BJM Free Press |

A New Form Of Networking

Seventy percent of Americans belong to one association. Twenty five percent belong to four or more associations.

Our professional existence is held together by the network of people with whom we share common interests, even common goals.

As technology gives us new ways to link up, communicate and share ideas, our need to identify with a collective presence reflects our need to become more significant.

Today, this need is being fulfilled by privately organized, managed and funded trade associations.

For-Profit

If there is anything that drives any venture to succeed, the principal motivation is profit - the commercial purpose for which any trade activity exists.

Because we still maintain a mindset that associations should not be a money-making venture, it is difficult to imagine a trade association as a for-profit representative body of a particular trade.

However, as the efficiency, agility and productiveness of for-profit trade associations become evident, members become more confident that operating a for-profit trade association is the only way to guarantee that the association will remain productive and beneficial to its members.

Objectives

Unless your primary reason for creating a trade association is to lobby issues in Washington, your association’s principal objective should more or less focus on information sharing.

If you are creating a trade association as a forum for its members to share ideas about their trade, it is essential that you provide your members this vehicle by which they can communicate, maybe even interact.

Beyond Membership

Since most associations get started with low membership dues, usually in the $20 to $30 bracket. Many associations are lucky to break even on membership dues alone. To guarantee its healthy existence, its financial foundations should expand beyond being exclusively dependent on membership dues.

Although most trade associations start off with a newsletter, it is in an ideal position to organize conventions (that provide members a forum to network, meet suppliers, and hear experts) which can be a prime money-maker for the association.

The Prize Is Always Right

Giving away a prize as an incentive to sell a product or solicit a donation is a time-tested marketing ploy that never fails. The only problem is that the market has become oblivious to sweepstakes.

Promoters are giving away the same old prizes time and time again. Without adding anything exciting to the sweepstakes, you might as well offer $10 million or your efforts (or your product or charitable cause) are likely to be ignored.

In this age of mega-million lotteries, the type or value of prizes offered speak the language of the market. If your product is just as good as that of your competition, or if your charity is just as worthy as any other that seeks donations, then you’d better spike your campaign with a sweepstakes that is unique as can be.

THE PRIZE

A few years ago, a church in Daly City, a bedroom community west of San Francisco was planning a fund raising campaign that involved selling “raffle” tickets to the congregation.

The plan was to sell the tickets for around $5 each, and for which one lucky ticket holder could win the grand prize of a brand new Toyota Tercel.

To say the least, the idea was worn out and unimaginative. A friend coordinating the project decided the raffle could be improved, and consulted me on what the fund raising committee can do to make the sweepstakes more attractive.

My suggestion was to give a different prize. Why not give away a business - a store!!!

VIDEO STORE PRIZE

We went to a new strip mall that was being constructed and leased a storefront for $1,100 a month.

Next we ordered signs and shelves and an initial inventory of 1,200 used video tapes for which we spent a total of $15,000.

For under $20,000, we were able to put together the basic framework of an operational video store. We hanged a banner outside that says “You can win this store. Call for info”.

$200 A TICKET

Because the church wanted to raise $25,000, we decided to sell 250 tickets at $200 each - for a total of $50.000.

Out of this amount, $20,000 will pay for the grand prize, $25,000 goes to the church and $5,000 for my friend for organizing the project which lasted for 6 weeks.

To achieve the same results, and using instead an $8,000 car as a prize, it would require the church to 8,000 tickets at $5 each, a much more difficult fund-raiser by comparison.

How To Get 100,000 People To Send You $10 Each

NO! It’s not what you think. Although the title of this material may appear quite gimmicky, it is really about one of the best information products on the market.

CONTENTS

What you have in your hands is called PowerGuide, an all-inclusive how-to business system that include an audio cassette seminar, a computer software, an information guide sheet, and Gift Certificate redeemable for over $50 worth of promotional merchandise offered by participating sponsors.

THE $10 HOTCAKE

If you sell a PowerGuide for $10, plus $3 shipping & handling you’ll make a profit of $10 because it costs around $3 to produce, package and ship a single PowerGuide.

R.A.P. PUBLICATION

Aside from the information it offers, the freebies and its attractive packaging, Power Guide has a feature that is unlike any other publication or how-to product offered in the market. PowerkGuide is an RAP (Rights Acquired Purchase) publication. This means that anyone who buys a PowerGuide also acquires the non-exclusive rights to reproduce and sell that PowerGuide title. The more PowerGuide titles you buy, the more variety you can sell.

LICENSEE PACKAGE

A Licensee Package, usually referred to as Distributor Kit, is an all-inclusive package which contains the designs, material, and the rights to 24 PowerGuide titles. Each Licensee Package contains all the tools and master designs needed to produce the 24 different PowerGuide titles included in the package.

Licensee Packages sell anywhere between $49 and $179. If you sell Licensee Packages, you have to determine your own selling price, depending on where and how you intend to market PowerGuide Licenses.

DROPSHIP

You can sell Licensee Packages on a dropship basis. Instead of making copies of materials and producing your own packages, it would be easier for you to send Brandel $12 along with the name and address of the customer to whom Brandel would send its most current License Package.

If you sell a Licensee Package for $49, you keep the $37 profit for yourself.

Zip Code Phonebook Yellow Pages

A California-based research company has been extensively doing studies on U.S. ZIP (Zone Improvement Program) Codes, they can now predict, with certain percentage of accuracy, what you ate for breakfast based on your zip code.

Zip Code is the smallest, most organized accumulation of information by which we can evaluate the demographic flavor of a given area.

From a marketing standpoint, most retail businesses use zip code along with the Pareto Principle that 80% of your customers reside within the zip codes that connect to your location. In theory, they live no more than 7 miles from where you are.

A CHANGING MARKETPLACE

The phonebook we have grown accustomed to was developed over 30 years ago. Only it has grown in terms of thickness, weight, and aesthetic design.

From a marketing perspective, except for its dominance and near monopoly, it has been rendered useless by a more mobile and more efficient market.

When the Yellow Pages was first introduced, the world “malls”, “strip malls”, “executive centers”, and “postal & mail box centers” were unknown to American consumers.

Today, it is easier for us to dial directory assistance or look online than it is to use the phonebook.

USE OLD PATTERNS

To make it easy for advertisers and consumers to swallow something new, make it look like it’s old. So, use simple patterns and designs borrowed from old phonebooks, including rates charged for your territory.

Establish your advertising rates based on the number of homes and businesses your Zip Code phonebook is going into.

You can cover as many Zip Codes as you want, just make sure you do not pile up a marketplace so large you are practically competing with the phone company. The best rule of thumb is to break the phone company’s general distribution area into 7 phonebooks.

GTE used to have what they called “The Neighborhood Phonebook”. I think the reason it died is that it broke down its neighborhood either very conceptually or too similar to the way all other phonebooks do. Advertisers want solid numbers. Zip Codes are solid. Just ask the postal service.

A Home For Start-Ups

The primary reason businesses start at home, or with a meager P.O. Box is because, renting an office can be very expensive.

On top of your basic rental you will have to worry about buying and setting up some tables and chairs and bother yourself with a lot of moving-in blues when you should actually be concentrating on one thing: making money.

Therefore, for many start-ups, the kitchen table offers a “ready-to-go” alternative which is also rent-free. But what if there’s an office “Cube” with a desk, a phone, access to a copy machine and a fax machine? What if it has a common secretary receptionist who can type your letter and charge you only based on the amount of work done? What if this office were to rent out at $200 a month? Would you take it?

INCUBATOR

Many profitable businesses are born and raised in incubator situations. A mini office is just that - a slightly bigger mailbox where you can physically show up and do your work.

It’s an ideal breeding ground for start-ups with limited capital, yet need legitimate workspace that either the kitchen or a mailbox can offer. This is where you come in.

THE LAYOUT

Picture this mini office in a middle range commercial location. The ideal space for you to rent would be around 1,800 square feet.

You can build wall-to-wall cubicles that are about 5 x 5 each. Including common areas and a small corner for your secretary, fax and copy machines, you can have 30 Cubes that can each rent out for $200 a month.

If all your cubes are rented out, this will give $6,000 in gross rental revenues.

If you can lease your space for around $0.75 per square foot, your 1,800 sqft space will cost you $1,350 a month.

Add to this the salary of the secretary, and your margin can still be at around 50% of your gross rental revenue, or roughly $3000.

In addition to your rental revenues, you will also make money on copies, faxes and secretarial functions.

BIGGER SPACES

The “office cube” concept can be applied to nearly any combination of size and location and the extent of service you want to offer your tenants.

In this age of entrepreneurship, the one-person business is very common, so it will not be difficult to find start-ups looking for an office situation like yours.