Articles: Anthony Mora Communications

Business Makeover Magic
Wealth Building Magazine

By Anthony Mora

If your home-based business isn't doing as well as you believe it could, perhaps it's time to implement a process I call "Business Makeover Magic!" It offers a way to reposition your business and capitalize on its strengths. Over a number of years, working with companies both large and small, I've developed the techniques you can implement to achieve this "magic" and make more money and gain more recognition in the process. I'll present these techniques in a series of steps.

STEP ONE:
Define your business. What is your business? Think that's an easy question? Think again. You'd be surprised at how few people can actually put into words what it is they do for a living.

In all my years as a PR consultant, the obvious questions have been the hardest for clients to answer. Most of us tend to simply go through the motions of our work, giving very little thought to what we do, how we do it and how we are perceived by others. But the more we can define what our business is, the clearer our path and options become.

By "what you do," I don't mean what label you use to describe your work. I'm not looking for such simplistic answers as "I run a business," "I'm an attorney," or "I style hair in my home-based beauty shop." I want to know what you really do. What does your job require of you? What do you bring to your business that is unique to who you are? What do you offer your clients or customers that is distinctive? What about you and your business is so special? And keep in mind, "nothing" is not an acceptable answer.

Make a list. Write down what makes your business unique. What is the central idea behind your business. Many entrepreneurs can operate identical businesses, whether they're flower shops, a law practice, or home-based consultants, yet the way they run their businesses will be highly individualistic.

If you're having trouble making your list, ask yourself, "What is my message?" All businesses have messages. Yours doesn't have to be earth-shattering. It can be as basic as "We offer our clients honest, hard work," or as revolutionary as "This product is the newest of its kind and will change life as you know it." Are you the fastest? The most dependable? The most innovative? Do you serve a special niche? Since this isn't a moral issue, don't get bogged down thinking your message must be grandiose.

Remember, just as two musicians can play the same tune using identical instruments and come up with very unique sounds, so too does every business have its own distinctive style. If you aren't presenting your abilities and uniqueness in an appealing and accurate manner, it's time for a business makeover.

STEP TWO:
Refine your image. How can your business reflect your uniqueness? By integrating who you are with what you do. To accomplish this, you need to understand how to capitalize on your unique abilities to help make your business grow and differentiate it from your competitors.

Often your business is just arbitrarily put together. It grows on its own without a focus or direction. View your business as a living, breathing thing. You gave it life and it needs guidance and structure. Determine where you want the business to go. Start defining your business, as opposed to simply letting the business wander aimlessly. Do you want to attract as wide a market as possible, or appeal to a more limited, special niche market?

So, define your image. Approach your business as though you were a prospective client. An effective image does not just happen; it has to be worked at. Review everything. If you have a storefront, is it inviting? Does it welcome customers? If you've grown to the point that you have a staff, does it make clients or customers feel welcome and comfortable, both in person and on the phone?

If you sell a product, is your packaging and sales material clear and attractive? Are your deliveries on time? Are you professional? Do you and your staff inspire confidence? Does the way you dress and carry yourself reflect a professional image? Most businesses need only minor makeovers; essentially some fine-tuning. But you'll be surprised. Slight changes can give your business a whole new lease on life. Real success comes when we integrate ourselves with our business when we are moving in one unified direction.

STEP THREE:
Take your message public. Once you've defined your message and fine-tuned your image, what then? Well, what about taking your message to hundreds, thousands, possibly millions of potential clients and/or customers? How? Two words: media placement. This is something you can attempt on your own, or you can seek out the professionals for help. Of course, when you do, expect to pay a fee for their services.

Never before have people been able to share information on such a global scale and with such dizzying speed. Along with newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and the Internet, more and more avenues of communication are becoming available. In many ways, media is magic-it is modern day alchemy.

For instance, it is possible to do an interview in the morning and have a story saturate the nation by lunchtime. Effective media placement can legitimize, validate, sell products, bring in clients, forge new alliances, bring you in contact with benefactors you never knew existed, and take you into the offices, boardrooms and even bedrooms of the most powerful people in the world.

Whether you run an established business, are starting a new venture, or serve as a consultant, media placement can help build your business or company.

What is media placement? Good question. Although people have a tendency to lump advertising and public relations together, they are extremely different animals. Advertising is generally what pays the bills for a newspaper or TV program. Those ads or commercials are the reason that the feature articles, interviews, news programs and/or talk shows exist.

But how many of you skip through the pages of ads in a magazine to get to the articles, or channel surf in order to avoid TV commercials and watch an actual program? I know I do. The reason that media placement is so powerful is that it makes your story a part of that magazine article or TV program; it makes you a part of the reason that John (and Joan) Q Public have picked up that magazine or newspaper or turned on that TV program. Why? Because you become the story. You have sidestepped the advertising section of the media and jumped to the editorial section.

Unlike an advertiser, you are not paying for your article or interview to appear. And unlike a free-lance writer who earns a living by writing and placing stories, you won't get paid in dollars and cents for any article you submit, either. But you'll be amply rewarded with growing recognition.

You will have been picked by the editor of a newspaper or magazine or the segment producer of a TV program to become a part of a story in which you are featured or quoted. Or by a magazine editor to author an entire story in your field of expertise. If you write and submit articles, they may run in their entirety in magazines or newspapers, or trigger the interest of TV producers. Sometimes your product or service will be mentioned, or shown in use. That's great, free advertising.

Should you decide to pursue this course of action, contact the editor or TV producer and discuss what you have to contribute. It could be a story idea. It could be serving as that media outlet's expert on finance, Insurance, home-business, etc.

The media will have found you important enough to be interviewed and to represent your field. If you are being interviewed on an evening news segment, your interview could be sandwiched between an interview with the U.S. President and a feature on the newest medical breakthrough. Why is that significant? Well, it's the opposite of guilt by association. It's importance by association.

Why is media exposure such a powerful tool? Simple. What is any business's most powerful marketing tool? Word of mouth. What if there was a way of magnifying the word-of-mouth effect? What if you could get that referral broadcast nationally to hundreds, thousands or possibly millions of people? That's akin to magic. And that's what effective media placement is all about: focusing the magic of media on you and your business, harnessing the media's power and using it to reach your target audience.

Unlike any other form of marketing, media placement can help establish you as an expert in your field and showcase you, your business, your talent and/or product. And it can do so locally, nationally and internationally. You are not in an ad or commercial, but part of the news. You are the story.

So, you should take some time to define your business and your message. Scrutinize your business from top to bottom, If it's time for a new look, create one. Give you and your business a makeover. Soon you'll be ready for center stage; ready to take your story to the public and bring your dreams to reality.

Anthony Mora
Author of The Alchemy of Success, a guide on how to define goals and utilize the power of the media to achieve success in any field, Mora has been featured in The New York Times, Elle, CNN, and other media. He is president of Anthony Mora Communications, Inc, (AMC) Los Angeles, a PR Firm specializing in media placement.

AMC has worked with entrepreneurs, physicians, attorneys, small businesses, film companies, and authors and publishers, including Simon & Schuster, Hearst Books, Avon Books and Macmillan. AMC has placed clients in Time, ABC World News, The Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20, People, The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, USA Today, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other media outlets. For more information, call Anthony Mora Communications, Inc., at 323-874-2937.

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