Bobby Ellis Super Strategies from Xspology.com & Businessesintheknow.com

Businessesintheknow.com Help Business Owners Avoid Common Costly Mistakes that has Proven to Destroy Organizations

2007-08-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Businessesintheknow.com Help Business Owners Avoid Common Costly Mistakes that has Proven to Destroy Organizations.

What do the failures of Enron, WorldCom, Firestone, and HealthSouth all have in common? After a through investigation, the outcome show that each company made a serious of blunders. Each involved a complicated web of mistakes that were either, unnoticed, dismissed as unimportant, judged as minor, or purposely ignored in favor of a high-risk, high-payoff gamble.

Businessesintheknow.com is help small businesses avoid traps that we set for ourselves as business owners that lead to disasters and bankruptcies. According to Bobby Ellis, Businessesintheknow.com CEO, “Business owners can learn from one other. We can learn from the patterns of action or inaction that proceed disasters in a variety of business and non-business settings in order to avoid similar traps and patterns of mistakes.

Businessesintheknow.com is about discipline, culture, and learning from the experiences of others to improve the odds that a business owner can be successful and avoid all the accidents, disasters, or crises altogether. Even if a entrepreneur do not totally avoid such situations, knowledge of the typical patterns that occur should help them create an organization that is observant enough to intervene early and minimize damage.

There are lessons to be learned from looking at the mistakes patterns and commonalities in other organizations, especially since most organizations do no do a good job of evaluating their own mistakes even through they have the most information. We miss learning opportunities by not being curious enough to look deeply at our own failures, but we also miss a very rich set of opportunities when we do not look at the mistakes of others have made, especially when they have been well documented. We often miss these opportunities to learn from others because we believe, “Their situation was different – we don’t have much to learn from them.”

The reality is very different because studies show that while the specifics may be different across industries and situations, the patterns of mistakes preceding accidents are quite the similar. Learning does not always come from the sources you expect, like your own experience, your own industry, or very similar companies. It takes a bit of extra effort, but you can often learn more by looking at examples in an industry or situation that is markedly different behaviors. This is because without the burden of a set assumptions around what you “know” is the right or wrong way to do something, it is easy to observe the salient facts, absent all the distracting details, and quick to say, “They didn’t know that or why did they fail to follow procedure, etc.”

Businessesintheknow.com goal is to help entrepreneurs from falling into pitfall of costly and sometimes fatal mistake of other business owners, by giving them case studies that allow them to identify trends and opportunities that would have otherwise been missed.

Businessesintheknow.com Provides Business Owners and Leaders with On-Demand (Just-in-Time) Consulting

2007-08-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Knowledge is the new sources of competitive advantage. Companies need radically new knowledge to succeed in an environment in whole industries are created and destroyed or unalterably transformed by relentless technology, competitive shifts, and changing demographics.

Businesses spent over $60 millions in 1998 on training and that number more that doubled by 2006. Business leaders now increasingly view the billions they spend on training “not as an employee perk, but as a strategic investment, and their concern in how to increase the return on the growing training budget.

Businessesintheknow.com is the latest company to shift the education paradigm for business leaders and owners. According to Bobby Ellis, the CEO of Businessesintheknow.com “we are producing a new business lessons every week for business leaders and owners. Because we distribute our lesson in a music CD like format to our subscribers, they can listen to tracks that they need at the time that they need it.

How does this work in practice? Suppose for example a business owner going through a decision support system incorporating component through is asked a question about “Merger and Acquisitions.” Suppose further that the owner doesn’t fully understand the concept. They simple go to the 2GB MP4 Player scroll through the weekly catalog to find the week lesson that discussed Merger and Acquisitions. From their business leader can decide which of the five tracks they need to hear such as:

1. An overview and the history of the subject

2. Why the subject is relevant to businesses of all industries

3. Implementation

4. Case Studies and Examples

5. Summary and conclusions

Businessesintheknow.com New Program Takes Entrepreneurs by the Hand and Lead Them Through the Experiences of Other Successful Entrepreneurs

2007-08-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

St. Louis, MO, USA. July 4, 2007 -- While most people dream about starting their own business someday, 95% of entrepreneurs make less than $50,000 a year- many of them going broke. Why? Simple— a large percentage of entrepreneurs don’t know what they’re doing.

Author, publisher and optimization coach Bobby Ellis has teamed up with Xspology.com and Peopleintheknow.com to created Businessesintheknow.com in hopes of changing that percentage. Businesses In The Know provides weekly consulting lessons, takes entrepreneurs by the hand, showing them step-by-step, how to start, build, manage, or turn around a business by using the experiences of others thriving entrepreneurs who have already achieved a higher level success.

The lessons comes from 6 MBA students, now graduates who have interviewed over 93 successful entrepreneurs and deliberated over 107 case studies in the past two years. This group of MBA’s dissected, analyzed, and consolidated the information they found into digestible chunks. Leaving only the key ingredients, strategies, and tactics that made each of these businesses tick. The information is then distributed every Friday through the to entrepreneurs free MP3 Players given to them by Businessesintheknow.com

“Fully 80% of wealth, and self-made millionaires came as a result of starting a new business,” says Bobby. “Most men and women who start businesses, while ambitious, don’t realize the range of skills, abilities, qualities, and talents necessary to be successful.”

Businessesintheknow.com gives entrepreneurs the information, resources and mentors they need to succeed and thrive in today most challenging environments. With practical and in-depth consulting lessons distributed to entrepreneurs weekly.

According to Bobby Ellis, a principle at Businessesintheknow.com “We’ve put quite a bit of thought and effort into this program. We have learned something about bridging the gap between understanding principles and being able to apply those ideas. A lot of it has to do with not playing the games that others want to play…especially if they have an advantage. If Michael Jordan challenged you to a game of basketball, with the loser paying the winner $5,000, would you play? Probably not. The key is not to play a game that you’re not comfortable or superior at. The same can be applied to your life and your business. The goal of businessesintheknow.com is to change the odds from against the entrepreneur to profoundly in their favor.”

Entrepreneurs who want additional information, or want to order a free sample of a Businessesintheknow.com consulting lesson can go to http://www.businessesintheknow.com/ . Visit the website or for additional information email bobby.ellis@businessesintheknow.com.

Peopleintheknow.com launches a business directory that will allow business owners and freelancers to advertise to over 100,000 consumers

2007-01-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

Immediate Release

Press Release

Atlanta Based Peopleintheknow.com launches a business directory that will allow business owners and freelancers to advertise to over 100,000 other business owners and affluent consumers FREE of charge.

Atlanta based Peopleintheknow.com (www.peopleintheknow.com), announced today it has broadened its services to include a free business directory for business owners and freelancers. The addition of a business directory, further enable business owners to leverage their advertising effectiveness to both a network of business owners and to a group of affluent consumers at zero cost.
According to LA Williams, a contributing editor at Peopleintheknow.com, “anytime you can make it easier for consumers and businesses to find, buy or sell available goods and services to one another the community benefits.

Currently, there are a variety of free advertising programs out there and many of them are worth the putting in the effort. Classified ads, Yellow pages, and business directories are perhaps the most popular form of small business and freelancing advertising available today.
“People In The Know” mission is to help business owners and freelancers harness the power of the Internet to effortlessly find things that they need, using our online community,” said Bobby Ellis, a consulting executive at Peopleintheknow.com. “We are thrilled to be converging a business directory and free employment classifieds into a single solution, because it makes Peopleintheknow.com an even more powerful resource for business owners and consumers.

In less than five minutes and three easy steps, a business owner or freelancer can come to Peopleintheknow.com, register with a name and valid email address, and then post their business listing in the directory, according to Peopleintheknow.com CEO. A business owner will be allowed to enter their company’s name, a link to their website and a brief description describing the goods and services they offer into the directory.

Therefore, in three easy steps a business owner can successfully expose their business to over 100,000 consumers and other business owners. As a bonus, the business owner will receive additional coverage, because Peopleintheknow.com business directory is submitted to all the major search engines every 24 hours with updates.

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About Peopleintheknow.com Inc.
Peopleintheknow.com is an online lifestyle community located in Atlanta, Georgia specializing in sharing real experiences, real knowledge, and real life with a community of affluent consumers and business owners. With the backing of its community People In The Know is able leverage its power to provide financial benefits and business advantages to its viewers who can register with the site to become members.

How to Get Referrals by Going through the Back Door, Instead of the Front

2007-01-03T20:03:00.000-08:00

What are referrals? Referrals are an endorsed lead that helps you get into a prospect door. It’s natural for a person to be hesitant to provide you will referrals, especially if they never done business with you. So you must make the refer providing you with the referral comfortable and trust that you will not harm their friends with your actions.

I’m first going to tell you what you can not do. You can not go up to people and asking them “Who do you know and can you refer them to me?” This will get you kick out the door faster than you can say, “Never mind.” Now, I am going to tell what you can do. You can make it as easy as possible for the people to refer us to people they know who fit your target demographic.

You need a list of the people in your targeted industry. For example if you are in the office supply business, you want a list on all the local businesses and their owner. Next, you need to find one of the key business owners who can get you in the door of the people on your list. Trust me; most business owners know it each other in the same community and industry. You take your list and presort it prior to asking that key if know one of the names on the list.

If you feel your referrer getting uncomfortable, you can say, “I’m not asking for a lead. I just want to know who the key, business owners in the community are.” And then you go to the referrer with your presorted list and he/she will say, “I know him, you can use my name.” If you didn’t have a presorted list of business owners, you may get one or two names, but if you present the referrer with your list, he’ll say I know him, her, him, him, her, him and her. It’s easier for people to look at a list and tell who they know, versus telling who you know off the top of their head.

This strategic tactic works like crazy. Doing my time of consulting business owners, I never met anyone that used this strategy to this extent. Most entrepreneurs will just run to a person and say can you give me a referral. And of course the person says, “No.” Why? Because, they don’t make it turnkey easy for them to give you the referral. Now you know one of key step to getting leads and referral what are you going to do? Hopefully you take action get mind blowing results.

Bobby

See other business articles at peopleintheknow.com

6 Powerful Ways to Bring in More Clients

2006-11-12T20:07:00.000-08:00

Ask yourself this famous question:

Where is your business really coming from? I don’t mean generically, I mean figure out where your business is really coming from. Many advisors don’t know what percentage of business comes from referrals, direct mail, cold calling, seminars, etc. The most successful financial advisors I know have percentage charts in their offices defining exactly where their business is coming from. For example, 40% from client referrals, 35% from other financial service professionals like insurance agents and bankers, 15% direct mail, and so on.

Once you have charted the source where business is really coming from, you then need ask yourself the correlated question: How much of my time, effort, and attention am I really putting to that? Normally, there’s an inequity. In other words, people tend to focus 50, 60, 70, 80 percent of their time on things that don’t add directly to the bottom line. For instance, if 50% of your business comes from referrals, then at least 50% of focus should be focused getting referrals, but unfortunately most advisors don’t or won’t put 50% of their efforts into increasing their referrals. I’m almost willing to bet that you put more effort into cold calling, sending out direct mail pieces, performing seminars; all while half your business comes from referrals. They put no effort on real source of their business and it’s a joke. You’ve got to be in alignment.

Note, I’m only using referrals as an example; it could have just as easily been direct mail pieces or seminars that’s 50% of your business. This same analysis can be done for any business function. Optimize the process and improve the results. Manufacturers double and tripe their revenue simply by improving their processes. Most have a dedicated team of industrial engineers on the payroll, just to optimize jobs and processes. If it’s good enough for a 100 billion dollar corporation, it should good enough for you. I once used this exact process at a Fortune 500 company. My team and I saved this corporation 29 million and 43 million dollars in 2003 and 2004 respectively just from inspecting, measuring, improving, focusing and holding management accountable. This theory was a penny saved in a penny earned.

Let give you a quick example. What this difference between earning $350,000 with $100,000 expense, for a total profit of $250,000 versus earning $500,000 with $250,000 in expenses. The short answer nothing. But I’m willing to bet you that the company with least amount expense will dominate their market…just look at Wal-Mart and Toyota. Toyota profits are more the Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors put together, with similar production numbers. That’s optimization.

You too can use this same optimization strategy to make more money faster and more efficiently. You can to start the process by creating a hypothesis to proven or disprove.

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The Art of Stratey - Japanese Style

2006-10-30T07:26:00.000-08:00

Recognize that strategy begins with analysis. The strategist analyzes a set of facts, in the sense of taking the set apart, and then reassembling it in an order that makes sound strategic sense.

The purpose of strategy is to maximize one’s advantage. On a battlefield, this means picking the right place to fight, the right time to attack, the right time to retreat-weighting and re-assessing as circumstances change, but always with maximum advantage in mind. Strategy is intuitive, but it also analytical and vice versa.

The first step in strategy is to identify the one issue that matters most—the critical issue. To do this, you must frame the question properly. Suppose a company is incurring high costs for overtime work. What is the correct question? Could it be, “How can we reduce overtime?” or maybe, “Do we have enough staff?” or perhaps, “Does our staff have the necessary skills to do the work in a timely manner?” Each question would elicit a different response. Clearly, though, it is necessary to answer the third question before moving to the second, and then the first.

Unfortunately, many business people would simply assume away the two most critical questions and focus on the first. It takes a certain disciplined creativity to question what everyone else takes for granted. Some people can intuit the critical issue, but they are scarce. Fortunately, a disciplined method can help anyone arrive at a workable definition of the critical issue. This methodology can apply to a broad spectrum of business issues such as:

Continue the artice here

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

What Does Your Branding Mean to You? And Better Yet, To Your Customers

2006-10-30T07:12:00.000-08:00

Modern firms are thorough and very careful about valuing their capital assets, such as equipment, land, receivables and investments in the implementation of SOX, but their greatest asset is not even included on the balance sheets nor can it be felt or seen. It is the company brand.

Having a good brand can reap you benefits such as:

It attracts customers who want to buy its products on a repeat basis.
It pre-sells customers on the quality of its products.
Its products can demand a premium in the marketplace.
More qualified on motivated people want to work for it.
It can attract more outside investors and suppliers.
It can prevent new competitors from moving into its space.
Its financial results demonstrably improve

When a company dilutes its brand, the result can be a disaster. Just look at Enron, Global Crossing, WorldCom, Adelphi, Tyco, Health South and Arthur Anderson. These firm where the cream of the crop of their respective industry. Now they are either completely out of business or a silhouette of their form selves.

A good brand is intangible and fragile, but it is necessary requirement if your company wants to expand in the marketplace of public perception and build better relationships with customers and vendors.

Click here to continue

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

Branding Your Product or Company Starts With The Name

2006-10-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

The name of your company, products, and services are absolutely vital to the success of your brand in the eyes of prospective clients. Your company success has a direct correlation with the success of your brand. With more products/services entering market today than in the past generations, we are becoming a much diverted world that requires you to sink or swim; feast or famine.

The name your product and company is like the chorus or hook in a song, it remains in the minds of prospects long after the song is over, or marketing in this case. In this era of strategic branding, a product name is the most important marketing decision you can make.

Realize this. What worked in the past won’t necessary work now, or even in the future for that matter. That’s because in the past fewer products crowded the market, making the names of products and company not nearly as important. Today, names must be the starting point of the positioning. Names must tell people the product competitive advantage and/or exactly what it is, do, how, when, and where.

For example: Taco Bell – you would guess the sell tacos
Car and Driver Magazine, Motor Trend Magazine- a magazine about cars
National Tire and Battery (NTB) – sell tires and batteries
Advance Auto Parts or AutoZone – sell automotive parts

Be careful in the branding and naming of your products. You want to make sure the positioning of your brand reaches across your product lines. In addition, the strategy of branding must fit into your corporate vision like a puzzle or it just becomes tactical approach with no long term benefit. With that being said, you do not want to stretch your name or brand so thin that prospects no longer respect it. If you feel your brand and name is being diluted you will need to create a new spin-off brand to protect your core brand.

I have another report that talks about branding on the internet. The report discusses the how to create a killer names that tops the search engines. This is very important, because your branding is not only what you think it is, but what Google, MSN, and Yahoo thinks you are. Email me at Xspology.com

The Importance of Branding and How to do it.

2006-10-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

Branding is probably the most overlooked aspect of any small business. When I say small business, I mean businesses with revenue under 25 million dollar a year. It’s true you are a financial advisor, but ultimately you are working for yourself. Just like any other business owner your level of success depends solely on you. For these reasons it is absolutely vital for you to brand yourself in order to secure your future.

I have seen too many people receive pink slips after building a strong foundation of clients and then falling into a slump. The fact of the matter is, your clients belong to your employer. When you were prospecting your clients I bet nine times out of ten you sold the client on the company you work for, such as Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, or Charles Schwab. Ultimately, you just sold yourself out of a job. Why would a client transfer with you to another financial company if you sold them on how good your previous employer was?

Your goal should be to sell your clients on you-the person and service you can offer your clients no matter what company you work for. Ultimately, you want your client to be a loyal to you.

Getting Started

Branding is very powerful; it can convey exclusivity, preferential treatment, desirability, value, dependability, stability and quality. Believe it or not people are extremely loyal to brands and you want your clients to be loyal to you. In order to achieve this you must give your clients something that is very limited or cannot be had anywhere else or at least anywhere near your prices. Your clients must see you as the only choice, not the just the best choice. You can do this in several ways, in which we will explain later.

Let give the difference a brand make. You have a lot of entrepreneurs that doing real estate these days. You know the normal purchasing of run down homes that they buy, fix and then turn around and sell (some turn the properties in it rentals, but that a different story). Most these people do not have a brand. There is no company that is going acquire or merger with a company with low value.

When you build a brand your company itself becomes an asset within itself. Competitors and consumers look at you differently. You are taken more seriously. You have an asset that worth something, Wall Street calls it good will. It’s not that your company does anything more than your competitors, but critical difference is your company has a brand. Imagine the name (the brand) of your organization being worth millions of dollars alone, because what it means to prospects. How much do you a company would pay Microsoft, IBM or Coca-Cola for their name and just their name. I would safely estimate a hundred million dollars or more.

A lot wall street analysts that have formed their own a brand. Their name and approval on a stock or mutual fund report could easily earn millions for a company. Take Jack Gurdman for example, he built a brand so powerful that when he said WorldCom stock was a buy, people brought it. If Citibank had let Gurdman go before the WorldCom sandal Gurdman broke, you could have bet your last dollar that the top 10 financial service firm would have been fighting to get their hand on him. And ultimately that’s what you want to achieve for your business. People trusted these analysts because they were suppose to be the best in the business and your customer must trust that you will do what you say it will do.

Continue Here

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

Do you run your business like a Corporation or a Sole Proprietorship?

2006-10-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

Below I have created a table that outlines the differences between a corporation and a sole proprietorship. Examine it closely, because it tells a story.

Corporation Sole Proprietorship
Unlimited Life Span Limited Life Span
Limited Liability Unlimited Liability
You earn a salary You and your business share income

So, how do you run your business? Like a sole proprietorship or a corporation? The differences between the two are important, not only in the legal sense, but also in strategic and operational ways.

If you want to be a corporation, you need to start acting like one. If you look at my chart the first item I listed is the difference in the life spans between a corporation and sole proprietor. In a sole proprietorship the life of the business is determined by its owner. When its owner dies or retires the business ends. Corporations on the other hand, are assets that have an unlimited life and can be transferred. So basically, if the founder of the company dies, the business continues.

That’s why when Walter P. Chrysler, the founder of Chrysler Corporation died, the corporation continued to make automobiles. The same holds true for Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. When Sam died, the business of Wal-Mart continued to grow and later became the largest retailer in the world.

How did these entrepreneurs create assets that continue to throw off large chunks of revenue decades after their death? One, they treated their business like a corporation. They created great systems and business models for their employees to follow.

A system is the method, process, and the planning of actions needed to carry out a task with consistent and predictable results. Take McDonalds for instance. McDonalds is run by one shift manager and group of inexperienced teenage workers. Right? How is it possible for a billion dollar corporation to be run by a large group of teenagers earning minimal wage?

The answer…McDonalds has great processes. Everything they do is well documented. When new workers are hired they are trained on the processes and methods necessary to perform their required tasks. For example, to make a hamburger, McDonalds post pictures above the grill, so there are no mistakes on what goes on a Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, or Fish sandwich.

With that being said, what does your business do to error proof mistakes or make training for new hires faster, easier, and cheaper? If you document all the processes, you can duplicate the procedures and deliver a predictable outcome within reason. One of the best ways to leverage yourself is through duplication. Think about this for a second; if there was only one McDonalds, it would just be a mom and pop hamburger place that you’ve never heard of before. But, because there are 4,000+ McDonalds, they are a billion dollar business.

Part two of this three part series is coming tomorrow. Limited Liability and Unlimited Liability

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

Leave a Message After the Beep!

2006-10-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

I want to tell you a story. Today, I decided that I was going take a day off from being CEO of Xspology.com and work directly in the sales department. What do that mean; you ask? That means, I was going to get on the phone and be a telemarketer in search of new partners.

The reason I focused on new partners and not new clients is because it requires the same amount of effort. If I call a prospect and s/he becomes a client, I'll only have one client. If I call a prospective partner and I get s/he to become a partner, s/he probably could introduce me to 100 new clients. So everything I do has to have leverage or I won't do it.

With that being said, I spent four hours calling 89 potential clients. Out of 89 calls, I got the administrative assistant or voice mail 89 times. That means I was batting a zero percent average. Not good. But what I did do is leave a message with each of the 89 propects.

It was a simple message that said,

"Hello (their name), this Bobby Ellis from Xspology.com. I sent you a letter last week pertaining to a possible partnership between our two companies. I just wanted to follow up with you and answer any questions you may have. I invite you to call me back on my direct line. The phone number is (404) 964-2927. Again, my name is Bobby Ellis from Xspology.com and my phone numbers is (404) 964-2927. Thank you and have a good day. "

The result. I recieved 17 returned calls at the end of the day. As I said before, it pays to leave a message after the beep, because most people will not. Be different and take advantage of the fear peoople have to leave a message.

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

The Power of Newsletter- Why They Work For Some, But Not For Others

2006-10-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Let’s face it. Newsletters are extremely popular in the investment advisory field. I have spoken with and interviewed some of the best advisors in the nation in search to find why some newsletters campaigns bring their advisors superior results, while other advisor newsletters campaigns fail miserably.

Newsletters are very powerful when used correctly. I have seen over 1,100 investment advisor newsletters and it’s to a point now where I can immediately pick out which of the 1,100 newsletter that will instantly fail.

The first and far most common problem I found, is that many of the newsletters look and sound the same. These newsletters right away SCREAMS, “Cookie Cutter.” In addition, the information provided is normally extremely general or even worse, targeted to a client base that's nothing like the advisor in question current client base.

Investors today are much smarter than they were ten years ago. Advisors simply can’t get away using theses generic newsletters and expect to meet thier corporate forecasted objectives. With investors using the internet as a source of information, advisor must create better information. Your clients are no different that any other investors that look at CNBC, Bloomberg, or Fox Saturdays seeking more information. With this being the case, you must up the ante of your newsletter.

This is what you do...Click here to read the entire article

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

Three Ways to Jump Start Your Business Cash Flow Machine Today

2006-10-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

Three Ways to Jump Start Your Business Cash Flow Machine Today

Stopping New Competitors by Creating Barriers to Entry

2006-10-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

Competition is always on the horizon. Barriers are the reasons why anybody cannot start any business at any time. To compete in some industries, you must master out of the ordinary technologies or make large capital investments before you can become a player. Doing what your rivals can’t is a pretty good operational definition of “competitive advantage.”

What are your competitive advantages and is it strong enough to either prevent rivals from competing directly with you or entering your market? Creating barriers are not as hard as people make it out to be and I have outline two examples below.

For example, let take automotive manufactures. Hyundai was the little car company that had horrible quality and undependable reliability. By the mid-1990’s Hyundai has worked on it problems, but it had to convince the general public that their previous reputation is no longer valid. So, they decided to offer a warranty that has never been seen-a 100,000 mile warranty. Remember, this was still when the big three automakers were still offering 36,000 warranty. That proved to be a huge competitive advantage that catapulted them to become a major player in the automotive market. As you can see a pre-emptive strategy can be a barrier.

Another example is one close to my heart. I have a group of clients who are financial advisors. I thought them how to create a service that’s FREE to their clients, but had a high perceived value to their clients. I set up these financial advisors with complementary services providers like attorney’s who did estate planning, CPA accountants, etc. I convinced these providers to do a free seminar on estate planning for my clients, clients. My clients, clients loved it; they told there friends and my clients made a fortune.

I bet you can guess what happened next. You got it! Competitors copied this strategy. But, they forget the three critical factors such as: One, I did all the scouting and sell to the providers. In addition I did all the marketing to my clients customers to get them to attend to the seminar. Two, I convinced the providers to perform at the seminar free of charge. And three, their competitors’ intent of the seminar was different. Therefore, when competitors try to copy this competitive advantage/barrier they instantly fail and pull out. Why do they fail? They fail because first, they spend an enormous amount of money and labor to find a person who would perform a seminar for you. Second, they pay the provider some huge speaking fee. And third, they want to make money for the seminar. Why? Because they invested probably $2,500 to $5,000 for this seminar and they want to recoup their investment, plus a little profit. Therefore, their competitors’ intent is different, because my client doesn’t have to make a dime from the seminar, because it didn’t cost them anything. So the investment and risk prevented competitors from competing head to head with my clients. This was and still is a killer barrier to entry for my client competitors.

Now I gave you two examples of barriers to entry. Tell me what you think and how what entry to barriers you have placed in your business.

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

How to Compete in a Commoditized Industry

2006-10-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

What is a commodity? According to the Webster Dictionary the word commodity is defined as a a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price.

In a commodity market, many companies compete and none enjoys a competitive advantage. Meaning, that each firm has equal access to such necessities as technologies, capital, clients, and labor. For example, a financial service firm that sell stock. Let’s face, all stock is the same. If I buy Microsoft (MSFT) stock from E*Trade, it that same MSFT stock that Merrill Lynch sell. Therefore, the product is the same. With that being said, how to a financial firm differentiate themselves from other financial firms? Currently these firms separate themselves by selling advice, research and create mutual funds that exclusive their firm.

If you cannot maneuver your competition, because they are consistently imitating your every move, then you must either improve your efficiency by doing the job fast and/or cheaper than your competitors. You start by analyzing the relative strengths of your competitive environment:

Current Customers – Are you getting the most out of every customer? Can you earn a higher profit margin by offer your clients’ upgrades to their current products/services they purchase from you? Can you give your clients more value by offering incentives such as discounts? Can you motivate your customers’ offers your services? Of, course these are only suggestions and each individual business circumstances will be different.

Potential buyers- there are a number of people that need your service and don’t know it. Sometime you’ll provide a service that almost meets a whole new market requirement if you just tweaked it a little. Look at it this way. Either you can expand your market/number of buyer with new products or you increase your presence in your current market. Here’s how you determine which alternative is the best for you. Whatever you think will earn you the largest, most sustaining income in the least risky manner, that what you should do.

Current competitors- your current competitors are only a small piece of the competitive landscape, because the new entrants are going to continue to enter your market; rather you know them or like them, it doesn’t matter. You need to be cautious when developing a strategy to create a competitive advantage against new competitors, because it could back-fire. Trying to destroy or marginalize the competition is dangerous-particularly if you’re competing over price. Companies that enjoy competitive advantages but that are not content with what they have can harm themselves permanently by pursuing aggressive rather than cooperative tactics. You can rarely put a well-run company out of business through price competition. Instead of competing on price, you increase output and production capacity.

Potential competitors entering your market – as Microsoft Chairman as always said, a small startup in a garage can grow up and become one of your biggest competitors. Just look at Google-a company that’s only eight years old. The common and most proven strategy uses to combat such entrants is: increase the barriers to markets. It is a fact that when new entrants enter your market you market share deceases. In addition, with new entrants you must move carefully, because you are in a position where you have a lot to lose if you already own the market. The entrant has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Vendor relations- All your suppliers should be a part of your management or advisory team. They need to be involved in the development of new strategies and products for you. If you can get your vendors to help you operate more efficiently, you can pass the savings to your customers. In addition, you want to try to tie your vendors up in first right of refusal contracts, because you at last thing you want is your competitors from receiving the same benefit form sometime you help create.

Substitutes/Complementary services – A huge opportunity that normally lost in small businesses is the opportunity to partners with others to introduce substitute and complementary products. Why? Fear! In the Book, “Building Trust at the Speed of Change,” author Edward Marshall said, fear doesn’t increase productivity, speed, creativity, profitability. And he is right. So deal accordingly.

The six competitive categories above are six simples way to work on your business from the inside. It is highly suggested that you outline a detailed plan that address each category and how you can improve it. Good luck and I will see you up at the top.

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

Rules for Building Superior Relationships

2006-10-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

Finally, businesses are starting to understand that people and their relationships are critical to their success. In a relationship-based business, the agreement between two or more parties assumes trade-offs between cost, risk, skills, labor, and rewards. This agreement should outline how the involved parties will treat each other. The agreement must address the character, quality, and integrity of the relationship.

The agreement isn’t just a set of expectations that the parties negotiate. It’s a set of rights and obligations that people have in the relationship. In a relationship-based corporation, the character and quality of their relationships ensure the success of the business, and speed is an outgrowth of those trust-based relationships.

People take care of what they own. To value the relationship, people must see the benefit. If they “own” the relationship, they will implement what is necessary well. This is a journey requiring character, will and discipline. Look at it this way. Someone have to be responsible for the implementation of the relationship management, acceptance, and enforcement. We must define it mutually and manage it for efficiency. It matures from learning. It is not static.

If a corporation remove the barriers of their old transactional-based system and culture it could leverage their relationships to produce more output faster. It’s essential that everyone involved is on board and know exactly what is going on, so when it’s time to perform, the response is instant. An instant response depends upon shared commitment, a set of common rules about how the relationship will work. A company can not afford to be misaligned or ill prepared.

One last comment:
Traditionally, relationships have not been a win-win. There always seems that theirs a party that tries to take advantage of relationships, focusing only how much they suck out to the relationship and how fast.

Instead, you need help your relationship by enabling them to become more profitable, with incentive that adds to your strategic objective. You do this by creating a community for your relationships to grow. The community must be place where both parties can safely and freely express ideas, complaints, and ways to improve the relationship without backlash.

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

How to Get Free Public Relations that Drives Sales

2006-10-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

Getting free press is easy once you know what you are doing. To this day, I have not paid for any press or media attention, but have been covered in over 300 publications. I’m not saying that to brag, but to inform you that you can grow your business without investing a dime in advertisement. First you need to create a checklist. Maybe something like this:
Do I have a website for them to visit?
If not, you need to get one fast. Microsoft is currently giving away free websites hosting and domains names for one year. Just go to liveoffice.microsoft.com.

Find the sites that accept free press releases and articles. Hear are some of my favorites:
Soft411
Free News Releases
PR Web
Free Press Releases
24-7 Press Release
Press World PR Leap
iNewswire
PR Zoom
ePress Releases

If you need to create a press release. You can find some good templates at:
PR Newswire
Xspolgy.com
PRW

How to incorporate your press releases into your marketing.
You can say something like: I have been published over 2000 times. If you don’t believe me, just go to Google, MSN, Yahoo, Alta Vista, etc. and type in (the name of your company).
Your press release should link back to your site. Your site should give away something of value in exchange for their name and email address. Collecting the names of people who visit your site will become your greatest asset. See “How to Generate Income From you Biggest Asset-Your Mailing List.”

In addition, your website should have publish all your releases. You press releases don’t necessary have to be public, but in your site. Also, make sure your pages can provide RSS. This allows the search engines ping your site or have it metacrawled and to give your site higher ranking in the search engine.

Why you have to must submit press releases. One of secret to optimizing your website in the search engines is getting links to your websites. This is how the search engine decides the important and relevant of your site.

Last but not least, tracking. Tracking your press releases is extremely important. You are going to want to track which media outlets are picking up your releases. Here’s another closely guarded secret. Professional marketers place coding into their website. These codes tell you where visitors are coming from, what time, what media outlets are bring visitors to you.

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

What are you waiting for, to grow your business?

2006-10-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Business Owner,

Guess what you competitors are up right now trying to configure a strategy to put you out of business. They are partnering with other companies behind your back, they are luring your customers in with better pricing and better services and they doing it faster than you can react to it. So what are you going to do about it?
Do you have a rock solid, systematic plan to combat these attacks successfully? If you don’t only want to survive, but to thrive in this progressively more competitive environment you must significantly improve your marketing and business strategy, optimize your processes, market more efficiently, systemize your business and last but not least, improve all relationships. It’s that simple. If you are going to spend all your time and energy into building a successful practice, then you owe it to yourself, your family, and your company to provide the highest income, security, and stability possible.

Bobby Ellis
Xspology.com

How I Did It

2006-10-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

I’ve had a couple of dozen people call me in the last couple of months and asking me how did I grow so fast. I told them, that I really did not grow that fast. It took me two years of hard work to put a sound plan together. And for two years, I create sales letters, sales scripts, 6 coaching programs, and authored a book. After I completed all of that, I released it all to the public at once. And the rest as they say is history. I submitted my website to google, msn, yahoo and any media outlet who would except submissions. Including press releases and articles, because to this day I still submit two article to those outlets that supported http://xspology.com in the beginning. Looking back on it, my greatest success would have to be the partnership deals I created. From these deals I have gained great friends.

Bobby Ellis