The Winning AdVantage eZine

The Winning AdVantage is devoted to helping its subscribers develop their marketing skills and promote their Internet businesses and opportunities. This periodic publication features tips and how-to articles about such topics as ad copy writing, finding good free or inexpensive places to post ads, and other issues related to making money on the Internet.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

7 Lessons in Successful Self-Employment from "Weeds"

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THE WINNING ADVANTAGE eZINE
Thursday, August 3, 2006
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The Winning AdVantage eZine is dedicated to your Home-based Internet Marketing Business Success.
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Published by Earl Savage
ES World Marketing
http://www.esworldmarketing.com/blog/ezine/
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In This Issue:
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1. Message from the Editor

2. Free Resources

3. Feature Article - "7 Lessons in Successful Self-Employment from "Weeds"
by Donna Gunter


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Dear Reader,

WELCOME and Thanks!

As always, I hope you'll enjoy and profit from reading "The Winning AdVantage".
Please feel free to post your comments at the bottom of this blog post. I am here
to help and I welcome your feedback.

Wishing you success,
Earl Savage, Publisher
The Winning AdVantage eZine
winning@esworldmarketing.com

P.S. If you like this ezine, please forward it to your friends, downline, upline, etc.
If you have ideas for improving it, please let me know. I'd love to hear from you.


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=>> Free Resources
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Denise Hall is giving away 2 brand new reports called Golden List Secrets and The Missing Link. I just read them and they were absolutely awesome, so I wanted to share them with you! I was given the "thank you page" and told I could give it to anyone I'd like...

You don't have to buy a thing... just go to the members
area and grab your copy right now:

http://www.esworldmarketing.com/golden.html


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=>> Feature Article
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7 Lessons in Successful Self-Employment from "Weeds"
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

I have a new love -- and it's not a man or a house or a
car. It's an edgy Showtime television suburban satire,
"Weeds", in which Mary Louise Parker plays a widowed soccer
mom, Nancy Botwin, in a fictional subdivision of Los
Angeles called Agrestic. Nancy struggles with the sudden
death of her husband from a heart attack and agonizes how
she'll support her family in their upper-class lifestyle.
Not having any discernable job skills, Nancy discovers the
lucrative income in being the local neighbor pot dealer.

The show is quirky, irreverent, and raunchy. The
dysfunctional family dynamics are hysterical, especially
when her unemployed pot-head brother-in-law, Andy, arrives
on her doorstep. Her interactions and affection for her
supplier, a black ghetto family headed by matriarch Heylia
James, and Heylia's unwed pregnant daughter and
ne'er-do-well son, Conrad, are a stark contrast to her
daily life in Agrestic. And, the broad social and
political statements that are constant undercurrents in the
series are really just right on the money.

This show is a big shift for me -- I'm probably the only
person my age who's never done any type of drug -- so
admitting I love a show about a pot-dealing suburban mom is
strange, I admit. What's most fun for me to watch is
Nancy's development as a entrepreneurial businesswoman
who's going to do what it takes to be the most successful
weed dealer in Agrestic. There's not alot of difference
between Nancy and me in the quest to build successful
businesses, except that my business is legal, of course,
and I don't have to dodge bullets in drive-by shootings at
my supplier's house.

Here are some great lessons on building a business from
suburban pot mom Nancy Botwin:

1. Fish where the fish are. Due to her friendship with her
accountant, Doug Wilson (played by Kevin Nealon), and his
group of friends, Nancy quickly realizes that Agrestic is a
wonderful market for her product. She finds a great source
of pot and is easily able to sell it, as her upscale target
market is eager to buy and can easily afford her prices.

Lesson: Know your target market. Are they male or female?
What age group? What industry? What socio-economic
group? Where do they hang out on- and off-line? What do
they read? To what groups and associations (real and
virtual, personal and professional) do they belong? How
much money do they make? Can they easily afford your
product or service?

2. It's all about benefits, not features. Doug discovers
a cheap source of medical marijuana in a clinic in LA and
thinks he's discovered a gold mine. However, in order to
use the clinic, he has to get a prescription for medical
marijuana from a shady physician and then drive an hour
into the city every time he needs a refill. Nancy offers
him the opportunity to buy the same stuff locally, without
the drive, and no prescription needed.

Lesson: People do business with you because you can help
them solve a problem. They care little about how you solve
it (the features of the solution). They just want you to
make the problem go away so that they have one less thing
to worry about (the benefits of doing business with you).

3. Understand the needs of your target market. Nancy
takes a trip to LA to check out the medical marijuana
clinic, and discovers a sheer cornucopia of pot, available
in more varieties than she'd ever imagined. This visit
makes her realize that she's buying the
bottom-of-the-barrel weed and gives her supplier a list of
the "good stuff" that her clients really want. Then, to
give her clients a better high for their buck (and enable
her clients to hide their marijuana use), she begins to
package the pot in various baked goods that she makes in
her home kitchen. One client cleans her out of baked goods
in one visit.

Lesson: Give your clients what they want, not what you
think they need. Many service business owners head into
the marketplace and have no idea if they offer a product or
service that the public wants. Or, they offer what they
think is good for a client rather than what will solve a
client's pressing problem. Do your market research to
understand the needs and problems of your target market.

4. The failure of most businesses is due to
undercapitalization. Nancy's personal expenses are
exceeding her income, and she approaches her supplier,
Heylia, to give her inventory on credit. Heylia laughs in
her face, but after Nancy begs, she's permitted to hock her
leased Land Rover and multi-carat wedding ring with Heylia
to get the quantity of pot that she needs for the week.

Lesson: Being self-employed is a financial roller-coaster
ride. Have financial reserves in place before you start
your business so that you can pay your bills until you
begin making a profit. And, if you come up short of cash,
try negotiation with your suppliers or vendors for more
favorable payment terms.

5. Slow and steady wins the business growth race. Nancy
becomes heady with her sales success in her suburb and
begins to eye other markets so she can make even more
money. While on the local college campus seeking a tutor
for her son, she realizes the campus is a ready-made market
for pot and is initially very successful in capturing that
market. However, what she doesn't realize is that she is
treading on another dealer's territory (one of the campus
security officers), and in a mock arrest on campus by this
officer, she loses about $15,000 worth of inventory. When
she tells Heylia what happened, Heylia just laughs and
tells Nancy she's been "jacked" by another dealer, and
that's the price she pays for trying to grow too fast.

Lesson: Great success in your business will make you want
to conquer the world. However, quick expansion without
proper planning makes many a business owner go belly-up.
Plan for the growth of your business, and include that
growth in your business plans and vision statements so that
it's a natural evolution of your business.

6. To be successful, you need your family's support. Nancy
tries to be an "moral" pot dealer and refuses to sell to
children, or permit anyone working for her to sell to
children. In the same vein, she tries to shield her
children from the true nature of her business, not wanting
to set a bad example for them (see the irony in this
series?). However, secrets are hard to keep from
teenagers. In an act of rebellion, Silas, her 15 year-old
son, tells her he doesn't have to follow her rules any
longer, throwing in her face that she has no right to tell
him what do to since she's selling pot. When she tells
Andy, her brother-in-law, about the situation, Andy tells
her that Silas is just angry with her because she has lied
to him about how she's making money.

Lesson: Deciding to run your own business can be the
quickest road to divorce or family alienation. Keep your
family updated on what's happening in your business,
especially if you run a business that's going to keep you
away from them on an ongoing basis. Family rules,
structure, and expectations may need to shift for awhile,
and the more that you family can be a part of creating that
change, the healthier and happier you all will be.

7. The Lone Ranger didn't ride alone. As Nancy reviews
her life lessons in entrepreneurship during Season 1, she
realizes that it's hard work running a business by herself.
She invites her accountant and attorney (two of her best
clients), her brother-in-law, another dealer, and son of
her supplier to go into business with her and help her grow
her territory and make it all work.

Lesson: You're great at the core service you provide to
your clients, but you can't be good at everything, nor
should you try to be. Create two lists, one of what you
love to do, and the other of what you hate to do. Do what
you do best (and love to do) and delegate the rest to your
support team. Spend your time more profitably looking for
opportunities rather than wasting it on tasks that you can
hire out much more cheaply and efficiently than by trying
to do it all yourself.

Business lessons show up in many shapes, forms, and sizes.
Tune in to the next season of "Weeds" and see what's in
store for Nancy as she builds her suburban pot empire.


About the Author:

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Business Coach
Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals
learn how to get more clients online at
http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com . To sign up for
more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift,
TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site
at http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com . Read about running
an online biz at our blog,
http://www.getmoreclientsonlineblog.com


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That's all for this time - thanks for reading!

To contact us, go to: http://www.esworldmarketing.com/contactus.html

Your success is our success!
(c) 2001-2006 ES World Marketing

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The Winning AdVantage, we are devoted to helping our subscribers
develop their marketing skills and promote their home-based Internet
marketing businesses and affiliate opportunities. This publication
features tips, techniques and how-to articles on such topics as ad copy
writing, finding good FRËË or inexpensive places to post ads, finding the
best available resources, and other issues related to making money on
the Internet. The Winning AdVantage eZine is dedicated to the
enhancement of your home-based Internet marketing business success.

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Copyright 2001-2006 The Winning AdVantage. Ezine All rights reserved.
The Winning AdVantage is a publication of ES World Marketing.
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Decatur, GA 30036 USA
877-837-0195


posted by The Winning AdVantage eZine at 8/03/2006 04:04:00 PM

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