Almost three years ago (July 13, 2006) I was riding in a car driven by a friend. When we came to a stop, we were blocking a drive way and within seconds, we were struck in the passenger side by a motorist backing out of her long driveway in her mid sized SUV. Yes, I was injured, and I am still having medical issues, but that is not what this blog entry is about.
Here in Oregon, you must sue the drivers and then their insurance companies will pay for and supply the defense attorneys. I had to sue my friends. I don’t like that but, again, that is not what this blog entry is about.
It is about a legal system that has lost its direction. I am the injured party, I am the plaintiff or so I thought.
I have Blogged about real estate since 2006 and I was fairly accurate in my prediction of the housing bubble and subsequent “POP” thereof. I tell you this to get your attention on what I am going to share with you now.
PEOPLE! You are STILL NOT paying attention! I thought that SOMEONE would have addressed this before now.
It is NOT the inflated value of the house that caused the problem, it is not the “toxic loans” that caused the problem, IT IS THE COMPOUND INTEREST that caused the problem.
I am a former Realtor in two states, I had licenses from 1974 to 1989.
In SMM, the very first activity is to decide what is your target market. So, I am going to blog about Target Markets. In years past you had few choices, but today that is entirely different. As an example: Gender specific and generation Specific. Which gender is more likely the decision makers in a family unit? That depends on the product. In this example the product is an automobile.
Lets sell to a family unit, say dad, mom, little Billy and sister Suzy. He wants a red 2 door with plenty of power, she wants a safe, reliable multi door utilitarian vehicle. They drive a Crossover (part minivan-part car, i.e. Chrysler Pacifica) off the lot in a soothing shade of blue. In this case, your target market was the woman/mom/wife/working mom and you message was safe, reliable, easy to drive, somewhat efficient and very practical.
How do you sell a car to a woman. You use the internet. You tell a story about how your vehicle keeps the family unit safe, ease of operation, efficiency and comfort. You use all the SM tools to constantly and consistently tell the story. They have coined a term called “Mommy Bloggers” partially because of the appeal of blogging and partially because women understand at the gene level that social networking lowers risk and the SM phenomena has just become their tool of choice to lower risk, confirm a decision and share the experience.
Here is a chart of the top 10 activities that Mommy Bloggers do online.
Mommy Bloggers
Social Media Marketing.
In days past, the Advertising Moguls decided that every venue that was used to vend news and information was fair game for “intrusive” marketing, hence 40 junk food commercials on television (and cable TV) from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on every channel. The mere fact that they are intruding on my time that I have allotted to entertain or inform myself is bad enough, but to play those noisy, ill-witted and foul commercials so often is beyond my and many others tolerance. That is why I and many others use TIVO on my TV, Ad Blockers on the computer and AntiSpam email programs in admittedly, a not so great attempt at control of the infliction of cerebral congestion and confusion.
Fortunately, some of the Ad Firms have hired new, more forward looking think tank Advertisement gurus. From that never-to-be-identified tank, comes new ways of marketing.
Tags: Advertising Moguls, Inbound Marketing, Intrusive Marketing, Outbound Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Network
I have a friend that says he is a “Business Man”
Yes, he is a business man, but NOT a good business man. He has done NONE of the items below.
Good Business Man/Woman Checklist
- Run the business as a BUSINESS, not a hobby.
- Build the business with the intention of selling it someday. Whether you do or not, you will always know the value should you NEED to sell. (see # 6)
- Keep your employees at a bit of a distance, don’t treat them like friends at work, even if they are your friends. Have ALL employees sign non disclosure agreements. (see # 7)
- Keep good records. This would include a daily journal of all your contacts made during the day and all of the major ‘events’ of the day. It is best that you keep this in a hand written format because in a court of law it is very good evidence of the event occurring on that day unlike a computer kept journal that can be modified at any time.
- Keep good financial records. If you do not know where you are you cannot plot a course change to get where you are going.
- Build and maintain a business plan. BUILD THE PLAN AND WORK THE PLAN! Here is a million dollar tip (LITERALLY). In your business plan ALWAYS have an exit strategy. Assume that you will want to sell your business in five years, if you have not kept records properly how are you going to place a value on the business? Also, if you need to sell for any reason before your Exit Plan you can simply change the date in your ongoing business plan and state that you are selling because your Exit Date has arrived. Why? If you cannot state a valid reason to sell, such as the Exit Plan, a buyer will assume there is an emergency and will offer much less hoping to buy your business for pennies on the dollar.
- Keep your mouth SHUT! Do NOT discuss your internal affairs of your business with your friends, employees or your family (spouse excluded unless they are a gadabout). Lets assume you are approaching the Exit time and you are looking around for a buyer. If your key employees know this, they may start looking for another job and go to your competitor and tell them you are selling the business and that they are looking for a job. Your competition can go to your customers and say that you are going out of business and your customers should switch to them. Or worse, you plan on approaching the competition to see if they are interested in buying your business and your employee has already been there and told the things that would allow your competition to offer less money. Think of any other scenarios.
- During the Exit or sale of your business, always shop your business to multiple potential buyers. Let them all know that there are other interested parties and let the bidding begin!
- Have each interested party sign a non disclosure agreement before you even tell them you are there to sell the business. It is easy to do, most business people know and can appreciate a non disclosure and will sign one even if you say something like; ” Bob, I want to share some information with you that is very sensitive and I need you to sign a non disclosure before I give you any information.” Who wouldn’t sign that just to hear what is going to be shared?
- Always know what your industry multiple factor is. Each type of business has its own number. The VALUE of a business is worth X times gross sales. If your business had gross sales of $2 million and the industry multiple factor is 5, then your business is worth $10 Million.
There is a lot more on this subject, I will get a pdf available soon that in an indepth list of common mistakes that will devalue your business.
Tags: Business Man, Good Business Checklist, good financial records, industry multiple factor, non disclosure agreement
I have been too busy as of late to make many posts. I will be making posts much more often from no on, I PROMISE.