Managing Partner Time To Be Great, LLC Global Independent Distributor Healy, Vollara, Xelliss, BEMER Business and Real Estate Coach, Consultant Professional Speaker, Author
“Industrywide, same-store sales fell for a 12th straight month — highlighting the woes retailers have been under as consumer spending continues to decline.”
Then there is discussion as to what will happen this holiday season as well as the impact of the clunker program. This is followed by reports of what key public companies in the retail industry reported. Remember there is a lot that is not reported. Also remember, economic recovery is driven by consumer spending and there is little evidence that is strengthening.
The point made that I commented on was that going forward the monthly same store comparisons will look better because you are comparing against increasingly weak numbers from last year as retailers tanked in the fall of 2008. Here is what I wrote:
The comparison may show less dramatic declines and even a greater number of positive percentages when current year sales are compared against months last year when retailers began to experience sharp declines. Those may be feel good metrics. However, the key is what are the volumes and margins that are planned in connection with an acceptable profit plan and how are actual revenue and profits doing against that?
Typically that information is a bit more difficult to extract. The well run retailers have a profit plan by location that is based on category proformas. The key is to be profitable at each location and in each category within that location. I still see very little advancement in the use of direct response marketing and social media marketing. Tools and technology that have been readily available and proven to work for quite some time.
There is a lot of the “same ol same ol” and that is not going to work in an economic climate likely to be very soft for quite awhile.
The tools available to market products and services are numerous. Direct response marketing, Internet marketing, brand awareness campaigns and more are all labels for marketing programs. In every case, the goal is the same…increase revenue and profits.
My experience working with companies to grow profits is extensive. (Click Here for my resume) I have developed my views on marketing from actual experience implementing programs, monitoring the results and continuously testing ideas to improve response rates and profitability. Social media is phrase representing an ever increasing number of places people congregate. Social media marketing is just that..marketing to people using social media sites.
There are a number of credible people holding seminars, selling courses and offering consulting on how to do social media marketing. My recommendation to business is to focus on your business. My company will build your social media network and I will work with you to develop and implement your social media marketing program. These are two very distinctly separate tasks.
How we build a social media network is based on my actual results in developing several of my own business ventures and providing these services to clients. I have personally done the social media work staring February 2008 . Since that time I completed the detailed steps. I will highlight some of them in this article. From this experience I recommend what steps you should leverage to others and the tools I feel are a must have for developing your network. This is for people very serious about using social media as a business building tool.
Key Marketing Principle Reviewed
Marketing is primarily about attracting traffic to your offer and converting that traffic to customers. Many know this. Most ignore it. I never ignore it. For clarification it is not just any traffic but relevant traffic. What does relevant traffic mean? It means people already interested in what it is you have to offer.
The late Gary Halbert said if you are selling hamburgers, he would rather have a starving crowd than all the positioning of signs, building, location and all of the other things we normally address in marketing a physical product like hamburgers. It is every marketer’s dream to have a starving crowd. I am no different. The starving crowd is not right outside my door. I need to find them and so do you.
The Cloud
My view of the cloud is simply an image of all the people using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. So when I use the phrase the cloud that is what I mean.
The Goal
Return on investment in time and money is the goal. Sure I work on projects and products where I have expertise and interest. Sure I do things out of curiosity without having any monetization objective, but most of what I do is to drive profitable revenue doing business where I have a high personal interest. When I do this well, I am compensated by the marketplace for providing value. For me spending time on what I enjoy is not work. However, unless there is income flow, my enjoyment of a an area of personal interest is going to expire. Having said that I will encourage you to make sure your attention span is long enough to allow your business to develop.
To achieve the monetization goal I am developing as large a portion of the cloud as possible that I can reach. I then continuously send messages intended to invite people I am reaching to consider my offer. Related to this goal is my objective to at also have as many people as possible give me their contact information. That action tells me there is some level of interest in what I am offering. For those experienced marketers reading this I am not sending out selling messages. All of the messages are indirect intended to create an interest in wanting more information. Many flavors of messages are used and I am always developing new ones to test.
The Specifics
The work is done by my company New Digital Media, Inc. I work with all clients directly. When the scope of the work is defined some of the tasks that I previously have done personally are leveraged. The staff working with me is very experienced and they actually develop their own network which I encourage. We share social media network growth tips.
Our primary focus is on growing Twitter and Facebook accounts. Within Facebook we work with clients to grow friends and when friends are at a certain level we build a targeted group. As a group is being built we implement a messaging strategy to the group. We are gradually expanding our focus into several other social media sites. However, for now Twitter and Facebook is out primary focus.
The goal of the network is to drive interested people to a landing page or a product sales page. As appropriate, we advocate the destination to be a blog article. As articles are added they serve as destinations for new messages to the network. In certain cases we will promote a client through our own network which is quite large.
We use a combination of tools to assist us in growing accounts. Most of these tools are used with Twitter. There are no automation tools we use to grow Facebook friends and groups. We use an automation tool to assist us with posting messages to Twitter and Facebook. This tool has the capability to post messages to LinkedIn, MySpace and more. The primary tools we use and recommend if you are doing this work yourself are:
Each person in the company uses at least two computers. It is not practical to run our automation tools and do our other work on one machine. This can be done but it will affect productivity by at least 50%.
Effectiveness
The following Twitter accounts were developed in six weeks. digialmediabiz 9735 followers. buildprofits 8694 followers So those are a couple examples of accounts growing.
Size of our total network – very large
On Facebook we grew the group Deliberate Creation to over 2,500 members in three weeks. This happens to be a very niche market and we were very pleased with how rapidly this developed.
Return on Investment – we have numerous success stories for ourselves and for clients. However, it has taken quite awhile to systematize what works. Additionally, we are constantly monitoring the rules of the social media sites as they can change and we want to be in compliance. For these reasons, I highly recommend looking at our company to help you grow your network which allows you to focus on growing your business.
Based on Twitter’s current algorithms we can build an account to 10,000 followers in about two months. Facebook has a limit of 5000 friends and it can take 6 months or longer to hit that level. Remember once built, these assets are in place for multiple purposes.
Personally my network is used to market consulting services, New Digital Media and several other ventures. I noticed the most significant improvement in what we do once I developed a laser beam focus on our objective and finding the right staff. Both are in place. The difference between my company and most of the people who are experienced, is we do it for you and hand over the results. Along the way we teach you so you are in a position to continue the process or have us continue. If you are a large company, I will teach your in-house staff how to do this.
Fees and Referrals
Our fees are quoted for each client. I pay referral fees that average 15% of fees collected. This percentage varies depending on the scope of work performed. Currently we have capacity for a limited number of clients. With the marketing we are now doing to create awareness of our services, the door for new clients may close quickly. If you are thinking about working with us, I suggest you contact me now.
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
YESTERDAY ON “ABC-TV” (BETTER KNOWN AS THE ALL BARACK CHANNEL)
DURING THE “NETWORK SPECIAL ON HEALTH CARE“…. OBAMA WAS ASKED:
“MR. PRESIDENT WILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GIVE UP YOUR CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROGRAM AND JOIN THE NEW ‘UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAM’ THAT THE REST OF US WILL BE ON ????”….. (BET YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER)…
THERE WAS A STONEY SILENCE AS OBAMA IGNORED THE QUESTION AND CHOSE NOT TO ANSWER IT !!!…
IN ADDITION, A NUMBER OF SENATORS WERE ASKED T HE SAME QUESTION AND THERE RESPONSE WAS…”WE WILL THINK ABOUT IT.”
AND THEY DID. IT WAS ANNOUNCED TODAY ON THE NEWS THAT THE “KENNEDY HEALTH CARE BILL”WAS WRITTEN INTO THE NEW HEALTH CARE REFORM INITIATIVE ENSURING THAT THAT CONGRESS WILL BE 100% EXEMPT !
SO, THIS GREAT NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN THAT IS GOOD FOR YOU AND I… IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR OBAMA, HIS FAMILY OR CONGRESS…??
WE (THE AMERICAN PUBLIC) NEED TO STOP THIS PROPOSED DEBACLE ASAP !!!!… THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG !!!!!
The subject matter just said Test …This Is Not Spam. Take a minute to read this and then my comments.
Here is the rest of the message :
This is not spam! You signed up from ____________ See end of e-mail for more CANSPAM compliance rules.
Please ignore this message, as it is only a test to see if this autoresponder is back up and running. We need to notify you that this e-mail may contain advice on money-making methods and other subjects plus may include links to available products and/or from third parties in return for appropriate recompense.
If you cannot unsubscribe, you can always send a letter asking to be unsubscribed to:
To report sp*m by this member:
Please forward this email to abuse@amazingautoresponse.com or follow the above link for immediate removal.
—————————————————————-
Lessons:
I am not advocating doing this at all even though this email did get through to my main address. Notice the reverse psychology here. …Please ignore. Come on that always works (Note to Self) Then the warning “This may contain advice on making money…” I mean.. how cool is that?
Then there is the humor:
Unsubscribe – Send a Letter. …
Don’t know why, but if you wish to leave
My view is I learn a lot from paying attention to spam. First spam mail may have some of the best subject lines. Then there is formatting and other hooks spam uses.
There is another thing I have learned and that is there a lot of people who use blogs like this to teach, who sell programs that teach you how. Have you ever noticed how few promote “do it for you”? Do you know why that is? Well I have my views but what is important is that one of my new services does “do it for you” What is it?
Click over to New Digital Media You will understand what this is doing in about 3 minutes.
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Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis
Announcing The Services of New Digital Media Click Here
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
“The Restaurant Industry suffered Its Worst Quarterly Decline In Customer Traffic In 28 years In the Second Quarter 2009”
I love the retail industry and I consider restaurants part of that overall industry. I recognize restaurants are distinguished in the financial press for reporting purposes. I also recognize that if you are a restaurant then you should be studying how you are doing in comparison to others.
The business of retail is so much fun because there is a tremendous amount of valuable information available and generally with the volume of customer traffic, you can test just about anything and receive feedback quickly as to whether it is working or not. In retail the most energy should be devoted to marketing and in all fairness it usually is. No whether that marketing is effective or not is a topic of debate. My view is that it isn’t and the view of the people dong it is that it is.
That brings us back to the overall results reported for the Second Quarter of 2009. I wrote that the decline is written in a headline like it is a surprise. Many may be thinking my view was based on the state of the economy with unemployment still running high and consumer confidence still running low. But actually my view is based on dismal failure of restaurants to pay close attention to the details of what is important to customers.
To support my view, I look at the exceptions. Here is one reported on by Fare Magazine. That exception is Panera Bread. They have not cut prices, they have not gone promotional and the company continues to grow profitably. Click Herefor the complete article.
There is always value in studying what is working for others and, for that matter what isn’t. Look within your industry and outside of your industry. I forget what bank was the first, but I remember the story of a bank president looking at the success of drive thru windows in the fast food industry. He tried in banking and it rapidly became very successful.
In any economy there are always companies that do well and those that fail. The ones that do well are those who consistently pay attention to the details important to their customers. This is the value exchange principle. The more value I give you the more you are willing to pay for it.
Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance
Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
The WSJ reports Moonfruit went from 400 followers to 47,000 followers in about a week using a contest that became popular and viral fast. Other similar success stories were reported. When you read this article Click Here For The Story I suggest you consider the missing link. Now in all fairness the link may not be missing in the examples reported. However, this key success factor was not addressed in the article.
The Missing Link
Think of a funnel. This story is about using the incentive of a contest to reach out into the cloud of a very popular social media site which of course is Twitter. This strategy was very successful in that the number of followers increased rapidly. However, followers have no value unless they are people interested in your offer – the offer for products and services that earns you money.
Followers need to be converted to a contact data base where you have their name and email contact information. That step is moving followers through the marketing funnel. Now that step can be bypassed if a follower goes directly to your offer and buys. At that point you also have their contact information. Again the goal is to develop this contact data base so you can communicate with these people who have said they are interested in who you are and what you offer. That communication then is intended to further cement the relationship and when the person is ready they will buy. You have not idea when they will be ready so building the relationship is the key.
In the current environment there is an opportunity to move people from followers to a contact data base where you can message them and by pass the email system. That option is to move them into a group on Facebook. There is an inherent limitation to that in that Facebook limits group size for sending messages to 5,000 people. Many people are setting up fan pages which do not have the limitations of a group. However, messages to fans currently are not sent to their Facebook inbox which is not as effective as groups.
My advice is to use the assets of social media with the goal of developing your own asset which is your customer list and prospect list. Then there is one more thing: communicate with them.
Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance
Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
Using my spiritual belief system as a cover for an intended scam
Using my expanded network and business of Manifest Mastermind as a cover for intended scams
Scamming Brian Campbell out of a partnership
Alexis Martin Neely, you represent yourself to be a professional attorney, a lawyer who teaches other lawyers. Every professional attorney I ever worked with has demonstrated they learned proper due diligence before finalizing their position. Had you used even an ounce of your legal training for fact finding in this situation, I am certain you would have concluded your feelings of what you have accused me of to be totally without merit.
In that report you will see that he hacked into my main email account and deleted four years of personal and business communication. Part of that record was a detailed history of my communication with him regarding situations that as a partner I was not comfortable being associated with. It also contained communication regarding the work I started because of Brian not doing what he promised. Part of that work was the detail related to your account. What was not destroyed are emails to you from another person requesting assistance so we could resume building value for you. We never received the requested information from you so we could continue.
An email that was deleted by Brian but which you have was sent directly to you from me. Of course this one you didn’t reproduce in your article. It is the one where I wrote to you that I would continue working until you told me you have received the value for what you paid.
I am a currently licensed CPA. I have held positions in very large companies with significant fiduciary responsibility. I have the trust of many clients because I earned it for doing what I say and being authentic. I say to you now Alexis Martin Neely all of your accusations are false. I have the facts and those facts are readily available to you or anyone.
I stand by my word and stand firmly in the foundation of Manifest Mastermind. It appears to me that you are not the professional you represent. There is one item where we have no disagreement: what comes around goes around.
In Unity we believe in Oneness and so I do love the essence of God in all life and the essence of God in you.
In the same week I received a message on a special report from the Motley Fool on what Microsoft is worried about and a message from Chris Lang on the new Google operating system that looks like will be launched in 2010. Chris does a great job summarizing the major benefits to this and now I understand what Microsoft may be a bit nervous about.
I have not seen Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer discussing this but I am sure they will soon as their shareholders will want to understand their plans considering this move by Google. Just think of this: $200 will operate very fast and efficiently. I wonder what the equipment and chip manufactures think of the pending development?
Watch the video, then pay close attention to my brief closing comments. These points are what you should be doing today to take advantage of what is available right now and to take advantage of this OS when it is released.
Notice how important Chris feels the Google Friend Connect feature is to the Google strategy. If you look to the right you will notice I use the Google Friend Connect application. How do you install this. Well I am happy you asked. It just so happens I did a video on this a while back and here it is. Wait before you watch it, make sure you read every word of this article as I close with some mission critical advice.
Now what is the one common element to all these features and benefits? Have you ever tried using an Google application that you have set up without your Gmail user name and password. Do you think that information might be very important to have very secure? I do and I recently paid a very heavy price for inadequate security and trusting this information to another. You now know what to do.
Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance
Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
What does visualization and The Law of Attraction have to do with
Building Business Profits which is the focus of my business consulting
practice.? Visualization of results.
I became aware of all this when I saw this interview of a guy from
Australia that shows the tool he and Frank and many others use
including myself now. You really do have to see this:
So what is it about Aussies anyway? They seem to totally
have this figured out, especially when you consider that
the land down under is where we got…
***********************
The Secret
***********************
I’m sure you’ll agree that was life changing all by itself.
And now, this guy has added another dimension to the
Law of Attraction that ramps up how fast you can manifest
anything you want into your life.
************************************************
This makes the Universe say YES even faster!
************************************************
He even got marketing expert Frank Kern excited about it.
If you haven’t heard of Frank, well, he’s a marketing genius
who makes millions of dollars online. Everything he does
seems to turn to gold.
But he’s not exactly what you’d expect when it comes to using
The Law of Attraction to manifest your goals and desires.
You’ll hear his personal experience with this when you
watch the video:
So, if even HE is doing this, what does that tell you about
how effective this is? Bad news for the naysayers who think
it isn’t for “regular” people, or the Law of Attraction is
some kind of mumbo jumbo.
Only thing is I’m not sure how long this will be available
at NoCost.
So if you’re really serious about increasing your power to
manifest anything you want into your life super fast,
you need to check this out right now:
I’ve already started using this, and I strongly recommend
you do too.
All the best,
Steve
P.S. I’m extremely excited about this, because it could
literally transform your life. So be sure you share your story
with me when you start doing this, OK?
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
Mark Albright, staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times published an article in the Sunday paper a while back on retailers struggling to win back customers. He does an excellent job at identifying the key issues customers face when shopping in many stores. In summary, customers know what they want from their shopping experience and they don’t get what they want most of the time.
Two charts were provided in the article. One showed that 68.4% of those responding to a recent poll said knowledgeable, helpful, friendly staff was the most important criteria for a positive shopping experience. The other chart reported that 50% of the people surveyed reported retail service has gotten worse.
Shoppers have always wanted a friendly environment with knowledgeable staff. What is most alarming is how poorly retailers continue to meet the expectations of their customers. With almost 70% of the customers ranking knowledgeable, friendly staff as most important, why is it that so many retailers continue to be obsessed with having compelling price? Studies have consistently shown and Mark points this out in his article as well, that less than 10% of the shoppers name price as the most important reason they shop a store.
Let’s examine pricing and promotion a bit deeper. The paper that Mark Albright writes for has a daily circulation of about 1 million. On Sunday, like all large metropolitan areas, the paper is thick. Most of it is advertising circulars. Most have between 4 – 20 or more color glossy pages and this format is used by most of the major retail chains. Stores attempt to show items attractive to the largest number of people and offer special buys or sale pricing. The goal is to drive traffic to the stores.
Normally on a store by store basis, retailers are able to tell how effective a particular circular was by measuring customer count (customers that actually buy), average sale and items sold. Most retailers have these statistics, but there is one critical piece of information they do not have. They do not know who it was that purchased something. They do not know their physical address, they do not know their email address and do not know their customer’s phone number. There are exceptions and I will address those shortly. However, in general, large and small retailers spend huge amounts of money on print advertising to drive customers into their stores and they don’t even know who their customer is. Consequently, they are unable to thank the buyers, hear their comments and suggestions and they are not able to personally invite them back.
Even more serious: with the development of preferred buying programs, membership programs like those used by Sam’s Club and Costco and even those retailers that have captured customer information, the way that data is used is pathetic.
Here is a brief summary of the issues so far: consumers want knowledgeable and friendly sales staff and over 90% of them place importance on knowledge and friendliness over price. On the other hand, retailers spend a lot of resources developing promotions based on price to drive traffic to their stores. When the customer gets there, not just the price shopper but the loyal customers as well, the retailer is not properly staffed and the staff that is working is not properly trained and managed. I call this a mismatch in expectations and delivery. The result of that formula is a high rate of retail business failure with stores that fail being replaced by new ones that operate the same way. You know what you get when you keep doing things the same way. What is the solution? Keep reading.
When the subject of price in retailing is mentioned, Wal-Mart’s name always comes up. Here are just a couple of things I noticed about Wal-Mart recently. First they are increasing the number of more upscale items offered. Why are they doing this? It is because they understand that appealing just to the low price crowd long term is a risky business model. No retail chain founded on the low price model has ever survived long term. None. What else have I noticed? The other day I noticed a Wal-Mart banner on the front page of Yahoo.com This particular ad was what is known in the Internet Marketing circles and Direct Response Marketing circles as a lead generation ad. I followed it through and noticed interesting “bribes” to get you to register for on line information. You could even categorize the information you were interested in receiving. Wal-Mart promised to give you advance notice of their best deals for the store closest to you. Notice I said store closest to you. When you entered your information they asked for your zip code so they could match you with relevant regional promotion.
Wal-Mart is taking the lead again in building their customer data base. I don’t think they have taken this to the store level, which where it really needs to be implemented. But they are headed in the right direction.
Do you need to have Wal-Mart’s system to implement a similar program? Last September I was testing the implementation of program with a small retailer in a small market. We used incentives as a motivator to provide their contact information. This program was hugely successful in a short period of time and confirmed the value of capturing the contact information of your customers and communicating with them. That is the first step in bridging the gap between what customers want and what retailers deliver. Note: if you are a grocery store, restaurant, nightclub, shoe repair store, dry cleaner or any business that has customers, this applies to you.
If you are a local or regional chain of stores, outsourcing this customer contact program is the most cost effective approach. If you are not sure that is a true statement Email Me and I will prove it to you. National Chains should outsource this program in the test phase and then it is likely that in-house technology will be needed long term. Regardless, it is easy to build your customer list, easy to communicate with them and this communication builds loyalty and value. This communication process is the critical link that breaks down when this process is managed internally. In summary, outsource this entire program initially; bring the technology piece in house if and when that makes sense but keep the communication program outsourced. Does this sound like Direct Response Marketing 101? Yes ..well that is because it is and you know what…basic blocking and tackling work all the time.
Does all of this solve the problem of bridging the gap of what the customer wants and what the retailer delivers? Absolutely not! All of the fundamentals successful retailers are paying attention to today must continue. Having the right product in the right place at the right time is a good goal. Having staff properly trained and managed is a great goal.
Butthis is the planet earth folks. When all the best logistical systems and human resource development processes fail .. and they will from time to time, a strong binding relationship with your customer will overcome any isolated execution failures.
Are there any examples of anyone doing this more right than wrong? I remember in 1996 when I was in my second year of operating an Internet Service Provider company that I founded. I was focusing on industries likely to benefit a lot quickly from using the tools of the Internet. One of them was mail order. I knew there would be huge benefits to catalog retailers from using the internet. Of course when I contacted many of them and they had no idea in 1996 what I was talking about. So I let it slide instead of pursuing that idea along with a number of other billion dollar ideas I had in the early days of the commercial Internet.
Today there are numerous examples of catalog retailers doing a great job of communicating with their customer base. Now the big gains are coming from the “brick and mortar” companies who are communicating like catalog retailers. Who are they? Circuit City gets a vote. Circuit City sends me wonderful emails in addition to their weekly print advertising circulars. Wal-Mart used to do a good job now that I am on their list but not any longer. In the catalog retail business, one of the best is Fredericks of Hollywood. There are other catalog retailers that have an effective communication program in place. In fact if you order on line from any catalog company and give them your email address, I would bet you start getting information from them. Even if you don’t order, sign up for some of these lists to see what they send you.
The biggest mistake made by companies that have you in their data base, is dropping your contact information when you have not purchased for awhile. I know of one very popular retailer with a huge mail order division that sends me tons of catalogs but not one email. When asked about this I was told I no longer receive emails because I am not a current buyer. But they continue sending me expensive to print and mail catalogs. Go figure! Recently.
In summary, study the companies that are doing this well. Look at your own business. If you are not sure what I am advising you to do will work, call or email me and let’s “kick it around”. All contact information is at the end of the article.
Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance
Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
Sunday, July 5th, 2009: A lot of people with legitimate Twitter accounts are currently suffering from having their accounts suspended (late Sunday afternoon).
It is not TweetLater’s doing or fault. So, please do not submit a TweetLater support request about it.
We just heard back from Twitter via email, and they said : “Spamcloud hit. We’re working on restoring accounts.”
We just need to be patient. The suspended accounts will be restored.
Update: We have no idea exactly what a “spam cloud” means. It is probably Twitter staff lingo for a massive spam attack.
Update: We have seen during previous spam attacks that Twitter tends to shoot first and ask questions later and indiscriminately lay down carpet bombing when their system comes under a spam attack. A lot of innocent-bystander accounts get massacred in the process, which they then have to restore afterwards. This is most likely what has happened again.
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Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
I hope you understand this is not an Republican vs. Democrat issue. This is our government playing a role where it doesn’t belong and when it does the consequences we experience.
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Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis
You didn’t ? I honor your love for accepting all in this country as is and the direction it is moving.
You did? How cool is that? Did you notice the song at the end of the video. Here is a video of that song. Click Here
DOUBLE BONUS
Did you notice the information on the organziation who published this video? It is from The Kick Them All Out initiative and I am now a card carrying member. Decide how you feel about it and Listen To Your Heart. There are 761 people who have paid attention and pledged to vote so all incumbants are fired.
Michael McDonald paused between songs and shared a few things of importance to him. Peace was clearly the energy he was sending during a pause before continuing singing with his powerful voice songs like “What A Fool Believes” and more.
Michael talked about something that I don’t normally think a lot about. That is the VA or Veterans Administration. He expressed his support for the one agency that is established to help those who have given all or a part of their life to protect the freedom of this country. He was specifically talking about the men and women who serve on our front lines. Michael McDonald was also asking all of us to consider what conflicts make sense for us to support and those that don’t. With the next breath he said in effect .. once we as a nation choose to enter a conflict, we are responsible for taking care of those that serve.
Thank you Michael for that reminder. On the Fourth of July and every other day we honor those who serve to preserve our independence, liberty and freedom.
I had not considered the Veterans quite in the context of the purpose of the Veterans Administration. Michael is right and it our responsibility to take care of those who serve in the military. I am talking about the people who serve to protect our country whether we agree with the specific conflict or not. The point is they have left their homes and their lives to protect our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
My view is most people working at a desk job being paid by the working people of this country, through the bureaucracy of the government, are not serving our country by this definition. In fact most are leeching off this country. Yes you read that correctly. Most people working in a government job are leeching off this country. In all fairness they are not waking up in the morning thinking that. Most are intending to do a good job. I am not in any way blaming the workers. We have permitted a system to develop where their job in most cases has nothing to do with foundation principles of the declaration of independence and constitution. Yes most jobs created to protect our right to independence, freedom and peace are unnecessary because we have allowed laws and programs to start and grow that have nothing to do with the role of government.
As a country we have developed a “you take care of it” attitude and elect people who say they will solve those situations in this country we define as problems. But the problems have become worse. The national debt is incomprehensible and just one program, health care, recently proposed by Obama will add an estimated $10 Trillion dollars to the national debt over the next 10 years and not make a dent in the number of uninsured. Obama has led the parade to stimulate the economy with bailout money saying the stimulus package will contain unemployment to 8%. Now after disbursing hundreds of billions, Obama says unemployment will be 10% this year or higher.
There are other forums that examine what this man who is our president is doing and the impact of his leadership in much greater detail. However, this is actually not intended to bash him since every administration particularly since the 1930’s is accountable for implementing policies and programs that have nothing to do with the role of government as defined by the constitution. Most of what we have allowed to evolve under the umbrella of programs, rules, regulations is simply not necessary and stifle freedom and liberty.
Have you thought about the foundation principles that are intended to guide what our government does? Have you evaluated your point of view as to what freedoms you feel you have relinquished by what we have allowed others to do and implement in the spirit of the so called common good? Have you asked yourself what is really necessary to be done by the government? I will be honest in saying I am not totally sure as to what is all necessary so one way of getting to that answer is by asking the question what is not necessary. The following is part of my list based on the foundation principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. My list is also based on the foundation principle of individual responsibility.
Programs and Spending That Are Beyond The Scope of The US Government As Defined by The Intention of The United Stated Constitution.
If you are in another country consider how your freedom is affected by the programs implemented by your government.
Social Security: Eliminate it. For most of this country’s history it didn’t exist and it never should have been enacted. There is no basis in the land of freedom that says because I am working I must pay into a fund to fuel the retirement of some else which is what has evolved because my government has taken this money and used it to fund wars and debt. The money deposited into social security is not there. I don’t want anyone to tell me what to do with my money. Why is it that we stand for other people to dictate what we do with our money? We intend to fund a few basic common interest services the first being the protection of independence, freedom and liberty. Along with a few other services for the common good our constitution intended for government to have a limited role in our lives.
Welfare, Medicaid, Medicare and all social welfare programs: The same as social security. Cut them right now. Yes right now. Our government was not formed for the purpose of creating and administering these programs. Am I insensitive to the needs of others. Not at all. As a brief story, I was in an accident with my father when I was very young. He made very little money and it was about 2 months before he could return to work. We were both in the hospital for weeks. There were no government programs, there was no health care. Me, my dad and my family made it through this. Was that period a challenge? Of course but I developed the appreciation for the neighbors and strangers who knew we needed help. Does this mean there should be no system to help those who clearly cannot be helped by friends, family and community. No it does not but as soon as we say there is an exception, politicians take it and expand it.
Rules and regulations: Since when does the constitution of the United States have anything to do with rules on smoking, seat belts, prescription medication, infant seats in cars on airplanes, handicapped friendly bathrooms everywhere, and more. Get rid of the rules. If I choose to not wear a seat belt and I am hurt in an accident let my insurance company say we are not paying your medical bills since you were not wearing a seat belt. If a restaurant chooses to allow smoking, I can go to it or go to one that is non- smoking. Do you see the importance of this? It is not about the seat belts or the smoking or the drugs. It is about freedom of choice and I don’t need anyone to make my mind up for me.
Non-Citizens In the US – open the boarders but don’t ask me to fund your schooling or guarantee your children the right to be admitted to the schools I have paid to be built and staffed. I don’t have to support you,although that may be my choice. I don’t expect from you any special considerations and don’t expect any from me. You can become part of the community and the school system when you are a citizen. No I am not agreeing to make everything multi-lingual. We didn’t print everything in German, Polish, Russian and more during the period when people from many nations came to this country and there is no reason to do it now. See the above comments on social welfare and do you think that some of the incentive for coming to this country would be removed when you remove the social programs?
Legalize drugs ... all of them. I have no interest in taking any drug currently classified as illegal. If you want them, that is your business and as long as you harm no one else do what you want. Laws do not change a person’s actions and we are spending billions in an effort to control a situation that is not controllable.
Gun control… none. End of discussion. We have a right to have arms as spelled out in the Constitution. This is not about how you feel about guns. This is about life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There are 18 proposed bills being circulated in Congress right now intended to compromise our Second Amendment right. I say anyone associated with any bill intended to compromise the rights under our constitution be required to move out of this country to another place more in alignment with their values. I choose to live in the country because I align with the rights of our constitution.
Other Country Situations: There are brilliant people all over the world. I support a very strong national defense and then keep our nose out of other people’s business. At those times it is clear other people’s agenda is to compromise our freedom and peace we do whatever is necessary. Stop funding other people’s agenda. Did you know that Nigeria is first on the happiness index and the US is 46th out of 50 countries studied. Now what makes you think anyone else is seriously interested in our agenda for them.
Taxes: simplify simplify simplify….a national sales tax to fund defense, our interstate commerce system and our Judicial system is about it. Regarding the judicial system at the Federal level, that process needs to be held accountable for upholding the values of our constitution and if individual justices do not do that in the opinion of the clear majority of the population they will be removed. Yes we need a system that allows for the people to determine the composition of the Supreme Court and not the bureaucratic process intended to accomplish the agenda for what someone else believes is the common good. Yes we need a system that does not guarantee a job for life when appointed to the Supreme Court.
Airport security- Do you have any idea how ridiculous this is? I am totally in favor of profiling. I am totally in favor intelligent security. Watch the first Dirty Harry movie ” if you see a guy running down the alley with a ______ and a butcher knife you know he was not out collecting for the Salvation Army.” Enough said. If you don’t prefer that example, do you remember Flight 93? People are capable of being responsible for their own protection. The violations of individual rights here are off the charts. Teach the passengers to pay attention and do whatever it takes. Will there be mistakes? There are huge mistakes now and the system is stupid.
Department of Justice – totally out of control. Look at how stupid it is to lock up brilliant minds who have perpetrated millions and billions of dollars from people. Here is the deal: Have an apartment complex in the most economically challenged section of the country and make them pay $50,000 a month for a room. Then mandate they use their mind and talent to legitimately make and pay back double or triple what was lost. Michael Millikan was convicted, went to prison. He now is paying major taxes based on the value he is creating since being free. Look at what could have been paid had he been simply told …go to work pay it back and by the way, if you don’t work it the right way we will put you in the place where we send people who kill, rape and more. Your choice.
The Fourth of July: God Bless America The Land of the Free
All I am talking about is freedom as I see it. I certainly have just touched on the surface of my views as to some of the structural issues. Don’t define my freedom and I surely will not define yours. Don’t interfere with my life and I won’t be interfering with yours. Obama, as for you and all the other people in office with the intention of sucking freedom and liberty out of us, I intend for you to have another job having nothing to do with my life and and the lives of anyone else.
Obama, I don’t like your misrepresentations about authenticity and transparency. I don’t like your socialistic agenda. A free market economy has built in checks and balances. Respectfully, you or any other government office holder has no business being involved with General Motor. AIG , or any other business that is failing. If that means the country enters a recession or a depression, those are the cycles of life. The structural solution is a consistent adherence to foundational principles. Those principles without any doubt are clearly spelled out in our Declaration of Independence.
I pay attention to the conditions that our founding leaders experienced that led to the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the United States Constitution. I stand up and say to you I am for the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is time for a new structure that is in alignment with those principles.
What am I going to do? First I am beginning to challenge people’s complacency. Second I am going to start paying much closer attention to how elected officials are voting. I will participate in every election and vote no for anyone proposing solutions that are outside the scope of government.
My name is Steve Pohlit and I stand for Independence, Freedom and Peace. Now what do you stand for?
This is about an amazing opportunity and it is not about Bill Bartmann’s buy bad loan portfolio strategy detailed in Buyout Riches. That is the topic of separate articles.
Of course I know this is an amazing opportunity because I have been working with this situation for over three months. I know the markets, the business, the customers, the key people who will implement the solution that I crafted.
Personally, I would write the check for this entire deal like yesterday. I know there one or more resources who will recognize this a jump on it. What is it?
This is a family owned business that is 107 years old. The company has developed a product line in a specialty niche of a much larger market. However the market segment for this niche is estimated to be about a billion dollars in the US alone. Now I know this word …billion… is used a lot and soon we won’t pay attention unless the headline has trillion in it. Think I am kidding.
Today the WSJ released a report that Michael Jackson has sold 2.3 million albums in four days since his death. The reaction is ..so! We are conditioned by so many numbers many have no meaning. Back to the 107 year old company:
They contacted me in March and said they needed help. I don’t have much time to tell all the details right now so let’s “cut to the chase” I quickly determined that this business had experienced a series of unique events that drained them of cash. But unlike nearly every other business I had seen, this company has what every business would die for. This company has a large hungrey crowd for their product and the revenue and gross margins from this business are very very strong.
So most people cannot understand how this picture can turn to where a receiver is appointed by the courts and the company is targeted to be liquidated. With the help of Bill Bartmann I have a fairly good understanding. More importantly, using my radar and following Bill’s advice of being able to recognize opportunities, I see the upside here and it is very significant. Let me repeat this …the upside is very significant and I see minimal downside.
If you want to know more and if you are able to act fast and if writing a check for $50k or $1.5 mil. does not cause your heart to skip a beat, contact me for all the details. Don’t email me, call me at 727-587-7871. That is my direct line but you most likely will need to leave a message and I will get back to you fast.
Sharing with all my readers the energy of peace, happiness and abundance
Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis
About: Steve Pohlit is a CPA,MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Steve is business owner and an expert business consultant, direct response and social media marketing and social networking security expert . Steve is focused on helping companies improve their business performance. All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.
BILL BARTMANN
Listen to BILL in a FREE TELESEMINAR
JUNE 29th at 8PM Eastern
The Billionaire Business Coach Win big in a down economy
Bill is the MASTER at creating wealth in a down economy (or any economical situation for that matter). He knows how to win big even when the economy is screaming you can’t. You may have seen Bill on the cover of Inc. Magazine as the “Billionaire Nobody Knows”, or watched him recently on major network TV. Bill’s in the news daily because his book, “Bailout Riches”, is creating a real stir. It’s about how you can benefit–directly and fast–from the government bailout.
Note: Bill’s new book offers great insight on how our financial system is operating today. I purposely avoided using the word working. Part of what Bill has taught me was used in writing the article Financial Crisis, Turnaround Consulting which is in direct response to a person experiencing a financial crisis.
Bill Bartmann is the “Billionaire Business Coach”. He is the only self-made billionaire who has devoted his life exclusively to teaching others. Bill is the leading authority on entrepreneurship in America. He has created seven successful businesses in seven different industries. Including a $3.5 billion, 3900 employee international company that he started from his kitchen table with a $13,000 loan. He has been named National Entrepreneur Of the Year by NASDAQ, USA Today, Merrill Lynch and the Kauffman Foundation. His companies have been named by Inc. Magazine as one of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies In America – four years in a row. He has been awarded a permanent place in the Smithsonian Institutes Museum of American History and awarded the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award as one of the Outstanding Achievers of the 21st Century.
Millions of people have seen Bill on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX News, CNN and CNBC. Bill’s expertise has been featured on Sheppard Smith, Neil Cavuto and Donny Deutsch. He has been profiled in Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Bloomberg, Business Week, New Yorker, People, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report and USA Today.
Did you know that Bill issues a FREE newsletter frequently and conducts on line training through his Billionaire University? Want to know more about Bill Bartman and see him on video explaining more about his background and keys to success? If you don’t know his story, this is well worth a few minutes of your time.
Email Me, Steve Pohlit to schedule A No Obligation Consultation On Building Your Business Profits.Need more customers? Let’s discuss how to use cutting edge Social Media Marketing in the revenue building cycle of your business to drive your profits sky high. If your company is not growing revenue and profits, if your company is not cash flow positive Click Here for more information about Turnaround Consulting Services for Business In Crisis
