Latest Articles 
Top 10 Ways to Make Money with Direct Mail (Don’t Laugh, it STILL Works!)
Posted: Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Some of you will laugh at the very thought of direct mail, but I can assure you, it’s a great source of connecting with prospects and existing customers alike. Particularly in our overly-junked-up-email world where people tend to pillage their inboxes and delete anything that doesn’t require a personal response. People respond completely differently to direct mail, that arrives on their doorstep, than they do many other forms of media. Direct mail can be as basic as a postcard or a letter on letterhead, or as complex as a full “shock and awe” box that has lots of stuff in it that gets your prospect really engaged like CDs, DVDs, MP3 players, books, magazines and just about anything you can fit in the box as we learned when we put a straight razor (sans blade), a shaving brush and more in our boxes that we mail out for our www.KennedysBarberClub.com franchises that we sell.
I sent out about 18,000 direct mail pieces …
Real Examples of Business Success Using Social Media
Posted: Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Peter Shankman built his business, HelpAReporterOut.com (“HARO” for short) first by creating a fan page on Facebook, this is basically like starting a group. The concept was that Peter knew lots of reporters, and he wanted to “help them out” by providing good expert sources for journalists to help them write their articles. Well, the list grew virally because a lot of smart businesspeople realized that this was a great resource to get some media coverage and free PR. And because Peter started the group on Facebook, it was easy to make it viral because friends could invite friends, and people who were browsing the profile of a member of the group, could see that they were a member of the group and check the group out for themselves.
Peter quickly outgrew the 5,000 fan limit on Facebook (which has since been raised) and moved his group to an email list where he sends emails three times a day with the “queries” from the journalists …
4 Websites to Incorporate into Your Business Today
Posted: Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Facebook.com – Named after the photo books that are given out at some universities and prep schools to incoming students and faculty to help them get to know each other, Facebook started as a way for classmates to connect at Harvard but eventually expanded to include anyone over the age of 13. Facebook is a great way to connect with people who have similar interests, to see what old friends and acquaintances are up to and to learn more about the personal lives of your business contacts and to let them know about you. The personal connection you can give and get on Facebook adds some more of the personality that helps you become more than just a person to a client, but a “friend.”
YouTube.com – A video sharing site now owned by Google, this site is nothing short of a behemoth. Not only does it let users upload video content, you can also post video responses to messages, create your own “channel,” browse …
Social Media EXPOSED: How YOU Can Use Social Media To Get More New Customers NOW
Posted: Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past five years, you’ve no doubt heard the term “social media.” At its core social media is a platform for creating relationships. And if you haven’t heard me say it already, People buy People, not products and services. What I mean by that is that when a buyer makes the decision to buy, it’s based on the person who sells it to them more than on the actual product or service they are buying. Stop and think about it if you don’t understand, because this is a crucial point in analyzing how and why social media can help you grow your business.
Why do the biggest companies in the world hire celebrities to endorse their products? Because People Buy People, and it’s much easier for a consumer to form a relationship with a living breathing person (in this case a celebrity endorser) than for a consumer to fall in love with …
What’s Working Now!
Posted: Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Old is new again!
Back in the “old days” most things were bought on cash but if you didn’t have the cash to buy, retailers came up with a system called a lay-a-way plan. The retailer held the goods and you made payment to them. When you were done paying the full price you got your furniture, dishwasher or whatever. Christmas lay-a-way assured gifts for the kids.
Over the years, the plan morphed into giving you the furniture at the point of purchase and making payments. Then someone got the bright idea to charge interest and once that took off credit cards began. Soon, merchants were making more on their financing charges than the sale of goods (GE Capital) and the world of credit was born perhaps to all our chagrin.
History has a way of repeating itself and during this economic downturn the lay-a-way plan has made a comeback in various forms and from unusual sources. Who would have ever thought a Music Festival …
MEET THE NEW “KINGS OF HOLLYWOOD”—STARMAKERS J.W. DICKS, ESQ. AND NICK NANTON, ESQ.!
Posted: Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Co-Authors Of ‘Celebrity Branding You’ And Founders of ‘America’s PremierExperts™’ Tap Into The New Model Of Our Celeb-Driven Media Culture To Make Business People ‘Stars’ And Drive Mass Awareness Of Their Products and Services.
By Jonathan Widran
Every summer, thousands of young men and women around the U.S. travel great distances and brave the odds in the hopes of becoming the next American Idol. The show, watched by over 30 million viewers a week, taps into our greatest collective fantasy that is truly the 2000s version of the American Dream: that ordinary people like us can outlast the competition and become stars.
You may not be able to sing like Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood, but no worries. Maybe you’re not hot enough to be America’s Next Top Model—so what? If you’re a doctor, lawyer, dentist, orthodontist, fitness guru, portrait photographer, real estate or financial whiz, corporate CEO or even a small businessperson and you’ve got the goods, you’re just one step away from being a …
YOUR 2009 ACTION LIST!
Posted: Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
I always love the New Year. For me, late December and early January have always been a time of intense planning. What changes should I make for the New Year? What are my income goals, and how do I plan to get there? These questions have always been part of my annual business analysis.
Once I have set my goals for the year, I review action ideas that I’ve used in the past and that I know will work. In this month’s issue is a series of quick-action ideas that I think might help your business. I have listed 41. You may be able to use all of them, but you need only one to make a difference in what you’re doing. The action ideas are not in any particular order, so consider each of them the same. It may be the first or the last you find most helpful, but consider them all your business New …
It is a mistake to think about marketing as a cost
Posted: Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
When the economy gets tough, some businesses cut back on marketing along with their other costs, thinking they can lie low and wait out the next opportunity. There are two mistakes with this kind of thinking to discuss, even before we get to the point of this article.
First, it is a mistake to think about marketing as a cost. It isn’t a cost if you know your numbers and you know how much money in new business you should reap from your marketing. This number is your return on investment (ROI). The money you spend on marketing is, and should be, an investment — not a cost.
Second, not all recessions are the same, so you can’t bet that waiting on the sidelines is a strategy that will even keep you in the game. Right now, you need to be making “real time” changes in your business that will let you take advantage of the opportunities you see — …
Celebrity Branding You™ – The 8th Deadly Sin: ThoughtSourcing
Posted: Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
This year has flown by, but I’m happy to say that I accomplished many of my goals; and I hope you have too. I’ve met many of the greatest minds in business, and I’m very optimistic about what the future holds for all of us — based on the solutions for our personal and business lives that many of these great people are bringing to the market.
But, as always, when you see a lot of business ideas, and work with many types of people, the most obvious errors and mistakes that people can make also become glaringly obvious. The one I’m going to tell you about today is one that has been around forever, but you probably didn’t make the connection to how it applied to you.
Let me start with an example. We’ve all heard the sob story of a famous actor, musician, athlete, artist, etc., who has had blockbuster success, sold millions of something, and then ended up flat broke and …
Celebrity Branding You™ – How Failure in My Kitchen Can Give You Success In Your Business!
Posted: Friday, December 12th, 2008
Let me tell you how my kitchen reminded me of one of the most important business lessons you can learn. You see, my wife and I recently threw a birthday party for our youngest son, Bowen, for his first birthday. Call me crazy, but we had 80 people over to our new house – one that we just moved into about two months ago. But the even crazier part was that the sink in the kitchen was somebody’s idea of a cruel joke.
It seemed like the sink was about two inches deep at its deepest point. No matter what we did, it was useless for everything you would want to use a sink for. And of course, as we looked at the sink problem, we decided that there was also a counter top problem. The counter top was the wrong color and was keeping us from having the “warm” kitchen that we really wanted. So we decided …
The Next Big Thing – Business Vision
Posted: Friday, December 12th, 2008
I talk about Business Vision often. Sometimes people think I am just seeing things that aren’t there, and shake their head. Unfortunately for them, I have learned that learning to look at your business objectively, and with a fresh eye, allows you to discover unique opportunities that you have been missing. Looking at other peoples’ businesses with the same open view allows you to ask the proverbial question, “What if?” Invariably, this question always leads to new possibilities, including working on someone else’s business for a fee or JV.
Business Vision came up today when I read a newspaper report about Michael Eisner buying Topps Co., the 60-year-old trading card company. Clearly, for years, this long-term successful company had continued to operate the way it had always operated and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Now, Eisner walks in and looks at the company differently than the millions of other people who have seen it. Yes, he sees a trading card company, but what …
The Next Big Thing: Building an Industry instead of a Single Product (or Service).
Posted: Friday, October 31st, 2008
Sometimes we all fall into the trap of building a better mousetrap: a “thing” or a single “service” we hope people will beat a path to our door to discover. All too often, however, the result is that we spend lots of time, money and energy only to find the consumer really didn’t want our hot idea. This process although entrepreneurial, is a path to frustration and a pattern from which to break free.
An alternative route to growing a business is to build your idea upon a preexisting set of behavior events that the consumer is already engaged in, and innovate the experience in a way that is more satisfying.
Let me give you some examples:
Starbucks: Consumers already drank coffee when Starbucks came along. In fact, drinking coffee was part of our culture. What Starbucks did was step into the behavior of the consumer and altered the experience to be more satisfying. Instead of selling another coffee …
Celebrity Branding You! – Typing Your Way to Fame!
Posted: Friday, October 31st, 2008
Over the last few years, there is no denying that the online community has started harnessing the power of the Internet for more than just “surfing” the web to look for information. We have now started using it as a networking tool that allows us to connect with others to share ideas, opinions and videos of ourselves looking like fools. Okay, so hopefully we don’t have too many of those videos; but having some video online, and at the major video sharing sites, is a great search engine traffic strategy that we should all be employing.
One of the online tools that has been around for the longest, but is often neglected or overlooked, is that of message boards and email-based discussion groups. Yahoo and Google offer the two most popular email groups and they are free for anyone to set up. You can host your own group or you can join existing groups. There are groups for everything you can …
It’s E-Time!
Posted: Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
The rise of “The 3rd Option” of Wealth Building
The Great Bull Market of the 1990s made us feel rich. The real estate boom boosted our hopes all over again and we all got caught up in the excitement. We borrowed against our assets like never before, and spent the equity we thought we had.
Today, the stock market has fallen back to where it was eight years ago, and the housing market is back to its more humble state of five years ago. Neither of these traditional wealth builders offer us fast hope to rebuild what we “thought’ we had, and the acid taste of frustration lingers.
None of this news is new, and the fall has happened before. And it will happen again. The solution to this financial pull back rests in … The 3rd Option.
The 3rd Option is the creation of value through enterprise. Building wealth by taking what you know and creating money …
Celebrity Branding You: Tweeting … and Why it’s Not Just for the Birds
Posted: Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
You’ve probably heard the buzz-terms “social media” and “social networking” more times than you care to count; although if you’re like most people, you still haven’t figured out what it means or how you can use it to increase your celebrity status, and, most importantly, your profits. You’ve also probably seen kids wandering around aimlessly with their cell phones, tapping away at their keys as they wander through the world — clueless about what is going on around them because they are so entrenched in their own little world of text messages.
Well, the good news is, it’s not that hard. The entire concept of Celebrity Branding® revolves around creating a relationship with your fan base, and continuing the conversation you want to have with them via multiple forms of media that allow you to control your message. The old standard method of doing this is with a hard copy newsletter sent to your prospects and clients; which is still one of my …
The Three Steps to Recession-Proofing Your Business
Posted: Thursday, September 11th, 2008
I must admit that I don’t watch the news often enough. It frustrates me and depresses me, all at the same time. But, I do walk by a television that is showing a news program often enough to see the constant predictions by the Chicken Littles of the world. They are all too ready to offer up the “news” that “the sky is falling.”
Now, before you run off and start actually believing that — especially in the context of your business — just stop, take a deep breath and relax. Money is moving just as fast as it ever has, you just need to be conscious of the fact that it may be moving differently than it was in the real estate boom of yesterday.
Below, you’ll find three easy steps that will help you recession-proof your business:
1. Become the ‘Celebrity Expert’ in your Business Niche
In any economy, especially in an economy where the buyers in your market have been …
Telling Your Story for More Profit
Posted: Thursday, September 11th, 2008
Telling stories is not only one of the oldest forms of communication; it is also one of the most effective. Accepting this statement as true should help you see why creating a business story is a reliable way to connect, and to create a bond with your customer that helps you rise above your competition in their eyes.
Your business story should be real and personal. The more you can connect your story to your customer, the more it will help your business. This is why we often talk about the importance of finding a niche market with which you can identify. Telling your story to your niche market helps them identify with you. Sometimes the stories and the identification become so strong, that customers will not even consider going somewhere else for their business. Doing business with you at that point becomes more than buying a product, it is a relationship.
Using the power of storytelling is easy …
The Secret Formula for Media Success
Posted: Saturday, August 9th, 2008
It was great seeing many of you on the road while on my book tour this past month. I had a great time. I’ll be booking a few more dates coming up in the next month, so be on the lookout for the announcement!
As I was traveling and speaking with business owners of all kinds (and I do mean all kinds of businesses!), it became very apparent to me that there was some confusion between the benefits of mass media and targeted media and how they can both help grow your business. Many pundits will tell you that you only need one or the other, but that’s simply a self-serving statement. Both types of media have their own very distinct benefits of which you should be aware. After having the same conversation over and over again with many people, I realized that you may have the same questions, so I decided I’d put my formula in this article for you …
The Next Big Thing! – New Business
Posted: Saturday, August 9th, 2008
Despite the doom and gloom crap that you see in every US newspaper and TV news broadcast, there is an interesting counter-culture buzz that I think merits some real attention: New Business.
Every time there is upheaval in the economy, every time there is “blood in the street,” there is always a counter-opportunity to step in and fill in the gap. Please note the words: EVERY TIME!
What I mean by “filling in the gap” is that tough times create opportunities for you to change something that you are doing or to spot a new idea or trend that will offer you unusual rewards. When things are great, we are usually not as willing to upset the apple cart, so we sometimes miss out on great opportunities. When business is slower, we are more willing to take that little, extra risk, and that is often when good things happen. Let me give you an example.
One of my companies just finished sponsoring the Street of Dreams …
It’s The Economy Stupid!…Again.
Posted: Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Once again, this year’s Presidential election will be centered around the economic state of Americans. The candidate that misses its importance won’t get elected. Yes, the war is a critical issue, and I’m not in any way denouncing the importance and honor of soldiers, but the war is not an impactful issue to consumers’ minds when compared to the pain we feel when hearing the click- click- click of the fuel pump reminding us of the sky-high price of gas. Frankly, the price wouldn’t be nearly as painful if we didn’t have that click- click- click reminder in our faces as our money steals out of our wallets; that audible measurement is very real.
This economic reality is significant to every business, because we are seeing the classic mistakes that are made by businesses every time the economy goes bad. First, people stop marketing. Yes, advertising and marketing of all types are being cut back in droves because people mistakenly think that they can save …
The Truth About Celebrity Branding®
Posted: Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
A Note from Nick & Jack: This month to celebrate the launch of our book, Celebrity Branding You™ we decided to include the first chapter of the book for you to review. Although we are giving it to you for free, please don’t think that is has no value and just throw it aside. Please use this chapter to get you started on the path to creating your celebrity status. We hope you enjoy it and welcome any feedback you may have!
The Truth About
Celebrity Branding®
Andy Warhol, the successful American painter, said, “In the future, everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame.” In truth, we Americans love our celebrities, and we are always creating new ones. This is becoming even more prevalent in our rapidly increasing “reality” culture of blockbuster television shows like “American Idol” and “Dancing with the Stars.” If you can become a celebrity, the world is yours, albeit hopefully for more than 15 minutes. American Idol has even promoted …
Sell the Store, Not the Chair
Posted: Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
As with all technology, there are positives and negatives. This is evident with the web as a new marketing source. Most products are becoming a fast commodity, even if they were not before. If you are interested in buying a chair, you can quickly search on Google, eBay, or any other major search engine, and you will instantly find all chairs of the kind that you are looking for. You will also know the appropriate price of that style of chair, give or take a few dollars.
This wonderful technology makes it much more difficult for a furniture store to compete in the marketplace. The chair may be selling for much less on the net, because the furniture store has a great deal more overhead to run the business.
In order to overcome the problem of being technologically put out of business, the furniture store will have to start selling the benefits of dealing with the store more than the …
REVEALED: How to Reach the Top Rung of Credibility, Power & Influence
Posted: Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
It is no secret that we live in the age of information overload. No matter where we look, eat, sleep or breathe, we are bombarded with information. The problem is that our potential clients are too. So how do we cut through the clutter?
For starters, we have to build credibility with our audience and get them to begin looking for our messages, because they know that what we say has value. How do we do that? Let me show you.
Let’s take a look at a simple principle that I call the Ladder of Credibility, Power & Influence.
At the bottom of the ladder you have the Generalist.
The Generalist is anyone who has a general knowledge about the subject matter at hand. You can lump many people into this category, because a generalist is anyone with a working knowledge of the subject who has no specialized niche.
On the first rung of the ladder, there is the Expert.
The Expert specializes …
THE CONTINUITY FACTOR
Posted: Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
The best new ideas are often old ideas brought back to life. Sometimes the ideas are altered to fit particular circumstances but, many times, the application is altered to fit current circumstances.
Over twenty years ago, when I was in the financial services industry, I decided to alter our business from commission-based to charging a monthly fee based on a percentage of assets. This was a radical thought at the time because the brokerage business was based on commissions. The change was also difficult to execute because it took some time for monthly income (based on a lower rate) to catch up to handle current overhead. The change required confidence that the new monthly fees would last and we had to temporarily cut overhead at the same time.
Fortunately, it proved to be the best decision I ever made in business. Since that pivotal moment, I have never had a business that did not have a continuity component attached to it. Additionally, every business we …
THE ONLY THING CONSTANT IS CHANGE
Posted: Monday, February 18th, 2008
Who said that? We did. Someone else said it first, but that’s not important. What is important is your recognition that change is an integral part of life and if you don’t incorporate it into your business, sooner or later you will be left behind.
Now for those conservative minded readers who still wear bow ties and Brooks Brothers suits, we will gladly acknowledge that exceptions abound. Unfortunately, however, most of us do not have the luxury of waiting to see if the public will stick with our products. He who waits and makes a mistake gets left behind. Don’t believe me? Ask IBM, Sears, or the entire U.S. automobile industry. Change left them all in the dust.
To compound matters, change is rapidly becoming a trend force. By this expression, I mean that change is becoming an expected mode of operation for your customers. Want some examples? Ok, let’s take the …
The Next Big Thing!
Posted: Monday, February 18th, 2008
Big Cash For Big Information
Ever since the first gumshoe paid his favorite informant $20 for the name of the doll that shot Mr. Big three times in the head with his own .45, money has been the motivator for getting the right information from those who have it.
Leap forward a few decades and the biggest payday was recently made by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen who were paid $10,000,000 bucks by the X Prize Foundation when their private rocket made it into space. Sure the foundation also got an event out of the money in the form of a space flight, but make no bones about it, what they were really paying for was the information about how to get a man into space twice, with private money.
Such is the development of a growing trend to tap into minds of geeks and creative entrepreneurs everywhere to solve the riddles of today faster than normal progress might allow, by offering an ever-increasing flow …
FREE Press? (How to get major columnists, journalists and reporters to talk about you in their articles…for free!)
Posted: Monday, February 18th, 2008
There’s no doubt that at some point in your career you’ve had a new product to sell, a new service you’re offering or some other piece of news that you knew would make a great story in a magazine or newspaper which could provide some great free marketing for you. The next thing that probably crossed your mind- how could you make that happen?
For most people, the problem is that they stop right there, at the “wondering” stage and just have no idea how to go from having a great story to tell to getting written up in a local or national publication. Well, not anymore! We’re going to take care of that problem right now by showing you how to get noticed by writers so you can open the door to free press.
Let’s look at this issue with an example that you are probably more familiar with first, then, we’ll tie it back into the subject at hand: getting free …
WARNING: Are you treating your clients like a cheap date?
Posted: Monday, October 8th, 2007
This sounds really silly at first glance, but if you compared the relationships most companies have with their clients to the relationships of everyday life that don’t involve money, it’s hard not to cringe.
Seriously, think about it. Most companies don’t communicate with their clients for months on end, then, when the company really needs to “boost the bottom-line” they send out some bogus direct mail piece that essentially says, “Hey, how are ya? Why don’t you come see us so you can spend some money?” Is that the way you like to be treated?
Well, it’s certainly not the way we like to be treated, and this foul treatment can be avoided altogether if you just take a few simple steps.
1. Try to reach out to your customers, at minimum, on a monthly basis.
Whether it’s a newsletter, a phone call or any other means of communication, keep the lines of communication open with your clients.
2. Don’t just call or write when …
The 1 Question you’ve probably never asked…
Posted: Thursday, September 6th, 2007
When most new businesses go about setting their pricing model, they generally:
1. Look at what competitors are charging and set their price somewhere near that price point (usually below, which is most often a mistake)
2. Determine how much money they’d like to make over a particular time period, determine how many
It’s in the BLOG
Posted: Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
If you’re looking to grow your business, then a BLOG is a great tool to add to your tool chest. In this article we will discuss BLOG basics and how you can use them in your business.
1. What’s a BLOG?
What’s a BLOG you ask? Well, let me tell you. According to Wikipedia.com:
A blog (short for web log) is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order [newest entries are at the top].
So, its really just an online journal or diary that is written by anyone who wants to tell the world what’s on their mind. (Side note: When I say “the world” I really mean it, so be careful what you write.)
Ok, so how can this help you grow your business? Great question. To understand the answer you have to know just a bit about how search engines work.
2. BLOGs and Search Engines
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and all the others use what they call …
