Invest For Success

bigstock-ROI-return-on-investment-acr-30227663-300x229Some people expect something for nothing in their businesses.

Others realise that success comes from investment in appropriate resources.

Allow me to elaborate…There are some coaches and consultants who struggle to earn £30,000 (US$47,000) a year, and can’t find enough clients willing to pay their hourly rate. They don’t use a coach or consultant themselves.

And if they do use a coach, they sometimes aren’t willing to pay more per hour than they. themselves, charge.

There are many business owners that want to succeed but baulk at paying to promote their businesses.

After making a lot of mistakes, I've found what works for me:

I Pay For Good Advice

There’s a marketing consultant in the States called Dan Kennedy. Several years ago, he was charging $7,500 for a day’s consulting in his home.

I contacted him to book a day with him, but he couldn’t fit me in for three months.

I asked if I could pay the $7,500, get an hour with him on the phone in the coming weeks, and then have an hour less when I came to meet with him.

He agreed.

The advice he gave me in that first hour was so helpful that I felt I had $7,500 of value already.

The (almost) full day with him would simply be a bonus at a later date.

Here’s a photo of me with Dan.

Dan-Kennedy-300x214

I have told this story many times, and most people say they'd refuse to pay $7,500 for consulting, as it's just too much money.But I wasn’t concerned with the amount.

I was only concerned with the impact it had on my bottom line.Dan now charges $18,000 a day, and smart business owners continue to pay him.

I Pay Well for Advertising and Promotion.

When I started my mail order business, LifeTools – which sold personal development products – I started by spending £50 for small display ads.

Here’s one of my first ads, on the top left.

I-to-I-MindLab-advert-300x200

Over the next few years, I gradually moved to bigger and bigger ads.

Each ad was coded so I could work out how many enquiries and how much profit I was making. For every pound I invested, I was getting two to ten times that returning to me in gross profit within a month or two.

So I happily moved to full-page colour ads, and then multiple full-page colour ads in the same publication.

I gladly paid thousands for an ad in Men’s Health, like the one below for a ‘speed reading’ type course called PhotoReading. It looks like an article, it’s heavy on text – and it worked like gangbusters!

I-got-95pc-PhotoReading-ad-cropped-206x300

When I started the business, I had some direct competitors. While my ads got bigger, theirs stayed the same size.Perhaps they were stuck in a rut because of a limiting mind-set.

Eventually they disappeared completely.

I was happy to pay thousands for a page because my core sales spreadsheet showed that the risk of losing money on it was very low.

It was almost a sure-fire investment opportunity.

Other people just saw the amount I was paying for one ad and freaked out prematurely.

In summary:Buy Quality Advice

  • Work out how much you are spending on coaches/consultants/mentors
  • Determine the Return On Investment (ROI) on each of them in terms of money and time invested by you
  • If you can’t work out an ROI at present, create systems so you can in the future – or get rid of your current consultants and use ones who can show their worth to you and your business
  • Spend more on consultants that give you the best bang per buck

Advertising and promotion

  • Find out what's working
  • Do more of what works
  • Stop doing what doesn’t!
  • See where you are limiting yourself and your business by thinking small – consider thinking bigger and being more ambitious with your vision

Let me know how you get on!

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