Dissecting the Best Business Hacks of a Membership Site
With so many resources available to help our businesses, it is often difficult to find one that provides a great value at a good price. Thankfully for me, I have found such a resource in Platform University by Michael Hyatt.
Now, I don’t expect that all of you are going to jump into Platform University - that is not my intention at all. Frankly, Platform University isn't really designed for many of my readers as it is a resource for those building online businesses, which is something I am doing with this site and my business.
The reason I am writing this article is that I wanted to take this opportunity to dissect the inner workings of this membership site I have been a part of for nearly two years and break down why it has been so valuable for me. My hope is that you will be able to take away a few business hacks (summarized at the end of the article) that Michael Hyatt has used in Platform University and be able to apply them to your own business.
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3 Easy Ways to Make Products Sticky
When I first started working in the financial industry over a decade ago, the bank that I worked for talked about making their products “sticky” for their customers. They explained that the more products we sold, the stickier our company would be for them and the harder it would be for them to leave. Stickiness was their main customer retention strategy.
I now fully understand what they mean and why they focused on "stickiness." In fact, I still bank with that organization even though I haven’t worked there in nearly a decade.
But why? Because the services I have with them truly are sticky - it would be a major headache to switch banks.
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3 Amazing Hacks for a Struggling Restaurant
Why do some restaurants struggle while some thrive?
This question is loaded with variables, of course, but the reality is that some restaurants just know how to do business better than others.
Fortunately, there are several tricks of the trade and somewhat unique innovations that every struggling business should consider before rolling up its doors and closing.
The following three hacks can have a huge impact on any restaurant - struggling or not:
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The Importance of Innovation in Business
I love small businesses - I advise them and have started a couple of them - but I have to admit, owning a business today is harder than ever before.
A successful business recipe used to consist of the following:
hard work + a fair price + good customer service = successful business
Now, that recipe is no longer enough. Today, we need...
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Three Pricing Strategies - The Only Three You'll Ever Need
Pricing is something that every business must consider. Quickly pricing products without much research or consideration can help to get a product to market in a short period of time. But pricing is one of the most important elements of a successful business. And for that reason, pricing should not be a quick, haphazard process - it should be an intentional strategy.
While there are many pricing variations, there are three pricing strategies that provide the foundation for the majority of the others. As a business owner, you can easily hack your product pricing by following one or more of these three pricing strategies:
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Why Do Prices End in 99? Not (just) what you think
Why do prices end in 99? It would seem logical to just round them up to the next dollar. Yet so many businesses forego rounding and price their products to end in 99. So why is this done? The answer is not what you think - at least, not only what you think.
The reason why prices end in 99 is often attributed to
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Hotel Innovation: Hacking the Do Not Disturb
The hotel industry is one that I would probably never want to be in. With the intense competition today, just one upset person on Yelp can deter potential guests. This means that if a hotel is doing something differently than other hotels, it can be perceived as being a problem. For this reason, it seems that most hotels operate in a very similar manner. Best practices and customer services are often safer than hotel innovation.
Great customer service and certain industry best practices are expected by guests, so these best practices often become the norm for most hotels: free wifi, a continental breakfast, flat screen TV’s, loyalty rewards, and consistent housekeeping. But every now and then a hotel is able to hack this model - they provide a hotel innovation that stands out. I recently spoke in Whitefish, Montana and stayed at the Grouse Mountain Lodge. To my surprise, they hacked a standard hotel best practice that really made my day.
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Health Insurance Innovation: Hacking the Deductible
Several years ago I worked for an employer who was struggling with rising health care costs. Just like every other business in the United States, they were looking for ways to manage the year after year price increases. The health insurance innovation they came up with was one that was based on the health of the employee - healthy employees would pay less and unhealthy employees would pay more.
But employees naturally disliked this program. It wasn’t that they thought everyone should pay the same for health insurance - they seemed to understand that unhealthy people cost the company more in premiums. They even thought this was a great health insurance innovation. Their problem with the program was with how the program was framed.
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Hacking the Dental Referral
My wife has found a dentist she loves. She doesn’t appreciate him because he makes her teeth whiter or takes away her pain when she has neglected her teeth. She loves her dentist because he has given her $150 in gift certificates.
When she first walked into Dr. Painter’s dental office, she was told about a dental referral program offered by the practice. For every person she referred to the dental office, she would receive a $25 gift card to the merchant of her choice. Having a family of 5, she quickly got her first $100 in gift certificates. Add in her parents, and she was up to $150 with very little work.
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Chopsticks Hack: Biggest Hack Since...
I love Thai food. Specifically, tofu curry is my food of choice. And I always prefer to eat it with chopsticks.
Chopsticks have been around for years. In fact, they were probably invented before the wheel. For this reason, I was surprised to find that the Thai restaurant I ate at today has done it; they have hacked the chopstick.
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3 Ways to Hack Your Business Today
Change is never easy. But change is essential to keeping up with the competition. Especially for small businesses who must compete against the economies of scale of large corporations. Change doesn't have to be a major production or significant undertaking with months of planning and the use of major resources - change can be accomplished through business hacking.
Business hacks are the micro-elements of innovation and strategy. When added together piece by piece, business hacks can provide for a large, substantial change. Just like a marathon is run one step at a time. The following are three ways to quickly hack your business today:
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You Don't Need Help Writing A Business Plan
Business plans can be overwhelming. They take a great amount of diligence and work to create. They require all kinds of information that isn't always available and many people think they need help writing a business plan. I am here to tell you that you don't.
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