When it comes to marketing, thinking outside the box can be helpful. However, when you do it helps to make sure that when you do, you are at least reaching your target market, even if the way you do it is rather unique.

There is a YouTuber named Lindybeige who puts out a rather eclectic mix of content, ranging from Swing Dance, Medieval life and weapons, and war stories from many different conflicts, among other things. His subscribers are mostly male, which is the target market of the “Dollar Shave Club” so they asked him to do a promo for them and an unboxing video. So far so good. However, if you see his picture, as posted on our website, it appears that his head has not seen a comb and his beard has not seen a razor in many a year. Not the ideal image of a well-groomed man to promote male grooming products.

You may think this is insane, but if you watch his pitch,(You can see it here) it was absolutely brilliant. He made it as amusing as possible, and nearly 90% of the comment section if full of comments on his pitch. He has several other sponsors and I have never seen such a strong, and positive reaction to any of them.

1They hit their target market and created a positive buzz at a low cost.

This time I tackle the issue of being prepared for the unexpected. Now while good things do come up unexpectedly that you need to be prepared for, its the negative events I focus on today.

Currently, the Coronavirus or (COVID-19) disease is in the news. This has caused supply chain disruptions and the loss of revenue due to cancellations. Events like this can easily cause your business to fail if you are not prepared for them.

Now I do not want you to always be worried about the future, just to have a plan and resources available just in case. Just like having a first aid kit in your car makes good sense, you need to have some things in place just to have ready if needed.

Today I talk about one of the most important aspects of having a business website, and that is SEO or Search Engine Optimization. A lot of business owners have no idea what this is or its incredible importance on your internet presence and overall marketing strategy. I go over some of the basics.

Websites are not as scary as they seem. They do not cost a lot and are pretty easy to setup. Here are some basics.

Many bootstrappers I have seen avoid getting a website. They are worried about things such as the costs involved, the technical details, and what the correct content is to use. They feel its less expensive, and much easier to simply rely on social media.

Now I love social media for marketing and for making contact with clients, however, it needs to be just a part of your overall marketing strategy. I go into more detail in this episode.

This time I speak about the basics of supply chains. What are they, why you need them, even in small businesses. I also give some suggestions on how to get better prices on the materials you need to make your business run.

I talk about two areas where business tends to put all their eggs in one basket that can cause them to fail if something goes wrong.

The first thing I talk about is getting comfortable with landing a large client that provides the lion share of your sales, and in the second relying solely on a single provider for the vital goods and services you need to make your business work.

I am going to start this series out with what I believe to be not only the biggest and most common issue we face but also the one that can underpin some of the other issues that hold us back. That issue is fear. To start off with there are a few things we need to address when it comes to fear. I speak about if fear is bad, is it good, and how to deal with it, and when to acknowledge it.

There are many types of fear and there are multiple articles on them I will tackle just a few here. The ones I am going to tackle are the ones that I think apply the strongest to business. These are the fear of inadequacy, the fear of failure, and the fear of change.

I was thinking of doing a New Years’ podcast that was rather a standard format, that is to say, do a year in review and a bit of plan for the future type of thing. However, as I started to write it, it felt a bit too hollow and cliche, so I figured I would go a different route. I saw someone make a joking post on FaceBook about New Years Resolutions. It said,

“I’m opening a gym called “Resolutions.” It will have exercise equipment for the first two weeks and then it turns into a bar for the rest of the year."

Humorous as this is, it got me thinking. Why is it that there is a  large difference between the amount of resolution made vs the amount accomplished. As I thought about it I came to this conclusion. The large majority of resolutions are simply grand dreams, wishes that you hope for but have no real concrete plan of achieving. For example, many people make a resolution to lose weight. You could reword it from “This year I resolve to lose weight” to “I wish I could lose weight this year.” Or “This year I resolve to become wealthy” to “This year I wish I could become wealthy.”

. As I learned from Dave Ramsey, Goals need to be S.M.A.R.T. That is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive. You can read his blog post on it here https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/smart-goal-setting

Just a short season wrapup. See you next year and happy holidays! :)