The three secrets are:

1. Use Outrageous Marketing
2. Let Your Personality Shine
3. Network, Network, Network

What is outrageous marketing? I know a woman who owns a wig shop and occasionally attends the same networking meeting I do. When it’s her turn to give her 30 second intro, she whips off her hair – twice – to show her beautiful wigs. She does this wearing a pretty cocktail dress. Everyone remembers her.

You may be asking yourself how you can use outrageous marketing. The first thing you have to do is ‘decide’ you are ready because you may feel uncomfortable, so you need to be completely committed. You can be outrageous in your appearance, like the wig woman, or you can be outrageous in your actions or your words.

You know how boot camps have been growing in popularity over the last couple of years? How can one stand out? Add ‘kicks’ to your product name. (If I were marketing a fitness boot camp, I would probably have a great body – I would show it off to also make an impression.) That word can pump up a lot of different products and services, and really catches people’s attention.

What words would catch the attention of your target market that your competition is not already using? What about fear-inducing words? For example: Do you know what your children are doing at the babysitters while you are at work? Scary! Or: The 5 Absolute Worst Foods You Can Eat. Don’t you want to know what they are?!

Behaving outrageously has to be within reason, of course. You don’t want to truly frighten people, but you do want to catch their attention. Sing, dance, skip, offer free stuff or huge discounts – whatever works. If you offer a deal so good that it gets your target market lining up, excellent! If you offer a deal so good everyone lines up, not excellent! You only want *your* people to be excited, not everyone.

Why not everyone? Because they’ll just take the deal and leave, whereas your target market will hang around and buy other, more profitable, stuff – again and again. You want to build a relationship. Building relationships with your target makes marketing easier and easier over time.

You must let your personality shine in all you do. If your business persona is out of alignment with who you really are, people will notice. Your clients want to know who you really are so they can trust you. First you share with them all the ways in which you can solve their problems and fulfill their needs, then you give them a taste, then you let them get to know you a little.

They don’t really care about you at first, but they do want to feel a connection to you. It’s difficult to foster that if you are not being yourself.

And finally, Network, Network, Network. Determine where your target market gathers and go there. If your sales are down, advertising will cost you more than networking – marketing basically either costs you more time or more money.

If your target goes to networking meetings or mixers, join. If they hang out on Facebook, join that. If they frequent singles mixers, go there. If they belong to a trade organization, speak there and join. These are all ways to build relationships with your target market for a minimal investment.

If you really don’t know how to be outrageous or genuine or how to network, get help. Read free articles, take free teleclasses, read books and ask people. If that’s not enough for you, attend programs or hire a coach.

Just don’t cut out your marketing – that’s the worst thing you can do. You might need to cut your budget, but don’t cut your marketing. Your marketing strategies will keep new clients coming in and keep you afloat.

Copyright (c) 2008 Audrey Burton

Audrey Burton, Women’s Small Business Coach, is “The Tigress”. Get her FREE Special Report, “Closing the Sale is Not Complicated!” with her FREE monthly email newsletter at http://www.TigressCoaching.com

But at the same time in this case the hoary cliché about clouds and silver linings is true: the financial turmoil has thrown up opportunities for shared services organizations which, if seized, could greatly strengthen their value-propositions both during and after the recovery period. Not every SSO will be able to take advantage of all these opportunities – and not even the most committed optimist would maintain that there won’t be casualties among SSOs in the near future – but making the most of even one of the following ten upsides to the current downturn could be the difference between sinking and swimming.

1. Expanding talent pool
Lay-offs – both in SSOs themselves and in businesses generally – have already begun and are inevitably going to soar as time goes by. This has a host of negative consequences – but for those SSOs in a position to take on extra staff (especially at a senior level) this is an incredible opportunity to secure an advance in the war for talent. Qualified, experienced shared services practitioners – and other high-talent professionals with relevant transferable skills – will be pouring onto the market looking for work: this is your chance to pick them up before the competition does.

2. Lower salary expectations
Similarly – and as a direct result of the aforementioned glut of talent – the excess of supply in a low-demand space will have a pronounced impact on compensation levels. Even top talent will be wary about being overly demanding in wage negotiations when they know there’s a long line of other people waiting to take any position they can get. This might not seem like a positive for those out of work – but for SSOs looking to keep down costs it’s a cast-iron boon.

3. Declining land/construction/material values
This crisis began in the real estate sector and the impact there has already been dramatic – but it’s good news for any SSO (or any company looking to launch shared services) seeking a greenfield site for a new center. Once-prohibitive real estate and construction costs are dropping day by day (and will do as the construction sector continues to cannibalize in panic). Many, if not most, organizations will be putting big projects like this on hold; those that don’t will find the conditions for cost-effecive construction will be as attractive as they’ve been in a long, long time.

4. Better deals from vendors/suppliers
It’s certainly not just shared services that’ll feel the pinch; everyone bar the very luckiest is going to have to tighten their belts and up their game. For providers in increasingly crowded markets like IT, and suppliers in pretty much every sector, this will mean increasing competitiveness any way they can – and where better to start than at the bottom line, making prices and fees more attractive to the cash-strapped buy-side.

5. Greater senior-level buy-in (and hence more robust mandate)
Some SSOs are lucky enough to have the full support of the biggest players in their companies; others aren’t so fortunate. “Lack of senior sponsorship” is certainly one of the most commonly heard lamentations in shared services; another one is “resistance from business units”. now though, with the pressure on boards to slash costs and increase competitiveness by any means necessary, shared services’ mandate has never been stronger – and woe betide any BU that attempts to obstruct the process. After all, there’s always room in the talent pool for anyone going off-message…

6. Added value: cashflow
Cash has always been king; now it’s pretty much emperor and high priest to boot. Every last penny will count as banks turn off the credit taps and the economy squeals. So who better to maximise limited capital resources than shared services? Squeeze another couple of thousand here, another few mil here, out of order-to-cash and P2P processes globally and shared services’ seat at the top table will never have been as well merited (nor, hopefully, so well rewarded).

7. Added value: reporting
It might not seem that crucial right now, but the ability of an organization to rapidly and accurately report data has never been so important – and will continue to grow in importance over the next months and years. Up-to-the-minute reports from an SSO – especially one utilizing a successful advanced Business Process Management system – will help a business immeasurably when it comes to negotiating with no-doubt-miserly lending institutions – as well as when trying to head off hostile acquisition attempts.

8. Added value: compliance
A whole new industry sprang up after the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley – and that weighty Act is a veritable molehill when set against the mountain of regulation which is bound to loom up once the crisis passes. Shared service organizations which have already established and developed compliance units will have a crucial head-start as businesses scramble to conform to what might be extremely tough legislation across the West. Those that haven’t yet will be well-placed to take on board the responsibility – leaders can point to existing and successful compliance functions in SSOs around the world to hammer home the point.

9. Added value: M&A
We’ve seen some huge M&A deals announced in the financial sector already; if the crunch bites as deeply as it might, this will be replicated in pretty much every industry out there. Once again, SSOs can come into their own here: not only is there the mass of back-office processes, systems etc to integrate, but some shared services already take an active role in companies’ M&A activities in terms of real estate, HR and countless other different aspects of merging and acquiring. The opportunity is there for those that don’t already to jump on the bandwagon.

10. Breathing space
The spectre of outsourcing hangs over a great many SSOs and some, no doubt, will fall under the shadow. But ironically this current credit and cash crisis may be a lifesaver for some. Some companies which prior to the crisis were contemplating major outsourcing deals might now be put off by the initial expenditure required: if only for a while, outsourcing could go on the back-burner while more immediate savings are found. This could give under-fire SSOs just enough time to demonstrate some of the aforementioned value-add strategies. For some it will be too late – but for a few others this really could mean the difference between life and death.

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Let’s start thinking from the ground up

In the society, reasonably, trades among people are negotiated by the participants as a fair exchange of goods and services. However, it is not easy to match the same values of different goods and services every time. Therefore, money appeared. What is money? It is a recognized medium of exchange, agreed by all the participants. In other words, it is an IOU or a credit for the seller and a debt for the buyer. For example, A sells goods in the market. When B comes to buy the goods from A, B gives an IOU to A as an exchange. With that IOU, A can buy goods back from B or other parties with the equal value. The IOU is the money. It gives people a flexible way in trading.

As money is a credit that is widely accepted as a medium of exchange, therefore, we need a central place to have the control on money, such as to standardize the appearance, to control the amount of money supply to the market, etc. This is the government, or the Federal Reserve. Having a central control is very important, because this can enable us to measure the value of a good or service against another, based on what each sells for in the market. How many bottles of beer are equivalent in value to a pair of sport shoes can only be determined in the market place. Once again, money is credit. Every dollar of credit is matched by an equal amount of debt. You work hard and get paid with an IOU worth the amount $1000. Then you can use this to exchange for goods and services.

As you can see the importance of money, immediately, maybe the next question you will ask is: Why not print more money? Will our country be wealthier in that way? This is a good question. It should be explained by an example. Let’s suppose the government suddenly print out a huge amount of money, and then give every person a certain amount of that money. What would people do with that extra money? Some people will use that to pay the debt, some will save the money up, and some will spend that. Let’s assume some people are going to buy a notebook from Dell. If the supply of notebook remains unchanged, but the demand suddenly increased, then obviously Dell will raise the price accordingly. On opposite, if Dell wants to keep the price unchanged, then they need to manufacture more notebooks. However, there are many limitations to increase the productivity, such as the increase of costs of labors, materials and transportation, etc. When the maximum capacity of production is arrived, then the price of the notebook will increase unavoidably.

So, similar to all other goods and services, print more money will only cause the raise of prices, which is inflation. Finally, the supply and demand will back to the point of equilibrium again. Therefore, money is just a medium of exchange, it is a tool. The responsibility of the government or the Federal Reserve is to keep the supply of money in a reasonable balance with the needs of producers and the availability of goods and services. You can imagine that this is a very complicated work and required a wide range of knowledge in the economy and finance area.

Next, let’s think about the bank

What is bank? A bank is a business that provides financial services, usually for profit. The basic services provided by a bank include receiving deposits of money, lending money and processing transactions. A bank accepts deposits from customers like you and in turn makes loans based on those deposits. Every fee you pay to your bank enables them to reinvest in themselves, giving them more money to loan to the others. Banks are in business to make a profit. Their profit generally comes from the difference in interest paid to depositors and the interest earned on loans. Making loans helps banks make money.

Banks will offer other financial services to make additional profit, services provided usually include:
* Taking deposits from their customers and issuing checking and savings accounts to individuals and businesses
* Loans to individuals and businesses
* Home loan
* Cashing cheques
* Mutual Funds
* Signature Guarantees
* Facilitating money transactions such as wire transfers and cashiers checks
* Issuing credit cards, ATM cards, and debit cards
* Selling insurance products or investment products
* Stock broking
* Storing valuables, particularly in a safe deposit box
* Cashing and distributing bank rolls
* Consumer & commercial financial advisory services
* Pension & retirement planning

George C. (http://www.finance-database.com)