For those of you that know the answer, it is easy and for those of you that do not, you really need to pay attention here.

It is simple. The answer is just two words, Social Media…

Because of Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites out there, good news and bad news is going to not only travel fast, but in volumes and with ease like has never been seen before other than perhaps when our grandparents lived in small towns and everyone knew what was going on almost immediately.

With the advent of mobile devices having instant access to the Internet, potential customers and customers alike will be able to instantly find out if you are worth spending money on.  And if you suck at customer service, you will not survive period.

Those businesses that do have great customer service, will thrive and wipe out their competition in a relatively short period of time as their competition dies on the vine wondering what the hell happened to all of their customers.

This is especially true for Brick and Mortar companies. And for those those that still don’t have a decent Website or a Social Media game plan, they are going to be history in short order.

While it is true that you may end up facing some undo pressure from the customer, who let’s all just say it out loud, is an Asshole from Hell when they go on a rant, most smart customers will recognize them for what they are and they will be ostracized and their opinions will not be held in high regard.

So, if you have not gotten off your duff and gotten your Social Media program together, then you really need to get your act together and quickly and beef up your customer service. Because good, bad, or indifferent, news really is going to travel like lightning and you need to keep an handle on what is being said about you and your company and respond to it and fast.

But the best defense is truly a good offense and that is simply treat your customers well!  If you have not seen this yet, here is a 5 minute introduction to Twitter.

Cheers,
Andrew

Gold, Silver, Oil, and Apple Computers

Let’s us start with Apple. I was talking to people about purchasing Apple Call options in the 100′s a couple of years out and predicting that you would make over 50%. Well, how about making 800%+?

The same with Gold, Silver, and Oil. The same things that were driving them then, are driving all of them now, except things are in high gear.

Anyone that is an adult and says that deficit spending and the Feds printing money that has no backing as fast as they can is a good thing is an idiot period.

That is why Gold has reached new highs on a daily basis and the same with Silver, and why Apple has been on a tear from the $90s up nearly $290.

The kicker is, I do not see anything that is going to stop it unless the Republicans end up with a landslide and stop the craziness that is causing this.  They don’t have to pass anything, more so just stopping things.  Stopping the largest tax increase in History for small businesses would be a nice start.

Oil could go well back above $140. What that means is $5 gas again. All because of Politicians. Cool, Huh? OK, not really but that is the way the cookie is crumbling at the moment.

As I have said before, where there is Chaos, there is opportunity, but this is like playing in a house that is on fire. Still, you can snag the valuables if you are suited up for it.

How? Well, sell your product overseas in US dollars because the bottom is falling out of it. What does this mean? It means that because the Feds are printing money 24/7, the dollar is losing value on a daily basis. Which in a sense is stealing money from everyone in a very sneaky way. Your house, your car, your bank account is becoming worth less every day.

What this means is that for currencies that are not fiat or based on nothing, those people in countries or people smart enough to trad out of the dollar and hold other currencies can buy US products for pennies on the dollar.

That is about the only bright spot going on at the moment. So, I will be talking about how to sell your products outside the US and profit from the inflation in the US dollar that is happening right now and will continue to ramp up. Most of the people out there do not have a clue as to how to capitalize on this or, even realize what is going on at all.  I will do my best to show you how.  There will be ways to make lemonade out the lemon storm that has already started.

This might make the 70′s and early 80′s look like a picnic. Get ready for a ride and get ready to make some serious money if you are prepared for it.

Cheers,
Andrew “Easy” Anderson

Entrepreneurial Leverage – The X Factor That Allows The Individual To Beat Big Companies Every Time

Here is how and why the man or woman in their Garage, Basement, or Bedroom that is hoping to start a business and beat the big companies out there that have hundreds of employees and millions of dollars at their disposal can do it.

I have written about this before over the years but I think that I have honed it down so that everyone with two neurons firing (that could be me on a good day) can understand it. Here is the secret to how you as an Entrepreneur can beat the big guys.

First I want to layout some ground work that I have done before but, I want to put this all inside one nut shell.

The thing that we have to start off with is Moore’s Law which is Gordon Moore of Hewlett Packard fame that says basically this….

The capability and speed of computer chips will double every 18 months and the price will be cut in half.

This has remained true since 1965 if you can believe it or not.

What does this mean to our conversation about the Entrepreneur being able to take on big companies?

Well, first off while many people know this, very few realize how fundamentally this has changed business.

Washington And Most Companies Don’t Get It And How Moore’s Law Has Drastically And Fundamentally Changed The Economy Forever

First and foremost most medium and large businesses do not realize how this has changed things and most assuredly the Government has not realized it either.

Over 70% of all people are employed by small businesses currently and nearly 90% of all new jobs are now being created by them, in spite of the Government’s best attempt to not only not help Small Businesses, but, make running and starting one even more and more difficult if not practically impossible.

In the recent stimulus package for instance while there were hundreds of billions given to large businesses, did you know that there was more money given to the National Endowment For The Arts than to Small Businesses? That is how out of touch Washing DC and even most Politicians in most States have become. When it comes to this basic tenant of the Economy and how much things have changes since the 70′s, Politicians truly are worse than clueless and what they did has hurt the ability of Small Businesses to borrow money and survive and thrive which is one of the main reasons I believe the Goobers in DC were surprised at the climbing unemployment rates.

So let me explain why the folks in DC and a lot of others don’t understand what is going on. Because of Moore’s Law, and what it has done to computers, you as an individual can sit in your underwear in your Bedroom or on the beach for the matter and do the work of 15 to 17 people say five to seven years ago. Or even only 24 months ago as I will show you.

And actually I put the multiplier at 17 people about every 2 years now. I will show you why in a later post and I am calling is “Anderson’s Entrepreneurial Law”.  So what this means is that when it comes to being able to produce a professional looking products online, put up sales pages, ordering, even accounting and customer service, even only 5 years ago, what you can do by yourself now, would have taken 15 to 20 people to do.

Plus, prices have dropped dramatically.  A url or domain name used to cost $100 ten years ago, now you can get them at places like GoDaddy.com (see link to the right) for under $10.

The same thing for hosting, and websites, and a host of other tools you need to go online.

Now lets also bring in another fact that I think is just as critical and that is speed of implementation. I have also written extensively on the past about this as well.

Here is how Ms. and Mr Entrepreneur can run circles around the big boys. If you have ever worked in even a relatively good sized company, there is a whole chain of command that you have to run through to get anything new done. There the whole inevitably internal political chain of command that an idea has to run the gauntlet of and then there is the real one that the idea has to survive as well.

First worker Bee A has a great idea for a widget to solve a problem she sees people having on the Web.  She knows she can probably fix it by doing x, y, and z and it would take her at most 2 weeks to get the solution done.

But….

Here are just a couple of scenarios. She presents it to her immediate supervisor and depending on if the supervisor has any brains or is in a good mood or not, she might say , “that is stupid” or “that is kind of good” or “that is great but we should do it like this”. Now the brilliant million dollar idea might get shot down at the start because the supervisor is ignorant, does not feel like starting anything new, is jealous she did not think of it, or knows that her supervisor does not like ideas.

But regardless, there are at least a dozens of hurdles that the idea must overcome, and even if it does not get shot down, it may become so changes by the time it gets approved because everyone wants to put in their two cents worth that the solution may not work.

Couple that with a time frame that could realistically be months or years for the idea to actually get out there, the opportunity is more than likely gone.

Now take the same million dollar idea with our intrepid Ms. Entrepreneur. She see the problem, comes up with the solution, creates the fix herself or outsources it and two weeks later she introduces it to the market place and it is a hit and the million dollar idea pays her a million dollars.

This scenario is repeated thousands and thousands of times each and every day. She who gets to the market place first more often than not wins the game before other even realize there was one going on.

An Entrepreneur’s Distinct Advantage

The key for the Entrepreneur is to successfully use the leverage that Moore’s law provides and the speed of implementation that is simply not available to medium to large companies..

Now this is easier said than done, but in the next few weeks, I am going to lay out the exact tools provided to us by Moore’s law that you can use compete and beat the big boys at their own game.

As you may know I get to Beta Test quite a few things before they get out to the public and there are some tools that are coming out soon that are going to totally level the playing field and be game changers for most of what is going on with the web and marketing.

And I have not heard a peep about what I am going to share with you anywhere else. Really mind blowing cool stuff.

In the meantime, remember, you have a big advantage!

Cheers,

Andrew “Easy” Anderson

I have seen this quite a bit recently with many businesses when it comes to searching for talent or opportunity for their business.  Be it Web Design, SEO, sales, or Consulting Help, and even new customers.

The businesses that do this are seriously shooting themselves in the foot.  In fact to use yet another gruesome analogy it is like throwing a Frog in a pot of cold water and turning on the heat until it boils.  The Frog won’t jump out, but if you put him in Hot water, they hop right out.

In other words, you won’t know you are cooked until it is too late.

Just think about it.  There are now millions of people that you can reach on the Web and just from a statistics standpoint, the guy or gal down the street is not going to even be in the top 5% best at what they do but, the person that you can snag on the Internet is?

So why would you want a second string player when your competition is playing with All Stars?

Can you imagine any sports team from College on up just getting players locally?  Well of course not.  So you should not be doing it either.

If you do, you are just making my job easier when your competition hires me.    Perhaps I should say thanks in advance if you are one of the Yokels.

Cheers,

Andrew

I did this interview when this book first came out and I see that there a few people have picked on just how valuable this really is and are starting to teach it.  But, why not get it from the Horse’s mouth so to speak instead.

Get comfortable and take a listen to an interview I did with the author of the new book Personality Language.  Listen in as we discuss how using Personality Language can dramatically boost your profits.

This is a totally new way to reach not only new customers, but get a lot more sales from your existing customers.

I hope to have more chats with her about this mind-blowing new way to communicate with your customers and increase your profits.

We talk about how Personality Language and you will find out why you want to layout all of your Blog posts, Sales Letters, and Information Products this way if you want to have the most success with them and become profitable.

Marilyne Woodsmall and Wyatt Woodsmall, who are Human Success Modelers  wrote  this as a primer to introduce this new way of thinking.

While you may not have ever heard of them before, I can bet that you have heard of, or seen on TV, or on the Internet, or read the books of some of the many people that either one or both of them have coached.  People like Anthony “Tony” Robbins, Eben Pagan of Internet Marketing fame (if you have never heard of him before, under the pen name David DeAngelo who sells over $20,000,000 of Dating eBooks and Advice on the Internet every year and doesn’t even have a published “real book”) , Joe Polish of Piranha Marketing, world-class Marketer and Joint Venture specialist extraordinaire, and finally a host of Olympic Athletes and Coaches that brought home oodles of Medals, and quite a few other people that you have heard or seen as well.

Again the Woodsmall’s don’t go out of their way to mention them as they don’t like to talk about the people that they have worked or are working with all that much. It is just the way they operate, and I can respect that.

The only reason that I bring these people up is help you give some weight to what I am about to share with you.  The folks that I mentioned have used what they learned from Marilyne and Wyatt to help make themselves tens of millions of dollars and to achieve success at a world class level that very few people are ever able to obtain.

Part of what those individuals did to obtain those ultra-high levels of success was to Leverage, with a capital L, what Marilyne and Wyatt gave to them to propel themselves to higher levels of success faster than they could have done on their own.

Now imagine if you had access to that same type of information that you could use to Leverage yourself to those ultra-high levels of success and profitability?  Now you can.

Take a listen and let me know what you think.

Press the play button and find out how to improve your sales with Personality Language.

1.mp3

Or you can download it here Marilyne Woodsmall Interview.

Click below on the book cover to order the book and type in 21 to get a $5.00 discount.  I can’t recommend this book enough.  It is a game changer.  I will also be posting other interviews with Marilyne and Wyatt as soon I can talk them into giving up more information.

Even if you don’t buy the book, go and sign up for their newsletter at www.PersonalityLanguage.com as it is well worth it.

All of the clutter and noise of the day is gone and it seems like my fore brain and subconscious meld.

Today, I spoke with members of my team scattered all across the globe.  From Europe, to America, and Canada, to the South Pacific and Asia.

I also did an interview with Dave Olson from HootSuite today as well.  Should have it posted later yet this morning.  Awesome interview with a super nice and cool guy who is with one of my favorite companies right now.  They know how to do software and services right.  Wait until you hear the interview.  They absolutely get it, it being Social Media.   Plus, they get Direct Marketing too, which most of the big boys don’t.  Hell, not only big boys, but, medium and small boys, and or girls for that matter do not get the fact that Social Media and the Web is nothing but direct marketing. 

Which reminds me, I am overdue for an update on Drayton Bird’s Common Sense Social Media Challenge.  OK, get that done later today there Anderson.  Yes, you know you are definitely tired when you start referring to yourself in the third person in a Blog post.

On top of that, I am working on some fantastically fun and exciting projects and working with some of the sharpest people I have ever had the pleasure to bump elbows with on a daily basis in my career.

It is because of these people that with all of the projects that are going on,  someone, somewhere in the World, 24 hours a day is working on one or more of the parts and pieces of the puzzle.

This has not only allowed me to finish projects so far ahead of estimates that I am flabbergasted, but even the ones that are running behind, are running behind because of the caliber of the team that has enables us to  increase the functionality, features, and usability of the project drastically beyond what we had first envisioned.

Because we are now truly plugged into the World, I am finding that mountains can be moved overnight.

If you ever get a chance to experience this, it is truly something to behold if you are a builder and creator of things.  I will be doing and in-depth examination of this process later on so that you can glimpse inside and I can explain how it was put together and hopefully recreate it yourself.

Now if I could only find an editor that kept the same crazy hours I do, or just maybe I will hire a few more to cover all of the shifts. 

Cheers,
Andrew (sleepy) Anderson

I am going to explain how getting one could help you make a lot more money.

This is a two part Blog post.  This post  is before I have one of my Editors look at it and the next one will be after I have my Editor go through it.  It may be a miracle if there are no corrections but, I would not put money on it. 

How can not having an editor be costing you thousands or even 10′s of thousands of dollars?   Let me start out by saying that I am the King of mis-spellings, bad grammar and punctuation, on top of making up words, purposely mis-spelling others and being fond of alliteration, so bear with me as I explain this for my situation and how it can also affect you.

So, first off I have really bad dyslexia, which is rather ironic because of the fact that I make money from my writing.  What happens it the the conversation that I have in my head makes perfect sense, that is until I start to type it out and things get all messed up.  Usually, whole sentences will come out backwards and spelling and grammar are  arbitrary things.   I truly look at this as a gift and a competitive edge because this is just part of the way that my brain is wired and it allows me to see and recognize complex situations and see connections and create answers before a whole lot of other people.    But the bottom line is that if you or I have typos, bad grammar and punctuation, it does not matter how great your product or service is, no one is going to buy it!

Here is a fact. Most of us truly do judge a book by it’s cover no matter what we say, a lot of people and clients can’t see past the typo’s and grammar and realize just how much more profit I can help them make.

Do not get me wrong, a lot of people do get “it”, but at the same time, a lot of clients that would normally be lapping up everything that I have to offer don’t get past it.  This makes me a bit upset because I know they are going to end up with some Whanker of a consultant that can spell better but does not know his or her rear end from a hole in the ground about what they are doing and that potential client is going to lose out because of it.

That is what makes me most mad about it.  Of course it took me a while to realize it because while I do like to read things that are spelled correctly, to me it does not matter. But it does matter to some people and you and I need to care about them.

What is the answer?  Get an Editor, they could pay for themselves in 10 minutes for the whole year!    Seriously, if you blog or send out letters or copy, and you are not the worlds best at spelling, grammar, or punctuation, then get an Editor NOW!

Get one that likes to edit, there are people out there that love to do it and that is who you want.  It is easy for them too.   I am probably on the low-side but I pay mine $20 dollars and hour.   Crap, after this though, I am probably going to have to give them a raise.  But, whatever I pay them it is an absolute bargain in that it still probably only costs me about 50 cents to $5 per blog post on average to have one of them go over and get it right.

This means that I could pick up a $10,000 client because I spent 50 cents to $5 dollars on editing that post that caught their interest. Where else can you get this type of return?

Think about it.  People judge you by your output on the Web these days.  This is true in your Blogs, Website, your emails, everything.

As I say this, I still post to my Blog before I have one of my Editors go through it.    They usually are not up at 3:00 AM when I get a cool idea and feel compelled to do a post. But I am slowly disciplining myself to have them at least go over it quickly after I post it.  I probably won’t ever completely brake myself of the habit, but I am doing it a lot less now after I figured out how much money it could be costing me.

I still need to have them go through this site with a fine tooth comb.  If you look at any of the posts, you can tell when one of them looked at it or not quite easily.

Now, all of this being said, I don’t want you to say you can’t afford one either because you can and here is why.   I am going to make both of mine available to you.  Both have degrees and they are awesome at what they do.  They can help make you look like the genius that you are.

Now yes, I know you can probably find ones a bit cheaper,  but you really do get what you pay for in this one particular area up to a point.  I also know that you can pay a whole lot more for ones that are less competent.  It took me quite awhile to find these two.

Here is the deal. You can purchase one hour of their time for $20 at a time.   You can purchase as many hours as you need.  One hour  should cover a number of blog posts or pages on your website.

Just click on the button below and they will get you hooked up.   If you don’t, you will never know how much business you are losing.

Cheers,

Andrew

PS  For fun, just look at both of these posts and compare them.

So, if you need Video Transcription, you now know where to go.

Cheers,
Andrew Anderson
www.YakWrite.com

Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

I am bumping this post up because I am reminded of the value and transcendental truth of this yet again.

The first time I heard that adage from two young guys named Hollis and Carter, it was like someone slapped me upside the head and it was game changer for me.

(As some of you may know, I have been involved in what has become a rather large software project that as they often do, is taking a bit longer to put together than we had hoped, yet is still on track for doing what we had planned it to do.

What we planned for it to do is basically make everything that I had cussed various Web designers, Programmers and pieces software out for and make it easy to do for an amateur.  That is make it easy to put together Websites, Blogs, Sales and Squeeze pages, and Shopping Carts for someone with no technical skills whatsoever.

Basically we wanted to give someone who’s sole technical skill was to check their email, the ability to create what normally only professional Website developers and Programmers could do at a huge cost, and on top of that, be able to do it in a few hours, not in a few days or weeks that it would take a Pro to do.

Guess what? We freakin pulled it off and I think it is going to be a game changer as far as how Websites, Blogs, Landing Pages, and profitable online businesses are put together.

My point about bringing this up is that this never could have happened had we not planned to do this at the outset.  Regardless of how many people said it could never be done, if we had not properly planned it out, it would not have been brought into being and we would have ended up with just another piss poor piece of software.)

The impact was so great because in the Organization People Pattern(tm) of my Personality Language(tm) profile, I am a Free Spirit and I never used to like to really plan anything because it bugged the heck out of me. I know the reason why and it was mostly because I was rebelling against the rigid Structurists that were around me.

By the way, if you have not read the book Personality Language yet, I highly suggest it. It is kind of mind blowing as to what it will tell you about what makes you and others tick.  I learned more in that book about basic human behavior than any other book that I have read.

Back to the 7 Ps.  What I finally realized that if you don’t have Prior Proper Planning you are almost always doomed to Piss Poor Performance in everything you do in Business.  That is to say if you don’t know the desired outcome you want and know the steps you need to take to get there, you won’t arrive anywhere close to your goal.

Kind of like going across country on a deadline and not having a map.  Yet, I used to do it all of the time.  So now, I just take out a piece of  paper and write down what I need to get done, some specific steps in order to accomplish it and bam, things get done.

Amazingly easy but it does work and I highly suggest it. ALSO, I highly recommend that you use Bubbl.us ! to set up Mind Maps and Blueprints of your plan. . Here is a link that shows you what it can do.  It is free.

Here is to Prior Proper Planning Preventing Piss Poor Performance.