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I know that posts have been a little less frequent lately. That is do to my business growing new heights in such a short time. I am letting the dust settle a bit and should be resuming a more normal posting schedule after Labor Day.

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I have always admired the style and brand that PUMA offers. But more often than not, the company’s clothes don’t fit me as well as others. Must be that Europeans have smaller feet and figures, ha. Recently, I did manage to find a PUMA T-shirt that I liked. This shirt was nothing special other than having a PUMA logo and being plain and black. But what was special was the shirt’s tag.

I did take a scan of the tag but with the print so small, it is still hard to read. On the research portion of the tag it has some facts and graphs. The first is a pie chart that points out that 4% of people regularly read the tags and that 96% of people do something more important. This leads to the graph directly below, with the X coordinates being the “Boring” scale and the Y coordinates the “Things to Do” scale.

I like things that are clever. What I learned was not only is PUMA stylish but intellectually stimulating, who knew? Here are the rest of the quotes from the tag:

Under Corporate Message: “So you’re interested in PUMA? Nice move. You’re obviously smart, confident and know what you want in life. Sure, you work hard, but you’re no slave to the rat race. You know the score. You call the shots. You make the most of you chances. So buy this, it suits you.”

Under Sportlifestyle: “PUMA has been in the Helps-You-Look-Good business since 1948. We know what we’re doing. People in magazines wear this stuff. Fashion people, sporty people. People who don’t have to wear a suit everyday. So, we know it works.”

Under Everyone: “Suitable for: training, napping, eating, driving, sports, whatever.”

Only if I had taken the time to read the tag first. Now I am not sure if some rouge marketer in the company thought it would be a good idea just to make people laugh or if they had studies that showed people who actually read the tags enjoyed the humor and tended to share it with others. I know that you are now hearing about PUMA’s clothes tags because I think it is worth remarking about. What is remarkable about your product or my product or any product for that matter?

The best business model meshes the best of online with offline. By finding a unique and interesting way to combine the best of both worlds, you will succeed in both.

The ultimate way to mesh online business and offline business it to have a product or idea that can flow between the two. A family friend of ours owns the Mt. Shasta View souvenir shop in Weed, CA. The funny thing about this shop is the merchandise the store sells. Located at the foot of Mt. Shasta in Northern California, Weed was named after a timber baron, Abner Weed. Nowadays the use of the word “weed” is more often than not associated with marijuana. Needless to say, the town of Weed has a lot of jokes surrounding it. Back to my friends shop.

This store has been in business selling souvenirs for about 60 years. I am also willing to bet that some of the best selling t-shirts were created not long after. As of lately, they have started moving their tangible business from the store in Weed more online. Sales have been trickling in from all over the country. My guess is that most of the sales have resulted in some potheads finding the site after searching for different t-shirts on Google. Now this is an instance of a “real world” business making its way online and growing even more.

The million dollar question is how do you take your online business and incorporate both businesses and people offline? As I was flying to Washington State yesterday it occurred to me that probably the easiest solution is through the use of business cards. What if you had not only a business card, but a business card with value attached to it? What if your card had $500 off first-time Internet business consulting? This would convey that not only do you do consulting, but that you also must be doing a good job to deliver $500 off. Make sure to express that this only works by having the business card. Now that card becomes something of value and worth. Who loses something worth $500 bucks, right?

Now if you know how to hold someones attention by getting them to see that you have a skill that they like, and they have a need you can fill, you are on the right track. They have your card in hand and wont easily lose it, knowing that it is worth $500. Perhaps, to make it even more dramatic don’t have the discount printed on the card, but rather, lay out a line that you enjoyed their time and their company and write the discount out on the card before handing it to them.