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11

Think Big, Even If You Are Local

One of the things that I am most thankful for in my current business is how I started. When I got fired from the knife company almost ten years ago, I was a specialist in a particular type of software (I made data maps … the whole story is told elsewhere).

This was a good thing, because this software was not software you could buy in the store. In fact, I’ll bet anything that not one other company within 50 miles of me used this software. So if I was going to sell my data mapmaking skills for this software, I’d have to look beyond my little local area. In fact, I was forced to do a few things:

• I was forced to look nationally for clients.

• I was forced to used the Internet — I had to have a website, I had to learn about advertising on Google.

• I had to rely on email for a lot of my communication.

These are all a pretty big deal. In fact, it totally set the stage for me to sell myself to the entire world once data mapping gave way to writing. Literally, I have clients across the US, in Europe, in Asia, and even Australia. In fact, selling “local” never even occurred to me until much later — my focus was always BIG, because it HAD to be (and truth be told, to this day, I do almost no local business).

But What about True Local Businesses?

Now this brings us to a sort of dilemma for certain types of businesses. Obviously, if you are a plumber, you’re not traveling to Japan to unclog a sink. Heck, depending on your area, you may not even want to drive across the county to do such. Maybe Bill Gates flies in his personal plumber (how’s that for a job title?) to unclog the toilet, but the rest of us are likely content with a more distant relationship with our plumber.

So what I’m saying is that there are some businesses that are forced to be local by simple logistics; for example, your trades, hairdressers, and pet sitters. 99.9 percent of you are going to start local, and are likely stay local … for the most part. I say for the most part because there are still ways you can branch out. I’ll get to that at the end of the chapter.

But for now we’re going to leave the true locals to do their local thing and move forward to businesses that should definitely be thinking nationally and internationally.

Types of Businesses That Should Be Thinking Big from Day One

Last year, I went to a Chamber of Commerce Trade Show. Besides being the worst dressed guy there (someone needs to come out with a “business casual” line of sweats), I was also somewhat incredulous to the number of businesses there that just thought so … small.

To give an example, there was a web design firm there. They seemed like they did good work, but all of their collateral/marketing material was right out of 1996 — it all had the “you need a website because … ” line of thinking (which was effective when nobody knew what a website was or what they could do. However, today, most web design firms need not sell the idea of a website).

To make it worse, their material was also specifically targeted to local businesses (“We handle all of the Hudson Valley’s web design needs.”) It’s almost as if they were saying they couldn’t help you if you weren’t local. Which might be okay for a plumber, but for a web design company? That makes no sense to me.

Now, maybe this marketing material was just for the local trade show … yeah, that must be it. I asked. Nope, these were the only brochures/marketing materials that the company had. And in talking to them a little more, I found out business wasn’t so good as of late … seems like more people are looking online for web design than locally (well, duh).

When I went home, I looked at their website: same exact stuff. Local, local, local. This stuns me, because the answer to “business isn’t so good” is obvious — sell to the world.

The preceding is one example. There are hundreds of businesses that can sell to the world.

I would say that almost any business where you do not have to be there to do the work can be a “world business.” This means anything done on a computer, anything done on the phone, all manner of administration, marketing, web design, graphic design, business consulting, computer programming, writing, etc. Almost all of it can be done remotely.

Even some businesses that can take advantage of mail/shipping — like a specialty repair service — can sell to the world. I know of someone who repairs and modifies expensive remote control cars — you send him the car, he fixes/modifies it and sends it back — I’ll bet anything he has clients all over the world.

How to Sell to the World

Selling to the world is shockingly simple. You need four things:

1. A website.

2. A way for people to find that website (search engine/pay-per-click advertising works nicely.)

3. A way to accept payment (credit cards/ PayPal).

4. The mindset to do such.

That’s all you need. The hardest of those four is — BY FAR — number four. I see it time and time again — a business will not think beyond their little local area. The web design company I ran into is a perfect example. They spend all their time being a big fish in a little pond, and once all the little fish are gone, they don’t move to a bigger pond. Okay, that’s a silly analogy, because except for that creepy snakehead fish, I don’t see too many fish changing residences. But you know what I mean.

Here I am — I’ve had three websites made by two different designers in the last five years, and I didn’t meet either of them face to face … well, after my websites were done, Maryellen and I did meet Arizona residing Kelly and her husband on their NYC vacation, but dinner and (many) drinks were the agenda, not websites.

So if I could get websites made by people who live far away from me, what was stopping this little local web design firm from branching out? Nothing, except their mindset.

Why Does This Happen?

Businesses neglect to branch out, at least in my opinion, because “selling to the world” is still somewhat new. Okay, I don’t personally think it’s all that new (I’ve been doing it all decade), but for many businesses that were started in the ‘80s and ‘90s, well, it still is kind of new. This web design firm in question most likely started when, “Hey you, Mr. or Mrs. Local Businessperson — you need a website” was a valid marketing message (of course, so were the Budweiser frogs at the time … kinda see my point here)?

It’s old thinking — the world can be your customer, no matter what type of business you have (yes, even you, Mr. or Mrs. Plumber … I told you I’d get back to you).

How to Overcome This “Local Only” Thinking

It’s easy to overcome “local only” thinking … just sell something to someone outside of your local area.

If you have a business like a web design business (or any business I mentioned earlier), this is simple — change some wording on your website, buy some pay-per-click ads in other areas, make sure you can take PayPal, and away you go. It’s literally that simple.

Now, for you other types of businesses — you plumbers, you pet sitters — you’re going to have to think a little bit. Perhaps go re-read Chapter 10 on Niche Marketing and the Pizza Place marketing newsletter I mentioned. Heck, it doesn’t have to be that elaborate. I don’t care what your business is, you can put together a little “how-to” manual that you can sell for $5. If you’re a pet sitter, you can have a “How to start a pet sitting business” manual. Or, “Things every pet sitter should know.” You can sell it online as a downloadable PDF (again, shockingly easy … but if you don’t want to get into that, just print it and mail it).

In fact, you don’t even have to go this far to start out — you can even go to eBay and start by selling something from your closet and get a few dollars for it. Once you start getting money from “Betty in Timbuktu,” it opens all kinds of doors.

At least for entrepreneurs it does.