Unleash Your Bigger Game: Learn the Winning "5" Combination to Achieve Ultimate Business Mastery

Copyright (c) 2006 UpLevel Strategies

Part three of this Winning "5" Combinations article covers
combinations four and five, along with "get to action"
advice.

Winning Combination #4

Know, Love, and Trust Your Customers

Why do so many new products and service companies fail?
Usually for many reasons, companies often are so enamored
of their new product ideas that they fail to do their
research on the most important entity in their entire
company…Their Customers! Even if they do get a nibble of
information, they often ignore what the research tells
them. It is important in product/service development to
develop products that your consumer's want, not simply what
you desire to produce.

With effective market research, you can determine the need
for your service, a product's likelihood to sell ,
target-market demographics , and desirable store locations.
There are numerous ways to uncover this information -- from
online research to focus groups. Here are a few simple and
free ways for entreprenuers to do market research:

Step 1: Go to www.google.com

Step 2: Identify key words that describe your target market
and service/product offering

Step 3: Run a search on each of those keywords

Step 4: Research the top 10 Sites that show up on Google
and the sponsored links on the right for the following 7
Key Market Research Questions:

Who is the company and principal of the company? What
products and services are they trying to sell? At what
price point are they offering these products and services?
Who are they targeting? What are the demographics of their
target audience? How are they delivering their product and
service? How are they positioning their product and
service? How are they promoting their product and service?
Step 5: Create a one page document for each company that
summarizes the key questions and then one final executive
summary of all 10 sites comparatively. Use this information
to create and position your own marketing strategy.

Other Ideas

Ask your existing customers - Conduct a survey of your
target market with Survey Monkey. Trust that they will tell
you what they want. Invite a group out for lunch and have
in informal focus group. Contact a local MBA program and
offer an internship to a grad student. Join online forums
that talk about your kind of business. Set up a chat room
where you conduct your own online focus groups. Renegade
entrepreneurs may find this task tedious, but I promise you
, it won't be as painful as regularly dusting the thousands
of dollars of unshipped products you could have laying
around your office or staring at an empty appointment book!

My business coach, Alan Weiss says there are three key
questions to answer prior to establishing any marketing
approach:

What is my unique value for buyers? Who specifically will
write a check for that value? How do I reach them? Take the
time to do the get to know your customer intimately up
front. Understand what pains them and what makes them
excited and then show them how much you adore them by
creating specific products and services to meet their needs.

Self Inquiry: How can I improve the lives of my customers
today?

Winning Combination #5

Create Consistent Marketing (Promotion) Engine

As entrepreneurs we often interchange the words marketing
and promotion to mean "activities' that are aimed at trying
to get customers. Marketing is the wide range of activities
involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the
needs of your customers and getting value in return. These
activities include market research to find out, for
example, what groups of potential customers exist, what
their needs are, which of those needs you can meet, how you
should meet them, etc.

Marketing also includes analyzing the competition,
positioning your new product or service (finding your
market niche) pricing your products and services and
promoting them through continued advertising, promotions,
public relations and sales.

Promotion keeps the product in the minds of the customer
and helps stimulate demand for the product. The ongoing
activities of advertising, sales, and public relations are
often considered aspects of promotions.

Your promotions are the communications strategy of your
plan. Here you'll plan not only the message you want to
use, but also the tools you'll use to spread it to the
world. But first, I need to share with you the 3 C's of
Marketing Success:

Consistency (communicate regularly with your customers and
prospects) Clarity (deliver clear benefit driven messages
to those customers) Collaboration (work with marketing
experts, a mastermind team, and form joint venture
partnerships to expedite growth) If you can master these
three items, you will be heads and shoulders above a
majority of your competition. Jay Conrad Levinson said to
me once, "It is unfortunate , but true that bad marketing
done consistently is better than good marketing done
inconsistently.' Create consistency in your marketing
program.

There are several ways to promote or market your company.
In fact, I have an entire home study course called
Promotion Mastery that details an entire plan from start to
finish on exactly how and when to promote your business and
products/services. Imagine what good marketing done
consistently can achieve! Here are some general suggestions
to consider when developing your marketing engine:

Never let a day pass without engaging in at least one
marketing activity. Set specific marketing goals every
year; review and adjust quarterly. Maintain a file of ideas
for later use. I have a board in my office that I call my
"parking lot' for ideas. Carry business cards with you (all
day, every day) in your car, in your purse or briefcase. I
even carry a brochure or two for that special occasion. No
piece of information (invoices, thank you cards, email,
mail etc) should ever go out without your company contact
information on it. Every communication outside your company
is an opportunity for you to promote yourself! Keep
Educating Yourself

Meet with your Mastermind Group at least once a month.
Attend a marketing seminar. Read a marketing book.
Subscribe to a marketing newsletter or other publication.
Join an association or organization related to your
profession. Hire a marketing consultant or coach to
brainstorm with. Create a Marketing Plan that Automates the
Marketing System

Target Completion Date:____________ Project
Completed:_____________

Get Into Action

The most important thing about creating success in your
business is to take massive action. Not a little action –
massive action. At a minimum, make yourself and your
potential success a commitment and do at least 1 action
item a day for each of the 5 winning combinations toward
creating business success. Schedule the time on your
calendar and just get it done.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to
start, please call and take advantage of our complimentary
30 minute strategy session.

"It's not what happens, but what you do that matters." To
your success!

----------------------------------------------------
For more information, visit
http://www.uplevelstrategies.com .

Starting A Work At Home Typing Business On A Shoestring Budget

You have decided to start your own work at home typing
business. Money is in short supply, so where do you start?

Identify Your Target

The first thing to do is to identify your potential
customers. Don't bother asking big companies for work at
home typing, you will be in competition with existing staff
and employment agencies. Look around for small businesses,
the smaller the better because they won't have support
staff. Pick them out from classified ads in local
newspapers, flyers and phone directories. Start with
tradesmen such as auto mechanics, carpenters, washing
machine repairers, plumbers, electricians, general
builders, painters and decorators etc. Avoid any business
connected with IT, they are almost certain to be keyboard
literate.

Business Cards

Get business cards printed. You can get this done free of
charge. Make sure that, in addition to your name and
contact details, your card states that you offer a typing
service. Get as many free business cards as you can, you
will need them to hand out to everyone you meet as well as
sending them out with mail shots.

Flyers

Have flyers printed. Flyers are very useful: they can be
posted in locations where local traders will see them,
delivered to targeted businesses and used in mail shots.
If you want to hand out flyers or put them on windscreens
in a car park, make sure you get whatever permission is
needed from the land owner before you start.

Classified Ads

Place ads in any local newspapers, trade journals etc.
which offer ad spots within your budget.

Free Ads

Many places such as shops, wholesalers, supermarkets and
church halls have notice boards where you can place an ad
free of charge. Take advantage of this and remember to
return regularly to make sure your ad hasn't been removed
or covered over.

Mailing List

Build a database containing the names and addresses of
local companies and sole traders.

Brand Yourself

Make yourself a professional looking template with your
word processor to use as a letterhead. If you opted for a
logo on your business cards, repeat the logo on your
business stationery.

Mail Shot

Set up a standard letter to be sent to all the people in
your database. The letter should announce the service you
are offering and ask the recipient to save your card for
future reference. When you get your free business cards,
you can do your first mailing shot.

Delivery

If you are able to target groups of companies in small
areas, hand delivery of your letters is feasible but don't
make the mistake of wasting gallons of fuel for the sake of
saving a few pennies on postage.

The small traders will mainly fall into one of two
categories: either they will have a computer and do their
own typing of invoices, estimates etc or their typing work
will be done by their wife, girlfriend or mother. Your
want to find traders who don't like doing their own typing
work and will be glad of help or whose wife/girlfriend is
too busy and wants to get rid of the typing work.

If you get nothing from your first mail shot, don't
despair, repeat it after a couple of weeks or a month. You
can alternate between sending a flyer or a letter enclosing
a business card. In the meantime, continue to add likely
candidates to your mailing list. You need your offer of
home typing work to be in the right places at the right
times. When the plumber splits up from his girlfriend or
the electrician's wife has a new baby to cope with, make
sure they think of your home typing service. One of the
best home typing jobs I had was for a local Private
Detective. I just happened to be seeking typing at home
work when his wife who had done his typing for years
decided she'd had enough ot typing reports about
adulterous husbands!

If you are lucky, you might hit a candidate for your
services with your first shot and be in business
practically overnight. It won't be big business but it
will be a start. Give your clients an excellent typing
service and chances are they will recommend you to other
small traders. Personal recommendation is the most
powerful form of advertising anyone could hope for. If you
don't score a hit at the first try, keep repeating the mail
shots. Make patience and persistence your watch words and
you will succeed.

----------------------------------------------------
For more information about working from home go to
http://www.elainecurrie.com/workathome
or visit Elaine Currie at http://www.HuntingVenus.com