Defining your Business – How can you sell it to other’s If you can you define it succinctly yourself?

I was really excited about my business this week because it is starting to become a business and not a job. That was my overriding lesson from the Foundations course that I failed to look on it as a business and had created a very demanding job for myself and one with no real potential. Since learning that my business was in fact a hobby I have been assessing the profitability of every action that I carry out, because we all have to crack the actions that make us profit.

All the students at this level of the Online Marketing MBA have all made money online, but we all need to make the decision in our own businesses to isolate the things that are the most profitable. That is not always the easiest thing to do when you are sitting on top of it; you need a certain amount of detachment to pick out what is not working. It can be too easy to get emotionally attached to the things we love doing and lose sight of the profit and loss aspect.

This week was both exciting and illuminating, and built on the foundation of last week’s amazingly different and innovative use of the SWOT test. We were all taught how to do the SWOT test the Dee Kumar way and I have to say, whichever way you look at it, it is the most astonishingly simple way to get results, and I did not think the previous SWOT lesson could be topped, but this week I was entirely surprised and blown away by the entirely new concept of applying the test to product creation.

For me that knowledge was so powerful, because I love product creation and it is the thing I do best. However, I realised this week that the process of creation could be simplified in such a way that you can guarantee to dominate any niche you choose, before you even start. That for me was so potent it bowled me over for several hours. Although I am trying to create an offline business this week’s first video on product creation using the SWOT test hauled me back to reality. I have to go with the most profitable actions and for me at the moment that is making new products because it is what I do best. If I want to diversify later then I can use my increased profits to diversify! Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the primary reason for having a business is to make a profit. We can’t all be like Shylock, but we can’t pretend that our businesses do not have to be profitable.

Although I personally think product creation is easy, – it is not as easy when you are doing the product creation for yourself. It was far easier when I was a ghost writer, because I did not have to take control of the marketing aspects. My major stumbling block is the sales letter. I love writing factual reports, I love writing how to do manuals, but other aspects of writing have always alluded me. I find it harder to blog because I have to write about what I think and feel and that for me is harder. My pet hate is the sales letter and it is the one aspect that it is hardest to outsource because a decent sales letter that converts costs a lot of money to get it written. I can’t say I am bad at it, I have never even tried to do it because the touchy feely being connected to someone is not my natural style of writing and I know enough about sales letters to know that they need empathy, another reason why I have avoided them, I know I haven’t got it. In other words I can and have created fantastic products but I have not achieved the conversions that those products deserve, and that is the one and only reason for doing this course to make my products more marketable.

If someone had told me that six weeks into a course I would be able to write a sales letter I would have said they were off their trolley! This week I learned a unique and innovative twist to the SWOT test that would give me all the bullet points I need in my sales letter before I start to create my product. That is so reassuring in itself; – because I do not have to climb Mount Everest and jump through hoops once I have finished the product. Another way that knowledge is power is the fact I can concentrate on the most important aspect, – and that is the quality of the product.

I mean how powerful is that for a product creator? Dee Kumar has just empowered his privileged students with the knowledge that they can produce a better product than anything currently available in their niche and at the same time have the powerful, commanding, authoritative copy-writing hooks to be able to sell it themselves. Not only to sell it, but also to have a good sales conversion which is something you hope for with a professional sales letter but can never get anyone to guarantee those conversions.

Although this is what we all signed up for, – it is one thing being promised something and another thing entirely having it over delivered on a plate. The Online M arketing MBA SWOT product creation test means that you can have a guarantee before you start that your product will sell. Of course if you are not a product creator then this won’t have you dancing on the table, but if you are this knowledge is massive. No wonder Dee calls it Kung Fu SWOT; it really is product creation on steroids. It makes the process easier and faster, but it also makes it fit the market perfectly, and that is so exciting for a product creator.

Everything comes down to the marketing and if you have sorted your marketing out then your product will sell. Such is the power of marketing that an inferior product will outsell a fantastic product every time, if the marketing is better. You cannot have a good sales letter unless you understand your target market. Video 7 in the online marketing MBA introduces the “elevator pitch”. Although if you think you know what the elevator pitch is then think again, because it is not the standard rehashed “pitch” , this is the Online Marketing MBA method, with a little bit of Dee Kumar magic thrown in.

The essence of the Dee Kumar way is not to beat a single competitor, but to look like a Goliath in the industry you have chosen, the ultimate authority figure. If you have been an online marketer for a while, you will like me have purchased many courses that tell you need to be “the authority figure”, but sadly they neglect to tell you how to do it, Dee on the other hand doesn’t just tell us how to do it he sets out a blueprint for every niche.

I know that is a sweeping statement but he really does and in such a disarmingly simple way. That is the essence of these lessons; Dee has the power to strip everything down to the quintessential way of doing things, the way to get results. If you don’t believe it come and join us and see for yourself how easy it is when the instructions strip away the extraneous crap. When you have been stripped to the basics you can only focus on the things that matter, because there is nothing else left! There is nowhere to hide either; your business has to get results.

It is very important to differentiate your business from the competition, I have always known that, but have never been sure of how to do it. I am sure that I am not the only volunteer blogger that guessed what to do in the past. I took a hope and a prayer and winged it and I know where that got me, being half successful a quarter of the time. At least I had the sense to grab this opportunity with both hands.

This week I have managed to create a product, not just any product but one I know has real opportunities to be successful. I can also apply what I have learned this week to my offline business because I have drilled down into my target market and that means I can connect with them and find empathy, because I have identified their problems, the one’s I have the solution to. That also has other ramifications it will be easier to sell my products to people because I can knock down their objections as they arise. Lead generation is easy in offline marketing, converting that to a sale is a whole different ballgame, but one I know will be easier when apply this week’s lesson. I can’t wait to get out next week and try it out.

Suddenly I feel that my business is getting some foundations, rather than leaning on a wing and a prayer. It is extremely exciting if for no other reason than good foundations should mean that I will never have to compete on price alone. My retail background has already taught me that it creates a really sticky situation that can come down like a pack of cards. I can start to define where it is I want it to go, and that means I can start steering the ship and not hoping for a wind that will blow me somewhere! I can control my customers’ rather than having to be totally subject to their whims.

To recap this week I have researched a new product in the money-making niche, one which I have always avoided because of the competition, however, I am confident that I have been handed the knowledge to have dealt with my competition before I start. I have the confidence in my product and hope to be able to tell you by next week that I have got my first sales. I have partnered with someone else to be able to use some leverage, I believe that combining two completely complimentary skill sets will give us both an exponential increase in income. My partner is an SEO freak, he loves it (there is no accounting for taste) he can drive the traffic and market my product so life is looking very good at the moment, thanks to the Online Marketing MBA.

My apologies for going on this week but what we have learned is so powerful that we must have better sales very shortly, because Dee Kumar is not normal, he is a business genius! All our businesses are different and it takes a real genius to strip business principles down to something that we can all benefit from equally, whatever our business all we have to do is apply it and stand back to watch our online businesses blossom.