End Confusion, Make More Money – Tying Up Loose Ends

Nov 16, 2009 by admin

By Jimmy Krug.

Currently, I run about 15 different web sites.  Most of my clients are traditional “brick and mortar” businesses.  While everyone was trying to build online businesses in the early 2000’s, I was building an offline business putting established companies – online.  I’d like to attribute that to strategic planning and prophetic-like foresight… but it was neither.  The truth is, I was at the right place at the right time.

I started talking to local businessmen about my publishing business and my online mailing list that I built in the late 90’s and before I knew it, they were asking me to help them put their offline companies – online.  From there, I met more people and got more and more business.  I was just so excited about publishing and email marketing at the time, people started asking me, “Can I pay to you help our company make money online?”  That’s how I got started with my current business phase.

My original business sites consisted of:

1. A web hosting service
2. A web design service
3. A mass mailing service
4. A local publicity (media release service)
5. A national publicity service

I experimented with each of the business types listed above with a minimal amount of success.  First came the design service, then the hosting service and so on.  Pretty soon, I had a lot of different services but none of them was making what you’d call GOOD money.  Keep in mind, money is money.  It all helps pay the bills. The problem was, the people I knew in the offline world looked at me as a publisher/marketer.  They were paying me to primarily build their mailing lists with customers and clients.  When I told them I owned a web hosting service, some would jump ship and sign up with me.  Most, however, didn’t.

At this point, I started wondering how I could find the time and energy to market all of these services?  Not just market them, but build them up such a way that ALL OF THEM made the kind of money I believed they were capable of making.

Now I have to tell you, you may have all the patience in the world.  And that makes perfect sense, because someone, somewhere obviously wound up with my allotment!  When I didn’t hit it big with any of those services I found myself thinking – adding another 5 new ones to the list probably isn’t the answer I’m looking for.  As it was, I had loose ends starting to show up all over the place.

That’s when the epiphany hit me.  There was one product missing from the lineup.  It would be the key product that in turn would cause every other product work like never before.  Me.

You see, business in the real world is about building relationships as well as alliances with others.  Every company needs a “face” or personality.  And just like that, all of my services were tied up and presented in one cohesive package –

Jimmy Krug: Marketing, Publishing and Publicity Consultant.

With all of my publications and services under one roof, I’d created my own little “Emerald City.”  And I became its Wizard.  In fact, I began promoting myself as an Online Guru.  When people wanted proof, I just pointed them to my dozen URL’s – each promoting its own individual marketing and publicity service.

The initial response was, “Wow, you’re into everything!”

Yes I was.  And just like that, my clients began DOUBLING within the next 12 months.

Unlike many of today’s online only businesses, I don’t have to worry about marketing myself via Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Squidoo, etc.  My network and clientele exists in an offline referral system.  The people who hire me do so through their own referral networks – not any type of sales letter that I’ve created.

My mass mailing service aside, not one of the business services I mentioned above where money-makers in and of themselves.  They all required time, energy and persistence to develop.  But, as I brought them all together under the banner – Jimmy Krug: Marketing, Publishing and Publicity Consultant, the sum became ten times greater than its parts.

If you’re like most entrepreneurial types, there are certain bad habits that will (one time or another) stand between you and GOOD money.  One of them may be your attention span.  If you’re like me, the idea of doing something fresh and new is exciting and invigorating.  You’re not the clock-punching type.  The problem is, if you happen upon something fresh and new every other week; you’re not going to go very far!

In my own case, a web design service sounded exciting!  So did publishing.  So did eMail marketing!  So did publicity!  You get the picture.  The problem was, they were all small, little business pieces – separate and apart which made focusing my energies almost impossible.

If you have three of four different talents, projects or mini-businesses all on the fire… or you find yourself alternating between one or the other from one moment to the next, you may need to step back and examine what you have from a different perspective.

This goes right along with the business philosophy I teach in my books – The Secret Path – I & II (http://www.simplepublications.com).  These books are very inexpensive and will show you how to turn yourself into the most unique product in existence.  You.

If you’re like most entrepreneurial types, you probably have pieces of “little businesses” lying around all over the place.  Why not see if you can tie them together under a singular banner?  Maybe even mix and match a few?  Can you see how much easier it can be tying several products and services together and marketing them as a singular brand?

And when the brand is you – the process becomes even more effective.  Why?  Because when all is said and done, it’s all about building relationships.  People do business with people they like and feel comfortable with.  And they stay away from businesses who employ those who make them feel the opposite.

Several years ago, I used to take my dry cleaning to the same Dry Cleaners all the time.  One woman worked there what seemed like 100 hours a week.  She always had a smile on her face and when she asked how your day was, she actually waited to hear the answer.  One day, testing her, I said it was a lousy day.  I had lost my car keys, didn’t have a spare and had dropped a greasy piece of chicken on a really nice shirt.

By the time our conversation was over, I had learned 3 new ways to respond to “grease emergencies” plus a bunch of other tidbits about products that worked and products that didn’t.  By the way, nothing gets blood out like hydrogen peroxide.

The Dry Cleaning Company she worked for was average at best.  The thing was, any time there was a problem, she took care of everything for me right away.  We’d established a business relationship.  That’s the key.

Okay, let’s do a quick review.  What I’m telling you isn’t theory.  It’s what I’ve already done to grow my own business and continue to grow it through one of the worst recessions in American history.

1. Don’t try to promote everything you do separately.  There’s not enough time, energy or money to do it that way successfully.
2. Tie up the loose ends (products, services, etc.) and fly them under a singular banner.
3. Become the visible Figure/Guru to represent everything that you do.
4. Sell yourself by building old-fashion, honest relationships with other businessmen and businesswomen.  Don’t be afraid to give before you receive and you’ll stick out in the traffic of “what’s-in-it-for-me” people who are here on minute… and gone the next.

Online Mentor Magazine – November 2009