This article is a selection from the book Red Pill Entrepreneurship. Future selections will come in an 8-part series. Please email sample@redpillentrepreneurship.com to receive the free pre-published sample of Red Pill Entrepreneurship.
Red Pill Entrepreneurship Introduction
This book is for those individuals contemplating owning or starting a business. Information contained in Red Pill Entrepreneurship is not meant to cast a shadow of pessimism on entrepreneurship. I love and have loved being an entrepreneur, but entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Over the years, I have felt a need to expose the reality of business to those who are wasting away their lives dreaming of having that “little shop” on the side of the road that they think will make them rich. Not to say that it is impossible to become rich from a new business, but it is definitely requires taking a second look.
My hope is that you can eagerly join me in recounting a stream of funny stories and broken dreams of multiple entrepreneurs. Understand these stories not as bitter rants of failure, but as grand learning experiences. Learning from such turbulent experiences will facilitate your building of a bigger and brighter future for yourself. In short, setting foot on the right track now will allow you to finally live your dreams, or to change your dreams before it is too late. Be prepared before the hand of reality smacks you senseless.
Your Dream
To begin, I want you to participate in a visualization exercise. Vividly think about your dream to buy, start or join a business (in reality, this exercise can be done for any dream). Close your eyes now and imagine that dream in detail. In essence, dream your dream. To help you get started extracting detail from your dream, start imagining the individual components. What is the main goal of your business? What is the product or service you are selling? Does the image in your mind consist of a large office with modern furnishings, secretaries and assistants, and maybe a large boardroom with suit-clad business people negotiating a million dollar contract?
Or, does your visualization include a restaurant, retail store, etc.? Each of your dreams should be highly detailed and include imaginations similar to my colleague Tim’s. Tim was a restaurant entrepreneur who imagined walking through the door of his eclectic restaurant with waiting customers filing out into the parking lot. He imagined smiling at polite employees churning out thousands of dollars worth of food and pouring over a front-page newspaper feature that entailed his restaurant’s success in the local newspaper.
Perhaps you are not visualizing so much the details of the business, but what you stand to gain from the future business. For example, does your dream include buying whatever you want and having a comfortable life? Some dream of having the prestige of talking about their business with friends and acquaintances. Others find motivation in proving their success to naysayers who have opposed or have been cynical about their business aspirations. Regardless of your dream, the act of dreaming is healthy. Dreams allow us to achieve greater things. As in all facets related to success, dreams need direction and some logic. So, let’s develop a map for your dream using the information provided within Red Pill Entrepreneurship and establish some logic, if any.
Dream Or Medium To The Dream
In order to establish a direction for your dream, ask yourself the following question. “Is having a business your dream or is having the benefits that are commonly linked to business ownership your dream?” The idealistic benefits generally associated with business ownership for the average person consist of more money, more free time, more freedom, etc. than one would presumably have while working for someone else.
Why is this distinction between your dreams focused on the benefits of the business or the business itself important? The answer to this question will determine your levels of satisfaction and success associated with owning a business. A true entrepreneur is one that loves his business and accepts the benefits and consequences. Many of us just want the benefits. If you are still unsure of your answer (benefits vs. love of the business), hopefully you will find your answer through Red Pill Entrepreneurship. If you are sure of your answer, hopefully Red Pill Entrepreneurship can still give you more information to increase your chance of success.
While dreaming, it is common to overlook present opportunities. Rather than improving current situations, dreaming entrepreneurs often look for change. Hence, this benefit vs. business distinction is especially important to those (want-to-be-business-owners) who are looking forward to just the benefits of a business. Change can be beneficial while trying to increase energy and passion, but you must be careful while initiating change. Oscillating from opportunity to opportunity can be detrimental. Each time one initiates change, there is a loss of focus and a need to start over.
Carefully consider whether a business is the way or a way to achieve your dreams. If not, assess what improvements and changes within your current scope or situation may be a more feasible approach before setting out to turn your life upside down. Do not be afraid to change the medium of your dream! Life is too short to jump around from failure to failure.
The Scope of Red Pill
Assuming that you have decided on owning a business, the experiences and advice contained within this book will be invaluable. Red Pill Entrepreneurship gives an interesting perspective on some areas of business organizations commonly overlooked (consciously or subconsciously). Some may find that they have been focusing too much on the dream of having a business and that all they really want is more money and more freedom. These people will read some of the points within Red Pill and rethink their timing, preparation, and motivation behind owing a business. While others may find that owning a business really does suit them well.
The chapters of this book begin by assessing the motivations of having a business and follow through with key components of business ownership. Application of the information provided could determine the shaping of the rest of your business career.
In an attempt to fully analyze the reality of your business dreams, write down, in as much detail as possible, your dream, as previously tasked to envision, in the space below.
In general, if your dream can be achieved in a day, week, or month then you need to rethink your dream. Small, easily achievable goals are only practical if they aim toward a larger, long-term accomplishment. Throughout this book, this larger goal will be assessed. It has been said that you should shoot for the stars and you will capture the moon.
Hard Fact: Just because a certain dream enters your mind, there is not anything that says that you should strive to attain it. For example, I once thought I could sing, but it does not mean that I should or could become a rock star. Fame of being a rock star may have been appealing, but singing is definitely not the way to achieve success for me. Trust me and trust all of the broken ear drums from my attempt at singing.
Thank you for taking the time to read this selection from Red Pill Entrepreneurship. Please contact me to receive subsequent selections of the book. This 8-part series will be released over the next few months.
Archive for the ‘Entrepreneurship’ Category
Reality And Entrepreneurship (Red Pill Entrepreneurship)
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010The Benefits Of Entrepreneurship
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010In times when opportunities to earn money from jobs are less, you got to make opportunities for yourself through entrepreneurship. The benefits of entrepreneurship toward the economy and toward the entrepreneur himself or herself are tremendous. Starting out small and working your way up is always a good idea when it comes to entrepreneurship; small entrepreneurial activities are what keep world economies afloat and not few big businesses. And the benefits of entrepreneurship toward an individual are no less than life changing.
First, entrepreneurship can be your ticket toward financial independence. How much you make really depends on you; you set your own goal and by it you determine how much you compensate your efforts. Of course there are necessary things you need in place before you could realize total financial independence, but working toward your goal is another exciting thing that you could do for yourself as a person. A study by Michael T. Childress and others in 1998 (Entrepreneurs and Small Business – Kentucky’s Neglected Natural Resource) found that entrepreneurs make more money, and pay more money to their employees, than working in big businesses or corporations.
Second, entrepreneurship allows flexibility in your life. Once the necessary things are set in place and operation is properly delegated, the entrepreneur can start to experience flexibility in work schedule than working for somebody else. After all, one of the top benefits of entrepreneurship is that you are your own boss. When all aspects of your business are fully functional, you can start to do other things that you love. You can finally make time for your sport, hobby, and, most of all, for your family.
Moreover, entrepreneurship can open endless possibilities for the entrepreneur. Working for somebody else often force people to do jobs they don’t like; entrepreneurship can free you from the drudgery of imposed tasks. In fact, your business should be a self-expression, a form of outlet for your creativity and the things that you love to do. It’s simply doing the things that you love to do and making money while doing it. No longer will you be in the mercy seniority and office politics to rise and achieve growth. Entrepreneurship will bring you to new heights that not even your limitations can hold you back if your determination is solid.
Other more noble benefits of entrepreneurship are that you’re helping provide opportunities for other people and contribute to the society through responsible business. In fact, small business owners are respected people in the community because they are responsible for spurring community development starting at creating local jobs. Jobs provided by entrepreneurs are even more fulfilling in terms of pay and recognition compared to jobs in high-rise offices. You’re not only providing for yourself and your family, you’re also providing for the community in your own little way. No economy in the world can survive without the ingenuity, creativity, and labor provided by entrepreneurs.
The best part about entrepreneurship is that it doesn’t discriminate: men, women, young, old, educated or not, everyone can become an entrepreneur through hard work and dedication to continuous learning and improvement.
Internet Entrepreneurship: first step, getting started: Article 2
Monday, July 19th, 2010I started my first business silk tie retailing using a ready made website template and shopping cart. This was because I did not want to spend a lot of money having a site built and did not know anything about web retailing so wouldn’t be able to specify what I needed anyway. It seems to me that this was a good decision. It meant that I could concentrate my work on getting the product, merchandising, sales text and internet marketing right and not worry too much about the other stuff. As I have progressed I have wanted to change some things in the site design but it has been fairly easy and cheap to do so and I have changed only the things that really needed to change. I got my website from www.DPBUk.co.uk who have been good but there are many other companies out there selling ready made retailing websites.
The first step in getting the business up and running was to add my sales text. I decided to aim initially at the UK market only as that is the one I know and is less competitive than the us. My sales text for the front page aims to do a few things; show that I am UK based, show that people can trust and rely on the site (site looks professional, address is prominent, email and phone numbers are listed, money back guarantee and testimonials from customers) and encourage people to browse the ties knowing that prices are reasonable and shipping is free.
Next priority was to make finding the right tie easier. I did this by creating all sorts of categories; by colour, by style etc. Then was the grinding effort as going into every tie in the catalogue and adding it to various categories. This effort was well worth while however, if people can’t quickly find what they are looking for then they will go elsewhere. It is so easy on the internet to pop into the next shop that you must make it very easy for people. Not only did I categorise every tie in to multiple categories, but I also tagged each tie with a basic description so that the Search box on my site would pull up relevant searches. Finally I selected what I thought were the nicest ties for the featured products on the front.
Final priority was pricing. I wanted the pricing to be competitive and to be easily changed, so that I could experiment and find the best pricing. I also wanted to make it clear to people that prices were much lower for the quality than you would get on the high street. I therefore decided to put high-street retail pricing in and then use a Sale to reduce the price to a competitive internet level. This has worked fairly well, although I think I under-priced initially. Now I am slowly increasing prices and it does not seem to be hurting sales. In pricing I wanted to have progressive quantity discounts to encourage people to buy more silk ties, however the cart system couldn’t handle it. In the website administration it did have bands for price by quantity which I filled in for every product, only to find that it only worked if you bought multiples of the same silk tie. I haven’t yet found a way of doing what I want with the cart, but am glad that I left the volume discounts bulk buying of the same tie in. I get lots of orders for multiples of the same tie from clubs, companies and weddings and having the discounts has definately paid off.
Have a look at the site at www.tiespecialist.com to see the design in action.After a week or so have work every evening and weekend the site was looking good enough to go. I placed a few trial orders for silk ties to make sure everything worked. It didn’t. Test, test and test again until it works great. Finally the moment of truth, I was ready to go live and start getting customers.
Google AdWords has been the biggest expense in getting the business going. To have a successfull internet business you have to get people to come to your site. When you start a high-street shop you have passers by to sell to but when you start a new website you have no passers by. Google does not rank new websites highly so no one will find you by accident. The only way to get visitors quickly is to advertise. I figured that offline advertising wouldn’t be very good, much better to sell to people when they are at their computers already. I also figured that banner ads and listing sites are poor value for money. I therefore focused all my advertising on AdWords first and then Overture.
AdWords is a very clever system. Completely automated, it allows you to advertise to people whoare searching for particular keywords in particular countries. For example for www.tiespecialist.com I want people in the UK who are searching for tie, ties, silk ties, woven silk ties, wedding ties, bow ties, polyester ties etc. The adverts appear on the right hand side of Google and you only pay when someone clicks through. In this way it is better than traditional advertising in that you know you get visitors to your site for your adspend.
How far your ad is from the top depends on how much you are willing to pay and your click through rate (CTR). In essence Google maximises the money making potential of each search by showing the ads people are most likely to click on and that pay the most. When I started my website I put in lots of keywords, wrote an ad and aimed it at the UK. I quickly found that I needed to pay 20p to 35p per click to be in the top 3 for the ads. In the first week of advertising I generated 150 clicks or so per day at 25p each on average and got no sales. After the 1st week sales started to come in at the rate of 1 or 2 per day. When I worked out the cost per conversion I was paying £40 per day for 1 to 2 sales, giving a cost per order of £20 to £40 pounds. The gross margin on an average order is only £10 so I am losing money with every order. This is to be expected at first and I was quite prepared to invest in marketing to get potential customers so that I could improve my website and then build a customer base which would give me long term profitability. However to make pay per click advertising work I needed to do a whole bunch of things:
Cut my cost per click dramatically Improve my conversion rate once people clicked through to my site Increase the average order size I have managed to get the cost per click down to less than 15p per click average by doing a number of things.
First of all I tested lots of keywords to find ones for which there was little competition. For example “how to tie a tie” has no one else advertising on it so I can get traffic for the minimum of 2 pence per click. However the keywords have to be relevant to your product and ultimately convert to sales. I have still found that the vast majority of searches are on the simple keywords; tie, ties so I have to find a way of getting in to that space if I want to get decent numbers of visitors.
Secondly, improve the ads. A great feature of AdWords is that you can run multiple ads simultaneously and track the click through rates of each. Then you get rid of the worst performing ads. The key here is to change one part of your ad at a time (so that you know which change causes the effect) and to wait until you have had least 50 clicks on an ad before making a judgement on it (at low numbers of clicks the performance can fluctuate dramatically with chance). As your ad gets better CTR you get more visitors and a higher ranking so you can reduce the amount per click and still get the same performance. I have improved my average click through from 0.75% when I started to 2.6% by running better ads.
Thirdly, remove poor performing words. You will find that there are some words which are not particularly relevant or have lots of competition, where your clickthrough is low and cost high. I have found it is best to delete them. I have also used negative keywords which allow you to exclude certain words. For example with “tie” I found that some people were searching for “tie fighter” so had “-fighter” in AdWords to exclude these searches. This improves CTR and position.
Fourthly, check out the competition and decide where you need to be in the ranking. For my art website www.artspecialist.co.uk selling oil painting reproductions of masterpieces, I have found that for many words the competition are selling painting courses or prints. Why pay high CTR’s to rank above these companies when potential customers will be scanning past them anyway. I have found it really pays to type each keyword into Google and decide where you need to be to match your competitors. On some words I can be bottom and still be the first company selling oil painting reproductions .
I hope you have found this useful. Read more on my blog at http://specialist-paintings-ties.blogspot.com/. In the next article I will take about conversion rates
UK English woven silk tie business at http://www.tiespecialist.com UK reproduction oil painting business at http://www.artspecialist.co.uk Web marketing and internet entrepreneurship blog at http://specialist-paintings-ties.blogspot.com/