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“This is the beginning of a new day. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; In its place is something that you have left behind. Let it be something good.” – Author Unknown We hope you enjoy issue seventeen of the Entrepreneurs’ Chronicle! Top news this month: We’ve recently re-launched our entrepreneurship forum at zeromillion.com. The forum has been down since December after a worm attacked it and took it down–but thanks to our new developer Russ Jones it is back up as of today. We have 549 members to date and hope you will join and make a few posts yourself.
1. News Update
In December Broadwick and Virante moved from Chapel Hill to a 6,000 sq. foot office in Durham, North Carolina. Both companies continue to grow quickly. News is listed below.
Welcome back. This is our second issue since August and we’re excited to be back in the flow again! This issue begins with the article, “Choose the Right Business, Create the System, Automate it, Replicate it, and Benefit” which covers what you need to take into consideration when planning your business strategy and some of the differences between product based and service based industries. Our second article, “How to Obtain Publicity”, covers the basics of how you can market your company strategically and touches on points such as media relations, email personalization, and planning a press release. Finally, we’ve provided free content you may use on your web site and listed our book recommendations for current and aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders. If you have any comments, suggestions, or would like to contribute content to be published in the newsletter or online, I encourage you to contact us at myoung@virante.com. Please do feel free to forward this newsletter on to your colleagues and associates. On behalf of the Zeromillion.com team I thank you for being a subscriber. Yours entrepreneurially,
Note: This is an authorized except from Zero to One Million: How to Build a Company to $1 Million in Sales. Learn more about the book and purchase your copy today from Amazon.com for $10.85. Choose the Right Type of Business, Create the System, Automate it, Replicate it, and Benefit There are many different types of businesses that you can start. All, however, will fall under the four basic categories of manufacturing, wholesale, retail, or service. A manufacturing business actually makes the product, wholesale businesses sell products to stores, and retail businesses sell products to end buyers—which may be businesses or consumers. Service providers, on the other hand, sell their time and expertise instead of a tangible product. My experience in business is in selling products at wholesale and retail and providing a service. Through my experience, I have found a very big difference in running product-centered and service-centered businesses. My current product-centered business in called Broadwick Corporation. We sell the web-based email marketing software IntelliContact Pro. My current service-centered business is called Virante, Inc. We do web marketing consulting for high potential companies and take payment in cash, equity, and commissions on generated sales. Whether you start a service-based or product-based business will have a large effect on the steps you’ll have to take to build it to one million dollars in sales. I find that product businesses, in general, are more entrepreneurial and easier to grow exponentially, whereas service based businesses are nearly always limited. While one can be making money while they sleep selling a product, in most service-based businesses, you can only make money when you’re working. Your income is limited by the number of hours you can work. In order to overcome this, as a service-based business owner, you’ll have to put the proper systems and processes in place and hire employees that can do the work for you so all you’ll have to do is manage the company and set its vision. You’ll have to find high margin services in areas where you can truly add value for your customer. While services such as programming, web design, marketing consulting, and search engine optimization can be lucrative, it is rare that a one-person company makes more than $200,000 per year. To reach that $1 million dollar level you’ll have to stop working in your company and start working on your company—the classic advice of Michael Gerber in his book The E-myth. Another difference I often find between product and service-based companies is that there is often only one founder of service based businesses—whereas there are more often than not three or four founders of product-based companies. This holds true with my companies. I maintain 100% of the equity of Virante, Inc., but share the equity in Broadwick with 6 others. I consider Broadwick to be my "entrepreneurial" company that we will hopefully sell for tens of millions in a few years, while Virante will always be my personal service firm, holding company, and tax advantaged business. This can be further seen by the fact that Broadwick is a C corporation—what all large corporations are—whereas Virante is an S corporation that will allow the profits of the company to pass through to me without being taxed twice. Service companies tend to be lifestyle companies whereas companies selling a product tend to be high-potential companies. By selling a product, one can automate much more of the business—especially if that product is delivered online or you can set up an autobilling system. One can easily automate an affiliate program, shopping cart, online merchant account—and then hire someone at $10 per hour to do the shipping and answer the phone. Further, there is much more ability to scale up. While I was working with the nutraceuticals company, they handled over 400 orders per day with one customer service rep and one fulfillment person. In a service firm making $2.5 million per year, you’d likely need at least 20 people. If you do decide to start a service based company, see if you can also develop a product based on your expertise in your niche—perhaps an ebook or informational product. If you can develop a product in addition to your services, you’ll gain additional credibility and be able to develop a stream of income that will allow you to increase your revenue in a way that is not directly tied to the number of hours you work. This concept is illustrated well by Robert Kiyosaki when he notes the difference between a small self-employed service provider with that of a business owner in his Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing:
Ryan Allis is the CEO of Broadwick Corporation, a provider of permission-based email marketing and list management software IntelliContact Pro (www.intellicontact.com), and CEO of Virante, Inc. (www.virante.com), a Chapel Hill, North Carolina based web marketing consulting firm. Ryan, who is 20, is currently studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is an economics major and Blanchard Scholar. Additional information on the author can be found at www.ryanallis.com. This article may be republished online as long as the byline remains.
Note: This is an authorized except from Zero to One Million: How to Build a Company to $1 Million in Sales. Learn more about the book and purchase your copy today from Amazon.com for $10.85. How to Obtain Publicity Obtaining publicity is similar to obtaining free advertising, except better, as the advertising comes in the form of a trusted third party recommendation or mention. Third party endorsements have great credibility to viewers, listeners, and readers and can generate many more leads than a paid ad. Good media relations require planning and time, however. You cannot simply decide on Tuesday that you want to get a press release out by Thursday. You need to build and cultivate relationships with editors and reporters as journalists tend to rely more on their Rolodexes than press releases when writing their stories. Before you launch your publicity campaign, you’ll need to decide whether you’ll be doing it yourself in-house or outsourcing it to a public relations firm. If you do decide to hire a PR firm, you may wish to contact the business editors at local newspapers or trade journalists and ask them which firms they respect and work with often. It is also a good idea to ask for client references and have your firm present a plan with a budget and timeline. Most firms will work on a monthly retainer. Some however, will work on a performance basis, where you pay only if and when you get coverage. If you are strapped for money, you may consider using this type of firm. If you do decide to do your publicity campaign yourself, here are a few tips:
Ryan Allis is the CEO of Broadwick Corporation, a provider of permission-based email marketing and list management software IntelliContact Pro (www.intellicontact.com), and CEO of Virante, Inc. (www.virante.com), a Chapel Hill, North Carolina based web marketing consulting firm. Ryan, who is 20, is currently studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is an economics major and Blanchard Scholar. Additional information on the author can be found at www.ryanallis.com. This article may be republished online as long as the byline remains.
If you have a web site that has to do with business, entrepreneurship, marketing, web marketing, ebusiness, personal development, or economics and would like high quality free content for your web site, you may syndicate the following articles from our web site. These articles are stored in zip format and can be downloaded by clicking on the appropriate link. We simply ask that you keep the author byline at the bottom of each article per the instructions included with each zip file. If you choose to use any of the articles we ask that you notify us at info@zeromillion.com. 48 Articles – Authorized Excerpts from Zero to One Million
The following books are recommended for reading by aspiring and current entrepreneurs and business leaders. The books in bold are must reads. Please email any recommendations for additions to this list to myoung@virante.com. Globalization & Economics
Entrepreneurship
Marketing
Personal Development
Past Highlighted Organizations: January 2005 – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
This concludes this issue of The Entrepreneurs’ Chronicle. We’ll see you March 1, 2005. If you are not subscribed and would like to subscribe, please visit http://www.zeromillion.com. If you would like to contribute content, become involved with the zeromillion.com team, make suggestions, or provide feedback please feel free to contact us at info@zeromillion.com. We encourage you to participate in our discussion forum at http://www.zeromillion.com/talk/. This newsletter is published by www.zeromillion.com with support from the Entrepreneurs’ Coalition. The newsletter is sent using the IntelliContact Pro web-based email marketing and list management software. Comments/Suggestions: myoung@virante.com Archives online at: http://www.zeromillion.com/echronicle/
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