Category Archives: Business 1

This week I read The Irresistible Offer or How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less, by Mark Joyner. The book gave detailed instructions and insight on how to make your ad irresistible, and sell your product or service in a short period of time. In this week’s business essay I will be going through four famous ads(they are older), and seeing which ad confirms to Joyner’s standards of an irresistible ad.

The Elements of an Irresistible Ad

Before going through those ads I will be listing the elements of an irresistible ad, so that my readers will have some idea of what is going on.

1: A High ROI Offer.

2: A Touchstone

3: Believability 

The first element: ROI stands for“Return on Investment.” Technically everything that a customer buys from you is an investment(something that they will benefit from), so a high ROI is an investment that gives you a lot of value compared to the money that you just spent.

The second element: a touchstone is a statement that addresses as many of these following questions. These questions are: here’s what we are selling, here’s how much it will cost, here’s what’s in for you, and the final thing here’s why you should trust us. 

The third element: the third and final element believability is pretty self explanatory, your ad must sell something believable to work.

The Ads

Now that you know what the Irresistible offer is all about, I will be now going through four ads or commercials.

Ad One: the first ad I will go through is the M&Ms ad in 1957(I will be linking all four ads down below). The first thing I will look for in this ad is the high ROI; in this ad I found that there was not a high ROI, the only ROI that I found is the fact that M&Ms don’t melt in your hand but in your mouth. The touchstone of the ad only really answered two questions, here’s what we are selling and here’s why you should trust us, the other two questions were not really answered. As for believability, this ad is believable, it even showed a short cartoon on how the candies are made.

Ad Two: the second ad I will go through is the radio shack TRS-80 computer ad,1980. The high ROI of this ad is that this product can turn any color TV into an exciting game arcade, that it is also an educational aid, a home management tool, and an electronic information tool. The touchstone of the ad answered all of the questions,  here’s what we are selling, here’s how much it will cost, here’s what’s in for you, and  here’s why you should trust us. This ad was pretty believable, with video footage of people using the product in all the ways that the product could be used.

Ad Three: the third ad I will go through is the Commodore IBM PC, 1987(Australia). The high ROI of this ad is that this product can run the same programs from the computer that you use in the office, that it is powerful enough to power the largest programs, and it’s expandable. The touchstone of this ad answered all four questions,  here’s what we are selling, here’s how much it will cost, here’s what’s in for you, and  here’s why you should trust us. This ad was pretty believable, a little less so than the ads above but, still pretty believable.

Ad Four: the forth ad I will go through is the American Express ad in the 1960s. The high ROI of this ad is that this product is the credit card that you only need during travel and entertainment. The touchstone of this ad is a little vague, but the ad did answer here’s what we are selling and here’s what’s in for you. This ad in my opinion was the least believable out of the four ads I am going through, but near the end of the ad it got pretty believable.

Conclusion

Because I have gone through all four ads, I am now ready to answer the most important question: which ad confirms to Joyners standards of an irresistible ad? Well to begin with all of those ads fall into Joyner’s standards in different ways, and all of those ads were pretty good, some better than others, so the real question in my opinion is which ad is better at following Joyner’s standards. In my opinion the second ad is the best out of the four ads following Joyner’s standards. This is because it had all three elements of an irresistible ad, and it answered all the questions from the touchstone. The ad itself was pretty believable and entertaining, and made me want to buy the product.

The ads that I used:

M&M: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFDVm92Te_c&feature=emb_title

TRS-80 Computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kT207Jmhq4&feature=emb_title

Commodore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFh1u9t8BT8&feature=emb_title

American Express: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW1ab82biDI&feature=emb_title

For this assignment I wrote an ad on something my family needed to sell, on Craigslist, but unfortunately my family has nothing they need to sell at the moment, so I had to make up the product I am selling on this ad, which was rather difficult. Well here it goes.

Yellow Colored Hoodie

This beautiful yellow colored hoodie would delight your son or daughter at first sight. The material of the hoodie is soft but high quality, which makes it perfect to be worn just at home or at a casual outing. Because this hoodie is a size medium kids, it is suited for children ages 8-12. The younger the child the more oversized and cozy the hoodie will be.

The cost of this hoodie is fifteen dollars, but if you mention this ad in your order, you will get 15% off! 

The Logic of My Ad

My ad gives reasons on why you should want this hoodie for it’s cost, it also offers a reason you should buy the hoodie, by stating that it would delight your son or daughter, because it’s cozy, soft, and can be worn at most occasions. I didn’t know exactly what would be a unique benefit of this hoodie because I don’t actually have a yellow hoodie that I want to sell, but I did say that the hoodie would be more oversized and cozy the younger the child. My ad uses the rule, “reason why advertising,” which states all the reasons why you should buy this hoodie.

This ad is far from perfect or great(but this is my first ad I have ever written), I believe that it would be better if I actually had something to sell, instead of making something up. An image of the product would make this ad,  much better also. Still I followed the rule of “scientific advertising,” at least as best as I could.

Conclusion

This is my scientific Advertisement.

In this week’s business essay I will be writing about: “would it  be moral to grade exams, so that all students get C’s? If not, is it moral for the state to redistribute incomes?”

Now to begin with, school exams. You most likely work hard on your school assignments and before exam studying so that you can get a good grade on the exam, and if you do succeed and get a very good grade such as an A+, all that hard work and studying would be worth it. But what if the school system graded every exam with a grade such as a C, this would be unfair for multiple reasons. 

These reasons are: 

Reason One

Some students are more gifted than others at a subject. Giving everyone the same grade would be unfair for the students who are very good at the subject and study very hard for it.

Reason Two

If everyone is given the exact same grade in an exam, what would be the point if you studied hard for the exam, because everyone is going to be given the same grade anyways.

Reason Three

 Exams would be a complete waste of time. This is obvious because if everyone is given the same grade what is the point of taking school exams, if you cannot get a grade different from everyone else.

Reason Four

It is completely illogical to give everyone the same grade in an exam because everyone is different in their abilities in that particular subject, almost no one gets the exact same number of questions in an exam correctly, and also the students who are taking the exam will never be able to see there improvement in the subject through exams because everyone is getting graded the same grade. 

So I do believe that it is immoral to give everyone the exact same grade in an exam.

Is It Moral For the State to Redistribute Incomes?

So now would it be moral for the State government to redistribute everyone’s income? To make this easier to understand here is a simple example. Say if you were working four hours a day twice a week for ten dollars an hour at a small bakery, and you are paid your first paycheck. But instead of being paid the full amount which is eighty dollars, you are instead paid only ten dollars because your fellow employees who have not been working at all that week, are struggling with their bills, so your boss decided to help them out by giving the rest of your earnings to those other employees. Would that be fair? Sure it is equal, but it is unfair for you, this is because you were the one who actually took your time to work at the job, but your fellow employees did not work that entire week.

This is a very small example of distribution. A large example of this is taking money from the middle class and rich and giving that money to the poor. I am not saying that you should not be generous, and I do believe that people should be allowed to give charity. But this system is also damaging to the poor in the long run because they will never learn to make money on their own, and the middle class and rich are not benefiting either because their money is being taken away. So I do believe that this is immoral, like the example above of grading everyone that is taking an exam the same grade.

Conclusion

In this week’s essay I wrote about: “would it  be moral to grade exams, so that all students get C’s? If not, is it moral for the state to redistribute incomes?” I concluded in the essay that both of those things are immoral, even though they may seem fair.

In this week’s essay I will be writing about what lifestyle I want twenty years from now. This is just a guess on where I will be in the future, I cannot fully determine exactly where I will be in twenty years because I am human and cannot see the future but I do have faith that my future will be good if I work hard, not waste time, and put faith upon God.

In twenty years I will be thirty four years old, by then I have long finished my education, and most likely have a career. I would like to live a very similar lifestyle as my parents which is, having a spouse, children, and being financially stable. I believe that the things I have been learning from the Personal Finance and Business courses will make it easier for me to be financially stable.

When I was younger I wanted to live a life that just had to do with a career or business but now I believe, even though a career and business is great, it really would not be practical to be constantly working and focusing on a career when I do get married and have children, because that would just be too much for me to handle, and when I do have children my main goal is to raise them well and give them a good homeschool education. So my main goal in twenty years is not so much building my career which I have already built, but instead building a strong family.

Conclusion

My lifestyle in twenty years is somewhat unknown, but I do have my guesses and what I would like for my adult lifestyle. What I would like for a lifestyle twenty years from now is very similar to the lifestyle that my parents have at the moment, financial stability, a spouse, and children. If I do have children in twenty years, which I would like, my main priority is to raise my children well and give them a good homeschool education. This is my essay on what lifestyle I want twenty years from now.

I already have an apprenticeship job, but if my circumstances do change and I do have to get a new apprenticeship job, these are the things I will be looking for. Since I am still young there are many options for me, but I do have my preferences when it comes to career options and what I want in an apprenticeship. In this essay I will be going over these things.

Geology

Ever since I was young I knew I wanted to have a career that had to do with minerals. Since I have gotten older and have studied about this field of science that has inspired this wishful dream into a goal. Even though this may not happen I still want to have a career that has to do with this field.

Writer

I used to be very bad at writing, yet that did not discourage me from enjoying it, over the years I have improved my writing, and have learned to love it further. A writing career has always interested me especially so when I started blogging and posting my writing online. Even though I usually write essays I have also written some short stories and poems. So I believe that if my Geology career does not go as planned I will always have writing as an option for a career.

Health Nutrition 

I have always been interested in health and nutrition, most likely I won’t follow this option as a career path but I will still study it since health and nutrition is very important to know about, to stay healthy. I actually work at a health store for a health nutritionist, so I have some knowledge on the topic. I believe this is a rather underrated career option and I think it’s very valuable and important.

My Ideal Apprenticeship

When choosing an apprenticeship I would like to get to know the person that will be hiring me as an apprentice, I would like to see their business, how they work, how their other employees work(if they have them); basically just getting to know this person. This is important to ensure that you are safe and you are working in a place where you will actually learn something.

And the final specific thing I will do when looking for an apprenticeship is that the business is successful. Working for a successful business is much better than working for a failing business, because working for a successful business is a better way to ensure that you will learn good business habits, unlike working for a failing business which will most likely teach you bad habits when running a business, which is why the business is failing. 

Conclusion

When searching for an apprenticeship or job I have two specific things I will be looking for in the apprenticeship or job, getting to know the place of work and the owner and making sure that the business is successful. Being an apprentice or having a job is a great way to decide what you want to be when you get older and what career path(s) are you interested in or have an understanding for. At the moment I do have a job, but that does not mean I will not be searching for options.

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, is a book on handling and dealing with people. The book gives pretty detailed tips on social interactions and how to get what you want from people. In this essay I will be writing about my plan on implementing one chapter of this book in my life.

My Plan

My plan is to not implement just one chapter from this book, instead I will implement as many chapters that I need to apply or apply to me. There are a few areas in my life that I implement the tips from this book for. These areas are: my relationships with my siblings and my job.

I have several younger siblings whom I am very close too, but there are times when my siblings and I do not get along(this is pretty normal, siblings fight). Some days when I am looking after my siblings they decide not to listen to me(usually this is my two youngest siblings). This is always a frustrating situation because no matter how much you remind them that they have to listen to you, they will not listen(this is where I was getting it wrong).

The strategies that I have trying to implement in my relationship with my siblings are: “ask questions instead of giving orders,” “praise every improvement,” and “using encouragement to make a fault or mistake seem easy to fix.” 

Personally I believe that this book is very helpful when managing or dealing with siblings, even though this book was written as a book on business relationships, I think it works great when it comes to dealing with siblings or other kids. But, even though these tips are great there are times when a bad mistake is made and you must tell your parents to make sure your sibling learns a lesson to not make that mistake again, sometimes discipline must be used, but usually these tips apply.

For my job this book is very useful, even though I do cleaning there are times when there is a rush of customers and my boss or whoever else is working needs help I will step up and deal with some customers, who know what they need but do not know where the item is in the store. The two tips I use from this book for this area of my life are: “smile and”being a good listener.”

These tips are helpful because, one, if I smile usually the customer feels safe dealing with me, and two, if I listen well I will have an easier time helping the customer find what they want.

Conclusion

How to Win Friends and Influence People, is a very useful book for almost all social interaction, and I highly recommend reading this book, since I believe that most people will find one or more tips that will apply to them or their lives, which can improve their success with social interactions.

The book How To Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, is a book about how to handle people, technically it is a self help book.There are two techniques particular in this book that are difficult for me to learn to do well. One: Let the Other Person Do All The Talking and two: Remembering Other People’s Names.

Technique One

This technique is difficult for me since I like to talk, and whenever I have a conversation with someone, and they are doing a lot of the talking I have this urge to speak. I have a difficult time being silent at a certain point of a conversation; I am not a bad listener, and I actually let the other people talk about themselves, and instead of interrupting I encourage, support them, and make them feel important, but when the conversation hits a certain point I want to talk about myself. This is probably something that most people feel, during a conversation.

Over time I have gotten better at controlling that urge, but I still get it, but after reading about this technique in the book I realized that I would be better with people if I get rid of this habit or at least control it very well, even better than I have been doing for awhile.

Technique Two

Remembering other people’s names is very important when you want to be successful when it comes to social interactions, it is not easy to remember every person’s name that you have ever spoken to.

This technique is difficult for me because I usually am too focused on the conversation, instead of focusing when the person says his/her name. This usually ends up by me asking the person what their name is again. This causes a sense of awkwardness between me and that person, which is never a good way to end a social interaction. Improving on this technique would make it much easier for me when it comes to dealing with people I do not know.

Conclusion

How To Win Friends and Influence People, is a very useful book and I highly recommend it to anyone, no matter how good they think they are when it comes to social interactions.

There are many important aspects to running a good business; one of the most important aspects to business is social interactions. Being good with social interactions is a very useful skill; if you are good with social interactions most likely clients or customers will continue buying your products or services. If you are good with social interactions people come back to you and your business.

Being good with people, can make it easier for people to trust and do business with you. Showing genuine interest or concern towards a customer, creates trust between you.

Maintaining this “trust” and building it, is very important. Think like the customer; what would you do in his/her situation? Most likely you would not buy from someone unless you feel like you could trust them, and that they would give you the best price and service. If you do not feel comfortable with a person, you would probably not buy from them.

Trust is important in any form of relationship, personal, friendship, business, etc. Trust in business relationships is very important; business relationships can be difficult, especially with all the business competition. But if you remember that if you appreciate the customer or client then they will appreciate your business.

An example of someone I know who is good with customer relationships is my boss. She’s understanding and trustworthy, and lets the customers talk about what they need, she never interrupts them, just lets them talk, when the customer is finished talking she helps them find the best product for them for a reasonable price.

 Almost always the customers come back and become long term customers and friends. With long term customers, my boss, inquires how the customer’s family is, say if the customer is into a certain type of sport, she would ask them about that, and if they have children she would inquire about their children, and a parent most likely would love to talk about their children 

Conclusion

Trust is very important in all types of relationships. Trust in a business relationship is very important, especially if you want to sell to a customer or client.

Spreeder is an online app that trains you to read more quickly and efficiently. I have never used this app so I do not know exactly how it works, but I am pretty sure that you copy and paste a passage of a book on the app, and the app goes through with you one word at a time, eventually making you a faster and faster reader.

I am already a relatively fast reader, I have finished three hundred or more paged books in one hour or less, many times, so it would take a lot to convince me to use Spreeder. 

The Reasons Why I Do Not Want To Use This App

One of the reasons why I don’t want to use Spreeder is because I honestly do not want to spend my time using an app to improve my speed reading abilities. Another reason is that I have no problem going through reading assignments usually, I always get all my reading assignments done by the end of the day, so I really think I do not have a need for it.

What Would It Take To Persuade Me

The only thing that Gary North could persuade me with is Spreeder’s time saving benefits. Say if I had a pile of reading assignments to get done that requires careful reading, Spreeder would help me go through the task quickly and effectively. That would probably persuade me. 

Conclusion

Spreeder would be highly beneficial for anyone who needs improvement when it comes to speed reading. It’s not that expensive, under two hundred dollars USD, which is pretty affordable, unlike some of the other Speed reading programs, which can cost much more.

In this essay I wrote about what it would take for Dr. North to persuade me to use Spreeder for ten minutes a day.

If I start a business it will be one of my main sources of income, but when my business starts making a certain amount and I am at a certain age(probably when I am old), I would like to sell this business to either start a new business or retire if I am old. This plan may change throughout the next coming years.

Like I said I would most likely sell my business when I retire; because I would most likely sell my business when I am older I do not know how much money in profit I have made from the business.

The other reason to sell my business would be if I want to start a new business and the business I am currently running is making a good profit then I will sell. If I do sell in this type of situation I would like my business to be making me two hundred dollars in profit, this does not seem like a lot, but think about all the expenses you must pay before you pay yourself, now that’s decent money, for a small business.

I plan on not having a large business, just a small or medium sized business. I am planning to follow the field of Geology, and I would like to be a writer on mining, since I will have the knowledge on the subject since I will be a geologist, so my business will not be huge.

But, if I change my mind and plan on starting a large business corporation, I would make sure that I am able to sell the business in the future.  When I do sell, I hope to have been making millions in profit when I owned the business.

Conclusion

When I do have a business I do not plan on selling until I am old and ready to retire. Having a business can be a huge opportunity and advantage, so I will probably hold onto the business until I am old, but if I find a new opportunity or career path, I would only sell the business when I make 200,000 thousand dollars in profit. This number is unsure since I am still in my early teens, things may change.