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The Business Review

Five Things you must doBefore you Write your Book

Page 7

What does Value AddMean? Page 3

April - June 2013

In This Issue....

Case Study:Repositioning a Company

Using their Website Page 5

Get to know our featured showfrom the Media Directory

Page 9

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Hello to all of our readers out there! I love this time of year,the temperature is just perfect here in Florida!This issue of the Business Review is filled with great tips andsuggestions such as a case study about re-positioning yourwebsite provided by the Placemaking Group, Value Add-ed products and if you are thinking of writing a book, 5things you must consider before you publish. Congratula-tions to Zurriane Bennett of the Zurriane Show for beingchosen as our featured show from Kerry’s Network MediaDirectory.If you are interested in becoming a contributing writer,please send us a sample article to review.Thanks for taking the time to enjoy our publication and asalways we are wishing you continued success!

Kerry’s Network, Inc. & the Editor of The Business Review Magazine are not liable for content oradvertising provided in this publication. All rights reserved. Copyright 2013

rom the Editor

Spring into action with your Business Plan!

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your price is a littlehigher, the pros-pect will want tobuy from you. Youbring more to thetable.All consumers lookat purchases from a‘cost/benefit’ anal-ysis. Does the bene-fit equal oroutweigh the cost?Some of that is sub-jective. Differentconsumers havedifferent definitionsof benefit. Becauseof this, it is importantto make sure thatthe value you areadding is consid-ered to be benefi-cial by yourprospects.

How do you figurethis out? Followthese steps:

Well the first thing isthat it implies abaseline value. Tobe successful aproduct or servicemust be of valueon its own. It has tobe able to standall by it’s self. Intoday’s competi-tive marketplacethere may be sev-eral companies of-fering the sameproduct or servicewith the samebaseline value.

This is the reasonthey adopt value-added benefits.Value add is addi-tional value thatyour product orservice has abovethe baseline. It’s away of differentiat-ing your companyfrom the pack. Ifyou can add val-ue, then even if

* Understand yourtarget market.Identify the actualbaseline value ofyour product orservice. This is thevalue your clientssee – not necessar-ily the value YOUbelieve exists.* Document thevalue you per-ceive.* Ask your clientswhat value theysee.

Conduct marketresearch to assessthe generalpublic’s view ofthe baseline valueConsider comple-mentary productsor services thatyou could add toa product you of-fer as a bonus.

R hat does Value Add mean?By: Diane HelbigW

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* Resource Toolbox– filled with informa-tion on organiza-tions you know wellthat offer a varietyof products andservices.* Gift Card – to arestaurant or store;not for redemptionat your company* Quarterly SeminarSeries – seminars ona variety of subjectsthat don’t piggy-back your business.

As you can see,these are valuablebut do not comple-ment a company’sproduct or service.So they add valueof a different sort.Non-complemen-tary adds are a bittougher to sell. It re-ally comes down towhat the prospectdeems as valuable.

Consider non-complementaryproducts or servic-es that you couldaddExamples of com-plementary prod-ucts or servicesare:* Free cleaning* Free Helpdesk Support* Free Shipping* Free Inspection* Free Newsletter

Notice the word‘Free.’ You arethrowing some-thing in to add val-ue to the baselineproduct or service.These are itemsthat complementthe product or ser-vice you are pro-viding. Examplesof non-comple-mentary productsor services are:

Providing valueadded benefitscan really set youapart. So do yourhomework. Get toknow your targetmarket – whatthey want andneed. Get cre-ative with adds –you really can doanything youwant, as long asthe prospect findsit valuable. Set upyour value addsand get to market-ing your product orservice with theadds included. Itcan be a great,inexpensive wayto set your compa-ny apart.

Copyright© 2013Seize This DayCoaching, DianeHelbig.

Value added continued....

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SituationClare Computer Solutions(CCS) is a premier IT serviceprovider in Northern Califor-nia, headquartered in SanRamon, in San Francisco’sEast Bay. The company wasfounded in 1990, andevolved from being a com-pany that was primarily fo-cused on fixing customers’ ITproblems to a consultingcompany providing a fullsuite of network support andIT consulting services.

In 2011, Brad Mendonsa be-came CEO. He had a clearunderstanding of the com-pany, having been VicePresident of Operations withCCS for five years. He wasinstrumental in moving thecompany's image from thatof "mechanics" to"consultants."

RepositioningAfter taking over as CEO,Mendonsa focused ongrowing the companyby  marketing its highly pro-fessional, proactive IT sup-port and consulting services.

The Placemaking Groupwas hired to create a strate-gy for both messaging andtactics to get the word out.

Get away from it all in this excellent location.

A PR/marketing com-munications programwas developedaimed at attractingnew customers andinforming existing cli-ents of expandedbusiness offerings.Tactics included apublicity and mediarelations program, so-cial media programand events.

New WebsiteBuilds BusinessThe program’s prima-ry focus was a rede-signed website. Thenew search engineoptimized site,www.clarecomputer.com

includes bright, boldimages of peoplerather than ma-chines  to communi-cate how IT problemscan be avoided byhaving a strategic ITpartner.

The new website is re-ceiving more trafficthan the old site wasable to attract. Sincethe site launched inearly January, newvisits have increasedand overall visits haveincreased by 40 per-cent, with time on thesite showing a 23 per-cent increase.

ase StudyCBy: Dennis Erokan

Repositioning a CompanyUsing their Website.

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In addition, there hasbeen an eight percentdecrease in thebounce rate. CCS’sCEO Brad Mendonsasays the new websitehas the phone ringing.He explains,

“...the website rede-sign allows us to showour professionalism in ITconsulting and supportservices. The searchengine optimization isresulting in more inqui-ries for IT support andconsulting and wehave new clients sign-ing on.”

he Power of OneTReposition continued....

Learn more about, The Placemaking Group.

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ive Things You Must Do Before You Write Your Book

3. Create your plat-form. If you haven’theard this term before,it’s time to become fa-miliar with it. Whetheryou self publish or geta contract with a tradi-tional publisher, youwill have to have aplatform. What is aplatform? It’s just like itsounds – a foundationof credibility that saysyou are an expert inwhat you’re writingabout. Your platformshould include articles,blogs, other booksyou’ve published,

Excellent sea viewfrom the Costa Del Renta.

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USave yourself a lot offrustration and deter-mine your real reasonfor writing this book isbefore you begin.

2. Do your research. Ifyou want to go thetraditional publisherroute, then you’ll haveto create a proposaland submit it to anagent (along withsample chapters). Ifyou’re not familiar withbook proposals do asearch on Google andfind out the format. Abook proposal can bevery daunting to writeand it may makesense to hire someonewith experience to as-sist you (or to prepareit). Don’t skimp ongetting it done proper-ly. If it’s not, your bookmay be rejected be-fore you get beyondthe proposal stage. Inyour research you’llhave to analyze themarket, study yourcompetition and cre-ate a plan for yourown marketing andpromotion.

I’ve worked with peo-ple on their book pro-posals and I’ve foundthat aspiring authorsare often not clear onwhat they’ll have todo to get a book pub-lished. They may havean idea that’s basedon their beliefs aboutbook publishing, orwhat they’ve seen inmovies or TV. As a writ-er I’ve been exposedto the publishing worldfor quite some time,and these are someimportant points I’velearned along theway.

1. Get clear about whyyou want to write thisbook. How is this goingto help your business?If you want to write itbecause you’re imag-ining some very largeand lucrative bookcontract – stop rightthere. Those large juicycontracts are not ascommon as you maythink.

FBy: Deb Bailey

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videos, TV shows you’vebeen on, credentials suchas certifications and/or de-grees – your accumulatedexperience and knowledgethat says you’re qualified towrite about this topic.

At a writing conference I re-cently attended, everyagent mentioned that awriter must have a platform.If you don’t have one, startbuilding one now.

4. Be ready to invest. If youwant your book to be a suc-cess then be ready to investin, at the very least, editing,book cover design and apublicist. (If you self publishthe publisher may offerthose services.) I’ve spokento writers who have dreamsof publishing a book, yetthey thought they could geta polished end result withvery little investment. Thetruth is that you have to puttime and money into yourbook if you want to have aprofessional product. If youaren’t prepared to do that,then perhaps publishing abook should wait until youcan make that investment.

5. Be committed. A bookproduced by a traditionalpublisher may not come outuntil 12-18 months after thecontract is signed.

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If you self publish thetime frame will beshorter from writing topublishing. In addi-tion, if you’re goingthe traditional routeyou’ll have to find anagent first. The majorpublishers usually donot accept submis-sions directly from au-thors. You’ll have tobe committed toyour book and readyto do what it takes tobring your dream tolife. There are manypeople with dreamsof publishing a book,but many of themhave no idea what’sinvolved in the pro-cess.

Do your research upfront; find out what isrequired and prepareyourself to get yourwork published.

Deb Bailey is an au-thor of two books, in-cluding: "Think Like anEntrepreneur: Trans-forming Your Careerand Taking Charge ofYour Life," host ofWomen Entrepre-neurs Radio and abook publishing men-tor for entrepreneurswho want to boosttheir business with abook.dbaileycoach.com

“The truth is that you have to put time andmoney into your book if you want to have aprofessional product.”

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Welcome to Kerry’s Network, Inc.!

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Congratulations to Zurriane Bennett!

Zurriane is our featured show from our media directory. Thisshow covers a wide variety of topics to help you in yourpersonal and business life.

Tune in here: www.blogtalkradio.com/zurriane

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