Being Smarter

We’re proud to announce our next online training course with Ed Dale called Starting from Scratch, which teaches you how to start a business with no money. This article gives you our thinking behind it.

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I’ve been in this online industry full time for about two years now and let me tell you one thing – it’s certainly not easy. It takes hours and hours of effort to be successful and so much of it is completely wasted, because you never know which hours are going to pay back.

I talk to a lot of people who are really interested in going it alone either online or in the ‘real world’ and the most common question is always how do you start a business with no money? People either have time or resources available to them and more often than not, it’s just time and very little capital. But that’s OK and it’s certainly not a reason not to start a business.

One of my mentors is a guy called Ed Dale. You may have heard of him – he runs a programme called The Thirty Day Challenge, which teaches you how to make your first $1 online. He is passionate about online marketing but he’s equally as passionate about helping people to start a business with no money. He calls his methodology ‘starting from scratch and has done it himself many times. I’ve enjoyed learning from him because he talks sense.

He has given me (at least) 5 valuable pieces of advice, which I’d like to share with you when it comes to starting from scratch in the online space.

1. Don’t give up your day job – Giving up the day job with a business plan (a what?!) and a standing start is guaranteed to see your savings disappear quickly. There’s a better way.  Spend the bare minimum on your day job, bring in your salary and then spend every other waking hour preparing foryour next move.
2. Today’s economic climate can be an advantage – 10 years ago, online marketing was easy. Cost per click was cheap and few people were in the online business. Today it’s much harder to succeed, yet the tools make your life easier if you know how to use them. You just need a laser guided focus and a will to succeed.
3. You need to build a bank of cash – When you start a business with no money, accept it isn’t going to be straight forward – you need to build a small bank of cash which can then go onto fund the bare essential tools you need to invest in, such as domain names and webhosting. There are a number of strategies for doing this whilst you’re still doing #1.
4. There is no excuse not to research your market – So many people start their business, create a product and then spend months trying to sell it without ever considering if there’s a market for it. With the Google Keyword tool and other tools such as Market Samurai, there is no excuse not to find out about the market place before you start… again making it so much easier to get the business off the ground without funding.
5. It’s not for everyone - Accept that when you start a business with no money it’s a huge uphill struggle. Unless you’re passionate about what you do, have the support of your family and friends, then you’re always going to struggle…

If you want to know more about how to start a business with no money, Ed’s course with The 8.45 Club is now live and will teach you how to start from scratch in the online marketing world. Click the link to see the first module for free! It’s a tried and tested philosophy as you’ll see from the two case studies within the course.

OK, I admit it, I’m obsessed with ‘taking action’… I’m not great at prevaricating… I perhaps don’t spend enough time thinking. However – it’s the best way to be.

Having worked in and with the corporate world for many years – it’s clear to see paralysis by lack of action is rife and it’s slowly killing these organisations.

A few years ago a good friend and colleague reminded me of Newton’s 3rd Law.

For every action, there’s an equal an opposite reaction.

Now, if you subscribe to this school of thought, you probably won’t get the reaction you were expecting, however you will get a reaction… maybe even not straight away, but you will.

I’m currently sitting in an appartment in Melbourne, working with a great bunch of folks for a few days and the reason I’m here is that I sent an email about 3 months ago. I didn’t think it would get answered, but I sent it anyway. I’ve sent plenty more that haven’t been answered, but this one did.

I’m about to be part of a three day conference in which 100+ people will gather for three days, watch (I know) some fabulous speakers and be given a ton of practical advice. How many of you/them will take action as a result of attending? And by that, I mean pick just 5% of the most relevant things you were taught and implement them the following week? I’m not sure? Some will, some won’t. Some actions maybe fruitful, some maybe not – but if you’re taking action, and gaining momentum, things WILL happen. Eventually.

So there we are then. What are you not going to put off today?

This is a really short post to remind Being Smarter viewers who work for the biggest 5,000 companies in the UK that in April, your world is going to change.

No longer can companies turn a blind eye to leaving the lights on, to not regulating heating properly or not EDUCATING their employees as to the importance of energy efficiencies.

The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme will kick in from April, where those 5,000 companies will be ranked according to the change they make in their businesses over the coming months and years. Part of that change process involves educating employees.

Do you know know how you will educate yours? How can you train 00′s or 000′s of employees across dispersed geographies?

We have a solution. Our training venture, The 8.45 Club has teamed up with a leading futuroligist, Dr Graeme Codrington to produce a 12 module video course which can be delivered to desktops over a few weeks without impacting on employee productivity or incurring huge travel and off the road expenses.

You can buy this CRC energy efficiency scheme training course right here, right now… OR if you would like to have a tailored version delivered to your employees, then talk to us. We’re a friendly bunch and know what we’re doing.

Don’t leave it. It has to be tackled.

Today, we are proud to announce that after an extensive search, Mary Gober International (MGI), a world-leading customer service training organisation has selected The 8.45 Club (part of the Being Smarter group of companies) to provide custom ‘sustainability training’ to its customers.

For some time, MGI, like many training organisations used traditional methods to reinforce training messages taught during face to face during a campaign.

“MGI has been looking for new, cost-effective and innovative ways to enable organisations to embed and sustain skills learnt on our Seminars – to complement the sustainability activities we currently use” said Shona Cooper, Managing Director, MGI. “We are delighted to be partnering with The 8.45 Club to offer engaging, practical video training, delivered to inboxes in bite-sized chunks over weeks or months as a way of reinforcing our face to face Seminars.”

In addition to providing bespoke learning for its clients, The 8.45 Club also plan to be producing a public courses throughout 2010 in conjunction with the Mary Gober team.

Shona Cooper added, “One of the initiatives we will undertake together is to host an innovation session with learning professionals to show examples and discuss the potential of this bite-sized video training. From there we are looking to trial these techniques with some launch customers. It’s an exciting time in MGI’s evolution.”

Mark Copeman, founder of The 8.45 Club said, “We’re delighted to be working with Shona and the team at Mary Gober International. After seeing their trainers in action, it became clear to us that their methodology naturally lends itself to video training, because what they do is so visual and so engaging. We hope that this partnership will enable more and more customers to take advantage of their excellent coaching and that lessons taught will now be reinforced even more successfully.”

If you are interested in learning more about the innovation session Shona discusses above, please contact us using the link at the top of the page.

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We hope you enjoyed this article. What can we do for you now?

• Would you like to see how to use bite-sized video chunks to deliver messages to your teams or customers?

• Would you like to see a demonstration of how to convert sales targets into prospects?

• Would you like to follow the founder of Being Smarter on Twitter?

I don’t get a huge amount of time to read, and so when I do read, I like to make it count. One of my favourite business authors is a guy called David Meerman Scott.

It’s a strange name don’t you think? Well actually, no… one of the reasons for David’s success on the speaker circuit and beyond is because he set out from the outset to stand out from the crowd. How many ‘David Scotts’ do you think there are when you search for that name in Google? On the other hand – how many ‘David Meerman Scott’s do you think there are? Clever huh?

David is an expert in all things viral. He’s researched viral campaigns (if you should really call them that) for years and argues a simple point. ANYONE in ANY SIZED BUSINESS in ANY MARKET SEGMENT can create hype and a buzz, hence revenue online. It doesn’t matter what you do… YOU can create you very own World Wide Rave… a phrase he’s coined as well as the title of the book he’s written. He cites dozens of examples of people who’ve done this successfully including a Dentist…!

I listened to a webinar given by David last night (REPLAY HERE) and whilst I’ve read all of his books and knew a lot of the material – it was SO good to be reminded of some of his common sense thinking. There’s three key points below for you to consider below…

Nobody cares about your product.

Think about that for a moment. How much time and energy do we spend pushing our products on our market places. People don’t care about your stuff… they care about their stuff… the problems that they need to solve. Help them to solve them and they will buy from you.

The back button is the third most used web feature.

I’ve no idea how this was researched – however it doesn’t matter – you can just imagine it being true. How easy is it to use the back button when a page doesn’t deliver what you are wanting it to? Think about making your pages and site stickier. Reduce your bounce rate. Make it easy for people to buy your ‘stuff’. And finally…

Figure out your buyer personas.

This is a massive subject and the third book below is dedicated to it… Simply put – write down today a detailed profile of one of your buyer types… where do they hang out, what are their likes and dislikes, who do they interact with. Do the same for all of your other types and then have a serious think about how you market your products and services. Are you hitting them between the eyes?!

David’s books are insightful and pragmatic and will benefit both you and your business. The three I’ve read and recommend are listed below. Click for more details and if you buy one, you should know I will reap the rewards equivalent to a can of Coke…

World Wide Rave

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

Tuned in

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We hope you enjoyed this article. What can we do for you now?

• Would you like to see how to use bite-sized video chunks to deliver messages to your teams or customers?
  
• Would you like to see a demonstration of how to convert sales targets into prospects?
  
• Would you like to follow the founder of Being Smarter on Twitter?

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One of the many ways to ‘Get better at business’ – Being Smarter’s mantra – is to be inspired and emulate people who have been there and bought the t-shirt. Thanks to the BBC’s Dragon’s Den, James Caan is now a household name here in the UK. His relaxed style and friendly nature towards nervous entrepreneurs in the Den has made him one of the favourite dragons to do business with.

I was intrigued by him and wanted to learn more. James Caan’s autobiography tells quite a story. It is of course rags to riches – as with all good inspirational reads, however he has got there not through being all ‘Alan Sugar’, banging the desk and trampling over others to get to the top of his game, he’s got there through gritty determination, smart thinking (that bit I really like) and with a smile on his face as he inspires others around him.

It’s an excellent read and tells a good story. I’ve picked out the ten lessons I learnt from James’s story below:

1. James encourages everyone to “Observe the masses and do the opposite” – it’s the only way to make it big, keep ahead of curves and stand out from the crowd.
2. “Successful businesses are about successful relationships, not about successful transactions.” He actually asks partners and suppliers whether the deal they’ve just struck works for them… he doesn’t want to see them going away unhappy, as he argues it won’t work in the long run. Smart advice.
3. “There is little point in hard work if you can’t take time to enjoy the rewards…” learnt from his father. Do you enjoy the rewards?
4. “I would have nothing but cornflakes until pay day” is not a great lesson as such – But shows you how far you can come when armed with nothing but tenacity and passion for what you are doing.
5. “If you’ve got nothing to lose, it’s amazing what you can get away with”. Think about that – always ask yourself what do you have to lose…
6. “If you don’t have a Unique Selling Point – you’re dead in the water” – simple, sound advice anyone reading this should ask themselves.
7. Constantly “put yourself in your customers’ shoes.” Make yourself feel what they are feeling and react accordingly. He did this, changed his strategy and literally created a (multimillion pound)business from nothing. Page 106 is inspirational.
8. “It’s amazing how changing your state of mind can change everything else.” Positive mental attitude and thinking outside the box are so key to running a successful business.
9. The 1992 recession taught James not to put all of his eggs in the same basket – he became close to being wiped out and promised he’d never do that again.
10. Throughout the book, James talks about asking questions… he’s asked lots of them and by asking the right ones has found angles and opportunities to exploit.

If you’ve got some time – it’s a great way to spend £5…

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• Dragons’ Den backs edible playdough (cbc.ca)
• When checking out a “guru,” ask for the back story… (swimbert.wordpress.com)
• Know your numbers (startupcfo.ca)
• Generous dragons do best! (cambridgecluster.com)

It’s always great to write on subjects dear to your heart and ones based on personal experience. Today is both.

I’ve been lucky enough to watch many great presentations, speeches and seminars over the last few years, however have also been incredibly frustrated that no one apart from those in the room at the time can benefit from the experience. How long does it take event organisers to pull good speakers together? How long does it take speakers to put their materials together? Days? Weeks? And it’s all over in a few hours.

Ever cooked a roast dinner for 12 people? Spent 6 hours preparing it to see it all eaten in 15 mins? Well it’s the same thing with events, except with a roast dinner, I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to keep it for ever…

Today and tomorrow our team is working with one of our partner companies to record an expert seminar, given only to a select few. The speaker is then going to spend some time with us after the session, recording in a green screen studio and we are then going to turn the whole event into an ’8.45 Club’ style course for them…

So what’s the point of all this?

1. The presentation which has taken many hours to put together will not be lost forever. It can remain a useful asset for years after the event.
2. An audience other than the limited few that could make it to London on that specific day can now benefit from the material.
3. The company putting on the event can leverage this material with other clients – possibly even sell it, because of its value.

And how will it be presented?

1. The material will not be presented as a giant, unmanageable block of 2 hours, it will be turned into an engaging video training course.
2. The 8.45 Club style of training means it will be delivered to email inboxes, first thing in the morning, in bite-sized chunks of ten minutes per day, perhaps for a couple of days of week for a month or so.
3. Learners can now benefit from this session without leaving their desk and still be at their desk by 9.00.

I believe that’s win, win, win…. and possibly win.

How are you leveraging your next event? http://the845club.com/bespoke

I only discovered RSS about 18 months ago and I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration to say that it has changed my (business) life. It is an enabler… it makes you smarter… and it helps you in managing knowledge - giving you an edge over your competitors and colleagues.

I naturally spend part of my day sending people information I think might be relevant to them – to help them in their jobs. To make them look good… to even make them money because of the usefulness of that information. I suspect many of my friends and colleagues think I sit there all day researching for them. I don’t. I let the Internet do the hard work for me…. I then sit back and watch.

RSS… Google Alerts… Google Reader. Three technological terms that if you don’t understand in business today then you are most definitely at a disadvantage.

You’ve seen the RSS icon a thousand times haven’t you? A million times maybe… have you ever thought to click it? to investigate what it might do? Possibly not.

Make a resolution today to get to grips with RSS… get to grips with Google Alerts and Google Reader. Then tell us below how amazed you are.

Intrigued?

The secrets of Managing knowledge are here… click the video to see the first session completely free.

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