I often find myself reading about business schools and their MBA programs, going to visit campuses, and talking to business school professors. Here are some of the good resources where I’ve found:

MBA Program (Universities) Rankings

• Entrepreneur Magazine (One of my favorites)
• The Princeton Review (Free)
• Financial Times Ranking
• US News (Free & Paid)
• Business Week (Great source)

MBA Admission & Info Blogs to Follow

• Business Week Getting Admitted
• Journals from current MBA students at various MBA programs

Other MBA Resources

• Useful videos to watch

Couple weeks ago I had to write a paper that part of it was about the high cost of losing a customer. The argument is that the cost to keep a customer is much more than the marketing cost of acquiring a new one. Also not addressing an un-happy customer and letting him wonder around telling others can cost you much more than what you might think.

Here are some statistics according to BusinessCoach and Score that should get your attention:

• The average un-happy customer will tell 8 to 16 people about it.
• 91% of unhappy customers will never purchase service from you again.
• It costs 5 times more to attract a new customer than to keep a current one.
• If you make an effort to remedy customer’s complaints, 82 to 95 percent of them will stay with you.

The value of a satisfied customer might be close to zero from business point of view as the customer has already bought the service/product. However the value of a loyal customer is priceless. Loyal customers come from satisfied customers so it is vital to keep customers happy.

Bose Example:

I was fortunate enough to have coffee with Steve, the managing director of a large charity foundation (worth over $100 million). He gave me many valuable business and life advices. One of the key topics in our conversation was marketing and customer service. He had strong belief that keeping customers happy at even seemingly high costs is very significant. He gave me an example of his experience with Bose. The story serves as perfect example for our topic here.

Steve had bought a pair of Bose headphones for $100. Couple days after the purchase (using and loving the headphones) he had gone on a business trip. On the airplane the passenger besides him trips over the headphones wire and damages it (making it useless). Steve was very upset about it and in the next airport (while waiting for a connection flight) debated with himself whether to buy another set of headphones or not – They were good headphones but rather expensive too.

He finally decides they are worth another $100 and heads to the Bose shop at the airport. He tells the Bose employee about his experience on the plane and how he wants to buy a new headphone. The employee takes the damaged headphone from him and gives him a brand new one at no charge.

The cost for Bose to give Steve a new headphone was close to nothing. They had already made so much more from him fro the sale of the first $100 headphone. The factory cost for Bose for the new one that they gave away is probably less than $15 too. However look at what Bose has gained by this strategy. Steve (as he stated himself) will be a loyal Bose customer and promoter for life. He will be willing to pay the extra cost for getting a Bose speaker or home theater system even though it might be more expensive than the equipment is worth.

When Steve sees such great customer service and the measures that Bose is willing to take to make sure he is happy, he immediately associates that with future customer service that he will get whether it is buying another Bose product or getting service on one that he owns.

Steve is willing to pay the extra cost of a Bose product because he is getting such unheard-of customer service and the fact that Bose is caring about something other than his money.

Circuit City Example:

If you remember I had huge troubles with Circuit City customer service and wrote about it many time on my blog.I will never be shopping at Circuit City in future (they are going out business anyways). Also imagine all the people that have read my blog posts about them. Do you think they will shop at Circuit City or Best Buy if given the choice?

Bottom line is you should always try to keep your customers happy. Go the extra mile to satisfy them. Reply your emails as soon as you can, be respectful of them when talking to them o the phone, truly try to undertand their position, and be willing to sacrifice.

If you can, surprise them with a service/product (t-shirt, magazine, picture, etc.) that they didn’t expect to get from you. Customers are not always looking for the absolute cheapest place to shop. In fact they are willing to pay a premium price for better service.

The latest book that I finished reading was the 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Not only these laws are essential to success, not following them is a sure path to failure. Following are the laws and a short description of them. I actually had to read the book (listen to it) for a second time to complete this article.

1. The Law of Leadership

The law of leadership is about being first in a category. People knows the number one player/company in their product category of interest. Once you are number one, it is much harder for number two to take over – even if the number 2 has a better product.

This law of course has exceptions but mostly due to companies breaking other immutable marketing laws.

2. The Law of the Category

The law of category restates the importance of the law of leadership in a different way. It says if you are not number 1 in a category, invent a new category that you can be number 1 in. It is so important to be number 1 in a category, that you are better off to be number one in a new category (that you invent) than to be number 2 or 3 in an existing category.

For example instead of trying to be the best entrepreneur blogger I try to be the best Iranian entrepreneur blogger.

3. The Law of the Mind

This law states that “it is more important to be first in the mind than first to marketplace.”

When I was reading the law of leadership, I figured when you are first to the market you are naturally first to the mind too. However, that is not true. So simply being first to the market is not enough. You should make sure customers know you are there and that you are the first.

4. The Law of the Perception

This laws states that perception is more important than quality. In other words “marketing is a battle of perception and not a battle of products”. The best products/websites don’t always win the marketing battles. In fact many times a product becomes  a best seller before it actually (if ever) becomes best in its category.

This is not to say forget about making a better product, but keep in mind that it is better to be “better” in a specific category than to be “better” in general. You are much better off if you can make a product that solves one specific problem and market your product around that specific improvement, than to simply make a product that is slightly better in every feature and market your product to be simply “better” than the competition.

5. The Law of Focus

The law of focus “the most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.” This is extremely important. If you can associate your service/product with one word and make that word stick to customers mind you are a natural winner.

What company do we all thing of when we think of “overnight”? (FedEx).

Some points to remember regarding this law are:

• When picking your magic word, pick a word that is common and easy to remember.
• Don’t associate yourself with a word that is already associated with another product.
• “You can’t stand for something if you chase everything”.

6. The Law of Exclusivity

The law of exclusivity says that “Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect’s mind”.

7. The Law of the Ladder

While it is important to be first into the mind of the customers, if you are second or third you haven’t lost all your chances. This law states that every category has a ladder of leaders. As long as you follow the correct marketing strategy for your position in the ladder you can become successful. That is to say that if you are 2nd in your category, don’t follow the same strategies as the number 1 would.

The main strategy regarding this law is to acknowledge your position in the ladder. For example, if you are 2nd in the category don’t advertise your products to be the first and best. Acknowledge your position in the ladder to your customers and perhaps campaign “we know we are number 2 but we try harder”.

8- The Law of Duality

This law states that in the long run the battle become a battle between two major players.

9. The Law of Opposite

Law of opposite states that if you are shooting for 2nd place, your marketing strategy is determined by the company in 1st place. Study the strengths of the 1st place product and see how you can turn that strength against it. ” As the book puts it, “like a wrestler uses its opponents strength against him, you should do the same if you are number 2 in a category.”

• Don’t try to be better or copy the leader – be different.
• Position yourself against the number 1. Many times the customers are either end of liking or not liking a brand. So offer an alternative to number 1.
  

10. The Law of Division

The law of division states that each original category will divide and become several smaller categories.

For example at first we had a category “computer” but now many categories such as “personal”, “business”, “super computer”, etc. “Cars” was a general category in the old time. Now we have “luxury cars”, “coupe”, “sedan”, “van”, etc.

The lesson to learn from this law is that if you are going to offer a new line of product

• Don’t go against the leader in a category, create a new sub-category if possible.
  
• Try to use a different brand name than your current one if your current brand is already associated with a different category. For example, when Honda wanted to get into the luxury car market, they didn’t simply make Honda MDX, they started a new brand called “Accura”. They even set different dealerships for the two different brands to not cause any confusion.
  

11. The Law of Perspective

The law of perspective states that “marketing effects take place over an extended period of time”. In other words the short term effects are often opposite to the long term effects. For example a bank robbery might earn you $100,000 in one day, but you will spend 10 years in jail. So you either made $100,000 in one day or $10,000 a year for 10 years – depends on the perspective.

It is important to pay attention to this law as successful marketing takes place over long time. The book gives an interesting example of “line extension”. When companies extend their product line it usually translates in short term high profits, but in long term this will translate to disaster. This can be seen in beer companies that keep adding new beer lines as it inevitably creates competition for the older beer and might cause customers to not be able to connect the beer to the main brand anymore.

The lesson to be learned is to be patient. Don’t be so concerned with quarterly report that would cause you lose touch with long term goals.

12. The Law of Line Extension

Line extension is dangerous. Don’t get into every business that you have the capability to. It is very tempting to do line extension when your company is successful. Take General Electric for example. They make everything from light bulbs to Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) to airplane engines, to refrigerators, and biomedical equipment. They make everything and offer every service and are not strong anywhere.

• “It is better to be strong in one category than to be weak in every category.”
• “The leader in every category is the one without line extension.”
• Line extension is a sure way to failure in long term but more profit in short term. Don’t fall for it.

13. The Law of Sacrifice

This law states that you have to give up something in order to get something. There are 3 main sacrifices that are required for a successful long term marketing campaign.

• 1. Concentrate on one service and/or product and sacrifice the others.

In terms of online business, focus on the website that is making you money. If you want to start a new website/project, establish it as a separate business as if the first one didn’t exist, but don’t use the resources of the first website to constantly fund the second project even if the second website is losing money. I have done that in many of  new websites and it has always failed. Now, when I start a new website other than the first capital that I put into it, it has to fund itself from that point on. Very rarely do I put more money into it from my other site’s earnings.

• 2. Concentrate on one targeted market. Don’t market to everyone.
  

For example, don’t try to market your product to everybody, concentrate on one target (by age, gender, income level, region, etc). Targeting one market doesn’t necessarily mean that only that market will buy your product. For example, when Pepsi targets teenagers in their Pepsi ads, it doesn’t’ translate into only teenagers buying the prdocut; everybody will. The 50 year old guy that wants to feel young will buy Pepsi too. However it is imporant to adjust your marketing campaign toward one particular target.

• 3. Don’t make constant changes. “The best way to keep a successful campaign is to not change it at all.”

This happens to many companies when they become successful and are tempted to get into new businesses and offering more and every product/service. This will cause the company to lose track of what it has always been standing for and possibly lose their place in the customers mind.

14. The Law of Attributes

This law states that “for every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute.”

Instead of following the leader in a category and offering the same attributes, try to find a new and opposite attribute and offer that to your customers.

15. The Law of Candor

“When you admit a negative the prospect will give you a positive.” If you admit a negative you can much easier turn into positive and profit.

I strongly agree with this law. Negative statements about yourself are instantly accepted by people but positive statements need proof. If your product has negative attributes in the mind of customers it is very hard to change those perspective. By admitting the negatives of your product you create a feeling of trust with the customer and unconscionably cause the customers mind. With their minds open you can much easier change the negative to positive.

A good example is Listerine accepting that their mouth wash tastes bad (negative) but at the same time connecting it to better cleaning mouth (positive).

16. The Law of Singularity

The law of singularity states that “in each situation only one move will produce substantial results.” This is to say that you can’t use the same strategy as the number of 1 company in a category (or any successful company) and expect the same results. Each solution is unique to specific company and can not be copied line by line for an identical result.

17. The Law of Unpredictability

This law states that you can’t predict what your competitors do, so don’t try. Understand that making decisions based on predictions of what your competitor will do is different than making calculated risks. Don’t plan on details of what you think the competitor will do as they will surprise you.

“It is different to predict the future and make plan than to take a chance on future.”

18. The Law of Success

The law of success states that “success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure”. This law warns you not to fall far from your customers when you become successful. Many small companies have great customer service and pay close attention to keeping the customers happy; when they grow due to their good customer service, they lose touch with those same customers and go on a path of failure.

19. The Law of Failure

This law states that “failure is to be expected and accepted”. This is pretty obvious. Any success will inevitably bring failure sooner or later. We, as entrepreneurs take risks and that is exactly why we are successful. But the lesson to learn is that when you realize you have failed, cut your losses. If your website is losing money, accept it and stop putting more and more money into it for

20. The Law of Hype

The law of hype states that “history is filled with marketing failures that were successful in the press”. Don’t get hyped up over media coverage or press releases as they don’t necessarily translate into profit.

21.The Law of Acceleration

“Successful programs are not built on fads, they’re built on trends”.

“Fads are A fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period of time; a craze.” Fads accelerate very quickly, but often don’t last long. Chasing them is expensive and it is important to be able to differentiate between fads and trends and try to turn fads into trends.

22. The Law of Resources

This law states that “without adequate funding, an idea won’t get off the ground”. You need money to get into people’s mind and more money to stay there.

• Use the new idea that you have to find funding and not marketing. The marketing will come later.
• Be prepared to give up a lot to find funding. This particularly applies to many of us, internet entrepreneurs.

We are getting close to that time of the year again – Tax time. Last year (beginning of 2008) I established Timsar Solutions LLC to conduct all my online business under and handle my taxes easier. I also bought Quick Books to manage my expending and earnings.

Since the software seemed so easy to use, I thought I would record every transaction and at the end of the year I could press a button, print all required papers, and finish my taxes in couple days. Whoever bet against me won.

I found it rather difficult to record my transactions on Quick Books as they are mostly online and with people with no business name or address (sometimes just an email with not even a name). Of course I didn’t take any time or classes to actually learn the software either.

So now one more time I will be stuck with a lot of digging to do to be able to fill out correct tax forms.

I will try to find a good tutorial on how internet entrepreneurs can use QuickBooks effectively. If not, I will create a video myself and post it here.

In my Entrepreneurship class, we have a different speaker every week that talks about their entrepreneurship experience and “confessions”. One of the very first speakers talked about the importance of having a board of advisors. He was talking about a biomedical company that he had started.

Board of advisors, board of directors, and similar concepts tend to remind us of large, sophisticated companies and not the typical internet business that we might be running out of our home. We, the small business owners of internet, should also put together a board of advisors.

Why We Do Need A Board Of Advisors

The concept of getting advice from other professionals in our field (internet business) is nothing new. We always post our new/improved websites to website hospital categories of forums for reviews and feedback. Almost all of us constantly use many other webmasters as members of our board of advisors without noticing it.

There are a lot of good outcomes from asking for advice from other people, especially webmasters. Everyone tends to look at issues (in this case websites) in their own perspective. We have different perspectives from each other so by talking to others we are exposing ourselves to many new perspectives regarding the features and services our site offers. So we should keep doing it.

The problem or shortcoming that the above strategy has is that it relies on many webmasters. Often the webmaster that gives us advice on site B is not the same webmaster that gave advice on site A. Therefore he is not familiar with our habits, standards, way of executing our ideas, and so forth. Knowing these factors about us, can help the advisor to give us better and more specific advice.

The webmasters we rely on have different skill levels and it’s hard to tell their skills simply by their short review on our “Review My Site” thread. We have been running our online business for a while and are naturally at a higher skill level than an average webmaster; however most of the people that have time to review other websites are newer webmasters. Therefore we are not always getting the most in-depth reviews when looking for one.

So put together a board of advisors from professionals in your area of work. Do keep asking for reviews on webmaster forums and from friends and family. However, if you plan to take your business to a higher level having a board of advisor consisting of professionals better than yourself can be prove very successful.

Who To Put On The Board

First let’s figure out what the function of this board is. A board of advisor takes on the responsibility to critic your past actions, key future decisions, new ideas as well as to give you different perspectives on various issues. While you could ask your advisors questions such as “how good does my site look?”, the more important questions are of the form “what and how can certain new features help improve the site?”.

It is very important to put together a diverse team of advisors that can help you in many areas including small business, marketing, entrepreneurship, financial, and more. Not everyone on the board should have internet skills; as a matter of fact it is best to have non-internet-skilled advisors on board too for different perspectives.

Example of non-skilled advisor: My mom thinks the “Work From Home” ads on TV or Internet are very attractive and she is actually interested to learn more about them. I consider almost all of them spam and useless and would have never thought people are forgiving enough to believe them.

It is also important to construct your board of advisors from local professionals around where you live so that you and them can meet together at least once every 3 months. As internet entrepreneurs, we sometimes lose touch of the real world and the importance of networking with locals.

One of the beautiful things about a board of advisors is that often you can put together a team of highly skilled professionals free. Most of the times people are happy to give advice and help their peers/students to succeed, but don’t abuse that. Put the team together truly because you want to hear their advice and improve your business/service.

The main professions that I would like to include in my board of advisors are:

• Marketing advisor
• An internet entrepreneur that has already passed my current level in the online world.
• Business advisor
• A friend that knows me at a personal level

How To Find Advisors

Once you know the skills you’d like the board of advisors to posses, you need to actually find advisors with such strengths. Following are some tips that might help you in the process:

• Look local. Find people that live close by so that getting together for meetings are practical.
• Search through people you already know. You would be surprised how many professional you come across on a daily basis without noticing.
• Go to local entrepreneurship meetings/get together and meet people that are more successful than yourself. Every town and area has such meetings in one form or another, go out and find them.
• Go to the local college/university. Professors have a passion for teaching and helping others. They would be more than happy to help if they have time.
• Don’t ask the CEO family friend that you know. CEOs and people with high responsibilities have a very busy schedule. So while they might be successful and have great advice, they won’t be able to spend time learning about your business or meet with you and the other advisors.

I have asked a number of people with the above skills to join my board of advisors. Once the team is put together I will introduce them in a sepearte post.