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My secret
to success is belief in myself and that I am my own authority
at the end of the day. Silently lead people without making a song
and dance about it, and you set them free.
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Rob
Taylor
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Brought
to you in partnership with Rod Beckwith - http://mrjv.com
Highest Education: High
School
Year Started Business:
1995
Type Of Business: Publishing
Target Market: "My
ideal customer is male, age 40+, married, college education, earns over
$50,000, home owner, and self employed."
Best Month (Gross Revenues):
$50,000
Hours Worked Per Week During
Startup Phase: 60 to 70 hours a week
Hours Worked Per Week Now:
30 to 40 hours a week
Favorite Business Books
Or Authors:
- Influence, by Robert
B. Caldini - "A fascinating study on the psychology of persuasion."
- Million Dollar Mailings,
Denison Hatch - "A magnificent collection of direct mail money
makers. Excellent study if you want to learn what makes a successful
direct mail letter."
- Magic Words That
Bring You Riches, Ted Nicholas - "The audio series gives an excellent
induction into copywriting and the power of words."
Relaxes By: Walking
in the wilderness with friends and family
Keeps In Shape By: Visiting
the gym three times a wee, and walking everyday
Favorite Part Of The Job:
Creating marketing strategies - "I love pulling a successful method
from one marketing area and integrating it with another to create a more
effective and efficient way to conduct my business. "
Least Favorite Part Of The
Job: Giving refunds - "I don’t like it when people ask for
a refund because it means that I have not delivered a product to my customer
in a way that benefited them. That being said, my refund rate is very
low."
Companies Admired:
- Green & Blacks - "A
fair-trade organic chocolate company. A great example of capitalism
with kindness."
- The Body Shop - "A
green capitalist company that has a good balance between social and
environmental responsibility and profit incentive.
- Google - "A forward
thinking company that appears to have created a healthy corporate working
philosophy and environment for staff. I love the fact that staff members
are allowed to spend 20% (I think) of their time “dreaming”
new projects for Google to get involved in. Gmail was a result of one
of these “dreaming sessions.”
Favorite Quotes:
- There are no unimportant
people in the world.—Ted Nicholas
- Do not let your fire
go out, spark by irreplaceable spark...Do not let the hero in your soul
perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never
been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The
world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible,
it is yours.—Ayn Rand
- The universe is not going
to see someone like you again in the entire history of creation.—Vartan
Gregorian
People Admired: David
Charlesworth (Top UK cabinet maker) - "He taught me the principle
of working to your best. Not perfection, but simply when creating, to
create with a burning love for what you do and never settling for mediocrity."
Number Of Months Before
Achieving A Profit: Month one
Books/Tapes/Reports Authored:
"My most recent project has been Directory Profits, which shows you
how to quickly and easily create in-demand information products without
the chore of writing, hiring costly ghostwriters, or setting up interviews
with experts. It’s available at http://www.directoryprofits.com."
Contact Rob At: Phone
- 0207-900-1720 (UK); E-Mail - info@megastep.com
GETTING STARTED TIPS:
I'm starting
a home business next month. I have a maximum of $3,000 in start-up capital.
Where should I invest it?
Assuming you already have a
product to sell, I would spend $2,000 of it hiring a good copywriter.
Although $2,000 is not much to pay, it will certainly get you a halfway
decent copywriter. Then, spend $50 on Scriptlance.com getting someone
to build you a direct response sales site using the sales letter from
your copywriter. Take credit card payments using 2checkout.com ($50 setup
fee). Then, I would spend $500 on pay-per-click advertising and ezine
advertising. Get your metrics first, and spend your time tweaking your
site for maximum conversion. How well does you Website convert? Spend
$70 a month on 1shoppingcart.com, which comes with a built in affiliate
program, autoresponders, digital product delivery etc. etc. After you’ve
got your metrics, go and approach people in your market and set up joint
ventures using the affiliate program in 1shoppingcart to track their sales.
I've
just started a home business. My spouse has given me six months to make
it work. Any advice?
See my answer above. A good
copywriter is worth their weight in gold. You can have the best product
in the world, but if the sales letter doesn’t convert, you may as
well not bother. I see so many badly written sales letters, that I wonder
how so many folk actually make any money.
Also, it is essential that you proactively go and hunt down super affiliates
and joint venture partners. Don’t rely on people finding you; they
won’t in the early days.
They
say it takes money to make money. Should I try to get a small business
loan for my startup capital or just try to get by with my own limited
finances?
I have never borrowed any
money from any bank...ever. I used my own funds and simply kept putting
the returns back into my company. That being said, if you have no money
but a good business plan, then, providing the figures add up, a bank might
lend you money. And if you really believe in your project, why not back
yourself by asking the bank for a loan?
TECHNOLOGY & TOOLS:
How
quickly do you adopt new technology for your business?
Pretty much immediately if
I see that it has value to my business.
How do
you use e-mail in your business?
It is my primary way to follow
up on my leads and with my customers.
How do
you utilize the Internet?
I sell exclusively online.
It’s super fast for getting product to a market and delivering the
product to my customers.
How many
of your own Website(s) do you have?
I have over 15 sites; 75% of
them are used for lead generation. The rest sell product.
Do
you use autoresponders?
Absolutely! I setup a Website
whose sole purpose is to get a lead to optin for a free report, audio,
or book. I then follow up with messages over a period of weeks. This method
dramatically increases the sale conversions for my products.
Describe
your computer system and how you use computers in your business.
I simply use a laptop to run
my business and have done so for the last four years.
What software
do you consider in the "must-have" category?
Website integrated to an autoresponder.
What other
technology do you use in your business?
I only use a laptop. I am
very much into minimalism when it comes to technology. Less is more.
Name up
to five personal favorite business URL's our readers can benefit from:
http://www.bmyers.com
http://forum.marketingsecrets.com
http://www.robsblog.co.uk
http://www.webmasterworld.com/home.htm
http://www.seochat.com
Of all
the technology you use, rank the top three. Why do you consider these
to be the top three?
- Autoresponders - Quite simply,
if you aren’t regularly following up with your prospects and customers,
you’re leaving a ton of cash on the table.
- Gmail - My ability to sort,
file, and remove spam from my e-mail has taken a quantum leap since
using Gmail. I’ll never go back to using a desktop e-mail client
like Outlook Express or Eudora. Plus I can easily access my e-mail while
on the road, anywhere in the world without lugging my laptop around.
- Ad Trackers: If you don’t
track, you don’t know which of your marketing campaigns are making
you money. It’s just plain dumb not to use an ad tracker.
MARKETING & ADVERTISING:
How
do you market on the Internet?
Pay-per-click marketing, ezine
advertising, joint ventures, affiliates, search engine optimization, direct
mail, and writing articles.
Approximately
what percentage of your sales originate from Internet marketing?
90%.
How do
you market in direct marketing?
I only use postcards.
Approximately
what percentage of your sales originate from Internet marketing?
10%.
Do
you use a toll-free number?
Yes I do. When I have ever
done print advertising, I always used a toll-free number. It dramatically
increased my number of prospects and also my profits, but I also see the
reasoning behind not using one.
Where
do you market (locally, nationally, internationally, all three?).
Internationally.
THE HOME OFFICE:
How
should someone set up his/her home office to maximize its effectiveness?
A laptop with an Internet connection
in a spare room.
What,
if any, ground rules have you established for yourself and family in order
to operate a successful home business?
Keep regular business hours.
Don’t work weekends unless it’s essential. Shut the office door
at the end of the day.
What
are some of the advantages to working at home? What are some of the disadvantages?
Advantages: Work when you
like. You control your time. Disadvantages: Very easy to sneak back into
the office to just “do something for five minutes” which ends
up being hours! You can feel isolated if you don’t make an effort
to get out of your office and off the Internet and do “non-business
related” activities.
MANAGEMENT STYLE:
What part(s)
of your work do you farm out?
Admin and order processing/fulfillment.
What
part(s) do you feel should never be farmed out?
Customer service. Train in-house
staff, never outsource it. Your customer service is a lifeline to future
profits. Treat a customer badly once, and they’ll remember it for
life and tell their friends.
Do you
encourage or discourage Partnerships?
I’ll never have a business
partner, simply because I have experienced and seen too many of them turn
sour with nasty legal implications.
Do
you encourage or discourage hiring family members?
I encourage hiring family
members. Hopefully, they are people who work from the same business ethos
and aren’t afraid to speak out when you do something wrong…or
right.
When
legal issues arise, what's your usual response?
Pay the price and walk away.
MONEY & INVESTMENTS:
What are
the advantages of earning a lot of money. What are some disadvantages?
Advantages: It buys you physical
freedom. Disadvantages: The tax authorities and other freeloaders think
they have a right to even more of your money.
Best
general tax advice?
Pay for the best tax counsel
you can afford, and never mess with the tax authorities.
Best general
investment advice?
Choose your own investments,
rather than use a fund manager.
You're
in business already, and you've just received a windfall of $20,000. What
would you do with it?
Hire even better copywriters
than the ones I already use to try and beat my controls. Then invest what’s
remaining in marketing campaigns and in creating new product. I’d
also pay myself $2,000.
THE ROAD AHEAD:
In
five years, I'll be...
100% mobile; arootless cosmopolitan.
I’m on this planet to play and explore. I want to see the world and
live in a few other countries before I hang up my shoes.
In
10 years, I'll be...
Still learning.
POWERFUL IDEAS:
What was
the motivating factor that drove you to start your own business?
Freedom.
What role,
if any, did your family play when you were getting your business off the
ground?
Total support from my wife.
What motivates
you now to continue building your business?
Achieving my goals.
What's
the best thing about being self-employed?
My time/life is my own. I
don’t need to ask anyone’s permission to do what I want with
my life.
The
most underrated activity in business is…
Customer service. From what
I see, most folks only pay lip service to it.
The
most overrated activity in business is…
Making money.
Money will not buy you happiness. Money only buys “comforts.”
A t the end of the day, you still have to deal with and face yourself.
What was
the biggest obstacle you had to face when you were launching your own
business? What's your biggest obstacle now?
Utter terror at failure. Nowadays,
I have to overcome my innate laziness.
If
you had to start your business all over again, what would you do differently?
Rollout my product(s) quicker.
What was
your worst business decision?
Seeing opportunities months
before anyone else and not acting on my inherent ability to spot trends.
What was
your best business decision?
Leaving employment and setting
up on my own. I got my life back.
What do
you consider to be the main keys of your success?
Persistence. Persistence.
Persistence. When you have fallen down, the only way to make a success
of things is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and go back into
the trenches to fight another day.
What's
your success philosophy?
Love your customer as yourself.
How do you want to be treated? With respect I hope, rather than being
seen as cattle needing to be milked!
What
about you has changed the most since finding success in business?
Toughened up to the twits who
try and take advantage of my good nature. There’s always one or two
out there who don’t have better things to do with their lives than
act as saboteurs.
What is
the legacy you hope to leave?
To be a silent inspiration
to others who crave freedom in this un-free world.
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