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The first step in starting your new business is to choose a single focus. Solopreneurs usually start by catering to a niche market, where they can build an active and interested audience. You will want to have a steady customer base before you move on to anything else.
Having reliable customers is essential. They keep your business profitable and allow you to easily engage with them. Plus, a solid customer base keeps your business easy to manage. If you start to branch out too much, you might have trouble handling all of the tasks on your own . Center of all your services and products around your single business focus. For example, if you were running a freelance graphic design business, you would focus on delivering the graphics your customers wanted. You would likely not branch out too much into other areas. This is another difference between entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. An entrepreneur who runs a graphic design business would have a team of designers working for them. They could offer more services- which would be hard for a single person. Your single focus should reflect your passion and what you love. With one main service or product you will be able to cater to a niche market- where there is less competition. Many independent workers can meet all of their goals by doing this. So, before you can start working as a solopreneur, you need to know how to sell to a niche market. Choosing Your Business Focus Your business focus is going to be the center of everything that you do- you do not want to pick something you might dislike or grow bored with later. What is your passion? Do you have any hobbies you want to market? If you love what you do, you are much more likely to succeed. Use these steps to determine what your business focus should be:
To summarize, your business focus should be something unique that you enjoy doing. It is difficult to work in fields that bore you - you would lose interest in the business quickly, then likely lose your investment in the start up too. How to Sell to a Niche Market Once you have your business focus, you will need to learn how to sell to that niche market. You will want to know everything you can about your audience. From there, you can use your focus to create your marketing strategy. A well thought out content marketing strategy is essential. Luckily, you can build your own online. Many independent workers run social media pages for their brands. To do this, you will need to work on your brand identity, then focus on uploading consistent content. Your unique business focus can lead to a great content marketing strategy naturally. For instance, if you are a photographer looking to market yourself, posting your professional shots often on Instagram would be extremely beneficial to you. If your business offers products, then you can find plenty of ways to market online. Social media advertising is a great way to bring traffic to your website, which increases sales. When it comes to niche audiences, you want to be certain your ads are appealing to them - otherwise you are wasting money. Most importantly, take the time to engage with your audience and listen to them. Your customers know what they want and will tell you. Building a Market Is your idea or niche such that there is no obvious market? You can always try to make your own. To do this, you will need to invest a lot of time into your marketing campaign. Once you have found your audience, you need to show them why they should buy your products or services. The best way to do this is to create a compelling story around your business focus. Potential customers will want to see all the benefits that your business has to offer them before they make any purchases. You can tell your story through content creation. Make videos, images, and articles. Make sure that you include all of the benefits that your brand has, as well as what makes it different from your competitors. Thank you for reading, Richard Fontanie This article is based on a chapter from Solopreneur Success found in the Storefront. What happens when you develop a product, get approval from JVZoo, Warrior Plus, ClickBank or put it on your website but yet to have made a sale? Or maybe you saw something that sells well in one market, so you try it in your market and nada. No sale. You think you have a good product, you worked hard at it and after all you got approval. But approval doesn’t mean that you make sales. So, what could be the problem? Well, here are a few hints. 1. Do you have an audience for your product? Contrary to public opinion people don’t buy for your reason’s they buy for their reasons. A corollary to this is ‘we don’t sell anything, people buy.’ Unless we understand why people might want our product, we won’t sell anything. We can market the heck out of it, but people will still not purchase. No matter how much we have invested both personally and professionally, if you don’t have an audience for your product you are not going to sell it. This can be an emotional let down but it will be a lessoned well learned as we move onto the next product. 2. Are you solving a problem that people want solved? I learned this many years ago when I had an excellent tool for measuring knowledge worker’s effectiveness along eight distinct processes. The product was tested worked well and I used it to assess over 200 individuals with specific reference to their openness to learning. I knew it worked. But when I went to sell it, I found some disturbing results. I didn’t sell one Profile. Not one. When I did a bit of research, I found that:
3. Are you using the right keywords? Keywords are words or phrases that people type into search engines to find what they are looking for. For example, if you were searching to buy an eBook on goal setting, you might type something like, ‘SMART goals,’ ‘aspirational goals,’ ‘personal goals,’ ‘goals that work’ ‘how to write goals,’ into Google or YouTube. Even though your phrases consist of more than one word, it is still considered as a keyword. 4. Are you presenting with emotion? People buy for emotional reasons. This is related to people having a problem that needs a solution. For example, they may be frustrated, stressed, discouraged, anxious, or concerned. These emotions point to ‘pain points’ so your copy needs to address ways that alleviate the pressures or the ‘pain’ they are feeling. 5. Do you appreciate the difference between marketing and selling? Marketing is about educating your audience about your product and what it can do for them. Selling is closing the deal. Often we don’t prepare the marketplace for the product and just expect that people will buy. This is particularly true when you are introducing something new to the marketplace. Number 2 above is a perfect example of this. I tried to sell before the market was ready for my ‘great’ solution. 6. Do you know the difference between relationship selling and transactional selling? The latter is straight forward selling, for example. “I have a headache (my problem) do you sell aspirins (solution)?” “Yes, they are right over there on the second shelf.” This is a simple quick sell. A relational sell is long term and a bit more complicated. Most internet marketers have a list that they have nurtured for a long time before selling anything. They have developed a relationship with their customers or ‘buyers’ even though they haven’t met them. In other words, they warm up their customers before selling a product. This is particularly true if you are selling using Facebook. Using Facebook is all about relationship selling and requires much preparation before attempting a sell, even then the call to action is often soft rather than a hard sell. My experience is that friends buy on Facebook only if I have known them before hand or I have become friends with people I never met after a lot of likes, loves, and comments. Really you can’t do ‘transactional selling’ on Facebook unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money on ads and even then it is iffy. 7. Have you done your market research? Here we need to clearly understand who we are marketing and selling to. Your product might be the best thing ‘since sliced bread’ but if you don’t have a market for it you won’t sell it.
8. How do you Brand your product? There are many things about branding that are important, but here are a few points that filter to the top.
9. Don’t get discouraged. Keep to your vision. Keep working on your goals. And, keep developing products based on lessons learned. There are very few internet marketers who have succeeded the first time and many internet marketers give up just before they find their own ‘secret sauce.’ Statistics show that 90% or more don’t make it. And many of those that don’t make it fail to realize that they are within an inch of making it. Again, based on my real-life experience, I have developed over 50 training products and delivered some of them once because a company wanted it. I thought ‘boy this is a good training program for others.” Unfortunately, they didn’t go anywhere. Yes, this can be discouraging but don’t let it get you down. Affirm yourself that you are on the right tract, continue to share your experiences with others and they will help you, find an experienced coach who will guide you. Build on your experience, tweak your product or begin another based on what you have learned. The bottom line, internet marketing as a solopreneur can be a lonely undertaking but it needn’t be because those with more positive experiences are willing to help. By the way whatever happened to that Profile product I tried to sell in #2 above. I regrouped. I did more work in preparing the marketplace, repackaged it, and in the meantime used the product in my own practice. Owners began to see how it could be used in their company and after a couple of years they began to buy. Funny how that works eh? If you wish to receive a free eBook on Branding CLICK HERE. As always, keep well, stay safe and become the person you were meant to be! Your personal growth and development matters. Thanks for reading, Richard. Over the years I have assisted hundreds of budding entrepreneurs in getting started in their businesses. Our Business Development course included everything one needed to know to establish a business. We began by assessing the individual to determine whether they were open to learning, what skills they had to bring to the business table, what their attitude towards business was, and whether their lifestyle was conducive to the hard work of opening a business. We worked with them to develop a business plan, supported them as they learned to get their business off the ground, and even worked with them to obtain business loans from the bank. We know that many people start a business without such support. Our studies showed that only 35% of those who started a business were no longer in business five years later. We found that our business support and coaching catapulted new business owners to an 85% success rate after five years. This percentage increase is not unusual as others who provided business training and coaching had the same result. Many of the businesses we worked with started as “Mom and Pop” operations and others were solopreneurs. The age range included hose in their twenties to those in their fifties. The gender was a mix of male and female, and the geographic location was both rural and city. Almost all of these new business owners wanted to establish a ‘bricks and mortar’ business, hire employees, and contribute to their communities. They were budding entrepreneurs in the traditional sense. Here Comes the New Kid I tell this short story because traditionally that is generally how people viewed business development. A business meant a local grocery, furniture, or bookstore. It meant some form of industry where products were made, marketed, and sold. It meant a place where people went to purchase goods and services. Then something happened. It was the development of the internet. A new breed of entrepreneurs began to emerge. Don’t get me wrong here. “Bricks and mortar” types of businesses are here to stay, but they too are undergoing a transformational change and have an internet outreach. Many are hybrids where they serve both local customers and have outreached their products and services beyond their boarders. Then there are companies that have understood the changing nature of the buying public and developed a massive internet presence like Amazon, eBay, Apple, and many others. Unfortunately, many large retail businesses didn’t adjust fast enough to meet the new emerging internet buyer phenomenon and have since closed their doors. Now we are seeing a new kid on the block, the virtual solopreneur. Virtual solopreneurs don’t want a ‘bricks and mortar’ business they want an ‘internet marketing’ business where their community of customers come from communities scattered throughout the world rather than from their local marketplace. They operate from their laptop. They are affiliates of Amazon, software companies and businesses that have a strong internet presence. They write eBooks, training programs, and develop apps and software that make it easier for people to make “money-on-line.” They work primarily alone but the successful ones’ have a strong network of mentors and colleagues from around the world. Many have administrative support, some from their own family, others hail from other countries and are connected virtually with the solopreneur. The past five years has seen an increase in the number of solopreneurs. The picture presented is like the “phoenix arising from the ashes.” People are adjusting to a new reality. Their place of work has changed dramatically and many no longer have jobs because their workplace went bankrupt or closed for other reasons. And in the past year they have been laid-off because of COVID-19 and have had time to think about their life and the virtual opportunities available to them. Another reason why people are moving towards virtual solopreneurship relates to the workplace itself. To be sure there are those who claim that they do not fit within a structured work environment but increasingly there is an unsettling number emerging. They are those who have relationship difficulties with their boss or manager-minder. Many businesses are struggling with how to lead and manage their workforce. Owners and managers continue to work within a command-and-control style rather than with the flexibility and employee engagement needed for today’s work environment. Most employees are rebelling against this by ‘striking out on their own’ and turning to the freedom that Internet Marketing offers. But we are noticing a troubling problem. We are learning that just like those who wanted to start a business in the past where 35% failed and 85% succeeded with support, we are now witnessing a high percentage failure rate among virtual solopreneurs. That rate varies from 90% to 98%. A shocking statistic. The reason for that statistic is that people who want to get into the internet marketing business think it is easy. The sad truth is that it is not easy. The top 2% so called ‘Gurus” in the internet marketing world have taken years to get to that level. The idea of starting an internet marketing business sounds sexy. It goes something like this: “I can work from home and make millions.” “I will be able to travel the world and provide financial freedom for me and my family.” “Just look at those who have made it, they are rich, and I’m going to become the same.” So, just like those who struck out on their own to establish a ‘brick and mortar’ business and so often didn’t succeed, the virtual solopreneurs of today are falling into the same trap. They plunge into the virtual world without preparation, knowledge of what they are doing, and the discipline necessary to succeed. They start but don’t follow through with any action plan; they lack time management skills and have no real sense of purpose or strategic understanding about where they are going. There was an old saying in our business, “It’s a simple business, but it isn’t easy.” This rings true for the virtual solopreneur. Unfortunately, they:
There is a neat Solopreneur package in our storefront that will give you more information about how to become a successful solopreneur. You can get a sense what it is all about by clicking the button below. Oh yes, don't forget to scroll down to the bottom of that page and get your free eBook on personal branding. Thank you for reading and remember your personal growth and development matters. As always: Take Care. Stay Safe. Be Your Best Self. Richard Richard Fontanie Positive thinking combines attitude with action. People often describe another person as having a positive or negative attitude. What does that mean? It essentially means the way the person generally thinks and feels about people, events or things and those thoughts and feelings are reflected in their behaviour. The way the person describes or acts toward someone or something or the way the person stands or sits often reveals their attitude. For instance, some people see any kind of change as negative or a threat, whereas others see it as a challenge or an opportunity; or they always view others or situations from a negative point of view rather than from a positive one. They become “picky, picky” rather than taking a balanced view of the person or situation. Because of their negative approach they are toxic to be around and are an energy drain in the workplace – and that goes for the ‘boss’, manager or employee. From a personal growth and development perspective positive thinking is fundamentally about reviewing your thought processes and personal actions for areas that require improvement and for areas where you think, and act negatively and then turn around those negative thoughts and actions towards a more positive outcome. 11 Keys to Improving Positive Thinking 1. Have Confidence in Yourself and Your Products - One of the barriers to positive thinking is to lack confidence in yourself or your products. First, yourself – if you don’t believe in your business or the products you deliver, you will have a difficult time projecting a positive image to others about yourself or about your product. The key here is that you need to believe in yourself and your product. I have helped hundreds of people establish a business. Often when it came time to make the leap from depending on others for their success (read, feeling secure in their job) to depending on themselves as a business owner, they were afraid to make the leap of faith. And that is okay because without that belief in self they were not ready to go on their own. 2. Expect to Succeed – When others have high expectations of you, you will attempt to rise to the level of their expectations. The same is true if they have low expectations of you – you will drop to the level of their expectations. This is known as the Pygmalion Effect and it has been tested time and time again. We can use the same approach within ourselves: If you expect to succeed and put in the effort you will succeed; and conversely if you don’t expect to succeed you may not – you may surprise yourself if you do succeed, but if you strongly feel that you will not succeed, you probably won’t. You have put a psychological barrier in front of you that will block you from moving forward in a positive way. The lesson here is to expect to succeed and reap the benefits of the Pygmalion Effect. 3. Have a Burning Ceremony - One of the exercises I introduced whenever I was dealing with a negative group of people was to have a burning ceremony. I had them list on a flip chart all the things that caused their negativity. I pointed out that all the things they identified were things of the past. I took all the flip chart papers and tore them in half indicating that they were things of yesterday, and yesterday is no longer here. I then took the group outside and put all the flipchart sheets in a bin and burned them. We then went back inside, and I said, “It was now time to move forward – to develop a new and better future. We cannot change the past we can wallow in it or we can accept it for what it is and move on. It was now time to take responsibility for your future.” This exercise was a welcomed catharsis for the group, and they were able to move on. To this day, I meet people who were members of those groups and they always reference that training event as the turning point in their team. You can follow this process as an individual. Just write down all the things that give you doubt and pain from the past and then burn the paper and move on. 4. Refocus on Possibilities – Now part of moving on is to write down all the things that you have achieved in the past and use these as steppingstones to strengthening your belief in yourself and building your confidence going forward. Then move onto number 5. 5. Visualize Your Future – Give yourself room to dream – without a dream you will not go far because a dream gives you reason to drive for success. Dreams leads to goals. And goals are the precursor to action. Don’t let your dream fade – set aside times to revisit it regularly. Draw a picture of what it will look like. Put it on a wall in front of you. State it in simple language… where do you see yourself professionally and personally in five years? See your business operating at peak performance. Describe what that looks and feels like? What do you need to do to achieve your dream? Identify your KSAVAs (Knowledge, skills, abilities, values, and attitudes) and set out the gaps you need to fulfill to achieve your dream. Then develop an action plan to reach your dream and close the KSAVA gaps. 6. Set SMART Goals and Action Plans – When setting goals don’t think about what is, think about what it looks like in the end. Don’t be confined by where you are at, your finances, your office space, whatever. Goals don’t define the present, they define the future. So don’t fall into the trap of ‘near sightedness’. Become a ‘far sighted’ goal setter. This is important because it allows you to focus on possibilities and achievements. 7. Beat Defeat - As you motor towards your future tuck in your brain that defeat is not an option. Detours yes. Defeat no. You can expect to make mistakes along the way, learn from them, correct them, move forward. You may also have unforeseen challenges both of a personal nature such as an illness or illness in your family, a downturn in the economy or a disaster caused by flooding, or whatever. View these as challenges and find solutions. Mistakes and challenges make you stronger and when you overcome them your confidence is strengthened. You may feel overwhelmed and frustrated at the beginning so take one step at a time. Find a way out of the difficult situation. This is all about becoming a self-leader and taking responsibility for your future. 8. Use Affirmations to Your Advantage - Stare defeat straight in the eye and if you are down or see things negatively use affirmations to turn your stinking thinking around. Sometimes people think that affirmations don’t work. I’m not one of them. I look to those successful people in sports, business and yes, in life. We have seen teams as they run onto the field shout out an affirmation such as, “Let’s go for the win,” or “We can do this.” They visualize the end goal and psych themselves up to achieve it. The same goes for individual sports. Before a run, or a skiing downhill race, individuals will visualize the run, and positively affirm themselves. Walk around a business and look at what is on its walls. Usually, you will see positive posters reinforcing strong customer service or motivational quotes. Why do they do this? Simply because affirmations work. They strengthen confidence, discipline, and resilience. 9. Turn Negatives into Positives – When your thought process begins to turn sour or you find yourself talking in a negative way it’s time to: a) eliminate negative words from your vocabulary, and b) refocus your energies on the positive aspects of the situation. Here are some turn around example: Defeat thought: “My plan not succeed," or "I will fail” Replacement thought: “My idea may not work the way I envisioned but I’m sure it will turn out equally as well, if not better.” Or “I may make mistakes along the way, but those I can correct and learn from.” Defeat thought: “There is so much out there, nobody will buy my product." Replacement thought: “My product may not not fit everyone's need but there are millions of people out there who will find that my product to their liking.” Defeat Thought: “Selling is not my thing. I’m just not good at it.” Replacement thought: “I'm going to take a course on selling and I will become the best salesperson on the block.” 10. Know the Difference Between Selling and Marketing - You may be good at marketing but not selling. Marketing is all about educating your potential customers about your product. Selling is closing the deal. The big thing about marketing and selling is to use all the avenues at your disposal to find customers, develop relationships with them, understand their needs, and ask for commitments to buy. Always remember, people buy for their reasons and not yours. So, when people are reluctant to buy ask yourself whether you have given sufficient information about your product, whether you have established a warm relationship and whether you understand their needs. 11. Avoid Negative People Who Are ‘Nay Sayers’ – When we are negative, we attract negative people; and, when we are positive, we attract positive people. Now ask yourself which group of people would you rather be with? Positive people help you grow and develop in a healthy way. Negative people reinforce your negative thoughts and feelings and drag you down. Sometimes it is hard to distance yourself from negative people; but if you want to grow and develop your business or change your lifestyle for the better then it becomes necessary to surround yourself with people who will help you build your business and support you in your changes. Please stay safe and remember your personal growth and development matter. Thank you for taking the time to read this article, Richard Fontanie Thank you for reading articles from the FontanieMagazine. You now know that the e-Zine focuses attention on five broad areas:
Business Growth – wherever it is; LeaderManager Development- become the executive you were meant to be; Workplace Culture – making better workplaces; Skills4Success – strengthening adult knowledge skills for life; and Health and Wellbeing – nurturing your whole self. Presently all the articles are free for personal and company use as long as you identify the source of the article. You know that writing original articles take time and several of my associates have suggested I charge a subscription rate for my efforts. I have chosen not to do so as this is my way of giving back to those who believe personal growth and development matter. So, how do I support the e-zine? Well, there is a STOREFRONT with a growing number of items that people can purchase; there is a paid membership site FORTIS MEMBERSHIP which concentrates on eight dimensions of health, wellbeing, and training (all e-books and video training I develop are free to members); and there is FACSi Academy which has over 150 courses and training manuals for purchase and finally I provide Executive Coaching to select clients. If you have an e-Zine or equivalent here are a dozen ways to promote it. 1. The ‘Give Away’ Method Inform your potential subscribers they will receive a free e-book for subscribing. You could also include your e-zine ad in the e-book and allow them to give the e-book away or offer resell or master resell rights. This method is posted on the FM Welcome page. 2. Give ‘Private Label Rights’ Method Inform your potential subscribers that they will get the private label rights to the articles if they subscribe. People will be able to read and use your content as they wish. There is a huge demand for private label content these days. Mine are already free for users with the proviso that they identify the source. With PLR the source is not identified and can be used as the person sees fit according to the terms provided. 3. Use ‘Content As They See Fit’ Method Inform your potential subscribers that they can reprint or republish the articles or content if they subscribe. People will be able to read and use content as they see fit. You could include your e-zine ad under each article they republish, or in my case I stipulate they note the source of the article. 4. The ‘Future Goals’ Method Inform your potential subscribers the goals they will achieve when they subscribe to your e-zine. You could inform them how your content will help solve their problems, improve their lifestyle, or resolve challenges they face. 5. Goal ‘Non-fulfillment’ Method Inform your potential subscribers what they may not be able to achieve if they don't subscribe to your e-zine. You could inform them how not reading your information or content could cause future problems, safe them from making mistakes, or make their life worse. 6. The ‘Prize Promotion’ Method Inform your potential subscribers they could win ‘prizes’ by subscribing to your e-zine. You could inform them that you will randomly select a subscriber every week to get one of your products for free. To make it interesting you could include an action they need to complete in order to receive the prize. 7. The ‘Cash Card’ Method Inform your potential subscribers they could win a ‘Cash Card’ prize of $50. by subscribing to your e-zine. You could inform them that you will randomly select a subscriber every week or every month for the ‘Cash Card’ prize. You can make this a time limited offer by saying for the month of February, for example, receive a randomly selected $50. Cash Card from Amazon. 8. The ‘Subscribe Forward’ Method Inform your current e-zine subscribers to forward your e-zine to their friends, family, or associates. If they like it, they'll end subscribing and forwarding it to their circle of acquaintances. It's a virtual answer to word-of-mouth marketing. 9. The ‘Monthly Circulation’ Method Inform those on your existing list that they will receive articles that they may have missed during the past month. In the e-mail letter identify the ‘Prize Method’, ‘Cash Card’ Method or one of the other methods. Also identify other related ‘Ads’ in your email. We send out monthly ‘ You May Have Missed Articles’ and at the bottom of the email we promote two or three further items. 10. The ‘Weekly Circulation’ Method Send a weekly FREE article to those on your existing list. This gets regular exposure to the e-zine. Highlight a special promotional item and include an ad of one of your other products or services. We have done this in the past. It is an article posted as an email. 11. The ‘Play-it-Forward Bonus’ Method Inform those who visit your e-zine site that if they forward the e-zine to a potential subscriber and if the person subscribes, both those that forwarded the e-zine and the new subscriber will receive a bonus such as an e-book or one of the methods described above. With this method you will need to ensure you are capturing the email address of the new subscriber and the person who forwarded the e-zine. 12. The ‘Engage Them’ Method Inform your potential and existing subscribers that you accept article submissions. You’ll get people who will subscribe just so they can submit articles and see them published. Make sure you inform them that you will identify them as the author and will give a link to their website. You will need to develop a policy around articles you will accept. By using the ‘Engage Them’ Method you can potentially get a steady stream of content without doing all the heavy lifting yourself. By the way, if you are requesting potential subscriber emails, we found that asking for their first name works best. Make sure you also include a confidentiality clause at the bottom of your opt-in page, something like, ‘we do not rent or distribute your emails to others.’ And if you are going to send them promotional material it is also advisable to include a sentence that goes something like this: ‘By entering your email you agree to receiving promotional material and information about our products on a timely basis.’ Thank you for reading, Richard P. Fontanie In the internet marketing world we have Rights, Rights and More Rights. These rights are often confusing to those just starting out. Even those who have been creating products for some time need to remind themselves about how each works.
PLR, MRR and RR all stand for exclusive licensing rights for products that you can resell. PLR means Private Label Rights. MRR means Master Resale Rights, and RR means Resale Rights. At first glance they appear quite similar but in reality they are quite different. If you do not know the difference and resell a product incorrectly you may find yourself in deep trouble with the product maker, or at least the maker’s lawyer. Let’s take a look at how each of the PLR, MRR and RR work. In Internet Marketing, PLR (Private Label Rights) is a term we often see, and it is used to describe products commonly used by marketers. It gives us the right to re-sell and usually comes with the right to re-label the product with our own brand. Simply put private label rights are special licenses that allow an author or creator to sell his work granting varying rights to the buyer from personal use only to unrestricted rights. With PLR we can do whatever we want with the product – re-design it into an eBook, develop special reports from it, rebrand software, or produce a podcast from articles. We just have to make sure we are operating within the limits of the acquired rights. We can find Private Label Rights content in products that include graphics, software, eBooks, articles, sales pages, videos, and audios. In short, these are products often used by internet marketers to generate profit by either maximizing the PLR product for their own use or profit from it by reselling it. Over time PLR has evolved from the simple to a sophisticated concept, adopting many different types of PLR rights. For example, you may earn the right to re-sell a product but you’re restricted from placing your name on it. Or you can earn from it with reselling rights. Since there are different variations to the various rights, we need to make sure we check the license first before purchasing a product. Then we need to follow the right term of conditions the producer provides so that we avoid major and serious consequences. Every PLR product and package comes with a list of rights and entitlements. 1. PLR – Private Label Rights This is the best type of product license since it provides us with the most freedom to change or modify the product. PLR license entitles us to ‘own’ the entire product and individual copyright. We can modify the product the way we like — from a bit of altering to major revamping— and we can sell it at a higher price or give it away as a freebie if we so choose. 2. MRR – Master Resell Rights With MRR we don’t own the copyright, but we own the ‘Master Rights’. This essentially means we can use or sell the product or sell the same rights to others but we are restricted from altering or modifying the product from its original form. One other important factor to remember about MRR is that we may or may not be allowed to use the product as our own private label ownership (copyright) in addition to the original copyright as indicated by that particular license. 3. RR – Resell Rights With RR we own the ‘Resell Rights’ but not the copyright. In this case we are not entitled to change or alter anything from its original form. Our freedom is restricted to using and selling the product as is. We cannot sell or transfer these rights to others. Other limitations may be laid out in the license so, read the license carefully. Conclusion It’s extremely important that we know the difference between PLR, MRR and RR when we buy a product. Knowing the differences between them allows us sell and market the product correctly. Keep in mind that there could be hundreds if not thousands of people using the same material that you are, depending on how many PLR rights to the unit are being sold. Consequently, because there are a many buyers, single units tend to be cheaper to purchase than having to create a new one from scratch. The bottom line is that PLR products can help your bottom line when you purchase them and maximize them to their full potential without breaking the limitations of the set of rights given you. Thank you for reading, Richard Fontanie. 11 Tips to Successfully Negotiating Online By Jeremy Cassell is reprinted with permission from Priority LearningLink.
Negotiating face-to-face may not be practical for many months to come, so how do you negotiate a variety of situations successfully? Here are some of my top tips to negotiate successfully online. First things first, though--let's agree on a definition of negotiation so that we all start off on the same footing. A negotiation is a discussion between two or more parties, which starts with a position of non-agreement. It is a process whereby interested parties resolve disputes, agree upon courses of action, bargain for individual or collective advantage, and/or attempt to craft outcomes which serve their mutual interests. The art of negotiation is a critical skill in business and will serve you well throughout your career. Whether this means getting better deals for your clients or negotiating a higher salary, negotiation is everywhere. Yet, many business people struggle with negotiation for a number of reasons: lack of confidence, lack of clarity about what they want, or simply they do not know the basics of negotiation. The good news is it can be taught. These are the qualities that make a great negotiator: They have identified what they want. They put themselves in the other parties' shoes. They will prepare a BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement). They identify an optimum position and a fallback position. They understand that you need to distinguish between positions versus interests. Interests are the drivers of all parties in a negotiation. They ask the right questions. They separate the person from the problem and avoid getting emotionally drawn in. Ultimately, they are prepared, have researched thoroughly, and considered the negotiation from all angles. As you can see, none of these qualities are ones you have to be born with. Anyone can learn to be an exceptional negotiator. With this in mind, here are my top tips for negotiating successfully online. Whether you are a seasoned negotiation pro or new to the art, this advice should help you transition to the new normal with confidence. 1. Use your camera, not just the audio It's tempting to keep the camera off, especially if you haven't had time to make your top half look businesslike. However, I encourage you to switch it on in order to facilitate a connection with the other parties. Turning on the camera gives you access to extra information: How is the other party presenting themselves on camera? Are they close to the lens or further away? Do they use hand gestures? These are things you can subtly copy to help build rapport. 2. Match their email's tone In real-life scenarios you might find yourself mirroring a speaker's body language to put them at ease. In the virtual world it's not always possible to negotiate over a call. So a virtual equivalent of the mirroring technique would be to match a person's email tone. Is their email long? Short? Informal? Formal? Resist your usual email template to copy theirs. 3. Avoid email when resolving conflict Having said how to set the tone of your emails, try to avoid email when resolving conflict. It's all too easy for tone to be misinterpreted. Arrange for a video conference call instead, as soon as is practicable. Don't fall in the trap of avoiding a difficult conversation. 4. Summarize frequently Attention spans are shorter in video calls. Many things can distract people during a negotiation--from email or Slack notifications popping up on screen to the lure of social media and home distractions. It's, therefore, a good idea to frequently summarize your discussion as it progresses to ensure that everyone is on the same page. 5. Lobby in advance Give yourself every chance of success by "pre-suading" and lobbying in advance. One great resource to draw inspiration from is Robert Cialdini's Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion, and his follow-up book Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. Dubbed the godfather of influence, Cialdini offers practical advice that will help you master his six key principles of successful influencing, as well as how to persuade parties to come to an agreement before negotiations have even begun. 6. Favor shorter meetings A long drawn out negotiation is painful enough in real life, and quickly becomes unbearable online if it drags on for more than half an hour. Take this into consideration in your planning and encourage multiple short meetings over one mammoth one. This will work to your advantage. 7. Allocate more time to research and preparation Preparation is key to all negotiations, whether online or in-person. Here are a few things you can do to prepare for a negotiation: Gather knowledge about the case and the client. Decide agenda and objectives. Allocate roles if negotiating with a colleague. Speak to the client and find out the negotiation parameters and fallbacks. Consider leverage and BATNA. Identify interests--yours and theirs. Identify optimum and fallback for all parties of key priority negotiation points. Brainstorm; generate options. 8. Agree on the rules early on It's important to manage expectations from the start. Before the negotiations start, all parties should agree on the rules of engagement. Write them down and share them with all parties before subsequent meetings so they stay fresh in everyone's mind. 9. Make use of technology tools Negotiating online can be an advantage rather than a hindrance. Use your platform to further inform and engage everyone during the process. For example, use the breakout rooms for confidential discussions, or use polls to vote or gauge where everyone stands. 10. Keep a positive mindset Virtual or not, a positive mindset is key to a successful outcome. Work towards a win-win for all parties and be open to extending your own comfort zone. If you do not do this, others will exploit your comfort zone preference. 11. Use silence Finally, and most important, don't be afraid of silence. It's tempting to fill virtual calls with talk, but this puts you in a weaker negotiating position. Instead, listen actively, speak less, and let other parties fill the silences instead of jumping in. Bonus: Key questions to ask during a virtual negotiation Ask these questions: What would be a win for you as a result of our virtual conference call? What do we need to focus on, in order to get agreement? What are the reasons for adopting that position? Why is that so important to you/your client? On a scale of 1-10 . . ? From your perspective, what is driving that? What other options might work for you? Is there any reason you can't? What seems fair and reasonable to you? What evidence do you have that this is the best option right now? How do you feel about including this element in the final document? Which parts of my proposal sound sensible? What would have to happen for us to get agreement quickly? Avoid landmine questions: Do you really think my client will accept this? Are you now not going to agree to this? Do you honestly expect me to believe this? Don't you see--you are just wrong? Click here for the original article. To learn more from Jeremy Cassell Click here Priority Management is a worldwide training company with 55 offices in 15 countries. We have successfully trained more than two million graduates in Priority workshops. Our programs help companies and people be more effective and manage their workflow in and out of the office by providing tools, processes and discipline. Simply put - A Better Way To Work! Clients range from Fortune 500 companies, small-to-medium businesses and government/military employees. Priority Mangement.com Thank you for Reading, Richard Fontanie btw I owned a Priority Management Franchise for over 30 years. I highly recommend their training. We hear and read an awful lot these days that people want to get back to normal. Whatever that is? Often, in their mind they are thinking that normal is pre-COVID-19. Well folks I don’t think that is going to happen. And here’s why. Whenever there is a significant change in life it never goes back to where things were before the change. History tells us this. Just look at every significant change that took place since 1900. After the First World War things were not the same as prior to the war. After the Spanish flu things were not the same after the Spanish flu. After the advent of the development of the automobile and air travel, we approached travel differently. After the Second World War we developed new social, health and educational systems. After the development of the internet we approached our shopping, communications, and yes even our relationships differently. After each change the way we approached business, work and life after the event were never the same as they were before the event. Often when people face change, they become afraid – afraid of losing what they have accumulated and afraid of what the future might bring. We still have people denying climate change, claiming the earth is flat, claiming that the US didn’t land someone on the moon, and that 9/11 was caused by the US government. Adjusting to new realities is a fact of life. We cannot hang on to yesteryear, nor yesterday – they are past. Everyday a new world opens up for us. People who have most difficulty with the new day always seem to see the storm clouds rather than the sun above the clouds. They are shadowed by the darkness rather than the light, which as Leonard Cohn sang (and I paraphrase) always shines through the cracks. I have seen the same reactions to change in many of the organizations I have worked with. It’s the ambiguity and paradox that we experience as a result of the change. We are not comfortable because our comfort zone is shaken. Our sense of security is lost in the turmoil. And ever so slowly we become comfortable with the new. In these days of rapid change, however, becoming comfortable with the new really means becoming comfortable with ambiguity because the new doesn’t stay very long. During change we come face-to-face with ourselves. Often it relates to the lack of confidence in ourselves that we can get through this, and that things will be alright. In many ways we have given our sense of who we are over to some other person, institution, or movement. We become chained to what we know and what comforts us and we perceive things through those lens rather than an openness to the different and the new. We can’t seem to let go because we no longer have a sense of control. Does this then make all change appropriate or acceptable? No, not necessarily – if the change is not for the common good, doesn’t hold to universal principles and values, and isn’t inclusive than it isn’t sound or healthy change. Negative change usually means change for a privileged few or one group over another or for selfish reasons to the exclusion of others. Reactions to change in business, organizations, and institutions, whether they be religious or otherwise, often get played out by people bucking the change process and wanting to keep the status quo. They often focus on keeping past policies, procedures, structures, and even rubric. What is not realized or understood is that change is evolutionary, unfolding and what worked in the past no longer works today. Each age and stage of organizations and society has its follies which require fixing. As we go through the ‘fixing’ pain occurs. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “there are no gains without pains.” So what do we do:
So will there be a new normal? Absolutely, but it wont look or feel like the past. It’s about building better and not recycling the past. The real message here though is to be ready for an uncertain future fraught with difficulties and pain but there is hope for the better when people work together to find solutions rather than holding on and holding back. Thank you for reading, Richard Fontanie |
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