Think of your business as a human being for a second – a person you know and love and who is under your protection . Your business, just like your body is an organism. Your body, just like your business consists of many interconnected systems and functions that together ensure the smooth running of operations. Your body has blood flow, your business has cash flow. When something goes wrong with either one, you’re in trouble.
Invasion of HIV – You know how it works right? This HIV evil virus attacks your blood cells, disabling your body’s immune system basically making it impossible to defend against invading diseases and viruses. When an HIV attack turns into an AIDS condition, a common flu can become as dangerous as cancer because your immune system isn’t functioning. Here’s how this works in a business…
HIV In Business
Your business has it’s own set of viruses to deal with – viruses that attack your organizations immune system, making it weak. They do this by messing with your cash and as a result your ability to defend against competitors, economic instability or unpredictable market conditions. Once your business is completely unable to fight off these ‘viruses’ a small bill can be as dangerous to your business as the common flu is to someone with full blown AIDS. When your business has an infected cash-flow, you can not;
- pay your staff
- afford to promote your products or brand
- fulfill on orders
- expand your product range
- make a difference with your service.
As the saying goes “AIDS is a killer”. Medical scientists have no cure for the kind that attacks your body, but in business… smart marketers do. Let me show you how to cure AIDS.
Statistics tell us that in America, 98% of businesses started will die – In Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa, that figure is a lot higher. Predictably, the number one reason entrepreneurs site for business failure? Lack of capital or cash flow.
The problem is, very few people actually know WHY the lack the capital or cash flow is the number one problem entrepreneurs. Why do you lack capital when there are so many businesses, individuals and organizations who could benefit immensely from giving you money and are even actively looking for you?!
The problem is marketing – or the lack of effective marketing skill to be exact.
Here’s the cure for the no capital/bad cash-flow problem: Marketing Leverage
EVERYTHING you need to get your business up and moving at lightning speed ALREADY exists. All the money you need to make cash flow or capital problems a thing of the past ALREADY exists. It’s just that the money (and skills, talent, equipment, information etc) is in someone else’s hands. Marketing is what gets this money into YOUR hands.
Get this – Marketing is by far the most powerful kind of leverage in business because it’s the fastest, most flexible and reliable way to make things happen. Marketing can give you so many angels to raise money for your business, it’s amazing. Take for example getting an investor to put in some money.
Follow these four steps from my book Cash Baron Secrets.
- Find out who is predisposed to giving you the money. In other words, do your homework to discover who is most likely to put up the money. That means you don’t go to your broke uncle who is trying to start-up his own business to ask for the money. He may care about you, but he isn’t ‘predisposed’ to giving his last few dollars to you.
- Make him an offer he can’t refuse. The reason he can’t refuse your offer is because you’re offering too much of something he really wants. This often requires a masterful understanding of what this person is motivated by. Remember money is an idea, a concept in our heads. Most people aren’t really after money. They are after the things they believe money will give them. They’re after how lots of money will make them feel. You NEED to understand this concept. Whatever they want, money or something else – your job is to show them how they can get it, IF they give you what you want. I wish I could go into more detail about this now, it’s such a powerful realization for deal making.
- Reduce or eliminate the risk. In every business transaction, there is a risk element. Usually it’s one sided and the person paying the money is the one bearing it. If you want to put your marketing on steroids, make it a priority to find ways of reducing the risk involved in doing business with you. Doesn’t matter if the risk is real or just perceived – the more of it is involved, the less people will trust you, buy from you or invest in you. There are many ways to do this. Read the book to see some examples of how I’ve done it.
- Give Up Control. Not control of your business (I’d avoid this whenever possible), but give up control of the transaction. Ever asked a kid with a packet of sweets for a few? Usually he’ll hold the packet in such a way as to ‘control’ how many sweets you can take. Same goes for business. When you allow people to feel in control of the movement of their investment…they going to feel very safe. The more you’re asking for, the greater the need for this.
There you have it! First time I shared this with a few people, some thought it sounded too simple. Only after I’d taken him though several simple and complicated examples did he see that all business transactions come down to these four factors. Master them and you’ll always have a cure for when a virus attacks your cash flow.
In Cash Baron Secrets I showed how
- I got one business to give me 12 months worth of marketing at their own expense
- how I got $500 worth of newspaper advertising with no cash
- how I got a just in time cheque from a complete stranger who didn’t even like me!
In the book I only included simple examples that I used when I was just starting out. I had no money, no big name, no nothing! All I had was the knowledge of these four principles and the guts to try them.
So if it feels like your business cash flow is infected by HIV AIDs, then it’s time you got serious about your marketing, and in particular, these four Cash Baron Secrets.
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this is one of the great articles that has helped me a lot thank you very much Blogging