For individuals just getting involved in the game of investing, there is a lot of wonder circulating around mutual funds. Certain questions such as, “What are the risks associated with mutual funds?” and “Are they a good investment?” are questions that are frequently asked amongst investors. However, it is good to ask these questions because asking questions about mutual funds shows that a person means serious business when it comes to investing. All investors want the best return they can possibly get on their investment, so exploring the many options available are important. When it comes to mutual funds, there are many options. That is why it is good to know at least the basics.
Are Mutual Funds a Good Way to Invest for Your Future?
Kamis, September 18, 2008 | business tips with 0 komentar »Town Home Leasing- an Affordable Living Plan
Kamis, September 18, 2008 | life style with 0 komentar »When the idea of buying a town home comes into question, it certainly accentuates deep frowns in the faces of many first time buyers. It is a popular notion that a town home is never a first class living choice and is an option for buyers of low financial means. Contrary to this opinion, buying a town home is now a preference of many affluent families and according to many townhomes offer one of the most comfortable living style within a reasonable price. The most advantageous part of living in a town home is that the owners are relieved of the responsibility of maintaining the household. Buying a town home offers additional benefits apart from the apartment. The town home owners are entitled to use the extended properties like the parking lounge, swimming pool, and gymnasium and the like. In a way, town home offers an ideal living style with features of both a single family home and that of a condominium.
The entire maintenance of these extensions is carried out by the Home Owners Association. In consideration of these services you are required to provide a monthly rental. So if you are a retired person, and are tired of daily household chores, town homes many provide you a peaceful abode. However the properties adjacent to town homes are shared with other inmates. The home owners association requires you to follow certain norms and regulations as far as maintenance of the town home is concerned. You would better go through the CCR (convent, Conventions and Restrictions) document before you make up your mind of buying a town home.
Town homes offer one of the most comfortable living styles in a moderate budget.
Moreover several financing options make it easier for you to acquire your dream home and that too in easily payable installments. Among the most affordable home loans, home equity loans are quite popular. It gives you the option of mortgaging the home itself as a collateral and extend you credit at low interest rate. It is interesting to note that the amount you pay as interest on loans can be claimed as deductible benefit while filing your income tax retune. So, in a nutshell, buying a town home actually costs you very little. You are entitled to ownership of an entire impartment with minimum risk and price.
Town home living is ideally suited for people who wish to be surrounded in groups. It is a place that fosters community Lifestyle and harnesses fellow feelings among members of Community. A good number of people simple enjoy the company of neighbors and indulge themselves together in social activities that simply spice up their spirit.
However, it should be borne in mind that sometimes a boring neighbor or someone too much interfering in your privacy may make your life a living hell. So, while you make up your mind about buying or leasing a townhome; do have a talk with the other inmates. This would certainly help you develop an idea about the culture and lifestyle of your prospective future home.
Questions about stock investments and its many terminologies will often include a query about who might be the best candidate to be involved in this business called stock investing.
It’s a sensible question that often people from the outside will usually ask. So who can do well in this kind of business? Well, this kind of business knows no social class, age and sex. This is open for everyone who wants to know more about the business and of course open to people and would-be investors who may want to earn money thru a series of stock investing decisions.
Picking up stocks and investing in stocks is one of the best things that can happen to any person.
This is the avenue that a person can take in order to reach his financial goals and in order to safeguard the future of his family as well. Here is another reason why interested persons should invest; stock investing means that a person may need to work for the rest of his life. And in order to make this happen, money shouldn’t remain in the pocket rather it should be invested in many stocks.
By making this money move for you makes sure that your money will earn more money from you. It usually doesn’t matter where a person places its money; a person can invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options and futures. A person can also invest in precious metals, real estate or a person can start his own small business. Or these can be done in combination, or what is known as the diversification of assets or portfolio.
Actually there are a number of portfolio types out there and someone who should invest in these different types of portfolios should learn to match his strengths, objectives and motivations. For example if it’s about money market portfolios, the personality that should invest is the ones seeking a stable share price and interest income.
This is also great for investors who may want a parking place for cash while waiting for other opportunities for long term investments. If it’s all about short term bond portfolios, then the personality that should invest here is the one that seeks a high level of interest income, and someone who may accept moderate fluctuations in the share price. If the opportunity is the intermediate-term bond portfolios, then someone who is seeking the high and relatively stable income. This should also meet the needs and the capabilities of those people who are willing to accept the moderate fluctuations in the share price.
If the opportunity in front is about long-term bond portfolios, then the person that should make the investment move is someone who is seeking a stable level of interest income, the one who is seeking a significant fluctuations in the share price and the investor who wants to balance the risk of the portfolio containing the stocks. Stock investing is open to all; yet it is suggested as well that the prospective investor should ask himself what he really wants so that the proper match may be made in the market.
Justin DeMerchant is the founder of ensign windows, market speculator, and top investment club where information on stocks and investing can be found.
Getting The Ideal Home Design And Living Style
Kamis, September 18, 2008 | life style with 0 komentar »As far as getting the actual home design you want, all it takes is to tinker around with it in your mind. Some people will come up with tons of ideas and assembling them in mind and eventually laying them out will become one of the most fulfilling things you can do.
It is not easy though. With lots of magazines and current design trends to choose from, all of these will surely make a person bind them into one great home design that many will surely envy. Just don't overdo it because your home may look too artistic to depict.
Choosing a real estate property is easy. It is really the payment part the becomes a pain for most people. In the initial stages, it may not be felt. But once the lending institutions start debiting the dues, that is when all people will start feeling the ill-effects of the investment that they have done.
Some condition their minds that this investment for the future. We all know that it takes a lot of sacrifice to make dreams come true. In this case, just look at mortgages and payments as helping aids that have to be taken care of. Otherwise you lose both in the end.
Property investment can be a one shot deal for some. We all want that place where we can eventually retire and something that will surely be our one and last stop towards respite. But while many of us find them supposedly, we find ourselves checking out other properties as well considering new properties spaces being developed one after the other.
So the next time you think that it may be your last stop, think again. You may end up biting your lip and finding something better. With all the people getting into real estate, you can imagine the various designs offered in the world today.
There are a lot of things that can prevent you from investing in the house of your dreams. Leading the pack is financial capacity. Not all people can instantly secure a property to invest in since we all know how hard it is to save and survive in the world today.
Loans can help, but for sure, it will be the same thing and you may eventually end up paying more due to interest. And to top it all off, you have to make sure you religiously pay for your monthly amortization. With that in mind, you just have to either bite the bullet or leave them as dreams.
If we will recall the trends of the real estate biz, we will find that through the years, it has been an up and down cycle that occurs. Much of this stems from the fact that it all depends on the demand for properties and people who invest in them. With millions of dollars needed to make it all work out, people from all over the world are now wiser on when to invest and when not to.
But as the cycle shows us, real estate will once again be at the helm. It is at a stage of recession in some ways and if we analyze it properly, we will note that this is only a temporary reprieve and that it will once again rise to the occasion.
n any business situation, it is never easy to please every customer. Even with a mass-selling product and a great team of customer service individuals, you will always encounter one customer whom you cannot please.
The downside is that unhappy customers are quicker to share their bad experience with other people, which will hurt your business in return. However, there are ways to please the customer in order to make sure that they do not stay disgruntled with your business.
The key to keeping a customer happy is to understand how to satisfy all of their needs in order to help them forget that they were unhappy to begin with. It is not difficult, and it simply involves using a few common sense tactics. Continue reading for a few ways to guarantee that the customer stays pleased with your business:
Listen to the Customer
As humans, when we receive a complaint or criticism, our first instinct is to get defensive. Many times we start to do this before the other person is even able to finish what they are trying to tell us.
When this happens in the customer service industry, it is common for people to offer resolutions that are inappropriate or appear insensitive to the customers’ feelings. Instead, it is important that we work to become good listeners when it comes to the customers. If we seem distracted or annoyed, this will upset the customer even more.
It is important that you listen to what is being said, and not how the customer is saying it. This will help you avoid getting disturbed by what the customer is saying. Even if the customer has a sufficient complaint, many people are not able to express their feelings as calmly as other people. If you listen patiently and try to be observant to what they are saying, you can help them more efficiently.
Do Not Let the Customer Leave Unhappy
If you believe enough in the quality of your business or the effectiveness of your product, then you need to help the customer feel the same way. Even if the customer is unsatisfied, you do not have to give up and let them continue to feel that way.
Take the appropriate steps to help resolve the situation. In most situations, customers who have a complaint only want you to take their complaints seriously and handle it in a professional and quick manner. If you do that, then you should be able to receive another permanent customer.
Fix the Problem to Meet Their Satisfaction
In many circumstances, the business or company will try to right their wrong in a way that will still benefit them as far as costs are concerned. This will not satisfy the customer and it will result in another customer leaving unhappy.
For example, at some fast food restaurants, if the employee gets the customer’s order wrong, they will offer a coupon instead of reimbursing the customer their money or trying another tactic. The customer does not want a coupon just to keep them quiet.
The reality of the situation is that customers usually have a different idea of how to resolve the issue. Some have more drastic ideas, such as wanting the employee fired or punished for giving bad service. Other customers seek a financial resolution, while others want assurance that it will not happen again.
It can be difficult to determine what the customer is wanting in return, so the best thing to do is to ask them what you can do to make it right. If you do this, it will make the customer feel important and in control, and it will show them how much you want to please them.
While it is not always possible to mend every relationship with a customer, you will be amazed at how a few simple acts of kindness can help. Always try to put yourself in their shoes, and remember how you feel when you are the customer.
Chris Simpson is dedicated to helping people find honest and legitimate work at home and home based business opportunities. Find a legitimate work at home opportunity and start working from home today at: http://www.HomeNetPro.com
Successful Entrepreneurs are Doer’s - not Dreamers - Too Many Inventors are Confused About the Difference
Kamis, September 18, 2008 | Entrepreneur with 0 komentar »For many years I felt that if you scratched any American you were scratching an entrepreneur. This is the country where entrepreneurial activity is most possible and seemingly every citizen has an idea with commercial potential. Sadly, over time, I realized I was wrong. If you scratch most Americans you are most likely scratching a dreamer.
The difference between a dreamer and a doer is profound. Successful entrepreneurs might have initially dreamt of success, but they will not stop there. The drive to accomplish necessary tasks to insure successful outcomes separates them from the dreamy class, which includes most people. Success is a goal that requires drive, determination, courage, fearlessness, planning, discipline, sacrifice and passion. It is not easy, or everyone would be successful.
What makes one opportunity succeed while another, even more promising idea, fails? It always comes down to the individual and their makeup. A few no’s and the dreamer folds their tent. The successful entrepreneur recognizes no as a hurdle, not a deal closer. The opportunity to overcome the objection represented by the word no is an absolute necessity for any individual seeking success as an entrepreneur.
Dreamers take shortcuts. Dreamers make guesses. Dreamers defer tedious research. Dreamers hope somebody else will do the work for them. Dreamers cannot succeed. And, most unfortunately, many perfectly wonderful commercial opportunities are lost because of this dreamscape approach.
Successful entrepreneurs are always doers! They overcome the often seemingly endless obstacles placed in their path. The road to success is a curvy one, very seldom taking a linear approach. Doers find a way to hurdle each obstacle and move ahead in the process. Doers do not fear criticism, but see this as an opportunity to improve their business model. Doers are realists, no fantasy allowed.
Most importantly, doers are positive realists. Most dreamers are negative. Dreamers see hurdles as absolute barriers. Doers find a way, trying any legal, available strategy to achieve success.
Why do most people work at jobs they really do not enjoy? They need income of course. Most of us have some level of a work ethic. However, the work itself is often not rewarding. Many employees feel underpaid, undervalued, under-challenged. They want to do more, be more valuable and contribute more. But it usually does not happen. They are stuck and will stay so, usually. Often, they dream of the one big idea for a get rich quick widget that will change the course of their empty life. But it is just a dream.
Many entrepreneurs I have worked with came from dead end jobs. However, they possessed the drive and desire to change the course of their lives for the better. Their widget was a vehicle for a great change and lifestyle adjustment. The opportunity presented by modern American capitalism is available for any entrepreneur to seize by the throat and hold on for an amazing ride.
I look at hundreds of commercial presentations every year. Less than one per cent will ever make it to market. And yet, about 30% of the submissions we review have some level of commercial potential, sometimes exceedingly high potential. It is sad to see so many dreamers lacking the cocktail of traits and qualities necessary for successful outcomes. This is a great loss for the dreamer, our economy and society at large, as many of these ideas have real merit and utility.
After many years of teaching, coaching and consulting with would-be entrepreneurs, I can instinctively judge the potentially successful person. There is always an air of passion about the opportunity, knowledge of the competition, belief in the product and themselves. This is obvious whether the initial meeting is in person, by phone or e-mail.
The dreamer invariably comes across as a tire kicker. Hoping, unsure, cloying in a manner that underlines the shortcuts they have taken in approaching an exceedingly competitive commercial market. "Let’s make a million dollars together", is an entrée we often receive. Another losing approach, "I don’t know costs (or competition, or target demographic, etc.) I just know we will make millions on this, my Aunt Hattie loves it". There are many more similar vacuous introductions accompanying otherwise interesting submissions. The predictable result is that opportunity is immediately torpedoed.
Doers have an air of strength. They do not kick tires, but appear ready to repair the whole car. They have answers to most questions and are open to coaching. They are realists and flexible. Dreamers often state they will sell their project for a million dollars. Doers recognize that a good deal is a deal where every party is fairly compensated. Doers will do everything within reason to make a deal happen.
It is a shame that success as an entrepreneur cannot be taught or bought. It can’t! Personal make-up, energy, positive attitude and drive have no retail price. People are either achievement driven or they are content to be average, or less. Entrepreneurs have the essential traits and elements necessary for success hard wired into their being. Why is unknown, I just know it when I see it.
Many inventors recognize that they are creative, not entrepreneurial. They possess the ability to create, design, or invent, but not the ability to project their inventions into the commercial marketplace. These creators are smart to seek professional assistance in securing placement or sale of their work. As Dirty Harry said, "A man has to know his limitations". Not everyone can be a successful entrepreneur, but there are alternative ways to approach the market. This approach is practical for many creative people.
Dreamers unfortunately are doomed to fail. They will waste time, make mistakes, lose money and ultimately implode psychologically when the inevitable failure is at hand.
Armando Montelongo Entrepreneur Flipthishouse Success
Kamis, September 18, 2008 | Entrepreneur, succes story with 0 komentar »Real Estate is a popular industry. Today, there are more people than ever before getting into this arena. There are many examples of how Real Estate is bought and sold.
In the past, the general thought was to buy a property and then let it sit and grow in worth and then sell the property for profit. Today, there is a new trend which is to buy a property and fix or repair any problem areas and then put it back on the market without waiting and see how much profit you can get in a short turn around time.
Either way works. Its a situation that allows a buyer when they originally buy a property, to choose what’s best for them. If they have no reason to wait, they don’t have to because they can move forward.
It's a smart move to recognize your situation and see what's the correct way you want to proceed. If you feel that you have the money now to make the repairs and handle all the other financial obligations, then its ok to go down the path of the type of process that your comfortable with.
This method of a quick sale has been made popular by a television show called Flip this House. On this show, which is lead by real estate entrepreneur Armando Montelongo, you see his real estate process of how to buy and sell a house and to try to be fast and efficient.
If you attempt to buy and sell real estate and want to increase your wealth, and also want to flip properties, it's important to look at the numbers in advance clearly and make sure you have some exit plan b and c moves if the house doesn’t sell.
Ask questions or get advice or obtain a real estate coach or tutor or an actual real estate agent. There are many resources on House flipping on the internet. Even in low market times, you should still be able to find good deals.
Five Reasons All Entrepreneurs Should Join Toastmasters
Kamis, September 18, 2008 | Entrepreneur with 0 komentar »When I went home for Christmas last December, the first thing my parents said when I got off the plane was "It looks like you've grown, did you get taller?"
I hadn't grown at all, not one inch. So why was this their first reaction after not seeing me for sixth months? One word: I had become more confident.
Confidence is a funny thing in human beings. When you're feeling confident you tend to stand taller, hold your head up, and walk differently. It affects all areas of your body (eye contact, breath, stride, voice tone, etc).
What my parents were picking up on was not a change in my height, it was a change in confidence, and I believe Toastmasters was one important contributor to that improvement.
For those who don't know, Toastmasters is an international non-profit organization that helps people improve their public speaking. It is fairly inexpensive (less than $100 per year), and puts you in a supportive environment with other people who are learning to speak in public, become better leaders, an improve their social interactions.
Toastmasters is really only about giving speeches on the surface, and it can affect many other areas of your life.
It all starts with the fact that speaking in public is one of biggest causes of anxiety for most people. In fact, many people rate public speaking as being more frightening than death!
But one thing I discovered about overcoming anxiety and growing as a person is that every time you feel anxiety and STILL take action, you will build confidence. In fact, I believe that's the only way to build confidence: doing the things that you fear the most.
This happens to be one of the most important lessons you can learn as an entrepreneur in my opinion, because you will be faced with scary moments frequently in business.
Here are a few ways that Toastmasters can help you become a better entrepreneur and get a similar boost in confidence.
1. You Speak In Public More Often Than You Know
You probably speak in public more often than you realize, and will be required to do so even more in the future. Each time you pitch an idea, rally you team to accomplish something, inspire others to join you, do an interview with the media, or meet a new person, you are speaking in public.
We all know how important it is the build relationships in business, and if you can be the person who fearlessly networks with big shots at a conference, wows the media with your eloquence, or inspires employees to gladly work overtime for the good of the company, then you will rise to the top faster than your peers.
One interesting part of every Toastmasters meeting is called Table Topics. The presenter will call out a short question and then randomly pick on someone from the audience to come give an impromptu two minute speech about it. It can be quite nerve-racking to give a two minute speech with zero preparation! I can't tell you how valuable this skill is in learning how to interact with others, hold a group's attention, and just become a more interesting person!
If you can't effortlessly talk with anyone (man or woman) at a party for 10-15 minutes and have them remember you in a positive light afterwards, then you are missing out on valuable opportunities. Toastmasters can help you become more comfortable in those social interactions.
2. A Sense of Humor Is A Valuable Tool
At every Toastmaster meeting there is also a member selected to tell a joke. This is used as an icebreaker to bring the meeting participants together.
Guess what? The first few times I held this job, I got nothing more than a few courtesy laughs. I realized that I didn't know how to tell a joke!
I decided to work on this area in Toastmasters (there is also a manual you can work through to practice giving humorous speeches) and eventually started to learn the structure of humor.
I even went to the "open mic" night at the local comedy club a few times (talk about anxiety!) after going through the Toastmasters manual. I certainly wasn't the funniest person there, but I learned a lot in the process and once again built my confidence.
Humor is a powerful tool in your arsenal that can be used to defuse embarrassing situations and make others like you (and want to work for you).
3. Entrepreneurs Must Be Leaders
The third thing that Toastmasters will teach you is leadership. There are numerous positions in the club that need to be filled from time to time. They don't require a huge commitment, but they do help you practice working with a team.
However, the most important lesson that Toastmasters can teach you about leadership is how to evaluate others.
After every speech in Toastmasters, you will be given an opportunity to evaluate the speaker and give them instant feedback (sometimes in the form of, you guessed it, giving another speech). One of the most important lessons I learned here was how to mix criticism with praise. Helping someone improve without crushing their spirits is a lesson every leader should know, and it's better to practice it in a safe environment before you need it in the "real world".
Providing constructive feedback and commanding an audience's attention are indispensable skills that every leader must posses. If are serious about becoming successful, and don't yet consider yourself a powerful leader, this is one way to make progress.
4. You Must Spend Time With Right Type of People
Finally, Toastmasters does a remarkable job of putting you around the right type of people.
One of the most important keys to success is life is to surround yourself with people who are more successful than you are. Toastmasters is the kind of group that attracts people who are interested in improving their life and becoming successful.
In my group, for example, I've made friends who've taught me about real estate investing, web server technology, and sales. When you get around the right type of people, they will start to invite you to other events around town, introduce you to other clubs, and share inspiring books they've read.
5. Your Body Language Could Use Improvement
No matter who you are, your body language needs improvement. Many people are totally unaware of what message they are communicating with their bodies, and how fast people are making assumptions about them.
Some recent studies have shown that people form an opinion about you in as little as two seconds after meeting you. In one such study, evaluations of professors at a particular university were compared with evaluations of people who had only seen two-second video clips of the professors with the sound turned off. Remarkably, 78% of people who only saw the two-second video clips rated the professors the same as the class who had spent an entire semester observing them!
Your dress, your eyes, your hands, your stride, your expressions, your voice tone, and your posture are broadcasting out a strong message to everyone you meet (whether consciously or subconsciously). Do you know what it's saying?
If not, you may want to get in a supportive environment where people can give you specific feedback.
Toastmasters is a brilliant concept that has provided quite a bit of value to me in the past year and half, and I'd encourage anyone (especially entrepreneurs) to join.
Many other seminars exist out there which cost thousands of dollars and provide similar classes to executives. Toastmasters can offer you many of the same advantages in a non-profit organization.
Remember that the way to overcome anxiety and grow as a person is right THROUGH that fear. Feel the fear, and take action in spite of it.
People always say you should start a home business that you’re passionate about. If you don’t love it, it’s going to just be too hard to keep on going.
That doesn’t mean you’ll always enjoy what you do. Sometimes even the best home business can get you down. When your business gets harder to work, it’s time to take a look at why.
Maybe it’s a lack of a private workspace. I know I find it a lot harder to work when my husband is on his computer. It’s right next to mine, and even though he knows that I don’t like to have someone look over my shoulder as I work, and he tries not to, I’m still very aware of his presence. This makes it harder for me to get things done.
It could also be the tedium of the parts of the business you don’t enjoy. You aren’t going to enjoy every aspect of your home business equally. You might love making presentations to customers if you’re in network marketing or you could dread them. You might love working on your business’s website or find it tedious. Article writing, forum participation, commenting on blogs, handing out business cards, advertising in general… you won’t enjoy all parts equally.
The key here is to figure out if you can outsource any of this. Some things you may well have to do yourself, or feel that way. But if you can pay someone to do the things that you drag your feet on or that kill your enthusiasm, why not? Focus your own energies on the parts you enjoy and that bring in more money.
There’s also the eternal curse of a lack of familial support. It’s incredibly rough when your family doesn’t support what you’re doing, especially in the early days when maybe you really aren’t earning that much.
Finding a way to build that support can be a real challenge, particularly if it has never been there at all. Some people won’t get it until you can show a decent income for the time you spend. Others just need to understand more about what it is, what your goals are and what you need from them.
Children can be especially challenging. They need your time and it’s easy to feel guilty when you need to do something for your business. If you can find a way to keep them happy as you work, or to work as they sleep, you may suffer less from guilt.
For some, this may mean finding daycare. Yes, it sounds contrary to running a home business, but that can be how it goes. You can also consider finding another mom to trade care with or arrange more playtime with friends for your kids. Older kids can even get involved in what you’re doing.
Another problem can simply be that you need a break. It may be that you’ve been overworking yourself and really just need a touch of time away from your business. This could be a few hours doing something purely for fun, a full day or even a vacation.
Make sure you do this! Time away from your business can be inspiring and actually improve your progress.
Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.aspectsofhomebusiness.com/blog/ about running her home business. Get more tips on blogging as a home business at her site.
Real Estate Marketing is the Business
Kamis, September 18, 2008 | business tips, Entrepreneur with 0 komentar »As a real estate investor and entrepreneur you must truly understand that you are in the business of marketing first and foremost. MARKETING drives the business. Your marketing's end result should be that it produces leads and prospects to whom you would inevitably like to present offers to and get them accepted.
The bottom line is your real estate business cannot survive without you generating a steady stream of prospects for it. So therefore, the key to making money in real estate is marketing. Never forget this. You may know 100 different ways to buy houses but it doesn't mean spit if you don't have sellers in front of you to apply what you know. Make sense? Good.
Don't get me wrong your real estate education is super important but you don't have to spend all of your valuable time learning every detail of the technical strategies of creative real estate investing. Your #1 aim should be to put yourself in the position to make profits. The way that you put yourself in the position to make profits is by crafting a message that is designed to attract motivated seller prospects and delivering that message through the right medium. This is known as the message to market match and should be the basis of your marketing attack.
Essentially, what you are trying to accomplish with your marketing is zeroing in and trying to identify the people who have problems and need to sell their real estate as a result of these problems. You want these potential prospects to "raise their hand" so that you can continue to prescreen them, follow up and give them more information about your services and how you can help to solve their problems. As a real estate investor and entrepreneur you will make a ton of cash by being the ultimate problem solver and the ultimate marketer.
What kind of marketing message should you craft? It all depends on which motivated seller niche you intend on targeting. For example, if you were to target the frustrated landlord niche your message would specifically address the problems associated with having tenants like rental vacancy, not getting the rent on time or not receiving any rent at all, paying attorney and court cost to resolve these situations and others like damages done to the property by the tenants etc.
Rather than being general, your message must be meaningful and specific. For example, if you were to send a letter out to the executor in charge of a probate estate you wouldn't talk about problem tenants in that letter because it wouldn't be relevant to their situation. In addition, as a marketer you must remember that when a potential prospect receives your message they're viewing or hearing it and trying to determine "What's in it for them"? So the message that you craft and deliver must completely answer that question or your response rate will be dismal.
In conclusion, if you are not generating sufficient profits in your real estate business or if you want to generate more profits for your real estate business concentrate and improve on your marketing because it is the key to your success as a real estate entrepreneur.
Stock investing and gambling; two terms that are interlinked with one another. In fact gambling cannot be taken out of stock investing. No matter how small its effect on stock investing, gambling is there and one way or the other this affects how the stocks behave. One link that can be seen between investing and gambling is the concept of house edge.
Just check the case of casino games or the game of roulette. In the game of roulette, 37 numbers are available. So if a person tags his bet at $2 and it wins, the person will receive $72. And if you bet all the 37 numbers then the number that will win will net you $72. Remember that the person have placed bets on all the numbers for $74. Even if the person wins, he actually lost that $2. This kind of set-up in the game is what is called as the house edge.
A careful check will reveal that the house edge is pegged at 1/37 which is around 2.7 percent. So every time a person places the bet, the return of investment for a person should be 2.7 percent less than the original 100 percent. So whenever a person plays, it should be expected that money will not be easily recouped. Rather a person should be prepared to what a house edge means in many games like roulette.
This is the same with picking stocks; and the concept of house edge is alive and kicking in the wild world of stock investing though in slightly different form. The house edge in the game of stock investing assumes a different form, but the intention remains the say. The house edge in stock investing can be called the broker fees and the commissions.
These are fees that you pay no matter how you make gains in your investments. High up there or just slightly making the profits, these fees are there and needs to checked and paid. The moment you make gains, then for sure you will pay for a fee as well. These fees can be likened to the house edge in many gambling games as like as these fees also eat into the person’s expected profits. So it is suggested that a would-be investor is advised to hold on the stocks for a longer period of time.
Gambling and stock investing may share some general characteristics, but these two things also have distinctive differences as well. One significant difference between the two is the search for the tangible and the intangible. The moment a person places a bet in a casino game, then that person is known to be buying a chance or an opportunity of winning. This is known as the intangible product.
When picking stocks, a person is investing in a business and this is a tangible thing. Picking stocks and gambling also differs somewhat in the general motivation of the person. People gamble generally for fun and people invest for profit. But the perhaps the most important similarity between the two is the amount of risks involved in picking stocks and in gambling.
Conscious Business: the Real Meaning of a "service Based" Business
Kamis, September 18, 2008 | bussiness, Entrepreneur with 0 komentar »How often have you heard the term "service-based" business? Pretty frequently, I'm sure. Usually when you hear people (perhaps yourself) talk about a service business, they are referring to a service rather than a product that is offered to their clients. For the sake of business it is important to consider all of your products and services in your marketing mix. However, one of the most important things to consider is a much higher definition of the word "service" and clarity on how your business serves the greatest good of all.
This concept of REAL service quickly surfaced as the unplanned theme for a recent tele-summit that I planned, and I'm not surprised at all. Everywhere I turn more entrepreneurs are stepping up to claim that business is a VEHICLE to help in the positive transformation of our world. You see, the service your business offers goes FAR beyond the specific services you provide in exchange for money.
The true service of your business is not the offering you make to one particular individual; rather it is the service that your business (as a whole) offers to the world. When I interviewed Anita Pathik-Law for the tele-summit, she spoke of a collective urgency for entrepreneurs to serve. We got into an engaging conversation about the shifts going on in our world right now, and the rising energy of conscious entrepreneurs everywhere to do what they can to be of service in the highest way possible.
So, how does this (concept of serving the highest good for all) relate to your specific business? There are two strategies I recommend to help you connect this to your entrepreneurial endeavors:
1) Shift Your Perspective: Often in business it's easy to get wrapped up in the details of your day-to-day operations. You've got a new webpage to post, a new product to develop, client calls, an article to write, email to manage and phone calls to return... just to name a few things that are probably on your daily task list. And, when you're stuck in this kind of detail, it is easy to lose your perspective. All you can see is the task at hand and getting it done.
When this happens, I invite you to take a "time out" (for me, it's typically a day at the Chocolate Spa in Hershey PA... or quiet time in the hammock on my deck). This intention of your "time out" is to step away from the details of your business and reconnect with your higher vision. Chances are you didn't start your business to deal with details all day. You started it to make a difference in the lives of others, and to have a positive impact on the world. Too often, this gets lost in the mix of things to do. So, when you give yourself a break, take time to dream of the ultimate service your business (and YOU) wants to offer to the world. There is SOMETHING that YOU are here to do. There is a higher purpose you are here to serve. Allow yourself the time and space to connect with THAT level of service. It will be the driving force for all of your business and personal success.
2) Let the Universe Work Its' Magic: I love this strategy. It's been one of the most effective strategies I've implemented this year. And, that is, to not try to plan everything. Too often, as a business owner, you feel driven to plan for every last project that you've got slated for the year. This can be a big mistake. Because, in planning out every last project, you don't leave much room for the Universe to work it's magic and SHOW YOU what the next steps are for you and your business. I see so many entrepreneur struggling to figure out what to do next, when all they need to do is release their struggle and ALLOW "what's next" to reveal itself!
I know from my own personal experience, that when I allowed the space in my life (and my calendar) for the Universe to reveal my next steps, I was shown something that would never have surfaced if I had TRIED to plan it. And, what revealed itself was my service to the world through being a voice for conscious entrepreneurs.
So, on your journey of experiencing the REAL meaning of service-based business, I invite you to implement these two strategies (shift your perspective and let the Universe work its magic) so you discover exactly how you and your business are ultimately meant to serve the world.
My two favorite definitions of "entrepreneur" are from a 19th-century French economist and a present-day American capitalist.
"The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield." - Jean-Baptiste Say. "An entrepreneur solves problems for a profit." - T. Harv Eker.
Entrepreneurs are the producers of the world. They create something from nothing. They take ideas and dreams, and they bring them to reality. They are the innovators and the risk takers. They are the ones who make our lives better, and a lot more fun.
Mindset and action
What differentiates an entrepreneur from a non-entrepreneur is mindset and action. It's the mindset that you know you are absolutely and solely responsible for the results that you produce.
My friend Dan Sullivan talks about this in terms of two economies: The results economy and the time and effort economy. The time and effort economy is where you get paid for the hours that you put in, and the results economy is where you get paid for your results.
However, as an entrepreneur, you cannot confuse activity with accomplishment.
There are people out there who work really, really hard but do not make any money. And there are some people out there who don't work hard at all and are very wealthy.
And a lot of that is just having the right capabilities, the right resources, and the right understanding.
Entrepreneurs who achieve the greatest level of success are not necessarily the hardest workers; they are the smartest workers. They are the ones who believe, for one thing, that when it comes to selling, the best prospect to be in front of you is someone who is pre-interested, pre-motivated, pre-qualified, and pre-disposed to doing business with you.
Are you a treadmill or a ladder? There are two types of business owners: Treadmill entrepreneurs and ladder entrepreneurs. Treadmill entrepreneurs work extremely hard. They are constantly running, but ultimately they end up exhausted and not really getting anywhere. Ladder entrepreneurs are those who use that same effort to get themselves up to a new, higher level in business.
Dr. Ed Hallowell, the author of "CrazyBusy," shares his research about ADD/ADHD (attention deficit disorder/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and how most overworked entrepreneurs exhibit the symptoms of these conditions. And just as with those who truly have ADHD and go untreated, the "untreated" entrepreneurs go about running their businesses and lives like they are driving around with square wheels.
This is much harder than it really needs to be. Once a treadmill entrepreneur can round those wheels out, his/her life starts working better. It runs smoother, and you get much farther with less effort.
So the question is: Do you feel like you are running on square wheels? Moving forward, but it sure takes a heck of a lot of effort!
Get off the treadmill
There are solid procedures you can follow in order to get off the treadmill and onto the ladder, finding true success.
Here are three strategies you must implement in your business.
1. Measure and track results
Everything measured improves. And everything measured and reported improves exponentially. This is a universal law that applies to business and personal growth, that when you actively track "data"that you want to improve, you will make it better with that consistent focus.
But when you get more serious and make yourself accountable to others, your results improve even more. For instance, someone who really wants to quit smoking will tell others he is quitting. The peer pressure and support helps to motivate and monitor him.
An entrepreneur can use this law to his advantage by tracking the results he wants to improve, and finding someone to "report" to. This includes revenue, expenses, profit margins, referrals, testimonials, complaints, and "lifestyle" results like days off, family time, and personal income.
Sit down and ask yourself what areas of your business (or personal) life you would like to see improvement in. What "data" can you measure and track on a regular basis that gives you a snapshot of how you are doing in these areas?
Whom can you "report" to on a consistent basis to hold yourself accountable?
2. Master new knowledge
No matter how hard you try, you cannot build a million-dollar company with $100,000 skills.
This is the trap that many treadmill entrepreneurs fall into. Many blame the industry, the economy, or where they live as reasons their company is not succeeding. In most cases, though, it's not outside factors that are keeping them down, but inside ones.
When I was struggling in my 20s with my cleaning company, I believed it was not possible to be really successful in this business. I was living off credit cards and going to stockbroker school at night because I wanted to go into another business where I could make more money.
Then, a friend from high school invited me to go jet-skiing with a rich friend of his. My main goal was not to spend the day jet-skiing but to hang around someone who could teach me something about building success in a better industry than cleaning.
This guy had made millions in real estate, and I knew he could point me in the right direction. I told him about my carpet cleaning business and that it wasn't doing well and I wanted to do something else and I wondered if he had any suggestions. He asked if there was anyone else in the carpet cleaning business who was making money. I said there were a couple of companies in the Phoenix area that do over $1 million a year; to me, that was a lot of money. But that these companies had been around a long time and were established and much bigger than I was.
I told him there was a lot of competition and all customers cared about was price, and that I worked hard, was trained and IICRC-certified, and did everything right, but I was broke and tired. So I must just be in the wrong business. His reply was one of those defining moments that changed my life.
He said: "If there are other people in the industry who are making money and you are not, there is nothing wrong with the business. There is something wrong with you." Not exactly what I wanted to hear. He explained that I didn't own a business; I owned a job, and that if I changed to a new industry I'd spend a few years learning the technical side, and then I'd continue to repeat the same bad business habits that caused me to be failing in the cleaning industry.
The answer was to learn fundamental business knowledge to make my cleaning business work, and then I could take those fundamental skills to any industry I wanted to and create success. I felt it in my gut when I heard that advice, so I knew it was hitting on the truth.
I made a decision that I was not going to get out of my carpet cleaning business until I figured how to make it work. I put a challenge to myself that I would figure it out. I had a lot of goals and dreams, but I lacked the skills to get me there. I didn't even understand what skills exactly I needed to be looking for. I set out on a quest to transform my company, to learn what I needed to learn. And through books, seminars and advice from other successful people, I became a student of business success.
Getting off the treadmill starts with a mindset shift. My belief system was wrong. I believed that circumstances outside of me were limiting my business success, and that I was a victim of those circumstances. Once I changed my mindset from the problem being outside of me to inside of me and took complete responsibility, my situation changed dramatically. I worked to master the skills to climb up to the next level, and the next, and am still climbing. Ask yourself: Which skills, resources, or talents would your business need to become two, three, or four times its current size or income? Where can you acquire that knowledge?
3. Multiply your effort
Many business owners get stuck on the treadmill because they are dead-set on being in control of everything, or even worse, being entirely a one-man (or woman) show. That's a certain recipe for a life-draining job. The mindset shift is from being "in control" to being "in charge." That shift from treadmill to ladder; from working harder to working smarter; comes down to boosting productivity and leverage. Productivity is maximum results with the least amount of time. Leverage is maximum results with the least amount of effort.
Business survival or business success?
"Work" has two different meanings.
It either means hard effort: "I have to work." Or, it has a flow to it: "This just works." The word changes based on how you want to look at it. Business isn't any different. It can be hard, or it can flow, depending on how you decide to look at it. Many business owners are in business just to survive, instead of to succeed. The treadmills run on negative, fear-based energy, and the ladders are propelled by positive, goal-based energy. Once you make that shift, you have the power to take your business from ground level to as high as you want it to go.
At times, in order to be successful in the stock market you need to take advantage of the services offered by third parties. Examples of these third parties that may serve its purpose in the stock market are what the market calls as the brokerage firms. Brokerage firms are those firms that can help an investor make his presence felt in the market.
These firms are staffed by stock brokers and these are qualified and regulated professionals that have the ability to buy and then sell the shares and the other securities through market makers or the Agency Only firms in behalf of the investor. So it follows that the choice of a stock brokerage firm will make or break the investors presence and his worth in the market.
Here are some basics about the brokerage firms, well at least in the US. A good brokerage firm is the one that can give the attention the investor needs. And since the stock broker or the stock brokerage firm earns money on each trade, the investor should be wary of too much activity of the firm.
And before a formal relationship between the firm and the investor begins, it is suggested that the would-be investor should meet personally with a representative of the firm. The hiring of the perfect brokerage firm for your needs is fast and simple.
When looking for the best firm, it is suggested to use the traditional route. It is always safe to do business with the firm that is well-established in the market. The mutual fund provider can also act as a stock broker in the market. If it can be done, then it is suggested that a would-be investor should check and find a stock broker at his own bank.
Most often than not, it is always easier to hire the bank as the stock brokerage firm and the investor should make sure that the stock broker is qualified of course. The online brokerage firms and the discount brokerage firms should not be discounted since this can save the investor some money. If the person is the type of investor that executes trades daily and doesn’t usually need the advices of the firms, then online firms can be a great help.
There are a number of other tips and tactics that can help the prospective investor seek his partner in the market. Here is another important tip when looking for a firm; the prospective investor should be wary of websites that offer stock trades yet offer little information about the ownership of the company.
The internet is full of scams so it is imperative to make that search with care. Just because it’s cheap means its good. This isn’t always true in the world of stock investing. Day trading is possible with the online broker but this is not recommended. It is suggested to get into day trading in a slow manner with online firms and the person should be wary on the amount of money that will be spent on the online firm.
Justin DeMerchant is the founder of trade prospector, stock market weekly, and financial information where information on stocks and investing can be found.
Why You Need Marketing, not Just Sales
Kamis, September 18, 2008 | bussiness, Entrepreneur with 0 komentar »I have had several clients who are so busy running around doing personal selling that they have little time to run their businesses. It seems to happen more around the $2-3 million gross revenue point, but it can happen at lower targets as well. Why is this? When a business is small, it doesn’t take as many clients or customers to cover costs. And the shortest, least expensive path to getting customers seems to be sales (I say “seems”, because there are better ways to combine the two). Naturally, as the business grows, it takes more money to cover expenses, which means the company needs to do more business, and therefore more selling.
You Can’t Clone Yourself
Many businesses of this size may have an extra salesperson or two. But the owner makes the best salesperson, because they have the most knowledge. Finding and hiring an owner clone can be difficult and expensive. Plus, the new person will require training and management – more time the owner may not have to spare. Sometimes the owner is the only one that can close the bigger deals. Or the owner may just not be comfortable taking a chance on someone else doing it. For many prospects, only the owner will do.
A Crucial “P”
Businesses of this size typically don’t do much in terms of marketing. What I mean by marketing here is the promotional side; one of the crucial four “P’s” (product, price, place, promotion). The value of marketing in this sense is to drive customers to your business, rather than always chasing after them.
Marketing promotions involves strategic planning and the marketing mix. The “mix” includes personal selling, public relations, events, advertising, Web marketing, etc. You may have noticed that I included selling in the mix, which is not atypical of most marketing textbooks. I may get a lot of flack for this, but personal selling is part of the mix; not something that should stand apart from marketing. This does not diminish its importance. It simply implies that all the elements have to work together to effectively and efficiently accomplish the goal – that is to grow the revenue of the company.
Why Marketing Promotions Makes Sense
There are two key benefits to this approach. One, less time is spent chasing customers: sourcing leads, prospecting, cold calling and following up. In fact, marketing is great for warming up those cold calls.
Two, people who contact the business (rather than the other way around) are in a buying mood. That is, they’re interested and they want it now. It could be called judo marketing, because they're already leaning in the direction you want them to go.
If you play your cards right, you can have your website and materials do most of the selling (ahem, marketing) for you. In other words, save the close for the close. That’s a huge time saver. And having people come to you first, gives you the upper hand and places you in a better negotiating position, so you may even be able to get a better price.
If you go through list of Richest People of the world compiled by organizations like Australia's 'BRW Rich 200 List', and their ways of building wealth, you would get to know that such people have gotten their wealth generated through an extremely eclectic branch of professions and business-the one that stands out in the form of the most re-occurring and common field in comparison with the rest- Real Estate. Those who have not gotten their wealth generated directly through real estate have used it in the form of a solid and secure asset for funneling and growing their fortunes further. Let the reasons behind flourishing of real estate wealth building be studied in details.
Leverage
While having real estate purchased, borrowing 80-90% of purchase price is not at all uncommon. At times, 100% lends can also be made available. This completely depends upon location of lender, land, and borrowing position of yours. In other words, the percentage of lending depends on whether you secure employment on the professional basis or already possess other assets. Real estate wealth building is thus, a matter of your pre-accumulated wealth.
If you happen to visit the bank and tell them that their shares that are publicly listed are on your wishlist and that you need a loan for doing so; in majority of cases, around 70% would be lent to you in the form of margin loan as per the listed shares, that too in their own bank! More ironical is the fact that the same bank will possibly be extra happy for lending you around 80-90% for purchasing a well-located property. So, think in the proper perspective while opting for real estate wealth building.
Everybody requires roof over head
Real estate, unlike the paper assets like derivative or stock market instruments, is something tangible and real. It has existence on the physical basis. The most important fact apart from all this is that each and everyone requires roof over heads of theirs, and that a place and space is need to live by all the people on this planet. The demand pertaining to real estate would continue till people continue to live in that particular area. This aspect of real estate wealth building cannot be overlooked.
Limited Supply
Real estate, unlike any of the other asset classes, is finite. It's true that taller buildings can always be built, along with more number of apartments, that too, on same-sized block. However, note that there's only a bit of land, and a bit of 'well located' land adjoining public amenities, transportation, and employment. This is one of the vital reasons behind real estate wealth building.
Price Inflation
As stated above, 'leverage' of yours is powerful only if the property appreciates with respect to value. If depreciation occurs, you would be finding yourself owing greater than the amount borrowed by you originally. This might seem to be one of the scary prospects at times; but also quite easy to avert. This then points towards the right selection of real estate. Some of the reasons behind inflation in terms of price of real estate include underlying inflation with respect to economy, nation's economic health and state of economy, increasing population, limited supply pertaining to the area 'in demand', and many more. Real estate wealth building involves many real-time challenges, apart from the ones stated above.
Building Wealth With a Wealth Building Strategy
Selasa, September 09, 2008 | wealth Building with 0 komentar »Almost everyone gets bombarded with the schemes stating various ways of building wealth within a short span of time. Certain people equate it with scam. However, if you happen to be dedicated enough, pulling what is being tried by everyone so hard for getting rich quick wouldn't be all that difficult. All you need to do is to plan a proper wealth building strategy.
These days, there are several options for you with regards to building wealth. Some of them include the conventional MLM marketing, internet business, network marketing, investment, etc. All of these are doable, guaranteed, and good. Getting in to 1 or 2 of such kind is indeed a wise decision. After all, majority of get rich fast schemes offer this only. It should, however, be noted that apart from putting the money at a place where it would multiply, you end up doing much more than simply marketing and selling.
After having chosen 1 or 2 amongst the above mentioned endeavors, it would be the time for planning a bit of a support system relating to building wealth ASAP, i.e. as soon as possible. Certain wealth building tips need to be followed for landing on the port named 'build wealth' successfully. Let these tips be glanced through.
Use of savings account
The savings account of yours should be made use of on the regular basis, i.e. the deposits must be carried out without fail, apart from the deduction of payroll which is automatically done by the bank. The above procedure should be strictly followed; otherwise you would never know the importance of saving money. Building wealth won't be possible then. If you are used to deposit the money in the checking account of yours, be more careful, as the money resting with checking account is likely to be spent more frequently.
Many people argue on this count. They defend saying that the saving account is untouched. Though, this is true, remember that being a miser sometimes can help you a great deal in the long run. Experts have suggested that the payroll deductions should be set between the range of $100 and $250, in order to have a continuous climb to money of yours in bank. It is rightly said that 'Money saved is money earned'. Thus, this can prove to be a catalyst in terms of building wealth.
Getting rid of the debts
Debt can be referred to as a quicksand. The more paid by you, more debts would be made. You would then sink to such an extent that you would be up to your neck with respect to debts. If you happen to deduct the entire debt of yours from money in your savings account, you would hardly have anything left. Hence, it's much better to have the debts of high interest rates paid off before you go on thinking regarding living in mansion. So, you can draw the conclusion that debts also contribute in building wealth. In fact, handling debts is the biggest secret to building wealth.
Get motivated
This tip might sound cliché, but would definitely help if thought over from the point of view of a businessperson. You should never put your efforts down. To surrender is always easy. However, note that people getting motivated the most, along with willingness for working hard, actually scale heights in terms of building wealth.
Building wealth is imperative for all the business owners. Business should be established in such a way that diversified incomes are created. However, generation of profits should be prioritized here. To attain this goal, an appropriate wealth building program should be created. A portion of net profits should constantly be invested in some or the other investment instruments which would help in the production of sources that can be made available for present as well as long-term needs. Let some light be thrown on various advantages of chalking out a wealth building program.
Advantages
The first and the foremost source of income of yours is your business. There are several sources being made available for assisting you in the successful creation and operation of business worth millions of dollars. Certain businessmen would get there, certain won't. Some would be going way ahead. The way by which you would be earning money would be base in wealth building program of yours. Secondly, you should obtain expertise in understanding and controlling the finances of your business. This would be a key factor in attaining a healthy cash flow.
The next thing to be incorporated is gaining knowledge and understanding regarding all tax-free, taxable, and tax-deferred alternative streams of income, and optimizing them completely. Creation of a wealth building program would help you in working effectively towards financial objectives of yours, viz; obtaining financial freedom.
The main objective behind development of wealth building program is less dependence on business income. An appropriate business plan would be giving you freedom on the monetary basis and also safeguard against death, illness, inflation, etc. In other words, you turn out to be completely secured with respect to long-term and short-term wants and needs.
Revenue streams
Remember to ensure of three exclusive revenue streams before starting with the business. They would certainly benefit you a lot. These streams include net profits obtained from your business, income out of personal investments that could be obtained from dividends, bonuses, and salaries from the business of yours, and future income through several tax-deferred investments such as annuities and pension plans. Income streams cannot be equated with building wealth. These can be termed as a subset of the huge wealth building program.
Investment streams
Wealth building program of yours should be inclusive of investment streams such as mutual funds, stock options, forex, penny stocks, high-valued stocks, real estate, bonds, and collectibles such as silver and gold coins. Investing in any one of the above-mentioned instruments would risk your money. Diversification is the best alternative to avoid this risk.
Wealth building program of yours should begin with knowing the needs of yours. Along with that, you need to know the way of fulfilling these needs. There are many programs provided by software companies in this regard. Certain programs happen to be free as well. In short, wealth building program of yours must be inclusive of goals- short-time, middle-time, and long-time. Your business should be such that working on the annual basis for achieving long-term goals can be easily possible. You should be able to project certain amount of income every year, just like the government bonds. If you happen to have deficiency or back-log in the income of yours, you should know how to cover it up by the end of that year. As such, keep going with the wealth building program!
Passive income can be referred to as the term which is being caught on since the last twenty years in community of 'Wealth Building Professionals'. This concept, though, is in to existence for quite some time now; it came to be known in conjunction with those involved in wealth building only. Whenever the person willing to make money has gone for investment in business of somebody and shared interest on loans, or profits, that too without actual participation, passive stream of income has been developed. It is better known as wealth building system.
Passive income
The term 'passive' literally means that no action is required by investor. However, the fact is that there's a load of work to be done on the upfront. This work cannot be left undone at any cost. After having completed this work, just an ostensible amount of enduring work is required. This work needs to be done for making sure that fundamentals relating to investment haven't changed, or an opportunity better than this hasn't been offered to you. All the above steps are nothing but a tip of an iceberg, in terms of wealth building system.
Patience and capital
If you intend building long-term wealth by means of passive sources of income, i.e. without having started business of your own or by the way of active bond/stock trading, or through flipping of properties or being landlord, then you would need 2 things in proper amounts: capital and patience. Of Course, your reaching the income goals and long-term wealth would be depending greatly on the present accumulated capital of yours. However, if you use compounding in a proper way and with a sufficient amount of time, sources of passive income can, with considerably lesser risk and utmost comfort, develop sober wealth. Wealth building system, if designed keeping in to mind these factors, would create wonders.
Pyramid
The wealth building system usually builds pyramid pertaining to sources of passive income. It ensures diversification, along with keeping risks low even after growing of pyramid. At first, you should have a goal set for your level of target income. Let this income be $5000 per month (supposedly), from portfolio of passive income of yours. This also implies requirement of capital of around $1 million at the return of around 6% on an average. To get there, place I-Bond, TIPS, CDs, and funds corresponding to Municipal Bond at the 1st tier of passive income of yours.
Funds relating to municipal bonds are usually tax-free, in spite of association of bond fees. It should be noted that on the whole, you would end up coming our far ahead with such form of the fund in comparison to taxable account. Operation of CDs is very easy. You can go on with transactions through CD at the faraway or neighborhood bank branch. Best rates can be found here. I-Bond and TIPS perform the task of protection of money of yours against inflation, even though returns might not be all that high. Resorting to these means is the stepping stone towards wealth building system.
You can have initial $50000 of yours placed in to 1 or even more vehicles of such kind, and, at the same time, start sending returns in to the 2nd tier of passive sources of income. Second tier of wealth building system includes REITS, high-yield funds, and bond funds for intermediate term, etc.
How Entrepreneurs Will Succeed by Doing Less
Selasa, September 09, 2008 | Entrepreneur with 1 komentar »Michael Gerber wrote a very popular book entitled The E-Myth Revisited about the myths of entrepreneurship. He explained that entrepreneurs must have three skills to win. Gerber claimed that entrepreneurs must possess and execute the technical, the managerial, and the visionary skills to succeed as an entrepreneur by creating a successful business.
I believe that Gerber was only partially correct. He leaves readers with the impression that the entrepreneur (alone) must consistently possess and exercise all three of these skills for the business to succeed, and for the entrepreneur to win. I believe that the key distinction is that the three skills represent the three FUNCTIONS of the business that must be completed for the business to succeed. I believe that the entrepreneur does not have to perform all three functions personally. In fact, I am convinced that the business and the entrepreneur will be more successful if the entrepreneur DOES NOT personally perform all three functions.
A business is like a chain. It is only as successful as the weakest link in the chain. The three links to any business chain are the technical function, the management function and the visionary function. The success of a business will rarely exceed the level of poorest execution of the three functions. For example, if the entrepreneur performs the technical and visionary functions at an excellent level, but performs the management function at a poor level, the business success will rarely rise above the poor management level. Therein lies the dilemma. The business is limited to the lowest level at which these three functions are performed. Yet, it is extremely unlikely that any one person, in this case the lone entrepreneur, can exercise all three functions to a high enough level at one time to generate the expected business success. Hence, businesses where the entrepreneur must personally exercise all three functions will rarely succeed. Let’s look further at each of the business functions to learn why this is true.
The technical function of a business requires someone to actually perform the duties of that business, which attract payments. This could include repairing air conditioners, extracting teeth, painting houses, writing computer programs, or installing tile. People who do the technical work have almost total control over what they are doing, they frequently do something tangible, and they receive almost instant feedback and gratification. This is the “doing function.”
The managerial function of a business requires someone to direct, coordinate, and organize the business activities of other people (and themselves) to achieve the daily and weekly success goals. People who perform the managerial function have much less control, because of reliance on others to actually perform other duties, and they have delayed feedback and gratification from one day to a week.
The visionary function of a business requires someone to look years into the future, set goals, organize, and lead the business to the completion of the vision. People who perform the visionary function have virtually no control, because they must rely on others to actually perform the managerial and technical functions, and the many unforeseen things that will happen during the years. They perform even less, if any, “doing” type of work, and have delayed gratification and feedback from one-to-five years.
It is extremely difficult for one person to simultaneously perform all three functions well.
You can see that the type of skills, activities, control, and gratification periods vary widely for these three very different functions. The very different nature of these three functions, the very different skills needed to perform them well, and the very different types of people who would be mentally and emotionally capable of performing these functions requires three very different people. It would require one lone super-human person with three very different personalities and motivations, and with excessive energy and time to simultaneously perform all three functions at a level high enough for the business to succeed. These wide differences are the reasons it is so difficult for any one person to perform all three functions simultaneously. Yet, entrepreneurs are lead to believe they must execute all three functions themselves. In addition, most entrepreneurs feel not only compelled to do everything themselves, but most feel they are very capable of doing so.
The business will succeed because the lone entrepreneur will not perform all three functions.
But, when the lone entrepreneur feels compelled to work long and hard to execute all three functions of his or her business, the business will almost always fail. In essence, the business will fail because the entrepreneurs did too many things and worked too hard. This year, over 800,000 of the approximately 2,000,000 start up businesses will fail! Nearly 1,000,000 of those remaining will fail within 3 years. Clearly the sole entrepreneur doing everything approach is not working that well.
Smart and successful entrepreneurs discover the three functions they have the greatest desire to perform and will be the most successful at completing. You will also want to know the functions you have the least desire to perform and at which you will probably be the least productive. This is an extremely important discovery process about you, the entrepreneur. Once you have made these discoveries, you will want to design your business around you. By custom designing your business to suit you and your personal desires, passions, priorities, and talents, you will orchestrate your ability to enjoy and excel at the functions you selected for you. Likewise, you will avoid performing the other functions you would have suffered and struggled to execute well enough for the business to succeed. You will want to enlist others to perform the functions of your business that you do not want to do. You will want to join forces only with people who have a strong desire to perform the functions you do not want to do and have a strong desire to avoid performing the functions you love doing.
It really comes down to creating the best fit for you first, and then creating the best fit for the people performing the other functions. It is almost like the sport of baseball. There are nine positions in baseball that must be played well by all nine players in order for the team to succeed. In the entrepreneurial small business world there are three positions that must be played well for the business to succeed. Pick the position you want first then have others play at least one, if not both, of the remaining two positions. This way everyone will be much more productive, have more fun, and the business will thrive.
Hire a business coach.
But how do you as an entrepreneur or business owner discover enough about you to be able to understand which aspects of your business are best suited for you? You engage a business coach. A business coach is, in essence, a life coach who specializes in coaching entrepreneurs and business owners to business related goals. The most common business goal clients achieve with their business coach is to become more successful and productive entrepreneurs and/or business owners and do so on their terms. The initial discovery phase of business coaching will assist you to unravel the mystery of you, so you become The World’s Leading Expert on You! You can work with your equal partner/coach to develop your business to allow you to fulfill your passions, follow your beliefs and values, maximize your talents, avoid as many of your self-imposed obstacles as possible, and operate your life based on your own priorities. Now that you know what you want your business to look like because you have your business coach/partner to support you with options and clarity, and because you as the entrepreneur/business owner have ultimate control over your businesses, you have nothing stopping you from custom designing and completing your business to suit you. By building your businesses to suit you, you will be virtually assured of achieving outstanding success, and you will get to enjoy the ride along the way.
If this is true, then how do entrepreneurs get all three functions executed well enough for the business to succeed, if they don't do it themselves? Entrepreneurs have others perform at least one of the three functions for the business. We are listing several possible methods entrepreneurs can have one or more of the three functions successfully performed by others.
The partnership solution.
The simplest way to cover all three functions is to have a business with two or more partners who execute different functions. This is a very common success tactic. Do the names of Gates-Allen, Hewlett-Packard, Jobs-Wosniac, Disney-Disney sound familiar? They succeeded in large part because they had at least two people accomplishing the three functions from the outset. Sometimes, it appears easier to go it alone, but if you can find a partner who wants to and is effective at performing one of the three functions, you are way ahead of the game.
As a side note, the most frequent reason business partnerships break up is because the partners are too much alike. Partners with like interests and personalities want to perform the same functions and compete to do so, while not paying attention to the other functions. Friction occurs and partnerships or businesses dissolve. How often do two programmers, or two electricians, or two salespeople, or two mechanics, become partners only to see their partnership and the business implode because they focus on the same function at the expense of the others?
The hiring solution.
Another way to solve this dilemma is to hire someone to perform one of the functions. Normally, the function that is the easiest to hire in is the technical function. However, this fact frequently creates a conflict with entrepreneurs. Normally, entrepreneurs begin their business by performing all three functions, including the technical functions themselves. The baker bakes, the plumber plumbs, the graphic artist does graphic artistry, the printer prints, the accountant accounts, and the list goes on. The sooner entrepreneurs can have someone else perform the technical functions of the business so they can focus on the management and visionary functions, the sooner the business will start down the road to success. When entrepreneurs have others execute the technical functions they transition from being a technician to becoming a business owner.
The Franchise solution
However, if you are excellent at performing the technical functions, you may want to bring in someone to perform at least the visionary and probably some of the management functions. The franchise structure of business has been used for years to allow performers of the technical functions to utilize the franchiser to perform the visionary functions and provide considerable guidance in performing the management functions. Look at the successes of the McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut and other such franchises. The headquarters of each of these groups perform all of the visionary functions and design and teach a large part of the management functions. The franchisee performs the technical functions and some of the management functions. Through this separation of duties all three functions get performed exceptionally well to produce great successes.
Conclusion
As the entrepreneur you have the power, control, and obligation to design your entire business around you. You want to discover and know yourself very well going into the design of your business, so you will know exactly which functions and duties you will really want to perform. You will undoubtedly create excellent results from the duties you want to perform. Likewise, you will want to find, attract, and surround yourself with others who will want to perform the other functions of the business you chose to avoid. They will also produce excellent results from performing their chosen duties. This way you get to do what you love, and you will do it well. You also have others producing exceptional results because they enjoy it so much at the other functions of the business you chose no to do. You win because you will work less and enjoy yourself more, your supporting cast wins because they will enjoy what they do and they will be rewarded for their high quality results, and the business wins because all three functions will be executed exceptionally well.
Everybody wins!
Ticket Scalping – Entrepreneur or Scum of the Earth
Minggu, September 07, 2008 | Entrepreneur with 0 komentar »What do these have in common – used car salesperson, energy trader for Enron and ticket scalper? The answer is all three are looked down upon by our peers and society.
The used car salesperson has to fight the stereotype that they are always trying to sell someone a lemon. The energy trader was once viewed with respect, but now the secret is out that they did their part to de-rail parts of the economy and stuffed their pockets while everyone else is paying for it. The scalper is the guy who bought the ticket before you and is standing outside the stadium selling it to you for more. The same ticket you were going to buy yourself.
Whether these negative perceptions of the industry represent the reality or not, it brings up an interesting question. When you, as an entrepreneur, are considering a new business opportunity, one of the things you need to consider is how new entrants to the marketplace will affect you. You want barriers to entry to be high so not every person that comes along can start their own business and compete with you. You also want the barriers low enough so you can enter the business with your available capital and time constraints.
Imagine an industry where profits are high, barriers to entry are low, but people do not flood the industry because of preconceived notions against it. Would it be prudent to take a step back and really examine those notions for yourself? Ticket brokering, Ticket Scalping, Ticket Flipping, or whatever term you put on it, is this industry. Lets take a closer look at the components of it.
High Profits – Buying and selling tickets is a high margin endeavor. It is not unheard of to make 20%, 30%, 50% or even 300% return on your investment of certain events. There is always a good market for good seats to popular events. There are tricks to identifying what the popular events are and how to regularly find them. Once employing these tricks, one can continually make money wit limited maintenance.
Low Barriers – If you have a few hundred dollars you can be a broker. Nothing is free and these are about as low of barriers to entry as one can get, regardless of industry.
Preconceived Notions – I have bought and sold many houses. I put my time into finding them, fixing them up and selling them. Each time I do this, I put in a lot of work and capital. I get my return when I sell it. There are a couple of points of view to take on this. The first is that I am being rewarded for taking a risk and putting in my time and money. The second is one could say I am creating a false value and how dare I drive up the value of that house and make the family who eventually buys that house pay for it. I can tell you this, the vast majority of people take the first point of view and see house flipping as a person taking advantage of capitalism.
With real estate, we glorify the house flipper. We even give them cable TV shows. I have never been called a house scalper. Why is that? What exactly is the difference between flipping houses and flipping tickets?
There actually a few differences. Flipping tickets takes less capital, less time, shorter cycles and generates higher returns. Outside of these things, they are essentially the same. Buy low. Sell high.
Risks – No venture is without risk. The last thing you want to do is buy some tickets that you cannot use. The self-discovery can be expensive. It is a good thing there are inexpensive places to teach you insider’s tricks and well as offer presale codes and upcoming event information. Google “insiders guide ticket broker business” and you can find plenty. The break even on these types of material is reached fairly quickly. Avoid one or two bad decisions and you are there.
Entrepreneurs need to keep on the lookout for new ideas that others do not want to pick up or cannot pick up. Many people will always shy aware from becoming a ticket broker because they will just say “ticket scalper” and be done with it. Use this to you advantage. This is an easy industry where many people will just not enter, hence leaving more money to be made by the ones who can expand their horizons a bit.
Many Now are Earning Dollars Through the Internet; Why not You?
Jumat, September 05, 2008 | business tips with 0 komentar »Have you ever dreamt of putting up a website that earns you passive income even while you sleep?
On September 19 and 20, Jomar Hilario will give the Truly Rich Hands-On Internet Marketing Workshop. Why hands-on? By the end of the workshop, you will already have a working website that will start earning money for you.
Jomar Hilario is the young man who sold P2M worth of tickets for a concert—all done in 30 days—just by using email.
Have you always wanted someone to guide you step-by-step on how YOU can earn from the internet? Then your prayers are answered. On July 11 to 12, the Truly Rich Club is offering a two-day, hands-on, Truly Rich Internet Marketing Workshop.
You will get the following:
• Set up a system to earn US dollars online – semi passively.
• Duplicate this system so you can earn more – and faster – from your home!
• Set it up so you only need to maintain it for as less frequent as once a month!
• Set up another system to earn even more using client lists.
• Sell to your client lists using an online store.
• Collect money from your clients by giving them a service or a product (even if you don’t have one)
• Promote anything you do on the internet –and doing it “automatically”.
• And finally: Do all the above even if ALL you know is how to set up an email account!
Learn The Secret Weapon
That Speeds It All Up
You’ll learn what the Internet Millionaires calls the secret sauce, the internet marketing secret weapon. The procedure that allows them to create wealth in months–rather than years. A system that runs almost automatically that can earn money for you!
Not only that, this system is easy to duplicate that you can have several of these businesses running side by side, each one earning you money!
Most of these Internet Millionaires will not teach this to you, even for $2000! They’ll tell you about it, but they won’t guide you step by step.
But in the Truly Rich Internet Marketing Program, it’s workshop time!
For 2 days on July 11 and 12, prepare yourself for a step-by-step workshop on how to start earning on the internet, start creating your customer list and promoting anything on the ‘net. Yes, you can change your financial life!
Your Internet Guru: Jomar Hilario
Your main teacher will be Jomar Hilario, an Internet Marketer who sold P2 Million worth of sales in 30 days for one single event. For the past 2 years, he has assisted Bo Sanchez and Larry Gamboa in their internet marketing projects, making their businesses grow dramatically. In this two-day, hands-on, intensive Internet Marketing Workshop, Jomar will teach you the same proven SYSTEMS that have earned millions for others—and how you can duplicate this in your internet business many, many times.
What You Can Expect On The 2-Day Workshop
Throughout the Workshop, you will have an internet-connected computer in front of you. You will follow as Jomar guides you.
So that by the time you leave the Workshop-Seminar, you will have created a few cash machines–ready to earn from you–from your home!
Part 1, Blogging for Dollars for newbies - your first goal — $ 100 semi-passively.
1. Create your first semi automatic blogging cash machine. (Yes, you don’t need to be a writer, just slightly opinionated!)
2. Set up your blog to earn maximum income from Google Adsense.
3. Do minimal research for maximum income.
4. Set up for minimal maintenance of your blog (How about 1 day per month, sounds good?)
5. Name your blog for maximum visibility
6. Create your second blog!
7. How to collect your earnings.
Part 2, Creating your customer list - online and sell to them.
This works for existing businesses and those with NO IDEA WHAT THEIR BUSINESS IS.
In marketing, the person with the large buying list wins. This how-to knowledge needs to be in the hands of many Pinoys! Because it’s one of the surest ways people can practice things like in Tim Ferris’s “4 Hour Workweek”, another automated business that can be managed from anywhere with an internet connection. (Fiji Islands, Boracay, Paris, here we come!)
1. Set up an autoresponder account (Don’t worry, we’ll explain what this means.)
2. Connect your website to the autoresponder
3. Start collecting names of potential clients
4. Create your online products and setup your online store.
5. Sell to your clients automatically, 24 x 7, while paying only minimum costs that people with physical stores would envy you!
Part 3. Promotion on the Internet.
This is the part where even 14 year old kids can outshine you. This also means that they can assist you!
Get the word out on what you’re doing by making sure many many people know your product or service - or simply you.
This last part is the fuel that makes Part 1 and Part 2 run! So make sure you’re ready to “get the message” and “do what ever it takes”
1. How to promote on blogs, forums and newsgroups.
2. How to promote in YM, Facebook, Friendster, Multiply ,Yahoogroups, Googlegroups.
3. How to promote so you don’t wind up sitting on your computer for 8 hours straight!
4. The value of synergy and the Marketing Attitude.
Requirement: You must be surfing the internet comfortably and regularly.
If you pass our requirements, then please email Beckie at beaconlightevents@gmail.com or call (632) 722-9562 (Tues-Friday 9am-6pm) to reserve your slots. Seats are VERY VERY LIMITED - -so hurry!
Your Investment
Just surf the internet and search for seminars that give you a part of this information (but not the hands-on training), and you’ll find out that they charge P80,000 to P100,000 per person! (Yes, we think its absurd too.) Reason? Because these guys know that you’ll earn this back very soon through your internet business.
But for our Internet Marketing Seminar under the Truly Rich Program, we offer it for the insanely low price of P9750 only. (We’re crazy.) Why? Because the internet is still in its infancy stage here in the Philippines, and by making the seminar incredibly affordable, we’ll be able to grow the internet industry. In the long run, we’ll all benefit. (In other words, later on, we’ll be raising our prices.)
This fee includes 2 powerful days of intense learning and hands-on training, your seminar manuals, with 2 lunches and 2 snacks.
Attention: Married Couples and Business Partners: We offer special discounted rates to married couples or business partners who want to go and learn together. This will greatly help your business. You invest P8750 only per person.
Change your financial life and earn through your very own internet business now!
Please email Beckie at beaconlightevents@gmail.com or call (632) 722-9562 (Tues-Friday 9am-6pm) to reserve your slots. Seats are VERY VERY LIMITED - -so hurry! We also offer early bird discounts of up to P500 per person. Call or email now!
Two Seminar Special Package!
If you’re an entrepreneur (or would like to be one), save yourself from costly mistakes! Marketing Expert Rudy Torres will give the Truly Rich Super Direct Marketing Program! (Why Marketing? It’s the lifeblood of all businesses. Most businesses fail because of poor marketing.)
Because both seminars will greatly increase your chances of business success, we want to convince you to attend both seminars. So we’re offering a special price for those who take both semianrs. Instead of paying P19,500 for both seminars, you will only invest P15,500 per person! (Your BIG Savings: P4,000.00!)
“Crazy-Double-Your-Money” Guarantee: If within one year, you don’t earn at least double what you invested for these seminars, we’ll return your money, PLUS P2,000 extra for your lost time in trying out the seminar—no questions asked! That’s how much we believe these seminars will make you succeed!
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