Any ideas on how I can find people interested in a non-franchise business opportunity? Is there a website that I can post an ad for free? Any organizations for non-franchise business opportunity? I set up ergonomics clinics for selected qualified applicants; but have a hard time finding enough people. So far just set up a few clinics in Canada and want to increase the rate of opening new clinics in the USA and Europe.

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Jay’s Answer: It depends on the investment amount & terms you’re offering. If it’s a relatively small amount, classified ads (both print, Craigslist, or on investment websites). If it’s larger amounts, talk to your lawyer and banker and ask them “who you should talk to”. Also, create a simple one-page website advertising your opportunity. It’s inexpensive and may help find the person looking for exactly what you’re trying to sell.

We have been in business for a few years and is looking for some new ways to expand our business. We do not have a store front and have done most of our business through word of mouth and show style events. However, we feel a need to grow into the area of online sells. What is the best way to begin doing business online?

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Jay’s Answer: Create a website. Take pictures (both low and high-resolution) of the things you want to sell and create great descriptions of them. Allow people to order things and ship them (charging appropriately based on distance, customs, etc.). Use the keywords in your site that people are searching for. Have other businesses (including online directories) link to your new site.

Because people are being saturated with marketing messages, your message needs to be on-target but also worth remembering.

To keep your website’s content memorable, incorporate more than text to your site: photos, videos, audio, surveys, widgets, etc. The goal is the different components should “fit” into a larger picture for your marketing strategy’s success.

For example, the free Jingle Generator is an attempt to use interactive media to build extra interest in the company’s offerings. The core idea is to attract small business owners to create a canned jingle (for a radio spot). The experience is fun. Here’s a jingle it generated for Many Good Ideas:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The marketing campaign attracts the target market (small business), but it doesn’t connect the jingle (the piece) with how the company can help improve your business (the big strategy picture).

You don’t just want website traffic. You want traffic that wants to pay for your products or services.

Quick! What is this advertising image being used to sell?

1. Spa makeover
2. Plastic surgery
3. Real estate financing
4. Escort service

Here’s the complete ad copy:

For the “green” in real estate financing Fiona has you covered with the best rates and products in real estate financing!

Does the ad “work?” It’s certainly memorable. The person is clearly confident of their looks and wants to stand out. However, is this image and copy sufficient for convincing prospects to use her services?

Here are some suggestions I’d make to improving the ad:

• Use the image, reinforce the copy. Instead of being clever with “green”, tie in the feeling that the image conveys: confidence, vitality, success. For example, “Does Your Financing Make You Feel This Good?”
• Use the image, make the copy shocking. For example, “I Love the Feel Of Money. Let Me Show You How To Feel More, Too”
• Make the image and copy more memorable. A naked silhouette with copy such as, “I Find Attractive Real Estate Financing”.
• Change the image, strengthen the copy. Instead of showing a semi-naked person, show a home made of stacks of dollar bills. The copy could read, “Homes Are Made Of Money. Save More Financing With Me.”

What other images and copy would you suggest?

I compose and write children’s music and am in the process of completing my 4th children’s music CD of edutainment. I have marketed the music online, through articles and columns I write for Children’s magazines, music performances at book stores, malls, schools and community events and through the educational market. However I have found that the “mommy market” is mainly looking for things that are “free”. They love the music but don’t want to pay for the CD or downloads so sales are slow and I am not sure why. Because I like to give it away for free (it’s easy to give it away, much harder to charge for it!) I am thinking about finding sponsors who would be interested in getting their business name out their by sponsoring the products and benefiting by have their business in front of the many educators, moms and children I perform for with the music and books I write. In return for their sponsorship I would distribute my products with their logo on them, have their names on a banner at all my performances, provide them with an ad on m¥ website and provide them with the opportunity to make a difference with young children who might not be able to afford a music CD or children’s book with a message about healthy hygiene and good habits like brushing teeth, covering your nose when you sneeze, etc. Currently I see about 20,000 children a year in the local market. My dilemma is that I have never done anything like finding sponsorship before and am not sure how to begin. Is there anyone who has marketed their products this way? If so any advice would be much appreciated. What is the best way to get your foot in the door with some of the larger companies of the medical industry that might benefit from children learning about healthy habits and hygiene through music. I have tested the music on a variety of different children in many different settings and economic groups to make sure it holds their attention, they enjoy the songs and lyrics and the mom’s and teachers enjoy the music as well. The response when they hear the music and the hits to my website looking for my performance dates show that the music works, so I’m perplexed as to what to do to increase product sales.

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Jay’s Answer: Before you go off and try to find sponsors (which may be a very good idea), I’d focus on the sales themselves. Otherwise, you’ve just added another job for you: finding sponsors, making presentations, changing your CDs/marketing materials, etc.

You have some great numbers. It sounds like you have analytics installed on your site, so you do know that people are visiting. Consider the model that Amazon is doing: letting people listen to 30 second snippets of the music. Give them a reason to stick around. To continue to build your name, if your website doesn’t already, have an opt-in form. You can send monthly schedules of where you’ll be performing, a fun background story or activity to do with your child, etc.

Selling music at your venues is ideal. You have a captive audience who just heard you, and may want to remember your music (and share it with their friends). If you sell your CDs for $15 each, sell two copies of the same CD for $24 - you’d be surprised that the audience will work together to get the bargain. Provide free add-ons to each CD: activities, games, and other websites that reinforce the themes.

If people aren’t buying, then get a friend of yours to ask people at the end of the concert if they’re buying a CD (and why/why not). You need more information before you can create a viable marketing strategy.

I’m starting my pet sitting business next month. I have a couple of fliers already printed and ready to go but I was trying to come up with one that is a little more eye catching to people that may not automatically look at bulletin boards. I came up with the idea to have a little dog yelling through a megaphone the word “Attention!” in big red letters across the top of the page. I want to have something to the affect of “vacation season is quickly approaching- line up your pet sitter now” but i’m having trouble wording it. Any ideas?

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Jay’s Answer: Instead of (or in addition to) putting another flyer on the bulletin boards, contact your local travel agents, AAA, etc. When people are planning to go away, make your offer stand out.

A local chamber of commerce has provided customer service training to some of the local businesses. It is a small town of 3,000 people. It is a very diverse area with a strong primary production industry, reputed to be amongst the most fertile in the world. Industries: Processing, fish, timber, logging, sawmilling, agriculture, vegetables, dairying, cattle, tourism.

Here’s a few we’ve come up with -

• Shopping locally means more jobs for locals
• Grow together - shop locally
• What stays local, grows local
• If you don’t shop local, we wont have local shops
• Shop locally, it’s a growing concept
• What goes around stays around

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Jay’s Answer: “Shop Locally” is a hard sell. People are looking for ways of saving money, and the local merchants can’t always compete on price (and in some cases, on service as well).

Instead, focus on the true cost of shopping locally: travel time and travel cost (gas/wear&tear) as well as the community itself.

• Save Time & Hassle. Buy Local.
• Is Local Business An Endangered Species? Protect It.
• Life Too Busy? Shop Locally.
• Meet Your Neighbors. Shop Locally.
• Save Gas. Shop Locally.

I am in search for a catchy tag-line for our apartment/townhouse community “Welcome Cards”, brochures, and other other marketing material we handout. Here’s an example:

“UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT. We offer luxurious townhomes and apartments with the amenities you deserve, at a price you can afford. With three spacious floor plans to choose from and a location only minutes away from the mall: 24 Hour Maintenance, On-Site Management, Fitness Center, Pets with restrictions, Laundry Room, Near Freeway Access, etc.”

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Jay’s Answer: People don’t care about “new management” (if the old management left, there must have been a problem, so why highlight it?). What they care about is their home: price, safety, community, “location” (and secondarily: parking, commute, and services).

• Come Home To Affordable Luxury
• All That’s Missing Is You
• Relax At Your New Luxury Home

The company in which I work, has his 50th birthday this year in December. It is a chain of pharmacies/drugstores. I need creative ideas to celebrate and to take advantage of this anniversary. The worry is that the budget that I have is very low.

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Jay’s Answer: How about a visual history of your pharmacy - from where it began to where it is today. What did you sell then? Now? How has fashion changed? Treatments? Services? Prices?

For example, you could have all your sales people dressed up in vintage clothing. Or, reproduce old pharmacy signs to show your longevity. Or, a contest/quiz for guess what product was used to solve this ailment…50 years ago. Or, a random person will be given 50% off pricing (or pricing from 50 years ago). Simply bringing back an old-fashioned treat (a lollypop sucker, for example) would generate a lot of reminiscing… and a chance to thank those that have been shopping with you for 50 years.

The mistake that grassroot political supporters all make is that they spend a lot of time and money getting their candidate elected, and then….wait.

People seem to think that their job is over by getting their leader in office, and then trusting that their issues will be addressed in the coming administration. When it isn’t, they figure either it’s politics as usual or they made a mistake (and replace their choice with someone better).

Imagine instead if on the first day of office, the newly-elected candidate says:

“Thanks to all the passionate people to get me into office. Your work is just beginning. I want you to keep telling me what your communities need. I need to know what policies are working (and not). I need to know what new laws need to be passed (and scrapped). I want to hear from you directly, not through layers of paid consultants and political action committees

To help you, I will be sending experts to train your grassroots committee chairs to poll, write legislation, and summarize the information in a way that I can easily understand it. I’m just one person leading the country, but I need the country to tell me where to lead. I don’t want to fall into the same mistake that my predecessors have. I want to serve my country by listening to your needs.”

This will convert the supporters into active political marketers for America. Communities will be empowered to do something more than wait until the next election cycle. They’ll be responsible for making sure that they’re in active dialog with the government. The general population will have an avenue for creating change. The President can then inspire Senators and Congress to follow what the people want, instead of pushing their own agendas.

Let’s truly create a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.