Samples of Readers’ Questions and Art’s Responses

Learn how to handle specific business problems

Art is frequently asked questions worth sharing with everyone who either owns his own business or is interested in owning one. Each issue of Art’s FREE newsletter shares his response to someone just like you.

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Examples from the Q and A newsletter.

From Jim, a Civil Engineer: "My brother’s area of work is the computer service industry. But he is unable to compete due to the vast sums required to advertise on TV and in most of the other media. What would you suggest?"

Art's advice: He needs to lay out a marketing budget he can afford and then identify the alternatives with their costs and see how he compares their relative values. I would suggest that he sign on with a non-profit to do their work for free labor in exchange for their mentioning his name in all their promotional material. This is also a great way to meet influential people who serve on their Board. He might also create a "service club." For a $50 initial fee he could provide his members with priority service-call scheduling and a discount.

From Mark, an attorney: "I hope your disdain for lawyers won't persuade someone to avoid legal help… I can't tell you how many times I've had people come to me with problems that could have been avoided on the front end and were difficult if not impossible to rectify because the deal had already been struck."

Art's response: I really didn't mean to attack lawyers - I just want the readers to approach their use of professionals with more thought. I wanted the readers to become more knowledgeable about the subjects rather than give up their decision making to someone just because they have a title.

From Darryl, the owner of a catering business: “How do I know how much revenue I should put down on my projections? Do I just start with how much I want and go from there?”

Art’s response: This is no pie-in-the-sky - I hope it happens thing. The projections reflect your analysis of your niche in the marketplace, and your analysis of your competitors. Think about where you will get pieces of revenue, from whom they will come and when they are likely to occur, to hit your income stream. Your projections are based on what you think you stand a good chance of making happen. If you can’t state in the assumptions where the revenue will come from, you stand no chance of going after the specific customers. And if you can’t target your customers, you won’t bring home the bacon or, in your business, sell ‘em the bacon.