In Jeopardy of Crashing?

Are you currently getting the vast majority of your traffic from Google and then selling them stuff? If so, you have great rankings, or perhaps an Adwords account, but you do not have a real business. Why? Because all of your eggs are in one basket. Didn't your mother warn you about this?

Even some extremely savvy SEOs I know have lost top positions in Google due to an actual bug in the algorithm (confirmed by Google). One of them had their entire multi-million dollar website removed from the index completely. If they had not been wholesaling their products to all of the other competitors on page one, their business would have literally dried up overnight. However, the devastation was limited to single-digit losses because they were diversified.

Ever heard of the seven-legged stool?

• One-legged stools fall over
• So do two-legged stools
• Three-legged stools are stable unless you lean back a lot
• Four-legged stools stay up, even if they lose one leg
• Seven-legged stools stay up forever

There is nothing that will take down a seven legged stool. Building your business on one source of leads is a formula for disaster. If it hasn't happened yet, it will. Not a matter of if, but when. It is hard to imagine the almighty Google crumbling but stranger things have happened. However, it is not too difficult to imagine losing your rankings for a million different reasons. Or having the behemoths in your space box you out of the Adwords game by upping their bids until you can no longer reasonably afford to play.

62.8% of all new businesses fail within 6 years! ~ United States Census Bureau

Business Owners Failed Because They…

• Lacked vision
• Lacked strategy to realize vision
• Lacked system for marketing or sales
• Lacked system to monetize client base
• Tried to do too many things at once
• No plan to get resources for growth
• Caught up in the day-to-day
• Did everything ad-hoc (no systems)
• Didn't create or stick to action plans

Source: SBA / US Bank Joint Project

The Odds of Success:

• Slot machines in Vegas = 32%
• Business = 37%
• Horse racing = 41%
• Blackjack (lousy player) = 45%
• Roulette = 47%
• Blackjack (strategy & counting) = 50%

Source: Doug Hall, Jump Start Your Business Brain

Almost all of these provide a better chance of success than running a business. So, why aren't you in Vegas having fun instead of grinding away endlessly? Probably because you feel you are just one step away from ungodly wads of cash. Are you a victim of the rescue fantasy? "If I could just learn the one thing that is missing from my business…then everything would just work out."

If there was actually just one thing, what are the chances you would pick the right one? This is the silver bullet fallacy that the guru business is built upon. A magical problem-solving tool that if properly used will help you get everything you've always dreamed of. While the guru has likely had amazing success with their silver bullet, it is highly unlikely you will have the same level of success.

Unless you have extremely deep pockets, firing off silver bullets often leads to the death of companies. You absolutely must find a way to protect the future of your company. With the current economy, there is no better time than today to get started. Figure out what you do best and do more of it and better. Figure out what you do poorly and stop doing it. Lastly, make sure your business is not hinging on any one thing…including you.

Image Credit: gin_e

Protect Yourself

Sometimes we get weary from our daily battles and lose sight of what is most important to us. We get so hung up on our immediate wants and needs that we overlook those things that offer the most value to our lives. We rush to handle the urgent and put off the important for another day when we have more time…which never arrives. It is never too late to regain control of your life and be all that you thought you would be when you were a child.

I have pulled together a few classic quotes to inject some life back into your mission and provide you with some protection from the elements. Take a few minutes away from the fire fighting and reflect on where you are today and where you would like to be in the future. Are you on the right path and can you pull it off? You can, if and only if you are…

The Victor by C W Longenecker
The Victor
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you like to win but think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost.
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will.
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you are out classed, you are.
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of your-self before
You can ever win the prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

There has been a tremendous amount of discussion surrounding change lately. If history is any indication, we have a new president but little will change. There is no incentive for drastic change. The only way to achieve revolutionary change would be for the American people to take personal responsibility as our founding fathers once did. When we talk about change, the inscription on the tomb of an Anglican Bishop in Westminster Abbey is a great place to start.

“When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits,
I dreamed of changing the world.
As I grew older and wiser I discovered the world would not change -
So I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country,
But it too seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt,
I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me,
But alas, they would have none of it.
And now I realize as I lie on my deathbed, if I had only changed myself first,
Then by example I might have changed my family,
From their inspiration and encouragement I would
then have been able to better my country,
And who knows,
I might have even changed the world.”

As you go about your journey, be careful when selecting your pursuits as you may get what you want and lose something more valuable.

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost:
For want of the shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of the horse, the rider was lost;
For want of the rider, the battle was lost;
For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a nail.

Image Credit: marfis75

Who Will Win?

The old-world business model subscribed to “big beats small.” Historically, we believed size matters. That girth and critical mass were essential elements for any enterprise to be truly successful. Today, that model has changed and great business is driven by strategic agility. In a hyper-demanding, hyper-competitive global marketplace, fast beats slow. Speed matters.

So, in the revised edition of The Tortoise and the Hare, the hare beats the tortoise to the finish line, right? Well, not so fast. The hare is still that overconfident 800 pound gorilla in your marketplace. The company that figures they cannot be beaten and continues resting on their laurels. You are the tortoise. You recognize that the hare has you beaten in nearly every regard but you are confident you can fly in under the radar.

It is true that speed is absolutely critical in today's marketplace. However, if we run too fast we may end up in the wrong place or burn out prematurely. Winning online is a marathon, not a sprint. You need to plan ahead, train hard, keep a steady pace, fight through the pain, and keep pushing until the finish line. There are bound to be runners who are naturally more talented and more experienced than you. You may even be in awe of some of your competition.

Just remember that everyone has to start in the same place. No matter where they are now, they stood exactly where you do today. To get where they are, they had to keep taking incremental steps forward. You need to do the same. Just because they are established and successful does not mean they know everything or are doing everything the best way possible. To complete, you will need to find gaps in their business model and exploit them. Consistent execution of a well thought out plan is key.

The internet is the ultimate example of this. A high school student can literally start an online business with zero capital. Instead of getting a paper route or a job at McDonald's, they can become a business owner. Students in college can run a business from their dorm or the computer lab. Companies such as Microsoft, Google, Dell, YouTube, Facebook, and many more were either created during college or shortly thereafter. Many others are much less well known yet extremely successful. All of them get the opportunity to compete on the same grand stage as recognized brands. In the past, you needed a bunch of capital to get a company off the ground. Those days are long over.

Make that hare paying for all that trash talking!

Image Credit: CarbonNYC

Where Shall I Begin?

Have you heard of the fighter pilot’s paradox? A great fighter pilot must master two contradictory skills; a laser-like focus on his target while maintaining a floodlight-like awareness of his surroundings. A pilot who fails to strike this delicate balance can develop target fixation, trying so hard to hit something that he flies right into it.

Something similar happens when running a small business. If you spend all of your time on vision, learning, and planning; you make no progress toward your goals. If you spend all of your time executing all of the small details, you will end up somewhere but probably not where you wished. It can be very challenging to strike the fine balance required. Why is it so difficult? Because we all get overwhelmed by the details.

It often feels like there are a billion fires to put out, a billion opportunities we should investigate, a billion things to learn, and a billion items on our to-do list. Where do we start? How are we ever going to get it all done? I want my business to be successful, but I would still like to have a life. We get frozen in our tracks before we even begin.

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." ~ Mark Twain

You will often find that your most productive and profitable executions come when you focus on just one thing very intensely for a short period of time. Distractions occur when this one thing requires different skill sets and disciplines to complete. If you are doing a task and find that you are interrupted because you need additional skills or resources to complete, then your task management is too broad.

For example, building a web page is a goal, not a task. Writing copy for that page is a task. Doing keyword research for your copy is a sub task. You don't begin working until you have a goal broken into tasks and sub-tasks. At the sub-task level, you can see all of the skills required to complete the main task.

This will allow you to break out sub-tasks that are temporarily beyond your skill set so you can remain productive. It is nearly impossible to remain overwhelmed when we are focused on sub-tasks because they are like little self-contained nuggets. This process has the added benefit of keeping you focused on only those things that you have decided are critical to your mission.

Image Credit: sindesign

The Beauty of Balance

Have you ever been on an airplane before? Do you recall the canned speech the flight attendants always give? You know the drill, so you probably just tuned them out. Did you realize there was a hidden gem packed inside their simple message? They explain that in the event of a change in cabin pressure, an oxygen mask will drop down from the compartment above your head. You are told to secure your own mask before you help anyone else with theirs. The logic behind this simple instruction is that we can't help anyone if we pass out due to lack of oxygen. In other words, we can't help others if we do not first help ourselves.

Does this extend to your personal and professional life as well? Sure, it does. Each day you get out of bed, exercise, shower, eat, get the kids dressed, play with and feed them, drop the kids off at school, head to work, pick the kids up at night, make them dinner, give them a bath, play with them, get them ready for bed, spend alone time with your spouse, do chores, do something for yourself like read a good book, and go to bed. Oh, you mean you don't exercise and you don't do anything for yourself and you don't spend alone time with your wife talking about the state of the union and you don't play with your kids? What happened?

You ran out of time? Nope, you were misled by pundits who told you to "find" balance. You can look all day and all night to find balance but you will never find it. Instead, you have to create balance with the decisions you make each day. You need to prioritize your "rocks" as Dr. Stephen R. Covey said. If the top priorities are health, abundant time with family (including time alone with your spouse), and the passionate pursuit of your interests; then why are you spending so little time in these areas? Has the urgent strangled the important?

People often speak of spending "quality" time with their family as if they can force it. This is another myth that needs to be put to bed. Quality time is the side effect of quantity time. You never know when these special moments will happen, but the more time you put it the more opportunity exists. Sometimes we make the excuse that we cannot afford to take a family vacation. The real question is, how can you afford not to? Without experiences and memories, we have nothing.

You will only be effective at helping others when you become effective at helping yourself. Sometimes we have to do things in our business that don't make us money but provide us with enjoyment. It is difficult to give your best when you are miserable all of the time! This is the paradox of "selfish" selflessness. You have to put yourself first in order to be the best you can be for everyone else.

Image Credit: Brent and MariLynn

The Magic of Google

If you are attempting to rank in Google, for competitive keyword phrases, in order to turn a profit; then you likely know all about PageRank, link reputation, link popularity, keyword density, duplicate content, the Google Slap, the Google Sandbox, and a whole slew of other hot topics. However, do you know the primary challenge Google faces and what those 100+ Ph.D's are working on? If you said the Google algorithm, you would be incorrect.

Turns out their biggest challenge is one of scale. It is an understatement, to the nth degree, to say their business grows rapidly. Every year they make technology decisions that no longer look so good the following year. Exponential growth is a great problem to have but requires a tremendous amount of work. The algorithm would be easy if the internet was not growing at such an explosive pace.

Did you know that Google is actually in the business of power? Google has about 500,000 machines used just for search? Their data centers consume about 4% of the North American power grid (more than our televisions). Over 4 years, the cost of the power is half the cost of the hardware. Google's own usage is likely greater than 50MW ($5,000/hr). Google builds their own power supplies which are 90% efficient versus 70% efficient commercial power. Each data center costs approximately $600 million, is the size of three football fields (under cover), and has a 4 story cooling tower.

When is the last time you saw Google down? Um, like never! Yeah, they have achieved the vaunted five 9's, 99.999% up-time. Interestingly, they do not invest in high quality hardware. Instead they have chosen to write software that can handle the constant failures of cheap hardware. With so many machines, it is inevitable that at any given time a ton of machines are going to die and there is no need to waste money on expensive machines that will also fail.

Do you have any idea how much disk space is required to store a copy of the web? Turns out it is 2 petabytes and Google keeps three copies. In case you are not familiar, a petabyte equals a million billion bytes. Search is not hard because of the algorithm, it is hard because of scale. They have to maintain the biggest index with the fastest response time. There are more than one trillion URLs and growing by several billion per day (at least 20 billion in their index). The total links are at least 10-20 trillion with 30%+ of all pages being spam. Yet, it only takes them a quarter of a second to return the ten best results for any query.

The most amazing part about Google is that 85% of user searches are non-commercial (no commercial intent, not monetizable). This means that 85% of their investment in search is to support a giant loss leader. Think about that for a while. Truly amazing and hard to fathom. Lastly, did you know that 50%+ of all searches in a given month are unique? How about that almost 25% of all searches are new (never seen before in the history of Google)? No wonder keyword research and site optimization is so challenging!

If you remain paranoid about using Google Analytics or Webmaster Tools for fear that Google is going to use the information against you, get over yourself. If you think Google is out to get you every time your positions slip in Google, get real. You mean nothing to Google and are in fact the smallest needle in the largest haystack in the history of the world.

Image Credit: Matt McGee

Keys to Unlock Growth

If you are a small business owner, then you are fully aware of how important business growth is in today's marketplace. If you are not moving forward, you are falling behind. If you are not growing, you are dying. If you are not changing, you are being leapfrogged by your competition.

The first key takes us back to high school and college. People who got B's manage people who got A's in companies owned by people who got C's. You may have also heard a similar thing about law school. Those who got A's became teachers, those who got B's became lawyers, and those who got C's are out making all the money just not as lawyers. In my experience, there is absolutely truth in both of these and you often see it in very successful organizations. People who got A's are great at managing details and executing tasks, however people who got C's are great at setting direction and steering the ship. Maybe people who got A's did so with too little effort and never learned the resourcefulness of those who got C's.

The Theory of Constraints says that there are three keys to growing a company quickly. They are throughput, inventory, and operating expenses (in priority order). Often when a consultant is brought in to help a company grow, they begin by focusing on operating expenses. This is the last place one should start. You want to grow the business, not plug all of the leaking holes. You can plug those up later. Perfect examples are Amazon.com and Zappos.com.

Throughput is the key to growth and is defined as sales minus cost of sales. One of the greatest business thinkers of our time, Peter Drucker, tells us that business is two things: Marketing & Innovation. These are also what make up throughput. Thus, the keys to the success of your company are in the hands of whomever drives marketing and innovation within your organization. As Good to Great told us, we need to get the right people on the bus and then get them into the right seats. Do you have the best people on your bus and are they in the right seats?

Here is an interesting story you may not have heard. When Amazon first began offering free shipping with $25 purchase, they saw a tremendous spike in sales. However, in France they literally saw no change. After some detective work, they realized that the offer to all customers in France was not free shipping but instead shipping for one Franc (about 20 cents) with $25 purchase. They fixed the error and instantly sales spiked like all of the other regions. Free is a BIG deal!

Sure, the free shipping cut into Amazon's margins. However, they wanted to grow exponentially. However, it required six years of hard work before turning their first net profit. Zappos offers free shipping and unlimited returns at their expense which obviously costs them significant money. It took them about seven years to get their first profit.

Companies that do more than just dream of growing fast (actually do) hire people before they can afford to and make offers they cannot afford to make. That is how they grow so fast. They take huge risks and hope they pay off. Too often companies pay lip service to fast growth but their actions speak of slow and steady growth. In this case, you really cannot have your cake and eat it too.

Image Credit: Bentley Motors

Unbiased While Serving Two Gods?

I was not alive some fifty years ago, but we are often led to believe people back then actually reached out to their neighbors and sacrificed to take care of them. People saw beyond themselves and their selfish ways. People shared their good fortunes instead of hoarding everything for themselves. This notion is certainly conveyed in old television shows, movies, and books. Was it really that different or does time simply magnify the good and dilute the bad. I am not sure.

Regardless, we are living in the era of make a profit at all costs. More and more people are willing to sacrifice anything and anybody in their quest for riches. More and more companies are choosing to sacrifice their own workforce and their long-term vision for the short-term return on investment. The quest to grow, increase sales, and get wealthy often leads people to make decisions that hurt others. The pressure can be so immense that people become blind to the side effects of their behavior. This single-mindedness is destroying our families and our health.

My experience in internet marketing circles has shown me that nearly all endorsements of products and services are a fraud. Basically, they have created a good ole boys club where they all pimp each others products, often without reviewing them. They often bribe their own customers to write testimonials, feedback, or reviews of products they have never seen. Many of the recommendations are through affiliate programs where they are paid a commission for each sale. I have trusted some of these endorsements in the past and have been burned, even from people I still trust today. This shows how the lure of money can lead a savvy seller to exploit the obsessive nature of people looking to get rich.

As we search for answers to business issues and personal issues, we often seek unbiased opinions. Organizations such as Consumer Reports are born for this very reason. However, there are truly very few, if any, completely unbiased sources of information. Many consumer advocacy groups accept funding, with no limitations, from companies which profit from the very stance the advocacy group takes. This is hardly unbiased. The harder you look and the deeper you dig, the more contradictions, confusion, conflict of interest, misinformation, and blatant lies you find.

We have always been told to trust doctors as that they have our best interests in mind. This may have been the case many years ago but evidence is mounting that things have changed. They are not immune to bribery and kickbacks for supporting pharmaceutical companies and surgeons by aggressively pushing unnecessary and ineffective drugs and surgeries. See Is Heart Surgery Worth It? and Mammographic Screening Study for just two telling examples. People are rightly scared and greedy people exploit this.

We have always been told that meat and dairy are good for us. Is this really true or have we been brainwashed from early childhood to believe something that makes others extremely wealthy at the cost of our health? Again, we turn to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society for answers, but are they really unbiased opinions? Or have they manipulated their findings to help the organizations which fund them profit more? Check out the following video and two articles: John McDougall MD on the perils of dairy products, Consumers may have a beef with cattle feed and the Howard Lyman Interview for more telling tales.

One of my math professors in college, Dr. Mark Snavely, used to tell us that there are very few critical thinkers left. People just accept what they hear or read regardless of the source. People are easily swayed and manipulated because it is easier for them to accept anything than try to find real answers. He also talked about how what is reported in the media hardly resembles the original scientific studies. The original study has every last detail required to tell an accurate story. The study is re-written (dumbed down) for another publication. Another publication reads the dumbed down version and dumbs it down some more. This process may occur six to twelve times before it reaches mass media outlets. By this time, the news story either barely resembles the original source or is dead wrong. There was a reason the scientists included every last detail. Without them, the conclusions people draw will be incomplete or entirely wrong. The difference between finding a link to cancer and finding a cure.

One of the most difficult issues we face today is who to trust for our most important decisions. Clearly nobody has all the answers, but we must trust someone. The fact is that nobody can serve two Gods at one time. In business, the two Gods are money and doing what is right for the customer. If push comes to shove, only one can win and unfortunately, today the winner is nearly always money. Buyer beware, especially when it comes to shaping your thoughts and beliefs!

Image Credit: erix!

Big Bucks, No Whammies!

People really want to believe they can get rich quick and do so effortlessly. It is such a powerful and intoxicating dream. Significant hours are lost daydreaming about instant riches and the improvement to quality of life. What would I buy? Where would I travel to? Just imagine… You can fill in the blanks. Many people start their own small business in hopes that they will strike it rich. However, getting rich is not a great business strategy.

To see the power of riches, all we need to do is consider the following paths some people choose in hopes of hitting the proverbial jackpot:

• Multi-Level Marketing (MLM or Network Marketing) opportunities such as Amway
• Lotteries such as Powerball
• Casinos such as Harrahs
• Lawsuits such as spilling hot coffee on their lap
• Work from home opportunities
• Scams such as secret shopper checks that you cash and wire money back to Canada
• Fraud such as embezzlement, forgery, and false claims
• Buying get rich quick schemes from hucksters
• Business opportunities such as gumball machines
• Becoming a celebrity, athlete, or other public figure
• Having cosmetic surgery to create the pefect body

Sure, there are always exceptions (outliers) which the media enjoys covering. However, most will never attain riches through any of these methods. You have to throw out these examples to get a realistic picture of what is achievable. If you leave these in the equation, you may come to the conclusion that who you know and getting lucky are the keys to success. The reality is that the level of honest effort is directly related to the level of success achieved in nearly all cases.

However, this doesn't sell very well. So, you are sold the dream instead of an action plan. Undoubtedly you have already spent plenty of time fantasizing about what you want but have probably spent little to no time figuring out why you want it. This the the most important step in building wealth slowly. If after some soul searching you still believe this to be a priority in your life, then you need to understand the following point.

Success and wealth are not goals, they are side effects of finding something you are passionate about and giving it your all through the inevitable ups and downs of your life journey. The good news is that even if you never achieve the level of success and wealth you set out to, at least you are spending your days doing what you love.

Far too often people sacrifice their health to make money and end up spending all their money to regain their health. Sad, but true.

Image Credit: aprilandrandy

Folder Design Easy Button?

We are always thinking about ways we can make it easier for customers to design presentation folders. Lately, we have been thinking of offering pre-designed folders as a way to help small businesses on a tight budget avoid the added expense of graphic designers. We have found that many of our customers have a difficult time envisioning what they want when staring a blank folder in the face. In addition, they don't really have the time to be monkeying around with a graphics package. Business owners have better things to do than become artists.

Turns out, each industry tends to use similar style folders. So, we asked our graphic artists to design some common styles that are popular and relevant to each industry. This will allow you to browse around and choose a general look for your folders based on each industry. Pre-designed folders will save you time and money. However, if you already have a grand vision of how you want your pocket folders to look, we are always glad to be of service.

Pre-designed folders offer a great starting point and you no longer have to wonder what other companies are doing in your industry. Does this interest you? We are looking for feedback on the idea as well as the implementation. Would you prefer to be able to move elements around by clicking and dragging or would you rather type your information into designated boxes? Is it important for you to see a proof online before you order? What industries would you like to see? What folder styles would you like to see?

Here are some potential industries:

• Animals & Pet Care
• Arts, Music & Entertainment
• Automotive & Transportation
• Beauty, Massage & Spa
• Business Services
• Construction & Trade
• Education
• Finance & Insurance
• Food & Beverage
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Home Maintenance & Improvement
• Information & Technology
• Manufacturing
• Marketing & Communications
• Personal & Family Services
• Politics, Law & Public Safety
• Real Estate
• Religious & Spiritual
• Retail & Sales
• Sports & Fitness
• Travel & Accommodation

Here are some potential styles:

• Appointments
• Bold
• Conservative
• Floral
• Fun
• General Business
• Geometric & Borders
• Modern
• Monograms
• Nature & Landscapes
• Patriotic & Cultural
• Photo Icons
• Professional
• Sensual
• Social Awareness
• Solid Colors
• Textures

If pre-designed folders would help you in any way, we would gladly offer them. We think it is a great idea and a few of our competitors already offer them. However, what really matters to us is how you feel. Let us know by contacting us in whatever fashion you are comfortable with.

Also, would a photo gallery of previous designs we have done help you with your design? I always prefer to look at what has already been done and take bits and pieces of different designs and pull them all together into my own style.

Is there anything else you would like to see The Folder Store offer?

Image Credit: Jason Gulledge