My friend Samantha sells fashion jewelry—eye-catching bracelets and necklaces made from glass, beads, and colored stones—that she strings together herself. Over the years, she has made decent money out of this small business, enough to pay for her weekly shopping and personal needs.
Last year, however, Samantha’s profits began paying for trips to exotic places like Bali and Ibiza. Amazed at her sudden prosperity and the fact that she now employed eight people, I asked her what her secret was.
With a conspiratorial look on her face, she whispered to me: “Online social networking.”
Well, getting income from one’s online social network isn’t really a big secret anymore, but neither is it a beaten path. You need to know certain facts about it to make the utmost use of it, like my friend Samantha does.
Here are the reasons why online social networking works: First, it makes globalization possible even for small businesses. Second, it is an inexpensive method of generating new sales because there are no advertising costs; if you’re selling quality products, for instance, your social network will spread the word even without being asked to do so. Third—and here is where online social networking departs from virtual marketplaces and auction sites like eBay—mutual trust is already in place because your social network consists of people you personally know.
In the last century, direct marketing through face-to-face social networking created industry giants out of businesses like Avon and Tupperware. It was easy and fun work; the sales reps simply called their friends and invited them to parties that conveniently became venues for showing and selling their products.
In the computer age, social networking has evolved and has become even easier. If you’re online everyday anyway, you might as well profit from it. It’s the easiest and most economical thing you can do to boost your sales. Just keep constantly in touch with your social contacts, and keep expanding your network. Let six degrees of separation work for you. A friend of a friend can also become your friend, and so on. If you keep adding contacts this way on a regular basis, the number of your prospective customers will become virtually limitless.
Internet sites for socializing like Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook are not just for posting blogs and photos; they can also be virtual marketplaces. However, you’d be navigating through tricky waters if you use these sites for commercial purposes, so you need to know exactly how to use them without getting in trouble with the law. I will show you how to do this, but first, check out online socializing sites that have the biggest memberships.
Sites like these typically contain small-print terms of service that prohibit commercial use by their members. If you violate these terms, the listed penalties range from civil (you pay damages) to criminal (you go to jail) and injunctive (you will be prohibited from doing certain acts)—not to mention removal of the content of your page or deletion of your entire profile altogether (if you have not saved your contacts database elsewhere, say goodbye to your customers).
Among the prohibited activities are spamming, solicitations of strangers to add you to their list of contacts, solicitation to buy or sell any product, and so on. However, a few of these sites do allow limited commercial activity (read the terms of service to find out which ones do), but first, you must secure an express written consent from the site’s management, after which you must follow the restrictions and refrain from selling disallowed products.
Sites that absolutely prohibit all kinds of commercial activity are naturally trickier. Since nobody ever complains or reports violations of terms of service, some members open online stores in them anyway. However, the fact that no one has reported you thus far as a violator doesn’t mean no one ever will.
Protect yourself by using these sites only for networking. Don’t do your actual selling there, although in your personal profile, you may show your e-mail address and list your business as one of your occupations; for example: “antique furniture dealer” or “fashion jewelry wholesaler.” As your online relationship with your new contacts gets more personal and comfortable, politely ask for their e-mail or phone number. If they give it to you, you may offer them your product using those contact details; but if they don’t, take the hint and don’t bug them anymore.
One last note: Traditional consumer protection laws apply to online and phone sales, so never sell defective products, do not overprice, do deliver on time, and do be courteous to everyone. If you follow these time-tested rules, you might just hit it big sooner than you expect and find yourself in glamorous Ibiza this summer—just like my intrepid friend Samantha.
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Build success with habits instead of resolutions
Online entrepreneur and The Secret teacher Joe Vitale says, "Success is the sum of small efforts performed day in and day out." This means that success rarely comes from making grand resolutions. Instead, they come from consistent actions called habits.
Here's a five-step plan to help you maximize the power of habits:
1. Be CLEAR about your top three goals.
Be as specific as you can about your goals, what they mean to you, and how you would feel when you've achieved them. Be SO clear, in fact, that you can describe exactly what you'll be doing at this time of day when you've already achieved your goals.
This first step is extremely important, because when you're completely sure about the direction you're going, it's easier for you to come up with alternative ways to get there. You'll also quite easily recognize when you're already there.
2. Outline a clear STRATEGY that will help you achieve each goal.
Once you're sure that these are the goals you really want for yourself and your business, the next step is to set up the strategies that will naturally lead you towards attaining your goals. This might involve revising your marketing techniques, rethinking your target market, modifying your unique selling proposition, or even revising your business model.
This step requires you to plan backwards: Once you know what your goals look like, you can instruct your mind to retrace the steps to get to your goals as soon as possible.
3. Identify the 'foundation habits' that will support your strategies.
Remember how success is built on small, daily actions? Now that you have your goals and your strategies, find out what five basic action habits you need to implement in order to make sure you stick to your plan.
For example, here are two of the most basic habits of successful people:
•the habit of reviewing your goals daily, before you do anything else in your office. This habit will help keep you on track about what's really important to you and your life, not just what seems urgent at the moment
•the habit of committing at least one hour each day focused exclusively on moving closer towards your goals (both personal and professional).
4. Set up a system that establishes your new habits.
One of the simplest systems you can use is the "Chain Method." On a month-a-page calendar that you always see, draw a thick horizontal oval (a.k.a., a "chain link") across the square on days you actually perform your habit. As the days go by, you will see your "successful habit implementation days" as a growing chain stretching across your calendar, encouraging you to not break the chain!
Once you do a habit for 30 days straight, you'd have established another "small daily action that leads to success."
5. Finally, surround yourself with the right people.
The "right people" fall under three categories:
Energizers: These are the people you can really talk to about your goals, and after each encounter with them you find that they have re-energized you with their enthusiasm and belief.Pressurizers: These are people who, like you, are also committed to turning their goals into reality, and every time you hear about their small successes they motivate you to try harder, hang in there longer, and generally surprise yourself by achieving more than you thought possible.Mentors: These are the people who are already living the kind of success you want, and hanging around them helps you learn faster about the business or industry than you would just by reading about them.
We all know that information and theory are great--which is why self-help and reference books are a staple in every entrepreneur's library --but nothing beats actually putting theory into practice while getting the support of people who will not allow you to give up.
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