Tag: ND

8 Things You Need To Know To Achieve Success In Business.

Posted on by Scotts Digital

To be able to achieve success in business, it is not just joining another affiliate program or Internet marketing program that can make you as RICH as many people claim. Yes, there might be people who do get rich overnight, but don’t bet on things that you are not familiar with.

In every business, there are 8 important things you need to cover to ensure success:

1) Your Running Cost – This is very important because you can have good sales and income from selling your services, but if you are not able to control your costs, all the money you are earning will go back to other expenses instead of being profit.

2) The Revenue – Of course, this will be the key factor to determining whether your company will make it or not. Without revenue, you will not be able to cover your rent, salary, and other monthly expenses.

3) The Branding – I ask many students these questions: Why should the potential client want to give you their business? Why are you so special that they should part with their money to buy from you? Ask yourself this question honestly and try to come up with at least three to five good answers to it. If you cannot find a good reason, most likely you should not be even engaging in that business at all. You can reach me at dc@dougleschan.com—perhaps I can help you with branding to better your status.

4) The Pricing – Putting too much effort on lower pricing will eventually doom your company. It is always better to put your effort on higher ticket items because often, the time you put in will be about the same anyway.

5) Innovation – Always make an effort to be innovative and create something new instead of just following what others are doing. A follower will always lag behind the creator. Because of this, the financial reward will usually not be very interesting.

6) Read and Research – You need to read and research a lot on your industry, your product, and your services. Know your competitors and know what they are doing. Knowledge is always good to have when you are talking to clients, because it can get quite embarrassing if you are trying to sell to clients and you don’t know what you are talking about.

7) Be an Expert – reading and doing research as mentioned above is great, but if you want to go to another level, you will need to become an expert in your field. It is just like when I became an expert in email marketing, SEO, SEM, Twitter marketing, and many more… I did the research extensively, tested them out again and again, modified them, and retested again and again to see the results. That is the amount of work you need to do to become the guru or expert in that area.

People are always willing to pay top dollar for an expert or a guru. That is where I make most of the money—by being the expert and teaching people the core tips and tricks. People are more willing to pay an expert, rather than just another “somebody.”

8) Be Involved In an Industry That Has Less Competition – If you are in an industry where there are 10,000 companies compared to another industry where there are only 1,000 companies (Assuming the dollar value and market value are the same) the chances of you having more sales in the sector of the 1,000 companies will be better. Hence, choose your industry carefully. If you are in the wrong industry, no matter how hard you work, you will not be very fruitful.

To achieve success in business, a lot of work needs to be done, and the back-end effort is tedious and large. Do not expect instant success. There are ways to make the route shorter by using technology and other platforms to get things done easier, but you still need to make the effort….

Till then…

Big Recruitment Agencies Laughed When I Wrote About The Death of Recruitment Agencies.

Posted on by Scotts Digital

Many years ago, I wrote an article about The Death of Recruitment Agencies, which took the recruitment market by surprise because my statement was so harsh, and it did not make sense. Many of the big agencies were laughing and said that they were not affected by what I claimed, and they were doing very well.

Many months back, I was informed by my sources that the BIG boys had claimed that they were doing very well, expanding and making profits. Well, I do not need to argue who is right or who is wrong because there is no reason to prove who the “winner” is. All I care about is how to transfer my skills and knowledge to people who are open enough to become the elite, and help them to not fall into the trap of the Market Tumor.

From that period until now, many people have been open enough purchase the manual Financial Success in Recruitment Industry, and those people do not just come from Singapore. They come from as far away as the Middle East and the USA. Although most of the visitors to the website www.dougleschan.com come from North America, I was very surprised that many of them actually bought the manuscript.

Many of the people who bought the manuscript actually talked to me–emailed me or even met me in person to tell me that they found what I have written in the manuscript to be very accurate and somewhat disturbing. They also mentioned how C-Marketing had transformed their marketing strategy so that they were able to double or triple their closing ratio within 2-3 weeks of implementation.

My sincere thanks goes to those who have used C-Marketing. It is not for everyone because only people who think out of the box will be willing to have the ultimate faith to use the C-Marketing strategy, let alone fully understand what the Market Tumor is all about!

As for the others who were still laughing, many of them are no longer laughing now, as some of them have had to close down their companies. There are MNCs who are closing their branches in Singapore, and those surviving BIG players are bleeding so badly that they have had to cut their costs, close their other branches, and let go of many consultants just to stay afloat. These are the groups who do not believe what I have written, and will eventually suffer because they are still using traditional methods of operating their business.

I would like to shout out to all those who are still living in their own DREAMS: 

Do wake up now! When the bleeding comes in, which it will, it might be too late to react because you might not have the ammo to fight anymore. The business environment is changing so fast that within days or weeks, new things will overtake and replace what is in the present.

Wishing all good luck and cheers to the elites!

An article by Dougles Chan – The SEO Business Coach. Also known as the Zhuge Liang for SEO. A SEO coach & mentor that specialized on coaching business owners in business and SEO. Author of 8 books. 25 years in business coaching & SEO. Focus countries will be in Singapore, USA, UK, Australia and others.  He has also written some articles on SEO on Condo Singapore which is on RV Attitude and riverfront residences  and fourth avenue residences.

Why Most Smaller Recruitment Agencies will Struggle to Survive in their Business.

Posted on by Scotts Digital

Many smaller size recruitment agencies that have fewer than 10-15 people will feel not so comfortable reading what I am going to write.

However, if you are one of them, do read what follows below with an open mind and perhaps you will be able to get something good out of it.

The reasons why recruitment agencies struggle in their business are as follows:

1) Lack of positioning

Not able to stand out from the rest of the competitors. Well, it is a very easy decision from the client’s point of view. If you are considered to be one of them, you will be treated like one of them; and what happens is that they do not get the business. Period. Sorry, but this is how it works.

2) Compete based on pricing

You may think that by having a lower price, more people will give you the business. Yes, it is true to a certain extent that if you draw the line in the demand and supply curve where you change your pricing, you will have some additional business. However, the truth is that you might have more sales numbers, but your overall sales figures might not be great. In addition, your costs could go up too. Hence, giving a price reduction might not be a great idea. Somehow it actually lowers your “GRADE.”

3) Pay no attention to branding 

Well, even if you are a small player in the market, you will need to have a GREAT logo, a GREAT website, a GREAT tagline, a GREAT business card, and GREAT salesmen. If you are not putting money into these areas, you will, perhaps, be able to make some money; but those who make the extra effort will make the most money. Trust me on this. This is how the world perceives you–you are what you wear: your logo, tagline, website, business card, and salesmen represent who you are and determine whether the client would want to do business with you. It is not expensive to have the entire list above if you know how to do it.

4) Lack of a certain skill-set 

Let us face the facts, when you open up a business, you do believe that you will have good sales because you take reference from someone or some experience that you have chosen a good industry to work in. But all hell breaks loose when you start the business; suddenly you need to manage the operation, sales, marketing, recruiting, HR, payroll, accounts, etc. My point is this: are you being trained to do all the things above? Most likely not. The question is that if one does not have sufficient skill, can they do things efficiently? It is a straight NO. Hence, what you need to do is to delegate the work to people who are good at it, handle the job you are best in, and focus all your time on something that you are very good at.

5) Unsure about the Market Tumor 

I explained about the Market Tumor in a previous article and touched base on the potency of the tumor from three groups. The basic idea is that clients do not give you exclusivity, and you might have to work very hard on many assignments and still not be able to close.

Many agencies, including top headhunting companies are also facing the same problem. (Just to name a few are Robert Walters, Hays, and other HUGE players) How do I know about it? Simple. By using a simple tracking method, I am able to see who are the agencies that are working on the assignments and I can also see who the client is. That’s how deadly my techniques can be.  
There are solutions to the problems above and if you were to put some effort into solving these problems, you will definitely stand out from the rest and make it in the recruitment agency industry. Cheers, and good luck.

An article by Dougles Chan – The SEO Business Coach. Also known as the Zhuge Liang for SEO. A SEO coach & mentor that specialized on coaching business owners in business and SEO. Author of 8 books. 25 years in business coaching & SEO. Focus countries will be in Singapore, USA, UK, Australia and others.  He has also written some articles on SEO on Condo Singapore which is on RV Attitude and riverfront residences  and fourth avenue residences.

How to become Successful in Business – 8 Tips

Posted on by Scotts Digital

How to become Successful in Business – 8 Tips

To be able to achieve success in your business, it is not just finding a good product and service and all the sales will come in and everything will be plain sailing.
And it is not just buying a franchise and hope the entire franchise will be working. It does not work that way in real life.
To be profitable in running the business, I have compiled the following from my 25 years of business experience and shorten it for you digest them easily. Hope these business tips will benefit you one way or another.

1) Managed Your Running Cost

This is very important because you can have good sales and income from selling your services, but if you are not able to control  and managed your costs, all the money you are earning will go back to other expenses instead of being profit.
You need to avoid buying things which are too expensive or not necessary.
If you need to buy a laptop for usage, instead of buying a high-end $2,000.00 laptop, get a decent one at $600.00, you will be able to save $1,400.00 in this case, don’t worry about efficiency at this point of time.
Getting the sales is more important and having a good cash-flow is critical, the more you save in terms of cost, the more cash-flow you will have for you business.
Control the amount of salary and the cost of goods so that you will be able to earn decent profits. If your staff is asking for an increase in salary but you find that it is not justifiable, replace them if need to.
The reason is that if you agree to increase their salary, there will be a second time in time to come.
If you do not need an office for your business nature, then work from home or share the office with other companies that are willing to do so.
There is not need to show to the public that just because you have a business you need to have an office.
Having more CASH in the bank is better than having an office that is draining your resource every month.

2) Increase The Revenue

Of course, this will be the key factor to determining whether your company will make it or not. Without revenue, you will not be able to cover your rent, salary, and other monthly expenses.

3) The Uniqueness

I had asked many of my business students these questions:
Why should the potential client want to give you their business?
Why are you so special that they should part with their money to buy from you?
Ask yourself this question honestly and try to come up with at least three to five good answers to it.
If you cannot find a good reason, most likely you should not be even engaging in that business at all.
If you are not able to be different and unique compare to other competitors, you will be classified as one of them, and when you are perceived like one of them out there, likely your sales results will be like one of them, which is quite bad…..

4) The Pricing

Putting too much effort on selling lower pricing product and services will eventually doom your company.
It is always better to put your effort on higher ticket items because often, the time you put in will be about the same anyway.

5) Innovation

Always make an effort to be innovative and create something new instead of just following what others are doing.
A follower will always lag behind the creator. Because of this, the financial reward will usually not be very interesting.
I remembered a friend who proudly told me he copied a few top players methods and combined them together, but I told him, what makes you so unique but he never bother to answer me the question because he did not find there is a need to do so.
He started to make some money at the very beginning and after sometime, he faced some problems, customers does not find him to be different and many people are doing the same thing as what he was doing, copying!
So at the end of the story, he failed to be DIFFERENT from the rest and fold his business eventually.

6) Read and Research

You need to read and research a lot on your industry, your product, and your services.
Know your competitors and know what they are doing. Knowledge is always good to have when you are talking to clients, because it can get quite embarrassing if you are trying to sell to clients and you don’t know what you are talking about.

7) Be an Expert of the Experts

Reading and doing research as mentioned above is great, but if you want to go to another level, you will need to become an expert in your field.
It is just like when I became an expert of the experts in email marketing, SEO, SEM, Adwords marketing, Facebook marketing, Facebook advertising, Twitter marketing, and many more…
I did the research extensively, tested them out again and again, modified them, and retested again and again to see the results.
I have also spend thousands and thousands of dollars in order to find the right combinations and parameters.
That is the amount of work you need to do to become the guru or expert in that area.
The good news is that clients are always willing to pay top dollar for an expert or a guru.
That is where I make most of the money–by being the expert of the experts and teaching people the core tips and tricks.
People are more willing to pay an expert, rather than just another “somebody.”

8) Be Involved In an Industry That Has Lesser Competition

If you are in an industry where there are 10,000 companies compared to another industry where there are only 1,000 companies, the chances of you having more sales in the sector of the 1,000 companies will be better.
Hence, choose your industry carefully. If you are in the wrong industry, no matter how hard you work, you will not be very fruitful.
To achieve success in business, a lot of work needs to be done, and the back-end effort is tedious and HUGE.

Do not expect instant success.

There are ways to make the business route shorter and successful by using technology and other platforms to get things done easier, you can refer to the resources over here BUT you still need to make the effort to make things work.
Till then…
 

5 Internet Marketing Methods to Generate More Sales for Headhunting Firm

Posted on by Scotts Digital
Can we think of a life without the internet?
 
Whether it is about paying our bills or keeping in touch with our family and friends, internet plays a vital role.
 
Life without internet is unthinkable.
 
Apart from these basic utilities, internet serves as a major breakthrough in marketing.
 
It is about doing the same marketing in a newer way.
 
It can begin from something as simple as creating a website to creating awareness about the business or making new prospect clients.
 
A headhunting business doesn’t merely involve just creating it but its more about making people aware of what they do and how they are better than their competitors.
 
Internet marketing is the latest tool which helps in increasing the business prospects of a firm and gives the opportunity to deal with the target audience in the rightful manner.
 
It’s the most cost effective medium to reach the target audience.
 
There are numerous ways of capturing the market.
 
One of the most effective ways is animated graphics narration. It is a creative tool which helps to tell people through online media in a very creative manner the purpose of a business which can thus increase the business immensely.
 
Apart from this, there is a possibility for immediate response in internet marketing unlike the other social media like the newspaper or the television.
 
Internet marketing captures and analyses information faster and thus can also gather email addresses of the clients. These can be forwarded to the sales team which can immediately follow up.
 
Internet marketing is a systematic approach which increases the prospects of a business immensely. There are many kinds of digital marketing strategies which can be incorporated in a business.
 

Search Engine Optimization

 
Search engine optimization or SEO is a very powerful tool in establishing a presence of a business in the wide online world.
 
It’s an essential tool which helps businesses find prospective clients.
 
It is very evident that most of the clicks go to the top results in a web search.
 
Thus, SEO helps in indexing a website at a higher position so that it is more visible by the client and thus boosting the business on the whole.
 

Social media marketing

 
Social Networking is the most cost effective internet marketing strategy.
 
Since making company profiles in social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn is free this strategy is taking over the internet by storm.
 
This is an easy way for people to communicate and share among friends their various experiences.
 

Pay per click advertising

 
Pay per Click or PPC is a system wherein business pays only when the customer clicks on it.
 
This strategy is meant to target audience who are looking for a certain specific service.
 
The major advantage of this service is the fast check of success based on the keywords used by the business.
 

Blog and email marketing

 
E-Mail marketing basically helps in enhancing the relationship that customers share with a company.
 
Using emails of customers it is easier to maintain a good rapport with them by continuously following up and reminding them of their maintenance and this in turn can attract long-term business.
 

Paid Advertising

 
Paid advertising helps in attracting new customers by creating a banner of their business on websites that people use every day.
 
These banners ads use animated graphics narration.
 
It is a creative tool which helps people understands the purpose of a business in a very creative manner.
 
There are various other types of marketing on the internet that are not mentioned here, but they can all be implemented for a headhunting business to get prospective clients. 

How to Find Good Clients For Your Recruitment Agency

Posted on by Scotts Digital

How to Find Good Clients For Your Recruitment Agency?

I was amazed by the number of searches on Google that point the traffic to my website www.dougleschan.com where “Finding Clients” for recruitment agencies are intensively being searched by many people worldwide.

It seems that there are thousands and thousands of people who are having this challenge. If you are looking for an answer, I might have the answer for you:

You see, as a recruiter, recruitment consultant or recruitment business owner, having good clients is very important, isn’t it?

If you have no clients, you will have no job order, and when you have no job order, you will not be able to hit the sales. Your recruitment agency will be losing money. 

That would be terrible. Right?

Fear NOT. Help is on the way…read on…let the recruitment business coach help you…

 
My question is: if you are that bloody good in the recruitment industry, do you think you will have a problem getting clients? The answer is NO. You will NEVER need to search for clients; the clients will search for you.

How can you really do that?

You will need to raise your level much higher than ALL the other thousands and thousands of recruitment agencies out there. Do not just be another one of them, because if you position and label yourself as one of them, you will end up like them – dying quietly in desperation.

The strategy is actually very simple – Make yourself in high demand.

Here’s what you need to do.

1) Position yourself as an expert in a specific industry – Read a lot of books, magazines, newspapers, and trade e-zines. Interact with as many people of the industry as possible. Get to know a lot of people. Do not focus on anything else, I repeat, DO NOT do any other industry. FOCUS on only ONE industry. Period.

2) Create a blog within your recruitment website. Do not use any free blogs. The reason is simple: it’s all about branding. Every 1-2 days, write an article about anything related to your industry and put it on your blog.

Make it something useful that has an impact. Let people know that you are REALLY GOOD at what you are doing.

3) Make your website easy to surf. 

4) Use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to the maximum; optimize your website so that people can search for you or related keywords in your industry.

5) Give free talks and seminars on related topics. Let the public know you are an expert in your field; take a lot of pictures of the talks and seminars and put them in your blog. Use sites like Pinterest.com, Flickr.com, Facebook.com, etc. Let everyone see that you exist and are active in the market.

6) Expose yourself to major social media and add a lot of friends. Update them often. Facebook and Linkedin is a good way to start. 

7) NEVER ever negotiate a price with a NEW client; it is about your positioning. Tell NEW clients your fees are fixed. If you are going to lose this client, so be it. It is perfectly fine. However, do take note that you can negotiate the price with OLD clients.

8) Don’t save money on small staff. If you need to get your website up, get a top web designer; if you need a good business card, get a professional to do it for you. Never try to save a few dollars to sacrifice quality–you will lose a lot of clients when you engage in such activities.

9) Spend a lot of time on your professional image: personal grooming, public speaking, and soft skills. You will need all of these to attract the top clients.

10) Create a brand, a tagline, and a great logo.

When you reach that level, let me know. I will write a book about you and further brand you to another level. Cheers.