more judiciously, so it will be attracted only to businesses offering much more appealing and complete value propositions, with superior reputations, unique positioning, exceptionally effective marketing to tell their story, and outstanding customer service before, during, and after the sale. A more cautious consumer, striving to be sensible and responsible, will be judging you and trying to determine if your company is worthy of his trust before he buys from you. You will be under greater scrutiny.
4. You must genuinely earn your right to your customers’ interest and support by providing well-matched, specialized, even customized product, service, and value propositions. People now have the opportunity, power, and awareness to demand what is specifically for them and precisely matched to their needs, interests, and desires. They are not going to be on buying sprees, buying whatever is in your wagon that you want to sell.
New Economy Customers will not be as tight-fisted as recession customers, but they will be extremely demanding.
The New Economy will not be as grumpy and harsh as the recession economy, but it will not be generous or forgiving either.
Business success in The New Economy will be earned, not given. Businesses must be better. Businesspeople must be much better.
FOREWORD
By Brian Tracy
You are about to get into a business championship fight. In this book, you will be knocked around, and many of your most cherished ideas will get punched and stomped on. Like a roller coaster, your stomach will drop and you might have trouble breathing. But don’t worry, you’ll arrive safely at the other end.
In my years as a consultant and business speaker, I’ve written 28 books, translated into 20 languages, and produced more than 300 audio and video learning programs. I have a good understanding of the importance and value of good business ideas.
My friend Dan Kennedy is unique, a genius in many ways. I have always admired his ability to see the vital truths in any business, and to state these realities with straight language and clear definitions.
Dan has written a timeless book, with ideas, insights, and methods you can use immediately to get better, faster business results.
His approach is direct. His ideas are controversial. His ability to get results for his clients is unchallenged. When you read, learn, and apply what you discover in the pages ahead, your business life, and your income, will change forever.
Put up your mental tray tables. Put on your conceptual seatbelts. You are entering an area of considerable turbulence. But you will come out of this experience a better businessperson than you ever have been. You will arrive at your destination of business success and profitability faster than you ever thought possible.
Good luck, and bon voyage!
—Brian Tracy
Brian Tracy is one of America’s most sought after and popular professional speakers, author of dozens of business books, and a visionary thinker about business trends, opportunities, and strategies. www.briantracy.com.
PREFACE
Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
—R. SHERMAN, FROM MARY POPPINS
Welcome to what I sincerely hope is the most truthful, blunt, straightforward, non-sugarcoated, no pabulum, no holds barred, no-nonsense, no B.S. book you have ever read on succeeding as an entrepreneur.
I wrote the first edition of this book back in 1993, and since then I’ve personally heard from thousands of readers, from all over the world. You saw a few of their comments on the opening pages of this book. It struck a chord with entrepreneurs—the chord of authenticity. No college classroom theory, no baloney. Real world truths from somebody who succeeds day in, day out, as an entrepreneur, working without a net. Since then, a lot has happened in my life, business and personal. For example, I’ve sold two businesses I built up, walked away from a very important and lucrative nine-year business relationship, made planned, continual evolutionary changes in my other businesses, gone through a divorce after 22 years of marriage, re-married the same woman several years later, been diagnosed diabetic, and more. I’m pleased to report I’m happier than I’ve been in many years, and am living the life I set out to live. Anyway, all these changes, new experiences, what I’ve learned from my clients certainly warranted a complete updating of this book.
I wrote that last paragraph for the updated edition published in 2004. But in just a handful of years since then, a whole lot has changed in the business world too. The once mighty have fallen, the credit and banking system is in collapse and under recreation, a new eagerness for massive government interference in every aspect of business as well as everyday life has permeated America, and an entirely new economy—THE New Economy—is emerging, with new rules, new restrictions, new obstacles, and new opportunities. Many business owners have spent recent months wandering around, moaning “Oh, my God—what do I do now?” A lot of businesspeople and investors were caught unaware, for no good reason; the entire scenario was easily forecast. Many are moving into The New Economy weary and wounded or in stubborn denial, and may or may not survive. Others are striding in confidently and boldly, ready to put the recession well behind them and re-make themselves and their businesses as changed conditions and opportunities require. Whatever scars you may carry from the recession in progress or easing, whatever position you are re-starting or starting from, you can count on three things:
First, there will always be successes.
Second, the principles that make business success possible have not changed and will not change. Strategies and tactics and applications, yes. Principles, no. Switching from typewriter to PC has not altered the writing of a successful book. Switching from one kind of economy to another has not altered the fundamental ways in which successful entrepreneurs approach business. I did not change a single one of the No B.S. Eternal Business Truths first placed in the first edition of this book 16 years ago. They are evergreen. Some even more relevant in The New Economy. I have changed some of my advice about applying these Truths, but not the Truths themselves. And you should draw some confidence from how well these principles have stood the test of time and withstood the storms of the most recent period.
Third, I won’t B.S. you in this book. As the umpire says, I’ll call’em as I see ’em—based on 35+ years on business battlefields, before, during, and after recessions. Experience in my own businesses, with hundreds and hundreds of private clients—almost all from-scratch millionaire and multi-millionaire entrepreneurs, and with the tens of thousands of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle™ Members, who interact with me day to day. Nothing in this book comes out of a university’s ivory tower or protected, pleasant tree-lined campus; it all comes from the blood-splattered business battlefield. This book is not a book report drawn from other books by a student and spectator; it is an in-the-trenches report. If you are living the life of the entrepreneurial business owner, you will hear its ring of authenticity loud and clear.
It is a personal book, me talking straight with you, as if I was consulting with you, and as if we were sitting around at the end of the day on my deck, watching the sunset, enjoying adult beverages, and just hanging out. Because it is personal, along the way I’ll be telling you quite a bit about me and about my business life, past, present, and future. None of this is about bragging.
