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DuctTapeMarketing.com
May 18, 2004
In this issue:
Featured Resource - Elance - A
great way to get work done
Featured Tip - Marketing - How To Make
What You're Really Worth
Featured Reading - Eats, Shoots & Leaves -
A Zero Tolerance
Approach to
Grammar - Lynne Truss
Featured Listening - Sittin' Here Pickin'
The Blues - Doc and Merle Watson
Vote for my
Weblog!
Marketing Sherpa is sponsoring what they call the "Readers' Choice Awards
for Weblogs"
The
Duct Tape Marketing Weblog has been
nominated as one of only three weblogs to make the cut for the Small
Business Marketing category.
I would really appreciate it if you would
take a minute and cast a vote for my weblog. I enjoy producing this
material each week and this is one of the ways that I can keep doing it.
Go here to cast your vote. You can vote for blogs in other categories
and you may have a good time surfing to all of these blogs, but my blog
in in category #5 for small business marketing.
To vote
Thanks
for subscribing - John
Featured Resource -
Elance
Elance - If you are not familiar with Elance you need to be.
At the Elance site you describe a service you need in your such as
business logo, web site, sales letter, translation, or software program
and then designers and programmers from around the world bid on your
work request. You can view feedback from past customers and see sample
of work. A great place to get all kinds of design, programming, writing
and editing services. I use it all of the time to outsource work that I
have no business trying to do myself. (see the article below for an
explanation of that last comment)
Featured Tip
Marketing - The Way To
Make What You're Really Worth
By John Jantsch
You only have so much time in a day right?
So wouldn't it make sense to focus as much of your time as possible on
the things that produce the highest payoff.
I don't know about you but most small business owners are do-it-yourself
types and get sucked into doing the littlest silly work faster than you
can say "Oh look, the copier is jammed again."
If you want to achieve any of your goals and finally start making what
you are worth then you’ve got to stop doing $5/hr work. Period.
As you might have guessed by now, I believe that every business owner's
highest payoff work, or best use of time, is any amount of time spent
creating effective marketing.
Here's a little math quiz that I suggest you play with to help drive
home this point. Figure out how much money you make annually or, better
yet, how much you want or need to make annually to achieve your dreams
and goals.
Now, divide that number by 2080. (That's the number you get if you work
40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year - I know, I know, you work 80 hours
a week but just work with me here.)
The answer you get is what I call your "PAY" or Personal Average Yield.
(I should probably trademark that it’s so clever) The idea here is to
pin down what you are worth an hour and realize that if you can hire
someone to do any of the things you currently spend your time on for
less than that number, you can't afford to do it yourself - did I
mention that you could use the spare time to do some marketing.
So let's run some numbers. Let's say that you want to make 150,000 per
year. Well, using our little formula, that means that you need to be
doing work that is worth a little over 72/hr - 8 hours a day.
But guess what...we haven't even factored in any overhead or costs of
doing business. That number might really get big if you've got those as
well.
This is the point at which many people finally come to understand that
they are undercharging for their services…but that’s another issue all
together.
So I ask you. Is fiddling with the copier, chatting with the mailman,
running to the office supply store, making deliveries, or returning
meaningless email paying you $72/hr? For that matter, doesn’t mowing
your own grass, washing your own car, picking up your dry cleaning, and
getting your oil changed take you away from marketing your business? I
know, now I’m asking you to consider giving up most of the fun things
you like to do everyday but hey, if you can get the neighbor kid to mow
your grass for anything less than $100/hr, therefore giving you 3 hours
to write a killer sales letter - it’s probably a steal
Figure out your PAY number, paint it on the wall in your office, and
then go about setting up your business in a way that allows you to focus
on the only things that can really pay that kind of money: marketing,
innovation, and customer service. – cause everything else is just a cost
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
John Jantsch is a marketing consultant based in Kansas City, Mo. He
writes frequently on real world small business marketing tactics and is
the creator of “Duct Tape Marketing” a turn-key small business marketing
system. Check out his blog at
http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php
- gets these kinds of killer tips weekly by sending an email to
subscribe@ducttapemarketing.com
Featured
Reading
Eats, Shoots & Leaves - A Zero Tolerance Approach to Grammar - Lynne
Truss
Anyone who has read this
newsletter of mine knows that I tend towards conversational style of
writing that can produce ghastly punctuation and grammar. But I love
language. Well, a fussy Brit has written a brilliant book about grammar
and it will be appreciated by sticklers and hacks like me all the same.
Who would have thought a book about grammar could make you laugh. As of
this writing, it is ranked #1 on Amazon.com
Featured Listening and Such
Sittin' Here Pickin' The Blues - Doc and Merle Watson- This actually
of a re-issue and remaster of a classic with 8 tracks added and some of
the finest flat pickin' you're likely to ever hear. Merle Watson is no
longer alive and Doc turned 80 last year. If you get a chance to see
this legendary Appellation Mountain guitar player jump at it. Watson
lost his sight when he was a very small child and it is a joy to watch
how he feels the music. |
