upper income brackets, like to pick up the phone--tell

someone they want a party on a certain date--and then forget

about it, knowing everything will be taken care of without

further worry or time involvement from them. Once you've

developed your expertise and clientele to this level, you'll have

a business in the $200,000 to $250,00 per year range.

Definitely arrange for a display ad in the yellow pages of your

telephone directory. You'll probably get 40% of your inquires

from this source alone. Generally speaking, radio and/or

television advertising will be too expensive when compared with

the immediate results. However, it is recommended that you

consider these media prior to special holidays.

Working with restaurants, supper clubs, bridal shops and

entertainment business in general. can bring in hundreds of

referrals for you. Rubbing shoulders with, and circulating as a

part of your area's civic and service clubs, should also result

in more business for you.

Keep your eyes and ears on the alert. Where ever you go, and with

whomever you associate, always be ready to promote and sell your

services, if not on the spot, at least make a note to follow up

when conditions are more in your favor. Promoting and selling

your services will require at least half your time, and that's

why two people operating catering services are so successful from

the start.

The actual selling is quite simple so long as you emphasize the

service and time-saving aspects. The more time-consuming work you

can handle for the client, the easier it's going to be for you to

close the sale.

Handing out business cards is one of the least expensive ways to

advertise, promote and sell your services. One enterprising

caterer makes arrangements with the sponsors of all his parties,

to see that each of the guests gets one of his business cards.

Another gives each of his clients a stack of his business cards,

and tells them he'll pay them $25 for each prospect they refer to

him. He tells them to write their name on the backs of the cards,

and to hand them out to their friends. And then, whenever a

person tells him that John or Jane suggested he call, and he

presents the card with John or Jane's name on the back, this very

successful caterer sends John or Jane a $25 check.

Another very successful caterer pays commissions to a group of

housewives and college students who solicit--via their home

phones--interviews for him with brides-to-be. They get their

leads from announcements, and pictures of brides-to-be in the

local papers.

Many caterers pay sales people a commission for letting them know

when they hear about a party or special event being planned by

one of their business customers.

The possibilities go on and on, and are seemingly unlimited.

Time is becoming more valuable to a lot more people every day,

which means there are more and more opportunities for great

wealth and personal independence as a professional caterer. In

reality the success for just about any person entering this

field, will be limited only by his or her own imagination and

energy.

There is definite opportunity for great wealth within the

catering field. Anyone with a sense of service to others can

succeed. Very little "ready cash" is needed to begin. Therefore,

the only thing standing between you and the realization of your

dreams, is the action it takes on your part to get started...

-30-

HOW TO START YOUR HIGHLY PROFITABLE is a post from: Work From Home

If entrepreneurs didn’t know by now that Technology was taking over the business world, now it’s encroaching on the gambling casinos. We can’t even escape it on our trips to Las Vegas.

RADIO-FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION is headed for Vegas. Casino chips embedded with RFID tags and are being tested at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and will be displayed this month at the new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino.

The chips will each be given a unique player code to track behavior and possibly get more revenue out of high rollers. It’s estimated that this could be a $100 million business by the year 2010.

There are two Vegas based companies that own the casino-RFID game: Progressive Gaming International and Shuffle Master.

Progressive’s TableLink, which reads RFID chips using table-embedded antennas and records the wagers on a dealer’s PC, is the system of choice at the two casinos. Progressive and Shuffle Master have also developed optical card shoes, which holds decks and scan cards as they’re dealt. Shuffle Master’s Intelligent Shoe is already getting rave reviews in Australia and Asia.

The cost of outfitting a table with the chips and antennas costs a casino about $8,000, but analysts predict that Progressive will score bigger bucks from the $6 per day per table it charges for its system.

One RFID chip costs a casino 40 cents more than a standard chip, but that margin will drop to about 10 cents in the coming months.

This is certainly a “technology leap” from the “eye in the sky” that we all knew about in the casinos, but I don’t think that even George Orwell would have thought of these chips.

Those of us who used the games in Vegas casinos to escape our computers and software programs, seem destined to be followed by technology no matter where we go.

Somehow Radio-Frequency Identification in poker/gaming chips just doesn’t seem to be what a good poker player expects. Oh well, technology marches on...and on….and on.

KNOW THE SCORE

by Maureen Stephenson

Get What You Want in 7 Powerful Steps

In my most recent columns we’ve covered issues about improving your business and marketing, but today let’s start right at the beginning.

You’re really getting tired of the 9 to 5 “rat race” and are thinking about chucking it for your own business. All your friends keep telling you that you could do for yourself just what you’re doing now for your boss. Why shouldn’t you profit from your ideas instead of him?

You keep thinking about it because you know that you’ll never be financially where you want to be with a weekly paycheck, but what business would you start?

Before you pack in that weekly paycheck, this is the time to evaluate yourself and your future and it takes some real, down to heart honesty. You want to change your life for the better, so let’s start.

Did you know that you have the potential to do and be anything you want? People have different perceptions of the ideal life, and it ranges from obtaining financial freedom to as simple as owning a new pair of sneakers. Unfortunately, many fail to reach their aspirations because they can’t get a solid, clear picture in their mind of what they want.

Take the next few days and embark on a fact-finding journey that will be a life-changing experience. Get a pad and pencil and start with this first step:

STEP 1 - KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT – Be specific in your passions, then focus all your efforts on that particular desire.

Those who always change their minds and those who give up easily when the going gets tough will never get anywhere. If you’re a bit confused and aren’t sure what you really want in life answer these questions:

1. What makes your heart beat with excitement?

2. What makes you happy?

3. What are you constantly thinking of day and night?

4. What do you want to do with the rest of your life?

5. What do you enjoy doing?

6. What are your obsessions?

7. What things make you jump for joy?

Write down all your possible answers to the above questions. Write down everything, no matter how silly or unimportant it seems. Put all your desires on paper that answers any of the above questions.

When that’s done, go back and circle five to seven items that interest you the most. Then evaluate and choose with your heart, not your mind, the one and only thing worthy to spend all your time and resources on and that brings out the best in you.

Now you may wind up with something like, “I want to play quarterback for the RAMS.” If you’re over 20 I’d say that isn’t too viable a choice, but you could do something related to football or sports. How about starting a sports publication? Or perhaps a sporting goods retail business, sports memorabilia business, or even a gym could be the answer. You can always read books and surf the net to help you in your search.

The most important thing to remember, no matter how “pie in the sky” it seems, is to USE YOUR HEART. Others may disagree with you, but you should be firm with what you really want. Others may offer comments or advice, but the final decision is always yours to make. You should concentrate on what you want, not what others want.

Remember you only get one shot at living your life. There are no replays and you don’t get to do it over. You may not do it right, but at least you’re doing it. Too many lives have been lived in quiet desperation waiting until – until they had saved a nest egg, until the children are out of school, until I retire, and they depart this life before “until” ever arrives.

Don’t go to sleep tonight without making a decision on WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IN LIFE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE.

Then spend a few days evaluating how to make it possible and make a living at it. Begin living every day as if it were the last day you had – never leaving anything to be done next week, next month, or next year.

There will always be bills, things will always break down eventually and need replacing, there may be storms and earthquakes and repairs – but there will only be one life for you to live. It can’t be put on “hold”!

The final outcome of your efforts may be in the future, but you’re living each day by taking steps toward that outcome.

-30-

KNOW THE SCORE

by Maureen Stephenson

Safe Way to Start Your Own Business

Hopefully, you took my advice last week and you have a handy-dandy list now of what you want to do. We know you want to start your own business; hopefully you now know what it will be.

Being used to a steady paycheck from a regular job, with a family or other financial obligations, makes stepping out of your comfort zone a little risky. It doesn’t seem to matter how miserable you are in that job, the alternative scares the pants off many of us. There is a safer way of jumping off that cliff and it entails your current boss.

Your employer could be your ticket to a successful freelance business, if his business doesn’t conflict with your dreams. If you were thinking of starting a freelance copywriting business, you could negotiate a contract with your current employer for 50% of your time for the first year after you leave. This would give you a springboard for finding other clients while still covering your monthly expenses.

You’re probably wondering about now, why your employer would agree to sign a contract for half of your time? There are a number of reasons, and they can result in a “win-win” situation for both of you.

If you’re on good terms with your employer, chances are he doesn’t want to lose you. It takes time to train someone to fill your job and train them to the company’s way of being productive.

Even if he decides to replace you, it can take months to gather resumes, interview candidates, and hire the right person. During that time you can be performing job functions from your home office, perhaps even training your replacement and providing your boss with a smoother transition by minimizing the disruption to his business.

If you’re not on good terms with your boss and the company is downsizing, merging, or being bought out, you can help them avoid the unpleasantness and cost of firing you. You are actually doing them a favor by restructuring this in the form of a contract for services that can be “stretched out” for a period of time if needed.

Frankly, if an employer has to choose between letting you go and paying severance and benefits versus signing a contract for a time period, which do you think they’d prefer? Signing and getting tangible work and services in return without the costs associated with terminating you is a much better deal for him. The contract may even be allocated from a different budget category, making it more affordable for the company.

There’s another reason your boss may opt for a contract, and that is your knowledge. You are already familiar with the company, its clients and services. You’re able to provide the services they need and you understand what has to be done. Many creative people have used this logic in approaching their bosses to negotiate their first contract and go out on their own.

If you’re interested in starting your own business your current job can provide the security you need in your first year. What better way to get started on your dream?

-30-

KNOW THE SCORE

by Maureen Stephenson

Getting In On The Ground Floor

Tractors that steer themselves, property that knows it’s been stolen, airplanes that land without pilots – that sounds like science fiction. It’s all a result of the global positioning system which is mind-boggling. The industry is set to skyrocket and opportunities for the entrepreneur are there.

This spring the U.S. government will launch its first next generation GPS satellite to complement the 30 older models already in use. The aim is to create stronger signals, increased bandwidth, and lots of potential for smart entrepreneurs.

Since the Defense Department made its GPS signals available for commercial use in 1993, the market for location-based services has swelled to nearly $5 billion, and that’s just the beginning. The demand for these services is expected to double in the next few years. The three hot growth areas – tracking, navigation, and hardware promise to be multibillion dollar markets by 2010.

Though startups are springing up all over the place, plenty of technologies remain untapped. One of the untapped areas are automated navigation systems in family cars that keep drivers a safe distance from other vehicles.

Huge companies such as UPS plan to outfit 75,000 drivers with GPS-enabled handhelds this year to help them reach destinations more efficiently. Some savvy entrepreneur who offered similar navigation and tracking services could also make out nicely.

Consider AtRoad, a Fremont, Calif. firm that went public in 2000. It offers “geo-fencing” software that triggers email alerts if a company’s vehicle speeds or goes into unauthorized areas. They charge a monthly fee of $45 per head to track more than 133,000 employees of clients such as SBC, Verizon, and the city of San Francisco. For the fiscal year ending in December, AtRoad’s revenue grew 19% to $75.2 million. That was a whopping 12.2% net profit margin.

This lucrative game was also played by Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder, who started Wheels of Zeus in 2002. This company combines GPS data with local wireless networking. The technology helps parents keep tabs on their children, or can alert IT managers when company-owned computers leave the premises.

The agriculture and manufacturing companies are getting a taste of the technology by a company that outfits tractors with antennas that pick up signals to automatically guide the equipment and control the amount of pesticides used.

There are companies that are using this technology to guide and navigate giant trucks around cliffs and mine shafts. The maritime industry is predicted to invest hundreds of millions in coming years to outfit cargo containers and ships with GPS receivers.

Chipmakers already cashing in are charging about $13 per device to put GPS chipsets in phones, electronics, and car navigation systems. And with a new federal regulation that is forcing wireless operators to include GPS in their phones and networking equipment, chip demand is sure to explode.

Remember the day when we said that expecting to buy drinking water in bottles was something the American consumer would never do. Pay for water that comes out of the kitchen sink faucet? How silly! Look at the industry that’s grown up in that area!

Entrepreneurs - the GPS opportunity is out there, if only you know where to look. Remember, you heard it here first!

-30-

Technology Bites Man Again is a post from: Work From Home

Video taping services are not only tremendously profitable, but timely, as

more and more demand grows within this exploding industry every day.

Video tape is rapidly growing in popularity among consumers because

as more and more people add video cassette players to their home

entertainment systems, the demand for expertly produced videos of

important events in a family's life is skyrocketing. Weddings,

baby showers, birthday parties, club meetings, school sports events

and numerous other gatherings provide the perfect opportunity for

you to enjoy a fantastically profitable business while enjoying the

company of new friends.

Now is the ideal time to get started with your own video taping

service. The purchase, operation and maintenance of all the

necessary equipment is quite easy. Advanced features built into

the equipment, combined with simple operating procedures make video

camera operation a snap. You can read through a video instruction

manual, spend several hours experimenting with various lighting

conditions and techniques, and develop the ability to produce a

high quality video tape of almost any event.

One- and two-person video taping services around the country are

reporting substantial gross earnings. One large operation we

looked into reported an income figure of $800,000 during the

preceding 12-month period. They were accepting taping jobs from

all quarters and keeping four full-time teams busy. In the

beginning, however, success with this kind of business does not

require an office set up or any special education or training. You

can start it on a part-time basis from your home and parlay it into

a full-time, profitable profession. The prestige this business

will afford you is similar to that of a real estate broker. You

can begin working alone or with a partner. You'll need a minimum

amount of equipment, but you must spend time developing sales leads

and personally contact prospective customers. Therefore, if you

plan to begin as a part-time operation and grow into a full-time

business, it would be advisable to have at least one other person

on the team with you.

The successful operation of a video taping service is found through

marketing imagination, organization, and attention to detail.

Ideas and requests for new events to tape and preserve for later

playback and viewing develop faster than one can list. There are,

however, so many things to remember and minor details to take care

of that the only way to operate successfully is with a series of

checklists. This applies to both the person selling the service as

well as the man or woman behind the recording camera.

Don't let the numerous details scare you off. On the contrary,

you'll find video equipment easy and inexpensive to work with,

especially when compared to obtaining a comparable degree of

expertise with film. You can use the same tape over and over

again. This is definitely business where the phrase "practice

makes perfect" applies.

To begin your video taping service, you'll need a portable video

recorder, commonly termed a "camcorder" (camera-recorder). If you

don't already own your own equipment, now is the time to buy.

Prices have never been lower nor the selection greater. Standard

size camcorders can be purchased for well under $1,000, often for

half that price. Because technology changes so rapidly, you can

pick up a high-quality camcorder from last year's stock, or perhaps

slightly used, for under $500. And these are still top-of-the-line

cameras. Smaller, palm-size cameras are now available, as well as

adapters to make smaller tapes compatible with most home VCRs.

Features and options for your camera will abound, but you'll want

to make sure your camera has some of the more important ones, such

as input jacks to add external microphones. This will aid in

taping extended vocal recordings, such as speeches, weddings,

concerts, etc. Your dealer can help you choose an inexpensive

external microphone to augment the one that is already built into

the camera. Other important features include auto-character

generation (for adding titles and captions) and the ability to dub

vocals onto a tape without harming the original picture quality.

Read through some current video magazines available on the

newsstand to get a general idea of the features you would like.

Make a list of those that will be a necessity and those that are

"wishes." Then visit as many stores as possible in your area that

carry video cameras. Get a feel for prices and available options.

Then make your selection. Note that some stores may allow you to

lease a camcorder, thus reducing your initial cash outlay

requirements.

An important part of your service is the blank video tapes that you

will purchase. While standard VHS tapes can be purchased quite

inexpensively, you will want to make a habit of using a high

quality tape for the best results. Check out the latest copy of

"CONSUMER REPORTS BUYING GUIDE" at your local library. Determine

what their best recommendation is concerning video tapes. Talk

with the video salesman at your local stores. You'll soon come to

know what brands are better and which to avoid. Find out if you

can purchase tapes wholesale by calling the home office of the

manufacturer. Check around in your area. Doing the necessary

study in advance will save you time and money in the future. These

elementary learning steps are necessary as the foundation of your

business.

Once you have your video recorder, take it home and start

practicing with it. Think of yourself as being on a job for a

homeowner or an insurance company taking a photographic inventory

of the house and/or the occupant's possessions. Practice by making

a tape recording of your own household furnishings. Make a tape,

then play it back and critique your work. Then repeat the process

again and again until you have a tape you can use in sales

presentations to homeowners and insurance companies. Video tape

recordings of this kind are becoming extremely popular for use in

insurance claims across the country.

The possibilities for selling your services to those who would like

a video record of some special event are endless. Look through

your weekend newspaper and make a list of the girls announcing

wedding dates. Find their names and telephone numbers in your

telephone directory and call them on the phone. Ask them if they

would mind if you came to their wedding and made a video tape of

it, without any obligation to them, of course. Arrange to be at

the wedding location an hour beforehand to get your equipment

situated. The secret is to get as much of the wedding from a good

angle as possible without being obtrusive. Setting up slightly

behind the officiating minister and off to one side will allow you

to focus on the faces of the wedding party and guests without

having to make large movements. The zoom feature of your camera

will allow you to be far enough out of the way so as not to

obstruct the view of any guests. With your camera set up on a

tripod, shoot the wedding ceremony. Afterward, go to the reception

and take candid shots of the events--dancing, singing, cutting the

cake, the departure of the couple, etc. Use your imagination. Get

as many of the events as possible but without interfering in any

way. After the event, take the tape home and review it. Keep

practicing at weddings until you have a tape you're reasonably

proud of, and then call the bride. Ask to come over and let her

see the tape. Explain to her that you're just getting started in

the business and you simply want her comments and suggestions.

Chances are that when she sees the tape she'll want to buy it.

While you're in the learning phase of your new business, visit an

apartment building and arrange with the manager to make a video

tape of her showing the apartment to you as a potential renter.

Contact a couple of property management and real estate firms and

do the same thing with condominiums and houses for sale. You might

want to listen in on the police radio frequency and make tapes of

auto accidents for law firms, particularly those involving

injuries. Consider taping golfers practicing at the local driving

ranges and letting them review the tape on site to improve their

swing. Other ideas include any kind of sports practice sessions,

birthday parties, special anniversaries, baptisms, bar mitsvahs,

publicity stories, sales presentations, and "fireside chats" by

company presidents or general manager. These are just a few idea

suggestions you might want to pursue. You may find a certain kind

of video taping assignment especially enjoyable and want to

specialize in that area. Or, you may want to leave the door open

for any kind of assignment and handle each as the opportunity

presents itself. Whatever you decide, there are a few "sure

success" points to keep in mind as you begin to sell your services.

Virtually everyone likes to see himself as a star in a home video.

Thus, when you show a client of a video tape of himself in the

starring role, he'll either buy the tape on the spot or contract

with you to make a similar tape of another event. Modesty aside,

everyone likes to show pictures of himself and explain to his

friends the different highlights of his or her life. Thus, when

you make a sales presentation featuring your client, your sales

rate should be close to 100 percent.

The best way to sell your services is to run a regular ad in your

area newspapers. Consider something along these lines:

Smart Video Taping Service

Whatever your idea or assignment,

we can handle it for you! No job too

large or too small! We're experts

at taping weddings, anniversaries,

birthday parties, and other special

occasions. Commercial assignments

welcomed. Your satisfaction is

guaranteed, so give us a call--

123-4567, right now!

When you receive calls in response to your ad, your objective

should be two-fold. First, find out what kind of taping job the

customer has in mind. Second, set up an appointment to show them

an example of the kinds of tapes you can produce. Present the

prospect with an example of your work.

Never meet with a prospect in a selling situation without some sort

of demonstration tape for him to preview. Try to match the tape

you show them as closely to their wants and needs as possible.

Don't show wedding tapes you have made to golfing prospects or

demonstrate a tape of home insurance inventory for prospective

wedding clients. Once you've met with the prospect and shown the

proper demonstration tape, you should have the sale in your pocket.

Besides an ad in the newspaper and yellow pages of your telephone

directory, make copies of your ad and get it up on the bulletin

boards in your area. Send news and publicity releases to all the

media in your region, especially when you have an unusual or

special assignment that would be of interest to the general public,

such as the testing of a new invention by a major corporation or a

birthday party for a centenarian. Have some impressive business

cards printed and hand them out to as many people as possible, as

often as you can. The slogan on your business card might read:

"You Name It, We'll Tape It."

Radio and television ads are much more expensive than the resulting

jobs will sustain, so be very cautious when considering this type

of advertising. However, it will very definitely be advantageous

for you to pursue guest interviews on any kind of talk show. Talk

show appearances and free write-ups about your business in your

local newspapers are promotional angles to grab at every

opportunity. Always be on the lookout for promotional ideas and

gimmicks that will result in area-wide publicity for your services.

The bottom line is simple: Don't be adverse to creating a story or

set of circumstances if it results in a talk show appearance or

newspaper write-up for you.

How much should you charge for your services? Basically, the going

rate in most large metropolitan areas is about $75 per hour you

spend on the assignment. Thus, you're going to have to learn to

estimate pretty accurately exactly how long you'll need to spend on

each job to produce a quality recording. Some jobs, like weddings,

might go for a standard fee of $150 to $300, depending on the

competition in your area. It's always a good idea to check out

what other video taping services in your city or comparably sized

cities are charging. Newsletters and trade publications serving

the video industry often feature articles on typical rates that

free-lancers charge. Check with your equipment supplier for the

names or sample copies of any newsletters about which he might

know.

You can form a relationship with a client that can last a lifetime.

Beginning with a young couples' wedding, if you follow up on each

sale properly, you'll probably end up making tapes for birthdays of

their children, youth sporting events, school pageants and

graduations, anniversaries, family histories and scores of other

events.

To make yourself a success, you will need imagination, an affinity

for people and a flair for salesmanship. Imagination is important,

because in many instances, you'll have to suggest an idea for

taping services. Although just about everybody would like to have

a taped record of some event or part of their life to pass along to

future family members, most will not be able to decide what to tape

until you suggest something to them. You'll also find that almost

no one is aware of even half your capabilities until you make

suggestions.

Taking pictures of people requires an ability to get along well

with them--to get them to relax and immediately feel comfortable in

your presence. You've got to be persuasive while exercising a

great deal of tact and diplomacy. Learn to make friends easily and

quickly. Be aware and understanding of wants, desires and

ambitions. Do your best to instill a feeling of confidence in the

prospect--confidence that you are the best choice he could have

made, and confidence that what they are doing is important and

doesn't look silly or staged.

Selling and getting along with people are almost synonymous. Life

is an ongoing program of selling yourself to achieve your own wants

and ambitions. Read a few good books on the art of selling, such

as "How to Sell Yourself," by Steve Girard or "How to Sell Anything

to Anybody" by Tom Hopkins. Remember, selling is really just a

matter of recognizing someone's needs and then satisfying those

needs with a product or service. Your customers will automatically

accept as fact that you have the professional knowledge and

equipment to fulfill their needs. All you have to do is reassure

them, listen to their opinions on how best to meet their needs,

and, in closing the sale, become a good friend to them.

With the simple plan outlined above, you can get started with your

own video taping service. By combining our suggestions with a bit

of energy and persistence, you should be able to begin with very

little start-up investment and quickly begin to reap the fruits of

your own profitable labor. Having laid it all out, the rest is up

to you. Your future is in your own hands. Grab on to your future

today!

-30-

HOW TO START AND OPERATE YOUR OWN VIDEO TAPING SERVICE is a post from: Work From Home

When a customer visits your website, you have roughly ten seconds to capture their attention, so you better think carefully about what you want to include. Some websites go directly into the navigation and content of their websites on their first “index” page. Customers can surf around the site and decide if they want to buy the product or service. This is not really the wisest option available. Of course, every site does need the standard index page chock full of frequently asked questions, testimonials, order form, etc. But there is a better way to “capture” your visitors by using a squeeze. A squeeze page captures your audience with a screaming headline and brief key points about the customer’s problem and how you intend to solve it. Sometimes a squeeze page offers a free report or newsletter. Either way, all squeeze pages purpose is to retrieve the customers name and email address, or sometimes they ask the customer a burning question.

So what is the point in retrieving the customer’s name and email address? Have you heard of opt-in lists? An opt-in list is gold to an internet marketer because you can send your customers information which will hopefully attract the customer back to the website to either purchase a product or service being offered. Spamming is illegal and having a great opt-in list is really necessary to any Internet marketer. You can also use your list to make money as an affiliate with another company. You can send customers an email from the site you are promoting and make profits as an affiliate. This is a great way to earn extra income indeed.

Squeeze pages are sometimes the first page found on a website. Sometimes they are pop ups on the index page of a website. They are very crucial to any Internet marketer’s business.

How to Design your Web Site is a post from: Work From Home

Perhaps you’ve planned it from the beginning, or maybe you’ve taken years to decide. Somewhere down the line will come the time to sell your business, and you want to make sure you come out on top.

“I sold my business” is a magical phrase for entrepreneurs. It conjures up of pictures of wealth, leisure and exciting new challenges. For many entrepreneurs, it’s the goal from day one.

“Selling might not be everyone’s objective when they’re starting out, but it should be” says Ned Minor. Mr. Minor is a transaction attorney in Denver, and the author of “Deciding to Sell Your Business: The Key to Wealth and Freedom.” It seems eventually, every business owner leaves their business either sitting down at a deal table or feet first on a stretcher.

The idea of working until your last breath is not uppermost in our minds when we start out on that exciting roller coaster ride known as “entrepreneurship.” But if you aren’t already planning a more graceful exit, you may come out on the short end of the stick.

When starting a business we’re usually so busy with the details involved in making it an eventual success that selling out is the furthest thing from our minds. But the day you start building should be the day you should start designing your exit. It should be the ultimate goal of your success.

Many entrepreneurs are successive business builders. The fact that they sell one business doesn’t mean retirement for them, it just means the opportunity to start another business that has been lurking in the back of their minds. In fact many entrepreneurs enjoy the building up of a business almost more than the profitable success it becomes.

What does a saleable business look like? It’s saleable if it’s “scalable” says Minor. There are small-and-steady businesses sold every day, but the big bucks come looking for a business that has huge growth potential. Every buyer thinks that he/she is smarter than the seller, and that they can double or triple the present business it’s doing. A business will fetch the best price only when buyers believe they can take advantage of significant future growth potential.

Selling a company’s future upside however, means proving your previous growth and validating your future growth strategy. You should start with 2 years of audited financials to backup the historical growth. Then be prepared to explain your business strategy and how it fits into the overall market. Be it through acquisitions that you’ve grown, then show how many more acquisition targets are still in the market. If through new product development, be prepared to give the details of your R&D pipeline and your ideas for future products.

Now as for buyers, there are two types. There are “financial buyers” who will typically pay a lower price because they have a fire-sale mentality. You need to find the strategic buyers out there, and paint a picture for them. Show them a great customer relationship, a great piece of intellectual property, an advantage in time to market, or a key employee. Show the strategic buyer how one plus one equals three.

Then again, why settle for just one buyer when you could have two? Having another buyer in the wings is a vital strategy in the sale process. Having a strong and visible alternative makes any acquirer sit up and take notice. There needs to be tension to the deal. Each side wants the other to think that they’re about to walk away; it’s the tension that gets the deal closed.

The best buyers are large, high-flying public companies with broad, strategic agendas and cash to spare. Selling to a public company also has other advantages and tangible benefits. Many transactions leave the seller with a fistful of stock, or worse, a long-term payout. A publicly traded acquirer makes an eventual cash payout more assured. Be sure to make your business sale more than a sale of your personal network and capabilities. Make it look like it’s worth the asking price, especially if you’re planning to leave after the sale.

Build a strong management team that can carry on when you’re gone. A team with clear policies and procedures, and a broad customer base which are the underpinnings of value. Your business should not just run without you, but be positioned to grow without you. Make sure your key employees are given incentives to stay on after you go, and make sure you communicate with them during negotiations. It’s crucial to minimize disruption.

The sale of a business is complex. If you’ve been in business for 10 years, then it has 10 years of potential liabilities, lawsuits, and bad accounting. Buyers want to know exactly where the business stands, so extreme diligence and complete disclosure on your part is essential. Sometimes what the buyer requests during negotiations is mind-boggling and you should hire some outside help to put it all together.

Getting the deal closed takes the talents of several people, and here’s a list of who you’re likely to meet on your way to closing.

On the Buyer’s Side:

• CEO: The chief executive needs a vision of how the new company will fit into the existing organization.

• CFO: This is the detail person, and a professional skeptic. In the long-term view, he/she will take the heat if reality doesn’t live up to expectations.

• CPA: The buyer’s CPA (or accounting firm) will validate the seller’s numbers. Don’t be surprised if the CPA doesn’t argue for a lower purchase price based on historical profits. These are the “bean counters” of the deal.

On The Seller’s Side:

• Investment Banker: He/she is a professional “quarterback” keeping both teams moving toward the goal. He keeps one eye on the sale price, and the other on the strategic best interests of the business owner.

• Transaction Attorney: He’s the referee – there to make sure no one gets hurt. The transaction attorney’s focus is the sale contract, but he/she can also handle communication with the buyer.

• CPA: The seller’s CPA should be advising the seller on the personal tax consequences of the deal, and how to handle the after-tax proceeds.

And you thought it was going to be easier to sell it than to start it, didn’t you? Remember, no deal is a sure thing until it’s done! Perhaps the only sure thing is that selling a business is never simple. It can be the most harrowing, and the most rewarding experience in the life of an entrepreneur. Take it slowly, with planning, strategy and guidance. Each step of the process can add value to the company, and get you closer to the finish line.

Go For The Gold! is a post from: Work From Home

GET 6,000 CIRCULARS PRINTED AND MAILED FREE

HERE IS THE PLAN THAT WILL ENABLE YOU TO GET YOUR CIRCULARS

PRINTED AND MAILED FREE, PLUS REDUCE THE COST OF YOUR OWN MAILING TO NOTHING.

LOCATE AN OFFSET PRINTER IN YOUR AREA, OR BY MAIL ORDER IN ONE OF THE MANY MAIL ORDER PUBLICATIONS, WHO WILL PRINT BOTH SIDES OF A 81/2 X 11 SHEET FOR $25.0 PER 1,000, THEN RUN THE FOLLOWING AD OVER YOUR NAME IN VARIOUS MAIL ORDER PUBLICATIONS:

"CO-OP PRINTING (our ad on back side) 1,000

2 1/2 X5 1/2, ONLY $ 5.00. SEND CAMERA-READY

COPY TO: (your name and address)."

"CIRCULARS PRINTED (our ad on back side).

1,000 3X6, ONLY $ 5.00 SEND CAMERA-READY

COPY TO: (your name and address).

ON AN 8 1/2 X 11 SHEET OF PAPER, YOU CAN GET SIX 3X6 CIRCULARS,

RECEIVED FROM RESPONSES TO YOUR AD, PLUS SIX 3X6'S ON THE OTHER SIDE, FREE!

HAVE THE PRINTER CUT THEM INTO SIX 3X6'S, 1,000 EACH. SEND 1,000

TO EACH OF YOUR CUSTOMERS. YOU GET 6,000 OF YOUR SIDE PRINTED

FREE AND MAILED BY YOUR CUSTOMERS FREE!

SIX RESPONSES TO YOUR AD WILL GIVE YOU $30.00; $25.00 FOR

PRINTING AND CUTTING AND $ 5.00 FOR MAILING CIRCULARS TO YOUR

CUSTOMERS. WHEN PRINTING AND POSTAGE COSTS GO UP AGAIN, ADJUST YOUR PRICE ACCORDINGLY.

CHECK THE MAIL ORDER PUBLICATIONS TO SEE WHAT OTHERS ARE GETTING FOR SIMILAR PROGRAMS. STAY WITH THE COMPETITION IN PRICES.

THERE IS ANOTHER WAY TO GET YOUR CIRCULARS MAILED FREE. AS SOON AS YOU CAN AFFORD IT, BECOME A SUPPLIER OF COMMISSION CIRCULARS. THE EASIEST WAY TO DO THIS IS TO TAKE "ALL PROFIT" OFFERS AND HAVE CIRCULARS PRINTED ON TWO SIDES. ON THE ONE SIDE, HAVE YOUR OWN NAME AND ADDRESS PRINTED. ON THE OTHER SIDE, LEAVE A SPACE FOR A RUBBER STAMP IMPRINT.

OFFER THESE CIRCULARS TO CIRCULAR MAILERS ON A COMMISSION BASIS.

THEY KEEP A COMMISSION FROM 50% TO 100% ON THE ONE SIDE AND YOU MAKE YOUR PROFIT ON THE OTHER. USE THE SAME METHOD FOR ANY OFFERS THAT YOU DEVELOP FOR YOURSELF.

YOU CAN REACH THESE MAILERS BY ADVERTISING IN OR SUBSCRIBING TO SEVERAL MAIL ORDER TRADE MAGAZINES AND AD SHEETS. ANOTHER WAY TO LOCATE MAILERS FOR YOUR LITERATURE IS TO NOTICE THE ADS BY MAILERS. USUALLY, AT THE BOTTOM OF THEIR ADS THEY STATE "COMMISSION CIRCULARS MAILED FREE", WHICH MEANS THEY GET ONE SIDE AND YOU GET THE OTHER, AS ABOVE.

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO GET ROLLING USING THIS METHOD, TAKE TWO

"ALL PROFIT" OFFERS, ONE ON EACH SIDE, AND GIVE THE MAILER 100% ON ONE SIDE. YOU STILL MAKE YOUR PROFIT ON THE OTHER OFFER.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN OBTAINING ADDITIONAL COMMISSION

CIRCULARS FOR YOURSELF, INCLUDE "COMMISSION CIRCULARS MAILED FREE", IN YOUR OWN ADS.

STILL AN OTHER WAY TO GET YOUR LITERATURE MAILED FREE IS TO

INCLUDE THIS LITTLE NOTE IN ALL YOUR ADVERTISING - AT THE END OF

THE COPY - "STAMP APPRECIATED". IT ONLY COSTS YOU TWO WORDS, BUT IT COULD SAVE YOU A GREAT DEAL IN POSTAGE. IF YOUR ARE

ADVERTISING IN TRADE PUBLICATIONS OR ADSHEETS USE "S.A.S.E" WHICH MEANS SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE. THE SAVINGS FOR ENVELOPES, ADDRESSING LABOR AND POSTAGE CAN ADD UP FAST. MANY SMALL DEALERS USE THIS METHOD EXCLUSIVELY, EVEN IN LARGE CIRCULATION MAGAZINES. THEY HAVE BEEN USING IT FOR YEARS AND IT STILL WORKS!

ADVERTISING WITH LITTLE OR NO MONEY is a post from: Work From Home

An online freelance writer is someone who writes articles, eBooks, web content, newsletters, ezine, and anything else. They are paid to write up interesting, educational articles that capture their audience. They are paid to fill content on the web. All the writing that a freelance writer does is usually the buyers copyright forever. It is a very fun career if you like to write because you are always learning about new things. The greatest part of it is the fact that you get to make your own hours and work from the comfort of your own home. It is great for stay at home mothers or handicapped people or people with very busy schedules. You write on your own time as long as you finish your projects on your due date. Depending on what you write, you could get paid about 500 dollars for an eBook, not bad.

A freelance writer finds their projects many different ways, such as word of mouth or referrals, or online services. Elance is an online service where employers can post jobs for freelancers, programmers, tech support, etc. There are many sites like this one where you can go to find work, although there is usually a monthly fee you must pay to get these desirable jobs. When accepting a job, if there is no provided contract, a freelance writer should always create an informal contract describing the project, due date, fees, etc.

The work that freelance writers submit should be fresh and creative. It should NEVER be plagiarized. A freelance writer will always spell check their work and make sure it sounds great. Having a portfolio of your work is an excellent idea because it shows how great of a writer you are under varied projects. Taking some online writing classes will also keep you learning new ways to write better. Details always count so make sure you keep up to date and always write from your heart.

The Freelance Writer is a post from: Work From Home

There’s good news for entrepreneurs who need help but aren’t ready to hire full-time employees. Between January and July 2004, the ranks of part-time workers grew from 24.3 million to 25.5 million according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was also learned that from June to July the increase came from people who wanted to work part-time and not because they couldn’t find full-time employment.

It seems that 1.7 million part-timers hold two or more part-time jobs, and do this by choice. Such workers will be harder to convert to full-time employees because they like the diversity of different jobs.

This all translates into benefits for the entrepreneur who needs help but can’t hire full-time employees. The employment gurus don’t expect this part-time preference to pass anytime soon. It seems that the appeal of a reduced schedule is strong both for seniors and baby boomers nearing retirement. Parents who have interrupted careers to care for their children but still want to work may also explain the boom.

Entrepreneurs should eagerly look to this pool of workers and eagerly employ part-time help. A big reason is that employer-paid health insurance and other benefits add costs equal to more than 50 percent of the average employee’s gross earnings. A part-time employer can get by with a low-cost factor, and still find somebody reliable and efficient.

Looking at the boom of part-timers seems like a win-win situation for entrepreneurs and workers alike. Check the prospect out with your accountant and you may find that you come out a winner and less stressed.

Help for Entrepreneurs is a post from: Work From Home

It doesn’t matter if you have the most top notch ebook written about potty training your child. 99.9 percent of your customers will be completely head over heels satisfied, with awesome testimonials you can use in your sales copy. But, let’s face it, there will always been that customer that doesn’t like the product, for whatever reason. So, how do you avoid refund requests. Good question. Always offer a great product or service to begin with. Make sure your customers are getting what they paid for. Make sure your product lives up to the customer’s expectations after reading your sales letter too. Go a bit further and deliver more than promised to ensure ecstatic customers. Nothing makes a customer happier than tons of bonuses, especially ones they do not expect. Have excellent customer service with a very fast turnaround time. Hint: befriend your customers and have all your employees read: How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. Make sure you give a 1800 number that actually goes to a real live person or that you call the customer back. It can get pretty aggravating to never speak with a human in this technological world. Provide an immediate confirmation autoresponder email so that the buyer’s anxiety about purchasing the product is relieved.

Let’s say you have done your homework and yet still you get a few refunds, what do you do. You use it to your advantage and you collect data as to why they requested a refund. Make sure you document all phone calls, collect data through email, and also a web form. See if you can address your customer’s problem or concern. You may be able to resolve the refund request.

In the end, always honor your guarantee to refund for any complaints. Offer the customer free trials or giveaways anyway, let them keep the bonus products and you will leave them happy. They may decide to purchase a different product from you in the future because of this great treatment.

Refund Requests is a post from: Work From Home

1. Test Your Idea:

To lead to a sale, your query must convince the editor that you have a clear idea of what you plan to cover in the article, and what approach you ‘re going to take.

So before writing the letter, think your article idea through carefully, and picture yourself describing the article to a friend.

2. Find Your Angle:

Finding your angle is often a matter of narrowing your topic. A topic like “Sports” is far too general, narrow it to say, “Table Tennis” is better. Often, reducing the story to a single dimension e.g., focus on a key person, place, or event – gives a salable angle.

When your subject is popular, you must give the editor a fresh approach. One way is to take an idea like “Overcoming Failure” and give it a twist to something like “Failure Can Be Good for You.” It needn’t be exotic to sell, something as mundane as “New and Improved” has worked by adding a new ingredient to the usual.

3. Research Helps:

While many queries can be written entirely from your own knowledge, a little research can pay big dividends by seducing the editor. Facts sell editors on an idea. Editors look for queries with many specifics: Don’t just write that “Last year millions of people suffered from yeast infections.” Tell how many millions – and why!

Research both the topic and the markets you’re aiming it at. A common reason for rejection is because of inadequate knowledge of the magazine.

4. Shaping Your Raw Material:

After you have the basics:

a. the idea

b. the slant/facts, and

c. the market

then you’re ready to write your query. A good query starts strong, and never lets up until the editor is sold. Follow the two newspaper dictums; The five W’s (who, what, where, when, why) which explains the story immediately, and “the inverted pyramid” which emphasized putting the most interesting information first. You’ll lose the editor’s interest if you save the best for last, and always remember EDITOR’S CUT FROM THE BOTTOM UP!

Page 2

5. 3 Main Sections to a Query:

a. The Lead Paragraph

b. The Summary

c. The Author’s Bio.

Each has a specific purpose: first, tell the editor what the story is, then why she/he should buy it, and finally who is going to write it.

The Lead – is aimed to hook the editor and make them want to continue reading.

Once you’ve aroused the editor’s attention, move directly to a summary of the article.

Summary - This section should convince the editor that you know where you want to go with the article; it should outline the points you plan to cover or provide factual information about your topic – giving only enough to prove that your story is real. Here you can mention your sources. Tell the editor who’ll you’ll be talking to, and if experts are they on the cutting edge of today’s technology. Also include here a working title for the article. Don’t spend a lot of time trying to get a provocative headline, because titles are often changed by the editor before publication.

Author’s Bio – is where you sell yourself as a writer to the editor now that you’ve sold him/her on the idea. Don’t be bashful; editors expect a bit of sell in the bio. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “I’m highly qualified to write this article because…” if a convincing reason follows. Start your bio with your publishing credits, and include magazines similar to the one you’re pitching if you can.

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Lecture Notes is a post from: Work From Home

Advertising specialties are small items like book matches, pens or key chains that can be imprinted with a company, logo or slogan.

They are deductible advertising and usually given away to promote the business whose name is inscribed on them. There is almost no limit to products that can be used as advertising specialties. They can be anything the client company can afford, your sponsoring company can imprint and the customer will use.

The ideal item is useful, costs comparatively little and keeps your clients' business name in front of the customer as long as possible.

Advertising Specialties is an ideal business to operate from home. You can market them on a route, by mail, through advertisements, by phone appointments or by personal contact. There are two main objectives in establishing yourself in this business.

The first is to let people know who you are, what you handle and where they can get hold of you.

Second, convince them that you can help them promote their business. Your experience and advertising knowledge level will increase constantly. In turn, your expanding capability will equip you to offer even better advice and more timely suggestions.

Your customers are busy business people who want to get the most of their advertising dollar and are not particularly knowledgeable in this area. As soon as your customers realize they can rely on your advice your success will be assured!

Advertising specialties include place mats, school football and baseball schedules, calendars and plastic windshield scrapers, which lend themselves well to the seasons. These give you a good opportunity to make timely and realistic suggestions to your customers.

Foe example, in August you can suggest an order of imprinted scrapers for winter and in June you can recommend an order of football schedules for fall.

These suggestions are not just a ruse to sell -- they indicate you have given some though to your client's business interests! These and thousands of other specialty items are available with organization or company (logo and message) imprints at relatively low prices.

Advertising specialty costs to the customer are in line with and frequently below other advertising methods. Although a thousand imprinted pens costs more than a single newspaper or radio ad, the message on the pen lasts as long as the pen,,, while the newspaper ad is in the trash the next day and a radio commercial is but a "fleeting word."

Industry specialty suppliers furnish salesmen or independent dealers with instructions, catalogs, price lists and often, sales kits.

Most advertising specialty salespersons represent several companies to offer a variety of personalized or imprinted products. They show the prospective customer samples, discuss the merits of different products, promotional and advertising objectives. They quote prices, write orders and sometimes deliver and collect for the products when they come in.

In most cases, however, they just take the order and get a "down payment" (the sales commission) from the client. The supplier then ships the order direct to the customer, COD for the freight and balance due.

This system is slightly more costly due to the piecemeal shipping and COD fees, but it may be the best (especially if you have a route). When you can handle these things personally, even if it is only once in a while. You gain more trust when you can deliver and collect in person; it shows a personal interest in your customer.

As a specialty ad sales person, you are the only link between the sponsoring company and your client. Your sponsoring company does not deal directly with the public. If they tried, they would lose their salesmen as well as many of their customers because they could not deal on a person to person basis.

For beginners, it is advisable to start with one product (such as book matches) so you can simplify your learning process and accelerate building your confidence.

Try to form a business foundation without having to learn too many products, prices and methods of presentation. There is no need to go after a large clientele with your first product. Just make enough calls to gain enough experience and self-confidence, then start expanding your line.

The real secret is to knowing your customers, products and prices well. This will enable you to visualize how your products can best benefit your customers.

As the representative of your company you are the authority for that product and company to your customers. If you seem unsure of your products, prices or their application, the customer is not likely to have confidence in you, the products or the company. This means they probably won't deal with you until you can reflect confidence!

Many retailers will try new salesperson or product to check on their quality, service and reliability. If they like what they get, they will probably increase their orders.

With just one product at first, you can learn not only the pricing, but the sales pitches and various company suggested applications faster, and your confidence will build fast. You will learn what kind of questions customers ask and gain valuable experience in handling them professionally.

When you feel you are ready, start adding products to your line. As you become better acquainted with your customers, you will soon have a good idea of what might sell in your area. Your customers will tell you their needs and preferences and most will be happy to advise you on your products and techniques.

When you add products, concentrate on those that complement what you already offer (you already their application).

For example, if you sell printed book matches, add printed pens and calendars, which involve similar applications. Later on you can add silk screen labels and wallet size calendar or self-stick football schedules for local high schools.

These are examples of items whose applications may be a little more complicated than book matches.. You should be familiar with their potential use before adding them to your line.

It is quite alright to change suppliers from time to time. When you do and the customer asks why, just explain that you found a better deal (that, they will understand).

Good specialty salespeople gradually build a full line of products, learning all about each one in turn. That's how they can intelligently recommend realistic alternatives and suggest different promotional innovative specialty sales person can mentally adapt to his customers. The result can literally be a special plan for each individual client!

Most specialty suppliers provide their representatives with excellent support. They employ staffs of experts who keep coming up with new and better ways to market their products.

When you discover a new technique for one product, it will usually also apply to other products as well! If book matches are good for a graduate, then why not napkins or handkerchiefs? Also be alert for profitable combinations.

For example, you might try to put together a promotion to print bumper stickers supporting the school team. You might get the bank to pay for 500, the supermarket, another 500 and perhaps a few smaller orders to bring the total to 2500 (a price change). Then, you sell the local drive-in the space on the protective covering for free soda coupons (with purchase).

There are endless variations that an innovative salesperson can devise, including combining orders to take advantage of volume prices.

Those 500 bumper stickers cost nearly double per unit at the 500 rate than the 2500 rate. By paying a small copy change fee, you can have 500 stickers with the bank name; 500 more with the supermarket (etc.) as donors and still enjoy the 2500 rate. Since the bank and supermarket both pay at the 500 rate, you can make up to $200 extra profit.

An excellent advertising specialty business potential is coming events such as business anniversaries, sales promotions, birthdays, trade fairs, holidays, sports events and elections. Keep your eye on the calendar and plan well ahead to take advantage of these promising situations. Get local merchants to finance publication of school sports schedules (with their company name listed prominently).

Talk to the campaign chairman BOTH parties and political candidates as soon as they file for office.. Find out who files and when from the county, state or city clerks office.

Always be ready to help customers with ideas and techniques to help achieve their goals. Sometimes little suggestions like spraying inexpensive cardboard political signs with water repellent will make you look great!

be sure to give yourself (and your customers) enough lead-time to plan and fill orders in time for scheduled events.

Advise your customers how long it takes to get orders to be filled, and suggest allowing a little extra time in case there are any delays. If printed pens usually take three weeks, advise your customer to order about five weeks in advance if they must be available for a particular date.

Consider joining professional organizations that can alert you to additional suppliers, product and IDEAS.

Advertising Specialties Institute 9ASI - see BUSINESS SOURCES) offers distributor (salesmen) memberships for a one time fee of $75. Membership entitles you to a wide range of trade information and initial credit from member suppliers.

Most trade suppliers display their ASI number prominently in their advertisements and catalogs. Membership is limited to manufacturers and suppliers of specialty merchandise and active independent specialty people.

Going into the advertising specialty sales business is very easy. Just decide on a name for your business, get some business cards, a sales kit from a good supplier and start calling on prospective customers.

You also need reliable transportation unless you plan to operate by mail (which is not recommended at this stage). ALWAYS keep a record of where you go and who you talk to. This make each succeeding visit continuation of the previous one.

When professional specialty salespeople drive up to a business, they take a moment to refresh their memory from their route book. This is an informal record of names, major discussion topic of last time (if any), what they ordered and anything else of interest.

The idea is to appear interested enough in the customer to remember their name and the last visit! They have a separate loose leaf page for each customer and update it each visit or call. If you do this, you too will "remember" names and details of the last meeting. This is IMPRESSIVE and helps MAKE SALES!

After you have gained enough experience with advertising specialties, you might consider expanding or converting to an advertising agency or service.

Here, you would size up the client's needs and help design and implement promotions and advertisements for them. You would charge a retainer plus a fee for each promotion and still get your commission on any advertising specialties. Needless to say, some of your specialty sales customers would be excellent prospects for your agency.

Records keeping in this business is very important. In addition to your customer notebook, you should have accurate records of all sales and commissions.

As an independent business person, the government requires you to make your own social security payments and (probably after the first year) pay your taxes quarterly. If you have someone do your taxes, they will let you know how much you need to pay each quarter and provide you with the forms to send in (they are actually short and simple).

The general rule in quarterly payments is to pay one fourth of whatever you owed at the end of last year over what your employers withheld. For business records, keep all your receipts by the month. Consider a single entry ledger, such as that described in Chapter 16 of The ULTIMATE HOME BUSINESS Manual (available for $25.00).

This type of record will let you know how you are doing, and the receipts envelopes will enable your tax person to prepare your taxes efficiently.

There are two important potential problem area to watch out for is the imprinted specialty sales field. The first is getting the orders wrong.

Sometimes, you must THINK you have accurate copy, only to discover there is a misspelled word, incorrect address or wrong date. One sure error can wipe out profits from several sales if it is your fault.

To avoid this problem, write out the copy clearly, completely and accurately on the ticket. Then ask the customer to review and sign or initial it -- signifying that they have checked and approved it. When you forward the order to the company, always keep a copy of the ticket with the desired copy (never send them your only copy).

This way, if there is a problem you can easily show who was at fault. The other potential headache is getting hooked up with a bad supplier. This could be one that overcharges, doesn't deliver on time or gets your orders mixed up. When this happens, charge suppliers -- fast! Of course, we all make mistakes, so if your supplier makes an occasional error and takes immediate corrective action,,, they are probably worth keeping.

To be successful in the advertising specialty business, you must be knowledgeable and reliable.

This means that you know your customers as well as your products. This is the only way you can know how your customers can use your products to their advantage.

Being reliable is essentially keeping your word, showing up when you are expected and giving your customers honest advice.

When your customers expect you each month or week, you have passed a major milestone -- because they will hold orders for you! They could not afford to do that if they weren't sure when you might come around again.

Treat your customers right and they will appreciate it enough to be reluctant to deal with your competitors -- which is your objective!

BUSINESS SOURCES

ADVERTISING SPECIALTY INSTITUTE (ASI) Bucks County Business center, 1120 Wheeler Way, Langhorn, PA 19004. Organization for specialty advertising manufacturers, distributors and sales.

KLING ADVERTISING SPECIALTIES, P.O. Box 338, Barrington, Il. Sales kits and instructions for ad salesmen.

ALEXANDER, P.O. Box 6, Lexington, KY 61753. High quality imprinted pens, marble coasters, key chains, emblems, etc.

WILKINSON-ACRES, INC.,844 Central Ave.,Kansas City, KS 66101. Advertising merchandise.

LINCOLN SPECIALTY JOBBERS, 117 Virginia Ave.,Reading, PA 19606. Wholesale specialty advertising products.

NATIONWIDE ADVERTISING SPECIALTIES CO., P.O. Box 928, Arlington, TX 76010, 817/275-2678. Advertising specialties; free sales kit; AAA1 D7B Rating; old company.

NEWTON MANUFACTURING CO.,Newton, IA 50208. Ad Specialties; free sales kit; old company.

PARKTONE PRESS, P.O. Box 539, Spring Valley, NY 10977. Wholesale calendars, ethnic selection; free sales kit.

TASCO INDUSTRIES, P.O. Box 29376, Dallas, TX 75229. Wholesale imprinted merchandise, such as baseball caps.

ALLSTATE SPECIALTIES, INC., 2895 Biscayne Blvd.,Miami, FL 33137. Wholesale calendars, pens, etc; 40% commission to specialty salesmen.

SPECIALTY ADVERTISING NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (SANA), 1145 19th St.,Washington, DC 20036. Association of specialty advertising producers. Free information.

QUILL CORPORATION,, 100 Schelter Rd.,Lincolnshire, IL 60917-4700. Office supplies.

WALTER DRAKE, 4119 Drake Bldg.,Colorado Springs, CO 80940. Short run business cards, stationery (no choice of format or colors).

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HOW TO START AN ADVERTISING SPECIALTY BUSINESS is a post from: Work From Home

When the first generation of women entered the workforce in earnest in the 1970s, they succeeded in the only way they could – by imitating men. Authoritarian leadership and tight control was the hallmark of that day’s businessman, and women were not exactly welcomed into the ranks of management. Well ladies, that was yesterday, and today is today!

Forget what your mama or your boss told you, because following the rules can be bad for your career. Today’s CEO/entrepreneur can no longer tap his/her company’s full potential using a “command-and-control” style. The 21st century business woman needs to be able to build a vision based on the awareness of economic transformation, then help her partners and staff fulfill that vision. She must draw on a wide range of skills to get to the top and stay there. Following are 7 Key Characteristics that are essential:

1. Sell the Vision: A leader with a fresh, independent plan for her company’s growth and future has a distinct advantage in luring and keeping great talent and investors. Vision is not some lofty ideal, but an obtainable concept that is easy to understand and will make the company grow to another level.

2. Reinvent the Rules: While women have traditionally been socialized to please others, the 21st century leader knows that good girls rarely post great returns. The strong managers/owners today not only anticipate change, they create entirely new organizations that respond to shifts and search for innovation.

3. Achieve With A Laser Focus: Go where others fear to tread! Being aggressive and ambitious has long been considered male traits, but they are key qualities for new leaders. Today’s business woman has the ability to home in on opportunities that others may simply not see, and then excel in that uncharted territory.

4. Use High-Touch in a High-Tech Era: When a number of leaders are conducting business by e-mail, voice mail, passwords, and PINs, the female entrepreneur succeeds because she guides with a strong, personal, bed-side manner. Today’s business woman is just as technologically savvy as her peers, but her skill with staff and customers is “high-touch” which gives her a critical edge and separation from the “pack”.

5. Challenge or Opportunity? – Women are great at turning a challenge into an opportunity instead of using the “slash-and-burn” approach. They are able to make bold strokes, but they also win the cooperation of others in the organization in making any transformation a success.

6. A Customer Preference Obsession: In this information age which makes it easier to shop around for the best “whatever”, businesses must work harder to give people what they want before their competitors do. There is no substitute for spending time with clients to become expert at their businesses and learn their demands. Female leaders are almost intuitively adept in doing just that, and without the client even suspecting.

7. Courage Under Fire: Show me any career woman or female entrepreneur today that isn’t able to “stand-the-heat” in any tough-call situation. Their decision-making skills are rooted in a high level of confidence, because they’ve had to weather and surpass any and all “corporate” storms they’ve encountered over time.

It takes a certain mind-set and bravado for anyone to start their own business and succeed, but it’s even more difficult for a female entrepreneur. Let’s face it, ladies! We’ve always had to be twice-as-smart and twice-as-confident as any male counterpart in the corporate world. After all, if we can bear and raise the future generation, how can running a successful business scare us?

21st Century Business Women is a post from: Work From Home

Are you wondering what the hottest franchising trends are? Much of the recent success in that area is traceable to two demographic trends: Americans are getting older and feeling pressed for time. Doesn’t sound too bright, but it means booming business in franchising circles.

Now I am by no means a Franchise Guru. I’ve never owned one, worked for one, or even considered one and for good reasons.

First, when I started my publishing and publicity business I wasn’t flush financially enough to pay the “freight” on a franchise. Secondly, it seems too much like working for another corporate business to me. Things are done their way or no way, and you work for two – you and the piece the company takes. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be your cup of tea, because many entrepreneurs love franchises.

I’m not going to expound as a franchise expert, but rather I’ll give you the facts about the hottest ones to look at if you like franchises. Despite the status of the economy it seems the most stunning growth in franchises in 2004 has been in the senior-care segment. Seven senior-care companies ranked in the top 500 in Entrepreneur magazine have grown a total of 370 units in one year, and almost 39% in the past year.

Experts say that despite the large increases, this market hasn’t peaked yet. By 2010, 39 million Americans will be 65 or older, and that’s almost 20% of the North American population. About 30% of non-institutionalized seniors live alone, per the Dept. of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging. Many of them need extra help at home or companionship.

As the nation ages and boomers turn 60, this segment of the population will grow. “Elder care will replace child care as the number one social issue,” predicts Jeff Huber, vice president of Home Instead Senior Care – a franchise that grew from 356 to 448 units this past year.

The next hottest area is kids. Parents want their kids to have fun and be well-educated and will spend money to ensure this in good times and in bad. Children’s products and services segment of franchises have grown steadily over the year and become one of the top 5 overall categories in term of unit size in 2004.

What’s changed? Spending on children is now being fueled not only by baby-boomers, but by Generation X – a group that has $736 billion in spending power. Another change in the market in the past 25 years is the increase in dual-career families. According to some in the industry, this is an ideal time to enter the education sector of franchises for kids.

Kids’ fitness programs are also growing. Caryn Burnier, franchise sales director with Stretch-N-Grow International, says they have added 50 units last year. “We expect to see more children enrolled in fitness programs in the coming year,” says Jerry Perch, vice president of sales/marketing for the 92-unit Kinderdance International Inc. franchise.

Last, but not least, the tech industry is rebounding from its nose-dive in the past. This is because there is an increased dependence by people and businesses on their technology. People need advice on what to buy and what not to buy, and what is the proper solution to their particular need.

Computer Moms International Corp., a training and support provider, has seen a shift in its client base since it started 10 years ago. The greatest demand for services from the Computer Moms group has shifted to the business market, and the group added 30 franchises last year. The experts claim that the demand for quality full-service training and tech support is vast now and expected to become greater.

Following on the heels of those three areas are franchises in the area of Home Improvement, Fitness, Income Tax Preparation, Business Consulting, Specialty Ice Cream, and Coffee. So, if you’re in the market for a franchise type business pay heed to the up-and-coming hot leaders and let somebody else go for the 7-Elevens.

Is Franchising Your Bag? is a post from: Work From Home

If there is one word most Internet marketers quiver at the sound of, it is chargebacks. A chargeback is a dispute over a charge -usually an unauthorized or fraudulent charge- between the customer and the company. The merchant must pay back the entire amount along with any credit card fees. This amount is automatically deducted from your merchant account. There are three main problems about chargebacks that concern the merchant: 1. they lose the payment -and also the inventory if it was sent, 2. the fees associated with every chargeback are between $15 to $25, and worse of all 3. chargebacks don’t look good, and you may lose your merchant account. Merchant services are pretty finicky; they do not just hand out accounts to anyone.

The customer could either be dissatisfied with the product, or there could be a duplicate order, or it could be fraud. Whatever the reason may be, it is crucial to your online business to keep chargebacks to a minimum. One way to stop chargebacks is to stop fraudulent orders by checking to make sure the order seems legit. This may mean you may have to call each customer to confirm the order. You do not want to accept an order if it appears fraudulent. Be suspicious, because in the end, receiving too many chargebacks will damage your profit line.

If, on the other hand, your customer is simply dissatisfied with the product, give them a call and send them an email. Ask them what it is they didn’t like about the product. Ask them if there is anything you can do for them to satisfy them. If they still seem reluctant to drop the chargeback, your last resort would be to ask them if they wouldn’t mind dropping the chargeback and you can offer them a full refund. Most people wouldn’t mind this option. You will find that a simple phone call to the upset customer may actually turn things around in your favor.

Chargebacks is a post from: Work From Home

America is a throw-away society. We all know that. We all have a lot of

junk that we do not need, and just about all of us have things piling up

relentlessly in out attics, garages, basements, closets and even in the

wide open of the back yard.

A lot of people try to ignore the problem until they can no longer get into

their garage, or when they find it impossible to squeeze one more item into

the attic. They have too much junk and they need to get rid of it. Often,

they will pay someone to do just that. This means an opportunity for you.

You can make a decent living by helping people get rid of their junk.

To get started, you need a strong back and something to haul with, such as

a pick-up or a small trailer to pull behind your car. That's about it. If

you don't have a pick-up, consider buying a used one cheap. You could

easily find something for less than $1,000. An even less expensive

alternative is a small trailer for your car. Trailers can be had for just

a couple hundred bucks or less.

How To Get Started:

This is generally a very community or neighborhood oriented business. Take

out an ad in your community newspaper saying that you will haul away

unwanted items or that you will clean garages, basements or attics for a

fee. You can also print up a one-page flyer and place them on houses

door-to-door, or on the windshields of cars.

What You Need to Know

You will need to find a place for all the junk you collect and remove.

Find out where the local landfills are and what their policies are. They

may charge you a fee for bring stuff is, but you can charge that fee back

to you clients. You also may need dumping permits in some areas, so check

with your local city or county offices.

It's also a good idea to learn about dumping regulation. Some items are

more difficult to get rid of than others. For example, you can't just dump

a refrigerator or an old stove anywhere. Old tires are another hard-to-

dump item. There are specific places for specific things. Find out what

goes where. Once you have it all down, however, you have it made.

You should be able to earn from $7 to $10 an hour. You will not be able to

charge by the hour, however, because people may give you a problem about

the pace at which you work, and how much time they feel you should take to

get the job done. Instead, make an estimate based on your own judgment on

how long it will take you to clean out that garage or attic. Once you have

done a few, you will have a good idea about the time involved. Then give

an upfront estimate. If it will take you a complete day, or eight hours,

ask for $80 to $100.

Remember also that one man's trash is another man's treasure. You may find

a market for some of the items many people just want to get rid off. So

explore the option of sales to second hand stores, or the possibility of

starting up a second-hand store of your own. Such stores can be lucrative

like you would not believe. There's big money in junk - and in getting rid

of it. It takes no special knowledge or education, and you can get started

with a minimum investment. All that's left for you now it to get busy!

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Make Money on What Other People Throw Away – is a post from: Work From Home

Regardless of how you look at it, the most important aspect of

any successful mail order business is its advertising. In fact,

mail order success is wholly dependent, and even predicated upon

good advertising.

First of all, you've got to have a dynamic, spectacular ad that

attracts the eye and grabs the interest of the people you're

trying to sell to. Thus, unless your ad really "jumps out" at the

reader, your sales won't live up to expectations, and your ad

money will be wasted.

The eye-catching appeal of your ad must start with the headline.

Use the headline to very quickly create a picture in the minds of

the reader--a vision of all their problems being solved, and

attainment of the kind of happiness they seek. If your headline

fails to catch the attention of your prospect, you cannot hope to

capture him with the remaining of the ad, because it will go

unread! So in writing your advertisement for just a little while,

so you must quickly interest him in your offer, show him how he

can get what he wants, and then cause him to send immediately for

your "solution" to his problems. Your copy must exude enthusiasm,

excitement, and a positive attitude. Don't be afraid to use a

hard-sell approach! Say what you feel and believe about your

offer. And use common, "everyday," but correct English.

Even so, you can and must remember to be honest. Don't exaggerate

or make claims you can't back up. Never make promises you cannot

or don't expect, to keep. To do so could get you in trouble with

the Federal Trade and Fair Practices people.

Stress the benefits of your product or service. Explain to your

reader how owning a copy of your book (for instance), or

receiving your services will make his life richer, happier, and

more abundant. Don't get involved in detailing all the money

you've spent developing the product or researching the

information you're selling, or you're selling, or your

credentials for offering it. Stress the "sizzle" and the value of

ownership.

It is important to involve the reader as often as possible through

the use of the word "you." Write your copy just as if you were

speaking to and attempting to sell just ONE person. Don't let

your ad sound as a speaker at a podium addressing a huge stadium

filled with people, but as if there were just one individual

"listening."

And don't try to be overly clever, brilliant or humorous in your

advertising. Keep your copy simple, to the point, and on target

toward selling your prospect the product or service because of

its benefits. In other words, keep it simple, but clear; at all

costs, you don't want to confuse the reader. Just tell him

exactly what he'll get for his money; the benefits he'll receive;

how to go about ordering it. You don't have to get too friendly.

In fact, becoming "folksy," and don't use slang expressions.

In writing an ad, think of yourself as a door-to-door

salesperson. You have to get the attention of the prospect

quickly, interest him in the product you're selling, create a

desire to enjoy its benefits, and you can then close the sale.

Copywriting, whether for a display ad, classified ad, sales

letter or brochure, is a learned skill. It is one anyone can

master with a bit of study, practice, and perhaps some

professional guidance.

Your first move, then, is to study your competition, recognize

how they are selling their wares. Practice rewriting their ads

from a different point of view or from a different sales angle.

Keep a file of ads you've clipped from different publications in

a file of ad writing ideas. But don't copy anyone else's work;

just use the ad material of others to stimulate your own

creativeness.

Some of the "unknown facts" about advertising--and ad writing in

particular--tell us that you cannot ask for more than $3 in a

short classified type ad. Generally speaking, a $5 item will take

at least a one-inch display ad. If you're trying to sell a $10

item, you'll need at least a quarter page--perhaps even a half

page of copy--and $15 to $20 items require a full page. If you

are selling a really big ticket item (costing $50 or more) you'll

need a four-page sales letter, a brochure, separate order coupon,

and return reply envelope.

If you're making offers via direct mail, best to get into the

postal system with it on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, to be sure it

does not arrive on Monday, the first and busiest day of the week.

And again, unless you're promoting a big ticket item, the quality

or color of your paper won't have any great effect on the

response you'll get, but the quality of your PRINTING definitely

will, so bear this in mind when you place your printing order.

One final point to remember: The summer months when people are

most apt to be away on vacation are usually not good months for

direct mail. But they ARE good for opportunity and advertisements

in publications often found in vacation areas, and in motels and

hotels.

Again, it cannot be stresses too much or often: Success in mail

order does, indeed, depend upon advertising, and as with anything

else, quality pays off in the long run. Read this report again;

study it; let it sink in. Then apply the principles outlined in

it. They have worked for others, and THEY CAN WORK FOR YOU!

THE SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL MAIL ORDER ADS is a post from: Work From Home

In my most recent columns we’ve covered issues about improving your business and marketing, but today let’s start right at the beginning.

You’re really getting tired of the 9 to 5 “rat race” and are thinking about chucking it for your own business. All your friends keep telling you that you could do for yourself just what you’re doing now for your boss. Why shouldn’t you profit from your ideas instead of him?

You keep thinking about it because you know that you’ll never be financially where you want to be with a weekly paycheck, but what business would you start?

Before you pack in that weekly paycheck, this is the time to evaluate yourself and your future and it takes some real, down to heart honesty. You want to change your life for the better, so let’s start.

Did you know that you have the potential to do and be anything you want? People have different perceptions of the ideal life, and it ranges from obtaining financial freedom to as simple as owning a new pair of sneakers. Unfortunately, many fail to reach their aspirations because they can’t get a solid, clear picture in their mind of what they want.

Take the next few days and embark on a fact-finding journey that will be a life-changing experience. Get a pad and pencil and start with this first step:

STEP 1 - KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT – Be specific in your passions, then focus all your efforts on that particular desire.

Those who always change their minds and those who give up easily when the going gets tough will never get anywhere. If you’re a bit confused and aren’t sure what you really want in life answer these questions:

1. What makes your heart beat with excitement?

2. What makes you happy?

3. What are you constantly thinking of day and night?

4. What do you want to do with the rest of your life?

5. What do you enjoy doing?

6. What are your obsessions?

7. What things make you jump for joy?

Write down all your possible answers to the above questions. Write down everything, no matter how silly or unimportant it seems. Put all your desires on paper that answers any of the above questions.

When that’s done, go back and circle five to seven items that interest you the most. Then evaluate and choose with your heart, not your mind, the one and only thing worthy to spend all your time and resources on and that brings out the best in you.

Now you may wind up with something like, “I want to play quarterback for the RAMS.” If you’re over 20 I’d say that isn’t too viable a choice, but you could do something related to football or sports. How about starting a sports publication? Or perhaps a sporting goods retail business, sports memorabilia business, or even a gym could be the answer. You can always read books and surf the net to help you in your search.

The most important thing to remember, no matter how “pie in the sky” it seems, is to USE YOUR HEART. Others may disagree with you, but you should be firm with what you really want. Others may offer comments or advice, but the final decision is always yours to make. You should concentrate on what you want, not what others want.

Remember you only get one shot at living your life. There are no replays and you don’t get to do it over. You may not do it right, but at least you’re doing it. Too many lives have been lived in quiet desperation waiting until – until they had saved a nest egg, until the children are out of school, until I retire, and they depart this life before “until” ever arrives.

Don’t go to sleep tonight without making a decision on WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IN LIFE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE.

Then spend a few days evaluating how to make it possible and make a living at it. Begin living every day as if it were the last day you had – never leaving anything to be done next week, next month, or next year.

There will always be bills, things will always break down eventually and need replacing, there may be storms and earthquakes and repairs – but there will only be one life for you to live. It can’t be put on “hold”!

The final outcome of your efforts may be in the future, but you’re living each day by taking steps toward that outcome.

Get What You Want in 7 Powerful Steps is a post from: Work From Home

Your credit is bad. Perhaps you have a string of unpaid bills haunting

your past. Maybe you declared bankruptcy within the past 10 years, or

defaulted on a student loan.

All of the above can block your access to obtaining a major credit card,

such as VISA or Mastercard.

But bad credit is not the only reason you can be denied a major credit

card. Some people simply have never used credit. People who like to pay

cash only, have never financed a car, taken out a college loan, or a

mortgage may have zero experience with credit. In that case, most card

companies will reject your application, not because you have bad credit --

but because you have no credit rating.

Many women who marry young and do all their borrowing under their husband's

name often find themselves with no credit rating after they are widowed or

divorced. Thousands of women have been denied loans and credit cards on

that basis.

Still other people carry too much debt to be considered a good risk. If

you have a car loan, a student loan, a mortgage, two or three -- out cards,

you are unlikely to be granted another credit card.

But in any and all of the above cases, you can still obtain a credit card.

No matter how bad your credit, and even if you have declared bankruptcy,

you can still be granted a VISA or Mastercard with a limit as high as

$5,000, if you know the write company to call, and how to make your

application.

We are going to reveal these card companies and the methods by which you

can obtain a VISA or Mastercard later in this report, but first, let's talk

about some of the other things you really should know about credit cards,

including annual fees, interest rates, credit reports and more.

Your Credit Rating

How do credit card companies decide if you are a good credit risk or a bad

credit risk? Well, it's sort of a Big Brother thing. There are several

large agencies in America which track the borrowing and buying behavior of

just about every single American who has borrowed money at one time or

another.

The three major credit rating agencies are:

Experian Equifax and Trans Union Corp. :

When you send in an application for a credit card, the card company

contacts one of the above agencies, which pulls your file, if one exists,

and let's the company know if you have any bad debts in your background.

If you have never borrowed money or used credit of any kind, your name will

not appear in the data base of any of the above. If you have, there will

almost certainly be information about you. If you have ever defaulted on a

bill, or walked away from a debt owed, that information will be available.

If you have never defaulted on a loan, but have made frequent late

payments, that is recorded, too, and goes against your credit rating.

25 Percent Error Rate –

If this sounds a bit like Big Brother, most would agree with you that it is.

It's scary to think that some large anonymous corporation is keeping a

file on you, but it's true. Furthermore, they will share your file with

any lending institution that wants to know something about you. That's the

price you pay to obtain credit. You've heard the statement, "there ain't

no such thing as a free lunch." When it comes to the game of credit, the

lunch is definitely not free, neither in the monetary sense, or in the

realm of personal freedom.

To top things off, credit agencies make errors in as many as one-fourth (25

percent) of all their reports. At this minute, false information about you

may be ruining your credit rating.

To check your credit rating for errors, call the agencies at the numbers we

provided above. They will request that you send them a written letter

asking for a copy of your credit report. They will send you a copy of the

information they have about you.

Now let's look at how card companies make the big bucks -- interest rates.

Interest Rates

A few decades ago there were laws against charging the kinds of interest

rates credit cards get today. Exorbitantly high interest rates were called

"usury," and were forbidden by federal law. Just 30 years ago loaning

money at 20 percent would have landed any banker in prison. Such rates

were the territory of loan sharks and organized crime.

Today, however, it's standard business. Some cards have rates approaching

21 percent. Some product manufacturers, such as Apple Computer, have

credit plans that push a whopping 23 percent.

Most credit card companies attract customers with super low interest rates,

sometimes as easy as 5 percent. But what they only tell you in the fine

print, which few people bother to read, it that the interest rate jumps

back up after six months. Many cards that start you out at 6 percent soon

jump to 18 percent, or higher. By that time, most people have chalked up a

balance and are stuck. Most people simply fail to notice when their rate

increases. Credit card companies count on that. They like who take no

interest in details. If you don't watch them, they'll watch you -- and

your wallet -- and dip into it in the most insidious ways.

No Annual Fee Cards

Some credit card companies charge no annual fee for use of their card.

Annual fees range from $18 to $55. You pay it every year simply for the

privilege of using the card. Other companies charge no annual fee. You

might think, then, that this is a better deal. Most often they are not.

Cards with no annual fee almost always have a higher interest rate. If you

leave a monthly balance, you'll always pay more than the annual fee in

interest charges. Only if you never leave an unpaid monthly balance can

you benefit form a card with no annual fee.

Perks and Freebies

One of those insidious ways is the offer such perks as frequent flier miles

or annual rebates. Use the card so often, and get X amount of frequent

flier miles. Use your card, and get credit toward the purchase of an

automobile. Is this a good deal? Hardly ever. As you might have guessed,

the offer of rebates and gifts is simply an inducement for you to pay super

high interest rates. Unless you are a big spender and travel a lot, you'll

rarely benefit from this kind of promotion.

Be Choosy

In short, never sign up for a credit card until you compare rates. Shop

around. Credit card companies are just as competitive as any other kind of

business. That means interest rates that vary widely. In general, never

go for a card that is five percent higher than the current prime rate.

How To Get A Lower Rate

What if you are already on the hook with a major credit card with an

agonizing rate of interest? Pick up the phone, call your card company, and

get tough. Often, if you ask for a lower interest rate, you'll get one --

it's as simple as that.

As further incentive, you can threaten to transfer your balance to another

card company with a lower rate. Many card companies are more than willing

to take you on as a customer by paying off one of their competitors for

you. Of course, you are then beholden to them. That's okay if you score a

lower interest rate.

How Anyone Can Get a Credit Card

Now what about all of you "hopeless cases" out there. What if you have

deplorable credit, or no credit rating at all. You may have already been

turned down by a half-dozen card companies. What can you do?

First, you should think long and hard about why you want a credit card in

the first place. If you have a history of bad credit, a credit card may be

the last thing you need. Many people feel that credit cards and the debt

they lead people into is a modern form of slavery.

Credit cards are almost magically deceptive and alluring. They get at the

deepest psychological lever of the human mind -- a lever which allows

people to have the feeling they are getting something for free, when in

fact, they are paying two, three, four, even ten times as much for that

product because of the interest they will pay on each purchase.

On the other hand, not having a credit card is becoming less and less

practical in modern America. You can't rent a car without a credit card.

Carrying cash is dangerous. Checks are not accepted everywhere -- and

traveling to another city or country is extremely difficult without the

confidence and identity a credit card brings.

A Secured Card

If you decide you really need and want a credit card despite your past

problems with credit, you should get what is called a secured credit card.

Even people who have declared bankruptcy are granted secured cards.

A secured card works this way: you pay a lump sum of cash upfront either

to your bank or the card company itself, usually from $200 to $2,500. The

card company will then grant your credit for up to 150 percent of the

amount of your deposit. If you pony up $500, you will be granted a $750

credit line. If you put up $1,000, you will get $1,500 in credit, and so

on.

Your deposit money will earn a very nice 4 to 5 percent interest while it

is held as collateral by your bank or the card company. The deposit money

acts like a buffer for the lender. In the event you default on your card

debt, the lender gets to keep your money. They may still incur a net loss,

but the risk is far less.

Additionally, the interest you gain on your deposit will offset the

interest on your monthly balance if you have one. If you get a secured

card with an 18 percent interest rate, you can feel good about the fact

that your pre-payment is earning 5 percent.

Which card companies offer secured credit card plans? The following:

CitiBank -- Minimum deposit is $300, which earns 4%.

Call: 800-933-2484

Federal Savings Bank -- Minimum deposit is $250, which earn 2.5%. Call

800-285-9090

Orchard Bank -- Minimum deposit is $400, which pays 4% Call 800-873-7307

Key Federal -- Minimum deposit is $300, which earns from 4% to 5%. Call

800-228-2230

Signet Bank -- Minimum deposit is $200, which earns 5%.

Call 800-333-7116.

Using a secured credit card can also help repair your credit rating if you

use it responsibly over a number of years.

Even if you do not have bad credit, a secured credit card is recommended

for anyone who wants the safety and convenience of a credit card. Secured

cards are a safe, responsible way to control your spending, and you

actually earn money though interest on your deposit while you enjoy the use

of your card.

DISCLAIMER: At the time of writing the referenced banks, companies, and phone numbers were valid. However, with progress and the consolidation of so many companies they may now be outdated – but the concepts and points made are still good. Where you find references outdated – simply substitute the current company.

-30-

How to Get A Credit Card is a post from: Work From Home

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING IS A PROVEN METHOD

Classified advertising has always been, and will continue to be the favorite method for Mail Order "Pros" to advertise. Almost all Mail Order Pros started with these tiny inexpensive ads since they represent the best cost effective way to reach millions of people.

TWO BASIC METHODS

Two basic methods are used with classified advertising. (1) Place an ad offering FREE literature, and then send your literature to all inquiries. A "free" offer will always out pull an ad that requests money, but your overall profits may be larger since you will generate more inquiries. This method is excellent when you are also collecting "Opportunity Seeker" names that you can rent. You should be able to generate fresh National leads for $.20 to $1 using this method. (2) Offer a report for $2 or $3 and then send out other offers with your orders. This eliminates the "Opportunity Seeker" who never buy anything, and your operation is much cleaner and void of "busy" work.

OVER 200 LISTED PUBLICATIONS

The following is a listing of over 200 magazines that offer classified advertising. The first group of magazines represent the mail-order "Pros" favorites, and they will always out pull other magazines for opportunity offers. The second group has been selected from thousands of other magazines (1) they offer classified advertising, and (2) they are the least expensive (Word Cost/Circulation ratio). Notice that the last column provides the Word Cost/Circulation ratio. That is, this ratio shows you how much it will cost you for each word for every 1,000 people who get the magazine. The lower this ratio is, the more cost effective it is. For example, if you were to advertise in the National Enquirer, it would cost $8.95 for each word, and it will cost you $.0023 for each 1,000 persons that get the National Enquirer. In this example, if you placed a 10 word ad, it will cost you $89.50, and it will be sent out to 3,500,000 people.

COST/CIRCULATION RATIOS

This may seem like an expensive ad, but the cost to get your 10 word ad to 1,000 people is only ($.0023 x 10) = $.023! That's right - two cents!! For every 1,000 people! Therefore, learn to evaluate the circulation/cost ratio since this will tell you the relative cost that is important. As a further example, consider advertising in the "Hounds And Hunting" (#238). Here the cost for a word is only $.22. Good Deal? NO! In this case your Word Cost per 1,000 is $.0227. Therefore, your cost to place a 10 word ad per 1,000 people is ($.0227 x 10) = $.227! That's over 10 times more expensive than the National Enquirer! However, if you were selling something for hunting, it might actually pull better than National Enquirer.

ASK FOR RATE CARD

Before you place an ad, write to the magazine and ask for their "Rate Card" for both classified ads and space advertising. You will normally receive a large package containing a sample publication, advertising rates, schedules and discounts offered for multiple insertions placed for sequential publication dates.

This Group of Publications Have Always Proven To Produce Excellent Results For Opportunity Offers:

# MAGAZINE NAME CIRCULATION

1. Globe Group 3,000,000 Weekly

P.O. Box 21

Rouses Point, NY 12979-0021

2. The Star 2,900,000 Weekly

P.O. Box 1510

Clearwater, FL 34617

3. National Enquirer 3,500,000 Weekly

P.O. Box 10178

Clearwater, FL 34617

4. Grier's Almanac 3,011,680 Annually

P.O. Box 888281

Atlanta, GA 30356

5. Field & Stream 2,000,000 Monthly

Two Park Ave

New York, NY 10016-5695

6. Classified, Inc. 25,000,000+ Monthly

100 E. Ohio Street, Suite 632

Chicago, IL 60611

7. Grit 330,496 10 times/yr

Stauffer's Magazine Group

1503 S.W. 42nd St.

Topeka, KS 66609-1265

8. Capper's 353,422 26 times/yr

Stauffer's Magazine Group

1503 S.W. 42nd St.

Topeka, KS 66609-1265

9. Popular Science 1,861,155 Monthly

2 Park Ave.

New York, NY 10016

10. Popular Mechanics 1,633,210 Monthly

224 West 57th Street

New York, NY 10019

11. The Workbasket 2,726,000 6 times/yr

700 West 47th St., Suite 310

Kansas City, MO 64112

12. Home Mechanix 1,003,244 Monthly

2 Park Ave.

New York, Ny 10016

13. Crafts 'N Things 287,828 8 times/yr

701 Lee St. #1000

Des Plaines, IL 60016

14. The Family Handyman 1,000,000 10 times/yr

28 W. 23rd Street

New York, NY 10010

15. Workbench 1,025,000 6 times/yr

700 West 47th St., Suite 310

Kansas City, MO 64112

16. Crafts Magazine 1,000,000 Monthly

P.O. Box 1790

Peoria, IL 61656

17. Money Making Opportunities 222,000 8 times/yr

11071 Ventura Blvd.

Studio City, CA 91604

18. Spare Time Magazine 301,000 9 times/yr

5810 W. Oklahoma Ave.

Milwaukee, WI 53219

19. INC. Magazine 647,211 Monthly

38 Commercial Wharf

Boston, MA 02110-3883

20 Fate 200,000 Monthly

Llewellyn Publications

Box 64383

St. Paul, MN 55164

21. Income Opportunities 400,000 Monthly

1500 Broadway, Suite 600

New York, NY 10019

22. Success 1,200,000 10 times/yr

PO Box 570

Clearwater, FL 34617-0570

23. Book Business Mart 50,000 3 times/yr

Premier Publishers

P.O. Box 330309

Fort Worth, TX 76163-0309

24. Opportunity & Income Plus 250,000 Monthly

73 Spring Street #303

New York, NY 10012

25. Entrepreneur 1,700,000 Monthly

P.O. Box 570

Clearwater, FL 34617-0570

26. Black Enterprise 240,000 Monthly

130 Fifth Ave.

New York, NY 10011

27. Mail Profits 15,000 6 times/yr

P.O. Box 4785

Lincoln, NE 68504

This Group Represents More Good Magazines With Low Cost/Circulation Ratios

28. Hemmings Motor News 261,551 Monthly

P.O. Box 256 Rt 9 West Blvd

Bennington, VT 05201

29. The Old Farmers Almanac 4,400,000 Annually

PO Box 520/Main Street

Dublin, NH 03444

30. The Ladies Birthday Alman. 3,803,450 Annually

1715 W. 38th St.

Chattanooga, TN 37409

31. Cat Fancy 237,528 Monthly

2401 Beverly Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90057

32. The Antique Trader Weekly 190,000 Weekly

P.O. Box 1050

Dubuque, IA 52001

33. Cars and Parts 106,111 Monthly

PO Box 482

911 Vandermark Rd.

Sidney, OH 45365

34. The American Rifleman 1,372,371 Monthly

470 Spring Park Place

Herndon, VA 22070

35. The American Hunter 1,359,643 Monthly

470 Spring Park Place

Herndon, VA 22070

36. Railfan and Railroad 144,216 Monthly

Carsten's Publications, Inc.

P.O. Box 700

Newton, NJ 07860

37. Bird Talk 123,134 Monthly

PO Box 57900

2401 Beverly Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90057-0900

38. Model Railroader 181,683 Monthly

1027 N. 7th St.

Milwaukee, WI 53233

39. Sports Collectors Digest 43,361 Weekly

700 East State St.

Iola, WI 54990

40. Muscle Car Review 71,235 10 times/yr

Dobbs Publishing Group, Inc.

3816 Industry Boulevard

Lakeland, FL 33811

41. The American Legion Magazine 3,004,913 Monthly

PO Box 1055

Indianapolis, IN 46206

42. Crochet World 72,300 6 times/yr

House of White Birches

306 East Parr Rd

Berne, IN 46711

43. Gun Week 20,000+ Weekly

Box 488 Station C

Buffalo, NY 14209

44. Quiltworld 71,000 6 times/yr

House of White Birches

306 East Parr Rd.

Berne, IN 46711

45. Woodman of the World Mag. 466,625 Monthly

1700 Farnam St.

Omaha, NE 68102

46. California Senior Citizens 69,000 Monthly

4805 Alta Canyada Road

La Canada, CA 91011

47. Sew News 235,000 Monthly

P.O. Box 1790 - News Plaza

Peoria, IL 61656

48. American Motorcyclist 176,169 Monthly

33 Collegeview Road

Westerville, OH 43081

49. American Collector's Journal 50,926 Bi-Monthly

P.O. Box 407

Kewanee, Il 61443

50. Shooting Times 196,441 Monthly

News Plaza

PO Box 1790

Peoria, IL 61656

51. 58 Dog Fancy 135,320 Monthly

2401q Beverly Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90057

52. Guns Magazine 205,619 Monthly

Publisher's Development

591 Camino de la Reina, Ste. 200

San Diego, CA 92108

53. National History 511,463 Monthly

488 Madison Ave.

New York, NY 10022

54. Baseball Digest 297,490 Monthly

Trump Card Marketing

222 Cedar Lane

Teaneck, NJ 07666

55. Farm Journal 730,145 13 times/yr

230 W. Washington Sq.

Philadelphia, PA 19106-3599

56. The Farmer 118,459 21 times/yr

1999 Shepard Rd.

St. Paul, MN 55116

57. Finescale Modelier 77,748 Bimonthly

1027 N. 7th St.

Milwaukee, WI 53233

58. Trains 91,749 Monthly

1027 N. 7th St.

Milwaukee, WI 53233

59. Good Old Days 72,500 Monthly

House of White Birches

306 East Parr Rd.

Berne, IN 46711

60. Dune Buggies & Hot VW's 107,302 Monthly

2950-A7 Airway Ave.

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

61. American Handgunner Magazine 179,751 6 times/yr

Publishers Development

591 Camino de la Reina, Ste. 200

San Diego, CA 92108

62. Fur-Fish-Fame 172,847 Monthly

2878 E. Main Street

Columbus, OH 43209

63. Changing Times 1,372,867 Monthly

1729 H St., N.W.

Washington, DC 20006

64. B'NAI B'RITH JEWISH MONTHLY 171,457 Monthly

823 United Nations Plaza

New York, NY 10017

65. QST 161,442 Monthly

225 Main Street

Newington, CT 06111

66. Railroad Model Craftsman 72,315 Monthly

Carsten's Publications, Inc.

P.O. Box 700

Newton, NJ 07860

67. Power Boat 83,224 11 times/yr

15917 Strathern St.

Van Nuys, CA 91406

68. Saturday Evening Post 500,000 6 times/yr

1100 Waterway Blvd.

Indianapolis, IN 46202

69. Successful Farming 575,686 14 times/yr

Locust at 17th

Des Moines, IA 50336

70. Hunting 311,715 Monthly

8490 Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90069

71. Michigan-Out-Of-Doors 101,066 Monthly

2101 Wood St.

Lansing, MI 48912

72. The Rotarian 510,000 Monthly

1560 Sherman Ave.

Evanston, IL 60201

73. Car and Driver 900,691 Monthly

1515 Broadway

New York, NY 10036

74. Organic Gardening 1,188,335 Monthly

33 E. Minor St.

Emmanus, PA 18098

75. Country Music City News 500,000 Monthly

50 Music Square West, 6th Floor

Nashville, TN 37203-3246

76. Bowling 131,351 6 times/yr

5301 South 76th Street

Greendale, WI 53129-0500

77. Motor Trend 738,964 Monthly

8490 Sunset Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90069

78. Soldiers of Fortune 105,000 Monthly

P.O. Box 693

Boulder, CO 80306

79. W.C. - Cross Stitch 72,851 Bimonthly

306 East Parr Rd

Berne, IN 46711

80. Equus 138,011 Monthly

656 Quince Orchard Rd.

Gaithersburg, MD 20878

81. Our Sunday Visitor 115,000 Weekly

200 Noll Plaza

Huntington, IN 46750

82. W.C.- Home Cooking 68,265 Monthly

306 East Parr Road

Berne, IN 46711

83. Flower and Garden 4,171,000 6 times/yr

700 West 47th. St., Suite 310

Kansas City, MO 64112

84. Full Cry 33,955 Monthly

Gault Publications

P.O. Box 10

Boody, IL 62514

85. American Cage-Bird Mag. 40,000 Monthly

One Glamore Court

Smithtown, NY 11787

86. Prorodeo 26,567 Bi-weekly

101 Prorodeo Dr.

Colorado Springs, CO 80919

87. Football Digest 203,182 10 times/yr

Trump Card Marketing

222 Cedar Lane

Teaneck, NJ 07666

88. Guns & Amo 521,638 Monthly

8490 Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90063

89. Modern Photography 650,386 Monthly

825 Seventh Ave.

New York, NY 10019

90. Family Motor Coach Association 98,000 Monthly

8291 Clough Pike

Cincinnati, OH 45244

91. The Highlander 38,000 7 times /yr

P.O. Box 397

Barrington, IL 60011

92. Craft Art Needlework Digest 101,189 Bimonthly

P.O. Box 584

Lake Forest, IL 60045

93. Yankee 2,900,000 Monthly

Yankee Publishing, Inc.

4850 Gaidrew Road

Alpharetta, GA 30201

94. National Speed Sport News 75,000 Weekly

P.O. Box 608

79 Chestnut Street

Ridgewood, NJ 07451-0608

95. National Review 240,000 25 times/yr

150 E. 35 Street

New York, NY 10016

96. Collectors Mart 86,623 6 times/yr

P.O. Box 12830

Wichita, KS 67277

97. Lapidary Journal 35,982 Monthly

P.O. Box 80937

San Diego, CA 92138

98. Easyriders 356,590 Monthly

28210 Dorothy Dr.

Agoura Hills, CA 91301

99. Video Review 450,001 Monthly

902 Broadway

New York, NY 10010

100. Basketball Digest 104,238 8 times/yr

Trump Card Marketing

222 Cedar Lane

Teaneck, NJ 07666

101. Winning! Newsletter 100,000 Monthly

5300 City Plex Tower

Jenks, OK 74037-5300

102. Teddy Bear and Friends 60,743 6 times/yr

900 Fredrick Street

Cumberland, MD 21502

103. Women's Circle 49,100 6 times/yr

House of White Birches

306 East Parr Road

Berne, IN 46711

104. Shutterbug 90,000 Monthly

PO Box F

Titusville, FL 32781

105. High Fidelity 300,172 Monthly

825 7th Ave.

New York, NY 10019

106. Skiing 440,370 7 times/yr

1515 Broadway

New York, NY 10036

107. Soundings 105,606 Monthly

33 Pratt St.

Essex, CT 06426

108. Motorcyclist 209,757 Monthly

8490 Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90069

109. Horoscope 104,200 Monthly

245 Park Ave.

New York, NY 10167

110. Practical Homeowner 708,504 9 times/yr

33 E. Minor St.

Emmaus, PA 18048

111. Bassmaster 530,757 Monthly

One Bell Rd.

Montgomery, AL 36117

112. Antique Monthly 66,243 Monthly

P.O. Drw. 2

Tuscaloosa, AL 35402

113. Pipe Smoker 25,000 Monthly

P.O. Box 22085

Chattanooga, TN 37422

114. Banana Republic Trips Mag. 300,000 Monthly

One Harrison St.

San Francisco, CA 94105

115. Camping & RV Magazine 20,000 Monthly

P.O. Box 337

Iola, WI 54945

116. Women's Household 39,200 Quarterly

House of White Birches

306 East Parr Road

Berne, IN 46711

117. Body, Mind & Spirit 152,000 Monthly

P.O. Box 701

Providence, RI 02401

118. Cycle 373,398 Monthly

1515 Broadway

New York, NY 10036

119. Today's Chicago Woman 125,000 Monthly

200-West Superior, #400

Chicago, IL 60610

120. Lottery Player's Magazine 180,127 Monthly

321 New Albany Rd.

Moorestown, NJ 08057

121. Video 407,050 Monthly

460 W. 34th St

New York, NY 10001

122. Archery 113,023 Monthly

319 Barry Ave. Suite 101

Wayzata, MN 55391

123. The Quarter Horse Journal 67,664 Monthly

2701 I-40 East P.O. Box 200

Amarillo, TX 79168

124. W.C. - Country Needlecraft 44,508 Monthly

306 East Parr Rd.

Berne, IN 46711

125. Modern Drummer 78,400 Monthly

870 Pomton Ave.

Cedar Grove, NJ 07009

126. International Travel News 26,109 Monthly

2120 28th St.

Sacramento, CA 95818

127. Worldradio 25,833 Monthly

2120 28th St.

Sacramento, CA 95818

128. Kiwanis 279,249 Monthly

3636 Woodview Trace

Indianapolis, IN 46268

129. Power and Motoryacht 135,319 Monthly

1234 Summer St.

Stamford, CT 06905

130. Modern Electronics 75,241 Monthly

76 N. Broadway

Hicksville, NY 11801

131. Sail 175,212 Monthly

100 First Ave

Charlestown, MA 02129

132. The Lutheran 1,083,181 Monthly

426 S. Fifth Ave.

Minneapolis, MN 55448

133. Americana 325,186 Monthly

29 W. 38th St.

New York, NY 10018

134. The Horse Trader 28,370 Monthly

P.O. Box 728

Middlefield, OH 44062

135. Passenger Train Journal 16,151 Monthly

P.O. Box 6128

Glendale, CA 91205

136. Runner's World 451,512 Monthly

33 E. Minor St.

Emmaus, PA 18049

137. The Log 46,960 Monthly

P.O. Box 89309

San Diego, CA 92318

138. Harvard Magazine 186,677 Monthly

7 Ware St.

Cambridge, MA 02138

139. Horse Illustrated 135,609 Monthly

25025 I-45 North, Suite 390

Spring, TX 77380

140. Trailer Boats 72,501 Monthly

20700 Belshaw Ave.

Carson, CA 90746

141. Skip 35,400 Monthly

P.O. Box 404

Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004

142. Trailblazer 94,572 Monthly

15375 S.E. 30th Place

Bellevue, WA 98007

143. Saltwater Sportsman 128,521 Monthly

186 Lincoln St.

Boston, MA 02111

144. Midwest Outdoors 37,773 Monthly

111 Shore Dr.

Burr Ridge, IL 60521

145. Golf 912,157 Monthly

380 Madison Ave.

New York, NY 10017

146. Southern Outdoors 288,963 Monthly

P.O. Box 17915

Montgomery, AL 36141

147. Cats Magazine 129,332 Monthly

445 Merrimac Dr.

Port Orange, FL 32019

148. The Western Horseman 162.369 Monthly

3850 N. Nevada Ave.

Colorado Springs, CO 80933

149. Guitar World 128,823 Monthly

1115 Broadway

New York, NY 10010

150. Mother Jones 183,864 Monthly

1633 Misson St.

San Francisco, CA 94103

151. Flying Models 27,073 Monthly

Box 700

Newtown, NJ 07860

152. Golf Digest 1,239,100 Monthly

5520 Park Ave.

Trumbull, CT 06611

153. Fishing World 341,215 6 times/yr

700 West 47th St., Suite 310

Kansas City, MO 64112

154. The Christian Herald 142,376 Monthly

40 Overlook Dr.

Chappaqua, NY 10514

155. UCLA Monthly 186,000 Monthly

1633 Westwood Blvd., Ste 110

Los Angeles, CA 90024

156. Video Marketplace 140,000 Monthly

990 Grove St.

Evanston, IL 60201

157. The Owner Builder 66,150 Monthly

1516 Fifth St.

Berkeley, CA 94710

158. Pennsylvania Sportsman 65,490 Monthly

P.O. Box 5196

Harrisburg, PA 17110

159. Woodenboat 103,180 Monthly

P.O. Box 78

Brooklyn, ME 04616

160. The Ensign 54,534 Monthly

P.O. Box 31664

Raleigh, NC 27622

161. Small Boat Journal 57,103 Monthly

Box 400

Bennington, VT 05201

162. Women's Sports and Fitness 300,708 Monthly

809 S. Orlando Ave., Ste H

Winter Park, FL 32789

163. Dirt Bike 131,930 Monthly

10600 Sepulveda Blvd.

Mission Hills, CA 91345

164. True West 32,939 Monthly

P.O. Box 2107

Stillwater, OK 74076

165. Jazz Times 49,237 Monthly

8055 13th St., Suite 301

Silver Springs, MD 20910

166. Tours & Resorts 194,716 Monthly

990 Grove St.

Evanston, IL 60201

167. Hockey Digest 103,506 Monthly

Trump Card Marketing

222 Cedar Lane

Teaneck, NJ 07666

168. Canoe 64,060 Monthly

P.O. Box 3146

Kirkland, WA 98083

169. The Nation 79,978 Monthly

72 5th Ave

New York, NY 10011

170. World Tennis 383,059 Monthly

3 Park Ave.

New York, NY 10016

171. The BackStretch 25,380 Monthly

19363 James Couzens Hwy.

Detroit, MI 48235

172. Motor Boating and Sailing 141,463 Monthly

224 W. 57th St.

New York, NY 10019

173. Car Collector/Car Classics 31,318 Monthly

P.O. Box 28571

Atlants, GA 30328

174. Circus 281,842 Monthly

3 West 18th St.

New York, NY 10011

175. National Lampoon 250,002 Monthly

155 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10013

176. Total Health 71,010 Monthly

6001 Topanga Canyon Rd.

Woodland Hills, CA 91367

177. Bestways 161,815 Monthly

P.O. Box 2028

Carson City, NV 89702

178. Writer's Digest 220,196 Monthly

1507 Dana Ave.

Cincinnati,OH 45207

179. Boating 188,057 Monthly

1515 Broadway

New York, NY 10036

180. Horticulture 178,508 Monthly

20 Park Plaza, Suite 1220

Boston, MA 02116

181. New Age 151,730 Monthly

342 Western Ave.

Brighton, MA 02135

182. N.J. Hunting and Fishing 15,000 Monthly

P.O. Box 100

Somerdale, NJ 08083

183. Dog World 64,732 Monthly

29 North Wacker Dr.

Chicago, IL 60606

184. Outdoor America 43,422 Monthly

1701 N. Ft. Meyer Dr.

Arlington, VA 22209

185. Sport Fishing 109,384 Monthly

809 South Orlando Ave.

Winter Park, FL 32789

186. Old West 28,385 Monthly

P.O. Box 2107

Stillwater, OK 74076

187. Treasure 22,679 Monthly

6745 Adobe Rd.

29 Palms, CA 92277

188. Petersen's Photo Magazine 283,010 Monthly

8490 Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90069

189. Fine Woodworking 296,773 Monthly

P.O. Box 355

Newtown, CT 06470

190. Old House Journal 97,948 6 times/yr

69th & Seventh Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11217

191. Snowmobile 419,478 Monthly

319 Barry Ave.S., Suite 101

Wayzata, MN 55391

192. Lost Treasure 41,423 Monthly

P.O. Box 937

Bixby, OK 74008

193. Cycle News 60,700 Monthly

2201 Cherry Ave.

Long Beach, CA 90806

194. Yachting 136,028 Monthly

1515 Broadway

New York, NY 10036

195. The N.Y. Review of Books 114,234 Monthly

250 E. 57th St.

New York, NY 10107

196. American Film 133,232 Monthly

3. E. 54th St.

New York, NY 10022

197. Pure-Bred Dogs Amer. Kennel 53,950 Monthly

51 Madison Ave.

New York, NY 10010

198. Knitting Digest 25,600 6 times/yr

House of White Birches

306 East Parr Rd.

Berne, IN 46711

199. American Photographer 254,107 Monthly

1515 Broadway

New York, NY 10036

200. Saturday Review 200,000 Monthly

214 Massachusetts Ave. N.E.

Washington, DC 20002

201. Human Events 36,695 Monthly

422 1st St. S.E.

Waashington, DC 20037

202. American Business 104,772 Monthly

1775 Broadway

New York, NY 10019

203. Classic Toy Trains 10,000 Monthly

11027 North Seventh St.

Milwaukee, WI 53233

204. Auto Racing Digest 44,124 Monthly

Trump Card Marketing

222 Cedar Lane

Teaneck, NJ 07666

205. Soccer Digest 27,929 Monthly

Trump Card Marketing

222 Cedar Lane

Teaneck, NJ 07666

206. High Technology Business 203,678 Monthly

214 Lewis Wharf

Boston, MA 02110

207. The Western Boatman 23,961 Monthly

20700 Belshaw Ave.

Carson, CA 90746

208. Archaeology 105,146 Monthly

15 Park Row

New York, NY 10038

209. Motorcross Action 92,257 Monthly

10600 Sepulveda Blvd.

Mission Hills, CA 91345

210. Threads 125,913 Monthly

P.O. Box 355/63 S. Main St.

Newtown, CT 06470

211. UTNE Reader 67,449 Monthly

2732 West 43rd St.

Minneapolis, MN 55410

212. Yoga Journal 44,819 Monthly

2054 University Ave.

Berkley, CA 94704

213. Practical Horseman 55,752 Monthly

Gum Tree Corner

Unionville, PA 19375

214. Dirt Wheels 88,632 Monthly

10600 Sepulveda Blvd.

Mission Hills, CA 91345

215. Hounds and Hunting 9,697 Monthly

Box 372

Bradford, PA 16701

216. Backpacker 172,111 Monthly

1515 Broadway

New York, NY 10036

217. Bowling Digest 104,159 Monthly

Trump Card Marketing

222 Cedar Lane

Teaneck, NJ 07666

218. Darkroom Photography 70,508 8 times/yr

9021 Melrose Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90069

219. Miniature Collector 23,602 Quarterly

170 5th Ave.

New York, NY 10010

220. Gun Dog 62,973 Bimonthly

1901 Bell Ave., Suite 4

Des Moines, IA 50315

221. BLUMS FARMERS ALMANAC 100,000 Annually

3301 Healy Dr. S.W.

Winston-Salem, NC 27103

222 The Magazine Antiques 60,578 Monthly

980 Madison Ave.

New York, NY 10021

223. Hispanic Business 107,875 Monthly

360 S. Hope Ave., Suite C.

Santa Barbara, CA 93105

224. Linn's Stamp News 74,082 Weekly

P.O. Box 29

Sidney, OH 45365

225. Sel!ing 100,000 Quarterly

PO Box 570

Clearwater, FL 34617-9862

226. Mustang Monthly Monthly

Dobbs Publishing Group, Inc.

3816 Industry Boulevard

Lakeland, FL 33811

227. Super Ford Monthly

Dobbs Publishing Group, Inc.

3816 Industry Boulevard

Lakeland, FL 33811

228. Corvette Fever Monthly

Dobbs Publishing Group, Inc.

3816 Industry Boulevard

Lakeland, FL 33811

229. Mopar Muscle 6 times/yr

Dobbs Publishing Group, Inc.

3816 Industry Boulevard

Lakeland, FL 33811

DISCLAIMER: The publishing business is a fickle one and magazines come and go rapidly. Please check the list of references against the current year issue of Witer’s Market (available in any library or bookstore).

229 HOT PLACES TO RUN YOUR CLASSIFIED AD is a post from: Work From Home

Do you really know what marketing is? It's the art of finding ways to sell

a product or service; but developing new ways of selling a product are not

easy. You have to study what other people are doing and get ideas from them.

Listen to people who have actually done something to show for their own

efforts. They certainly know because they have been there! Why seek marketing

advice from a book that reads above your head and was only written by someone who "studied" the field? Go and talk to the people who have ACTUALLY lived it! There is a difference!

Get your mind in a direction to sell your product. Of course it helps if you

created your own product or whole-heartedly believe in the product you are

selling. Now, all you have to do is find the type of people that would be

interested in buying your product. Find out what makes people buy a product

like yours. Study how others are selling the similar product you are selling.

Then _ armed with all this valuable information, work out a direct plan that

you'll enjoy doing. Design methods around your likes, dislikes and

personality traits. It works!

You have to work on your business EVERYDAY in order to become successful.

Even if you work outside the home 8 hours a day, you have to devote some

time each evening to your home business enterprise.

Most businesses who have been around awhile have seen many 100's or even

1,000's of new businesses open up and close. That's one reason why people

are "skeptical" of a new business until they see for themselves that they're

serious. YOU have to prove that you are serious in order to get people to

order from you and become good customers. You also have to treat customers

like you would your own family with respect and concern. This does not

mean you are to be shallow and allow yourself to be taken advantage of.

Customer service is nothing more than placing yourself in the other person's

shoes and seeing the world and the situation from their viewpoint. Often -

if you will just take a few minutes to listen to people, you will learn a

lot and turn a complaint into a workable situation.

In marketing, it is extremely important to start watching people and their

buying habits. The next time you are standing at the check out counter

buying groceries _ watch people around you. Don't stare at them but open up

your eyes and ears. Be in touch with your surroundings. Listen to ladies as

they discuss the reason "why" they would rather buy one type of cookie over

another brand name. Try and pick apart the actual reason "why" people react

the way they do.

And here are some tips to help you appear professional and serious to

potential customers in your mail order business:

On your word processor or computer, type a STANDARD letter about

your company. It should say something like: "We would like to

introduce our company to you. We are business professionals who are

interested in providing our customers with the very best service

available. We'll do our utmost to guarantee your satisfaction and

repeat business. Enclosed are some offers for your consideration.

They have been especially selected for you and your interests. If

you don't see what you're looking for _ please take the time to

write and let us know what we can do for you. We'd love to hear from

you today."

Now, the next time you get a BIG MAIL or other materials that you might

normally throw in the trash, you could mail your offers to these people. It

only costs a 32c stamp and who knows, they might send you $1 million dollars

worth of business over the next few years!

Keep a list of all the mail order publishers you come across. Then, if you

ever move or introduce a new product to the market, you could send them a

short Press Release. This works! Publishers are always looking for news to

pass along to their readers.

Give something away FREE for every order placed (depending on the amount

of the order.) You might even want to give the customer a choice of the free

items he/she can obtain free for every order over $10, $25, $50 and $100.

And instead of 50% off, offer DOUBLE the order. (For instance, instead of

50% off an order of 250 printed circulars - say that you'll DOUBLE the order

MARKETING IS THE “KEY” TO MAIL ORDER SUCCESS is a post from: Work From Home

The locks on the doors on most homes keep the skilled burglar out

for about 30 seconds! This is especially true if the only thing

slowing him down is a standard key-in-the-knob lock.

Statistically, there's about one residential burglary every 30

seconds in this country. Traditionally, as the economy falters

and times get harder, the number tends to rise.

Quite naturally, people are concerned and frightened. As a

result, locksmithing is not only one of the new "demand"

businesses, it's rapidly becoming one of the more profitable

businesses for entrepreneurs with not too much capital to invest.

Today's locksmiths are usually well versed in mathematics and

basic electronics. They almost always have to be, what with the

new types of locks being introduced. Today's locksmith is more

likely to be known as a "Security Specialists," then just

ordinary locksmith, as in the past.

Even so, most locksmithing businesses are still one-man

operations. In many instances, it's a husband and wife family

affair, with the husband handling the mechanical end and the wife

doing the books and financial end of the business. Most of these

small operations concentrate on the repair side of the business,

and deliberately choose to remain small in size. As we will

discuss later, however, this need not be the case; these small

businesses CAN "grow up."

According to the area in which he is located, and established,

well organized and trained locksmith may gross between $50,000

and $60,000 per year, using a van as a mobile "workshop," and

space in his home as an office. Remember: As the economy turns

toward recession, burglaries increase and people become aware of

the need for better locks to protect what they own; thus the

locksmith enjoys an increased income during hard times.

Just because locksmithing is a "personal" kind of business, and

can be started on a shoestring and operated out of the home,

that's not to say that a locksmithing service cannot be developed

into a million dollar business. On the contrary, there are a

number of operations in some of the larger metropolitan areas

that have several mobile locksmith vans on the road, in addition

to retail store locations. These operations are grossing well

into the million dollar figures every year.

It's a matter of desire, determination and personal fulfillment

and satisfaction. Attitude, marketing skills and general business

knowledge are also positive attributes necessary for real

success. Very definitely, the sharp businessman with determined

ambition can dominate any market with a modern locksmithing

service.

The key ingredient to this business is the utilization of proper

marketing and selling skills. It goes without saying: you can

know all there is about the mechanical functioning of the

business, but without innovative marketing and selling skills,

your business will surely flounder.

However, given the marketing know-how, plus persistent sales

efforts, you can succeed in this business with the knowledge you

can acquire of the technical side. The success of any business is

built upon the marketing and sales expertise of its founder,

because after all, "mechanics" can always be hired, if you decide

to go that route rather than learn the trade and the business.

Your marketing efforts should stress the theme that your services

will allay the fears of your buyers. You want to get across to

your prospective customers the sense of security your service

will provide: You can make them safe in their own homes; no

longer will they have to worry about being rudely awakened in the

middle of the night by a burglar rustling around in their house;

no longer will they have to worry about coming home to a house

that's been cleaned out or ransacked.

Once you understand that fear is a basic human instinct, it's

easy to see that virtually everyone can be a prospect for your

service as a locksmith. Your potential market includes everyone

in your area, because everyone has possessions. So every

homeowner, every apartment dweller, every business owner, all the

schools, churches, government institutions, and a wide variety of

other commercial and industrial accounts can be yours.

In this day and age, new homeowners and apartment dwellers want

locks changed the day the move in, so that the former occupants

and other key holders will not have access to their place. In

addition, there will probably be the need for additional keys for

each member of the new family, now that new, safer locks have

been installed.

Commercial and industrial accounts present and even lucrative

market. larger companies tend to want their keys

"departmentalized," so that office workers can get into the

building on weekends, but not into the factory or shipping areas,

and vice versa. Banks and savings institutions frequently need

the safe deposit locks changed.

Generally speaking, newcomers to this field should focus their

efforts on the commercial market is vast, and often up for grabs

in many areas. In addition, the profit margins in these areas are

excellent! With one of these accounts you'll have to work paying

about $500 or more per visit, compared with $25 to $50 per visit

per residential job. With commercial/industrial accounts, there's

also the possibility of ongoing service and maintenance.

Definitely, the commercial/industrial business is well worth

going after, and can put your business in the black very rapidly.

However, it does take aggressiveness, and the determination to

sell these accounts.

Start small, Consider working out of your home in the beginning.

Most of today's successful locksmiths began by working out of

their homes, with the family car or van outfitted with the tools

and equipment needed. Such an approach will enable you to get

started for a little as $1,000. You should be aware however, that

this is just a beginning, and not all it's going to take to

really establish your business. With this level of investment,

you're more or less limited in the business you can handle and

the money you can make. Locksmiths who want to make the really

big money should be investing all their early profits into more

equipment and inventory up to a level where they can offer

complete full service locksmithing. Such a business would require

at least $5,000 in equipment, perhaps even $10,000, depending on

how many different services you want to offer. this estimate for

start-up costs does not include your van or inventory of spare

parts and new locks.

Perhaps a quick word of caution is in order here. You've no doubt

seen or heard some of the advertisements promising all kinds of

big money to be made with your own locksmithing service; "just

send for the learn-at-home correspondence course, and you'll be

home free." It's true that you can earn big money in this

business, but as we've noted earlier, without a lot of sharp

marketing and selling expertise, plus at least the essential

equipment to handle the kind of work these courses teach,

enrolling in one of these courses will put you no further ahead

than you are right now. This business requires EQUIPMENT and

KNOWLEDGE.

You can make excellent money as a locksmith, so long as you

operate your business capably and in a professional manner. But

without a full line of the equipment required to handle a wide

variety of jobs, you will be limiting your total income

potential. The more you invest in quality equipment, the more

different kinds of jobs you can handle, and thus the more money

you'll be capable of making.

This is definitely a business in which you decide for yourself

exactly how far and how fast you want to go. As we've said, some

operators are perfectly content to work out of their homes, using

a mobile van. They don't want the larger problems involved in

hiring employees, or the expense of maintaining a retail

location.

But to make really big money in this business, starting small and

working out of your home, you should plan to put more mobile

trucks on the road, and as soon as possible, open a retail

location. Each mobile van will give you another satellite

business, and a retail location will afford you a base

headquarters for your mobile vans.

It is of the utmost importance that you build and maintain a

professional image as a quality locksmithing operation from the

start. Clinging to the craftsman type of image will be of

advantage only if you wish to stay in the "Mom and Pop" category.

You should endeavor to handle all jobs as quickly and as

efficiently as possible. Outfitting yourself and your help in

sharp looking uniforms will help. Making your calls in a clean,

well-organized van will also play an important part in the image

your customers have of your business. You want your customers to

have confidence in your business, and in the quality of the work

you do for them. When they do, you'll find they are more likely

to pay their bills with fewer reminders.

Think of it like this: A large invoice presented by a man in a

clean uniform who drives up in a good looking truck and does

quality work is going to be paid more readily than one for $25

presented by a guy in grubby jeans who drove up in a 10-year old

decrepit truck.

With so many technological changes occurring within this field on

an almost monthly basis, it's to your advantage to stay on top of

what's happening within the locksmithing field. This means

subscribing to some of the better trade publications. You should

be attending the various Locksmithing Association promoted

seminars and workshops that offer ongoing help in both the

technical and financial side of this business. In other words,

you should plan to keep yourself up to date with a program of

continuous learning.

There are several ways to get started in this business. You can

buy an existing operation from a retiring craftsman. Ask him to

help you with the technical side of the operation while you spend

most of your time actively promoting and managing the business.

Or, you can hire the technical help you need, and the sales force

to build the business while you do the managing. You can enroll

in one of the popular correspondence courses, become involved in

the business as you learn from the various trade publications,

and progress at your own speed. Our recommendation is that you

learn the fiscal and management side of the business, and hire

others to handle the mechanical or technical side. Thus the

purpose of this report is to indoctrinate you to the business

side. To explain the technical details of this business would

take volumes and probably much of the information contained would

be out-dated by the time it came to press.

However, we will provide you with an outline of the most common

types of jobs a locksmith should be able to handle.

RECOMBINATION LOCKS: A customer may want to change an existing

lock to work off a new key--the most common type of lock being

the key-in-the-knob cylinder or pin tumbler lock. When the proper

key is inserted in the keyway, spring-loaded pins are pushed up

and out of the cylinder, allowing the plug to turn, and opening

the lock. When recombinating, you're changing the depth of these

pins so that a new key is the only one that will work. Most

house, auto and padlocks are the pin tumbler variety. Different

brands of locks use different depths, space and keyways. But with

a given brand of lock, up to 50,000 variations exist. Thus, it's

not always necessary to change the new lock.

COMBINATING ALIKE: Some customers will have a house or business

with several different locks and keys, none of them alike or

using the same key. Sometimes people will want to change to a

system that will require the least number of keys to carry

around. Here, you'll be required to change the key coding so that

one key works all the locks. Sometimes this requires the

installation of common door hardware; however, in most cases,

you'll find the same brand locks are used throughout the

building.

MASTERKEYING: Apartment owners and other commercial accounts may

want dual key access. This is done by using locks with dual pin

tumbler sets. One works with the apartment key, the other with

the master key. Keys are spoken of in terms of code numbers.

These are sets of digits reflecting the depth of serration. A

given lock is a master key setup might respond, for example, to

keys with code numbers 1-2-3-4-5 and 6-7-8-9. Mathematical

progressions are used in master keying.

LOCKOUTS: Frequently a person finds himself locked out of his

home, office, warehouse, car, etc. Invariably this happens at odd

hours of the day or night. So opening locks at odd hours of the

day or night will be a role you'll definitely play live of your

customers. A typical pin tumbler lock can generally be picked

open in about 30 seconds, using either picks or a single piece of

spring steel and good wrist work. All locks have tolerances and

variations in manufacture which will allow you to push the

cylinder pins up and out of the way while exerting a turning

pressure on the cylinder itself.

AUTOMOBILE LOCKOUTS: This problem occurs frequently and will

require a different procedure. A tool called a "Slim Shim" is

often used here, and works on most domestic and many foreign

cars. this is pushed down between the glass and the weather

stripping on the door far enough to reach the back of the lock

cylinder on the door. You simply push down or pull up. A "button

popper" is also used, worked through the weather stripping on

vent windows in older cars, and angled back to the latch button.

LOCK INSTALLATION: Much of your time will be spent installing new

lock and door hardware. In many cases, homeowners and business

people will want to upgrade their security with the latest model

hardware for older homes, offices and other buildings. Many

locksmiths get involved in new construction of apartment houses,

condominiums, shopping centers and the like. Often you'll be

adding more security to an existing door, such as installing a

deadbolt lock.

PANIC BARS AND DOOR CLOSERS: Many locksmiths working the

commercial or industrial market get involved in the repair and

installation of panic bars in public access areas. Panic bars are

those large bars you can push on to open the outside doors of

many public buildings. Door closers are those hydraulic devices

mounted at the top of these doors which return the door to the

closed position after it has been opened.

ALARMS, SAFES, AND VAULTS: The sale and installation of alarm are

a natural adjunct to the locksmithing business. Many larger

locksmithing operations move into this area, which is somewhat

specialized. Alarms can be the "perimeter" type which sound when

a door is opened after hours, or "area" alarms. "Space" or "area"

protection is generally preferred, and involves infrared,

ultrasonic or microwave sensors triggering alarms by detecting

movement.

Safe and vault work is another specialty. Some locksmiths have

major banks and savings and loan associations as clients. They

spend a good deal of their time changing safe deposit box locks

and maintaining vaults and the like. Gaining in popularity is the

safe and service of safes for homes and business use. You will be

exposed to all these specialties and to new technology at

seminars, conventions and workshops.

HIGH SECURITY WORK: A typical locksmith is a "general

practitioner," while the high-security locksmith is a

"specialist." High security work is often done for major

corporations, government institutions, large banks, race tracks,

museums and wealthy private individuals who desire maximum

security. Often this work involves access control systems using

card readers or voice print equipment, possibly combines with

electronic push button locks that work off a combination of

numbers known only to a few individuals.

In addition to these major areas of activity, locksmiths the

world over do key duplicating and impressioning, which is

replacing of lost keys with custom made copies, and a wide

variety of other types of sales, repair and service work.

In order to achieve maximum profitability as a locksmith, you

must be able to offer all these services to your customers. Locks

and security are the prime concern to your customer, and it

follows that when a customer wants help in this area, he wants it

taken care of immediately. Thus, you must position yourself to

handle this job immediately, or lose him to a locksmith who can

take care of his needs on the spot.

Do some market research. Analyze your local market area before

you embark upon this business. This can be done via letters to

the local locksmithing association, Chamber of Commerce, or even

by checking through the yellow pages. As important as anything

else, you'll want to know how many locksmiths are already

operating in your area, and how much of the market you can expect

to attract with your business. Most industry experts agree that

any more than one locksmith for every 30,000 people tends to

saturate the market. However, you should study the operations of

the existing locksmiths to determine if you can capture a good

portion of the existing market by offering more and better

service, especially with well-planned efforts towards the

commercial and industrial accounts. In many areas, the

established locksmiths have been in business for 20 years or

more, and are not interested in expanding their businesses to

include the newer and more intricate types of protection

available.

Look your market over. Determine if there's been any real effort

to "sell" the market on upgraded protection. Door-to-door sales

efforts; direct mail advertising campaigns; local "hard sell"

newspaper advertising; home protection and business security

seminars, are angles that can be used to launch your business.

These approaches should prove to be especially profitable if the

existing locksmiths have been sitting back and letting the people

come to them when they have a problem. Get to know the building

contractors and start bidding on the installation of locks on

their building projects. You will get your share of business,

even though at first you may get contracts only from the new

builders who have not had experience with the other locksmiths.

For a fast start in this business, we suggest that you set

yourself up with a van and take your business to your customers.

It isn't absolutely necessary to buy a van off the showroom floor

and outfit it with all the equipment you'll ultimately need for a

full service locksmithing business. That would be nice, but it

would probably run you close to $50,000 or more. By shopping

around, you should be able to pick up a good, late model van for

about $3,000. You might be able to work an even better deal by

leasing a new van, and writing off the payments as a business tax

deduction. One thing you'll definitely want to consider is a van

that has a raised roof in order for you to stand upright in it.

After all, you'll be doing most of your work in it, and to have

to stoop all the time would soon become quite tiring. Generally,

you can run a workbench down either or both sides of your van.

-30-

HOW TO START YOUR OWN is a post from: Work From Home

No matter what you sell, you will inevitably face rejections and refusals, but learning to see “No” as valuable feedback can take your sales to a new level. Regardless of how often we hear “no” it’s a tough thing to take.

Over the years, I’ve had as many rejections as anyone else, especially as an author who doesn’t have a “celebrity” name. Here are some ways I’ve learned to cope with this situation:

1. It’s only their opinion – When someone tells us that what we’re attempting can’t be done, we tend to think they’re right. What I’ve learned is to look at that “no” as just that person’s opinion. It isn’t good or bad; it’s just data coming in to me. I can analyze it and make my next move smarter. What I’ve received is valuable feedback that can help me to find a new and different approach.

Don’t let a “no” undermine your confidence, your belief in the value of your product, idea, book, or your ability. Go out and resell it again!

2. Don’t get defensive – It’s OK to get angry when rejected, what’s not OK is to make excuses or try to persuade the other party that they are wrong. Use your anger to get yourself going again, let that “no” create a sense of urgency to find a better way.

Take action to prove that the other person is wrong. Instead of getting depressed when rejected, take up the challenge, and vow to solve the problem and demonstrate that you were in the right all along.

3. Let history be your guide – If people are laughing at your ideas, ask yourself why that might be. Is your idea just ahead of its time? Or is it because you haven’t expressed your concept well enough, or demonstrated to prospects how they’re going to benefit in the long term? Understand that it takes time for every new idea, product to gain acceptance. When Alexander Graham Bell said he had found a way for people living thousands of miles apart to communicate, other people scoffed and said it couldn’t be done. The rest as they say is history. Examples like this one teach you that other people who have been laughed at and told “no” have managed not only to achieve their goals, but also to surpass them.

In the past, hearing “no” from a prospective client or publisher would have sent me into a tailspin. Now, I try to embrace the rejection, and take that information to see what I can learn from it. Doing so lets me come out stronger every time. It will do the same for you.

NO SURRENDER!! is a post from: Work From Home

Now that we’ve covered the approach you’re going to take in your ads let’s take a look at “Aspects of the Approach”. These are actually subsections that needed a place to live, but don’t tell anyone.

• Tone & Personality:

You have to make a decision about your ad relating to its tone and personality. What disposition/character/behavior/or attitude is going to be the most effective?

Now tone is the undercurrent of your ad or the mood. Personality is the make-up of the ad’s character. It’s important to think about this because some advertisers ignore it and when they pull the pieces together (picture, copy, etc) the ad doesn’t project anything.

For instance think of the grabber line being, “Big budget delivers big results.” Hmm? Just as money can’t solve all social ills, big budgets don’t automatically create inventive advertising. Many times we’ve seen an enormous budget plus a rotten idea = a huge failure. Yet, there are times when we see a small budget plus a first-rate idea = marvelous success. Be prepared to make do and still make it fantastic.

• Break the Limits.

If you have a small ad, demonstrate that you’re better than the space you’re in. Remember the prospect doesn’t care about the size of the ad, he only cares about what you’re doing for him.

• Turn Adversity Into Advantage.

If your client insists on showing woodchucks in his jewelry ad, turn out the best woodchuck jewelry ad ever. You’ll get points for originality, and because it’s a “zag” you’ll probably get results.

• Use What’s Already Available.

Before you spend a lot on photos and illustrations, look at what you have lying around. It’s free.

• Can the Approach Work?

Not to discourage free form thinking, but you should reject approaches that demand too much BLT (budget, labor, and time). Instead, prepare ads that require your talent and not months and bucks.

• Frugality Makes You Timely.

The smaller the production budget, the sooner your ad can get in the market. This is the “Rule of Thumb.” The reason is because you’re not relying on other resources. So, unchain your ads from expenses and move fast.

This is worthwhile because if economic conditions suddenly change (and they will), you can quickly respond with a new ad message that addresses the new economy. You might decide to say, “Now more than ever, it pays to use our product.” You’ll again leave your competitors in the dust because they’re tied to expensive ads and long production timetables.

• Watch Your Language.

Most people don’t realize the power that’s packed in language. One misused phrase can upset thousands of people, so keep you antennas up and use your judgment.

For instance, use nothing at the expense of a certain group. This will offend people. Instead, show that an ad can get results from scores of readers and a smile from every one of them.

Don’t make fun of the prospect in a “we’re just kidding” way. He’s not paying much attention to your ad, so he won’t get the subtle nuances of your wit – only enough to be insulted.

If you can follow these hints you should be able to work out a “cracker-jack” ad for either yourself or a client. Next week we’ll take a look at handling the media.

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KNOW THE SCORE

by Maureen Stephenson

Advertising 101 By/For Entrepreneurs

When you’re doing your ad, remember that you must use psychology. You must, and I mean MUST, make your prospect want your product more than anything they can think of – and right NOW!

By the time they get through reading your ad, they should be panting to run out to your store or shove their check in an envelope and run to the mailbox.

Today I’m going to give you some tips that will help you. First always remember that enticing, siren of advertising AIDA. Who is AIDA you ask? Well AIDA stands for,

• A=Attention – Grab your targets attention.

• I=Interest – Create curiosity

• D=Detail – Provide details

• A=Action – Call for action

If you have AIDA before you every time you start to do an ad, you’ll never fail. The most important point is the “call to action”. You’d be surprised at the number of sales that are lost because the client is never asked to “order now, try it for 30 days, fill out the coupon” - or whatever you use to make your client take action.

Here are some advertising pearls that will keep you on the beam:

• Force yourself to operate under deadlines. When you start buying advertising space you’ll have to meet deadlines so get used to them.

• A good headline answers the question WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)?

• A customer who buys from you two times is twice as likely to buy as a customer that only buys from you once.

• If you’ve got a good product, a good, liberal, strong guarantee should go with it and will increase your sales. The amount of returns/refunds you get will be insignificant compared to the increase in sales.

• The more your sales letter looks like a “personal” letter, the better it will work.

• Remember the 40-40-20 rule for using direct mail. It breaks your success in three ways: 40% of you success is using the right list, another 40% is having the right offer, and 20% is everything else (copy, format, graphics, paper, etc.).

• In advertising it is better to offer a Free Bonus than to offer a discount.

• Direct mail advertising statistics show that mail delivered on Saturdays and Mondays get the poorest response. Best days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday-and in that order.

• Use testimonials in your ad and put them before the call to action and after the details about your widget.

• “Buy 1 get 1 FREE” always out-pulls “2 for the price of 1”.

• Nothing is more powerful than “goodwill” except ill will. If a client is dissatisfied, make good and make it fast.

• Always make your customer feel like they’re the most important customer you have, and they’ll keep buying from you and not your competitor.

• If you want to mail an ad for your business to prospects, research mailing lists on the Internet at: www.edithroman.com You’ll have access to virtually every direct response mailing lists in the U.S.

• Sales copy can never be too long, it can only be boring.

• You can increase your response rate from a mailing if you add a “post-it” note on your sales letter. You can say something like, “Only for the month of June”, or “Reply before 6/30 to get the discount.”

• The best way to keep tabs on your competition is to become their customer and see how you’re treated.

• In Direct Marketing (which ads by mail are called) there are only two rules: Rule #1: Test everything. Rule #2: See Rule #1

• Ad copy type-set in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS is harder to read than all lowercase of Mixed Case.

• Repeat your offer and guarantee on your order form.

• Whenever possible, give your customers an extra added and unexpected bonus or gift along with the order to show your appreciation.

• There are only three ways to grow your business: (1) increase the number of customers; (2) increase your average dollars per sale; (3) increase the frequency you do business with your customer. Always remember, “turn-over may feed your ego, but it won’t feed your family.”

• The more you treat your clients as friends, the more likely they’ll talk about you and do more business with you.

• Don’t ever let a Holiday come and go without offering your current customers a special deal in an ad. Use the event as the “hook” for the ad, and if you research the subject you’ll find there’s a holiday of some sort almost every month. Not just the big ones like Valentine’s Day or Easter, but use one’s like Groundhog’s Day, National Dairy Month, Boy Scout’s Week, or whatever you can work into your product line.

Now that I’ve introduced you to AIDA, and given you all these marketing pearls you should be able to compose an ad that will not only increase your presence in the marketplace, but also bring you more clients, business, and profits.

-30-

KNOW THE SCORE

by Maureen Stephenson

Image, Timesaving and Cash Saving Tips

Since entrepreneurs are wearing all the hats in their business, every little shortcut or tip that makes life easier is always welcome. Let me share some “been there-done that” information with you to make your business life a little easier.

Office furnishings and decorations say a great deal about you, so to convey the image you want to convey pay attention to these:

• Furniture Arrangement: Setting your desk in the middle of the floor with chairs facing it conveys a “formal” atmosphere. It conveys to your clients that you want to maintain a distance from visitors. Instead, place your desk against a wall (not facing it) to convey confidence.

• Messy Desks: A small amount of messiness implies comfort and friendliness, but too much clutter makes visitors think you don’t care about making a good impression on anyone. The opposite extreme, an immaculate desk conveys coldness and could be perceived as you not having enough work to do.

• Decorations: Plants, drapes, and artwork will convey a comfortable, relaxed attitude. Books and artwork express your sincerity.

• Awards & Certificates: If job-related, they reassure visitors that you are experienced and competent.

Planning is essential for the entrepreneur, and all you need is 30 minutes to plan your entire week if you use the OATS formula.

1. Objectives: What results do you want to have by week end? Write them down and rank them.

2. Activities: List the necessary activities you must do to achieve your goals, and rank them.

3. Time: How much time will each activity require? Plan realistically allowing more time than you think you’ll need to compensate for unexpected problems.

4. Schedule: Look at your calendar and decide when you can do each activity. Most people underestimate the power of a schedule, but you won’t accomplish anything if you don’t schedule the time.

Underlining reading material is another great timesaver. With the mountains of material entrepreneurs must read to keep abreast of their niche, being able to find it again when you need it is essential. After you’ve read the article/book/paper/report, then go back and underline the important information so you can find it again easily. The reason for underlining after you has read it. is because most of us underline too many words before we’ve finished the passage and understand the key points. Wait until you’ve finished an entire section or chapter, then go back and highlight key points.

Returning phone calls is another time-stealer for entrepreneurs. Time-management experts recommend setting aside an hour a day to make and return your phone calls. But which hour do you choose? The best times of day are the first two hours of the morning or the last two hours of the afternoon. Those are the times when most people are in the office and accessible.

Do you think business is doing better because of your optimistic attitude? I would think so. However many management experts are now saying that pessimists make better managers. Why? Because they’re always thinking of what could go wrong and are coming up with solutions to problems in case the worst happens. My suggestion is not to toss your optimism away, I’ve found it very helpful some days, instead force yourself to write down everything that could go wrong with a new project, ideas, or employees. (Remember “Murphy’s Law – Whatever can go wrong, will.”) Personally, I think Murphy was an optimist! My advice is to be optimistic but be prepared. Once you do this you’ll naturally be prepared with solutions if disaster does strike.

In this present age of computers and time-saving gadgets, we are at times prone to purchasing the latest thing that promises to save us some work. When it comes to purchasing software, a good question to ask yourself is: Is it better than a pencil? The answer will help you decide if the expense is really justified. Keep in mind that computers are supposed to make your work easier and faster.

For the entrepreneur that travels overseas often, consider registering your handprint with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and obtaining an INSPASS card. It’s not exactly Star Trek technology, but it’s close. With the card, all you have to do is slide it through a machine, press your hand against a screen, and slip on through bypassing the lines. For information wit to: INSPASS, P.O. Box 2010, Newark, NJ 07114-2010

Want to impress your clients with Broadway shows? Call the Actor’s Fund of America and ask for “Fund Tix”, 212-221-7300. The tickets are double the price, but half goes to charity (tax write off) and the seats are great.

Are there days when you want to give up? Is your family telling you you’re too old to try something new? Well age isn’t always a factor in your success or failure. Consider these famous examples:

• Actor George Burns won his first Oscar at age 80.

• Golda Meir was 71 when she became prime minister of Israel.

• At 96, playwright George Bernard Shaw broke his leg falling out of a tree he was trimming in his backyard.

• Painter Grandma Moses didn’t start painting until she was 80 years old. She completed more than 1,500 paintings after that; 25% of those were produced when she was past 100.

• Michelangelo was 71 when he painted the Sistine Chapel.

• Albert Schweitzer was still performing operations in his African hospital at 89.

• Doc Counsilman, at 58, became the oldest person ever to swim the English Channel.

• S. I. Hayakawa retired as president of San Francisco State University at 70, and then was elected to the U.S. Senate.

• Casey Stengel didn’t retire from managing the New York Mets until he was 75.

Entrepreneurs often have crazy ideas for making money and giving good customer service. The next one you have, remember the story of Phil Romano the founder of Fuddruckers the national hamburger chain. He once owned a small, out-of-the-way Italian restaurant called Macaroni’s. He packed the place every Monday and Tuesday nights, a time when most restaurants struggle to keep their doors open. How? Apart from the obvious fact that Macaroni’s served good food, Romano had a “gimmick” based on the old Psych 101 principle, “Random rewards beget regular behavior.”

If you happened to be dining there on a randomly chosen Monday or Tuesday night, you and the other 200 customers received a letter instead of a bill at the end of the meal. The letter stated that because the Macaroni mission was to make you feel like guests, it seemed awkward to charge guests for having a good time. So, once each month on a Monday or Tuesday, and always unannounced, everyone would eat free.

What did it cost Romano? One night “comped” out of 30 reduces his revenues by 3.3%, but he has a full house on 8 nights a month when the place would normally be empty. Word-of-mouth testimonials are one of the most effective forms of advertising, and in one fell swoop Romano got a couple hundred tongues wagging.

Remember what Goethe said; “Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”

-30-

Advertising 101 For Entrepreneurs is a post from: Work From Home

Direct marketing campaigns are truly effective when you precisely target customers likely to buy from you. This is done by Profiling and Modeling prospects and clients.

Dumb mass mailings are replaced with “surgical” campaigns that market to specific customers with accuracy using technology that is now available. Today, it’s possible to collect an enormous amount of information about customers, but to use it effectively you use it in “profiling” and “modeling”.

Both of these techniques are ways of applying external data to possible clients. They can be used to prospect for business or to zero-in on existing customers for your mailing. The goal is to predict behavior based on what you know about your customers.

These two methods are not mutually exclusive, and marketers often use them together. The difference is that profiling data is overlaid against an existing client database, and has a long life span. It can be used for several mailings, and in contrast modeling is used to sharpen the focus of a specific mailing.

In profiling start with the premise that you don’t want to deal with a customer segment, but rather an individual customer. Break up your client segment into clients who share similar tastes and buying habits. Then use demographic and behavioral information to create a useful snapshot of the customer.

Begin to gather this information from your existing customer database noting such things as frequency of purchases, buying habits, responses to marketing offers, and repeat purchases. Then start with your perceived prospects using alternate sources of data from purchased sources. Use all this data to break your customers into clusters that share purchasing traits.

Obviously, profiling and modeling add to the cost of your mailing project. You may wonder why you shouldn’t just stick to the old method of “recency-frequency-monetary” (RFM) analysis. The reason is that for RFM to work effectively you need data on the client’s purchasing habits, and that’s the rub! It only works for your existing customer and is of no use in finding potential clients.

What makes profiling/modeling cost effective is found in three current trends.

1. Rising mailing costs.

2. Computers able to compute mountains of data rapidly.

3. Higher quality customer data available.

In the past, direct marketers could mail out 400,000 mailings to find a strong market of 40,000 (1 customer out of 10 mailings was average). The dramatic increase in the cost of paper and postage has made this practice prohibitively expensive.

Computers today are capable of doing millions of computations per second. This makes analyzing mountains of data possible and not unthinkable anymore.

Higher quality customer data is more available today, and there are more sources available for obtaining it than ever before.

The result is that you can afford to do a lot of number-crunching before you spend a penny on postage. You can also weed out the useless names and mail only to your most likely prospects.

There are 6 factors to consider when building customer profiles:

• Affinity profiling – analyzes current buying habits to better match customer to product. Knowing what kinds of product a particular customer is buying gives you the ability to build an “affinity matrix” showing what related products would stimulate more sales from him/her.

• Demographic and psychographic data is also used for profiling. Demographics tells you a client is a 29-year-old, unmarried, male who earns $45,000 and drives a 2-year old Lexus. Psychographic data suggests that single young men who buy status-symbol cars are excellent prospects for other highly visible status products. Combining the two types of data yields a customer profile to someone marketing, say, the latest cellular phone.

• Lifestyle Coding is used to enhance basic demographic information. Simply put – people in certain demographic categories will likely have similar hobbies and other interests.

• Mapping is another useful tool in building customer profiles. Census data, topographic information, geographic coordinates, and zip code+4 postal data can be fed into a computer yielding maps that can be color coded to certain characteristics of consumers in particular neighborhoods.

• Cluster Coding is a popular means of grouping people by lifestyle characteristics. Remember hearing the terms “Urban Up-and-Comers, Settled In, and White Picket Fence” used to describe market segments? These are known as “clusters”, each given a score according to affluence, social position, activities, and aspirations.

• Survey data – can be used to enhance demographic, lifestyle, and other data to build a profile. This is collected directly from your customers via application forms, surveys, and credit histories. This provides a more personal portrait of the customer than merely census or demographic data.

The Direct Marketer of today has become more of a “surgeon” than a “shotgun hunter”. It’s no longer cost-effective to shoot at 400,000 prospects to get 40,000 clients, and with computers it’s easier to slice-and-dice data today.

Work Your Hidden Profit Potential. is a post from: Work From Home

If entrepreneurs didn’t know by now that Technology was taking over the business world, now it’s encroaching on the gambling casinos. We can’t even escape it on our trips to Las Vegas.

RADIO-FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION is headed for Vegas. Casino chips embedded with RFID tags and are being tested at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and will be displayed this month at the new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino.

The chips will each be given a unique player code to track behavior and possibly get more revenue out of high rollers. It’s estimated that this could be a $100 million business by the year 2010.

There are two Vegas based companies that own the casino-RFID game: Progressive Gaming International and Shuffle Master.

Progressive’s TableLink, which reads RFID chips using table-embedded antennas and records the wagers on a dealer’s PC, is the system of choice at the two casinos. Progressive and Shuffle Master have also developed optical card shoes, which holds decks and scan cards as they’re dealt. Shuffle Master’s Intelligent Shoe is already getting rave reviews in Australia and Asia.

The cost of outfitting a table with the chips and antennas costs a casino about $8,000, but analysts predict that Progressive will score bigger bucks from the $6 per day per table it charges for its system.

One RFID chip costs a casino 40 cents more than a standard chip, but that margin will drop to about 10 cents in the coming months.

This is certainly a “technology leap” from the “eye in the sky” that we all knew about in the casinos, but I don’t think that even George Orwell would have thought of these chips.

Those of us who used the games in Vegas casinos to escape our computers and software programs, seem destined to be followed by technology no matter where we go.

Somehow Radio-Frequency Identification in poker/gaming chips just doesn’t seem to be what a good poker player expects. Oh well, technology marches on...and on….and on.

Technology Bites Man Again is a post from: Work From Home

Information is power!

Yes, information is power. And Now you can plug into that power with

your own newspaper clipping service!

Newspaper clipping is a very lucrative business, and it's growing in

demand and popularity. Thousands of people in all parts of the world are

making hundreds of dollars each week, just reading and clipping news items

in the privacy of their own homes. The good news is that there is still

plenty or room for you to carve out your own niche and cash in on this

excellent work-at-home opportunity. Your success and income will be

limited only by your desire to work hard and succeed.

In this so called "Age of Information" we live in, individual people,

government agencies, and private corporations have an almost unlimited need

for news and information about the topics that affect their daily lives and

transactions.

Information is truly power, and especially for businesses, the more

information they have, the better off they are. That means they will pay

to get their hands on any tidbit that will help them do their jobs better.

You can take advantage of this need and make your way into the

exploding world of information management, and, best of all, you can make

an excellent income with a minimum investment.

What is a newspaper clipping service?

Many of you may harbor some misunderstanding about just what a press

clipping business is all about. If you explain to friends or neighbors that

you operate a press clipping business, most of them will think you pore

through obituaries, funeral notices and wedding announcements, and then

clip these and send them to friends and relatives for a fee.

In reality, very few people make a living with this type of service

these days. Successful press clipping services have contracts with

companies and organizations that want to keep current on any number of

matters reported in the papers.

Some companies hire clipping services to keep track of what their

competitors are doing. Other companies, including businesses of all kinds,

use clipping services as a means of locating sales leads and new customers.

National magazines and newspapers are always in need of different or

interesting material, and frequently employ home-based clipping services.

Many government agencies also have a great need for information about

the tasks they need to perform. For example, most agricultural states have

an agency whose job is to encourage proper soil and water conservation. In

Minnesota, for example, the Board of Water and Soil Resources is charged

with making sure the thousands of farmers in its state are practicing

proper conservation tillage and other land preservation practices.

The Board of Water and Soil Resources has a great interest in any kind of

information that relates to soil conservation or water pollution. In a

local small-town paper prints a story, for example, about a local farmer

who has achieved great success in growing crops while reducing his use of

chemical pesticides and herbicide, this would be an excellent item to clip

for the Board's information and public relations efforts.

What you need to get started

To set yourself up in this kind of business, you'll need only a pair

of scissors and as many different newspapers and magazines that you can

subscribe to. A visit to your local public library will be very informative

about the many kinds of publications - both newspapers and magazines - that

are on the market.

You can reduce your costs by borrowing or trading used and unwanted

newspapers and magazines from everyone you know. You might also ask the

library to let you have any documents they would otherwise throw out or

place in the recycling bin.

You should also visit your local wholesale paper house, or make a deal

with the local stationary store to buy labels at a discount price. You'll

want to attach these labels to the top of each clipping you send to your

clients. On these labels, you'll want to print the name of the publication

the clippings came from, the date it appeared, as well as your name and

address.

The next step is simply to start clipping articles that mention or

talk about specific companies or people. File your clippings in envelopes

or boxes according to industries or types of businesses, by company name

and also according to the names of the people mentioned.

Once you have ten or more clippings that talk about a particular

company or person, put them in an envelope and send them to that company's

owner or public relations director. You should include a short letter with

the clippings explaining your service and fees. One the next page is a

letter format you can use for your own business:

Jan. 1, 1993

Public Relations Director

ABC Corporation

P.O. Box 123

City, State, Zip

Dear Person:

Enclosed you will find several newspaper and magazines clippings that may

have direct and important relevance to your business and customers.

As an experienced information researcher, I can supply your company with

articles that may contain information on how to better serve your customers, improve your products or service, or help you keep abreast of what your competitors are doing.

I'm sure you will find this service invaluable. My monthly fee is $50. If

you do not find this amount acceptable, please feel free to call me and

I'll negotiate a fair price with you.

I look forward to hearing from you soon and discussing my service in

greater detail.

Sincerely,

Your name

Address

Phone number

You should try to get your clients to agree to pay you a monthly

"reader's fee" for which you agree to look for anything in the newspaper

about him or his company or industry. Every time you spot an article, you

clip it, and send it to your client. A minimum monthly reader's fee is

usually $25, but it can vary according to the number of publications you

read and the number of clippings found.

What earnings are possible?

Generally, a clipping service that scans statewide publications charge

about $50 per client, or $100 per client for those who want clippings from

national publications. These fees are monthly, and you can easily see how

you could make very good money with just 20 or 25 clients.

To promote and build your business, you can scan your local business

services directory and send out a solicitation letter to each of those

listed. A couple of days after you've posted your sales letter, you should

follow up with a phone call.

A short, to-the-point ad under "Business Personals" in your daily

newspaper will also bring in new clients for you. As soon as you can

afford it, go with at least a small display ad in the yellow pages of your

telephone directory.

You should definitely contact public relations firms, advertising

agencies and civic organizations in your area. Explain your service and ask them if they have

any special clients or needs you can help them with. You'll find many of

your local political and "cause" groups very interested in receiving

clippings about their opponents.

Clipping services in one form or another have been around since the

advent of the printing press, and they are more in demand in our modern

"Age of Information" than ever before. It is certainly the kind of

business anyone who knows how to read can set up and operate with an

absolute minimum investment.

The ultimate success of the business will depend on your drive and

tenacity, your willingness to work hard and make your service the best and

most valuable it can be.

One last bit of advice:

Once you land your first client, that business or agency can lead to

more customers for your service. After you have worked with a certain

company for three or four months, ask them for a recommendation, or an

evaluation of your service. Here is a letter format you can use:

Jan. 1, 1993

Public Relations Director

ABC Corporation

123 4th Street

City, State Zip

Dear Person:

I am writing to ask a favor of you. You have been using my clip service

for three months now. I would appreciate it if you could give me a frank

evaluation of the quality and value my service has provided to you business

and information needs.

Enclosed is a stamped, self addressed envelope for your reply. I would

also like your permission to use your comments in brochures, ads or letters

used to market my newspaper clipping service.

Thank you your help, and I look forward to hearing how my service has

worked for you.

Sincerely,

Your Name

That's it. You should really give this a try. A newspaper clipping

service is a great home business opportunity for just about anyone.

-30-

How to Start Your Own Home Newspaper Clipping Service is a post from: Work From Home

Tractors that steer themselves, property that knows it’s been stolen, airplanes that land without pilots – that sounds like science fiction. It’s all a result of the global positioning system which is mind-boggling. The industry is set to skyrocket and opportunities for the entrepreneur are there.

This spring the U.S. government will launch its first next generation GPS satellite to complement the 30 older models already in use. The aim is to create stronger signals, increased bandwidth, and lots of potential for smart entrepreneurs.

Since the Defense Department made its GPS signals available for commercial use in 1993, the market for location-based services has swelled to nearly $5 billion, and that’s just the beginning. The demand for these services is expected to double in the next few years. The three hot growth areas – tracking, navigation, and hardware promise to be multibillion dollar markets by 2010.

Though startups are springing up all over the place, plenty of technologies remain untapped. One of the untapped areas are automated navigation systems in family cars that keep drivers a safe distance from other vehicles.

Huge companies such as UPS plan to outfit 75,000 drivers with GPS-enabled handhelds this year to help them reach destinations more efficiently. Some savvy entrepreneur who offered similar navigation and tracking services could also make out nicely.

Consider AtRoad, a Fremont, Calif. firm that went public in 2000. It offers “geo-fencing” software that triggers email alerts if a company’s vehicle speeds or goes into unauthorized areas. They charge a monthly fee of $45 per head to track more than 133,000 employees of clients such as SBC, Verizon, and the city of San Francisco. For the fiscal year ending in December, AtRoad’s revenue grew 19% to $75.2 million. That was a whopping 12.2% net profit margin.

This lucrative game was also played by Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder, who started Wheels of Zeus in 2002. This company combines GPS data with local wireless networking. The technology helps parents keep tabs on their children, or can alert IT managers when company-owned computers leave the premises.

The agriculture and manufacturing companies are getting a taste of the technology by a company that outfits tractors with antennas that pick up signals to automatically guide the equipment and control the amount of pesticides used.

There are companies that are using this technology to guide and navigate giant trucks around cliffs and mine shafts. The maritime industry is predicted to invest hundreds of millions in coming years to outfit cargo containers and ships with GPS receivers.

Chipmakers already cashing in are charging about $13 per device to put GPS chipsets in phones, electronics, and car navigation systems. And with a new federal regulation that is forcing wireless operators to include GPS in their phones and networking equipment, chip demand is sure to explode.

Remember the day when we said that expecting to buy drinking water in bottles was something the American consumer would never do. Pay for water that comes out of the kitchen sink faucet? How silly! Look at the industry that’s grown up in that area!

Entrepreneurs - the GPS opportunity is out there, if only you know where to look. Remember, you heard it here first!

Getting In On The Ground Floor is a post from: Work From Home

When you start an online newsletter you have the opportunity to collect opt-in email addresses to build your subscription base and establish creditability with your subscribers so that they may want to purchase products from you, a trusting source. The best part about an online newsletter is that it is free to start up. With an online newsletter you can offer your subscribers juicy daily or weekly information and they will love it. It will slowly build up their curiosity and they may purchase a monthly membership or products from you because they love receiving the information you supply. Now, if you send them junk, the complete opposite will occur, so having an online newsletter takes work, but you can always pay someone to do it for you. So, with all this work put into it should you consider charging for subscription. That depends on what you want to accomplish. Do you want to attract visitors and entice them to your main product. Or are you only offering an online newsletter with no products. How often do you send out autoresponders and how in depth and valuable is your newsletter. Is this information easily found free somewhere else on the Internet.

Free newsletters are much easier because you can get a lot of people opt-in and you can sell them a subscription in the future. Everyone loves free stuff. Occasionally, at the end of the email you may want to offer special subscriber only promotions or notify your subscribers of new products or services. You could even offer special subscriber only bonuses with a purchase.

By the way, if you send your subscribers what begins to look like sales letters, they will opt out quicker than you can say wait! Be careful because this is your potential customer crowd and it is like gold to you.

An Online Newsletter is a post from: Work From Home

A personal crisis doesn’t have to spell disaster for your business if you’re prepared. Every business occasionally endures a crisis, but what happens when your dilemma isn’t falling profits but personal.

Because we have no idea what type of personal crisis may await us – an ugly divorce, debilitating disease, or ailing parent/child/spouse, we must be prepared. Just as you plan for advertising and promotions, you must plan for life’s surprises.

Paul Krasinski, founder of Lion Strategy Advisors, New York, suggests finding somebody NOW who can take over your responsibility and carry on for at least 20 days. He/she needs to be someone who can communicate well with staff and command respect, and may or may not be the person you feel closest to in the company.

Once a personal crisis hits, Krasinski recommends “full disclosure” to your employees. This avoids the feeling of being hit by a bomb, and that business will go on as usual. In case you think this doesn’t work, let me give you a case history.

Dana Weidaw, 28 and president of her own PR firm had only been in business 1 year when she tested “full disclosure” with her employees. She was diagnosed with an aneurysm which required a surgeon to drill through her skull. She had just landed her first major client and was publicizing a major hockey arena. If all didn’t go well with the project, this client could turn out to be her last.

Before missing 7 days of work, Weidaw prepped her full-time employee, another agency she was working with, and her client by sharing the nitty-gritty details of her crisis. She assured them everything would run according to plans and smoothly in her absence, and found that everybody was willing to work around her crisis. Weidaw found that, by nature, people are very sympathetic.

A word of caution though, you need to know when to talk. During and after a crisis – full disclosure is great. If you’re “contingency” planning though, it might be prudent not to advertise that if your personal life goes in the tanker good old Gary or Suzy will be in charge. Your employees may needlessly dwell on why they weren’t picked to run the show instead of them. Above all, you don’t want to cause widespread distress or distract your staff from day-to-day operation.

Just as surely as you plan for financial allocations for your business, always have a crisis plan in place. This may need adjustments from year to year as staff leaves and are replaced, so when planning for each year’s business needs include your crisis plan.

Prepare Crisis Control is a post from: Work From Home

FREE PRINTING, ADVERTISING AND FREE BUSINESS ADVICE

Believe it or not, there are plenty of opportunities out there

for you to get your written materials free of charge, for free

advertising space, and free business advice.

For free advertising space, many publications will write an

article about you or your product if you purchase advertising

space with them. One way publications sell advertising space is

to agree that if the advertiser purchases the ad, he will also

receive a certain amount of free editorial space. This free

editorial space essentially doubles the amount of space you get

for a given amount of money. This editorial space is devoted to

an article about the company or individual or product, and it has

the added cachet of seeming to be work of an outside source. The

editorial company be written by the publication staff, or the

advertiser may provide the copy.

Press releases can be another excellent source of free space. A

well-written press release on an interesting subject will attract

the editor's interest. The editor may even follow up with a phone

call for more details. The result can be anything from a

paragraph to a feature article. All this comes for the price of

mailing the release. Keep in mind that you want to target the

publication that write about the kinds of things you are doing.

Many telephone call-in shows will take calls from entrepreneurs

with interesting products or stories. DTC Publishing Company,

P.O. Box 1606-MM, Ozark, AL 36360 has a list of 500 stations

around the country that you can contact to work out possibilities

for free air time. Note that in approaching these stations you

want to come across as something of an expert in your field

rather than appearing to be nothing more than a salesman flogging

his wares.

A source of free advertising and marketing advice is Mr. Carroll

Rollin, a former advertising manager for such magazines as Wealth

Secrets and the Business Opportunities Journal, and a current

associate of Direct Response Television Productions Mr. Rollin

can be reached at (619) 263-0582 for free advice on how and where

to get free advertising, how to start and promote a business, and

how to do television and magazine advertising.

For free printing, look for such printers as Advanced Printers

(705 S Union Ave., Dept MM, Ozark, AL 36360, (205)774-7743).

Advanced Printers offers a "24 HRS OR IT'S FREE" guarantee on

flat sheet printing. The company also offers information about

it's Elite Dealership Program.

FREE IS BETTER! is a post from: Work From Home

Every year thousands of men and women across America sign on with

direct selling firm-Tupperware, Amway, or a cosmetic

company-hoping to make money enough for new draperies, a new

davenport, or some new clothes. They sell a little merchandise to

a few relatives and close friends. Then they are through. They

quit before they give themselves a chance to learn the basics of

success in sales. "I am simply not a born salesperson," they

often say.

No one is born a salesperson, any more than one is born a doctor

or born a lawyer. Sales is a profession. To be successful in any

profession one must learn not only the basic techniques, but also

how to apply those techniques. Success in sales makes use of all

the abilities one is born with, plus all those acquired through

education and experience.

If you are looking for a career opportunity or "extra income" to

help with the family budget, direct selling offers you

dream-fulfilling possibilities. However, you must give yourself

time to learn the techniques of sales. Ask yourself. "How long

does a doctor to be study? A lawyer to be study?"

WHAT IS DIRECT SELLING?

Direct selling is marketing a product directly to the consumer

with no middleman involved. Most reliable firms are members of

the National Association of Direct Selling

Companies. They bring to the public fine products that are

modestly priced in order to insure mass consumption.

Most direct selling companies furnish their representatives with

a starter kit and essential supplies below-cost prices. In many

instances the investment is under $100.

There is an old adage which says "Give a man a fish and you feed

him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a

lifetime."

Many of them were able to change their lives for the better. They

took their families on nice vacations. They purchased a piano or

an organ and provided music lessons for their children. They

saved money for college education. They redecorated their homes,

bought needed furniture. One highly successful saleslady built a

new home.

The rewards of direct selling are many

1. You can be your own boss.

2. You can set your own hours.

3. You can own your own businesses with little or no investment.

4. You can pay yourself more than any boss would ever pay you.

5. You can give yourself regular raises as your business grows.

It is only fair to tell you that there are failures, too. There

are people who will not work for themselves. When working for a

boss, they rise early, are well-groomed, and get to the office on

time. However, when they are their own boss, they are still in a

bathrobe, drinking one more cup of coffee at 11:00 A.M.

If you can be your own boss and discipline yourself to do what

has to be done when it has to be done, direct selling offers a

most unusual earning opportunity.

THE TEN STEPS

Here are ten steps that will assure your success:

1. BE A GOAL SETTER. What do you want to accomplish? Do you want

to save for college education for your children? A new car? A

new home? You can have whatever you want, but you must want it

enough to do the things that have to be done to get it. Whatever

your goal, write it down and set a target date for reaching it.

Divide the time period into blocks of achievement that are

reachable. Work consistently toward accomplishing each day, each

week, each month what you set out to do. Goal-setting is a must

in every area of life. Little is ever accomplished without

definite goals.

2. BE A LIST MAKER. Each evening list all the things you want to

get done the following day. That gives you an organized approach

to each day. As each task is finished, mark it off your list. It

is amazing how much gets done when one works with a

"things-to-do" list. Also, have a notebook listing appointments,

potential clients, repeat clients, and referrals, and keep it

with you at all times. You will be adding to it constantly.

3. BE ENTHUSIASTIC. Enthusiasm is the high-octane "fuel" that

salespeople run on. Enthusiasm generates its own energy. Energy

and good health are synonymous with busy, happy people, people

who are achieving.

4. RECOGNIZE THAT THE MAGIC WORD IN SALES IS "ASK." In direct

sales we don't have to wait for business to come to us. We create

our own business by asking for it. Ask for appointments, then you

can do business. Ask for business, then you will close sales. Ask

for referrals, then you always have a full list of potential

clients. Be quietly, yet firmly aggressive.

5. EXPECT NO'S. Realize that no's are not personal. In sales, as

perhaps nowhere else, the law of averages works. Every no gets

you closer to a yes. Keep track of your ratio. It will help

improve your techniques. Are you getting ten no's to one yes? Is

your ratio five to one? Remember, the yes's are your income. Also

remember that "no" does not necessarily mean "no." Often a "no"

is simply a stall for more time to think. It may be a request for

more information about your product or your service. What your

client is actually buying is assurance. Assure here by your

helpful attitude and your complete honesty, that you want what is

best for her. She will most likely respect you and do business

with you.

6. SCHEDULE TIME WISELY. A schedule is the roadmap by which

salespeople travel. It takes the frustration out of the day. It

assures that the necessary things get done and get done on time.

Plan your work then work your plan.

7. BE POSITIVE IN YOUR ATTITUDE. Success in sales, as in all

areas of life is 90 percent attitude and 10 percent aptitude. All

of us must work at developing habits of constructive thinking. I

am proud to be a salesperson. Sales make the wheels of our

economy turn. Bernard Baruch, advisor to several presidents, is

quoted as saying, "If every salesperson sat down and took no

orders for twenty-four hours, it would bankrupt our country!"

Every company that manufactures any kind of product depends upon

salespeople to move that product. Without salespeople business

would be paralyzed.

Remember, sales is one of the highest paid of all professions.

Statistics show that good salespeople enjoy incomes far above the

average.

8. HAVE AN OFFICE AREA. Most direct salespeople work from their

own homes, but it is essential to have a place where you can work

in a organized and efficient manner. An office plus a strict

working schedule gives you dignity. Both are absolutely essential

for efficient operation and accurate record keeping, so important

to the success of any business.

9. BE INVOLVED. Most sales organization offer contests to

stimulate production. Include winning contests as part of your

business goals. Contests make your business fun as well as adding

considerable dollar value to your income.

10. LEARN TO HANDLE MONEY INTELLIGENTLY. A regular nine-to-five

job usually means a paycheck at the end of the second week.

Direct sales "reps" handle money constantly. Direct sales is

instant income and constant income. Therefore. it is absolutely

necessary to become an efficient money manager.

Deposit every penny collected from

clients into a checking account set up especially for its

business. Since bank statements show an exact record of all

monies collected, and business expenses can be verified by

canceled checks, record keeping becomes simple and accurate.

Everything except a few "petty cash" transactions can be directly

taken from bank statements.

Money saved regularly and put at interest, soon develops a second

income in addition to earned income. A long-term goal, which is

realistic in direct sales, is to be able to live in retirement

off the interest earned on savings.

Would financial security mean a lot to you? If so, ask yourself

these questions:

* Am I honest?

* Do I really like people?

* Am I willing to learn?

* Am I willing to work?

* Am I capable of being my own boss?

If your answers are yes, to find a good product

for the direct sales market, one that you like, one that fills

the need of a lot of people, and go to work for yourself! .You

can turn dreams into reality.

10 STEPS TO SUCCESS IN DIRECT SALES is a post from: Work From Home

What's more American than Mom, apple pie, and baseball? Would you believe Mom, apple pie, and casinos? It's true. Americans are visiting casinos more than they visit Major League baseball parks!

With all this participation, are Americans becoming expert at gambling? Do they know their odds and the ways to improve their odds the way they used to know baseball stats? If we are to judge by the billions of dollars dropped in casinos each year, the answer is a resounding "NO."

If winning at the casino is the new American dream, it seems to be a dream that comes true for very few - except the owners of the establishments. We'll assume you are not an owner. Then what can you do to improve your chances of winning a piece of the American casino pie? How can you change your luck?

Would you believe that your "luck" is really only one factor in the game, that there is a lot more going on here than just plain old-fashioned apple pie luck?

First, let me ask you a couple more questions. Do you spend more than you intended to on most of your visits to the casino, stay longer than you had planned, win far less money than you would like to win? Are you frustrated by your inability to really get ahead but find yourself going back again and again?

If you answered "yes" to these questions, you are solidly in with the vast majority of people who visit casinos. But, let's look at what "yes" answers imply. Notice that what you are really saying is that you don't seem to have as much control over your "luck" AND YOUR BEHAVIOR at casinos

as you would like to have. Why? Would you believe good old-fashioned American psychology? It's true - psychology is planned into the casino business!

First of all, there is the general psychology of society's changing attitude. Gambling has increased in popularity in good part because it is no longer perceived as terribly immoral - even the government has given its approval. Since you're, in effect, looking through society's view of

gambling as an acceptable form of entertainment, it's easy to let your guard down. It's just an acceptable, harmless way to have some fun. This is fine, as long as you either have inexhaustible funds to throw away or you can keep enough control to spend no more than you can afford. But if

you want to make your casino visits PAY, then you must change the way you look at gambling.

To make it pay you must look at the casino as your adversary. Now, that's not to say it can't be fun - after all, wouldn't it be more fun to walk away from your casino-adversary with bucks in your

pocket and a smile on your face than it is to walk away from your casino-friend with empty pockets?

But the psychology part is more involved and complicated than just analyzing your attitude and society's attitude. Casinos consciously and deliberately exploit known psychological responses to control your gambling behavior. Knowing some of their methods will help put you back in control.

We all know that casinos are set up to give the casino a mathematical edge. They are in the business to make money, after all. What you may not know is that your mathematical odds of winning are affected by the length of your visit. The longer you stay, the poorer your odds of winning are. That's mathematical. The casinos, then, use psychological methods to persuade you to stay longer - the longer you stay, the greater the odds that they win.

The design of the casinos - the colors, the lighting, the space, the chairs, the smells in the air, everything - is analyzed for maximum comfort and appeal. The operators figure that anything that can keep you playing just another five minutes each visit can add millions to their take.

Let's take a critical look at some common casino practices.

Special promotions, for instance. Some are designed to get you into the place, others to keep you there just a little longer. The free or cheap meals - an all around winner for the casino - will bring

some people in for a bargain meal. How many will leave without dropping at least some money in the games? Most will end up paying dearly for that "cheap" meal, but will forget that the next time they want to go out for a nice, "cheap" meal. But there's another aspect to it. If you are already

at the games, a cheap meal conveniently available in the casino will keep you in the building at mealtime. You'll be away from the games for a minimum length of time.

The fairly new bill acceptors on slot machines keep you at your play. When you are out of change, you don't have to wait around or walk to the change booth for more coin. This adds to your playing time - your playing time is money - for the casinos.

Casinos operators carefully plan their lighting. You may have noticed that when you are in a casino it is difficult to determine whether it is day or night. This is deliberate. Remember, they like you (or your money) so much they want you to extend your visit. If they can get you to drop your

usual time consciousness, you'll stay longer.

Colors are chosen to trigger automatic responses. Slot machines are outfitted in colors that will attract and hold gamblers. Sophisticated color combinations are used to minimize the time you will spend slot hopping. Many casino operators add a scent to the air. Think that's silly? In an

experimental test the scent was shown to increase substantially the number of coins customers dropped into the slots - very substantially, about 45 percent. Most of these techniques add greatly to your comfort as well as sometimes triggering an automatic psychological response. If your visit is pleasant, you will stay longer, play looser with your bankroll, and come back again.

Other techniques have little or nothing to do with your comfort and are simply exploitive. You are simply the "white rat" - the unsuspecting victim of psychological games. For instance, the payout system of the slots has had psychology applied to that. The system of paying tiny winnings often is that new psychology. How was it done before? Well if you won, you won a reasonable amount, but the payoffs were infrequent. What is the advantage of frequent small payoffs? It is the psychological "promise" of a big win. You will be enticed into staying longer and risking more money.

Putting in a few "hot" machines is also an application of psychology. Your search for the "hot" machine is motivated by the psychological "promise" of a lucky streak. Again, you'll stay longer and risk more. Some casinos will give you small denominations as change for large bills

or, at the tables, small denominations of chips. The reason? Because, as we all know, it is easier to spend a dollar than it is to spend a twenty. Psychological? Of course.

Ever notice how wins are played up? The real coin that's dropped into metal slot pan when someone wins is deliberate. The noise excites you. The bells and whistles that attend a really big win are also deliberate attention-getters and exciting. The casinos make a big deal over wins -

but losing is pretty quiet. The excitement of the noise stirs you to try to win, but there is more. All the attention given to winning makes it seem like there is more winning going on than there really is.

OK. Now you know that in the eyes of the casino you're merely a "white rat" from whom they are trying to extract the most they can. What can you do about it? Although occasionally casinos go too far and a practice is outlawed, you really can't do much about changing their use of tricks. But

when you are aware of them, you can guard yourself against reacting automatically. You can put yourself back in control.

So, is being in control going to change your "luck"? Well, it will help, but you have to know how to use that control to your advantage.

First, you know that your odds of winning decrease in ratio to the length of your visit at the casino. So with your new control you will make your visits will be shorter. You will be aware of your surroundings and try to note the tricks the casino is using to influence you. Conscious awareness will make them less effective. Pick you games according to your own system – not according to the casino's planned influence.

But you must also be aware of the things you can do to increase your odds in a given game. We will discuss a couple of the most popular games.

Slot machines –

Most slot machines have three reels. The number of combinations for lining them up depends on the number of symbols on each reel. Most machines have between 20 and 28 symbols per reel. To figure out how many combinations there are, you multiply the number of symbols on each reel times itself as many times as there are reels. For instance, the fewest combinations that there probably are on a three reel slot are: 20 symbols per reel with 3 reels - so we take 20 times 20 times 20 - or 8000 combinations. So theoretically a certain winning combination would, on the

average, appear once in every 8000 spins of the reels.

Each machine can be set for a rate of payback. Let's say a quarter machine has a payback of 90 percent (the usual rate on quarter machines is 86 to 90 percent). That would mean that for every 100 quarters dropped into the machine it would pay back 90 quarters. The dollar machines often pay back between 97 and 99 percent.

The progressive slots are linked together so that a coin played in any of the link-up will increase the size of the jackpot. You don't have a chance at the jackpot unless you play the maximum number of coins. Since the large jackpot games must reduce the amount paid in smaller winnings, you would be better off playing other machines unless you are willing to put in the maximum and go for the jackpot.

The best odds are on the dollar slots. They usually have the greatest payback - as we said, payback is between 97 and 99 coins for each coin played.

Some slot methods to increase your odds. Start out with only an amount of money you can afford to loose. Keep these coins separate from any other money, including your winnings. Play all

your start-up coins. Now tally up your winnings. If you have less coins than you started with, go to a different machine, and using these coins start over. If you have more than you started with, put your start-up amount in your pocket. Then put an additional percentage in your pocket - 10 percent would be good, but whatever percentage you decide on, make the decision before you begin playing and stick with it. Now whatever you have left after pocketing the amount you use for your start-up coins, you can begin again. Then in each additional round you will pocket half the winnings. As you can see, if you come out ahead in the first round and stick to the method, you will go home a winner. After the first round you will be playing strictly on winnings. If you don't come out a winner on the first round, you still have a chance to win and you will loose no more than the amount you originally decided you could afford to loose. But you need to be in control - this method will be of no help if you decide to change your rules in the middle of the game.

Another way to play the slots for better winning odds is to form a slot club with other players. Each person puts up a predetermined amount – make sure it is an amount each of you can afford to contribute regularly. The amounts put up should be the same for each player. Then you track the progressive games - you should track them for a while BEFORE you make attempts to win them. Keep records so you learn the characteristics of each progressive game. From these records, your team decides at what point each game is pregnant for a payoff. When the jackpot of a given progressive reaches that predetermined point, a team made up of some or all of the members takes the club bankroll and plays until they win or go broke. The key to winning here is to gauge the payoff point.

Slots are not easy to beat and the odds are NEVER in your favor, but by putting yourself in control and using these techniques you will have a better chance of beating the odds than you had before.

Video poker -

Video poker is a popular variation of the slot machine, but it is not a slot machine. The odds on a video poker game are greatly dependent on your skill as a player.

First, choose only those machines that pay full scale winnings. Each category of payoff is important, but a rule of thumb is 250 coins for a royal flush or 4000 coins for a royal flush under a 5 coin play. If the other payoffs are in line with the royal flush payoff, and you are a very skilled player, theoretically you could have odds VERY slightly in your favor, but you must know what you are doing.

For instance, when you are playing Video Jacks or Better - keep any full house or better. Hold a flush or straight except when drawing to a four card royal flush. With a four card flush, three card royal flush, four card straight, three card straight flush, three of a kind, two pair, single pair empty your hand to these holds and draw to fill. Draw three to two high cards and draw four to one high card. Always play the maximum coins to take advantage of the bonus for a royal flush.

Black Jack -

Black Jack is another very popular casino game in which it is possible to tip the odds VERY slightly in your favor, if you know what you are doing. It takes a serious and determined player to master the strategies to accomplish this, however. NEVER think that because you can tip the odds in your favor that you will win all of the time. EVERYONE looses some of the time so NEVER play with money you can't afford to loose.

Blackjack, as played in the world's casinos, has a number of variations - certain rules that apply in one casino may not apply in another. You will have to learn to adjust your game, if you travel from one casino to another. Some of the variations highly favor the casino, so to keep the odds favorable, you must avoid those variations and options that cut your odds.

OK. Most of the Black Jack games you will find are multiple-deck games. A single deck does give you slightly better odds. We will assume you are playing in a single deck game. With your new control, we will also assume you are playing with a bankroll that you have determined you can afford to loose. Now, you will need some real strategy to lower the odds against you.

First since the ace is countable as either one or 11, any hand you hold that contains an ace is a special hand - it can be counted low, with the ace as one, or it can be counted high, with the ace as 11. This two-way hand follows needs some special strategy rules. First, start out counting it as a high hand. Then if the dealer's showing card is an eight, nine, ten, or ace, you should stand on a count of 19 or more and draw to a count of 18 or less. But if the dealer's showing card is a two, three, four, five, or six, stand on a count of 18 or more and draw to a count of 17 or less.

Using this strategy for a two-way hand, you will never stand until your count is 18 or more. When you draw to a two-way hand, if your high count goes over 21, you then begin a low count. At this point you will, in effect, no longer have an optional two-way hand so you will begin using the strategy for a regular hand.

The strategy for a regular hand is a bit more involved. Whether you stand or draw is always determined by the dealer's showing card. If the dealer is showing a two, three, or four, you stand on 13 or more. If the dealer is showing a five or six, you stand on 12 or more. If the dealer is showing a seven, eight, or nine, you stand on 17 or more. If the dealer is showing a ten or ace, you stand on 16 or more.

Notice that in using this strategy, you will always draw to a count of two to 11 and always stand on a count of 17 or more as long as you are not holding a two-way hand.

When you are offered the option of doubling down use it in this manner: When you are holding nine, double down when the dealer is showing a two, three, four, five, or six. When you are holding ten, double down unless the dealer is showing a 10-count or an ace. When you are holding an eleven, always double down. When you are holding a two-way hand with a count of 12, 13, 14, 15,16, or 17, double down when the dealer is showing a six.

When you are offered the option of splitting pairs: Split twos and threes when the dealer is showing an eight, nine, ten, or ace. Never split fours, fives, sixes, or tens. Split sevens when the

dealer is showing two, three, four, five, six, seven, or eight. Don’t split eights unless the dealer is showing a nine or ten. Don’t split nines unless the dealer is showing a seven, ten, or ace. Never split tens. Always split aces when it is an option.

When you are offered the option of doubling down: When you are holding a count of ten double down unless the dealer is showing a 10-count or an ace. When you are holding a count of eleven

always double down. If you are holding a two-way hand with a count of 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, or 17, double down when the dealer is showing a six. Don't double down on other counts.

If you are offered the option of early surrender: When the dealer is showing an ace, surrender 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 unless you have a two-way hand. When the dealer is showing a 10-count, surrender 14, 15, 16 unless you have a two way hand. When the dealer is showing 9, surrender 6, 7, 9, 10.

If you are offered the option of insurance bets: Don't use it unless you are a skilled card counter.

There have been some new options offered recently in some casinos. Be very wary of these, especially the ones with attractive pay-offs. Most of them have very poor odds for you.

It is a good idea to find a table where the casino is not doing too well. When you find a winning table, play it. There is, of course, no guarantee that the house loosing streak will continue.

You must exercise control. When you are having a day when the cards just aren't working, leave the table and go home. Under no circumstances increase your bets in hope of recovering losses. When you are having a good day and your cards are running strong, go ahead, increase your bets. When things begin to sour, leave the table and go home.

Using this method, you will always cut your losses and always retain a portion of your winnings. No strategy will work well if you don't know every rule. You must study and practice your strategy so that you can make the right decisions at the table. And remember, your bankroll should never exceed what you can afford to loose.

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How to Win Big at Casino Gambling is a post from: Work From Home

As a Publishing entrepreneur and by doing publicity for my clients, I’ve spent years studying the art of selling. The techniques that follow aren’t difficult to learn, but they require discipline and practice.

Your most important skill as a business owner is your salesmanship. Having the best product or service means nothing if you can’t get anyone to buy it, so to ensure the success of your business you must develop the ability to generate revenue – “salesman-ship”.

Here is a brief outline of 13 techniques I’ve developed for increasing sales:

1. USE THE PHONE –Absolutely the cheapest, most effective, and efficient way to find customers is by phone. Yes, “cold-calling”. Write out a script for this before you call, so you don’t sound vague. Introduce yourself, your company, the purpose of the call, and give a brief “benefit” of your product/service to the client. ”What will you do for his/her business?” Be brief, to the point, and have 10 possible objections you might get, answered in your script. This way you’re prepared for the customary “brush-off.” Always try to get a firm commitment to a meeting. This call is not to “sell” the client, it’s to get a face-to-face meeting to establish credibility – and then to sell him/her. Would you buy from a voice on the phone? No. You want to see the vendor and listen to his offer.

2. SHOUT IT FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP – You should always be looking for new customer, and I’ve found that giving seminars, teaching, guest speaking at trade shows and organizations, or writing an article for your trade magazine or business journal establishes you as an “expert” in your field. People like to buy from experts because it reduces their fear of making a bad decision. Everyone can overcome their fear of public speaking, so find the method that works best for you and do it. As a desperate step, join a Toastmaster’s group near you or take a night course at a nearby Adult School.

3. ASK QUESTIONS – Most salespeople think that the first meeting with the prospect is the only chance to make a sale. WRONG! Before you go into your “pitch” ask questions, take notes, what are your prospects goals, challenges, etc. Helping a prospect solve a business problem creates a “win-win” relationship and closes more sales than you think.

4. AVOID “PRODUCT DUMPING” – Telling your prospect all about your product/service before you know their needs is a mistake made by 95% of salespeople. This is an inefficient selling method and upon reflection, your client will lose faith in you. I’ve met with clients on several occasions and left them with some advice and good feelings, but no sale and that’s alright. Because in the future I’m apt to get “word of mouth” referrals from them, which will outweigh what I might have made if I’d simply “sold” them a service that wasn’t an answer to their problem. Remember – nothing adds more to your credibility than a referral from a satisfied prospect.

5. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS – Selling is a numbers game, and you need to learn your “selling ratios.” How many prospecting calls do you need to get a meeting, and how many meetings to get a sale. This allows you to manage your cash flow by forecasting your sales. It also tells you how many calls are needed to increase your sales revenue.

In next week’s column we’ll continue with the 13 tips which will cover Qualifying Your Prospect and Gaining Trust to name just a few. Happy selling!

Guaranteed To Increase Sales! is a post from: Work From Home

Marketing wisdom tells us that 80% of all household purchases are made by women, and no business owner can ignore them. Marketers of kids’ gear, food, cosmetics and clothes are good at reaching women, but women buy gender-neutral stuff too, like cars, auto services, technology and just about everything except Viagra.

Yankelovich marketing consulting firm reports that 60% of women 16 and older are working. They comprise over half of all college students and about 38% of small business owners according to the 2002 figures of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A February 2002 study by Prudential Financial found that of 400 American women surveyed, 37% live in households with incomes of $50,000 - $100,000, and 12% were in the $100,000 annual income range.

No business owner can afford to ignore this market, but not ignoring them is not the same as attracting them. Attracting them is not the same as winning their loyalty, either. There is definitely a difference in dealing with women because they notice the small stuff. While men tend to make judgments based on first impressions and key interactions, women never stop gathering information.

Women develop a collage of impressions about a business from a hundred small factors; everything from its cleanliness to the design of the shopping bag. Smart business owners turn this to their advantage by investing in small amenities women can appreciate. Many young women today are much wiser than the boomers were at the same age. They have traveled widely and are accomplished and picky consumers.

The key to winning the loyalty of women shoppers and your share of this market is to offer carefully selected choices rather than a plethora of everything from A-to-Z that overwhelms them Eileen Fisher, designer of

women’s clothes, adopted this strategy and offers simple clothes in a limited palette. Furniture stores such as Storehouse Furniture in Atlanta have pared their selections to an “everything goes with everything else” array. Even house paint companies are adhering to this strategy of paring down and offering carefully selected choices.

Look! Women have so many work and family responsibilities they don’t have time to research and ponder every buying decision. They also aren’t trying to impress their friends by having the most toys. While a man may want 16 different size screwdrivers in his toolbox, you show a woman a tool with 16 interchangeable heads and she’ll buy it. Now she has one instrument which takes up less room but accomplishes the same thing, costs less in the end, and does the same job.

Whether buying for themselves of for the business they own or manage, women make final purchasing decisions based on the relationship with the seller, not on statistics and voluminous data. Given a choice on two nearly identical products, women will choose based on customer service and relationship with the vendor.

Men want to buy the product and leave, while women want to know how it works. Prescott True Value in Arizona has a loyal following of women running households on their own due to divorce or widowhood. By having enough staff to guide the customer and answer questions they have good to unequaled repeat business from women. Andy Andre, the owner of Prescott Arizona True Value store has learned that customer service is respect. “It’s taking the time to explain things to a customer and not talk down to them” he says.

Entrepreneurs assume that marketing to women is all about discounts and giveaways, but care and creativity is what really attracts women. If a man is ignored by a sales clerk he thinks, “What a jerk.” A woman will think, “I hate this company.” It’s the small things, good and bad, that make the impact on women customers. Learn this, and you’ve got a handle on your share of a growing niche.

How Do You Treat Your Women? is a post from: Work From Home

When you are at an interview, you may not be aware of this but your interviewer is observing your body language, very carefully. Your body language says a lot about yourself, so you need to control negative body movements and encourage positive body movements and habits. Humans naturally send and receive nonverbal communication; they have been doing so since the beginning of time. When your girlfriend folds her arms but has a smile on her face, are you not wondering what she upset is about or clammed up for. At an interview, you never want your body language to contradict your words, this makes you appear like a liar. The first impression, or the first few minutes of your interview are the most lasting.

The Handshake: your hands should be clean and well manicured, and free of perspiration. You want to allow the interviewer to initiate the handshake, which should match the interviewer in firmness, do not give a firmer handshake than them. Smile at the interviewer and look them in the eyes. It should last between two to five seconds. When departing the interview, the handshake may last longer, smile and lean forward as you shake.

Here are a few things you will want to avoid at an interview:

Clasping your hands behind your head

Adjusting your tie constantly

Slouching in your chair

Pulling your collar away

Picking at your face or outfit

Tight smiles or tension in face

Little eye contact

Wrinkling your eyebrows

Rapidly nodding your head

Any nervous tics

Crossing your ankles - means withholding information

Crossing your legs away from the interviewer- toward is ok

Crossing one ankle over the other knee

Crossing your interviewers personal space

Avoid grinning idiotically

Gnawing on one’s lips absentmindedly

“Faking” a cough during a tough question

Folding or crossing your arms

Avoid compulsive jabbing the floor or desk with your foot

Loud, obnoxious laughter

Body Language is a post from: Work From Home

Everyone dreams of owning a super money-making business where

other people do all the work, and their only duties involve the

approval of sales and bank deposit slips. It's the only way to go

as a business owner.

The problem is however, not too many people seem to know how to "

put together" such a business. What you're really talking about

is an operation where you supply the product and other people do

the selling-A prime source with a dealer or distributor network.

Assuming that you have the product, you'll also need a sales kit

and plenty of impressive, eye-catching promotional materials. If

you don't supply or offer to supply materials with which your

sales force can sell the product, you'll have a hard time

enlisting people to sell for you, and you probably won't set any

sales records relative to your product either.

Let's assume that you've just written a book-HOW TO MAKE $100,000

PER YEAR AT HOME, WITH YOUR TYPEWRITER. Okay, in order to sell

this book, you've got to get the word out to the people that you

have such a book available. Advertising on your own is going to

cost you money, and unless you've got a good understanding of the

advertising business, you may never reach your full sales

potential-besides, the time and effort expended in finding the

"right" place to advertise, the placing of your ads, monitoring

your returns, and the frustrations of dealing with the curiosity

seekers, will quickly wear you out. Such is not the way you

envisioned your life when you got the idea to write the book, get

rich and enjoy a life of leisure.

So, just as soon as you've got your book written-the book is your

product-get some "bids" out to the advertising agencies in your

area, the freelancers, and the advertising department at your

local colleges. What you want these people to do is make up an

advertising circular promoting and selling your book. Now then,

in a different-maybe smaller-type, and kind of like an

afterthought-at the bottom of this circular, you include the

phrase: Dealer Inquiries Invited...

Look over all the submitted circulars and choose the one (s) you

consider the best. then have a supply of these printed up at your

local print shop, obtain a mailing list of opportunity seekers,

and get them in the mail.

Just as soon as you've dropped these first circulars in the mail,

start writing your dealer/distributor letter. This should be

simply an explanation describing how you will dropship orders for

their customers, allowing them a certain commission on each sale

and, the price per copy you'll sell your book to them in

wholesale quantity lots. At the same time, this letter should

include a copy of your advertising circular, and an explanation,

reassuring these dealers that they can reproduce this circular

with their name/address in place of yours on the order coupon.

You might even include a brief note that you will pre-print these

circulars with the dealer's name/address and ship them to him for

a wholesale printing price. All of this boils down to your

supplying him or her with whatever is needed to promote and sell

copies of your book for you. The bottom line is simply that you

can only reach so many people, and sell so many books yourself.

With 1,000 people helping you-mailing out advertising circulars

and running small ads in hundreds of opportunity seeker

publications-your costs of running your business will be minimal

while your book sale skyrocket.

Remember though, you need an impressive, eye-catching advertising

circular or mailing package for your sales force to use as their

own, and you need a clear easy-to-understand books in wholesale

quantity lots, and the availability of advertising materials for

your dealers.

The advertising circular should be dual purpose- you send it out

to solicit sales of your product, and at the same time, recruit

dealers who are impressed with your advertising materials and

feel that they can make some money for themselves by promoting

your product. Again, this needn't be much more than a simple

"throw-way" line at the bottom of the circular: Dealer Inquiries

Invited...

Now that you're organized thus far, the next thing is to contract

to run as many small DEALERS WANTED ads in as many of the mail

order publications as possible. Such ads can be either a

classified or a small, but eye-catching one inch display ad:

DEALERS WANTED! Outstanding new book. Sells

like wildfire! Everybody wants a copy! Make

$10 profit on every $15 sale! Details for

SASE to:

Basically that's all your "dealers wanted" ad needs to say, and

then with plenty of exposure in all the mail order publications

over a period of six or eight months, you should have hundreds of

people all over the country selling your book for you. Simple,

easy, almost cut and dried, but it works!

In building my own business from scratch over the past 10 years,

I've found that once you've established a basic

dealer/distributor network-or a list of people selling for

you. You can add hundreds of related products, and the orders just

keep coming in. Give it a try and see for yourself just how easy

and profitable it can be for you!

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HOW TO RECRUIT DEALER/DISTRIBUTORS TO SELL FOR YOU is a post from: Work From Home

I bet that got your attention! It’s something that every business owner knows, but it seems to get lost in the shuffle of our day-to-day doing business.

I’m not going to give you a lot of rhetoric on the subject. Instead I’m going to simply give you a list of 10 points on each that will jog your business memory.

Let’s start with some savvy ways to reduce the cost of you doing business:

1. Barter – You should be bartering goods or services with other businesses. Try to trade for something before you buy it.

2. Network – Could you trade leads or mailing lists with another business similar to your? This will cut down on your marketing/advertising costs. If you don’t have a leads list, try bartering your goods/services for their leads.

3. Wholesale/Bulk Buying – You can save money buying your business supplies in bulk quantities. Get a membership at a wholesale warehouse (such as Costco, Sam’s Club, etc.) or buy through a mail order wholesaler. I buy most of my office supplies/paper through mail order vendors which saves me money, and also delivers them to my door. No lugging from store to car to office, and saving money too! What a deal.

4. Free Stuff – Try visiting the thousands of “freebie” sites on the Internet before buying business supplies. You can find free software, graphics, legal forms, online business services, etc.

5. Borrow/Rent – Have you purchased a piece of business equipment and only needed it for a short period of time? You could have borrowed the equipment from someone else or rented it from a rental store.

6. Online/Offline Auctions – You can find office furniture, equipment, and even cars and trucks at online and offline auctions. Pay special attention to those held by law enforcement agencies or IRS that auctions off items seized from offenders. I’m not saying all the time, but before you pay retail for some big ticket items try bidding on them.

7. Plan Ahead – Make a list of supplies or equipment that you’ll need in the future. Watch for stores that have big sales, and purchase your items when they go on sale before you need them.

8. Used but Not Abused – If you equipment and supplies don’t need to be new, buy them used. Cars, desks, file cabinets, etc. can be found at yard and garage sales, used stores, on message boards, and free publications. Some excellent items are sometimes offered when a business decides to relocate or is closing.

9. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate! This has become a lost art. You should always try to negotiate a lower price for any business equipment or supplies. It doesn’t hurt to try. Pretend you’re talking to a used car salesman.

10. Search – You can always be searching for new suppliers for your needs. Look for suppliers with lower prices and better quality. When you find one, try pointing the difference out to your current supplier. You may get a better deal from him and not have to change. Don’t be satisfied with just a few. You never know when your favorite supplier may decide to go out of business.

If you’re a native Californian, you might find these things I’ve discussed a little hard to swallow. Let me tell you, being a native New Yorker, these are things that you learn from doing business there, and at an early age.

Just remember! Every millionaire didn’t acquire their wealth through inheritance; some were shrewd business dealers.

In next Saturday’s column I’ll give you the other half of the equation. How to anchor down more sales.

Reduce Costs –Anchor More Sales is a post from: Work From Home