Enter stage left, or at least from the room to the left, my 20 year old daughter, college student and blogger. She works virtually as an intern for Mother Nature Network (MNN). MNN has assembled a group of college students across the country to blog about eco-friendly projects, businesses, and community activities. I had suggested she research commuter behavior statistics and compile this data into a poignant blog entry about the amount of fuel wasted every day that we commute by car. She thought this sounded like a lot of work, estimating hours of research for a modest albeit somewhat interesting blog entry. Her approach was to create a video blog interviewing me in my home office, using me as an example of how people could be more eco-friendly if they worked from home. She did a video that panned from her room to my office next door. The result was effective. She accomplished a better result, with more effective material in a much shorter span of time. Why could she do this? She looks at things from a Generation Y perspective, part of the Skyping, Blogging, Instant Messaging, emailing, internet based generation that will become a far more virtual and eco-friendly generation than my generation. Her video link is below. http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/connecticut/student-blog/video-dads-green-business
Who is Mother Nature Newtork MNN http://www.mnn.com/about-us? According to their web site: “MNN wasn’t designed for scientists or experts. It was created for the rest of us, the regular person who wants information written and created in a way that everyone can understand – both in personal pursuits and business decisions. We’re your one-stop resource and an everyman’s eco-guide offering original programs, articles, blogs, videos, and how-to guides along with breaking news stories.”
www.alanblume.com www.startupselling.com
All posts with the tag 'Small Business'
Why – because Generation Y Gets It
How to get Published – a Virtual Sales & Marketing Case Study
It’s difficult to get published – conventional wisdom states that less than 1% of would be authors receive an offer from a reputable publisher. A few weeks ago I signed my first book deal. This posting reviews the virtual sales and marketing efforts which were leveraged to accomplish this. I worked on a book about virtual businesses for about a year and upon the completion of a basic draft, decided to contact some literary agents (it’s easier to find a publisher if you have an agent representing you). I found several free internet sites listing agents including: www.1000literaryagents.com, www.writers.net and www.writersdigest.com. Some sources estimate that top literary agents receive about 400-1,000 unsolicited book queries every month, in other words, it’s very competitive. I started this sales and marketing campaign as I would at www.StartUpSelling.com for any business. I selected 1,200 agents from the free online lists above. In most cases they had an email listed for the book query submission (that’s agent speak for a formal proposal a writer must create to whet the interest of a prospective agent). As with any sales and marketing campaign, it usually begins by building a prospect list. But hold on a minute, this isn’t a smart, targeted, virtual sales and marketing approach. You are much better off targeting a niche or specific profile than you would be sending out emails to 1,200 general literary agents. I refined the list and culled through the agents to identify 100 who were interested in business books, non-fiction and prescriptive books (how to books). I focused first on agents listing business books as a specific area of interest. This information was available for free on the sites mentioned above and the respective agency websites in the instances that the agency actually had one (there are some agencies that have very limited websites or don’t have them at all).
The list building, culling and niche targeting were done in just a few days. I decided to do a test run of 30 agents, and would then do another wave of 70 agents if necessary. I had read that it was extremely difficult to sign with an agent, and that you might not even get a response to a manuscript inquiry (query letter). As fall approached in 2008 I sent out my first wave of emails. Here are the results for both waves:
Wave 1 Statistics
- 30 Sent
- 4 Interested
- 12 Not interested
- 14 No response
Wave 2 Statistics
- 70 Sent
- 5 Interested
- 20 Not Interested
- 45 No response
Overall, 9% of the agents expressed interest, 32% were not interested and I received no response from 59% of the agents. Normally you would follow up a campaign with a personal telephone call/voice mails. In this particular industry, however, the rules of engagement state that agents prefer no calls. After all, in a system that rejects 98% of all would be authors, the number of follow up calls would overwhelm the agents. As a side note, there were some highly personalized responses and suggestions from agents who did not have interest at the moment and some standard form rejection letters too. I sent out wave two a week after I sent the first wave of emails. I did not market to any agent requiring a query on paper.
Most of the results came in within the first two weeks of the respective waves. Of the 9% expressing interest, their approach varied dramatically. Four agents asked me to email my full proposal; another four asked me to print out a full proposal and snail mail it (or FedEx) it to them and one asked me via email if I would like him to immediately contact publishers on my behalf to see if they had interest. I immediately sent my proposal to the four agents who requested it via email attachment. About a week later I sent out one paper copy to one of the four agents who expressed a particularly high level of interest in my query. In retrospect, I don’t know why I bothered – this is a really stupid approach I liken to the current issues with traditional print Newspapers – the distribution system makes no sense (though it was just fine in 1949). Of the four agents who received my full email proposal, two asked for an exclusive (a period of time whereby they could solely determine if they wished to represent me) and two asked if I would speak with them right away. One of the agents who wanted to have an immediate discussion was Wendy Keller from Keller Media. Wendy asked if we could set up a conference call to discuss my query. I sent her a GoToMeeting invitation, and within 24 hours, we were meeting virtually in cyberspace. Later that day, the agency representation agreement was sent and signed digitally, there was no paper that ever exchanged hands. It took me less than four weeks from the time I decided to approach the literary agency market to sign with a well known agent. About 6 months later, my agent secured an offer from a well known business book publisher, Career Press. My book which is to be called Your Virtual Success, Finding Profitability in an Online World is due out at the beginning of 2010. Leveraging virtual sales and marketing tools is effective, inexpensive and reusable. My virtual business model expands and contracts easily and is far more profitable. I look forward to exploring the nuances of this in my upcoming book from Career Press, Your Virtual Success, Finding Profitability in an Online World. www.startupselling.com www.alanblume.com www.kellermedia.com www.careerpress.com
Virtual means competitive advantage – hiring the best & brightest
Our virtual business is expanding while other, more traditional businesses are in the midst of a major contraction. This spells o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y for those companies which can take advantage of the talented labor pool that is now available. It’s always challenging to hire the best and brightest. But in a virtual model, we can deliver greater value because all of our investments are in people and technology. Thus our prices are often 30% or 40% less for comparable services than our “traditional” competitors. We can deliver better results because we are investing in better talent and current SaaS (Software as a Solution) web based technologies like GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar and SalesForce.com. For our lead generation telesales operation, we are finding amazingly talented people across the country who have been laid off after years of efforts for competing firms. The same holds true for our marketing contractors, web designers, graphics team, writers and editors, all of whom work virtually. And of course, we can target recession resistant industries because our model is highly elastic. Thus, we are enjoying what we hope will be a continued expansion. But if we do ever experience a softening, the virtual model makes it much easier to contract quickly, gracefully and without the typical adverse impact to the bottom line. And everyone who works with us – understands this model. That’s one of the reasons our teams are motivated without the usual “motivation and team building techniques” required in a tradition brick and mortar environment. www.alanblume.com
Growing a green email list
Over the last nine months we’ve been working with an East Coast insurance agency helping them to grow their email list. This is a classic, virtual, you reap what you sow story. In a recent emailing about changes to medical benefits, this East Coast firm attracted 250 Fortune 1000 type registrants to their web seminar. Email list building is an art and a science. The obvious benefits of email marketing over snail mail include: It’s reusable, it is postage free, it is immediately measurable, it is immediately actionable, it is green and it is highly cost effective. When is the last time that 250 in profile prospects asked to listen to you for 30 minutes?
It’s more than the cost of gas – virtual vs. on site appointments
GoToMeeting (or comparable web meeting products) is the backbone of any Virtual Business (and most certainly mine). When comparing the cost and efficacy of an on-site meeting located 60 miles away versus a virtual meeting there are many factors to take into consideration:
1. Lost time to be in appearance ready condition
2. Lost travel time going
3. Lost waiting time
4. Automobile costs (not just gas – add wear and tear)
5. Parking and Tolls when applicable
6. Lost travel time returning
7. Lost time to transition back to productivity after return
So let’s calculate this example in a more precise (and compelling way):
1. One HR: Lose an hour to shower, dress for success, get directions to your appointment, pack your laptop, park and walk to lobby (as opposed to a virtual t-shirt and slippers wardrobe)
2. One HR: Lost travel time to drive to appointment
3. 15 minutes: Lost waiting time ensuring you are early and ready for your appointment
4. Auto Costs $66: It’s not just the gas, cars are expensive to operate (120 miles @ .55 mile)
5. Parking: $20 for parking and tolls on average (free in the suburbs and more expensive in the city)
6. One HR: Lost travel time returning
7. 15 minutes: Unpack laptop, reconnect to network, change (who wants to work virtually in a suit), move back into production mode
8. Bonus Loss: Appointments that cancel on-site, doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s a productivity killer
In the example above, an on-site meeting costs $66 (assuming no tolls or parking) plus 3.5 hours of lost productivity. Assuming you earn $100,000 per year ($50 per hour), the lost productivity costs $175. Total loss for the meeting is $241 compared to almost $0 for a GoToMeeting virtual meeting. The most insidious of these losses is moving in and out of production mode. When I’m waiting for my clients or prospects virtually, GoToMeeting is ready, up and running and I’m working in the background. My clients and prospects prefer on-line meetings because they are faster, more efficient and more flexible. If they have to cancel (or I do) production is not impacted. So when calculating “The Cost of Driving to a Business Meeting”, make sure you use the 55 cents per mile metric, not just gas. And build in the lost transition time on top of the lost driving time. You’ll be surprised at the difference in efficiency. At StartUpSelling, 99% of our meetings are done via GoToMeeting (or GoToWebinar) for clients, prospects and our virtual contractor work force. It makes us much more efficient and responsive. After all, when an email or call comes in – we’re at our virtual office and ready to respond.
Go Virtual – Never Get Fired Again
The more virtual your business, the more flexible the hours, the lower the overhead, the greater the profit potential, and the easier it is for the entrepreneur or independent sales professional to use their strengths doing what they do best instead of expending energy and money trying to shore up their weaknesses.Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur starting with just a few hundred dollars, a small business scrambling for venture or expansion capital, or a sales professional in insurance, stocks, real estate or any other services business, you need to leverage the virtual model.
It’s easier to succeed in a virtual model and the virtual model can be applied to almost any business. Unlike Ben Franklin’s famous quotation, “A penny saved is a penny earned”, in many virtual business, “A penny earned is a penny saved”! With low or no overhead, revenues produce far more profits. Working for yourself, working from home, working without the encumbrances of traditional brick and mortar, free from rent, overhead, receptionists and commutes, you can be more productive, will achieve greater independence and be rewarded with more flexibility.
For over 5 years I’ve enjoyed this lifestyle and my company, StartUpSelling, Inc. has been successful, profitable and flexible. I love it and the people I work with, all contractors based from their home offices, love it too. Do you have a virtual business? Are you looking to start a new business? Are you ready to leave the rat race? Are you tired of a control freak boss? Have you been laid off, downsized or just plain fired? Let me know your thoughts and experiences about the new trend toward virtual. It’s a better path for many of us!