Saving Money Doing Business Virtually

I was just sending my new rates off to a company that I ghostwrite for. I'm not sure it's proper to post their location at this point in time, but I'll check on that and get a link to you, if it is considered appropriate.

In any case, I have one rate for online clients and another for offline clients.

The reason is simply that I can charge less if I don't have to put on make-up, do my hair (and deal with all the appropriate appliances and hair goop to accomplish a somewhat professional look), get dressed and then get into my increasingly expensive car to make an in-person presentation.

Which brings me to my point of how you, as a small business owner, can save money by hiring virtually. Of course, buying local is important for most (if not all) of our physical products, but there are times when buying virtual makes sense.

Of course, some specialists, even those that work from home, will always command higher prices. Such cases are rare, for the most part the cost of services is much lower through a home based business than a comparable business with a storefront.

It's less expensive to provide services from home than they are from a traditional office setting. With less overhead, the savings can be passed on to the client.

Brainstorms and Business Ideas

I'm sick today. That seems to be happening way too much recently, but what can I do? Of course, it's not the same illness that plagued me in the past few weeks but some new bug that's decided to visit. Stupid immune system just isn't working right!

On the plus side it gave me the opportunity to call in to the Moms Morning Show. It's on Blog Talk Radio and I simply can't resist the urge to call in whenever I tune in. I'm sure one of these days Kelly McCausey is going to say "You know what, just don't call in because you are boring". She hasn't yet, of course. It's just my own insecurities shining through.

The topic today (and all week long)
Evaluating Business Ideas: Good, Bad or Just Plain Ugly?

You can tune in to the show and listen in yourself.




So Kelly threw out this idea of creating three months worth of idea starters for blogs, articles and so on as a business model. Now keep in mind this is a pulled out of the air idea, not something that she (or anyone we know of) is planning on moving forward with.

Initially, I thought the idea was a bit of a stinker. So many questions ran through my mind. How would the seller be able to promise 80 unique topics to a wide range of clients in multiple niches? Who is going to be willing to pay for just topic ideas? Won't there be an issue with complaints if those ideas are poorly implemented? How would one establish their expertise enough to really sell the idea?

As the show progressed and I heard other opinions I began to change my mind. This could be a valuable resource if put out by the right person. How much time do I waste trying to decide what to write myself? How many days do I not write because nothing has inspired me enough to write?

(The answers are a lot of time is wasted and I don't post often enough, despite the fact that I keep trying to re-focus and put in a regular effort to post often)

So maybe the idea has much more merit than I originally thought. Maybe this is even a service that I could use. Maybe someone should run with it...

It may not be the point Kelly was trying to make, but as I began to digest the information shared after the call I realized that initial impressions of an idea or concept have to be questioned. Whether you think an idea is brilliant or a bomb, it's only by digging deeper that you can really evaluate it.

Questions have to be asked (and answered) about marketing, customer service, delivery, scheduling, skills & expertise before you can be sure that a business idea will fly or flounder. An idea on it's own is just that...an idea. It's how you choose to take the idea and germinate it that really defines whether it's good or bad or ugly. In one person's hands the idea will be bloom and in someone else's it could whither and die.

On another note, I had stated early in the show that I haven't found any shows on Blog Talk Radio that I listen to other than Moms Morning Show. I'll have to blame early morning fog for not mentioning Puddle People Hour, The Passion Project, and Dr. Sally Witt. Those are all Blog Talk Radio shows that I have listened to and enjoyed. In fact, I was on The Passion Project and will be appearing on Dr. Sally Witt's show - though the date has not been confirmed yet.

Sending out a press release? Do it right!

Even though I'm in radio advertising now, I remain a member of a PR newsgroup, because "you never know" and because I remain entranced with Public Relations as part of the marketing process. As I was reading today, I came across a post that led to the blog to the editor of Wired Magazine.

The upshot is that the editor is ticked off at all the spam he is getting from so-called professional PR people who do not do their research and pitch inappropriately. He's published the email addresses of all those who have done so in a month. It's nuts how long that list is. I'm not saying he was right in publishing the list, but I do feel his frustration at getting unsolicited and unwanted emails from people who really ought to know better.

It's a valuable lesson for those in small business who are submitting their own press releases and hoping to get coverage. You must take the time to build a list of your own and develop relationships with the editors and reporters that you are pitching to.

I don't mean you have to personally go through and make contact with each person you are going to pitch to and make friends with each one before you can start your PR campaign. That would be nuts and would prevent anyone from ever getting to the part about sending it to the targeted publications that are most likely to net coverage.

However, you should at least go through any list that you have not personally compiled (whether it's been provided for you or come with software or you've bought a list) and check the websites to make sure the address is still legitimate. Poke around for a few moments and make sure they are the right target market for your news.

Yes, it's time consuming. There is no arguing that. It's why I gave up distribution long before I gave up writing press releases. I personally could not charge the prices it would have taken to cover the time it takes to create a good distribution list to my target market of small and home based business, so I stopped offering distribution. It's part of the reasons PR Firms charge big bucks, because of the time spent researching, cultivating and developing working contacts for their clients. (Technically, I have not stopped providing press release writing and tweaking - but I don't do it as a full time component of my business anymore...but I digress.)

However, no matter how time consuming it is to develop the distribution list initially. It's worth it's weight in gold to be communicating with people who actually want to read about your business news. You have a much better chance of getting featured when you follow the rules and take the time to do the job right.

Building your list can be done slowly. It doesn't have to be done all at once and suck up all of your available time prior to sending out your first release. Start small and add to your list with each subsequent release.

The One Money Saving Marketing Technique You Need

Want to know the one thing that will cost you nothing but time and net you a return of almost 40% off some of your marketing costs?

It’s really quite simple and I bet you’ll be kicking yourself for not thinking of this one yourself.

Ready?

It’s a plan.

Yup, all you need to save up to 40% on some of your marketing costs is a plan.

If you know how are you going to market this coming year, you can save money on most of your direct and indirect marketing costs. Once you figure that out you can start making contact with potential advertising sites, start coming up with press releases and in general get your marketing campaign underway.

Breaking it into grocery store terms it’s like buying bulk versus per use sizes, you end up paying for convenience.

Advertising With a Plan vs. Seat-of-the-PantsBuying Habits

I thought it best to illustrate it with a comparison...

Store X comes up with a yearly marketing plan. They use it to roughly sketch in dates for print advertising in the newspaper, public relations events, outlines for their in-house customer appreciation lists.

Store Y makes do with buying when the newspaper lady drops by or calls with special offers and doesn’t do much to contact customers outside of flyers and in store displays.

Store X takes advantage of lower overall pricing and can integrate several branches of their marketing plan at the same time. He's also able to plan around co-op marketing dollars that some of his manafacturers offer and commit the savings to personal branding efforts.

In order to do the same Store Y will have to bring together each of his marketing branches within a short period of time, resulting in a possibly lower newspaper invoice coupled with higher prices for rush advertising at his printers and web developer. Due to his lack of planning, he often misses out on coop dollars by not gettings his ads and proofs to the manafacturer by the appropriate deadlines.

Store X can get all of his printing needs for the year met within one visit during a slow time in the printing industry and will be able to take advantage of seasonal discounts. The same holds true for his web development work and public relations.

Buying in advance helps Store X resist sales offers that don’t fit in to the overall marketing plan, whereas Store Y can often be tempted by time-specials that may not fit his overall target market.

Store X overall spends less time deliberating decisions and more time executing decisions.

Who would you rather be?

I’ll be uploading my Business Basics Guide to Planning over the next few days. If you want to learn how to build a business plan sturdy enough to support your marketing, but simple enough to develop in a week – then stay tuned to the Easy Results with Radio launch list. Members of the list get first dibs at extra sweet pricing.

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