Dariako Valko Business News

Archive for September, 2011

Let’s face it…competition is here to stay. There will always be someone waiting in the wings to woo your customers away from you and into their realm. Yeah, you’re always going to have to be on the lookout for new ways to outdo the competition, but there are 3 ways you can minimize the impact they have on your business.

1. Implement Unconventional Marketing Strategies
Standing out from the crowd is sometimes hard to do with so many businesses mimicking the marketing campaigns of their competitors. Sure, we all want to be successful, and when we see others using a method and prospering there’s an urge to jump on the band wagon and enjoy the same success.

Rather than joining the pack, look for ways to advertise that no one else is using. Internet marketing is a good example. Most Internet marketers use …you guessed it the Internet to market their products. Why not get high impact postcards printed and use them to direct people to your Website? Hey, no one else is doing it!

2. Discover Hidden Markets
Your competitors are missing out on something! Dig around until you discover what it is, and get a corner on that market niche. Once you’ve discovered your secret gold mine, revise your sales copy, and Website to address the specific market you’ve uncovered.

If you’re a Multi Level Marketing representative you might want to consider the following niches.

” Employees: The freedom that comes with being your own boss is a dream that many employees hope for, but never experience. Go ahead…let them know that dreams do come true…there’s an opportunity to be their own boss waiting just for them.
” Stay-at-home Moms: Most stay at home Moms are sacrificing finances for the well-being of their children. They would jump at the chance to raise their children and make a little money too.
” Retirees: What does the future hold for someone looking at retirement? It could be that there is a lot of spark, and dreams still pulsing inside…and now…they’ll have the time to invest their long time dreams!

3. Become the Expert
We all respect the opinions and insight of someone who really knows a subject inside and out. Yeah, take the time to research, get to know all of the ins and outs of your product…then emphasize it in your marketing campaign. True knowledge can’t be aped. Consumers will know who the expert is.

You don’t have to put all of your eggs in one basket to zero in on one product, but you can emphasize your expertise in one area. Remember that people often expect to pay more for expert advice! You may want to raise your price a little bit, get testimonials, and find another expert to endorse you.

You don’t have to let the competition get one over on you when you position yourself for success!

How would you like to hire someone that is more motivated and more qualified to do the work and costs you less than your average employee? No, I am not talking about hiring someone illegally. You can accomplish this simply by employing a telecommuter. Let’s take a look at 5 very good reasons, why it makes sense for you to consider telecommuting from an employer’s perspective.

1) Less Overhead
How much is all this office space, furniture, computer equipment along with your IT department to maintain them, utility bills etc. costing you? Telecommuters do not require any of the above, which will cut your overhead cost tremendously. Telecommuters use their own office, their own equipment from computers to paperclips; use their own power, phone and Internet connection. If their computer acts up, it’s up to them to get it up and running again.

2) Less Benefits To Pay
Most telecommuters are independent contractors. You do not have to provide for health care, workman’s compensation or paid vacation. Consider the tax benefits as well; there is no employer portion of federal and state tax to pay.
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1. Use cedar matches, if possible. If you prefer to use a lighter, make sure it’s butane lighter to avoid strong odors.

2. Warm the open end of the cigar (aka ‘the foot’ of the cigar) slowly over the flame, without touching it to the fire. Let a black ring form around the end.

3. Place the cigar in your mouth and draw in slowly. Hold the cigar over the flame, about half an inch above it, again without touching. Continue to draw in until the cigar draws the flame. Turn the cigar slowly, spinning it to establish an even burn.

4. Once your cigar is lit, take it out of your mouth and observe the burn you have established. If the burn appears to be uneven, simply blow on the unlit sections to draw the burn, and then take one or two draws from the cigar to reestablish an even burn.

I am sure that you have heard the phrase “safety in numbers” before. In the animal world, creatures travel in groups because they instinctively know that, when there are many of them, predators have less of a chance of being successful during an attack. In most cases, if a predator is successful, its victim is usually a sick or weaker member of the herd. This is an important part of the process of natural selection and maintains the process of survival of many species.

On the other hand, there are predators that travel in packs because they instinctively know that in the search for prey, some potential meals have the ability to defend themselves, and a group attack is usually more effective. This too ensures the survival of the species because, without the pack, some predators would literally starve to death.

In the large corporate world, herds and packs are replaced by boards of directors, employee teams, shareholders, and subsidiaries. These are groups of people who come together to pool their abilities in support of the agenda or goals of the corporation. In essence this ensures the future success of the business. In the large corporate world, failing companies are often absorbed by successful ones in mergers and through acquisitions. Rarely does a large company just “go out of business” or become extinct. They are usually simply bought by another large company.

In the small business world, the entrepreneur is the animal who has wandered away from the herd. Sometimes it happens because of unemployment, but often it is because they have a desire to be independent from the politics of the corporation, or simply to be self-sufficient. Fortunately for the small business owner, a community exists where they can count on others to help them to be successful. It is the community of business-to-business networking.

Not all small business owners are aware of the opportunities of success involved in business networking. In fact, if I were to make a guess at how many businesses are involved in networking, I would guess the number to be around less than 10 percent of all businesses. This is unfortunate because not only is there a great deal of opportunity for acquiring more new business in the networking environment, there are also methods of learning to be more successful and to be a bit safer in the business community.

Why would I link safety in numbers, animals and small business? Because in the business world at large, predators exist. Corporations have learned that a part of doing business is putting measures of security in place through patents, copyrights, server firewalls, policies, and a myriad of other functions that occur on a daily basis often with employees dedicated to these. In the environment of small business, we often are not even aware of the threats and if we are, rarely do we have the means within our budget to protect ourselves against them.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever done work for someone who refused to or simply never paid you? If you have never had this experience, I applaud your extreme streak of good luck. On the other hand, maybe you have not been in business for very long so this painful experience may be looming on the horizon.

In any case, when this does happen to you, what will you do? Contact the lawyer? File suit? Complain to a friend? Accept it and move on? Most people tend to simply accept it and move on. Some cases may involve inventory that you can write it off as a loss on your taxes, but some cases involve intellectual property where there is no monetary resolution. The sad reality is that often there is no justice for you, no satisfaction, and ultimately no payment.
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