AQUALIbrium, a Ritch Ventures Company, has partnered with ALORA Pool Service. ALORA will subcontract with AQUALibirum to provide pool service in the Sarasota and Manatee, Florida, area. Robert Ritch, CEO of Ritch Ventures, stated he is proud to partner with a professional like Jesse Garcia, who owns ALORA Pool Service. Jesse has over ten years experience and is excited to start his own business.
Ritch Ventures purchases invests in, and grows businesses.
Duck Race Fundraiser for PACE Center for Girls
The Ritch Foundation proudly sponsors the Duck Race to benefit PACE School for Girls.
Pace’s counselors and educators provide free year-round middle and high school academic services, counseling, life-skills training, career preparation, and more, developing individualized approaches based on each girl’s unique strengths, life experiences, and needs.
Pace Center for Girls will be racing 30,000+ adorable rubber ducks down the Manatee River for prizes, including a 2-year lease on a Jeep sponsored by Firkins Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram (or $5,000 cash!), Weekly Dinner for TWO at Anna Maria Oyster Bar for a FULL YEAR (some restrictions apply), an Outfit a Month for an entire year from the Teal Turtle Boutique – and more! Over 20 prizes will be awarded!
Ritch Ventures Acquires AQUALIBRIUM
Robert Ritch, CEO of Ritch Ventures, announced the acquisition of AQUALIBRIUM, which provides pool service in Florida. Ritch Ventures will immediately enter into an expansion phase to establish a larger network of technicians and accounts.
Ritch Foundation Supporting FDNY Foundation
The Ritch Foundation provided a donation to support the Children’s Scholarship Fund. The funds go to cover the educational expenses of NYFD Fire Fighters who have passed away. This a great cause we are proud to support.
What is the function of a lobbyist?
First, let me say that I am a registered Lobbyist but that is not my full-time job. I take on select efforts that I feel are important; for example, I helped push the JOBS ACT.
Lobbyists are simply people or organizations that attempt to influence lawmakers. A Lobbyist is required to become registered when they donate more than $5,000 to a politician.
There are many types of Lobbyists.
Labour organizations, trade organizations, and Unions are the most common and lobby for laws that affect organizations.
There are professional Lobbyists that will lobby for a fee.
While lobbying gets a bad name and some groups deserve the bad press; it is a necessary part of our political system.
99 Questions to Jump-Start Your Email Writing
Here are 99 Questions to Jump Start Your Email Writing:
1. What keeps your readers up at night?
2. Can you describe your PERFECT customer?
3. Your WORST customer?
4. What questions do you get most often from customers?
5. What’s a dirty little secret in your industry?
6. What’s your favorite customer success story?
7. What’s the funniest/craziest thing that ever happened to you in your business?
8. What’s your personal business philosophy?
9. What’s the best reason for a customer to NOT do business with you?
10. What can you teach your readers to do (for free) that would help them solve a chronic problem? 11. Are there other services, providers, products that you can recommend to your readers?
12. Is there “conventional wisdom” in your industry that is just plain wrong?
13. What things is your company NOT good at?
14. How and why did you get into the business you’re in?
15. What’s your most embarrassing failure story?
16. What lies are told in your industry?
17. What do you find yourself complaining about most?
18. What’s your favorite part about coming to work everyday?
19. Look through customer emails for the last 6 months. Do you see any patterns? Any great stories? Any complaints you handled well?
20. Can you do a tele-seminar? Video? Mp3? CD?
21. Can you write a cheat sheet?
22. Can you email your list and ask them what they would like to read about?
23. If you have more than one list (more than one product/service) do have a message in each AR series that offers your other product/service?
24. What is the most common exaggeration in your industry? How can you use understatement?
25. Do you have a blog…if so, what’s your most popular blog post?
26. Have you been interviewed for a radio show? Newspaper article?
27. Has your company been mentioned on TV? Trade publication?
28. Have you written a white paper? Free report? Checklist? Guide? Instruction manual? Book?
29. If you were to survey your list, what would you ask them?
30. Who are/were your mentors?
31. What email subject line would ruin your business?
32. What is your greatest non-business success?
33. What was the last trip/vacation you took?
34. What is the next step you’d like the reader to take? How can you make it easier for him/her to take it?
35. If they’ve downloaded a free report, white paper, or ebook, have you spoon fed the most important principals back to them in email form?
36. Think of the most recent current event/pop culture reference that captured your attention. Can you relate it to your business? Can you make a contrast between the way “the world” thinks and the way your readers think?
37. What’s the most profound story from your personal life?
38. What is your most profound “Eureka!” moment when you finally “got it”?
39. What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business?
40. Have you ever “fired” a customer?
41. What is your business “motto”? Do you have a phrase or famous quote you find yourself saying to yourself, your co-workers, your family?
42. Can you interview (either in person, on the phone or thru email) an expert in your industry or a related field?
43. What’s the most earth-shattering claim you can make about your business?
44. What’s the saddest experience you’ve had that you learned the most from?
45. What’s the most common misconception your readers / customers have about what you do?
46. Have you ever walked away from short-term money because you knew it would cause long-term problems?
47. What’s the earliest/most favorite childhood memory you have of being interested in your business or in business in general?
48. What’s your favorite childhood memory…not business related?
49. What are three character traits that you have in common with most of your customers?
50. What problems do you face that your customers also face?
51. What’s your favorite “war story”?
52. Who has been your most hated “enemy”?
53. What’s your most gruesome war story?
54. What are your readers’ idiosyncrasies?
55. Who are your readers’ heroes?
56. Who are your heroes?
57. If you were to compare a customer’s (or your) success story to a fairy tale or famous movie…which one would it be?
58. What is the boldest challenge you could make to your readers?
59. What’s the sweetest deal you could make as a last ditch effort to get a reader to buy?
60. What was your last job before this one? What did you learn there?
61. What are the characteristics that separate the winners from the “wanna-bees” on your list?
62. What’s your favorite “paid your dues” story?
63. In what ways does the 80/20 rule apply to your business/industry/reader list?
64. What’s your favorite song? Novel? Movie? Painting? Poem? Sculpture? Play? Joke? TV Show? Why?
65. What businesses do you admire? Hate?
66. What advertisements do you admire? Hate?
67. What do you want your customers to say about you to their friends? Business associates?
68. What’s the geeky-est thing you’ve ever done? A time where you just got lost and obsessed?
69. What’s your take on the latest industry news?
70. What’s the FUNNEST thing about doing business with you?
71. What “negative” about you is actually a positive thing about you? Ex: “I’m boring, so that you don’t have exciting times with the IRS!”
72. What are the biggest costs your readers will incur if they don’t do business with you (put dollar figures to them)?
73. What analogies do you find yourself using the most when discussing your business?
74. Do you have special procedures, policies or people that make you unique?
75. What are your business goals for this year? Next year? Five years?
76. What’s the most outrageous guarantee you can make?
77. What’s the dumbest thing a customer ever did?
78. What is your favorite “downtime” activity?
79. What are the three main reasons your product is so expensive? So inexpensive?
80. Can you create a “gold level” membership for your customers?
81. What do your competitors say about your product/service?
82. What’s the best thing you can say about your toughest competitor?
83. How did you land your first customer?
84. What’s the most “imperfect” thing about your product/service?
85. If you had to make a list of 99 things, what topic would you choose?
86. What does your spouse know better about your business than you do?
87. Would you recommend your children pursue a job in your industry?
88. If you were king of the world, what 3 things would you change about the world (or your industry)?
89. What is/was your worst character flaw?
90. If you were to segment your customers into 3 or 4 “types” what would they be?
91. If you could slap your readers upside the head and get just ONE idea through their thick skulls, what would it be?
92. If you had to give a speech at your industry’s trade show, what topic would you choose?
93. What’s the most common reason that customers DELAY doing business with you? Do you have “I wish I had done this sooner” testimonials?
94. Can you promote a product as an affiliate?
95. Can you invite readers to your home? Office? Plant?
96. Can you run a contest?
97. Can you ask readers to beta test? Take a demo? or a test drive for a reduced rate?
98. If you had to send an email message every day for 30 days, what would you write about?
99. Why don’t you carry a notepad and pencil with you at all times?
12 Ways To Add Value for your customers
Below are ways to add value for your customers:
1. Gift vouchers – provide added value and convenience
• You can sell gift vouchers to people who can then give them away as gifts or prizes
• Great profit booster – you’re being paid upfront for products and services you are yet to provide and some people simply forget to redeem them
• You should always keep accurate records when you sell gift vouchers to make sure they get redeemed
Do everything you can to grow your database… and an unredeemed gift voucher is one less potential client
• Inform the person who gave the gift voucher that it has been redeemed so they can talk to the person who received it and possibly receive a second “thank you”
• Tell voucher purchaser that you will call the recipient two weeks before the voucher expires so they don’t miss out before the expiration date
2. Make an offer to “buy one, get half free“
For every $100 gift voucher purchased, offer the purchaser another bonus certificate at 50% of the value of the original gift certificate for themselves
• Assume client X purchases a $100 Gift Certificate for a friend and also purchases a $50 Gift Certificate for their self
• The friend spends their $100… your actual cost is $50 wholesale, so you just made a $50 profit
• Client X now has a $50 Gift Certificate to spend on something that costs you $25… so you end up making $25
• In this example, the money isn’t what’s important… the fact that you now have two very happy people is important
• Client X just got something for nothing, a rare occurrence these days… but you now have two very satisfied clients… and each of them have a mouth and ten friends
3. Trade-in offers is a great way to generate extra sales
Any business that offers anything new could start using trade-ins as a tool to growing their business
• You’re lowering your margin on the sale of the new item
• People like to trade in something old for new and it definitely makes their buying decision easier
Offer to donate all traded-in goods to a needy charity
• They’re paid a trade-in on the old product and helping out a charity as well; you also get a tax deduction
• Promote that “all traded-in items will be donated to charity” and get a write-up in the local paper
• Advertorials are better than paid advertising… you will reach more people and generate positive word-of-mouth
4. Product bundling – grouping together certain products to create ‘packages’ which you then sell to your clients
If you’re in a service-based industry then “discount books” do the exact same thing
• At the heart of all value-added propositions lies the need to help make your clients’ decision-making process easier
Examples
- A dentist could offer 30% off a teeth-whitening program after each visit by a patient
- A landscaper could offer a garden maintenance kit after each job… including gloves, a spade, a rake, a broom, clippers, a compost bin and so on
- A photographer could bundle enlargements, a photo album and a CD of all the photos taken
- A locksmith could provide an alarm system, roller shutters, a fire protection system, a car alarm, a personal attack alarm, exterior alarm warning signs and stickers and possibly an ozone detection system where appropriate
5. Financing If your products or services are considered on the expensive side, you should offer your clients some sort of finance option where they can pay their purchase off over 1, 2 or 3 years… but you still get paid upfront. You can charge your clients interest or… through a finance company… offer an interest-free option
There are also many companies that will offer to finance your clients or purchase the loans from you.
6. Buy one – get one free offer
only works if you can purchase a particular item at a low cost in bulk so you can make a significant profit • You own a clothing store and decide to offer a “buy one T-shirt and get a second one for free!“ • Each T-shirt costs $5 wholesale – you sell them for $15 • The customer receives two T-shirts then for $15, and your total cost is $10 • You end up with a profit of $5
ALWAYS have a strategy in place to up-sell and cross-sell each customer and you can easily increase double or triple your profit margins
• Perfect this strategy and confirm that 70% of customers are being up-sold to an additional product or service with a significantly higher profit margin… you can then offer the 2 T-shirts for $5 and use them as a ‘loss leader‘ • This is where you actually lose money on that particular sale but more than making up the difference through your up-selling strategy
7. Price matching when a business makes an offer like “find the same product at a cheaper price and we’ll match it”… or if you’re really aggressive, you can offer to give the customer 10% additional off the original price. Many businesses use this as a conditioning tool to create the impression that this business always has lower prices than everyone else when, in reality, a lot of what they offer is at the same or even at a higher price than their competition
8. Extended warranties and guarantees offer to clients to back up the stated manufacturer’s warranty or guarantee
• It shows that you’re more than willing to extend the life of the warranty or guarantee due to your belief in the product • However, some inherent risk is involved since you’re gambling on the product you sold actually lasting the distance • Contact the manufacturer about extending the warranty for your customers only
9. Free storagebusinesses that are able to provide free storage of the products or items that they sell can provide added convenience for their clients
Free, temporary or permanent storage could help a lot of people who want to buy your product today but, due to a number of reasons, can’t have it delivered at the present time and since you’re storing it for them, you can now offer multiple up-sell and cross-sell services to dramatically increase your revenue and profits
ExamplesBoats, caravans, trailers and horse floats; by offering to store their purchase, you’re seen as providing a safe, secure and easy to access storage option on their behalf. You can offer to provide additional services they require, make modifications, offer custom paint services and charge for routine and required maintenance
Wine – ideal for purchasers that don’t have a wine cellar, frequently move or may consume the wine if kept in home. This allows you to market actively to wine collectors to increase sales
Building materials – customers decide to renovate in 3 months but want to purchase materials and supplies now. Free temporary storage allows you to lock in the sale today and offers you additional up-sell and cross-sell opportunities
Furniture and antiques – free storage means they can go ahead and shop for specific styles, colors and price when sales come along
Gifts – no one wants to risk the chance that their “perfect” gift will be discovered prior to the special occasion
ALWAYS establish a maximum storage date, and if that date is exceeded, be sure you have the customer’s agreement that a fee will be paid to you when they do pick up the item… or that after 30 days past the expiration pick up date, all items in storage become your property
10. Prizes and competitions
If you offer prizes and competitions and your competitors don’t, more people will choose you because they stand to gain something for nothing
- Think strategically about the prizes you offer
- Consider using joint venture partners and offer their products or services as prizes in your competition
- Ask them to donate one of their best products or services
- Create a “basket” of prizes or gifts valued at $1000
- Run a group competition where each customer from every store goes into a drawing to “win a $1,000 gift basket”
- All of the stores can promote this drawing and use it to compel additional sales
Attorney could offer to update the customer’s will.The local butcher could offer a free meat platterThe hairdresser could provide a free shampoo and blow-dryThe health club could kick in an hour with a personal trainerGardener – free lawn mowing with trimming and edgingPhoto shop – a series of free picture frames Local tire store – free alignment or oil changeLadies clothing shop – free scarf or winter glovesDry cleaner – free dry cleaningLocal restaurant – free dinner for two
11. Discount cardsa simple way to reward your loyal clients… ensure repeat business… and generate great word of mouth
By offering a ‘10% off’ Discount Card to your loyal clients, you’re taking a 10% hit on margin but you’re generating reciprocity and ‘good will’ in your business. Can you offer your services to your customers in the form of a booklet where they can buy ten and then get one free? A lot of people will use you if you reward loyalty when others don’t
Two additional considerations – first, if you offer a buy ten – get one free discount card, consider giving each new customer credit for the first one or two purchases on the card. Second, if you have a product or service that appeals to kids and you have a way to capture the date they were born, send them a discount card good for a free whatever as a special birthday present. This works especially well for restaurants, yogurt and ice cream shops, retailers offering clothing and low end jewelry, video games and entertainment establishments like movie theaters, bowling centers, ice skating rinks
Examples
- Hairdresser – buy five, get one free ($30 product voucher)
- Chiropractor – buy one get one free treatment
- Dentist – bring the whole family twice a year and receive free mouth guards for the kids
- Stock broker – for every ten trades executed in one month the client receives their first trade free next month
- Cafe – every tenth coffee for free
12. V.I.P. customer programs Recognize and reward your best clients
As simple as providing a discount card or, depending on your level of creativity, you could combine several strategies mentioned in this presentation. Consider a V.I.P. Customer Program that… – combines a discount of 10-15% off all non-sale items – comes with extended warrantees and guarantees – free home delivery – various prizes – interest-free financing
3 steps to review your pricing model
Below are three steps to ensure your pricing model is correct:
First, single or fixed pricing
• Businesses that can differentiate themselves by offering a set price are those that charge by the hour, the unit, the number of services they provide, the amount of food eaten, or the number of products used
• Fixed pricing can be used for most businesses to establish a market dominating position
• You can also used fixed pricing on a per visit or per season basis
Second, increase or decrease the price you charge
• Prospects often judge quality by the price you charge
• A price that they perceive to be extremely low instantly sends off warning bells in their decision making process
• Businesses can actually raise their pricing and instantly reposition their product or service to give it the perception of being the superior choice without changing anything else
Third, offer small value added services
• There are always customers that will gladly pay you a little extra to receive a higher level of service
• If you believe this applies to your business, think about raising your service level along with your pricing
• Value added services don’t require huge investments • Service, selection and price make up the 3 categories that will enable you to separate your business from your competition