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Rich Schefren: Portrait Of A Family Business Entrepreneur
By Stephen BRAY, Principal, 'The Family Business School'
Rich Schefren is an entrepreneur with an education in accountancy and strategic planning. He has a proven track record of business development and marketing excellence.
This brief biography covers his education and business achievements since the early 1990s.
Schefren is a graduate from Case Western Reserve University and seemed set on a career in strategic planning with the prestigious Arthur Anderson firm, from whom he had won college scholarships. It was an opportunity that many would have appreciated but in 1994 he left Arthur Anderson to rescue the ailing family clothing business.
Early Business Success
The family store, located in Broadway in lower Manhattan, was ill-located and having difficulty competing with the larger stores located in malls. The young Schefren, perhaps as a result of working for Arthur Anderson, and maybe because of his own intuition, realized that the family firm needed something radically different if it was to survive.
Schefren’s strategy was to make the store itself a fashionable destination. Using his knowledge of techno music, and what techno music club goers wanted, he remodelled the store and sold techno clothing and merchandise at discount prices.
At one time his store was the only place where you would find: Diesel Jeans, Vintage Levis, Mecca, Sabotage, W & L.T, LEnegia, Mookes & Fray, Gene Meyare, and Kikwear under one roof.
The plan paid off. The store attracted patrons such as Madonna, Urma Thurman, Prince, Bon Jovi, and Eric Clapton. Revenue increased from $1.5 million dollars to $6.5 million in three years.
Shefren attributes part of this success as the result of being able to recruit the right people, many of whom have gone on to highly paid positions with companies such as Diesel, Levi's, Prada and Dolce & Gabanna.
Success came at a price, however, the days were long and Schefren realised that the ‘rag trade’ wasn’t really what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. After rescuing the store from closure, and seeing it well into the black, Shefren returned to college to finish his degree before trying his hand as a hypnotherapist.
Dynamic Changes Hypnosis Centers
His hypnosis centers, jointly founded with his wife Deb followed the same path as the family clothing store. Using marketing strategies devised by the likes of Jay Abraham, and John Carlton. Schefren rapidly built a reputation, not as a hypnotist, but as someone able to market hypnosis. His chain of hypnosis centers was able to spend $ 3 million a year on advertising, which combined with some savvy marketing methods created a $7 million turnover in four years. Later he sold his marketing skills to other hypnosis vendors.
It was around this time that Schefren first entered into the arena of Internet marketing. He found the business exciting and rapidly set up a number of joint ventures with established names in the field.
Internet Marketing
Schefren brought something new to the Internet marketing business, which had hitherto been compared to the ‘old wild west.’ Where others had learned by experimentation tricks and fancy ways to apply direct marketing tactics to the on-line world, few knew how to run their businesses and enjoy quality time at home with their families. This was somewhat ironic since many of these Internet marketers were working out of bedroom, home-offices!
Using the skills he had developed as an entrepreneur; as someone trained in therapy; and with the valuable experience from Arthur Anderson, Shefren was able to rapidly help Internet marketers become better organized, more profitable, and have more leisure time.
In 2004 Schefren formalized his consulting business by launching Strategic Profits, whose target market is currently Internet marketers.
Working as both an Internet marketer, and a consultant to Internet marketers has enabled Rich Schefren to identify all of the problems those who wish to market on-line face. Importantly he discovered that it may not be the marketing itself that causes Internet businesses to fail, but rather that people start out believing that they must create everything themselves. In 2006 he formalized this information and presented it to the wider Internet marketing community in a report entitled: 'The Internet Business Manifesto', or simply 'The Manifesto'.
The Internet Business Manifesto
No-one had seen a free-report that was as detailed and well produced as the Internet Business Manifesto, and a number of additional reports have been released since. These include ‘The Missing Chapter’, which is no longer available, ‘The Final Chapter’; ‘The Attention Age Doctrine’, which is no longer available; ‘The Attention Age Doctrine Volume 2’; and ‘Maven Matrix Manifesto’, which he co-authored with veteran marketer and business consultant Jay Abraham.
These deal with a variety of topics. In the Internet Business Manifesto Rich Schefren takes the time to introduce himself thus:
1. At the age of 22 I took a failing clothing company from 1.5 million to 6.5 million in three years.
2. At the age of 26 I started a hypnosis center that grew in to a 7.5 million dollar business in less than four years
3. At the age of 31 I got involved in online marketing and within the first two years I generated over 4 million dollars in partnerships with Jay Abraham, John Carlton, Jeff Paul, Stephen Pierce, Yanik Silver, and Alex Mandossian.
4. At the age of 33 I began working on a systemized coaching program whose members read like a whose who of the Internet: 1shoppingcart, Jim Edwards, Mike Filsaime, Brad Fallon, Harlan Kilstein, Tellman Knudson, and many others (whose names I am not allowed to mention), and have averaged an increase of over 1.5 million dollars per member in 16 months.
The sub-title of the Manifesto reads: ‘A Big Business Was Just A Small Business That Did The Right Things, A Wealthy Business Owner Was An Opportunity Seeker Who Became An Entrepreneur.’
He goes on to assert that it’s far easier to sell a product to an opportunity seeker than a true entrepreneur because the entrepreneur knows what he wants and isn’t easily deflected from her, or his, path.
Schefren presents a good argument that most of us have no idea what our time is worth; we waste what time we have on non-income producing activities; and are unaware that when we work productively we may well be able to employ others to do essential tasks for less than your own time is worth. This then increases the profitability of our family businesses.
The Missing Chapter
‘The Missing Chapter’, which is no longer available, focused upon two important messages. These are:
1. A web-site doesn’t equal a business, and
2. The kind of business you start is as important as the choice of person you marry.
He goes on to explain that whilst you may have many interests, for example you may like taking photographs, this doesn’t mean that becoming a professional photographer is necessarily your best choice for a profession. Rather than creating a business around interests it is more prudent to create one around your strengths.
Schefren uses the examples of the family clothing business, which he remodeled around his knowledge of the Techno culture, and that of his hypnosis centers where he used business skills to compete, rather than attempting to be the world’s greatest hypnotist.
Elsewhere he explains: “If you want to maximize your chances of being successful then you need to use your strengths to create a new sub-niche or niche, where by default you can be the best in the world.”
The Missing Chapter is well written, and provides a number of diagrams and tools to help business owners develop sound business practices and processes. It is, however, no longer available but much of what is there, and far more is available in one of his products called The Business Growth Coaching Program .
The Final Chapter
In The Final Chapter Rich Shefren introduced us to his winning formula:
Vision + Strength + Passion + Resources + Alliance Partners + Powerful Tactics + Action Plan = Success
Without one of these ingredients, he asserts, your business cannot be truly successful. It’s sound advice and the Final Chapter provides a full 61 pages making each of these terms explicit.
The Final Chapter has also been withdrawn, but its content is available in the coaching program.
The Attention Age Doctrine Volume 1
The Attention Age Doctrine, also no longer available, was to my mind a confusing document. It concerned itself with the ways in which Internet marketers and small business owners are deflected from their goals by being unable to ‘tune-out’ all the hype and garbage the media feeds us every day.
In particular it returned to the theme of the entrepreneur being like a player who keeps their eye on the ball, whilst the opportunist loses track of the ball because they are attempting to play too many games at once.
The Attention Age Doctrine Volume 2
The Attention Age Doctrine Volume 2 is altogether better document than Volume 1. It bears so little resemblance to the original report that it might easily have been written by a different author.
This document is endorsed both by Brian Tracy and Jay Abraham and it goes straight to the point: “Having peoples’ attention not only can make you famous, it can also make you rich.”
But today we are overloaded with media, with the result that people are sceptical, and have learned to tune the world out. In response to this media in the form of e-mail, web 2.0, T.V. print advertising, direct mail etc is turning up the volume. Computers have made publishing cheaper and this in turn has led us into a world festooned with pushed sales messages.
In the past, however, newspaper, T.V. and direct mail to some degree placed the onus of getting your attention on the advertiser. Today web 2.0 is moving the balance toward the consumer who can be more selective about how and what to read and view. No longer do we have to listen to programmed radio stations, instead we may select from many thousands of podcasts available on-line.
To quote Rich Schefren directly: “Sales miracles begin when you make the transformation from party crasher to the guest of honour.”
The best advertising used to be word-of-mouth, now this translates to peer-to-peer and the medium moved from mouth to mouse!
My Space, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Viddler all provide a means for peers to comment and join in conversations. Managing this for the benefit of your peers, and therefore your business is the subject of The Attention Age Doctrine Vol 2. I wholeheartedly recommend this free report. It lays out a blueprint about how to manage web 2.0, and also can stop you making damaging mistakes.
The Attention Age Doctrine Volume 2 introduces the term ‘Maven’, who may be described as a well known and trusted authority in their field. This term is taken up in what is currently the latest in Rich Schefren’s free reports.
The Maven Matrix Manifesto
The Maven Matrix Manifesto is authored jointly by Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham. This report challenges the childhood injunction that it’s better to be seen and not heard. It makes it clear that unless you stand out from the crowd you cannot hope to be seen in today’s hi tech Information age.
Jay Abraham writes of how he took a postal clerk with ambitions to be his own boss, and never have to worry about money again, to $500 million in sales per year in one and a half years. He did this by making Jim Cook, of Investment Rarities, the No 1 expert trusted voice in his market.
Maven’s don’t engage in search engine optimization, pay per click, or the like because they are highly sought after people who people are willing to ‘Google’ just to discover who they are, and what they have to offer.
Moreover, as a maven, when you put your name on a product it practically jumps of the shelf. Your competitors all want to promote your product as affiliates because they know that your products are easy to sell. The corollary of this is, of course, if you endorse a ‘duff’ product you will lose your maven status.
People will invite you to speak at conferences, and pay you to do so.
The Maven Matrix is a “step by step process to take you to the top of your market.”
If fame and fortune have, thus far, eluded you then you should be advised to pick up this free report without delay.
Shorter Reports From Rich Schefren
In addition to these quite lengthy reports it’s not unusual for Schefren to give away smaller documents as .PDFs. These include his ‘Complete Marketing and Launch Model’ and also a set of drawings made by schoolchildren on the topic of marketing.
In the recent past Rich Schefren, through his company ‘Strategic Profits’ has launched a number of products including a conference entitled ‘The New Beginnings’, which was hosted at Disneyland, Florida in February 2008.
His current portfolio of products includes:
Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren's Maven Home Study Course
1. Teaches you how to create a business persona that reflects who you truly are, whilst projecting strength, wisdom, and authority.
2. Enables you, through your professional ‘Maven’ character to present yourself to your market taking you from where you are, to where you want to be in bite-size sequential steps.
3. Ensures that your building block strategy is ‘well-formed’ and displays no contradictions in the minds of those people comprising your market.
4. Provides lots of tools and techniques to get your message across, including the right language patterns and words to use.
5. Enables you to watch an listen to questions that people who attended a conference on ‘Mavenhood’ asked, and the answers given by Rich Shefren, Jay Abraham and others.
6. Using live teleconferencing to train you in Mavenhood..
7. Makes you part of an online group and class where people present their own plans and have them critiqued and improved.
8. You will conclude the program with a real action plan tailored specifically to your market and needs; and
9. receive continued mentoring for six months after the conclusion of the course.
The Business Acceleration Program
This program is, somewhat, different from The Maven Home Study Course because it focuses on how you organize yourself, rather than how you present yourself to your marketplace. Through it you will learn:
1. How to develop a photographic memory and use this ability to run your business with precision by being on top of critical information in your industry.
2. How to arrange your working environment so that you may optimize your time, and that of your employees. This is a method used by Apple, Microsoft and many other corporations where time is money and costs count.
3. A Harvard technique for exceptional productivity: A low cost method that helps you to work more creatively, more effectively, and leaves you feeling good at the end of the day.
4. FREE MONEY: A desk accessory that some have used to earn an extra $24,499 within a year.
5. Create your own billion-dollar mastermind group: Use the camaraderie of peers to catapult your business to new heights.
6. A source of FREE up to date information : A method to access masses of free information about your business or industry.
7. A step-by-step guide to creating inexpensive promotional offers and gifts: The method used by Rich Schefren to create new blueprints, and free gifts with which to attract subscribers.
This software was commissioned by Rich Schefren in order to meet his own requirements for self-development and study.
"Studies show the average person speaks 125-150 words per minute yet you can comprehend up to 600 + words per-minute", Shefren claims.
Speed listening enables you to use this skill to learn faster from audio systems such as an MP3 player.
What FasterAudio™ software does is accelerate your audio's while leaving the authors voice, spirit and intent sounding normal, just faster.
This is a course based upon Rich Schefren’s original coaching program, plus new material that is added as he develops other products. It was one of Rich Schefren’s original products, and the sales page reflects this. The product however seems good value for those who are serious about their businesses although some might consider it to be expensive.
The product includes access to a discussion forum, access to live seminars, and question and answer calls.
This is also a coaching style course. It provides some of the components contained within The Business Growth System. In the sales letter Rich Shefren reveals that he thinks you will be so pleased with this course that you will want to sign up for The Business Growth System.
Conclusion
It’s beyond doubt that Rich Schefren is a highly intelligent and skilled entrepreneur. He has approximately ten full time staff working for him in Strategic Profits, and no doubt is outsourcing some more of the work that drives his machine.
He has set out to cultivate experts from both direct response and also Internet marketing. These include: Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy, John Carlton, Alex Mandossian, Stephen Pierce, and Yanik Silver,.
Although Schefren works closely with such marketers sometimes his marketing messages become somewhat contradictory. He has been known to use such phrases as “destroy the competition.” This is unfortunate, since in The Maven Matrix Manifesto he makes it clear that Maven’s are people who sell products that their competitors will promote.
Moreover, as Shefren’s student base has widened he has become more directly involved in the promotion of joint ventures with some of them. These need to be carefully examined before automatically making a purchase since the student is more likely to be responsible for the quality of the product than is Rich Shefren.
Any company is only as good as those who work for it. Strategic Profits is, on the whole, a good company but sometimes its marketing messages are confusing. This generally occurs when Schefren attempts to promote the products of others, rather than to following his own council and being the maven’s maven.
Not every family business owner will aspire to be a maven like Rich Schefren. Although his products, and advice, may well enable you to achieve more with less effort, Schefren himself seems at times like a nuclear powered bee-in-a-bottle. I think one day he might explode.
His success model relies on collaboration, marketing prowess, and having sound skills to promote. As a result his business will undoubtedly grow, and with it some complexity is inevitable. His Fast Audio product looks like a departure from the other products, and it remains to be seen if he will able to sustain his chosen identity as the reliable pilot for those navigating the choppy waters of Internet marketing.
There is much that family business owners, and aspiring business owners may learn from Rich Schefren’s example, and wisdom. He delivers a lot of useful information, and much of it is both free and invaluable.
Kindly note:This information is supplied as a service and without warrantee. You are advised to perform your own due diligence before purchasing any product from the Internet, or elsewhere.