Business By Bo

Business By Bo http://www.yeartosuccess.com/members/y2s/blog/VIEW+00000004 Devoid of conventional business wisdom, Bo Bennett has amassed a fortune of over $23 million dollars by creating his own success philosophy. Business is business, but business by Bo can help you find success! en Copyright 2008, Year To Success Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:09:21 GMT Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:09:21 GMT Doing the Right Thing For the Wrong Reason http://www.yeartosuccess.com/members/y2s/blog/VIEW+00000004+00000306#00000306 <img src="http://www.yeartosuccess.com/l1/y2s/appdata/blog/00000306.jpg" border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5 align=left> I live in a very affluent town where once a year we have an auction for our PTA (Parent-Teacher Association).  This event is held at a local country club, where attendees don their fanciest threads, call their babysitters, and make a night on the town out of it.  The event is always a huge success and raises a significant amount of money for a good cause.  So what's the problem?An auction like this is the adult equivalent of a being at a high school party surrounded by your "friends" chanting, "DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!..."  It is also an opportunity for those with money to let everyone else know it without flat out saying it.  I tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the good in humanity, but this is one of those cases where I can't help but see adult peer pressure and the need to brag overpower the altruistic desire to help the benefiting organization.  In business, we see this all around us.  Don't get me wrong, I am all for a healthy planet, but this whole "green" campaign is really getting to me.  Just about everywhere you look businesses are "going green" AND making sure everyone know about it.  I wonder how many of these decisions to "go green" come from the founders/CEOs and how many come from the Marketing departments?  At the end of the day, the overall result is a good thing -- there is no question about it, but on a personal level, are these good things being done for the right reasons?The fact is, when doing good things it is almost impossible to escape the social benefits that come with these good deeds, and very often only you know your true motivation.  I have tremendous respect for the people in my town who anonymously donated to the PTA before or after the auction*, the businesses who implement "green" policies and procedures without getting the marketing department involved, and anyone else who does good things, for the right reasons.* I did not donate anonymously... I just thought of that now.  We did win a snow blower in the silent auction part though. Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:09:21 GMT The Cure For Cancer http://www.yeartosuccess.com/members/y2s/blog/VIEW+00000004+00000305#00000305 <img src="http://www.yeartosuccess.com/l1/y2s/appdata/blog/00000305.jpg" border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5 align=left> Not too long ago I had one of those dreams... you know the extremely vivid ones that even when you wake up your mind has a hard time determining if what you dreamt about really happened.  The dream was about the cure for cancer -- I was given "the secret".The exact details of the dream are foggy, but I remember it being explained to me like this -- the reason the cure for cancer has yet to be discovered is because there is no more a "cure" for cancer as there is a "cure" for human existence.  Cancer cells are a living organisms the are meant to survive.  When we try to kill cancer, we are trying to create a win-lose outcome where the cancer dies and we live.  When we do nothing, a lose-lose outcome exists -- both the host and the cancer dies.  The secret is to find a way the cancer and the host can co-exist.For the record, allow me to state the following:<ul><li>I am an idiot when it comes to biology and the above can very well be gibberish</li><li>I do not claim that this dream was a message from God, an advanced alien race, or my Great Aunt Mildred*  who passed away many years ago</li><li>this does have something to do with business... read on</li></ul>The more I think about this "cure", the more it makes sense to me.  Cancer cells don't want to kill their host, thus terminating their own existence, anymore than we, the human race, want destroy our planet.This concept goes well with the law of nature as well as the laws of business.  Here are some of the obvious and not-so-obvious parallels:<ul><li>Nature strives for win-win situations</li><li>getting to the solution may take some very creative and "different" thinking</li><li>your mind is always working, even when you are asleep.  Listen to it and write down what it has to say and make sense of it all later</li></ul>If you, the reader, implement the cure to cancer as a result of this post, please make sure I get at least an honorable mention. :)* the Great Aunt that I am referring to is really named "Judy", but "Mildred" was a much funnier name. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:10:54 GMT Guerilla Marketing: A Case Study http://www.yeartosuccess.com/members/y2s/blog/VIEW+00000004+00000300#00000300 <img src="http://www.yeartosuccess.com/l1/y2s/appdata/blog/00000300.jpg" border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5 align=left> In 1995, I started a webhosting company called “Adgrafix” with nothing more than a few hundred dollars and an elementary understanding of computers and the Internet.  In 2001, I sold that company for 20 million dollars.  In 2002, I started another webhosting company.  This time, I had virtually unlimited funds, in-depth knowledge of computers and the Internet, and an ego the size of Manhattan.  In 2004, after two years of doing everything I thought was right, the company was practically worthless.  Times changed, but my thinking did not.  I realized that in the current marketplace, to succeed and succeed big, it takes unconventional ways of using creativity, imagination, and energy to achieve maximum profits with minimum money, or it takes guerilla marketing.Guerrillas Stay On Top Of The Latest TrendsWhen I started my first web hosting company I was fortunate enough to pick up a trend that was very obvious to me – the Internet and the “website revolution”.  Even though I was well aware of the Internet bust of the early 21st century (that’s what it will be called by our grandkids, grandkids), I knew deep inside that people and companies would continue to need websites, and at an increasing rate.  What I didn’t know was that the website of yesteryear was not the website of today.  The old-school website of the 90’s is about as “hot” as the public pay phone.  It isn’t enough to spot just one trend; you need to consider all the trends in your market.In 2005, when I started spending more time on the Internet than my offline ventures, that elusive trend that was partly responsible for my two-year web hosting failure (I was ultimately responsible, but it feels good to share the blame), became very clear to me.  People didn’t want static websites anymore; they wanted dynamic websites that use cutting edge technology, websites that give users the power to contribute content, websites that generate buzz, and of course, they wanted all this at an affordable price.  They wanted web 2.0.Trend or Fad?One of the biggest traps in business is allowing clever marketers lead you to believe a fad is actually a trend.  There is so much hype in on the Internet today and everyone is looking to act on the “latest and greatest”.  Ignore the hype, use common sense business principles and identify the trends from the fads.  The term “web 2.0” itself is a fad – a soon-to-be (if not already) term that holds the same wow factor as “Pentium processor” or “presented in Technicolor”.  However, the concepts behind web 2.0, specifically making the most use of the latest tools the Internet has to offer, is a trend.Never Fear TechnologyI have to admit, I do get a little annoyed when people brush off technology and say something like, “Oh, I don’t understand that stuff”, and don’t make any attempt to learn it.  Technology drives business today, and without a good understanding of the technologies out there, you will spend your life sitting in the back seat – in the middle, with your legs on the hump.Certain types of technology can be a Guerilla’s best friend.  It is this technology that allows your marketing efforts to return phenomenal results.  Take for example e-mail marketing.  Back in “the day”, a legitimate marketer could send a text-based e-mail to a qualified list and get amazing results.  Today, with spam flooding every home and office inbox, your “important marketing message” is more likely to be read by your dog than a prospect.  But what if you could send a “video postcard” to a prospect, with a video of you sharing your message?  How much more effective do you think that would be?  Even if people are not interested in your message, they are impressed with the technology, and will listen to what you have to say.  By staying ahead of the technology curve, you have a huge advantage over other marketers by knowing how to use certain technologies in a creative way.Following the Leader is for Kids, Not for GuerillasIt is interesting how so many “grown ups” still play follow the leader. It is not hard to understand why, after all, it is easy, mindless, and by logical thinking, should result in at least some of the same success of the leader.  However, it rarely does.  The market does not need more followers, it needs more leaders.  It needs more individuals who use creativity and ingenuity to make a better product at a more affordable price.In building iGrOOps, I knew in my head exactly what I wanted to build. It was a combination of a social network, community website, corporate Intranet, and membership site.  There was nothing like it out there, so how did I know there would be a demand for it?  The fact is I did not know.  Leaders rarely know the outcomes of their chosen course of action ahead of time, this is why it is so much easier to follow.  But there were some things I did know.  I did know that the trend was moving away from static, difficult to manage, expensive to build websites to dynamic sites that were built to generate revenue for the owners.  I knew that technologies such as podcasting, blogs, video chat, forums, audio/video postcards, multi-media galleries, and other similar productivity, communication, and marketing tools were on the rise and sought after by online business owners.  This was all I needed to know to build my vision of the ideal membership site platform.Viral Marketing: Get them Talkin’When getting ready to launch iGrOOps, I started thinking about more traditional marketing – Google Adwords, press releases, ads in trade publications.  But I then remembered a universal truth in marketing: if you have a product or service that is so amazing that it actually excites people to talk about it and share it with others, you will find that you have created a viral marketing campaign that costs you virtually nothing.  Now, what if you also compensated people for sharing your business with others?  The viral marketing effects could be explosive.  This concept works extremely well for iGrOOps, so I figured, why not allow our membership site administrators to use the same great concept? We built in an affiliate program that allows administrators to compensate their members for referring other members to their site.  The overall concept behind an affiliate program is to let others do the marketing for you, and you pay only for results.  It is a perfect example of a true win-win situation.In just one year, we have experienced phenomenal growth at iGrOOps.  Not because of advertising or dumping a boat load of money into our business, but because of the product itself and the guerilla marketing techniques and philosophies used.  Best of all, our customers are experiencing the same success using the tools we provide them though iGrOOps.  We encourage our customers to continue to use unconventional ways of using creativity, imagination, and energy to achieve maximum profits with minimum money.  We promote guerilla marketing. guerilla marketing Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:29:43 GMT The Secret of "The Secret" http://www.yeartosuccess.com/members/y2s/blog/VIEW+00000004+00000033#00000033 <img src="http://www.yeartosuccess.com/l1/y2s/appdata/blog/00000033.jpg" border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5 align=left> My sister gave me an early Christmas gift this Thanksgiving; it was the DVD version of "The Secret".  I am, and always have been, a self-help junkie so I was thankful for her thoughtful gift and was looking forward to watching the video.  I did take me a couple of weeks to watch it -- movies like "I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry" and "Live Free or Die Hard" took precedence."The Secret" is about the law of attraction.  Which basically states that your thoughts and feelings are what ultimately create your life.  Negative thoughts and focusing on what you do not have will lead you to an average life at best, whereas focusing on your desires will often bring those desires to fruition.  First let me preface by saying that this is an issue that is very subjective and open to interpretation, opinion, faith, and belief.  I am about to share with you my opinion and personal experience with "The Secret".In the opening scenes, I saw what I expected -- a cinematic dramatization of the principle described.  This is fine -- it was fairly well done and kept my interest. Much better than a boring lecture for 90 minutes.  But I soon discovered the "cheese factor" was higher than I expected.  At times, I thought I was watching an cable infomercial with all the images of happy people frolicking about in slow motion, images of money, fancy cars and mansions reminding us all of our materialistic inadequacies. In this case, the "cheese factor" refers more to the attempt to persuade through exaggeration and bad acting.  Watching this 90 minute video with my wife and my dog made me uncomfortable.  Not only because of the cheese factor, but also because my dog had really bad gas that night.  Here are a few issues I have with "The Secret":<ol><li>When it comes to success, there are no secrets.  The idea of a secret is a marketing gimmick.  Wouldn't it be great if there were a secret that you did not know, that if you did, you would be healthy, wealthy and wise?  The law of attraction is one of the many success principles that help people succeed.  It has been a major topic of many self-help gurus since Dale Carnegie popularized the Genre.   It is as much of a "secret" as Britney Spears' personal life.</li><li>Over simplification.  It would be nice to have all the things we desire in life just by doing A,B and C?  It is our nature to look for the "easy way", that is why over simplifications SELL.  Why work hard for something when you can get it by watching a 90 minute video?  I don't believe this oversimplification gives people hope, rather it makes people feel inadequate and turns them off from pursuing true success.</li><li>Too metaphysical.  I am a believer in the law of attraction.  However, I do not see this law as a some mysterious communication system with the universe. To me, the law of attraction makes perfect psychological sense.  When you focus on what you want, you take action toward the attainment of those desires on both a conscious and subconscious level.  It is that simple.  It is YOU that is making things happen, not some genie in a lamp or mystical force.  For those of you who believe in a higher power (God, Allah, Sacred Grasshopper) perhaps it is that higher power that gives you the courage, strength and wisdom to attain the earthly desires you seek.  I think God has more important things to do than help me get a gold watch.</li></ol>Criticisms aside, "The Secret" contains some good stuff.  My favorite part of this video is the idea of how your thoughts control your health.  I am a huge believer in the mind-body connection.  I do not see this as "miraculous" or even metaphysical -- just undiscovered science.  It is proven without any doubt that our minds are responsible for serious disease and even death.  The most obvious example being how stress effects us, or how the loss of loved one can cause a chemical reaction in our brains that results in depression.  Why is it so hard to comprehend that our minds can keep us healthy, speed our recovery from illness, or even cure the "incurable"?"The Secret" does convey the very important success principle of the law of attraction first popularized by Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" back in 1937.  It was well illustrated in the video (despite the the extra cheese) and I believe sharing this principle in the form of a cinematic adventure will positively effect the lives of many people. the secret Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:07:17 GMT The Never Ending Membership http://www.yeartosuccess.com/members/y2s/blog/VIEW+00000004+00000032#00000032 <img src="http://www.yeartosuccess.com/l1/y2s/appdata/blog/00000032.jpg" border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5 align=left> About a year ago I signed up for a one year membership to the Gold's Gym in my office park.  When I signed up, I knew it was least a one year commitment, and I did not have a problem with that.  Now when it came time to pay, they only gave me one option -- although I knew there were other options.  They asked me for a credit card number so they can automatically bill me each month.  Being the sometimes lazy person I can be, I gave them my number.  Big mistake.Running a membership-based business, I can tell you that not all monthly memberships are evil.  In fact, they are usually very convenient and hassle free.  This is when a good company backs up the membership.  However, when a desperate company has control of your credit card, that is when the trouble starts.When I signed up for my membership, it was done verbally at the gym, with nothing more than a signature.  One would reasonably expect the same type of process when terminating the membership -- at the gym, in person, perhaps signing a cancellation agreement.  With Gold's Gym, that was not the case.When I approached the front desk at the gym to cancel, they dismissed me by handing me a business card and telling me to "just call the number on the card".  So I did.  As expected, I was taken through a long automated attendant clearly designed to confuse and cause members to hang up.  I did not.  I followed the complex maze of instructions until I finally heard the option to speak to an representative.  A very stern gentlemen came on the phone and explained to me that in order to cancel my membership, I needed to write a LETTER (not email) that contained certain information and send it to their address via CERTIFIED MAIL!  How many people do you think forget to do this, or put it off, or just eventually cancel their credit cards to stop the charging?  Lots according to <a href="http://www.consumeraffairs.com/">http://www.consumeraffairs.com</a>.  In fact, on that site alone I found 48 documented complaints of a similar story -- but in many cases, the billing continues even after the cancellation.Bo's general rule of thumb for memberships: 1) the cancellation process should be no more difficult than the registration process and 2) it should be done through the same media.  For example, how many times have you "subscribed" to e-mail lists, only to see in the footer that to unsubscribe, send a letter to "po box..."?  This is an obvious case of shady business practices and what Gold's Gym is doing is no different.From a business perspective, it appears that this technique is nothing more than cheap attempt to squeeze more dollars out of former members.  On paper, Gold's can see how this increases their profit.  But what they do not see on paper is the bad reputation they are getting all over the country through the media power of the Internet, as well as people like me who will avoid that chain of gym at all costs in the future and recommend to others that they do the same.  When we support a business that engages in deceptive or outright fraudulent business practices, we are indirectly responsible for helping them rip off others.  Harsh, but true.I did send in the letter as requested, and time will tell if they will automatically honor my request for cancellation.  But I have a feeling that something will, "fall through the cracks". gold's gymscamfraudcancellationcancel Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:12:13 GMT