2009 Will Be All About Diversifying

Well, I've read and watched several reports this weekend about 2009. And uh, none are promising. I'm paraphrasing here but reading in the newspaper, online and watching CNN, MSNBC and Fox (I guess I am a news hound!) - it seems that we're all in for a very rough ride in 2009.

President Elect Obama said last week, "...it's going to get worse before it gets better..."

QSR magazine reports that "...most experts are saying it will be at least 2010 until the market for franchise sales and financing stabilizes itself."

"In its 2009 jobs market outlook report Monday Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. said that another million jobs would likely be lost in an economy that many say is the worst crisis America has seen since the Great Depression." as reported in AllHeadlineNews

So, besides cutting back on expenses, what's a small business to do? I Say Diversify!!!!

In other words think about what you do, what you sell and work on doing or selling those things differently. Now, if you've been reading my blog for awhile and/or you're a client of mine, well, you know I tend to think out of the box and hopefully you're a fan of "out of the box thinking". Mmy list below of ideas on how to diversify will not disappoint you!

1) YouTube is the 3rd most used search engine on the planet. How can you get on YouTube without a video? Get yourself an Animoto! Create your own slideshow commercial complete with photos and personalized text - choose your music and you've got yourself a beautiful commercial. Yet, it takes a bit of work, apparently the photos have to be a certain size in order to come in clearly but it's truly worth the effort. You'll get the idea by seeing below my very first attempt at a commercial for Name-Tags.net - I wanted to emphasize their name tags business but the photos aren't clear and there needs to be more text throughout the commercial - but the effects are amazing and the music is great (the effects and music are completely done by them!).

If you absolutely don't have time to do this work yourself, then contact your SEO firm, they can create commercials for you and post them on YouTube, Google Video and other sources. I placed this commercial above on YouTube just 12 hours ago and it's already on the first page of YouTube. Which tells me that I better get cracking on a better one - with better pictures and text!

2) Does your company sponser a local sports team or school group? I would imagine they probably wear t-shirts or something that you help to pay for. Well, why not create your own and get paid a portion of the sale? Zazzle.com is one way to make and sell products without any inventory or putting out any monies. I know, sounds crazy but here's how it works. It's really very cool.

You design your image, logo, whatever. You can have that placed on everything from t-shirts to skateboards. You can even create your own gallery of products that you sell, Zazzle manages the ordering process and the shipping. They handle all returns, exchanges and inquiries. And YOU get a percentage of the sale. I don't know the details of the percentage but remember, it's no cost to you to join. It's completely free!!

3) Get out of your location! Can you do what you do outside of your city, your state, your country? For example, if you're a divorce attorney, can't you provide consultation to clients out of state? Can you specialize in a specific niche like "men's rights" and provide consultation for other divorce attorneys in other states?

4) Go Mobile - if you haven't yet begun the process of getting your website ready for the mobile web (iphone, smart phones, etc) you've still got some time. 2009 may not be the year in the US that mobile will take off, but it's already taken off in Europe and Asia and predictions for 2009 for mobile in those areas are even higher. Personally, I believe near the end of 2010 will be the beginning of the US invasion for mobile usage. It seems like a long way away but it takes time to get websites indexed and marketed. It's fairly inexpensive and the exposure, especially if you sell overseas, is just tremendous.

Well, these 4 "out of the box" ideas should help you to start thinking of ways to diversify what you do. As everyone tightens down for 2009, we all have to think of what else can we do with what we know to make an income? I hope these help you!

And, if you don't already have an SEO firm or if you're looking for affordable seo services, contact me, Esther C Kane at Eckweb Designs, Inc. today. I'll be happy to help you with any of your "out of the box" ideas!