A lot of people that know me know that I am an avid networker and go to between 2-3 events a week. Why do I network? It is because you have to in today's professional world. Considering I am in transition and have a couple of businesses, networking is the lifeblood of my professional career. I recently went to an event in Boston this past week and looking around, you can clearly distinguish the different breeds of entrepreneurs enjoying the free food and working their elevator pitches.
First, you have the financial planners/ advisers. They are the ones wearing full suits and ties despite the fact it was 95 degrees out. Clearly, you can see them sweat not just from the weather but also knowing five of their competitors are in the room. You had MetLife, Mass Mutual, New York Life and Wells Fargo in the room. My advice to a financial person.... wear a Hawaiian shirt and rent a BMW for the next networking event. Personally, I did not select my financial advisor because they wore a suit in 95 degree weather.
Second, you got those Multi-Level-Marketers. At this event, you had Adzzoo, Trump Network, Avon, Arbonne and Tuppleware. BTW, Market America is NOT multi-level-marketing for the thousandth time!!! They all claim their company has the best products & services, provide the best compensation plan, have meetings in exotic places... but meanwhile they are wearing Walmart specials driving off in their beat up Saturns... My advice to MLM networkers.... treat your business as a business not not some spectacular money making machine and listen to people. Personally, I did not start my business with Market America because Donald Trump owns it and sends me to Key Largo for $1000 to look at his hair. FYI, Donald Trump doesn't own Market America. He wished he did!
Finally, ah yes, the life coaches. The ones that teach business people to transition their life, to discover holistic health, and pay them thousands for advice that you can also get on Google. I honestly always wonder how these fine folks make any money. They must do a wonderful job showing how their clients get their best return on investment. Really, go into real business, you would do wonders! The Life Coaches dress a little better since they are setting an example to their clients. My advice, get a Plan B. This business is very cyclical.
So I am hoping at the next event, I meet some restaurant owners, car dealers, social media people, cigar shop owners, just to mix it up a bit. I guess that is why BNI is successful at what they do. They only allow one of two professionals from each line of work.
Ok, time to go to the dry cleaners to go get my suits for the next event.... a wedding, not a networking event!!
Friday, July 22, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Over the Border - The Demise of the Brick and Mortar
Well, another large retailer is biting the dust - Borders. I liked Borders but always wondered how they were making money. Normally, people go there to look at books as if they are in the library and not buy anything or go to coffee shop and buy a $2 latte and sit on their laptops cruising Facebook for many hours. It is no wonder they were losing money and are now going out of business. But there is a larger issue here where Borders did not change with the times and customer focus. For the past few years, just as newspapers started going away, people started moving to electronic readers and mobile devices to do their day-to-day communication and reading. Barnes & Noble has the Nook, Amazon has the Kindle, and many others are being promoted. Borders also did not do a good job promoting their online presence. Simply put, if you don't shift your focus to your company's online presence, you will go out of business. Case in point, Circuit City, Linens n Things and soon Toys R Us. You didn't hear that from me, but it is my pick for the next brick and mortar retailer to go out of business.
Today's customers buying habits are online case in point. Online sales at a company I am affiliated with has gone up over 30% in the past year while the typical brick and mortar retailer had same store sales growth between -5% - 5%. Social shopping is the wave of the future, matching product to people and people to product and there is no other way to do that than online shopping. A lot of retailers are now offering free shipping and online deals only since they do not need to distribute a product to a store and pay for shelf life and most of all, employees. I recently bought the book, Social Boom from Jeffrey Gitomer on my portal for $14.50 with free shipping. Just for the sake of it, I went to the local Barnes and Noble to see what is would cost. Try $22.99 with tax. I just booked a trip to the Cape through my online travel site and got an incredible deal at a great hotel/resort for a third of the price. Where? Online! So, why would someone go to a brick and mortar store? I'll admit, I do not buy clothes online or anything to do with the look and feel of my home (pictures, lights etc.), but in reality the demise of the brick and mortar is here. Your local mall may become more of an entertainment destination with theatres, restaurants, entertainment centers with a few clothes stores thrown in.
In closing, I feel for the 11,000+ people losing their jobs at Borders but we are in a different world today. Companies need to keep up with the times in the information and mobile age or they become a Borders.
Today's customers buying habits are online case in point. Online sales at a company I am affiliated with has gone up over 30% in the past year while the typical brick and mortar retailer had same store sales growth between -5% - 5%. Social shopping is the wave of the future, matching product to people and people to product and there is no other way to do that than online shopping. A lot of retailers are now offering free shipping and online deals only since they do not need to distribute a product to a store and pay for shelf life and most of all, employees. I recently bought the book, Social Boom from Jeffrey Gitomer on my portal for $14.50 with free shipping. Just for the sake of it, I went to the local Barnes and Noble to see what is would cost. Try $22.99 with tax. I just booked a trip to the Cape through my online travel site and got an incredible deal at a great hotel/resort for a third of the price. Where? Online! So, why would someone go to a brick and mortar store? I'll admit, I do not buy clothes online or anything to do with the look and feel of my home (pictures, lights etc.), but in reality the demise of the brick and mortar is here. Your local mall may become more of an entertainment destination with theatres, restaurants, entertainment centers with a few clothes stores thrown in.
In closing, I feel for the 11,000+ people losing their jobs at Borders but we are in a different world today. Companies need to keep up with the times in the information and mobile age or they become a Borders.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Google + Facebook = LinkedIN My Twitter - Heck Social Media is Taking Over My Day!
If you are a business owner and new to the Social Media world, you must be pulling every hair out of your body right about now. Before 1995, marketing your product or services meant putting an advertisement in the paper, making sure you are listed in the yellow pages and making a few cold calls here and there. Then the leads come to you. There was little or no competition from abroad and you didn't worry about some techie from Harvard stealing your idea and creating the biggest technology Armageddon in the world!
Well it is mid-way through 2011, and yes, there is a new legitimate player in the social media world. It is a very positive and forward thinking company called Google. I am still trying to figure out why it is called "Google +". Then again "Facebook" and "Twitter" are interesting words too. Conan O'Brien put it best a couple of years ago and called MySpace + Twitter + Facebook = MyTwitFace. So, I guess since MySpace is pretty much non-existent now, I guess the new Social Media platform is Goog+FaceTwit? OK, I am not exactly good with words. That is why I have a day job, right?
All I know is that I spend a lot of time on social media sites now. Tools like TweetDeck and Hootsuite make it easier to have that "console" approach. But I find myself looking at posts, responding usually about nothing important and then later discover that I just wasted two hours. Speaking of wasting time... why did Zuckerburg come up with this "Poke" thing. Was it his way to pick up chicks on Facebook? His one liner was " Hey Babe, I am going to poke you!" I login everyday on Facebook, and always know that heck I still got it for an old guy, since there is a list of women that "poke requested" me... but it is not a sexual thing. It is more like, POKE! Wake up Jeff and do something constructive and get off Facebook!
Now Google + has this thing called "circles". Great, now another way to get stuck in some click talking about nothing and not letting the world know about it. I personally think with the incredible initial success of Google + is that people are starting to get sick of Facebook and are hoping Google would create a new dimension in social networking, but instead you get stuck in these gossip circles. Could Google call them groups instead? Oh wait, that is what Facebook calls them.
Finally, I think the innocent social media site in all of this is LinkedIN. I do the bulk of my business building on LinkedIN and there is nothing about the site that makes me sick and tired of social networking. They don't have this poke thing or some addition symbol in their name. Just a great name for a social media site.. I am linked into you. Being linked is a lot less painful than being poked or being called a Twit! Speaking of Twit... I know I did not mention Twitter since I also never log onto Twitter. I have linked my two LinkedIN account and my three Facebook accounts to my three Twitter accounts. It takes a computer engineering professional like me to draw a flowchart to figure it all out.
OK, time to get off my computer and go for a walk and chat with the neighbor. Social Walking sounds so much healthier!
Well it is mid-way through 2011, and yes, there is a new legitimate player in the social media world. It is a very positive and forward thinking company called Google. I am still trying to figure out why it is called "Google +". Then again "Facebook" and "Twitter" are interesting words too. Conan O'Brien put it best a couple of years ago and called MySpace + Twitter + Facebook = MyTwitFace. So, I guess since MySpace is pretty much non-existent now, I guess the new Social Media platform is Goog+FaceTwit? OK, I am not exactly good with words. That is why I have a day job, right?
All I know is that I spend a lot of time on social media sites now. Tools like TweetDeck and Hootsuite make it easier to have that "console" approach. But I find myself looking at posts, responding usually about nothing important and then later discover that I just wasted two hours. Speaking of wasting time... why did Zuckerburg come up with this "Poke" thing. Was it his way to pick up chicks on Facebook? His one liner was " Hey Babe, I am going to poke you!" I login everyday on Facebook, and always know that heck I still got it for an old guy, since there is a list of women that "poke requested" me... but it is not a sexual thing. It is more like, POKE! Wake up Jeff and do something constructive and get off Facebook!
Now Google + has this thing called "circles". Great, now another way to get stuck in some click talking about nothing and not letting the world know about it. I personally think with the incredible initial success of Google + is that people are starting to get sick of Facebook and are hoping Google would create a new dimension in social networking, but instead you get stuck in these gossip circles. Could Google call them groups instead? Oh wait, that is what Facebook calls them.
Finally, I think the innocent social media site in all of this is LinkedIN. I do the bulk of my business building on LinkedIN and there is nothing about the site that makes me sick and tired of social networking. They don't have this poke thing or some addition symbol in their name. Just a great name for a social media site.. I am linked into you. Being linked is a lot less painful than being poked or being called a Twit! Speaking of Twit... I know I did not mention Twitter since I also never log onto Twitter. I have linked my two LinkedIN account and my three Facebook accounts to my three Twitter accounts. It takes a computer engineering professional like me to draw a flowchart to figure it all out.
OK, time to get off my computer and go for a walk and chat with the neighbor. Social Walking sounds so much healthier!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Network Marketing is the Real Deal
Do the household names Avon, Tupperware, Pampered Chef or P90X ring a bell to you? How about Isotonix, Transitions, Nutralite, Primerica or Partylite? All of these household names are part of the burgeoning network marketing industry that has generated over $125 billion in revenue in over 150 countries in 2010 and is growing on average 25-30% a year via over 75 million men and women who are in distributorships where they take pride in helping others.
As you probably figured out, I am a distributor for a very well known internet marketing company. The reason I got into the business was originally because the products and the mission of the company was nothing like I have ever seen. I also liked the fact that the company paid out over 60% of its revenue back as commissions to distributors of the company. But the biggest reason was I always had a calling to help people. My purpose at a networking event is to help people connect. My purpose in network marketing is to help people financially and with their well being. Where else for a very small capital investment, you can change your world and the world of others willing to open their mind.
It baffles me when I introduce to people to my business venture, that the old "it's a pyramid" or "scam" vocabulary is the first word out of their mouth. Later on they come to realize that some of the products that they are currently using are very much from the same network marketing companies that they claim is part of some pyramid. Finally, I always like to ask, so what are your options to make a little extra income and then there is silence....
Network marketing or otherwise known as direct selling is the original social networking business. Long before we even knew what a computer was, people were getting together for fun, socializing and shopping. Add in technological power and globalization, and you’ve got a winning formula for a fast growing and recession proof business. Network marketing or now known as social networking focuses on what people want. Check out your Facebook page and look at the ads. Chances are you will see ads focused on products from a leading network marketing company that you may be interested in.
The concept of network marketing is so intriguing. It eliminates the "middle man" distributing a product or service to the end consumer. There is no brick and mortar store or large numbers of salaried employees needed to move product and because some companies have hundreds of thousands , even millions of distributors, they essentially have independent contractors doing the bulk of product and service distribution and then paying them pretty handsomely on top of that. It is such a cool concept and it is fast becoming the wave of the near future.
So why is network marketing the real deal? It may be the only way to help solve the shrinking job market. Face it, we will never go back to pre-2007 employment levels. Network marketing may be the answer since it has a competitive advantage in the training that it offers, both in business and personal skills. It allows people to be retrained while they pursue something new. It gives an opportunity when no one else will. The shrinking job market will not do that.
As you probably figured out, I am a distributor for a very well known internet marketing company. The reason I got into the business was originally because the products and the mission of the company was nothing like I have ever seen. I also liked the fact that the company paid out over 60% of its revenue back as commissions to distributors of the company. But the biggest reason was I always had a calling to help people. My purpose at a networking event is to help people connect. My purpose in network marketing is to help people financially and with their well being. Where else for a very small capital investment, you can change your world and the world of others willing to open their mind.
It baffles me when I introduce to people to my business venture, that the old "it's a pyramid" or "scam" vocabulary is the first word out of their mouth. Later on they come to realize that some of the products that they are currently using are very much from the same network marketing companies that they claim is part of some pyramid. Finally, I always like to ask, so what are your options to make a little extra income and then there is silence....
Network marketing or otherwise known as direct selling is the original social networking business. Long before we even knew what a computer was, people were getting together for fun, socializing and shopping. Add in technological power and globalization, and you’ve got a winning formula for a fast growing and recession proof business. Network marketing or now known as social networking focuses on what people want. Check out your Facebook page and look at the ads. Chances are you will see ads focused on products from a leading network marketing company that you may be interested in.
The concept of network marketing is so intriguing. It eliminates the "middle man" distributing a product or service to the end consumer. There is no brick and mortar store or large numbers of salaried employees needed to move product and because some companies have hundreds of thousands , even millions of distributors, they essentially have independent contractors doing the bulk of product and service distribution and then paying them pretty handsomely on top of that. It is such a cool concept and it is fast becoming the wave of the near future.
So why is network marketing the real deal? It may be the only way to help solve the shrinking job market. Face it, we will never go back to pre-2007 employment levels. Network marketing may be the answer since it has a competitive advantage in the training that it offers, both in business and personal skills. It allows people to be retrained while they pursue something new. It gives an opportunity when no one else will. The shrinking job market will not do that.
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