Posts Tagged ‘money’

When Should You Charge And When Should You Give It Away?

By: Darcy Juarez on: May 2nd, 2013 4 Comments

With Mother’s Day approaching, I saw an unusual, but clever gift designed specifically for the stay-at-home mom…

Knowing that many stay-at-home moms feel undervalued, salary.com lets you generate a “paycheck” for moms based on the number and age of children, duties, etc.

Although the check isn’t real, it’s designed to elevate the mom’s worth.

Like moms, business owners often have a hard time evaluating their true worth. As a result, sometimes they give things away when they shouldn’t and are hesitant to give things away when it makes sense.

Today, I’m going to address something that every business must consider at some point…and that is when to give things away for free.

It’s a tricky tightrope.  You don’t want to undervalue your work and portray your product or service as having little worth. And, of course, an item that’s given away for free is sometimes viewed by the recipient as having zero value. Another problem is that by giving it away, you might only attract those who want the cheapest thing that might solve their problem. Additionally, you might attract people who take advantage of you.

So the question is when is it okay to give it away and when should you charge?

When it’s okay:

When it helps you build a relationship:You have a product or service that you know will help your clients, customers or patients…if you could only get them to buy it.  If you are trying to get people in the door and start building a relationship with them, and you have backend products and services, you might consider making “an offer they can’t refuse.”

Do this by offering free products or services attached to what you are selling.  For example, let’s say you own a car repair shop and someone comes in for  some repair work or an oil change. You want to keep him as a customer, so you offer a service plan for $59.00 that gives him one free oil change, free refills on fluids such as windshield wiper fluid, priority service when he needs a repair, free shuttle service when he needs a repair, and free beverages and snacks while waiting.

The value of the free incentives can help make this a “no-brainer offer” for someone who is on the fence.  You know that because he has your service plan, he will return to you to get service versus taking his car somewhere else. Plus, your service plan will allow you time to build a relationship, market to him (because now you’ve captured his contact info and gotten “permission”) and prove that you provide great service.

When you want clients to demonstrate you can deliver: Unfortunately, our society is more and more distrusting. It is easy for anyone to slap up a website or a blog and say they are in business. That means when they come across your business, they may be skeptical and wondering if your solution will really work.

Creating a free solution that will demonstrate your value and deliver a successful outcome can build that trust.  For example, we currently give away our Fast Implementation Bootcamp to GKIC Members. This allows members a way to test a live event, our systems and coaching all at once. Once attendees experience success from something they learned at Bootcamp that encourages them to try our other resources, attend events and participate in our coaching programs.

When you want to give back: While not everyone will agree, many believe there is a social obligation to give back. Most likely you’ve had mentors or had people help you out with free advice on your way up in your business.  Giving free advice to young people or people on their way up is a great way to give back and will often come back to you ten-fold.

Most people are genuinely looking for advice and not a hand-out, however that said, I do recommend you listen very carefully when someone is asking you for free advice. Do they want you to do the work for them or are they just asking for guidance? For example, someone that says something like, “Could you do this for me just this once since you have so much experience…”  Or “If you have an overflow of clients you could refer me…” are telltale signs that the person probably isn’t willing to do the work or the marketing for themselves.

When it’s not okay:

When you’re offering professional services: If you offer a professional service such as copywriting, financial advisor, etc. then you should charge accordingly. If your plumber, doctor, or auto-repair shop wouldn’t give it away than neither should you. Think of it this way. You might bake some cookies and give them to your kid’s school for a PTA fundraiser, but you wouldn’t bake dozens of cookies, package them up and give them away free to your local grocery store so they could make a profit on them.

When it diminishes your valued customers: You must be careful to not train your customers to wait for free offers.  Here at GKIC, when we have events, the people who sign up first get the best deal. Period. Not only do they pay the least expensive price, they get the most bonuses. What I mean by that is that if we offer a free bonus as an incentive at a later date, the people who initially sign up, get that bonus too—even though they’ve already registered. This helps to encourage people to sign up early to get the best deal.

While these are just some guidelines and don’t address every situation, following them should help you feel better about when you should and shouldn’t give things away for free.

What are some of the “rules” you follow about when it’s okay to give something away and when you should charge?

See you next time…unless I figure out how to automate that too,

Darcy Juarez

Automation Expert GKIC

NOTE: Mothers spend a lot of time giving, so in the spirit of Mother’s Day we are opening the “virtual doors” to SuperConference and giving you FREE LIVE access to a very special presentation by Dave Dee.

If you are ready to break free and move your business into the prosperous realm you’ve seen others enter, tune in THIS SATURDAY, May 4th at 2:55 PM Eastern to discover a few key systems that will enable you to:

* Create positive choices for you and your family…

* Provide the autonomy to work when you want, with whom you want, where you want, and making the income you want

* Develop the business and the lifestyle you desire and deserve…

Then don’t miss Dave Dee’s presentation entitled:

“The No B.S., High-Intensity 12 Week Market Domination Blueprint: The PRECISE Steps You Need To Experience A Radical Business and Life Transformation”

Remember this is our gift to you and there is absolutely no charge.

All you need to do is click the link below to let us know you’ll be attending and we’ll save your spot and get you all the information necessary.

“Yes, I’ll Be There!”

Don’t miss out on this one-time-only chance to catch this LIVE presentation at SuperConference!

Get an “Unfair” Advantage Over The Competition With These 7 Event Strategies

By: Dan Kennedy on: April 9th, 2013 2 Comments

Over the past week, I spent three days conducting the first of only four live events I’ll do this year.

Although I’ve considerably shrunk the number of events I do, I still consider there to be no substitute for getting people together in a room. Never underestimate the power of holding live events for your customers, clients and patients. You sacrifice a lot when you don’t get them in the same room with you.

Years ago, Gary Halbert held a seminar in Key West, Florida. It was about as easy to get there as hooking up horses to a wagon and taking three days to haul yourself there.  I said to Gary, why not have it in Miami? You like Miami. There’s an airport that flies right into Miami. But Gary didn’t budge. He knew the people who were serious about their business would come, no matter where he was at. He knew they were the truly ambitious, the ones most likely to succeed.

Holding events allows you to identify the people you should pay the most attention to. These are the people who are searching for solutions, committed to finding answers and willing to do what it takes to solve their problem. These are the people you should focus on and engage with the most. And they will come to you no matter where you’re at.

At the New A to Z Info-Biz Blueprints event I spilled everything I know about what I’ve discovered over the past 40 years to work as well as what doesn’t work in Information Marketing.  The positives and the negatives in boom times and in bad times. The good trends and the evil trends. How to find the right combination to “the vault.” Key factors when considering a market for entry or expansion. Blueprints for everything from product development to presentation of price to lead generation and more. I gave insider information that you won’t find in writing and will be stricken from any audios or videos made.

Rewarding customers, clients and patients with information or other items they won’t get from you any other way, not only makes your customers, clients and patients feel special, it gives them an advantage over others. This will improve your bond with clients and create better retention.

It wasn’t until I attended a Gary Halbert event that I realized I could charge royalties for my copywriting. Until I heard Gary say he charged royalties, it hadn’t occurred to me that I could get them too… despite me being well aware that writers are often paid royalties on other types of work such as books. Events allow people to see firsthand that they can be successful using your methods. This can prove very valuable to them (and to you.)

You also create fraternity and community while facilitating connections. I’m accustomed to hearing stories from members about alliances formed and money made as a result of meeting someone at an event. One year at SuperConference (click the link now and check out the latest video!) Ed O’Keefe struck up a conversation in the bathroom that was later worth $1.5 million to him.  I’d tell you the details, but you kind of had to be there.

For years I’ve attended events just because it allowed me to see friends that are separated from me geographically. It’s much easier and frankly less expensive for me to see everyone by attending an event.  Similarly, your customers will form a fraternity too.

You’ll often hear, just as we do, that your clients, customers and patients don’t have time to trek off to a conference, seminar or event. But make no mistake, conducting live events and seminars gives you an enormous advantage over your competition. And it gives those who attend your event an enormous advantage too.

NOTE: Dave Dee and “Mr. X” will be holding a FREE Webinar on April 11, 2012 at 3:00 PM EST/2:00 PM CST on How To Turn The Coming Crisis Into Extraordinary Wealth. “Mr. X” has more than 20 years of successful entrepreneurial experience in a wide range of industries including information and event marketing and teaches others how to create wealth and prosperity for themselves based on principles he personally uses. Click here to register for this FREE event.

Seven Tips For Getting And Keeping Your Financial House In Order

By: Darcy Juarez on: April 4th, 2013 7 Comments

It didn’t take her long to go out of business.

She was 22 years old and it was the first time she’d owned her own business.

Why was she forced to fold her business?

Not for the reason you might expect: lack of sales.

She went out of business because she was uneducated about keeping records for taxes, budgeting finances and keeping cash flow positive.

This story was told to me recently by a GKIC member who I’m proud to say is doing much better in business these days.

Depending upon your own personal experience, it may or may not come as a surprise to you that one of the top reasons small businesses fail is because of their lack of keeping their financial house in order.

Taking care of billing, tracking your expenses, taxes and other financial tasks can seem overwhelming and stressful for new business owners.

Even those who have been in business for themselves awhile can find managing their finances intimidating or perhaps not your favorite thing to do.

However getting and keeping your financial house in order makes things not only less stressful, but can help ensure you don’t overspend and that you have enough money for your savings, investments and retirement.

Here are seven tips for getting your financial house in order.

1)     Get some advice. If you’ve never been in business for yourself or if you struggle with managing your finances, get some advice. It’s an investment that could prove crucial to your survival and one of the smartest investments you can make. It may be as simple as meeting with an accountant to get advice or finding a seasoned, successful business owner who can give you advice on how to run a profitable business.

2)     Create a budget. When starting a business, your income may fluctuate. Therefore it is very important to have a budget both for your business expenses and your personal expenses. Use your lowest income or your average income, rather than your highest income, to base your budget on. In your business budget, you’ll want to include items such as tax payments, marketing, education, Internet service, your cell phone, and so on.

3)     Manage your expenses. While you want to avoid carrying debt, you may find it necessary to incur some debt, especially when getting started.

For example, you will need to invest in marketing materials to show the world you are open for business and looking for clients, customers or patients. Using swipe and deploy marketing systems proven to work will help you prevent costly mistakes and help you feel confident about getting a return on your investment. (A great place to start is to use the marketing systems found in Magnetic Marketing, our number one recommended resource by GKIC members.)

If you need to incur debt, don’t take on more debt than you think you can reasonably pay off. The key is to manage your debts by paying on time so that you avoid additional charges, using the lowest interest rate credit cards or loans possible, paying off debts as soon as possible and only incurring debts that are absolutely necessary.

4)     Use financial management tools. Keeping track of expenses, income, invoices and past due invoices, estimated taxes, etc. can feel daunting at times, especially if you’re a new business owner. However, not keeping track of these can cause your business to fail or even put you in hot water legally.

Fortunately, there are financial management tools you can use that will make this much easier and require a minimal amount of your time and effort. Most are inexpensive and some are even free. A few to check out are Zoho, Freshbooks, and Get Harvest. Each has varying features and track things like your time, invoices, and expenses. Some you can set up things such as automatic invoice reminders or scan receipts in your phone to create automatic expense reports.

5)     Put money aside every time you make a deposit. Dan Kennedy discusses setting a percentage of your income aside for both savings and charitable donations each time you get paid in his book, No B.S. Wealth Attraction in the New Economy.  There are multiple reasons for doing this. The obvious reasons are that you have money “for a rainy day” and you get into the habit of saving. But even more important are the psychological benefits you get from this habit. Read more about this and Dan Kennedy’s “90-Day Experiment” in chapter 14 of No B.S. Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneurs

6)     Track whether you are “on schedule.” Dan Kennedy suggests you track day by day whether or not you are on schedule to hit your income and wealth targets for the week, month, quarter and year. By assessing where you are frequently, you have an opportunity to correct when you fall behind. If you wait until July to see if you are on schedule to hit your financial goals, you may already be too late to correct your course to reach your financial goals.

7)     Plan for your retirement.  There is no retirement funded by someone else when you are a small business owner. That means you are entirely responsible for your retirement. On the flip side, setting up a retirement plan can also help you shelter your business profit. In the U.S. the two most common self-employment retirement plans are a Simplified Employee Pension plan (SEP) and Keogh plan.

In 2013, in either one, you can put in up to twenty-five percent of your net earnings or fifty-one thousand dollars (whichever is smaller) from your self-employment income. Like an IRA you can deduct this money off the top of your income, which gives you a big tax savings.

Compare that to an IRA with a cap of $5000 (or $6000 if you are 50 or older) and you can easily see the advantage of the SEP and Keogh plans.

Of course these are just a couple of options and I am not a financial advisor, so I’d advise you to

seek professional counsel to ensure you set up the best plan for you. The point is to set up a retirement plan and start saving immediately.

Integrating these tips will help you get your financial house in order making the financial end of your business more profitable and less stressful.

 

NOTE: Do You Want To Discover The 8 Steps To Growing Your Business By 25% to 75% in Just 48 Hours?

Then come to one of GKIC’s Fast Implementation Boot Camps where you’ll walk away with the blueprint in hand of what you need to do to grow your business and see results almost immediately!  This event is totally FREE to GKIC Insider’s Circle Members.  Simply go to www.dankennedy.com/bootcamp to reserve your spot now.

Not a member?  Take GKIC’s FREE Trial Membership by going to www.dankennedy.com/incrediblegift now and get access to thousands and money-making strategies, this FREE two day workshop and best of all…full access to the GKIC Insiders Circle area online.

Unhappy With Your Tax Return? Four Strategies To Boost Next Year’s Return

By: Dave Dee on: April 2nd, 2013 No Comments

Because of the April 15th U.S. tax deadline, this is the time of year business owners tend to focus more intensely on their finances.

So all this week, to help make sure you have more income to focus on come next April 15th, we’re going to talk about ways to boost your profits and improve your financial outlook.

Here are four strategies you can employ immediately:

Look for opportunity. A good businessman sees opportunities where others don’t. Train yourself to sniff out and be open to opportunities everywhere.  The founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, says, “One of the great myths of business is that opportunity knocks. Opportunity does not knock at your door, you have to bang on the door yourself and keep knocking until you get in.”

He suggests, as does Dan Kennedy, that you look for opportunity in obstacles. Surrounding yourself with successful people will help you to learn how to see, hear and sniff out opportunity.  (Two great places to surround yourself with people like this are at events such as SuperConference and at Chapter meetings. If you aren’t currently a member and would like to learn more about Chapter meetings, claim your $633.91 worth of pure moneymaking information and get access to try attending a chapter meeting here.)

Keep score. Motivational speaker and author, Earl Nightingale once said, “There are really three amounts of money every person should decide upon: the yearly income he wants, now or in the near future, the amount of money he wants to have in savings and investments, and the amount of money he wants as retirement income, whether he ever retires from active work or not.”

Dan Kennedy says, “Money is THE most effective means of keeping score.” Money goals are very important…they reflect both the value you have developed and the value that you have delivered. To truly create wealth, you need a system for developing wealth and keeping score.

Make a plan for not only earning money, but also a plan for saving and investing. Even when you are starting out and feel you have no money to save or invest, you must have a plan for this.  Having money in savings affects you physiologically. Similarly not having money affects you. Which is why money in savings can be especially crucial in the beginning.

Transcend ordinary thinking about money.  Dan Kennedy often says that the key to naming your price is being able to look someone in the eye and keep a straight face while quoting the fee.

There is truth to that, but what he really means is that you have to think about time and money differently. Instead of thinking about making a certain dollar amount per hour or marking up your price by a certain percentage, you must think about your price in terms of the value you deliver. When you think about value, you’ll find it easier to not only raise your fees, but get people to willingly pay them.

Build a strategic round table business team.  You need a team of entrepreneurs—a mastermind group—that you can regularly meet with and brainstorm on ways to grow your business.

One of the benefits of a mastermind is the pooling of resources. It is often difficult for an individual to obtain what he needs for his business himself. For example, brilliant ideas don’t make it past the drawing board because the individual who came up with it can’t raise enough capital or access a resource needed on their own. Or a business owner has strengths in creativity, but not in marketing.

Not only will you gain ideas when you have a strategic team, but when you are talking about a concept or idea and you lack a key resource to fulfill your idea, many times you’ll find a member of your group that will be able to connect you to what you need and expand your network.  (If you are looking for the right strategic business team, i.e. mastermind group, check out these options available to you here.)

Make this year more profitable than last. Develop a system and write down your goals for how much you’ll earn, save, and invest. The most successful and ambitious people attend events. So surround yourself with successful people by attending events regularly and be on the lookout for opportunity everywhere.  And start building your business team that will help you expand your network and connect you to the resources you need to grow your business…and your income.

NOTE: On Friday we intended to deliver a free training call entitled:

“How to Put the Power of the World’s #1 Search Engine for Buyers To Use In Your Business!”

Well, a call DID happen Friday… however, due to some major league hiccup on the part of our service company, what got broadcast was a RE-RUN of a previous conversation I did with Barbara Corcoran and Brian Tracy – great stuff absolutely, but it wasn’t the ACTUAL call I was doing with Ryan Deiss.

That call was so good … and the info so valuable …that we couldn’t just let it slide into history without you getting the full value.  Hence…we going to let you download this call here.

Click Here To Download The Call

To recap, on this call, Ryan reveals:

* The incredible NEW publishing platform that’s revolutionized the industry… finally putting power in the hands of “AUTHORS”… and has
become a Juggernaut in terms of generating profits AND targeted web traffic!

* A HUGE mistake businesses make when it comes to creating authority when self-publishing…and instead why the FAST-EASY-WAY is actually
the BEST way to transform your status from nobody to superstar!

* Why it’s NEVER been easier to create authority and notoriety for your business, and exactly how to blend what you publish with what you sell
to generate huge numbers of excited buyers to your website.

* And LOTS LOTS MORE besides!

 

 

Five Ways To Harness The Power Of This “Must Have” Marketing Tool…

By: Dave Dee on: March 21st, 2013 3 Comments

Newsletters are one of the most powerful tools you can use…

In fact, Dan Kennedy has said that 50% to 70% of his private clients have grown out of his newsletter base.

But there are many additional powerful uses for your newsletters too.

Today, I’m going to show you how to use your newsletter content to rank higher in Google, get free advertising and do something that Dan Kennedy preaches about and says every business owner needs.

The big idea is that your newsletters can be recycled and used to significantly multiply your impact and your income.

Let me show you five ways to do this.

Rank higher on Google. The more fresh content you have on your website, the higher you rank in Google. You can pull articles or even portions of articles from your newsletter and post them on your website. If you optimize your articles with keywords you can improve your search engine ranking even more. If you add content frequently enough, this will help improve your search engine rankings and help more people find your business when using search.

Increase your newsletter subscriptions. When including articles or portions of articles from your newsletter on your website, drive people to subscribe to your newsletter by letting them know they can get more information like the post they’ve just read by subscribing to your newsletter.

Get your industry to endorse you. Do you have an article that is particularly well suited for a trade organization in your industry? Submit a query to trade publications in your niche to see if they would be interested in publishing your article. When your articles are published in a trade publication, it’s like having your industry endorse you.

Get Free Advertising. If a trade publication, newspaper, or magazine can’t pay you for your article, let them know you normally get paid $500 to write articles, but if they would be willing to trade you double that in advertising space, you will give them the article for free.

Write a book. Recycle your articles into a book. Dan Kennedy says that if you want to position yourself as the expert in your field, industry, or niche, you must publish a book.

Publishing your own book will affect:

  • Who you attract: a book will make people perceive you as the expert, which means you’ll attract better, bigger and more prestigious clients.
  • How clients, customers or patients behave towards you: people treat experts with more respect.
  • How well you are compensated: experts get paid more.
  • How much influence you have:  the person positioned as the expert will have greater influence than the person who is running with the pack.

Of course, writing a book is daunting to a lot of people. This is to your advantage though since most people will never take the time to write one. Which means that when you do, you’ll be positioned out ahead of the pack in the lead position.

Use your newsletter to write your book, e-book or special report. Gather ten articles from your newsletter and you’ll have a nice report to use as a bait piece or could even create a Kindle book. Collect 40-50 articles from your newsletter and you will have enough for a book.

There are many other ways to recycle your newsletter content to multiply your impact. What are some of the ways you’ve used yours? Share your ideas in the comments below.

NOTE: SuperConference Savings ENDS TODAY!

Now that I’ve shown you how to use your newsletter to write a book, find out how to use your Kindle Book to generate thousands of leads for your business in just a few days, along with a stream of income that pays more than if you wrote a whole book! Ryan Deiss will show you how ANY business can do this at this year’s SuperConference.

Plus, last year one of our most popular session speakers was Adam Witty, Founder/CEO of Advantage Media Group. Adam will show you how to write a book in one day or less and then use it to grow your business and make a king’s ransom.

This is your LAST CHANCE to save up to $1700! Register now at DanKennedy.com/sc2013 …Or learn more by clicking here.

Are You Hunting In The Wrong Place?

By: Dan Kennedy on: March 12th, 2013 9 Comments

I’ve been in the advice dispensing business for 40 years.

Throughout my career I’ve been paid millions and millions of dollars by CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs, small business owners, even my peers, professional speakers, authors and consultants.

Whether the economy is good or bad, I remain fully booked and in demand.

On occasion I have run up against ‘professional norms and guidelines’ dictated by some association or certifying organization, and had my fees and the fees I recommend others charge criticized. Some say they are unethical, some say they are impossible to receive.

Nevertheless, I’m fully booked with demand left over.

And people I’ve guided routinely command premium prices in return for their products and services.

I’m not telling you this to brag.  My ego doesn’t need the boost.

I’m telling you this to let you know that these sort of opportunities exist and are there for the taking by people who may have never dreamed they could command such, “aggressive compensation.”

(I reveal how I’ve done this in detail in my course Super Powers of Price Elasticity which right now you can try for just a single dollar by clicking here!)

And at no time is it more critical than right now thanks to the rising costs of marketing and customer acquisition and the overabundance of marketing streams fighting for people’s attention.

Right now you may be asking yourself, “Given the habits of consumers seemingly flocking to pay the lowest price is it still possible to find consumers willing to pay top rates?”

It is, I assure you. In fact, I guarantee that hugely valuable customers exist for every business. It may just be you’re looking in the wrong place.

The truth is if you lack the kind of customers, clients or patients I’m talking about, you are most likely lacking specific customer focus and using ineffective approaches that are dangerous to your business’ long-term survival.

Amir Karkouti, owner of a successful group of restaurants in San Diego and an author, speaker and mentor to other restaurant owners wrote this letter…

“It wasn’t that long ago that my restaurants were going to fail and I was losing hope. I spent the last money I had to go to the SuperConference, and I went home determined to utilize everything I learned from you and all the other marketers.

I went straight to work. I got lists, created letters, improved my copywriting.

I realized that my business wasn’t failing—I was failing at marketing it. “

Amir says since that time his restaurants are booming. He’s been written up in publications, began speaking to and coaching other restaurant owners, and written a book on how restaurant owners can market their business to explode their profits. He developed a Marketing System that includes a turn-key, automated email marketing program, the “4X2 SECRET”- which brings customers back 4 times within 2 weeks and The Restaurant Sales Letter Template.

Amir used specific-customer focus—targeting the right customers—and combined that with effective marketing strategies to get him out of peril and onto a prosperous path.

Any business owner can attract higher value customers and clientele. Ask yourself, if you could double your net profit, without getting any more customers, wouldn’t you want to do it?

NOTE: Is your business positioned properly? At this year’s SuperConference during one of my two entirely new presentations, I’ll show you how to rate and judge your positioning strengths and weaknesses and help you determine whether consumers see you as a one-of-a-kind business that people can’t ignore or one that is swimming to keep up with the competition..

Find out how to correct your course and locate, target and attract those consumers which will be highly valuable to your business. Plus the five X-Factors found in exceptionally successful businesses that “own” much higher value customers or clientele than 90% of their competitors or peers.

You’ll also have a chance to win free advice from me and an all-expenses paid vacation in sunny Florida in our Marketer of the Year competition.

And if you have a great business or product idea that could use a surge of cash or “brain capital” to get it off the ground or take it to the next level, enter “THE TANK.” I along with Barbara Corcoran and the other GKIC Sharks are giving you a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to pitch us on giving you cash, investing in you, or providing “brain capital” for your business.

Don’t miss these opportunities and your last chance to save over $1000 on registration.

How To Get Rich, Especially If You Hate Selling

By: Dave Dee on: February 28th, 2013 4 Comments

“I hate selling.”

I’ve heard that hundreds of times from entrepreneurs. The problem is the success of your business depends on sales. You need to be good at pitching your products or services. If not, you’ll not only lose revenue, but you could lose your business.

There is a lot of advice out there about what to do if you don’t like selling…

Like “change your attitude about selling” or “get over it.”

That’s NOT what you’ll hear from me today.

Today I want to give you a different way to sell that makes it possible to make more in one hour than many professionals make in a whole year.

You won’t have to worry about being shy or feeling awkward because it doesn’t involve public speaking.

It doesn’t involve live coaching or consulting either.

In fact, of all selling methods this type of selling has the lowest amount of personal interaction with buyers. In many cases, you’ll have no interaction with buyers at all.

You won’t even have to face rejection.

What’s more, you can do it without even leaving your home. Plus you can leverage what you already know and use the things you are most passionate about to make it easier and more enjoyable.

The best part?

You can do work once and get paid forever.

Sound too good to be true? It’s not.

I’m talking about copywriting. Putting words on paper that encourage people to send you money.

Now obviously you’ve heard the term “copywriting” before. But here is something you may not know about it…

It’s the highest paid skill in the world. And it gives you tremendous leverage. Because once you get the right words on the paper, all you have to do is use the right media to deliver the message to the right person.  And then you simply “rinse and repeat.”

Let me tell you a story about a man named Gary. Gary was an encyclopedia salesman who wanted to get into information publishing. He was a very good salesman, but he hated the long days, and hated the rejection.

He made a lot of money, but he hated seeing people face to face. Hated it.

The reason Gary wanted to get into information publishing was so that he never had to do face-to-face selling and telephone prospecting again.

The idea of sending out a letter in the mail, and having money come back without ever seeing his customers or even talking to them on the phone appealed greatly to Gary.

Plus he could have a printer print up all his letters and the post office deliver them so that he would never have to do any “leg work.” Write the letter, have others send it out. Gary is, of his own admission, a somewhat lazy fellow, so you can see why the information business appealed to him.

So, Gary used what he had learned while he was selling encyclopedias to write a letter. He took all the elements of his sales presentation, and put it in print. So now, instead of giving a sales presentation one on one, he could deliver it to millions of people at the same time.

What was the bottom line? Simply this: Gary was soon able to mail so many letters, that he brought in over 20,000 checks per DAY!

What was Gary selling? It doesn’t matter! See, the magic was not in the product – it was in the letter!

People were sending Gary money because of the words contained in the letter. And, the neat part was, Gary only had to write the letter one time – once it worked all he had to do was mail it again and again.

That’s the power of good copywriting and a great way to sell.

In fact, whenever top marketers want to make more money, they just write, or hire someone else to write, a killer sales letter. Once they put it in the mail, the money starts to roll in.

Copywriting truly is the best way to go for the person who doesn’t like to sell. The truth is though that it takes a lot of work, study and trial and error to learn how to do it. However, if you don’t like to sell and don’t want to spend time mastering copywriting, then you do have another option.

You can hire a copywriter to write sales letters for you.

Even with paying a professional copywriter’s fees, it’ll be well worth it. You won’t have to sell your products or services yourself and if you hire a good copywriter, you only have to pay them to write the letter once, then you can use it to sell your products or services and collect checks from it forever (or at least a very long time.)

NOTE: If you’re interested in hiring a copywriter, be sure to read our FREE report, “The 7 Key Questions Every Copywriter You Hire MUST Be Able to Answer To Write Killer Direct Response Copy and Create Marketing Campaigns That Will Outsell The Pants Off Your Competition!”

This report reveals critical information average copywriters don’t want you to know. However, the good ones won’t mind a bit. Plus, you’ll be better off, and make more money. Beware though, you’ll probably have to pay more to get a good copywriter. Worth it though when you consider that bad copy wastes precious dollars and costs you sales.

So the question to ask yourself now is would you rather save a few minutes by not looking at this report? Or would you like to set yourself up to make millions?  Remember there is no charge for this.

Click here to get your FREE report!

If you’d like GKIC’s best selling copy-writing course for 33% off, click here now.

ONE MORE THING: Be on the look out TOMORROW…Dan Kennedy is releasing a Brand New FREE course on New Success Thinking. This is completely written by Dan and there is no cost, no obligation. BUT, the only way to get this is to let Dan know you want it by registering. So you don’t miss out, check your email tomorrow and look for the special registration link.

The Best Thing You Can Do To Improve The Lives Of Your Children…

By: Darcy Juarez on: January 17th, 2013 3 Comments

“One of the biggest gifts that you can give your daughter is to show her that you love what you do.”
—Maggie Wilderotter, Frontier CEO and one of the 21 female Fortune 500 CEOs

When Brittany Lynch was 15 or 16 years old, she remembered her dad getting a lot of “junk mail.”

Curious about it, she asked him, “Dad what is all this junk mail you keep getting from Dan Kennedy? And more importantly, why do you seem to be reading it every month?”

Her dad kind of laughed and said, “One of the best things you could do to improve your life and your future is to read this “junk mail” every day.”

So she started reading the GKIC newsletter and Dan Kennedy right then and there. Now, at the age of 23, Lynch owns and operates a million dollar a year information marketing business.

2013 marks the 20th anniversary of the “Take our daughters and sons to work” program.

The program was started as a way of creating “an enriching educational experience for our nation’s daughters and sons” and offering expanding opportunities that can transform the lives of girls and boys both nationally and internationally.

With the budget war and talk about how the debt will affect the well-being of future generations, today, in honor of the “Take our daughters and sons to work” anniversary, I want to talk about how you can positively influence your children’s future so that, no matter the state of the economy, they can be prosperous and escape the burden of worrying about money.

Speaker and author Tom Maxwell says,

“Transformation must happen in the life of a leader before it can happen in the life of a company or nation.”

In order to do this, he says you need to “create a growth environment.”

Growth thrives in favorable surroundings. It follows that if you make your environment conducive to learning about success, marketing and business, you can help transform the life of your child so they will be ready to lead their own company. Here are four ways you can create a growth environment:

Get them in the habit of reading.  In his blog post READ THIS If You Want More For Your Life, Dan Kennedy discusses books to transform your life and how a common exchange among the uber-successful is to discuss what they are reading. He says, “Earnest acquisition of electric knowledge is the “secret” of the successful. Not having time for it is a choice of the poor” (if you missed this article you can read it here.)

Brittany Lynch credits a lot of her success to reading what turned out NOT to be “junk mail” from Dan Kennedy.  Give your No B.S. Newsletters and No B.S. books to your kids to read and discuss them at dinner. You might even see what ideas your kids have for your business after reading them and reward them if they come up with an idea you use. (If you aren’t currently receiving the No B.S. Newsletters, you can sign up to receive them along with your free gift of $633.91 worth of money making information here.)

Can’t get them to read the material? Author John Maxwell says that when he was growing up his parents paid him to read books off a list instead of paying him to do chores.

Give them space to think. Dan says you should give yourself time to think. And you should give your kids time to think too. Between school, studying, social networking, sports, music and other activities, kids are tightly scheduled. Give your kids space and make sure they have free time to devote to doing kid things and an atmosphere that will inspire and promote kid creativity and self-discovery.

Make discussing business at the dinner table the norm. Much-discussed sister act of the corporate world, are Denise M. Morrison, CEO of Campbell Soup, and her sister, Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter. They are the first sisters to make Fortune‘s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. They are also only two of the family’s super-achievers as they have two other sisters who have also risen to the top in business, one as a regional vice president for a tech company and the other a former senior vice president of sales at AT & T. They credit their parents for their confidence and business savvy.

Wilderotter says it was normal for them to discuss business, set high standards and great goals at the dinner table. She never thought it was boring or out of the ordinary because that was all they knew.

They learned about profit-margin goals, marketing plans and customer sampling. They learned to work hard, be independent and not give up.

Have them write business plans for what they want. Wilderotter and Morrison talk about how they picked jobs out of a jar every Saturday.  In order for them to receive an allowance, they had to complete the tasks they drew out of the jar.  They could also barter to do a different job.  Wilderotter also says, “We did business plans on anything we wanted. Like getting our ears pierced.”  The sisters had to wear screw back earrings for a year to prove to their dad that it wasn’t a fad. In their plan they also showed that getting their ears pierced wasn’t a big alteration to their appearance and that they could save money by taking advantage of a two for one special to get their ears pierced and share earrings.

The sisters say the attention to detail, being thorough, and being innovative at a young age helped them with future business plans.

Help your kids unlock their greatness by creating an environment that helps them develop and grow into the most successful people they can be. When you do, you’ll help ensure their successful and profitable future, no matter what the leaders of today do to affect the economy.

NOTE:  One more way to create an environment conducive to growth?  “The challenge”, Wilderotter says, is for girls and young women to find the people and networks that will support their aspirations.”

Why not celebrate the 20th anniversary of the “Take our daughters and sons to work” program by bringing your daughters to a place where they can tap into a network of some of the most successful women (and men) on the planet?

Imagine how inspiring that would be and what an opportunity you would give her—an opportunity that could truly transform her life. Not to mention getting the chance to expose her to Dan Kennedy live for the first time.

Whether you are a father bringing your daughter or a mother bringing your daughter, this is a great opportunity to bond with her in a new way and give her tools to make her future better and brighter. Best of all you can register for FREE and bring a guest for a low fee. But you’ll have to hurry, the GKIC Women’s Next Level Business Summit, which takes place February 8-10th   only has 49 spots left. Click here for more information or to register now.

Are You The Next “Casey Stengel” Of Your Marketplace?

By: Dave Dee on: December 27th, 2012 1 Comment

He never intended on being a coach.

In fact, his long-term goal was to be a dentist.

Athletically inclined, he played a number of sports including football, basketball and baseball, continuing on in the minor league in 1910-1911 where he saved enough money to go to dentistry school.

However, after having problems finding left-handed dentistry tools, he continued in baseball and was brought up to the Dodgers late in the 1912 season. It was then that baseball became his primary profession.

In 1914, after getting in touch with his former coach, Bill Diver, who was at the time the head coach of football and basketball teams at the University of Mississippi, he got his first coaching experience, coaching the baseball team at Ole Miss to a winning season.

While he was a good baseball player, he was by no means a superstar. But as a coach, he shined.

His name, Casey Stengel. Among his achievements as a coach, he was the only person to manage a team to five consecutive World Series championships.

He was nicknamed the “The Old Professor” or  “Perfessor” because he could talk at great length about anything baseball related. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.

Imagine if Stengel would have stuck to dentistry? Or if he’d never gone beyond playing baseball.  He would not have been remembered or in the hall of fame. Not to mention all the lives he impacted as a coach.

Like Stengel, you may find not only a lucrative income stream, but coaching is where you truly shine. And there’s nothing like the feeling you get when you help someone achieve success.

Aside from the great feeling you get from coaching or consulting, here are seven more reasons you should consider adding it to your business next year:

  • It can be very lucrative. Whether you have a big herd, a small herd or no herd, coaching and consulting is very lucrative which means you only need a few clients to earn big money.  I actually talk about exactly how to do this in my courses Coaching and Consulting Bootcamp and Advanced Coaching and Consulting
  • It can help you create info-products to sell. Coaching and consulting allows you the opportunity to find out the biggest challenges your coaching clients are having which gives you unique insight to what type of products you should create and sell.
  • It positions you as an expert. Coaches and consultants are viewed as authorities in their field. Being seen as an authority and expert gives you credibility which can boost sales of your products and services because people want to buy from experts.
  • It can help you position yourself as a celebrity. You can use your expert status to position yourself as a celebrity.
  • Leap to big money fast. Not only does coaching and consulting give you a back-end product that you can charge thousands of dollars for, but as an expert and/or celebrity, you can charge more for your products and services.
  • Your marketing becomes better.  Because you have special insight into the fears, challenges, and desires of your coaching and consulting clients, you’ll have a better handle on what your other customers, clients or patients are worrying about, wanting  or dealing with. You can then  infuse this information into your marketing.
  • Coaches and consultants are in high demand.  More and more people want to be led by the hand. They want someone to show them how to do things. As a result you can charge big money to help them find the answers.

If you’re looking to really boost your income in 2013, consider adding coaching or consulting to your business. It’s a great way to earn more with less stress. Plus, you can add $100,000 to $1,000,000 a year as a coach or consultant, even if you’re a newbie.

NOTE: If you’re thinking about adding coaching or consulting to your business or if you aren’t currently earning what you think you should from your business, you won’t want to miss getting Dan Kennedy’s coaching and consulting blueprints at his completely updated A-Z Info-Biz Blueprints Re-Boot.

As an example, a year and a half or so ago, Dan co-created a brand new coaching/portal to done-for-them business in the financial services industry (using a By-Pass The Ascension Pyramid/Speed Blueprint) and created over $2-million in revenue nearly overnight. Learn more about how you can get ahold of this blueprint and other info-product blueprints for your business. Click Here To Learn More

Four Strategies To Bring You Six (And Maybe Even Seven) Figures In 2013

By: Dave Dee on: December 24th, 2012 5 Comments

What are your goals for 2013?

I’m betting one of them is to make more money.

Grant it, I’m not going out on a limb here as I don’t think I’ve ever met an entrepreneur whose goal was to make less money than they did the year before.

Of course, this year getting customers, selling at decent profits and holding onto income will present new challenges.

Tax increases, regulatory fees and full-time jobs being converted to part-time jobs threaten to dampen or eliminate untold amounts of consumer spending.

This means new strategies, more appealing offers, and targeted compelling copy will be crucial to reach your monetary goals.

Today I’m going to give you four strategies that can add an extra $100,000 or more (I’ve seen businesses add $1 million or more using these.)

Add speaking to your business plan: Last Thursday, Dan wrote about the importance of gaining knowledge. No matter what your business, you know about something that others don’t. You can easily earn $5,000 to $10,000 or more per speech for a sixty to ninety minute talk. Plus you can often sell your product, add people to your herd and more.

Become a coach or consultant: One of the most lucrative streams of income is in coaching and consulting. In fact, many businesses end up making more money from coaching and consultant than they do from their initial business. You can add from $100,000 to $1 million per year as a coach or consultant.

Create an info-product to sell. Developing a profitable information marketing product to sell such as a newsletter, e-book, videos, book, etc. can transform an existing business into a six or seven figure business. Not only that, information products can be sold 24/7, meaning you’re not trading hours for dollars.

Make money with affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a $7 billion dollar industry. There are two ways you can make money with affiliate marketing. You can build your own affiliate army to promote your products, services and launches. Or you don’t even need your own product or service to sell. You can add zeros to your bottom line by simply promoting other people’s products or services for them.

Each day this week we’ll drill down on each of these strategies and share the benefits of adding one or more of these to your business  and how each one can bring you an extra $100,000 to $1 million next year.

NOTE: If you are considering adding one of these strategies or if you already are using one or more of them, but aren’t getting the results you want, I have good news for you. No-one has guided more people to million dollar businesses in info-marketing than Dan Kennedy. So in April of 2013, you have the opportunity to get Dan’s most complete and detailed training on all aspects of Info-marketing that Dan has ever given in The A-Z Info-Biz Blueprint Re-boot.