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.
Friday, June 24, 2011
15 reasons Why EVERY Business needs a Website!
We are in an information age and moving to a social and mobile age, where if your business is not accessible/ available on a mobile device, your customers will move onto your competition. I always like this list since it opens up awareness why every business needs to be on the web.
Here are the 15 reasons why EVERY Business need a Website!
1. It is the most cost-effective way to advertise.
2. Your customers expect it.
3. You will sell more products and services.
4. You will be able to provide information to your customers more cost effectively.
5. You can receive feedback via your Web site.
6. It is much easier to stay in contact with distributors and sales reps.
7. You can provide better customer service.
8. It's the best way to stay competitive -- considering that most of your rivals already own their own Web sites or are looking into getting one.
9. Your business will grow immediately. Any small, local business has the ability to be an instant international sensation with franchise penetration in every city -- simply by getting an on-line presence.
10. Your business will look more professional.
11. You will gain credibility. A professional, well-designed site makes your business look successful, and builds trust in your company and its products/services.
12. You are open 24/7 without any added overhead and your sales potential may increase exponentially.
13. You have the ability to update sales information in real-time.
14. It is much more convenient for your customers to purchase your goods and services on-line than by physically coming to your location.
15 You can't afford not to. With Internet sales increasing almost 400% in the last six years, it's just good common sense to boost your business onboard the Internet superhighway.
Go to http://www.aimcbizsolutions.com to build your business website and let us take care of the rest!
Here are the 15 reasons why EVERY Business need a Website!
1. It is the most cost-effective way to advertise.
2. Your customers expect it.
3. You will sell more products and services.
4. You will be able to provide information to your customers more cost effectively.
5. You can receive feedback via your Web site.
6. It is much easier to stay in contact with distributors and sales reps.
7. You can provide better customer service.
8. It's the best way to stay competitive -- considering that most of your rivals already own their own Web sites or are looking into getting one.
9. Your business will grow immediately. Any small, local business has the ability to be an instant international sensation with franchise penetration in every city -- simply by getting an on-line presence.
10. Your business will look more professional.
11. You will gain credibility. A professional, well-designed site makes your business look successful, and builds trust in your company and its products/services.
12. You are open 24/7 without any added overhead and your sales potential may increase exponentially.
13. You have the ability to update sales information in real-time.
14. It is much more convenient for your customers to purchase your goods and services on-line than by physically coming to your location.
15 You can't afford not to. With Internet sales increasing almost 400% in the last six years, it's just good common sense to boost your business onboard the Internet superhighway.
Go to http://www.aimcbizsolutions.com to build your business website and let us take care of the rest!
Friday, June 3, 2011
How Social Media Saved Lives This Week in Massachusetts
This has been a devastating week for the folks in Western and Central Massachusetts. It was announced today that multiple EF3 or stronger tornadoes touched down around Springfield and further east on Wednesday, June 1st, resulting in incredible damage to structures and the beautiful forest in the area. For those of you not familiar with Massachusetts, this is a part of the state that has beautiful rolling hills, farms and the third largest city in Massachusetts, Springfield, a city of about 155,000 people. The amazing fact, despite the devastation in highly populated areas, only four lives were lost.
This area is not used to such violent weather and do not have a warning system in place like the South & Midwest to warn people of the impending danger to their lives. Also, most of the houses here have been built over 100 years ago and do not have the strong foundation of a stone or brick house like you seen in tornado prones area.
So considering how there is no warning system such as those sirens you hear, how did everyone prepare and take cover? Most of the people I know that were affected or were in the storm's path have smartphones with Facebook or Twitter and even the Weather Channel application on their phone. Back in the Metrowest at my house, I was connected to friends further west that kept updating their statuses of what is going on where they live and taking pictures of the storm and posting them. This real time activity allowed people in potential danger to get prepared. At one point, the Weather Channel was warning that the tornado which turned out to be an EF3 was making a beeline to my town! Luckily the funnel lifted about 15-20 miles of so away and we ended up just getting a lot of rain, wind, hail and the most amazing lightning show I have ever seen.
Since most of us have smartphones w/ texting, we have communication like we have never had before. We were able to warn each other of the pending danger and in the storm's aftermath, were able to locate missing people very quickly. As of today, Friday, there are no more missing persons, which is amazing considering how bad the storms were. Again, do you think that because people were able to communicate via Facebook, Twitter or text, that they were able to be prepared for the worst?
Now that the state is in cleanup mode, you are seeing a lot of relief efforts being posted and tweeted. A lot of celebrities are posting messages about how we can all help. With hundreds of millions Facebook and Twitter users, their message goes out to a tremendous amount of people with one short message. This did not happen only 5 or 6 years ago. Because of Social Media, we minimized the amount of deaths during and the after the storm. Pretty incredible stuff, just like the weather.
This area is not used to such violent weather and do not have a warning system in place like the South & Midwest to warn people of the impending danger to their lives. Also, most of the houses here have been built over 100 years ago and do not have the strong foundation of a stone or brick house like you seen in tornado prones area.
So considering how there is no warning system such as those sirens you hear, how did everyone prepare and take cover? Most of the people I know that were affected or were in the storm's path have smartphones with Facebook or Twitter and even the Weather Channel application on their phone. Back in the Metrowest at my house, I was connected to friends further west that kept updating their statuses of what is going on where they live and taking pictures of the storm and posting them. This real time activity allowed people in potential danger to get prepared. At one point, the Weather Channel was warning that the tornado which turned out to be an EF3 was making a beeline to my town! Luckily the funnel lifted about 15-20 miles of so away and we ended up just getting a lot of rain, wind, hail and the most amazing lightning show I have ever seen.
Since most of us have smartphones w/ texting, we have communication like we have never had before. We were able to warn each other of the pending danger and in the storm's aftermath, were able to locate missing people very quickly. As of today, Friday, there are no more missing persons, which is amazing considering how bad the storms were. Again, do you think that because people were able to communicate via Facebook, Twitter or text, that they were able to be prepared for the worst?
Now that the state is in cleanup mode, you are seeing a lot of relief efforts being posted and tweeted. A lot of celebrities are posting messages about how we can all help. With hundreds of millions Facebook and Twitter users, their message goes out to a tremendous amount of people with one short message. This did not happen only 5 or 6 years ago. Because of Social Media, we minimized the amount of deaths during and the after the storm. Pretty incredible stuff, just like the weather.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Network Marketing and its Evolution to One-to-One Marketing
Network Marketing has been around a lot longer than a lot of people think.
It started back in the 1930's with direct selling. Do you remember the insurance salesman that knocked on your door at dinnertime to try to sell you a life insurance policy? Then came franchising in the 1940s with the invention of McDonalds and Holiday Inn. Franchising was revolutionary since it introduced the "system" for managing the business processes and the ways of working. In the 1950s, multi-level marketing was born. Amway is the most well-known company from this era and introduced what a lot of people thought was a pyramid. Ironically, the Amway organization is closer to horizontal marketing and isn't any more than a pyramid than the typical corporate organization. Then came the 1960s, the big catalog was introduced. Think JCPenney or Sears. For the first time, you can "shop from home" and call a toll free number to order your favorite product. In the 1970s, businesses of all sizes started to use direct mail to market their products and services. These brochures would be mixed in with your bills in the mail and allowed consumers to save money on services. In the 1980s, cable television changed not only what we watch on TV, bu how we shop. For the first time, infomericals were born. QVC and the Home Shopping Network allowed viewers to see product demostrations and then order the product via a toll-free number. This was start of the saving trees movement with less paper in the ol' mailbox. As we moved into the 1990s, another drastic movement in network marketing happened, the internet and the dot.com era. For the first time, consumers were able to shop online at their favorite stores and use credit cards or tools like PayPal to purchase products and services. While the ease of shopping online created a whole new paradigm, for the first time, you started to see the brick and mortar stores start to suffer. Think Caldor, Lechmere, Bradlees and Ames.
So then came the 21st Century... the 2000s-2010s! A new paradigm invented by Market America's founder, James Ridinger, took the best of all of the network marketing stages from the 1930s till 2000 and called it one-to-one marketing. With almost 200,000 distributors marketing cutting edge products and services and partnering with all of the retail stores that helped start the paradigms from the 1970s through the 1990s, one-to-one marketing was born. One-to-one marketing is where you have a personal shop consultant (think the old insurance salesman from the 1930s) who follows a system invented from franchising to assist shoppers to research what they need through a catalog and make a purchase on an online shopping site. It is pretty revolutionary and it is now the best way to connect people to the products they need. What better way to build a one-to-one relationship?
Network Marketing is in fact the Business of the 21st Century. Pretty exciting stuff!
It started back in the 1930's with direct selling. Do you remember the insurance salesman that knocked on your door at dinnertime to try to sell you a life insurance policy? Then came franchising in the 1940s with the invention of McDonalds and Holiday Inn. Franchising was revolutionary since it introduced the "system" for managing the business processes and the ways of working. In the 1950s, multi-level marketing was born. Amway is the most well-known company from this era and introduced what a lot of people thought was a pyramid. Ironically, the Amway organization is closer to horizontal marketing and isn't any more than a pyramid than the typical corporate organization. Then came the 1960s, the big catalog was introduced. Think JCPenney or Sears. For the first time, you can "shop from home" and call a toll free number to order your favorite product. In the 1970s, businesses of all sizes started to use direct mail to market their products and services. These brochures would be mixed in with your bills in the mail and allowed consumers to save money on services. In the 1980s, cable television changed not only what we watch on TV, bu how we shop. For the first time, infomericals were born. QVC and the Home Shopping Network allowed viewers to see product demostrations and then order the product via a toll-free number. This was start of the saving trees movement with less paper in the ol' mailbox. As we moved into the 1990s, another drastic movement in network marketing happened, the internet and the dot.com era. For the first time, consumers were able to shop online at their favorite stores and use credit cards or tools like PayPal to purchase products and services. While the ease of shopping online created a whole new paradigm, for the first time, you started to see the brick and mortar stores start to suffer. Think Caldor, Lechmere, Bradlees and Ames.
So then came the 21st Century... the 2000s-2010s! A new paradigm invented by Market America's founder, James Ridinger, took the best of all of the network marketing stages from the 1930s till 2000 and called it one-to-one marketing. With almost 200,000 distributors marketing cutting edge products and services and partnering with all of the retail stores that helped start the paradigms from the 1970s through the 1990s, one-to-one marketing was born. One-to-one marketing is where you have a personal shop consultant (think the old insurance salesman from the 1930s) who follows a system invented from franchising to assist shoppers to research what they need through a catalog and make a purchase on an online shopping site. It is pretty revolutionary and it is now the best way to connect people to the products they need. What better way to build a one-to-one relationship?
Network Marketing is in fact the Business of the 21st Century. Pretty exciting stuff!
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