Making-Money-Month Is Now!

Introduction

Many businesses and organisations have a perception that marketing means promotions and advertising. They think being good at marketing is producing a glossy brochure and having an ad on the local radio or television. But marketing is much more than slick promotions and expensive pamphlets. It is about a process and having a clear strategy. It is also about structuring every aspect of your business to include a marketing function.

It is also about understanding marketing strategies, the tools of marketing and the language of marketing. Many people are frightened or are put off by the jargon and concepts put forward by so called marketing experts.

This article attempts to simplify the process. To provide a “how to” of what’s required to develop winning marketing ideas.

Many people also believe they are too busy or don’t have enough time or energy to develop marketing ideas. It doesn’t have to be difficult or complex.

Many great marketing strategies are very simple and straightforward.

In fact, I believe everyone has a great marketing idea inside of him or her just waiting to come out! What’s stopping you from taking the next step?

My goal is to help you overcome any procrastination and provide a framework where your ideas can grow and prosper.

How will I know if I’ve been succesful?

Well if I’ve been entertaining and informative - I’m in the “Edutainment” business. And if I’ve delivered what I call the “Three H’s”.

• HEAD - provided information and knowledge that’s tapped into your head. Some useful piece of new knowledge or information that’s got your brain ticking over.
• HEART - Tapped into your emotions. Moved you in some way. Made you smile, laugh or get excited.
• HIP POCKET - I have yet to find anyone not interested in money. My goal is that in this session you will pick up something - a new idea, contact or concept that will help you make more money.

Why marketing ideas are important?

Ideas, creativity and the ability of turning these into practical strategies will become the hallmark of successful businesses in the new millennium.

Leading organisations will tailor all of their activities around these concepts to create a culture where ideas, innovation and a can-do marketing attitude are fostered.

Truly successful companies are now doing this by building brands and customer loyalty around these names and symbols. It is the brand and the marketing processes around the brand that are the assets of new companies in this information age.

With the huge amount of change happening - businesses and groups that are quick, nimble and have an ideas focus will have the potential to carve out new niches.

They will be marketing and media savvy.

In today’s highly dynamic global business environment, truly successful leaders will know how to harness both marketing ideas and the power of the media.

We are living through some of the largest social and economic changes we’ve ever faced.

We’re in the midst of a great gold rush, the likes of which we haven’t witnessed in a hundred years. Marketing ideas are the gold of the 21st century.

What is marketing?

What does marketing mean to you?

How would you define marketing?

If you believe marketing is about selling or promotions, you’re only partly right. Marketing is much more.

Here is my definition I give to clients, customers and people who attend my presentations and workshops.

Marketing is…

• What you do to ultimately get or keep a customer.
• About positioning.
• About process
• Entering a new paradigm. It means structuring every activity within your business to meet the needs of your customer.

Take a moment to compare your views on marketing with the latest thinking on marketing.

Are you prepared to shift? To see how marketing touches on every aspect of how you interact with customers and how you run and operate your business.

If you’ve been able to shift your focus and change your attitude on marketing its now time to move on and develop your BIG MARKETING IDEA.

Top 10 Reasons Stopping People Achieving their BIG MARKETING IDEA

Many people never achieve their true potential in achieving their goals, dreams and aspirations. From my experience as a broadcaster, manager and marketer here are my Top 10 reasons stopping people from achieving their big marketing idea.

1. Not believing it can be done.

The belief system has to be really strong. You really have to believe you can do it to overcome the hurdles. In 1992, the 500 farmers who started this Co-operative with $5000 must have had a really strong belief system they could make it work.

2. Doing Nothing.

Some people just don’t know what it takes. Instead of starting on a path they do nothing for fear of doing the wrong thing.

3. Don’t think they have an idea or solution to a problem.

Some people keep their ideas and solutions locked up inside them and neither see them or acknowledge them. It often takes an outsider to bring them out. Why not get an outsiders view of the challenge and brainstorm some solutions.

4. Not believing you can make money out of it.

You often hear people moaning about being stuck in a job because it pays the bills or doing something because that’s the way it’s always been done. People are motivated by the need for food and shelter and your need to believe you can make money from your idea or solution.

5. Don’t have time?

Many people are caught up in the rush and “busyness” of today’s life. I’m not suggesting you add more to your life by adding an extra action point, job or task to your “To Do List”. I’m recommending you do less and eliminate something! If you watched one hour less of television per week that would give you 52 hours. What would you do with 52 hours of extra time?

6. Don’t have enough resources?

People often say they need resources - money, infrastructure, computers, printers and the like. But how much money does it take to write an idea down and then communicate it to someone else?

7. Persistence!

You’re likely to come up against a 100 barriers before you succeed. Persistence is vital in breaking through the barriers.

8. Is it practical?

Is the idea or solution practical and does it work? Take the example of NASA in the US. They spent a million dollars developing a ballpoint pen that works in zero gravity! The Russians gave their cosmonauts pencils.

9. Are you afraid?

Many people are afraid of many things - success, failure, rejection or just being different. These fears can become barriers.

10. Not being ready

Many people are aware that what they’re doing is not what they really want to do and creating barriers for others. They recognise the need to change and shift their thinking. They’re just not ready at that moment in time to make the change.

So that’s what’s stopping people from putting in practice their BIG MARKETING IDEA.

What are the success factors for Marketing Yourself, Your Business and Your Co-Operative?

10 Tips on Marketing

In summary here are 10 Tips on marketing.

1. Clarify your mission.

2. Have a plan and set some goals and strategies.

3. Know your strengths and build on these.

4. Identify and talk to your customers.

5. Find out who your competitors are?

6. Put a value on your service.

7. Let people know about your service.

8. Add value to existing services.

9. Differentiate your service from others.

10. Evaluate and review on a regular basis.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.

You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com.

Whenever I’ve worked on ‘de-cluttering’ my living or working space, I’ve always found that it’s the unfinished project - whatever I’m procrastinating about - that takes up the most room.

Physically, it’s a constant reminder of something I tell myself I SHOULD be doing.

Mentally, it consumes my thoughts and diverts my attention from the present moment.

Emotionally, it weighs down my heart and nicks away at my confidence.

In this article, I invite you to consider how procrastination, as a form of self-sabotage, shows up in the different areas of your life.

Understanding Procrastination - Why do you procrastinate?

Maybe your physical surroundings and your ’systems’ of organization are getting in your way. For example:

~ My workspace is too messy

~ I’m too busy

Maybe distracting or debilitating emotions or thoughts are getting in your way. For example:

~ I’m afraid - afraid to fail, afraid to succeed

~ I’m overwhelmed

Maybe your physical body and its level of well-being is getting in your way. For example:

~ I’m too tired

Maybe your thoughts about the other people in your life are getting in your way. For example:

~ They might not like it

~ It won’t be as good as _____, so why bother?

Procrastination is a habit like any other. If you can envision how you want to be instead and look honestly at what forms of self-sabotage you usually use, you CAN compensate for your procrastination.

Overcoming Procrastination: What type of procrastinator are you?

Are you a Do-er or a Stew-er?

Do-er

A “do-er” will do anything to avoid the task at hand - the dishes need washing, the dog needs walking, the mail needs sorting, the bills need paying, the files need organizing, etc.

Action Plan for Do-er’s

Set a timer for 15-minutes and tell yourself that as soon as it goes off you can do whatever else you want, but until it does, you must sit in that chair and work on the project in front of you.

• Train your self
• Keep it short
• Stay in your chair

Stew-er

A “stew-er” will sit and “stew” about the thing you’re not doing. Your mind will spin round and round about different possibilities, you will plan elaborate things for when you do get around to working, you’ll be thinking so far into the future that you’ll never catch up to yourself.

Action Plan for Stew-er’s

Focus and calm your mind with meditation, affirmations and mind-body work such as breathing.

• Clear your mind
• Ground your thoughts
• Pause and breathe

Whether you’re a “do-er” or a “stew-er”, when we can accomplish our creative goals IN SPITE of having so many reasons to put them off, the rewards are even sweeter.

When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I need to remember that all I have to do is the next thing. A few next things later and I’ve tackled quite a bit!

It’s important to consider the bigger picture of this “thing” that you’re trying to do. There’s always the possibility that you don’t really want to do it or that you’re not meant to be doing it. If this is the case, a part of you knows that and is trying to tell you, so listen up (just make sure it’s not fear or self-doubt in disguise).

Lastly, remember to celebrate what you HAVE accomplished, no matter how small. The more you focus on what you HAVE done, versus what you HAVEN’T, the more confidence you’ll have and the more momentum you’ll build towards the next thing you’re going to do.

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. To receive one of her free monthly newsletters, subscribe at http://www.genuinecoaching.com/newsletter.html

What is happening on the campuses of secular universities across America? Thousands of Christian students are losing their faith and non-Christian students are becoming entrenched in their unbelief. Why is this happening? Have they discovered that God, in fact, does not really exist, that we live in a careening universe with no divine Pilot at the wheel? Or does something else explain this trend?

The Intellectual Challenge

Christian students on a secular campus face a great intellectual challenge. The underlying principle of the university classroom is naturalism. Students find it everywhere, not just in biology, physics, anthropology, and geology, but also in chemistry, astronomy, psychology, political science, and so on. University faculties defend this pervasive naturalism in two ways: by banishment and by confrontation.

The Banishment Approach

The banishment approach is, of course, the more venerable and the less aggressive of the two. A science professor will state at the beginning of the semester: “Science involves the gathering and analysis of data as the basis for forming hypotheses regarding the nature of reality. It must, therefore, exclude any reference to the supernatural as out of bounds for scientific inquiry. Whether or not God exists, or angels, fairies, pixies, goblins, or the Boogie Man is irrelevant to scientific investigation. Hold to your religious or superstitious beliefs if you want to, but don’t bring them up in this classroom. It is off the subject; we don’t have time for theological debates here.”

Students instantly get the idea that believing in God is anti-intellectual or at least one’s faith should be compartmentalized and not allowed to spill over the transom into the science classroom. Be a believer elsewhere if you want, students learn, but come to science as a naturalist.

We Christians cannot accept this banishment. We have made Christ our life (Col. 3:4; Phil. 1:21), and His Lordship extends to every part of our lives. Certainly the One who created the universe at the beginning (Col. 1:16) and who even now sustains it moment by moment (Col. 1:17), has a right to enter a room where his handiwork is being examined and admired.

It is His macro- and micro-planning, organizing, systematizing, and engineering, after all, that makes all science possible. If we did not live in an orderly universe our scientists would be reduced to historians and statisticians who record the millions of haphazard events as they transpire, but can make no deductions, inductions, or educated guesses about what would happen next.

The Confrontation Approach

A more recent and increasingly popular approach in the university classroom is to take the creationist bull by the horns and attack belief in the God of the Bible by any possible means. This is the strategy of journals such as Creation/Evolution and The Skeptical Inquirer. Professors claim the mechanistic/materialistic explanation for origins removes all need for God. Naturalists in the classroom are not above using illogical arguments to win over their students.

For example, they may employ ad hominem arguments, associating belief in a Creator/Sustainer with witch-hunting, skinheads, and the Ku Klux Klan. Or they may use reductio ad absurdum arguments, such as asking how many dinosaur couples went onto the ark, or how Noah could be sure he had both male and female mosquitoes. Or they may knock down straw men, such as claiming victory if they can prove even the slightest changes occur, or limiting creationism only to those who believe the world began in 4004 BC. Or they may commit non sequiturs, such as claiming that since finches differ from one another, therefore, complex, mega-celled organisms evolved from single-celled life forms, and those from non-life.

Of course, we too must be cautious how we make our case, taking care to avoid the same mistakes. But it is difficult to wrestle with an opponent who refuses to fight by the rules.

We need Christian campus ministries because someone must stand up in our university community and affirm the biblical view of origins and of the ground and purpose for our existence.

The Bible clearly affirms these truths about our universe: (1) it had a beginning, all three persons of the Godhead being involved in its creation (Gen. 1:1-3; John 1:1-3; Col. 1:15-17); ( 2) at the beginning, it came into existence out of nothing (Heb. 11:3); and (3) its interdependent systems are all by God’s design and under His ongoing control (Job 38-39; Ps. 19:1-6).

The Bible has a name for those whose dizzying intellects lead them to atheism. Psalm 14:1 calls them fools, referring not to the Stupids, but to self-deceived rebels against God. Just to ensure that we don’t forget, the same psalm recurs as the fifty-third. Paul describes those who have given up their knowledge of God as those whose foolish hearts have become darkened and who then become arrogant (Rom. 1:21-23). In all three of these passages, the intellectual rejection of God’s existence leads to a moral rejection of God’s will (Ps. 14.3; 53:3; Rom. 1:24-32).

The Results of this Naturalism

This prevailing naturalism (or anti-supernaturalism) has at least three far-reaching results. First, our college students are taught that truth is relative. Without God as the everlasting, immutable ground of all reality, truth becomes little more than one’s subjective perception of it. Those who hold to absolute truth are ridiculed and harassed.

In a recent speech entitled, “The Trouble with Being Open-Minded,” Bruce Lockerbie said: “In today’s university environment, absolutes dissolve into absolutism and are scoffed at with contempt. Ironically, however, today’s students have been taught that some absolutes survive. Here is a sample of these campus absolutes, of which today’s students and many of their teachers are absolutely certain! (1) I think; therefore, I am [René Descartes]. (2) God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him [Friedrich Nietzsche]. (3) There are truths but no truth [Albert Camus]. (4) We have neither behind us, nor before us in a luminous realm of values, any means of justification or excuse. We are left alone, without excuse [Jean-Paul Sartre]. (5) Life is hard, then you die. [bumper sticker].”

Modern American campuses are similar to the ancient Athenians, whom Luke describes in Acts 17:21: [They] spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. Since Christianity, with its beliefs and practices, is nearly 2000 years old, they believe it should be jettisoned by all who intellectually have come of age. Second, the faith of our students is challenged in and out of the classroom.

As the Apostle Peter anticipated, people sometimes ask students the reason for the hope that they have (1 Pet. 3:15), and our students should be prepared with a good answer. But Peter also said in 2 Pet. 3:3-4: “in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” This is naturalism’s doctrine of uniformitarianism, contradicted at creation itself and a myriad of times since by the catastrophes and the disasters of nature. Our students must learn the flaws in naturalism’s model so that their faith can stand firm and not erode away by wave after wave of faculty banishment or confrontational ridicule and the peer pressure from other students.

Third, our students are being taught that not only truth is relative, but morality is relative. Isaiah cries: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isa. 5:20-21).

The Deifying of Tolerance

On campus, tolerance is praise as the highest virtue, and intolerance as the greatest vice. Senator Dan Coats of Indiana spoke recently on the virtue of tolerance. Quoting G. K. Chesterton: “When the world next tries persecution seriously, it will probably be under some new name,” Coats stated that persecution’s new name is tolerance itself. Our students are taught not to be judgmental, which has the effect of encouraging them to have no moral judgment at all. Coats recalls that the poet Ogden Nash confessed: “Sometimes with secret pride I sigh / To think how tolerant am I / Then wonder which is really mine; / Tolerance, or a rubber spine.”

This deifying of tolerance demonizes any who stand up for moral absolutes and who have the courage to say in love, for instance, to a homosexual, “What you are doing is wrong and is destructive both to yourself and to society.” A colleague of mine told me of a Christian student we’ll call Ann, whose work at a local AIDS screening clinic brought her into daily contact with practicing homosexuals. She made up her mind to be salt and light in that place, and as a result, struck up a friendship with a lesbian we’ll call Florence.”

After Ann was confident that Florence could sense her friendship, she asked her why she became a lesbian. “When I was growing up,” Florence said, “I was always wanting to play rough, climb trees, go hunting, and other ‘guy’ things like that. I wanted to be like my father a lot.”

“That’s funny,” Ann said. “I was a tomboy too. I used to follow my dad around trying to do whatever he did.”

“You did? And you’re straight, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought only lesbians had my experience.”

Ann left it at that for awhile. Then, a few weeks later, when Florence was sharing about her first sexual experience (a lesbian one) and describing how strange it all felt, Ann said, “That makes sense. Maybe it’s like when I first went on a diet and had to drink Diet Coke. No one who first drinks that stuff likes it, but after awhile they get used to it, and then it doesn’t bother them anymore. Maybe gay sex is like that. At first you don’t like it, but if you keep doing it, you get used to it.”

Florence didn’t say anything for a moment. “Yeah, maybe you’re right,” she finally replied. These two conversations Ann had with Florence brought the lesbian a long way. Not yet all the way to Jesus Christ, but light years closer. If Ann had just shown “tolerance” and ignored the moral difference between her and Florence, nothing would have changed.

Coats says that the irony is how the virtue of tolerance has been stolen from us Christians. It’s time for us to reclaim it. We serve a God who makes his sun shine on the evil and the good and sends his rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Into an intolerant world Jesus introduced tolerance as something revolutionary. He was branded a drunkard and a glutton and the friend of tax-collectors and sinners. Our friends in academia act as if mulitculturalism were something recently invented. But Paul announced it as the way of the Christ: There is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian or Scythian, slave or free, male and female (Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11).

No one has more experience in multiculturalism than the church, which for 2000 years has been taking the gospel to every nation and culture as it fulfills the Great Commission.

We Christians believe in tolerance. But our tolerance is not shallow like that of the academic community. In his speech Coats points out that tolerance has two extremes: permissiveness and persecution. Our non-Christian colleagues on campus stand on the permissiveness extreme–standing for nothing and falling for everything. They believe that Christians are at the other extreme, equating us with racists, ethnocentrists, and homophobes.

But we are not there. We hold Coats’ middle ground: persuasion (2 Cor. 5:11, 14-21). It is not that we try to force people into conforming to our (really, the Lord’s) standards. To the contrary, we have learned from our Master that outward conformity has little value if the heart is not in it. Rather, we try to change people’s thinking, confident that with changed hearts, their actions will follow.

Copyright © 2005 Steve Singleton, all rights reserved.

Steve Singleton has written and edited several books and numerous articles on subjects of interest to Bible students. He has taught Greek, Bible, and religious studies courses Bible college, university, and adult education programs. He has taught seminars and workshops in 11 states and the Caribbean.

Go to his DeeperStudy.org for Bible study resources, no matter what your level of expertise. Explore “The Shallows,” plumb “The Depths,” or use the well-organized “Study Links” for original sources in English translation. Sign up for Steve’s free “DeeperStudy Newsletter.”

About Home Depot

The Home Depot was founded by Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus in the year 1978, together with Pat Farrah, a merchandising genius, and Ken Langone, an investment banker. When the first two stores of the Home Depot were opened on the 22nd of June, 1979 in Georgia, the main vision of the founders as regards fruition was to let the buyers do everything themselves. The first stores were about 60,000 sq. feet each, and were basically warehouses which overshadowed competition and had around 25,000 SKUs in stock, which was well above the normal stock held by most hardware stores. There were also some empty boxes on the shelves, which made people think of more inventory lying with them.

From the very beginning, the associates were capable of offering the best of the services to consumers, and assisting them in many things like laying of tile, changing a valve or handling of a power tool. They not only educated customers about the hardware in the best possible manner, but also set up a clinic where people wanting to learn more could join to increase their knowledge. In fact, the Home Depot took the industry of home improvement by storm by letting the customers do the basic work themselves without requiring the services of professionals, which saved them a lot of money.

In the history of the United States, Home Depot is the fastest growing retail house. In the year 1984, the company knocked the doors of the capital market and listed on NASDAQ, the stock exchange of New York. From that time onwards, the company had tremendous decades ahead, and the 100th store opening was marked in 1989. The company also acquired the improvement centers of Aikenhead in Canada in 1994, and after acquiring Total HOME in 2001, they were a popular lot in Mexico. They forayed into China in 2006, with the acquisition of The Home Way.

The Home Depot always had strategic alliances with leading manufacturers of the industry to assist consumers. In that matter, the company reached out to the normal consumers and set its own standards in the home improvement industry.

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