This book is packed full of useful tactics for entrepreneurs, as indicated by my copious amount of notes. While some of the info is dated, there is still a ton of evergreen information in here.
I have kept the Millionaire-Maker Strategies in the order they were revealed in the book. I hope you find these notes useful, and more importantly, I hope you do something with them.
My Notes
The Eight Best Ways to (Still) Make a Fortune from Scratch in America:
#1 High Probability Area of Opportunity (HPAO): "Ordinary" Businesses
Exciting truth: you can take about any ordinary business, do its core business and satisfy customers a little better, add clever, extra profit centers to the core business, and manage the money very intelligently--and that business will make you rich.
#2 HPAO: The Best Equity is Exclusivity
Wealth is most often linked to exclusive ownership or control of a particular concept, product, or service.
#3 HPAO: Serve, Serve, Serve
#4 HPAO: Go Ye Forth and Multiply
Get rich through duplication and multiplication. [ex: Franchises.]
#5 HPAO: Go Direct!
[Direct marketing is even easier and more cost-effective in a Web 3.0 world.]
#6 HPAO: Profit from the Information Age
#7 HPAO: Fame and Fortune do Go Together
#8 HPAO: Creative, Clever Combinations
3 Additional Ways to Look at Business and Business Opportunities
1. Product-driven Business.Product itself is so appealing, unique, and promotable that it gets sold through a variety of media and methods, to or through a variety of markets.
2. Market-driven Business
Particular niche market dictates the development of a product or products or a service or services.
This is a relatively common although little-noticed, little-understood type of business. And businesses in this category have very high probabilities of success,
3. Media-driven Business
Variety of products and services, even unrelated products, or multiple businesses, are all sold through one primary medium.
Modern, high-tech distribution businesses.
Entrepreneur is not a specialist in a particular product of service; instead, he is a specialist in a particular method of distribution. [ex: Gary Vaynerchuk and social media marketing.]
Millionaire-Maker Strategy (M-MS) #15: Others may criticize you--listen to your customers first and foremost.
M-MS #2: Diversity is the opposite of laziness.
The Irresistible Offer:
1) Create perceived value in substantial excess of price.
2) Desirable premiums. [ex: Freemium games in the app store.]
3) Strong guarantees.
M-MS #3: Gutsy (Not Wimpy) Marketing.
There are four main ways to gain ownership or exclusive control over a product:
1. Create.
2. Publish.
3. Secure certain exclusive rights [ex: Red Bull].
4. Have it private-labeled for you.
1. If you are going to create from scratch, my very best advice is to create to fit a known, identified, affordably reachable target market or to supply an established distribution pipeline.
- Have the market and marketing in place first, then invent.
- Suggests reading Wilson Call's how-to manual, The Anatomy of an Invention.
M-MS #23: If you're going to invent, consider markets first.
M-MS #5: Turn anger and resentment against an enemy into enormous opportunity.
M-MS #4: Keep it simple.
M-MS #7: Provide the customer with an exceptional guarantee.
M-MS #26: If you don't ask, you can't get.
Where do you go to find products, product sources and product business ideas?
1. Trade journals.
2. Trade associations.
3. Conventions, exhibitions, trade shows, and consumer shows.
4. County and state fairs, swap meets.
5. Catalogs
6. Consumer magazines.
7. "Opportunity" magazines.
8. Government publications.
9. Directories.
10. Classifieds.
11. Old advertising.
12. Import / export.
13. Current events.
14. Trends.
Most highly promotable products, services, or businesses have at least one of these three ingredients:
1. They solve an almost universal need and problem.
2. They provide a much better way to perform a common task or do a common necessary job.
3. They have some enormous emotional or impulse appeal that transcends logic and basic needs.
M-MS #20: Everybody has assets of experience and empathy [exception: sociopaths] that should be considered and valued when choosing business activities.
How to "Reinvent" Your Way to a Fortune
If you are sitting with a product you passionately believe in but have been unable to market, you have to start by giving yourself an attitude checkup...The individual who brings an idea to the marketplace and gets hammered naturally prefers speculating about the idiocy of the public rather than looking in the mirror, shoving his bloodied nose aside, squinting through his blacked eyes to look at the guy who missed the mark.
The three changes that turned Thighmaster around:
1. Product appearance. A new company took an ugly dull-sounding Swedish medical device and made it more appealing.
2. Positioning. Went from multi-purpose exercise to "so simple, it's not even really exercise" device.
3. Celebrity.
M-MS #45: It ain't over till it's over.
**If you can't be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
M-MS #16: Tweak, tweak, tweak. [Perhaps tinker is a clearer word here.]
M-MS #37: Take full responsibility for the success or failure of your actions.
M-MS #38: Success breeds success.
M-MS #8: Stake out a leadership position.
M-MS #25: Uncover hidden assets and opportunities.
*If you can give people time, you can make a fortune.
M-MS #6: Sell time.
M-MS #10: Even if yours isn't a true service business, add and emphasize service components.
M-MS #21: Turn your passions into profits.
Foundations for a Successful Service Business:
1. Need-driven (ex: computer repair).
2. Want-driven (ex: interior decorating).
3. Time savings-driven (ex: lawn and garden service).
4. Money savings-driven (ex: furniture re-covering).
5. Unique or incorporating a strong competitive advantage.
6. Linked to personal interest, preferably a passion.
7. Linked to personal talent, ability, or specialized knowledge.
M-MS #11: Creative combining can create huge business breakthroughs.
M-MS #18: Consider priorities other than the fastest possible growth.
M-MS #27: Think BIG!
M-MS #33: Private labeling is a fantastic way to get massive distribution fast, with no advertising and little marketing expense.
M-MS #34: Create your own toll booth.
M-MS #39: Properly value information, especially when it is gained by failure.
M-MS #28: Get others to do your selling for you.
There's no law that says you have to risk or invest your own money in order to make money. When you own or control a promotable product and have publicity for that product, success with that product in one medium, and other proof that it is a salable product, you have assets just as valuable as money.
M-MS #40: Selling brilliantly won't make you a million if you're not buying smart!
*Direct-response advertisers need to get space at 50 percent to 70 percent off rate card in order to make money.
- Page 98 = GOLD
"In life, you don't get what you deserve--you get what you negotiate."
-Chester Karrass
Unlike most of a media's traditional advertisers, you actually know how well your as works in each place. You have precise results. You know what your cost of advertising per sale is in Media A vs. Media B. And the media people know you know.
M-MS #29: Acquire customers for free any time, any way, every time, and every way that you can.
*How You Too Can Make At Least One Million Dollars in the Mail-order Business by Gerardo Joffee
Exact Ingredients for a Direct-mail Moneymaking System:
1. The lists. Utilize good leads.
2. The offer. Usually includes an appealing product or products (or service, services), a discount, a premium or bonus, a strong guarantee, and an added reason to respond promptly.
3. The mailing, Long letters tremendously outperform brief letters. Approaches: AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, (call to) Action; state the problem, emotionalize the problem, solve the problem.
M-MS #1: Diversify in marketing to fully exploit total customer value.
M-MS #32: Develop vertical businesses within your business!
M-MS #9: [Be] Alert!
M-MS #12: "Plus-ing." [Disney emphasized this over and over: How can we take a "known," something that works, and then make it or do it a notch or two better?]
M-MS #44: Discovering and using "formulas."
The objective of every savvy marketer and entrepreneur ought to be to find a reliable formula for success that can be repeated over and over again.
M-MS #36: You MUST find ways to use the power of television. It is the most powerful force in American society. [This, I would argue, is getting more outdated by the minute. While TV is still--unfortunately--a behemoth in our society, its influence is gradually declining and TV has already been usurped by the Internet as the most powerful force.]
No combination of obstacles is insurmountable. If your idea really has merit, and you have sufficient determination, you can get past the most incredible obstacles.
M-MS #41: Look for every way possible to keep your capital out of dormant assets and into productive advertising, marketing, promotion, and sales efforts.
Elements of a reliable, duplicatable formula for creating and selling information products successfully:
1. Have a sound basis for your information products.
2. Have a properly selected target market. Selection of the target market is at least half the battle.
3. Have a high enough price point to support necessary advertising and marketing efforts.
4. Have a multi-step marketing strategy. Obviously more complicated than just running a one-step ad that asks for the order and makes the sale, this multi-step approach is also much safer and reliable.
5. Have an auto-pilot orientation. Auto-pilot marketing = marketing processes that function by themselves without continuing physical labor.
6. Have or quickly develop a back-end business. The majority of big profits will come from the second, third, fourth, fourteenth, and fortieth sale to the same customer, not from selling one product to one new customer after another.
M-MS #30: Choose different information product formats and prices to fit the target markets, their price sensitivities, the value they'll derive from the information, and other factors.
M-MS #31: Sell the same information in a number of different formats, at a variety of different prices.
M-MS #22: Remember that what you take for granted, because it is common knowledge to you, is a revelation, a secret of immense value to someone who does not know or understand it. Do not undervalue what you know.
M-MS #14: Break the rules.
"If it's a new idea and you have limited resources, try an untraditional path. Go through the back door instead of the front door. And just never take no for an answer."
How to get the very best deal possible when selling your business:
M-MS #29: Acquire customers for free any time, any way, every time, and every way that you can.
*How You Too Can Make At Least One Million Dollars in the Mail-order Business by Gerardo Joffee
Exact Ingredients for a Direct-mail Moneymaking System:
1. The lists. Utilize good leads.
2. The offer. Usually includes an appealing product or products (or service, services), a discount, a premium or bonus, a strong guarantee, and an added reason to respond promptly.
3. The mailing, Long letters tremendously outperform brief letters. Approaches: AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, (call to) Action; state the problem, emotionalize the problem, solve the problem.
M-MS #1: Diversify in marketing to fully exploit total customer value.
M-MS #32: Develop vertical businesses within your business!
M-MS #9: [Be] Alert!
M-MS #12: "Plus-ing." [Disney emphasized this over and over: How can we take a "known," something that works, and then make it or do it a notch or two better?]
M-MS #44: Discovering and using "formulas."
The objective of every savvy marketer and entrepreneur ought to be to find a reliable formula for success that can be repeated over and over again.
M-MS #36: You MUST find ways to use the power of television. It is the most powerful force in American society. [This, I would argue, is getting more outdated by the minute. While TV is still--unfortunately--a behemoth in our society, its influence is gradually declining and TV has already been usurped by the Internet as the most powerful force.]
No combination of obstacles is insurmountable. If your idea really has merit, and you have sufficient determination, you can get past the most incredible obstacles.
M-MS #41: Look for every way possible to keep your capital out of dormant assets and into productive advertising, marketing, promotion, and sales efforts.
Elements of a reliable, duplicatable formula for creating and selling information products successfully:
1. Have a sound basis for your information products.
2. Have a properly selected target market. Selection of the target market is at least half the battle.
3. Have a high enough price point to support necessary advertising and marketing efforts.
4. Have a multi-step marketing strategy. Obviously more complicated than just running a one-step ad that asks for the order and makes the sale, this multi-step approach is also much safer and reliable.
5. Have an auto-pilot orientation. Auto-pilot marketing = marketing processes that function by themselves without continuing physical labor.
6. Have or quickly develop a back-end business. The majority of big profits will come from the second, third, fourth, fourteenth, and fortieth sale to the same customer, not from selling one product to one new customer after another.
M-MS #30: Choose different information product formats and prices to fit the target markets, their price sensitivities, the value they'll derive from the information, and other factors.
M-MS #31: Sell the same information in a number of different formats, at a variety of different prices.
M-MS #22: Remember that what you take for granted, because it is common knowledge to you, is a revelation, a secret of immense value to someone who does not know or understand it. Do not undervalue what you know.
M-MS #14: Break the rules.
"If it's a new idea and you have limited resources, try an untraditional path. Go through the back door instead of the front door. And just never take no for an answer."
-Sheryl Leach, creator of Barney
M-MS #13: It doesn't hurt to be "Captain Outrageous."
If you don't seriously offend at least one person a day, you're not saying or doing much.
M-MS #35: Everybody can find a way to use publicity. Do not undervalue publicity because you don't buy it. Don't ignore it just because it takes effort to get. It is valuable.
The 5 P's of Publicity:
1. Be predictive. The public loves predictions of the future.
2. Be provocative. Being boring is the #1 Marketing Sin.
3. Be public. By this, I mean mainstream. If you want major media exposure, you have to find a way to be mainstream.
4. Be a personality. Have a dynamic or humorous or intriguing personality.
5. Be persistent. The smartest tactic is to frequently send new information, articles, press releases, and other materials to a target list of media contacts.
*Determine to build a salable asset, not just a business.
M-MS #17: Clarity of purpose.
M-MS #19: Are you sure you want to be a pioneer? Most pioneers get shot full of arrows and die.
M-MS #24: Pay attention to developing trends. Find leading indicators.
M-MS #42: Smart investments in building value. If interested in developing and then selling, merging with a wealthy business, or going public, it's important to understand that net income is rarely the most important success factor. The entrepreneur with a bigger vision needs to build value, not just create income.
People and companies buy businesses for their reasons not yours. Their reasons for buying not only have nothing to do with your reasons for selling--they'll have little to do with the reasons you think somebody ought to have for buying your business.
- You need to think creatively when positioning a business for sale and selecting and courting buyers.
1. Do not need to sell. In most negotiations, the person most willing to walk away from the table wins. [Ideally, negotiations should be a win-win, or at least appear that way to your opponent(s). For a brilliant discourse on this, check out Secrets of Power Negotiating.]
2. Demonstrate tremendous potential. Paint this picture: "What I've done is good, but imagine what you could do!"
3. Attract suitors, don't seek them.
4. Be patient.
5. Ignore conventional evaluations of what your business is worth.
6. Start by asking for a lot more than you want. [Actually, master negotiators do a step before this: They let the opposition open--and flinch at their first offer.]
M-MS #43: Use synergy!
Once you come to grips with the fact that the single biggest expense of business is acquiring a new customer, then it becomes evident that it can be easier and more profitable to grow by offering more products and services to the customers whose trust you have than by only searching for new customers. Then you can fit that idea together with other synergy. If you put two consumer service businesses together under one umbrella, you not only halve the cost of acquiring customers, you share fixed and operations expenses in order to create better bottom-line profits.
What's your greatest asset?
What elements can you combine under your single roof or umbrella that multiply rather than just add to the value of your business?
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