Tweet

The Dolly Parton Business Model

Written by: Lee Lister

Article Overview: So I’m talking business models and you have a one person web site or a part time business. So how does this affect you? It does affect you - because the internet is a very large and very unforgiving business environment. Regardless of how many people tell you how you can make thousands every month, for every eBay there are millions of sites just taking a few $'s a month.

The Dolly Parton Business Model

So I’m talking business models and you have a one person web site or a part time business. So how does this affect you?

It does affect you - because the internet is a very large and very unforgiving business environment. Regardless of how many people tell you how you can make thousands every month, for every eBay there are millions of sites just taking a few $'s a month.

So where does Dolly Parton come into it, I hear you say? Well I also went to the Dolly Parton Dinner Show just before Christmas, which I highly recommended. Having just finished writing for my latest information product - the Entrepreneur Power Pack, I had my business head still functioning. I realized that there are 3 major women within the USA - Oprah, Martha and Dolly - and they all have started and run massive businesses that center on their particular skills.

When setting up your new business, the first question you should ask yourself is “what do you want to do?” I know that this sounds a really silly question – but looking at our three famous ladies again:

• Oprah is known mainly as a talk show host but she started on the radio.
• Martha is known for her TV show but she started catering for weddings.
• Dolly has always been a singer – but she now has her dinner shows and Dollywood theme park and has also been in a few movies.

The lesson here is to decide to do something within an area where you can logically expand upon your skills without losing your market and your past and current customers. People go to the Dolly Dinner Shows – because they are fond of Dolly and want she stands for. Oprah only has to recommend a book on her TV show and it becomes a best seller because her opinion is trusted by millions. Martha has whole streams of income – TV, products, magazines, books etc – all with her name on them and her customers move logically from one to the other, buying as they go.

What is clear is that all of them have very strong brand images – but they also have numerous complimentary streams of income. Martha in particular is a genius at using each of her product streams to feed off of each other – moving her customer base from one item to the next with little effort.

I thought that there were a lot of lessons to learn from Dolly and how she runs her business so well, whilst still being so nice about it! I think we can learn a whole lot from her!

So how does this affect a small one or two person business – click or brick? Planning is such an important part of starting a serious business. You must plan your business taking into account the following:
• You need a strong string of recognizable products or services that are instantly recognizable as belonging to your company. For example we have a string of products, which we constantly add to, called the PowerPack – its concept is that we sell all you need to set up a particular business in one product. Our most popular is the AdSense PowerPack.
• Ensure that you leave room to add extra products or services that are not too removed from your current product stream. For example if you offer lawn services – it’s not too far away to also offer porch cleaning as well. If you provide golfing services – then also sell golf balls, golf gloves etc. Follow the Martha route on that one.
• Decide how you want to present yourself – consider colors, fonts, sizing, quality etc.
• Work out which market you are seeking – find a niche if you can, and build your product range around this.

At the start of this year I sat down with a large mug of tea (I’m a Brit ok – I may live mostly in the USA – but my suitcase is always full of PG Tips), a pad and a pen.

I looked at where I thought that my customer base would be this year and what kind of things they would be looking for.

I then decided what product streams and services I would offer in 2006 and then defined at least 4 products in each stream.

Common wisdom is to look at price ranges of: up to $9.97, $19.97, $47, $97 and $147 when looking at IT and digital based items. On top of that goes consultancy, training and individual coaching. So I tried to decide on my item in each of these price slots as well as a group of free giveaways for viral marketing purpose. Now I am a prolific writer so most of these were going to be of my own design. Don’t worry if you don’t have the time or inclination to do this – look out for existing resell items that you can bundle together to make up the products.

If you have a product or service based company that is not digitally based then you should investigate your own price points. Doesn’t do any harm to have your own ebooks to give away or sell as well though! You might even try short video training courses on how to make the best use of your products or services – be creative.

If you only have or only want a small company then concentrate on no more than 3 product ranges. This gives you about 12-15 products to design plus some giveaways.


So set up so new goals for your own company and try this activity.

Related Articles
  Staging Diva Graduate helps home sell at first open house
  Entrepreneurs – What Can You Learn From Dolly About Managing Your Customers?
  Entrepreneurs - What Can You Learn From Dolly Parton?
  Dolly Parton
  The Top 2 Online Business Opportunities For Beginners

Article Tags: best seller, brand images, business environment, business head, business models, dinner show, dolly parton, dollywood, ebay, few movies, information product, magazines books, oprah, person web, silly question, streams of income, talk show host, theme park, time business, tv products



Related Forum Posts
Re: Franchise 'due diligence' checklist - One of the things I focus on is this: Does the Franchise fit the Business Model you are interested in? Meaning, are you going to be doing what you want to do on a daily? For example, if you are a restaurant manager now and you hate your job because of the hours, then don't buy most food franchises. You have experience of course, so it is more comfortable, but you will basically be doing very similar duties and hours as you were before. I always go through a series of questions, answers, more questions, more answers etc... to help my clients figure out what Business Model they are most interested in, I do this before even discussing a single name with them, they tell me what the business model is and then I match them up to that type of business, explain the entire business model as best I can and then and only then do we discuss the name of the company. Too many times people come to me wanting to own "abc" name brand franchise, when they don't even understand what type of business it really is and what they will be doing every day.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Patent Walk-Through - Hello everyone! My name is Alex, I'm 18 years old and I'm constantly drawing up new ideas and inventing stuff. I sketch stuff down everywhere I go and on anything I can write on. I'm a big member of our local Future Business Leaders of America chapter (FBLA). In the future I hope to work my way up to being a Venture Capitalist. I think of myself as a pretty creative person who is very motivated. Some of the ideas and inventions I come up with are pretty far out but others I consider marketable and to have great potential. Being 18, I have little to no connections and no resources. I've been surfing this site pretty frequently for the last year and have finally decided to join the forum group. Anyway, here's my question... Basically, I have no idea how to get a patent together the costs and the overall process. As of now, I think I have a great idea that, as far as I know has not, ever been done before. I'm really excited about this idea. I'm a total novice at this and am willing to learn all that I can. Any information that you can provide me with would be great. Again the main things I want to know are: 1.Overall Process. 2.How Long It Takes. 3.Costs. 4.Anything That You Think I Should Know. 5.Tips/Experiences. 6.Confidentiality. 7.Must I Make A Physical Model of My Idea? Thanks guys! -Alex
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Multilevel Marketing: 4 Tips To MLM Success

How Promotional Caps became a Fashion Trend

The State of the Sustainable Furniture Industry

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.