Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Opportunities are All Around
This week was especially hectic for me. Last weekend, one of the local TV stations ran a series of reports about what local people were doing to fight back against the recession.

Aside from it being a nice break from the depressing economic news that the media has generally run of late, something else in it caught my eye.

They invited other people who were doing interesting things along those lines to email them with their stories. It seemed like a priceless opportunity.

Last fall, when the economy first got shaky, I wrote a report that I distributed to all the local business owners I know. It's titled "How to Increase Sales in Challenging Economic Times."

I got a lot of positive feedback on it. Some of them used it as a starting point for brainstorming new strategies for their businesses. Some asked for additional copies so they could give them to other business owners they knew.

(If you're interested in a copy, look for the Free Featured Report on the main page of my consulting site.)

So I wrote the TV station about that report. And I wrote them about my more recent project.

For the past two months, I've been building a private training site that focuses on helping people build their first business online. It's called Employee-to-Entrepreneur Blueprint.

The site is functional, but I haven't done too much to promote it yet. I couldn't let this potential opportunity slip away, though. I wrote a free report that would give people a brief taste of some of the obstacles I help people through at my training site.

Doing that took me well beyond the three hours I had scheduled for it. It took me three days instead!

But the resulting ebook, "Going from Employee to Entrepreneur -- The Crucial Step Most Business Owners Miss," was worth it. You can download it for free here.

I wish I could say that the TV station immediately called me back and set up an interview. They didn't.

Maybe they still will. But I'm not worried about that. As with all things in business, you take whatever action you can, learn from whatever results you get, and don't get hung up on what you can't control.

I'm thankful I received this opportunity. I'm thankful also that this opportunity pushed me into doing the report that would not otherwise now be done if the opportunity hadn't surfaced. The report moves me that much further along toward the promotion.

I'll use the report to promote my new training site. And I'll look at how I might effectively follow up with the TV station -- and with other news outlets in the area.

With business, you don't put everything on hold while you wait for a single response. You move forward and try to stimulate more responses, more effectively.

It's been a great experience and a foundation for future efforts.
Jeff

Labels: marketing, start business