M & A Rainmaker

We are announcing a scheme to fast track 20 selected individuals to Motives Business Director level by the end of 2014

Behind this initiative are $Million earners, startup specialists, small business development experts and digital marketing moguls

The Motives by Loren Ridinger and LaLa Anthony Cosmetics range has taken the world by storm not only for the quality, fashion forward nature and affordable pricing ( typically you get higher quality and more product at half the price of high end cosmetics ) but also for the innovative promotional and marketing techniques utilised.

Loren and LaLa.

The ” Instagram Project ” as it is known within Motives is probably one of the most successful promotional efforts in the world. Avoiding advertising and paying for promotion Loren and LaLa provided product to beauty bloggers and Instagramers and they produced pictures and blogs that generated 100’s of leads within days and carry on doing so.

It is this marrying of Digital promotion with what is quite clearly a product range that needs personal attention and face to face selling that is so powerful.

A Motives Business Director will earn around £144,000.00 ( £144K) a year ( NB A Director earns between £12K and £18K in a 4 week pay cycle ) but to get to that level you have to get through about 10 Business Levels. There are a number of examples of people getting to that level in around 11 months so to get there by the end of 2014, for the right person, putting in the right activity, with the correct level of knowledge and skills, this is entirely possible.

As the C.E.O of Motives parent company, JR Ridinger, says .. what you need to provide is the PASSION !!!!

YOU are going to be someone that is PASSIONATE about the beauty industry. You might be – but don’t have to be – a Makeup Artist, a salon or spa owner, a Nail technician, a hairdresser or a skincare specialist.

You KNOW that the beauty, health and wellness industry is a multi-billion opportunity. You also know that although you love the industry, meeting people and making them look and feel beautiful you are NOT getting properly compensated for the time, skill and effort that you are putting in.  The shop or salon you work in is making some money and the Directors and shareholders of the product company are also making money but YOU are NOT.

If you are a shop or salon owner then you know that you need to MAKE MORE MONEY but you might not know exactly how to do it.

Most people that become millionaires, multi-millionaires or billionaires have done it because they started a business of one sort or another and they either stayed with it until it grew into a big company or they ” exited ” from it – sold or floated it on the stock market.

Some of the ingredients to a successful business are … great products or service, attractive brand, scalability and replicate-ability and some element of divorcing time from money.

You will probably know about the need for a business to have great products, service, branding and marketing.

You might not quite understand the need for scalability ( ability to grow ) , replicate-ability ( repeatable model ) and how to divorce time from money.

They are all tied together and the fact that the Motives business is both an online ( Internet based ) and offline ( face to face ) business is highly relevant here.

So, let me just tell you some of the key people that we have in the team here ( excluding for the moment JR and Loren Ridinger and LaLa Anthony themselves ) :

Lisa and Don Martin – Million Dollar earners with Motives and Market America.

International Business Development and Motives Specialists – Rob and Joyce Jenkins

Small Business Marketing Advisor and former Advisor to the White House – Michael Nelson

Me !!!

and Marketing and Event Management specialist Claire Taylor

Over the next few weeks we will be identifying the 20 people that we want to work with in the U.K. and Ireland to help to build in the UK and beyond ( eg Europe and the Middle East ).

Some of these places have already been filled and we have already started working with these individuals.

Please make contact by twitter @cwindley, skype – chris.windley or mobile +447881 500002 asap.

I already had a top 5 position in a Google search for the highest ranking Digital Marketing Expert but that was with Pinterest which was sort of cheating

A few days ago I decided that it was time for a Plan B and maybe even a Plan C and time to put the Digital Marketing Ecosystem to work again

Some people might have thought that my Pinterest listing at the top of Google was a lucky demonstration of my Internet Marketing skills. I obviously didn’t make a Pinterest page with that title for no reason. However, when I was working on other Pinterest pages recently I noticed a few strange things happening and it got me to thinking that I needed a back-up plan for my ranking for this term so I determined to write a blog on the Centripetal Network Consulting website that would also rank   .

I am also writing this blog as a sort of Plan C !! 🙂

If you read this blog please take at least one thing away with you – to rank today you need a strategy that combines Social Media with a great website. Trust me – you do.

Getting a website or a blog to rank high for a specific term is an art form. Seeing that website or blog there is literally the tip of the iceberg. The part that you see of an iceberg is about 1 Tenth of the overall mass of that berg. Most of it is below the surface.

Most of the reason why my blogs rank so high is ” below the surface ” – you can’t see it even if you know how to analyse websites and blogs. Let me explain something to you. My blogs and websites are not even specifically targeted at Digital Marketing !!!! Obviously Centripetal Network Consulting is a global digital strategy, sales and marketing company. However, in a similar way to us ranking for ” Wealth Management London ” searches if I really wanted to  rank for Wealth Management terms I would build a blog or website focused on Wealth Management. Everything on it would be about Wealth Management. It would be THE authority on Wealth Management.

This site is about M & A ( Mergers and Acquisitions ) but the likelihood is that this blog is going to rank high.

Why ???? QUALITY !!!

From it’s foundations up the Centripetal Network Consulting website is a QUALITY website. It’s content is produced by humans ( mostly me ) and it is relevant to the topic in question if not focussed on it.

There’s something else that very few people talk about because they don’t understand it. If you think about it a web or blogsite is software running on a server ( like a PC or Laptop but built to ” serve ” software ).

Where is this server ?? Well it is usually in some sort of data centre somewhere in the world – could be the U.K. – might be  the U.S. , Europe or India.

Is it a shared server or a dedicated ( to you ) server. ( It is likely to be shared unless you have specifically sought a dedicated server ).

You might be wondering what the relevance of this is ?? You know how your PC and Laptop runs slowly when it has lots of software applications open on it ?? Well if you are sharing with other people with resource hungry web/blog sites your web/blog site is going to run slowly too.

That’s not all – your website can run slowly if it is not configured properly and has too many ” plug-ins ” .

The geographical location of your server and it’s connectivity also affects your website performance.

All of this affects the  ” performance ” of your web and blogsite and is one of Google’s ranking factors.

The positive effect of good website performance is the reason that companies like WP Engine  have started up. On their first page they have this testimonial for example :

“My site loads ridiculously fast, my page views are up, and my business
is seeing the results. I rest easy at night with the level of support.
My only regret: that I didn’t move to WP Engine sooner.”

– PHIL SIMON, AUTHOR OF THE AGE OF THE PLATFORM

We don’t host with WP Engine – we have our own hosting facilities, located in a place where there are high speed internet pipes in and out of the facility and our Chris Butler is always monitoring the performance of our site.

Hopefully you get my point – the foundations of our web/blogsite are rock solid and this is a primary factor in why I can rank so well for something like Digital Marketing Expert.

I started at ” this end ” of the factors because typically most people start at the other end. They have got a requirement for a website and whilst they think about the design of the website and what it needs to say they don’t think much about the ” infrastructure ” of that website.

You can sort of understand that but I didn’t get to the top of searches by worrying about design. WordPress is pretty much our default ” software ” for websites because we know that using WordPress we get great ranking results. We also know that there are a host of great plug-ins built for this environment and that there are thousands of people out there with WordPress knowledge if we need help. There are tens or hundreds of great ” themes ” to use.

Certainly we subscribe to the ” Keep It Short and Simple ” ( KISS ) approach. Over complex websites are going to load and serve slower. You don’t want loads of fancy graphics or plug-ins.

I always say that there are a few different types of people who get involved in website design ( it’s an over simplification ) – Graphic Design and Marketing people. Programmers and S.E.O. people. None of those people have a deep understanding of the true objective of a website which is to sell things.

I am not just a Digital Marketing Expert – I am also a Digital Sales Expert and a Digital Businessman – as are my partners at Centripetal.

Getting any guarantees of being found on the Internet through search results or otherwise is always useful when assurances are hard to get

The SEO girl brings a refreshingly different approach to a business proposition regarding being found on the Internet

I have always thought that the sign of a good SEO company was one that put it’s money where it’s mouth was and ranked for the things that it ought to.

The SEO Girl, Claire Taylor, who is Business Development Manager at UK search company SmartRank UK, is highlighting their offer to Midlands based businesses.  ( Note SmartRanks U.S. sister company Market Leader SEO also offers the same proposition in the U.S. ).

This announcement comes hard on the heels of Smartranks global Digital Marketing partner Centripetal Network Consulting – creators of the Digital Marketing Ecosystem making a similar announcement based on their partnership with Claire and Smartranks.

This market was long overdue a shake up and it is even more amazing that this announcement and guarantee has been made post the Panda and Penguin changes by Google.

VIDEO HERE >>>>>>>>>>

Centripetal Networks Nine Figure Mentor, Chris Windley, talks about the launch of this guaranteed SEO service – applicable to people in Birmingham UK, the West Midlands, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Cheshire, Mid Wales, Leicestershire, Herefordshire and Staffordshire.

High Tech. Start-up’s are booming in the U.S. with Boston, New York and Silicon Valley all very active and there are many U.S. start-up’s looking at establishing a European office. Could Lichfield a.k.a. Silicon Crossroads in Staffordshire dare to dream that it might host some of these start-up’s ?

Friends of mine established Leap the Pond some years ago in order to assist start-up’s gain a successful foothold from the U.S. to the U.K. and vice versa and also from Asia to the U.K. and America and vice versa.

A while back I wrote this blog

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2011/09/27/celtic-tiger-awakes-and-starts-tweeting-about-hi-tech/

as I was asked to suggest a suitable European location for a U.S. software company that I knew.

Right at the end you will see mention of an accounting practice called the ” Double Irish and a Dutch Sandwich ” fully described here

http://www.joe.ie/news-politics/current-affairs/irish-move-to-save-twitter-53-per-cent-in-tax-0016130-1

which describes the tax savings achieved by Google and to be achieved by Twitter by having offices in Southern Ireland and Luxembourg.

Like it or not the ” financial parameters ” are going to have a significant influence on where a foreign company bases itself in Europe.

Lichfield can do no better than London in influencing the tax position of the U.K. mainland. The so called ” Silicon Roundabout ” in London will have to put up with U.k. Tax laws although it is interesting to note that Google also has offices in London and is taking more space in Silicon Roundabout:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15088359

Recognised ” High Tech. ” areas in the U.K. include: London, M4 corridor, Cambridge, Oxford and Silicon Glen, Scotland. There has been an effort to make the M42/M5 corridor High Tech. and also Telford hosts a number of High Tech. companies.

When you look at Europe from the U.S. you probably have a different perspective and London, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland and Barcelona in Spain all seem to figure high in Americans minds.

I.D.A. Ireland ( now known as the ” Silicon Republic ” !! ) is very active in the U.S. with ” salespeople ” based in Boston, New York and the West Coast yet it does not necessarily get considered despite having many high tech companies based there.

http://www.idaireland.com/

This video by the C.E.O. of IDA Ireland spells out a lot of the criteria

http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/videos/index.xml?bclid=66038357001&bctid=1148962666001

The Tax Environment

The Business offer ( Incentives to base your H.Q. there )

The Talent Pool

The Track Record

Proximity to other ” synergistic ”  businesses.

Transport links

Despite very tough economics in Ireland, or perhaps because of it, I.D.A. Ireland has got all it’s ducks in a row and does a massively professional job of getting inward investment.

Lichfield has to live with the tax regime, as does London.

The business offer would have to be very good.

The Talent Pool, whilst small is there.

It has little track record and not many existing businesses to be synergistic with. There is however a talent pool skilled in web design and S.E.O.

It has fabulous transport links.

It is a beautiful location, great lifestyle and has an opportunity with the ” Saxon Hoard ” to become much better known around the world.

With a lot of work and commitment Lichfield could become a High Tech base.

N.B. This post in the Guardian about The Lichfield Blog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/nov/22/hyperlocal-media-blogging

shows the depth of the social media knowledge in the area.

Information about Tech City, London : http://www.ukti.gov.uk/investintheuk/sectoropportunities/ict/item/124866.html

If you are Selling Gold,Silver,Diamond,Pearl,Watches, Jewellery and Art in the U.K. where do you go for the best prices and for people that you can trust ??

Although I am not an expert in this market I did have cause to investigate this market and sell a few items recently and what I found may be of interest.

Background

Simplistically the price of Gold over the last 20 years has increased massively. See

http://goldprice.org/gold-price-history.html

In USD/oz the increase has been from 2-400 tp 1400.

Silver has followed a similar trend

http://www.financial-portal.com/metal_Silver.html

from 5 to about 35 US dollars per oz.

Diamond prices have fluctuated quite a bit and only certain sizes, colours and quality of diamonds are really investments.

http://www.diamondsourceva.com/ShoppingAdvice/diamonds-investment.asp

Small diamonds are pretty valueless.

Pearls have been a disaster !!

http://www.fashion-era.com/jewellery/jewellery_freshwater_pearls_pictures2.htm

Prices of Watches and Jewelery

So, the value of Watches and jewelery, depending on what they are made of, have been affected by these price trends but then you have makes and designs to take account of before you can say what the trend has been.

Certain watches ( antique/classic ) are going to retain their value, generally speaking but there will be fluctuations.

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/apr2010/bw2010045_024977.htm

FutureLine’s use of HubSpot Inbound Marketing Software in the U.K. has helped it to dominate visibility for UCExpo related searches and get some high quality leads from potential partners and end users.

A couple of weeks ago Cisco FutureLine increased it’s commitment to HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing software in order to be able to increase awareness of FutureLine for UCExpo 2011 and to dominate selected searches that related to UCExpo.

FutureLine was sharing the Cisco stand at UCExpo and was promoting a range of S.M.B. focussed products and services.

We started blogging a couple of weeks prior to UCExpo both here and on the FutureLine blog page.

The results have been stunning with total domination of searches like:

” cisco ucexpo 2011 ”

” hosted voice ucexpo 2011 ”

” hosted telephony ucexpo 2011 ”

and

” asterisk ucexpo 2011 ”

We also dominated the search for

” coffee ucexpo 2011 ”  !!!!!!!

Although the UCExpo show was not exactly packed out we had some great visits to both our stand at UCExpo and the website. In fact many of the leads were confirmed both through the Internet and physically by visiting the stand. This showed great commitment on behalf of the prospect.

We also got our Twitter page up and running prior to UCExpo (  @Future_Line )

and that really helped us to get up to the minute reports of what was happening at UCExpo.

Searc

Which HubSpot partners in the U.K. will achieve a high ranking position in Google searches ??

HubSpot partners in the U.K. should now consider the Six Figure Mentors system being promoted via the Digital Experts Academy global network

I am finding it quite interesting watching old and new HubSpot partners fighting for a top ranking position in a ” HubSpot U.K. ” or ” HubSpot in the U.K. ” Google.

http://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sa=N&hl=en&tab=lw#hl=en&sugexp=gsih&xhr=t&q=hubspot+in+the+UK&cp=17&pf=p&sclient=psy&site=webhp&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=hubspot+in+the+UK&pbx=1&fp=ff01f0aca6245e1d

As HubSpot  expands it’s business globally beyond the U.S.   getting more direct customers and partners, the HubSpot partners themselves are making a ” land grab ” for prominence.

How are they doing this ??

STOP PRESS !!! January 2013 – The Internet Marketing Ecosystem ( mentioned below ) has now been incorporated into Centripetal Network Consultings’ Digital Marketing Ecosystem. Watch this video >>>> HERE <<<< to see how a system that provides all of the functionality of a HubSpot system at a much lower cost has evolved over the last couple of years.

The first three organic search positions are, perhaps unsurprisingly, held by HubSpot themselves with posts on the inbound.org site

http://inbound.org/questions/960/uk-hubspot-partner

and posts on the HubSpot.com website.

http://newsofthemedia.com/2011/02/google-algorithm-change-targets-content-farms/

The comes StrangePR.com for the next couple of entries who, typically for a PR company, reckon that they are HubSpot’s ( only ) U.K. partner.  A quick look at ” Page Source ” for their website pages shows that Titles and Metatags reflect the content and that ” HubSpot ” and ” U.K. ” are liberally scattered throughout the content, titles and metatags.

Next comes Advanced Marketing Concept’s Blog page

http://www.admarco.net/resources/company-news/bid/30271/Advanced-Marketing-Concepts-achieves-HubSpot-Partner-Status

Admarco appears to have a presence in the U.S.  ( San Francisco Bay Area. ) and the U.K.

The next entry is from Wired Magazine and promotes HubSpot itself rather than a partner.

Then you have the HubSpot User Group post from GMIG

http://www.gmig.co.uk/hubspot-user-group-uk/

I understand that someone at HubSpot made a conscious decision to allow this new partner to set up a U.K. HubSpot User Group. It’s a great way to get prominence !

The actual user group is on Linkedin:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3688027

Next we have a Slideshare presentation from Kpi Insight Consulting

http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/kpicase-studypdf

and then a TrafficTroop ( Ireland ) website entry

http://www.traffictroop.com/contact-us-0/UK-Hubspot-Services-Ireland/

to finish off Page 1 of Google.

On Page 2 of the search for ” HubSpot U.K. ” you have GMIG again and then Strong Marketing’s entry:

http://strongmktg.com/hubspot-partner/

and then…….. ooooh ! it’s me 😉 – posting here on the M&A Rainmaker blogsite.

So lets stop there shall we – except for a quick comment that it is rather dissapointing ( at least to me ) to see a HubSpot U.K. partner paying for Pay per Click in order to provide discounted HubSpot pricing !! Really ???? Already ???

We can assume that the websites and blogsites being used have a relatively high Google rank which is giving them thier ” authority “.

So congratulations to those HubSpot U.K. partners who are ranking high and good luck for the future !!

Note: February 2012

This blog continues to rank high for searches on ” HubSpot U.K. ” and ” HubSpot Partners U.K. ” which shows the power of a WordPress based blog. It looks to me like there is going to be a big fight soon between HubSpot and WordPress based alternatives – if this is not already happening. HubSpot appears to have moved it’s focus upmarket by increasing the minimum monthly fee and this will increase the opportunity for WordPress based options. For U.K. customers HubSpot’s service appears to be taking a dive. Watch this space.

http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/seo-blog/

Note: January 2013

After putting development effort into the ” Internet Marketing Ecosystem ” last year we adopted the Six Figure Mentors WordPress based  Digital Marketing System in August/September of 2012 . More information can be obtained on this by going to my WordPress based personal website >>>>HERE  <<<<. The S.F.M. Digital Marketing System is being promoted globally by the Digital Experts Academy.

Potential HubSpot partners in the U.K. may also like to consider the S.F.M. / D.E.A. system as an alternative.

Cloud Computing is destined to be one of  the most active Hi-Tech sectors for Mergers & Acquisitions in the U.K. in 2011 according to this article

http://www.itpro.co.uk/629173/cloud-computing-companies-to-boost-m-a-in-2011

which comments on Deloitte’s bi-annual survey of U.K. based Hi-Tech companies.

Within Cloud Computing Hosted Telephony and Unified Communications is one of the growth niche’s.

Innovative companies like FutureLine, which is being supported by Cisco Systems, are addressing specific market segments e.g. Highly distributed SMB’s.

A Cisco spokesperson said:

“We are seeing an increasing demand for managed and hosted solutions in the voice space and this is especially the case for smaller businesses with less than 20 employees. FutureLine have a refreshingly new approach by addressing the key fundamentals of quality, security and ease of use and deployment. This is all underpinned by partnering with Cisco who fully understand how to manage different media provided by the various consumption models.”

Andy Brocklehurst
RSM Cisco Small Business

We are getting some great positions in Google searches for our test client FutureLine by following the Hubspot process in the U.K.

e.g. for ” Cisco Hosted Voice UK ”

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sugexp=gsih&xhr=t&q=cisco+hosted+voice+uk&cp=21&pf=p&sclient=psy&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=cisco+hosted+voice+uk&pbx=1&fp=ab718b42c52c1c5f

We put some thought into our key words and phrases a few weeks ago and then a week or so ago we revisited the web page titles and meta data and  entered certain of these words and phrases.

Together with this blog and related sites we are occupying four of the page one search results and whereas competitors e.g. Cloudnet and Teleappliant are paying for Pay Per Click rankings we have high organic positions for free ( well, excluding our time and effort 😉

I was listening to  a HubSpot Inbound Marketing webinar, that was being transmitted to the U.K. and other countries around the world, the other day when the statement was made ” people spend loads of money and time on the look and design of their website when what they should be spending money on  is being found AND converting people that find the website into leads “.

As I was driving from North Wales to the Midlands today I was thinking how true that was and how pointless it was to have a great looking website that nobody found!

It was, I thought, a bit like having a great looking house in a very undesirable neighbourhood.

Which led me to that well known saying of Estate Agents and property developers ” Location, location, location “.

A definition of which might be :

which I found here

http://homebuying.about.com/od/marketfactstrends/qt/013008_location.htm

and we might translate that into:

” identical websites may be more or less valuable ( productive ? ) depending on their location ( position ) in search engine searches ”  .

Yes, if two websites were designed or looked exactly the same but one got found and converted visitors into leads whilst the other did not get found or even got found but did not convert visitors into leads then that would make the same website much more valuable.

Furthermore if we add this property view: