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A Home-Based Business Online November 26 Editor: Elena Fawkner Publisher: AHBBO Publishing small business ideas Contact By Email IN THIS ISSUE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 8. 10. 1. Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers who have joined us since the last issue! This week's article looks at smoothing out the peaks and troughs we all experience in our businesses at various times of the year. If you're not one of the fortunates enjoying pre-holiday sales surges, take heart. There are ways you can anticipate slow times and take steps to compensate for them. Instead of Tips for Newbies in segment 4, this week I'm taking the opportunity to look at a new program that I'm sure you've come across by now: Going Platinum. I believe this program has enormous potential but it does involve a somewhat elusive concept and there is a lot of confusion and misinformation about it as a result. Hopefully, this week's program review will clarify things a bit. Thanks to those of you who took the time to let me know that you found the navigation bar at the new AHBBO site (AHBBO) site difficult to read. I've changed it on most pages now and hope this fixes the problem. If anyone continues to have problems with it please let me know! Finally, please note that the AHBBO ezine will be on sabbatical from December 17 through 31. The last issue of AHBBO for 2017 will be December 10. The first for 2001 will be January 7. As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this week's issue. Remember, this ezine is for YOU! If you have comments or suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed, or would just like to share your experiences with other subscribers, I want to hear from you! Please send comments, questions and stories to Contact By Email . 2. You can make a lot of money by writing and self-publishing your own material, if you are willing to write the books, manuals, reports or newsletters that millions of people across the United States, and throughout the world for that matter, desperately want to buy. Today, more than ever before, is the age of information. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, there continues to be an incredible demand for information throughout America and the world. There is an astronomical demand for information-packed books, manuals, reports and newsletters of almost every imaginable kind. For the rest of this report, visit . ------ There are many more ideas like this at the AHBBO Home Business Ideas page at free business ideas with more being added all the time. 3. © 2017 Elena Fawkner You may have read in your local newspaper yesterday of Amazon.com's stock rise of 15% on the back of strong holiday season spending. Etoys' 49% rise and Buy.com's 25% increase followed suit. Overall, the Nasdaq (the tech-stock index) jumped 5.4%. Good news for the likes of Amazon.com, right? But is it really? What happens AFTER Christmas? Here we go *again*. Investors are jumping back on the bandwagon on the strength of a holiday buying frenzy. Up goes the stock and everybody jumps on board. After Christmas, back down it will go, investors will wring their hands and bail out, the stock will nosedive and everybody will start moaning about the great internet shake-out of 2017. Again. The holiday boom is nothing new, of course, and it certainly isn't restricted to online businesses. And there's nothing wrong with a holiday-spending induced surge in business. Provided business is respectable during the remainder of the year as well. After all, if business is ONLY good at holiday time, how is that business going to survive for the rest of the year? How about you? How is your business faring now that Christmas looms? If you're a retailer, this may be a good time of year for you. If you're not, then, like me, you're probably finding things pretty slow right now as people go into underdrive as the year winds to a close. No matter what your business, there will usually be certain times of year that are better than others. The challenge is to be sufficiently successful during the good times to be able to weather the slow times. Better still is to be able to anticipate your slow times and compensate for them, in effect, smoothing out the seasonal highs and lows. In this article, we look at ways to do that. => Learn From Ants, Not Squirrels Those of you familiar with Jim Rohn will also be familiar with his ants philosophy. Ants never rest. They are constantly working. They don't rest over summer. Why? Because they know winter is coming. So they work all summer long to build their nests so they have shelter in the winter. They do something in winter too because they know summer is coming. I can't remember now what it is but it's really big. You may be thinking of squirrels as another example. Storing nuts for the winter and all that. But that's only half the story. You, unlike a squirrel, don't get to rest during the winter just because you've gathered nuts during the summer. Even if you've gathered enough nuts to last through winter, where are next year's nuts going to come from if you no longer have a business by the time fall comes around again? So, don't think like a squirrel, think like an ant. In the summer, think winter. In the winter, think summer. => Think Bottom Line Don't just focus on your sales. Focus on your bottom line. If your costs are $10,000 and your sales are $20,000, your profit is $10,000. Similarly, if your costs are $5,000 and your sales are $15,000, your profit is still $10,000. So, during times when you know sales are going to be low, look for ways to reduce costs. Now, some costs are fixed and there's just nothing you can do about it. Rent, webhosting fees, ISP fees and the like are examples of fixed costs. Costs like payroll, however, can be variable. So think in terms of reducing your variable costs. In the case of payroll costs, flexible staffing arrangements may be the answer. Rather than hiring another employee because you're run off your feet at certain times of the year only to find you have trouble occupying that employee during other times of the year, hire temporary staff to help you out during busy times. You don't have to buy a cow to get milk. Just buy the milk. => Know When Winter Comes You can't plan for winter if you don't know when it's coming. So analyze your sales history and identify, as best you can, where your peaks and troughs (summers and winters) are. Only then can you anticipate your slow periods and be ready for them. => Promotions Seasonal promotions can be a good way to temporarily increase sales during a slow period. Let's say your regular price for widgets is $10 and during your "non-slump" time you sell, on average, five a day for a total of 35 a week or $350. Your costs are $200, leaving a profit of $150. Let's also say that during your slow times, you sell an average of only three a day for a total of 21 a week, or $210. Your costs are still $200 (we'll assume sales all come from existing inventory), leaving a profit of only $10. So you're in the hole $140 compared to non-slump time. If, during your slow period, however, you were to run a promotion (or "sale" if you prefer that term), you can make up some of your lost profit. Let's say you decide to sell your widgets for 10% off for the month of July, traditionally your quietest month of the year. So, you drop your price to $9 per widget. As a result, you find that you're now selling five a day again for a total of 35 a week, or $315. Your costs are still $200, which leaves a profit of $115. Much better than $10. Now, this is obviously an over-simplistic example. In the real world, all of your costs would not be fixed and, as a result, lower sales would translate to lower costs. You'd vary your stock purchases for a start or, if you manufacture your own product, you'd just produce less, thereby resulting in lower expenditure. But hopefully this example illustrates well enough the principle of promotions as a tool for increasing profits during slow periods. => Back-End Sales Slow times are also a good opportunity to go back to customers who have bought from you in the past and directly solicit business from them. This is particularly effective if you run an online business. Just pull out that mailing list of previous purchasers and introduce them to another item in your product line that may appeal to them. Once someone has purchased from you once, they are MUCH more likely to do so again in the future. The increased sales you generate in the form of back-end sales can help you ride out a slump. => Introductory Specials Slow times can also be a good time to introduce a new product or service. Think of it as a way of testing the waters before the big push for sales during your peak sales period. Again, previous customers are a good source of prospects for purchasing new products. Simply publicize an introductory special for valued customers. Giving people the opportunity to be among the first to acquire something not yet generally available can be a powerful sales generator. It appeals to people's desire to feel special or exceptional in some way. So think about taking advantage of this human tendency to help increase sales during your winter times. => Increased marketing Simply increasing your marketing efforts may help smooth out a trough but be judicious. There's no point generating additional sales if the marketing cost of generating those additional sales exceeds the profit generated! Look instead for low-cost or no-cost marketing initiatives you can take to increase awareness of your products and services. => Strategic Alliances Another idea, especially if you run your business online, is to forge strategic alliances with businesses whose busy times are your slow times and vice versa. This is a win-win situation for both of you as you each have the benefit of each other's relatively higher traffic during your respective busy times which can help offset your respective slow times. => Constructive Use of Down Time Finally, don't discount the value of slow periods as an opportunity for business and product development. Investments of time in these developmental activities can make a substantial impact on the long-term viablity of your business. These are activities that can be hard to find time for when you're busy so learn to embrace slow periods as an opportunity to invest in the future growth of your business. It's easy to get discouraged when you're working as hard as ever but the sales just aren't coming in. It helps to know that virtually every business (with the possible exception of funeral homes I guess) has slow periods. By thinking like an ant and focusing on winter in summer, you can go a long way towards turning a long cold winter into spring. ------ use the autoresponder copy which contains a resource box; and (2) you leave the resource box intact. To receive a copy of this article by autoresponder, just send a blank email to 4. WHAT IS IT? The Going Platinum "Community" (to be launched mid January 2001) is kind of a cooperative online community. Similar to AOL, it will be a full service ISP, search engine and directory, shopping mall, virtual office and much more all in one. The difference between Going Platinum and an AOL, however, is into whose pockets the profits from the site flow. These profits include *substantial* advertising income in addition to the other features mentioned above. With AOL, the profits flow to AOL. With Going Platinum, the profits flow to its members. HOW IT WORKS To be a member of Going Platinum is kind of like owning a share in a publicly listed corporation. Every Going Platinum member is given one position (or share) in the Going Platinum Community. This position is free. You can earn additional positions by joining the Going Platinum Affiliate Program. This also allows you to earn up to 10 times more of the revenue generated from your own internet activity within the GP Community, and the activity of other GP Community members you have referred to the Community, than if you just stick with your original single position. This is because, as an affiliate, you earn commissions not only on your own and your direct referrals' internet activity within the Community, but on indirect referrals as well (your referrals' own referrals) for four levels. No different from any other multi-tier affiliate program. WHAT IT COSTS => Basic Membership It need not cost you anything at all. If you want to join as a basic member because you're primarily interested in the Community as a resource, it's free. => Paying Member If you want to participate in the Going Platinum program with a revenue generation objective, there is a one-time initial fee of $25 to become a paying member and thus be eligible to participate in the affiliate program. Even then, if you choose to open an account with CompuBank (US residents only), you actually get a credit of $25 because Going Platinum/CompuBank give you $50 just for opening the account. As a paying member, you are also eligible for inclusion in the referral placement process which allocates spillover referrals and referrals generated by other Going Platinum promotional efforts. There will always be spillover referrals because each member has a maximum 39 member organization. If you refer more than 39 members, then the surplus is "spillover" and these referrals are allocated to other Going Platinum affiliates (i.e. paying members). => Membership Fees As stated above, your first position in the GP Community is free, as are all the benefits, features and tools in the member area. To become an affiliate, there is a one-time fee of $25, allowing you to earn up to 10 additional positions and giving you expanded use of everything available in the member's area (remember, though, the GP Community is not being launched until January). This fee is fully refundable, no questions asked. Thereafter, there are monthly membership fees to be paid for participation. These, however, are taken out of your commission earnings. The amount of fees depends on your "round": bronze, silver, gold or platinum. You are automatically entered into the bronze round when you become a paying member. => Monthly Fees The following is an extract from the "Membership Fees" page at the Going Platinum website and compares the monthly fees of the first two positions in your organization: Round Monthly Fees Pos. 1 Pos. 2 Bronze $25 $50 Silver $125 $250 Gold $1,125 $2,250 Platinum $6,125 $12,250 Before you fall off your chair, remember, all fees are deducted from commission. You never have to pay anything out of pocket. WHAT YOU CAN EARN Now, take a look now at the earnings you can expect from the affiliate program (excludes your earnings from GP Community activity). Round Monthly Earnings Range Pos. 1 Pos. 2 Bronze $0 - $322.50 $322.50 - $645 Silver $322.50 - $1,612.50 $1,612.50 - 3,225 Gold $1,612.50 - $14,512.50 $14,512.50 - $29,025 Platinum $14,512.50 - $80,512.50 $80,512.50 - $161,025 IN SHORT As you can see, the sky is literally the limit. Going Platinum already has close to 100,000 members. Millions are projected to join post- launch. I urge you to visit the site and check it out for yourself. Invest some serious time there. It takes a while before you really begin to appreciate the enormous potential of this program. This is a no-risk proposition. It need not cost anything to join (in fact you can be in the black before you even start if you elect to open a CompuBank account) yet you have everything to gain. I personally know of affiliates who are already earning hundreds of dollars a day and this is BEFORE the GP Community is even launched. 5. "Dear Elena, "I have a home-based practice as a Life and Business Coach. Since the majority of my coaching is done virtually via telephone, fax and e-mail, I am able to work with clients who live anywhere in the world. I've found both your e-zine and your website to be great sources of information for both myself and my clients. "I'm interested in your opinion about whether I should include the monthly fees for my coaching on my new website. The advantage of including the fees would be in reducing the amount of time I spend in free "sample" sessions with those who cannot afford my rates. However, others that see the fees before the sample session may decide that my rates are too high. Much of the real value of my coaching is communicated during this sample session. "The purpose of my website is mainly to describe who I am and what I do to potential clients, especially those referred by existing clients or by other coaches. Many of the current clients I've attracted have visited my website after reading one of my articles or newsletters. They typically are interested in knowing more about me, and about coaching in general. Warmest, Barbra" ---------- Barbra White, MBA Life and Career Success Coach Phone: (505) 271-1037 Fax: (509) 695-9141 ------------------------------------- "The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for." ~ Louis L'Amour ------------------------------------------- ------ Hmmm ... tricky question. My opinion, for what it's worth, is not to include your session charges. Many people may just write off the whole idea as too expensive depending on what their perceived value of your service is. I imagine that most people have little idea of what a personal coach actually does or how personal coaching might benefit them. For this reason, I doubt there is a pre-existing high perceived value, at least as a general rule. On the other hand, however, if they take advantage of the complimentary coaching session and find it helpful, then you at least have the opportunity to create a high perceived value which will make it easier for the client to justify the expenditure. The real question is whether a half hour consultation is a worthwhile investment for you to *possibly* acquire a new client. This is a business decision and depends on any number of factors, not the least of which is what else would you be doing with that half hour? On balance, I'd be inclined to omit your rates from the site and treat the complimentary session as an opportunity to increase the perceived value of your service. Even if you don't convert that immediate prospect into a client, who knows who else they'll tell about your service? And who knows when the straw that breaks the camel's back will come along and that prospect you coached six months ago and never heard from again decides that enough's enough and it's time to take action? By the way, I think your site is excellent. I really enjoyed your article "Energy Drains ... What Are You Tolerating?". I recommend it to all AHBBO readers. It's at . ------ If you want your site seen by thousands, write and tell me about it! But make sure it's one you've created yourself or have had created especially for you. No self-replicating affiliate sites please. 8. Subscription Management To SUBSCRIBE to this Newsletter:
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Elena Fawkner, Editor
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