On this week’s TVPG Radio show, I’m excited to announce that our guest is going to be Scott Stratten (@unmarketing on twitter)  Scott has his first book coming up and we’re excited to have him on the show and find out more about the book.

Scott has been following an “unmarketing” strategy for more than 10 years.  Were really looking forward to picking his brain about how the average business owner can promote themselves in a more effective and genuine way.

You don’t want to miss this show.  Scott practiced his principles and exploded his business by unmarketing himself using social media and the internet.  Hopefully you can join us to learn some of the secret ingredients in Scott’s special sauce.

The show airs Wednesday August 25th at 11:30 am EST.

You can use the link above or the player at the top of the sidebar to listen to the show live, or to the podcast of the show after it airs.  Let me know what you think!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

Help Spread The Word!

Our radio show on May 5^th, featured two awesome professionals that have had extensive experience in the non-profit arena.  As you are starting up your business it is important to explore the different avenues to form your business.  Starting a non-profit certainly is not for everyone, but it is great to be equipped with the particulars of how to start one.

Al Rider, Our first TVPG Radio Show guest

Our first guest was Al Rider.  Al has spent many years as the executive director of North Central Education Foundation.  The Foundation has its fingers on the pulse of educational opportunities in Kentucky and is responsible for bring Post secondary education to Hardin County.  Al works with a variety of people by coordinating efforts across industry, education and other entities trying to foster economic growth.  Al’s experience with working with a Board of Directors as well as various business start ups, has made him the “go-to” expert in this area for all things non-profit.

If you have any questions about starting a non-profit, it is in your best interest, please listen to the podcast.  All was a wealth of knowledge and discussed the topic in a thoughtful and understandable way.  Thank you Al for your time and expertise!

Our next guest on the show was Melanie Parker Hibbard.  Melanie is the owner of Finesse Marketing and Consulting.  Melanie spends a good portion of her time networking through the non-profit circuit.  Melanie and I met while working for a non-profit fundraiser together.  She discussed many of the avenues that non-profits have available for marketing and spreading knowledge.  It is important for non-profits to have the public understand what their cause is, so sometimes education is exactly what is called for.  Melanie is a true professional regardless of what the objective is and her creativity and willingness to work hard and roll up her sleeves has her in high demand.  Most non-profits in our area are scrambling to get the help of Melanie Parker Hibbard in their corner.

It was Cinco de Mayo during this show, so Melanie and I decided to record the show at a Mexican Restaurant.  The looks that we received from other patrons were hysterical as we sat across from one another, both of us on the phone for an entire hour!  Thanks Melanie for sharing your expertise and fun!

Melanie celebrating Cinco de Mayo wth TVPG Radio

We had a few incidents come up recently that are making me wonder if the rules of doing business have changed and I missed the memo.

Like many businesses, we offer terms to our customers. Our terms are spelled out on our invoices, and most times I will also let our customers know about our terms when they’re getting ready to place an order. Terms are pretty standard in our industry, although I’m real close to rethinking it.

Twice in the past two weeks, we’ve had customers question an invoice — and both times the invoice was more than 60 days old! Think about that — you order an item, you receive the item, you receive the invoice, you receive a statement at the beginning of the next month — then wait another 30 days to voice a complaint? I mean, it’s not like we’re selling fresh fruit here — there are very few items that will “go bad” in 30 days.

Just curious how the mind works on something like that — and do these people pull similar stunts with other vendors. I can hardly imagine them saying to their mechanic, “Hey Joe, that oil change you did for me two months ago — not good. I don’t think I’m paying for it.”

Anyway, these recent incidents have us considering switching over to an all credit-card payment method. The reality is, is so many other businesses, you pay when you receive your goods, whether you use card, credit or debit cards. As I type this, I’m having a hard time thinking coming up with another example of a business that delivers goods or services and doesn’t get payment at that time.

Anyone? Class? Class? Bueller?

Let me know if you think of other businesses that work on terms, or if you know of other businesses changing their payment methods.

I really enjoyed our Getting Published Show that aired a while back!  Our guests talked about how they self published their book, the trade offs between going the self published route compared to looking for a publisher.  Listen to the show to learn more about the process, what to expect, and how quickly you can add your name to the list of published authors.  It’s more affordable than you think.  You probably are wondering, as a self published author, are you limited as to where your book is available to be purchased?  The answer will surprise you.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QPPB9zGgyg

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

Help Spread The Word!

Well It’s been a while since I’ve sat down and shared anything on my various blogs.  I’m embarrassed to admit it, but there’s a few cob webs around here and the place could use a good dusting.

For those of you who aren’t connected with me on facebook or twitter, you might not know that I’ve had a good share of health problems lately.  At the end of July I had a bone tumor removed from my leg.

I guess a little background is in order.  I have a bone disease.  It’s called Multiple Hereditary Exostoses or MHE.  It causes boney bumps to form near the growth plates of my bones.  These bumps grow as the body grows and matures and are supposed to stop once a person is full grown.

Fortunately for me, until recently, MHE has never played a very big role in my life.  It’s never limited what I wanted to do.  I’ve been very lucky, because for some people (including my father) the disease is debilitating.  Last summer things changed.  I realized that one of the spots on my leg had begun to grow.  It was hurting and getting a lot bigger.  I was worried because that’s not supposed to happen.  I  knew that there was a small risk of bone cancer that comes along with MHE.  In a mixed bag of luck, it just so happened that one of the top experts on my condition was about 15 minutes away from me in Philadelphia.

It took some time and a lot of insurance wrangling, but long story short I was able to meet with the specialist in May, and finally had the bone tumor removed in the end of July.  Since then I’ve been back in the hospital for a week because of a blood clot in my lung, but as I write this, I’m happy to be back home and feeling pretty good.  Dr’s orders are that I can’t put any weight on the leg that was operated on for at least 6 weeks from my surgery date.  So I’m schlepping around the house with a walker.

The good news is that the bone tumor was NOT cancerous.

This process has been a challenge though.  I didn’t really anticipate going into this how 6, or even 4 weeks of inactivity will totally zap your momentum and derail your process.  I’m working hard to get the machine rolling again, determined to resume and retain the pace.

Have you ever had an event that forced you to take a break?  How did you handle getting back into the swing of things?  Was it harder or easier than you expected?  I’d love to read your experience in the comment section below!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

Help spread the word!

For instance, my daughter has never known life with a DVR. I still remember the intoduction of Beta and VHS tapes.

She’s never known life without a microwave oven. I remember when my family got our first — and all the challenges that it presented. (It’s so bad that my parents will not use one to this day!).

She’s never known a world without cell phones. Just the other day, I was talking to someone about the huge “car units” that introduced many of my generation to mobile telephones.

She’s never known life without space travel. I remember my parents waking me to watch Neil Armstrong take the first steps on the moon.

She thinks “Ringo” is a funny name.

She’s never known life without MTV, or Disney Channel or anything else on cable TV. I remember when they actually had music videos on MTV.

She’s never known life without ATMs or debit cards.

To her, music has always been available on CDs or downloads. She’s never used a record player. (much less an 8-track!).

She can’t understand why anyone needs a typewriter.

It’s amazing to think of all the fantastic changes that have occurred in our lifetimes, much less that of our parents.

So, what does this have to do with what we do for a living? Imagine if you wanted to be the person who thought they could make a lot of money selling 8-tracks, or typewriter ribbons, or huge mobile telephones. Chances are, you would have gone out of business a long time ago.

As times and technology changes, distributors have to change with them. Some of the items that vendors showed us at the Proforma convention were staggering — and probably weren’t even being thought of 7 years ago when I first entered this industry — much less being offered to the public!

So, for those people who want a product that’s “new and different”, be ready for some for incredibly far-reaching items and ideas. Just hope that you’re not spending your marketing dollars on the next 8-track player.

One of the highlights of the convention is the Tuesday evening Awards Dinner. The night starts with the parade of the 134 members of Proforma’s Million Club and Multi-Million Dollar Club. When you think of it, those numbers are staggering. With about 750 Proforma offices across the country and Canada, almost 20 percent of them bill $1 million or more.

The night was a real eye-opener for me. I watched those men and women walk into the room and remembered my previous billings — and I’m nowhere near $1 million. As they walked in, it struck me — they weren’t necessarily better-looking than me, I don’t think may has as good a personality as me,, and some of them may not even have more customers than me.

So, what did they have? Good business sense, excellent sales technique and great customers. All Proforma owners have the opportunity to offer the same goods and services to their customers, so the difference between me and those folks in the Blue Blazers was basically that they “get it.” They do business smartly. They value their time and their customers’ time.

I want one of those jackets (and not cause they’re so good-looking — they’re not). I want what that jacket represents. Great sales, great customers, and great opportunities.

Look out, world.

Since I’ll be giving the answers at the end of the column, there won’t be any prizes if you get everything right, but some smug satisfaction of knowing that you know a lot of little-known facts. Test yourself out..some of these are a bit tricky, and like most trivia tests some are just, well, trivial.

You’re probably thinking, “Rich, in this crazy economic climate, why would anyone turn down business?” And, in a lot of ways, you’re right — you probably shouldn’t. But, now more than ever, it makes sense to turn down business.

Before you’re thinking that Proforma really should introduce some stricter drug-testing procedures, let me explain.

First, most companies (including ours) are set up to do business with a certain type of customer. Another way to phrase that is, we’re set up to sell a certain way. For instance, you don’t go to a supermarket to buy one Cheerio. You have to buy it by the box. There are lots of different size boxes, but chances are pretty good that you can’t buy just one Cheerio.

Same with most businesses. Items are packaged to make the sale more convenient — sometimes it’s more convenient for the customer, sometimes it’s more convenient for the retailer.

Sliding to our businesses, sometimes in an effort to please everyone we’ll quickly accept any order — whether it fits our business model or not. And that’s just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Why? Because while we’re doing something that honestly doesn’t work for us, we’re taking time away from doing something that might work for us — calling customers, meeting with vendors, prospecting, marketing, etc.

The one common refrain I hear when I tell people about not accepting jobs is “well, you never know who they might now.” Of course, everyone knows LOTS of people (if you don’t think that’s true, remember the guest list at your wedding). However, just because they know someone doesn’t mean they’re going to refer you to anyone. And even if they do refer you to someone, there are two additional challenges — first, getting that person to buy from you and second, you hope the second person doesn’t also have a small order.

The point about “you never know who they know” was brought to light recently by someone using the game “six degrees of separation.” This person said that if we bought into that rule, he’s only 6 people away from knowing Kevin Bacon.

Of course.

We all are.

The point is, when doing business we need to do smart business. Most people will appreciate it if you honestly say “no, we’re really not equipped to do that job properly.” They’ll probably appreciate it even more if you can refer them to someone who can.

And for the record, I know someone whose friend works at a restaurant where Kevin Bacon’s sister is the manager. So I’m only 3 people away from meeting him now…

A person who wants to acquire a merit badge must prove himself to be someone who knows a lot about coins.

Here are some of the things that a coin collector must know in order to earn the Merit Badge.

1. The Grading Scale

Merit badge aspirers must be very knowledgeable about the different grades of coins. They must master how to assess coins and categorize each coin as:

- Poor – Fair – Good – Very good – Fine – Very fine – Extremely fine – Uncirculated.

They must also present five examples for each of the categories given above.

2. Coin Terminologies

Coin collectors must familiarize themselves to coin terms such as “encapsulated” coins, “proof” coins or legal tender to get the merit badge. They must be able to determine if coins are “buzzed” or “whizzed”.

They must also show competency in explaining the following:

- Clad – Date set – Observe – Reading – Reverse – Type set

3. Coin Storage

For a coin collector to achieve a merit badge, it is important that he knows how to take care, store and preserve coins. Coin collectors must be able to demonstrate thorough knowledge in coin collecting by showing the councilors different methods of coin storage. It is expected that the advantages and disadvantages of the methods will be provided as well.

4. Coin Anatomy

Knowledge of the parts of the coins will give important information. That is why coin collectors who want a merit badge must know where the mint marks are located in various coins and they must also know where to look for the initials of the coin designer.

5. Miscellaneous things about coins

The councilors will be very pleased to hear stories about what you have learned about coins. These recollections may come from reading coin journals, attending workshops or seminars, joining a coin collectors’ club, or visiting mint facilities.

It is also expected that coin collectors know a lot about coins from other countries as well.

6. Counterfeit coins

A coin collector must have a perception of whether a coin is authentic or counterfeit.

Reading coin guides or interviewing personnel from mint facilities will be a help in this situation.

After knowing these things, you are now equipped with the knowledge needed to be worthy of the coin collectors’ merit badge.

Coin Collecting.