🖐 Happy 3.5 / 7 Day!

Issue #55 is a 3.0-minute read.

1 big topic: 3 Ways to Get Your Business off its A!% and Back to Growth

In college, we had a hammock between two old pine trees that was the chef’s kiss for naps.

By 5 a.m., every morning there was a line of J. Crew-covered freshmen gnawing on strawberry pop tarts waiting to get on the sign-up sheet for 30-minute nap slots.

Jesse Laidlaw never missed his nap in that hammock. Ever.

He paid his soccer buddies $15 each to stand in the hammock line and sign him up for extra slots on Fridays.

My first semester, I was grade-aphobic, so I added up Jesse’s total nap time.

294 hours! No way he’s passing his classes.

Every damn time I saw Jesse lounging in the hammock like a hungover cat, I’d bug him about his grades.

“Calculus midterm?”

"98," and he’d stretch out his right leg to the grass.

“Term paper on Catcher in the Rye?”

"97," and he’d roll over to squeeze his globe-shaped head deeper into his gross, green camouflage hat.

Here I’m dragging my 57-lb. REI backpack to the library, fending off calls from my folks about grades and Laidlaw’s slinging A’s from a hammock.

At graduation, I bought Jesse a congrats Sam Adams beer at the Crusty Owl.

“Spill it. How the hell did you snooze 294 hours in Hammockville every fall and rock a 3.98 GPA?”

Jesse’s 3-Step Secret:

• He had Jedi Knight focus: 
  
  Jesse did more in one hour than I could in 7; when he sat down to work, nothing bugged him.
  
  

• He played to his skills: 
  
  Jesse loved math and writing. He had endless energy to study his passion.
  
  

• He had bat ears: 
  
  Jesse paid uber-close attention to every word an instructor said; he knew which topics they would likely test.

As summer fades and you’re stressing about putting up that hammock again next June for fear you’ll get zilch done in your business — no worries.

Channel J. Laidlaw.

• Focus on the task at hand.
  

• Play to your skills.
  

• Listen to your clients.
   

You’ll get tons of time in your hammock and STILL grow your biz.

One more way to get your business up the pop charts is to treat it to a sweet reward when it shows progress.

I think this post I wrote on 6 crazy good newsletters has done pretty freakin’ well, and I know your business mind will eat it up.

The post has bright lights and insight from 6 fun writers who share what’s lurking in the land of AI, SEO, freelancing, and positivity.

💥Your takeaway from this week’s business story:

Ticketmaster Might Get Pinched for Playing Tricks on Crazy Oasis Fans

If you bait and switch your customers on price, they’ll curse at you like Yankee fans at Fenway and then make a blood pact with one another to never buy from your weasely little business again.

Why it matters: It takes a long time to earn a customer’s trust.

You can lose it in a second if you raise your price without so much as a nudge-nudge, wink-wink.

Catch-up quick: Authorities are taking a digital microscope to Ticketmaster and the slick dance steps it used to upcharge fans for Oasis reunion tickets. ⁽¹⁾

It seems when tickets to the Oasis miracle hit the market, crazy fans stormed the website to buy.

The problem was that the price at checkout was more than double the initial list price that fans first saw on the site. ⁽²⁾

The big issue: Did Ticketmaster get greedy-sneaky and change the price at checkout as demand for the tickets grew?

If yes, it’s called dynamic pricing, and it’s a big, giant no-no in the land of fair trade.

Your takeaway: When you set your prices, it means you SET YOUR PRICES. No funny business.

If you want to raise them later as demand grows, have at it.

It’s perfectly fine to say, “Whoa, I have a sweet product, and I think it’s worth more.”

Be a straight shooter and tell folks the true, new number and the date it goes into effect.

This way, your business stays out of the orange jumpsuit and customers trust your word.

🔑 Wherever today’s newsletter finds you, I hope you’re thriving.

If you’re working in Portugal, below, I’m wicked jealous.

Let’s all make plans to get to Portugal for a tasty dinner and evening chatter, okay?

Stay curious and keep opening doors.

-Erik

Hitting $50,000 in annual sales is a huge milestone.

If you’re there, that’s A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Going from $50,000 to $150,000 is a bit harder.

When you’re ready, let’s get you to $150,000.

Your custom, 90-minute consulting session brings you there. Faster.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ Ben Sisario, Oasis Fans Balked at High Ticket Prices. But Were They Dynamic?, The New York Times, September 6, 2024, last viewed September 8, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/arts/music/oasis-reunion-tour-tickets.html

⁽²⁾ Ibid.