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Out and about at the DNC in Downtown Denver, it’s amazing how one event can completely change things.

The old Brooklyn’s restaurant that sat on the grounds of the Pepsi Center has been completely redone as the CNN Grill.On CNN’s website today   I found the time lapse video of putting the entire place together - pretty amazing what they’ll do when they move in for a week.

While things like the DNC can literally change the structure of a business, it can have huge impact on even the smallest of business owners. Why not sell a few shirts, or create your own bumper stickers? You can find it all.

To celebrate our daughter being back in school, and our chance to get back to work on a fairly regular basis, we decided to head out to lunch at our fav - Qdoba.

We spent a long time going over our goals for this fall, and talking about ways to bring in different types of clients. While we were talking about lead generation, we suddenly got onto the topic of lifetime value of customers.

We’ve been Qdoba regulars since they first came to town - at least six years ago. Qdoba has a frequent customer card that allows you to get one meal free when you purchase 10 meals. Because we usually go together - 2 meals at once - we usually can fill the card in five visits.

Each meal is about $6, which means they give you $6 when you spend $60. We also made the assumption we filled one card every two months (it is our favorite place after all). Which means we spend about $360 a year, and they give us $36 of free food each year.

Because we’ve been going there for around six years now, we’ve spent about $2160 - if you assume everything I mentioned above is constant. [Wow, this is actually a great lesson for me - I can't believe how much we've spent going out to lunch once every week or two.]

And because it’s one of our favorite lunch spots, we’ll be going there well into the future. Which means our lifetime value will end up being several thousand dollars. What’s an occasional free meal to someone who is going to bring several thousand dollars into your business?

You can see how quickly even $6 adds up. What about big ticket items? Maybe you have a $1000 monthly program, or several different products worth several hundred dollars a piece. How many times do your clients buy from you? What’s your overall lifetime customer value?

Once you find out how valuable a client is to you, you can begin to see how much you can spend to get a client through your doors. If your average client is worth $5000, maybe mailing $100 worth of marketing materials to gain that client isn’t very much after all.

As I’m planning two new promotions for the fall, I’ll be spending some of my time calculating the lifetime value of my clients. Even with quick calculations, I know my numbers are high. I’ll definitely be using this to come up with my promotions.

The tour of the Pepsi Center for the Democratic National Convention was a lot of fun! I finally had a chance to get all of my photos cropped, saved, and posted, and thought I would post a few more for you to take a look at.

No matter if you’re Democrat or Republican [or somewhere in between] it’s an exciting time to be in Denver. Denver’s last Democratic Convention was held 100 years ago in 1908 - which makes this a historic moment, one that I’m thoroughly enjoying.

The preparations are amazing.

Already the protestors and propaganda are evident all around downtown.

Outside every restaurant on the Pepsi Center grounds has been taken over by the media.

When you walk into the Pepsi Center, it seems to be transformed into a whole new venue. Everything sports related has been converted to DNC.

And the stage area is amazing. The lights flash; the stars roll by, the words pop out.

Want to see more? Visit my Flickr to see the rest of my DNC 2008 images.

Today I was invited by two special friends, Jeannine and Brad Crooks, along with Ronald Lewis, and together we toured the Pepsi Center in Downtown Denver, home of this years Democratic National Convention. The events don’t officially start until Monday, so they allowed a select few people the chance to come in and tour the building as things are being set up and finalized. And what fun we had.

I’m going to be adding a few more posts here in the next couple of days, just to share with you some of the excitement. This whole event is taking over Denver, and since I’m a Denver native, I’m enjoying the entire process. No matter what your beliefs, or what your political preference, it’s fun to be involved in something so big and really life changing. Even three days before the official start, there’s already a ton of protestors and propaganda on display.  

I captured a wide variety of images - stay tuned, I’ll be posting both here and to my Flickr account as soon as I return to my computer.

As marketers, our job is to sell our products and services (or the products and services of our customers.) How do we do that? By setting up a problem, and offering us as the solution.

But any time you have a problem, you have unhappiness. Something in your life isn’t right, or isn’t the best it could be, so you’re out searching for a way to make it better.

The more products and services available, the more unhappiness there must be, right?

As I was blogging today, I came across a great post by Seth Godin on happiness. He stated something that got me thinking.

“What you have doesn’t make you unhappy. What you want does.

And want is created by us, the marketers.”

One of the reasons I quit watching the news is because of all the negativity. I can get the news I need on world events through various sites online - why should I sit through a half hour of negativity?

So maybe the same holds true with marketing. What if we could change it around and sell not from the “want” but from the “growth” factor? Instead of selling to you because something’s missing in your life, what if something could help you grow?

hmmmm…

Last night I enjoyed another great dinner and conversation with my mastermind group. Every three weeks we get together to discuss business. We’re all building businesses online in some manner, and we ended up together to help each other grow and succeed online.

After a year and a half together, it’s amazing how much we’ve all grown. We’ve seen many changes in our business, some successes and some failures. But the great thing is every three weeks we can share our ideas, ask for opinions, and get honest feedback from people that share a common interest.

I started thinking about why being a part of a mastermind is so important. Obviously there are a ton of reasons. But the one that kept coming to my mind was having a group that in no way is impacted financially by what you do, yet know you well enough to see exactly what you should be doing, and has no reservations on telling you exactly what you should be doing.

Let me give you an example. One of the members has an incredible niche, and has made her full time income from her website for many years now. She’s been adding a few products and changing some of her ideas over the past year and a half. But a few months ago, as she started developing a coaching program, the rest of the mastermind group told her she needed a membership site. It was a perfect fit for what she was doing.

She was skeptical at first, but kept pursuing it. She’s been working on building it during 2008, and last night she reported she’s almost got it all together. Way to go!

It’s so amazing watching things come together for the people around you. And what’s more amazing is that while you are watching their progress, it usually comes together for you too.

We’re not meant to do things by ourselves. Instead we’re meant to build things together. If you’re a solopreneur, get in a mastermind. They are highly worth it - I can’t rant enough about the benefits of a mastermind. You don’t have to meet in person; some very good ones have formed through phone calls.

The important thing is to find people that have something in common, and work to help build the knowledge base of all the members. 

Blog Action Day 2008 has just been announced - and I’m excited to be a part of this amazing event.

Thousands of blogging sites will take place in this unique online event. On October 15th, every blogger registered for the cause will make a blog post about poverty. To be truly unique, the blog post should be targeted towards your audience of readers. So of course I’ll be reflecting on the importance of financing an entrepreneurs dream of making a better life.

I’ll also be supporting Kiva that day - an amazing organization in which you can help entrepreneurs in developing countries with a micro loan.

Do you have a blog? Do you want to join this amazing cause yourself? Come join in the fun, and see how blogging can take you to new heights. 

With an afternoon email yesterday, we were ready to make Maureen McGuire Interiors site live and ready to go. We were waiting for word on an award status - which she found out she won late Thursday afternoon! Way to go Maureen!

When we first started working with Maureen, she wanted a simple site that she could use to showcase her work for current and prospective local clients. Her business is mainly referral, and she was looking for something to use as a portfolio, and to help her reach out to people that search online for a designer in the Denver area.

We created a dynamic showcase for her that allowed her to take her photographs, and turn it into a gallery. It adds action to her home page, and engages people to want to stay and look through her portfolio. We also incorporated before and after photos, allowing clients and prospects to really see what she can accomplish.

We also designed a Flash presentation for her design page to show people how she moves from concept to completion. Again, our goal was keeping pages simple, yet incorporating sophisticated design elements to make her site  reach out and grab attention.

Thanks for being a part of our Vision Family Maureen!

We’re excited to be releasing the newest site, The Gift Of Questions, in a series of sites for entrepreneur Barbe Ratcliffe.

In one of our monthly strategy sessions, we began talking about Barbe’s upcoming book release entitled, “The Gift Of Questions”. As she’s finishing up her book, she was also looking for some input from other people, including clients and friends.

“What if we put up a site that allows people to give you their answers?” And her newest website was born.

The site is a simple, one page site with a built-in database that allows people to answer two questions, and fill in their contact information to receive two free chapters of her book.

We also worked to fill in back end pieces, such as autoresponders and thank you pages, to make sure the entire submission process runs smooth.

And when the book is complete and ready for sale, we’ll convert the whole thing over to her book site, ready to sell.

Way to go Barbe - we’re excited to have you on board and a part of our Vision family. 

Over the past few months I’ve spoken with dozens of business owners about designing a website, a blog, or both.  Some get it. And some don’t.

In many cases a small business owner simply wants a small brochure type site to exist online - something they can direct current and prospective clients to see their work. In theory this sounds great. And I always encourage a small business owner who currently has nothing, to at least start with this type of a site.

But what most small business owners are lacking is the understanding of the long term effects of having a website. Your website isn’t just a brochure. It isn’t just a one time form of marketing that will help you gain a current client.

It is your best long term strategy for building your business.

Imagine creating a brochure for your company. You spend hours gathering the photographs, creating the copy, working with a designer, and sending it to the printer. The final brochure looks great, and you’re excited to start handing it out.

If you print 1000 brochures, you have 1000 chances to connect with potential clients. In some cases some people will share the brochure with others. But once the 1000 brochures are gone - you have to start over.

Now let’s take a look at a website.

Let’s say you go out and design a site filled with information. You start up a blog, and you start sharing information on a regular basis. You create a great article that specifically targets one section of your niche.

The potential of this article is lifelong. As long as your business is in existence, and as long as your website is up and running, this article can work for you. Months from now. Years from now.

[I wrote an article in 2005 that is still on my site, and pulls a huge amount of traffic every month. I would never delete or change it.]

If you create a brochure, the goal is to have it generate leads.

If you create a website, it too can have a goal of generating leads. But it can also do a whole lot more.

• You can capture email addresses for future, free promotion.
• You can promote your services.
• You can have a shopping cart for products and services.
• You can use it to expand your business model.

Many people go into a website with a closed mind. They create it as a way to advertise their business to their local marketplace.

But once they get online, they open up their minds, and find many ways to connect and sell to people. It is possible to grow any type of business - product or service - to an international level.

And if someone has the capability of making a decision and acting out it immediately, you’ll see a definite rise in your sales.

[Ready to market your business with your website? Check out our monthly marketing services, and let us join your marketing team.]