What do you spend your money on?

IAC-EZ clients tell us that they sometimes like reviewing reports – like the Profit & Loss Report – that tell them what they’ve bought and how much they’ve spent. But sometimes they don’t like to review them because they can often reveal that we’ve spent more than we intended to on things we may not really need!

It’s no different than going to the store and feeling great about your purchases until you get home and look at the receipt one more time.

Recently, I stumbled upon an info graphic (it was referenced in this blog at AllTop but the entire graphic originated at ripetungi.com). The graphic, although focused on the UK, is a fascinating study into how much people spend and how much of that spending was in cash.

Having traveled to the UK, I can anecdotally assert (and this image backs up my assertion) that Americans use credit cards far more frequently. With that one exception, I suspect that spending habits are fairly similar across national boundaries.

How do your buying habits line up? If you were to do an info-graphic of your own spending – both personal and professional – how would it look?

While seeing numbers on a Profit & Loss Report is sometimes a wake-up call, they’re just numbers and it’s easy to overlook their comparative sizes. But when you look at the overall spending on a graphic like this that incorporates size, it becomes far more telling… and perhaps even alarming.

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ

Making Money in Your Business Starts with the Basics

I love to ask entrepreneurs what advice THEY would give to themselves if they could go back in time and whisper some advice in their own ears. It’s always interesting and it is frequently counter-intuitive (because entrepreneurs learn quickly that the common wisdom doesn’t always work).

While browsing around the web for great resources to share with you, I came across this website – which looks like many “run your own business/make money from home” websites out there. No big deal. But the blog post I’m about to send you to is basically the advice that I wish I could go back in time and whisper in my own ear.

Although you should read the blog post yourself, entitled “Money Making Home Business tips: The 3 Crucial Tips for Home Business Success,” I’ll summarize it and give you my take here. The three tips (and my own thoughts) are…

1. Marketing. It’s all about marketing. This is so true! In the very beginning, entrepreneurs are so busy setting up their systems and ideas and filing cabinets and lining up their pens… when instead they should be out marketing. I’ve frequently said that brand new entrepreneurs need to think of their day as being one whole pie that can only be cut into two slices: Marketing and Delivery. The more delivery you do, the less marketing you have time for, but the less delivery you do, the more marketing you have time for. Do more marketing, always.
2.  Discipline. Oh this is a huge one and I believe it’s why so many home businesses fail. People lack discipline. If you want to succeed, you have to sit down and do the work. You have to put in a full day “at the office”. You have to sacrifice in the beginning. When you do, it will come back to you many times more in return… but you have “pay” with discipline early on. Create good, disciplined practices for yourself.
3. Keep good people in your life. Get rid of the poison. As the article says, “steer clear of people who try and put you down”. You only want to surround yourself with people who believe in you and will encourage you. The reason is, running a business isn’t always easy and you need all the encouragement and motivation you can find.

If you’re a seasoned entrepreneur, think about what you would say to yourself if you could go back in time. If you’re a brand new entrepreneur, take heed of the advice I’ve related here. It will help your business!

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ

Pricing for Perfection

Pricing is a four letter word. Many entrepreneurs I know hate to price their products because pricing seems to be so challenging: Pricing your product or service too high may lead to fewer customers (and thus, fewer profits). Pricing your product or service too low may lead to fewer profits. Of course you HAVE to price your products or services; so what should you do?

In a blog post for BusinessBlogs.co.nz entitled “Revenue is Not Your Friend – Pricing for Profit“, Charles Blakeman talks about the need to raise your prices.

Blakeman rightly points out that low-price providers tend to attract customers who are highly price sensitive. And I hear the same thing from salespeople and seasoned business owners all the time: The people who offer the lowest prices frequently have the most challenging customers and the biggest customer turnover. One of the reasons has to do with customer loyalty: A price-sensitive customer is often less loyal because they go where the lowest prices are.

Okay, so if pricing needs to be set more effectively, how can you do that? You can read more about pricing and what goes into pricing and value and cost from one of our IAC-EZ participants: Check out Aaron Hoos’ blog post “Prices and Pricing Strategies: How to Price Your Offerings More Effectively“ where talks about strategies involved in being the high-priced, medium-priced, and low-priced provider.

And in another blog by Blakeman, he provides what I think is probably the best list of pricing how-to options I’ve ever read: He gives ten ways to help you figure out how to price your products. Read it here.

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ

Do you have that sinking feeling?

Let me tell you about an all-too-common scenario: You have a great idea for a project. A fabulous idea. An idea that keeps you awake at night. Even in the light of day it sounds good so you pour your time and money and effort into it. You produce it. You market it like crazy.

And no one buys. Do you keep marketing it? Many do. After all, they’ve put so much into it.

In his book “The Dip”, Seth Godin talks about how the modern myth is that winners don’t quit. He says that’s not true. In fact, winners quit all the time. They just quit the things that don’t make sense to continue.

Godin’s book is okay and I did find it thought provoking but I wanted some more practical advice. And I found it in this article by Jason Cohen who has a blog on ASmartBear.com. You can read the blog here. In the blog, Jason talks about how projects we own are more difficult to quit after we’ve invested time and money and effort into them.

After we’ve sunk money into something, if it doesn’t pan out, we should kill it and move on. But that is so difficult to do. I’m realistic enough to know that you can’t always do that. And, I’m optimistic, so I like to think that with a slight change you enjoy success from it (or, at least win back your investment). So, if you have sunk money into a project and you know you should kill it but don’t want to, here’s what I suggest doing first:

1. Check out the metrics that you’ve been using in your sales. (Note: If you haven’t been using metrics to track sales, that’s mistake number 1. Go back and add metrics and wait to see what they tell you). Make some minor modifications to see if those changes help.
2. Pass it off to a friend or mentor or coach who has some insight. Perhaps they can look at the project and they may immediately see if there are specific parts that are holding you back.
3. Convert the project into a joint venture and ask someone else to fill in some gaps. Perhaps their value add or their network or even just the addition of their name on the project can make all the difference.
4. Look at selling the project. Depending on what it is, you might be able to sell it as a complete package (like a turnkey business, for example) or break it up and sell the URL on a domain auction and sell the product to a private label rights reseller.
5. Give it away for free. Perhaps the project itself will still be valuable for you as a marketing tool. Give it away for free (or at least a portion of it) to generate some positioning equity.

If those 5 things don’t work, then you might consider killing the project and walking away, but try those things first and see what happens.

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ