Best Business Practice for Small Business
and
Business Information for Beginners
By James Dowden
Don’t Just Tell Me What To Do
Show Me How To Do It
This is a plea to every author, guru and, especially, every web site and Internet marketing expert who write and sell business information to
beginners to ask them to give their customers a fairer deal than they might be giving them at present.
A large number of people dream of running their own successful home-based business so that they may take charge of their own destiny.
Many are quite content if their income from an online business is no more than the amount previously earned as an employee.
For these aspiring online entrepreneurs, release from the treadmill of tedious jobs that offer little or no security or involve being away
from home for long periods of the day and involve being at the beck and call of unreasonable bosses, are of key importance. Wealth, as
defined by most of us, is secondary to them. Others may be more ambitious and may want to earn millions and become the next big-time
success story on the Internet.
Whatever the reasons for wanting to start an online business, they all have to start at the very beginning and build, develop, nurture and
grow their website business in order to achieve their individual objectives.
Most wannabe online entrepreneurs do not have the knowledge or skills to build a website, much less market their products on the
Internet. So they do the ‘obvious’ - search online for good tutorial products and business information. If they are lucky in their
initial attempts, they hit the 'jackpot' by coming across a true expert or two who give generously of their knowledge and expertise and actually
steer beginners, step-by-step, to build sound foundations for their website business.
Despite their achievements, these ‘princes’ among experts have not forgotten how difficult it was for them, too, to get started and gain a
foothold on the successful Internet business ladder, and they genuinely want to help others by providing excellent tutorial products.
For the vast majority of would-be entrepreneurs in search of information and suitable training products, however, the road to eventual
enlightenment can be difficult, frustrating, teeth-grindingly maddening and take weeks and even months of painstaking research. In
addition, it can cost shed-loads of money before one is able to distinguish between the self-professed experts, who peddle regurgitated
expertise, and those who really know what they are talking about.
But even then, but for a few exceptions that I can count on the fingertips of one hand (see comments, above, about ‘princes' among experts),
many tutorial products leave something to be desired.
It seems to me, a relatively new online entrepreneur (but not at all new to running offline businesses), experts whose information products
fall short of expectations have one or more of the following in common: -
1) They fear competition
2) They don't know as much as they claim to know about topics mentioned
3) They are only in it for short-term gain
4) They are either unable or unwilling to share their knowledge
5) They hold back crucial elements
1 – Why fear competition? The Internet is HUGE, but huge! Many millions of new people come online, each and every month, so
running out of new customers is unlikely, particularly if you are any good at what you do! And in case you’re not aware, only a very, very
small number of customers to whom you sell your tutorial products, actually get off their butt to build a web site business, let alone implement
the website or marketing strategies that you may choose to provide. What is more, their selected niche may be totally different from the
one in which you engage. So there is even less for you to worry about!
2 – If you do not have adequate answers to all aspects of website business building and/or Internet marketing strategies, then for pity’s
sake, say so! No one expects you to be a master of all trades! Give your customers the benefit of your knowledge and experience in areas of
expertise that you are known for but do refer us to other, genuine experts in the relevant fields who can plug the hole that your product
leaves!
3 - Making a fast buck is not a crime but it is not good business practice to disappoint your customers because your product fails to offer
value for money or come up to the expectations that you have built up in your sales copy. You may gain in the short-term but your business
will not grow. Nor will you stay in business for long!
4(a) - Not many successful online entrepreneurs are born teachers but you don’t need to be a teacher to show someone, in easy-to-follow steps,
how to do a given task that you carry out efficiently and successfully, day after day. Just break it down in bite-size pieces and we’ll
come back to you for more!
4(b) - And if you are unwilling to share your knowledge (despite your promises to the contrary in your super-hyped sales copy), do yourself
and us a favour, stop taking undue advantage of us! You may, for a while, get away by selling something of disappointing value, but don’t
be fooled into thinking that we lack good judgement and cannot tell if a product is unsatisfactory, just because many of us are reluctant to
demand a refund!
Blogs and Forums are readily available and these give us the place and opportunity to air our grievances and expose those who fail to observe
the best business practice codes or give us less than a fair deal! Is your business potential and reputation worth sacrificing for the sake
of a few bucks?
5 - Please don’t hold back on what you know. Not if you are in the business of selling information products. After all, you
promise us that you will show us how to do this or that if we buy your product. So why leave out vital elements? What is the point of
listing and talking about the ‘ingredients’ if you don’t, also, show us how to use ALL of those ‘ingredients’ to end up with the same results
that you do?
So, don’t just tell us what we need to do – most of us already know that. Instead show us how to do it – from scratch and
from A – Z!
No company or expert interested in long-term success should ignore the fact that approximately 80% of one’s turnover comes from repeat
business from satisfied customers! So do, please, remember to treat us well by giving us value for money, every time!
Copyright © 2007 James Dowden - All rights Reserved
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