It use to be that traveling was affordable and fun. That’s no longer so now that gas is near four dollars per gallon, and over four dollars per gallon in some places. Then when you consider how the dollar is growing weak it’s not a suprise that prices have gone up in the hotel and travel industries, regardless of the official inflation number says. However, business must go on and fortunately there are a many new technologies to help us do business without the expense of travel, like video conferencing.

I and definitely not advocating personal contact isn’t important. Sharing a meal, playing a game of golf, and actually shaking hands are still great ways to build a relationship and close the deal. But that has become a very costly way of doing business. Today there are many ways to stay in touch and connected while actually saving time and not spending a fortune.

It’s just a matter of choosing the best productivity tools for you and avoiding the pit falls. That’s all.

Cell phones, for example, allow you to stay in touch virtually anywhere on the planet, but productivity goes down the drain if you allow yourself to become a slave to them (think of the Crackberry BlackBuried Blackberry addiction of some of your colleagues).

Email is still a terrific way to communicate. However, if you don’t manage you contacts well you may end up spend a lot of time sorting through spam or you’ll risk losing an important message from the spam filter.

Instant messaging (i.e., texting) is great for quick answers and resolving issues. Just don’t let the conversation drag on, or get caught up texting with friends who have a lot of time to waste.

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing using a service like Skype can have the warmth of personal contact and the efficiency of electronic communication. The interplay between you and the people on the other side of the connection is immediate. A video conference can be run on computer anywhere there is a connection.

A video conference ran well provides the same benefits of a face-to-face meeting but much more cost effectively. The current technology allows you to make presentations, provide a seminar (webinar), or have a one-on-one with electronic documents or multimedia, while seeing and interfacing with the other person (people) in real time.

Resources:

• Video Conferencing

Making Money With Voice Mail

Although this money-making is continuously being marketed as “a way to make money with your answering machine”, new technology has actually rendered this idea obsolete.

With the proliferation of voice mail, fax-back service, and very inexpensive computerized voice processing systems, the answering machine, with its limited one-call-at-a-time capacity, is no longer ideal for making money.

With the advent of this new technology, the concept has also expanded to a variety of processes which you can use to make money.

PEOPLE MUST CALL

With answering machines, the only way you can make money is when people call you up. Since an answering machine is hooked up to a specific phone number, and since it does not advertise on its own, you will have to establish ways to attract people to call your phone number so that people can listen to the message recorded on your answering machine.

THE MESSAGE IS THE KEY

The message recorded on your answering machine is the key to your ability to make money.

The message can instruct people to send money for information about any subject matter, or instruct callers to leave their name and address so you can send them a sales brochure. The information you have recorded on your machine should be encouraging and convincing enough to motivate the caller to do what you have instructed.

THE 1-MINUTE SPIEL

Think of your recording as a radio commercial. Since callers have short attention span, used to hearing radio and TV spots that are not more than 1 minute long it is advisable that you limit the length of your message to about 1 minute, 2 minutes tops!

GETTING THE CALL & COLLECTING PAYMENT

Whatever it is you are selling, and by which you are using your answering machine or service, your primary challenge will be in two areas:

1. How you can advertise and make your telephone number known to as many people as possible.
2. How you are going to collect payment for whatever it is you are selling.

SELLING THE INFORMATION

One of the most popular topics sold on “answering machine schemes” is information about how people can make money with their answering machine.

This is worn out and very unimaginative. More than likely, your caller will feel insulted and not order whatever literature, report or booklet you want them to order.

Remember, if you want to have a recorded sales message over the telephone, use a voice mail service, which may cost you around $8 a month.

IDEA: HOW ABOUT A NATIONAL “HELP” LINE?

Mail order dealers better get geared up. Everyone in America is thinking about starting their own business. A large majority of these people will choose mail order because they don’t like selling door-to-door or face-to-face.

Newcomers to the mail order industry normally ask the same types of questions. Us old-timers remember the misconceptions and misunderstandings we had when we first began our business. Who helped us? Someone always came along that we formed a friendship or telephone relationship with that taught us. Some of us spent time reading articles written by other people (like the report you’re reading now). Someone, somewhere, has to help a newcomer in mail order to become successful. It’s inevitable!

A lady at the grocery store the other day said she’d like to get involved in mail order. I handed her a tabloid to look through at her leisure, but she said she would feel strange writing to these ads since they were all from large companies! She had no idea that if she opened her own mail order business, she would have a company name also and appear to be one of these large companies too! This is just one of the many misconceptions newcomers have toward the mail order industry.

Another misconception is that mail order is a rip-off world — which we know is entirely untrue! Some of the best products and services are obtained through the mail! Just look at Walter Drake and Lillian Vernon as examples! Ed McMahon and Dick Clark even jumped on the mail order bandwagon with their Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes!

The general public entering mail order for the first time cannot understand how the concept works. They are used to going into a store, looking at an item and purchasing it. Mail order (as we all know) is quite different. In fact — it’s so simple to start a mail order business that most people can’t believe they can do it. But with the proper education, these people can become thriving, money-making companies — ones that will remember YOU as introducing them to the market.

The Idea

If someone started a National Help Line for questions and answers for newcomers it would not only be a big help — but a fantastic money-maker for its owner. All it takes is establishing a 900 line (how about 1-900-FUN-MAIL) to handle calls and a person to answer the questions. In fact, you might use the service to direct business to other mail order dealers by having them submit monthly dues in order to have business referred to them.

Suppose a newcomer wanted to get involved in publishing their own booklets. Several competent mail order publishers would buy the right to have this type of business referred to them. The newcomer calls your 1-900 number (an income for you) and you refer them to the mail order dealers (another income for you.) If handled honestly and legitimately — this could turn into a pot-of-gold for you and help our entire mail order and small business industry as a whole!

The only thing left to do now is advertise the 1-900 number service you have. Initially, you will have to invest into advertising; and with something of this magnitude you should advertise in some national publications as well as adsheets and tabloids. National publications like Small Business Opportunities, Income Opportunities, and Entrepreneur will give you a much greater circulation. Also — don’t overlook the opportunity to advertise in your local Penny Savers and community-type newspapers. These rates are normally lower than one-day advertising and could generate lots of initial business for you.

Another benefit to the person who would be establishing the 1-900 hotline would be that he or she could promote their own products and services, as well as obtain names and address of hot prospects; in which they could sell in the form of mailing lists.

One example of this idea in action is being done by Thomas McCrary, owner of USAPrinting & Advertising. You call his USA National Opportunity Hotline at (708) 429-4301 and respond to advertisers you see in his monthly tabloid. These ads all have a 3-digit number to call so you can leave your message.

Although this is only one idea for using your phone to generate profits — the area is still open to start a “900 Number”. I don’t think it will be long before someone does this — but you may still have time to get the idea off the ground in your own neck of the woods!