Business Coaching

Predictably Irrational - Bronze beats Silver Medal

Sounds crazy doesn't it but research by Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational says:
The silver medalist is disappointed because the natural comparison is with the winner of the gold medal.

The bronze medalist is delighted because the natural comparison is with the fourth placed and the people further behind and feels delighted to have won a medal.

There is an excellent 45 minute interview with Dan Ariely on the Rich Schefren blog the which can be downloaded.

It gives plenty of examples about how this can be used for the marketers advantage.

I have talked about this one before but if you offer a lower priced item and a higher priced item, more people will choose the lower priced product.

Add a third even more expensive product and suddenly, the value comparison is raised and more people start selecting the middle item.

It really is a great interview and it's free to download without any sign-up.

You can also lean more from Dan Ariely's website and even volunteer to take part in future experiments and as an incentive receive the inside track on the results. I have signed up and this looks to be another book I will be buying.

As always with effective marketing to the emotions and the unconscious minds and any form of mind control, it can be used for good to help people make the right decision for them (remember Jay Abraham's saying that "people are silently begging to be led") or manipulated into purchasing self-serving offers from the marketer.

As Mark Joyner decided when he re-released his book Mind Control Marketing, the best way to protect yourself is to know about these techniques so that you can be aware of when they may be carrying an inappropriate weight of influence.

Here are some of Dan Ariely's videos which help explain the concepts of Predictably Irrational.

Video 1 - Introduction - experiments in pain

Video 2 - Truth about relativity

 

Fascinating and I will be adding the extra videos but I must press on.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Maven Marketing Home Study

Back in January and February my blog was buzzing with news of the joint venture between Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren on their Maven Marketing project.

If you are not familiar with the word "maven" and I hadn't heard it before Rich Schefren started using it, a maven is regarded as the trusted expert in their field, the "go to guy" if you like. (See Wikipedia for maven)

If you remember Jay and Rich released another of Rich's famous reports, the Maven Marketing Manifesto which you can still download for free which gave you an insight in how to become a (or the) maven in your market niche.

I told you that I was buying the Maven Marketing Home Study program. How could I refuse when two of my favourite gurus come together to talk about something that I am trying to do myself.

The main component of the maven home study kit is the recordings from the three day of workshops that Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren held after the Strategic Profits conference in February although it is backed up my plenty of extra reading materials and twice a month coaching calls with Jay and Rich.

Technical Difficulties Caused Delays

The original time for distribution of the home study was late April, then it was going to be May.

But still nothing turned up.

But it came on Monday in a great big box and as I watched the first DVD yesterday Jay and Rich have such enthusiasm for this concept that I believe the Maven Marketing experience is going to be great.

What is In the Maven Marketing Home Study

Fortunately the enormous box had a lot of packing but even when all that is taken away we have a big box of goodies which has:

1. 14 DVDs and 26 audio Cds from the live Maven Marketing Intensive Boot Camp
    
2. Jay's ideas on the strategy of preeminence and the advanced strategy of preeminence
    
3. Swinging for the fences
    
4. Character building blogs so that you can build your maven character or personality
    
5. The maven marketing plan
    
6. The joint venture matchmaking template

Just watching the two of them has given me a real buzz and I am now re-arranging my plans to squeeze in as much of the Maven Marketing Home Study as I can into my schedule.

The more I watch what is happening with marketing and all the clutter, the more I realise that the Maven concept is the way to go. Seth Godin was right. You do need to focus on permission marketing and the people most listened to are the mavens.

I expect this to be part of a much bigger future launch (and probably at a higher price) but I think that you can still get a copy of this first version of the Maven Home Study.

But I will be keeping you up-to-date with my thoughts and progress at becoming a maven.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

My favourite low priced Jay Abraham resource is the MasterMind Marketing System. It was this great audio program which turned me into a Jay Abraham fanatic.

Why Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses Fail

Rich Schefren has been quiet recently but he's back with an interesting blog asking "What Is An Entrepreneur" which celebrates two years since he published the Internet Business Manifesto. In this free report (details blow) he identified that the big problem for many businesses is they are run opportunistically rather than strategically heading towards a clear vision.

His blog included the following causes of business failure which I thought you'd want to know:

According to a research study published by John Murphy of Murphy Associates, cited by SCORE - he main reasons why businesses fail include:

• Lack of a solid business plan - 78%
   
• Being overly optimistic about sales and required funds - 73%
   
• Not recognizing or ignoring weaknesses and then not seeking help - 70%
   
• Poor cash flow management skills/understanding - 82%
   
• Have insufficient or irrelevant business experience - 63%
   
• Not pricing properly - 77%
   
• Not understanding or ignoring the competition - 55%
   
• Hiring the wrong people - 56%
   
• Not promoting the business properly - 64%

It is a sobering list so let's go through each in a little more detail

Small Businesses Fail Because They Don't Have A Solid Business Plan

Why does having a business plan help?

Because it forces you to think through the logic of your business - the what, the how, the when, the why, the where and the who and then commit it to writing so that you have a permanent record to go back to and review.

A business plan is a way to hold yourself accountable.

The big advantage of "being your own boss" is that you don't have to answer to anyone but yourself but it can be a fatal flaw if you don't do a performance appraisal on yourself.

Do you remember that small business guru Michael Gerber talks about the three parts of a small business owner - the entrepreneur (the business creator), the manager (the implementor) and the technician (the worker)?

So why don't you put on one of those hats and assess how the other roles have been performed?

Ask yourself whether as manager you have been supported by the entrepreneur creating a clear sense of direction and the guidance necessary to build a working business.

If you wear the entrepreneur's hat, has the manager been effectively implementing your ideas? Has the technician been effective and efficient? If not why not.

So why don't small business owners produce a solid business plan?

1. It's seen as busy work - but thinking before taking purposeful action is the most valuable thing you can do. Brian Tracy says that every failure comes from not thinking enough before you take action.
     
   
2. You only prepare a business plan when the business is starting out or you need a bank loan - just not true. The best businesses have a rolling business plan which is regularly reviewed and updated. It re-confirms the vision and goals and updates the action plan based on tests, results and any actions and reactions from customers and competitors.
    
   
3. You don't have the time - sorry this is a poor excuse - the real answer is that you don't make time.
    
   
4. You don't have the skills - my advise is that you shouldn't over-complicate it but if you need help, there are plenty of business planning guides and I even offer one for free - see better business plans
    
   
5. You don't think it's important - but that's not what 78% of business owners in the survey now think. They have learned the hard way that business planning is an essential activity for businesses. I will keep saying this - it is so much better to try an idea out on paper and find that it loses money than to try it out in real life and lose a fortune. Business planning will not only stop reduce the risk of bad decisions, it will help you to implement your great ideas more effectively.

Small Businesses Fail Because They Are Too Optimistic About Sales and Required Funds

There is a delicate balance between having the confidence to back your business idea and give it a real go and being so optimistic that you are certain you have a sure-fire winner without seeing the pitfalls, difficulties and constraints.

The world is tough and customers do need a compelling reason to buy from you. Writing your business plan helps you to:

1. Find your unique market position where you are better than competitors in ways that matter to customers.
    
   
2. Decide how you will spread your marketing message
    
3. Face up to possible constraints and skill shortages so that you take action to improve
    
4. Focus on your underlying assumptions as you work your way down the sales funnel in terms of numbers and time lags.

Many of the business plans I see are too optimistic in their timing as business owners assume that prospective customers will leap into action at the first contact. It's just not true. Jay Conrad Levinson (Father of Guerrilla Marketing) says that it takes on average nine customer contacts to turn a name into a customer.
This optimism then causes cash to become a problem. Because sales forecasts are too optimistic, the underlying cash forecasts have cash receipts flowing into the bank account faster and to a higher value than is likely to happen. This false picture then shows that the business can afford to splash out early on expenses which it should defer until the business concept is proven.

Small Businesses Fail Because Owners Don't Recognise Weaknesses And Then Not Seeking Help

I mentioned Michael Gerber earlier and if you have read his great book "The E Myth Revisited" you will know that many small businesses are started when the entrepreneur has an entrepreneurial seizure and wakes up with the idea that he could start a new business.

There is no acknowledgment of the fact that the person has never been taught how to develop a business but just an inner confidence - "It must be easy because so many other people do it."

There seems to be a reluctance to admit any knowledge gaps and to seek help from business coaches and other business professionals.

I understand that it can seem expensive but being able to tap into extra knowledge and experience is invaluable.

There is even a reluctance to subscribe to programs such as Scott Hallman's Small Business Growth Club which provides outstanding value on how to build a profitable business.

Small Businesses Fail Because Of Poor Cash Flow Management

Never forget - cash is king.

There is an old banker's mantra that is well worth remembering:

Sales turnover is vanity

Profit is sanity

Cash is reality

For more details about cash flow forecasting see the Importance of cash and cash flow forecasts.

Small Businesses Fail Because The Entrepreneurs Have Insufficient Business Experience

I mainly covered this item in the "not recognising weaknesses or asking for help" point above but lack of business experience means that many people start a business without knowing what is required to start a business.

In other words they don't know what they don't know so they can't ask for help.

Small Businesses Fail Because They Don't Price Properly

Pricing is where the rubber of your business strategy hits the road as your customers have a direct choice between your product and price combination and your competitors.

Price too low and you win orders but don't make any profit (remember the banking mantra).

Price too high and you don't make any sales.

To make it worse, every buyer loves to negotiate a lower price.

If your product is great value at £50, it is an even better buy at £35 so you can expect to come under continual price pressure as the buyer fishes for a discount. It is good buying practice but you need to be able to resist and have the confidence that you have communicated your benefits/value/price combination effectively in your selling.

For more information about pricing, see my free report How to price what you sell

Small Businesses Fail Because They Don't Understand Or Ignore The Competition

Even in business plans from big companies who should have known better, I have seen ambitious growth plans where the company is clearly hoping to grow at a faster rate than the market. The only way to do this is to take business away from competitors and you have to be prepared for them to react.

As a child what happened when you tried to take a toy away from your brother or sister when they were playing with it? I bet they put up a fight to keep it or at least shouted to Mum for help.

It's the same with competitors. If you take what they think is theirs through aggressive price competition, they will react and try to pinch at least one of your customers.

Sign up to the free report with my newsletter to find out more about how to win profitable business away from competitors.

Small Businesses Fail Because They Hire The Wrong People

Michael Gerber warns about the dangers of building a people dependent business when the entrepreneur should be building a business based on systems. While I agree with systemisation I still believe that the quality of people is an essential factor in building a great business.

The problem is that it is difficult to recruit. For all the interview techniques and personality tests, you don't really know what you have until you make your decision and see the person working in your environment.

Brian Tracy has an expression "hire slow but fire fast". 

That makes much more sense than the easier "hire fast and fire slow" which saddles businesses with uncooperative, uncommitted and poorly skilled employees.

If you find that you have made a recruitment mistake then take action sooner rather than later. Brian Tracy teaches a technique called zero based thinking which involves asking yourself the question "Knowing what I know now, would I still hire this person?"

Small Businesses Fail Because They Don't Promote The Business Properly

I have been writing a recent set of articles that look at common marketing mistakes based on the ideas of master marketer Jay Abraham.

In these four articles I explain that many businesses don't do the market research, don't develop their own unique selling proposition and use the wrong type of advertising which doesn't give them results that can be measured and improved.

Reduce The Rate Of Business Failure

This blog is packed with ideas, tips and extra resources to help you to improve your business. Please the information in here and the blog will continue to grow and develop.

As well as my own ideas, I bring you the ideas of my favourite ten small business gurus together with other ideas as I come across them.

I started with a reminder of Rich Schefren's Internet Business Manifesto. Even if you don't have a business that trades or promotes itself in any way through Internet marketing, much of the report still makes very thought-provoking reading. You can download your free copy of the Internet Business Manifesto.

If Your Business Is Already In Trouble

If you have landed on this page because  your business is already in trouble, please see my article Business coaching in tough times which looks at the options in terms of self help, business coaches and consultants and  turnaround managers.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Business Coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Product Launch Formula 2.0 Masterclass with Jeff Walker

Jeff Walker, creator of the famous Product Launch Formula used by Internet marketing millionaires like Rich Schefren and StomperNet is conducting a new product launch masterclass which I recommend you watch closely if you are interested in developing and commercialising new products.

The Internet marketers hit the headlines with the seven and even eight figure launches but the Product Launch Formula applies to everyday people for real world products who are delighted with four, five or six figure launches.

You see a couple of weeks ago Jeff withdrew the Product Launch Formula from the market and today starts the pre-launch stage of the Product Launch Formula 2.0.

This is your chance to watch the master at work doing what he does better than anyone else in the world.

I am sure that the Product Launch Formula 2.0 will be great but the process of watching Jeff during the launch will be fascinating and I think any marketer, business coach or entrepreneur would be crazy to miss this chance.

Just seeing how the launch progresses will be such an education.

I am excited about this and I am delighted to bring this to you at the very start of the launch process.

Just watch and learn.

If you are a regular you know that I believe in looking closely at success and working out how that success was achieved. It was only last summer that Jeff Walker and his Product Launch Formula entered my conscious mind but since then I have learnt more about Jeff and watched some of his launches. In fact I have bought into some of them like Rich Schefren's Business Acceleration Program and StomperNet SMARTS.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Jay Abraham Rich Schefren Conference February 2008

Credit where credit is due. Rich Schefren is doing a great job of promoting the Strategic Profits New Beginnings conference with the short video clips.

Today I woke up to find details of a brief Jay Abraham video with Jay in a Q&A session explaining what you need to do to be able to do to stand out in your market.

It is well worth taking a couple of minutes to watch. The other short videos are also interesting if you have the time.

All these short snippets are really making me wish that I had been there to see it all happen live. While I can't turn back time, you may be interested to know that the full videos of the "Dream Team" event are available to buy at an early bird price until the initial stock sells out after which it DOUBLES in price.

[Note this is a change because originally it was orders up to 29 February. Call me cynical but the current copy says that there are only 200 copies available but this could just be a way of encouraging scarcity.]

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Rich Schefren New Beginnings Update & Home Study Kit

Rich Schefren has hit on an interesting idea. This week he has gathered together a great collection of Internet Marketing experts at Disney World in Florida for the New Beginnings conference and he intends to show short video clips of what is happening on the Strategic Profits blog.

Yesterday (24 February Day 1) wasn't worth watching as it just showed the preparation for the conference and a few short snippets of people saying how excited they were to be there.

Day 2 25 February is better as it has a couple of minutes of Rich Schefren talking about becoming a Maven (his joint venture venture with Jay Abraham - see home study kit ).

If you haven't downloaded your copy of the Maven Matrix Manifesto I can recommend it although I know I have not yet written my review because I have been too busy taking action as I start my custompreneur revolution (a custompreneur is a customer focused entrepreneur).

There is also a great clip from Mike Filsaime sharing some advice from world famous copywriter Gary Halbert about the most important thing to test.

More videos are being added throughout the day so just keep checking the Strategic Profits blog if you want to get a better flavour of the event and there are plenty of video testimonials as well.

Your Chance To Buy The Full Videos

The inside scoop is that you will be able to buy the DVDs of the conference with an a lower initial launch price with an increase within a matter of days. In fact the information I've got says that the price will increase from $697 to $1,397!

I'm not going to give you the hype.

I'm not at the conference (although I would have liked to have been) and I'm not buying the conference DVDs for the simple reason that when I ordered the maven home study kit, the conference DVDs were included as a bonus (they no longer are).

I do regard the sale of the conference videos as positive because I am sure that there are many of us who would have liked to be there but couldn't justify the time commitment to get to Florida. I also think it is nice to see it sold separately and not part of a fancy Business Acceleration Program type launch.

If you are interested follow the 2008 Conference link to see the sales letter.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Maven Matrix Manifesto Jay Abraham & Rich Schefren

Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren are promoting the maven marketing workshop after the Strategic Profits New Beginnings conference and have released The Maven Matrix Manifesto.

The cynical will see the Maven Matrix Manifesto as an 83 page sales letter so that is even long than the letters Rich Schefren normally uses.

I have had a quick look at the Maven manifesto and it picks up the details from the Maven making teleseminar call so it does have good content.

At its core the Maven Matrix Maniesto takes a workbook approach with eleven actionable steps if you exclude buying the maven making program or twelve if you put your money down.

To get the Maven Matrix Manifesto you do have to trade your email address (it has to be real because the download link comes in another email).

Download your free copy of the Maven Matrix Manifesto.

I have bought into the home study kit of the maven marketing program with all the benefits except for the trip to Florida in frosty February.

Unfortunately the homework has already started but I am really excited about the maven making idea.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Free Jay Abraham Reports - Maven Marketing

Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren are promoting a teleseminar for the new "Be a Maven" workshop and home study kit.

It is a great call where you can learn a lot about the different ways you can be seen as the expert to be respected and listened to. The big advantage of being seen as the trusted maven is that you earn much more money than usual.

The promotional page is a bit odd.

Although it is promoting a teleseminar, Jay and Rich don't appear to say when the teleseminar will be broadcast and I guess that may put some people off signing up. The times are actually part of the sign up process as three calls are listed in the drop down box at the bottom of the page.

I see this opportunity in a different way.

To tempt you to sign up for this teleseminar, you can get some free reports from Jay which you would usually find as part of an expensive package.

FREE BONUS #1: The Ultimate Market Domination Report. This valuable report from Jay teaches how to at very least double your income every 15 months or less... forever! It reveals...

• The 12 competencies of mavenship and how they change everything in business and marketing
   
• How to use your status as a maven to capitalize on your relationships
   
• The unique strategies maven use and why they multiply your income so quickly
   
• Where you can get money as a maven for startups and launches
   
• The secrets for doing company turnarounds
   
• And lots MORE

FREE BONUS #2: Multiplying Your Business Wealth: Tony Robbins Interviews Jay Abraham. Tony and Jay spent $165,000 of their time developing this amazing report. Tony has already used its secrets to earn an additional $5 million. Tony spent 9 1/2 private hours grilling and drilling Jay as a favor for his best clients, trying to learn and distill Jay's proprietary money-making secrets. You'll discover...

• How to use the secrets of mavenship to generate new business enterprises and grow them almost automatically...
   
• Why when you use maven positioning, you can increase your leverage by 200, 400 or 5000 percent
   
• Maven secrets you can use to get 30 times better results from your advertising while spending less.
   
• Simple, easy strategies for having fun while making more money than ever before

FREE BONUS #3: Nine Drivers of Explosive Profits. This bonus gift reveals the fastest, quickest, most effective ways to multiply business revenues, increase profits and build massive business wealth with little or no risk, very little time, and surprisingly modest efforts. That's the magic of becoming a maven! You'll discover...

• 3 ways to change your income strategies immediately
   
• How to reinvent your income model
   
• Secrets for motivating your target market to act immediately
   
• The opportunities you're already paying for but not yet benefiting from
   
• How to get all you can out of everything you've got...
   
• And MORE.

You also get as extra bonuses the two reports that made Rich Schefren so successful, the Internet Business Manifesto and the Attention Age Doctrine although, if you are a regular reader, I am sure that you already have those.

There is one additional report from Rich about How To Win Big On The Internet which I assume I will get. After all I have bought into the maven making home study kit.

I find it difficult to believe just how generous an offer this is considering how good the call is so click over, pick the best time (my inside knowledge says that they will go up to the 14th February), sign up and listen in and you could be on your way to tripling your gross income in the next year.

Rich Schefren is running a new competition to promote the New Beginnings conference in February which will give some lucky person the chance to win the lot. His blog shows some home made videos explaining what will happen.

Just pop over to the Strategic Profits blog and explain why you deserve this fantastic opportunity on the No Matter How You Define Success. [Hint - Rich did this before with the Business Acceleration program so go back and have a look at what the winners wrote - he is not looking for sob stories. I just wish I wasn't too busy because this really is a fantastic opportunity for somebody to attend the pre-conference sessions, the main conference and then the Rich Schefren/Jay Abraham Maven Making session.]

Don't miss this great Jay Abraham video.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Rich Schefren Business Acceleration Program Review 1

Just before Christmas in December 2007, Rich Schefren and his company Strategic Profits launched the Business Acceleration Program to a hungry crowd of Internet marketing entrepreneurs.

It was a terrific example of building up awareness and creating attention by providing thought provoking information and items from the Strategic Profit blog were regularly featured here. As always I believe there is a lot to learn from seeing how the top professionals market themselves.

In particular the free report, The Attention Age Doctrine Part 2 was a major success as it focused on the problems of creating attention in today's busy, busy world where we are overwhelmed with information and sales messages.

As the report indicates, you could take the Paris Hilton approach - it earns her a lot of money - or you may have more self respect.

The Attention Age Doctrine is well worth reading because it will make you think about the issues of how you gain attention in a world increasing dominated by the Web 2.0 technologies. However surprise, surprise it is a selling tool for the Business Acceleration Program.

What Is The Business Acceleration Program?

You can read the sales letter here but I will give you my version that takes away all the spin and marketing hype.

There are seven parts to it:

1. DVDs, CDs and a book of transcripts of the Main Event conference from July 2007.
    
2. New material in DVD and CD form to cover Advanced Learning.
    
3. Productivity software for faster audio listening (this is nifty) and faster reading (I haven't managed to install my copy yet but I haven't really given it much of a go).
    
4. Six mentoring calls with the featured experts.
    
5. A seven part social media webinar course.
    
6. A chance to discover your working strengths with a chance to take the Kolbe A test and see the explanatory videos. (Highly recommended even if you don't buy into the full Business Acceleration Program hype - see my Strengths Mastery review or go straight to the sales letter.)
    
7. Extra goodies if you are prepared to pay the price in full in one go. There is a money back guarantee so if you've got the cash, you can take this option. It is what I did because I am a Jay Abraham addict and this gets me the updated copy of the famous Mr X book for free (see my review of the original Jay Abraham Mr X book)

There is too much hype in the sales letter for my liking but in this series of reviews, I will help you to decide whether the Business Acceleration program is worth your hard earned cash.

It may seem slow progress but I am rather overwhelmed at the moment with these development programs.

Packaging

"You can't judge a book by its cover" as I point out in my review of the Mr X book mentioned above but this packaging is striking in a very neat black box. It did take some time to work out how to get into it but it looks good on the bookshelf.

Inside are a series of packs of the different sets of CDs and DVDs in a high quality presentation form. This is the best presented home study kit I have seen.

The Main Event Part 1

So far I have listened to the first eight CDs of the Main Event conference from July 2007 so I am still six months behind the people who attended. Before I forget the next Strategic Profits conference called New Beginnings is later in February at Disney World Florida.

Both are "no pitch" sessions but inevitably when a consultant is talking about his expertise, there is an implicit "I can help you" pitch. Ask me to talk about "The Eight Pillars of Business Prosperity" which is my own approach and I will share some of the secrets but it is still a promotional talk (for more details see my Business Profitability lens on Squidoo).

CD 1 - Tom McCarthy opens the conference in great style and has given me a few ideas for my small mastermind group sessions before introducing Rich Schefren.

At this stage Rich is between his Attention Age Doctrine part 1 (the problems) and part 2 (a  resume of the problems and some of the solutions) and is clearly aware that he has struck a chord with people.

Gaining and keeping attention is a problem and this is the start of maven marketing.

CD 2 - David Kolbe moves my understanding of the Kolbe Index forward. This is a great tool and I regard it as the missing link between goals and priorities through to personal action and delegation.

If you find yourself doing things that you don't enjoy and are not very good at but feel guilty about delegating or outsourcing because you think you should be able to do everything, take the Strengths Mastery Advantage.

You can then justify to your own mind's satisfaction why you must delegate/outsource to concentrate on your strengths. This service is available outside of the Business Acceleration Program -see the SMA sales letter or visit the Kolbe website.

CD 3 - Scott Martineau of Infusion explains the benefits of motion sensor marketing, an automated system that responds to the way your customers act. It does sound really neat as you can set up a complete automated customer relationship management system to respond to the way your individual customers are behaving.

This adaptability to customers buying habits is something that Rich Schefren has stressed in his Business Growth System coaching program (see the BGS sales letter or my Business Growth System review) and is a must for serious Internet entrepreneurs.

I had a quick browse at the Infusion website and it looks very interesting but I haven't tried it myself. I have noticed that Rich Schefren and various other "top of the tree" Internet / direct marketers (John Carlton, Dan Kennedy, Joe Polish, Zig Ziglar) do use Infusion so it seems reasonable to assume that it is the best around.

I intend to study it more closely. My own Internet business doesn't justify it at the moment but it could make a major impact on Internet based clients.

CD 4 & 5 - Les Hewitt, co-author of "The Power Of Focus" with the Chicken Soup guys Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen and the idea has developed into a series of books for different types of people. I have bought the first book but it is currently in my "not yet read" pile.

This is about the power of training your mind to focus on what you want with clarity, purpose and commitment.

The problem is that you will have heard variations of the Power of Focus message before. Just about every self help specialist and coach talks about the importance of goals but do you do it?

From memory Les said that surveys show that only 3% of people produce proper goals but on average they earn 10 times as much as the 97% who don't.

I know that there is something in goal setting and it is essential to have an overall purpose and know where you are going and commit to making it happen.

You can find out more about Les and The Power of Focus by taking a look at the Power of Focus website.

CD 6 Janet Switzer, this is my favourite session so far and the information is great as Janet explains how to turn your expertise into 52 super-lucrative profit centres (sorry about my spelling, it is in the middle of the Atlantic as I alternate between UK and US spellings but with 50% North American readership and 25% UK and being British myself I am trying (and failing?) to keep everyone happy.

A very interesting lady.

Janet Switzer had the opportunity of honing her information marketing skills while working for Jay Abraham (in total 12 years working for or with Jay) so you can be sure that she had the opportunity to become an absolute master at what she does and is partly responsible for turning Jay Abraham into the maven he is today. Since then Janet has worked with the Chicken Soup authors and Rich Schefren said in his opening speech to the conference, he wished he could hire her.

If you are a coach, consultant, author or trainer and you sell original information products I recommend that you pop over to Janet's website and sign up for access to her free reports. I have done. Do it now before you forget.

The big message is why work hard selling a $29 e-book when you could be selling a $999 home study kit or a $9,999 group coaching program. Just try working out some numbers and you will find that the income opportunities get pretty exciting.

Janet has been the first expert to record her mentoring call for the Business Acceleration Program so I have another 90 minutes of advice about putting together and marketing information products.

Look out for my book the Eight Pillars Of Business Prosperity hitting the bookshops in 2010 followed by the home study kit (although Janet had a much more exciting name).

CD 7 & 8 Tom McCarthy is a motivational speaker.

He knows people are sceptical because he tells a story of listening to people making fun of motivational speakers but he is good. In fact Tom is great and works with Olympic gold medal winners and world champions.

A terrific presenter who really does energise you and by focusing on posture issues and habits provides a great contrast to Les Hewitt's mental strength from the Power of Focus.

You can learn more about Tom McCarthy and his motivation, leadership and peak performance coaching.

Conclusion So Far

Impressive but this is early days.

I am only half way through part 1 (8 CDs out of 14)  with Jeff Walker, MaryEllen Tribby and Mike Filsaime and a joint Rich Schefren /Tom McCarthy sessions to come so the Internet marketing quota is going to increase.

The Main Event conference last July looks to have been a belter and was extremely slickly presented. Of course when you spend that much money you do want it to be good.

Just to remind you, the next Strategic Profits Conferences starts on 23 February at Disney World Florida so follow the link if you want to see details of the New Beginnings conference. I had a great email from John Carlton this morning (famous copywriter and one of the event presenters and pre-event workshop leaders) saying that the way it is presented is a bit confusing and recommeding that people sign up for his workshop.

You have the option to add extra events before or after (with the Jay Abraham / Rich Schefren maven making workshop the pick in my eyes).

Crunch Question - Is It Worth The Money?

Too early to say at the moment.

Rich Schefren has been true to what he wrote in the launch sales letter. The price has increased considerably so it lifts the bar much higher for new purchasers compared to the people who got in at the beginning, and especially those with an existing client discount. [You may see this as a bad thing, I see it as a honourable client focused approach and it gives me confidence that I can trust what he says will happen].

Inevitably one problem with a compilation program rather than a dedicated program, like for example the Business Growth System which is a similar price is that it is easy to look down a list and say "I like that but I'm not so keen on that."

You can't pay this much for a program if you only want half of it so I have given you links through to the individual experts.

There is a paradox in business information products and business advice generally. If something is free you won't value it as much as something which you pay top dollar for.

Since success comes from learning new skills, thinking how to apply them, a little planning and committed purposeful action, learning that doesn't translate into action is waste.

If paying a big price galvanises you into successful action, it is worth it.

I wrote yesterday in my Ideas To income article that according to Brian Tracy, on average each one of us has 4 ideas each year that could turn us into millionaires.

If the secrets to success are in a $29 e-book and a $4,999 business development program you have a limited number of options

• you buy but never even read the e-book (after all they are usually at impulse purchase prices) so you wasted your $29.
   
• You read the e-book, agree with the ideas but don't take action, you've wasted your $29 and the time taken to read the e-book.
   
• You read the e-book and it is rubbish, you've wasted $29 and your time.
   
• You read the book, take action and you become a massive success - congratulations, you are a real bargain hunter.
   
• You buy the $4,999 program and don't do anything, the money and time is again wasted.
   
• But if you take action from the $4,999 program which makes you $100,000, $500,000 or even the magic $1 million over the next few years you have still received an absolute bargain.

I don't know where you can find an e-book with all the secrets of the Business Acceleration Program.

You could keep looking (possibly forever).

You could research the Business Acceleration Program as my reviews will develop along with reviews from other bloggers (although I do see some people recommending products that I have tried and it is clear they haven't).

Or you could take a chance with the instalment payments option and the 90 day money back guarantee.

Business Acceleration Program sales letter.

Me?

With the price increase, unless you can commit to studying hard and have the time to put the ideas into action I would recommend that you wait until there is evidence of success. There is no impending event price increase to worry about.

But I do recommend that you:

1. Take the Kolbe/Strengths Mastery Advantage test - this is a small price to pay to help focus your work on your natural strengths. I see it as the missing key between goals / priorities and actions. I can't see any value in delaying. Details here.
    
2. If you listen to audio programs, pick up the FasterAudio program. Again it is a tiny price to pay for saving you potentially a massive amount of time, or if you only speed up learning by 50%, it allows you to learn 50% more. Details here.
    
3. Follow up on any of the individual speakers' products which particularly appeal. The Business Acceleration Program is effectively a taster of the best resources that Rich Schefren and the people at Strategic Profits could find.
    
   If you want to go in deep with any of them to solve particular problems and issues or to take better advantage of any opportunities, I can't see any value in waiting.

Future Reviews

It is intended that future reviews of the Business Acceleration Program will be featured on my Business Development Advice blog but I will be updating this page with links.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Be A Maven Home Study Kit - Jay Abraham & Rich Schefren

After what has been a real saga this week I listened to the "be a maven" call with Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren last night.

Rich has tried to explain why this is presented as a dial in call rather than a download on the Strategic Profits blog but he does not seem to have convinced many people. The experience of getting in and then waiting for all the lines to be patched together took about 30 minutes yesterday so that didn't do much for my mood.

The call starts with the "who we are" bit but then gets into the meet with some stories about how they helped turn people from nobodies into superstars. This was interesting and they worked hard to summarise the takeaways from each.

What Is Holding You Back From Being A Maven?

What was interesting is that Rich did a survey and found that everyone liked the idea of being a maven (fame and wealth - not too difficult to say yes to) but 95% didn't think they could do it.

Isn't that interesting but so true.

Don't we all have self doubts that hold us back.

You may know that you are good, be proud of your skills and believe that you will perform well in in any task you accept but isn't there a nagging doubt that says "I could be even better." It drives on your determination to improve which is positive but it also opens up the idea that "someone could be better."

So how do you make that jump from "very good" to "special" and from "special" to "uniquely special"? It has to happen in two places - in your own mind and in the minds of the outside world.

Different Characters And Positioning To Be Mavens

Jay and Rich rattled through the call. I started trying to take notes but gave up. Back to the problems of having one hand holding the telephone.

They went through a whole series of different personalities for being a maven and then went through a wide range of different positionings.

This was extremely interesting and if you see character traits and positioning as two sides, there is an enormous range of possible options for you to create your own mavenship that suits you.

Maven Boot Camp or Home Study Kit

Ultimately the call is one long sales pitch for a new promotion - the maven boot camp or maven home study kit. They give information away that whets the appetite and gradually reel you in.

I bought the home study kit but then I said that I would on my first posting on 28th January. Fortunately delivery isn't expected until April so that gives me a chance to work through some of the other programs.

They nearly lost me as I was annoyed at the intransigence shown by making us all attend a telephone call and the fact that these calls that were originally a bonus for paying for the Business Acceleration Program in full had been opened up to the general public. This launch has not be as professional as I am used to but they convinced me last night that they had something new to offer.

I also knew that I want to be seen as a maven as I am slowly build a brand with this website and I am big fans of both Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren. How could I turn it down?

Your Chance To Hear The Call

Spaces on the Maven Boot Camp and Maven Home Study Kit are limited but you can find out more details about the maven making course.

Don't miss this Jay Abraham video.

There is now a direct link to the maven home study kit.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs