We are less than a week away from the TShirtSuccess.com launch. I’m feverishly working to get everything together and working, but I need your help.

I’ve read lots of comments and emails over the last three weeks as everyone has visited the site. I would like to ask your help as to what should be included with the launch. Over the next couple of days I am going to begin outlining the structure of the site and how it will work.

The videos gave a VERY basic overview of the Customer/Client concept and the use of Leverage to grow quickly. I have several dozen content pieces that go much deeper in these areas, but I don’t want to just post all that background material. I’m considering puttting all of that together into an eBook/Report you could download and print. It will be pretty long. It’s over 40 pages right now and there are at least another 20 to go, maybe more. This is really important as it lays the foundation for everything into the future. The goal would be to get everyone thinking in a different direction, but I want to make sure I’m on track.

My question to all is this: What is the single most important thing I should include when the site goes live? What would do the most good toward IMMEDIATELY growing your business?
Post your answers here. All ideas are welcome.

Here we are at the end of our Fast Start Contest. I’m a bit tempted to extend the deadline a few more days. I’ve talked with several of you and have seen some of the flyers you’ve put together. Very impressive! With all of the incredibly negative financial news of the last week, I think it underlines just how important it is for us all to take control of our own situation. It doesn’t matter how much or how little the sales are. What is important is to take SOME kind of action, and to get used to taking action.

When I did our first promotion, I knew in the pit of my stomach that it wasn’t going to work. It seemed so typical. But to my surprise it worked, and it worked really well. I chalked if off as a fluke. There had to be a reason. Then we did our second promotion, not like the first, and it did really well too. Not as well as the first one, but still incredibly well. The third promotion was pretty much a repeat of the first, but with a slightly different premise, but nevertheless, like the first. The results were almost exactly identical to the first one. It was becoming clear that it wasn’t a fluke. There was real possibility.

With each promotion we made mistakes. Some of them I thought for sure would kill the deal. They didn’t. It makes me wonder just how good the results would have been if it was perfect. We’ll never know. The BIGGEST lesson I’ve learned out this entire exercise of learning the marketing game has been that it is far better to have imperfect action than no action as we continued to get it just right. In every example of paralysis by analysis, nothing ever happened.

This is a big admission for me. I’ve always followed my dad’s rules. In this case it was: “If you’re going to do something, do it right.” That meant no short cuts, not half baked ideas, no poor planning. That might have been fine when you had all the time in the world to make a decision. But in today’s world, if you expect to get ahead, you need to act, and act NOW! He who hesitates is lost, as in lost opportunity. I’m learning the hard way that no matter how uncomfortable I am with the loose ends, we need to pull the trigger.

So that brings me back to the beginning of this post. The 7 Day contest ends at midnight Pacific on Sept 30. Those of you who are participating, need to post comments here about your experience. You need to summarize what happened. I’m particularly interested in the process, what you came up against and what you overcame. Tell us about your results. Triumphs as well as the failure. A big part of the decision to have this contest was to find out just how hard or easy this was going to be for all of you who want to grow in today’s market.

The idea for TShirtSuccess goes well beyond coming up with some “tactical” promotions. A tactic is something you do right now to create immediate results. These are moves and activities that are driven by immediate wants, and those wants are almost always motivated by cash flow. Typical examples are: payroll on Friday, having to pay for a COD shipment of goods, a press payment or rent check that’s due. Tactical moves are usually temporary and satisfy an immediate itch that needs to be scratched. They are not a long term solution and you have to repeat the process over and over to continue getting results.

The bigger view is called a “Strategic View.” It is a higher level look down and is a much longer vision. Where are you going to be a year from now? 3 yrs? 5 yrs?  The strategic view is the one everybody puts off as they deal with the immediate fires of day-to-day crisis management. It is one of the primary goals of TSS to provide multiple strategic viewpoints for you to use in your business. It is all about getting you to truly think ahead, past the crisis of the moment, to a much clamer and profitable place.

Unfortunately, most companies are not experienced in doing this, so they never get there. We have vague ideas in our head of what it will be like when we get “successful,” but we never take the time to define what successful really is. It’s different for each individual and if you don’t have a crystal clear vision of what that is for you, you’ll never get there either.

Somebody once told me that “Life is what happens while we’re planning the future.” That pretty much sums up the lack of a strategic vision. For me the saddest thing is that if you don’t have a plan, you won’t recognize the opportunities of life when they present themselves.  We become victims of impulsive decisions and suffer the consequences of unintended results.

So, my take is that a strategic vision is the critical path to our own defined success. The tactical promotions are the building blocks that move us closer to our ultimate outcome. They should be carefully chosen so that the results will truly move us ahead instead of just giving us a momentary cash “fix” that only lasts until we come up with a new promotion.

Well the results are beginning to come in. In some cases some of you are getting orders in less than 24 hours. One person actually hand carried the flier into his prospects and got an order on the spot. I’m really curious how everyone is doing. Please post comments on your experience so far. How many have had orders, how fast? What has been the reaction in the market and within your own company? The more you can fill in, the more we can learn about how this actually works.

It’s NOT important how big the orders are. What is important is that you are taking ACTION to make something happen. That is EXACTLY the problem facing the country today. No one is prepared to take action when a situation presents itself.

Nowhere is this more evident than what is happening in Washington DC as we sit here. We have a major crisis on our hands and nobody has any idea about what to do, other than throw $700 B of the taxpayers money at the problem in hopes of putting out the fire.

We can only do what WE can do, and that is get more work to keep our companies in business to keep the economy going. EVERYTHING we do, no matter how small matters. Thank you all for doing your part, for you, your employees, communities, and the country.

We are one week away from launching TShirtSuccess.com. There is so much to do. Our biggest challenge right now is getting all the related pieces together. I’m busy working on the new welcome video, the tour of the site video, and the sign-up Quick Start Video.

The response to the Fast Action 7 Day Sales Contest has been great. I think I spent about 4 hours today talking to people on the phone and answering emails. The response is about what I expected. Some of you don’t see how this will work. I felt the same way when we did it the first time. You all saw the 7 day results we got. What I didn’t say in the video (directly) was that at the end of 30 days, we just about doubled the 7 day amount. This is good news. If you are doing the promo, when your 7 day numbers are all in, you can double that for the month. As I said in the Video, we have done this twice now with very similar results, so I am pretty confident you will do well too. If not, post here so we can work on all this and make it better for everyone.

TShirtSuccess.com is about EVERYONE getting more profitable. Remember, the old rules simply do not apply anymore. We are sailing in a different direction. Those of you with enough confidence to take a step outside the box are definitely going profit. Let everyone know how it works. I don’t want to be the ONLY ONE bearing my skin here!

If you haven’t seen the latest video or the firt three,  go to:

http://www.tshirtsuccess.com or You can watch the contest video here shortly.

and check it out. Even if you don’t want to do the contest, do the promotion. You have less than a $100 to lose, and potentially thousands to be gained.
Mark A. Coudray

www.tshirtsuccess.com

Dean Martin - Sway

Spooky Magic Trick

TShirtSuccess.com is about to lauch. The TShirtSuccessBlog.com was set up so you can share your problems, experiences, and to let the world know how the ideas and plans presents on the main TSS website are working. TSS is a different kind of site for you industry. While there are a number of free blogs and forums, there is nothing that lays out the step-by-step marketing plan instructions that will walk you through the process of each plan and get you on the path toward more profits.

But we need your help. After spending almost 5 years researching and analyzing other industries for best marketing practices, you will ultimately be the ones to tell if the new ideas here are right for this industry. We have tested everything that goes up on the site, and only the ones that were successful for us will show up for you to try. My goal is to have up to 4 new plans presented each week.

This is not a get rich quick scheme or anything like that. It is all about working much smarter and in a different direction than the industry has in the past. As a result, you will see fresh new ideas here that you haven’t seen before. That’s the idea. Over the next few months, as the site gets going and builds steam, you’ll have an opportunity to peak behind the curtain to see why these new ideas are actually working.

None of the things here are purely original to me. We wish we could claim credit, but we can’t. We went back as far as 100 years on some of the basic theory to make sure it is sound and still relevant. While you will get theory on the site, the real intention is to give you REAL, actionable plans, that will deliver fresh new sales in 7 days or less. That is the intent, and that has been our experience. Whether it works for you or not, you will have to be the ones to tell.

Regardless of your success or failure, let everyone know what your journey has been like. Was it easy, or a major pain in the you-know-what. Was it simple and clear, or vague and hard to implement. Your feedback is vital for both your success and the success of everyone on the site.

We’ve got tons of new content for you, but we don’t want to just blow you out of the water. That being said, we’ll parcel it out as fast or as slow as need be. Go at your own pace, but let us know how you’re doing. Every single one of you are important to the success of this site. Let’s take back our lives and the growth of our businesses. Stop making the economy, the election, competition, regulation, and all the other excuses keep you from making the profit your hard work deserves. You are ultimately responsible for your own success, TSS is here to mentor and coach you to that success, no matter how big or small you are.

Mark A. Coudray