Archives for February 2018

Are You Ready for the Other Side?

February 26, 2018 by Mike McRitchie Leave a Comment

Photo credit: Nick Kenrick.. on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

[Article republished from “Mondays with Mike – 2/12/18” email newsletter ==> Subscribe to get weekly newsletter in your inbox plus FREE REPORT]

I’m a planner.

I almost always think things through before taking a big leap.

But even for me, I don’t always truly understand what I’m getting myself into before I jump.

Now maybe you’re like me. Or maybe not. Maybe you just jump and figure it out later. That’s fine too.

Today I want to share my experience with several of these jumps. Either from my personal experience or from conversations with people who’ve taken the jump. To give you a sense of what the other side is like. And to give you some ideas on how to make a better transition.

Parkour

I took up Parkour (the art of moving around obstacles quickly and easily) as a way to get some exercise outdoors (I hate working out in a gym). I got inspired by watching American Ninja Warrior on TV (an obstacle course competition) and thought this might be something I could do to get in shape with and also do with the kids when I took them to the park without looking ridiculous (because I’m just playing with my kids, right?)

So you jump from place to place, climb walls, vault over things, jump off things with a soft landing or roll.

I found it entertaining. And as I progressed I tried different things.

And if you’ve ever watched this stuff on TV or YouTube, you’ve also seen the fails.

One time I was vaulting over the side of a slide but planted my hand wrong and biffed it. Happened to have my kids and Dad there. They all got a chuckle out of it.

In this case I’d done the vault many times before but not with this kind of hand placement. And I failed.

I failed many times and luckily none resulted in injuries other than skinned elbows.

But by taking the risks and learning as I went I found the skills helpful.

One case was I was going on a run and one of the expansion cracks as I went from the sidewalk to the street was raised extra high and caught my foot. I lost my footing and tumbled head over heels. But because I’d practiced my “Parkour Roll” so many times, I automatically tucked into my roll, rolled smoothly, and popped back up and kept running…not even a scratch 🙂

Now you might be asking, “What does that have to do with me? I couldn’t care less about learning Parkour.”

So lets take the next one.

The Other Side of 9 to 5

There are three version of this – two I’ve already experienced and one I’m preparing for.

My first experience with this was back in the late 80’s. I got a job selling residential real estate.

Now this was before I had many 9 to 5 jobs.

I loved that I set my own schedule and no one told me what I had to do. My manager gave me guidance. Such as about how to farm a neighborhood (getting the owner info from a title company and then walking the neighborhood and talking to homeowners).

But early on I realized that doing this during the daytime, even back then when the working mom thing wasn’t as common, there were still very few people home at that time that I could talk to. They were generally gone during normal business hours. Either at work or out running kids around or shopping or just not answering the door.

So I found that I was working more evenings and weekends.

The fun part was this allowed me to go golfing during the day during the week. When the courses were wide open. One time I golfed with other people in a similar situation as me. They were pro bowlers coming through the area. They bowled when people watched (evenings and weekends). So our schedules lined up.

The downside of all this was my friends weren’t available when I was home. So even though I had time to do things when others weren’t and that allowed me to avoid the crowds, I couldn’t do it with people I wanted to share my time with. That sucked. It was lonely for me. Didn’t like it.

So that got me thinking, especially as I crossed the 50 year old mark, what retirement will be like. And how I might plan it better.

Retirement Planning

Retirement isn’t just about having the money to retire. That is a very important piece. But what many neglect is the social part of retirement.

When you go from spending 8-12 hours (including prep and commute) at a job. And then you now have that time available to you now (40-60 extra hours a week to do something). It can be a shock to your system.

Are your friends retiring with you? Or are you going to have to make new friends?

Do you have a hobby that can take up a big part of each day?

Can you volunteer?

Can you consult?

Will you spouse or partner be okay with having you around the house that much more? Or will you drive each other crazy?

Here’s the thing.

Most people get really excited during the first few years of retirement. They take up golf. They travel. They do the things on their bucket list.

But at a certain point you’ve run through the list of things that you were really excited about doing and now you’re down to the ho hum ideas.

So you scale that back.

And at that point you really need to figure out what it is you can do and want to do that will fill up your days.

Because without that figured out, you’ll likely do nothing and eventually die. It used to be that people died within a couple years of retirement. They just didn’t know how to cope. Losing all their friends and their purpose. Their reason for living.

That is why Social Security was sustainable. The bad news is it is no longer as sustainable because people are living longer after retirement. But that is probably good news for all of us…because we’re figuring out this retirement thing.

Which leads me to a solution to prepare for the other side in a safer, more fun way.

The Side Hustle

As you know this is my side hustle.

Writing this weekly email newsletter, blogging, writing resumes and LinkedIn profiles for people, and helping small businesses get more business, higher profits, without just spending more time and burning out.

Many people think you can only do one thing or another.

Have a job or be an entrepreneur.

Have a job or retire.

Get a job or go to school.

But here’s the great thing.

In this digital age, it has never been easier to do both.

You can have a job AND a side hustle.

You can build a side hustle while you’re in school.

You can build your side hustle to prepare for retirement.

You can have a side hustle IN retirement.

It can be something you do for fun.

You can learn things from it you could never learn in your day job.

You can learn things to apply to your day job and make you even more valuable.

You can pay off credit card debts and student loans.

You can build a vacation fund.

You can build your emergency fund so if you lose your job you’re not out on the street living out of dumpsters.

Ultimately, this helps you do each transition better. It gives you flexibility to learn as you earn. And figure things out while you’re handling the rest through your day job or schooling. You can see how you like it. You can make new friends as you help each other along. You don’t have to work in isolation if you’re working from home on this.

Is this for you? Only you can decide. But I want to open your eyes to the possibilities.

Thinking a side hustle might be worth checking out? Shoot me an email and we can discuss your situation specifically.

Hotels & Influencer Marketing [Infographic]

February 22, 2018 by Guest Post 3 Comments

In the last few years we have seen the proliferation of a new niche of marketing activity, specifically influencer marketing.

This form of marketing relies on brands connecting and working with an influencer i.e. a person who has a substantial following and persona on social media. The brand hopes that by working with this “influencer” or group of influencers that they can leverage the individual’s following towards creating custom and branding for the brand.

This has created a whole new niche and as a result a plethora of influencer marketing agencies have sprung up to represent these influencers and help to monetize their following. We’ve also seen this behavior to emerge into hotel marketing.

The key thing to remember though is that influencer marketing can be effective but it needs to be carefully planned and researched. Businesses such as hotels need to ensure that they align themselves with the right individuals who “fit” their branding and who appeal to their target market. Hotel marketers also need to ensure that they carefully measure the return on investment of these campaigns because to work with some of these “influencers” can be quite expensive.

The people at The Dunloe Hotel have put together this infographic which covers the whole area of influencer marketing as it pertains to hotels specifically. It details some interesting statistics in the area of hotel influencer marketing; it outlines the benefits of the practice; it suggests an influencer marketing strategy format and it also touches on the area of measuring return on investment for such campaigns.

Check it out below.

Influencer Marketing Hotels Infographic

7 Simple Ways Grow Your Business Now

February 19, 2018 by Mike McRitchie Leave a Comment

Photo credit: Sudipto_Sarkar on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

[Article republished from “Mondays with Mike – 2/5/18” email newsletter by John Hawthorne (full article here) ==> Subscribe to get weekly newsletter in your inbox plus FREE REPORT]

Entrepreneurs diving headfirst into a new business venture have more in common with LEGO enthusiasts than they would like to admit.

Your enterprise has reached a peak.

You’ve constructed the 3000 piece Death Star set… but, and here’s the caveat, you’ve only reached a peak, not THE peak.

Which leaves you with a few options.

You can stay your hand, hamper your imagination, and cage your ambitions. Basically, be as simple as humanly possible and simply “stay within the lines”. Or, and this is the pivotal moment that separates the mortals from the Steve Jobs, you can stare at your business and coworkers and say:

“This is a good start. Now let’s make this baby grow. Fellas’ burn the manual and let’s think outside the box.”

Of course, this sounds great…like something from a movie. But how do you make it a reality?

Explore Your Market

The best way to make your investment pay fruit is by exploring, beating and penetrating your own market. You already know your niche and target audience, now it’s time to really dig in.

You first instinct, “more business = more customers”, is the sort of gut feeling that sounds right, but isn’t actually true.

It’s more cost effective to convince people who already know your goods to break out their wallets and buy more of your wares. Getting new customers is much harder than working with existing ones.

Explore New Ideas

Just like it’s easier to work with existing customers, a simple way to increase profits is to attract more people to your product.

Discover, promote and invent new uses for your products or services. Walk down any Walmart aisle and chances are that each and every product on that endless army of shelves has been sold to the public under a strange umbrella of practical, odd, zany and even miraculous properties. Properties that go way beyond their main purpose.

For example, consider all the people pitching the idea that all you need to survive the apocalypse is: WD-40, Olive Oil, Crazy Glue, Duct-Tape and Milk. None of these things was originally intended for disaster situations.

There’s a whole subsection on YouTube alone dedicated to this theme. Investigate your product, and discover in it things you never dreamed off. Nothing is too bizarre or too wacky; leave nothing off the table.

Here’s a great example: each time an authority figure says that “something something” has a previously unknown holistic quality, that something’s profit suddenly skyrocket.

Make Them Addicted

Brand loyalty: you have to snare your public and make them unconditional devotees. Inspire in them religious fervor. There’s a reason you’ll never catch a Coca-Cola fan sipping a Pepsi. Why in certain states Bud reigns over Miller. Why some folks will only wear Nike for a marathon and never anything by Under Armour. There’s a reason why, every September, with the coming of the new iPhone, Apple stores have to bulk up their security.

It’s not a question of quality or quantity necessarily, it’s all about subjective perceptions.

You have to create, using both classic and non-traditional marketing techniques, a clear link between your product and your public’s self-image. The key to Brand Loyalty lies in making your wares essential facets of your client’s life. Intrinsically tie together your goods and the positive perception or construct they’ve made of themselves. Or, make them so reliant on you that it costs more for them to switch to someone else.

For example, consider Rolex. They have defined themselves as being the luxury watch. If you want to be seen as wealthy, you wear a Rolex. Or think of Nike and how they dominate the basketball world. Or Zappos and how they signify customer service.

Consider how you can inspire deep product loyalty in your customers. There are all sorts of simple ways, including:

Have amazing customer service
Offer a product associated with a specific lifestyle (think Whole Foods)
Constantly use imagery that associates with a self-perception (think Fitbit)
Give rewards to loyal customers
And many more

If you manage to make zealots out of your audience, they’ll come back – time and time again – to your trough.

Extend Your Reach

One of the best ways to attract new customers is to explore uncharted territories. Boldly go where your products have never gone before. Think about the various ways you could do this.

Open a new location
Advertise to audiences you’ve never previously targeted
Create products that will target new audiences
Partner with companies offering similar, supplementary products

Digital advertising on platforms like Facebook and Google allow you to reach audiences you never thought possible.

These days, people in give more credence to what’s happening inside their phone’s screen to the discussion they are having over dinner. The lines between reality and Virtual Reality have blurred. You can take advantage of these blurred lines.

In most cases, spending some advertising money on a social media platform you didn’t even know existed, or a service that specifically targets an unknown buyer’s pool, might be more cost-effective than getting a loan for a new store location.

Go Big On Word Of Mouth

Ebay, Amazon, Tripadvisor, UBER, AirBnB, and hundreds upon hundreds of platforms peddle their services and products with the explicit help of their customers. The truth of the matter is that referrals, good costumer reviews, and positive experiences are the driving force for sales these.

Each star on Amazon, owl on TripAdvisor, or thumb up on Facebook, for any business venture, is like to getting a pat on the back by God. There’s a reason why certain enterprises go the distance, and are willing to sell off their mother, for a 100% review anywhere.

Scour the web and, I know it’s a pain, but list each and every platform out there (Google Maps, Snapchat, Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, etc), then get some positive feedback. It’s a simple, time demanding practice, that will payoff in a big way.

If someone leaves an unfavorable review, follow up on immediately and make it right. Show customers that you are a trustworthy company.

Go Across The Waters

Take a walk around your house, pick up random objects, and turn them around. That ladle, that alarm clock, that guitar set, that BluRay of Deadpool, that kitchen towel – what do most have in common? That’s right! 3 out of 4 have a big label that reads: “MADE IN CHINA”, and there’s a 50% chance the last one says: “MADE IN TAIWAN.”

If you want to make your business grow, then you have to look beyond state lines. Cast your eyes over the horizon and start thinking Internationally. Sometimes, it might seem strange, but the same qualities and characteristics that manage to keep your product safely hidden behind the eight ball in your neck of the woods, might be considered amazing overseas.

Here’s a clear example: ever wonder why Hollywood keeps dredging out so many innate sequels? Ever wonder why, despite the fact that the first one was a gigantic bomb in the box office, they suddenly decide to churn out a second helping? Because, overseas – in some exotic locale – that movie broke records. Let’s look at some numbers:

WARCRAFT the movie:

Domestic Sales: $47,225,655.

International Sales: $385,900,000.

It’s a plunge into unknown waters, and outlining and mastering an exportation plan is no easy task, but it’s one that pays off in gold.

And here’s the good news. Given that you don’t need a physical storefront to sell products to people in other countries, you can implement this without a huge amount of work.

Consider testing ads for your products in other countries. See which countries send the most traffic to your website and then target those countries with ads. Find out what products are popular in certain countries and see if you can tap into that popularity.

Be Cost Effective

An IPhone, depending on the generation and model, costs about 350 to 435 dollars to make (that includes parts, assembly, transportation, marketing, rent, employees, etc.). Those same models are sold for 700 to 900 dollars. That’s a HUGE profit margin! Almost a 100%.

All great companies will swear by one fact: the secret to success is to bring the cost of manufacturing down, and maintain a semblance of quality. If you find this golden ratio, than you better start building a Scrooge McDuck bank for your gold coins.

What we are talking about is growing your business’s bottom line. Everything, no matter how small, takes a bite from your profits. Taxes – snap went those jaws. A/C at your office – crunch. Faulty overhead lamps – yummy went the profit devouring monster. Hour commute to work – a buffet.

Here’s a nice nice example. SG guitars used to manufacture their line of electric guitars in Taiwan. One day, a competing company approaches them with an offer:

“I can produce the low E string for 5 cents less than what they are charging you.”

The head haunches rushed madly into that handshake and moved – despite the overall initial cost of millions – to the new factory. In less than a year, their profits had skyrocket. Why? Because those five cents, spread out over so many guitars and products, equaled mountains of cash.

One small move, that might cost an arm and a leg at the beginning, might fundamentally change the dynamics of your revenues.

Scrutinize all your costs. Are there ways you can cut down on overhead? Can you cut production costs without sacrificing quality? Can you save on shipping? Each of these things represents potential growth for your small business.

Conclusion

Being the owner of a small business isn’t easy. You work long hours. You have to handle a lot of things that would normally fall to other people in a larger company. You have to be creative to beat out competitors.

But you get to be your own boss, the captain of your ship. You drive the train and you can take it into new, unexplored places.

While expansion might be scary, it can be done. Be creative. Maybe take a few small risks. You’ll be amazed at the payout.

By: John Hawthorne

How to Effectively Manage Business Debt [Infographic]

February 15, 2018 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

If you have developed a good relationship with creditors, now is the time to call in a few favors. It’s worth making some inquiries to see if you can refinance to get a loan with lesser repayments, or perhaps renegotiate terms with established suppliers. If you have an unnecessarily large office space, there could be an opportunity to hire out a portion of this to interested parties and reduce your rental costs in the process.

It could also be worth marketing yourself more actively to existing and prospective customers. A lot of businesses now pursue the opinions of customers by asking them to leave online reviews, as a swarm of positive feedback could persuade a prospective customer to do business with them. If you don’t have an active social media presence, it’s a good idea to form one, as these avenues can be very lucrative to businesses nowadays.

Eazy Cash (http://www.eazycash.ca/car-title-loans/) created this infographic guide to managing business debt, advising on where money can be saved or extra revenue generated. Once your company’s debt is continually decreasing, you stand a very good chance of maintaining the business long-term. How to Effectively Manage Business Debt

Are You Prepared For This?

February 12, 2018 by Mike McRitchie Leave a Comment

[Article republished from “Mondays with Mike – 1/29/18” email newsletter ==> Subscribe to get weekly newsletter in your inbox plus FREE REPORT]

And then it happened…

Mom passed away. Dad’s health was declining. Trips to the doctor constant.

How am I going to handle all this with a demanding job that also requires my constant attention? As a business owner and manager, how can I keep juggling it all before something breaks?

And so I decided. I’m resigning and going to focus on taking care of Dad. Family first.

That is the decision a friend of mine had to make.

It was a tough choice as they had a thriving business and life was good.

But life often has different plans in store.

Luckily this friend had prepared financially and was able to take this often scary leap to focusing on family without having to overly worry about the financial side. His wife was making enough to support the family along with savings.

They would survive until he could sort out his next steps.

How about you?

Could you do it?

Or are you just struggling paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet? What would happen if you lost your job?

What would happen if one of life’s little (or big) challenges hit?

What would you do?

Here’s the thing.

It isn’t a question of IF this is going to happen to you. It is a question of WHEN.

What are some of these life derailleurs that have big financial impacts?

Consider some of these…

Job Loss
- Economic Downturn
- Company goes Bankrupt
- Company Loses Market Share and Downsizes
- Technology changes that make your job replaceable
Age Discrimination (becoming less marketable)
Health (yours or that of a loved one that requires your intervention)
Divorce or Marital Strife
Tight Finances Requiring a second job or new job or non-working spouse having to go to work
Burnout (just can’t do the job any longer)

So what do you do when these things happen?

Here are the key areas you need to look at to be prepared.

How’s Your Savings?

Financial talk show host Dave Ramsay talks about the Emergency Fund – having 3-6 months of savings in case of a disaster.

That is a great start but if you’re nearing the middle of your career or later you need a lot more. Here’s why.

At that point if you lose your job you either need to find a new job in the same industry, start in a new industry, or retire on your savings.

New Job, Same Industry

If you look for a new job in the same industry, your reputation (assuming it is good) and network (assuming you’ve developed one) should give you a leg up on job opportunities. However if either of those are not in place, or you’re out of work for more than a couple months (average is 8 months) or you had a role that was a high level role that isn’t readily available in the market, you could be in trouble. And 3-6 months really isn’t going to save you. And you’ll find yourself having to downsize your house and cutting spending to the bone to survive.

New Job, New Industry

So what about starting in a new industry? That is even uglier since you don’t have connections (8 of 10 jobs are landed that way) and you don’t have industry knowledge (that is what businesses pay more for in managers and execs ). So you’d likely have to take a significant step backwards in role and pay and that is if you could land a job at all, since few people want to take a risk on an overqualified hire who’s likely to leave as soon as they can land a job in their original industry.

Retire

Retire? If you planned well then do it. Maybe with consulting on the side to ease into it. But if you didn’t plan well then this is out the window.

So those situations look pretty scary. What can you do to better prepare?

Here are some things you can do.

Give Yourself Breathing Room

First is to create a better nest egg. Get it to one year of expenses. You do that by creating an income to expense gap that allows you to boost your savings from every paycheck.

Figure out first what you can cut out to create that savings. Here are some things you might look at.

Bring your lunch – $7 X 5 days X 50 weeks ==> $1,750
Eat home for dinner – 2 days out a week X $35/meal for family X 50 weeks ==> $3,500
Make coffee at home – $3 X 5 X 50 ==> $750
Cut the cable – $100/mo X 12 ==> 1,250
Shop your insurance (car and homeowners) ==> $500
Shop for groceries with a list (especially at Costco) $100/week X 50 weeks ==> $5,000
Total Savings just from these ==> $12,750

Now that is a great start. But if you want to pour some rocket fuel on to gain ground even faster (or if you must have your NFL Sports Network) then consider the side job, freelance work, side hustle, Uber/Lyft, etc.

Doing that you could easily add another $200 to $2,000 a month that can go straight into your savings (minus a little for taxes and other incidentals).

Do that and now you’ve got $15,000 to $35,000 a year to boost your savings with.

The side benefit of that is it also gives you something to fall back on (especially if it is freelancing or a side hustle business you could make a full time income with pretty quickly if you lost your job).

That is peace of mind.

So where are you now? What do you need to do next?