Archive for November, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving
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I want to wish you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I’m going to be enjoying Thanksgiving with family and friends in San Francisco, California.
My mind is always on my business and how I can provide better information, products, and services for you. I’m so excited about having a few days to tootle around San Francisco, hoping this free time will give me an opportunity to reflect and come up with some cool things to help you thrive and survive in your business.
Peace and love.
OH! BTW guys if you haven’t signed up for a free consultation it’s time to take advantage of it now because I don’t know how long it’s going to be available. So go ahead and signup now before it’s gone.
Also get my Business Survival Report it’s absolutely FREE! There’s no catch whatsoever this is just a way for me to give back and help small businesses in these tough times. Here’s the link to my Free Business Survival Report again.
Grow Your Small Business Like Ivy With Blogging
Posted by: | CommentsI’d like to share a blogging eBook resource with you which I’ve use to develop Donald Hunter™ Financial – built on the free WordPress blog platform. My Website Journey I purchased my first web site June, 2006.
It was a template site. This site was inflexible and wouldn’t allow me to communicate with my clients the way I wanted. It cost me $75 per month and an initial set-up cost of $700. And, it never generated one lead in a whole year.
In my career, I was a software developer for eleven years, worked in hi-tech marketing for eight years, and I have a computer science degree. With all of my experience with computers and software, I really didn’t like someone else having control over my marketing system.
You should think of your web site (or blog) as a marketing system that allows you to communicate with your customers and generate leads for your business.
If your web site doesn’t allow you to communicate effectively with your customers and your customers to easily communicate with you, then it’s not a marketing system.
I got so frustrated one day and hired my own web developer to redo my site for another $1500. He promised he could create a flexible site that would generate lots of leads.
He also made lots of mistakes every time I had him make changes to my site. I used this site for about three months. I was so frustrated with this whole process, I read a book on how to code html so I could help him. By knowing html, I knew when he was feeding me bull about what he could or could not do.
It just wasn’t working out for me. I felt like my developer was in the way of me communicating with my customers. I tried to get my developer to implement my site on WordPress (a blogging platform), but he didn’t know how to effectively create a blog.
He was still stuck in the world of “brochure” web sites, which is basically a fancy business card. Well, you could imagine by now I was pretty frustrated. I’m sure you have similar horror stories about creating your online presence.
After purchasing two more templates sites for hundreds of dollars that promised that they could be customized to fit my requirements, I decided to take control when I discovered they had significant limitations too.
I knew WordPress blogs were the way to go and I was going to have one if I had to implement it myself.
A Successful Outcome
I started blogging in July, 2009, using a free WordPress blog. Since then, I’ve seen a constant increase every month in my visitor statistics on my blog! Yippy!
Now I want to share with you how I finally got to the place on the Internet where I wanted to be three years ago. I discovered a blogging resource from an Internet radio course I took last February.
This resource is critical to your small business success! I recommend you buy this eBook and read it right now to get a jump start on 2010.
When I think of the progress I’ve made over the past four months with my WordPress blog platform, it’s really kind of scary. I’ve produced so many blog posts in the past four months, I’m surprised sometimes when I’m reading through my archives that I actually wrote some of my posts.
WordPress has allowed me to focus on communicating what I do in business instead of having nightmares about why my technology doesn’t work. One of the most valuable lessons you will learn when you read this eBook is you must be consistent.
You need to understand blog structure and how your visitors use your blog. I launched my free report last week and already have a hand-full of sign-ups. If you were to pick one marketing activity to implement in your business for 2010, I’d recommend you create a successful WordPress blog for your business.
A blog is the best way to allow your market to get to know you. People buy from people who they know and trust. Blogs are so powerful and this eBook will show you exactly why. This author gives you the fundamentals of blogging and the best practices for executing on your blog strategy for your business.
No matter your experience with blogging, you will learn valuable ideas and concepts in this eBook to help you be even more successful with your WordPress blog.
For more information about this eBook, click the image below:
And, once you become a blogging success and need financing to fund your growth, we hope you think of Donald Hunter™ Financial.
Donald Hunter™ really appreciates when you let us know your feedback about our recommendations to help you grow your business. You can provide your feedback by providing your comments below.
Your comments will help others to know how great this resource truly is for growing your business like ivy.
OH! BTW guys if you haven’t signed up for a free consultation it’s time to take advantage of it now because I don’t know how long it’s going to be available. So go ahead and signup now before it’s gone.
Also get my Business Survival Report it’s absolutely FREE! There’s no catch whatsoever this is just a way for me to give back and help small businesses in these tough times. Here’s the link to my Free Business Survival Report again.
Leap Ahead of the Pack With the Incredible Thrive and Survive 2010 Report!
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s here and it’s HOT! Go now and grab your copy of my Business Survival Report. It’s pact with the latest financing information to put you ahead of the pack in 2010. Business owners who read this report will have a superior advantage over those who don’t.
This report will coach you through the choices you need to make and secure financing to grow your business in 2010. Real estate and financial professionals now have a resource to help your clients understand their financing options.
You can help clients plan smartly and reposition their financial thinking to win in 2010
Get answers for questions like:
Where’s the money and how to
get it quickly!
What’s required for credit
and how to improve
your credit profile
How to get your cash flow
flowing again and
for once, get a handle on the cash flow
management
process.
Where you should invest and
why you should take
advantage of the lower property values in
commercial
real estate.
What financial options you
have for your business
if your home mortgage is underwater!
Refinancing commercial
property and commercial loan
modifications
Start-up financing and the
steps to get it.
Improve your firm’s
productivity and the do’s and
don’ts of equipment financing.
Learn advanced commercial
finance strategies and
techniques to help your customer’s get
financing.
As a valued customer, we want you to have first access to this powerful report. Get your copy right away and discover everything you need to know about thriving and surviving financially in 2010!
Business owners, investors, and real estate and financial professionals should use this powerful tool as a reference manual in business planning and execution. We want to see you breakthrough and prosper in 2010!
Sign-up Now for My Free Business Survival Report
Discover How to Avoid Titanic Cash FlowTM Disaster Before It Strikes!
Posted by: | CommentsTitanic Disaster Can Strike Anytime!
Managing cash flow has never been more important for businesses as it has been in recent times. Failing to control costs and maximize revenues and profits can mean “Titanic” disaster for your business. Detecting the real causes can be complex and hard to put your finger on the problems because of the nonlinear nature of a business.
The challenge with managing cash flow in your business comes from the fact that almost every function in your business can impact cash flow. The usual business functions we think of which impact cash flow include:
- Sales
- Pricing
- Receivables
- Quality of product or service
In this post, Donald Hunter™ gives brief examples of how other functions in your business can affect your cash flow in a “Titanic” way. Examples of other functions include:
- Customer service
- Credit
- Claims
- Returns
- Shipping
- Marketing
We will illustrate a few examples below of how different functions in your business impact your cash flow.
Customer Service
Customer service impacts cash flow either in a positive or negative way. Your customer service representatives need to be friendly and courteous with your customers or else it will be easy for your customer to buy a substitute. When I eat at a restaurant for the first time, I’m as interested in the customer service as I am in the food. If the service is below my expectations, I probably won’t go back unless I’m forced to. If the quality of the food is also bad, then I definitely will never eat there again.
Being courteous isn’t the only quality your customer service representatives should have; they should be skilled in solving your customers’ problems. Being able to quickly identify what the customer’s problem is and giving simple solutions to get your customer quickly using your product or service is crucial.
Remember, you don’t get to choose your family in life and you also don’t always get to choose your customer. You may need to exercise extreme patience and love in how you respond to their questions and challenges no matter how silly they may seem.
The last thing I’d like to say on customer service is it is very important that customer service has visibility into other functions like credit, sales, returns, etc., so they know how to best serve your customers.
Credit
It is important if you extend credit to your customers to have a monitoring system in place to detect if your customer begins to show signs of having difficulties in their business. Negative signs will include things like slower payments, customers request larger credit lines, and you may hear from other suppliers who may be experiencing problems with your customers.
If payments begin to extend out further and further and you don’t have an agreement in place with them that allows this behavior, then you have a problem brewing. Now, you may choose to extend credit to some customers as much as 90 days, but they should have some special value to your business and they should be credit worthy.
If your customer begins to show signs of credit challenges, you should make Customer Service and Sales aware of the situation so they can adjust their focus with the customer, saving you from getting caught holding the bag.
Returns
Too many returns can have a significant impact on your business cash flow. Quality is the obvious reason for returns, but sales and marketing can also have a negative impact on how many returns you receive on a monthly basis.
If your offer is unclear or misleading, it can result in someone buying your product or service only to later discover it is not the right product or service for them. You can reduce your returns by qualifying buyers better and evaluating how you compensate your sales force, which will improve your business cash flow.
Cash Flow Management Assessment
One of the services Donald Hunter™ offers is to analyze your business’ processes, your customers’ experiences with your firm, and make recommendations on how you can improve your business cash flow. We have financial solutions that can help you get cash quickly to sustain your business and avoid “Titanic” disaster while we help you correct any problems in how you manage cash flow in your business.
Our assessments and models are designed to deal with the nonlinear nature of your business functions to help us identify the root cause of your cash flow problems. We also offer credit monitoring services to help you stay on top of what’s going on with your customers’ credit.
Sign-up now for your Complimentary Cash Flow Management Consultation. We can talk more specifically about how to avoid “Titanic” disaster and ways you can improve your business cash flow. We will share with you simple things you can start to do immediately to see better results in your business cash flow straightaway!
Is the Chamber of Commerce Dead?
Posted by: | CommentsIs the Chamber of Commerce Dead?
Simply put: YES… and a lot of other things have died during this “cataclysmic shift” that has come upon the world.
Thanks to social media sites like Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter, Myspace, and social bookkmarking services like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Technorati, small businesses have endless opportunities to showcase their expertise.
What social media has done is enabled faster communications at a much lower cost: time and money.
A small business owner can now:
- Friend or follow other like minded people who have a strong interest in developing a relationship in the real world.
- Truly highlight their strengths, personality, and sincerity in front of thousands of people on a daily basis versus 10 to 75 per month through their local chamber of commerce.
- Network, in most cases, without paying an annual fee compared to the $300 to $600 price tag just to be part of a chamber of commerce, and another $200 to $400 to attend chamber of commerce functions.
- Advertise on a daily basis for free as opposed to paying the chamber of commerce advertising fees ranging from $100 for a very tiny ad to $700 for the prime spot.
- Promote their small business through podcasts, Youtube and Viddler videos, photos, and multimedia to show their expertise and connect with their target market in a personal, intimate way.
Social media has given small businesses the freedom to break out of the confinements of groups like the chamber of commerce.
Donald Hunter loves social media because it:
- Vets business owners and entrepreneurs, which will get rid of imposters.
- Helps business owners to gain massive exposure at zero or very low cost.
- Helps business owners by providing them simple marketing tools, which many business owners don’t do marketing on a regular, consistent basis.
- Creates an even playing field, which gives people who want to start businesses a more powerful platform to breakthrough historical and organizational barriers.
The chamber of commerce is dead, but I don’t think they know it… Donald Hunter left the chamber of commerce last March when he committed to implement social media in his business. “My business has expanded nationwide in a few short months. My challenge in the chamber of commerce and groups like Business Network International was the “clique.” A very small group of people who have been around the chamber of commerce for years really have the power, and newcomers are at their mercy.”
When I left my local Chamber of commerce I spoke with Dianna, the membership coordinator. I told her the reasons why I felt it was a lost leader. Dianna’s argument to get me to stay was that they were going to have Facebook speak at their Young Professionals group in a few months. Diana said I should stay because that showed the chamber of commerce embraces social media.
Hmm….Newspapers embraced Craigslist because they thought it was only for people looking for apartments. Look at the number of ads in your local paper today… Nilsson reports that social media usage has tripled over the past year!
We welcome your comments on this article with a link back to your own blog.
OH! BTW guys if you haven’t signed up for a free consultation it’s time to take advantage of it now because I don’t know how long it’s going to be available. So go ahead and signup now before it’s gone.
Also get my Business Survival Report it’s absolutely FREE! There’s no catch whatsoever this is just a way for me to give back and help small businesses in these tough times. Here’s the link to my Free Business Survival Report again.
Is It Time to Rediscover Your True Love and Passion?
Posted by: | CommentsWhat Is Your “Why”?
Since my early twenties, I wanted to own and operate my own business to build something that no one else has ever created. I wanted to make a positive impact in people’s lives to help them achieve their dreams. I wanted to provide my family a life style like most middle class American’s can.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill taught me to use “autosuggestion” which is positive thinking and reflecting on what you want versus what you don’t want. Knowing that more than 75% of visually impaired people in the U.S. are unemployed, I decided that my definite major purpose in life was to own and operate my own business. I determined to defy these odds!
My visions in life have gone from being a software developer for an apparel manufacturer to a product manager in a high-tech company. My education is in computer science with a Masters of Business Administration. I am also certified in financial planning, real estate, taxes, insurance, and project management. I still use “autosuggestion” and the other 16 principles from Think and Grow Rich daily to remind myself of my definite major purpose in life.
My experiences prepared me to be the “good steward” of a business that affects lots of different groups of people:
- My family
- My friends
- My employees
- Business owners and entrepreneurs
- My readership of DonaldHunterFinancial.com
- My affiliates and partners
It gets tough in business sometimes, but as business owners and entrepreneurs we need to rekindle our love and passion for the “why” we’ve taken on such a great responsibility to so many people.
Two Weeks On the Road
Last March, I discovered an organization called CEO Space through one of my mentors, Eric Lofholm. At the end of 2008, I invested heavily in education and training to transform myself into the “business owner of 2010.” I left San Jose on the Amtrak train on a Wednesday, headed to Rockland (a suburb of Sacramento), California, for a training course on business finance. I was thoroughly exhausted after three full days of finance training.
Sunday morning, I left Rockland for Incline Village on the Amtrak again. It was pouring rain and the train was late. As many of you know, I’m blind, and I had all this luggage to cart around in the rain since I was going to be gone for a week. That little annoying voice inside my head started pestering me, “why did you schedule two different trainings back to back, fool? What’s going to happen when you show up in Truckee and your ride ain’t there?” I told the voice to shut up immediately! Nothing was going to get in my way.
I never worry because there is always an angel who shows up from out of nowhere to help me out of a pinch. These angels were from the Carolinas. I wondered why in the world they would take a train from Sacramento to the Carolinas. I was confident we were at the right place at the right time.
Rediscovering Love
Well, I ended up staying three extra days in Incline Village. It was such a peaceful place in late March. There, CEO Space rekindled that spark in my soul for business. I learned to create large visions that I myself could not accomplish on my own. I learned that is the key… In the Space, I learned at a deep level that “cooperation is better than competition.”
It was so apparent last March when I arrived at the CEO Space forum in Incline Village, something was different. The spirit in the air was friendly, open, free, and enthusiastic for the possibility of making a huge impact on the world.
I met business people from almost every state in the U.S., business owners and entrepreneurs from Canada. I broke bread with successful entrepreneurs who have stayed the course until they saw their dreams come true.
Lisa Nichols of The Secret is one of those business warriors that had a profound effect on rekindling my drive to create and do the impossible. She began her entrepreneurial career at CEO Space and now has grown into a mega superstar entrepreneur. As I left the forum last March and everyone was saying their goodbyes, Lisa came over to acknowledge me.
She was so impressed that a visually impaired person would strike out on their own to come to CEO Space alone. And she was moved by my enthusiasm for big dreams and hopes to impact the world and leave a legacy long after I am gone.
I said to her, “I want to become a speaker and move an audience and have them listening intensely to every word just like you.” Her enthusiastic response was, “Bring it on!” I was a little shocked because I expected her to say the usual words of gentle encouragement… But that’s not Lisa.
Today I am “Bringing it on!” in my life and business. There’s no time for maybes, fears that hold me back, nor concerns of what others want for me – like my family who only wants to see me as little Donnie.
My visions are large and my passions are high, and I’m so thankful I met people like Lisa Nichols and Mark Victor Hansen to remind me that simple, ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they are freed from their self-ascribed bonds.
What is your “why”?
Rediscover your why and you too will be on your way to rekindling your passion for your vision.
OH! BTW guys if you haven’t signed up for a free consultation it’s time to take advantage of it now because I don’t know how long it’s going to be available. So go ahead and signup now before it’s gone.
Also get my Business Survival Report it’s absolutely FREE! There’s no catch whatsoever this is just a way for me to give back and help small businesses in these tough times. Here’s the link to my Free Business Survival Report again.
News: Bad Small Business Coaching Revealed
Posted by: | CommentsYou must be very careful about how some small business coaches operate. There are those who will say anything to get your money even if their advice is detrimental to your business.
Coaches like Mike Searls from Success Training Systems, for example, who claims to be able to help small businesses get ‘unstuck’. He argues that you don’t need money to grow your business.
The truth is that in business, you can’t get something for nothing. In my experience, it takes money to make money. You make and investment and you expect to get a return (ROI).
Discouraging Mindset
Believing Mr. Searls’ advice will drive small business owners straight toward one of the discouraging mindsets that will get them stuck – the state of mind of “lack.”
- Lack of money.
- Lack of resources.
- Lack of time.
- Lack of sleep.
- Lack of people who take you seriously.
- Lack of success!
- A divorce…
Letter to Mr. Searls
Donald Hunter™ would never compromise the truth at the expense of your business! This is why, after listening to Michael’s free webinar, I confronted Mr. Searls with hard facts about his claims.
Hello Mike Searls,
I listened to your free webinar today and you said to small business owners and entrepreneurs “you don’t need money to grow your business.”
I respectfully disagree with you. Check out my blog post on getting “unstuck”
Michael has not yet responded to my email dated October 31, 2009.
My reasons for disagreeing with Michael:
1. You have communications expenses such as a computer, phone, and mailing.
2. It costs money to buy software to automate your sales and marketing (such as AWeber, iContact, and Infusionsoft)!
3. Based on the seven functions of business, most people can only do 1-2 of these efficiently at any one time. So, you have to pay in money or stock hired employees or consultants to get the other functions done.
4. You need to use some form of incorporation to protect your personal assets, which costs money initially!
5. To join Mr. Searls’ boot camps cost money! Right?
6. If you’re going to really start a business you have to do it full-time. At the same time, you’re not making money. You’re living off of savings or some equivalent resource.
Think Strategically
I could go on and on with little expenses you have if you want to build a credible business. Most people are not sure how to do effective competitive analysis, effectively use all the social media sites, and do audio and video, and so on. Plus the hundreds of other things they need to be good at to run a business.
And Lord knows that most people have not been trained to think strategically. You have to be trained to think strategically and most people’s jobs are so watered down to control the flow of information or to protect intellectual property, they never learned these skills.
And strategy is a difficult thing to get right. Large companies fail at it all the time: GM, Chrysler, Sun Microsystems, MCI, etc..
The Challenge
So Mike, what’s your rationale in saying “you don’t need money to start a business” while the SBA says “undercapitalization” is one of the top reasons why people fail?
I am a business owner and money certainly helps me get things done. Hiring other people who have skills I don’t have or they can do things I don’t really want to do is incredibly important to keep my small business moving forward. And they won’t work for me for nothing.
Branding
Michael, once we finish this topic on “does it take money to make money”, I want to discuss with you why you think branding should come later. I respectfully disagree with you again.
The difference between you and me on branding is you have the traditional view of what branding does for a business… I used to be “stuck” in that mindset too!
I paid thousands of dollars to get “unstuck” from that way of thinking.
Aggressive Sales Tactics
Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to beware of these aggressive sales tactics. Don’t risk your business and your financial future by following bad coaching advice.
OH! BTW guys if you haven’t signed up for a free consultation it’s time to take advantage of it now because I don’t know how long it’s going to be available. So go ahead and signup now before it’s gone.
Also get my Business Survival Report it’s absolutely FREE! There’s no catch whatsoever this is just a way for me to give back and help small businesses in these tough times. Here’s the link to my Free Business Survival Report again.
