This weekend and past week, I’ve had the unfortunate experience of dealing with a non-paying client.  Generally speaking, we collect pre-payment on all services and then keep detailed time logs of the work that is complete.  We allow our clients to have a period of time to look over the time logs and if they have anything they are unhappy with or wish to clarify, they can do so and we work with them to ensure that they are satisfied.

Every once in awhile, I’ll meet a client who is just awesome.  Or, at least it starts that way.  The client is happy, excited, we finish some really great work for him/her and over time, develop a relationship that seems like it’s going to last forever.  That is until the client runs out of money.  Now, we do our best to help our clients make money but we can only do so much.  For example, if we suggest that the price on their newest program is ridiculously high and they don’t adjust it, it is not our fault if they do not sell seats into that program.

So, this past weekend, I was dealing with someone who had obviously run out of money.  How do I know this?  Their eChecks have come back NSF (non-sufficient funds) at least three times and the time between invoice and payment was getting longer and longer.  Now, since we had entered into an awesome relationship, I had allowed them to pay-as-they-went.  Yes, I know.  Stupid mistake on my part in hindsight but this person seemed like a trustworthy person who had appreciated and loved the work we had done to date.

Here we were with two open invoices that were unpaid.  I had mentioned that after these invoices were paid up, the client would have to start doing pre-payment on all work since we couldn’t wait any length of time before getting paid.  I mean, that’s only fair right?  You do work, you boost someone else’s business and they pay for that work to be done.  Seems like a logical business transaction to me.  I was willing to work with this client to come up with a plan that worked for both of us if need be.

After mentioning that we would have to go to a pre-payment after she paid up on what she owed, she conveniently found a new team to work with.  Then, the finger pointing e-mails started.  Up until now, the client had been more than happy with the service.  However, when it came time to having to pay the bill, there were all of these things that we had apparently done wrong, things they weren’t happy with and “other clients” that they had referred who were also unhappy with the service.  (Side note: after checking with those “other clients”, it turns out they are more than happy.) The kicker was that in one of the e-mails, the line was used that I was “all about the money.”

This line has inspired this blog post.

Why do people think that asking for payment on work you’ve done is being “all about the money”? Of course I’m all about the money.  If I do 25 hours of work for you, I want to be paid for that work.  I don’t run a charity and I certainly need to eat.  However, I’m also about other things – being flexible, providing value to my clients, checking in to ensure that they are happy and listening to problems when they come up and working to fix them.

Being “all about the money” is not a bad thing in business – it’s a necessity. Wanting to be paid for work that has been performed is not a privilege I have to earn – it’s what should naturally occur in a business relationship.  Thinking that you can run a business and not focus on the money aspect is just silly.  Again, there are going to be other aspects of your business that are equally as important but YOU WOULD NOT HAVE A BUSINESS IF YOU DID NOT COLLECT REVENUE.

Entrepreneurs that don’t pay their bills or who haggle invoices or who discredit the work of the people who work alongside them need to grow up. Being in business is about creating fair transactions on both sides.  It’s not about trying to get things for free and it’s certainly not about dodging out of paying your invoices.  That’s just poor business practice.  Instead, these entrepreneurs should be paying their invoices with gratitude knowing that the support they are receiving, in whatever format it comes in, is awesome and helpful.

I’ve got some work to do to our own invoicing and billing allowances but if anything, this situation has taught me that I am totally okay being “all about the money” sometimes.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a business that could sustain my day-to-day life for any length of time.

What do you think?  Is being “all about the money” a bad thing in business (keeping in mind that there are still those other areas of importance I mentioned previously)?

In the last three months, I’ve thrown my revenue goals out the window.  Tossed ‘em in the street for others to drive their cars over and trample across while walking their dogs.  Why?  Because working toward an always-growing-never-satisfying dollar figure is a sure-fire way to miss out on life, lose your balance and be consistently unhappy. Now, I know that some of you will shake your head and say to yourself, “What a naive approach to running a business!” but that’s okay with me.  I’m happy.  Really, really happy.  Happier than I’ve been in a long time and I’m going to share with you why that is.

Working toward a dollar figure is only good until you hit that dollar figure.  Then, you want more.  You NEED more because your lifestyle has risen up to greet your new found income.  Chances are, you’ll find yourself needing to launch more, do more, be more, have more, desire more and pretty soon, you’ll feel like you’ve run out.  You’ll sit at the newly acquired revenue goal and think to yourself, “To keep this up or to exceed it, I just need to work EVEN HARDER!”  This is where revenue goals become a bit tricky.

If you’re in a business that is scalable, fantastic.  Growing your company’s revenue may not affect you personally.  However, if your time, expertise, content creation, management, ideas, etc. are required in order to keep the business churning forward and growing, get ready to experience massive burnout.  You may hit your revenue goals but just try to keep them there for any sustainable length of time without falling flat on your face OR losing your life in the process.

About six or seven months ago, I was a disaster.  Really.  You probably didn’t know it (or maybe you did and were just too polite to say anything) but I was basing my success on how much money my business brought in.  Revenue goals ruled my life.  My husband would come home from work and I’d talk first about how much I had earned that day as though that was my sheer existence.  I wasn’t talking about the relationships I had built, the conversations I had had, the ideas that sparked my passions… nope, I was basing my self-worth on the worth of my company in any given day.  In fact, I wasn’t even asking him how HIS day was.  I was just focused on the revenue.

This worked well for awhile… until the dollar figures levelled out.  I then started to feel pretty darn crappy about what I was doing in my business.  When the revenues weren’t rising up, up, up, I fell down, down down.  Forget the fact that my business was still doing multiple six figures and I was living a comfortable lifestyle… nope, my self-worth was directly tied to whether or not I was going to reach that elusive revenue goal.  For me, the revenue goal was a million dollars before thirty (looking at this now, I think WHY?!  Why is everyone on the planet running toward a million bucks?  Is that, for some, the key number at which all things become perfect?)

So, I decided to make a change.  I hired a therapist (yep, not ashamed to admit that I spent some time in a comfy chair every Thursday from 11am – noon!) and got clear about why I was running a business and what I wanted out of life.  I realized that my scale was really full on the work side and the success side but the other side, the personal, intimate, awesome life side, it was embarrassingly empty.  I had no time for my husband, no time for friends and the choices I was making were all focused on making a million dollars.  I realized, in that chair, that I wanted to become a mom and I wanted to sleep more and I wanted to have more time for video games.  I wanted people to see me for me and not just for what I earn or what I could achieve.

Now, I’m in an amazing place.  I earn enough money to pay my bills, to afford what I want and to have a nice lifestyle.  I don’t make a bucket load of cash, I don’t have a giant mansion on tons of property and I don’t have a closet full of designer goods (just one really nice Marc Jacobs bag and some Michael Kors shoes!) You know what though?  I’m happy. The choices I make in my business are no longer revenue-driven… they are inspired.  They are chosen because of my true passions, my true ideals and led by the desire to want to help others rise up and create businesses that let them shine.  Being happy and leading my business with heart is a much better choice for me than leading my company for the $$ attached to it.

As for the businesses I run, they are doing better than ever.  However, I am measuring their success based on the EXPERIENCES people are having inside of my companies.  The value they are receiving, the options they have, etc.  Not everything is driven by the dollar and it’s changed the landscape of my business dramatically.  I realized through this process that I really can have the best of both worlds…  An incredibly happy, fulfilling life and a business that supports it.

What about you?  Are you a revenue-driven business owner or do you run a business for other reasons?

Ever wonder what a day in my life looks like?  Here is a typical day… fully documented.  This was inspired by Andrea Tomkins (who did a live blogging post on her blog) but also inspired from this question on Twitter from Rebecca S:

So, I figured rather than try to come up with brilliant tips on time management, I would just show you how I organize my day / time.

9:30AM – Alarm went off.  I woke up a bit later than normal today because I was up late last night.  I don’t function well on little sleep these days (baby needs some of that energy now too) so I take this opportunity to sleep!  I hopped out of bed, threw a t-shirt and leggings on (normal work attire), put my hair in a ponytail and shook the mouse on my office computer (an iMac) before heading downstairs.  Why?  It lets the computer wake up, log me into Skype and load messages I might have missed overnight or in the early morning.

9:40AM – I fed the dogs and then let them out into the backyard for some morning playtime.  While the dogs are in the backyard doing their thing, I made a bagel (Everything bagel with light cream cheese mmmmmm) and poured myself a glass of grapefruit juice (also mmmm) and let the dogs back in.  Then, I came upstairs to my home office.

9:55AM – I open my Skype and click into “Team Awesome” chat (where my team and I spend the day chatting and notifying each other of important things) to say good morning and tell them about this crazy dream I had.  (In case you’re wondering, this morning I dreamed that baby was kicking me a lot but when it was happening, I was rehearsing lines for my role as Deanna Troy in Star Trek.  Yep, I’m serious.) After telling them about the dream, I logged into Gmail for the first quick sweep of my e-mail.  I start by deleting all of the junk mail and the things I don’t need.  Then, I went through the e-mails that are generated from Basecamp (our project management tool) to see if any required my response or action.  Those that didn’t, I archived away from my inbox.  Did a little happy dance over the orders that came in overnight – yahoo!  Then, I went through the random, miscellaneous e-mail and quickly scanned and labeled those for content (ie: event / speaking requests, Business S&M Telesummit, etc.) I also forwarded e-mails that need to go to my team to the appropriate people.  I did not answer any e-mails at this stage.  Still haven’t touched my bagel.

10:00AM – I open Threadsy and check my Twitter feed for anything that may need response quickly.  I archive away junk / spammy DMs and I star any Tweets that might be favorites (good feedback for example).  I see a Tweet from Rebecca S about time management so I decide to do this blog post.  I open up WordPress, start a new post and take some screenshots and begin writing.

10:16AM – Finished everything from the beginning to now.  Going to eat my bagel and answer my e-mails now.  While I answer my e-mails, I also add any to-dos to my notepad so that I don’t miss them later.

10:20AM – Perfected this blog post and scanned for grammar (lightly) so now I really will go eat my bagel and answer my e-mails.

10:24AM – Tweetly Updater broke when I tried to hit publish so I fixed that, added an image to the blog post and will now REALLY post this.  Have eaten half of my bagel.

11:11AM – I just spent the last little while creating the marketing funnel for Business S&M.  Now, when people opt-in to receive the free e-book on that site, they will also be taken through a series of e-mails pointing them to other things we do that may be of interest.  I started updating all of my autoresponder sequences yesterday as I finalize my move from 1ShoppingCart to MailChimp.  This is so important for me to do now because once #blaskiebaby comes, I won’t have the same time luxury.  During this, Steve also woke up (he works nights) and came in to say hello.  We chatted for a bit and now he’s gone to the gym and to do other manly things.

11:42AM – Answered 65% of my e-mails including sending a speaker’s packet out, sending audio links to speakers in our telesummit and providing a time report to one of our clients.  Exported old lists from 1ShoppingCart to import into MailChimp now that the autoresponder series is ready to go.  Yahoo!  Fixed the opt-in form code on Business S&M (it was still pointing to 1SC).  It’s now a lovely shade of pink but I’ll fix that later (I’m a move quick and edit later kind of gal).  Now getting ready for the Business S&M Telesummit call with me as the speaker.  Am speaking on Passive Revenue Models for Online Entrepreneurs.

11:48AM – Imported lists to MailChimp while my PowerPoint preso opened.  Filed lists away in my Dropbox folder where I keep many of my backup files.  Deleted screenshots from desktop that I used earlier this morning and responded to a Basecamp question / message.  Refreshed Threadsy to see if I missed any good Tweets.

11:56AM – Wrote out funnel on a blank sheet of paper for Business S&M including the items I still need to add.  90% complete the entire funnel.  Will create some e-mail responses for these later so my team can handle any inquiries that result from the autoresponders.  Pulling on headset and getting ready to dial in for Business S&M call!

1:00PM – Just finished the telesummit call on passive revenue.  I talked for the last hour on the different models and how to implement them.  Now, to have lunch with Stevie before he has to get ready to leave for work!

1:49PM – Lunch is now done! Stevie had made us chicken burgers (mmmm) and we watched a bit of Michael Jackson’s last concert documentary, “This Is It.”  When Steve works nights, I always try to spend a bit of time with him during the day as we don’t get our evenings together.  We also did my daily injection of blood thinner and no tears today!  Woohoo!  Maybe knowing that I’m live blogging my day made me tougher…  Now, I have 11 minutes before a call with one of my clients so I will check e-mail, check Twitter and action anything I can before our call together!

1:57PM – Subscribed back to all new subscribers on my baby vlog YouTube channel and left messages on each channel thanking them for their subscription.  I like to do this daily and batch it so that my mind is on that one task for a certain amount of time.  Thanking new subscribers for joining helps build relationships with the viewers!  Time for headset and client call!

2:02PM – Left voice mail for client.  Moved audio from Business S&M Telesummit into appropriate folder and sent out link for audio and PowerPoint to registrants.

2:06PM – Updated autoresponder with audio recording.  Skype chat with a colleague about providing his clients with my strategy / consultation work.  Skype chat with team member about the completion of two blog sites and the total hours billed for those projects.  Woohoo!

2:14PM – Answered 5-10 more e-mails.  Client called in for our 2pm call a bit late but I love her so that’s okay!

3:07PM – Finished client call, delegated tasks to team members and am now on a call with a prospective client discussing changes she’d like done to her website!

3:25PM – Finished prospective client call – going to do a backend assessment of their website and wait for a list of website changes.  Love WP / wishlist work!  Skyped my team to let them know of the new incoming work.  Sent an invoice to a new client who approved their estimate.  Going to check e-mail in the 3 minutes I have before my next call with a virtual assistant whom I am doing some coaching work with!

4:01PM – Finished coaching call.  Am now going to finish answering the 7 e-mails in my inbox, will check Twitter and reply to unanswered Tweets and will do my open to-dos and milestones in Basecamp.

4:20PM – Answered e-mails, tested 1ShoppingCart product links for a team member only to find that every one of their websites is down.  Sent a Tweet to 1SC about the issue.  Received Tweet back and notified my followers.

5:08PM – Pre-loaded blog posts onto http://www.bsetc.com/ for the rest of July.  Added in a milestone for August 1 to remind me to pre-load another 1/2 month or month of posts.  Responded to some Tweets.  Answered a few more e-mails.

5:50PM – Wrote some “Lunch Time Recommended Resource” Tweets and sent them to my assistant to pre-load onto my Twitter account.  Great way for me to point people to tools, people and services I love.  Updated my affiliate spreadsheet with links and created Bit.ly links out of the longer ones.  Chat with my team re: some client work as well as sushi.  Got hungry.  Asked Trina (sister) if she wanted to go for sushi tonight.  She’s going to text me.  Patiently waiting. Starving.

6:02PM – Sent a PayPal invoice to a client who was having trouble with credit card payment.  Wrote out marketing funnel for my teleseminar junkies with some survey components built in.  Read Twitter and replied to a few Tweets.  Still mega starving.  Where’s Trina’s text?!

6:19PM – Created schedules for our BSETC newsletter and our VA Coach newsletter through to December 2010.  Will create all of these newsletters later today or tomorrow so that we are good to go until the end of the year (I can always tweak them as I go and add in content where necessary).  Setup milestones in Basecamp so that our project management system can notify me of when these need to be locked and loaded.  Going to shower now.

6:30PM – Still haven’t showered but it’s cool because Trina came back on Skype and we made sushi plans!!  Yummy!!  Yes, I know all about what sushi not to eat during pregnancy  Don’t worry!  Was also able to discuss a client’s ezine milestones with a team member so we got that straightened out too.  Now I must shower because she’s coming to pick me up!

6:49PM – Showered, dogs are fed, makeup is on, clothes are on… I am ready for sushi dinner with my sister!!  Cleaning up office desk so that I can move to laptop downstairs.  Less efficient when not in my office but I won’t have to wait much longer before leaving for dinner… YUM!

8:33PM – Back home from sushi and taking the dogs for a nice, long walk.  Before I left, I took the time spent waiting to fill in my pregnancy journal so that I could be up to date with where I am at in weeks.  Now that I am home, I am going to check my e-mail, check Twitter and then play a bit of World of Warcraft.  Yep, you read that correctly.  I’m a bit of a gaming nerd and do videos for my YouTube channel – Erin Games.

8:38PM – Decided instead to make a video for Erin Games introducing Bar Star!  The video game I am in

8:58PM – Finished shooting and editing the video for Bar Star.  Exporting it now to upload to my Erin Games YouTube channel as well as my eThusiasm YouTube channel!

9:12PM – Export done and now uploading to YouTube.  Team member needed help finding a navigation plug-in for WordPress so I Tweeted out the question to get some help from my fellow geeks.  Chatted on Skype with the team a bit.  Just waiting for the video to finish uploading and then it’s World of Warcraft time!!  I sort of feel like playing some Call of Duty though…. Hmm….

10:09PM – Decided on WoW  Levelling up my fishing in hopes to get my Grand Master Fishing Achievement!  I bet to you non-gamers, this sounds lame huh?

12:05AM – Finished playing WoW – got five achievements!  Woohoo!  Checked e-mail and Twitter while playing.  Now to go have a snack and watch some TV while I wait for Stevie to come home.  Good day folks, good day.

I came across TweetAgora recently and wanted to try out their iPhone-based Twitter application. On my own iPhone, I’ve been using Tweetie (which turned into Tweetie 2, which was then purchased by Twitter and named, appropriately, Twitter) and have not veered away from it.  I’m the type of iPhone app user that encourages and embraces simplicity.  There is only so much I want to do from my iPhone and too many options = too much noise = Erin’s lost interest completely.

So, today I downloaded TweetAgora from the iPhone app store. It has a free version which allows one Twitter account import as well as a ton of other features and it also has a paid account which introduces even more features for the Twitter user.  Here is a screenshot from TweetAgora.com illustrating their many features:

Once I downloaded TweetAgora from the app store, I took a quick scan through each of their screens.

There are a ton of features here.

One of the features that draws me in the most is the ability to filter down content into “Agoras” that you can watch or pay attention to. This is particularly helpful when you are attending an event and / or tracking a hash tag.  I often find that I’m using my iPhone the most when I’m out networking, socializing or otherwise attending things that I might also want to Tweet about.  It’s great to know that I can build “Agoras” before I go and then track or follow them while I’m out.

Now, I realize you can do that with the Twitter client too so maybe that isn’t such a feature draw.  In the Twitter app, you can really only setup a basic “search” on a keyword or a hash tag.  However, when creating “Agoras”, you can filter it down by lists, keywords and even by person.  This way, you can follow a hash tag but maybe only when people use certain keywords AND the hash tag.  Helpful when trying to find specific people or specific conversations.

I also enjoy the interface a bit more. The profiles contain more detail in less clicks and it’s easy to tell whether or not I’m following someone and it’s easy to follow them back.  You can also mute out noisy Tweeters which is helpful when looking for specific info.

Another of my favorite features? You can look up a person and then look up specific questions that they have asked. I LOVE answering questions and I’ve built a business on doing so.  The fact that this iPhone app makes that even easier is awesome.  It will pull a filtered list of all of their questions so you can respond directly to that person with an answer.

One thing I dislike? It needs a web client…

Visit TweetAgora.com to learn more or download their app on the iPhone app store.

We’re back for week four (our FINAL WEEK) of the iPod Nano contest which means you can win 1 of 5 iPod Nanos!!!

I’ll be helping my good friends at Dove share their amazing message with the world as I give away THE LAST FIVE 16Gb iPod Nanos (unfortunately, to Canadian residents only! Sorry to my US lovelies…). These are the amazing little devices with the built-in camera / video!

15 lucky people have already won their iPod Nanos!!!

Here’s how the contest will work…

I’ve posted a question below.  In order to enter, you’ll have to click through to the Dove Facts page, get the answer and either post it as a comment here on the blog OR Tweet it to me@ErinBlaskie with the hashtag #DOVE.

On Friday at 10AM EST, I’ll be randomly drawing FIVE people who answered the question correctly and those five people will win a 16Gb iPod Nano!

Here is Question #4: Who can host a Dove self-esteem workshop in their community?

To find the answer, click through the image of the Dove products below… Remember, you must Tweet your answer using an @ reply to @ErinBlaskie with the hashtag #DOVE or post as a comment on my blog!

Good luck

Terms & Conditions of the Contest

We’re back for week three of the iPod Nano contest which means you can win 1 of 5 iPod Nanos this week!!!

Over the next three weeks, I’ll be helping my good friends at Dove share their amazing message with the world as I give away TEN MORE 16Gb iPod Nanos (unfortunately, to Canadian residents only! Sorry to my US lovelies…). These are the amazing little devices with the built-in camera / video!

5 lucky people have already won their iPod Nanos!!!

Here’s how the contest will work…

Each week, I’ll be posting a question to my blog. In order to enter, you’ll have to click through to the Dove Facts page, get the answer and either post it as a comment here on the blog OR Tweet it to me @ErinBlaskie with the hashtag #DOVE.

On Fridays at Noon EST, I’ll be randomly drawing FIVE people who answered the question correctly and those five people will win a 16Gb iPod Nano!

Here is Question #3: Why do 373,000 Canadian girls want to Thank You?

To find the answer, click through the image of the Dove products below… Remember, you must Tweet your answer using an @ reply to @ErinBlaskie with the hashtag #DOVE or post as a comment on my blog!

Good luck

Watch out next TUESDAY for your chance to win 1 of 5 additional iPod Nanos!!

Terms & Conditions of the Contest

We’re back for week two of the iPod Nano contest which means you can win 1 of 5 iPod Nanos this week!!!

Over the next three weeks, I’ll be helping my good friends at Dove share their amazing message with the world as I give away FIFTEEN 16Gb iPod Nanos (unfortunately, to Canadian residents only! Sorry to my US lovelies…).  These are the amazing little devices with the built-in camera / video!

5 lucky people have already won their iPod Nanos!!!

Here’s how the contest will work…

Each week, I’ll be posting a question to my blog.  In order to enter, you’ll have to click through to the Dove Facts page, get the answer and either post it as a comment here on the blog OR Tweet it to me @ErinBlaskie with the hashtag #DOVE.

On Fridays at Noon EST, I’ll be randomly drawing FIVE people who answered the question correctly and those five people will win a 16Gb iPod Nano!

Here is Question #2: Who has the most influence on the self-esteem of young girls? Girlfriends & Mothers, Media (TV, magazines, Internet) or Celebrities?

To find the answer, click through the image of the Dove products below…  Remember, you must Tweet your answer using an @ reply to @ErinBlaskie with the hashtag #DOVE or post as a comment on my blog!

Good luck

Watch out next TUESDAY for your chance to win 1 of 5 additional iPod Nanos!!

Terms & Conditions of the Contest

I’ve been taking some time lately to look for interesting and relevant people to add to my list of people I follow on Twitter and doing so has meant that I’ve had the opportunity to meet some really exciting individuals.  It’s also meant that I’ve had the opportunity to see who is / isn’t following me already and more importantly… who has blocked me.

Yep, there are people out there who have blocked me from following them.

I’m not embarassed to say so… It doesn’t even really bother me.  I just think it’s silly.  Blocking users doesn’t mean they can’t see your Tweets… It just means you can’t become one of their followers.  So, I suppose they have a very red velvet rope policy about who gets the honor of reading their 140 character updates.

Some of the individuals who have blocked me are people I don’t even know… However, I’ve drawn some parallels.  For example, there is a virtual assistant who is very prominent in the industry.  She’s got a blog and a forum and such and for whatever reason, she’s blocked me.  Maybe she doesn’t want me to be seen on her followers list as I might be competition?  Maybe she just doesn’t like me?  For whatever her reasons are, I can kind of understand it.

What I can’t understand though is why the other bloggers on her site have also blocked me… I feel transported back to high school where groups of girls would form cliques and gossip about other girls.  Gossip and be nasty.  Is this really where we’ve gone to in social media?

There must have been conversations amongst them where they have decided to band together and block me as a collective.  A clique.  To partake in social media snubbing.

I’ve always believed that when you are authentic and 100% yourself, people will either love you or hate you. You draw a line in the sand and people are divided.  It makes finding your ideal community or tribe a heck of a lot easier.

It doesn’t bother me when individuals decide to unfollow or block me for their individual reasons. What worries me about social media snubbing is when negativity spurs a group action.  When a group of people can be so filled with envy, anger, spite, etc. that they’d take a collective action.

Social media allows us to be social, to build community and to get to know each other a little better. I may not enjoy every single Tweet out there but I’d prefer not to close doors in people’s faces but rather weed out the most valuable followers and engage and interact with them instead.

Have you ever experienced social media snubbing?  What did you feel in that moment?

(Photo credit: Noja on Flickr)

Over the next four weeks, I’ll be helping my good friends at Dove share their amazing message with the world as I give away TWENTY 16Gb iPod Nanos (unfortunately, to Canadian residents only! Sorry to my US lovelies…).  These are the amazing little devices with the built-in camera / video!

Here’s how the contest will work…

Each week, I’ll be posting a question to my blog.  In order to enter, you’ll have to click through to the Dove Facts page, get the answer and either post it as a comment here on the blog OR Tweet it to me @ErinBlaskie with the hashtag #DOVE.

On Fridays at Noon EST, I’ll be randomly drawing FIVE people who answered the question correctly and those five people will win a 16Gb iPod Nano!

Here is Question #1: What % of women wished their mothers had talked with them more often about beauty and body image when growing up?

To find the answer, click through the image of the Dove products below…  Remember, you must Tweet your answer using an @ reply to @ErinBlaskie with the hashtag #DOVE or post as a comment on my blog!

Good luck

Watch out next TUESDAY for your chance to win 1 of 5 additional iPod Nanos!!

Terms & Conditions of the Contest

When I received an e-mail last week from an Internet marketer that I have been watching for a very long time and then another from a good colleague of mine about John Reese’s “Outsource Force”, I thought, “Hmm… since this is my industry and exactly what I do, I should watch this.”  So, Trina (my lead project manager) and I sat down and watched the first video.

My first thought was: another Internet marketer trying to get rich off of an age-old idea that you can buy in a $17 book at your local book store.  This person agrees:

My second thought was: why are some people still falling for the superficial videos that feature fancy cars and cool sunglasses?

My third thought was: what is a US-based business owner doing promoting outsourcing to the Philippines?

The Truth Behind These Video Series

Of course, the answer wasn’t far away.  John Reese is an Internet marketer. He’s hired some people from other countries at a rate of $2 per hour (he calls this his $2 per hour POWER FORMULA!) and is now strategically placing himself online as the outsourcing expert.

This is the same guy that got famous for his $1 Million dollar day on the Internet.

The people promoting his video series and his products are affiliates who are only seeing dollars. Want proof?  Check out this guy who is giving away an iPad if you buy John Reese’s Outsource Force product from him.  If an affiliate can afford a $600 device as a bonus, just imagine how much he’s going to rake in off of your purchase…

John Reese knows that everyone is looking for the ultimate dream…  Give away your entire business and make enough money to buy a faux-Delorean… just like him.  I’m sure that is the epitome of success for a lot of people, no?

John isn’t just giving away all of this amazing information in a video series. He’s upselling you to a course where he’ll teach you how to outsource to these inexpensive countries to achieve the “dream”…  Basically, he is going to want your money and a lot of it… for information you can find online for free or in a book.  Remember, $1 Million dollar dude on the Internet (his claim to fame).

Unfortunately, John’s videos are full of holes and full of information that I, as an outsourcing expert, give away for free.

The Problems With Outsource Force

Internet marketers promote really infomercial-type stuff all of the time and people buy it up.  Why does THIS video series in particular bother me?  Well, it’s my industry.  It’s what I’ve done for the last six years.  It’s also how I put food on my table and how the 28 people who work inside of my company put food on their tables.

When an Internet marketer, who is just trying to make a boatload of money, comes out making claims that you should never hire outsourcing firms, you shouldn’t pay more than a couple hundred dollars per month and that you should help out another economy instead of your own, it digs deep.

However, aside from all of that, I’m just tired of seeing people drink the REALLY expensive Kool-Aid.

The videos and the message is misleading. The videos teach people an incorrect and one-sided view on outsourcing.  The videos assume that every overseas provider is going to be super fantastic, speak perfect English and give you exactly what you want for only TWO DOLLARS per hour.

Do you remember when Tim Ferriss’ “Four Hour Work Week” came out?  He promoted these outsourcing companies in India like nobody’s business and sold the whole “world is flat” idea.  Unfortunately, a lot of people who then tried the whole, “let’s outsource to India” thing ended up disappointed.  Turns out, those companies weren’t measuring up.  Between the language issues and the time difference, people were finding it hard to coordinate teams and a lot of people realized that they didn’t want to be managers.  They simply needed help.

Most people don’t realize that outsourcing overseas comes with a lot of baggage that doesn’t exist when you hire a North American company.  The simple fact that John is focusing so heavily on outsourcing for the cheapest rate possible shows the VALUE he places on outsourcing. He doesn’t want a team, he wants a set of “workers.”

What I Wish John Reese’s Videos Taught Instead

What John should be teaching people is that outsourcing for $2 per hour is not a BLANKET SOLUTION but rather an option. It’s an option for those individuals who have the hours it is going to take to train those people and the hours that it will take to get past the language barriers and the time difference.

What John should also be telling people is that managing a team and building your own overseas “outsource force” is going to take TIME, MONEY and PATIENCE. This is exactly why companies like mine exist.  We don’t require YOU to manage the team but instead, we already have our own team.  We work well together.  We know each other.

I wish that John did not tell people to avoid outsourcing firms. That is a stereotypical statement and one that does not hold its weight when you look at the number of successful, helpful and well run outsourcing firms.  What John should have said instead is that you shouldn’t hire the big outsourcing firms overseas. Think of those as puppy mills but for people instead.  People there are paid poorly and the turnover rate is high.  A company like mine however has a team that is paid very well, works directly with our clients and builds relationships that last many, many years.

That outsourcing isn’t going to lead to your company’s explosion in profits and to that faux-Delorean. Nope, you’ll still have to be involved and do a lot of work yourself.  Outsourcing is about sharing your vision, leading a team, getting them inspired to do work with you and building a relationship.  Having a team of drone workers is not the answer.  Building a relationship with someone who knows your business intimately is what will create success in your business.  Believe me – I’ve seen it happen time and time again with our very own clients.

To Finish Up and Dump Out the Glass of Kool-Aid…

I really wish Internet marketers would stop trying to creep into the space of outsourcing. Just because you outsource doesn’t mean you are an expert.  How do you  know that your team is not sitting back and wishing you would do things a different way?  I get my hair done by a stylist but it by no means makes me an expert on hair care.

The real experts on this subject are those that are outsourced to.  We understand the logistics, we understand the dynamics and we’ve already been telling people about your “money making machine” that is Basecamp.  It’s not new and it’s not worth the high price tag.

Imagine for a moment that someone started a movement or an idea that YOUR customers should shop overseas and at a fraction of the prices you were charging. What if someone thought it was a great idea to support another country’s economy over your own?  We need to work on keeping our business within the economies where those people are spending money.

I really hope that these videos don’t tip the scale in terms of what is expected, anticipated or desired in the world of outsourcing. Otherwise, a lot of North American freelancers and other outsourcers will be out of work and no longer spending their money in YOUR companies.