One Skill All Failing Businesses Lack
Welcome back! Are you following me on twitter? follow me.
photo credit: David Clow – Maryland
Passion & Profit In Business
.
Here is a comment from this blog recently that I believed required a post all it’s own. The comment is from Evan at wellbeingandhealth.net
What I’m here to do is shed light.
Can I make my income doing this? My blog is my attempt to find out.
My topic is health with the slant to self-awareness, relationships and self-development. I think what I write is good quality, so in this sense I am doing what I am here to do. It is the all the business stuff that is the challenge.
I get quite a few questions about this topic actually every week, so decided to address it here.
The Question you’re asking Evan is can you turn your passion into profit.
My answer is yes but there is one skill you absolutely must start working on right now in order for it to happen.
It’s all the business stuff that is the challenge and hence is the reason 80% of all businesses that start up fail in the first year and another 80% of those businesses actually fail with in the next 4 years.
If you’re attempting to blog for profit make no bones about it, you’re a business owner too and you must get a firm grip on the business stuff and fast! (The answer is at the end of this post)
The Start Of The Problem
.
Many business owners start a business because they are good at a particular trade or skill.
My personal opinion based on my extensive experience around small business owners and companies for the past 16 years is that many of those businesses fail because they were good at that trade or skill, not at running a business.
In Evan’s case his situation is no different and this is where many bloggers & online (as well as off line) businesses start a slow decent into business failure.
They don’t fail because they aren’t good at that their skill or trade, it’s the lack of knowledge about business stuff that killed their business!
You can learn a lot from business owners failures. Unfortunately many business owners and online marketers fail to learn the facts of their failure and instead blame it on the economy, the customers (Or the lack there of) or something outside of themselves.
If there was one skill I would tell business owners to learn, hands down I wouldn’t have to blink an eye before I said it.
The One Skill You “Must” Learn
.
As a business owner the most important thing you could possibly invest in learning is marketing.
Marketing is hands down the difference maker between someone who makes money with their passion & someone who doesn’t.
You must have a marketing strategy.
In Evan’s case he is a master of his craft but not probably not a master at marketing.
The good news is that he doesn’t have to be a master to start making money. Just know 10% more than the others (which is near zero) and he’ll be doing fine.
I read Evan’s about me page and was stunned at the depth of his knowledge on matters of health & well being. It is truly valuable information to say the least and I encourage you to visit his blog.
He is a guest blogger on many peoples blogs too it seems. The big challenge though is his blog lacks monetization components and a marketing strategy.
Now I haven’t emailed Evan to see if he is leveraging his guest posts with any off line monetization but I can only assume no since on his blog he isn’t capturing any of his readers information so he can follow up with them.
So you ask, “What is marketing Tony and how can I use it to make money with my passion?”
The best definition of marketing I’ve heard (And the most simple) is from my good friend and master marketer who says, “marketing is a flow of information.”
It’s the difference between someone who is a great chef and has no customers and someone who isn’t that great a chef but has a packed restaurant every night.
One of them understood marketing and the other one didn’t.
It’s the difference between waking up and seeing this first thing in the morning…
photo credit: chiacomo
or waking up to this as your back yard…
photo credit: A. www.viajar24h.com
My Damaging Admission of Marketing
.
I admit that I don’t use nearly as much marketing or viral components on this blog as I’m capable of but I’ve actually considered scrapping this blog all together and focusing on topics such as this but with a spiritual twist over at TonyTeegarden.com. (I’ve been encouraged by a few of my friends in my mastermind group to do it immediately based on what they know is in my head)
Quite frankly monetizing blogs isn’t that hard. It just requires some marketing know how and proper components put in place. However the internet is littered with thousands and thousands of blogs that have amazing content but have bit the proverbial dust based on little or no marketing.
Marketing knowledge is considered the businessman’s million dollar tool.
There is a reason why businesses focus on marketing brands because you want to gain your prospects top of mind awareness when they hear or see your name.
Your blog or business is no different.
Hope is not an action plan and putting out amazing content but having little or no marketing skills or long term marketing strategies makes it very difficult to gain your prospects awareness in your market.
Oh yeah, and you don’t make any money either.
The good news is Evan has a TON of amazing content on his blog and there are a few tweaks I’d advise him on doing to help his blog attract visitors and monetize his efforts. (email me Evan)
Where To Learn Marketing
.
It’s not by accident that Evan posted his comment when he did.
I don’t believe in universal accidents.
I actually got in the mail just yesterday a 2 CD set from a good friend of mine that explains marketing 101 to small business owners and it’s completely applicable to online marketers as well.
Especially those who have no grasp of true marketing, how important it is and what to do to implement it.
He asked me if I would be interested in distributing those CD’s to any of my customers. I actually hadn’t considered marketing to anyone via this blog but the CD does go hand in hand with New Way of Wealth .
After reading Evan’s comment though it dawned on me that marketing is a great big mystery to so many people and this CD set is the answer for many of them.
Wishing for wealth doesn’t make it happen. Having a strategic plan does.
My friend has built multimillion dollar businesses off line and online, has been nominated as entrepreneur of the year of his city as well as the state he resides in and has been listed in Forbes magazine as entrepreneur of the year. He knows what he’s doing.
But you won’t find this CD set anywhere.
The funny part is It’s not for sale yet.
He has boxes of them sitting there but hasn’t started marketing them yet.
I know what his coaching has done for me and my businesses and the information is priceless. Especially for anyone just starting out in any kind of business.
So here’s what I suggest.
The universe likes speed and if you’d like to get a firm grasp of what 98% of all businesses that fail don’t ever learn then here’s what to do immediately.
Email me from the contact page and let me know you’re interested in learning more.
I have no idea how much these CD sets are being sold for (It’s a 2 cd set) and I don’t even have a sales page set up for you to purchase from but I can’t imagine they are priced more than $10.00 plus shipping. I think I’ll keep it to U.S. orders only for right now too.
Like I said the universe loves speed and I haven’t even told him I’ll do it yet but I’m putting it out there for you anyway.
If you’re online or off line business is stuck this very well could be the answer so I wouldn’t delay.
Related posts:
