Fitting the Pieces

Facebook has increasingly been challenging Google in terms of weekly visits and finally, for the week ending March 13, Facebook surpassed Google; Facebook got 7.07% while Google got 7.03% of all visits to websites.  Hitwise calls this a milestone.

A look at the chart below will show how one year has brought massive increases in visitors to Facebook.

From Heather Dougherty, Director Research, Hitwise

Is this change enough to warrant believing that Google Adwords “sucks” as Ryan Deiss has said in his promotional video and reason enough to go and do Facebook advertising?  Personally, I doubt it.

Disclaimer: I have spent very little on advertising at either site. I have not spent ten years doing Adwords as Deiss has done. If you have not seen the Ryan Deiss promotional video,  here is a link — it is not an affiliate link for me.

So who am I to doubt the words of the experienced marketer? Deiss claims that Facebook advertising

1. Is much bigger than Google
2. Is less competitive than Google
3. Offers better targeting, and
4. Is less expensive than Google.

All of those points are more or less true. Well, I’m not sure about #1. Bigger in what way? Visitors?  Well just barely (see above). Page views? Yes, that is probably true since there is some argument about how the “hits” are counted (many people use Google in the browser bar without ‘going’ to Google).

As a novice advertiser, I will say that Facebook is a lot easier to use. There is no doubt that you can “target” certain audiences.  For example,  I can limit my Facebook advertisement to pages that have certain keywords, words that Facebook users have also used in building their pages. I happened to say something about model railroads in my “interests” and lo! I get model railroading ads on my Facebook page.

However, I am not actively interested in model railroading. I am not looking for advice or products relevant to model railroading.

That brings me to a key difference between the two sites, and a fact that Ryan left out of his interesting promotional video. People who use Google are searching for something. If you have done your ad correctly and Google has done its algorithm correctly, you might say that when your ad pops up, they are looking for you. This is not true on Facebook. No one goes to Facebook to look up information on pet urine cleaner. An ad on Facebook for such a product can be targeted to those who own a particular type of pet, that is true. But that does not mean the person is searching for that information.

In print terms, it is the difference between a yellow pages ad and a display ad in a pet magazine. In the case of the former, I want an immediate solution and resource. In the case of the latter, it is hit or miss.

Of course Adwords allows for a similar placement when they give the advertiser an option to show the ad on “content pages.”  I am not convinced how effective that is compared to outright searches. I notice that I have gotten a lot of clicks off content pages, but I don’t think the NEED is there – that the visitor is driven like one who is searching for what I am offering. I recently dropped “content centered pages” from the teeny bit of advertising that I do with Adwords. Frankly, I put most of my time and money into my own content and in content syndication.

I am not saying to forget about Facebook advertising (I have done a tad of Facebook ads myself).  I am not even saying to forget about Ryan Deiss’ Facebook Ads training package. He describes some decent value. Only the purchaser will know for sure if it is something they need right now or not.

What I am saying is – Google may be complex and aggravating and expensive, but it can do something that Facebook cannot do. Google (and search engines generally) can put a message in front of someone who is outright asking for the message. For clarity, I distinguish two types of online advertising this way:

• Attraction-centered ad campaigns. People come to me because they are looking for me. I already have their attention. This is what happens when I use advertising within search results, such as Adwords.
• Targeted ad campaigns.  I track down my target because I am looking for them.  I try to get their attention, to drag them to the message. This is what happens when I place Adwords in content areas where my target audience frequents or on Facebook pages of people who might have an interest in my message at some point in their lives.

So evaluate Deiss’ message accordingly.

Here’s a view along the lines of my own:

Simply put, people go to Google because they are looking for something – - the inquisitive act of seeking naturally lends itself to advertising. Whereas people go to Facebook to socialize and share with friends and relatives in an environment in which advertising is viewed by many as an intrusion and a distraction.  –Sam Gustin at Daily Finance

Granddaughter's Snowmen

Are you facing a challenging task in your small business? In the corporate world you might be able to delegate part of the task. What’s the answer if you are a lone entrepreneur? One possibility is collaboration with another entrepreneur.

Want to host a public information seminar?  Perhaps you can join forces with one or two others in an allied field.

Want to write a book (or e-book)? Perhaps other entrepreneurs could contribute chapters in areas of their own expertise.

Want to pay for advertising? Maybe several small businesses could collaborate on an ad for related services or products to a single target audience.

Collaboration Enables a Bigger Result ©BeverlyLR/stock.xchng

Given enough snow, anyone can build a decent snowman. Not everyone can build a full-sized snowman. Where heavy lifting is required, a little collaboration can go a long way.

“Many hands make light work.” -old adage.

“Two heads are better than one.” – old adage.

“In this new wave of technology, you can’t do it all yourself, you have to form alliances.” – Carlos Slim Helu, in 2010, the world’s wealthiest person, 70 year old Mexican businessman, telecommunications industry.

The first step: Who do you know? Is networking a top goal in your small business? Networking is the prequel to collaboration.

Guest Writer: Rana Zellner Burr, MT-BC.

Patrice Walker got us all together on the phone after the Renegade Live Event in Portland, Oregon.  She has been wanting to focus on Work At Home Moms for the Professionals, Businesses, and Non-profits (PBN) training area and saw us as the team to help her to be able to do that.

So far, we have gotten on the phone together four times to brainstorm ideas on how to move forward.  A lot of communication takes place via emails as well.  Some of the actions we have already taken are:

• assuming responsibility for one of Patrice’s blogs, Mom-Means-Business.com,
• setting up various accounts with one group name (Mom-Means-Business),
• choosing a name for our monthly web show where we will answer questions from our viewers focusing on the day to day aspects of having a home based business with a family (Good Day Mompreneur), and
• creating individual branding videos.

We even have an incredible theme song that Patrice wrote and performed when she was in a band!

In time, we will be creating exclusive training products for the Renegade community and the public at large that will eventually be available through the new PBN site.

The most exciting part is being able to work with these amazing, powerful women.  We each bring something to the mix that is unique in terms of our strengths, and that is what is helping us to move along at an incredible rate.

Our team is made up of myself, Rana Burr, Samantha Gardner, Julia Rymut, Deborah Tutnauer, and of course, the incomparable Patrice Walker.

In this video, I have just gotten off of our third call, where we talk about specific plans for moving forward.  I went ahead and jumped on camera to capture my feelings about being part of the group, because at that moment, they were just so strong.  Before this call there were still some questions as to how everything was going to fit together and what kind of commitment would be involved.  By the end, everyone’s juices were flowing, and we were all ready to take on this project together and create something amazing.

Rana Zellner Burr, MT-BC
Live well. Spend less.
www.smart-money-management.com
Email: info@ranaburr.com
210-637-9766 or 702-588-4942

You can collaborate with other marketers who are seemingly out of reach, like way more popular or influential than you are at this time.

Now before you get too excited, be sure you have the marketing basics, as for example explained by Mike Klingler. Don’t expect to collaborate when you have no clue about what you want to do and where you are headed.

In my Collaboration Video Part 1, I describe the importance of using networking to find people with whom to collaborate or partner. No doubt you had a hard time picturing yourself networking with Ann Sieg, Mike Dillard, Mark Hoverson, Ty Tribble, or many other well known leaders. Your reaction may very well be:

How do I even get to talk with them, let alone network?

How do I even get their attention?

Why would they care about little ‘ole me?

You can collaborate with gurus and it is not difficult.

Thankfully, I have a great video on how to do it from Ferny Ceballos. Ferny is one of the best in the SEO business.  “But what does that have to do with networking?” you might wonder.

Please listen closely to Ferny is this video. He addresses:

• How to connect with established “gurus” – how to get their attention.
• How to connect with newly developing “gurus” – how to get their attention.

Think of “guru” as any leader in your niche from whom you would like the opportunity to partner or collaborate. So how do you get, not only their attention, but their friendship?

Ferny’s advice is to link to their personal pages, websites, social media profiles, and their content posting. Do this on social media, on forums, on blog comments, and on blog posts. This, of course, is what is meant by “link-love.” When done correctly over time, it helps the “guru” by getting increased visitors and increased site and profile rankings. In other words, give them the gift of promotion. Do it with competence and you will, in Ferny’s words, “create a desire for them to reciprocate. … [You will find that] cross promotion turns into friendship and eventually, business partnership.”

There a lot of gems in this important 15 minute training video. Study it carefully.

I have been focusing on collaboration with other business entrepreneurs lately and today’s topic is -

Before You Collaborate: Take Stock

Specifically: how will you find someone and what will you collaborate about??  I suggest a little written exercise where you look at two things-

1. What can I contribute?  If you are going to network and approach others with a collaboration deal, they will want to know what you have to offer. You may be already quite successful with a large list like the one Ann Sieg owns, but more likely you don’t. So what do you bring to the table?
2. What am I looking for? At this point in your business, what could you use that someone else could contribute? If you have part of an “angle” for a book, course, product design, or marketing plan— could you collaborate with someone who might provide the other part?

Now to help you think about both of those items, here is a list of thought-triggers that may help you write down your answers for your collaboration possibilities.  I introduced this list in my latest collaboration video.  It’s about 10 minutes of information that provides an overview of collaboration, the process, and this “getting ready” exercise:

Checklist of Thought-Triggers (To Answer the Two Key Questions).

It is a long list and many items overlap.

• Skills: The actual skills that people possess is endless.  If you have a skill that complements someone else’s, that could be a plus. Again, what do you have; what could be helpful to you at this point in your growth? Skills like–
  • Video production
  • Writing with pull
  • Making a lead capture page
  • HTML, CSS, etc
  • Converting text to an eBook
  • Good voice
• Time: Whether you have few or many skills, whether you are a beginner or very experienced in a skill, what can be a deal-breaker is the time you are willing to commit to the skill that you have.
• Expertise: Beyond a skill, what is your niche of expertise?  This may include skills but also knowledge. What “job expertise” is transferrable to a home business activity?
• Experience: Similar to the above, but the focus is a history of involvement to a field, an activity, or a group of people. The knowledge is practical, seasoned. You know the pitfalls. You have a testimony, you have stories, or you have slides of your experience.
• Product(s): What have you created? What type of product do you wish to market to your niche audience?
  • An eBook, a white paper or report, a published book
  • A video, a webinar
  • A brochure, catalog
  • A website, blog, membership site
  • A software program
  • Photography, music, other art or creative products
  • Short story, poetry
  • Recipe, best brownie or muffin
  • Systems for a specific service: weight-loss, gardening, child-care, cooking, buying a car, customer service, quality management,….
  • A tangible consumer or commercial good
• Partial Product(s): For example, you have written part of an eBook but need someone with different expertise to write several missing chapters. Reconsider the list under “Products” but this time think of ways you could co-create one of those products with the right partner.
• Ideas: Do you have an idea but lack the skill to create or implement it? Yes, hiring an expert (outsourcing) is one excellent route. Lacking funds for outsourcing? With the right idea and the right partner, collaboration could work. Perhaps you have the idea and the skill to implement it, but are missing something for marketing it?
• Process: Do you have a better way of getting a certain task done?  In industry, it’s called a BKM – best known method. But the BKM originates with one employee who has stumbled on a faster way, a cheaper way, or a way with a higher quality result.
• Invention: Taking any one or more of the preceding points and have laid it all out on paper. A formal description of a product.
• Patent:  One step further. You own a patent on a product. The value (actual or perceived) has increased along with this.
• Contacts.  You have a great network. You know leaders, resource people, investors, or celebrities and they know you.
• A List:  Could be your Newsletter list or other prospect list.  Could be actual buyers, customers of yours.  Could be a client list, people that truly follow you.  Obviously, the bigger the list the better. Still, if you and four others each have 200 names, when you collaborate you have the power of 1000 names. Etc.
• A Name or Brand.  Your name is well recognized in your niche area. This may or may not mean that you also have a list. Some people have established “a name” due to their accomplishments, for example, without identifiable “tribe” members.
• Trademark. One step further, you have taken your name or even a unique symbol for your brand, and registered it as a trademark.
• Transportation: Maybe you have a car and can offer a ride. Maybe you have extra frequent flyer miles.
• Space to Share:  Maybe you have a spacious office area, workshop, or web server.
• Cash:  Investment capital.
• Information:  You have critical knowledge or information.  That knowledge may not be developed into a product, process, or invention. It may not even be an idea. But you know something. Naturally supply and demand applies here as elsewhere: the fewer people that know this and the more people that would want to know this the better.
• Viewpoint: A slightly different understanding or opinion on existing knowledge. It must be so-well expressed that it is a desirable commodity. Think political  blogs that are monetized.

Is this helpful? You may want to get all of the information I’m putting together on this topic of home business collaboration:

Get our videos, interviews, eBook, regular tips.

This post was going to be called, “Renegade Live Event in Portland – Second Report.” In my first video report, I focused on Mike Klingler’s opening message on January 16 where, in part, he spoke of the importance of providing value.  Later that same day, Ann Sieg spoke about collaboration. I had intended to make a quick video about that as soon as I got home. But I got thinking about so many aspects of collaboration that my mind went out of control…

The Front Cover of the Card I Sent to Friends from the Portland Live Event

I don’t know why, but flying home from Portland, I started thinking about how collaboration jettisoned groups like the Beatles to success. The collaboration produced value! The two ideas became linked in my mind. It excited me!  These ideas were powered by (what I call) the hothouse of creative energy that occurred at the Portland Live Event. I sent out a number of cards to people I met at the Live Event sharing that thought.  (Side note: Surprisingly few people actually included their mailing address on their business cards. I think it is imperative to provide all contact information on business cards in a well organized fashion – don’t let creative artistry on the card -as great as that can be- get in the way of contact information!).

In my mind, I began to plan on using a visual of the Beatles for the opening of the collaboration video. Then I began thinking of how networking (and all that entails) is a necessary prelude to collaboration.

Networking ====enables====> Collaboration ====enables====> Value!

In any case, my thoughts and notes mushroomed and I finally decided that the whole thing should be subdivided into three videos. So, without further fanfare – here is Collaboration for Home Business Entrepreneurs, Part 1: Collaboration Concepts.

Please share your reaction by rating the film (stars)!

Incidentally,

• networking enables collaboration. It doesn’t guarantee that successful collaboration will follow. There are other important mini-steps left out of that over-simplified formula. However, I am convinced that networking and collaboration fit together closely with networking functioning as a means to the goal of collaboration.
• collaboration enables value. It doesn’t guarantee value and quality. Still many home business entrepreneurs, at all points in the growth continuum, have found excellent results from a partnership filled with collaboration.

Here is my first report from my attendance at the Renegade Live Event in Portland this past weekend (Jan 16-17, 2010). This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg… there is so much good stuff at this conference.

By the way, here is a brief overview of what it means when Mike asks if something “gives value.”  .

In a few days I will be attending a live training event in Portland, Oregon with Ann Sieg, Mike Klingler, Ty Tribble, and a host of other internet network marketers. I am looking forward to what I can learn there and the opportunity to network with like-minded entrepreneurs. I knew I wanted to attend this event when I first heard about it last summer, so I registered just as soon as “the doors opened.”

I anticipate being able to share some useful ideas with you after I get back.

Attending this live event is just one of the things I am doing –and have been doing– in the area of personal education as a marketer and entrepreneur. Although I will be 64 in just a few months, one of the first of the baby boomers (!!), I enjoy learning new things.

The Top 5 Things I Did for Self-Improvement in 2009.

Programs at the Renegade Professional:

1) Video Training on Many Marketing Topics: The Renegade Professional is a membership site loaded with practical video tutorials on every possible aspect of internet marketing. Because the videos are so straightforward –click-by-click, step-by-step training– it works for everyone, from the computer novice to the more experienced. Just when I think I know it all, I’ll go through a series of videos and inevitably discover new tricks, or realize some critical error I had been making. I had already build several Word Press blogs, but the Steve Anderson video series (23 tutorials!) gave me tremendous help in improving the sites with best choice plug-ins and a lot more. Access to the over 200 training videos has been one of the valuable benefits of the Renegade Professional membership for me.

2) Coaching Cognition: Personal communication skills are absolutely critical for internet network marketers; networking involves communicating no matter if you are establishing leads in your circle of friends and local community or over the internet. You must always be ready to listen, support, lead, encourage, and direct. Although I have been in the teaching and training professions all my life, I knew I could still improve in this area of personal communication. Coaching Cognition is a six month course including online learning, live webinars, reading and audio assignments, and several hours a week practicing one-to-one coaching with course peers. This is proving to be even more valuable than I had thought as I have the opportunity to meet and brainstorm with other entrepreneurs. The $1500 spent for this course has been a solid self-improvement investment.

3) SuperGuide Program: The Renegade Professional has a program that identifies individuals as capable of helping other growing entrepreneurs – and those that qualify are called SuperGuides. The requirements to qualify are rigorous. There is a checklist of accomplishments which must be met and evaluated by one of the more experienced, long term SuperGuides. Last August, I decided to attempt qualification for the program, primarily as a way to learn and secondly as a little motivation to get more accomplished. I met the deadline and qualified, and in so doing, learned a lot about “building a web of content” that I thought I understood, but hadn’t. This was another valuable self-improvement learning experience in 2009.

Other Programs:

4) 31 Days to Build a Better Blog: Last spring, I was one of thousands to accept a challenge from one of the world’s foremost bloggers, Darren Rowse, to build a better blog. For 31 days he provided instruction, examples, and links for further study along with a daily assignment. I admit to falling behind in the assignments so the whole process took me a bit longer than 31 days. But every assignment was truly worthwhile. At the end of the adventure, I decided to purchase an e-book version of the course he had been posting on his blog. It is one of the finest investments I have made in learning materials. This is a quality e-book at a great price – $19.95.  It is not for someone who does not yet have a blog; it is for those of us with a blog and want to gain traffic by making it better. (I have 4 blogs.) I highly recommend 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. I plan to use the workbook to go through the “31 days” again this year.

5) Connie Ragan Green: Last summer, I hopped onto a webinar with a woman who has made good money online primarily from affiliate marketing.  I found that she gives a lot of value. The webinar teaches a lot of affiliate marketing basics for beginners (that’s where I was) and I learned some techniques I have been able to use without having to buy into someone’s “system.” I just wanted to do it for myself. The 90 minute webinar was recorded and you may find it as useful as I did. It’s inexpensive.

Some Other Stuff I Learned

Those were the best things I did last year. I confess to buying some other materials that were mediocre (or worse) – but I won’t mention them here! I would not recommend you try to do too much at once.  It is easy to err in jumping from one plan of attack to another and thus getting nothing done.

Others err in doing nothing to improve themselves; they are afraid of spending money to see their business grow. It is certainly wise to select your self-improvement investments carefully.  Many can attest to wasting money on low quality programs. I can even confess to spending money on a high quality program which I have not begun to use; that is a waste of money for sure. So be certain you have the time set aside to devote to the learning!

Not everything has to cost money.  Another valuable thing I did last year was to re-read several times two free e-books by Ann Sieg, including The Attraction Marketer’s Manifesto which I highly recommend.

Why keep learning? Why keep improving yourself? One of my reasons is to improve my value to you! For example, I have had the pleasure of chatting with some of you about your business activities, but I want to be sure to be as helpful as possible. I have been a professional workshop trainer for many years. But I know that sometimes you may not want “training” but simply – help, or – coaching. That was a major reason for my investing in the Coaching Cognition program.

What are You Learning?

So that’s some of what I have been doing for home business self-improvement. What about you? I would be most interested in hearing from you, especially if you are a baby boomer like me – What are you learning for home business growth? What was the most valuable thing you did last year to improve yourself in order to improve your home business?  I really would welcome your response as a comment to this post!

Want to Puzzle with the Grinch?

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?
It came without ribbons. It came without tags.
It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store?
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?

Well, of course Christmas means so much “more” – but could there be any parallels between the “meaning” of Christmas and the tenets of attraction marketing? Here are three humbly offered parallels for your holiday enjoyment.

1) People are Attracted to a Gift Freely Given

Attraction Marketers:

Ann Sieg has written: “Allow me to give you one simple overriding rule that governs everything we do: All Good Sales and Marketing Begins By Putting the Other Person First.”

Bob Burg and John David Mann have written: “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.” And, “Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.” And, “The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.” – - – “Have you ever wondered what makes people attractive? I mean, genuinely attractive? Magnetic? They love to give. That’s why they’re attractive. Givers attract.”

The Christmas Story: Christmas is all about gift-giving. It’s about God’s gift to earth (Jesus):

O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM (3rd verse)

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.

It’s about giving gifts back to God:

AS WITH GLADNESS MEN OF OLD (3rd verse)

As they offered gifts most rare
At Thy cradle rude and bare;
So may we with holy joy,
Pure, and free from sin’s alloy.
All our costliest treasures bring.
Christ, to Thee, our heavenly King.

It is about love-based giving, as described in the famous “love passage”:

1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-8 (Version: The Message)

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

2) People are Attracted to a Life Without Fear

Attraction Marketers: A foundation for Mike Dillard’s entire Magnetic Sponsoring™ program is the Alpha Networker™ mindset. Such a mindset, he says, requires living in a mind-state of abundance. A person living in abundance does not fear loss or failure. They are unconcerned with criticism. They love themselves and others who matter to them. People are naturally attracted to the Alpha because they have confidence and offer value. Dillard says that some people can learn to become Alphas by deciding to change their mindset.

The Christmas Story: The angels say repeatedly, “Do not be afraid…”  Why? The God of the Bible has offered the powerful gift of love. The Apostle John wrote: “When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.” [I John 4:17-18 - Version: The Message] Call it the “love mindset” or the “godly mindset.” It’s source is a bit different than what Dillard talks about, but the result is the same. In the words of an ancient prophet: The godly person “does not fear when heat comes… and has no worries when drought comes.” [Jer. 17:7-8] When so many live lives of fear, the calm and confident life is powerfully magnetic.

3) People are Attracted to Good News, Helpful News

Attraction Marketers:

Ann Sieg has written: “You can begin enjoying all the respect and benefits of being a recognized authority figure, without actually having to be one!”  Through research and through application of what you have learned, you are already ahead of many others who have not done that. You may not be the recognized expert, but using what you have learned, you can position yourself as a knowledgeable expert. “Being an ‘expert’ for the purpose of lead-generation means knowing slightly more about the topic than the customer. Nothing more.”

Mike Klingler has taught: “Leverage the news, what’s hot. Create a little buzz in your circle. The search engines notice this. Your audience notices it. Your credibility goes up and you stand out. People want to join you and perhaps subscribe to your blog. Because you look like you are in the know, and people want to be in the know too. All you really did was paid attention, and shared it.”

The Christmas Story: The shepherds, following the instructions of the angel, went and found the baby Jesus. Then what did they do? They told everyone else they met what had happened that night. Were they experts in messianic prophecy? No. Did they understand everything that happened? No. Were they theologians or rabbis? No. But they passed on what they knew. And what they knew was exciting and of interest to those that heard it.

THE SHEPHERDS (LK 2:15-18 Version: NIV)

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

Go tell it on the mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere,
Go tell it on the mountain,
Our Jesus Christ is born.

CONCLUSION: What To Make of This?

I wrote this for enjoyment. I do NOT believe the Bible was written to teach us about business or marketing. But perhaps you can appreciate Christmas more when meditating on the parallels from our everyday world of marketing. Or perhaps you may appreciate our marketing activities more with the parallels from the Christmas Story.

Either way, Merry Christmas!  … and, as Barbara Silva would say, let your light shine.

During this time when so much of the world celebrates the advent of Jesus as the Messiah, I’d like to ask, “Was Jesus a great example for home business sales and marketing?” After all, the focus of this blog is fitting the right pieces together for a successful home business. Should we study what Jesus did in order to come up with a model entrepreneur?

Many books have been written about Jesus and leadership, Jesus and home finances, Jesus and education, Jesus and selling. There is no doubt that Jesus was himself a teacher, but even the quickest reading of the Gospels will establish that the purpose of his training was not to create wealthy businessmen!

By the way, I have nothing against a goal of gaining wealth even though I cannot accept that Jesus taught a “health and wealth” gospel.

Nevertheless, in a book called, God Wants You to be an Entrepreneur, Rickey Singleton writes,

An entrepreneur is one that undertakes an enterprise; one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. We need to let God bring out of us the glory of being an entrepreneur. We have Christ in us, the greatest entrepreneur that ever lived. Jesus was an entrepreneur. He was in the business of building the church and prior to that he was a carpenter who built furniture. Being a builder, He also had to organize, manage, and assume the risks of his daily business. He had employees that he was responsible for, the twelve disciples, who each had their own businesses. (Page 38)

Some Fallacies in the “Jesus was the Greatest Entrepreneur” or “Jesus Was the Greatest Salesman” Position

I have found a lot of writing like that, and it bothers me. It is a gross sleight of hand to say

• that an entrepreneur is someone who … assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. The word entrepreneur is correctly associated with business – period. To extend it to the promotion of a belief system, to the recruitment of followers for political purposes (as many of Jesus’ first disciples actually believed) is wrong. It is an abuse of semantics when a writer modifies the meaning of “entrepreneur” to further the point of his book. What is an entrepreneur? Admittedly the term gets debated (see my article, “Qualities of an Entrepreneur“), but any definition is anchored within the context of business – making money.
• Jesus was in the business of building the church. During Jesus’ life on earth, he was not building his church. He was establishing his claim, with selected followers, that he was a divinely inspired teacher or (depending on your theology) the Messiah. He spoke of building the church in the future, as in “on this rock I will build my church.”  The best one could say was that he lay the groundwork for building the church. But unless one chooses to be really cynical, Jesus did not see the church as a business, an organization for making a profit.
• the disciples were employees. Employees are paid to do work and the disciples did not sign on with Jesus to make a living. They followed Jesus around because they admired what he said and did. To them, Jesus was a rebel leader to oppose the Romans or a spiritual guru.

So, I take exception to the approach that Singleton takes. Along a similar vein, Rich Vincent, a Baptist pastor, takes exception to Bruce Barton’s description of Jesus as “the great advertiser of his day.” Was Jesus the greatest salesman? Was Jesus the greatest entrepreneur?

Frankly, if you are looking for a model marketer for your small business, I would not advise you to ask, “What did Jesus do?”

• Jesus annoyed a lot of people and was put to death by an angry mob. (JN 10:19-20, LK 23:1-24) Antagonizing people is not the way to build a business.
• Jesus indicated that his message would cause hatred and turmoil. (MT 10:21-36) Using a message that stirs up hate does not gain positive publicity for your business.
• Jesus placed a value so high on his message that many (most?) were unable to afford it. For example, the price to obtain the fruit of his message was, at the least, giving up one’s family (LK 9:57-62) or else everything (LK 18:22). A good marketer analyzes his target market and devises a product and price to meet their resources.
• Jesus delivered a public, blistering, and very personal attack on his competitors. (MT 23)  Negative advertising will not attract. It can even turn off some of your best customers.

These are just a few examples -a bit tongue in cheek- that explain why I think using Jesus’ life and actions as a model for that of an entrepreneur to be ridiculous.  You can see how easy it is for me to cherry-pick my Biblical passages, however.

On the other hand, some of Jesus actions (washing the feet of his disciples, storytelling, etc) and more importantly his moral teachings do provide valuable application to business decisions and communications, since these are, after all, like all life decisions and communications.  John Labriola, in Christ-Centered Selling: A Scripturally Based Guide to Principled, Profitable Persuasion, does a good job of finding the Bible passages that support a winning marketing style. Still, books like these contribute to an essentially incorrect view of the nature of the Bible. The Bible was not written as a Business Handbook anymore than it was written as a Science Handbook.

Zig Ziglar said: “Any fair-minded individual will agree that its author Jesus Christ was the greatest salesman who ever lived. He was also the greatest sales trainer who ever lived.” As you can see above, I do not necessarily agree with that.

Try This: Be Happy When You See Congruence

I think it is possible to determine what makes for successful principles of selling and marketing without cherry-picking passages from the Bible to suit your purposes. Where there is congruence with your faith, delight in it. For example, the Christmas message of “goodwill toward men” is basic in attraction marketing. You need not study the Bible to learn marketing, but you may be glad, perhaps, for the congruence when it is there.

If you must disregard everything I wrote about, OK, here are some books I found while thinking about this article: