eirmoney | Book Review - Instant Income by Janet Switzer

Book Review - Instant Income by Janet Switzer

Posted by Senan Coleman | 16 September 2009

From the inside cover: Instant Income is the first ever system to show you how to turn uncommon assets into income you can make and use in just hours, days or weeks - and to help you develop entirely new streams of income from unlikely sources.

First off, this book won't suit the everyone - the writing content and style is very 'upbeat American', in the same vein as many other self-help books out there, and thus may not tweak the interest of the typical cynical Irish reader! Nor will this book bring instant income, despite the title. It's primarily a direct communication / marketing intro for existing business owners with products and / or services to hawk.

To its credit this tome gives many real examples and case studies that have actually worked in the field. Not real examples of direct instant income generation mind you, just business generation (fair enough, one should lead to the other). The authors ability and track record is impressive, although the skeptic might balk at the frequent inward directed analysis and implied praise. [Side note on self-help tone: The self-help and motivational circuit seems, from the outside at least, to be a self-perpetuating philosophy. Every now and again a new star speaker emerges from the wilderness, is taken under the wing of one of the older hats, and eventually sets up their own tour. Each then promotes the other (be it expensive seminars and workshops, or books, or 1-to-1 advise) at their conferences. This book has that undertone. Chicken Soup for the Soul author Jack Canfield is cited frequently as well as many other 'colleagues'].

The book is detailed. It tackles areas such as sales force training, internet income, overlooked assets, and running marketing campaigns.

If you are a small business owner, wondering how to reconnect with existing but sluggish customers, or if you are trying to generate new business, then this may well be worth a read. Your geography or sector don't immediately matter; there's an example in the book of how the author helped a farmer sell her meat for example, or how the author helped a hypnotherapist increase the sales of his services by about 800% in a single week!

If you are at the business planning stage I would give this a miss for now, there are better ways to spend your time. Wait until you have your business processes, staff, products, and backing in place before reading - there must be more concise marketing intros out there.

For those completely uninitiated with the sales process this book could serve as a primer. Many business owners, it points out, simply do not have the knowledge and skill in sales required. It drives home that the primary sales person needs to be (initially at least) the person at the top.

As reading experiences go this began well but turned out to be a bit of a chore in the latter parts. Sometimes it is engaging; however it is difficult to keep the subject interesting. The author does her best but I struggled to get through the final half. As a novice myself in this field I found some interesting insights, such as copy writing tips and techniques (some of which incidentally I now easily recognise in some of the periodic emails I receive from various financial portals), and follow through strategies with existing customers. There was also some useful stuff relating to online marketing. Other sections were not of interest, such as 'Going into Business with the Boss'.

Will I read it again: No
Would I recommend it to someone else: Probably not
Will I sell it on eBay or keep it for reference: Keep (although I would sell if I had a different marketing reference)
Rating: 5/10