Self-Marketing Part 5 - Price

This is going to be the last post for this series on Self-Marketing. And we will talk about the last P.

Price.

Price is an important factor in Marketing. Price of products will determines the amount of money that returns on your investment. If you have spent $50 to develop a product, you will want to mark-up the price to, let say $100. You will earn a profit of $50. You will hardly want to put the price below $50.

Price is the only P that money comes to you. Product, Place, Promotion require you to invest money into them to get them done. Hence, if Price is not correctly, amount of profits you receive on your investment will be affected too.

One reason why companies are not able to get their products sold and increase profits, is because is due to PRICE. Why Price?

If the Price of the product is too high, there are only people who are able to afford. And if your price is high, the quality of the product must match its price too! If customers feels that the money they pay for your product is much higher that what they receive from it, then your company will risk losing this customer. And unhappy comments spread too!

However, if Price is too low, it's a problem too! So, don't think that low prices will attract more buyers! Imagine going into a shopping mall, and you saw a LV bag on the shelf. You love it, and you are going to buy it. You opened the bag, check its quality, and you saw the price tag too. $50!! $50 for a Louis Vuitton Bag. What comes to your mind now?

Fake LV.

You may say that there are a lot of people carry fake LVs on streets too. But there are also a lot of people who don't want to associate themselves with fakes.

Wait! The LV bag can be a genuine one. But to a customer, a $50 LV bag, even though it's made of genuine material, it's fake!

You can't do it the other way round, selling a fake LV at $1000 to let people think that it is a genuine one. You may get to sell a few fake LVs at real price, but that's cheating. Not business. And buyers, especially LV bag lovers, they will know how to identify geniune bags. So, you may get exposed even before 1 bag is sold.

In this last P-Price, we see that it plays a very important role in your business. Your business can go bust, or bloom with price of your product. Set the right price!


Let's go into Self-Marketing. Price.

Since we are the product, we must set a price for the product(we) too.

How much do you want to be?

A $10,000(ten thousand)/year person, or $10,000,000(ten million)/ year person?

There are many people with many outstanding personal traits, but they are not fully utilizing them. They may worth $10 million/year, but they are doing work that are just worth $10,000/year.

They have very good personal traits. They are leaders in the society, they are winners in sport games, they can learn fast and adapt fast to any environment. They did all these during their school years. But when they graduate, they get behind-the-scene jobs. They are trapped in low-positions for years.

Sometimes, it is not their choice to be given these kind of jobs. They may be in a position they liked so much, meeting clients, travelling around..etc But there are unforseen circumstances such as Company Layoff, Retrenchment, Closing down of departments. Or worse, Merger and Acquisition.

When your company is 'eaten up' by the other one, there are way to many people competiting for positions in the company. So you're either kicked out of company, or kicked to other departments you don't like.

However, there are clever ones who will want to make good use of their talents, to do work that greatly benefits them and others too.

The 'not-so-clever' ones will persuade themselves that 'it's okay. Maybe I don't have the talent for it. It's right for company to put me in that position". Companies just like this people. Because they don't have to spend time persuading these people, as these people will persuade themselves. These 'not-so-clever' people, just lacked Self-Belief. They never belief they can do it.
When they wanted to do something, and one person tells them, "its impossible for you". And sure enough, they gave up. They talk themselves to it, "He's correct. It's impossible for me"

People with Self-Belief, and high Self-Esteem, will do the Impossible. Invent a Plane, Invent the Light Bulb, Invent the Telephone...etc

So, the Price-tag you want to carry. Is it determined by your boss? or by your friends? or by Yourself??

Set a price for youself, for your work, for your services. And it should not be determined by others. Not by your boss, not by your teachers, not by your friends, and not by me also!

I said you are worth $10 million/year, but why take the price i set? You can set it higher at 100 million/year!

Set your price, and take actions to prove that you're worth that price. Go and learn skills and input knowledge that will increase your Self-Worth.


Guys, we have come to the end of the Self-Marketing Series. We talked about the 4Ps of businesses, and our businesses (our lives!) too. Think about them, and put them to good use.
Hope you benefit from it, and leave your comments on Twitter/Chatbox/Comments...etc.

See you soon!

Self-Marketing Part 4 - Promotion

I will talk about the Promotion Part on Marketing. If you missed out on Self-Marketing - Product and Self-Marketing - Place, read them first! It will help you a lot :D

Promotion in marketing, we usually mention about the ways to bring the product to the market. It can be done in many ways.

We can do it through advertising through the mass media, the radio, the TVs, newspaper ads.
Or it can be done through online advertisement, which we can see on Yahoo's Frontpage everyday.
Companies buy the online space of Yahoo.com, and ads will show up when people visit the site.

There are other methods like public relations, and direct marketing, which Dell and other companies have made good use of it to market their products. There is also IMC, Integrated Marketing Communication, a holistic approach to marketing communications. A combination of all or some marketing methods that company can use.

No matter what, companies are always looking for the best IMC, the best way of promotion mix to bring their products into the market.

When promotion is discussed, the amount of money required to promote the products is an issue to. Companies would like to have the highest Return On Investment on the money spent on promotion.

If a company spend $100,000 on marketing, they would like to have at least a sales volume of $100,000 , which means to cover the cost. But of course, companies would like to see higher returns! For example, $300,000, or $500,000. If not company will not be earning any money.

If ROI is lower than expectations, companies will review their IMC, and design another one, which may probably include one or more additional marketing methods. One example is Social Media.

Social Media wave is sweeping by, and many companies see the strength brought about by this wave. Many companies have used Social Media Platforms like Facebook and Twitter to reach out to their customers, to keep them with updates of their latest promotion and updates. This platform has proven its effectiveness, and does not cost much as compared to traditional advertising.

Overall, a company will implement IMC, and review its promotion mix to improve it further so that they reach their customers better, and in other words, increase the sales of the company.

So on to Self-Marketing part on Promotion.

We mention the product- We, Ourselves. Products need to be promoted, to make it known to others. For us, We must also promote ourselves, to make us known to others!

Coming to promoting ourselves, what should we promote? Of course, we will want to promote our Strengths, and hide our weaknesses from others. In your Resume, we will write our Best Achievements, our Best Records in schools, Best results, Best Experience...etc

When we are meeting new people, we are promoting ourselves. When we met up with old friends, we are promoting ourselves too. Our friends want to see how different are we, how much we have changed, are we becoming better persons after so many years?

When we have friends around us, do we help our friends by bringing out their strengths, and inform them about their weaknesses, so they can minimize them?

When we have a friend who get frustrated easily over little things, do we help them to think of bigger things, and ask them not to take it personally? or harm them by calling them 'petty' ?

When our friends met with difficulties, do we encourage them by giving our hands, or we just simply let them struggle themselves?

There are many more instances where we can always lend a hand and help our friends.

Helps others so people will help you.

See that again.

"Help others" comes first. "People will help you" comes second. Not vice-versa.

That's about the Promotion part of Self-Marketing!

Next up, the last P...

Self-Marketing Part 3 - Place

Coming to the 2nd P. Place.

In business, when we mention place, we mean location, location, location.

In brick and mortar businesses, companies want their shops to be placed in front of huge crowds, the place where there is endless crowds of people.

In Singapore, we have Orchard Road.

In Taiwan, we have Xi Men Ting, 西门丁。

In Hong Kong, we have Causeway Bay, 铜锣湾。

Of course, the rental rates at these places are very expensive, since these are the popular places that draw huge number of crowds.

However, even though rental prices may be high, there are companies who are willing to pay them as it is part of their marketing plan.

You can hardly find a Louis Vuitton shop at a neighborhood market. You only find them in Big shopping plazas. Same goes with famous hotels, famous restaurants, famous hair saloons...etc


Self-marketing...

Place.

I will say, where do we find ourselves most of the time?

At home?

At shopping centers?

At clubs/bars?

At libraries?

At golf clubs?

Where we find ourselves, determine the people we will meet. It may sometimes determine our Price.

The famous saying goes, "Our Network, is our NetWorth".

What kind of person you wanna be, greatly depends on the people you spend time with :D

And that also means the places you go to, to find these people!

Next P=>Price!

Merry Christmas to all my friends, and all readers of my blog! Have a wonderful and enjoyable holiday season, and may all your Christmas wishes come true!!

Self-Marketing Part 2 - Product

Let's go to the 4Ps, and let PRODUCT be the first P.

We all know that for any business to be in place, there must be a product or service. Bank sell their saving plans to you, MacDonald sell fast-food, Hair Saloon sell their hairstyling services, and maybe shampoos too. Universities sell their expertise to students.

All business have products or services.

For business to thrive, their products have to be unique, and is not easy to duplicate. This is very important. If your product is very easy to duplicate, easy to be copied, people can do the same, or even better than your product!

China is an expert in this field, and they can clone many things that seem so Complicated to us. iPhone & iClone. YouTube & YouKou. Paypal & AliPay...etc. and some of these clones are much better than the ones they copied from.

Hence, to allow ur business to survive in this competitve world, it has to be unique, or ur product have to compete on price and convenience, and will eventually went out of business.


Now, we look at the part on Self-Marketing .

The Product is Me=You=Ourselves!

We are the product.

This is about how we sell ourselves.

What is unique about us?

Everybody is created special & unique from others. However, time to time, we will slowly mould ourselves to look more like others.

This can be dangerous, but on the other hand, can be a good sign too, but that depends what kind of person we hang out with.

If we hang out with night clubbers who drink all night long, we will then follow, club and drink all night long.

If we hang out with scholars who study 24/7, we will become scholars sooner or later, studying 24/7.

If we hang out with sports person, we will become sporty, heathier, more active as time goes by.

If we hang out with goals achievers, positive and encouraging people, we will reach and achieve more of our goals.

So that's what I mean.

When you go for an interview, you(the product) are selling what you can provide for the company, and why the company will need your skills/expertise. If you are not unique, not valuable, the company will not see why you are urgently required by them, and they may 'keep looking' for other candidates first.

Hence, it's important to know our selling points!

Are you a good leader, are you a good influence around your friends, are you a good speaker, are you a really motivated person, are you an achiever, are you someone who talk the talk, walk the walk? ... etc

For Interviews, we are not only selling our certifications, our qualifications. Company may buy our high qualifications. First class honours. But what if there are 100 other first class honours? That's when the unique one will stand out!!

Talking to people, is part of selling ourselves too. Our GRC leaders, MPs, government officials are best at doing these. They are able to relate to people from all walks of life. They can communicate with little kids, students, working adults, professionals, CEOs, to retirees, aunties, grandmas...

What kind of person we want to be in front of others? Are we caring, helpful, responsible, trustworthy, or demanding, arragont, irritating to others?

Everybody have these positive and negative characteristics. But those who are able sell themselves well, are able to Present all the Positive ones to others, and at the same time, minimize all those negative characteristics.

Define our 'OWN' unique selling preposition today. Sell yourself well, and you can get whatever you want in life :D

Next up! The 2nd P = Place.

Self-Marketing Part 1

Hi Guys,

How do you find the previous 2 posts on managing your money well, and the way to do it right?

I hope it has somehow given you an idea that people who managed their money well are always richer than those who doesn't know how to manage them. Of cos, this are not all that I have learned!

If you would like to know more, you can ask me, talk to me, or simply wait for me to post up another article next time (when the time is right!).

Today, I'm going on to my next topic which is very very very interesting, useful, valuable. Something which YOU have to know in order to be successful in anything you do.

I'm referring to Self-Marketing, ie, How to Market Yourself.

In this world, no matter what your previous thoughts are, what you have learned, the truth is,
People Buy People First. In other words, first impression counts!

I know we have learned Marketing modules in school, learning the 4Ps, learning how to target market, segmentation, strategic recommendations...etc.

We are learning this to know how companies are using marketing strategies to bring their products out to the customers. Increase sales, branding, positioning... etc

I do not know about you, you may be a future marketing director, or a manager in the marketing
department, or a boss of a company. No matter what, you can see that marketing is important.

But today, instead of learning how to do marketing for products, services, the brand of the company, why not learn to market Yourself?

Learn How to Create your own Personal Brand, Put a Personal Price, Position yourself well in the minds of other people...etc.

That's what I mean- Self-Marketing.

The number of friends we have today, is the result of how we market ourselves. If we have many good friends, it is because we have been trustworthy, reliable, caring, helpful to our friends. We market ourselves and people buy us because of our good qualities.

What if it's the other way round? You may find that you only have a few friends, is because you are selling your bad habits/bad character to others, and unless they like your bad character (which is highly unlikely), they may not find you again, and look for you again...

Hence, every company, every body, will like to hide and diminish their bad points, and sell their good points to others!

Since I have learned the principles of marketing, and some of you have studied it too, I guess you should know the 4Ps and STP of Marketing. Yes.

I will start writing the first P - Product.

So stay tuned!

Money Management Habits 2

So now you know how to put your money in 6 different jars. You can recap the 6 Jars System here again. :D

Next up! How should you do it? When should you start putting in your money into these 6 jars?

The answer is...

Divide all your money up into these jars once you get them!

In other words...

PAY YOURSELF FIRST!

Once you get your pay/allowance, divide them into the 6 jars accordingly. 6 jars, and just divide them up.

Nothing is more important than yourself. Not your phone bills, not your latest gadget, not your monthly car loans/rentals... You are most Important!!

Why I say this.

I had a friend while I'm still serving national service in APD. He's a regular. And his monthly salary is about 2000+. He has to minus CPF contributions, so that left with around 1700+.

Whenever he got his money, he use it to pay his monthly bike installments, his bills, then upgrade his bike also. In the end, he is just left with around $500 for the entire month. He have not add in his daily expenses, petrol for his bike, his indulgences.

And so, he always complained that he has no money. Not enough money to use, no money to buy his stuffs, no money to save.

When I pop him this statement, "Pay Yourself First". He said he can't, 'cause he has too much loans/bills to clear, and he always left with $500 plus after the 2nd day, to spend for rest of the month.

And I told him what he can do. Set aside a sum of money for himself first when he get the money. And use the remainder to pay for his bills. However, he told me he don't have enough money in the end to pay his loans/installments.

Then, I told him, this is the time to force you to look into opportunities outside the world, to improve your income. If this income stream is not enough to supply water for your BIG POOL, you should create another stream so that more water can flow into your BIG POOL yea?

And it should not be the case where you lower down your means of living to pay off your bills/installments. Instead, look to increase your income bracket!! And that is the way to get more money, become Richer!!

So guys, Pay Yourself First. If your planned expenses is not enough to cover for your desired/actual expenses, Look to create another income stream, increase your income bracket, get more money IN!

And not lower down your living standards to pay for installments/loans/bills. You are more important than these banks/companies who are after your money.

:D

What do you think? Feel free to share with me!

Millionaire Money Management Tip 1

OK!. Let's start with tip 1 on how you can become a millionaire by managing your money well.

Eh? You may ask, why this tip is not really about making more money, or methods on multiplying your money fast?

Alright, maybe this can come at later blogposts. But why most people are richer than the others, is not that they know how to make a lot more money, but they know HOW to manage their money better than others!

You can have a lot of money flowing in, from your job, from your business, from investments, from lucky draw, or whatever. But if it is not managed well, it will still flow out of your hands in no time :D.

First things First, let me tell you the 6 places you should place your money in. We call them your Money Jars. And how much money you should put inside these jars.


1. "Financial Freedom Account" Jar. (FFA) - 10%

Place 10% of your income, monthly salary, profits into this Jar. And money in this Jar must not be spent. It should be used for you to acquire passive income streams. Think of these as the golden goose that keep laying golden eggs. If you spend the money inside, it is like killing the mother goose that gives you golden eggs (your wealth). Start putting it, month by month, and you will see your goose become fatter (more money), and you can acquire more passive income streams to lay more eggs for you (money!).

Strictly speaking, the money in this jar MUST not be spent! In the future when you stop working, you can spend the eggs, but not the goose!

2. Long Term Saving/Spending Jar. (LTSS) - 10%

This jar is used for your long term expenditure, such as your end of year holiday, wedding dinner, house mortgages... etc. As it is 10%, you can also divide this 10% into small percentages, like 5% for holidays, 5% for my car... etc, if you have more expenditures.

3. Education. (EDU) - 10%

Save 10% of your money to learn. Equip yourself with latest knowledge, latest skills. Everybody needs to learn, and the world is changing really too fast. If we aren't learning new things, we are already behind others. And I mean NEW.

Take this money to buy books, audios/videos, attend courses, seminars, go for big events etc. Real education begins after academic education ends.
"Poor people stop learning once they graduate from school. Rich people start learning after they graduate."

4. Necessities (NEC) Jar - 55%

Let 55% of the money cover your necessary daily expenses. Food, transport, phone bills, house rents (if you have any). Many people tend to spend too much on this section, hence, they usually don't have any savings in the end. It's 55%. It may be lower than what you are currently spending.

If it's difficult to maintain at 55%, simplify your life. You don't have to eat at restaurants everyday yea? you don't have to spend so much on branded, or new stuffs so often too yea?

5. Play Jar - 10%

OK!! This is the Jar everybody is happy about. Erm, but it's not everybody also. Why you need the play jar?

There are people who spend too much time at their jobs, that they hardly have the time to play. They save up a lot , a lot, a lot of money, but they never get the chance to use it. Workaholics. This make their life severely unbalanced. This is not life!

On the other hand, this is the Jar that many people broke it on their first day they get their pay. They get their pay, and just spend it! but they still have another 30 days to go before their money come in again. Often or not, they spend more than their income.

So to keep everything in balance, keep 10% of ur income for play, and BLOW (spend) it every month. Spend it at a good restaurant, a short trip, have fun with it, to keep your life in balance. And only use the money in this Jar for your fun. Don't tap into other Jars for money .

6. Giving - 5%

Giving is you have to do, everybody have to do. Giving is a spiritual need for someone to grow.
Save at least 5% to give, give it to charities, give it to help others who are in need. If 5% is not enough, you can tap into your Necessity account for another 5%. So giving account-10%, Nec account- 50%. This is alright.

So this are the 6 Jars.

I've started putting the money I got in Nov into these 6 jars. Yup. So let's start doing it together yea! It's the simplest system to manage your money. Any queries, call me up, leave a message here, or email me.

Next! - The Secret Habits of Millionaire :D

Now is the time! It's Now!

Now is the time! Why?

My Exams are over! And yes! It's time to do everything I want this season!!

Next up, I'm gonna to write posts on...

1) The Money Management lessons I learned from T.Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar.


2) Marketing Tips on Life - Based on Marketing Modules Learned School.

Then, I'm gonna write books too! I have written one on violin playing. Completed!
I'm gonna write 1 more! That's 2 books!

I'm gonna grow, and contribute more!

This is going to be the most productive time for me!!

End 2009 with a BANG!!

Next post, Millionaire Money Management Tip No. 1.