We’ve added a new section to the blog called YE in The News. The point of the new section is to show off some of the many interviews that Young Entrepreneur founders Adam and Matthew Toren and their advice for other young entrepreneurs on how to build a business.

So far we have put up three interviews and I wanted to share some of my favorite highlights from each one:

BusinessNetworkingAdvice.com:

“Successful business networking is the art of creating and cultivating helpful and meaningful business relationships.”

“Keeping all of your contacts organized and staying in touch with your network will also assist you in building upon your biz relations with each person you meet. It’s always good to have a powerful and concise verbal and written synopsis on your own company and growth plans to convey to new individuals that you meet while biz networking.”

“Both myself and my brother seem to change our business card layouts each and every year. We do this because we feel that it’s a great conversation piece and also if your business card stands out from the rest, it will have more of a memorable impact on the people you meet.”

“The best way to network seems to still be the face to face networking and creating a long lasting relationship where you can assist each other with whatever each of you needs. Our network is growing rapidly and we already have a quality connection in almost every industry and almost every country.”

startuploft.typepad.com: 

“All of our traffic comes from “organic” search engine rankings, links from other sites and of course, word of mouth. We have not done any advertising on other sites, but we do plan on doing some strategic advertising over the next few months to continue to build the awareness of the site. The sites popularity started growing rapidly once we integrated the features and solutions that our visitors and members wanted. Asking and listening to our target market has played a big role in growing our online community.”

“We started a small magic company at an early age. We were importing box sets of kids’ magic tricks. Once we mastered all the tricks, we trained a few other people to assist us with managing sales. We rented kiosks at a few local shopping malls during the busy Holiday Shopping season and practically sold out of all of our magic sets before Christmas. It was one of our first big successes.”

“Both my brother and I try and live by these words: “Procrastination is the thief of fortune.” Living by those words have really assisted us in capitalizing on several opportunities that may not have been as rewarding if we had waited. We have quickly realized that a strong team has helped us expedite reaching several of our goals. We always recommend that you find people who are passionate about their role in assisting your company, and they treat their role as if they were the owner. Once you find these ideal employees, treat them very well and have them grow with your organization. We have some employees that have been with us since our first business ventures.”

EvanCarmichael.com:

“We have been fortunate to have each other through the years while going through the various business ‘growth lesson.’ We had learned quite quickly that our business characteristics really complement each other. Matthew recognizes my strengths and I recognize his which always ensures a very high quality, respectful friendship and business relationship. This is extremely important whether you are going into business with a friend or family member, always respect each others opinion and areas of expertise.”

“Be passionate - The important detail is to ensure you are passionate about what you are doing. No matter how much potential your business might have for making money, unless you believe in it, if you don’t believe in it, it’s quite hard to convince other people to. A bit of self-belief can go very long way.”

“Be committed - Hand in hand with passion comes commitment. From day one you’ll need to be dedicated and work incredibly smart, often forgoing friends and certain events in order to get your venture off the ground. You need to ask yourself whether you’re prepared to make that kind of sacrifice and commitment and whether you can keep yourself motivated to put in those long hours. If you’re the sort of person whose new year resolution lasts until January 2nd you might want to think again whether you’ve got what it takes, particularly when things might not be going your way.”

Evan Carmichael

I gave a seminar tonight called SEO for Africa that looked at Picking The Right Keywords & 15 Simple Techniques You Can Use To Get On Page 1. It was a great event and we also raised some money for African entrepreneurs. I thought it would be valuable to the Young Entrepreneur community to share some of the insights that came from the event.

The first part dealt with finding the best keywords for your site.

Here is the foolproof way that anyone can find the best keywords to use:

1) Build a keyword list

Look at your website and come up with a variety of keywords that you think would be relevant. Try to get at least 8-10 important key words / key phrases on the list. Based on the Young Entrepreneur forums, a list of keywords for YE could be something like:

• Young entrepreneur
• Business startup ideas
• Business funding
• New small business idea
• Business flyer
• Become an entrepreneur
• Teen entrepreneurs
• Entrepreneur bio
• Make money today

2) Expand the list with Google

Google has created a keyword tool for its AdWords advertisers that website owners can also use for SEO purposes. Best of all it’s free! Just go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal, and enter in your keywords from step one. Also make sure that the Use synonyms button has been clicked. This will help give you more ideas.

3) Sort the list

The challenge in effective SEO is finding keywords that are popular enough that you can drive traffic but there isn’t much competition to rank for that keyword. You can be ranked number one for a particular keyword but if nobody is searching for it, who cares?

Fortunately Google tells you exactly which keywords are popular (average search volume) and which are the most competitive (advertiser competition). All you have to do is look for the keywords that have a decent average search volume and low advertiser competition. Google even gives you a huge list of ideas - all for free!

I put in the potential Young Entrepreneur keywords and found some interesting results! While some keywords will be very difficult to rank for, such as business funding, small business funding, become an entrepreneur, and business startup ideas, there are some serious opportunities to be made with other keywords. These promising ones include: business flyer template and entrepreneur bio. Both of these keywords have good search volume and very little competition.

If I were to run this search again with more keywords I could find additional ideas for keywords to optimize around.

4) Which is the most relevant for your business?

There are thousands upon thousands of opportunities to rank for keywords but which will drive the most quality traffic to your site? After you build your list of keywords that have traffic and little competition, analyze them carefully to see which ones will give you clients. Not all traffic is created equally after all.

In Young Entrepreneur’s case, would business flyer template or entrepreneur bio be more appropriate? Perhaps the answer is neither and the search can continue for new keywords.

You don’t need to stress out trying to guess the perfect keywords - simply use Google’s free tools to help create the combinations you are looking for.

Evan Carmichael

Venture Capital - Stages Of Financing

The first stage of financing is to raise money from personal savings, credit cards, friends, and family. It is sometimes known as “golf-course preferred” when you ask people to invest in your company after meeting socially or playing a round of golf together.

You need to build significant critical mass before you can attract an outside angel or venture capital investor and eventually to secure an initial public offering (IPO). The developing of the necessary critical mass can take years of hard work.

There are some companies called incubators that will take an early stage business and guide them through the entire process of building an enterprise but will take a large percentage of your company in return.

Venture Capital - What To Consider Before Raising Venture Capital

Venture capitalists want to see more than an idea. They want to see that you have a client list, a finished product that is beyond the beta stage, a clearly defined need in the market place, and sales. They want to see that you have significant traction in place.

Although during some periods, venture capitalists were willing to take a long-term perspective; this is a very rare phenomenon. Most venture capitalists want to see a return in a very short period of time.

An essential characteristic of a successful entrepreneur is the ability to raise capital.

Develop a relationship with your banker before you need the money. The final decision of whether to give you a loan or not rests with the loan officer. If she knows you and understands your business, your chances of receiving the money increase dramatically.

Venture Capital - The Types Of Businesses Venture Capitalists Prefer

Venture capitalists will not invest in anything illegal or immoral. Anything that involves laundered, dirty, or offshore money will not attract venture capital investment.

Otherwise, a venture capitalist will look at any business providing that it meets their criteria of providing a return on investment, having good management, supplying a sound business plan, and demonstrating a developed product or service with revenues.

Some venture capitalists as a matter of policy will restrict themselves to investing in a specific industry. It is the role of the intermediary to know which firms would be willing to invest in your company.

Venture Capital - How Much Money To Ask For

There is no such thing as an overcapitalized small company.

Venture Capital - How To Select The Right Venture Capitalists For Your Firm

Some venture capitalists have highly targeted funds. These fund managers would have a full knowledge of your industry and be able to help spot the opportunity for your business.

Be comfortable with the venture capitalists. Seeking their money is only the beginning of a relationship with them. They will become board members and have a major say in the development of the company’s strategy and policies. It is important that you have good chemistry together, respect each other, and can get along.

Venture Capital - How To Valuate Your Business

The venture capitalists will usually look at your projected, or pro forma, earnings 3 to 5 years from the point of their investment. From there they will deduct a 30% annual return that they expect to receive and will subtract a further percentage for the fact that you are a private and therefore non liquid company. This is known as the pre-money valuation.

Venture Capital - Valuating A Business: Examples

Over the past 3 to 4 years, venture capitalists have been very conservative with their investments. This is because they have had so many problems within their current portfolios that they cannot afford to take the same risks on new companies.

The method of valuation will also depend on your industry. In a traditional, or smokestack, industry there are typically many comparative examples. Here you can work from the earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) of similar companies and apply a ratio to your own business.

New products and technologies pose a valuation problem due to the lack of comparative companies. It is much more difficult to valuate these businesses.

Venture Capital - How Long It Takes To Get The Money

It will usually take between 3 and 4 months. It is very rare to obtain the money in under this 3 to 4 month period.

Raising money is not like hiring people or purchasing new machinery. It is about building confidence between yourself, your company, and the investor. There is a certain of amount of due diligence that will be needed to build this confidence.

Your ability to project your company in both a strategic and factual way will be critical to your success.

The timing also depends on the sophistication of the entrepreneur. It the financing presentation is well laid it, it will make it much easier for the intermediary to get you in front of a venture capitalist.

Make contact with intermediaries and venture capitalists before you need the money. This way they can track your progress, they know you before you need it and it will make it easier for you to obtain the necessary capital. Nobody likes to be rushed, especially venture capitalists.

Evan Carmichael

“I’ve always felt that life should be an adventure,” says home-style guru and multi-millionaire Martha Stewart. “Every day should be important.”

Stewart’s adventures began on August 3, 1941 when she was born into the industrial heartland of Jersey City, New Jersey as Martha Helen Kostyra. The first daughter of six children to her schoolteacher mother and pharmaceutical salesman father, Stewart grew up in a very tight knit middle class family of Polish background. When Stewart was three, the family moved to Nutley, New Jersey. Her father, Edward, was an extremely demanding man who always encouraged his children to have ambitious goals. Stewart’s passion for homemaking seemed to stem from this early period, when her father taught her the techniques of gardening and her mother taught her cooking, baking and sewing.

Today, Stewart makes an annual salary of $3 million, with her net worth totaling over $1.2 billion. Her brainchild, MSLO, not only encompasses television shows and magazines, but also radio programs, direct-mail operations, Internet sales, a line of interior paint, gardening tools, house wares, furniture and more. How did Stewart turn her passion for homemaking and renovations into a multi-million dollar empire?

“My dream now, in retrospect then, was to be an eclectic knowledge-gathering person - in order to be able to learn and then to teach. And I’m still doing that, so I think I am a teacher.

I’m not a sponge exactly, but I find that something I look at is a great opportunity for ideas.

I think it’s very important that whatever you’re trying to make or sell, or teach has to be basically good. A bad product and you know what? You won’t be here in ten years.

I always disagreed with the separation of the name and the brand and the person, … To build on that name and brand is one thing. To divorce the name and the brand from the person was not an approach that I agreed with.

I am a hero worshiper. I love the number one tennis player. I love the number one baseball player. I want to see those records broken.

I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing.

This is what truly interests us, why we all come to work every day … our passion is and always should be to make life better.”

Have you found your calling yet that is more important than sleep?

Evan Carmichael

For this edition of Entrepreneur University we turn to marketing expert Stuart Ayling. Stuart runs Marketing Nous, an Australasian marketing consultancy that specialises in marketing for service businesses. He helps clients to improve their marketing tactics, attract more clients, and increase revenue. Stuart shares his advice on how to get your clients to keep buying more and more from you:

A lot of effort is put into getting new clients. We all know our client base will change. Previous clients can move to a new area, sell their business, close down, or change their priorities. So finding new business is always important - but so is keeping your previous clients. Here are nine ways to keep previous clients coming back for more!

1) Provide exceptional service. Sounds obvious, but is very hard to do consistently. If clients believe they can’t do better elsewhere, they won’t succumb to the temptation of trying another provider.

2) Maintain your database. This can be as simple or complex as you like. Just make sure it meets the needs of your business. You must have suitable contact details, and preferably some measure of sales value. For example, I use email extensively with my clients, so having current email addresses is paramount. But I have clients who must use regular postal mail to communicate with their clients, as their clients do not widely use email. So postal address details are critical in their situation.

3) Use direct mail. This is your pipeline to future sales. Create regular opportunities to communicate directly with your previous clients, especially if your service has a long sales cycle. Keep in touch between purchase decisions.

4) Make special offers. Find ways to encourage previous clients to buy from you. Examples may be: package offers; time sensitive deals; introducing new services; pre-releasing information or products to current clients before the general public.

5) Run special events. Offer a free (or low cost) seminar to your clients on current issues. Invite complementary businesses, local business people, or celebrities to present new ideas. Use breakfast meetings, lunchtime executive briefings, or evening functions. The key here is to add value for your clients, outside of their usual dealings with you.

6) Write a note. Get a pen and write a personal message. This could be triggered by seasonal activities, birthdays, business events, or personal circumstances. Let your clients know you are still thinking of them.

7) Ring them up. Where possible get on the phone to previous clients and have a chat. Make it brief but meaningful. Keep posted on their current projects and priorities. Seek out ways you can help.

8) Promote your business. Demonstrate the value you can provide. If you have recently written a useful report, or presented a topic at a conference, or issued a press release, or conducted some research, or completed an interesting project, tell your clients about it. Don’t keep your hard work a secret.

9) Send reminders. Many businesses have the opportunity to offer ongoing services for previous clients. Send a reminder about servicing, maintenance, periodic reviews, or changes to relevant regulatory requirements.

Evan Carmichael

According to a new survey by Vodafone, today’s young entrepreneurs prefer using email instead of the phone to conduct the majority of their business.

It was found that when going after clients the rate of phone use drops by 30% for entrepreneurs in their 20’s compared to their counterparts in their 40’s.

The survey also discovered that, despite the rapid rise of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, most young entrepreneurs do not see these networks as being able to help them grow their businesses.

However, the survey also revealed that 47% of business owners in their 20’s preferred to network online even though the chances of them landing new business was minimal.

Face to face meetings have still be found to be the number one way to get new clients. An in person meeting was found to have a success ratio of 57% while those who tried getting business via email only found the success rate drop to 37%.

In addition, one in five young entrepreneurs said they would not do business with someone they had not met face to face while 60% said they would not do business with someone they had not spoken with at least on the phone.

Personally, I’ve had success selling face to face, on the phone, and by email. Because I run an online business, most of my clients are not in my city (or country!) so meeting in person is usually not done.

I’ve also found that once somebody starts spending a couple of hundred dollars a month with you they generally like to speak with you by phone prior to getting set up. If it’s a smaller deal then they are usually comfortable with email only.

What have your experiences been?

Evan Carmichael

After scouring the Internet for informative blogs to help entrepreneurs with their marketing efforts I put together our list of the Top 50 Marketing Blogs To Watch In 2008.

Here they are:

Search Marketing Blogs

1) Search Engine Land
URL: http://searchengineland.com/

2) Search Engine Roundtable
URL: http://www.seroundtable.com/

3) SEOmoz Blog
URL: http://www.seomoz.org/blog

4) TopRank Online Marketing Blog
URL: http://www.toprankblog.com/

5) JenSense
URL: http://www.jensense.com/

Online Marketing Blogs

6) Pronet Advertising
URL: http://www.pronetadvertising.com/

7) Copyblogger
URL: http://www.copyblogger.com/

8) Internet Marketing News
URL: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/

9) MarketingVOX
URL: http://www.marketingvox.com/

10) B.L. Ochman’s Weblog
URL: http://www.whatsnextblog.com/

Affiliate Marketing Blogs

11) ProBlogger
URL: http://www.problogger.net/

12) Niche Marketing – Andy Beard
URL: http://andybeard.eu/

13) Affiliate Watcher
URL: http://www.affiliatewatcher.com/

14) eMoms at Home
URL: http://emomsathome.com/

15) Marketing Ideas Online – Jim Kukral
URL: http://www.jimkukral.com/

Small Business Marketing Blogs

16) Duct Tape Marketing Blog
URL: http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/

17) Seth Godin’s Blog
URL: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

18) Instigator Blog
URL: http://www.instigatorblog.com/

19) StartupNation Blog
URL: http://www.startupnation.com/blog/

20) Ypulse
URL: http://www.ypulse.com/

Marketing and Advertising Blogs

21) AdRants
URL: http://www.adrants.com/

22) Adland
URL: http://commercial-archive.com/

23) gapingvoid
URL: http://www.gapingvoid.com/

24) advertising/design goodness
URL: http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/

25) PSFK
URL: http://www.psfk.com/

Business to Business Marketing Blogs

26) The WebMarketCentral Blog
URL: http://webmarketcentral.blogspot.com/

27) Marketing Profs
URL: http://www.marketingprofs.com/

28) Marcom Writer Blog
URL: http://marcom-writer-blog.com/

29) Small Business B2B Marketing
URL: http://www.smallbusinessb2b.com/

30) Marketing Today Blog
URL: http://marketingtoday.blogspot.com/

Marketing and Technology Blogs

31) Micro Persuasion
URL: http://www.micropersuasion.com/

32) The Marketing Technology Blog
URL: http://www.douglaskarr.com/

33) Buzz Marketing for Technology
URL: http://buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com/

34) Advertising Lab
URL: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/

35) Technology Evangelist

URL: http://www.technologyevangelist.com/

Guerrilla Marketing Blogs

36) Guerrilla Marketing Tactics
URL: http://www.gmarketing.com/articles/

37) Guerrilla Consulting
URL: http://guerrillaconsulting.typepad.com/

38) Guerrilla Communication
URL: http://blog.guerrillacomm.com/

39) AdverBox
URL: http://www.adverbox.com/

40) Guerrilla Marketing Blog
URL: http://gmarketingcoach.com/

Brand Marketing Blogs

41) Brand Autopsy
URL: http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/

42) Logic + Emotion
URL: http://darmano.typepad.com/

43) Branding Strategy Insider
URL: http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/

44) Branding & Marketing
URL: http://brandandmarket.blogspot.com/

45) The Viral Garden
URL: http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/

General Marketing Blogs

46) How to Change the World
URL: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

47) Marketing Sherpa
URL: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sherpablog.html

48) Drew’s Marketing Minute
URL: http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/

49) Marketing Roadmaps
URL: http://getgood.typepad.com/

50) FutureLab
URL: http://blog.futurelab.net/

What are your favorite blogs?

Evan Carmichael

I had a meeting today with a potential client who asked me why I didn’t have my phone number on my website. I told him it was because we were getting too many inquiries and it was making us unproductive. It got me thinking about the other ways I increase my productivity and I thought I would share some ideas with you today.

1) No phone number on the website. This obviously can’t work with every type of business but if you’re running an online company you will be a lot more productive if you don’t put your phone number online. Talking on the phone is one of the biggest time wasters out there. Screen your calls vigorously as well. I usually won’t pick up my phone unless I know the person and I know it’s urgent. A great example is Young Entrepreneur which only has a web form to contact the admins.

2) Set times to meet people. Tied into #1 is setting up specific times to meet / talk with people. Don’t let people catch you while you’re in the middle of something else and waste your time. Set up specific periods in your day / week to talk with people on the phone or have meetings. Both you and the person you’re talking with will be more prepared and you will get more from the session. I also always have my meetings on one day (usually Wednesdays) where I’ll line up meetings all afternoon. I get everything out of the way at once, don’t let any meetings go too long (or it interrupts the next one) and don’t lose time traveling back and forwards to the office since they are all in once place. Have them come to your meeting place unless they are a really important relationship you want to develop.

3) Do all your admin on one day. It’s easy to get distracted and handle admin issues as they come up. This approach however will cost you loads of valuable time! I keep a record of everything I need to do that is admin related and every Tuesday sit down and get it done. I block out that time, nobody bothers me, I don’t set up any calls or meetings, and I get the work done.

4) Get help. Get people working with you. I have some people who are volunteers for me, I have others who are interns, and I have staff. From day one you should be figuring out how you can outsource the lower value work to others so you can focus on building the business. You don’t always need money to do this - you just need to find an incentive for the other person to work for you (money is only one factor!)

5) Check email once a day. I used to check my email every 5 minutes to see what needed my attention and I responded immediately. This led to multiple threads going back and forward until we finally got a solution. Email should not be like instant messaging and there are very few emails that require absolute immediate action. I tried for one week to go from checking email every 5 minutes to twice a day: noon and 4pm. My business did not fall apart. I didn’t lose customers or partners over it - in fact most people didn’t notice a difference at all! At the same time I had way more time to focus on other important aspects of my business. Now I check my email once a day at noon. If you want a response the same day, write to me before 11:59am

6) Do your most important work in the morning. I used this idea from the 4 Hour Work Week. Every morning when I get into the office I work on an important project that will help my business move forward. I don’t answer the phones or emails, my staff knows not to interrupt me, and I get a lot of work done. I go until noon and get a significant amount of work done. Then I turn on my Outlook and the rest of my day begins by checking my emails. We often get so caught up in the day to day that we don’t have the time to work on the important business-building projects. Don’t do anything else until noon and you’ll soon see a dramatic rise in productivity.
If you respect your own time people will also respect your time and you’ll become far more productive.

What do you do to be more productive?

Evan Carmichael

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) used to be nothing more than an underground fighting league, and one which was scarcely accepted in the U.S. That was, until Dana White came along. White transformed the UFC into one of the most mainstream and popular sports on the scene today. By cleaning up its image and marketing it as a legitimate sport, White was able to create a successful organization, whose events can now be seen on television in more than 35 countries around the world.

“I’m pretty happy with the way everything has worked out with UFC,” says White. “We’ve come a long way in a couple of years.” From working as a hotel bellhop to managing a multi-million dollar company, White has most certainly come a long way from where he started off. How did this boy who could barely make it through high school, become a millionaire and the envy of men across America?

“It was around 1997 or 1998 that it all turned around for us. We were all boxing guys and I used to think UFC was a joke. I would say, ‘those guys would get their asses kicked by a boxer. It opened our eyes to a whole new world. It literally changed my life. We didn’t buy this to make billions of dollars. We saw something in this sport and in the fighters that we thought was incredible.

It was pretty cool. If you would have asked me ten years ago if this is where I would have been in ten years, I would have laughed in your face.

We’ve been at the tipping point for awhile now. We finally got to the point where we couldn’t be denied anymore. We’ve been kick boxing and wrestling’s asses for the last year and a half. We’re selling out venues; we’re breaking records everywhere we go. 

It’s really the last nail in the coffin with the media not giving us the credibility and not looking at us as a real sport. The cover of Sports Illustrated, the talk shows – we’re there. We’ve finally arrived.

A lot of times, kids go to college and take a major because they do what they think they’re supposed to do. I told them I believe 90 percent of America gets up in the morning and drives to a job they hate. That could have happened to me in the hotel industry.

I told them to find what they are passionate about and to go for that regardless of what anyone tells them. They can go to school and major in political science and say they want to be a doctor or a lawyer, but unless they’re passionate about what they do, they’re never really going to be happy or truly successful. That’s what it’s really all about. I’m a guy who did exactly what he wanted to do. When you do that, the money follows.“

Are you doing exactly what you want to do with your business?

Evan Carmichael

For this edition of Entrepreneur University we turn to marketing expert Michael Hepworth. Michael’s company, the StreetSmart Marketer’s business is developing tips, tools and techniques to help owners of entrepreneurial businesses rapidly increase their sales and profits while spending less time at the office. Michael shares with us his top tips for how to pick a product or service that will win in the market place:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are other companies out there that offer the same products or services that you do!

Of course, deep-down inside you know that, but do you act that way? What are you doing about it?

A simple fact of life; everybody is in competition with everybody else. This means unless you are better than your competition or at least equal to them you are in a dangerous position and you should probably get out of the business. This may sound harsh, but it is the reality.

I often say that the secret to being successful in business is that there is no secret. You simply have to do a lot of things well. Everything counts. Don’t be lulled into thinking that some things don’t count or are unimportant. They may be to you, but how can you be sure your customers and prospects feel that way? Every moment of truth either adds to the experience or takes away. Everything either helps or hinders. Nothing is neutral.

When you understand this you are beginning to develop the winning edge. In the Olympics, athletes win by millimeters and milliseconds. The same is true in business. Minute differences make all the difference when it comes to winning business. You’ll know when you provide the best value because people vote with their wallets.

So how do you improve to the point where your product or service is a winner?

The simplest way is by asking your self a series of questions designed to reveal real value.

1. What’s selling well right now in my market?

This information can be uncovered via search engines, trade journals, magazines, television, top 10 lists, and simply by listening and observing.

2. What’s missing from these products/services?

3. How can I improve my existing product or service to make it a winner?

Question 3 becomes a jumping off point for a whole series of questions you can ask yourself to improve your product or service.

+ What can we add to the product?

My last notebook computer had an external wireless card. This was a nuisance as it had to be removed for travel. My latest laptop, bought only a few weeks ago, now has wireless capability built in and then on top of that a whole lot of new features that I hadn’t expected.

+ What can we take away from the product?

Staying with my laptop, I now have a machine that is several pounds lighter than my previous one. How they achieved that I don’t know, but it certainly makes a difference.

+ Can we change the way people use the product?

People are now using exercise balls for office chairs to improve posture.

+ Can we change the market?

Once primarily a business tool, cell phones are now being offered as safety tools for young children.

+ Can we change the price?

Is there a way to make buying easier for our clients? Installment plans work, so do unbundled products.

+ Can we bring back something from the past?

The retro styling of the Mini Cooper and VW Beetle are perfect examples of this kind of thinking.

+ Can we alter the size?

Remember the days when a cell phone was the size of a brick? Now they are tiny little pocket devices.

+ Can we do creative things with colour?

My wife went into buy a cell phone the other day and came back with a bright pink one.

Over the next few days review your product or service against these criteria. Make them into a check list and each time you have a spare moment, spend some time thinking about how to create a winning product or service in your market place.

Evan Carmichael