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[B1083]Business Use Of Information Technology

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It is no secret that the internet has created the new generation of millionaires in only a few short years. Every few seconds a person starts a home business somewhere around the world, and the amazing thing is that the market does not seem to be getting saturated anytime soon! Business is booming, and for quick easy cash people are turning to the internet.

However, many of us are faced with the fact that we do not have a product to sell, nor do we have the infrastructure set up or the manpower necessary to distribute products. Nevertheless, a growing group of people are selling products right out of their home office or off of their kitchen table; how?

Information products! Now regular bookstores and music stores are getting serious competition from our very own neighbors. The technology available to all of us makes it extremely easy to create your very own information product; whether that is a book, a music CD, a course, you name it! All you need is a computer and an internet connection, some time and virtually no investment!

Here are some products that you can create right now!

E-books

E-books are electronic books; it is like a regular book but they can be read on your computer, or printed out with a regular printer. Because you do not produce a 'physical' product you also do not have any printing costs! So therefore, you can already guess, you will keep 100% of the profits you make.

Even more powerful however is the fact that you can sell unlimited numbers of your book, and do not need any inventory. Nor will you be stuck with piled of unsold books. You create something now, and you can profit from it forever! You can write about anything you are knowledgeable about, or anything you would like to research further. If you do not feel comfortable with this you can easily hire a ghostwriter who will do it for you.

CD's

The only thing you need is a CD burner and the sky is the limit; you can publish your e-book on CD, or a collection of books. You can also record you own music CD or publish a course. If you know how to write simple programs you can even make your own software. Again, all you need is a good idea because you will easily find a professional willing to develop your product for you!

Audio Cassettes

These go along the same lines as CD's; you can sell a product people can listen to in their car, on their way to work. You can even publish an e-book and a cassette version of the same product to maximize profits! Generally all you need is a tape recorder that can produce good quality tapes, and preferably one with two tape decks so you can easily reproduce the initial tape you made. Audio Cassettes are a bit more labour intensive than CD's, but if you truly want to reach your entire target market, they are a must.

Special Reports

These are relatively short 'books', or just a collection of pages on a particular topic. Remember those reports you wrote back in school? Think a few of those bunched together, on a topic people want to learn more about.

Self Help Products

All the products above can be used in this category; people are always hungry for information, regardless of the state of the economy. In fact, when there is an economic downturn sellers who specialize in books on how to save money or make money see their profits grow faster than normal! Knowledge is profit; and you are unique like anyone else.

How to Create a Product

You more than likely possess enough knowledge to create hundreds of information products; however because you are unaware of the fact that there are people out there who do not know what you know, you are more likely to think you do not know anything special or worth selling. Think again!

Have your friends ever asked you for advice or help on something? Whether in a hobby, at work, or a relationship? Are you good at your job? Or extremely involved in a special hobby? This little brainstorming session should already give you plenty of ideas that you can put to work right now!

The next step is to think of topics you want to know more about. It's likely that if you are interested in something, other people are too. Now all you need to do is some research and then develop the product of your choice; you will be doing all those other people a favor by presenting them with a solution to their 'problem' without having to do any research themselves.

Most retailers would jump on Price as the most important.

Nope. Price came in number five. There were many considerations listed after number five, but here are the top five, with number one being most important;

5) Confidence
6) Quality
7) Selection
8) Service
9) Price

Surprised?

Confidence means confidence in the dealer. Confidence that if there is a problem, it will be taken care of. Confidence that they will hear the truth when they ask a question. Confidence that their interests are being served.

Quality means almost the same thing as confidence. They want to be sure that the product will perform as expected an not cause them a headache. Quality can be summed up as ?confidence in the product?.

Selection can mean several things, I suppose. Of course, it means having several models to choose from. I would go further and say it means having the most popular models in stock. That's what many people want to see.

For example, we sell vacuum cleaners. We are not a Hoover dealer. We get people that ask ?Do you sell Hoovers??, and when I say ?NO?, they assume that means I have no inventory, or that I don't offer a selection. We finally bought several at retail and so when people ask us ?Do you have Hoovers?? We can say ?Yes, we have several in stock, along with 135 other vacuums. When can you come in to see them??

The biggest benefit of having a wider selection (including several national brands) is that the customer has the feeling (in the store) that they have shopped.

For example, if you are looking for an appliance; how many models do you really want to look at? 100?

For me it's about three. Even the most anal retentive Consumer Report toting shopaholic couldn't stand looking at more than six different models before they get tired of looking and buy.

Service simply means taking care of the customer after they buy. It's very related to Confidence. In fact, the first four considerations are really about confidence in you and your product, aren't they?

Price is almost always a consideration, let's not kid ourselves. But price is only the determining factor in a small percentage of cases.

Do this; Go into the nearest Wal-Mart. Go ahead, you can get to one in less than five minutes unless you live in Alaska. Look at the people shopping there. They aren't a real cross-section of America. Sure, there is a Doctor or two, an bank vice-president or two, but mostly, these people are lower middle (and not so middle) income people.

And Wal-Mart has more to offer than the perception of the lowest price. They do have a selection and have a liberal return policy.
But when you think of Wal-Mart (now that Sam Walton is gone) you think primarily of ?Lowest Price? don't you?

Anyway, Confidence is what you want to foster in your customer.

Having a liberal return policy will help. In fact, I have never seen an instance where the returns outweigh the increased profits.
A clean store generates confidence.

Referrals from your current customers are a big part of this. Now you have ?Borrowed Confidence? from the referrer.

Having a selection to choose from shows that your business is stable & will be here in the future.

Why am I harping about price not being the prime factor in buying?

Read on!...

Because everyone else in your market is advertising the lowest price and almost nothing else.

They are all sharing the same piece of the pie?the lowest profit piece of the pie.

Ads that stress lowest price appeal to roughly 20% of the buying public..the poorest, least profitable 20%.

If you advertise & market ?What you do for them? and ?What they get when they buy from you? you are now appealing the top 20% of the market. The most profitable 20%.

The other 60% of the market are concerned with a variety of factors, including all five mentioned above.

You can target the top (or bottom) 20%. You can't target the entire population.

Pick a niche, market to them, and reap the rewards.

Article Source :

Claude has sinced written about articles on various topics from Franchise, Marketing and Sales and Negotiation. Claude Whitacre is author of The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. He's also written hundreds of published articles on advertising and retail sales. He gives seminars on small business advertising and retail selling. To receive his Free. Claude's top article generates over 720 views. to your Favourites.