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From the Blog
Depending on your perspective, the “Trouble Asset Relief Program” was a deep betrayal of our free market principles or the best and only option. This is a paper I prepared for “Law & Public Policy,” a class in my Professional MBA program.
Rants – Public Policy Paper – TARP
The benefits of increases in search engine rankings can’t be summarized by a simple linear relationship. In finance, if you go from $9m in revenues to $12m in revenues, you have a simple 33% increase in revenues. If you move from the #11 spot (first page) in Google to the #10 spot (first page) you can expect a 143% increase in traffic! If you move from the #2 spot to the #1 spot you can expect your traffic to double.
This great article by Todd Jensen explains how 2nd page is 1st loser.
The takeaway: investments in SEO that result in improved rankings will have an effect more akin to a power curve on traffic than a simple linear effect!
“Cash is King.”
For small businesses, the ability to exploit emerging opportunities, respond to market pressues, and make strategic investments in the future all depend on access to cash. As a healthy heart is the result of eating right and working out, possessing a healthy cash flow is the result of consistent, effective investments in marketing.
Though startups are especially prone to wave-like fluctuations in cash flow, it is an issue every business must address. When the iron is hot and production people are stretched to meet demand, it is natural to pull back on marketing and lead generation. However, your current workload is due to the proposals and invoices you sent out in a previous cycle, and you will be bored and broke in the next cycle if you let off.
So how can you combat this?
- Cycle Length: figure out how long your cycle is, from the moment a lead comes in until a project is completed and paid for (service company) or product is sold (product company).
- Lead Value: Look at the last 6 to 12 months and add up all the leads you received. Calculate the final sales value of those leads (minus abandoned projects, discounts, and so forth). Divide the number of leads by the final sales value and you have a rough value for each lead. If you need to make $50k a month to stay afloat, and each lead is worth $500, you need to generate 100 leads a month!
Profits are to business as breathing is to life. Breathing is essential to life, but is not the purpose for living. Similarly, profits are essential for the existence of the corporation, but they are not the reason for its existence.
Dennis Bakke, founder of AES
Profits are a byproduct, like happiness. Those who pursue happiness at their sole end find themselves lacking it. Those who have purpose, clarity, and discipline reap happiness in full measure. So it is with profits.