And the answer is…. Guiness!
After all, it’s St. Patricks day today, so if you haven’t yet sucked down your intake of iron through the form of Guiness, then fear not, you still have time.
It wasn’t that many years ago, he says with his eyes slightly askew, when I would be out drinking all night on St. Patricks day.
We used to make an event out of it.
Now, I’m sitting in front of my laptop, typing out an email with the remnants of baby sick on my jumper.
I know, I know, if I keep talking like this, you’ll start to be jealous of the glamour of my lifestyle!
But, everything we do, we do for lifestyle.
Which is why, at the very beginning of your online journey, you need to make a decision…
Are you going to:
1) Choose the Guiness business model
2) Choose the Walmart model
If you’re wondering what the f**k I’m talking about, then bear with me, I’ve not gone crazy… yet.
Breaking everything down into it’s nuts and bolts, kinda like an Ikea flat pack, every online business follows one of these two models.
The Guiness model is all about focus. Do one thing, and do it better than anybody else. Make your product, make it excellent, and then sell it to as many people as possible. Saturate your market.
The Walmart model is all about offering as much as possible. This means you always have something you can put on special offer, there’s always something you can give away, there’s always something new about to be released.
Both models work, the choice is down to personal preference.
You know those folk who you see doing a launch every few weeks?
Those guys use the Walmart model. They make all their money and leads by doing launches, which means they’ve got to come up with new products and launch materials constantly.
Up until now, most of my businesses have followed the Walmart model, but for the first time I now have two companies using the Guiness approach.
Which allows me to make a judgement of the benefits of each.
THE GUINESS MODEL PROS
Focus has to be the biggest pro of this model. All of your time is focused on generating the best product, sales content and brand. It’s all about the brand, people will have to want to purchase this as you’ll probably end up being more expensive than newcomers later on.
Using this approach will be more stressful in the beginning, but less stressful once your business is established. You’ll have to fight to get your initial customer base, but once they’re with you, they’ll be loyal, and that allows you room to breath while you test and work out your long-term marketing strategies.
THE WALMART MODEL PROS
You can get started much faster using this approach, because if something doesn’t work you can move on to the next thing rapidly. You’re not invested in just one thing.
It allows your products to be produced quicker, and require less refinement because the majority of your sales are going to come form the “Here’s Something New” approach.
Generally you can launch these businesses faster, and start making money far quicker, but to scale out you’ll need a good team who can work quickly.
THE GUINESS MODEL CONS
It can take longer to get this type of business started. You’ll want to make sure that things like logos and branding are in place from the beginning, as this is what you will be driving loyalty through.
Your primary aim will be to build a following, this means your focus is going to be on content marketing and awareness, building up loyalty, rather than hard sales.
Sales numbers will always drop when you aren’t using a hard sales approach. However, your retention will be significant and it will pay off in the years to come.
THE WALMART MODEL CONS
It’s exhausting! You have to be promoting and finding/building new products to promote all the time.
You’ll also need to have a good source of leads for your business. As you’re going to be promoting heavily for every new product, you’ll lose your leads faster than those building a following.
If you’re a master of outsourcing and building teams, then this could be for you. It can generate a lot of money very quickly, but if you try and do this on your own, you’re going to struggle after your first few launches.
Which of these two models would you choose?
There’s no right or wrong, there’s just what is more suitable to your personality and situation.
But… 99% of digital marketers have never thought about this.
Hell, most of the digital marketers who are marketing other peoples businesses (on someone else’s dime) haven’t thought about it on behalf of their clients!
If you’re starting your own business online, the chances are you’ve already tried the Walmart model, and it didn’t work for you.
That’s because you hadn’t specifically chosen that model.
You made a product and then launched it, you probably didn’t focus on branding too heavily, instead you tried to get it to market as quickly as possible.
That’s all good, until… you start doing content marketing, not wanting to promote very often in case you damage the reputation with your list, then social media marketing, then try to build a following.
What’s happening here is you’re beginning to mix the Guiness model with the Walmart model.
And everything starts going to shit.
Because you’re not focused on how your business is going to grow and how it’s going to make money.
Truth be told, you probably never got past the point of thinking you’d like to make money online, and then read some stuff, built a website and started trying to send traffic to it before realising you’re spending money not making it.
Nuh uh my precious.
That doesn’t work, as you already know.
Like any business, you’ve got to plan what you’re doing and how you’re going to make money.
Otherwise it’s going to tank. Fast.
My approach to making money online, which works like rocket fuel if you actually do it, is written down here:
https://michaelwilding.com/business-ignition
Is it right for you?
That depends if you actually want to put some time in and achieve success. If you’re hoping I’ll do it for you, then put your wallet away and go to someone else who’ll blow hot air up your ass and promise a ton of things they’ll never deliver on.
Me, I like to work with people who want to succeed.
Michael
