Steve the Owl's Blog

Hi, everyone. I hope you are having a good day today. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the question of traders and investors in the world of business. This thought came to mind while reading The Way of the Turtle by Curtis Faith. Based on the title, I thought that this was going to be a book about a slow and steady approach to investing. However, it was a book explaining how someone can ride the waves by becoming a trader. With this in mind, I decided to compare and contrast these two mindsets and show why one is far more important than the other in the world of business and, more specifically, network marketing.

The Trader

The trader is someone who tries to ride the trends and the fads out there. In the world of the stock market, this is someone who will see when he/she thinks that a price is going up or going down, and make all actions based on this principle. The biggest example of this person in pop culture is the day trader. Because of the short-term nature of his/her enterprise, the eyes are usually focused on CNBC or some other business channel to see whether things are going up or going down.

The Investor

The most famous investor in the world today (maybe ever) is Warren Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha’s most famous quote when it comes to the world of investing is, “If you aren’t willing to invest in a company for ten years, you shouldn’t invest in it for ten minutes.” He looks for companies that have some sort of short-term hiccup that the rest of the market overreacts to in a company with long term value, buys into it with the attitude of actually owning the business, and holds onto it for years. (One example is holding onto stock in the Washington Post for over 35 years, buying $11 million worth of stock that has turned into $2 billion over that time.) His way involves persistence and deciding whether or not something will work for decades, selling only when the company has become overheated or when the fundamentals change.

Application in Network Marketing

How many people do you know who seem to jump from company to company over the course of months? I’m talking about people who put in an initial investment (especially in a company in “pre-launch” phase) and have a lot of enthusiasm, but the instant that they feel that the trends have changed, they will go to another company. Unfortunately, as we all know, there is a learning curve with any business.

I’m not saying that there is never a time to leave. After all, even Buffett sells stocks once in a while. However, there are times when the fundamentals change. For example, I left a company when the compensation plan changed. Sometimes, the leadership changes in a company, and it is also possible that the industry goes out from under people’s feet. (For example, I hear that long-distance phone cards used to be a popular network marketing business, but with the popularity of cell phones and even land lines with unlimited long distance, this has obviously fallen by the wayside.)

How do you tell whether you are being an investor or a trader with your business?

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One of the things that I enjoy the most about the world of online business is reading blogs of others who are working to carve out their piece of the pie. One of the keys for anyone who is trying to build a business is to discover his/her niche. However, there are times when I wonder if people cater to their niche to such an extent that they leave a lot of people outside of their niche.

Some Examples in Reading

One of the things that surprised me in reading so many blogs is how many of them work so hard to appeal to one particular demographic at the expense of all of the others. One of the biggest examples of this involves gender in family roles. I clicked on some blog titles that I found interesting, and some of them seemed to emphasize efforts to reach out to women, and some reached out to fathers. As a man with no children, I know that I don’t fit these demographics, but I found out that there was valuable information for me.

Are You Too Specialized?

I am not saying that there is a problem with trying to focus on a niche. However, I think that there is a difference between saying that the target demographic is the only group that is welcome. I think that one of the key ways to tell if there is something that is too specialized is whether or not the information is specialized or generalized. If the information really is geared towards a specific audience, there is nothing wrong with having a very narrowly tailored marketing effort.

However, if the information really is general information, is it something that people outside of the demographic can find value? If it is, this means that you now have a question about the way you market to your niche. One of my very good friends in the world of blogging says that women are the target demographic, but I noticed that men were well represented in the top comment section of her blog. So, I think that this means that, while she may have a target demographic in mind, she has cross-over appeal to other demographics.

Another blog that I saw had a target demographic, and even though some of the posts tended to be more generalized, toward the end, the call to action almost always addressed only the people in the target demographic. Maybe this person is doing fine with the target demographic, but knowing that I didn’t fit the demographic, I couldn’t help but wonder how many other prospects were left on the table because of that idea.

Ways to Avoid Narrowing

In the world of politics, I learned that one of the worst words that someone can use is the word “too.” The reason for that is that it is a defensive word, as per the following examples: “Democrats care about national security, too.” “Republicans care about children, too.” Now, imagine how each of these phrases sound when the word “too” is eliminated. I think that it works the same way in marketing. I remember a few years ago when the men’s grooming trend was on the rise, and I saw a hair dye for men with the tagline, “because you’re worth it, too.” I have seen other commercials for hair dye that were geared to men that did not use the word “too” at all and branded itself “the leader in men’s hair coloring.” I don’t think you have to try very hard to guess which one sold more products. (Note: I am not endorsing hair dye, just giving an example of defensive thinking and marketing at work.)

So, with this in mind, whatever your niche is, always try to find the balance between targeting a group, and saying to others that they just don’t fit in.