You spend years in school wishing you were somewhere else only to turn around and spend another four years or more in college or university wondering if you will ever reach the real world and be able to do things on your own without an instructor over your shoulder.  The good news is that for most of us, we will make it out of college and move on to good careers.  The bad news is that if you want to stay competitive in your chosen field, that nagging instructor needs to stick around.

Our high school diplomas or college degrees are something we should be proud of but the truth is that they date us.  The things my parents learned in high school for instance were nowhere near as advanced as those that I learned because the world is always changing, and we discover new and better ways of doing things every day.  That degree was great when you got it in 1990 but how much has changed in the industry since then? 

Chances are that a lot has changed since you were in school which is why training and re-training yourself can never stop.  Learning is something that starts the day we are born and it shouldn’t end until our life does.  Some of the top executives in the world set aside a percentage of their income for the express purpose of continuing their own education.  If it is good enough for them, that’s good enough for me.

I’m not saying that you have to go back to college – although in some cases taking a few courses here and there definitely couldn’t hurt.  There are training seminars, conferences and even online study courses that can help keep you up to date in your chosen field and no matter how much you know, there’s always something that you don’t.

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What I’d like to discuss today is a trend that is happening in this industry, that is both helping us & hurting us at the same time.  I know that sounds confusing, however, give me a chance to explain.

For years now, one of the golden catch phrases in the home business industry has been “going global” – that term means that you’re taking your business beyond your geographic area and into a larger (and presumably more lucrative) marketplace.  That’s a great idea but far too many people are missing the more important first steps that make such a move possible.  Introducing…local networking.

Before you can go global, you first have to go local.  Go back to the basics, if you will.  That means you’ve got to get your name and your face in front of as many people in your neighborhood and your city as possible.  Try to act as though your business is a political campaign and you are facing an incumbent with years of experience and name recognition.  The only possible chance you’re going to have at beating your opponent – or even showing up on the ballot – is for people to see your face, shake your hand and talk to you about what you stand for.  Local networking provides that for you in business.

There are a multitude of likeminded entrepreneurs in your neighborhood, guaranteed.  In fact, your neighbors need the products and services you are selling and statistics show that they would rather buy it from someone close to home than from a faceless web site somewhere on the other side of the world.  These folks are much more inclined to do business in a local networking setting than online.

By using local networking outlets like BNI and MeetUp, you are opening the doors of your business to people in your community.  The majority of these events are free or very inexpensive, and shaking a hand & introducing yourself face-to-face has a much higher rate of interest than an Internet ad.  You are personalizing your business and hand delivering it to people who are in your back yard and doing so will see you increase your sales numbers and make a few good contacts at the same time.

These events don’t take a lot of time and they are most commonly social in nature anyway.  Why not spend a little social time making some local networking contacts that just might be the real key it helping your business go global?

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During my one-on-one consultations, I’m asked this question many times.  In a nutshell, having a mentor isn’t only important, it is essential for your success in business.  When you are in business for yourself, mentorship will truly help your chances of an explosive business experience.

When we are kids in school, often all we can think about is becoming an adult for the freedoms involved.  Then we become adults, we get out on our own and wish we had someone to tell us what to do.  No matter how much education we get under our belts, every one of us will be presented with business scenarios and situations that no book or lecture could have prepared us for.  This is where a mentor can be so useful.

Think of a mentor as a student advisor in this continuing education course called Life.  Your mentor is there to advise you, give you pep talks and even scold you when you need a good swift kick to get you going in the right direction.  A mentor has (in many cases at least) been where you are and their perspective can give you some insight into the potential outcomes of your business decisions on a day to day basis.  That insight may come because they made good choices when faced with similar decisions in the past or because they made bad ones.  Either way, they learned from their past and now you have the luxury of their experience.

Mentors are in a unique position to see things from the perspective of a disinterested third party.  Unlike friends, relatives or colleagues, a mentor will tell it like it is with your best interests in mind and without worrying about what you think of their opinions.  The best mentors are those who will constantly challenge your ideas and push you to do the same and as a result mentors often do not make good friends. 

A mentor teaches us to teach ourselves.  That is, they show us the importance of questioning our own ideas before someone else does so that we have the proper responses in place before we need them.

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During my training sessions I get into specifics on how to construct a capture page that will get your visitors attention.  Although I can’t get into a lot of specifics on this post, I will like to give you a view as to what the important components are.

Having an effective capture page has the potential to get more customers than you ever thought possible. In one sense a capture page is a prospect tool. It will entice the potential customer into giving information to you. With this information you can begin to win their confidence and trust, which will result in a sale.

An effective capture page will involve some sort of enticement. Things like a free report, e-book, or free trial of your membership site are a great way to entice people. There are no limits to the ways you can get someone to give up information. While this sounds deceptive, it is crucial for you to have their information to increase the chance of the sale.

Here are a couple of important factors you don’t want to ignore.

• Grab their attention with the headline. If the headline isn’t an attention grabber, your visitors won’t want to read any further.  A good rule of thumb is to make sure you include your product or service main benefit.

• Make sure you’ve used a large, easy-to-read, bold font.  My favorite font is Verdana.  It is clean and crisp.  Feel free to use which ever you feel most comfortable with.  In terms of font size, I typically use 18pt – 20pt.

• In addition to a well designed headline, be sure to include a picture or video of yourself on this page. People like to relate to you as a real person. This can help build their trust in you.

• The capture page should be divided nicely to reveal different sections. Make one section more personal with a bit of personal information about you. Another section should reveal excitement about your product or service. This is a great spot to list highlights of features and benefits of your company.

• One important mistake not to make with the capture page is to reveal everything on the page. You want “secrets” to be revealed after they give you their personal information.

• Do not discuss the financials involved on this page. If it is a potential money making business that you are offering to others, instead of giving specifics, generalize.  This method will ensure more opt-ins because your visitor will be curious with what you have to offer.

For more indepth training on capture pages and other aspects of marketing, you can subscribe to my newsletter on this page.   You will get daily tips and tricks that work all day & night. 

Here is to your success.  Make it a good marketing day.

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• Capture Page • Capture Pages

As many of you know, I coach many people that are in the MLM industry.  One of the most common mistakes I hear my students making is not knowing what to do when they recruit a new person into their business.  Mastering the art of sponsoring is a huge factor in your success in this business.  In fact, it can very well separate you from the crowd & make you a recruiting machine, once done correctly.  I would venture to say that anyone can attract a crowd and add people to their business at will.  However, can you control the attrition that typically goes on in this business?

In any business, knowing the differences between recruiting and sponsoring can impact the success or failure of that business.  All businesses need to prospect and with prospecting comes recruitment.  However you can’t just leave it at that.  A business needs to further their approach by including sponsoring. Sponsoring may involve more work than recruitment, but it helps you get exactly what you want.

Wondering a bit about the term recruiting? Basically this means that the business owner is sharing their ideas, services and products. This is done by continually demonstrating the benefits your company offers. Listening is the key. A large part of recruiting is in finding out about the recruit. Find out what his needs and desires are, and demonstrate how you’re going to fill them. This is an active process that must continually be repeated with new recruits, but once you’ve obtained that recruit, no further action is required. The entire process involves getting so many recruits at any given time.

Sponsoring is not a one time event but a continuous activity. This service is a bit more pro active. What this means is that you work with that person and make them successful as well. This can be done in many ways depending upon your product or service. Some ways that this can be accomplished is by training, mentoring, motivating, encouraging, listening and other ways that may help your sponsor. You will need to decide which means of delivery is best. Email, telephone and newsletters are just a few ways that a business can communicate these ideas to their sponsors. In providing this type of mentorship, have the mentality of “I want to help others” rather than “I want to make money”. This thought will come through in your voice when relaying information.

There are distinct differences between recruitment and sponsorship. Both are needed for a business to succeed, but knowing the difference and implementing them into your company’s plan will help you become successful.

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• Recruit • Recruiting • Sponsor • Sponsoring

Earlier this week, I met with a client of mine to go over some assignments I had laid out for her.  After we completed the business at hand, I asked her how was her business going?  It became quite evident that she was taking on & worried about way too much of the little things & it was hurting her bottom line.

Folks, it is my opinion that there are things we should outsource and there are others that we should definitely do ourselves, even if we start out outsourcing.  As business owners, it is important that we dont get, what I like to call, “Owneritis”, however, you dont want to get bogged down doing the little things that should definitely be outsourced.

Here is my view…

Having a business at home is a great way to make a living and fulfill the need to become your own boss. However, as a home business owner, there are some decisions that need to be made concerning your company. There are literally hundreds of tasks every single day that it is possible to outsource. From having someone else answer your phone line to having another individual create your site, outsourcing can be both helpful and a complete headache. Wondering which tasks you should outsource and which you should handle on your own? Let’s consider just one aspect of your company for a moment – your website.

So much time, work, and care goes into your site. If you’re a home-based business, the chances are good that your site is your primary advertising vehicle. As a result, everything from the overall design of the site to the text on it has to look amazing to attract customers. With website outsourcing, there are several options to consider. Should you write articles and press releases for your website on your own? What about an e-mail series for your readers? Is that the kind of text you outsource as well? Is it even valuable to learn to handle your own copy? What of the development of your site – should it be professionally handled?  These are important things you need to think about. Some of these can and should be outsourced. The question is which ones need to be done by you and which ones should be left to the professionals?

The simple answer is this. Unless you are a writer, things such as articles and press releases should be outsourced. Allowing professional writers to assist you in this matter not only frees up your time to perform other business related tasks, but it also gives you a level of professional copy that you can’t achieve on your own every single time. Initially, this is also true for an e-mail series.

However, as time goes on, learning to write your own copy is essential. After all, you are the one that is motivated to make your business succeed. Who is better suited for this job than yourself? Because you know your product or service better than anyone else, you will best be able to describe it.  Some online copywriting classes or ones offered through your local community college can be a great help in this area. They will allow you not only to handle your own on-site copy, but eventually to handle your e-mail series as well. That allows you to make your responses a bit more personal. Potential consumers of your product or service will feel that personal touch coming from your company. In addition you can make sure that emails that are captured through initial contact will be responded to and in a timely fashion. Following up on prospecting is the key to any sales job. Therefore, leaving this part of your business up to you will assure that it gets done.

Website development, however, is a wholly different matter. Having a website for your company is essential these days, and it needs to look phenomenal to capture those potential leads. Should website development be a job for you or should it be outsourced? Again, the answer here is simple. If you are a webmaster, then yes, of course you should do it yourself. However, if you have little experience outside of Microsoft Word’s WYSIWYG editor, then leave this task to the professionals. You’ll get a better, more attractive product and far fewer site-based headaches to tackle over time.

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• Home Based Business • home business • Outsource • Outsourcing

To have a successful business these days, it is vital to be familiar with and to incorporate the right tools within your marketing arsenal. Hardly any businesses existing today will succeed without these important services. Success is imminent to those companies who roll with the changes, and one major change within the past twenty years is doing business online. The importance for using today’s Internet tools to grow your business is essential. Here are a few you should consider including:

Attraction Marketing as a Tool
What is it and why is it such a successful tool? Attraction Marketing is a way of making buyers happy when they work or shop with you. Whether it is creating an online social profile, customized e-mail newsletters, or just making checkout time easier, your goal is to make it fun, interesting, and exciting for your visitors. This way of tailoring and serving them will make them want to come back to your internet store.

Auto Responder Tools
If you’ve never heard of an auto responder, then you probably don’t know how beneficial they are to the success of an online business. Most likely you have received an email that was sent via auto responder. These tools allow your business to grow and still keep in touch with your customers. Emails are prompted to be sent automatically when a customer initiates contact with your company. The auto response to be sent to your customer is individualized by using keywords from your customer’s request.

Video Marketing Tools
Before YouTube, there was video marketing. What website doesn’t come alive when video and audio are introduced? With video marketing tools on your website, products and services are described correctly with the proper emphasis and excitement. Customers can see and hear the information that shares what your business is all about. While other businesses’ websites are idle, yours is alive and active.

Really when you think about the importance of internet tools to help grow your business, think of it as lifelines to your customers. Internet tools help to make your website seem alive and active. Activity means business and business means success.

While on my site, take a look at the business growth tools I recommend.  If you are struggling in your business, these tools can make all the difference in the world.  I know that it did for me.  Without them, I would have still been struggling to get interested parties to join my business.  My goal is to eliminate that agony for you.  Which is why I also offer free training.

I wish you nothing but the very best.  Till next time.

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• Attraction Marketing • Business Growth Tools • Internet Tools • Success • Successful Business • Tool

Reading, experts tell us, is the key to our success and motivation to leadership. Is this really true? Can success and leadership come because we read a lot? If so then why would this be true? We can answer the first question with a definite yes. Yes, reading does provide leaders and success. Certain books teach a different way of thinking. They can take negative thought patterns and change them to positive ones. In any business having a positive outlook is crucial. Without one, your business can crumble quickly. Of course it matters what books you choose. Books that motivate and encourage success are ones that you want to get your hands on. Ones like the following:
 
Think & Grow Rich written by Napoleon Hill at the time of the Great Depression. This is a life changing book. Woven through this book are the basic tenets such as work hard, offer true quality, treat customers with respect, and overcome your personal weaknesses. However, he also includes practical business advice such as have a good written plan, find new opportunities, and don’t be afraid to fail over and over until you succeed. If there is one book to read, this is the one.

Power of your Subconscious Mind by Dr Joseph Murphy provides a down-to-earth suggestion that we can create success by using the power of our subconscious mind. His book is threaded with the idea of impressing the subconscious mind to help us succeed in getting rich and in life in general. His writing is presented with simple, usable techniques in which he states that you can easily apply to your life every day.

This Thing Called You by Ernest Holmes was written to help readers understand how to relax through meditation and prayers. We have been given life and therefore are inspired to be creative ourselves. Through this book you will begin to realize that you have unlimited potential to succeed in your business and life.

While there are many books out there to read, reading these will set the foundation for a successful home based business.  Believe it or not, but these books actually allowed me to become a better marketer.  Just by reading some of the examples in Think and Grow Rich allowed me to use some of those strategies in my own business & it actually got me over that hump on some issues I was struggling with.

So, although these books are generally referred to as “self development” type books, you can also use them as marketing tools for your business.

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• Leaders • leadership • marketing • read books • Readers • Success

Many people are searching for a way to create a home based business these days. Whether they’re enticed by setting their own hours or they just need a little extra cash, home based businesses are a fast growing section of the market.

Unfortunately, as popular as they are to create, the failure rate is quite high. In most cases, an individual begins to set one up, but when minor set backs occur, they just give up. In order to be successful as an entrepreneur you need to have a certain mindset. There are three main frames of mind that become a foundation for the success of your business.

Positive Attitude:

There are many difficulties and problems that arise when establishing and running a home based business. One is that you are relying on yourself for your success. You create everything from start to finish. As with no other venture in the world, the success or failure of your home based business is in your hands. When problems do occur, it’s easy to get stuck in a negative pattern, and few things sink a company faster than a poor attitude. With positive thinking, though, you can pick yourself up and keep going. 

Determination:

Nothing good is ever easy. It takes effort to accomplish many things. Whether it’s a child trying to learn a new instrument, an individual attempting to pay off debt, or trying to start your own business in the face of thousands of competitors who are faster, stronger, and better established, it’s tough to do something great. Many go in with the idea that business is easy, and that’s not always the case. To have a successful home based business you need to stick it out. Don’t give up when obstacles come your way. You need to believe that success is around the corner.

Innovation:
With the setbacks and obstacles that occur with any business, you need to think about other ways of doing things. Seek out new alternatives for your home based business. To be a success, find out how other businesses like yours operate. Either adapt their ideas to your business or think of new ones on your own. Constant creative thinking about how to make your business successful is an important key to success.

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• Business • Home Based Business • Positive Attitude • Success • Successful