The World Business

Archive for November, 2010

Never forget that entrepreneurs are not born – they are created! Within you already lie the essential elements to be successful as an entrepreneur – and in anything in life – because you literally are capable of becoming and accomplishing anything. Remember though that an understanding of the principles below will certainly contribute to the accomplishment of your dreams and goals, but only if they are applied and acted upon continually. Perhaps most importantly, the attribute, characteristic, and action that will contribute most to your success is determining now to never quit. Despite the fears and doubts, the opinions or critiques of others, and the possible failures – success only comes to the individual who never quits.

Understand, however, that success was not achieved by simply knowing or even believing the principles below – it came from actually implementing the principles, taking action, and persisting until their goal or dream was realized.

1) Master-Mind Group: Successful entrepreneurs surround themselves with like-minded as well as more talented and brilliant individuals than themselves. They seek, listen to, and follow the advice, opinions, and experiences of others. They ensure that every idea, venture, and opportunity is critiqued, analyzed, watched over, and improved upon by those close individuals, associates, and friends in the master-mind group. They understand that developing and strengthening relationships and partnerships is absolutely vital to their success.

2) Step Back & Evaluate: They take time – often – to evaluate, think upon, critique, change, and improve what they are doing. Whether individually, or the business as a whole, they ensure that the goals, objectives, processes, business model, daily habits, revenue streams, work ethic, and relationships are adjusted accordingly, changed if necessary, and improved upon always.

3) Declare: Every entrepreneur starts out small, inexperienced, and unknown. Successful entrepreneurs understand this, but they certainly do not communicate it in their thoughts, words, or actions. In every setting and conversation, they declare what they will be (not necessarily what they currently are). They literally believe and practice the cliché: ‘fake it till you make it.’ Before and after they achieve success, they declare and portray themselves as being experienced, knowledgeable, effective, and successful.

4) Moments of Thinking: Every success in life, and especially in entrepreneurialism, starts as a thought or an idea. Because this is true, successful entrepreneurs make time to think. They specifically set time aside, and often, to allow their minds to ponder, reflect, analyze, create, wonder, and think. It is no wonder that during these times that ideas on how to improve their business are thought of, and occasionally new ideas and strokes of genius come.

5) Help to Produce: Similar to the concept of ‘give and receive,’ they take the initiative to help increase the profits for others, grow the business of others, and limit or make easier the work others will need to do. By so doing, these ‘others’ are naturally much more inclined to return the favor and help them do the same. Instead of thinking ‘how can I make money from this relationship or opportunity,’ rather they think, ‘how will they make money?’ This mentality and approach will always be rewarded, because others reciprocate it.

6) Informed Ignorance: Successful entrepreneurs are always staying up to date with the latest information, technology, laws, and developments within their industry. Likewise, they distinctly know and follow what their competition is doing, to ensure their own competitive advantage. At the same time, they ironically develop the ability of selective ignorance. They understand that certain information as well as listening to the news and critiques of others too often will halt their progress. They also are wise enough to realize that obtaining all the knowledge possible and following every new piece of information regarding their industry will never produce any result unless they take action. Being informed, developing selective ignorance abilities, and taking daily action is a large result of their incredible success.

7) Improve vs. Invent: Let’s be honest, the vast majority of inventions are thought of and created by scientists or engineers. Very rarely do successful entrepreneurs actually re-create the wheel – they only make it better. Developing a better but similar product, slightly changing a business model, improving customer service, or even doing what everyone else does with a different company name – this is the reality of most entrepreneurial ventures. Ideas and opportunities are everywhere – successful entrepreneurs look for and take advantage of them. And therein is the secret to their success – that it ultimately is not the business or idea that is all-important – it is the desire, belief, work ethic, and persistence of the entrepreneur that makes the venture a success, not necessarily the product.

8) Pen & Paper: Isn’t it ironic, considering all the essential elements discussed in this Entrepreneurial Success article series, that perhaps one of the greatest indicators of successful entrepreneurs is that they always carry a pen and small notepad with them. They realize that ideas come to their minds at random times, and they believe the Chinese proverb that says: “the faintest ink is more powerful than the greatest memory.” Their dreams, goals, and successes are dependent upon writing down and acting upon these ideas that often come to their mind. And yet, they also understand that having a pen and notepad and writing down the ideas as they come is not enough – they most importantly act upon and implement those ideas.

9) Time is a Friend: In relation to the point above, while they certainly write down and act upon their ideas, they are also wise enough to realize that after the excitement of a good idea dies down, that logic, practicality, and reason always set in. Thus, rather than rushing into anything, they collaborate with their master-mind group, analyze and ask questions before moving forward, test the market before investing time or money, and they allow time to determine whether the idea is good and will work or not. With that said, unlike the majority of people who have great ideas, they never allow the voices of fear and doubt to dictate their actions – because inevitably, during this time, those voices become very persuasive. If the idea, over time, is still good (or gets better), then they will completely commit to their decision to move forward, take action every day, believe in themselves and their idea, and never quit regardless of what temporary failures happen along the path.

10) Employee Assets: Without question, successful entrepreneurs understand that their greatest assets are their employees. Because of this, they treat their employees accordingly. Now don’t get me wrong, these entrepreneurs still demand that their employees work hard and be honest, they ensure relationships are appropriate and even hierarchical, and provide commission and bonus structures to incentivize ultimate performance. But, they also ensure that their employees are highly valued, appreciated, befriended, recognized, feel important, and that they are engaged, committed, informed, and feel as thought they are contributing to something great.

11) There is No Guarantee: Every entrepreneurial venture ever thought of or attempted has had absolutely no guarantee of success. Successful entrepreneurs realize this, but they choose to focus on the fact that there is also no guarantee that that their venture will fail. Perhaps another word for faith is optimism! The revered U.S. founding father, George Washington, had absolutely no guarantee for victory during perhaps the most important war of our modern day, the Revolutionary War. When all odds were against him, he still took a risk, desired freedom and independence, believed it was achievable, and then went to work every day to obtain it. He had faith and hope, but no guarantee. The victory only came after the attempt. When questioning whether now is the ‘right time’ to attempt your entrepreneurial venture, be wise enough to recognize that there never is a ‘right time’ – you just need to do it, in spite of the fact that there is no guarantee for victory.

12) Failures Feed: Successful entrepreneurs understand that failures breed progression, mistakes are lessons learned, weaknesses are potential strengths, and loses precede profits. Every failed attempt should be viewed as a successful step closer to the goal. Ironically, the majority of successes in life are usually accomplished after the individual determines to not give up when they experience failure.

13) It’s Up to You: Successful entrepreneurs never give excuses! While the majority complains that they don’t have the time, knowledge, or money to achieve their goals and dreams, these entrepreneurs make time, acquire the knowledge, and understand that you do not need money to make money. The only limitations in life are the ones we create and nourish in our own minds. In fact, as important as the master-mind group and other relationships are to these entrepreneurs, at the end of the day, they realize that their success is determined by them, and them alone. Their goals, dreams, and potential are determined and achieved not because of talents or brilliance, degrees or awards, race or gender, experience or from others – but because they personally desire success, believe it is possible, think big, take daily action, and do whatever it takes – giving no excuses.

To your entrepreneurial and life success!

This is part three (of three) in the Entrepreneurial Success article series. Contained within part one and two are 25 other essential entrepreneurial success attributes. To view the 40 essential entrepreneurial tips, visit my blog at: http://www.awakeyourpotential.com/

Self motivation is a challenge for anyone who is self employed. But it’s a particularly tricky challenge for those in the creative industries. Why would that be? Well creative types, quite sensibly and obviously, often become self employed in order to be able to be creative and flexible in their work. Not for them the drudgery of a nine to five office job with a soulless boss!

But when you’re self employed, YOU become the boss. And the employee. And this dynamic sets up a whole set of inner relationships and rebellions that need to be handled with care. Particularly when it comes to managing your motivation so that you can achieve successful outcomes for both your business and for yourself.

Assuming that at least part of the reason you’re in business is because you want to make money, your inner boss will be need to be in a position to make strategic decisions, undertake planning activities and dictate hours of work.

And assuming that you’re creatively self employed because you want flexibility and creativity in your working life and don’t want to be dictated to, your inner employee will need a certain degree of freedom and leeway on the job.

So how is your relationship between your inner boss and your inner employee?

Recently I asked this question of a creative coaching client who was struggling to run her home-based creative business. She surprised herself with her reply! She’d expected to respond that her inner boss was terrorizing her inner employee and that what she needed was more freedom to work flexibly so that she could enjoy her working time more. What she discovered as she pondered the question, though, was that matters were in fact reversed… her inner employee was rebelling against her inner boss to such an extent that she despaired of ever producing any meaningful output.

To motivate yourself happily and successfully, it’s clearly important to nurture a supportive relationship between these two parts of yourself. And that means engaging them in regular dialogue with each other. Your inner boss needs to understand what kind of flexibility works best for your inner employee. And your inner employee needs to understand what the boss reasonably requires in order to produce results that both will find satisfactory and rewarding.

Both your inner boss and inner employee will sometimes need to understand the principle of the delayed reward. Your inner boss, for example, is more likely to allow your inner employee to take that luxuriously creative hour for writing in the middle of the afternoon, if there’s an understanding that the employee will work, and work far better, in the early evening as a result. And likewise, your inner employee is more likely to let your inner boss lay down some plans for future ambitious projects if there’s an understanding between the two of them that the plan includes an allowance for creative travels and time out on completion.

So as you think about your conflicting motivations when it comes to work, creativity, self employment, money and flexibility, take a moment to be aware of the different parts of yourself that have a stake in the process. If you can involve each part in a way that allows it to have a say and to negotiate with the other parts, you’re likely to achieve a much higher overall level of motivation in your work. And, of course, the corresponding success that comes along with it.

With their low start up costs and easy access, internet home based businesses have paved the way to easy riches for many individuals. EDC Diamond is one of the best known companies on the internet and claims to have created more people making five and six figure incomes per month than all their direct competitors combined. This may be true, but is EDC Diamond the best opportunity for beginning internet marketers?

I know you’ve seen the pictures of millionaires lying on the beach or standing next to a shiny exotic sports car that costs more than most people’s homes. A lot of people are making a lot of money on the internet, but it would be foolish to think that everybody can make a fortune starting an internet business. The truth is some people are just not suited to start and operate their own business and not every opportunity on the internet can provide a solid path to riches.

My feeling is that given the right opportunity, most people can make a very solid income online and some of those people will make fortunes. The money is there right before your eyes. The real secret is there is no secret. Like any other business, making money on the internet requires training. You have to know what you are doing. You can join a company that provides the training or you can spend months or years trying to learn it on your own. Other than lottery winners, nobody has become rich overnight in any business. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can start today and have millions by next week. If you are a beginner you need training.

I’m sure you don’t want just any training right? You want the best training. You want training from someone that has made millions, right? You want someone to show you exactly what they did to make those millions. Step by step. You want to see their system. You need a company that provides the training for you as long as you need it. Not for a week or a month, but forever. Ok, so you want training. What are you going to do with your training? You’re going to need a product, right?

You don’t want just any product…you want the best product. You want something that can make you a lot of money. You want something that everyone uses. It definitely should have a high profit margin. You don’t want to sell 1,000 units to make $70. What about storage and shipping? Do you want to fill your garage with inventory or with shiny new cars? I think we all know the answer to that. So, you want a product that you don’t have to store, makes you a lot of money and that everyone uses. You want software. You are using it right now, it can be easily downloaded directly off the internet so you don’t have to store it and once you own it with resale rights you can sell it as many times as you want without paying another penny. You’ve found the perfect product…now what?

I really can’t believe I’ve made it this far without talking about how you’re going to get paid. Isn’t that why you want to start your own internet business…to get paid? I mean sure you get to set your own hours, don’t have to commute, don’t have to wear that shirt and tie anymore and you get to kiss your boss goodbye. Those things are nice, but you can’t fool me…I know it’s the money you want. Now, would you rather join a company that lets you keep all your hard earned commissions or a company that takes 40% from you? I think we know the answer to that question, but if you said 40% go back to your job now. You want to choose the company with the best compensation plan in the business. Pick a company that makes you the most money on your first sale and every sale after that. Speaking of sales, are you any good?

You’ve picked the company with the best training, the best product and the highest pay. Now you just have to sell. I know you don’t like to sell; I don’t like to sell either. In fact, its one of my least favorite things. Not only do I dislike it, I’m really bad at it. Unless you were raised on a used car lot chances are you’re not very good at selling either. Wow, it sure would be nice if you could make a bunch of money without selling anything. That would be crazy wouldn’t it… somebody else sells, but you keep all the money. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a multi-million dollar earner closing all your sales for you? Somebody that not only likes to sell, but is really good at it? What if David Dubbs, one of the most successful people on the internet, personally closed all you sales? I think it’s crazy, but there is one company out there doing it right now. That company is EDC Diamond.

I think we may have figured out the answer to our question. EDC Diamond provides you with unlimited expert training including 12 hours a week live training with the most up to date information from experts that are making thousands every day. They have the best compensation plan in the business which allows you to keep 100% of what you earn. And, they have one of the absolute best salesmen in the business closing all your prospects for you. The answer is YES… EDC Diamond is the best internet opportunity for beginners. No wonder they are rated as the #1 internet home based business. Why would you choose any less than the best?

For more information on how EDC Diamond can help you reach your goals please visit our website.

Your marketing effectiveness online often has more to do with your own efforts than it does with your skills. The misconception that many have about marketing on the internet is that it is more complicated than it really is. The fact is that the success of most online marketers is based upon their level of dedication and focus and not their skill set. The key to being successful when working online is learning to manage and motivate yourself since most times you will not be working with others. In fact the biggest obstacles many face are their own habits and shortcomings that result in sabotaging their efforts.

With that said here are 7 of the most common issues facing online marketers that keep them from being successful when working online.

Time Management Skills

Managing time is one of the biggest ‘culprits’ effecting people working online. Marketing on the internet involves several tasks many of which are easily able to devour much of your time. Learning to properly prioritize how you devote your time is a big key to being successful when working online.

Poor Planning

Without a solid plan you have absolutely nothing to build upon and you will only succeed at wasting much of your efforts. Remember that this is a business which will require the proper planning in order for you to effectively direct your efforts. You want to know where it is you are going and then you will need a plan on how to get there.

Inconsistent Effort

Understand that there you be good days and bad and do not allow that to alter your efforts. In order to make progress on anything you will need to be constantly moving forward and this can not be done without consistent effort. Building a business is much like pushing a boulder up a hill, without consistent effort you will lose momentum and never reach the top!

Lack of Resolve

When things do not go the way you intended you get easily discouraged which breaks your focus, dilutes your efforts or even makes you quit. DON’T! Expect mistakes or setbacks and learn from them so they do not occur again. Even on a bad day you can learn things that will be of benefit in the future.

Making Things Complicated

Making things harder than they are is a very common barrier we all unknowingly build for ourselves. Simply because something is new to you does not mean it will be complicated and if it does seem so it is only because you have not learned it yet. Be patient!

Misdirected Creativity

We use our creativity to invent reasons as to why something can not be done. This is very common with people who carry a negative attitude. Although you may think you are positive minded it is easy and natural to create reasons why we can not succeed if we are afraid of failing. The logic here is that if we do not try we can not fail. In a twisted way it can be interpreted as nothing venture nothing lost! A large part of being successful is maintaining a ‘can do’ attitude!

Scatter Mind

By spreading yourself too thin you will accomplish little other than increasing your frustrations. Business building requires your attention to certain details that need to be ‘completed’ before moving on to the next tasks. To approach it in any other way will only set you up for frustration and failure.

Your online marketing effectiveness is usually based upon the efforts you invest more than the skills you possess. Being successful online is more about being able to manage and motivate yourself since in most cases you will be working alone. Ironically enough it seems that in many cases it is are own bad habits that sabotage our online success more than it is a lack of skills. 7 of the most common issues facing aspiring online entrepreneurs and keeping them from being successful are discussed above. By recognizing these shortcomings it is therefore easier to address and overcome them. In doing so marketing on the internet then becomes both enjoyable and profitable and a lot less challenging.