Archive for the 'Business' Category

To Be Successful - Make A Plan by Donald N. Lombardi

Sunday, March 26th, 2006

Copyright © Donald N. Lombardi http://www.HomeBasedBusinessWizard.com

In 1954, Ray Kroc had a dream of a fast food restaurant business. Years later, when asked about the secret to McDonald”s success, Mr. Kroc’s simple answer was, “Make a Plan and then work the Plan!”

“Make a Plan.” It is the best advise given to a person entering or already in business today. Why develop a business plan? If you have ever been unhappy with the past performance of your business or if you believe that your business could grow faster, make more profit, or be more competitive, you have reason to plan. If you need to raise more money - you need a plan.

You cannot do anything about the past, and you have very little impact on the present. But you can control the future. Whatever your business, a well thought out plan will put you ahead of the competition and interest others in your venture.

There is no such thing as a perfect business plan. However, a good business plan serves an an excellent “roadmap” for your business journey. It provides confidence to whomever you invite to travel with you on your trip. A plan allows you to anticipate crises and provides a clear procedure on how to handle problems as they come up by tying the action taken to the long range goal.

Planning is the systematic development of actions aimed at reaching business objectives. It involves analyzing, evaluating and selecting opportunities. A business plan is a detailed written statement that tells why, how, where and when a company will achieve specific objectives.

After preparing the plan, you should adopt a business strategy for action. Key personnel, prospective investors, and other interested parties should know precisely how you will use the money and resources at your disposal. Your primary responsibility, as owner, is to secure the business future. This should be accomplished through orderly planning. It should not be left to chance. And the plan should be a living document (and not put into the bottom left drawer of your desk) that you refer to adjust on a regular basis.

If you are starting a business, a business plan will help define your concept, evaluate the competition, determine your risks, and estimate your costs. A shortened version of a business plan sometimes called a private offering, is often prepared to summarize the business for inital investors. Prospective investors from whom commitments can be developed should be given a copy of the complete business plan.

The length and sequence of a business plan will vary with the complexity of the business. However, to get the MOST out of your plan, it should provide detailed statements explaining your:

*Mission - WHY you are in business; *Objectives - WHAT you want to accomplish; *Strategies - HOW you will get there; *Tactics - WHO will do HOW MUCH, WHEN, and WHERE

To insure a plan’s success, these five “P’s” should be carefully examined during the development of the plan:

*Physical location or position is it visible, accessible and functional; *Product represents quality, value, and service; *Promotions command attention, develop interest, and create desire; *Profits are based on increased sales, controlled costs, and reduced expenses; *People are working efficiently, productively, and maximizing profits.

What goes into a plan, may sound simple - getting it done and followed is the tough part.

Remember: “If you do not know where you are going, chances are you will not get there!”

So, MAKE A PLAN!!!

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To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit: http://www.HomeBasedBusinessWizard.com —————————————————————–

About the Author

In 1984, Don Lombardi, formed LOMBARDI ASSOCIATES, a unique management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and business management. His clients ranged from $1 to $30 million in annual sales and represented a variety of different industries. Prior to starting his practice he spent over 25 years in private industry as a senior executive with several international corporations. He now consults primarily with Internet companies.

When and How to Apply for a Loan by John Mussi

Monday, January 9th, 2006

If you’re in the market for a loan, you might be wondering exactly how you’re supposed to figure out what you’re looking for and which loan you should apply for. There are so many sources of loans, and many types of lenders. Here are a few common sources of loans:

Commercial Banks - Commercial banks make loans mostly for commercial ventures and small businesses. Smaller loans, especially if you’re a long-time customer, are also available.

Credit Unions - Credit Unions offer fewer fees and lower interest rates, but are only available through affiliated membership.

Government Agencies - Both the US and the UK offer special loans for investments, low income, or many other special standards. These rates are often locked in, and always reliable.

Online Lenders - Very often low cost options are available to online consumers in order for online lenders to be competitive. Consumers may benefit from these loans due to the increased efficiency of online lending. Most communications can be sent via email for added convenience.

What to Do Before You Apply for a Loan

Clean up your credit report.

Be sure to clear up any credit problems before you apply for a loan. If any problems turn up later, a lender won’t want to hear your explanations. You can get help on cleaning up your report.

Provide all the requested information quickly.

If the loan officer asks you for a pay stub, get the pay stub as quickly as possible. Holding up the process never goes well, and can even cost you the loan if the lender fears that you’ll be as slow to make your payments. Try to have as much information available for the lender as possible so as to speed up the loan process.

Keep in Touch

Call your loan officer periodically to check on the progress of your loan processing. If there are any problems, you’ll want to know immediate. You should always make sure that you are not responsible for holding up your own loan.

Don’t Make Any Big Purchases

If you go out and buy a new car right before you apply for a loan, that debt is going to appear on your record. If you buy this car after you apply then the debt my also show up because some lenders run two credit checks: one when you apply and one just before closing. So if you’re contemplating a big purchase, wait until after your loan is closed.

How to Apply for a Loan

Applying for a loan is as easy as filling out a form and talking to your lender. First, though, you’ll need a little information about yourself. Exactly what you’ll need depends on the type of loan you’re seeking and where you’re applying. Here are a few examples, but be sure to check with your lender to make sure you have all your information available.

Most Loans Will Require:

Name and phone number of nearest relative not living with you

Length of time at your current address, and monthly mortgage/rent payment amount

Employer name, address and phone number (if applicable)

Length of employment (if applicable)

Amount of yearly salary

Any other annual income that should be considered

Other loans may also require information about your vehicle or home, a Lease, Franchise Agreement, Purchase Agreement, Letters of Intent, Plans, Copies of Licenses, or Letters of Reference. Regardless, you should always be sure to consult your lender as much as possible to be sure you’re getting the best loan possible for your circumstances.

You may freely reprint this article provided the following author’s biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:

About the Author

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.

Conducting A Market Analysis On Your Business by Rodney Boettger

Thursday, January 5th, 2006

The term “market analysis” is often confusing to entrepreneurs, especially for people who focus on a specific niche or market segment.

In fact, many small business owners don’t understand the process or complain that conducting a market analysis is too complicated or too expensive and wonder why or if it is necessary.

What is market analysis?

In the most basic terms, a market analysis is an assessment of:

- A particular problem or opportunity in a market. - The needs of the target market relating to the problem or opportunity. - Ideas for marketing a particular product or service that fills the needs of the target market.

When should you conduct a market analysis?

- When you are starting a business. - When you are entering a new market. - When you are considering a new product or service.

Why should you conduct a market analysis?

- To minimize business risks. - To understand the problems and opportunities. - To identify sales opportunities. - To plan your marketing/sales approach.

The process of conducting a market analysis can be divided into three parts:

Part 1 - Understanding Market Conditions

This gives you basic information about your entire market — the size, the competition, the customers.

Part 2 - Identifying Market Opportunities

This gives you more targeted information about potential problems or opportunities in the potential market, and includes information about growth, current and future trends, outside factors and more information about specific competitors.

Part 3 - Developing Market-Driven Strategies

Here is where we get into what market research does for you. It helps you to pinpoint opportunities to grow your business. By understanding the market and knowing what opportunities are available you can create a marketing strategy that leaves your competitors in the dust!

Here are 10 questions that can help you get started:

1. What is the market I want to reach?

- Who are they? (Basic Demographics) - What is their biggest problem in relation to this market? - Are their needs being met by the products or services provided in this market?

2. Who is my competition in this market?

- Are they successful in this market? - Are they marketing a similar product or service? - What is the market share of the three biggest competitors in this market?

3. Is there room for growth in this market?

4. What is the size of this market?

- Is there room for growth? - Is the industry growing? Stable? Saturated? Volatile? Declining?

5. How is my product or service different from the competition?

6. How can I reach this market?

- How is my competition currently reaching this market? - Is it the most effective way? - What are the alternative ways of reaching this market?

7. What are the business models of my competition in this market?

- Are they effective? - Is there a way to do it differently or better?

8. What do customers expect from this type of product or service?

- What are the core competencies of this product or service? - What would make the product “new” “different” or “better” for the customer?

9. How much are customers willing to pay for this product or service?

10. What is our competitive advantage in this market?

Knowing the answers to these questions will not only help you figure out if there is a need for your product or service, it will help you figure out the best ways to reach your customers, price your products or service and ultimately make more sales!

About the Author

Mr. Boettger’s consulting firm helps business market effectively without spending more money on advertising through a growth performance guaranteed system. An extensive DIY small business action plan is available free on their website at http://www.7StepConsulting.com

A small Small Business summary by Ryan Fyfe

Thursday, January 5th, 2006

Small business is a term that is used day-to-day. That is because in the past decade the rise of small business has been larger than in any other decade prior. This is largely due to the increasing number of services that are available to small business owners, to enable them to keep their business running.

There really isn’t any guidelines for when the term small business is used, however it is simply defined as a business which has a small number of employees. How few employees is debatable, and the definition of when a business changes from a small business to a larger corporation varies both by country and industry. This number is generally less then 100 employees.

As mentioned before small businesses due to their nature, are in most times sole proprietorships, partnerships, or privately owned. Common in may countries, small businesses, are most oftenly related to: accountants, restaurants, guest houses, photographers, small shops, hairdressers, tradesmen, solicitors, lawyers, small-scale manufacturing etc.

Small businesses in often cases are located in private homes, for two main reasons. The first is because it is economical and in most cases convenient. The second reason is that there are several benifits with tax,etc for having your business in your home.

Running a small business is an exciting venture, and a great way to introduce yourself into the business world, and to gain business sense. If you are interested in starting your own small business, I would recommend having a talk with a local lawyer or accountant, who will be able to answer questions that are specific to your local area. Good luck with your new venture!

About the Author

Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the article, this caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.

Ryan Fyfe is the owner and operator of Small Business Lawyers - http://www.small-business-lawyers.com, which is the best site on the internet for all Small Business related information.

Secured debt consolidation loans: bringing down your debt count to zero by Elaine Owen

Saturday, December 31st, 2005

It is unlikely that while growing up you would not have heard that there is strength in unity. Well since this age old saying has braved the test of time, there must be truth in it. It is interesting that the validity of this statement is applicable to repayment of loans also. Secured debt consolidation is a type of debt repayment plan which give you an open invitation of becoming debt free at your terms.

Secured debt consolidation is a way to consolidate debt when you have security to pay for the loan you are borrowing. When it comes to secured debt consolidation loans there is no single scenario which can work for everyone. Since the debts you owe might not be the one that someone else owes. Secured debt consolidation loans are possible for every borrower who has multiple debts like credit card debts, medical bills, unsecured loans etc.

Secured debt consolidation loans would require a security in the form of real estate (like home or any other property), car, stocks and bonds, and any other acceptable collateral. Loan amounts above £5,000 usually require consolidation of funds. With secured debt consolidation loans you will find many lenders eager to offer you a programme for they have the advantage of having their money secured. In return you get lower interest rates and flexibility with repayment terms. However, nothing comes without a disadvantage. With secured debt consolidation loans - you stand with loosing the asset you have placed as collateral in face of non repayment.

In reality debt consolidation loans are very beneficial. Your secured debt consolidation loan will have lower interest rate than what you are currently paying on all your loans. The monthly payments with secured debt consolidation loans are also low. However, this may or may not be the case. Monthly payments are dependent on your loan term. So in case you want to lower monthly payments, you can extend the loan term. And in case you want to get over the debt burden faster you can shorten the loan term. The monthly payments here will be more. This means that don’t always go by lower monthly payments for secured debt consolidation loans. Always look for lower interest rates when opting for secured debt consolidation loans.

Its tempting to have all your previous debts packed into single loan but do you really know what it takes to consolidate debts. The worst thing while getting secured debt consolidation loans is to apply for them and forget about it. The loan lender who says that “we will take care of the rest” or who “promises to reduce your debt by 50%” is seriously not going to work for you. The fundamental things with secured debt consolidation loans or any consolidation is that it would “not” reduce your debts. Secured Debt consolidation is a way to payback your debts before you find bankruptcy as the last resort.

For secured debt consolidation loans, you make single monthly payment every month. This one monthly payment pays for the loans that you owe. Also your debt consolidation loans lender will be addressing your lenders henceforth. However, in case lenders would like to contact you regarding anything - be open and talk openly to them.

Making secured debt consolidation loans work is making your personal expenses fact file in regular check. Refrain from taking loans until you have cleared all the previous debts. Make sure you are learning how to manage your money and keep a close watch on when and where your money is going. Pay your monthly payment on secured debt consolidation loans on time. Otherwise your credit situation will suffer. No debt is good or bad debt in itself. It is how you use it that makes it good or bad. So if you are stuck in bad debt situation, it is probably you. Your habits with debt and debt management have obviously not been promising. With secured debt consolidation loans you can learn debt management while repayment debts.

About the Author

Writing for loans for Elaine Owen is not just about giving advice to people but offering sensible ways to revamp their financial condition in a reconstructive way.To find Debt Consolidation Loans - Bad Credit Debt Consolidation - E Debt Consolidation visit http://www.e-debt-consolidation.co.uk.

Self-Employed Tax Strategies by Richard A. Chapo

Friday, December 30th, 2005

Self-employed individuals always cringe at the amount of taxes the pay to the IRS and state. Here are tax strategies for self-employed individuals that reduce those tax amounts.

Tax Strategies

The good news is being self-employed is one of the best tax strategies out there. Unlike a salaried employee, the full scope of tax credits and deductions available in the tax code are now available to you. The key, of course, is understanding the available deductions and organizing your business in a manner that allows you to maximize the write-offs.

The number one tax strategy for self-employed individuals is to keep receipts for every business expense and write them off. Practically anything can be deducted, so do it. Acceptable expenses include cell phone usage, business mileage, office supplies, home office deductions including part of mortgage or rent and so on. If you’ve filed a tax return while self-employed, you are probably already aware of this so lets move on to more specific tax strategies for self-employed individuals.

Maximizing you non-capital losses can result in major tax savings. If your expenses exceed your income for a year, you obviously will not have to pay taxes for that year. What most people don’t realize, however, is that such losses can be carried forward for seven years and deducted against future income. Alternatively, the same losses can be carried backward three years to recover past taxes paid. The end result of this situation is you can turn a bad business year into an income generator by applying the losses to taxes in other years which effectively wipes out your tax bill for those years.

Another tax strategy is to look at your side businesses. If you have one business, you’ll often have a second one that is tailored to making some money off a personal interest. While you are in it mostly because you like it, you may not realize it qualifies as a business and can help you reduce your taxes. Let’s assume you are primarily a self-employed consultant, but also write travel articles on the side. You may view the travel articles as a hobby, but it is in fact a business. If you’ve sold or even tried to sell any of your articles to a publication, all of your expenses related to travel writing can be deducted from your taxable income. This includes trips and so on. These, deductions can significantly reduce your taxable income from the consulting business. Make sure to get a grasp of your overall business efforts, even if you don’t really consider them to be a business.

Consider employing your children to save on taxes. A child under 18 that works for you does not have to pay FICA and so on. If the total wages for the year are under $4,250, they will pay no taxes and you can write off this amount as a legitimate business expense. Of course, the child needs to actually be doing a legitimate business task, but filing and similar manual tasks certainly will qualify.

Tax strategies for the self-employed are plentiful. If you are self-employed, consider getting professional help. A good professional will save you thousands upon thousands of dollars in taxes, more than making up for their fees. Oh, you can also deduct their fees!

About the Author

Richard A. Chapo is with http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com - recovery of business taxes through tax help and tax relief. Visit http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com/articles to read more business tax articles.

Website Sales: 10 Exploding Ways To Intensify Your Website Sales

Friday, December 30th, 2005

Website Sales: 10 Exploding Ways To Intensify Your Website Sales by Ikey Benney

Are your website sales weak?

Have you tried different types of marketing strategies and tricks and failed to improve it?

I will now offer you 10 exploding, sure-fire ways to increase your sales fast:

1. Team-up with your weaker competitors to beat your stronger competitors. You can create win/win joint venture and cross promotion deals with them.

2. Design your site so it will be worth bookmarking. Your visitors will bookmark your web site if it’s full of free original content like articles, ebooks, etc.

3. Offer your customers back-end products. It is easier to sell to existing customers. If you do not have a back-end product, join an affiliate program.

4. Increase the perceived value of your product. You could offer an affiliate program, give away free bonuses or use famous endorsements on your ad.

5. Remind your visitors to promote your web site. Use phrases like; “Refer This Our Web Site To A Friend” or “Link To Our Web Site”

6. Make your testimonials more powerful. You can include pictures, hand written signatures and contact information with each testimonial.

7. Up-sell to all your customers. You could sell add- on products, deluxe products, extra parts, related products, add-on services, etc.

8. Place your ad in targeted e-zines. Ask the owner if you could place your ad in a higher position in exchange for a percentage of the ad’s profits.

9. Use permission marketing to increase your sales. You simply ask people to sign-up to your e-mailing list. They’ll already be interested in messages or ads.

10. Provide a privacy statement and all your contact information on every page of your web site. This’ll persuade your visitors and prospects to trust you.

May these website sales secrets help you to make a lot of money.

Wramly,

I-key Benney, CEO

About the author
To discover little known home business opportunities, shortcut to internet riches programs, information and resources brought to you by Maychic Corp, which enables an average person to generate thousands of dollars weekly for life, please click on the link : online shopping mall (http://www.maychic.com)

Finding Good Hosting Services

Wednesday, November 30th, 2005

Finding Good Hosting Services by Aleksi Ursin

Many people in this internet-era are having great difficulty finding hosting services for there internet business that are both cheap and reliable. They have questions like: How to choose one? How do I know one is good?

It is not as easy task finding the right hosting, but there are some general guides on what a good service is like. For example:
* General professionalism on their website
* Help is available within 30 minutes 24/7
* Their Team Size? Remember, bigger might not be better.
* Also, you must remember that cheaper is not necessarily better either, as there is a lot of scamming going on hosting business and competition is very fierce.

Someone offering unlimited bandwidth, a huge hard drive quota or something similar which has a clear cost for the provider, is more likely offering you an unstable, or even a scam service. Look for those who tell you that they allocate resources, so that they never oversell even if their all customers would be using everything offered to them. These kind of providers are more likely to be very high quality, thus usually the price is a little bit higher, but you can expect more from them in terms of support, stability & performance. And not to mention REAL value-for-money.

The 3 most important factors you must look for in a hosting service, if your website is to succeed, are: Stability, Support response time & how they respond, and the performance of the service.

Performance is tertiary. Why, you ask? Because stability is the most important factor. You don’t want to be loosing business because your site is not available most of the time, do you? Support comes second because crashes do happen, problems DO occur, and response time of support team is VERY important here.

And, you may value such things as one-man companies, because you know that they are very likely to be able to provide 24/7 help and support, and will also offer a higher quality service, because they can put more time into their customers. They value all their customers because they know who is paying, and who deserves what they are paying for, instead of some half-baked scam service that is wasting both the customers time and money.

Think about how good it would be if he or she support technician even gave you their personal phone number for you to contact them if problems occur, and never charge a dime for using it! Talk about service! This will both reduce your down-time, and any business losses incurred because of this. In fact, artichost.net provides 24/7 LIVE support for all its customers, and will surely be in the running this year to win awards for Best-Service or the like!!

© Aleksi Ursin- ArticHost.net

About Author
Aleksi Ursin is the creator of Interpreneurs and owner of many other websites, on the side of being CEO of ArticHost

How to become a successfull Interpreneur, and become financially free!

Wednesday, November 30th, 2005

How to become a successfull Interpreneur, and become financially free! By Aleksi Ursin

Interpreneur. What on earth does that mean, you are thinking? Well, Interpreneur is derived from 2 words: Entrepreneur, and Internet. An Entrepreneur is someone who creates markets and businesses to fill those markets. Any household dictionary would agree and conclude it’s also someone who assumes the risk of creating those new business’s, ventures, startups. The Internet is, well, you know what it is; you are using it right now! So, putting those two words together gives us a far more important concept. An Interpreneur is someone who creates Internet businesses!

Looking further into the idea of what an Entrepreneur is, Dictionary.com defines it more precisely as someone who starts businesses, builds them, and then sells them, or leads the business towards bankruptcy. In my opinion, this is far from the truth. In my opinion anyone who has his hands in a lot of business opportunities, thinks creatively, and is there for the long term, is an Entrepreneur. How Dictionary.com describes an Entrepreneur is more of a gambling machine. Put money in, get money out, loosing some money each time.

Anyway, you are now wondering, how do I become an Internet Entrepreneur? This can be a very tough question to answer, because it varies from person to person. Other, more specific questions such as:
“How do I make money on the internet?”
“How can I get passive income of thousands?”
Or even, “what exactly IS the Internet used for commercially?”
May pop into your head, and cause all sorts of worrying emotions to cloud your mind. However, regardless of any questions or doubts you may have, the key to it all is this one simple concept:
Success starts from within YOU! Not someone else or circumstances you are in, but within YOU, more exactly within your brains!

What exactly does that mean though? It’s all about the choices you make, the responsibility you take for your life, and whether you have what it takes. But, what it takes is only thinking like successful rich people! Now you are asking, wait a minute, wouldn’t everyone be rich then? No, they wouldn’t, because it’s completely different how the rich and successful people think, compared to a “normal” human.
For example, here is a short story of a fisherman:
A rich man saw a fisherman in the harbor, handling his catch.
The Rich man asks the Fisherman “Would you like to be financially free & rich?”
-Fisherman replies “No, that’s too much work.”
Rich man asks “Why would it be too much work?”
-Fisherman: “Because I’d have to catch so much fish that I wouldn’t have time to do anything else, and even then it wouldn’t be enough”
Rich man looks at his pricing: “Raise your price by 20% and buy more boats”
-Fisherman: “Why would I want to do that?”
Rich man: “By raising your prices you can afford to buy more boats, and one boat catches only this much fish in this time, correct?”
-Fisherman: “I guess you are right, with one boat you have ability to catch only this much fish, but where are you going with all this? I don’t understand.”
Rich man: “You buy more boats, hire men to catch fish for you, and before you know it you have a whole fleet of fishing boats!”
-Fisherman: “But why would I want that?”
Rich man: “That way you can become financially free & rich, without spending your own time to fishing, but managing your business. Being the big boss, just like Ii am!”
-Fisherman: “Aaah, now I understand! That’s absolutely brilliant! Thank You!”

This is an exaggerated example, but you get the idea, yes? Simple fisherman wasn’t used to thinking like a successful person, so he didn’t understand what the rich man told him, something that was very simple for the rich man. So, you see the difference? Now you are thinking that you aren’t as intellect & brilliant as the rich man in this example, am I right? Well you are wrong! It’s just the difference how people think, how they try to find solutions, the questions they ask from themselves!

Don’t go around saying that you are stupid, poor or anything else like that, that just makes your subconscious believe more that you are stupid or poor. Instead, when you make a mistake, and are about to call yourself stupid, instead ask yourself “How can I do this fast & efficiently? How can I accomplish this? What can I do different next time?” It makes your mind think about it from whole different perspective, and results are bound to come up, and your whole view of the world will change!

Another thing you have to do is to take responsibility over your life; it’s you alone who is responsible for your life, so take the responsibility! Another thing you should do, is actually spend time figuring out your dreams & goals, write them down, and draw up a schedule. You should daydream frequently about your dream and how you achieve it!
It prepares your mind for the situations to come; it’s like preplanning for situations to come, coming up with “action plans for possible scenarios” so to speak. This, for example, is what athletes do constantly! Now, when you dream about achieving your goals, make it a big, colorful image in your head, right in front of you, and make it have sounds and clearer and clearer, that reinforces your positive thinking! Now, when you think bad things about yourself, or bad things happen to you: Make them black & white, small, no colors, blurry, then blow those pictures up in your mind! Now you are asking what the hell am I talking about here, right? Nope, this is not bullshit, but instead Neuro-Linguistic Programming, look it up on google! It’s a kind of self-hypnosis, and very efficient to change your life!

It all becomes within yourself, and now I’ve given you the keys to success!

More on the topic, I recommend you read Paul McKenna’s “Change your life in 7 days”, it’s a brilliant book teaching you the basics of NLP and becoming successful. I also recommend you to get books from Napoleon Hill about becoming successful. Remember, it’s not what you know, it’s what you DO that changes your life!

© Aleksi Ursin- ArticHost.net (Article spell checked & formatted by: Joshua D’Alton)

About Author
Aleksi Ursin is the creator of Interpreneurs and owner of many other websites, on the side of being CEO of ArticHost

“So You Want to be a Millionaire . . .”

Tuesday, November 29th, 2005

We are in the best of times and the worst of times for MLM . . . Jobs are scarce, and many people are facing employment insecurity. Time freedom and income freedom, which used to give us our “sex appeal” as an industry, have shifted in their impact. Regular jobs sometimes offer flex-time, which puts a J-O-B on a par with our industry, and the income freedom that you are seeking has remained elusive for many, where as a salary, however meager it may be, is predictable.

Ask yourself these questions: 1. Where is your company headed? (Mission statement, leadership, integrity issues . . .) 2. What is your life mission? 3. Do you have a genuine, trusted role model who exemplifies true devotion to the company and its substance? 4. Is your “mentor” successful on the level you’re striving for? 5. Who is your target audience? 6. How appealing does your product/service appear if you remove the compensation? 7. What is your basis of emphasis — is it about “you” or “them”? 8. How are you planning to upgrade your lifestyle when you double your income? 9. Do you have a clear-cut work program designed to generate your immediate and short-term goals? 10. Is your belief locked in enough to sustain you through disappointments and setbacks? 11. Are you willing to learn to lead from the back of the room? 12. Are you patient? Answering these questions should give you clarity about what you want and what you’re willing to sacrifice to make it happen.

Beginning this business, you are entering what I call the Bun Syndrome. My husband, Taylor Hegan, and I always have what we refer to as “a lot of buns in the oven.” We’ve got “buns going in” (new distributors), “buns cooking” (beginning builders), “buns browning” (leaders developing) and “buns leaving the oven” (advanced leaders on the way to millionaire status). As we are not in the ‘convincing business,’ we expect our team members to participate in leadership mentoring and follow through with commitments on their own. I want to recommend to you a book that I have gleaned insights from and that has expanded my thinking, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell.

Ask yourself one more question, “If you continue to think like you’ve always thought, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always gotten. Is it enough?” As I continue to re-invent myself as an industry leader, I realize that I cannot ask people to do what I am not currently doing, nor can I expect them to exceed the pace I set. Even though we have earned over five million dollars with our company and worked our way to the # 1 distributorship production level, we still execute all the elements of the business and continually field test to see what is effective in today’s marketplace.

Everything works some of the time and nothing works all of the time. We must be ever vigilant to examine ways of expanding when the economy fluctuates. It is imperative that you stay open to breakthrough thinking and give the industry a three-year internship commitment. Then, get ready for the most thrilling time of your life.

The MLM business is fun, lucrative, creative, non-discriminatory, rewarding, people-oriented and ever-changing. If you want to attach yourself to a career with no ceiling— you have come to the right place. As a former schoolteacher, I have to pinch myself when I think about the lifestyle that Taylor and I now lead. I make more in a month than I used to make in a year. As you consider your MLM future, remember: “You cannot be anything outside of yourself greater than you are within.” If you truly want to become a millionaire in this, your own mindset and behavior must reflect financial success. Remember: “likes” attract “likes” and “winners” gravitate toward other “winners.” There is room for you in our MLM winners’ circle if you earn your rightful place by becoming a top producer. It is all about LUCK: L aboring U nder C ertain K nowledge The best part is— you create your own luck.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eileen Silva, Ph.D., N.D. is a metabolic health balancing expert who has appeared on TV and radio talk shows, lectured extensively, and does individual and group weight management consultations, as well as corporate wellness programs. To find out more information go to http://www.easilymakingmoney.com