So I got hit by a car and it screwed me up for a week. Now my family knows I’m not dead I can tell you guys. But that’s why I disappeared. I know there are those among you who are blogging from the ER but I am just not that dedicated.

Anyway, we like doing cool stuff for the holidays here at IttyBiz. If you were around last year, you’ll remember the trainwreck that was the holiday manifesto. Yeah, we’re not doing THAT again. (I still haven’t got that damn check, by the way.)

Instead, I was thinking that since y’all have IttyBiz’s and a lot of you sell consumer goods, I figured we’d do a gift guide. Everybody’s shopping for that holiday at the end of the year anyway, you may as well buy from cool people in the IttyBiz tribe instead of giving all your money to Wal-Mart. Cool, huh?

Want in? Here’s what you do.

Email Jamie at jamie@ittybiz.com telling him what you sell and why it’s cool. Do this before November 15th. Include your URL. Put “GIFT GUIDE” in the subject line. Do not expect a response ’cause the poor bastard is going to get SLAMMED.

When I was running this by my ill-focused focus group, three people asked where they should send their swag stuff. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEND ME SWAG STUFF!!!

But I figure that I can avoid a bunch of emails from people saying, “Where do I send the swag stuff?” by just putting the address on the internet. (Sorry Mom. But seriously, chill out. I’m listed, for God’s sake. They’d find me anyway.)

Any stuff you send, unless it’s custom, will be donated to the Rotholme Women’s Shelter because I spent a Christmas there once when Michael was little and they were really, really nice to us and Santa came and everything. We heart giving back and all that charitable shit.

The Very Short List of Rules

Don’t apply if you don’t sell stuff that would make good Christmas presents TO A NORMAL PERSON. Yes, we all know SEO School would make a fantastic present, but stuff like that is not making the list. My mother is co-ordinating this. (Sorry Mom. Yes, again.) If my beige-loving mother doesn’t think this would be at least a marginally reasonable Christmas gift, it’s not going on the list.

Don’t apply if you don’t ship internationally. Even if you bend people over on shipping charges, that’s fine. We’re used to it. But we have Australian readers and Japanese readers and Ukrainian readers and, um, CANADIAN readers and we have NO TIME for people who only ship domestically.

Don’t apply if your order-by date is before December 1st. I know this kicks a lot of people out, but we need to give the peeps a chance and I don’t want to deal with the angry emails from people who are like, “This person won’t let me buy!” We’re trying to do READERS a favor and some readers shop late and their money is just as good as the keeners who bought in July.

Tell your friends! If you don’t do consumer goods but your Aunt Mavis does, tell her. Tell your forum friends. Tell your mom. Whatever.

If you want to send stuff, send it to this address, care of my husband. This is because the post office guy thinks I’m a Nazi lesbian man-hater and doesn’t give me my packages simply because he hates me.

James Dunford
1-123 Wortley Road
London, Ontario, Canada
N6C 3P3

Get your applications in by November 15th and no, there are no exceptions and no, I don’t care if you were a missionary in Africa and had no access to the internet. I don’t care. But good for you for feeding the orphans anyway.

By Naomi Dunford - Oct 31, 2008 in Small Business Marketing
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While I can’t speak for everybody, I can speak for myself. And in my little world, product launch time makes me really stupid. Not like, stupid stupid. Just that I don’t have a lot of brain cells left at the end of the day. (Case in point: I just wrote that sentence as “I don’t have a lot of brain cells at the left of the day.” As opposed to at the right of the day?)

But when you’re taking on a project as big as this one, with preorders and affiliates and launch videos and a bunch of yummy free content to whip people into a froth of excitement, well, you’ve got a lot on your plate. You don’t have a lot of time to think up witty and insightful blog posts.

(Speaking of which, and I’m not going to say this again, fewer than 10% of the people who read this blog are on my advance discount list. Based on history, about 25% of the people who read this blog are going to join Online Business School.

This means there are currently about a thousand people who are going to pay 4 times what they have to because they haven’t got around to signing up for the list.

If you’re among the 75% who will never join, no problem and don’t worry, we’re never going to talk about this again. If you’re one of the 25%, for God’s sake, get on the fucking list. I’m handing you $300 here. Seriously, enter your email address, click the link in the email you get and just check out the knock-your-fansocks-off guarantee. Unsubscribe five minutes later if you want to, but at least check it out. You’re going to be really pissed at yourself later if you don’t.)

Moving on to my inability to write a coherent blog post. Here are some things that have blown my mind in the last couple of days:

John Unger is an absolute genius. We’re currently working on one of the coolest marketing projects I’ve ever been involved with. When he sent me the background info for his project, he sent me a link to the three best things that have ever happened to his business. It’s awesome. It’s what I’ve been trying to explain to people for years. It’s a beautifully and personally explained version of what I scream about when I am invited to dinner parties. (Note: never invite me to a dinner party.)

A while back I wrote a post called How We Killed Social Media, and some comedian submitted it to Digg. (It made the front page before the Diggerati had a shit fit and buried it so far it made my head hurt.) But it still gets a lot of traffic because anything that makes the front page does. I got a comment there from a new reader (hi, new readers!) that I wanted to share with you. It’s from Sarah Browne, from Guru of New:

“It’s all Me Media now. All me, all the time. Everybody is so busy self-promoting that social media is no fun anymore. I remember those dinosaur digital days when connecting was called ‘community’ and it was genuinely about community — not just a log of ‘look at me!’ one-liners. Even the mantra: *share, not sell * has simply turned into people *pretending* to share so they can sell some DVD or ebook. The shameless self-promotion can only get worse as our economy gets worse. Kvetch kvetch. Can connecting online be fun again? Pretty please?”

Well said, dude.

And speaking of social media, are you following me on Twitter yet? I’m a lot better on Twitter these days because I only have to come up with 140 characters. Lucky followers yesterday were treated to this piece of delightfulness.

By Naomi Dunford - Oct 24, 2008 in Small Business Marketing
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Around this time last year, I started this blog in earnest. I had done a few posts prior to October, but I managed to get my hands on a boatload of traffic and asked them what they wanted in a small business and marketing blog. Because they were nice, they told me.

Here’s what they came up with:

Time Management for Small Business Owners

What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do is for when you’re sitting there looking and your to-do list and it makes you want to turn around and go back to bed.

How To Get Four More Hours In Your Day is for, well, you know.

How To Pull An All Nighter is for when you’re about to launch a product and you are going to email every major player in your industry and there’s a very good chance you’re not going to get it done EVER and you’ll die hungry and alone. (Not that I know ANYTHING about that.)

How To Avoid Burnout is something I should probably get off my ass and reread instead of just sending you there.

What Do You Have To Give is about giving generously even when you feel you have nothing left.

Money and Small Business

Having a Backup Plan That Doesn’t Suck is a guide for figuring out what makes a good backup plan and what, um, doesn’t.

Creating Multiple Income Streams gets into the idea of what income streams really are and figuring out where they all fall on the passive, semi-passive, and active spectrum.

Finding the right risk balance is one of my favorites because it uses the words “riskophile” and “riskophobe”, both of which are pretty awesome.

Money and Entrepreneurship: Best of the Web is where I bail and just regurgitate other people’s advice.

Can You Afford It? tells you how to stop lying to yourself about your financial decisions.

Small Business Marketing

What Are You Really Selling? puts every purchase into one of two categories: love, and money.

9 Steps To Rockstar Marketing is one of my favorite posts, and it talks about marketing to people while they’re buying laxatives.

Should You Sell On Price? is one I talked about yesterday but it’s in the series so I’m putting it here too.

Small Business Psychology

Conspiracy Theories tells what to do when working from home is making you lose your mind. It is also the one where I say “slut” nine times in a row.

Are You Cocky or Do You Have Balls? really defies the need for commentary, doesn’t it?

What To Do When You’re Scared Shitless is from so long ago that I still used symbols instead of swearing in my title.

Thanks, early readers, for giving me something to write about during that first month when you think you’re blogging to an empty room.

By Naomi Dunford - Oct 22, 2008 in Small Business Marketing
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Every day I get questions about pricing. When I did the course with the Havinator, I dominated the week four money call with a half hour rant on pricing, and I could’ve gone another six hours. I have much to say on the topic of pricing. (See pricing for service providers and should you sell on price? to get caught up.)

Anyway, so I’ve finished Online Business School and I spent a LOT of time thinking about pricing. (Speaking of price, if you’re on my advance discount list you get the option to buy it presale for 75% off. Just saying.) I haven’t seen anything really like it, so it was damn hard figuring out what to price it at. Monthly? One price? Price it based on how much money it’ll make people? Price it based on the fact that everybody’s already broke? Tough stuff.

I got in this big ass talk with Jamie and he’s looking at me all “You’re preaching to the converted, honey” and I realized I should probably blog about this.

Conceptually speaking, there are a lot of considerations that go into setting your prices. But practically, there’s really only one.

You need to know your market.

Here are some examples:

The Havinator sells change your habits stuff. It’s beautifully put together and once you own it, you know it — no need for follow up stuff. She has a bunch of products, but my favorite is her Emergency Calming Techniques. (When your entire family’s future depends on your ability to not fuck up an online business, well, you need the calming, you know?) She sets a one time payment at less than $80 because that’s what her market can afford to spend on something relatively unknown.

They have the faith from her freebies that she can solve their problems but if for some reason they hate it and she’s struck by lightning at the exact same time so she can’t issue them a refund, well, it’s not the end of the world. One time $77 for Emergency Calming Techniques? Easy. (Someday I will write a review for this. Today is not that day.)

Mark has two main products. He has the book, Unveiling the Heart of Your Business, and then he has the Heart of Business mastermind group of awesomeness (this is actually called The Business Oasis). Both are reasonably priced, but the value on the latter is KILLER. Because that’s totally fucking obvious, anyone and their mother tries to get in. But they can’t.

He’s set up the group so that only people who are on board with the Heart of Business beliefs system can get in. You gotta buy, read and dig the book before you can get into the mastermind group of awesomeness.

He has positioned it as a monthly fee, but you buy it yearly. His audience has an existing small business, and small business owners often don’t like making repeated payments. (Because there’s always the possibility we might be homeless by next Thursday.) Pay once, get it over with, and get on with the palm trees, says Mark’s people.

Then you have SimplWeb. They make websites for people who suck at making websites but need one anyway. They’re generally also targeting small business owners, but they’re really there to help the new people. New people don’t have any money. They’re also not going to MAKE any money until they have a website. Conundrum, yeah?

This is why THEY charge monthly. Twenty bucks a month anybody can do. (Well, anybody seriously planning to get a website, anyway.) A few grand to drop on a website? Probably not. Twenty bucks? No problem.

So yeah. Know your market. Don’t just know what they can afford — that’s easy.

Know how and when they like to pay.

And get on my advanced discount list so I can sell you Online Business School for less than $100 and a quarter of what the other losers are paying.

By Naomi Dunford - Oct 20, 2008 in Small Business Marketing
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It has come to my attention that as a communication medium, blogging sometimes sucks rocks. Among its downfalls are the comment debacle, the fact that I can only realistically write in bite sized chunks, and the constant emails I get from people who haven’t read about something because their feed reader is full.

I’m not talking about those today, though, so ignore everything you just read. Today, I’m talking about blogging sucking for a whole different reason.

When I came out with SEO School and it got a review on Copyblogger, the number one search term that people used to find this blog was “SEO School Discount Code”. A whole bunch of people who don’t know me or love me or sympathize with me when I get a black eye were finding the good deals. While this is probably legal in most of the states in the union, I think it sucks. You guys are the ones giving me the love every day, so you guys are the ones who should get the good stuff.

Secondly, blogging lends itself to rants and passing thoughts and snippets. Little mini-lessons and such. Which is cool, but most of you don’t really need snippets. When I asked for feedback on the How To Work From Home When You Have No Fucking Talent course (which I’m still seeking, by the way) one of the big complaints y’all had was that few of the products out there are complete. It’s great that this book teaches you to use AdSense and this blog teaches you 10 Hacks For Some Shit Or Other, but you want TRAINING.

Feedback is indicating you want to know how to get out of this massive mess in which you find yourself and make some fucking money already.

Therefore, if training is what you want, training is what you’ll get. We’re hard at work at IttyBiz HQ finding the awesomest stuff for you guys. If we’re not finding it, we’re making it ourselves. We’re doing free courses like the How To Make $12,246 in a Day Stuff and paid stuff like SEO School. But we don’t want to hand it around like a tray of stale cake.

[Drumroll please...]

So we’re making a list. It’s the “Let me know when there’s free stuff” list and the “I want in before all the other losers” list and the “I’m too cool to pay retail” list.

Click here to get in.

Or don’t. Pay full price and let all your competitors kick your ass. Doesn’t matter to me.

By Naomi Dunford - Oct 15, 2008 in Small Business Marketing
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We interrupt this series on emotional marketing to tell you the story of why I have a black eye.

In our home, the child care responsibilities are fairly clearly divided. I won’t say they’re evenly divided — Jamie and the nanny do far more than I do — but the division is clear. I give him breakfast. Jamie gives him his nighttime snack. I do stories. Jamie does baths. Because we’re a little more right brain than most couples, it took us a few more years than most people to work this stuff out. But now that we’ve got it, it works pretty well.

Then there was yesterday.

In our house, Jamie gets up with the baby at night. Jack has allergies and skin problems, which means this happens several times a night. He goes in, they work their magic, they sing their songs or drink their beer or whatever, and they’re done. In the morning, I get Jack organized to go to the nanny while Jamie sleeps in. It is a good system. Everybody is pretty happy with it.

Last night, though, I went out for drinks with a local painter chick and got a painting in exchange for an hour of brainstorming, and since in this case “brainstorming” was actually a euphemism for “drinking wine and gossiping” I was feeling a little guilty. When I got home (around 10), Jamie said the baby had already been up three times, and the Bad Mama Juice was flowing.

(For those of you who don’t have children, Bad Mama Juice is a hormone like any other, and it’s release into your bloodstream is triggered by external events like crying babies and mothers who take their kids to Baby Music.)

He got the baby back down, but the seeds for BMJ meltdown had been sown.

Flash forward a couple of hours of messing around on Twitter and calling it “networking” and the baby’s up again. (Did I mention the wine? Because the wine is important to this story.)

This time, I’m going to help. I’m going to be a good mother and loving wife and deal with the baby myself.

I go in and murmur soothingly. I sing the 12 Days of Christmas. (This is because the only other lullaby I know is sung to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It chronicles the tragic tale of an English gentleman who jumped out of a plane, having accidentally packed socks and underwear instead of a parachute. It replaces lines like “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord” with far more poignant ones like “They scraped him off the Tarmac like a lump of strawb’ry jam” and “Glory, glory what a hell of a way to die!” Jamie gives me a look when I sing that one, and remember, I’m trying to be a loving wife here.)

Anyway, Jack thinks it’s fucking Christmas because of a.) my choice of song and b.) the fact that I was the one to go and get him. I basically make a right bollocks of the whole proceeding and eventually and return him to bed, relatively unscathed.

Flash forward ten minutes and he’s up again. Why? Because I put him back to bed and as far as he’s concerned, he’s going to miss Santa.

Did I mention the wine?

Anyway, I do what any well adjusted young mother and businesswoman does. I burst into tears. I’ll spare you the details of exactly what was said, but Jamie said a bunch of very kind and sweet things which translate into, “Shut up and go to bed.”

I go back to bed, and bring the cat with me, because if they’re not with me they’ll scratch at the door and Jack will hear it and it will remind him that I exist and the whole thing will fall apart.

Good idea, except we have two cats.

I’m in bed with a pillow over my ears, Jamie’s trying to calm a crying baby, the other cat is scratching at the door. Jack hears, yells “Mama! Kittycat!” and that is enough for my poor wine-addled brain.

I get up. I’m not totally sure what I was planning to do in an upright position. It either involves waltzing in and taking over or kicking the cat until it dies.

I get up too fast.

I lose my balance. (Did I mention the wine?) I stand there with my arms stretched out in front of my, trying to find the door. I stumble towards where the door should be. I can’t find it, but I march on, undeterred. I am a woman with a mission!

And bam! I walk straight into the corner where the wall stops and the closet starts, leading with my eye. It starts to swell immediately. And I can’t even cry out because then Jack would really and truly know I was there, and I try not to scream “SHITASSMOTHERFUCKER GOOD GOD DAMN THAT HURTS!” when he’s around anyway. Because I’m classy like that.

And now I have a black eye. The first in my life. The kind you get when your husband has a mean right hook. And yes, I really did walk into a wall.

Moral of the Story: Trust the system.

If you have your own retarded story, feel free to stop by and leave it in the comments. I would like to spend some time thinking that other people are, in fact, just as dumb as I am. Oh, and happy Canadian Thanksgiving. I recommend giving thanks that you don’t have a black eye.

By Naomi Dunford - Oct 10, 2008 in Moral of the Story - 56 Comments
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This post is part of a series on marketing your products or services in times of economic uncertainty. Click the link to start at the beginning.

Yesterday we talked about selling freedom. Yay, freedom. Today, we’re going to talk about selling power. And if there’s anything people want on this earth, whether they’re young or old, rich or poor, black, white, whatevah, everybody wants the power.

There are two ways to sell power.

1. You can resell it to the already powerful.

2. You can provide it to the currently weak.

Both of these people are equally vulnerable to your emotional marketing, but each requires a very different approach. Let’s explore, shall we?

According to the nice people at Princeton, power is defined like this:

“Possession of controlling influence”

(Not according to Princeton but still according to Google, it is also, apparently, the 10th studio album released by the American rock band, Kansas. But I digress.)

Basically, if you have power, you’re able to get people to do stuff. If I tell you to go buy a book and you do, I feel powerful. I acted. You reacted. I’m in control. It feels good.

On the other hand, feeling as though you have NO power is a really shitty feeling and we all try to avoid it as much as possible.

Selling to someone’s desire for power is actually selling to their fear of not having it. They are afraid they’re going to lose their power or they are afraid they’ll never get it and they’ll be dominated over for the rest of their lives. You don’t make the fear — this is not fear mongering — you just remind them that they’re already afraid. Then, hopefully, you sell them something that makes their fear go away. Easy, huh?

Whichever group you’re selling to, you need to keep one thing in mind:

You need to project power yourself.

This means you must appear authoritative. You don’t have to act like an asshole. You have to act like you’ve got your shit together. This is not the place for meekness or gentleness or pretty much any trait that prefaces, “… shall inherit the earth.” This is not the place for “You’re my first customer!” (Actually, I don’t think there are many places for that.)

Generally speaking, if you have power, you have money. The reverse is not necessarily true, but it’s true in enough cases to make it relevant. When selling power, any show of wealth or prominence is probably a good idea.

If you’re doing business online, you need a good website. You need social proof of your awesomeness. If you’re selling in person, you need a good title on your business card. A nice suit and a nice car are helpful. (If your demographic doesn’t go in for that, use whatever the power metrics are in your demographic. Top of the line Mac laptop? Ass ugly hybrid?) The idea is, you need to give visible proof that you’re doing well.

How To Market To People Who Already Have Power

People who have power are outwardly confident and inwardly terrified. They are also very busy.

Powerful people respect other powerful people. They did not get to their position by being soft and quiet or by playing down their skills. They appear to be supremely confident in their own abilities, and you have to be the same.

Marketing to the powerful is a bit of a dance. You cannot imply your power is greater than theirs. You also cannot imply your power is less.

When selling power to the powerful, you cannot show weakness and you certainly cannot show fear. If you are selling them a pen, you need to have the best goddamn pen on the planet and know it. (We’re talking about pens today because I’ve fallen in love and all I can think about is this stupid pen. If you happen to have a secret stash of these pens and feel like throwing one my way, lifetime free advertising for you.)

If your pen is not the best pen on the planet, you have to change that. Not by changing the pen, mind you. But by changing your mindset. Go back to your office and sit down and look at that pen until it becomes the best pen on the planet.

This is not stupid ass abundance theory. This is what athletes do before a race. Are they saying, “Gee, I hope I win, but I would understand not winning. There are a lot of other cool runners on the track today. Where am I in relation to all of them? Well, this guy’s much better out of the gate, and this guy’s world famous for the last sprint, so I reckon I’m about third out of eight.”

Uh, no.

You have to go back and psych yourself up to the point where you KNOW how great your pen is for this guy and that’s the end of it. Without that you’re pretty much fucked.

Do not waste their time. I’m not exactly Richard Branson, but I don’t have time to read your long ass sales letter. You can TAKE their time. You just can’t waste it. Use it wisely.

Play to their existing reputation. (If they’re not THAT powerful, play to their aspirations for a future reputation.) Nobody in a position of power doesn’t realize the effect it has on other people. They like it. They want to keep it. So if you were selling that pen, for example, position it as something that would be expected of a man or woman in their position. (”You’ve just sold your first book. Are you going to sign autographs with a Bic you borrowed from the bookstore clerk?”)

How To Market Power To Weak People

This should be easy, and it is if you know how to do it. The problem is that not many people do.

Figure out how power manifests itself for these people. We’ll go back to the pen of my dreams. Let’s say I’m a typical middle class woman. I have an okay job but I don’t like my boss because she’s arrogant and uppity. Show me that this pen, when brought into a business meeting, will turn heads. It will upset the balance of power. Those below me won’t really get what the big deal is. But those above me will know that a lot of money was spent on that item, and they will wonder why. Sell me that feeling of smugness.

Play to their ego. Nobody but the clinically depressed, and sometimes not even them, believes that they are getting exactly what they deserve. We all think we deserve better because we are better. Remind your customer that they’re better than other people.

Hit them over the head with it. Make your benefits, or perceived benefits, very, very clear. People who are not in a position of power often do not believe they will ever be in that position, so you need to guide them into understanding. You need to reshape how they think about the world around them. Remind them that getting power is in their power. They’re going to wield more influence at the meeting of the condo board because of their new car? Show them doing that.

Know what kind of power they want. Not everybody wants the same kind of power. Some women get their power from knowing that they have men wrapped around their fingers. Others like knowing they’ve broken through the glass ceiling. Research your target demographic so you actually know what it is they’re looking for. With this emotion specifically, a bad pitch is worse than no pitch at all. Don’t run the woman-in-the-boardroom banner on a work-at-home mom blog. This should be obvious. Apparently it’s not.

Especially For B2B

Lastly, think about the different ways your product or service can make people more powerful in different aspects of their life. If you’re selling a business service — consulting? copywriting? web design? — it’s easy to think that you can only market that in a professional capacity. Not true.

People do things for a wide variety of reasons, most of which are incomprehensible to the outside world. Most business owners are not actually in business to make money. They’re in business to stick it to their old boss or their first wife or their mother. Or they want some of the trappings that money can buy for some other purpose. They’re not just sitting around saying, “How can I make more money?” They’re sitting around saying, “How can I acquire this thing that I want?”

Power in business always leads to an increase in power in the personal life. So if you can’t hit them with the business angle — maybe your competitors are doing a better job — hit ‘em on a personal angle. I buy your printer. I look more professional. I make more money. I buy my wife a Lexus. All the guys on the golf course look at me with new respect. Printer = Respect. Who knew?

Next up, selling security and control.

By Naomi Dunford - Oct 3, 2008 in Small Business Marketing
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If you are reading this blog, you’re shackled by something. (Well, either that or I stole your boyfriend in high school and you Googled me hoping I got really fat.) Pretty much anyone above the age of 17 is not free, and most of the people under 17 aren’t either. You are bound and tied.

There are the usual suspects. Kids, for example, never go away. You’re committed to them for life. Spouses are hard to get rid of. You’re not quite so committed to them — you can stop being married any time — but divorce ain’t exactly something you do between your manicure and your lunch date. Jobs and small businesses take a fair degree of commitment. Then there’s the mortgage.

Then you have the computer you bought on credit. The four months left in your gym membership. The car. The gas. The Friday night with the guys or girls that you can’t really miss even when you want to. You bake cookies every third Thursday for your kindergartner’s classroom snack.

Your mother needs to be driven for a B12 shot on Tuesday afternoons and even if you’re not the one doing the driving, you ARE the one who has to listen to her every Tuesday night about the riveting adventure. Three kids in your child’s class have peanut allergies, so you are committed to not killing them with your child’s granola bar. Ballet classes. New karate uniform. Cable guy coming between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Is it any wonder we miss being young and free?

You don’t think about it too much because if you did you’d kill yourself. Continue Reading …

By Naomi Dunford - Oct 2, 2008 in Small Business Marketing
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Last week, we talked about turning economic tragedy into a boom time for your small business. A lot of people liked the piece because it provided them with one of two things. If they shared my opinion from the outset, it affirmed their belief. People love it when you agree with them. If they did not share my opinion from the outset, it created hope. As it said in the article, hope sells.

The most important takeaway from that article is the end. The bit where it says you have to actually know how to sell things to people. That’s the part people find the hardest.

In light of recent stock market adventures, this is becoming even truer. People are going apeshit about the economy. It’s all well and good to say, “Screw ‘em, start your own business!” But if you don’t know how to market or sell, you’re just as fucked as anybody else. Continue Reading …

By Naomi Dunford - Oct 1, 2008 in Small Business Marketing
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