YOU HAVE VERY LITTLE COMPETITION

"Everyone wants to win on Sunday, but not everyone is willing to practice Monday through Friday." Vince Lombardi

If you asked all of your competitors whether they want to be successful, it's a fair bet that pretty much all of them would say "Yes, of course, who doesn't want to be successful?"

But if you asked your competitors if they were prepared to do what it takes to develop their businesses so they could ultimately become successful, to pay price in terms of effort, discipline, perseverence and patience, although most if not all would probably answer "yes, of course, whatever it takes", reality is that very few of them actually would.

Although everyone wants success, very few are prepared to pay price over long haul. Oh, they may give it a good go for a little while but when results don't come quickly, they decide their efforts aren't working and try something else.

The cold, hard reality is that success takes hard work, lots of it, and lots of time. Overnight successes are very rare. That's why successful people say there's always room at top. It's because most people quit before succeeding, even when success is literally just around next bend. This is why you have very little competition. Although you may think you have a lot of competition, in reality you're really competing against only ten percent or so because other ninety percent will drop out before they achieve success.

Think of your business as a garden. The first stage is to decide what you want to grow, second stage is to go get seeds and plant them, third stage is to tend your garden and fourth is to reap what you have sown. The greatest challenge for most people is to sustain themselves through third stage. This is where patience is essential because it may be some considerable time between planting and reaping. Tending your garden also requires, in addition to patience, creativity, self- motivation, self-discipline, perseverence and resilience (all better to bounce back with after disappointment, my dear).

The good news, though, is that ninety percent of your competitors can't or won't stick it out long enough to reach harvest stage. This is why you can be always be a success no matter how much competition you have. So, let's get to it.

DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO GROW

Before you can plant your seeds, you need to know what it is you want to grow.

"Communicating one on one is different. This requires listening, never taking your eyes off that person, conveying impression that this conversation is very important to you." Rick Pitino

The first step in communicating with anyone about your business is knowing with absolute clarity what it is you and your business are about. You must decide what it is that you offer and to whom. This means finding your niche. It is kiss of death to any business to try to be all things to all people. Accept fact that not everyone is a worthwhile prospect for your business and don't waste your energies targeting anyone who is not a worthwhile prospect.

For example, let's say your business is about web site optimization for search engines. You take your clients' web pages and you optimize them for each of engines, tailoring pages to rank well. You don't design web pages, you don't create them, you don't offer credit card merchant facilities or shopping carts. You optimize existing pages to rank well in search engines. Period. This is a very specific niche within broader market of those requiring help marketing their web-based businesses.

Although that broad market will include people interested in web page optimization, it will also include people interested in learning HTML, looking for shopping cart assistance, looking for website design services or information on successfully promoting affiliate programs. If you targeted this entire market, it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack identifying those people interested specifically in web page optimization.

Instead, narrow your focus to that niche of market that you have decided to target and target ONLY that market. Everything you do needs to be focused on web site optimization and nothing else. Every communication you make must be to that end and no other. Don't allow your message to be diluted by generalizing. Don't allow your business to become fragmented.

The time has come to hire some help. OK, but what kind of help do you need? If it's a secretary/receptionist, that's easy. You go out and hire yourself a competent employee. But what if it's someone to carry out specific projects such as designing a website for a good customer you just can't service within timeframe customer needs? What if it's someone to create a marketing program to launch your business to masses? What if it's a bookkeeper to handle your accounts payable, receivable and everything else in between? The difference between these types of activities and our secretary/receptionist example is that former are all specific projects whereas latter is not.

When considering whom to hire for your project work, you have a choice ... hire a full-time or part-time employee or hire an independent contractor. By time you include all add-on costs of hiring an employee (in addition to wages or salary you need to add on federal and state payroll taxes, social security tax, federal unemployment insurance tax, state unemployment insurance, workers' comp premiums and employee benefits, not to mention shelling out for office space and equipment), hiring an employee becomes a relatively expensive option compared to hiring an independent contractor to do same work. The add-on costs of hiring an employee usually add about 30-40% to bill. In other words, if you pay your employee $10 an hour, you'll really be paying $13 - $14 an hour once you include all add-on expenses.

In contrast, although you usually pay an independent contractor more than an employee, that cost will still be less than an employee with add-on expenses. You may pay an independent contractor $12 an hour without any additional charges. Sound good? Well, read on. It's not as easy as it looks.

WHAT IS AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR?

So, what is difference between an employee and an independent contractor anyway? Quite simply, an independent contractor is someone who contracts with someone else to provide specified services for a set price on terms and conditions outlined in contract.

For example, let's say you hire a gardener to mow your lawn and get rid of weeds once a week. Your contract (whether written or not) is that Joe Gardener will arrive at your house on Friday morning, mow your lawn, get rid of weeds and generally tend to your garden. In exchange, you agree to pay Joe $40 for this service each week. Joe supplies his own lawnmower, hedge clippers and weeding tools. Joe decides what time he arrives and how long job takes (within reasonable parameters). You do not supervise Joe in his tasks or dictate to him how they are to be done. Joe is an independent businessperson and you treat him accordingly. The final product is either to your satisfaction or it isn't. When he's finished, you pay him if you're satisfied with end result and you don't pay him if you're not.