The Rich Get Richer - The Smart Get Smarter - ISSUE 38 - 4/24/12

Just as the saying states, "the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer," the same holds true to, "the smart are getting smarter and the dumb are getting dumber." I know this is a very bold statement, but if you stop and think about it, completely true. We live in trying times and just as in any life or death situation, the strong will survive over the weak and faint-of-heart.

With the advent of the Information Super Highway, the inquisitive mind has a wealth of never-ending knowledge right at his fingertips. For those of you who have invested thousands of hours into yourselves, an infinite amount of knowledge is an aphrodisiac, to say the least. For those of you who haven't, the Internet is very intimidating even though it doesn't have to be. Finding something you're interested in is not difficult if you know where to look. The idea is not to use the Internet solely as a toy, but also a tool.

Reading, writing, communication, and the desire to be a life-long student are a must-have to succeed in the present and future. Information is changing on a daily basis and without this foundation, you will quickly lose your competitive edge.

No More Excuses

Each and every day, you make a choice whether or not you're going to be successful. You wake up in the morning with the thoughts that will set your pace for the day. Each day at work, you make a choice whether or not you're going to work hard or goof off. Each night when you get home from work, you make the choice whether or not to sit in front of the TV or read a book. One of the top freedoms in our country is the power to choose. With great power, comes great responsibility. You are responsible for your own actions and all-too-often, you're actions are justified in the form of an excuse.

Following is a list of thoughts I can almost hear some of you thinking to yourselves while you are reading this article:

• "I'm too busy to learn."
• "I'm too tired at the end of the day to read."
• "I'm on the computer all day. I don't want to be in front of it any more than I have to."
• "I'm constantly learning new skills but I don't have time to learn on my own."
• "I hate reading."
• "I hate learning."
• "Between my work, my family, and my kids, I just don't have time."

Live and Learn

Hearing these types of excuses makes me cringe. Mainly because they are all just that... EXCUSES! Excuses are made by people with weak minds. The previous excuses I listed are those from weak-minded people. They are always looking for a reason to justify their actions which have negative consequences. The people who are successful in life do not look for reasons why they shouldn't do something. Instead, they look for ways to get stuff done and for solutions to their problems so that nothing will stand in the way of their goals.

If you have the heart of a warrior, here's a list of ways you will overcome the same obstacles:

• "I'm so busy that it's hard to learn, but I'm going to invest 20 minutes a day into learning something new."
  (That's 10 hours per month)
• "I'm ridiculously tired at the end of the day that it's very challenging to read, but I have many opportunities to read a page at a time."
  (Let's say up to 10 pages a day which is 300 pages per month)
• "I'm on the computer all day at work but I can spend a few hours on Saturday and a few hours on Sunday."
  (That's about 16 hours per month)
• "I hate reading, but since I'm in the car for 2 hours a day, I can listen to education audio tapes instead of my normal talk radio."
  (That's about 40 hours a month of education)

As you can see, solutions to problems are what set apart the strong from the weak and a little time invested into yourself now can add up to a whole lot of time invested in the future. Whether you are a family-goer or not, there's probably someone counting on you or looking up to you to succeed. If you have a hard time motivating yourself, think about them, dig down deep, and do it for them. If you constantly strive to better yourself, you have an infinite amount of possibilities and potential to gain.

"Live to Learn. Learn to Live." This is our motto and we've even compiled a fantastic list of books for you to read. Recommended Business Development Books | Suited Marketing Library

What Are People Afraid Of? - The Social Phobia Phenomenon - ISSUE 37 - 4/19/12

Did you know that most people would rather die than speak in front of a group of people? This fear is growing stronger and stronger among the youth of today. Why is it that the younger generations are having such a difficult time talking to other people? Is it because of technology or is there a deeper seeded issue at hand?

All you have to do is walk down the street in a busy public area and you can see the majority of the people around you playing with their cell phone, laptop, or even iPod. What you may notice is that they aren't actually talking, they're in their own little world typing away or pushing buttons oblivious of their surroundings. People just aren't socializing with one another like they used to. This is a major concern for business owners and employers because the majority of people are losing, or have lost, their social skills.

After years of deep thought and careful observation, I finally figured out why people are afraid to talk to other people. Of course, technology is one of the factors contributing to this phenomena, but digging even deeper, I found that people are afraid to bond with other people because of the lack of trust in society today. To be frank, this is completely ridiculous.

I've only lived in the U.S. so I can't speak from personal experience about other countries, but I know that modern times in the U.S. are by far the safest times ever in the history of mankind. We live in a very docile and civilized culture. People aren't running around killing each other like they did back in the Cowboy and Indian days. Men aren't ravaging woman in the streets. Last time I checked, there isn't a Civil War in my backyard. So, what in the heck is going on?! Why is it so hard to get people to have a conversation and to make new friends?!

The answer is simple. It's the media. My parents are part of the baby boom generation and for those of you who are also, you remember the very first person to own a television on your block. You may have even had social gatherings for all of you to watch one of three prime-time stations in black and white on a small-to-medium, blurry tubular screen. Unbeknownst to you at the time, this was the dawn of a whole new era. Instead of your parents and personal experiences shaping the majority of your beliefs and ideals, the media found a way to get it's foot in the door to take over the job.

I asked my parents a simple question, "did your parents tell you not to talk to strangers?" What do you think their answer was? The media has done their job of putting fear into the public so well that parents teach their kids not to talk to strangers for FEAR of their child being put in harms way.

DID YOU KNOW???

• The odds of being abducted by a stranger are 1 in 610,000
• The odds of being in a plane crash are 1 in 310,000
• The odds of being struck by lightning are 1 in 240,000
• Children are twice as likely to die of the flu than be kidnapped by a stranger
• Children are 4 times more likely to die of heart disease than be kidnapped by a stranger
• Children are 17 times more likely to commit suicide than be kidnapped by a stranger
• Children are 100 times more likely to die because of an accidental death than be kidnapped by a stranger

If you're a parent, you are actually putting your child at more risk by letting them walk in a lightening storm while carrying a metal umbrella or even taking them on family vacations to Disney World than the likelihood of them being kidnapped by a stranger.

Not only has "Do Not Talk To Strangers" caused an epidemic in the U.S., but if parents want to really protect their children, they're going to have to look from within the confines of their own social circle. Over 90% of all abduction cases are from one of the parents or a family friend. In fact, only about 115 out of 800,000 missing children incidences in 2011 were cases involving strangers.

Don't get me wrong, parents should protect their children from all dangers. However, when anything causes more damage than good, especially for your children and the future of this country, the issue needs to be addressed.

How the Baby Boomers Affect Your Business In The US and Abroad - ISSUE 36 - 4/17/12

Happy the war had ended, Military men ran home to their wives and families at the end of World War II to spawn a new era of people called 'The Baby Boom Generation.' The baby boomers were people born between the years 1946 and 1964. Although there were more people born at the turn of the 20th Century, the baby boomers account for the largest number of births per thousand people of all people still living today.

"By the sheer force of its numbers, the boomers were a demographic bulge that remodeled society as it passed through it." Wikipedia

Most people are unaware of the economic significance the baby boomers plays today and I'm here to tell you, it's catastrophic. In 2011, the first baby boomers began retiring and will be completely retired by about the year 2029. Since they are the largest segment of the population, there are more of them retiring from the workforce than there are people to replace them.

From a business standpoint, the economic future could mean economic failure. This is likely one of the main reasons for outsourcing labor to other countries. Outsourcing not only saves a company money, but it also allows for companies to hire more experienced workers than the pool they will have to choose from locally. India is by far the number one choice for technological outsourcing not only because they are in a huge economic boom, but their workforce outnumbers the United States' by four times.

"More people now live in India than in the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh combined." BBC News South Asia

Another major concern with the baby boomers retirement is that as a whole, they make more money than any other segment of the population. The retiring boomers will not only be making less money, but they will also be spending less. Our economy's success is built on a foundation of money constantly cycling. If money no longer cycles, the economy could collapse.

As the baby boomers age, their demand for healthcare, public transportation, and other public programs will increase exponentially. This means that companies are going to have to invest a large sum of money to retrofit for the older segment of the population. As crazy as it may sound, they will also have to increase the size of fonts and displays on all forms of publications, media, advertisements and even such things as ATMs, remote controls, cars, etc.

If you want to survive as a business owner for the entirety of your career, you must begin planning for this mega-paradigm shift now. Obviously, it depends on the nature of your business, but even if you are able to minimally outsource your labor, at least it's a start in the right direction.

Socializing For Increased SEO - How Google+ Increases Your Search Engine Ranking - ISSUE 35 - 4/5/12

Search engine ranking is no longer just from content creation, keyword optimization, and meta tags on your website or blog. It has now evolved into social interaction, as well. There are still rules of the road that one must adhere to in order to benefit from this new Google product.

Google has finally created a social network with the business-professional in mind to connect with other like-minded individuals or organizations. No more wasting time socializing. Time is now invested socializing. All your sharing, commenting, supporting, liking, etc. is finally going to pay off. Google+ has many more features and benefits, but the main one is that new efforts are now going to help increase Search Engine Ranking.

In a previous blog, we mentioned there was no way for your social interactions to appear in the search engine results and increase your search engine ranking. While this still remains true, Google has creatively implemented a unique Google Pagerank system and connected the dots between the two so that value-oriented social interactions on Google Plus are, in fact, placed into their own category within the Search Results page. For example, if you were to do a Google Search on the phrase "social interaction" you would receive your search results, business as usual.

However, there is now a new link at the top of the screen underneath the search box which will have a few profile icons and the number of personal results. These profile icons and personal results are the search results for Google+ and anything pertaining to the phrase "social interaction" within the social network.

When you click on the "personal results" link, you will be taken to another page with the same exact look and feel as your traditional search results page. The only difference is the options on the left-hand side of the screen. They are almost identical with the exception of the unique ways you are able to narrow down your search results.

The new Personal Results screen not only shows social interactions between people, but it also shows shared content from other websites such as pictures, videos, comments, and even the person who +1'd it. If you're unfamiliar with Google+, Robert J. Banach wrote an excellent article you should take a look at called What Does Google’s +1 and +Name Really Mean? to learn more about it, what it is, and how it works.

The best recommendation we can give is to get on board with Google and to learn as much about Google as possible, especially Google+. Google has many products and services which are unique, intertwined and interconnected with the #1 Search Engine in the World. For example, Google's blog site is Blogger.com. After you have completed writing each blog article, Google has created a very easy way for you to share your blog with everyone in your circles and extended circles with a very nice pop-up window. Once you have shared your blog article on Google+, it will appear in the personal results and even include your blog header to make it stand out and for people to recognize it.

Assuming you are writing a blog, you should be posting your blog on blogger and your site (bare minimum). If you have the time, energy, and resources, you should also be posting your blog in as many other places as possible. This will only help you and increase the number of locations you can be found by different people. Everyone has different search preferences and you never know how people are going to find you unless you're in all the places they would look.

Business Mistakes - Groupon - An Overnight Sensation, Now Struggling to Stay Afloat - Learn From Their Mistakes - ISSUE 34 - 4/3/12

I was watching the news this morning and low-and-behold, there was a short segment on Groupon and their business mistakes. The segment was not mind-boggling at all, but instead, was exhilarating and solidifying my initial prediction from when I first learned about them while I was living in Chicago and they had just started becoming a nationwide craze.

In the beginning, I bought a handful of Groupon deals myself, but I failed to use them in time and the money would go to waste, so I just stopped buying them. I'm not a big-time consumer like many people are. I was also flooded with similar deals every day in my email inbox and within a short period of time, I unsubscribed to their daily deals. There's no possible way most people would be able to afford and take advantage of more than a few per month. Even if people think they are, most people are not made of money.

Groupon's stock values have plummeted recently due to bad business decisions from about $26 per share to just under $15 per share since November 2011 and are struggling to stay afloat. They mismanaged their money and did not set aside enough money for customer refunds. This just proves that no matter how much money you have, you can lose your power-house momentum overnight with technology changing and evolving so rapidly. Every business owner must plan, plan, and plan some more for every possibility and every situation that may arise, because guess what, it's going to.

I have two very important business lessons to share about Groupon. First, if Google offers you $6 Billion, you take it! You cash out and move on to the next business venture. It's just pure foolishness not to take it simply because their business is way too easy to duplicate (LivingSocial) and over 90% of all businesses fail within the first five years anyway. Of those who actually survive the first 5 years, 90% of those end up failing also. It's just common sense! Look at companies like Blockbuster, Blackberry, etc. They were conglomerates and now they are minuscule little companies fighting for their survival.

Secondly, the companies who are partnering with Groupon are not benefiting from their service and not receiving a Return on Investment. Groupon takes half of the coupon sales proceeds and the businesses don't make any profit. The idea is that traffic will increase to a particular business after the initial experience and the business should begin to make profits on subsequent visits.

However, the ideal situation is not taking place. Patrons buy the Groupon deals and don't visit the same restaurant, bistro, massage therapist, etc more than once. Also, the businesses are not able to keep up with demand on their products or services which Groupon has created for them. The quality of the product and service is jeopardized and in most cases, sub-standard and businesses are closing up shop because of this.

What are some of your ideas of a better coupon system which creates a win-win-win situation for the coupon company, the business, and the customer?

Social Media Interaction for the Search Engines 101 - ISSUE 33 - 4/2/12

As everyone knows, the latest craze is in Social Media Interaction, regardless of personal or professional purposes. However, if want to know how to use social media for business, you want to invest your time rather than waste it. By this, I mean that if you are spending a lot of time socializing and providing a wealth of value to your prospects, then why not increase your Search Engine Ranking at the same time?

Unfortunately, there is not a direct way to have your social interactions show up on the search engines. If you do a Google search of your name or your business name, you will not see any of your conversations. The only information that the Google Pagerank system will populate will be the information necessary to find your profile. For example, when we did a search for "Suited Marketing," a link to our Twitter profile populated and read, "Sign up for Twitter to follow Suited Marketing (@SuitedMktgCo). Small Business Development Services - Learn Marketing and Advertising Strategy."

One of the main reasons Google does this is because most social interactions are not value-oriented. Instead, they are simply conversations between people. Google is a huge proponent of high-quality and high-value for their followers and search engine visitors.

If you use Twitter or any other forms of new social media regularly, regardless of whether you have a lot of followers or not, you probably ignore most of what other people are saying. It's human nature for us all to have this underlying urge to feel important. However, if you do have a lot of followers, you also know that you will get overwhelmed with what other people are saying within a few minutes. We currently have over 17,000 Twitter followers and about every 20-30 seconds, we have 20 new Tweets. It's impossible for any human being to keep up with.

On the flip side, Twitter is very similar to Google except that the information is all conversational and it's your burden to shuffle through the mess to find the value. You can type a word or phrase in the search box and instantly find an enormous amount of people talking about that specified topic. If people are interested in what you are looking for, they will be able to find you fairly quickly and may even choose to interact with you.

Now that I've given you a few alternative ideas, I'm going to talk about the indirect way to increase your Search Engine Ranking with the social networks. As we have already discussed in a previous article, blogging is the single-most important behavior for any business owner to be successful in the online world. People are looking for high-value content and information to enrich their lives. If you aren't blogging, then you aren't going to be successful. It's that simple.

Once you start blogging on a regular basis, and assuming you are a good writer, people are going to begin following you because your blog articles WILL show up in the search engines. The way you connect the link between the social networks and the search engines is simple -- you tell your followers about your blog post.

There are two ways to do this. You can either post your blog to each social network you belong to individually or you can link all your social networks together so that you only have to post it once and the systems will automatically do the rest for you. One word of caution about the second option. People absolutely do not respond well to automated posts. The trick behind automation is to make it look like it's not.