Lazy Man and Money

A Salad of Business Thinking (Part 1)

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I have a bunch of ideas to share today. There’s thread tying them together, other than them being about business, so I’m just referring to it as a “business thinking salad.” Hopefully, it’s good and you don’t spend your time picking out the metaphorical red onions.

The first two headings are about personal/family stuff… along with some blog direction. Feel to skip them if they are not your thing. I, personally, love to learn more about the people behind the blogs I follow.

Freedom?

My 3 year old has his first day of camp today. This ends a 10-week string where I was a stay-at-home dad. As Retire By 40 put it, “Any stay at home parent wants a little more time to do what they want. RB40Jr was out of school for two weeks and it was rough… By the end of the two week break, I was getting easily irritable and I didn’t like that.”

I don’t know how other stay at home parents do it, but I’m guessing they aren’t trying to balance 3 other businesses and most of the household chores as well.

The grandparents chipped in with a several days of help, but it was often 2-3 days of overnights. The needle moved sharply in the other direction and I missed him. It’s almost like starving a person for weeks and then giving them all-you-can-eat lard. There’s no balance… it is simply not healthy.

All the time, there was a looming feeling of Cat’s Cradle (Chapin, not Vonnegut)… I’m sure I’ll want to have all this time back with him in a few years.

Expect action on this blog to pick up. I’m going to start by looking for a new writer (my old one got a new job). If you think you’re a good fit reach out to me here.

Father’s Day and the 2-year old Competitive Eating Champion

I had a great Father’s Day… two of them actually. My wife took me and the kids out for lunch… the best BBQ in town (there’s not much competition). The 2-year old slept through it, so he had lunch when we got home. Three hours later, we all went out again for my father-in-law’s celebration. Because I had just eaten, I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, a half-pound burger, to split with the 2-year old. (The 3-year old had fallen asleep this time.)

When the burger arrived, I almost got sick as it was so big and I was still so full. Fortunately, my 2-year old is the next Joey Chestnut as he ate 90% of the burger, not to mention quite a few chips and fries. The running joke for the next couple of hours was, “So how was your burger?”

Enough family stuff… let’s move on to the business ideas.

Ever Wonder? Is This Business Idea Any Good?

I wonder that all the time. In fact, I’m often so paralized by the question that I can’t move forward. Well, I may have found the answer.

Pat Flynn had his Will it Fly book on Kindle available for 99 cents this weekend. That price is no longer available as I write this, but there’s arguably a better deal.

The Audible book is still $1.99. (I hope that’s still the case as you read this as it seems an oversight.)

You could can pay around $15 to read a paperback or have your Amazon Echo read it to you for $2.

Good Marketing, Bad Marketing, and False Marketing

I’m often annoyed by marketing. I can understand a company explaining why people should their products. That’s good marketing. Sometimes the companies use misleading information and a bunch of psychological tricks. This morning I was reading Root of Good’s article on focus groups and some examples of these were brought up. I considering this bad marketing.

There’s sometimes a very thin line between the two.

Then there’s simply false marketing. There are probably at least 20 marketing statements I hear a day where I think, “That can’t be right.” When I have the time to look into them, I find that 90% they simply aren’t right.

To give you an example of what I mean, I watched John Oliver on Brexit (warning: very adult language) this morning. He pointed out a commercial that appears to have blatantly lied, stating that there are 109 European Union regulations to making a pillow. He shows that’s simply not true.

This stuff probably seems like common sense, but it’s odd that the first two articles I read today had significant mentions of bad and false marketing.

Should You Get an MBA?

I looked into this question over a decade ago. The more I looked into it, the more it seemed that the value was mostly in networking with others, not the education itself. I feel like you can get much of the education through books like The Personal MBA.

It was kind of gut feel from all my reading, but there was never one specific thing that I felt I could point to. This weekend I found an article on The Atlantic that is the closest thing to it: The Management Myth. The article should open your eyes about how weird “management” is.

Sometimes my wife brings up the idea of getting an MBA to pair with her pharmacy degree. I cringe a little bit, because it doesn’t feel like the time/money investment is worth it.

Murphy-Goode’s Smart Marketing with New Media

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Murphy-Goode Winery has an interesting job opportunity that you may or may not have heard of… a 6-month contract to be a “Lifestyle Correspondent” for Murphy-Goode Wine. It pays $10,000 a month – a fairly impressive salary considering that you get free rent on top of it. Oh you also get to learn how make wine.

What does the job entail? It’s simply marketing the lifestyle of wine country via the Internet. You’d be expected to connect with Facebook and Twitter users, create videos of your experience on YouTube.

What makes this such a fabulous idea? A couple of things:

  • The Publicity of the Job Itself – What’s it worth getting news coverage for this job? Hell, in a tiny, tiny way I’m contributing to the value that Murphy-Goode is getting by writing this post. I’d bet they received more than $60,000 worth of free advertising before they even choose the Lifestyle Correspondent.
  • Getting the Brand Spread Consistently – Part of me can’t imagine people will follow the correspondent. However, I can imagine the correspondent will have a lot of Twitter followers and a lot of Facebook friends. This is surely a quality asset for Murphy. They’ll increase their mind share, especially if they can keep it going with promotions it’s followers.

I work with a company that employs a social media consultant. I don’t have any firm statistics, but I’m fairly sure that the company doesn’t get the same value for it’s dollar as Murphy-Goode is going to. Then again, the product isn’t quite as sexy. It’s not very obvious to me how they could extend a similar type of promotion.

For a little while, I thought of applying for this position. I ended up skipping it because I’m not very good with the video camera. Also, it would be about 3 hours away from my wife and puppy. While they may be able to come with me, I’m sure my wife wouldn’t appreciate that commute. However, it’s not too late for you. If you hurry, there’s still time to apply for the job. It ends on midnight Friday night.

Pathetic Propane Portions

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Propane is Awesome!
Propane is Awesome!
I hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend. For me that often means a time to head over to Grill Maestro for some grilling tips. This weekend, I noticed an interesting an interesting article Propane suppliers quietly reduce size of refills. In short, raising prices of last year caused propane makers to put less propane in each tank. This allows them to keep the same price and not lose customers for rising prices.

It is reminiscent of the incredible shrinking yogurt that a few have written about. My wife is still upset about the yogurt switch from 8oz to 6oz. For her that difference is significant enough to not buy it any more. With a piece of fruit, it was a small meal, but now it’s barely just a snack. When the economy gets better, they’ll no doubt put out the banner of 33% more free. Ever notice how products can continually offer such great promotions? If they didn’t shrink the size when you weren’t looking, you’d be bringing home a keg of ketchup.

The shrinking propane is different than shrinking yogurt. While the yogurt switch is tricky, the amount of the product you are getting is clearly labeled on the container. The propane tank is the same size regardless of how much propane is actually inside of it. They could fill it with 5 pounds of propane or 100 pounds and I wouldn’t know the difference until I picked it up. Unlike other industries, if I don’t like how much Amerigas or Blue Rhino is giving me, I can’t easily choose to opt for another company. In my area, no one refills liquid generic propane tanks – it’s always an exchange system. Once you pick an exchange system, you are more or less stuck with it unless you want to pay the upfront costs for a new tank.

I often can forgive being wronged, but don’t mess with me when it comes to grilling and money. What do you say? Is it wrong for propane companies to pull the shrinking yogurt since their product’s container size is fixed? Or is it fair for them to use the same tactics that the other companies use?

Photo Credit: Whitewolf Productions

Blogging Goals: What You’ll See Here in 2009

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Thanks to Green Panda Treehouse for pointing me to Visionary Blogging’s 7 Strategic Blog Improvement Questions. That article serves as an outline for my blogging goals for 2009.

  1. What will I accomplish with my blog in 2009? How will I make my blog more valuable in 2009?
    There are a number of ways to determine the success of a blog. Here are just a few examples, with 2008s numbers and my goals for 2009:

    • Traffic – Last year I averaged 37,794 visitors a month. This may put me in the top 99.9% of blogs or higher, but it’s really not where I want or need to be to make Lazy Man and Money truly successful. For 2009, I’d like to average at least 75,000 visitors a month.
    • Earnings – In 2008, I made roughly $30,000 from my websites. I had hoped to make more in 2008, but instead of growing those sites to make more money, I put some into time into consulting making a guaranteed dollar. In 2009, I’m going to aim to make $60,000. Of course aiming to do something is one thing, having a plan in place and executing on it is another thing in it’s entirety.
    • Value To Its Readers – I don’t know how one would go about quantifying this goal. The closest I can come is noting that I have 3000 readers who subscribe to Lazy Man and Money’s RSS feed. If that number grows it tells me that readers like what they are reading and are passing along the information to their friends. That’s an indication that my writing provides value to its readers.
    • Value To Myself – One of the reasons why I blog about personal finance is that it really helps me with my own money. As I network with readers and other personal finance bloggers, I learn ways to not only manage my money better, but also find smarter ways to spend it.
  2. How will I increase the authority of my blog in 2009?
    The formula for a successful blog always seems to boil down to two basic ingredients: content and marketing. If you create content that people find valuable and deliver that content to them, you’ll find that your blog will be successful. Other than you to sincerely ask readers to send articles that they like to their friends and family, I haven’t come up with any new ways to market my blog in 2009. Which brings us to the next question?
  3. How will I make my content more addictive in 2009?
    In 2008, I often wrote and published my articles in the same day, with no proofreading. That’s a bad recipe for creating top content. Some may say that they enjoyed my content in 2008. However, if I revamp my process to be ahead of the game, it will give me time to review, improve, and edit the content before you read it.

    In addition to focusing more on writing in advance, I’m going to look to create a new format for 2009. This is subject to getting ahead of the game with my writing. If I can do that expect the following format:

    • Monday – I will focus on frugality and ways to save money. One of the quickest ways to financial freedom is to reduce expenses. I will focus on the value of a dollar spent. Sometimes it’s worth paying a little more for quality that you can count on.
    • Tuesday & Thursday – I’d like to cover some of the basics of personal finance. In 2008, I didn’t do a lot of research on personal finance topics. I found it easier to write about some financial thought that came into my head. The advantage of this is that my writing comes from my heart – it stresses the “personal” in “personal finance.” However, I realize that I need to write about basic topics – ones that can help people in all aspects of their lives. Look for the following topics in 2009: banking, budgeting, career, credit, debt, entrepreneurism, investing, taxes, real estate, insurance, retirement, estate planning, college saving, and more. My biggest challenge will be making these topics interesting and engaging.
    • Wednesday – I plan to use Wednesday to tell some story about my personal financial life, or something that I think you should know. There are the kinds of articles that regular readers will be used to. If you are happy with the way I’ve been writing in 2008, don’t think that I’ll this writing only to Wednesdays… If I have something to say, I’ll publish it as a second article from Monday-Friday.
    • Friday – I think there’s a lot of value to many minds contribute their thoughts. With that in mind, I’m asking readers and/or personal finance bloggers to contact me and submit articles for this Friday slot. I promise submitters of quality content will garner instant fame and fortune. 1. If I can’t get enough people to submit content for Friday, I may have to resort to bargains from Amazon’s Friday Sale or other lighter content to ease into the weekend.
    • Saturday – Expect me to live up to my name here and take the day off.
    • Sunday – In 2008, I used Sundays to write about something that might not be financial in nature – a small peek into my life. Along with that story, I will include some personal finance links from the last week that I found of interest.

    If you have any feedback on this I would appreciate it.

  4. How will I make my blog design more charming in 2009?
    Readers, I need your help on this one. What design changes would you like to see? In 2008, I went with a new theme that focused on readability and scannability by shortening the column of content. I’ve heard from some people that the light green outline is a little bright on some monitors. Have you been seeing this? Is it bad? I also went out and had a professionally designed logo, which people seemed to enjoy.
  5. How will I make my blog community funner in 2009?
    It’s a good time to remind you that I didn’t come up with these questions. Friends say that I’m fairly funny in real life. Either I’m not that funny in writing or it doesn’t come through very well with personal finance topics. Perhaps the tax code is only so humorous. If I can succeed in making personal finance more interesting, not only will my blog be more successful, I think readers will look forward to learning together.
  6. How will I melt my blog more fluidly into my business’s big picture in 2009?
    I’ve started down the road with Twitter and I can tell it’s going to be a big part of the Lazy Man and Money brand in 2009. I will look into Facebook to see if I can leverage that to grow Lazy Man and Money. My wife has made me some sweet looking business cards. I will use these when I network with financial start-ups in Silicon Valley. Living near these start-ups allow me unique opportunity for “face time”, which helps me partner with brands that may become tomorrow leaders.

Those are my goals for 2009. Some may be aggressive, but my limited experience with day camp archery says that you have to aim a little high to hit the bullseye.

Notes
1. Fame in this case is defined by the electronic publishing of the article. I use the Dictionary.com version of “fortune” as “things that happen or are to happen to a person in his or her life”, not the one of “wealth or riches.