Women’s Millionaire Club by Maureen G Mulvaney, MGM

Many people own home based businesses and in these tough economic times – many more people will launch home based businesses. Some people do very well with their own business – while others never make a decent living. What is the difference? Are there things they could learn that would make them more successful? This book contains a wealth of information that was compiled by interviewing some very successful women who run home based businesses and who are network marketing professionals. What do they have to offer you?

Maureen G Mulvaney is the founder of the Women’s Millionaire Club. She has all sorts of tools to help you succeed in network marketing – and this book is one of those tools. Maureen goes by the nickname MGM and she is an international speaker and a best selling author.

In the first part of this book, MGM shares “The Recipe for Success” and the “History of Network Marketing”.  She then explains the “home based business” concept and how it works today. Next she shares the demographics and her survey results for the women in the Women’s Millionaire Club. This gives you a great picture of the type of women who are making millionaires from their home based network marketing businesses.

MGM also delves deeply into the personality traits of these women. This is a step to get inside the head of these women. Then she turns the spotlight back on the reader by saying to “Know What You Want” and “Believe You Can Have It”. These are critical steps – no matter what these women can accomplish – you have to believe you can do it and be resolved in what you want. Obviously the next step is to “Take Action”.

Once she has given you the details about what she learned about these successful women and what MGM can share about network marketing – its time to read the profiles that were developed after detailed interviews with each of these women.

Each profile includes a combination of this information about each of these women:

• Her Background

• Her Decision to Succeed

• The Benefits to Being a Woman

• Her Ingredients for Success

• Why She Did It

• Her Legacy

• Her Strengths

If you want a successful home based network marketing business – this is a must read. It takes you inside the minds, hearts and motivations of these 20 women and gives you a great set of tools to succeed.

Heart of Marketing by Judith Sherven and Jim Sniechowski

Customer service and really good customer service seems to be a thing of the past in many businesses. When I was growing up – my grandfather reinforced the importance of stellar customer service to me and that lesson has served me very well of the last two decades.  This book explains how to put “heart” back into our businesses and our marketing.

The full title of this book is Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back.

This book is made up of the answers to 45 questions about the “soft sell marketing” concept. There were MANY questions submitted, but Judith and Jim narrowed it down to 45 questions and share the answers with all of us in Heart of Marketing.

Some of the topics include:

• What is Marketing?

• What is the primary benefit of soft sell marketing?

• How does soft sell marketing differ from hard sell?

• People say to succeed you have to get your ego out of the way. What does that mean?

• When creating soft sell marketing messages, which words reassure and establish a relationship quickly?

• Do you use “urgency” or “scarcity” in soft sell marketing?

• How do I sell without making a nuisance of myself?

• How can you close a sale without pushing too far?

• How do I train my brain to realize its ok to ask for the sale because what I am offering is of value of them and not just money for me?

• What are the pitfalls of soft sell marketing?

• How do I measure the success of soft sell marketing?

These are just a few of the questions that are included in Heart of Marketing.

Are you the type of business person or sales person who has a hard time with the traditional hard sell approach? You NEED to read this book. I learned long ago that you can make the sale and succeed with using hard sell techniques. This book takes that premise and walks you through the soft sell process. Even if you like the “hard sell” – you can learn valuable tips from this book and you may find ideas that you can incorporate into your current selling techniques. It could help you take your current success to a much higher level.

Are you an entrepreneur and business owner who wants their sales people to use the soft sell sales approach? You need to recommend this book to your sales team or better yet – buy copies for them and help them learn how to love your customers – your business will reap the benefits.  I worked with Judith and Jim on the campaign that helped them reach Amazon Best Seller status – now you can find out what all the excitement was about – and learn the soft sale tips that made this book a best seller.

Guerilla Marketing Weapons: 100 Affordable Marketing Methods For Maximizing Profits From Your Small Business by Jay Conrad Levinson

I’ve been a fan of the guerilla style of marketing for many years. It is the type of marketing approach I used for years and I was pleasantly surprised when I found the Guerilla Marketing website. That gave me the chance to find other marketing techniques that I could use in my promotional work. In these tough economic times – it is more important than ever to find inexpensive and effective ways to market our businesses.

First – you may be wondering: What is Guerilla Marketing? (Visit the official website for Guerilla Marketing)

The concept of guerrilla marketing was invented as an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Typically, guerrilla marketing campaigns are unexpected and unconventional; potentially interactive; and consumers are targeted in unexpected places. The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz, and consequently turn viral. The term was coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla Marketing. The term has since entered the popular vocabulary and marketing textbooks.

Guerrilla marketing involves unusual approaches such as intercept encounters in public places, street giveaways of products, PR stunts, any unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. More innovative approaches to Guerrilla marketing now utilize cutting edge mobile digital technologies to really engage the consumer and create a memorable brand experience. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing

As a business manager, business owner and promoter – I’m always on the lookout for inexpensive ways to promote – for my clients and myself. Let’s take a look at the table of contents:

Chapter 1 – The More Weapons You Use, The More Profit You Make

Chapter 2 – Weapons for the Outset – (The Building Blocks to Get You Started)

Chapter 3 – Weapons Not Recognized as Marketing – (Misc Items that Will Represent Your Business to the Public)

Chapter 4 – Weapons That Begin With Attitude – (Elements of Business When You Interact With Customers)

Chapter 5 – Weapons Overlooked By Non Guerillas – (Creative Ways to Get Promotional Exposure for Business)

Chapter 6 – Weapons That Make You Easy to Buy From – (Ways to Make It Easy For People to Buy From You)

Chapter7 – Weapons That Are Frequently Misused – (Tried and True Ways to Promote – That Many People Use Wrong)

Chapter 8 – Weapons That Produce Instant Results – (Many Ways to Interact With Your Potential Customers)

Chapter 9 – Weapons That Have Extra Fire Power – (Weapons That Cost More About Can Generate More Results)

Chapter 10 – A Strategy For Using the Weapons – (Details On The Most Effective Way to Use These Tools)

Those 10 chapters contain an arsenal of promotional weapons for your business. The book lists 100 weapons that you can use – and on page 12 – there is a list of 50 FREE promotional tools. Any and every business person should review that list before completing their business plan – these weapons are THAT important.  Each and every weapon is explained throughout the pages of this book.

If you want to use unique, creative and inexpensive marketing for your business – this is a book that needs to be in your office. I’ve had my copy for some time and it is dog eared – like all great books. It is a very easy read, easy to understand and even though it has been on the market for years — the information is invaluable. It will also give you some great insights into the sorts of things that are Guerilla Marketing tools. I would bet you have used many of these weapons in your business – and you may not have considered many of these to be promotional weapons. Realizing that they are part of your promotion could help you to use them more effectively.

Young Guns by Robert Tuchman

Young Guns: TheFearless Entrepreneur’s Guide too Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own by Robert Tuchman

Part of the American Dream is to own your own business. Millions of people have done this – but we also know that many people fail in business every year, many in the first years. So, is there a secret to succeeding as a new entrepreneur? There are a number of factors and Young Guns by Robert Tuchman is a very good place to get started.

Anyone who is in business for themselves knows that there are many things that make a difference in the success or failure of any business. I’ve managed businesses for over 20 years for a wide variety of business owners and usually I was hired to reorganize and fix struggling businesses. This gives me a unique perspective in the qualities and decisions that make a successful entrepreneur. So, I was very interested to read Young Guns and to see what Robert Tuchman had to say.

I cringe every time I hear someone say “All you need is a great idea and you’ll be a success.” I was participating in a writer’s conference symposium for business authors and the man beside me said that and I had to chime in and disagree. It made for an awkward hour – but it had to be said. So, I opened this book and waited to see if the author would say that. I’m very glad to report that he did not.

I was very glad that the first chapter is titled “Why Not Me?” What a great way to start the book? It made me even happier when I looked at the table of contents and found “The Idea” was chapter 3. This is the table of contents.

• Chapter 1 – Why Not Me?
• Chapter 2 – The Decision.
• Chapter 3 – The Idea.
• Chapter 4 – The First Test and The First Plan.
• Chapter 5 – The Partner Principle.
• Chapter 6 – Gut Check: Getting Started.
• Chapter 7 – Priorities for That First All-Consuming Year.
• Chapter 8 – You Are the Company.
• Chapter 9 – Technology: Our Generation’s Great Equalizer.
• Chapter 10 – Service is What You’re Selling.
• Chapter 11 – Back Up Your Sell.
• Chapter 12 – Inside Players: Your Team.
• Chapter 13 – Celebrate Failure, Reward Success.
• Chapter 14 – Your Vendor Relationships Matter.
• Chapter 15 – By The Numbers.
• Chapter 16 – Why Not You?

Robert Tuchman tells the reader to be sure that it is really a big idea. Just being excited about an idea isn’t enough and many times we hear that its only important to find something that the market needs. While these are all elements of a successful idea – Tuchman says that its also important to find something that you are truly interested in. This proves that my “big idea” probably wouldn’t be your “big idea”.

I’ve always said that people should never make the decision to start a business without putting together a business plan. This can be daunting, but its also very revealing. In Young Guns, Tuchman provides a simple game plan to help the aspiring entrepreneur get started. This is not a complete and in depth business plan, but it is enough to help you get started and to evaluate your idea to see if its feasible.

There is a chapter about business partners. Should you have one? If so, what sort of person should you choose? The right or wrong decision about a business partner can have a huge impact on your business and your life.

He talks in depth about service – just selling a product or service is not enough. You need to back up your product or service with great customer service. As I was told years ago by my grandfather – great customer service guarantees you have customers and without customers you won’t have a business.

These are just a few of the things I really enjoyed about Young Guns and I highly recommend it for a person who is considering starting their own business. This is a book that you can and should read before you have an idea – it could even spark a great business idea and he will also help you develop the skills you need to launch a business.

The Entrepreneurial Author: Surviving Tough Economic Times By Jay Conrad Levinson and David L Hancock

The Entrepreneurial Author: Surviving Tough Economic Times
By Jay Conrad Levinson and David L Hancock
Foreward by Rick Frishman

When I started doing promotional work, I was always given a limited budget. This meant that I had to get creative and that was one of the things that really appealed to me about promotional work. So, for a long time I was doing “guerilla” marketing – without knowing it. When I was asked to do a review for the new Jay Conrad Levinson book I was very pleased. Since David Hancock is a co-author, that made me even more interested in this book because I’ve enjoyed his entrepreneur author blog. David and I share many thoughts about how authors, especially business book authors, should approach their promotion. Many of these thoughts are included in the pages of The Entrepreneurial Author. Let me say in the beginning that this book is good for many entrepreneurs – not just authors.

Many books are coming out about how to do business in tough economic times and it seems that approach will be useful for the foreseeable future. So, our challenge is to find books that have quality and useful content. I was very pleased with the content in The Entrepreneurial Author. If you are a fan of the Guerilla Marketing books – you will enjoy this book. If you are an author who thinks your publisher is going to do all your promotion – you may not like the content, but you will learn a lot.

When you have a book on the market, you have created a product that you want to sell – that makes you a business person. So, all authors need the “entrepreneurial author” mindset. That is what this book is all about. In tough times, the people who approach their work with the right attitude, have a better opportunity to succeed. If you’re an author – do you approach your writing and book promotion as a business? If not, you need to read this book.

There are a number of great chapters in this book which are geared to working and promoting in a tough economy – such as: Tough Times Don’t Have to be as Tough as You Think, Importance of Stressing Value, Using Consent Marketing Now More Than Ever, Community Involvement During Tough Times, Attracting New Business During Tough Times and Online Marketing in a Shaky Economy.

Additional Chapters Include:
Free and Almost Free Marketing.
The Importance of Service During Tough Times.
Making Yourself the Talk of the Town.
Freebies That Can Lead to Serious Profits.
Getting Extra Mileage From Your Marketing.

I always advocate creativity and ingenuity in promotional efforts and tough economic times makes that even more important than usual. These are the times when we need to show potential clients that we offer great value. We also need to build our credibility for clients and that is a great reason for a business person to write a book.

This book starts at the beginning and helps you see the various options that are available to authors and can help you find the one that is best for you. Too many writers dive into publishing without doing sufficient research and it is amazing how much money this can cost you. The chapter on Tough Times Don’t Have to be as Tough as You Think is easily worth the cost of the book and it offers opportunities for authors and other business people. These tips help you reduce “the cost of marketing while reinforcing the customer relationship”.

I like books that draw you into the content and help you use the information within the book. The Entrepreneurial Author contains Exercises and Action Steps in each chapter to help you dig deeper into the content and also to actually take steps to start doing the work you need to do.

Guerilla Marketing is very much about using your mind and creativity instead of a big advertising budget. What better time could there be to learn how to promote effectively on a tight budget? The content is great and the time is definitely right – to learn to be an entrepreneurial author. Are you ready to take your books and your promotion to the entrepreneurial level? If you realize this is the time – you need to read this book —- now. I think you will be astounded by how far you can take your writing career and your business by using the information in this book.

Nikki Leigh – Author of Book Promo 201: Harness the Power of the Internet with Web 2.0 and Social Media Marketing

Get Noticed Get Referrals by Jill Lublin

How many times have you heard that you need to make a name for yourself? That’s something I’ve heard in many different contexts over the years. Get noticed, get referrals and networking – these are all powerful strategies that all business people should utilize.

Jill Lublin writes in an easy to understand manner that walks you through the process of getting noticed and getting referrals. This book focuses on getting noticed and networking in the real world, not on the internet. (But, I hear that her next book will deal with online promotion.)

Are you one of the entrepreneurs who feels that networking and generating referrals is something you could never do? Let’s think about that for a minute. What is a referral? Last time you saw a great movie or discovered a new restaurant, did you tell your friends about it? That is a referral. Have you ever had a friend recommend a doctor or a show? That is a referral. Getting and giving referrals can be just that easy. When people know you and understand what you do, it is easy for them to give you referrals.

Why do you want referrals? That’s easy, referrals are a great way to find new clients for your business. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Sorry, I do that when I talk about referrals and networking because I’ve seen the “magic” in action and it is wonderful for your business.

First you need to get noticed. That is the first thing that Jill Lublin helps you understand in her book. Take a few minutes and think about your business. How many times have you gotten what you need through a recommendation from someone else? It could be a location, a supplier, an advertiser or clients – any of these things can be recommended by another person. These are referrals.

We have to put forth the effort to “get out there”. This means that you have to get noticed through meeting people and interacting with them. Jill gives some great pointers on how to do this. One of my favorite points was “to be completely there”. This simply means that you need to focus on the person you meet and really get to know them. Don’t scan the room for “someone better”. You never know which person could be a key to your future, so focus on each person individually and get to know them. These are the first steps in beginning to build new business relationships.

Throughout the book, Jill Lublin gives us Action Plans. These are at the end of each chapter and they help the reader implement the information they have read. What good is the information if you can’t figure out how to use it in your business? She also provides a wonderful Client Worksheet to give us an idea of what matters we should discuss with a new client. This is only a sample, but could be used to develop a checklist that is appropriate for each of us. The checklist is only a part of the information in Chapter Two about how to deal with clients effectively.

One of the chapters I included was about myths and misconceptions. There are so many myths in business and she chose fourteen common misconceptions and explains why they are not true. It’s a short chapter, but it can be an eye opener.

Where can you go to get noticed and to start this process? Chapter Six gives plenty of examples of where to go and she even suggests that you can start your own group. Once you get “out there”, you need to make a good first impression. Before you go to those networking meetings or the chamber of commerce mixer, read chapter seven. Jill Lublin takes you step by step through the process of making a great first impression and getting started on the road to referrals.

Some advanced networking information includes:

Chapter 8 – Goals, Intentions and Strategies Chapter 9 – Cultivate the Media Chapter 11 – Focus, Focus, Focus Chapter 12 – Always Keep It Real Chapter 15 – Be Flexible and Keep Your Options Open The book contains a wide variety of information to help you get noticed and get referrals, but one of my favorite chapters is number fourteen – Service Makes a Difference. I don’t know about you, but I feel outstanding customer service is a thing of the past in many businesses today. Its sad, but how often have you gone into a business, emailed a business or called a business and been ignored or put on hold for an extended period of time?

Getting Noticed and getting referrals is a great start, but once you have the customer, you must knock their socks off with great customer service. Jill Lublin gives us the ten commandments of business, she tells us to be pleasant, respond to customers, encourage people to come back and to use heart centered marketing. Those are the subheadings in chapter fourteen, but I’ll let you discover the hidden treasures about how to give outstanding customer service.

I recommend this book for any business person who needs to learn how to get noticed. Even if you are getting noticed, are you getting referrals from others? If you aren’t getting referrals and your aren’t networking – you’re missing a big piece of the entrepreneurial puzzle. Jill Lublin’s new book can give you the networking pieces of the puzzle that you’re missing. You can learn much more about Jill Lublin and Get Noticed… Get Referrals at www.jilllublin.com and http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/06/jill-lublin-author-of-get-noticed-get.html