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Business Start-up Advice - Focus on Your Information Product
by Stephen Beck

Maybe you are reading this article in a cubicle somewhere.  Or maybe you are surfing the internet on the weekend because you have an idea for a business, and all you need to know is what to do first!  Allow me to give ou some business start-up advice.  Begin by nailing down what you will market as your information product.

That begs the question, "What is an information product?" An information product is any knowledge in your head that others would find valuable.  Let me repeat that, any knowledge or experience in your head that others would find valuable can be packaged and sold.

Business Start-up Advice #1 - Use Different Mediums

You can share this knowledge with others through a variety of media.  That can be a digital product, a physical product, an eBook, a video, an audio, or all of the above.  Many of my products have an all of the above component.  Some are written, some are videos, some are audios, some are multi-media productions.

Business Start-up advice #2 - Build Your Own Brand

You must have at least one product that is your very own.  Why do I say that?  Because you want to build your own brand and not someone else's.  I am okay with network marketing.  That is fine.  If you want to do Avon or Shacklee or Amway or whatever you want to do, go for it.  But I still contend that you must have at least one product that is your very own so you are building your own brand and not necessarily someone else's.

You want more control over your business.  You do not want to work for 5% or 2% or whatever somebody decides to pay you.  You do not want somebody telling you that you cannot put up website, or you can only have this kind of wording when you are starting up your own business.  You want total control.  And you want to keep the lion's share of the products.  In an information product, you can keep 90-95%.  Whatever your hard costs are, they are very small.  You get to keep the lion's share of the profits.

All of the big players have their own product.  We are talking names like Armon Moore, Ray Edwards, Alex Mendoza, and Dan Kennedy.  All the guys in the information marketing business have their own product.  Why?  Because they know that it works and it builds their own brand instead of someone else's.

Business Start-up Advice #3 - Stop Trading Time for Money

A lot of you are in that trap right now, whether you are working in a 9 to 5 job, or even if you are doing consulting.  You are still trading time for money.  When you create something one time and sell it over and over and over, you get out of that trading time for money trap.

Business Start-up Advice #4 - Establish Your Authority

Imagine being able to give people information, an eBook that you have written or CDs that you have made.  Anything that sets you head and shoulders above the next guy.  That is massive credibility for your offline business.

Imagine bringing people in through lead generation systems and giving them a free report.  Giving them something they can touch and feel.  Your information products can bring in tons of leads and establish you as an expert in your niche.

Take the plunge and begin committing to paper the ideas you have in your head.  Create information products from those ideas, and build your business.  Then in a short while, you may be giving someone else business start-up advice.

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Copyright Stephen Beck, 2010

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