Tag Archives: Business

Are you money motivated?

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, , , , ,

I have found that some of my best thoughts have been posted on other blogs. Over the last few days I have written a series of comments on another blog and I would like to share them here.

I had a very successful computer business. I was working 80 hours a week, and it was my whole life. It was not so fun. I wanted much more with my life, so I started to replace myself. I first started by finding people who could do what I did the same or better. This let my focus on other things. I soon took this too far, spending only 20 or so hours a week working on this business, the rest of the time doing other things and working at my church. I also started a few more businesses on the side. Everything was good, then I really started taking it far, I decided that I liked to travel so I soon was spending weeks at a time away, they could still call me but that was about it.

I had put systems in place, the only problem was that I did not put systems to watch the people managing the systems. My flaw was that I thought everyone was like me…honest and money motivated. So I put in place a system where an honest person could make a lot of money by doing fun work that helped people. The problem I found was that most people are NOT money motivated, when they have enough money they stop working, and second I found a few too many people who were not honest. Due to people not being honest and taking my customers and my assets and also due to lazy people who sat on the payroll I lost about 400k in a matter of 2 years. Much of this time I was away, traveling while managers said it was all going perfect, but they were the main crooks.

Finally I took on a partner, he bailed us out financially. Scaled back the business and made it manageable. The damage had been done, and we shut down our retail operations in Nov of 2007. We still try to sell online, but very little comes from that.

I still think that the idea of systems works, and my goal was always to be able to travel, and leave it to people, but the problem has always been the people. In my years I have employed at least 100 people, some were great and some took me for thousands, I just wish I could know in advance who is who.

Then some people asked me questions…here was my answer.

First when I mean money motivated, I mean people that want to earn big money. Most people are fear motivated, they have the fear of not paying the bills, and not having food, and not having a safe place to live BUT once those fears are gone (Once they earn enough money so that they don’t have to worry) very few people that I know will continue to do what it takes to make higher levels of income. This is why 80%+ of people have crappy jobs and are not really striving to do better.

You second question was, what would I do different. Well FIRST off I would have got out of the computer industry back in 2003 or so when it became super price competitive, and there was no margin or market. I also would not have borrowed the 300k+ that I did to keep my company alive, I would have just let it die and go start something else. But if I had to keep the company I would have had more time mentoring the employees. I would have spent more time figuring out who was good and who was bad and got rid of the bad people. I would have been much quicker to fire people, and slower to hire them.

I also would have spent a lot less money on print advertising and spent a lot more money paying people to make phone calls and go door to door. Our return for that was at least 20 times higher than any print ad we ever did.

600 Word Essay, for 7m7y

Business, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Money, , , , , ,

Over the years I have always known that I was different, I could not even think of getting a job, I had to be my own boss. I have always seen ways to do things better, ways to make more money and systems that could be done to make it all work better. For most of my life that has worked out very well for me. But recently I have lost my way. One big reason, I believe, is because of the people I am around. They try to talk me out of the ideas I have. I don’t have many friends that are successful the way I want to be, and when I have found successful people I get some information from them but mostly they don’t see me as a peer. So a few months ago I started blogging, I used wordpress. I was able to find many other people who thought about success the way I did and some of them even had achieved it. I quickly found google reader and added the top blogs I liked to read to my reader.

I was now finding a ton of useful information. But I knew I needed more, I needed to find successful people that I could hang out with, bounce ideas off of. I needed a mastermind group, I found a few local ones, they were very expensive to join, and the people in there were great at running their business but not really what I was looking for. I also went to seminars, I found a few really good people there, one guy who I sat next to, was cynical about the content and did not stick around, we talked a bit so we traded cards. I told him I would call him later with a summary of what he missed. So I did just that, and when we talked he told me that he was a large commercial real estate investor, (Something I always wanted to do). I knew of many of his projects, most of which are worth tens of millions. A few weeks later we met for lunch and we talked for about 2 hours. I got great encouragement from him but he was way out of my league, he did tell me that if I ever found some good deals that I should call him up.

Around this time, AJC, the author of one of the blogs that I read regularly, 7million7years, decided to have a contest. This was a contest for this multi millionaire to personally mentor and help 7 people. This guy was the real deal, and even better he was a techie like me, he made his money in business and also in investing in real estate, everything that I wanted. This was what I was looking for. So I signed up. I was hoping to finally find the key that had been missing, to find the wherewithal to finally go out there and get what is mine. He first asked for an application that I quickly filled out, next he asked for a 100 word bio, I also quickly sent in. Next he posted that bio and tested the finalists on how to drive traffic to it. I did a popunder and a 120 second refresh metatag from my most popular site, I also mentioned it here and here in my blog. I also sent a few emails to friends to go look at it. I made the top 30, now I doing the next test, a 600 word essay, so that I can make the top 15.

Very interesting article from a counterpoint. The Lottery Class

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I have always believed in counterpoint, or whatever the proper name is. I define it as reading from someone or something that is totally opposite of what I believe in. I do this for a few reasons, first to see where their point has logic so that I don’t become completely one sides. Also to see what is in the mind of the person I may one day debate.

This year, as you know, is a presidential election. I am a republican, I have always voted republican, and I plan to do so. I simply don’t believe that the government should be in our personal lives as much as they are. And every democrat I have ever heard wants the government to have more control, more rules, more of my money, and do more things that I disagree with.

Now that all of this has been said democrats OFTEN come up with interesting points. I have been a subscriber to the MoveOn.org newsletter for over 4 years now, but recently I have have been reading and writing blogs, one that I found early on, and is full of good info is one by Jon Taplin. I will say that most of the time I totally disagree with him. But when he is just stating facts, his facts are very interesting. Today he posted an article about ‘The Lottery Class” You will notice something VERY interesting. The poorest people spend over 5% of their money on the lottery. These people also spend at least 5% of their income on transaction costs that the rest of us usually get for free. I mean, they pay to cash checks, then they pay to buy cashiers checks. Also many of them pay a huge amount of their income to very high, and often abusive fees for borrowing very small amounts of money.

I have never been able to understand the logic that many of these people have. I had a good friend that was like this. Was always borrowing at 20% per month interest rates and such, he never had money and over 10% of his income was going to these things.

About a week ago YouTube featured a video that was made by and about this subject. It was crazy, but so real in the subject matter. Please watch this video. It helped me understand this underbelly of our economy a bit more.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAKJKBCyPUY]

Now what should be done about this. Well first off even if rates were lower these money loaning companies would be still highly profitable. Here in Arizona they are getting ready to regulate these much more. I am PRO government regulation that protects people, I am against government regulation that makes the burden on all of us higher, such as having to file a Tax Return.

Lottery’s are almost always ran by the government and the profits go to the government at the expense of the poor. State and local government have gotten very used to the money they receive from this. (Not to mention the 8% or so that the place selling the ticket gets) Now you should not totally get rid of the lottery because a certain amount of our society will resort to illegal betting to get their fix, but you CAN have the government stop promoting it. They can stop all forms of advertising, they can stop listing the numbers on the news broadcasts. You could also limit the number of places sell it, to say only places that have a liquor license. That would remove the kiosks in the malls. And of course they should remove the automated vending machines that people under 18 use to buy the tickets.

I have not played the lottery in a decade or so, and in my whole life I have spent under $50 on tickets. But the lottery is such a rip off, they only pay back 45% or so of the money to the winners. And even when they do that the government takes 40% of the winnings of major winners in taxes. Basically half of all money spent on lottery tickets is a donation to the government, and comming from the people who can least afford it.

That being said I am not so strict on gambling. Games of skill such as poker are much more fair, you can have a positive expected return based on your skill. And games that payback almost all of what they take in are better, they are more like entertainment. For example craps, if you play the passline, pays back about 98%. So if you bet $10, and do it 100 times (Which would take HOURS), on average you will only lose $20. Sounds like a lot of fun for a small cost. Black jack is about the same if you play correctly. Even slots are MANY times better than the lottery, though MUCH more boring.

In the end people need to think a lot more, keep their eyes and mind open. Too many people walk around, close minded, they do things in the old ways and get the old results. Poverty and being out of control of their life.

2008 is Half Over. Lets make some goals.

Business, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, real estate, , , , ,

Most people review their plans every year for new years, they make resolutions, some minor and some major.    For most people these are gone by the end of January.  I try to update at least once per quarter, and usually break down goals for each month at the start.

In this blog I am really talking to people who run their own business, who can determine how profitable that business is, and want to make stellar profits.  It is said that 70% of the people in the US don’t have any specific goals.  27% have goals in mind, but only 3% have written goals.   In this 3% you will find over 95% of the entire wealth of our nation.  Most people who have jobs fall into that 70%.

For this month my goals are in two main areas.  First in my computer company, I want to market more to existing customers and drum up at least 10k in profit from doing this.  The plan is one of daily action and contacting people.  I have a huge database to work with, which is good, but the economy is limiting spending which is bad.  I also want to do more real estate investing.  I want to do at least one thing each day to build my network, knowledge and to actually do deals.  Today I looked at various agents to work with.

So far 2008 has not been a very good year for me financially, though many steps have been made in the right direction.  I have spent a good deal of time rebuilding from the bad things that happened in 2007 and the end of 2006.  I have stopped the bleeding, and now we have positive cash flow for the first time in a long time.  I also have expanded my knowledge and my network by huge amounts.  All of this was important but is meaningless with out action, now is the time for action, and to put everything to work.

So what are my goals for the second half of 2008.  Well my two main areas of focus are Real Estate investing and the continuation of the computer company.  The computer company is fairly easy money, because I have a huge database of customers, a ton of existing marketing and websites and everything is in place.  But computers are not very profitable right now.  For this reason I have been trying to move into real estate for years.  I understand the local Phoenix market very well because I was born here, I have been building my knowledge to the point that I am confident that I can most any sort of thing I want to do.  Now I am building my network of buyers, agents and money suppliers.  I want to do at least 10 real estate transactions before the end of the year.  I also want to Average 30k in sales per month for the computer company.  With an average real estate deal of 20k and a monthly computer profit of 10k that would net $260,000 by the end of the year.  Of course this needs to be broken down to monthly goals and then to daily action.  In order to reach these goals daily action must be done, I have a huge checklist for each business of things that need to be done, and my goal is to spend at least half of the working hours of each day working on these goals.

The point of this blog is not to talk about what I have done, but to inspire you to do the same.  Write down where you want to be at the end of the year.  Then figure out what you need to do each month to get there, then figure out the specific actions that must be done to get there, break it up into daily chucks and then ACT on it.  I have usually been good at the planning but a bit into it I would get discouraged, and settle back to a lower level of action, and then I would miss my goal.  One cure for this is accountability, you could do this in a few different ways, one is to make all of your goals, subgoals and actions public and let your friends have access, so that they can help you.  I have decided to simply talk to my business partner each day and we each will keep the other accountable.

So go out and make your action plan today.

Awesome laptop deals, make your business more productive.

Business, Computers, , , , , , , ,

A computer is one of the most important tool that any small business has.  Many business are stuck with old computers, they simply don’t realize how much better new computers are.  For many people a laptop is the computer that best fits what they do.  I have found a few good deals on laptops and we are selling them.  If you need a laptop download this PDF file to read all about them and order.

Even if you don’t get one from me, if your computer is more than 3 years old please upgrade, you will be surprised how much better they are, how low priced they are and how much more efficient you will be.

How do you value the worth of a company or person?

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So I am going to take a break from the series that I am writing because I have a topic that I really want to talk about.  I would love to get some input from my readers, so please leave a comment.

There is a website called Networth IQ, this website is about keeping track of your income, assets and debts.  Then over time you will be able to track how your networth is doing.  When you track something you focus on it more and then it starts to improve.

Now after using the site, I did expect a bit more.  My most valuable asset is my businesses and there is not even a place to enter your business so I put it in other assets.

To point of today’s blog is to ponder the question of how to value a small company.  When you are a public company the value is usually what someone is willing to buy it for.  Of course most companies will really sell for the market cap, this is because many people who hold the stock think it is worth more than the current price of the stock, so if you wanted to buy the entire company you would have to buy these shares at a higher price.  So even this measure of market cap is not a real value.

For me, I own a few companies.  The two with the most real assets are my tile business and my computer business.  The tile business has about 60k worth of inventory at our landed cost, but we have a contract to sell this tile for 150k to a buyer, we also have exclusive import deals and exclusive sales deals that makes our company worth more.  So how do you value this company?  Do you do it on the cost or the sales price.  What about the deals, do they count?

Next is the computer company.   The actual assets of the company are fairly small, this is because the cost of computer hardware always falls so we keep very little in stock, we do have at least 20k tied up in tools, furniture and the computers that we use in the business.  But then we have some very valuable assets.  First we have connections and relationships to great suppliers, built up over a decade.  Next we have over 3000 historic customers, we have over 1000 people on our mailing list and over 400 resellers on our reseller mailing list.  Many of these people will usually call us up when they are ready to get a computer.  We have systems and processes in place that took years to figure out, so that things get done right and the on time.  We have pricing models set up, and vast experience.  Almost all of this is heavily documented.  We have many domain names and websites, together these get about 200-300 unique hits per day.  So how do you value all of these things.  With these things we can design a system and send out a mass email and in a day we will have orders coming in.

Now lets take this same idea to individual people.  People are much like a small business like my computer company.  We have connections, we have systems for getting things done, we have our experiences and mindsets.  You also have your education and knowledge which translates directly into ability to make money.  There are some people who have assets and these assets took a decade or more to get.  While there are others have the tools and knowledge to gain those same huge assets in a very short amount of time, even though they may not currently possess those assets.  So, networth is important but it is not the most important thing.

I think of it like poker.  Good poker players treat the chips in from of them like ammo.  Some times you take risks and it does not work out and you have less ammo.  But good players know how to play, they know how to win because they can read other players, they know things that others don’t.  In the end they usually win, but of course there is always luck and sometimes they fail.  But even when they are down they know how to pop right back up.  The have the connections to get money and the knowledge of what to do with it to earn more. During the game the value of what you have in front of you is not nearly as important as your ability to turn that money into something larger.  But at the end of the game it is the money sitting in front of you that decides if you won or lost.

Networth is much like this, if you want to be the really big winner at the end, sometimes you have to go “All-In” and risk it all for a great return.  Most people play it safe, they never lose big but they also never win big.  And in life the bets are never 50-50, if you know what you are doing most of the time the chances are way in your favor.

Tell me what you think please.

How to pick a MLM company, and what to stay away from.

Business, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Marketing, MLM, Money, , , , , , , , , , ,

There is a huge range of different MLM companies out there in the world. Some are small, some are huge. Some sell a product some have services. They all have a good sales pitch, and they all promise success. But how do you go through all of these and find the ones that you can be successful at? How are companies different from each other? What should you look for in a good MLM Company? How do you do all of this while not being taken?

Well there is a very wide variety of MLM companies out there. At this time there are about 5000 MLMs with a sales force of over 5000 people. There are 100 or so really successful ones out there. For this blog I will keep it all concept, in the next blog I will name names and rate companies that I know of.

To me one of the FIRST things that I look for is the ROI, this means how many sales do I need to make to get my money back and start making profit. I also look at the cost of maintaining the membership, the value of the product, the support of the team.

One of my main tests of any MLM that I look at is the source of the money. Most good MLMs out make all of their money off of selling a product or service. They have to have a good product because this is where the money is made. But at the same time there are MLMs that focus on recruiting, and almost all of the money being made is from a huge ($300+) fee that new recruits must pay. Almost all of this money is paid to the upline. In many of these companies almost all of the money is being made from the recruiting fees. If you think about this, it is not sustainable. And I feel that this is unethical, you are promising people a dream, and taking their money, and the only way they can get to their dream is to take more money from their friends and family. And most of that money goes upline. In these companies history, and the math, shows us that about 1% of the people win big, 5% of the people win, 5% more break even and the rest LOSE MONEY.

When I tell someone that they can make it, and they can have success I want to mean it. I am NOT going to put my name on it if the chips are stacked against my friends. The first MLM I was in was, and still is, the largest MLM in the world. They had great motivational meetings, but almost everyone there was loosing money. On top of that they were spending a ton of time, and hurting many relationships by trying to force people to consume their products. You became good friends with the other people in the company, and you would have pressure to use the products, even though they were vastly overpriced, you also would be pressured to buy “tools”, overpriced educational materials. With all of this going on they had weekly meetings, monthly all day meetings and a few times a year they had 3-4 day conventions. All of these meetings had various costs, and you were told to come early and stay late. Even people who recruited 10-20 people into this company did not make money, if you counted the amount they were overpaying on their products. Almost everyone there was loosing money, but they were sold a dream, and they would hear from people who made the dream. Some would try for years never reaching success. Other would get 50 or so friends and family to join in, who were all loosing money so that they could make a decent income.

Other companies that I have seen have a product where you make very little on, some as little as $1 a month for each customer, but these same companies have fees over $500 to join, and these fees are almost totally paid to the upline. I was presented a company last week where, as far as I could figure, over 80% of the money made in the program was ONLY from these recruiting fees. You can always tell these companies because they have a large fee to join and once you are in they tell you to focus on getting other people to join so that you can pay back your fee. Of course this all is great for the person on top, but for me, I can’t ethically build a company like that where for me to have success I have to hurt other people. Yes they have a chance to make it, but that chance is slim, and for them to have success they also must hurt others financially. Personally I like to stay away from ANY company that pays for recruits. I want it to be easy for people to sign up.

There is a semi new evolution of this concept. This is where, instead of a large recruitment fee there is a smaller monthly fee. Some companies even go so far as to charge a monthly fee for you to have a website so that you can sign up other people. And they have yet another fee to be allowed to sell their products. They call it a technology fee. I am in the computer industry also and I know to make a dedicated server with a self replicating software on it costs about $50 a month to maintain, and such a server could host tens of thousands of associates. So if they are charging $40 a month PER USER that is a huge profit. $30 or so of this money was paid to the field and the rest was kept with the company. I talked to a lady there, who was making great money, she had recruited over 1100 people. I ask her if more than 100 people have broken even and her answer was “ I think it about 100” That means that over 1000 people paid $350 to sign up, and $40 a month for months on end and did not make any money. The even worse part was that they sold a product that was very bad. I was in a meeting with the leaders of this company, as they presented it to me and some other people looking at the company. At the end we asked them if they have ever even used the product they are selling, and to our surprise and horror not even ONE of these leaders had ever used the service that they sell. It was crazy. Their response to the objection that many of us had to the monthly fee was that “If you personally find 6 other people to pay the fee each month yours will be waived”. To me this was a horrible answer. I told all of my friends in this company to quit, and they did. (I tend to have that result, the last three people who were new in a company that was bad and presented the idea to me I showed them logically how it was bad, and the next day they were quitting and getting their money back.) A pyramid scheme is a company has NO product at all and all the money is made from the new people paying the people who have been in longer. This company has almost no product of value.

Believe it or not there are many even worse companies. One company charges 1000 to join, and you have to then pass up the first few people that you get, with the full 1000 going to your upline, then you start to find more people to sign up and you get the full 1000 from them and also from the first two people that they sign up. So what is the product, you will laugh at this. The product is a $20 a month website that allows you to sell the $1000 memberships. If you stop paying the $20 a month you then lose your chance to make money off of other people. The guy who thought up this whole plan has over 100,000 people now paying him $20 per month. All this running on servers that I bet cost him a few hundred per month at the most. What a smart, devious idea.

Now that you know what is bad, I don’t want to give the impression that all companies are bad, far from it, many companies have great products, and a great plan for paying people back. Later this week I will release the blog about that. That being said not every company is right for every person. Some companies focus more on selling products, and other focus on team building. Some sell services; some have just one product, while others sell 1000’s of products. Some are online while others are almost totally offline. Find a product, and a management style that fits you. Don’t just take any opportunity simply because it is presented to you. Find one you will love to represent.

Another key to finding a product is the size of the industry. If you are in an industry that almost everyone needs you will do better than in an industry that has very few people. You also need to look at the profits in that industry. Some industries have huge profit margins while others are very small. The phone industry is huge but the profits paid out to the mlm companies that sell phone service is VERY SMALL simply because competition has forced prices down. Most MLMs sell very low priced items, and these are items that people don’t need that many of. If your company sells something that only makes $10 a month there simply is not much money to work with, you will have to build a huge group to make life changing money.

About 60% of all MLM companies are Health and wellness related. One major reason for this is because health products can be marked up a lot. A $50 product may only cost $5 to make, this gives a lot of room for profit for the company and for the distributors. Another reason that the health products sell in MLM well is because most of them need to have a fairly large explanation for people to use them, and the normal retail channel just does not provide this. Most of these companies have a few core products, or maybe only one that they sell. In general these products do provide some help in our vastly malnourished society, and are fairly profitable to sell. For me personally I have no passion for this, and even if someone uses the product as they should the profit will still probably be under $30 per month for each person you sign up. I know many people who have made it big selling such a product, they have found many people who also found many people and they are making nice 6 figure incomes as a result.

Another major area are companies that sell many products, some they make themselves while others simply get a discount from products made by other companies. Everyone can find something that the company sales that you will like. The problem with most of these companies is that for them to be able to pay the kind of money that people want they have to mark up these products much more than you could find the same products for elsewhere.

One of my great product type is the financial services type. Most everyone needs investment help, a mortgage, insurance, or education. These are items that traditional methods charge huge amounts, these are also items that a large percent of many budgets goes to. One MLM that I was in originated mortgages. The fees charged to the customers was typical of the industry, and yet were still 3000 and more per sale. As you can see, even with a small team it was easy to make money doing this. On your first sale you made more money than all of your first year expenses. In my mind this was a great MLM, the only problem is now there is a credit crunch and it is very hard to get mortgages approved. Most people in this company have quit, and it would not surprise me if the company is gone before the end of 2008.

RULES. People want to join a MLM for the freedom they have to run their own business, but many MLMs have so many rules that they place on their distributors it almost feels like a commission job. Before you join a company look to see what rules you will have to live by. One MLM I know of states in their policy that they “OWN” anyone who signs of for their company and if you mention another business idea to them and they leave the first company you will be punished for theft. Other MLMs, say that you can’t sell their products anyway other than person to person or at their website. This limitation will make it much harder to be successful. Many companies won’t let you discount the products. Most won’t let you be in multiple MLMs at the same time and use your contacts from one to build the other. Most will not let you have your own marketing, your own website for the company and even your own business cards. Before you join a MLM decide what rules you are willing to live by and make sure that the one you are joining allows you to operate in the way you want to.

One last thing to look at is the stability of the company.  Is this a company that had been around for a long time or something that just started.  Most new companies may not survive and they usually don’t have all of the bugs worked out, but you can get in on the ground floor and be at the top.  A company that pays out a ton of money may look good, but if the company can’t make profits you may find one day that they are gone and so is all your hard work.  I also find it VERY hard to deal with a company that is always changing the compensation plan.  I understand as they get bigger you need changes, but I have seen companies that made 8 changes in a year.

Also you need to have a company with an easy to understand compensation plan.  I have been to meetings where the compensation plan is so complex that none of the leaders fully understand it, they simply keep asking you to “Trust the Company” and that the money will all come out right.  If you can’t explain the whole compensation plan in 30 seconds it is just too complex.  This will make it harder to build, and harder to see the direct results of your actions.

So the bottom line, find a company where you can make money, has a product/service you like and a team and system you would like to work with. Do this, then build it big and you will have great success.

I hope this helps. This is the third blog in this series. Please click here for the first one.

I could write 10 more pages on this but I feel that I have hit the most important points already.

What you need to get set up for a successful MLM business

Business, Computers, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Marketing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is the second article in my series on the MLM concept. Here is the first one with links to the rest.

I am going to define success as a business that is large enough to replace your entire normal income and also make a large positive change on your lifestyle. To be successful you first need to have a success mindset. You need to know how to make sales, how to make presentations and you need a team

For this blog I am going to assume that you have all of this in place and it is time to get started. Here is what else you need to get started quickly. These are the tools that I use.

Computer: You MLM is probably online, and you need to keep track of your customers and use your computer for marketing. (If you need a good deal on a computer go to Emerald Computers)
An office: You need a place where you go to work. This can be in your house or outside. It should be easy to bring potential customers there to talk with. I like to have a desktop as my main computer because you can use it longer with less fatigue. A laptop is also very useful.

Ok those are obvious, as should be having a good vehicle and an email account.

Now let me get a bit deeper, on what you need. I will assume that you are building an online business because most MLMs now are mostly online.

First you need your own domain name. You company has a web page and a domain name, but they control that. You need your own, something that is good for what you do, easy to spell, easy to remember. You then will get an email address on your domain. Never run a business using the email address from your ISP or one of those free sites like yahoo, msn or gmail, it really looks bad to many people. I use GoDaddy for my domains, it is cheap, had good support and works well.

Next you will want software to track your contacts. We use a program called ACT. With this program you enter in all the information about the people you are contacting. It them allows you to keep notes about them, update the info when you are on the phone, and most importantly it reminds you of the times you need to follow-up with these people. I also use a Palm Pilot to take all of this info and make it mobile, so that I can access and update it on the road.

Next you will want an auto-responder to manage your emails. What this does is track all of your contacts that wanted to be added to your various mailing lists. You also can preset automatic mailings, and send mass broadcasts to your prospects. There is much more you can do with it. I use a company called GetResponse and for the $150 a year I pay I get unlimited usage and it is well worth it.

Next you need your own website, you can make a simple site that you control. You should have a site for your prospects to visit. Another for your customers to visit and yet another for your team to visit. You need to learn about making a squeeze page, a way to extract data from your customer to feed to your auto-responder. I use a company called PrecisionWeb for my hosting. They offer much more than others for a great price. Check out the main Capital Active site for a great example of a basic page.

Next you should join networking websites like linkedin, Myspace, YouTube and make sites here for your business. You also can find many people who may be interested in your products.

Next it helps to have a blog, it is great way to establish yourself as an expert, as well as get a following of people finding out about you. It also really helps get you on top of the search engine results. I use wordpress because they are free, easy to use, fast and give you a ton links.

I found a lady who seems to have done everything PERFECT. I don’t know her, I just found her site from her blog today. She has her own great domain wealthcreatorsinc.com, and a nice blog. But you may not notice the two most important things she did, she made her page a squeeze page, where you must give her your information to go on. And second she DID NOT mention the name of her MLM this keeps you courious and willing to go on, and it lets her advertise without worrying about the rules of her company.

Next you need to create business cards with YOUR business name on it. I would suggest NOT to use business cards with the name of your MLM on it, they limit your advertising, and they are less flexible when you are marketing. Now carry many of these cards with you wherever you go. I hand out over 80 cards per week on average. More important than getting your card out is getting the cards of other people. I usually flip them over and write on the back details of what we talked about so I can remember.

I also often print up fliers with an upcoming event on it, as well as info about my website. Using this you can get a few more people a month to join your team.

You now need professional clothes. Depending on where you live you will have a different dress code. For Arizona pants and a nice button up shirt is good for most meetings. For the east coast you should wear a suit most of the time. No matter what, you need to have a suit for special events.

When I leave my house, I always have my Palm Pilot, my wallet with at least 20 business cards, my keys, my cell phone, an ink pen, a comb for my hair and usually I have my green laser pointer because it comes in handy all the time.

Well I hope this helps you be more successful.

Will the price of gold continue to rise?

Business, concepts, Investment, Money, , , , ,

Recently I have been posting answers to questions on yahoo.  It is fun.  Here is one I did today.

Question:

Will the price of gold continue to rise?

My Answer:

Well no one has a crystal ball.  It could go up or go down. But one can read the signs and make projections.

I assume when you say price, you mean dollars per ounce.  Much of the rise in the price of gold was really a reduction in the value of the dollar, some was the demand for gold.  It is all really supply and demand.  The price per dollar of gold will depend a lot on how much money is created in the world, how much credit is out there.  In 2007 the trend was to create a ton of money, and with the low interest rates now going into effect it will do the same thing.

So it all boils down to a bet, do you bet it will go up or down, I say it is a 65% chance it will go up in the next year and a 35% chance it will go down.  I do think you may have a higher percent return on silver than on gold, simply because silver is very useful in many things and is in growing demand, and the supply is not growing as fast.

Also no matter what metal you choose to buy, I would highly suggest you buy the actual metal, not a paper title saying you have ownership.  The best way to do this is simply walk into to any coin shop and buy it.

Gold is a great hedge to inflation, but I do think that many other things would be a better investment right now.

Choose Your 5 Faves Wisely, it will change your life.

Business, concepts, Entrepreneurship, Investment, , , , , , ,

I have heard for years, before T|Mobile even existed, that the 5 (Adult) people that you spend the most time with will shape your life.  You will become like them in most every way.  The amount of money that you earn will be near the average of these people, your ethics will be similar to the ones they have, your hobbies will start to match them and in many ways you will reflect these people in your life.

For me I have two people who I spend a lot of time with at this time, my wife and my business partner.  But beyond that the people are always changing.  And this is the key, when I decide who to spend time with I am REALLY deciding who I want to be.  Do I want to be like my friend who is a great speaker, a multi-millionaire, great to his family and a great all around guy….well of course I do.  Do I really want to be like the people who don’t care, who just do the minimum in life, and have bad things in their life……well no I don’t.   My problem in my life, I hate to admit, is that many times I spend time with the second type of person.  I don’t really know why I do this, it is not in line with my goals but yet I find myself in this position.  Maybe it is because when I am with them I am the one who knows everything, I am the one who is in charge.  When I am with successful people it often points out my flaws and challenges me, logically this is what I want but often emotionally it is hard to handle after a while.  For a few years there I strayed off course.  I seem to have done this a few times in my life.  I imagine where I would be if I did better, if I was bold enough to do everything that I imagine.

So how does this relate to business, well your personal development is the KEY to your success in life and therefore your success in business.  You choose who are your 5 Faves, and that choice determines you whole life.  Choose wisely.