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E-entrepreneurship is a buzzword today because it not only brings in money, but also gives people the satisfaction of working for and with what they like.  However, for every ten e-enterprises that come up, about four would close down within six months, and another three within one year. Out of the ten, only about three would become success stories. Why the statistics are so depressing?

The secret to success – re-inventing the wheel

There are two reasons why e-enterprises fail: (1) high cost of advertising, (2) wrong mode of advertising. You would be able to avoid these pitfalls if you use the new way of marketing that has created waves with it high percentage of success: bum marketing. This is a mode of marketing, which requires your least intervention. As a matter of fact, it would literally drive itself; and the tools with which you manage this ‘bum marketing’ campaign are all free. Check it out:

Bum marketing is a mode of promoting websites through article writing. Basically, you write something very interesting and useful and give it out for free, provided whoever uses it maintains your author box and link to your website. In this way, wherever your article goes, it would lead the readers to your website. If you manage something really informative and useful, you would be amazed with the results.

The best part of it is that you can get all that you need to write these articles with high concentration of the right keywords, use the proper forums to post them and  promote them aggressively absolutely free:

1. Free optimization – you can get the best suited keywords for your website with the help of Google Adwords, which is a free tool to research keywords for your website. You would get more than 200 keywords and phrases that would match your website. Other tools that would help you choose the right keywords are, WordTracker and Keyword Discovery.

1. Free posting – once you have the right keywords, use these to write something not only interesting, but also useful to readers. Then have these articles posted in forums where they attract a high traffic, such as Article City, EzineArticles and GoArticles.

1. Free sales force – set up affiliate programs, which would sell your products for free. You would have to pay them a commission for every sale; there is no upfront pay or requirement for salary.

All these tools in the right hands can work wonders, since they are not only free, but also can give some most amazing results.

If you ever experienced a computer virus, you might not be too happy about anything that bears this name. However, contrary to the overall negative picture of ‘virus’ whether on humans or computers, the viral marketing is a good thing.  The definition of viral marketing says that this is a type of marketing that spreads just like a virus; in other words, this is marketing that can be and is spread by word of mouth, or rather by the click of the computer mouth. 

How viral marketing works?

Just as the virus spreads through conducive hosts in humans, the viral marketing spreads through conducive channels, which in this case, are people who find the subject (of the message sent via email) interesting enough to act on it, and most important of all forward it to their close friends and relatives. These people in turn, would not only read it with interest, but also forward it continuing the chain, and spreading the word.

Is viral marketing successful?

Let us look at the facts. What does it cost you to send an email to all the friends and relatives you know would be interested in reading/ learning about a certain thing you found interesting? Nothing. Once you set the ball rolling, the message would then move on and multiply with every forward. By the most conservative count, if you get only 1 percent of this whole group of people to buy your product or service, you would have more business than you could handle. You are getting traffic and sales, for nothing. This is what viral marketing is all about: great promotion for no cost and minimum effort.

How many types of viral marketing are there?

There are many types of viral marketing. You could choose one, more or all to market your website and product:

1.      E-books – write a capsule e-book packed with interesting information, which is connected to your service or product. Forward it to those who you think would find the information useful. The rest would take care of itself.

2.      E-mails – this is the most common way used for this type of marketing.  Here, you could use a link to your special ezine or newsletter. This is even better because this could provide you the scope of building an exceptional opt-in list.

3.      Affiliate programs – this is not as easy as the other two, but just as efficient. In this case, you share your wealth with others in return for promotion. They promote your products, and you pay them a commission for every sale.

Have you heard yet of ‘bum marketing’? The name is a little funny, but it exactly describes what it stands for: this is a marketing style that suits people who do not like or prefer to work hard. The word ‘bum’ is not an acronym; it symbolizes the laziest of all people, the bum. Therefore, bum marketing is that type of marketing that not only anyone can do, but also something that is so easy it almost takes care of itself. There is one more advantage attached to this style of marketing: it is free. Can anything be better than this?

No wonder the bum marketing has become one of the most popular ways to market a product or service. Here is why you should consider this for your business:

1.      It is free – usually, money is the greatest problem when it comes to marketing since anything you touch costs money. Normally, you need to invest quite a lot in advertising your product before you enjoy a good traffic rate. However, with bum marketing all you have to do is write some articles (which could be as short as 250 words or as long as 500 words) and post them, once again for free, on various free article directories.  It is as simple as that. Your articles would need to have a link to your website and allow others to replicate it, as long as they carry the author box with your link.

2.      It is easy – it is not called “bum marketing” for nothing. There is absolutely no hard work involved in this method. How much time does it take you to write an article on your product or service? Even if you have only the most basic know-how, it should not take you more than 30 minutes. Consider you write one article every day, you have 30 articles per month. This means you have 30 live connections out there which could be replicated anywhere on the Net, with the help of which you would promote your product.

3.      It is simple – Internet marketing is often feared because it requires so much technical expertise. With bum marketing you do not require to be an expert in anything. As long as you know to use the Net, it is sufficient. There are three things involved here: (1) writing your article, which is simple (and if you want, could be outsourced), (2) posting it in article directories, which is as easy as using your browser, and (3) making a landing page, which can be done through bloging. You could learn all the three steps in about two hours time, irrespective of your computer/ Internet knowledge.

If you are new or old to the Net, bum marketing is a great way to market your products or services on the Internet. This is an excellent tool for any e-entrepreneur, because it is designed to optimize results while it demands the least of effort.  There is one thing you always need to keep in mind while using this method to promote your website and boost your sales: technology has made it possible today to earn without sweating it out. This is also known as smart working vis-à-vis hard working of the past. Bum marketing is allowing the technology to do the hard work, while you reap the benefits. Do you find it interesting? Check it out, today.

Small business owners recognize that take home cash is critical for long-term success. And one of the surest ways to take home as much cash as possible is to maximize tax deductions at IRS filing time.

Deductions abound, but the options vary depending on the type of business. For example, a home-based operation qualifies for certain deductions that are not available for an individual overall.

Everyone is aware of the basic deductibles such as office supplies and legal fees. However, many are unaware that educational expenses, business entertainment and even certain travel costs are deductible as well.

In addition, when an at-home operation is involved, you can deduct that portion of your home related to the business operations by calculating a square foot percentage devoted to the business space then appropriating proportioned costs for everything from heat and lights to taxes.

If you have not documented expenses for this past year, then you should begin to position things now so that you will be able to keep more of your money next year.  I suggest a book or folder that you can log into every day.

There are lots of great reasons to become an entrepreneur. Perhaps you’ve hit on a particularly sublime reason: You want your enterprise to make a difference in the world. As long as you’re piloting your own ship, you figure, you should make it count for some higher purpose – as well as the bottom line.

Fortunately for all of us, social entrepreneurship is alive and well. The ranks of entrepreneurial do-gooders are growing every day.

“It’s much easier to market if people feel like they’re bettering the world in some small way by giving you business,” says Shel Horowitz, a marketing consultant in Hadley, Mass., and founder of an ethics-networking effort.

Here’s how you can go about creating a better life for everyone else as your company makes a better living for you:       

·         Figure out what you mean.

·         Have confidence that you can do it.

·         Follow your values to unoccupied niches.

·         Build it on values, and people will come.

·         Prosper first, and then start to give back.

·         Don’t worry about generating hostility.

·         Get a helping hand.

Figure out what you mean

“Values” run the gamut from right to left politically, from spiritual to secular, from practical to ethereal. And the ethical framework – or specific cause – that you adopt reflects your values.

If you’re going to incorporate your values and causes into your startup, first you’ve got to figure out how they will look in the guise of a company. And will these values drive your company, or simply flow from it?

Aliza Sherman Risdahl set up her media and marketing company, Moonbow Productions, to carry her concerns about environmental, women’s and Native American causes.

“We believe that people who share our interests in the world around us will be drawn to our goods and services,” says Risdahl.

The values orientation of Saelig, Alan Lowne’s company in Pittsford, N.Y., is overtly Christian. “Relying on Christian principles and ethics and committing our actions to God in prayer is most definitely the key to what we are today,” says Lowne, whose company imports foreign-sourced electronics components. He strives to lead with his faith in dealings with customers, suppliers and employees.

Have confidence that you can do it

Most entrepreneurs simply assume that it will be difficult to meld the profit-making purpose of their company with their call to social entrepreneurship. Usually, they’re selling themselves and their dreams short.

“If you’re starting a social cause and not thinking it could be a for-profit business, you’re making a big mistake,” says Alex Paul Pentland, a professor in the MIT Sloan School of Management and judge in its annual $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. “You’re selling yourself short. But you need to take into account the cash flow that you will need to make this company sustainable and make it scalable. Otherwise it will be a tin-cup enterprise.”

Follow your values to unoccupied niches

One good path to success as a social entrepreneur is to follow your values to market opportunities that you know, from personal experience, are unoccupied.

Bob MacLeod and Steve Byckiewicz were vegans who could easily find food to fit their philosophy – but not personal-care products. So they came up with their own stuff, starting with olive-oil soap; gave their company the intriguing name Kiss My Face; and watched consumers flock to the brand. Now, a quarter-century later, the Gardiner, N.Y., company creates more than 150 natural and organic bath, skin-care and home products and sells them in 19 countries.

Hoping for similar success, Kathy Gallagher deMeij recently established CountMyBlessings.com, a company that raises funds for hospitals from proceeds of sales of books, bedding and other unique baby goods on her site. “There are four million babies born each year, but we’re the first ones to tap into that to help hospitals,” says deMeij, a former publishing executive and consultant.

Build it on values, and people will come

Basically, you can do social entrepreneurship in two ways: Put your values first and make the business fit them, or get a successful company going and then layer on your do-goodism.

Brian Johnson has started Zaadz.com, a social-networking site based in Topanga, Calif., whose sole purpose is social change. “I’m going to serve and give you something you’re willing to pay for, too,” says Johnson, who previously succeeded in business with Eteamz.com, the world’s largest amateur-sports website. “But it starts from, ‘How am I going to serve?’, rather than ‘How am I going to make money?’”

Prosper first, and then start to give back

Some social entrepreneurs vouch for the other approach: Make sure your company is successful first, and then you will be capable of giving back to society in the ways – and to the extent – that you want.

Heidi Vance began selling beaded jewelry out of second-floor space in downtown Forest Park, Ill., six years ago with Jayne Ertel, as Team Blonde Jewelry. They flourished. Then they began to wonder whether their retailing enterprise could help women in the Third World. So Vance and Ertel began importing necklaces made by Maasal tribeswomen of drought-stricken Kenya and Tanzania, and soaps and bath salts from a non-profit company that employs American women who formerly were homeless or on welfare.

“We thought if it was important to us, it might be important to others, too,” says Vance. “The response has been great!”

Don’t worry about generating hostility

The more your company focuses on your values, the more potential your business has to turn off as many customers as it turns on. But that doesn’t mean you should do anything different.

“Even some active opposition will be outweighed by the strong buzz from people who do support your agenda,” Horowitz says. “The comfortable middle never makes waves, but you have to work much harder to get results. Don’t worry about alienating people who aren’t your audience – work harder to attract those to are.”

Get a helping hand

More financial incentives are cropping up that encourage social entrepreneurship. Investing in social entrepreneurs is one of the primary missions of the Skoll Foundation, created by eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll. And expanding its annual entrepreneurship competition, MIT has just added a series of prizes worth $50,000 just for “developmental entrepreneurs,” who target emerging, Third World and low-income markets.

Our Bottom Line

By following the path of social entrepreneurship, you can combine the excitement of starting a business with the satisfaction of making the world a better place. Plenty of startups have blazed the trail for you, but you and your company can find a unique path for doing good and well.

The phone’s ringing off the hook, employees are working overtime to handle the overload, and your website is buzzing with activity. These are all “good” problems we wish for, but are you ready if they become a reality? Today’s business happens at warp speed, and efficiency is a key hallmark of success. One way to gain efficiency is to focus your energy on the things that are of core value to your business. Keep those activities in-house, and put your non-core functions on the hot seat – even small business outsourcing is a reality in today’s business environment.

To make outsourcing work for your business, try the following:

Analyze your expertise

Take a look at the value you offer your customers and where you focus your efforts. Are you spending too much time on areas that are outside of your expertise? Many times, it is more cost-effective to have someone outside of the company take care of these non-core activities. Research various service providers and ask for referrals so you can start outsourcing functions such as logistics, accounting, IT services, payroll, public relations, and more.

“A small business owner should evaluate outsourcing just as any other business decision,” states Walter Turek, senior vice president, sales and marketing for Paychex, a national provider of payroll, human resource and benefits outsourcing solutions. “Criteria should include:expertise in performing the function, confidence in the service provider, return on time invested, risk versus reward, and peace of mind consideration.”

See also

Outsourced but not out of mind

Once you find an outsourcing vendor, be sure to keep your eye on the ball! Since you can’t just walk down the hall to oversee the quality and timeliness of outsourced work, continue to tightly manage whatever functions you outsource. Arrange for regular reporting to ensure accountability and effectiveness.

Move “fixed costs” to “variable costs”

Some functions in your business require only part-time work. An example might be bookkeeping. If your needs add up to only four days a week in bookkeeping work, then consider outsourcing. That will allow you to move the burden of “fixed” costs (in this case, a full-time salary) to the “variable” side (an outsourced vendor). In essence, you pay for the outsourced functions only when you need them.

Jump on opportunities from downsizers

Be aware that the rigors of this economy are forcing big business to shed non-core functions. After all, corporations must find ways to maximize profitability, which they do in part by reducing their expenses. Just as in small businesses, outsourcing allows big companies to move fixed costs to the variable column. Like you, they pay for the outsourced functions only when they need them. From a business development perspective, this may represent a trove of opportunity for you. You can develop an entire business model centered on providing services that used to be in-house at large companies.

Our Bottom Line

The primary message here is that outsourcing is here to stay and it should be something you entertain for your business. Concentrate on the key aspects of your small business, where customers find value, and outsource other business functions to outside experts. If you monitor vendors carefully and focus on efficiency, you’ll be positioned for rapid growth and success.

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Hey, with the national political process well underway, wouldn’t it be cool if you had grown up with the President-to-be and he owed you a big favor? WRONG! (Sorry, trick question.) As tempting as that may sound, this kind of thinking will actually lead you to real failure in life on so many dimensions.

Nothing grosses me out more than someone who thinks in terms of “favor banks,” where one person owes another and vice versa. People can tell when you’re tallying up a total, and who likes that? The healthy alternative, of course, is someone who recognizes that success is gained through giving without keeping score.

In fact, keeping score may lead to failure. Hollywood talent agent Michael Ovitz spent his career keeping score and lording over those with less power, less money, and less cachet. When his career started to fail, an entire industry lined up gleefully with baseball bats and brass knuckles to help him fall faster and harder just for giggles.

I’ll bet you’re saying, “Sure, but that’s just not me.” Okay, but let’s look a little deeper together. You may not be an Ovitz, but, come on, you keep score, too. Ever wonder at one of those lunches where the bill was split evenly, “did I get my fair share?” What’s your rule on inviting someone back to dinner again if they don’t invite you next? Ever put an offer out to someone actually hoping for something specific to be offered in return that you’ve been wanting? Nah? Never? Not at all? Nothing like this? B.S.!

Now here’s the lesson: Get ready to let it go! Relationships are relationships. What I mean is, developing business relationships is just like developing friendships and even romantic interests. You don’t keep score with your significant other, do you? If you do, my couples therapist in New York, Joe Lay, is awesome! But seriously, in those relationships, you give and the relationship grows. And, yes, you get back. But the first and most important thing you get back is the satisfaction of having given.

So, the bottom line here is “give.” And I mean give on a huge scale. Make it a lifestyle, and you’ll succeed, along with your friends and associates. Giving builds real relationships. Expecting and delivering payment, well, just doesn’t.

If all this needs a little reinforcing, let’s talk about what’s in it for you. Sounds contradictory? Just wait. First and foremost, the answer is that you get the reward of having done something good for someone. Period! Then, almost as good, you also get to let go of the neurosis of score-keeping. You know what I’m talking about. That deep belly angst when, for instance, the bill comes at lunch, the fretting over your having subsidized the other’s gluttony– Now: close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine not keeping score at all. Just let it go. Really imagine it. Imagine adopting this more and more. Think about how you might feel in your relationships, your job and your friendships without keeping score. Begin to feel that warmer, calmer, more sane feeling flowing through you? It’s just easier not keeping score. I promise!

Your new attitude will show itself immediately and begin to affect every encounter you have. It’s a true gift to yourself. A friend of mine from Harvard Business School, Stever Robbins, was in the audience of one of my talks on this subject recently. The next day, he went to a conference and thought he’d try an experiment: He decided that for the next few hours, he would just stop keeping score — like, cold turkey. He decided to walk around and give with a vengeance: advice, introductions, compliments, appreciation, free copies of his new book manuscript, a quarter for the public phone, whatever he thought of was given with reckless abandon. A week later, he called me. He was blown away. He walked out of that conference courting three partnerships and enough business to keep him busy for months.

Now, of course, “Don’t Keep Score” doesn’t mean you should let yourself be taken advantage of. Here is a general rule of thumb to guide you: Just do those things that make you feel good - truly good inside. This is an internal, more spiritual test, and it’s worth listening to, instead of that externally driven calculation.

Sold yet? No need to believe me now. Just try it for a while and then decide. What do you have to lose? Afraid you’ll run out of things to give? C’mon, that’s just silly. Why would you think your well is so shallow? Spend a week — or just a day — giving without expectation. Enjoy the good feeling. What’s neat is that the world is likely to constantly conspire to make life even better for you. Now that’s my kind of networking.

I hear salespeople say that speaking to a particular prospect was like “hitting a brick wall.” The prospect’s guard was up in full force. The prospect seemed to get bored or, worse yet, to actually become defensive or offensive, as the case may be, every time the salesperson mentioned a product benefit or feature. It pains me to hear this, as I’ve known exactly what it feels like to be in such a position.

Whenever I’ve encountered such a fortress or offensive, my instinct has been to conceive an equally abrasive battle plan or retort the likes of which this very difficult and disturbed character has never seen! No. No. No! Of course that isn’t the way to go. We shouldn’t be attacking anyone whom we want to call a customer, anytime.

Next time you hit a brick wall, don’t attack head-on. Don’t ever try that. I promise it is painful. Instead, look for the loose brick. The loose brick is always the one thing which the client needs most. The loose brick is the absolute top priority to the client, at that given time (Be prepared. It will change — frequently). In the same way they say it is one step that begins the journey of a thousand miles, it’s by starting to chip away at that one loose brick that will lead to taking down a prospect’s entire wall of defense.

Finding the loose brick requires really active listening and calm questioning, not interrogating. And remember, if you want your prospect to get down to the truth, you may need to expose a little of yourself first to establish a deeper trust. And if you take such an approach to your next difficult conversation, you’ll successfully achieve two things.

1. Discover the real problem.
   If you’re actively looking for the loose brick, you just might find out what’s really a thorn in your client’s side. And it’s usually not what you’d expect.

   You’ve got to find what their internal problems are, and they sometimes (read: usually) aren’t what’s on the surface of their business. In fact, they are rarely related to the products or services you are selling.

   Sometimes it’s listening to their fears or frustrations about their current job or boss and offering an understanding ear. It could be just asking what their personal aspirations are relative to this project and assuring them that they will be met.

   I, for one, spend a lot of time helping my CMO clients improve their working relationships with their CEOs and CFOs. They’re concerned with positioning themselves appropriately to gain respect from those executives. Of course, my take on marketing and sales doesn’t hurt. It’s music to the ear of CEOs to hear their CMOs begin talking about creating marketing strategies that shift spending from broadcast advertising to client relationship-building and sales.

2. Avoid death by complex sale.
   Complex sales are just that — complex, and we often just don’t have the time to execute them. Some people go into a sales call with a very well laid out plan of what they want to sell. You know what happens then? The buyer very often is inclined to figure out what about the proposal isn’t right or needs to change.

   You’ll be much better served by going into a sales call with a path in mind than without one, sure. But you must also have the willingness to listen and react and find a way to place your value proposition in the context of their immediate (right-this-very-minute!) needs. Once you begin to listen, sales will no longer be a time to sell but to let your prospect tell you what she wants and you configuring your product or service around those needs.

Remember, if you get resistance, stop even thinking about selling. Think about listening and understanding what the person (not the “client” or “customer” at that point) really needs. Your first goal shouldn’t be to sell anyway. You need a foot in the door. You need to build a trusting relationship. You need to get a chance to prove that relationship. So first look for the loose brick. You can always upsell later.