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Monopolies were dominant in the 20th century, but they are no longer as dominant. It’s easier for people to start their own businesses and rise to the top. There are more options which is great for the customer. For the seller, there is now less room for error.

In order to become a successful seller, you need to be honest with your clients. People know (or figure out) when someone is being dishonest to them. Dishonest sellers don’t get second chances in a world where there is a seller that sells similar or identical products.

If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need to be honest to your clients every step of the way even when the honest choice is to tell your client that another seller offers a better product for their needs.

 

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, did an interview with 60 Minutes about where Amazon is heading. There were a lot of fascinating things revealed in the interview such as a highly advanced assembly line, all of the constants that Amazon is trying to break, and the drones that will be shipping products to your house in a few years. This 60 Minutes interview was one of the best ones I have seen in a while. Jeff Bezos explained how Amazon has been able to do what is has done, and the future of Amazon as well. Here are the 7 key takeaways from the interview:

1. Everyone starts from the bottom. Jeff Bezos drove to the post office himself in order to deliver the first product. Amazon used to be an online bookstore, and in the beginning, Jeff dreamed to have enough money to buy a forklift. Now there are forklifts all over Amazon’s buildings.
2. You need to innovate in order to survive for a longer period of time. Amazon has brought forth a lot of change. They have already changed how books are sold. However, Amazon will also be changing how movies get produced and how we buy our groceries. Amazon already delivers groceries to customers in Seattle and LA. Without innovation, companies get toppled faster.
3. Have a vision. Drones won’t be coming anytime soon, but within 5 years, Jeff Bezos plans to have drones bringing all products under 5 pounds directly to customers. Just to give you an idea of how much time this would save, 83% of Amazon products weigh less than 5 pounds.
4. Be organized. Amazon’s assembly lines are incredible. All of the products get organized based on zip codes which makes distributing them very easy.
5. Keep on growing. Amazon has millions of customers, but even with all of these customers, Amazon keeps on growing. Amazon is using some of the money to build more warehouses which will allow them to ship products to their customers faster. One warehouse is being built in New Jersey for those of you nearby.
6. Know what the customers want. Jeff Bezos knows that his customers want affordable prices and quick delivery. That’s why he is using the money from Amazon to build warehouses and make drones. That’s why the prices of Amazon’s Kindles are intentionally lowered to prevent a profit. Kindles only make a profit when users buy paid apps on their Kindles.
7. Show some humor. Jeff Bezos showed a lot of humor during the interview. His humor made the interview engaging.

The sad truth is that giving up is always an option (but not all options are meant to be followed properly).

The workload gets too tough (although no one can escape work).

Doing all of the research will take forever (although you’ll learn a lot in the end).

The product might not even be successful (but what if it would have been and you stopped halfway).

Getting a sale is going to be a challenge (you’ll be able to rejoice because you made a sale).

The ROI doesn’t add up (When Twitter started, it cost more money to keep Twitter going than the owners were making from the social network).

You can give up (however, there’s also the better option which is to make a difference).

 

One of my goals was to have a podcast where I interviewed people about business and social media. I decided to take steps of action in order to accomplish that goal. I looked at a lot of options such as a blog talk radio show and a bunch of websites that offered podcasting services. However, this was a lot of work. As I continued working on accomplishing this goal, nothing seemed to work.

Then, I saw someone use Google+ Hangouts. I thought, “Why not?” I had looked at many other options. What would doing some research about Google+ Hangouts do? Looking into Google+ Hangouts has completely changed my goal for the better. Instead of having my own podcast, I interview people on Google+ Hangouts.

My story of ending up on Google+ Hangouts involves a lot of struggles, but like all happy endings, a solution was reached. Whether you are interested in podcasting or something else, Google+ Hangouts will help your business soar. Here are 5 important reasons to start using Google+ Hangouts:

1. You can have multiple callers, and 10 participants is the maximum. Having a maximum of 10 participants makes it more likely for everyone to say what they want to say. If there were 100 participants on the same Google+ Hangout, either some people would be left out or the hangout would be too long and lose the interest of your viewers. You can interview 1 person or a bunch of people as long as there aren’t more than 10 people. If you have 11 people that you want to interview, you can create multiple Google+ hangouts to get all of the interviews in and ensure quality.

2. Google+ Hangouts can automatically be published to YouTube and Google Plus when they are done. By having your hangouts automatically published to YouTube and Google Plus, you will immediately be able to draw comments and questions about your hangout. This also saves you some steps towards promoting your hangouts.

3. You can host a live Q&A with Google+ Hangouts. Putting a form on your blog or your email address will get you some questions. You can even answer questions using a social network. With Google+ Hangouts, viewers can call in and ask a question, and you answer it like always. The only difference is that anyone can view the person’s question and your answer. By hosting a live Q&A, you will be able to help more of your viewers in real-time and build credibility for yourself as an expert at the same time!

4. Google+ Hangouts is free and easy to use. Unlike most podcasting services, blog radio shows, and anything similar, Google+ Hangouts are completely free. You don’t have to pay a one-time price or a monthly fee of any kind. Google+ Hangouts is also easy to use. Out of all of the products I have seen on Google, they do the best job at giving how-to instructions for Google+ Hangouts. After looking at Google’s instructions about setting up a Google+ Hangout and inviting your guests, you will be able to do all of this in a manner of minutes.

5. There’s a lot of creative ways to use Google+ Hangouts. After you get used to Google+ Hangouts, there are a lot of creative ways to use it. One creative way to use Google+ Hangouts is by giving away one of your products or telling people about a coupon throughout the entire Google+ Hangout. Instead of placing advertisements in your video, you can talk about discounts and giveaways of your products. If you don’t have a product yet, you can give away something that attracts attention such as an iPad Mini or the always popular $50 Amazon Gift Card.