Monthly Archives: January 2013

How to Advertise Your Business with a Limited Budget

Today’s post is by guest blogger

Sara Dugan

InterviewingAs a teen in business you know that you need traffic to your website or shop in order to make a profit. You can get that traffic through word of mouth or direct advertising. For a start up business you need to find advertising that will reach a large audience and fit you budget.

One way you can reach a lot of people and save on your marketing budget is through your local media. You can contact news stations, local radio stations, newspapers and even magazines. For online media connections you can try podcasts and blogs that cater to your target market.

Before contacting anyone you want to be sure you have a media kit ready. A media kit is simply a little packet of information that makes it easier for reporters to write about you.

What should you include in your media kit?

Include your name and contact information as well as your company history, the product you sell, as well as news about current events of note that the media might want to highlight in their piece. Be sure to include a photo of you and your product, your company’s logo and any brochures or catalogs.

Justina of A Bent Piece of Wire shares her experience with contacting and speaking with media to further the reach of her blog.

1. Did you approach media or did media approach you? If you approached them, how did you do that? Phone them, email them, sent a press release etc..

It depends on the situation at hand. When I did a segment on my local news about teen holiday fashion, I contacted them, because I thought it might be something fun. I have been contacted at other times to do interviews and such, by reporters who came across my blog.

You would be surprised at how easy it is to contact local news stations! Most have contact emails or a contact box on their site, which makes it super simple to send them a message. I have also written a few press releases, but these are for when an event or something big is happening, like when I was featured in Teen Vogue. When you’re writing press releases, or even just the emails, it’s good to have someone double check it, just to put some fresh eyes on it.

2. Once media does contact you, how do you prepare for the interview?

I don’t actually do much in the way of preparation. I don’t memorize anything or practice answers, because I feel like that blocks you off from being natural, and turns you into a weirdly stiff automaton. As a teenager, my best bet is to be relaxed and relate-able, which are not the vibes coming off at all if you rehearse every word that comes out of your mouth.

I do consciously attempt to avoid using words like “um” and “and” a lot during interviews. If it’s over the phone or in person, it’s really annoying for the reporter, and if you are on television, it makes you sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about.

3. Any advice you’d give teens wanting to spread the word about their business?

Join sties like Twitter, where you can network with anyone. I’ve made some huge connections in my industry through twitter, from editors, to stylists, to celebrities. Take advantage of the fact that we have the internet, which can take you anywhere, and introduce you to anyone, in seconds.

With a bit of research and work you can take your business further than you ever dreamed. Three things you can do right now are Google a simple press release template, email your local news anchor or call your radio station to add your event to their calendar. Be sure you have your media kit ready and good luck.

Justina is a 15 year old fashion blogger with a serious vintage addiction from the Land of the Palm Trees (California).

Justina’s URL is: http://www.abentpieceofwire.com

Sara writes about crochet, crafts, and family at http://www.saraduggan.blogspot.com and crochet business blogging at http://www.crochetbusiness.com

 

 

 

 

Inspiration Sunday Part 2

So I just realized that I posted Sunday’s article on Saturday.  Well, it was Sunday in other places in the world already.  Anyway, I decided to use this mistake to catch up as I was a post behind schedule in the blog challenge.

Rather than write a new article, I’m going to go with another Sunday inspiration and that will put me back on track.

This one highlights the differences between successful and unsuccessful people in a way that makes sense in a basic way.

 

I want to apologize to the creator of this graphic.  I found it on Facebook and didn’t realize that it didn’t have a credit on the graphic and now I can’t find it again to see who created it.  Sorry.  I’ll be happy to provide the credit when I find it.

 

 

A 5 Step Blueprint to Change the World’s Economy

Yesterday I was explaining to someone that the global mission of my business not only has the potential to impact youth unemployment; through the ripple effect it has the potential to impact entire communities worldwide.

Whew, that’s a big picture.  It is possible though.  I like to dream big and I believe this can become reality.

 

Here’s my 5 step blueprint for changing economic reality around the globe:

1. Train and mentor young people to become entrepreneurs.

2. These young entrepreneurs will hire friends and family as their business starts earning money.

3. Friends and family will then be employed and have money to spend in the community.

4.The community will thrive due to this spending, small business will be able to create more jobs and people will have money to spend on the things they need.

5. The outcome is a thriving, healthy community that invests in newer and better resources.

Yes, I know this is a rather simplistic blueprint, but think about it for a few minutes.  Once we fill in the details of all these steps, and while it may not be possible in some areas of the world until their politics change, it is possible and with enough big dreamers taking action, it is doable.

Let me leave you with one such example.  There is a nonprofit called The Kind Fund.  They supply school desks to children in Malawi.  The desks are locally made and the Fund raises money, more and more desks are ordered, the local company that makes them has hired other members of the community to build the desks.  More desks means having to order more wood which creates more work for woodcutters.  Can you see that ripple effect at work here?

What is your world changing idea?

 

Do you have a clear picture of the areas of your life and business where change is required?  It might be time for a reality check so you can discover those areas where you are incomplete or could improve.  If you are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.

Planning a Telesummit

Two days ago I decided to have a telesummit.  I’m preparing to launch my coaching certification program soon and thought this might be a great lead in to start the launch.

I made this declaration in Adam Urbanski’s Navigator course and Adam immediately said, “name it now, find someone to get an optin page up for you and start promoting this today.”

Okay.  I don’t move quite as fast as Adam does.  I am doing what he suggested except it isn’t happening that quickly.

I chose a title immediately though, The Youth Empowerment Telesummit.  And I have started contacting people to “enroll” them to participate as presenters.  So far I have some very solid commitments from others who work with youth in one capacity or another.  I am blown away by those who have accepted.

Tomorrow I will begin work on the optin page and get that up as quickly as possible.  And I will reach out to extend more invitations to participate.

Writing the copy for the page will be my biggest challenge so I’m going to have to spend some time researching other optin pages for other telesummits so I can see what they are including.  I have to collect bios on the presenters and their photos and a list of things they will consent to give away to listeners.  The freebies they provide will bring listeners to their website to sign up to their mail lists.  It’s a win-win situation.

The calls will be live via freeconferencecallhd.com.  There will be either one or two opportunities to listen to the replays, then the interviews go into the vault for safekeeping until such time as I repurpose them into a CD package.

It isn’t really that difficult to create a telesummit; it is time consuming.  And it’s a great way to practice your “enrollment skills” by having to talk to people about participating.  I find that people are eager to be involved in your projects if they feel your passion.  If you are genuine, it’s contagious.

I’m quite happy with how much has been accomplished in just two days and I’m fairly certain that these presenters and I will remain connected and be doing more things together in the future.

Have you ever had a telesummit?

What was your experience in putting it together?

Do you have any suggestions or advice that you think will be helpful?

 

Do you have a clear picture of the areas of your life and business where change is required?  It might be time for a reality check so you can discover those areas where you are incomplete or could improve.  If you are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.

A Brown Bird Sang

I meant to have a post for day 9 on time, however, so many things happened today that required so much time that I never had a chance to think about what to write let alone write it.

That reminds me of a poem I learned in school a long time ago. The first verse reads,

 

I meant to do my work today,
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

The name of the poet escapes me right now, and there is another verse, that I do recall but it isn’t relevant to my day.  If only my afternoon was that lovely.

I started a new course today called Navigator with Adam Urbanski and our very own awesome Michelle Shaeffer.  There was so much packed into this one call that it felt like months worth of training.  I was so busy being in action after the call that the rest of the morning flew by as if I had found a time warp.

Then the outside world found it’s way in.  My elderly dad had a geriatric assessment today and I had to be interviewed to fill in the blanks.  He lives in a facility for dementia patients and I manage his life.  It isn’t that I mind having to pay his bills, confirm his appointments, provide stuff that he requires and so forth, however, I am still finding a way to not let it take so many hours out of the days that someone decides I need to handle things.

In spite of this rather lengthy interruption, I got a lot done and made a lot of phone calls to invite people to participate in a telesummit I’m putting together for people who work with teens and young adults, teaching them independent living skills.  The positive responses were gratifying and helped to keep my spirits up.

Hopefully I will be able to get back on track on Day 10 of the blog challenge. 

How do you cope with interruptions and distractions in your day that interfere with the work you need to do?

Do you have a clear picture of the areas of your life and business where change is required?  It might be time for a reality check so you can discover those areas where you are incomplete or could improve.  If you are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.


Choosing Your Online Business Model

There are many internet- based business models to choose from, however, they are broken down into two types – low traffic and high traffic.  My personal online business falls in the low traffic category, however, that will change to be a combination of both once my new program is launched.

Since there is a large learning curve on the internet, it’s a good idea to start out with a low traffic model.  Service based businesses are considered low traffic.  A sales site such as an ecommerce store is a high traffic business because the volume of traffic has to be high in order to make money.

Examples of high traffic business models includes low price products, the sale of merchandise, ebooks, videos, webinars, online courses or a combination of all of those.  It also includes paid subscriptions to newsletters, ezines, community membership sites, affiliate marketing, adsense sites and blogging.

Low traffic business model examples include mid to high priced products or training courses, coaching, consulting, freelancing, speaker services, and higher priced services, membership sites and others.

As you can see, there are similar types of models in both the high and low traffic categories – the higher priced your service or product, the less traffic you need to make money.

Let’s take a look at the six most popular models of online businesses.

1.     Blogging

A blog is simply an online journal of sorts.  You decide how many times a week you are going to post a new article, then write something to post on your blog.  Through Google you can add advertisements to your page, called AdSense.  The idea is that you drive traffic to your blog and they click on the ads and you make money.  The drawback is that for you to make money doing this, you have to really understand SEO and Google rankings, or hire someone that does.

My blog is a page on my website http://www.julianeiman.com/blog where I post articles relating to empowering teens and young adults to become entrepreneurs.  The majority of my articles are geared toward this topic.   I do not use Adsense though.  My blog is an addition to my online business rather than a business itself.

Right now I am not consistent with how often I post an article because I’ve been busy creating a new program.  However, I participated in several blog challenges where you post a new blog every day and other people comment and share your blog with the goal being to increase awareness of your business and traffic to the blog.  I used the posts from two of the challenges to write this book and my first book, 31 Powerful Lessons Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset.

2.      Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is where you make money through commissions from selling other people’s products.  This works if don’t have a product of your own to sell.  However, be aware that affiliate marketing is a high traffic model.  The person whose product or services you are selling has all the systems in place, you sign up with them, get your personal affiliate code, then hit the internet to promote their product.  I am an affiliate for the Word Press Store and for several coaches who sell expensive programs, or what’s commonly called big ticket products.

Once you drive traffic to their business, it’s up to them to make the sale and you receive whatever commission they are offering.  I earned two $1000 commissions when two people signed up for an online course that cost in excess of $3000 and I receive commission from time to time when someone uses my link to purchase the Word Press Estore, the Affiliate Software or other products.

You can do affiliate marketing through Clickbank as well.  They have a large database of products to choose from.  Find several that interest you, sign up and start promoting.

3.     Information Products

People that create and sell information products are often called Infopreneurs.  This is where you are selling information products that teach people how to do things.  For example, “How to Market Online,” “How to Buy a Car,” “How to Cook Chicken.”  The topics are only limited by your imagination.  You can also sell information products that are created by others if they have the resell rights attached.  Make sure you have permission to sell someone else’s work before you do.

You need to develop some skills to be an infopreneur.  You need to be able to either create or locate products with great content that people want.  You need to be able to drive traffic to your site in order to make sales, and you need to have some sales ability in order to convince people that this product is a good investment and will help them either solve a problem or learn how to do something.

Once you have these skills, you are in a position to make a nice income as information products are the top selling products on the internet.

4.     Ecommerce Sites

An ecommerce site is online retail store.  You can create your own store front of buy one from a company that is already set up.  This is called a “turn-key business.”  A turn-key business is like an online franchise.  The person you buy they store from usually has additional fees aside from the purchase price so do your homework before deciding to go this route.

Ecommerce sites are more difficult to position in terms of ranking in the search engines because they don’t often have fresh content.  You might want to add a blog to your ecommerce site so you do have fresh content and are consistently updating.  You can sell your own products if you have them to sell, like shoes, or car products, musical instruments, jewelry and just about anything that is legal.  You have choices here too.  You can keep your own inventory, or use a drop-shipper.  A drop-shipper is a company that stores the product and ships it for you.  You receive the order from your customer along with payment, you send an email with the order to the drop-shipper and they mail it out and charge you their price for the product.

I don’t recommend ecommerce as a way to start online if you aren’t already experienced in retail sales.  This type of business has a large learning curve and there is a lot involved, including returns, replacing broken items, knowing if there are restrictions to shipping certain items to certain states and a lot more.

5.     Provide Services

Providing services through an online site is known as freelancing.  You have to have a skill that you can promote in order to be a freelancer.  If you can write, do graphic design, know programming code, design games or be a virtual assistant (an online secretary or business manager), you can build a successful business as a freelancer.  You can also coach other people if you have the know-how and experience in a particular area to do.

There are drawbacks to freelancing such as having deadlines to meet.  If you aren’t disciplined and can’t meet deadlines, then this isn’t for you.  I used to freelance my writing services and believe me, it was a struggle sometimes to meet a deadline.  I never missed one, it just isn’t professional and you won’t get repeat business.

There are many places where you can list yourself as a freelancer.  I used to use Guru.com and elance.com.  Now there’s Fiverr as well where you provide a service for $5.  That gives the customer an almost risk free way to use your service and if they like you, you will have repeat client at full price and perhaps some referrals as well.

6.     Membership Sites

Membership sites seem to be trending as a business model right now.  Basically, they are a community that you provide an online site for, that people pay a fee to be a part of.  They are a lot of work because you have to continually update your information, add new content and keep up with your subscribers.  People can cancel their subscription at any time so your income could be inconsistent.

My business is going to have a membership site soon; however, there will be no charge for the site, at least in the beginning.  I will start the site as a Facebook group.  Membership will be limited to those people who have completed the certification process to coach my new program, Monetize Your Passion: Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Start a Business, as well as their teen and young adult clients that have completed the coaching program.  The group will offer a place where both coaches and clients can make connections, network, find answers to their questions, marketing ideas, mentors and further learning opportunities.  Through this site, I hope to provide the support that is required long after the coaching program is complete.


I hope this helps you on your journey to choose the type of online business model that will be right for you.  As you can see, it can be complicated and require a lot of research and work on your part.  Are you willing to do whatever it takes to get a business up and running?

Do you have a clear picture of the areas of your life and business where change is required?  It might be time for a reality check so you can discover those areas where you are incomplete or could improve.  If are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.

 

Nothing is Free

Here is another lesson from my spiritual teacher.  This lesson can be applied to business and/or to being coached by someone, i.e. a teacher or mentor, and is something to keep in mind when someone asks you if you are coachable.

Being coachable means you are willing to let go of your preconceived notions and what you have done previously and be receptive to making some changes that are recommended to you by the coach.  If you don’t make the changes, the coach will become impatient with you and will likely drop you as a client.

You have to earn to learn

Experience is the pay

The price is change

If you are slow to learn through experience, you will pay more in experience in time, for the experience will become impatient and the price of change will come harder.  The price of change is the swiftness of learning.  You earn through paying in the amount of time it takes to experience a change from learning.  The understanding of the experience is the change that comes from the understanding which is the learning in the amount of time that the experience has patience and doesn’t feel held back from you not being ready to change.

Basically, this says that we learn lessons that facilitate change through experience.  If we don’t learn with the first experience, we keep having similar experiences with a great degree of difficulty until we learn what we are supposed to learn.  If we continue not to learn, the experiences become progressively more difficult.  The faster we learn, the less the price of change.  The price of change is relative to the degree of ease of difficulty that you create by the speed at which you learn.

Are you coachable?  Are you receptive to change?

Do you have a clear picture of the areas of your life and business where change is required?  It might be time for a reality check so you can discover those areas where you need to make changes.  If are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.

 

Thoughts About Money

Here is another lesson I learned many years ago from my spiritual teacher:

Material flow has to do with marketing your personality for a job or selling a service or product independently.  Your personality includes your skills and abilities because the personality reflects the whole person.  Material flow creates money and cash flow is the way the money is used to create more money.  Your personality is the magnetic attractor of material flow.

Everyone that has jobs or whose business serves the markets of the middle class or the poor are in danger of not being able to sustain an income.  The only jobs or businesses that will be secure will be those that have the rich as their market.  The rich have become a separate society of the rich providing for the richer.

The secret of being rich and being happy is not having any more than is needed.  So if you want a lot of money, you have to create a positive purpose for being rich in which the money is used well and wisely for purposes larger than just having wealth to buy stuff.

This lesson came into my life sometime in the 1980s.  At that time my spiritual teacher, told me that people with jobs, unless they are top executive jobs with top Fortune 500 companies, will see their incomes drops, their benefits fall away and their jobs disappearing altogether and that there would be little or no possibility to recover from that.  He predicted that the middle class, which was very strong during that decade and most of the next, would wither and shrink to become very small and the poor would increase in great numbers.

Today, we see exactly that.  I’m gratified to see so many people turning to entrepreneurship as that is the way to a more secure future for many who walk that path.  Some of us will get rich and some of us will be comfortable, and in that way we will escape being poor.

Where are you on this path?  Are you making good decisions and wise choices?  Have you worked to improve your personality?

The Art of Business

Here’s something slightly different from me today and perhaps for the next few days: thoughts about business and entrepreneurship on a different level that I learned from my spiritual teacher years ago.

Business done well is an art.  The art of business is the ability to see the future and its needs.  The needs of the future present themselves as energy resources.  Energy resources can be in the form of natural energy or services, and products.  Energy resources can be physical or mental.  Examples of physical energy resources would include massage, yoga, a catered meal, or any service that provides something that is physical.

Mental energy resources are the basis and foundation of all business.  Literature is the form or language of mental energy resources.  All ideas are organized through forms of literature, which prepare the idea for verbal presentation.

It takes a creative mind to perceive the future from a business perspective.  Creativity is the ability to communicate and express ideas as complete images of thought.  In order to be a successful creative mind in expression on a business level, the ideas must be integrated and organized.  This means that the most successful creative business minds are advanced literary minds who have an organized understanding of the material world and its capabilities.

It is the spirit which is creative and gets in touch with ideas from being able to concentrate on thought frequencies to see the idea clearly, yet to materialize the idea there must be an understanding of the material world.  The material world is very crowded.  For this reason one must learn to avoid the crowded places in climbing to the top of the pyramid of the business world .

Does this post leave you confused or are you connecting to a deeper level of understanding?  Can you see the principles of the Law of Attraction in this post?

Are you climbing the business pyramid?  Do you have a clear picture of where you are in the different areas of your life and business?  It might be time for a reality check so you can “uncrowd” those areas of your life and business where you need to make changes.  If are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.