Have you ever called your crush for the first time and it rings forever? Then it stops ringing and you hear their cute, little voicemail message?

At this point, your palms are getting sweaty and your voice is about to get babbly. But you can’t hang up because they’ll know you called. You have to tough it out. After all, you probably pumped yourself up with rap music for several minutes leading up to the phone call and you can’t let that time go to waste.

On the other hand, if you leave a voicemail that makes you sound like an idiot, that could change the outlook of the relationship forever. This is a life-shaping moment.

As an entrepreneur, you’re going to be making important phone calls like this on a regular basis. Whether it’s a prospective customer, potential mentor or possible business partner, you have to give them a great impression.

In this post, I’ll give you a script to make sure your nerves don’t get the best of you and breakdown the voicemail script so you know why each component is important.

Voicemail Message Script

“Hi (their name)! My name is (full name) and I’m (i.e. the founder of JuniorBiz). The reason I’m calling is because…(one or two sentences). Could you please call me back? You can reach me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX. Again, my name is Nick Tart and my number is (XXX) XXX-XXXX. I’m looking forward to hearing from you and have a great day!”

Practice saying this a few times right now while no one is listening. Think of it as kissing the back of your hand for practice. It’s going to be weird but it’s for your own good.

It should last 30 seconds. The voicemail, that is.

Components of an Effective Voicemail Message

1. “Hi Jaime/ Mr. Jones!”

   Address the person you’re trying to contact with enthusiasm. It’ll set the tone for the rest of the voicemail. What’s the first thing you do when you see that cute girl or handsome guy? You say hello and put a big smile on your face.

2. “My name is Casanova Joe and I’m the taker/founder or your heart/JuniorBiz.com.”

   When you introduce yourself and who you are, make sure you use your full name and give them a tiny bit of relevant information about yourself. If that girl or guy has never met you before, the first thing they’ll want to know is who you are.

3. “The reason I’m calling is because I’m in love with you/I’d like to talk to you about your website.”

   After they know who you are, they’re going to want to know why you’re calling. Make sure this is succinct (one or two sentences). Also make sure you don’t give any private information because you don’t know who is going to listen to the message. When you’re leaving a voicemail, it’s best to get straight to the point.

4. “Can you please call me back?”

   This politely lets them know that you would like to talk to them. It’s the call-to-action.

5. “You can reach me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX.”

   When you leave your phone number, make sure you include your area code. Don’t assume that that fine young lady or man knows where you live.

6. “Again, my name is Casanova Joe and my number is (XXX) XXX-XXXX.”

   By this time they have a pen and paper handy. They might have already forgotten your name so you want to say it again. Then repeat your number slowly as though you’re sweet talkin’ your baby. This gives them time to write it down.

What about caller ID? Some phones don’t have it and some people get multiple phone calls per day from random numbers. Don’t make them guess which number was yours. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you put all this effort into contacting your crush but you didn’t properly give them a way to call you back? That would drive both of you crazy.

7. “I’m looking forward to hearing from you and have a great day.”

   End the voicemail by letting them know that you expect to get a phone call. As an act of kindness, tell them to have a great day. Maybe it’s the first time they heard it all day.

Let me know if you have any information that should be included in a voicemail in the comments area below. If you like this article, consider sharing it with your crush/business partner. They might get the hint .

P.S. Let’s say you own a web development company and you find someone who doesn’t have a website but needs one. If you leave a voicemail that says, “I’d like to talk about your website.”, that person is going to call you back out of confusion. This also raises their awareness that they don’t have a website and might need one. Perfect leeway into your services!

Photo by: Head in the Clouds…

Seek. Find. Hide. Pounce. Kick. Choke. Ninja star throw. Vanish.

All too often, ninjas and entrepreneurs describe their products or services by the features. I’m not going to hire a ninja to seek, pounce and vanish. I’m looking for the stealthiest of individuals to carry-out a mission without leaving a trace so they or I don’t get caught.

People pay for advantages and benefits, not features. When describing your product or service, you need to follow the FAB structure (Feature-Advantage-Benefit) if you want to portray the real value of what you provide.

Feature

What are the attributes of your product or service? What is it made of? What are the specifications and special functions of the product? What do you do?

For example, let’s say you run an internet marketing/web development company. The main features of your services are that you make websites, optimize them for search engines, integrate social media, and build in systems to capture contact information.

Advantage

How is your product or service better than your competitors? What makes it the best product or service on the market?

Continuing with the same example, you could inform potential customers that most web development companies stop at simply building the website and explain that just having a website is pointless. Your service is better because it has three other vital components.

Benefit

What is the core value that your product or service provides to your customers? What problem does it solve? How will your customer’s life improve as a result of paying you?

Back to your company, the benefit to your internet marketing service is that your customers will capture more sales leads and attract more customers as a result of your superior service.

FAB Product or Service Description

When the FAB model is used effectively it is a stealthy, yet powerful, sales move. Check out the before and after descriptions for your internet marketing company:

Features: “We make websites, optimize them for search engines, integrate social media and build in systems to capture contact information.”

Features-Advantages-Benefits: “We develop professional-looking websites, drive traffic through search engines and social media, and we’ll build systems to capture their information so they keep coming back. Most other web development companies stop at just building your website. We’ll integrate SEO, social media and conversion forms so you can capture more leads, attract more customers, and make more money.”

The small business owner doesn’t want a website.

They want to make more money. A website just happens to be a great way to do that. If you can show that your internet marketing service will result in more money for your customer than you charge them, it’s a no-brainer. They’ll hire you every single time.

When to Use FAB

All day, every day. The FAB technique should be plastered all over your fliers, posters, website, packaging, and strategically placed throughout your sales pitch. Any time you’re trying to convince someone to do something, you need to use it because people only respond to benefits (“What’s in it for me?”).

How We Used FAB on Our Book Cover

Feature: 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs (Volume 1, Interviews 1-25)
Advantage: The world’s top young entrepreneurs share the secrets to their success.
Benefit: What it Takes to Make More Money than Your Parents

If a ninja wants to make a website that will attract more clients (rather than just being a really cool website), then that ninja needs to utilize the advantages and benefits of their services.

Photo by: Lilley1

When Catherine Cook and her brother, David, were growing up in New Jersey, they used to set up little libraries in their house and rent out books to their parents for a small charge. By the time they were in high school, they had launched the social networking site myYearbook.com with a $250,000 investment from their older brother Geoff.

Today, Catherine is a 20-year-old junior at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and myYearbook.com has over 20 million members. Between studying marketing, operations and information management, and psychology, Catherine finds time to take the train up to myYearbook’s HQ in Pennsylvania a few times a month.

There, eighty employees are working hard to make myYearbook the premier way to meet new people online through ice-breaking games and features. It’s working: myYearbook is ranked in the top 25 most trafficked websites in the United States according to comScore and it pulls in 20 million dollars in yearly revenue.

As co-founder, Catherine Cook keeps busy developing new features and leading myYearbook into the future of social networking. She’s also an active myYearbook user and every new member’s first friend.

The following is a short excerpt from 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs (Volume 1).

Q: What drove you above and beyond, towards entrepreneurship?

A: A big part of it was the way that my parents brought us up. We were always taught to be leaders. For instance, if we didn’t know what a word meant, we had to look it up in the dictionary. Our parents weren’t going to just tell us. It’s that kind of thing: do it yourself and find your own path.

Catherine and her brothers, David and Geoff

One of the things that drove us directly to entrepreneurship was seeing our older brother do it. Geoff, who’s 11 years older than me, started a company at Harvard during his sophomore year.

At the time, Dave and I were 9 and 10. Seeing him have a company, watching it grow, and living with him over the summers in California – it was just such a different environment than our parents’ work. The energy was a lot cooler. It was just better. Later, Geoff became our first investor and he stepped in as CEO.

Q: How have people around you reacted to your success?

A: It’s not like I try to keep a cover, but I don’t really talk about it. If I bring it up in conversation, it becomes the conversation. Of course, I love to talk about it. But I don’t want to feel like I monopolize the conversation.

My freshman year of college, no one knew except for my best friend. She didn’t realize how many hours I put into the site every night. I’m on the site late at night and I also tend to be an early riser. So, when we started living together, she was like, “You never sleep!”

There’s a guy who works at our cafeteria, swiping students in. He sees me every day because I eat at the cafeteria. Somewhere around November, he’s like, “You’re the girl who created myYearbook, right?” Apparently he’s a member. It’s fun to meet people who use the site.

I made all of my friends in Georgetown get accounts. C’mon – they’re my friends, so they have to support what I do! Now they’re on the site all the time. The casual game section is really big with them and at least one of my friends gets on the high score list every week. I can never get onto the high score list! They’re really good at it.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: If you’re first idea doesn’t work out, just try something new. Tweak the idea a little bit and it could make a world of difference. Go for your goals. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. Lots of people told us that we couldn’t: “Three million members? You’ll never get that.” Now, we have 22 million members. If you have a gigantic goal, you don’t have to get all of the way to it to be a major player.

This is an abridged version from Catherine’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. I told my entrepreneurship class full of high schoolers that I was going to be interviewing Catherine and they were like, “No way!” One girl preceded to tell all of her friends over the next week, and they were equally impressed. Catherine’s entrepreneurial journey is truly remarkable and it’s just the beginning. Find me on myYearbook!

Catherine Cook’s Top Quotes

“To any entrepreneur: if you want to do it, do it now. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it.”

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.”

Want even more inspiration?

Don’t miss 38 more inspirational quotes from crazy-young kids like Catherine:
40 Entrepreneurship Quotes You’ve Never Heard >>

When Farrhad Acidwalla was in the eighth grade, he borrowed $10 from his parents to buy his first domain name. He began building a web community devoted to aviation and aero-modeling. The website took off and eventually Farrhad decided to move on, selling the site for far, far more than his initial $10 investment.

Many similar ventures followed. Each took his achievement to another level and the appreciations left him humble. This motivated him to offer his work under the name of his company.

Since, Farrhad has launched Rockstah Media, a cutting-edge company devoted to web development, marketing, advertisement, and branding.  It is just over a year old but it has clients and a full fledged team of developers, designers and market strategists spread across the globe. As the CEO and founder, Farrhad is responsible for taking care of the clients and guiding the creative team to success.

At 16, Farrhad is planning to continue running Rockstah Media, while studying finance at India’s prestigious H.R. College of Commerce & Economics. In his free time, Farrhad enjoys hanging out with friends, playing Playstation, reading, watching movies, and playing the guitar.

The following is a short excerpt from 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs (Volume 1).

Q: What is the single most important reason for your success?

A: I’ve never sat on an idea. If I get something, I act on it. Business is all about taking the leap. Once you take the leap, then you can think about what’s going to happen next. The larger the vision, the larger the need to pave your path with skill and confidence. But, a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. That first step is the most important thing.

Farrhad's Company, Rockstah Media

There are many in the field and each have their own way and strategies. But one thing that I learned from my mom is to never try to copy anyone. Think of your own thing and move forward with that. Construct your own success with total confidence. I put my vision to test, I love to conceptualize and illustrate and the teams effort in creating awesomeness means a lot.

Never look left or right. Look straight at the path you have paved. Follow your vision and have your ethics in place. Yes I get inspired by those who had the vision and the guts to give it a shape. I love to read success stories as they teach you that failing is a part of the process and one must not deter.

Q: You have a successful and growing company, yet you’ve decided to stay in college. Why?

A: Education never goes to waste. I know I can put the things I learn in college to use in my business. Business is something that’s never certain, there’s always a risk. But, if you have your education in place, it’s going to help you analyze challenges and deal with them. Plus, I think a few degrees to your credit sure feels good. I know there is a view that structured learning is not needed. I feel that education can never harm you and one can put it to use in more ways than one.

It’s not just about making money. But while formal education will make you a living, self education will make you a fortune. If you want to really learn something and make something of yourself, self education is crucial. We learn from glory and from our own failures too.

If you learn and make efforts to manage your time properly and if you have a proper business set up, your business can thrive while you’re in college. College takes a lot of time, but I have my like-minded team who can make up for me at any given moment. My team has always supported me and my parents have always given me solid, unconditional support and that’s what I appreciate the most. I definitely haven’t done all of this on my own.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: For young entrepreneurs, I would say one thing: even if you get success early, it shouldn’t intoxicate you. There are miles to go. There are lots of things to do in life. You need to diversify and be innovative all the time. You shouldn’t lose focus and get intoxicated with success.

This is an abridged version from Farrhad’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. I’ve known of Farrhad for about a year now and it was an honor to finally get to chat with him. He smiled through the whole interview! One of the takeaways from Farrhad is that formal education will establish the foundation of your life, but if you want to build a mansion on that foundation, you also have to educate yourself. Entrepreneurship helps you do that.

Farrhad Acidwalla’s Top Quote

“Failures are the stepping stones to success.”

Want even more inspiration?

Don’t miss 39 more inspirational quotes from crazy-young kids like Farrhad:
40 Entrepreneurship Quotes You’ve Never Heard >>

Syed Balkhi used to get online at three o’clock in the morning to trade stones for a game called Neopets.

When he was 12, his cousin pointed out that he could do the same thing with domain names – all while pulling in a handsome profit. Soon he was developing websites, designing them, and running a paid domain name directory.

Originally from Pakistan, Syed is now 19 and attending the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Along with a handful of college friends (Amanda Roberts, David Pegg, and Mohammed Karim), Syed has started a successful web service company called Uzzz Productions. His blog for WordPress beginners, WPBeginner, has been up since July 2009 and already attracts an incredible 145,000 unique visitors each month.

Maybe it’s genetic: Syed’s six-year-old brother is running a successful blog of his own with Syed’s help.

The following is a short excerpt from 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs (Volume 1).

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?

A: That’s a tough question. I don’t want to grow up. I like the way I am. I want to be an entrepreneur and I don’t want to work for anybody else. I love that I can work from wherever I want, whenever I want. I’m making money when I’m sleeping. It’s a great feeling when you can wake up and say, “Oh wow – I just made $600 while I was sleeping. I was a productive sleeper.”

Entrepreneurship has really opened a lot of doors for me. To give you a personal example, I got a traffic citation. I knew a lawyer who was my client. So I didn’t have to find a lawyer to fight my ticket. Same with my finance guy and my insurance guy. I get the best discounts you can get on my travelling, on my car insurance – on everything. If I was working as an employee, I would not even know how my boss was making money. Now I see a bigger picture.

Another thing is that I get a lot of technology before everyone else because all of these companies get it as a gift for me. Mountain Dew sent me a Flip camera and eight never tasted Mountain Dew flavors. I helped decide which flavor should be on the shelf. That was a great opportunity and that I owe to entrepreneurship and social media. I was really happy. I love Mountain Dew.

Q: What would you tell a young entrepreneur who is just getting started with social media?

A: Use social media as a communication tool rather than a marketing tool. When you are using Twitter, don’t set auto-tweets every time you publish a blog post. If you had a customer on a call, you wouldn’t tell him, “Hey – I don’t have time for you. Bye.” That’s how I see social media: if I have 4,500 followers, that’s like 4,500 clients for me. I don’t want to treat them with disrespect. So, I actually spend the 30 seconds that it takes me to write a clean title, show them my URL, and tweet that [instead of auto-tweeting].

Second, a lot of people try to get on Digg’s front page. But Digg can do nothing for your Search Engine Optimization. Stop submitting your own articles, because that’s not the way to go. It’s meant to be shared. No matter how good of an author you are, not all of your articles deserve to be on Digg. Keep your promotion for only the best articles. You’re building a brand – and when you have a brand people just talk about you. That is what you really want.

Don’t go after the quantity, go after the quality. People are following 120,000 people to get 120,001 followers. But because you don’t have a real connection with those 120,001 people, it’s not going to do you any good. I would rather have 200 converted followers who, when I send them a message, they go and do it.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

Get Your Blog Set Up for Free, WPBegginer.com

A: I think we talked about pretty much everything. I want to give a shout-out to WPBeginner. If anyone is starting to blog and wants to learn the technical aspects, they shouldn’t pay someone $400 to take a mini-course. Everything you need is free on the site, so go check it out.

We also set up WordPress blogs for anyone who signs up for one of our hosting services. You would be paying for the hosting services anyway, so you might as well go through us and we’ll set up the site for you.

This is an abridged version from Syed’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. Syed is a self-proclaimed “talker”. But when you find a “talker” who actually knows what they’re talking about, that’s a goldmine of information. Needless to say, I tried to hang out with him as much as possible. Also, since I talked to him, Syed has released a new site that features the dopest handshakes and greetings from around the web, Dopello.com

Syed Balkhi’s Top Quotes

“A lot of people have said that the internet is a teenager. Guess who understands a teenager best: a teenager.”

“You should always stay hungry. Stay hungry, so you can eat.”

Want even more inspiration?

Find out how Syed’s friend from the UK makes 6-figures with his blog:
Michael Dunlop Interview: Voted ‘Most Likely to be a Millionaire’ >>