Nathan Hangen » Nathan

How to Use Recruiting to Build Your Business

Nathan — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:12:02 +0000

I’m extremely motivated and dedicated to success. I’ve spent a decade battling fear, lack of discipline, and indecision…and so far it’s worked.

On my own, I’ve accomplished quite a bit, but there’s a problem…

I can’t do it all, and furthermore…I don’t want to.

Learning how to get out of my own way

For years I was stubborn. I didn’t think that anyone could do things as good as I could.

I didn’t want to share profit because I thought I needed it all.

I thought I had to be a solopreneur.

At some point though, I realized that it wasn’t working, and I don’t know why, but this was the hardest lesson for me to learn.

I fought it tooth and nail for YEARS until finally one day last year I needed a sounding board for an idea and couldn’t find anyone to talk to about it.

My wife doesn’t really understand my business, and I’d been working in isolation for so long that I didn’t have any peers I could hollar at.

So on a whim, I found someone I’d been talking to in blog comments, and sent him an email.

Turns out that email resulted in almost $50,000 in profit in the past 6 months and has led to the development of a business that I believe will reach not just 6 figures, but 7, in the next 2 years.

If you haven’t figured it out, that partner’s name is Mike CJ and he’s my partner at Beyond Blogging.

Where I might be an idea guy, he’s an execution master and he’s got a keen business sense that I was lacking. His unique way of looking at things has done nothing but improve the performance of the Beyond Blogging Corporation.

When Opportunity Knocks

I was at Blogworld Expo in 2009 when David Risley introduced me to someone he knew from the Blog Masters Club.

The guy was smart, and had a lot of experience in the business world, and as I talked with him it was evident that we had a lot in common.

At the time, my partnership with Mike had yet to create anything of substance (we were still writing the book), but I was smart enough to know that Rich would be an asset to my business, which is why we continued to talk post-BWE and developed what would later become Roark Media, which is now a digital marketing agency that both works with clients and develops software and training programs.

Follow Your Heart

I’ve always been a musician at heart, but unfortunately I’m not talented enough to go pro. However, when I found Oleg Mokhov, who was cranking out electronic mixes with bits of his own original tunes blended in, I knew I had to approach him about something. I didn’t know what I had to offer…I just knew he was going to do great work.

Eventually the idea of Blogger Beats dawned on me, and I approached him that very same day. We had a bit of conversation about it, implemented his ideas with mine, and within a few months Blogger Beats was born.

But we’re not just Blogger Beats, we’re AudioBot, and we’re working on some ninja stuff that I can’t share with you, but is sure to be awesome.

Right now, Blogger Beats is gaining tons of traction with very little marketing, and best of all…I love doing it!

The Moral of the Story

I’m not telling you all of this because I want to brag, or because I’m trying to sell you something.

The point I’m trying to make is that you can’t do everything on your own, and as alluring as the idea of 100% profits sounds…the truth is that you aren’t talented at everything.

If you get in the habit of finding and recruiting talented people to your business, then you not only fill in education and experience gaps, but you also more than double your horsepower.

You have someone to bounce ideas off of.

You have someone to share the workload.

You have someone that can see hidden angles that you can’t.

You have a CEO or President.

You have a business.

Steve Jobs doesn’t run Apple on his own. He recruits talented developers and executives.

If you truly want success, then it’s time that you adopt a similar mindset.

Being a solopreneur is great, but it’s boring and leaves you prone to burnout. On the flipside…I like being a CEO and/or President.

I like being in the music, publishing, and software business. I like doing things I’ve always wanted to do instead of trying to settle for less.

What about you?

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How to Use Recruiting to Build Your Business is a post from: Nathan Hangen

The Secret to Great Marketing

Nathan — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:22:47 +0000

isn’t screaming louder

Marketing is a science. Some people are great at it…Tim Ferriss for example. He’s good.

Steve Jobs has a great team.
Seth Godin.
Hollywood Producers
Music Executives

They’re all good at it, but not for the reasons you think.

The current “flavor of the month” is the product launch formula.

Give them a PDF, a video, and do some viral marketing and bam! you’ve got a campaign.

It works, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

Furthermore, I don’t think it’s what you want to be doing.

Launches are exhausting

A full-scale launch using Frank Kern’s “Howitzer” approach is exhausting, expensive, and worst of all, burns out customer lists and affiliates.

They do what they are supposed to, which is create huge paydays, but long-term, it’s not how I would build a business.

I’d rather build something evergreen…something that sells 24/7.

I don’t like to close my products unless I have to. I like being able to build multiple income streams.

I don’t have the energy to launch every 3 months, and I don’t want to.

Right now, I have several products that sell 24/7:

Each of these sell on a weekly or monthly basis, whether I Tweet them or not.

I don’t have to create new videos or PDF’s to keep them going…they sell on their own.

To me, this is not only a much more relaxed way to do business, but a better long-term approach.

With one product, I can achieve an average of 20 bucks per day. With 5, I’m at 100. 10 = 200…etc.

This is the monopoly method, and it’s why I got in business in the first place.

I’m not a carnival…I’m an entrepreneur.

Referral Marketing FTW

Screaming louder doesn’t work for me anymore. It used to, but it stopped.

More Tweets might help, but not when they come from me.

Facebook links work great…when they come from other people.

Blog posts are amazingly effective…if someone else writes them.

Oddly enough, I’ve found that if I create something great, make my customers feel great, and stay true to my creative aspirations, then people not only feed off that vibe, but want to feed it to others.

I just wrote about Tony Hsieh’s book (Zappos guy), which talks about delivering amazing customer experiences.

I’ve made that my mantra…both personally and professionally.

I treat my customers like royalty. I don’t devalue their contribution. I know they work hard to earn money, and I try to reward them by providing great customer service and by going above and beyond what I’m supposed to be doing.

I send out free copies of stuff to people that need it.

I ask people what they think and try to improve where necessary.

I spend $10 bucks on a process that should cost $1 as long as it improves the customer experience.

And you know what? It works.

Do a search for Blogger Beats right now on Twitter. I don’t say much at all about it…but lots of other people do.

I don’t talk about Beyond Blogging (the book) very often, but many others do for me.

Why? I team up with bad-asses…create good shit…and deliver an exceptional customer experience.

Instead of spending my money on marketing, I spend it on experience. As a result, people start talking for me…and as momentum builds…my businesses do too.

Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work?

Building Referrals into Your Marketing Funnel

There are a million ways to do this.

My pal James Tayo is doing something incredible in this department.

You can use plugins to use “refer a friend” bonuses.

You can pay affiliates handsomely.

You can offer rewards for valued customers.

You can offer tiered discounts for those that support you most often.

You can provide “rewards” the same way that an airline does.

You can hook someone up when they least expect it.

Give your customers a way to share the great shit they just bought…whether via Twitter, a referral code, or an email. Make sure you tell them you appreciate them, and go out of your way to make them happy.

It’s not easy, but it’s simple.

Too many people avoid hard and go for complex.

Image Credit

The Secret to Great Marketing is a post from: Nathan Hangen

Do You Deliver Happiness?

Nathan — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:14:30 +0000

(Editor’s Note: I was offered a free copy of this book in order to provide the following review, which is impartial, I assure you)

What is Happiness?

When I think about what happiness means, not as a person but as a customer and a publisher, I envision an experience in which each side is enriched by the experience of doing business together.

And perhaps no one is better known for this than Tony Hsieh and the Zappos team, which sells shoes but is known for their customer service.

How many other shoe CEO’s do you know writing books? Maybe Phil Knight of Nike, but the list is short.

It’s short because most people tend to separate happiness from business…to many they aren’t compatible, and that’s a damn shame.

It’s Something Small that Makes a Big Difference

It doesn’t take much to make someone’s day.

It could be a smile, wink, or a nod.

It could be an email of praise or encouragement.

It could be free coupon code.

It could be a free copy of a book.

Those are the little things that Zappos does so well, such as free return shipping if the shoes don’t fit, that keep them ahead of the happiness curve.

Surely if a shoe company can become a billion dollar business because of their sheer will to create happiness, then there’s something to be learned for the rest of us.

Delivering Happiness

So it was with great excitement that I opened the package containing an advance copy of the book “Delivering Happiness” by Zappo’s CEO, Tony Hsieh.

The book claims to show us how to build “a path to profits, passion, and purpose,” but that’s not really why I wanted to read it. I wanted to read it because Tony Hsieh was a millionaire, and I wanted to get my head inside his to see how a millionaire thinks.

The opening chapters of the book read like a case study in Outliers, which was Malcolm Gladwell’s book about what it takes to be remarkable. It seemed that the odds were stacked in Tony’s favor for a variety of reasons, and even though he was a smart kid, he had a lot of advantages.

So it was with a bit of frustration that I read his account of building and selling a business, called Link Exchange, to Microsoft for $265 million dollars, 40 of which was his personal share. Great story of success, but there was very little how-to, which bothered me a bit.

Building a Real Business

But when I read the story of how he built a venture capital firm, which later become an incubator, suffered through the dot-com bubble, and nearly lost all of his money when trying to keep Zappos afloat, I learned not only what it takes to build a business to profitability, but also how important it is to be working on something that you love.

Tony risked his entire fortune keeping the Zappos dream alive. Would you do that for your current business? If not…what business would you do it for?

The Company Motto

As the book wore on and Zappos was profitable, the content moved into talk on workplace culture and personal happiness. Although this section motivated me to change some of the ways I do business, both internally and externally, I found it geared towards business leaders with a bigger staff or workforce than what I had.

Still, there were a lot of lessons to be learned in how Zappos create a company culture guide, handled transparency with employees and the media, and grew into the behemoth that they are today.

Should You Buy It?

It’s only 13 bucks, which is a small price to pay for a reframing of the way you think about business and company culture. I’ll admit, it lost me through portions of the beginning and end, but I don’t expect a book to be 100% useful to me. I’m happy if I can glean a game changing thought or two, and in this book, I found many.

You can click here to read more about the book on Zappos website, or click here to grab it from Amazon.

This one is an easy read, and a great pick-me-up. Go grab it.

Do You Deliver Happiness? is a post from: Nathan Hangen

Marketing is Overrated

Nathan — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:02:59 +0000

Had to make this one quick because the baby was tired, my son was ready to play XBOX, and my wife was on her way home from her first new big hairstyling in years.

Anyway, marketing is overrated.

Credit

Marketing is Overrated is a post from: Nathan Hangen

How to Build a War Chest

Nathan — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:41:28 +0000

Regardless what people might tell you, it takes money to make money.

This is true both for brick and mortar and for digital emipres.

However, just because you need money doesn’t mean you need to have it, and this is where a lot of people get hung up.

Blogging is great because you can get started for less than 20 bucks. But getting started isn’t enough. You want to actually make money, right?

The Digital Side

A digital empire is more than just a blog. Here are some example of tools you might need, and/or expenses you might incur:

Screenflow for Mac (recording screencasts) – $99
Skype Call Recorder (for interviews) – $99
Microsoft Office or iWork – $99+
Information products (how you learn the real stuff) – I’ve spent thousands
Shopping Cart – $5-$99
Putting a Product on Clickbank – $50 or so

This is just some of it. We haven’t included buying or hosting multiple domains, design, or merchant and licensing fees, all of which are nearly impossible to avoid.

Brick and Mortar

Brick and mortar is much more expensive because you have office space and physical conditions to deal with. Still, it’s not as bad as you think. You can actually avoid much of the startup costs by working from a home office and arranging methods of dropshipping or working virtually.

For example, a consultant is neither digital nor brick and mortar…a phone works just fine.

Zappos built the early phases of their business by creating dropshipping arrangements.

You can build a contracting business out of your garage.

All of this can be done relatively easily, but at some point, you will need some cash for:

Office space
Inventory
Tools/Software/Hardware
Licensing
Vehicles/Gas
Secretary/Assistant

Get Real

If you’re serious about getting out of debt, getting out of the cube, or just living a life that you design, then you’ll need earn some cash to invest in your business.

So how do you do it?

My Story

In the early days of my business, I set up a small desk under a bunk bed (don’t believe me, look at these videos) in a small house in Kabul, Afghanistan. I didn’t have a lot of cash to spend because I was sending it home to my family, so I started writing articles for $3. That’s 500 words, for just 3 bucks. I did that 15-20 times per day.

When that became overwhelming, I found someone who would pay me more and then found someone who would write in my place. I set up an article arbitrage business making around $2 per article.

Eventually, I got tired of articles, so I set up a few niche blogs with some AdSense. They each made me around $1/day early on, which wasn’t great money, but helped.

Finally, I got smart and found some high margin activities to invest my time in, such as affiliate marketing, creating ebooks (Twitter Rockstar being one of them), and even selling scarves from Afghanistan (was a great busines making decent money until the Army told me to stop).

Although these activities would work for you, the point isn’t that you should write articles in a sweat shop, but that each of you have a skill or trade that you can use to fund the early phases of your business.

Thanks to my early ventures, I built a nice warchest of several thousand dollars that I used to build my business into what it is today, which includes:

Digital Empire and it’s affiliates
Beyond Blogging Corp
AudioBot (Blogger Beats and upcoming new kick-ass royalty free music store)
Roark Media (Silo, Mobile frameworks, iPhone apps)

Funny how that works isn’t it? Playing Monopoly really works.

The Tips You Need to Find Success

Bootstrapping is my thing. It’s how I made my living, and oddly enough, I met a friend that does the same. Her name is Susan Baker, and she teaches people how to do this for a living. Between her and I, there’s an amazing amount of knowledge that we can’t wait to share with attendees of our upcoming Boostrap Sessions workshop.

Not only are we going to share stories like this, but we’re also going to answer your questions and help you formulate a winning plan of your own. It doesn’t matter if you have a business or not…what matters is this:

“Are you profitable?”

If you aren’t, come join us and learn how you can change that.

I managed to pull Susan’s arm and sneak a discount code in for readers of this blog. If you sign up by Friday, you can use the code “earlydiscount” to save 25% on the cost of the Bootstrap Sessions, which is already incredibly inexpensive.

I’ll see you there.

Photo Credit

How to Build a War Chest is a post from: Nathan Hangen

How to Build a Business on a Shoestring

Nathan — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:29:21 +0000

Building a business isn’t easy.

There’s the fear of getting started, as in:

What if I fail?
Can I really do this?
What if people laugh at me.
What if I can’t do it?
I’m not ready yet.

Then there’s the actual pain of trying to find the money and time to get started. No one wants to spend a few grand to build a business, and we hate giving up our TV and XBOX to spend time blogging or marketing.

But let’s cut the bullshit.

If you aren’t doing something you love, then you shouldn’t be doing it anyway.

You probably didn’t wake up this morning with a dying urge to blog. Maybe you like writing, but that’s different.

If you aren’t doing it in your spare time already, then you’re either not committed enough, or you don’t love it.

I’d like to help you figure that one out.

The Bootstrap Sessions

I’m not interested in trying to convince people that they need to start a business. You’re either a born entrepreneur or you aren’t.

But if you’re committed, and you just need a little help to get you on your way, then I want to share a few thoughts with you.

1. I built a business while I was deployed to Afghanistan, writing articles for clients at $3/pop until I had enough money to invest in the tools I needed to create something cool.

2. If I can do it (I’ve always been destined to find the hard way instead of the smart way), then anyone can. As long as they are passionate about what their future holds.

3. I’m tired of the same old shit being peddled to you online. I’m not trying to make a fortune selling this workshop. In fact, I’d probably offer it for free if it weren’t for the fact that I have a great partner involved (who’s hourly rate is way more than this thing costs) and that if I did, I’d be doing the real game changers an injustice. We’re doing Q/A, and providing real guidance…no need for non-entrepreneurs to show up.

So here’s the deal, I’m passionate about helping people build something real…something meaningful…and something life changing; not just for their customers, but for themselves.

If you’re doing what you love, and you’re creating something you are proud of, then it’s only natural that you’ll be creating something that improves the life of your customer. There’s no way around that.

I like watching people decide to be happy, and gain the courage to change their life for the better.

And most of all, if you and I can stand up and make something great, recruit a few more to do the same, then guess what we’ve got?

An empire baby.

Will You Join Me?

The Bootstrap Sessions is only 47 bucks, and if you bring a friend, you can save quite a bit of that ($75 for 2 tickets).

The event is 2 nights, and will span the course of 3-4 hours (including Q/A), and I promise…there’s no pitch. Just real information to teach you how to build a business on a dime.

If you want to learn the art of building a passion based business, as opposed to how to build a pump and dumb ebook pitching business, then you’ll love it.

If you just want to learn how to create more garbage and be miserable, then please, stay home, because you won’t like this.

Want to learn more? Great, here’s the link.

But Wait! There’s More!

God bless Billy Mays and his marketing lines. I’ll miss you man.

We’re also having a little fun on the Friday before the event. We call it virtual happy hour, and it’s a chance for you to mingle with us, our awesome host Erica Swanson, and the rest of the bootstrappers ready to build an empire of their own.

You can sign up for that here…don’t worry, it’s free.

Tony Hsieh’s (Zappos CEO) Book Giveaway

Want to win a pre-release copy of the new book Delivering Happiness? The cover even says “Advanced Reading Copy,” which is pretty cool.

We’re giving away a copy, and all you have to do is blog about the event. The details are here.

Thanks everyone. I’ll see you there.

How to Build a Business on a Shoestring is a post from: Nathan Hangen

Write Your Own Story

Nathan — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:55:51 +0000

You pour yourself into every blog post.

You give yourself away in every comment, RT, and generous email of praise and encouragement.

But people don’t seem to notice.

You give yourself away over months and months of free content. Your community builds and you think you’re on top of the world.

And then you ask them to buy something…whoosh! They’re gone to the next blog.

Why do lies taste so good?

Where others throw smoke, you bring the fire. There’s truth in what you offer, but for some reason it seems as if people prefer to eat the lies.

They say they don’t want to hear about money, but they worship it.

They say they’re there for you until you ask them for something.

They want you to succeed…as long as you don’t before they do.

This is the nature of the beast, and it’s the demon we all face.

Why?

I’m not sure I have an answer. Human nature perhaps?

The cynic in me says that people are selfish and free seeking.

The realist in me says yeah, that may be true, but how the hell does that help me? I can’t fix them. I can only fix me.

I think that’s close to the truth, at least the truth we need to hear.

There are two things I’d like to accomplish in this post.

1) Show you that you have something of worth to offer the world.

2) Show you why you’ll never be happy trying to please someone else.

I’ve been there

I tried to please people every hour of every day. In some ways, I’m still not comfortable doing anything but…yet I know it’s not healthy.

I’m a watcher, and there are a few people I’ve been watching as of late. One of them worked their ass off to build something that made people happy and gave people value.

There were cheerleaders and everyone was saying “rah, rah!”

But when it came time to raise the price of the tickets from free to a few nickels…the crowd disappeared.

The cheerleaders left. The fans left. The team was on the court wondering WTF happened.

I’ve been there, and it’s a dark place.

Two mouths

I’ve also watched people do the opposite of what they say.

They say they are turned off by money and marketing, but they fall for it every time.

You…the gal that tries to do things differently…well it doesn’t work out so well. You’re a friend, but not a lover.

The lovers always get the prize at the end. The drunk dude at the party always gets the chick. Not because he’s better, but because he’s worse.

It’s not you, it’s them

Screw them.

Seriously.

If selling something turns people away, then they weren’t true believers in the first place.

If trying to help only gets you a pat on the back, then you’re going to the wrong parties.

I know it’s tempting to sacrifice your values in order to change the state of now, but trust me, it’s not worth it.

Those people that you’re chasing…well…they aren’t your people, and as hard as it might be to bear, it’s good to find that out.

What you have to offer the world is more than just a cheap ass ebook and a nice sales letter.

It’s more than a circle of friends that seems impossible to break.

No, what you have to offer is an idea. Innovation. Idealism. Truth.

Do you know why there isn’t more of that in the world?

It’s because it takes guts to stick by your guns.

It takes confidence to be the only one with a vision…to refuse the coward’s way out.

Why You’re Failing

Do you know why you aren’t seeing the results you want?

It has nothing to do with what your doing, at least from the non-technical side.

It’s because you’re chasing people instead of making them chase you.

You’ll never be happy trying to please someone else because in doing so, you chase their dream and give up on yours.

It’s like spending 4 years in high school trying to get the prom queen, not realizing that the better looking, better loving, “girl of your dreams” is waiting just around the corner.

Looking at the closed door instead of the open door right down the way.

In the words of Fleetwood Mac: “You can go your own way.”

It might take longer to get there, hell…if you’re like Howard Roark it might take a lifetime, but at least, in the end, you’ll be a place that you recognize.

That dream that you see ever so clearly inside of your head.

Look at the empire beneath your feet. It’s something you’ll have built, not because you caved, but because you stayed true to your vision, and more importantly, to your integrity.

Take that with you every day, and when you’re feeling down, remember the story you’ll be able to tell.

It’s going to be an amazing one isn’t it?

I was listening to the album “Sometimes” by City and Colour when I wrote this.

Write Your Own Story is a post from: Nathan Hangen

Nathan Hangen » Nathan

How to Use Recruiting to Build Your Business

When Opportunity Knocks

Follow Your Heart

The Moral of the Story

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The Secret to Great Marketing

Launches are exhausting

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Do You Deliver Happiness?

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Marketing is Overrated

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How to Build a War Chest

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