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	<title>Zoomstart &#187; Business</title>
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		<title>How to Start Your Freelance Web Design Business and Get Work in 3 Days Flat</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/how-to-start-your-freelance-web-design-business-and-get-work-in-3-days-flat/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/how-to-start-your-freelance-web-design-business-and-get-work-in-3-days-flat/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:54:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/?p=789</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[That&#8217;s right, business is not complicated. You can literally start a business like this and start making money in a few days. Now sure, you might be thinking &#8216;there&#8217;s a ton of work to do just to start a company&#8217; &#8230; well that&#8217;s not how entrepreneurs do things. Successful entrepreneurs jump first and tie the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-794" title="Web Designer" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/web-designer.jpg" alt="Web Designer" width="500" height="191" /></p>
<p>That&#8217;s right, business is not complicated. You can literally start a business like this and start making money in a few days.</p>
<p>Now sure, you might be thinking &#8216;there&#8217;s a ton of work to do just to start a company&#8217; &#8230; well that&#8217;s not how entrepreneurs do things. Successful entrepreneurs jump first and tie the bungie cord to their legs on the way down. The details can wait. The task at hand is to start making money. Now.</p>
<p>Freelance web design is a great business to jump into if you&#8217;ve got the skills. There&#8217;s no overhead; you work from home. You already have a computer. You know html, css, WordPress, Photoshop, and how to use a digital camera. You need 50 or 100 bucks in startup capital for gas and business cards, and that&#8217;s it.</p>
<p>The real trick is getting clients, but there&#8217;s a ton of opportunities out there. I&#8217;m going to show you how to find them and how to sell your services to them.</p>
<p>This is a 3 step plan you can execute in 3 days. Flat. Just keep in mind that this is about jumping in and making it happen right now. Sort out the details later. Get more professional later. Because worrying about details and a &#8220;perfectionist&#8221; attitude will only get you killed in the entrepreneurial game.</p>
<p><span id="more-789"></span></p>
<h2>Step 1 &#8211; Put Together Your Promo Package</h2>
<p>You need two things for your promo package: a website and some business cards. And you need it all now.</p>
<p><strong>1. Your Website</strong></p>
<p>I won&#8217;t go over hosting because if you&#8217;ve created a few websites you already have that available. If not, go to <a href="http://1and1.com">1&amp;1</a> or wherever and setup a shared hosting plan for 10 bucks a month.</p>
<p>If you can find the ultimate cool web designer domain name in 20 minutes, great. If not, don&#8217;t sweat it. Use your name followed by a word like design, graphics, media or whatever is available (johndoemedia.com). It&#8217;s simple, to the point, and easier to find a domain that&#8217;s not already registered.</p>
<p>Load up WordPress and a stock &#8220;corporate looking&#8221; theme. Add a bio page, a services page, and a contact page with your phone number, address, and a contact form on it. Use a static front page with a splashy graphic, a bulleted list of your services and a &#8220;Get Quote&#8221; button that leads to your contact page.</p>
<p>Better yet, in big, bold letters at the top of your homepage put &#8220;Call Joe at 555-5555&#8243;. You want to make it as quick and easy, and as painless as possible for people to contact you.</p>
<p><strong>2. Your Business Cards</strong></p>
<p>Get on this as soon as you have your domain registered. If your host is also a registrar it will only take an hour or two before your domain is live but there&#8217;s no time to waste &#8230;</p>
<p>Design your business cards in Word or Photoshop to printout on 8 1/2&#8243; x 11&#8243; office paper. You need your name, address, phone number, web address, and a simple bulleted list of your services; web design, seo, etc. For paper, you can use:</p>
<ul>
<li>Those perforated business card sheets you print out and tear apart</li>
<li>Card stock sheets you print out and cut into cards with a ruler and exacto knife</li>
<li>Heavy watercolor paper from an art store you print out and cut into cards</li>
</ul>
<p>Keep your cards really simple for now. Remember, details are for later.</p>
<p>Bam! Step one and your first day is done. You can spend weeks putting all this together, but this is not the important part of your business. Not yet. You can redo all this stuff more professionally later &#8211; don&#8217;t go and order some totally kick-ass cards that will take two weeks to be delivered. The key is to jump in and get your business rolling now.</p>
<h2>Step 2 &#8211; Finding Clients</h2>
<p>There are a ton of small to medium sized companies out there with websites that are optimized for Internet Explorer 3.0 &#8211; you know the kind I&#8217;m talking about; the websites are 10 years old and butt ugly. They&#8217;re an afterthought.</p>
<p>These companies are your target clients.</p>
<p>You know that big yellow book that gangsters beat people with in the movies? Well, before the internet people used that big book to find companies. That&#8217;s right, it&#8217;s the yellow pages and it&#8217;s a great source for finding companies. And I guess you can also use your local online yellow pages.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the methodology:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pick an industry. Preferrably one you know a little something about.</li>
<li>Go through the yellow pages and look up each company listed and find their website. You may have to do a Google search for the company&#8217;s name + city because most of these websites will have very poor SEO.</li>
<li>You can also do a Google search for &#8220;product + your city&#8221; to find some of these companies.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here are the things you&#8217;re looking for:</p>
<ul>
<li>The company has a website already. Don&#8217;t waste your time right now with companies that have no website at all.</li>
<li>Old sites; the optimized for IE3 or Netscape kind.</li>
<li>Bad graphics that are pixelated or were cut out with jagged edges of the background showing.</li>
<li>Mailto links that lead to a HotMail address or something other than an address at their own domain.</li>
</ul>
<p>Make a list of all the target clients you find. List the company name, address, and web address. Spend the entire day making your list. If you run out of companies, pick another industry and keep building your list until the day is done. The bigger your list, the better.</p>
<p>Next, try and organize your list geographically like a paper route because tomorrow you&#8217;re going to visit all these companies &#8230;</p>
<h2>Step 3 &#8211; Getting Sales</h2>
<p>Today is the big day. Eat a good breakfast, grab a coffee, grab your business cards, grab your list and head out.</p>
<p>Your prospective clients already have a website. This is good for two reasons. One, it&#8217;s easier to do a make-over than start from scratch because they already have a domain, hosting, and some content available. And two, they understand a web presence is important &#8211; they just don&#8217;t know how to get any value out of it, so it&#8217;s become an afterthought.</p>
<p>Walk in to each client and &#8230;</p>
<ul>
<li>Introduce yourself</li>
<li>Tell them you came across their website, and you can give it a makeover that will bring real value to their company.</li>
<li>Tell them you&#8217;re just starting out, you work hard, and your pricing is competitive.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here&#8217;s a basic rundown of some of the services you can offer &#8230;</p>
<ul>
<li>Website <a href="http://themeforest.net/">re-design</a></li>
<li>SEO optimization</li>
<li>Photography to update their building shots, product shots, team head-shots</li>
<li>Content writing &#8211; for SEO and to provide information about the company/industry/products to visitors</li>
<li>@domain email setup &#8230; for those old-school Hotmailers</li>
<li><a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/the-complete-guide-to-list-building-and-email-marketing/">Email capture</a> and marketing system</li>
<li><a href="http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/11/04/making-money-with-local-affiliate-programs/">Local business PPC</a> advertising campaigns.</li>
</ul>
<p>That&#8217;s it. You&#8217;re done. You&#8217;re making money.</p>
<p>The only 2 things that can stop you from being a raging success are stalling to get everything perfect before you &#8220;launch&#8221; your business, and stalling because you&#8217;re too chicken to go out there and knock on some doors to get the business.</p>
<p>If that&#8217;s the case, then you gotta go out and <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/5-great-job-hunting-strategies-that-will-get-you-hired/">find a job</a>.</p>
<hr noshade style="margin:0;height:1px" />
<p>© <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com">Zoomstart</a>, 2009. |
<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/how-to-start-your-freelance-web-design-business-and-get-work-in-3-days-flat/">How to Start Your Freelance Web Design Business and Get Work in 3 Days Flat</a></p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/zoomtools-aceergeb45456gv5t46hv655bv454va/">Zoom Tools Page</a> to get free ebooks and other cool stuff</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Recession Hiring: And How to Make it Pay Off BIG</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/recession-hiring-and-how-to-make-it-pay-off-big/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/recession-hiring-and-how-to-make-it-pay-off-big/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:53:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/?p=802</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Thanks to the housing crash and the financial scam crisis, many businesses have had to downsize their workforce. But many others are prospering. And hiring. And the difference between them is in how they &#8220;purpose&#8221; their people. For example; how many people in your business spend money (creating and delivering products and services) vs bring [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-807" title="hire-more-people" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/hire-more-people.jpg" alt="hire-more-people" width="500" height="191" /></p>
<p>Thanks to the housing crash and the financial <del datetime="2009-04-30T08:40:41+00:00">scam</del> crisis, many businesses have had to downsize their workforce. But many others are prospering. And hiring.</p>
<p>And the difference between them is in how they &#8220;purpose&#8221; their people. For example; how many people in your business spend money (creating and delivering products and services) vs bring in money (selling products and services)?</p>
<p>And the oddest thing I see are companies that cut their sales and marketing staffs and budgets because sales are down. They do that because they see their sellers as a simple expense on the financial statements. And somehow they&#8217;re unable to make the connection that EVERYTHING on the income side of that statement comes from their sales and marketing people.</p>
<p>If you do it smartly, you can hire and/or retain your people in a recession. And doing it smartly, you can make a bundle of cash in the process. Here&#8217;s how:</p>
<p><span id="more-802"></span></p>
<h2>1. Don&#8217;t Create More Competition</h2>
<p>Tough times are also extraordinary times for the entrepreneurial spirit. Most people enjoy the stability of working for someone else. But pushed out on the street thanks to downsizing, talented go-getters will go and get.</p>
<p>This is especially true of salespeople. Your salespeople know your prices, your suppliers, customers, tricks of the trade. They know what you do wrong. They have everything they need to start their own business and compete with you successfully.</p>
<p>That information is also valuable should your other competitors be hiring. Which brings us to strategy #2 &#8230;</p>
<h2>2. Hire Your Competition&#8217;s Talent</h2>
<p>If your competitors are laying off their sales force, grab these people. Quick. They will bring new customers with them. We&#8217;re talking <strong>instant sales and revenue</strong>, plus a few juicy industry secrets.</p>
<p>The selling point to customers is simple and powerful: the old company is on the fast track to extinction, and this new company (yours) is growing, prospering, and will be there for them in the future.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve seen companies steal a competitors sales force before and the effects are always exponential and dramatic.</p>
<h2>3. Repurpose Your People</h2>
<p>The simple math here is you need more people selling and marketing and fewer people doing everything else. And rather than be layed off, most would love the opportunity to do something a little different.</p>
<p>These sales tasks can be as simple as plastering flyers to every bare telephone pole in town to tracking down leads for your seasoned salespeople to pitch to. With any luck, you might even find a <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/how-to-be-a-sales-icon/">natural born seller</a> wasting their talent in the stock room.</p>
<p>The real key here is to create a basic training program of do&#8217;s and don&#8217;ts for your non-salespeople. You also want to focus on results; this means doing things that will:</p>
<ol>
<li>Get new customers in the door</li>
<li>Find and pre-qualify new prospects for your experienced sales team to close.</li>
</ol>
<h2>4. Always Say Yes</h2>
<p>You&#8217;ll always come across customers asking for a product or service you don&#8217;t have. That shouldn&#8217;t stop you from selling it. Always say yes. Track it down and get it for the customer, outsource the job through a freelancer or competitor. Invent it if you have to. Always say yes to a sale.</p>
<p>What happens a lot is a customer asks for something and they get the time-honored (and lazy) &#8220;Sorry, we don&#8217;t carry those&#8221; answer. And that&#8217;s the end of it. But when you go the extra mile you not only get a sale, you get customer loyalty and some kick-ass word-of-mouth advertising.</p>
<p>Train everyone in your company to &#8220;escalate&#8221; a customer&#8217;s query to someone who can source the product or service and make this happen. Even if you only break even on the sale, this level of service can lead to many more sales. And in the meantime you&#8217;re creating work for your people.</p>
<h2>5. Pay Commission Only</h2>
<p>Maybe you just can&#8217;t find the cash to bring in new salespeople. This is a dire situation but there&#8217;s a solution which is to implement a commission only sales model.</p>
<p>This kind of pay-for-performance model is always controversial but with so many people looking for work, there&#8217;s a great opportunity for both companies and can-do salespeople. When you can&#8217;t afford a base salary, the only options left are to create work on commission or not at all.</p>
<p>The trick is to sweeten the pot. The sales that salespeople get pay for their commissions, their base salary, and everything else your company does. So raising commission rates will guarantee they&#8217;re properly compensated and you only pay for revenue producing results.</p>
<h2>The Wrap-up</h2>
<p>It&#8217;s all about keeping things in the simplest terms possible. When sales are down, you need more sales and less of everything else. The first thing most companies do is downsize everything and this can set a business&#8217;s progress back several years.</p>
<p>But if instead, you either shift people from buying (and spending) tasks to selling tasks or shift the balance by increasing your sales force, you&#8217;re still moving forward.</p>
<p>And not only will you come out of the recession at the top of your industry, you&#8217;ll understand how continual progress forward creates billion dollar companies.</p>
<p>In good times and in bad.</p>
<hr noshade style="margin:0;height:1px" />
<p>© <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com">Zoomstart</a>, 2009. |
<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/recession-hiring-and-how-to-make-it-pay-off-big/">Recession Hiring: And How to Make it Pay Off BIG</a></p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/zoomtools-aceergeb45456gv5t46hv655bv454va/">Zoom Tools Page</a> to get free ebooks and other cool stuff</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Be Wary of Strategic Partnerships. Be Very, Very Wary</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/be-wary-of-strategic-partnerships/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/be-wary-of-strategic-partnerships/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:54:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/be-wary-of-strategic-partnerships/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Building strategic partnerships is a very important part of building a strong and enduring business. But these waters are also filled with sharks, and you have to be very careful about who you get involved with. Of course, sometimes you don&#8217;t have a choice. Case in point &#8230; last year, my neighbor had a massive problem [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/fire-and-ice-handshake.jpg" alt="Fire and Ice Handshake" width="500" /></p>
<p>Building strategic partnerships is a very important part of building a strong and enduring business. But these waters are also filled with sharks, and you have to be very careful about who you get involved with. Of course, sometimes you don&#8217;t have a choice.</p>
<p>Case in point &#8230; last year, my neighbor had a massive problem with a partnership deal that almost ruined his business. All because he failed to <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/isolate-business-deals/">isolate the deal</a> process.</p>
<p>And when it comes to playing with billion dollar companies; the market leaders &#8230; the rules they play by are pretty simple. Sooner or later, they will own you or kill you. That&#8217;s their goal plain and simple, and I saw a lot of that when I was in the water bottling industry.</p>
<p>So let&#8217;s look at a really big deal that&#8217;s unfolding right now &#8230;</p>
<p><strong>The Microsoft-Yahoo Chess Game</strong></p>
<p>When Microsoft first made a bid to buy Yahoo, there was something nagging at me that I just couldn&#8217;t put my finger on. As more details surfaced it became abundantly clear; Microsoft is playing an own-it-or-kill-it game.</p>
<p>Emphasis on the kill-it part.</p>
<p><span id="more-432"></span></p>
<p>First, Microsoft made a bid that was far above Yahoo&#8217;s share value. And they did it very publicly. That doesn&#8217;t make much sense except to get Yahoo&#8217;s shareholders salivating over a big payday. Here&#8217;s where it gets interesting &#8230;</p>
<p>During the negotiations, Steve Ballmer basically didn&#8217;t negotiate. He did raise his offer by $1/share, but that was verbally and not on paper. So there was no room for negotiation. And that&#8217;s just not done in business. Not at this level.</p>
<p>So it got me wondering, &#8216;does Microsoft really want Yahoo&#8217;? The answer to that question came today.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve been following the saga you know that corporate raider Carl Icahn has bought up some shares and threatened to oust Yahoo&#8217;s board to try and force a sale to Microsoft. And if Icahn gets his board nominated, one thing is clear: Icahn can not run Yahoo as well as Jerry Yang can. Period. So a sale has to happen or the company will whither and die.</p>
<p>And today, Microsoft <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080707/icahn_yahoo.html">announced</a> that it will re-enter negotiations if &#8230; IF &#8230; Icahn&#8217;s board is elected. And if that happens, it puts Microsoft in the driver&#8217;s seat to either pick the company up cheap or leave it to die.</p>
<p>Check. And mate.</p>
<p>The game&#8217;s <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/chess-strategy-for-business/">chess</a>, not checkers.</p>
<hr noshade style="margin:0;height:1px" />
<p>© <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com">Zoomstart</a>, 2008. |
<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/be-wary-of-strategic-partnerships/">Be Wary of Strategic Partnerships. Be Very, Very Wary</a></p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/zoomtools-aceergeb45456gv5t46hv655bv454va/">Zoom Tools Page</a> to get free ebooks and other cool stuff</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>First Mover Advantage is NOT Critical to Your Success</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/first-mover-advantage-is-not-critical/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/first-mover-advantage-is-not-critical/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 May 2008 22:43:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/first-mover-advantage-is-not-critical/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[First mover advantage; being the first one in a market or to develop a new technology can be a huge advantage. At the same time, doing all that hard work also lays the foundation for someone else to step in and do it better. So if you&#8217;re a first mover, great. If not, no sweat. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img width="500" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/racing-turtle.jpg" alt="Racing Turtle" class="aligncenter" /></p>
<p>First mover advantage; being the first one in a market or to develop a new technology can be a huge advantage. At the same time, doing all that hard work also lays the foundation for someone else to step in and do it better.</p>
<p>So if you&#8217;re a first mover, great. If not, no sweat. All you have to do is find an edge that gets everybody talking about the new kid on the block.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s look at some &#8220;second-movers&#8221; and see how they did so well &#8230;</p>
<p><strong>1. Microsoft</strong></p>
<p>First there was Apple, then along came Billy G and some new ideas. Big ideas. Where Apple has always developed their operating system and assembled the hardware, Microsoft opened the floodgates to thousands of other compaines by licensing their OS and letting others build and assemble the hardware.</p>
<p>If you can create <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/building-alliances-between-your-customers/">opportunities</a> for other companies and entrepreneurs to prosper with your product, you can take the lead.</p>
<p><span id="more-409"></span></p>
<p><strong>2. Pepsi</strong></p>
<p>Coca-Cola was a strong and growing company when Pepsi came along. Today, by some metrics Coke is still in the lead and by other metrics it&#8217;s Pepsi. But Pepsi came along after Coca-Cola was well established.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;d call a $100 billion company an <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/everyone-loves-an-underdog/">underdog</a>, but being the &#8220;alternative&#8221; and having the drive to do better will take you a long way.</p>
<p><strong>3. Google</strong></p>
<p>Before Google, there was Yahoo. And even before Yahoo there was Infoseek. A strong combination of stick-to-your-brain <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/branding-a-free-ebook/">branding</a> and innovative technology will get people to use your products and services.</p>
<p>If you can be memorable and fun, and if you can make a task faster and easier, you&#8217;ll do well.</p>
<p><strong>4. Research in Motion</strong></p>
<p>The Blackberry (or crackberry if you prefer) wasn&#8217;t the first cell phone. They&#8217;re insane success comes from doing a little bit of everything &#8230;</p>
<p>If you can develop a strong brand, create an easier way to do something, and create opportunities in the marketplace (RIM builds their devices and the mobile networking technology they and other devices use), you&#8217;re going to do very, very well.</p>
<p>Being first helps. But it&#8217;s not critical to creating success. Most businesses don&#8217;t create anything new, they just take something that already exists; something that already has a proven market, and they make it better.</p>
<p>So, you can be first. Or you can be better than first.</p>
<hr noshade style="margin:0;height:1px" />
<p>© <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com">Zoomstart</a>, 2008. |
<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/first-mover-advantage-is-not-critical/">First Mover Advantage is NOT Critical to Your Success</a></p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/zoomtools-aceergeb45456gv5t46hv655bv454va/">Zoom Tools Page</a> to get free ebooks and other cool stuff</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Possession is 9/10ths of the Law &#8230; Getting Paid 301</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/getting-paid-301/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/getting-paid-301/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 12:04:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/getting-paid-301/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In Getting Paid 101 I talked about how to be pre-emptive and simply run your business in a way that helps (a lot) to make sure you get paid by delinquent clients. In Getting Paid 201 I talked about skip-tracing; or tracking down those fly-by-nighters that skip out on paying you. Well, sometimes, you don&#8217;t [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img width="500" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/handcuffed-to-briefcase.jpg" alt="Handcuffed to Briefcase" class="aligncenter" /></p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/getting-paid-101/">Getting Paid 101</a> I talked about how to be pre-emptive and simply run your business in a way that helps (a lot) to make sure you get paid by delinquent clients. In <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/skip-tracing-getting-paid-201/">Getting Paid 201</a> I talked about skip-tracing; or tracking down those fly-by-nighters that skip out on paying you.</p>
<p>Well, sometimes, you don&#8217;t get paid but you still have to do business with a company that owes you money.</p>
<p>It might be because they&#8217;re a significant portion of your revenue. And if they owe you a significant amount of money and you&#8217;re a significant supplier of theirs, it&#8217;s usually in your best interest to help them keep the ball rolling, generating revenue &#8230; so they can pay you!</p>
<p>This can be a very maddening situation so the first thing to do is get rid of all that emotion. Take a few minutes to yourself and cuss them out.</p>
<p>Good? Alright &#8230; moving forward, you have to play it smart and use your advantages. Here they are:</p>
<p><span id="more-407"></span></p>
<p><strong>1. Hold Their Assets</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;Possession is 9/10ths of the law&#8221; is an old decree that stems from Old English Law. Basically it means that if it&#8217;s in my hands, it&#8217;s up to you to prove it&#8217;s yours. In this case, if they owe you money, why would you give them their stuff.</p>
<p>So if you store goods or materials of theirs, or if you carry an inventory of items that are labeled with their brand or whatever, hang on to it. It has worth, so use it to bargain with.</p>
<p>Most of the time you can just tell them you&#8217;re hanging on to this collateral until they pay you. If you have to bring in the lawyers (and some industries have specific rules for this) you can put a lien on their property. What happens then is you hold on to it until they pay you. If they don&#8217;t pay you within a certain timeframe, you can sell their property at public auction.</p>
<p>Regardless, make sure you talk to your lawyer about your options when it comes to holding their assets.</p>
<p><strong>2. Put Them on C.O.D.</strong></p>
<p>They already owe you money. And you don&#8217;t want to get in any deeper than you already are. But you need to keep the business rolling.</p>
<p>This is where COD or &#8220;cash on delivery&#8221; comes in. The key to putting a customer on COD is to stick with it. No matter what. The longer it goes on, the more they&#8217;ll need something &#8220;right away&#8221; without you getting cash in hand first.</p>
<p>No payment, no delivery. Period. Call them up and tell them the order is on hold until you receive payment. If they need the order and they have the money, you&#8217;ll get a wire transfer or someone coming by with a check within a couple hours.</p>
<p>COD also offers a good opportunity to add a premium to your price. You can apply this premium to their outstanding balance (sort of a payment plan), but I generally just call it a price increase.</p>
<p><strong>3. Get a Secured Promissory Note</strong></p>
<p>When a business fails there&#8217;s a certain order as to who gets paid first. It goes like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>The government (taxes, fees, etc)</li>
<li>Financial institutions (loans and lines of credit)</li>
<li>Secured creditors</li>
<li>Unsecured creditors</li>
</ol>
<p>If the amount they owe you is significant, then really push to get a secured promissory note. A secured note is registered with a government body (talk to your lawyer) and it basically says they promise to pay you and they&#8217;re backing that promise up with collateral assets they own.</p>
<p>As a secured creditor, you&#8217;re one step up from the bottom of the totem pole and you&#8217;ll get paid before any unsecured creditors will.</p>
<p>So there you go. Hopefully you don&#8217;t run into too many situations where you don&#8217;t get paid. But it will happen. That&#8217;s business.</p>
<p>Fortunately, you&#8217;ve got a few more tools in your bag now to deal with it.</p>
<hr noshade style="margin:0;height:1px" />
<p>© <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com">Zoomstart</a>, 2008. |
<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/getting-paid-301/">Possession is 9/10ths of the Law &#8230; Getting Paid 301</a></p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/zoomtools-aceergeb45456gv5t46hv655bv454va/">Zoom Tools Page</a> to get free ebooks and other cool stuff</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>You Can Dig for Gold, Sell Shovels, or Better Yet &#8230; Build the Railway to California</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/dig-for-gold-sell-shovels-or-build-a-railway/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/dig-for-gold-sell-shovels-or-build-a-railway/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 May 2008 15:53:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/dig-for-gold-sell-shovels-or-build-a-railway/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In reference to the great California gold rush of the 1800s it&#8217;s really popular to say &#8220;Don&#8217;t dig for gold, sell shovels&#8221;. The logic is sound because rather than investing in high-risk speculation, you can take a much more certain road and sell the tools that these high-risk, high-reward speculators need. But there&#8217;s a limit [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img width="500" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/railway.jpg" alt="Railway" class="aligncenter" /></p>
<p>In reference to the great <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush">California gold rush</a> of the 1800s it&#8217;s really popular to say &#8220;Don&#8217;t dig for gold, sell shovels&#8221;. The logic is sound because rather than investing in high-risk speculation, you can take a much more certain road and sell the tools that these high-risk, high-reward speculators need.</p>
<p>But there&#8217;s a limit to how many shovels you can sell. And there&#8217;s something bigger that both the gold diggers and the shovel sellers need. And that&#8217;s the railway to get to California and back.</p>
<p>When you build a &#8220;railway&#8221;, you&#8217;re building a platform, a gateway. The backbone of it all. You&#8217;re building a conduit through which all things must pass.</p>
<p><span id="more-405"></span></p>
<p><strong>Examples of Business Railways</strong></p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Industry Standard Formats.</strong> Format wars are intense and Sony recently won the hi-def war when Toshiba bowed out. Sony now owns the hi-def railway and there&#8217;s a whole host of businesses that have to pass over it; companies that make DVDs, players, recorders, authoring software, films, and video games &#8230; they all ride the Blu-ray train now.</li>
<li><strong>Platforms.</strong> The MS Windows and Mac OSX operating systems are both platforms. Railways. Every piece of software needs an operating system to run it. And the beauty of creating a platform is you can make both the railway and the trains. In this case, that&#8217;s the OS and the software.</li>
<li><strong>Technologies.</strong> The Legaignoux brothers developed a simple yet amazing kite design for <a href="http://www.wipikakiteboarding.com/">kiteboarding </a>using inflatable struts. Every other kite manufacturer licenses the right to use their patented design. And those license agreements also set the price ranges at which each company can sell their kites. Can you say &#8220;All our competition are belong to us&#8221;.</li>
</ol>
<p>There are lots of examples of business railways out there. And you don&#8217;t need to be a billion dollar company to do it. Microsoft started somewhere. So did the Legaignoux brothers. Any business can build a railway. You just need to recognize what people need, <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/great-leaders-are-inventors/">be innovative</a>, and <strong>set the standards</strong> in your niche, local market, or industry.</p>
<p>Start small. And think big.</p>
<p>When you build a format, a platform, or an innovative technology, you&#8217;re building a railway. And everyone; gold diggers and shovel sellers included, needs to get to California somehow.</p>
<p>Can I see your ticket please.</p>
<hr noshade style="margin:0;height:1px" />
<p>© <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com">Zoomstart</a>, 2008. |
<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/dig-for-gold-sell-shovels-or-build-a-railway/">You Can Dig for Gold, Sell Shovels, or Better Yet &#8230; Build the Railway to California</a></p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/zoomtools-aceergeb45456gv5t46hv655bv454va/">Zoom Tools Page</a> to get free ebooks and other cool stuff</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Business: Take Advantage of the Trickle Effect</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/take-advantage-of-the-trickle-effect/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/take-advantage-of-the-trickle-effect/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:51:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/take-advantage-of-the-trickle-effect/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Good times and bad times start at the top, and then the effects &#8220;trickle down&#8221; to small businesses and regular people. Right now, we&#8217;re seeing the trickle down effect from a bursting property bubble and mile-high piles of consumer and government debt. So what&#8217;s the best way to deal with that? Well, trickle &#8220;up&#8221; of course. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img width="500" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/stormy-weather.jpg" alt="Stormy Weather" class="aligncenter" /></p>
<p>Good times and bad times start at the top, and then the effects &#8220;trickle down&#8221; to small businesses and regular people.</p>
<p>Right now, we&#8217;re seeing the trickle down effect from a bursting property bubble and mile-high piles of consumer and government debt. So what&#8217;s the best way to deal with that?</p>
<p>Well, trickle &#8220;up&#8221; of course.</p>
<p><strong>First, The Vicious Trickle Down Cycle</strong></p>
<p>Because of the property price implosion, a lot of things are happening:</p>
<ul>
<li>Lumber mills are shutting down temporarily or even for good</li>
<li>Companies like Linens &amp; Things are filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection</li>
<li>Many large companies are laying off thousands of employees</li>
</ul>
<p><span id="more-385"></span><br />
These things might not affect your business or even your industry. But the next stage of the trickle down will. Millions of people and companies will have to cut back their spending. Some will cut back severely and eventually this will trickle over into other sectors.</p>
<p>And of course, it becomes a vicious cycle because it&#8217;s exactly the sort of economic climate that&#8217;s going to depress property prices further.</p>
<p><strong>How to Trickle Up</strong></p>
<p>This is a tough task for most businesses. It&#8217;s literally an upstream battle. But with a few smart strategies it&#8217;s easily achievable &#8230;</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Show me the money.</strong> No matter what&#8217;s going on in the world, some people always have money. Start gearing your products and services towards these people and companies. Think quality, and exclusivity.</li>
<li><strong>Problems need solutions.</strong> The great thing about bear markets is there are lots of problems. And every one of those problems need a solution of some kind. Create those solutions and you&#8217;re golden.</li>
<li><strong>It&#8217;s time for a new deal.</strong> US President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated a series of new reforms to help pull people out of the Great Depression of the 1930s. These reforms were called the &#8220;New Deal&#8221;. If you can&#8217;t beat the trickle down (and you don&#8217;t want to get caught in it) create a new direction. Be innovative and create new products and services that pave a new path forward.</li>
<li><strong>Swim with a buddy.</strong> Sometimes the trickle down can be a raging whitewater torrent. Partnering up with another company that has different strengths is one way to make both businesses stronger. A partnership can give you access to new markets, additional expertise, and an avenue for creating innovative product and service packages you couldn&#8217;t create on your own.</li>
</ol>
<p>The keys to trickling up and not getting caught in the trickle down are <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/making-tough-business-decisions/">composure</a> and <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/beggars-banquet-marketing/">creativity</a>. Don&#8217;t get wrapped up in the mayhem. Get wrapped up in creating new avenues of unique and real value.</p>
<p>And don&#8217;t forget your umbrella.</p>
<hr noshade style="margin:0;height:1px" />
<p>© <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com">Zoomstart</a>, 2008. |
<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/take-advantage-of-the-trickle-effect/">Business: Take Advantage of the Trickle Effect</a></p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/zoomtools-aceergeb45456gv5t46hv655bv454va/">Zoom Tools Page</a> to get free ebooks and other cool stuff</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Forget Loss Leaders; Profit is Non-Negotiable</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/forget-loss-leaders-profit-is-non-negotiable/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/forget-loss-leaders-profit-is-non-negotiable/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:51:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/forget-loss-leaders-profit-is-non-negotiable/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The idea behind a loss-leader is that you sell something super cheap; in fact it&#8217;s such a deal that you lose money on every unit you sell. The idea behind this is to get customers in the door and it&#8217;s the other items they buy while they&#8217;re there that make you money. And of course, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img width="500" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/tug-of-war.jpg" alt="Tug-of-war" class="aligncenter" /></p>
<p>The idea behind a loss-leader is that you sell something super cheap; in fact it&#8217;s such a deal that you lose money on every unit you sell. The idea behind this is to get customers in the door and it&#8217;s the other items they buy while they&#8217;re there that make you money.</p>
<p>And of course, customers love the idea of flaunting the deal they got at an obvious loss leader price. Loss leaders used to be quite popular. And promoting something like it is one is still really popular. But usually they&#8217;re not loss leaders at all &#8230;</p>
<p><strong>The Business Landscape Has Changed</strong></p>
<p>The first thing that most businesses have come to understand is that selling loss leaders doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean you&#8217;ll get any other business from a customer. This is especially true in business-to-business deals. And bringing on a loss leader doesn&#8217;t mean you&#8217;ll keep a contract you already have or that you won&#8217;t get the deal in the first place if you don&#8217;t take the hit.</p>
<p>This is partly why most successful businesses don&#8217;t sell loss leaders any more. There&#8217;s just no money in it.</p>
<p><span id="more-372"></span></p>
<p>But what&#8217;s really changed is the amount of sheer <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/everyone-loves-an-underdog/">competition</a> in the marketplace. Most companies can&#8217;t afford to take a hit with a loss leader. And the fact is, if you want to sell blue widgets at a better price than the next guy, guaranteed there&#8217;s a company out there who can supply you with &#8220;off-blue&#8221; widgets at a door-crasher price. So there&#8217;s no need to sell them at a loss.</p>
<p>To survive in such a competitive environment, you&#8217;ve got some choices to make. And here they are:</p>
<ol>
<li>You stay in the premium &#8220;pure blue&#8221; widgets market. Build your brand; offer your best price and that&#8217;s final.</li>
<li>You start grinding your suppliers for a better price or find more cost effective suppliers.</li>
<li>You jump into the &#8220;off blue&#8221; widgets market where the buying and selling prices are much lower.</li>
<li>Some combination of all of the above (which is what most companies do). There&#8217;s one key advantage to getting into a high-volume, low-margin market and that&#8217;s volume buying. Getting better pricing on everything you buy can significantly increase the margins on your premium products even though you&#8217;re still making thin money on the stuff that moves the most.</li>
</ol>
<p>Note &#8230; none of these options involves you taking a hit on a loss leader. You&#8217;re <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/does-your-personality-fit-the-business/">in business</a> to make a profit. Profit is non-negotiable.</p>
<p>And loss leaders just aren&#8217;t cool anymore.</p>
<hr noshade style="margin:0;height:1px" />
<p>© <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com">Zoomstart</a>, 2008. |
<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/forget-loss-leaders-profit-is-non-negotiable/">Forget Loss Leaders; Profit is Non-Negotiable</a></p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/zoomtools-aceergeb45456gv5t46hv655bv454va/">Zoom Tools Page</a> to get free ebooks and other cool stuff</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Don&#8217;t Undercut Your Piece of the Pie</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/dont-undercut-your-piece-of-the-pie/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/dont-undercut-your-piece-of-the-pie/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:14:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/dont-undercut-your-piece-of-the-pie/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some friends of mine are starting a painting business. Initially, they found it difficult to get contracts as most small businesses do. The best way is to just go out and start knocking on doors to introduce yourself. I suggested they hit small businesses where they can talk directly to the owner and just drop [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img width="500" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/profit-pie.jpg" alt="The Profit Pie" class="aligncenter" /></p>
<p>Some friends of mine are starting a painting business. Initially, they found it difficult to get contracts as most small businesses do. The best way is to just go out and start knocking on doors to introduce yourself. I suggested they hit small businesses where they can talk directly to the owner and just drop off 20 or 30 business cards a day.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s pretty much guaranteed in this market that you can line up 2 or 3 jobs just by doing that kind of networking for half a day. But most people, for whatever reason (lack of confidence in their own business), just won&#8217;t do it.</p>
<p><strong>The Subcontracting Trap</strong></p>
<p>So, as a lot of entrepreneurs do, they started talking to a contractor to get work. The good thing about being a subcontractor is they go out and get all the sales, do customer service, etc. Which takes that burden off you.</p>
<p>The bad thing is they usually take up to or over 50% of the pie. It can still be good money, but it&#8217;s little more than a glorified job. And it doesn&#8217;t make your business the killer cash you need to grow your business; it&#8217;s more like earning a wage.</p>
<p>Now, subcontracting can be a great way to get started. It&#8217;s paid training and experience. But at some point you have to cut the cord and go out on your own.</p>
<p><span id="more-368"></span></p>
<p><strong>Just Put a Bigger Number on the Table</strong></p>
<p>After some discussion, my friends decided they didn&#8217;t like the idea of earning 40% of the pie and put a plan together to go out and start networking their own business. And then my buddy said something really strange to me &#8230;</p>
<p>He said, &#8220;Those guys would charge $6k for a house and only give us 40%. And we could do that house ourselves for like $3000&#8243;.</p>
<p>Eeeeeerrrrch! &#8230; now hold on a second. That&#8217;s still only 50% of the pie. It&#8217;s only 50% of the going rate. There&#8217;s that confidence thing again. And you know what &#8230; let&#8217;s go with it &#8230;</p>
<p>But let&#8217;s do it the right way to get the business rolling. And it&#8217;s all in how you frame the proposition. So here&#8217;s the deal; for a $6000 job, you charge $5500 BUT you give your customer a $1000 business-launching discount for a limited time only.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s an easy way to <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/how-to-be-a-sales-icon/">get your business rolling</a>, get a bigger slice of the pie, give your customers a savings incentive AND give your confidence-meter some slack too.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;tcha just love pie.</p>
<hr noshade style="margin:0;height:1px" />
<p>© <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com">Zoomstart</a>, 2008. |
<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/dont-undercut-your-piece-of-the-pie/">Don&#8217;t Undercut Your Piece of the Pie</a></p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/zoomtools-aceergeb45456gv5t46hv655bv454va/">Zoom Tools Page</a> to get free ebooks and other cool stuff</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Negotiation &#8230; One on One, or is it a Team Sport?</title>
		<link>http://www.zoomstart.com/negotiation-one-on-one/</link>
		<comments>http://www.zoomstart.com/negotiation-one-on-one/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:58:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shane</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.zoomstart.com/negotiation-one-on-one/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So you&#8217;re sitting there, alone, on one side of the table. And across from you is an army of briefcases. They&#8217;re gonna tear you apart, right? Not so fast &#8230; There&#8217;s a great advantage to having a negotiating &#8220;team&#8221;. But there are some huge disadvantages as well. Building a Negotiating Team Whether it&#8217;s a good-cop, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.zoomstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/dance-partner.jpg" alt="Dance partner" width="500" /></p>
<p>So you&#8217;re sitting there, alone, on one side of the table. And across from you is an army of briefcases. They&#8217;re gonna tear you apart, right? Not so fast &#8230;</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a great advantage to having a negotiating &#8220;team&#8221;. But there are some huge disadvantages as well.</p>
<p><strong>Building a Negotiating Team</strong></p>
<p>Whether it&#8217;s a good-cop, bad-cop &#8220;buddy movie&#8221; kind of team or it&#8217;s a boardroom platoon, there&#8217;s just one rule your team has to live by: <strong>Nobody says nothin&#8217;</strong>.</p>
<p>The power of having a good negotiating team is knowledge. Each person on your team is an expert in something. But that knowledge has to be very carefully safeguarded so it can be used strategically. The only time a team member should be engaging the other team at the table is when the team leader specifically asks for their input into the discussion.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s 3 reasons for this:</p>
<p><span id="more-364"></span></p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Rhythm.</strong> Your opponent is putting an offer in front of you. You&#8217;re quiet, looking kind of stupid and uninterested. You want more. And you want to control the rhythm of the negotiation &#8230; and then someone on your team blurts out &#8220;Great! Let&#8217;s get this down on paper&#8221;. Silence is uncomfortable and very effective. And even your own team can crack under its weight.</li>
<li><strong>Who&#8217;s My Dance Partner?</strong> If the people across the table start to get different ideas from different people on your team, they&#8217;re going to wonder who it is they&#8217;re supposed to be dancing with. Who&#8217;s calling the shots here? Is this a company with a lot of internal turmoil and ladder-climbing that can be exploited?</li>
<li><strong>Name That Tune.</strong> Is this the salsa or the rhumba? With different ideas flying around, it&#8217;s easy to lose sight of what your goals are and how you&#8217;re getting to them. You don&#8217;t want anyone leaving the negotiation unsure of what it is they&#8217;re expected to do next.</li>
</ol>
<p>Understanding the inherent strength and weakness a team can bring to the table is critical. If it&#8217;s your team, you need to make sure it&#8217;s a disciplined one. And if it&#8217;s theirs, you might want to take it apart piece by piece.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t have a team that &#8220;gets it&#8221;, then it&#8217;s better to just go in solo.</p>
<p>Personally I like to negotiate one-on-one simply for the entertainment value; playing both good-cop and bad-cop can be a little schizophrenic, but it is amusing &#8230;</p>
<p>One minute you&#8217;re Starsky. The next, you&#8217;re Hutch.</p>
<p><em>Also check out my previous posts, </em><a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/art-of-negotiation/"><em>The Art of Negotiation</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/aikido-negotiation-tactics/"><em>Aikido Negotiation Tactics</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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<a href="http://www.zoomstart.com/negotiation-one-on-one/">Negotiation &#8230; One on One, or is it a Team Sport?</a></p>
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