WARNING: Dumb Marketing can wipe out your business! Ex-Art director saves you money, time and tears of misfortune! Learn the ropes of how to strategize your online business.

It’s amazing the amount of BAD marketing that I run into along the rocky road to financial freedom. There are many false gurus, shaman, and magic gizmo sellers from every walk of life. I am offered everything from snake oil to the “one in a life time chance to meet Bruce Springsteen”. I am not even a Bruce Springsteen fan, (I only know a handful of his songs).

But anyways I am getting WAY off track.

HOW DO YOU RECESSION PROOF YOUR BUSINESS?
Before I fork over the “Golden Ticket” I think its important that you know the difference between a successful business and one that sucks the life out of you. Many entrepreneurs think they have a cash pumping business but in actually it is the cash that gets PUMPED OUT OF THEM! In short, they have a very expensive hobby.

The BIG QUESTION is….. (drumroll please)

What Creates A Recession?
I’m sure you got a text book answer. I can think of several myself. One of the things that comes to mind is that you have a disastrous guy in charge somewhere who calls all the shots. He does a shoddy job at best but still has the ear of the boss. As far as the man in charge he takes his cues from another era where the marketing made little sense then as well. He likes expensive advertising and has convinced himself that this stuff actually works.

I am talking about advertising in things like radio and television. You could get away with that stuff in the 1960’s back when you only had three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. But now you got 900 digital channels, pay per view, HBO1, HBO2 and well you get the idea. Lets not forget the multitude of digital radio stations too.  Getting someone’s attention now is going to be a heck of a lot harder than you thought.

"Yahoo, Google and MSN Search Engines Are Only 10% Of Your Overall Traffic!"

How do you break through the CRUD?

When you need leaders you need people who can think on their feet. It’s a good idea to get someone who can actually push your vehicle out of the mud.

This means trimming the fat. You have to cut the ties with outdated thinking and things that will bleed your account dry, (television and radio being just the beginning). Your business could be in the dumpster because of outdated thinking.

Here are just a few things that could help you elevate your position in wealth.

1. Getting more of your business into ongoing profit generating systems.
2. Automating all of your sales pitches online.
3. Automate the way you accept payment for just about everything you do.
4. Find new ways to create streams of outgoing information without
   being on the phone.
5. Creating ways of making money and eliminating as much
   “face time” as possible.

Its not that I want you to stop liking people as a whole. On the contrary I am looking out for you. That is we have to take care of the boss – namely – YOU. And you cannot do that if you are running around all over town meeting with everyone who calls you on a whim.

I got a rule of thumb about this entire prospecting thing. I rarely ever meet with anyone in person unless I am sure they are going to be worth my time. I try to take care of this through online technology as much as possible.

The Power Of Automation
I set up roadblocks when I can. I try to create an online outlet for my prospect to get more information before they actually pick up the phone and contact me. I do not want to be on the phone all day although that sometimes happens. My prospects usually find a pre-recorded “movie” that explains my services to them in some form.

This really works wonders if you are dealing with people who are in a recession frame of mind. If they are normally close minded to new ideas and new thinking then putting your presentation on autopilot on the web --- works! In fact it can work so well that it will create two dynamics for your business.

1. People will disqualify themselves and not bother calling you in the first place.
2. People will qualify themselves and call  you with check in hand, (I’m serious)

You can set up all of your marketing on auto pilot. I record all of my online sales pitches. I accept FAXES online morning, day, noon and night. I have online web sites that accept payment and deposit them straight into my bank accounts.

I run all of my presentations on my many web sites and blogs I have out there in cyberspace. And boy do I get the leads and jobs. I get stuff from all over the country from cities I have never been to.

This stuff really works.

What Business Are You In?
Remember what business you are in. You are in business to primarily MARKET your business. It’s not to learn the latest tricks in .NET development, SEO, cosmetic dentistry, even though you should be competent in the thing you specialize in. Your real skill as a businessman is to know how to market your services and how to land customers. If you don’t have that then you cannot do too much. You need to perfect this stream of steady leads day in and day out.

I recommend duplicating this format whenever you can. It may take a while to get this to work for you but it can be built. The idea here is to create pages that support every profit leg of your business. You have to prime the pump to get this going. Once it is built you can enjoy a day off now and then.

Who knows – maybe you can even take a nap. If you are a full time entrepreneur no doubt you deserve one.

Ted Cantu runs iMobile Media, (http://www.1seomichigan.com )and works out of NYC, Chicago, and Detroit, Michigan. He has the number 12 podcast show on www.podomatic.com you can listen to it  here… http://911copywriter.podomatic.com