Pricing, as we all know, is one of most important factor when it comes to making a sale. A product with a higher or lower price than what it is wroth is bound to take a business downhill. Setting a right price on a service and product can be quite challenging as our main focus while running a business is to generate profit, and profit comes from successful sales, and sales comes from products and services that are priced just right.In this post, I would like to share what I learned about setting price while I ran my own business. I used to run a small residential cleaning business couple years ago which I sold for quite a profit after two successful years of operation. One of the reasons, I think, the business was able to compete and grow at such a fast pace is because of the right pricing. Let us analyze some of the things that can help us set a right price and leverage sales and generate profit.
Set a Realistic Pricing Goal
The first and most important approach to setting a right price is setting a pricing goal that is justifiable by the customers. We all want to make and sell products that are low in operating costs but earns higher return on investment (ROI). It certainly would be nice to sell a product that costs us only $50.00 but sells for $100.00 giving us a profit of $50.00, but this is unrealistic in most cases.
We need to set a realistic goal at the very beginning by analyzing the customers that we are trying to reach. If our target market is middle class and we are developing product whose price range is more suited for the higher class, it most probably won’t earn you much return on your investment. Analyze your market and see what is realistic. Will this price be seen as reasonable by customers? Is it the right price for this product? If I were to walk in a store would I be willing to buy this product at this price? Does the price justify the products actual value? These are some of the question that will help you set a realistic pricing goal to start out with.
Analyze Demand, Cost and Profits
Another very crucial step is to analyze the demand of a product, costs associated with it and what’s in it for you. Lately ebay seems to be all the rage for making money. Most people fail to realize that although ebay has a wide market, not every product has high demand. If you purchase something for 100 dollars without analyzing the demand within that market or category you might not even get what you paid for. A product might be one of kind, pioneering and extremely useful but if it’s not in demand it won’t do you any good.
For the price to be right you have to see how the market acts upon products similar to yours. Is it something that is widely desired? Is it a necessity? Are your costs low enough to earn you any profit? These are some questions to think about before jumping into setting a price for a product or service. Pricing on a product or service can substantially boost your sales or dump your business down the drain.
Choose a Pricing Strategy
Let’s analyze two types of price strategy that most businesses seem to apply,
Price Skimming or Market Plus : This pricing strategy is mostly suitable for businesses that are already established. Businesses that have been able to gain recognition from consumers with their past products are more likely to use this kind of strategy in setting up a price.
Price Skipping or Market Plus is a pricing strategy where a business sets the price of their products relatively higher during the roll out phase. The key aspect of this pricing strategy is to lower the price as time passes by so as to compete with others. This strategy allows firms and businesses to recover it’s sunk cost quickly. As said earlier this might not be an option for every business.
Penetration Pricing : I am personally all for Penetration Pricing. This pricing strategy is usually implemented by most businesses, both large and small. The key is to set the price of your products and services relatively low during the introduction phase. This allows the business to tap into the market quickly and beat their competitors when it comes to pricing.
Although penetration pricing is very effective as it helps you compete directly in terms of pricing, it doesn’t always yield benefits as expected. One of the biggest drawback of this kind of pricing strategy is lower profit margin. Since the key is to start out product sales at a lower price than what the market is currently running at, it is sometimes hard to make a profit. However, with clear planning this pricing strategy can yield great benefits and profits in the long run.
Analyzing the Entire Process
If you are a writer what do you do once you are done writing an article? You proofread! The same rule applies when setting a price for a product as well. Most businesses fail to realize that pricing is one of the key component of running a successful business. Just knowing your operation cost and desired profit alone does not lead to a perfect pricing. A perfect pricing includes future planning, market study and everything else related to the business.
Once the price for a product is set, the key is to go back and analyze. I can bet you will find some loopholes while you go through the entire process.
This post is by no means comprehensive when it comes to setting a right price. We will try and explore more as we go along. Meanwhile, please share what your strategy is in setting a price for your products or services?
Business. The first thing that comes in mind when we say the word business is - revenue. Revenue is what drives a business towards success and achieving the goals that it desires. But, before a business can start earning, there are expenses. Start-up expense to be exact. Operating cost, Legal cost and all other costs associated with starting a business can be overwhelming when first setting your foot on starting one. However, this post is not regarding expense at all. So why am I talking about revenue and expense? If the article isn’t directed towards revenue and how to cut costs why is it even targeting these factors? Because we are going to analyze 10 things that is critical to starting a business which will help you in maximizing revenue and cutting expenses as you venture into the wild world of business.
Starting a business without a doubt is scary. Some plan ahead of time and some just jump into the scene. But if you want to succeed and start a business that will hit home run in the long run, careful planning is a must. So if you are planning on starting a business here are 10 reminders that will help you prepare yourself and your business from the worst, while giving you an idea of what it might be like down the road. None of these reminders are in any order. As far as I am concerned, each of them have their own importance and play a critical role in starting a business and planning. Let’s move on with the reminders, shall we?
1) Disaster Plan
Remember Hurricane Katrina? Of course you do. It’s not easy to forget such a catastrophic moment in history and we should certainly not forget the businesses that still exist in New Orleans after Katrina’s wrath was over. Why did some business survive and were able to get back up while others just went floating with the water to become non existent? The answer is simple. They had a disaster plan in their arsenal waiting to be unleashed.
We hear the saying quite often ” If you think worse, worse will happen, ” I disagree with this statement. We shouldn’t think of the worse in a way to make us retreat from what we have in hand, but to give us a backup plan in case of emergency. Why do we have generators that supply power during electricity outage? Just so that there is a backup just in case. A disaster plan while starting a business serves the similar purpose. It is the answer to “what if? ” and ” just in case.” No body knows what future holds and having a disaster plan will for sure help you get out of the rut when there is one.
2) Target Market
Who are you going to sell your product and services? Is it for children under certain age, teens, young adults or seniors? I used to own a residential cleaning business couple years ago. My main target market were working family who barely have time to clean their houses due to their busy routine. I promoted my business to this segment of demographics as much as I could and it’s no surprise that the business went BOOM! It was a huge success. What if I had targeted college students? Would it be as big of a success? To be honest, I did promote my services in colleges and universities but the response was very low and the costs way outweighed the profit. Working families were certainly the bread and butter for a business like this, not the college kids who either didn’t care about keeping their apartment clean or didn’t have the money to afford such services and chose to do it themselves.
Selecting a target market might seem like quite a feat to achieve. It’s not. If you were to start a candy business who would your target market be? You are right - Children. While starting a business, keep this in mind. Analyze the main target and then break them into groups and determine which will bring in the most in terms of revenue and repeat business. In my case, it certainly was the working family.
3) Marketing Strategy
” We are going to launch our business tomorrow and it’s going to take off like a soaring eagle. We don’t know how because we are not going to market or promote since we don’t have a marketing plan.” What do you think of a business that starts up with this mentality? Exactly! It will just sit there waiting to be recognized by potential customers who don’t even know the business exists. Without marketing strategy or a plan to implicate, a business is nothing but a penny in your pocket. You know it’s there but you don’t know how to make use of it.
Without a carefully planned out marketing strategy to promote your products and services, your business is most likely to fail. Marketing is the key to a successful business and it all starts in the start-up phase which determines the effectiveness by taking various things into consideration. Who do you want to target as your main market? How are you going to promote your products and services? Would online marketing be more effective for your business? These are some of the questions that you should try and answer while creating a marketing strategy. Of course, there are a lot more questions you need to ask yourself and analyze as this is one of the most important aspect of business. Without a healthy and effective marketing strategy your business will sink before it can even sail.
4) Start-Up Costs
I would like to quick share my story on how I cut back on start up cost when I started my residential cleaning business.
While I was planning to launch my residential cleaning business, one thing I wanted to avoid was taking out a business loan. As you can imagine a cleaning business doesn’t really require much. A broom, vacuum, couple mops and that’s it, right? Wrong! I was in for a surprise when I started analyzing everything that I might require to shine a potential clients house. There were a lot of costs associated with it. To cut back my start up cost and eliminate taking out a loan, I bought only couple things that was absolutely needed. Some of the things most people don’t have in their homes are carpet shampooer, stair vacuum cleaner and such. I bought these machines and rest I planned on using the customer’s cleaning equipments. While marketing my services I let everyone know that we would be using their cleaning supplies.
Because of this I was able to save a lot of money and put it back in the business. Within a year I was able to rent a space in a location that was very accessible and ” the go to part of the town “, so to speak. This gave my business a lot of exposure.
As you can see, if your business doesn’t require as much in start up, try and avoid the urge to go all out. You want your business to stand out from others while starting but try and provide quality instead of quantity. Keeping your start up cost low will help you grow your business tremendously and if you can cut back on that business loan, imagine the possibilities. Not all business can start out without a loan but careful planning can certainly eliminate the need to cash out more that you actually need.
5) Expense Estimation for One Year
This is similar to income estimation, the only thing is you will be analyzing different factors while estimating. Expense estimation is as important as income itself because without any expenses you won’t be able to earn income. It’s a fact. You start a business, you provide products and services and you promote/market your business. The key to any successful business is to cut cost while maximizing revenue. This is where this step becomes critical. When you analyze your income, the major part of it will directly depend on your expenses. What is your operating cost? How many employees will you need to hire and what will be their pay? Machineries, man power, stationery, transportation, etc. are all your expenses that you put in your business to earn revenue. Without these expenses your business won’t exist.
Estimating expenses for one year will give you a rough idea on what you need and how much you need to spend in order to keep the business running. Among all this information is something that the loan officer will require to give you a business loan if you are planning to take one out. I think one year of expense estimation is a good enough indication to see and realize how and where you are going to have to invest to run your business successfully and earn that money you deserve.
6) Income Estimation for One Year
Most businesses completely ignore this part while starting a new business. Of course you want to earn millions but a more realistic approach is needed to see where you and your business will be in one year. This part requires detailed study from every aspect of starting a business. Analyzing your expenses, your marketing plan and everything else is critical to estimate your one year income.
I personally think it is critical to estimate one year income so that you have an idea of where you will be. Besides if you are looking for a business loan, you will most probably need to provide this information as well. While estimating this, try and not to go overboard. Be realistic. Like I had written earlier, you might want to make millions within one year but most of the businesses don’t achieve such a goal. Try and analyze different factors such as the demand of product/service in the market, competitors price Vs. your price and some other factors. You should be able to easily estimate a ballpark figure for one year income.
Before you start out a business be sure to check in on the Legal aspect of starting one. Many “want to be” business owners are overwhelmed with the amount of legalities that needs to be followed, but it’s not really that scary if you take one step at a time. As you know, the first thing with starting a business is choosing a name and registering your business. You need to do your due research before you file a name to see if that name hasn’t already been taken. I had a hard time coming up with a name that wasn’t already registered when starting my cleaning business.
The other thing you need to keep in mind is to not violate any copyright, trademarks and patents. There is quite a bit of things that needs to be done and researched when it comes to starting a business in a proper Legal manner. Legal structure is one of the most important part since it sets the basis for your business type. When you file your business you need to know how you would like to set up your business - Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Limited Liability Company or Corporation.
There are hundreds and thousands of resources that will help you gather all the information that you might need to legally enter the business world. Some sites even help you prepare all the documents and file them legally for a small fee. Although there is a fee I find these services extremely helpful as they cut out some chaos and hassle of dealing with all the Legal issues. If you search ” Legal documents to start a business “, you should have plenty of results to go through and choose the one that best suits your need.
8 ) 5 Year Goal
Whether you are planning on starting a business with 100 employees or all by yourself, a focused goal is something that is of great importance when setting up a new business. Where do you want to be? What do you want to do when you reach the first goal? These are some of the things that needs to answered while preparing your 5 year goal list. Most new entrepreneurs and business owners start out with one goal - more business! This goal alone won’t drive your business to success as running it successfully isn’t just about getting more business but handling different aspect that comes along with starting a business. Trust me there is a lot more to running a business than just, well, getting more business.
While setting your 5 year goal have a clear picture of what you can and what you can’t attain. Set realistic goals. Be specific in what you want. Analyze different aspect of your business, look at your income and expense estimation and other factors. Here is a quick list that might help you set your 5 year goal,
Be as specific as you can with your goals. If you have a focused goal it is much more easier to reach that goal.
Have goals that are measurable. What would you like your business income to be within 5 years and how much are you going to cut out in terms of expenses?
Set goals that are realistic. Don’t fly too high.
Are your goals relevant? As a business owner you need to be able to foresee the future to some extent. Goals that might not be an option today may be something that you might be able to achieve 2 years from now. Develop an eye and thought for future.
Create a time frame? When do you want to achieve a particular goal? Although it’s a 5 year goal planning, to reach to the end goal at 5 years there will be number of goals that you need to knock out before reaching the 5 year end goal.
This doesn’t mean that you should only have a 5 year goal. The main purpose of this is to give you an idea where your business might be within 5 years. And again, it helps if you are trying to get a loan by showing how well you have thought and planned your business for the future.
9) Online Presence
I can’t stress the importance of online presence in today’s fast paced world. No matter what, no matter what your business is about it’s a must to have an online presence. There are days when I am trying to find a plumbers number to fix my leaky bathroom faucet and the first thing I do is go online and see what plumbing businesses are out where I live. If you want to start a business, an online identity, a presence on the web is a must, a must.
Having an online presence doesn’t mean that you have to spend thousands of dollars on a nice looking website. If your business is solely based upon doing business from the web, then of course you need to have a site that will attract your potential customers. But if you have a cleaning business, a plumbing business or a service that mostly caters the ” offline world ” then a quick website with contact information and rates would be just fine. I am not even going to stress the importance of web and online presence because if you are reading this article you already know what it can do for your business. Without an online presence your business won’t be the same.
10) Study your Competitor
I usually save the best for the last and studying your competitors and shaping your business is the best part of starting a business. It’s fun and challenging. One of the best way to learn is from others mistakes and this is why you need to study competitors. Trust me, you will have a time of your life. Here is one of the things I did when I started out my cleaning business,
I called every cleaning services in town and some outside where I live as well to know what the difference was. I called them as someone looking to buy their service. While doing this I found out a couple of things in terms of setting up a rate. Some of the things were square footage, number of rooms, number of children ( if you have children you know why they ask for this information ), etc. Based on that they gave me a quote which I thought was ridiculous.
I made calls to many residential cleaning services to see what the price difference was and how they operated. I was still not satisfied with the rates and thought this was outrageous. So I sat down and started figuring things out. Then I realized that there price was quite justifiable since they have all the equipments that is needed to clean the house.Now here is what I did to cut my cost and lower my rates substantially to become the best affordable cleaning service around my area. Most people already have vacuum cleaners, brooms, mops and other cleaning supplies. I just purchased equipments and supplies that most household don’t already have. This way the customers didn’t have to pay more for my service as I was charging only for my service not for the equipments. And believe me, most people would rather have you use their cleaning supplies then ours because they know it hasn’t been anywhere else. It was a hit and there we went to become the most affordable service in town.
It grew so fast that within 2 years and 20 employees later I had to sell it so I could have money for school. I went to school for 5 years with no loan and no credit card, thanks to my cleaning service.
The above paragraph just goes to show how much you can learn from your competitors by just watching them do what they do. Analyze their approach, how they carry business, what they charge for their products and services and shape your products and business to give THEIR customers much more. I will tell you one thing from experience, there is no better feeling when you convert someone else’s regular customer to become loyal to you. It’s amazing! This is a ” must do ” step when you are planning on starting your business just like all other reminders. I could talk about competitors all day but will save some of it for some other day.
Well, there it is - 10 critical reminders for a successful business start-up. Why didn’t I talk about the Business Plan among all these reminders? Because if you have all these reminders set up in a systematic manner you should have a pretty good business plan in hand .
Any letter written for business purpose is of high importance. A sales letter is of even greater importance because of its ability to compel a potential customer to buy your product or services, if prepared with the right touch. While creating a sales letter there are a number of things we need to keep in mind which we will explore as we move along. We have all read sales emails that drop on our junk boxes and snail mails that we tend to read a couple lines and toss it in the garbage. This is because the letter/email wasn’t exactly prepared with the right person or group in mind and was written poorly. In today’s business world, sales letter seem to have lost its charm. Personally, I think a sales letter is still one of the most important tool a business can use, it’s just a matter of how well you can capture your target markets attention.
Although this post is geared towards writing a sales letter, the same information can also be used towards gaining customers through advertisements and such. In business, the value of a product depends upon customer’s perception and in blogging the value of a post lies on readers perception. I hope you will find this post useful in not only creating a sales letter but also advertisements and gaining new customers. Let’s start.
The Four Pillars of a Sales Letter
I like to call them ” The Four Pillars ” as they are necessary for the construction of a successful sales letter. Without any one of these, a sales letter will fail to achieve its purpose.
Grab Attention - Most of the times we open a sales letter/email because of the title. The subject of your sales letter should be able grab the reader’s attention. How can I make the reader to at least read this letter before he throws it away? This is the question you are trying to answer at this point of creating a sales letter. It’s purpose is to simply catch your potential customers attention and make him read further.
Create Interest - Next step is to create interest. This step isn’t about making a sale, it’s about letting the reader know what’s in it for him. If the reader says ” This might be something I want,” you are ready to move along to the next step.
Build Desire - If the customer is interested in the product/service you wrote about, desire is a natural response. Show the reader how he might be able to make his life simpler with your product or how he can enjoy it. This is when you are ready to make a sale as you have been able to get the readers attention, create interest and build desire.
Impel Actions - It’s time for the hook. You did an excellent job in portraying how your product might help the reader and he is sold. Now it’s time to sell your product and convert your pitch into a sale. Simply ask for it.
One thing we need to keep in mind while writing a sales letter is that, the above mentioned points in your sales letter all have their own specific purpose. They have to have a set pattern : Attention - Interest - Desire - Action. Think of it like scoring a run in baseball. You can’t run to the fourth base at once, you have to touch the first, second and third base respectively before you can reach the fourth base and the same is true when writing a sales letter.
We all buy what appeals to us. Some are justified by the fact that they are useful and some are just impulsive buys to satisfy a need at that particular moment. If a product isn’t appealing ( in terms of usage or attractiveness ), we tend to make a pass on that particular product. A sales letter is no different. Your sales letter needs to be appealing in order to fulfill its purpose which is to generate sales. Here are a few of the major appeals in a sales letter for you to analyze.
Scare Your Readers
You might be thinking I have lost my mind. How can making your potential customer fear something convert into sales? It doesn’t make sense. Before you stand against me I would like to ask a few questions - Why do most people buy life insurance? Why do parents buy helmets along with roller blades for their kids? Why do smokers ( who want to quit ) buy pills that will help them quit? You know the answer - because they fear. Most people buy life insurance because they fear their family might not have enough financial support if something happens to them; parents buy helmets along with roller blades because they fear their little one might get hurt; and smokers want to quit and buy pills because they all fear.
Here is an example,
Life insurance leaves money for your family if you should die early. Some life insurance plans have savings features. Remember, protecting your dependents (those who count on you for financial support) in case of your death is the main reason for life insurance.
Fear, no matter how unreasonable it might seem, can be one of the major appeals in a sales letter.
Provide Emotional Support
Another way to add appeal about your products and services in your sales letter is by becoming an emotional player. If your sales letter is geared towards bald men ( I am getting there ) wouldn’t you be willing to emphasize how good they would look with hair? Your sales letter in this case would tell your readers that they need to take care of this situation before it gets ugly and that you care.
Here is an example,
When you look good, you usually have more confidence and self esteem. Some men feel differently about themselves when they start to lose their hair. They feel less attractive and less sure of themselves, and less comfortable in social situations.
It’s also been shown that fear of being perceived as vain or difficulty admitting feelings of being bothered by hair loss has caused men not to seek treatment! At the very least, don’t let these types of feelings stop you from trying ROGAINE® or exploring the other options that are available to help you treat your hair loss.
The statement above first plays an emotional game with the reader and then offers a solution by providing them a product that might help them overcome these feelings.
Tickle Their Pride
There is no doubt that we take pride seriously. Using pride as an appeal to make your reader buy your product or service might be a scary one, but it certainly depends on the sales letter writer. If you get a sales letter from a lawn mowing company that says your lawn looks like crap and they can fix it, you will probably take it personally. You will either give them a chance or do it yourself. Either way the problem in hand gets taken care of.
Here is an example,
If you are a quitter you won’t read this letter simply because you have no desire to succeed. But - if you are not - we would like to offer you something that might change your life forever.
The statement above will surely tickle anyone’s pride. The first thing your reader will think is ” who the heck are you calling a quitter?” and then will go on reading. It’s up to the writer and the usability of your product on whether or not it appeals to the reader after that point.
Compare With Competitors Products
We all love comparison. This is one of the reason why we see comparison advertisements on TV most of the time. We have seen the beer ads on TV which tells us why we should try their beer and not their competitors. The same strategy and tactic can be used in sales letter as well. Your prospective clients want the best value for their buck and your letter needs to show facts on how you can provide that. However, since sales letter are usually tossed away before reaching to a point where someone would be willing to look at facts and figures, your sales letter needs to capture the attention and then show these facts so as to create interest. Remember the four pillars of sales letter.
Here is an example,
Wal Mart might give you two apples for the price of one, but can you afford not to try fruits that are freshly picked? Here at ( your business name/ farm name ) fruits are handpicked and always fresh. And before I forget, they are cheaper than what it is at Wal Mart. They can’t say ” Always Low Prices ” now, can they?
This statement stresses the fact that there fruits are much better than Wal Mart and are cheaper as well. It gives the readers a comparison in terms of quality and price.
Increase Probability with a Pull
Even after you are able to gain the readers attention and arouse the desire to buy your product, sometimes it’s hard to compel potential customers to take action. This is when you need a special hook to pull the probabilities of making a sale. Here are some common examples,
All we ask is 5 minutes of your time. Our sales person will also bring you a very useful gift which is yours to keep whether or not you buy our product.
To be honest, we want you as a customer, and to prove it, we will allow you a special discount of 25% on any order you place within three weeks.
To show our appreciation for your order, we will include a useful software for you to keep - free of charge.
Take advantage of our easy payment plan, no need to send money now.
Just sign and mail the card attached behind this letter. We will bill you later.
You have nothing to lose; within 20 days send your payment, or return the goods.
If you decide to buy our product, as an appreciation we will send you a 25% coupon on your next purchase of $50.00 or more.
Special inducements are helpful when the reader is in a dilemma. When they are dwelling on ” should I ” or ” Shouldn’t I ” these perks can really help pull in the sale.
What do you think? Are sales letter still as important and compelling as they used to be? Or have they lost the charm they once used to have, simply because we started exploring other alternatives? Share your thoughts!
There is only one way to succeed in business - by building a loyal customer base that keeps coming back to you time after time. Although we would like to think that our business would be the first to enter a market, it most probably has already been explored by someone else. What does this mean? It means you need to find a way to compete with other businesses that has already been established.
In this post we will analyze how we can compete with other like minded people who have already established themselves in the business of your choice. Let’s explore how we can gain advantage over other businesses and become the best competitor out there.
Price Matters
This is one of the most widely applied approach practiced by most businesses. We all know that price is one of the most important things when it comes to purchasing decisions. Customers tend to favor products and services that are cheaper compared to others. Why wouldn’t they? When it comes to money we all want to save some.
We all know this, but it still is one of the most effective ways to stand out in the market. By lowering your prices you can get the customers to switch brands. This is why WalMart never fails to deliver the “Always Low Prices” Slogan. Customers love it when they can buy more for less. However, one important thing we need to realize is we still need to maintain a healthy profit margin, which is very crucial for a business to succeed.
Dare To be Different
Most start up business fail because they tend to follow the same route everybody else did. A surefire way to gain competitive advantage over your competitors is by differentiating your products and services. A business can achieve this kind of advantage by giving customers something unique which is valuable besides just offering a low price. Some of the ways you can differentiate yourself and your business is through brand name, product reliability, customer service and so on. Let’s see how else we can be different and beat our competitors in their own game.
Your product value ( price ) should be based upon the value that it will actually provide to the customer. Why do some people buy Calvin Klein perfume and some Old Spice? It’s the value perceived by the customer in terms of what they think smells good. If I am at a Mall trying to buy a pair of Jeans, which should I buy - American Eagle or Levis? Depending on my personal preference I would go ahead and purchase American Eagle as it provides more value to me in terms of brand name and comfort.
Make your products unique. In recent years, we have witnessed many businesses trying to stand out by making their products unique. This gives your business a huge advantage over your competitors. Here is an example - Last week my wife brought a different dish soap than what she usually does. The dish soap ( Dawn Simple Pleasure ) also had an air freshener at the bottom. As you can see this product is unique compared to other dish soaps out in the market. Obviously my wife had to try something new. Uniqueness in a product and service can be a huge, huge advantage.
Just a Slice or The Whole Pie?
I would say - just a slice. Sometimes the best way to compete is by not competing directly. If you decide to open up a gas station in a town which already has fifty Seven Eleven’s, what do you think your chances are in competing - slim to none. This is where we focus on a particular market segment where the need is most justified. How about opening up a gas station in a town where there are only couple gas stations, giving more access to town’s population? This way you will leverage the success of your business by being in the market but not competing directly with your competitors.
For example, would you be able to compete with WalMart while you start out? Most probably not. This approach is more viable for businesses that have behemoth competitors. By establishing yourself in a small segment of the market you can gain immense turnaround and loyalty from customers. And as time passes by, hopefully you will have established yourself well enough to enter the bigger market and take on the entire thing.
What about Tomorrow?
When customers buy products they not only look at the immediate value but the future value as well. How well the product or service adapts to the customer’s needs in future can dramatically increase your sales. We, as customers, want to buy things that will provide us with value in the long run. Although some products and services are meant for short term satisfaction, major purchases such as computers, cars, TV’s …. you get the idea, are usually based upon durability and how long will it be able to provide value to the customer. If money wasn’t an problem, which TV would you buy - Sony or Memorex? I bet most of you answered Sony because it is known to last longer hence, providing value to the customer today and in the future.
Before I end this post I would like to say one more thing,
Most businesses view competition as a threat and this slows the growth of most businesses. Knowing that you have a competitor gives you that extra boost to create something unique, something more valuable and a way to learn from someone else’s mistakes. Without knowing that you have someone to compete with, the desire and need to create something new and exciting would just get lost into the thin air. Competition is a good thing. So get out there and think how you can give more to your customers and help them make the right decision - by switching brand and loyalty. The only difference this time will be that the brand will be your’s and the loyalty will be towards you .
Pricing, as we all know, is one of most important factor when it comes to making a sale. A product with a higher or lower price than what it is wroth is bound to take a business downhill. Setting a right price on a service and product can be quite challenging as our main focus while running a business is to generate profit, and profit comes from successful sales, and sales comes from products and services that are priced just right.In this post, I would like to share what I learned about setting price while I ran my own business. I used to run a small residential cleaning business couple years ago which I sold for quite a profit after two successful years of operation. One of the reasons, I think, the business was able to compete and grow at such a fast pace is because of the right pricing. Let us analyze some of the things that can help us set a right price and leverage sales and generate profit.
Business. The first thing that comes in mind when we say the word business is - revenue. Revenue is what drives a business towards success and achieving the goals that it desires. But, before a business can start earning, there are expenses. Start-up expense to be exact. Operating cost, 
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Any letter written for business purpose is of high importance. A sales letter is of even greater importance because of its ability to compel a potential customer to buy your product or services, if prepared with the right touch. While creating a sales letter there are a number of things we need to keep in mind which we will explore as we move along. We have all read sales emails that drop on our junk boxes and snail mails that we tend to read a couple lines and toss it in the garbage. This is because the letter/email wasn’t exactly prepared with the right person or group in mind and was written poorly. In today’s business world, sales letter seem to have lost its charm. Personally, I think a sales letter is still one of the most important tool a business can use, it’s just a matter of how well you can capture your target markets attention.
There is only one way to succeed in business - by building a loyal customer base that keeps coming back to you time after time. Although we would like to think that our business would be the first to enter a market, it most probably has already been explored by someone else. What does this mean? It means you need to find a way to compete with other businesses that has already been established.