China Trade In Services

It is hard to say if the Chinese will get the right mix of policies benefitting small business, but they sure are talking the right game:

Measures for simplifying clearance through customs will be carried out gradually in ports with the theme of "one-time declaration, one-time inspection and one-time clearance".
Operation and management charges will be adjusted, and administrative fees will be reduced. Inspection fees will be temporarily scrapped and the number of export items needing inspection will be cut down with manufactured exports, in principle, free from inspection. A plan for reforming the country's inspection system is also being studied, according to a State Council news release.

The article mentions import and export of services, which makes one wonder how they will enforce the reporting thereof...

A useful result of reading Chinese government news is to align your efforts with their programs.  It makes for a more likely outcome.

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Expel Detroit From USA!

It worked for Singapore...

As a tiny island, Singapore was seen as a nonviable nation state, much of the international media was skeptical of prospects for Singapore's survival. Besides the issue of sovereignty, the pressing problems were unemployment, housing, education, lack of natural resources and lack of land.^[6]

Give Mayor Bing a chance to be the next Lee Kwan Yew.  With no federal and state interference, he'd no doubt create a fine country.  Surprise him, like Lee was surprised.

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Wine Policy, Economics and Competition

Did you know in 1962 Algeria was the number one exporter of wine in the world?  It was the result of French politics and business working together.  Today there are virtually no wine exports from Algeria.  USA wine policy tracks the French policy on wine.  There is much to learn from the Algerian experience.  Here is a study on that era.

"Get big or get out" is not limited to USA, the French have policies where the small guy pays taxes and the big guy does not, just like USA.  What is particularly damaging is the special pleading by the wine industry became the norm for all French industry.  And now France struggles.

When the first winery opened in Washington State in the 1970s, we sold souvenirs to their gift shop.  Their money was good, since they were a diversification project of a mega-tobacco corporation.  Selling cigs was going to get tougher, so they began to branch out.  Now there are over 700 Washington State wineries, due to government policies.  They struggle to find customers. What makes you can break you.

Those 700 make the one tobacco-winery look like the leader.  The benefit of advertising inures to the leader (advertise Royal Crown, Coca Cola sales rise.)  This is an extremely tough environment in which to sell.

It is not just Washington State.  I think all fifty states produce wine.  But in any case the rules, regs, subsidies, tax deals and so on are all so vast and complex that there is an economics group devoted to the one area of wine economics.

The study of wine and Algeria can give some insights on policy effects.  And perhaps help chart a course through dicey shores.  To see the reality of policies is to better predict the outcomes from change.  Those who truly have a passion for wine should survive the coming changes.

Aside from excellent skippering through rocky shoals, another possibility is to deregulate wine in Washington State.  And then roll back the pointless federal rules.  In this instance all 700 wineries would thrive.  But that is not going to happen.  That the wine industry is created by the state is not forgotten by the state.

There is another way out.  Get customer oriented.  "B O R I N G !  We already are....!!!"  No, go to any trade show, and watch the wine salespeople drone on about their wines...  look at the booths, talking about the state and the wineries...  look at all of the people slurping free samples...  wine clubs, wine tastings, all say "look at us, we have a consumer trophy item, we have a winery!"  The point of the winery is tax benefit, for high net worth individuals.  (Many a dream turns to nightmares.)

You cannot get away from the fact that the tax code is written, in part, to offer wealthy people an opportunity to express themselves in the form of a winery.  The winery is the thing, not the customer. The orientation is to the tax code, not to the customer.  The problem is the entire wine-promotion part of the industry is oriented to taking pictures of the winery or the bottle or yet another witty image of wine in a glass.

Think of every wine ad you see - a picture of the winery or the bottle.  When you exist for tax advantages and as a consumer trophy item, the only thing you want to show is your winery, you, you, you...

There are certainly genuine vintners who find joy in the struggle to coax fine wine out of the earth through the grape.  They can beat any competition.  But they have to shake free of the pack in marketing and advertising.  How?  1. Stop advertising.  (Let the retailer handle that.)  2. In your own promotion (trade shows, website)  show your customer (the importer overseas) what your product will do for their customers...

I want what she's got..
http://www.news.com.au/business/china-beefs-up-on-aussie-cuisine/story-e6frfm1i-1226242373787

Google "people enjoying wine" and still more than half of the images have no people in them.  Google anything else, "people enjoying boats" and almost every image has people.  This is a direct result of tax policy driving industry.

The person above does not exist so you can have a tax write-off.  That person has hopes and dreams and aspirations, and the right red with beef chow yuk is part of that.  She could care less about your tax situation.  She does not care about the rolling hills of vines around your tasting room.   She likes that there is something she can drink that does not knock her out, like Mao Tai (sorghum white lightening), so she can actually enjoy the time she spends entertaining.  She does not exist to compliment you on your tax advantages.

This may be hard to take, but if a vintner can accept the reality, then the vintner has an advantage in the marketplace.  The vintner can get the wine to the people who get that liquid in her glass.  Getting customers in the wine business is hard, because the tactic is wrong.

A good place to start is at the beginning, reading Ogilvy.  Every library has a copy, but if you plan to sell anything, at least become a good consumer of advertising.



There the specific tactic I have laid out over the last several weeks here begins to make sense.  In 1962, Algeria was the #1 wine exporter in the world.  Gone now.  Let's do better than Algeria.

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All Small Business Hail Communist China!

I have no more use for communism than for capitalism, but if the communists keep up their relentless good policy decisions, they are going to bury the capitalists.  Good riddance.

The central government has rolled out another round of policies to try to give a lift to the economy amid the current slowdown.
The new measures include suspending taxes for small businesses, simplifying customs clearance procedures and further opening up the country's railway sector.
The State Council has decided to suspend the value-added tax and turnover tax for small businesses with monthly sales of less than 20-thousand yuan starting in August.
The Value Added Tax, or VAT refers, is the tax levied on the difference between a commodity's price before taxes and its cost of production.
Local governments and private firms will be allowed to take ownership and management rights for inter-city railway links and municipal rail links.

You mean there is a place on planet earth that cares about small business, outside of the Vatican?  You mean there is a government that believes mass transit should be in private hands?!

Yes, when the world economy goes down, China's will too.  But no, the Chinese people will not rise up and overthrow the communists.  China will rebound first, as USA devotes ever more resources to reading each others mail, and seriously considers as a mayor of a major city a man who emails pictures of his pee pee to girls.  (But then this is being advanced as a prelude to blaming the Jews for our economic difficulties, an ancient custom.  That Weiner would accommodate blood libelers is nothing new either.  In life something must be different to be interesting.  Politics is for stupid people who don't notice it is the exact same thing over and over.  Or don't care. Weiner fits the bill.)  Conditions in China will be bad, but better than anywhere else.

China is learning from Hong Kong.  The ChiComs are in dire fear of "the fruit seller" the lowest of the low.  The communists are nailing abusive party members, even throwing Bo Xilai to the wolves.  That would be like Dick Cheney going to prison.  In USA policy makes small wine importers pay import taxes while big wine importers go near duty free.  All small fruit dealers are ripped off by our system every day, compliments of PACA.

China learned from Hong Kong, where if you have a government job, you are guilty until proven innocent, as opposed to USA, where you are always innocent if you work for the govt, no matter what.   (Cowards) Hong Kong has the ICAC that puts officials in prison.  (Many actually just escape. That saves taxpayer money.)  Of course, they use truth commissions, that is immunity from prosecution to break up corruption, but USA will never allow that.  Uggghhh!  We are getting skunked here!

China has Hong Kong, the pearl of the orient, to learn from.  USA has no such asset.  Detroit would make an excellent place for a USA version of Hong Kong.  Entire peninsula upon which Detroit sits.  (Is that a peninsula?)

We have the problem of the decision makers do not experience the effect of bad decisions.

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The Pope & Three Vatican Documents

The Pope hits the nail on the head...

On the plane en route to Rio, he had lamented that an entire generation of young people risked not knowing what it's like to work thanks to an economic crisis that has seen youth unemployment skyrocket in many European countries while leaving the poor of the developing world behind.
"People get their dignity from work, they earn their bread," he told reporters aboard the plane. "Young people in this moment are in crisis."

Generations of self-absorbed martinets have written rules for themselves at the expense of future generations.  They are enjoying their sinecures and looking forward to a fine retirement.  But those rules they imposed under the politics they played has created a generation coming up that cannot support the generation retiring.

Now I never thought I would ever retire, so it does not matter much to me.  But I guess for many it will be condign punishment ahead.

Policies have winners and losers, and consequences:

"And what is absolutely true is that we have come a long way since the depths of the Great Recession.  We've created over 7.2 million private sector jobs," Carney told reporters at a press briefing.
Here's what Mr. Carney didn't say:
Since February of 2009, the first full month of Obama's presidency, 9.5 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force.  Nearly 90 million Americans are not working today!
That means that 1.3 Americans have dropped out of the labor force for every one job the administration claims to have created.
There are 15 million more Americans on food stamps today than when Obama assumed office.

Curiously, the Roman Catholic rite has three documents that have a suprisingly good take on policies.  Why would the Roman church have anything good to say?  Well, it is the largest and the oldest single organization in history.  They know from policy...

The first book is the Code of Canon Law, the entire legal code of the Roman Rite (there are at least 22 other Catholic Churches in communion with Rome, that have their own legal systems.)  This is just the operating handbook, but it is a study in a lean legal structure.

The second book is the well known Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is an organized recitation of what the Church teaches, and why.  I like it!  But is is just the teachings, to be reflected upon intellectually.

The third book is almost unknown, The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.  Now this is a great book.  It is the Catechism acted out in the real world, covering all sorts of real world issues and the policies the Church proposes (but would never impose.) For example...

347. The free market is an institution of social importance because of its capacity to guarantee effective results in the production of goods and services. Historically, it has shown itself able to initiate and sustain economic development over long periods. There are good reasons to hold that, in many circumstances, “the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs”.[726] The Church's social doctrine appreciates the secure advantages that the mechanisms of the free market offer, making it possible as they do to utilize resources better and facilitating the exchange of products. These mechanisms “above all ... give central place to the person's desires and preferences, which, in a contract, meet the desires and preferences of another person”.[727]
A truly competitive market is an effective instrument for attaining important objectives of justice: moderating the excessive profits of individual businesses, responding to consumers' demands, bringing about a more efficient use and conservation of resources, rewarding entrepreneurship and innovation, making information available so that it is really possible to compare and purchase products in an atmosphere of healthy competition.

Sound familiar?  Whereas the Catechism lays out what Catholics believe, this document lays out a description of the facts on the ground and suggests policies to deal with real world conditions.  It covers everything, unions, politics, int'l trade, money, war, etc.

Whatever one thinks of the Catholic Church, they are the team to beat when arguing any policy.  Here is a run down on their policies prescriptions and the reasons why.   I recommend it...





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Trade Show Booth Design

Design is everything in the specialty biz, and the booth needs to be well designed too.  The big firms can hire the people to do $250,000 designs, we have budgets of say $500.  Here is a booth and my critiques...

1. Why is Guangdong Cotton Trading Company selling childrens toys?  Something is wrong, I’d keep moving...  Fix the name...

2. Where are the scenes of aspiration, people enjoying the product?  Not Beige walls, large photos of happy people pushing carriages, kids taking air.  (The booths across are worse, cartoon of kids flying - in safety gear booth?)  Do both products sell in the same stores?  If not, that is a problem.

3. Expensive booth, I’d go bright white.  No shelves.  Shelving display is deadening.  The helmets should be flat on the wall making a peace symbol or something.  Except for one or two, the strollers should be collapsed to show how easy when opening. The skate boards at an angle.  Wire one trike overhead, flying...

When a new customer approaches the booth, the seller can point to the trike in the sky and say “our #1 seller this year.  Do you have a kids store?”  (Start qualifying.)  NEVER say “may I help you?”

When an old customer comes in, greet and say “Can I show you what is new?”  NEVER say “may I help you? “ 

Whoever the customer is start making a mess in the center of the booth... opening strollers, putting down skateboards...  make action in the booth.  People gather around heat.  Get hot.

When someone comes in you are too busy to help, point to the trike in the sky and say “that is our #1 seller this year.” And then turn back to the customer.  In about 10 seconds back to the newcomer say, “Do you have a kids store?’”  And then turn back to the original customer and continue the sales process.  The turn back to the other buyer and hand him the MOQFOB form for him to study...

A salesperson should be able to handle 3 or four clients at once.

4. Yes, tables and chairs out.  Leave a podium for people to write on.  But leave room for lots of activity around your product.

5.  Sales people never sit down. Neither do customers.  Let them sit in someone else’s booth.  If nine hours is too long to stand (it's not), rotate sales people in and out.  No sitting.

6. Old products out front, so old customers recognize instantly and new customers see proven items.  New product in back so old customers have to wade in to see them.

7. Shelving display is deadening.  The helmets should be flat on the wall making a peace symbol or something.  The strollers should be collapsed to show how.  Wait, I already said that. But I mean it.

8. Neon lighting at eye -height.  You’re fired.

9.  Two instances of loose wires in walkways.  You’re fired.

10.  Booth numbers above the niche lighting 2 feet high...  & populate with product...

Whatever their sales are, I could double it if I can train the staff and redesign the booth.

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Patent Coffin Nails

What do patent attorneys do?  Mostly charge fees for everyone else to waste time.  People are fighting back.

There are a lot of people complaining about lousy software patents these days. I say, stop complaining, and start killing them. It took me about fifteen minutes to stop a crappy Microsoft patent from being approved. Got fifteen minutes? You can do it too.
...
The other 40,000-odd software patents issued every year are mostly garbage that any working programmer could “invent” three times before breakfast. Most issued software patents aren’t “inventions” as most people understand that word. They’re just things that any first-year student learning Java should be able to do as a homework assignment in two hours.

Join in the fun.  A nice feather in your cap would be to say "Take a look, I fought Bill Gates, and I won."  Do good while doing well.

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UCBerkeley Intensive Start-up Seminar

If you can get to the Bay Area I will offer a live, all-day, for credit seminar at UCBerkeley.  This will be intense. It is labelled Importing but it includes new tactics on export development as well.  Follow-up consultation with me is included in the cost.  If you are dead serious about starting up, here is your chance.

Date/Time:	Mon 8:30AM - 5:00PM 29 Jul 2013
Building:	UC Berkeley Extension Belmont Center
Room:	Classroom 04
Location:	Belmont

• Instruction Method: Classroom
• Number of Meetings: 1
• Instructional Hours: 8.00

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Greece, Small Business and Bailouts

The Germans are back in Greece offering to bailout a collapsed system.

Aware of the acrid political atmosphere in Athens, Mr Schäuble came bearing gifts: €100m in state-backed loans for small and medium-sized Greek businesses. But what Greece really needs, to kindle a flame of hope in its future, is another restructuring of its foreign debt.

You know an economic polity is shot when small business "needs" a bailout. How does lending money, or taking on debt, help a small business.  They need to be free to serve customers.

There is a problem that keeps playing out.  The crisis, then the solution that makes things worse.  Below I've tried to graph it out.    Going up toward freedom, is, for example Hong Kong. Going down toward less freedom is Pyonyang (North Korea).

1.  All policies have winners and losers, so all policies push at least some people down.  Eventually they push too many people down.

2. Policies cause crises.  At whatever point in the continuum the crises erupts, the policy makers can opt for more freedom or less freedom.  They tend toward less freedom.

3. If they want to alleviate the problem, the solution is more freedom.  But what we see is usually the policy is less freedom, that is, experience a crisis, and head down further.  This graph came to mind watching the terrible policy decisions since the 1988 bust, but it would apply to any event.

When the people who make the decisions never experience the consequences of the decision, then the consequences are your own fault for giving anyone else that much power.

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The Pope And Small Business In Brazil

We are in economic distress, among many reasons, for the imbalance between large and small business. heading to Brazil, the Pope addresses youth unemployment.  Unemployment is voluntary, and a political structure foments it.  The one thing that will get an economy going is freedom to do business.

A funny aside, is the people who think wasting money on programs will help, criticize the Pope and the expense of his travel.

The article criticizes the expense of the Pope's visit

Vatican officials have declined to put a price tag on Brazil hosting the million pilgrims that are expected to join the pope in Rio de Janeiro. Instead, officials are emphasizing his plans to visit a slum as well as a hospital that treats drug addicts.

But the Pope charged the reporters $6500 to fly with him.  Attaboy!

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Here Is a Quick Million $

I was in an Apple store yesterday looking at solutions to some problems I want solved, and I was introduced to the amazing advances in voice recognition.  The iPad truly needs no keyboard, because the voice to text is fantastic.  Even in the noisy store, on a machine not trained to hear the speaker, the fidelity was great.

Better if there was some way to cancel ambient noise in crowded areas, but to my mind the problem went the other way.  I find people talking to their devices in quiet areas annoying.

Solution, a kind of voice canceling device.  This is something else, but it is along the idea.  It would have to be attractive and absolutely voice cancelling outside the device.  A sort of studio reduced to jaw-sized.

http://www.geekswipe.net/2012/03/aire-air-mask-phone-charger.html

Think of 12 hour flights jabbering away to the distress of your seat mate, with whom you may not want to share your ideas.  The thing could double as an air cleaner, in case your seat mate is coughing up bits of lung to your distress.

To my mind, the new iPad will allow me to create a script, run a teleprompter of the script, record a session, and post it in real time.  I can do all of that with my macbook right now, but the camera is way ahead of what is on my mac.

Let me know if you develop this item.

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Getting To K

This question comes in regarding my post yesterday:

(For) a software developer/consultant, do you have any thoughts about how I can get to "K" instead of "A" through "Z". My goal is to make software/apps that helps make my clients make money and not to lead them down the path of spending money on things that don't actually make them money (even if I advise them not to do so). I think this is "long term greedy" for me as the current internet bubble will burst soon (the damage is being done now according to my very limited understanding of Austrian economics) and those developers/consultants that aren't providing real value will be out of work. I advise my clients not to get patents, put they still spend $20,000 on patents, I advise them not to spend money on adwords but they still waste thousands and thousands on it.


Put another way, (say) I'm a construction manager in Las Vegas in 2006 helping developers build houses to flip. I have customers, but how do we find sustainable customers in such bubbles?

My answer:

I think the overwhelming problem is simple:

Listening.  "K" is there in talking to the customer.  They will tell you, clear as a bell. If so, how come we don't hear it?

1. Social conditioning.  Everyone knows a business today needs social media, online advertising, flash websites, etc.  There is no dispute, except at places like amazon.com, which knows better, and google.com, which is an intelligence arm of the USGovt.

So if the customer says "My website is not paying off" (the K) everyone replies "O, you need better SEO or SER of flash animation" or some such.  K = a desire for more effective marketing.  The word website is in the conversation because of social conditioning.  Take out the social conditioning, and you get closer to K.  (My marketing is not paying off.)

OK, so what constitutes good marketing?  A website has replaced, at best, a yellow pages listing and a catalog, two things that could be found in any library 25 years ago.  Sure, it is lowered the cost (in time) and widened access to the information, but websites have not contributed anything new in marketing.  In fact, internet-based marketing seems to be a net-deficit, since the cost of attracting a customer is higher than any profit possible.  Again, for the 387,922,848th time, show me examples of cost effective online marketing.  

2. Labor theory of value.  I know all about websites, and to make my $10,000 fee, I need to spend a week building a website.  Therefore, I deserve $10,000 for making the website, because I spend a week.  (This may seem absurd, but it is the most common view.)

3. Overhead-driven pricing.  The flip side of #2, "I've got X expenses, so I have to charge Y."

The reason the MOQFOB tactic is getting such good play is it listens and responds with what works.  It is nothing new, it is ancient and in practice today, but there are 2 generations of entrepreneurs we lost to the S&L, dotcom and real estate booms.  Two generations see every problem as "what new dotcom solution will raise enough to live on while we accomplish nothing?"  At least in services.

So the real estate flipping is a better example, except I have no experience with that.  I do recall reading about a London real estate player saying in an interview the best return was turning 2 bedroom, one bath flats into 2 bed 2 bath flats.  So many strangers were sharing flats and wanted private bath that for return on investment, that was the best move.

I know someone who did very well flipping houses in the 70/80s in LA,  it was just the closets.  When houses were built in the 1920s, people had one nice suit and a couple of shirts.  By the 70s they could fill a truck with just their clothes.  Old houses with big walk-in closets flipped fast at highest prices.

I am not sure how they spotted that, probably just listening to the wives (the decision maker) when showing houses.

So in explanation 1, 2, and three, in both goods and services, the price is in the perceived value.  The charge is for "K solved" not labor theory, cost accounting or "should."

Also, once you arrive at a specific instance of K, it is important for you to announce this and give it away for free.  In this way, if we are lucky, there will be thousands to whom we deliver the tool for free and those get no results.  Those are the people who download our instructions for free and DIY.  And they fail, so it proves companies need us, like there is only one Lowell Thomas.  Of course since the white paper is complete and accurate and constantly updated with best practices, some people will be very successful with out us.  This is good because it also proves we are right.  In this way we get all of the business we can stand, at top rates.  Let me summarize, once you discover an instance of K, you sell it but you also give it away for free:

1. There is the market that buys from you at top dollar.

2. There are those who do not buy, yet download your plans.

Of the non-customers who download, some will succeed, proving your plan is right.  Also, many will fail, proving they need you to execute it properly.

Of all of this, social conditioning is the biggest problem.  Even if someone figures out K, give it a week or two, they will be back to adding in "blast emails" as part of the solution.

The key to getting to K is to shake social conditioning.

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No Arab Spring In China

Various sources note the Arab Spring, started by a fruit seller who was harassed by martinets in Tunisia, spooked the communist party in China.  They were not about to lose power because some idiot harassed a watermelon hawker.

Sure enough, in China, a half dozen martinets harassed a watermelon seller.  Managed to kill him.  The party wasted no time:

CHANGSHA - The family of a watermelon vendor who died after a violent clash with urban management officers has received 897,000 yuan ($146,208) in compensation, local authorities said Saturday.
A statement from the Linwu County government said the compensation was released in accordance with relevant laws and regulations to include death compensation, funeral expenses and an award for damages related to emotional distress.
The compensation has been implemented, it said.
Deng Zhengjia, a 56-year-old farmer from Liantang Village, Nanqiang Township of Linwu, died following a physical conflict with urban management officers on Wednesday morning.
The fight occurred after Deng and his wife tried to sell watermelons at a riverside scenic spot where urban management officers had banned such activities, according to Deng's niece.
An autopsy was conducted on Thursday afternoon in the presence of his family, witnesses and local procuratorate officials, and Deng's body was buried on Thursday evening in accordance with local customs, according to authorities in Chenzhou City.
...
The initial investigation described an intracranial injury and soft issue contusions on Deng's body, but further details have yet to be released.
The six urban management officers are suspected of causing intentional injury. They were taken into custody at the detention house in Chenzhou City on Saturday, according to sources with the county government.

One thing is for sure, there will be a whole lotta fresh fruit available at the side of the road in China the rest of this summer.

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Trade In Services Worldwide

Education is a service business, and I deliver courses worldwide, and I help people worldwide deliver their courses into the USA market.  (Yes, with the gift of ADD I get into about seven different business lines.)

A beginner's mistake is to look at what the customer gets and not what problem the customer wants solved.  We tend to think "why, I have all this training in website development, so I can create really cool websites. The going rate for websites is about $4000. So I'll go for that, and build really cool websites."

Now in this instance the problem is compounded.  Websites generally do nothing more for a business than a telephone book listing once did.  Websites now can replace the catalog as well, but not much more.  To put thousands of dollars into with is just some pictures does not make much sense, unless it can be proven that the thousands will get you say $100,000 in sales.  Well, say it does.  Very good, but would a $100 website gotten you the same sales?  Website designers talk about everything except how this money spent today will result in this much more money today.

I am picking on the service business of websites since that is one service area where most money is wasted.    Say you have $100,000 in student loans from the art academy for a degree in web development.  And after graduating you find out economically speaking, complex websites are a net deficit for a company.  Now what?  Well, as you sell $100 websites that do the job the client needs, you can market yourself as a graduate from the art academy who knows all about websites and knows what he is talking about when he says the client needs no fancy website.  Godaddy and google websites just act on the reality that website design is not very important.  Don't build websites, start godaddy.com.

Another example.  I was listening to a doctor talk about the service he provides, medicine, and the use of maggots.  He went on about the problems of dealing with infections in wounds, and all of the kinds of antibiotics and other drugs and all of the problems when those medicines do not work.  I was astonished to hear him say "when we find that none of our medicines work, we can always send in the maggots, works beautifully every time."

What?  Maggots work beautifully every time?  Then why not start with maggots, and no side effects, and no big expense, and works beautifully every time?  Well, in this culture we are forced to choose among too few doctors, and they are forced to play the drug game to cover the cost of their student loans.

But why learn all about all of those drugs if maggots will do the trick?  Because to sell the very good maggot infection cleaning technique, you better be a doctor.  Who is going to trust anyone else to sew up maggots into a leg wound?  So yes, you do sell your expertise.

You and I may have a wide range of things to offer a client, A to Z.  But the client only wants K.  Nothing else.  We might say "we'll give you A to Z for $10,000" and they will say no.  We say "we'll give you K for $10,000," and they say yes.

And if they can get K in ten minutes, they are even happier to pay the $10,000.   Think about going into the dentist with a toothache and you agree to pay the dentist $500 to fix it.   You do not want him to clean your teeth, look at alignment and all the other things dentists can do, you want the tooth drilled and drained. If he can solve the problem in 30 seconds you are even happier to pay.

So the trick is to stop thinking about the work we can do and keep focussed on the problem the customer wants solved.

Solve that problem quick, and then our client adjusts to their new business.  Company grows.  Then they encounter new problems.  Then they come back to us, because we solved the last problem in ten minutes...

The trick in the service business is to give them as little as you can to solve the problem, but charge them the same money as if they bought everything you can do.

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