BROADEN YOUR THINKING: YOU MIGHT MISS SOMETHING

When I’m marketing for clients, I work in a quality network. The person I turn to for web design is Nancy Fenn (http://www.geocities.com/idesignwebpages). She is also an Intuition Coach (www.bemyguide.net). She refers clients to me for overall marketing strategy and management, and I do ezines. I refer my marketing clients back to her for web design because I don’t know anyone who does better work.

Recently, in working with one of Nancy’s referrals, we talked about how excellent Nancy was at web design, and client, who had initially gone to Nancy for personal life coaching, said to me, “Nancy has many hidden talents.”

Nails on blackboard here!

IS THIS A HIDDEN TALENT: YOU BE THE JUDGE

Here’s an example of Nancy’s work: http://www.thecoachingmuse.com. I don’t see anything “hidden” about Nancy’s web design talents, do you?

If you can’t see thread that would make someone both an excellent coach and an excellent web designer, I can supply it, but I want you to realize it’s always there.

Most people who are entrepreneurs are multi-talented. Be willing to accept this and make use of it. Corporations and businesses ‘pigeonhole’ people. A person working on their own is free to soar, and most do!

THE THREAD, THE CONNECTION

The thread is Nancy’s intuition. This allows her to coach well, and also to ‘get’ person and put this across on Internet which is, after all, essence of branding.

We have been trained to make fun of “the bait shop and beauty shop” approach. Why, I don’t know, but it’s time to let it go and move on.

For many years here in San Antonio there was a store that sold firearms and liquor—scary thought, isn’t it? However it’s a natural connection and store did well. Furthermore, it sat in our premier shopping center, right beside designer clothing store. (Now where might you park your husband while you buy your $500 dress?)

Embrace this truth and profits will flood your business.

Disregard this truth and financial-cancer will eat you.

What is this truth?

Quite simply, size and speed of your entrepreneurial success is directly proportional to your understanding of The Mathematical Formula For Making Money.

Despite serving as corner stone of every single commercial success since dawn of commerce most businesses neglect its power. Being so familiar with diluted version of formula these businesses overlook enormous profit-potential held within. Mindful of this blind-spot, let's now take a close look at Mathematical Formula For Making Money: Leads x Conversion Rate = Customers Customers x Average Dollar Sale x Sales Per Customer = Gross Profits Gross Profits x Profit Margin = Net Profits Please pay close attention to what I am about to tell you: your number of customers; your gross profits; and your net profits are **the least important** figures in this formula. Why? Because they merely represent outcomes. They tell you how good or bad you're doing without telling you why. And without knowing why you're doing so well (or so bad) you are in no position to fix cause with speed and accuracy. All you can do is guess and implement random strategies in hope that one day your results will improve. The real power of this formula is stored within five highlighted variables (a.k.a. levers). Quite literally, when you apply these levers to your business your profits will increase exponentially. Allow me to demonstrate. Assume for moment that your business currently operates under these circumstances: Leads Per Annum = 10,000 Conversion Rate = 0.1 (10%) Av. Dollar Sale = $50 Sales Per Customer = 2 Per Annum Profit Margin = 0.2 (20%) Plugging these into formula gives you a net profit of $20,000 per annum. Let's now demonstrate impact of improving progressively more levers without increasing your overall effort: Case #1: Improve leads by 100% Net profit = $40,000

Increase in Profit(%) = $20,000 (100%)

Effort(%) = 100% Profit to Effort ratio = 1:1

I.e. for every % increase in effort you get same % increase in profit. Case #2: Improve leads and conversion rate by 50% each.

Net profit = $40,000

Increase in Profit(%) = $25,000 (125%)

Effort(%) = 100% Profit to Effort ratio = 1.25:1

I.e. for every % increase in effort you get a 1.25 % increase in profit. Case #3: Improve leads, conversion rate and average dollar sale by 33% each. Net profit = $47,052

Increase in Profit(%) = $27,052 (135%)

Effort(%) = 100% Profit to Effort ratio = 1.35:1

I.e. for every % increase in effort you get a 1.35% increase in profit. Case#4: Improve all levers except profit margin by 25% each. Net profit = $48,828

Increase in Profit(%) = $28,828 (144%)

Effort(%) = 100% Profit to Effort ratio = 1.44:1

I.e. for every % increase in effort you a 1.44 % increase in profit. Case #5: Improve all five levers by 20% each. Net profit = $49,766

Increase in Profit(%) = $29,766 (149%)