US Postage Stamp Increase

US postage and stamp prices will increase as of May 12. Many self-employed people are feeling the pinch, especially those who use the mail for direct-marketing purposes or to send products to customers.

Here are some tips for dealing with the US postage and stamp increase:

1. Buy the "Forever" Stamp. As the USPS says, "The stamp will be good for mailing one-ounce First-Class letters anytime in the future — regardless of price changes." So if you buy it before May 12, it will cost you $0.41, and you will be able to use it to mail letters forever. If you have a hard time getting them at your local post office, purchase them online at www.usps.com

2. Consider converting your books and audio programs to downloadable e-products (PDF files for ebooks, MP3 files for audio programs). With the US postage and stamp price increase, your shipping costs will increase also, and you'll have to decide whether you'll pass those shipping costs on to your customers. (If you use UPS or FedEx you'll see their rates increase as well, as gasoline prices soar in the USA.) With downloadable products, you save on shipping, you save on production costs, you save on fulfillment costs, and you give your customers instant gratification.

3. Ask the clerk at the post office counter for other options when shipping. Sometimes Media Mail will get to your destination in approximately the same time (depends on the destination) and for lots less money.

4. Use the Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes for shipping items. These all-you-can-fit-in-it boxes are a fixed cost, and may be less expensive than sending something weighed Priority Mail.

5. Pay your bills online instead of sending checks.

6. Send correspondence to customers, including agreements and contracts, via fax or email. For instance, I send coaching and consulting contracts to clients in PDF format via email, they sign it, and fax it back to me. No postage on either side of the equation.

While this US postage stamp increase won't affect everyone, for those who use the mails regularly, it will be a growing business expense. Best to think ahead, because the US Postal Service says that prices will probably increase each year from now on.

Click here for further information on all the US postage and stamp increases schedule for May 12.

Email Marketing Tips

I thought you'd enjoy this great article, 13 Tips for Effective Email Marketing from MarketingVOX. You'll also appreciate some other, lesser known email marketing tips from them as well.

It's Okay to Think Small

In nearly every business book I read and from the lips of nearly every business guru I listen to is the premise that you have to grow your business. Grow, grow, grow -- think big -- and you'll feel successful. More products, more services, more revenue -- and you'll be happy. Bigger is better, right?

Here's a secret that I'm going to start shouting from the rooftops: there's no shame in declaring that you want to keep your business small. This push for growing our business to the next level (whatever that means) might not be the right thing for many of us.

I'm not talking about people who remain small because they're scared, or because they don't have the skills or financing to grow big. I'm talking about the people who choose to keep their business small because, after careful analysis, it's what they really want. There's an unspoken taboo about saying, "I want my business to remain small," and I want to halt that taboo.

In his book The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber says that if you elect to stay small and work in your business (instead of working "on" your business by creating a system where someone can run your business for you), you have a job, not a business. I don't understand his logic and I can't see where there's something inherently wrong with wanting to stay small and do the work yourself. Most self-employed people start their own businesses because they love what they do.

Gerber's principle is that a business should be created to get more out of life. Certainly the work you do should allow you to have the lifestyle you want. But I didn't start a business just to make heaps of money; I could get a corporate executive job and do that. I started a business to provide the services and products I love, that gives me personal fulfillment and creative challenge.

If you love the work you do, there is nothing wrong with wanting to continue to be the technician, as well as take on the role of manager and entrepreneur. You've got to do all three, so don't try to avoid it. But if you're willing to take on all three roles, you can find much meaning and satisfaction in running your own business.

Staying Small

There is a new way of looking at small business that challenges the notion that all growth is desirable. In Bo Burlingham's book, Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big, he talks about small business owners who had a choice to grow their business to majestic proportions and chose instead to remain small, to perfect their business to great heights without selling their soul to the "you must grow" mantra.

There are those business owners to elect to stay small, and create a great business. I didn't create a business in order to create a franchise-able model of it where someone else did the work. I created a business to be great at what I do, offering the best service and products possible. For me, the only way to do this is to remain small, boutique, and connected intimately with my customers. This allows me to listen to their needs and create solutions quickly. It gives me a kind of independence and joy that I never found in corporate life.

Seth Godin says, "Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model. Small means you can tell the truth on your blog. Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable."

In fact, Seth wrote a book called Small Is The New Big. Maybe I'm on to something here.

Loving What You Do

While your business can be a means to an end (a lifestyle you want, or maybe to send your kids to college), why can't your business also be enjoyable in and of itself?

If you love gardening, you don't just work "on" your garden plan, you work "in" the garden every chance you get. You don't try to figure out ways to delegate all the work just so you can sit back and get the rewards of a pretty garden. Instead you want to get your fingers in the dirt and do it yourself because the very act of working in the garden is enjoyable to you. And sometimes that means you have a smaller garden so that you can find joy and fulfillment in doing it all yourself.

Many self-employed people don't want to be an absentee owner. I don't want to lose touch with my customers or the reason I do this work. I don't want to manage employees; instead, I'd rather work with partners who love what they do. I don’t want to create a big business model that any low-skilled employee can implement just for some extra cash.

If you want to be the CEO of a big company with lots of people working for you -- go for it. But for me, I want to get my hands dirty every day. I'd rather stay focused and build a business that's small and great.

Studying Start-ups

Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) follows nearly 5,000 businesses founded in 2004 and tracks them over their early years of operation. Here are some interesting results:

• More than a third of businesses (37 percent) had no revenue in their first year of operation while about 17 percent of businesses had profits in excess of $100,000.

• Just under 9 percent of firms closed in one year and the survival rates vary by owner demographics.

• Nearly 60 percent of the businesses had no employees in their first year while very few businesses (less than 4 percent) had more than 10 employees.

To learn more about the results of this survey, visit: http://www.kauffman.org/item.cfm?item=1021

10 Ways to Grow Your Mailing List

Wow, you are going to kill me, but I have to say it:

It doesn't matter how good your website is, if people don't come back often. Your website gets them interested; your ongoing relationship with them gets them to buy.

The real key to e-commerce is building a mailing list of people who are interested in the topics you write, speak and teach about. On a good day, you might get 10 percent of your website visitors to buy. But what about the other 90 percent? Are you just going to ignore them and their needs?

The internet is a distracting place and a visitor may only come to your website once. A mailing list member can be told about new articles, new offerings and new resources on your site each month, thereby increasing your traffic and your sales.

I'm not talking about creating huge lists of people who will remove themselves as soon as they get your freebie. What's the point in that? I'm talking about a sustainable list of people who like the products and services you offer, who have an ongoing relationship with you, and are likely to purchase from you again and again.

I can think of 20 or 30 different things you can do to grow your mailing list. Let's look at the 10 techniques I like to use:

1. From Your Website. It should come as a great surprise that you should ask people to sign up for your mailing list from your website. But these days, people are overwhelmed with emails and email newsletters, so you have to offer them something more. A good suggestion is offering a free e-book or e-course. These are easy to deliver and don't take any of your time because they're automated. You'll need to have a mailing list system or autoresponder system set up to accept email addresses and automatically deliver the e-book or e-course information. Ones to consider are www.1shoppingcart.com or www.aweber.com. Note that whichever service you use, it must have both an email list manager and an autoresponder feature.

2. Outgoing Emails. On every outgoing email, in your signature line, you should be inviting people to join your mailing list. Just make sure you tell them HOW to join your list via email or give them a link to the sign-up page. By the way, it's considered rude and bad etiquette to automatically sign people up for your mailing list. Just because they've emailed you, or met you at a meeting, doesn't give you the right to automatically add them. Instead, send them an invitation and let them decide if they want to be on your list.

3. At Speeches. Meetings and conferences are a great way to get recognized quickly and to gather names for your list. Have a sign-up sheet on a clipboard ready, and pass it around while you're giving your speech. Better yet, give away something for free and have them sign up for the freebie and your newsletter at the same time. Or, ask the participants to take out their business card and write "giveaway" on it, and pass it up to you. Note: if you ask people to give you their business card, there is a good chance that the business card has the wrong email address on it. Ask them to check it and correct it before passing it up to you.

4. In Your Newsletter Itself. Lots of people like to forward your newsletter to their friends and colleagues. But once someone else reads your newsletter, they don't know how to subscribe to it. Make sure you give instructions in each newsletter so that new people know what to do.

5. On Business Cards. Lots of people have business cards with blank backs. Instead, use the back of your business card as a mini-billboard, and offer your freebie and sign-up instructions right on the back of the card.

6. About The Author Text. When you write articles, you should be including an "about the author" paragraph at the end, especially if you are submitting those articles to other websites. In the About The Author paragraph, make your offer and give instructions for your newsletter.

7. Thank You Emails. When someone purchases from you, you should be sending them a Thank You For Your Order email. In that email, ask them if they'd like to get your newsletter. It might be a good idea to offer a coupon or discount to customers in the Thank You email, as an incentive to sign-up for your newsletter.

8. Online Classified Ad. Use a service like www.craigslist.org to place an online classified ad for your free giveaway and newsletter subscription offer.

9. On Your Voicemail. When recording your outgoing voicemail message, always offer your newsletter, and tell them the website where they can sign-up.

10. In Interviews. Whether you are interviewed on the radio or in print, always mention your email newsletter and your freebie.