Not Having an
Internet-Centered Business

Having your own domain name and a web site that describes your speaking programs in glowing terms is good - but "good" just isn't good enough anymore. In fact, when it comes to the Internet, "good" is barely adequate.

To describe the Internet as a "business miracle" is not hyperbole. Using the Internet (which includes your own websites, the ever-changing social media scene, and "old fashioned" email), you can prospect for clients like never before. You can deliver product instantly. You can deliver products that would have been regarded as science fiction just a few years ago. You can personalize your marketing activities. You can help people around the world, 365 days a year, without going near an airport.

What about you? Are you using the Internet to its fullest? Or are you coasting along, deluding yourself that you don't need to be all that heavily into technology? Are you saying "I'm a speaker, and I make my income from the platform, not from the Internet"? After all, where trainers are waking up to the potentials of the Internet, keynoters won't be affected. Right?

Wrong. That's exactly what bookstores said, just a few years ago. "After all, people want to thumb through a book, look at its cover, feel its weight. Online book sales will never catch on." And then Amazon.com and ebooks turned the book publishing world upside down.

What about you? Is your speaking business centered on the Internet? If not, you're a dinosaur, wondering what all the excitement is about. And unless you intend to retire within the next several years, you have two choices - start treating the Internet like the unprecedented marketing and operational opportunity it is… or find another line of work.

Or, putting it another way, you don't have a speaking business. You have an Internet business.

It's just that simple.

Action Steps:

1. Find (hire, sire, or marry) a competent web geek. Expertise in WordPress or some other web development platform is a must; HTML5, CSS 3, and other languages is a definite plus.

2. Learn enough about the Internet yourself so that you can talk intelligently to your web geek. (You don't have to be a geek, but you need to be able to communicate with one.)

3. Start moving your business toward doing much of your operations - including prospecting, marketing, product sales, and relationship management - on the Internet.