Social Networking Sites Niche It

You have heard of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Heck, you probably have a profile on one of them. These are a couple of the hottest sites on the web.

Entrepreneurs have taken the idea behind social networking sites and have niched it. A perfect example of this is My Custom Car Space. What a great idea! A community that is catered specifically to custom car enthusiasts. Look for this trend to continue as entrepreneurs race to be the premier social networking site for their prospective industry or category.

FYI - News Corp bought Intermix Media, owner of MySpace, in July of 'o5 for $580 million. Now is the time to capitalize on this opportunity while it is still available.

Work Hard Once

Several years ago, I was reading Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad Poor Dad and listening to a 12 disc CD set of his. One of the ideas that stood out was to "work hard once." He gave the example that he worked hard once writing that book. Now, he has the book to sell for the rest of his life.

One of my good friends, Andrew Turner, just exemplified this idea over the past 6 months. He created a custom piece of software for college planners. He picked up some books on programming, put the ideas from his head in motion, and now he has a product to sell. College Planner 2007 is available for $597. Andrew said he loves checking his email because every few days a new order pops in his inbox.

Some people may say to themselves, "Well I could never do that." That's ridiculous! You could just as easy have come up with the idea and hired a virtual assistant in India to do all the programming for you.

The Decision Maker

As a salesman, I only meet with a potential client if I know for a fact that all decision makers will be at the meeting. This allows me a certain level of control. Let's say that you just had a great meeting with Joe Buyer, and he let you know how much he loves your widgets. The only problem...Joe has to go home and run everything by his wife before a decision can be made. When people receive second hand information, it is often times distorted, confusing, and flat out wrong. You have lost control of the sale. You better hope Joe is an excellent salesman with an impeccable memory.

When I am the potential client for a product or service, I am a representative of the decision maker and cannot make a decision without their consent. The control is once again on my side. I cannot be pressured into making a decision on the spot because I must consult with my wife/partner/whatever.

Higher Authority Angle

My company loaned one of our contractors several thousand dollars recently. He was going through some tough times so we helped him out. Several weeks later after he closed on an equity line, we expected to get paid back promptly. After a couple weeks, our renovation manager that communicates with the contractor kept getting the “check book for the equity line hasn’t come in yet so I can’t pay you” excuse. I told our renovation manager to let me call the contractor and see what I could do. This is where the higher authority angle came in.

I called our contractor and told him how familiar I was with equity lines. I let him know that if he simply placed a couple calls, he could access the money somehow without having to wait for a checkbook to come in the mail. I also told him that we expected to get paid by Friday (it was Wednesday at the time).

When a higher authority figure enters a situation, the person with whom you have to deal with will generally get a feeling of importance. They feel more appreciated. They become disarmed and will agree to a reasonable outcome to whatever problem you may be having.

When you come across a terribly difficult person to deal with, do the best you can, cut your losses, and move on.

The Democratization of Information

“…millions of people are changing their habits when it comes to information acquisition. This has happened many times before: with the appearance of the printing press, then the telegraph, the telephone, radio, television, and internet.”

That is what Hugh Hewitt had to say in his book “Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That’s Changing Your World.” Information has been controlled throughout the ages by kings and queens, pharos, chiefs, popes and presidents. Until now!

As Hewitt said in his book, “The power of the elites to determine what was news via a tightly controlled dissemination system is shattered. The ability and authority to distribute text is now truly democratized.”

Hewitt’s book is an entertaining and eye opening look into what “new media” is all about. Enjoy.

Save Yourself Some Time, "Go Negative"

I was on the phone the other day with a brand new tenant buyer that is moving into one of our properties. She was calling again to complain about some repair work that was not done to her satisfaction and her general dissatisfaction with her experience with our company so far. As I was explaining to her that the house was not brand new and that what she wanted was not on our scope of work, I realized I had a perfect opportunity to "go negative."

I interrupted her rant and said, "You know what, if you are this upset with the way we do business and the condition of the house, we should part ways and not do business together. We want the people that we work with to be raving fans. We will gladly refund your money."

It is amazing how this simple technique will immediately separate the people you want to work with from (as Dan Kennedy would say) the time vampires. She quickly retorted, "Well, these are very minor details that we can work out..."

I was able to diffuse her attack by "going negative." It may sound counter intuitive, but trust me, it works! The people that part ways are nothing more than time vampires disguised as potential clients. You just saved yourself some time.

Googled Yourself Lately?

It's not necessarily an ego thing but a smart business move. Check out what Seth Godin had to say in his blog post titled "The first thing to do this year."