The Three Steps to Recession-Proofing Your Business

I must admit that I don't watch the news often enough. It frustrates me and depresses me, all at the same time. But, I do walk by a television that is showing a news program often enough to see the constant predictions by the Chicken Littles of the world. They are all too ready to offer up the "news" that "the sky is falling."

Now, before you run off and start actually believing that - especially in the context of your business - just stop, take a deep breath and relax. Money is moving just as fast as it ever has, you just need to be conscious of the fact that it may be moving differently than it was in the real estate boom of yesterday.

Below, you'll find three easy steps that will help you recession-proof your business:
1. Become the "Celebrity Expert" in your Business Niche
In any economy, especially in an economy where the buyers in your market have been trained to spend carefully, you have to compete for every last dollar that is being spent. Your buyers are likely distracted by their own issues that they are dealing with, so the last thing that you want is to lose a prospect or, worse yet, an existing customer due to factor you can control.

If you have taken the time to show that YOU, not the product or service that you offer, are the Celebrity Expert, the Guru, the Go-To provider in the marketplace, you will have a much better chance of staying busy - while your competitors are floundering. The reason for this is that many business strategies change during market shifts, and if your buyers remember your previous strategies and offerings better than they remember your ability to make great decisions and guide them in the right direction, then you can expect to sit around waiting for the telephone to ring until the market changes.

If, on the other hand, you have taken the time to display your expertise, and have promoted yourself rather than your "latest and greatest" product and service offering, your audience will always come to you, their trusted source, when they must get results. They would rather rely on a trusted advisor than on a product or service. People buy people; NEVER forget this - especially in a shifting market.

2. Ramp Up Your Marketing Efforts
In a changing market where assumptions and projections are no longer identical to what they were in previous periods, the first thing many businesses do is assume an overly-conservative marketing strategy. The first thing many a CFO says is "let's slow down our marketing efforts." BIG MISTAKE.

This could appear to be a lesson in contrarian-marketing, and while that does often work, this goes deeper than that. We're not just trying to say "Yes" when those around us are saying "No," but the same outcome ensues.

In a changing marketplace you actually have to market more consistently and creatively to get consumers to spend their dollars on your products and services. They are adopting a more fiscally conservative policy all around based on what they are seeing and hearing; so they have to be smacked in the face with your marketing message even more than usual in order to finally make the decision that what you are offering makes sense for them. If you slow down your marketing efforts, the final "sign" your buyer is looking for before they cross the line and buy may never come. As they say, "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear." If you don't appear when the student is ready, you'll miss out on the chance to make the sale and bring in the revenues you deserve.

3. Be Agile
We often get caught up in offering the products and services that we want to offer, rather than looking for the missing ingredients in our buyer's lives. It's an easy trap to fall into, particularly if you've been doing what you've been doing for a prolonged period of time.

If you get stuck offering your products and services exactly as you have in the past, you may miss a great opportunity to fill a void. If there is a shift in market conditions and your profitability level drops, and you continue to offer your products and services the same way you were pre-shift, then you are turning a blind eye to the fact that your marketplace is no longer seeking (or willing to pay for) the solution of yesterday.

Oftentimes it only takes a slight tweak of your message to ease the pain your prospects are feeling, but you do have to take a moment to stop and realize that your "ointment" may no longer be packaged in a way that attracts customers, and that re-packaging could be the key to renewed profitability.

I know that the overwhelming message in the news is that "the sky is falling," but if you'll take the time to follow these three simple steps, I assure you that even while your prospects and clients are trying to avoid the impending doom, they'll come to your bunker to avoid getting knocked down.

About the Author

WANT TO REPUBLISH THIS ARTICLE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it: JW Dicks & Nick Nanton, TheBusinessGrowthLawyers.com, publish the Business Growth ezine covering topics that every business needs to know. Get more FREE business growth tips at http://www.TheBusinessGrowthLawyers.com

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Article Marketing - It's Not Increasing My Search Engine Placement

I am so frustrated trying to get this to work.What is the best way to increase your rank in the search engines?I tried accomplishing this through article marketing, but it doesn't seem to be working.Are press releases for important?I do not have PR Web direct.

Answer: Article marketing can be frustrating at the beginning because articles are a 30 to 90 day deal.They take a little while to get momentum going.Right now you may not see many results from articles, but six months to a year from now you will reap the benefits of your articles.So be patient.Article marketing is still an effective strategy.

Also do you have links in your articles?In your articles make sure that you have links back to your site.These links will help pull you up in the search engines.

The best way to get up in the search engines is to think about it like this.In the Presidential race, the candidates campaign for not only votes from the general public, but from the electoral college as well.The same applies to your search engine.This means that links pointed to your sites are votes from the general public.The more links to your website, the more votes you have.

In this case the electoral college is finding sites that have high Google Page Rank.You need to go to Google and download the Google Toolbar.This toolbar will enable you to find out the Google Page Rank for sites.Every page of every site has its own page rank.

Why is page rank important?Google measures the importance of the website.The higher the Google Page Rank, the more important the site, and the more important the "vote".High page rank sites would be the electoral college.So the goal is to get links back to your site from the high page rank sites.The key is to look for high quality links that point back to your website.

Following are other ways you can improve your search engine ranking:
1.
Press releases will increase your search engine ranking.You can use PR Web direct to accomplish this task.

2.You can buy links on ebay and linkadage.On eBay you just search for "page rank" and you want to find sites with high page rank.

3.You can use directories.A great resource that can help you get website traffic through web directories is at directory maximizer.This is a great way to generate leads and increase your page rank by submitting your high quality website description to over 600 different directories.This website is used by a lot of top Internet marketers.

Before you use this website you need to create descriptions that will grab the reader's attention.Then you submit these descriptions to these 600 web directories such as the web directory called DMOZ.

In order to generate the best results by submitting your website to these online directories you have to create five different titles and descriptions.Why?You need five because you want them to be rotated so you avoid any duplicate content issues.Then you can have Directory Maximizer manually submit your website to over 830 different directories for you.This saves you a great deal of work.At a little cost per directory submission.

If you had to manually submit your website to 830 directories it could take you up to 52 hours.This company will do it for you at a rate of less than $1.70 per hour.I used them for every single one of my websites and highly recommend them.Doing every website may be costly, but it was worth it for me.

About the Author

Email Marketing is the most profitable way to make money on the internet.

Discover how to use the internet and turn your computer into a cash gushing machine.Sign-up right now for Matt Bacak's FREE online newsletter to find out how to do exactly that - Go here:www.promotingtips.com

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How to Enjoy More Entrepreneurial Success by Increasing Your Know-How with Practical Learning

Many people would like to start their own businesses and prosper.Unfortunately, few people are properly prepared to succeed as entrepreneurs.Before starting a new business, gaining any practical knowledge they lack, learning what would pay off in producing better growth, profits, and cash flow, would help new leaders to succeed.

To understand what kind of education new business leaders need, let's consider how successful new ventures were once directed.With little to guide them other than the stars and moon, early Polynesians traveled thousands of miles from island to island for trade or to find better places to live.As preparation it's hard to imagine they learned much general theory about celestial navigation.Instead, the training was probably aimed at being sure that a boat could get from island A to island B.

In mapping the western United States, surveyors relied on Native American guides to lead them safely through trackless expanses of wilderness.Those guides, too, relied on practical learning about how to traverse the continent.

Such pathfinders knew to pay attention to their surroundings and how to interpret what they saw to direct their efforts.They often learned by traveling with older, wiser people and trying out their new knowledge under the careful guidance of those experienced people.

Let's look at a modern-day example of gaining and applying such practical learning to building a business.Dr.Tane Caesar helps companies deal with the perils of the ocean while constructing oil-and-gas platforms and pipelines under the sea.This modern day activity connects Dr.Caesar to his Maori ancestors who settled New Zealand after long, arduous journeys in small boats across the Pacific.

This modern-day voyager found that the right kind of learning can give him important business advantages.His philosophy of gaining new knowledge is practical: Any learning he does should directly put money in his pockets.That view reflects his deep suspicion of the formal education industry and his family's non-academic heritage.

This practical approach first served him well in recovering from some initial setbacks in life.Dr.Caesar left home at age 16 and had to earn a living on his own ...or he would suffer.By age 24, he had an importing business in Australia and was recently married, but a year later, the outlook was bleak.He was on the brink of bankruptcy, and the couple had to move to a trailer park, find jobs, and pay back their creditors.After Dr.Caesar discovered a talent for being a croupier, the Caesars succeeded in getting out of their financial hole.

Looking around for a better career alternative, Dr.Caesar discovered that being a deep-sea diver could provide a greater income and many thrills.Developing skill in this work, Dr.Caesar became a supervisor of diving teams.Building on that experience, he now provides health, safety, and environmental management consulting for diving-support vessels working on deep-water construction projects.

Obviously, he didn't learn how to do all of this on his own.Dr.Caesar supplemented his on-the-job experience with reading selected to help him with exactly what he needed to apply in his work.He prospered as a result of this practical learning.
Where does practical learning fit into his success?From his early family life and these work experiences, Dr.Caesar identified these five principles as critical to a leading a successful life:

1.

Build spiritual strength (a perspective he gained from his mother)

2.

Live according to your standards of personal integrity (a viewpoint he learned from his father)

3.

Invest in your family and yourself through continual education to raise perceived self worth and earning capacity (as he has done)

4.

Be self employed (as his parents were and he is now)

5.

Invest in assets that provide positive cash flow that can be continually reinvested (as he has done by purchasing rental properties)

What's the most important goal in Dr.

Caesar's life?"Whether I die materially rich or poor, it will be the legacy of love and devotion to my family that will remain as my greatest accomplishment." That goal is worth remembering because many business owners find that their businesses receive more love and devotion than the owners' families do.

Dr.Caesar's search for valuable, practical learning led him to explore online schools.He selected Rushmore University and earned an MBA degree in risk administration, a subject of immense value to his consulting clients whose costly construction projects can flounder when management mistakes occur.

Reflecting on that practical learning experience, Dr.Caesar made a second educational investment, earning a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree in risk management from Rushmore.Here is how he described the decision to seek a doctorate when he began his studies:

"Working as an independent consultant, my skills are sold for the highest agreed rate.

Limits do exist to what I can charge my clients; further academic achievement would allow my clients to justify paying me higher rates.Obtaining a doctorate and continuing to consult on oil-and-gas projects will maximize the earning potential for my company into the future."

He chose Rushmore for both degrees because "much of academia remains focused on the exam as the end result, rather than comprehension and individual ability to solve real problems.

"

While earning his DBA degree, Doctor Caesar was able to double his daily consulting fees because clients recognized the added value of his practical learning.

Since graduating with his DBA, his firm's earnings have almost tripled.

That successful profit-building experience increased Dr.Caesar's appreciation for the value of practical, applied learning.Here is what he had to say recently about his learning plans:

"Personally, I continue to hunger for knowledge and would like to continue with further degree programs focused on psychology.

As per the saying -- the more I learn, the more I understand how little I know."

With that open-minded attitude, it's hard to imagine that Dr.

Caesar's learning ...or the benefits he gains from learning ...will ever end.

Do you want to lead and profitably expand your own successful business?Here are some questions to help you make faster, surer progress:

--What are you doing to add practical learning that can be applied to increase the success of your business and your income?

--What more practical learning could you add?

--How can you gain this learning in ways that will disrupt your business activities as little as possible?

About the Author

Donald W.

Mitchell is a professor of entrepreneurship at Rushmore University, an online school, where he teaches how to create flexible strategies for businesses and nonprofit organizations.For more information about ways to engage in fruitful lifelong learning at Rushmore to increase your effectiveness and improve your career, visit

http://www.

rushmore.edu

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