My little boy was watching some kids channel the other
night at his ya-ya’s (that’s greek for grandma’s) and
then a little story came on about the 3 little piggies.

Not sure if you’re familiar with that story but in case
you need a refresher it goes like this:

The big bad wolf threatens to blow the first house down. It
is made of sticks. He blows it down.

The first pig runs to the house made of sticks. And he
blows that one down too. Then both pigs run to the brick
house, but he cannot blow that one down and tries to
climb in through the chimney.

He lands in a pot of boiling water and calls out for
mercy. The pigs let him out and he never bothers
them again.

So why am I telling you this story?

Because I think it’s quite metaphorical from a
business sense.

The Big Bad Wolf is all those bad things which can
crush your business… the economy… a big competitor
moving in next door… etc.

And the reason why so many businesses are affected by
this is because their houses are made of straw or
sticks.

They don’t have customer generating strategies in place.
Their customer service is weak. They don’t know how to
convert leads. They don’t know how to get new leads
and so on.

And sometimes the wolf blows their house down.

So how do you go from a house of straw or sticks to a
house of bricks?

Marketing systems. That’s how.

In fact, that’s the most valuable thing you’ve got – your
ability to write sizzling ads and sales letters which make
the phone ring such as what you’ll learn at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/cashflow

Or having over a dozen customer generating strategies at
your fingertips such as what you’ll uncover at
http://www.morecustomersmadeeasy.com

Nothing will turn your business from sticks to bricks faster
than knowing how to get new customers. Don’t you agree?

If you disagree, please fire back a few thoughts and tell
me why I’m wrong and we can debate it in an upcoming email.

All for now,

Scott Bywater

Recently, I pulled out a copy of my book from the winner of Donald Trump’s Apprentice, Bill Rancic.

Now on page 111 of Bill’s book, You’re Hired, he talks about his cigar business and how he had built the business up through radio advertising.

However, when the sudden flush of dot-com advertisers came into the marketplace , advertising rates skyrocketed. Because of course, the rates were all based on supply and demand. The more demand – the higher the prices went.

Of course, that was great for the radio station, but not good for Bill’s business.

Now to cut a long story short, it was no longer viable for him to advertise. And he had to change his entire business operation.

Through some smart thinking, they moved the way they did business from mail order to on-premise sales.

However, it’s a very tough situation to end up in. And it could happen to any business that relies on one advertising strategy.

For instance:

- If you get most of your business from the internet: what happens when advertising rates rise? Or when it’s not so easy to get high search engine rankings? Or when pay per click rates go beyond an affordable price?

- If you send out heaps of email, what happens if the government starts charging for email?

- If you use fax streaming to generate leads, what happens if the government brings in rules which makes this marketing strategy illegal?

- If you rely on the Yellow Pages, have you ever considered the fact it could become less and less effective as people move online rather than relying on the book?

- If you rely on telemarketing to generate leads, what if the government outlaws it at some time in the future?

- What if your television advertising rates double?

My point is this. If you rely on one of anything, you are leaving yourself in an exposed position. Imagine building a house which balances on one pole. If that pole gets weak, down goes your house.

And it’s the same with your business.

Think ahead. Test a variety of lead generation strategies…

-Yellow pages
-Newspaper
-Fax streaming
-Internet
-Television
-Direct mail
-Radio
-Joint Ventures
-Referral Programs
-Seminars
-Database marketing

And anything else you can think of. That way… if the laws change… if the advertising rates go up… if all of a sudden one specific strategy stops working as well as it used to…

Your business will be safe.

And you are the one that has the power because you are not reliant on any particular advertising strategy.

Right now, write down the strategies you currently use to generate business. And then write down a few other ideas you can test, so you have 5 strategies to draw people into your business.

And let me know how you go…