Automate your Business
DFY – The Power of “Done For You”
I’ve had two different people in the past week ask me about this “secret” so I’m going to mention it again. Besides, some of the newer people here may not have heard me say this previously. I’ll begin by asking you a question.
Have you ever washed your own car at home?
It really doesn’t matter if you have or you haven’t, here’s a very powerful lesson for online business owners and marketers.
When I was a kid, everyone on the block washed and waxed their own cars in the driveway at home – even in the winter. On any given weekend (most everybody worked M-F 8-5) you could drive up and down the neighborhood streets and see hoses, buckets, sponges, a chamois, towels, brushes, portable radios (“transistors”) and assorted vacuum cleaner gear littering driveways everywhere.
The smells of dish soap, Turtle Wax, Windex, and Coppertone floating in the air signaled the chores were underway! That was a long time ago.
Fast forward to today.
How often do you notice people washing their own cars at home these days? Seldom? Never? Why is that?
Exactly. Today, it’s much more convenient, easier, faster, less work, less hassle to pay a reasonable fee to drive through a car wash and be done with it. Car washes are everywhere so it’s easy to find one wherever you happen to be. What was an hour long job at home is now a 5-minute experience and you do it at your own convenience.
There is a powerful marketing principle in this little story. If you “get it” and adapt the principle to your own business, you will sell way more products (or services) than otherwise.
People love “how to” information. It’s online everywhere. People who frequent the Internet want to know how to do things, experience things, solve problems, find happiness, make their lives easier, be more productive, more fulfilling, and on and on. So marketers have learned that DIY information and products sell very well. Do-it-yourself (DIY) is a very popular way of approaching and partaking of almost any niche. And it’s not always that a person can’t afford to have something done for them. Sometimes folks like a challenge, or they want to experience the process for themselves.
But that’s not the secret I want to divulge because there are only so many people in any population that are true hands-on do-it-yourselfers.
There is a much greater percentage of nearly every niche audience that are DFYers – “done-for-you” folks that would rather just buy a solution or a desire fulfilled and have it handed to them without any work on their part.
So here’s the full marketing secret: lots of people look for DIY solutions online, but many more people would prefer to buy a DFY solution for a reasonable fee. I hope you understand what I’m trying to get across and see the power in this marketing principle.
How can you incorporate this idea into your own products and services?
When I was a kid, we rarely ate any meal away from home – even a lunch at McDonalds was a treat. How often do you purchase fast food meals (DFY) today? They’re convenient, fast, no work, no hassle ways to save time and effort. We gladly pay a reasonable fee to have someone else do all the work and hand us the benefit (our meal).
How many new entrepreneurs coming online want to create a business but don’t want to learn how to do all the skills required to make money online (DIY)? How many more people would rather have a solution or benefit handed to them without work on their part (DFY)?
Figure out how to provide easy, fast, automatic, no work solutions or benefits and you will be on your way to online selling success.
Yes, I’m talking about automation, but not totally. Certainly, software, apps, and new technologies are part of what I’m suggesting because they can save business owners time and effort. They can be an enormous help in freeing up a business owner’s personal time in doing certain tasks much quicker than normal. But DFY is much bigger than just automation. It also encompasses services and all types of products that make our lives as online business owners much more efficient and productive.
I’m guessing that one smart online business owner with the right tools can get more accomplished in one day in his Internet business than a small business owner and all his employees could get done in a week prior to the Internet.
So my suggestion . . . no, it’s more than that . . . my encouragement and pleading is for you to discover ways in your own business (whatever that might be) that you can incorporate DFY – done for you – into your business system, products, and services. My prediction is that DFY will only become more popular and more widespread in the future. We are all busy and stretched to the max! DFY allows us to be more productive and leverage the things we can allow others to do for us!
To your online business success,
Steve Browne
www.stevebrownedirect.com