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Actual for You - Business Marketing - Let a Martian Run Your Business
Can I Do It All Myself?
Sometimes we feel that we are handling everything just fine. You’re a business owner and your list of clients is growing leaps and bounds as you hoped it would. The money is coming in and you may even enjoy spending an extra hour or two at the office to get caught up at the end of the day or early in the morning before the phone begins to ring. This is how you wanted it but if only you had those one or two extra hours every day. The new blackberry is fine but you know you need a back up at the office 'just in case'. Your growing stack of business cards is piling up in an ever-tightening rubber band in your desk drawer and you promise yourself that you'll b
n spend months, in your garage, building your invention. Several prototypes later you are ready to take out a patent. The paperwork is done, the money paid and you have your patent.Sometimes we feel that we are handling everything just fine. You’re a business owner and your list of clients is growing leaps and bounds as you hoped it would. The money is coming in and you may even enjoy spending an extra hour or two at the office to get caught up at the end of the day or early in the morning before the phone begins to ring. This is how you wanted it but if only you had those one or two extra hours every day. The new blackberry is fine but you know you need a back up at the office 'just in case'. Your growing stack of business cards is piling up in an ever-tightening rubber band in your desk drawer and you promise yourself that you'll b
Now to sell this miracle. Making a list of potential manufacturers you write to each in turn. You even visit a few, cold calling with your wonder gadget, in the hope that someone would be interested. No one is interested. After much rejection you decide to go it alone.
How many times have you had a thought about something but then not acted on it? It might be a concern you had or a great new approach that inspired you. Take a moment or two to list a few for yourself....I really should talk to him about... We should expand our business in... Why did he make that decision? It doesn't make sense to me... Why don't we process these invoices in a different way... Wouldn't it be great if... If we did it this way it would be much more efficient/reliable/effective Why do we need to send this to X every month/at all?Every one of these thoughts could
Well I would like to borrow that concept and take it into our business world. When trying to market your product and services, or when you are thinking of new ideas for your business, think like a Martian. Imagine you have no idea how humans think or behave yet you have to try and sell to them.
Putting a Martian in Control
By all means use your own thoughts and inclinations to spark off new ideas but never rely upon your way of thinking to judge how your prospective customer may think. If you would travel miles for a particular product or service don't believe that everyone, or indeed anyone, would do the same. You are unique, like a Martian would be, and may be the only person to think the way you do about that product or service. Maybe an example would explain this better.
Your Invention
You are standing at your ironing board, struggling with collars and sleeves, when you come up with an idea to make everything so much easier. A gadget that would quickly fit into each garment and take its shape instantly (far fetched, I know but then so is letting a Martian run your business).
This gadget would make ironing so much easier and everyone would want one. You are on your way to becoming a Millionaire with your new idea. After much thought you finally get your ideas on paper and you then spend months, in your garage, building your invention. Several prototypes later you are ready to take out a patent. The paperwork is done, the money paid and you have your patent.
Now to sell this miracle. Making a list of potential manufacturers you write to each in turn. You even visit a few, cold calling with your wonder gadget, in the hope that someone would be interested. No one is interested. After much rejection you decide to go it alone.
A Hot Business for 2006: Non-Medical Home Care Business
Home care in the United States is a diverse and dynamic service industry. Approximately 20,000 providers deliver home care services to 7.6 million individuals who require services because of acute illness, long-term health conditions, permanent disability, or terminal illness. Annual expenditures for home health care are projected to be $48.3 billion in 2007. Home care is a broad term that describes a wide variety of health related services provided in the home setting. Home care is health care brought to your home to maintain or restore your health and well-being.Growth Trends in the industrySeniors are one of the fastest growing population grou
learn to understand one and other better.Home care in the United States is a diverse and dynamic service industry. Approximately 20,000 providers deliver home care services to 7.6 million individuals who require services because of acute illness, long-term health conditions, permanent disability, or terminal illness. Annual expenditures for home health care are projected to be $48.3 billion in 2007. Home care is a broad term that describes a wide variety of health related services provided in the home setting. Home care is health care brought to your home to maintain or restore your health and well-being.Growth Trends in the industrySeniors are one of the fastest growing population grou
Well I would like to borrow that concept and take it into our business world. When trying to market your product and services, or when you are thinking of new ideas for your business, think like a Martian. Imagine you have no idea how humans think or behave yet you have to try and sell to them.
Putting a Martian in Control
By all means use your own thoughts and inclinations to spark off new ideas but never rely upon your way of thinking to judge how your prospective customer may think. If you would travel miles for a particular product or service don't believe that everyone, or indeed anyone, would do the same. You are unique, like a Martian would be, and may be the only person to think the way you do about that product or service. Maybe an example would explain this better.
Your Invention
You are standing at your ironing board, struggling with collars and sleeves, when you come up with an idea to make everything so much easier. A gadget that would quickly fit into each garment and take its shape instantly (far fetched, I know but then so is letting a Martian run your business).
This gadget would make ironing so much easier and everyone would want one. You are on your way to becoming a Millionaire with your new idea. After much thought you finally get your ideas on paper and you then spend months, in your garage, building your invention. Several prototypes later you are ready to take out a patent. The paperwork is done, the money paid and you have your patent.
Now to sell this miracle. Making a list of potential manufacturers you write to each in turn. You even visit a few, cold calling with your wonder gadget, in the hope that someone would be interested. No one is interested. After much rejection you decide to go it alone.
Long distance call center solutions consist of logically designed software systems that integrate the information stored in the database for providing easy accessibility to both call center agents and customers. The software helps in reducing the number of long distance calls directed towards the call center with the use of alternative channels enabled by the software.Long distance call center solutions allow customers to directly access the database for getting answers to repetitive and easy to answer questions. This reduces workload on agents and allows them to focus on top priority issues such as handling inquiries that require human interaction. Thedeas but never rely upon your way of thinking to judge how your prospective customer may think. If you would travel miles for a particular product or service don't believe that everyone, or indeed anyone, would do the same. You are unique, like a Martian would be, and may be the only person to think the way you do about that product or service. Maybe an example would explain this better.
Your Invention
You are standing at your ironing board, struggling with collars and sleeves, when you come up with an idea to make everything so much easier. A gadget that would quickly fit into each garment and take its shape instantly (far fetched, I know but then so is letting a Martian run your business).
This gadget would make ironing so much easier and everyone would want one. You are on your way to becoming a Millionaire with your new idea. After much thought you finally get your ideas on paper and you then spend months, in your garage, building your invention. Several prototypes later you are ready to take out a patent. The paperwork is done, the money paid and you have your patent.
Now to sell this miracle. Making a list of potential manufacturers you write to each in turn. You even visit a few, cold calling with your wonder gadget, in the hope that someone would be interested. No one is interested. After much rejection you decide to go it alone.
When managing change, expectations are like communicating vessels between current insight and future risks. Negotiate well, knowing that every future has more risks than you can imagine. It is a matter of convincing the sponsor.Management of expectations is an issue that is always around when dealing with change. Expectations are not present in operational business management, because there is no future or long term aspect “present”. So there is no expectation.If you are involved in activities and plans that are prone to insecurities you are dealing with expectations.It is the change “manager” or everybody dealing with change who needs to uggling with collars and sleeves, when you come up with an idea to make everything so much easier. A gadget that would quickly fit into each garment and take its shape instantly (far fetched, I know but then so is letting a Martian run your business).
This gadget would make ironing so much easier and everyone would want one. You are on your way to becoming a Millionaire with your new idea. After much thought you finally get your ideas on paper and you then spend months, in your garage, building your invention. Several prototypes later you are ready to take out a patent. The paperwork is done, the money paid and you have your patent.
Now to sell this miracle. Making a list of potential manufacturers you write to each in turn. You even visit a few, cold calling with your wonder gadget, in the hope that someone would be interested. No one is interested. After much rejection you decide to go it alone.
You may be thinking that your business is just too small for BIG Project Management techniques, but that is simply not the case. Don’t let all of the fancy terms like Network diagram, Gantt chart, and Work Breakdown Structure scare you. And don’t worry if you don’t know how to use Microsoft Project or Primavera or any other PM software application out there…you don’t need it.Project Management is about organizing your data for a specific project and updating it as the project progresses. You can use a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet if you like, as long as you have something documented for your project, you are contributing to the success of that n spend months, in your garage, building your invention. Several prototypes later you are ready to take out a patent. The paperwork is done, the money paid and you have your patent.
Now to sell this miracle. Making a list of potential manufacturers you write to each in turn. You even visit a few, cold calling with your wonder gadget, in the hope that someone would be interested. No one is interested. After much rejection you decide to go it alone.
More time is spent setting up a mini production line then you take to the streets and visit all the outlets that may be interested but all to no effect. Next you try direct selling to the public, via newspaper advertising, but finally, after wasting several years and all your savings, you resign to the fact that this just isn't going to work.
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
First let's remember this is just an example and the following is no true representation of the Ironing market. It is a scenario that may or may not be real but let's, for sake of illustration, imagine that the following is what you would have found if you had investigated your market before you developed your product.
The basic idea of the ironing gadget was good. It worked and it saved you hours of time with your ironing. But that is your experience. Remember, you are a Martian, not like the rest of us. You don't have hair or teeth so you don't need relevant brushes, your skin is green so you don't need tanning products, you iron your clothes on a daily basis, just like everyone else, or do they ?
Perhaps not every one does iron their clothes daily or even weekly. Maybe the average person doesn't even use their iron but put the majority of their clothes in the clothes dryer to tumble out the creases. Now I am sure this is not the case but I know some people do this. Could it be that most people do it this way and so there is no market for ironing gadgets. "There must be a market", you cry, "just look in the electrical shops at all those irons, of course everyone still irons", but do they ?
Think of the design of an iron. It is tall, it is heavy, it has a long trailing flex and it lives on top of a high table (ironing board). One accidental nudge and down it goes. From that height what chance does it have ?
Could it be
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