3 Step Plan to Motivate Online or Home Based Entrepreneurs

The 3 Step Plan for Motivating Home or Online Business Owners

By Don Paul Fuller

Do you wake up in the morning full of energy, but find that, by the time you start work you're flatter than a pancake? Or, perhaps you’re flying, and then a challenge surfaces, and you crash and burn?
Do you find that your self-talk (we all do it) drags you down? Do you question your abilities or your chances for success?
If you answered yes, or maybe or sometimes to the questions, you need motivation - a lot!


As a student of motivational speakers I have attended some of the great conferences and self improvement seminars. Tony Robbins and the late great Jim Rohn have been instrumental to my success and while I am not a huge fan of “mass frenzy” there is no doubt that such techniques leave participants exhilarated and motivated.


But I question the longevity of such an approach to self motivation – by its nature it is external, and once the event is over, the exhilaration fades rapidly. At the Sydney Robbins events significant portions of the audience are repeat “offenders” in need of their motivational “fix”


I recommend a personal approach – you need to be your own motivational speaker – so to speak.


Your mind and your thoughts are things over which you can have absolute control, if you want. While you may need techniques, like neuro-linquistic programming (NLP) in order to effect change in your mental habits, don’t abdicate the content of your thoughts to a self help guru. You risk dependency on someone else, and their goals will differ significantly from yours.


But beware! Your thoughts can be lethal to positive thinking – most people have by default a negative state of mind.


I use a combination of techniques – NLP is helpful, as is visualization, and affirmations. But the technique I use the most and that I find most effective is relaxation and meditation.


In the early morning, after dressing for exercise, I first go for a slow walk. During the course of the walk, I focus on my breathing – in through the nose, out through the mouth and concentrate on only my breathing for 5 minutes or so. At some point I will notice that I am feeling relaxed, and calm. This is when I focus on those things in my life for which I am grateful. I dwell on my family, on the places I love, the people I love. The feelings I experience can approach euphoria at this point.
Action time – continuing to focus on those feelings, I gradually increase my pace until I am jogging or running at about 80% maximum – I could speak, but not easily. I continue at this pace for another 5 minutes.

Then I slow to a walk again, and focus on my breathing for another 5 minutes or so. I am then ready for anything!
You may find another form of exercise or relaxation works for you – the important factors are: focus – breathing – focus – happy thoughts – focus – breathing


After this, I review my plan for the day, and visualize (imagine) positive outcomes for all activities – I “see” these outcomes. The important thing is, don’t visualize too far in the future – there are many distractions to come that will change the desired outcomes, some positively.


And then, I am ready for the day.


At times, I will need to repeat the focus on breathing and gratitude during the day, if distractions start to affect my positive attitude. If I find that I am experiencing negative thoughts I may repeat the entire process, but usually the breathing/gratitude cycle is sufficient to return me to peak performance.


Try this and you will go a long way in turning your annual income into a monthly income…

The 7 Rules of Marketing Online or Offline Business

I want to talk about Marketing today. You may have a website or an office. You may have a product that is the best available in your chosen industry or niche market.
However, if no one has heard about your business or your product, and there is no traffic to your door, be it office or internet you have NOTHING!

Marketing is the key to success with any business,

Lat’s go back to basics. What is Marketing? Marketing is everything you do to promote yourself and your business. Without marketing effort, your website is just one of EIGHT BILLION listed on Google and the other search engines. Without marketing, you better be next to Macca’s or Woolies, or Macy’s and pray for their overflow. You need to stand out and be noticed.

I have seven rules for marketing; If you follow these rules you will be well on the way to being a marketing powerhouse.

But remember, there is only one way to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing activity – SALES!

Rule No. 1 .Segment – identify your market clearly - Use a marksmans pistol NOT a Scattergun. Hit where you aim. Scatterguns throw pellets shot all over the place. Most failed marketing efforts are scattered marketing messages aimed at nobody in particular.

Let’s say you were trying to sell a bicycle. To market a bicycle to a 23 year old triathlete is entirely different to marketing a similar item to his 45 year old father. Therefore, Rule No.1 directs us to segment prospects into different groups who share common interests and concerns. If your product could be sold to a fifteen year old or a 40 year old, you need to discover who to focus your on for the greatest chance of a successful outcome.

Rule No.2. KNOW Your prospect.

Following Rule No.1, we target people for our marketing. Now, we MUST understand that target market as well as we know ourselves. We must use their mindset. We must understand what they think of our product, what they want, and the alternatives they have to our product.  Customers buy for their reasons, not ours. To market effectively, you MUST market to their concerns. Every piece of marketing must FOCUS on them. If you can’t relate to your market, understand the way they think, you won’t sell your product to them.

Rule No.3. . Be PASSIONATE About Your offer

Attitude is contagious. If we are around positive passionate and excited people, we begin to take on that attitude. If we are with negative people, the same phenomenon occurs. Most people like to associate with happy enthusiastic people. If you’re not passionate about your product, why would anyone else be? Speak and write with enthusiasm about how the benefits of your product can help people get what they want. If you can’t work up enthusiasm for your own product or business, find another business or product.

Rule No.4. Market Benefits, not Features

Even if your product or business is the BEST in the universe, your prospect is only interested in what your product or business can do for them – how will it make them feel – remember always, people buy on emotion. A feature will let them know what a product does – a benefit should let them know how they will feel. If they get a positive feeling from your marketing message they are more inclined to make a positive buying decision.

Rule No.5. Be DIFFERENT!

The cheapest marketing is free advertising. How do you get it? Do something OUTRAGEOUS or odd! Become news worthy, or extraordinary How? In your marketing on free social media, make your messages stand out – don’t just quote someone – make it different, so it relates to the market you are aiming for.
In order to differentiate yourself from the crowd of competitors, you MUST be DIFFERENT! If you have to make a clown of yourself, go for it!

Rule No. 6. NEVER Give Up!

In previous articles, I have lauded the benefits of Persistence and Perseverance. Many failures occur because people don’t realize how close they are to success when they quit. In marketing, if one campaign fails, you are closer to the one that will succeed. Learn from mistakes. BUT DO NOT GIVE UP!

Rule No. 7. Always Call for Action

“Close, close and close again” is known as the ABC of sales, but it also applies to marketing. You market to increase sales. Your outcome is not to provide entertainment or advice. The objective of marketing is to increase sales. However, if you can do that in and informative and entertaining way, that would be a bonus.

Information that moves a prospective customer to a sale is allowed in our copy. What should stay and what should go in our marketing? Imagine the customer asking “So? Why should I care?”

We’ve been in business since before Mao was a boy. “So? Why should I care?” Our product is technically brilliant. “So? Why should I care?” We’re a family business. “So? Why should I care?”

Again, market the benefits: “We have been in business since Mao was a boy, so you’ll always know where to find us. Since we are a family-owned business, you’re talking to an owner who can answer your questions and solve any problem. Our product is techically brilliant and will be up-to-date for years with out needing maintenance.” 


Talk about  benefits for the customer.


There you have my seven Rules of marketing If you keep in mind and put into practice these rules, you will go a long way to turn your annual income into a monthly income

Whenever you think of a new marketing approach, remember, the worst that can happen is they say
“no”.

“It is not the strongest survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” - Darwin

Option Basics: Using Synthetics to gain exposure to expensive stocks

If you know of the Sage of Omaha, then you know that shares in Berkshire Hathaway are bought for many thousands of dollars. The share price is in excess of USD$87,000. Even the “B” shares are trading at around USD$2,800.

It was an ambition of mine to own a share, so that I could gain access to the annual report for Berkshire Hathaway, which contains many of Mr. Buffet’s musings on the economy, and on the direction he is thinking of taking in the future. For many years the share price was beyond my means

The announcement by the CBOE that Options were to be offered over the “B” shares surprised me, because there have been no dividends offered by the company, even though many of the acquisitions by the company paid substantial dividends.

But the issue of Options means that exposure to another of the “blue chips’  is available at a fraction of the price of the shares.

Now, I am neither recommending that you rush out and buy options in Berkshire Hathaway, nor am I suggesting that you sell them.

What many people are unaware of is that by buying a call option and selling a put option at the same strike price, with the same expiry, will give you a financial instrument, a “synthetic”, that will almost exactly mirror the rise and fall of the stock price itself.

If the share price rises by a dollar, the value of the options will also rise by a dollar. If the share price falls by a dollar the value of the options will fall by a dollar.

This is a “bullish” option strategy that can be used when you believe that a stock will increase in price, but you cannot afford to buy the stock outright.

What even more people are unaware of is that by selling a call option and buying a put option at the same strike price with the same expiry, you create a “synthetic” that is the reverse of the previous option strategy.

If the share price falls by a dollar, the value of the options will rise by a dollar. If the share price rises by a dollar, the value of the options will fall by a dollar.

This is a “bearish” strategy that can be used if you believe that a stock will decrease in price, but you don’t own the stock, and you don’t wish to sell the stock you don’t own, or “short” it.

If you have limited capital using synthetic options can provide exposure to some of the great companies whose share price has climbed so much to be beyond your average investor.

Even with the events of the past few years. 

The Top Actions of Successful Online Entrepreneurs

Running your own on line business successfully is truly uplifting; to be able to spend as much time as you want with the people that really matter to you; to take holidays when & where you like – to live the life most people only dream about.

But in reality, there is a price to pay, which successful entrepreneurs are only too glad to pay in return for the rewards they receive. That price is not so much a price, as adherence to a philosophy, a set of instructions, which if followed to the best of your ability, will go a long way to turn your current annual income into a monthly income.

Try to emulate this philosophy until it becomes HABIT…

Dream BIG. If you dream about having a small business, that is what you will get. The great entrepreneurs like Jobs, Gates, Bezos etc. had a vision of what their businesses would be. Even though no one else could share their dream initially, the dream turned to reality.

Take BIG risks. The very nature of enterprise is that it is a risk. To succeed you may have to risk a lot. However, the trade off should be that the rewards, if successful, also be great.

Believe in Yourself. Do NOT listen to the naysayers, the pessimists and the prophets of doom. Trust your intuition, and whilst always being careful, back yourself to do and be all that you can do and be. At worst if you do not believe in yourself, believe in what you do.

Value Your Customer. At the end of the day the customer is your boss. Their value to your business is both incalculable and finite. It will ALWAYS be cheaper to retain a customer, rather than attract new ones. Calculating their dollar value to your business over a 5-10 year period may astonish you. Reward your customers as often as you can – the referrals will just flow!

Persevere. In previous posts I have discussed the power of perseverance and persistence. If Edison had given up after 98 failures, he would never have invented the light bulb. Entrepreneurs persevere.

Have Passion. The most successful businesses are run by people who are passionate about their business, who live and breathe the excitement of succeeding.

Take care of your People. If you share the benefits of the success of the enterprise, share your passion for the business, you will enthuse employees, investors and of course your customers.

These basic actions shared by entrepreneurs may not seem important. However, the synergy from application of these entrepreneurial philosophies will transform any business.

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Time Management For Home Based Business

Secret Time Management Tips

The Strategy that will turn Your Annual Income into Your Monbthly Income

As a network marketer, I found very early in my career that the biggest obstacle to success that marketers have working on their opportunities, is that, the more you need to do, or want to do, the less time you have to work with. It sounds simplistic, but the obstacle is complex and not easily negotiated.

If you are working from your home, it becomes even more of an issue. There are even more distractions and people competing for your attention.

There are many answers to the problem, but I find that the simplest solutions works best.

First, break the problem down to its components. If you are working from home, you have:

1. Family – wife, kids, dogs, house chores, etc

2. Work

3. hobbies and outside interest

Next, you produce a schedule that incorporates all of them. This allows you to retain a balance, rather than focusing JUST on work to the detriment of your family, ot to your outside interests.

Write your schedule down.

If it is in your head, it is dead. You cannot see your schedule, cannot Read to Remind, and have you have no trigger for refocus. It is easy to be distracted from what you are doing but having a written schedule you can refer to constantly will assist to keep you focused on your tasks. If you use a computerised diary, print it out and keep it close.

Take ten minutes every night before you retire for the day and itemise all the things you want to achieve or enjoy for the following day. Include your time for exercise, and for playing with your children. Do NOT forget time with your wife. This is imperative.

Schedule your work in three hour blocks.

Be very specific. At least 80% of your work should be on Income Producing Activity (IPA) such as (for network marketers) lead generation or follow up. The rest of your work should be mastering new skills.

Now, here is the key...

Use a timer.

Break your work time down to 3 hourly blocks, of 50 minutes and 10 minutes. You set the timer for 50 minutes and focus absolutely on work for that full 50 minutes. When the timer stops, immediately reset for 10 minutes, and RELAX. Go for a short walk to get fresh air, drink some water, meditate for a minute or two. Once your relaxing 10 minutes is finished, reset the timer for another 50 minutes of absolute focus on your work. And so on until you have completed 3 hour blocks.

Take a Break

At the end of your 3 hour work block, relax for a minimum of half an hour. I recommend a walk, or a swim to revitalise. If you eat, do NOT eat junk – it will slow your mind, or put you to sleep. Try a snack of almonds or walnuts – they are high in nutrients, low in fat and taste great!

You will be astonished at how much you will achieve if you use this simple system. You will go a long way towards converting your yearly income into a monthly income...

For information on successful online business, go to http://improvenet.biz

Persistence & Perseverance: keys to Success in Your Online Business

Everyone has heard inspirational and motivational speakers mention the power of persistence or the importance of perseverance, but how many of us have considered exactly what those terms “persistence” and “perseverance” really mean to us, owners of top online or web-based businesses.

Consulting a dictionary or a reference site will give us the following:

Persistence: Noun

1. The act or fact of persisting

2. The quality of being persistent: You have persistence, I’ll say that for you.

3. Continued existence or occurrence: the persistence of smallpox

4. The continuance of an effect after its cause is eliminated

Perseverance: Noun

1. Steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc, esp. in spite of difficulty

2. Theology/ continuance in a state of grace to the end leading to eternal salvation.

However, these do not give us the sense of power that scholars and visionaries have seen in these simple words and the importance of the qualities that are inherent in application.

These synonyms are self explanatory and pertinent to our industry:

Perseverance is constancy and continuance.

Perseverance is dedication, diligence, determination and drive.

Perseverance is endurance.

Perseverance is patience, and resolve.

Perseverance is doggedness, guts, stamina, and tenacity.

Perseverance is never never ever giving up.

Perseverance is getting back on the bike you fell off

Perseverance is hard work and persistence.

Perseverance is getting up after falling on your a$S, and trying again.

The late great Jim Rohn said it also in one of his speeches:”Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you're signed up for a season, see it through. You don't have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.

One of the most consistent of his messages is: Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

One of the pitfalls of persistence and perseverance is mistaking either for repetition. Albert Einstein said it best “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Guard yourself from this. If you are doing something in your business that is not working for you, stop and evaluate what you are doing – if there is a problem, change something and check the results again. If it is still not working, change it again, and keep changing it until it works. But do NOT give up.

You will find this surprisingly effective; the secret is to document the changes and the results to facilitate proper analysis.

History if full of stories of people who failed and failed and failed again. Then, finally they succeed. If you know the name of Edison you will understand. If you don’t, do yourself a favor and Google him....

If you persist, in the end you WILL succeed...

For information on how to drive your business to success you can go to http://improvenet.biz