Clayton Makepeace has released the latest issue of ‘Total Package’. The featured article by Troy White is titled “Trailer park success …and fly-by-night tenants”. [Article]


Clayton Makepeace has released the latest issue of ‘Total Package’.

The featured article:

Trailer park success …and fly-by-night tenants

by Troy Whit

Fellow Business-Builder,

We are going to take a break from the Twitter talk for this week.

My experiment continues, and I am encouraged by what I have seen so far. I do not think it is for every business, but I do see the potential for many. I will continue to report in on this, but there ARE things other than social media in this world that impact your success.

Today, I want to share two dramatically different small business stories.

First, a local disaster.

There is a little strip mall by my house. On the end of the mall is a small bay that continues to struggle.

The last attempt is “Food23″ which you can see here …

http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/images/issues/674/food123.jpg

They spent $15,000 on the renovations of the inside and kitchen. They were excited about opening day.

And they were destined to fail.

Opening day came, and went. And they closed their doors for good. These morons thought they would make enough money day one to float them through their big grand opening.

– They had no marketing in place.

– The name of their restaurant … sucked.

– They had no differentiation (crappy deep-fried foods is all they offered)

– And they did NOTHING to get people in the door. (In their business, all they had to do was
create a powerful offer for the local neighborhood. That would have given them a decent start on day one … they didn’t even do that.)

– They honestly thought that by opening their doors they would be swamped with people, cash in hand.

– To top it off … they blew all their money on renovations, saving nothing for getting people in the door.

– When they didn’t make their millions day-one, they had no choice but to pull a midnight-move and disappear.

It reminds me a LOT of people online these days.

They think they need a fancy flash website. So they spend $10,000 with some “creative design team” and get a wiz bang site that says nothing useful.

They get all the nice business cards and letterhead.

They hire a copywriter, thinking that a great sales letter is all they need.

Then they are shocked to learn that a website does not magically draw people to the site. They can’t understand why they aren’t making a mint with their creative Web design.

They blame the economy.

They blame the competition.

Never once do they blame themselves for not having a plan of attack on HOW they will get actual prospects to their site to buy.

In contrast to the morons with Food23 (what a great name … hey?), here is a story I am very familiar with. One that WAS thought through properly.

This is the start of a long weekend here, and I am heading out of town with the kids to a secret location 90 minutes northeast of where I live.

Ok, it ain’t that much of a secret … I am heading to the campground that I grew up in.

You could kinda say …

“My name is Troy, and I grew up in a trailer park” …
… And it would be factually accurate.

When I was 8-years-old, my folks, along with two other couples, bought 60 acres of land in Sundre, Alberta. Their plan was to build a quality campground with 400+ sites in an area that did not have campgrounds like this. There were a couple run-down “shanty town” types of parks … but nothing that anyone was really proud to call their “home-away-from-home.”

Every single chance we had, we were up in Sundre working on the campground, which was named “Tall Timber Leisure Park.”

http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/images/issues/674/talltimber.jpg

Weekends during school.

Entire summers during time off. Every chance we had, we were out there working on building that park up the way it was envisioned.

They made me do every grunt job possible out there …

… Mowing miles and miles of grass every time I was there

… Picking up rocks and clearing trees for new campsites

… Building picnic tables

… Climbing in sewer tanks (I still have nightmares about that one)

… Installing power lines, sewer lines and water

… Picking up garbage

… Painting

… Building playgrounds

… And so on.

A great place to learn the value of hard work, as I saw that place come together bit by bit and morph itself into the premier “leisure park.”

With over 385 permanent sites (rented by the year) and another 100+ overnight sites, it quickly became “the place” for bringing your family and having a good time.

It ran successfully for 25 years that way, then in 1999 or so, they sold individual lots off as private parcels.

They are out of it now, and have a condo board that runs everything. They kept their 60-foot mobile home out there, and me and the kids love going out there for the weekends. Hang out at the river. Go swimming (it has an indoor swimming pool and hot tub). Sometimes I sneak off for a round of golf. Sometimes when I am on a serious deadline, I will pack up the laptop and head out to the trailer for some serious focus time.

The reason I bring this up?
Because they invested a small fortune building that place from the ground up.

They had a vision in mind on what type of campground it would be. They knew it was targeted at families, not baseball teams and young teenagers on a mission to get as drunk as possible.

They had lots of rules in place on how you had to act in the campground, if you wanted to stay.

They were priced at a premium. And they hired tyrants as managers for the place, to keep everyone in line.

They worked their asses off for decades … and it paid off in the end.

They didn’t build it, and expect people to come.
They built it, and worked their tails off getting people out there to try it out. Then they worked hard to get those visitors to commit for a year ““ knowing full well that one year would mean the next year, the next, and so on. Many seasonal campers stayed there for 25 years and ended up buying the lots once they privatized it.

The Food23 business built it and expected a flood of traffic the first day. My folks knew better. They knew they were in it for the long haul and had to actually work to build it. They did. They cashed out. Food23 owners are on the run with a multi-year lease in place and lawyers on their tail.

Do not fall for the get-rich-overnight crap out there.

It takes a lot of work, persistence, investment and tears to start and build a successful business.

But, the fact remains … ANYONE can do it if they set their mind to it.

As long as they are willing to hang in there through thick and through thin.

The economy is in the toilet now … and some people are struggling. Some people are thriving too.

Those in a tough spot now need remember the Tall Timber story ““ 30 years of days, nights and weekends. And they cashed out to enjoy what most entrepreneurs dream of … financial independence and retirement on your own terms.

No reliance on the government, or some pension plan.

But with your own money that you earned in your own business. And THAT does not happen overnight with little thought to the future.

Think it through, have a big vision of where you are going with it, and be prepared to stick to it until you get there. It won’t go perfectly smooth. You will have awful weeks, months, even years.

But it will pay off if you persist.

If you don’t have a marketing plan of attack in place
““ NOW is the time to do it.
2009 is almost HALF OVER … are you half way to your goals for the year?

If not, get a plan of attach in place and GET BUSY.

It won’t be magically drawn to you while you sit on your couch meditating. YOU have to go out and MAKE IT HAPPEN.

That is the only way you can guarantee your success.

Have a great week.

Daniel Levis

Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor

THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

The Total Package

*IMNewsWatch would like to thank Clayton Makepeace for granting permission to reprint this article.