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A Business Strategy That Can’t Miss

THE SUCCESS MARGIN

Thursday, December 18, 2003

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Would you like to have a strategy for your business that can’t miss?

Here is the most powerful business strategy you could ever employ. It’s also the simplest.

Provide a quality product or service at a price lower than your competition.

It’s so fundamental, it amazes me it’s not discussed more often in university classes, books and business seminars.

Lowering costs is perhaps the most important reason free enterprise is by far the most beneficial economic system for consumers.

But to succeed in a big way, there is another factor beyond price. You must also add one or more special “twists.”

Two of the companies I’ve founded are prime examples of the “lower cost with twist” principle.

Enterprise Publishing Company’s most successful product ever is my book “How to Form Your Own Corporation
Without a Lawyer for Under $75” with sales of nearly two million copies.

The “twists”:

A. Slashing legal fees

B. Tear-out forms included right in the book

The Company Corporation, which I founded in 1972 and sold in 1991, has become the largest incorporator of businesses in the world, with over 300,000 clients.

The “twists”:

A. Lower cost than any major competitor

B. Faster service-“incorporation in seven minutes or less”

C. No lawyer necessary

Other examples of successful major companies which built their empires on reducing costs and their “twists”
include:

COMPANY: Dell

FIELD: Computers

TWIST: Direct sales to consumers; custom built

COMPANY: Wal-Mart

FIELD: Department stores

TWIST: Low prices every day; wide variety

COMPANY: Southwest

FIELD: Airlines

TWIST: No frills; excellent customer service

COMPANY: Office Depot

FIELD: Office supplies

TWIST: Wide variety; larger stores; good

display, excellent customer service

COMPANY: Hampton Inns

FIELD: Hotels

TWIST: Money-back guarantee

COMPANY: McDonald’s

FIELD: Restaurants

TWIST: Fast service; cleanliness

COMPANY: Toys R Us

FIELD: Toys

TWIST: Well-merchandised; wide variety

COMPANY: Book-of-the-Month Club

FIELD: Publishing

TWIST: 4 books for $1

COMPANY: Mary Carter

FIELD: House paints

TWIST: Buy one can, get one free

COMPANY: Geek’s on Call

FIELD: Computer service and repair

vTWIST: Great service

COMPANY: Ford Motor Company

FIELD: Automobiles

TWIST: Assembly line production

COMPANY: Standard Oil

FIELD: Gasoline

TWIST: Neat stations; clean restrooms

COMPANY: Select Information Exchange (SIE)

FIELD: Newsletter

TWIST: Five subscriptions $19

COMPANY: Charles Schwab

FIELD: Securities

TWIST: Discount brokers

COMPANY: Career Track

FIELD: Seminars

TWIST: One-day events

COMPANY: Ted Nicholas

FIELD: Seminars

TWIST: High value, high content; money-back guarantee

As a consultant and copywriter, I’ve always tried to make dealing with me a bargain.

I charge a minimum monthly fee, plus equity in the business. In every case I’ve ever been involved with, the increase in sales and profits plus equity built up for the client exceed and overwhelm the investment in me.

My seminar fees of $5,000 to $15,000 per person may at first seem on the high side. Of course, everything is relative. Many attendees who have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, based on what they learned from me will testify to their value.

What can you do to create a low-cost business with a powerful twist in your chosen field?

Answer this question and the result will be a successful future for you that will exceed all your dreams.

Your correspondent, twisting the night away,

Ted Nicholas

P.S. “The secret to success, in life and in business, is to work hard at the margin.Relentlessly. It’s as powerful as compound interest, the eighth wonder of the world. Those little marginal extra efforts will inevitably grow into something big.” –Bill Bonner

Little things mean a lot.

“God is in the details”.

P.P.S. My warmest wishes to you and your loved ones for a happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year.