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by Thomas Choo
You want to become an Internet Entrepreneur ?
It depends. On whether you are committed and ready. If you are, then you need to know the top two problems in starting an online business.
There are tons of information nowadays on the Internet, on every imaginable subject, which professes to teach you everything you need to know about starting online businesses.
You will quickly become an Internet Information junkie, what with all those newsletters you signed up, those free eBooks you downloaded (and hardly finding any time to read them), those free online courses via emails, and the list just goes on. You might actually have spent some money in some eBooks and online courses.
At one point you might want to get out of the learning phase, and ACTUALLY start doing something. This is what I called the Number One problem : Execution !
Yes, simple as it sounds, actually getting started is one big hurdle. You might be in a stage of what is commonly known as "Analysis Paralysis", which you analyse too much on what you are considering to do, then you become "paralysed". Nothing gets done. And this is not helped by so much information "freely" available nowadays.
So the message is this : Just Do It, while you can. Make the most of whatever available time you have, and get off the runway.
Start by planning what you want to do and write it down. Then find out enough of what you need to know, then start the execution phase. Enough of reading and learning, the time to start is NOW.
Okay, you have finally acted upon your plans. You now need to confront the Number Two problem in online business.
Before I go into that, you may also have experienced the countless offers, services and tools that you come across on a daily basis, via emails or while surfing. The question now is - how do you know which one works and which one not ?
You wouldn't know until you try. Nothing comes free nowadays, and even if it is free, it will lead to something which you will have to fork out some money eventually. Whatever you have set out to do in your online ventures, and assuming you have planned and researched well, some of these tools are useful while some are just a distraction.
Did I mention distraction ? Yes, distraction is the Number Two problem. Distraction prevents you from achieving your ultimate objective of making money online. Distraction pulls you away from what you started out to do in the first place, or at best slows you down.
You need tools and knowledge to achieve your goals. Your goals are fundamentally deciding on something, plan it well, execute, increase traffic, then converting those traffic into paying customers. At every step of the way, there will be distraction, there will be offers promising big rewards with no need for real work.
It is how you stay focused that will differentiate you from the many under-performing online dreamers. Online ventures involve commitment of time and money, though the capital to start out is substantially lower than that of a conventional brick-and-mortar business.
One way to stay focused is to pen down your action plan, be it a to-do list or a structured timetable. Then when there are offers you need to look at, and you think it is worth looking at, and not just another SPAM, then put it on your to-do list and prioritize. You need to prioritize, or else your list is going to grow, and important tasks that you planned for will never get executed.
Remember, focus, focus, focus….
Thomas Choo is the self-styled Internet Entrepreneur specializing in Internet Home Based Business Opportunity. He owns several popular websites in various niche markets. His flagship web site also features quick steps to building niche web sites, as well as a special article series on work from home businesses.
Thomas Choo may be contacted at http://www.OfficialHomeBusiness.biz
by Wendy Kwek
I'm often asked this question, "Wendy, what does it take be succeed as an entrepreneur?" This is a simple question with complex answers. It will take more than just an article to cover it all.
I have met up with many entrepreneurs in various industries and I realized that successful entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, diverse cultural, spiritual beliefs and different educational backgrounds. Despite the diversity, there are commonalities and I would like to share.
1) YOU NEED P.H.D.!!
I believe that everyone can be successful in business if you set your heart, mind and soul to becoming an accomplished entrepreneur. It takes P.H.D to succeed in business. No, I do not mean the academic PHD “doctorateâ€. I'm talking about Passion, Hunger and Drive! So, ask yourself this question, do you have the passion to lead an exciting and rewarding life, do you have the hunger for success and do you have the drive and determination to conquer obstacles that may come your way. Every time I look for business partners for the various businesses I am in, I look at the P.H.D level they have.
2) GAIN MASTERY IN BUSINESS
To me, business is like a sport. You can choose to pick up any sport and with practice and guidance from coaches, you can become an expert at what you do. Once you pick business as your sport, ask yourself if you are willing to achieve mastery in business. For sports professionals to win the Olympic or S.E.A games, they have to be willing to learn from their coach and put what they learn into practice. They have to practise, make corrections, practise again and make corrections until they achieve mastery. You can get an MBA in Entrepreneurship and yet not know how to run a business. The key is to learn from existing entrepreneurs and be willing to be an apprentice to perfect the game of business.
3) RESULTS-FOCUSED
In business, you and your team get paid through profits (not sales) that your business generate. It is important to be results-focused and to keep an eye on the performance of the business. Be prepared to let good performers lead the business and also be prepared to fire poor performers. You cannot let emotions run your business. If a team member is negative, possess poor attitude or consistently could not produce results, you will be killing your business if you are not willing let the person go. This is something that I found that many entrepreneurs lack as they have a soft spot and ultimately sink the business together with the ’sinkers’.
4) POSSESS GOOD PEOPLE SKILLS
You should also possess good people skills. There is a saying that your network is your Net Worth. How much is your Net Worth? It is likely to be the average of the six closest people whom you network with. Be willing to meet up with diverse group of people in business as you can learn from every interaction opportunities. I found friends, investors, business partners, alliances, customers and suppliers through networking. Business is all about getting things done through people. So, you can ask yourself, are you good at getting things done through people? Please do not go to someone and say ‘I want to tap your brains’, ‘I need your help’. But always ask about how you can create win win relationships or support them. Example, ‘I would like to see how we can work together’, ‘I would like to see how I can support you in your business.’
5) STEP UP AND BE A LEADER
Are you generally a leader or a follower? If you are more of a follower by nature, how do you rip the rewards that only leaders have access to? Everyone of us are a leader in our own ways, we lead our own lives for one! So, make a choice and say ‘I am a leader’. Leaders have the great advantage of leveraging resources. Leaders are generally willing to influence, persuade, motivate, inspire, train, develop people. This, in turn, allow the leader to leverage on other peoples’ skills, knowledge, experience, time and expertise to achieve extraordinary results. Of course sometimes it is ok to be a follower. I believe that to lead, first I must be willing to follow others who are more successful and I must be willing to be of service to others.
6) BECOME A GREAT SALES AND MARKETING EXPERT
The reason why most business fail is because they do not have enough revenue, cashflow and profits!! If you start to learn more about sales and marketing, you can effectively multiply your revenue, your profits and create healthy cash flow for your business. How would you grade yourself in this category? I can share honestly that my expertise is in this area. Without ability to sell and market the services or products, my business would be stagnant. The good thing is that these are skills that you can learn and improve on. To me, sales and marketing is one of the highest form of leverage. You can even generate infinite returns of investment with these skills!! Yes, we have done it. We have created many projects and businesses with no money down and generate profits by apply sales and marketing skills. Once you gain expertise in this area, you are ready to write your own paycheck. You can create whatever you desire.
7) CREATE SYSTEMS
For business to run smoothly, systems has to be created and maintained to ensure that whoever is tasked to take charge of a particular function knows what to do. Even though I have seven businesses, I have plenty of time to network and expand businesses to other markets because of systems. There are businesses where I only meet the team once a week, once a month as there is a systems for them to follow or abide. Run your business, don’t let the business run you. Be working ‘on’ the business and not ‘in’ the business. That should be the ultimate aim of entrepreneurs. It is easier for you to sell part or whole of business if you have created systems.
All the best in your endeavors and know that Entrepreneurship is a Sport that you can choose to be an expert in.
The co-founder of 7 businesses, Wendy Kwek is a nationally-known expert in entrepreneurship. She is the Master Trainer of the Entrepreneur Action Program, a highly-rated program that trains ordinary people to become successful entrepreneurs. For more information or to contact Wendy please visit one of her sites below.
www.wendykwek.com
www.exec-directions.com Wendy Kwek may be contacted at http://www.wendykwek.com or wendymillion@gmail.com
by Fabienne Fredrickson
If you’re anything like me, you’re being bombarded with ezines and emails that continually try to sell you something. Sometimes a particular ezine even arrives on a daily basis, and truthfully, I sit there at my desk, wondering why I subscribe, so much so that I often unsubscribe just as fast as I sign up for them.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I strongly believe in marketing and promoting what you’ve got (with consistency and conviction) because it’s the answer to someone’s problem, and if you’ve been given a talent and a gift for helping others, you OWE it to them to let them know you’re out there.
But it’s HOW you promote that makes all the difference. I consider it a turn-off when I’m being sold to again and again, without getting much value otherwise. It just feels icky sometimes and, because I don’t have a lot of extra time in my day (who does?), I’d rather not get any additional stuff I can’t really use.
On the flip side, if I’m getting value and I find it helpful, then I’m OK with some promo here or there. Kinda like reading a magazine. If the articles are really good, then I don’t mind the ads (and often, the ads are something that I’m interested in.) But if there’s not much content or value, then I don’t want any of it, not the articles, and not the ads either.
I was on a group coaching call led by Thomas Leonard, founder of CoachU.com and Coachville.com a few years ago, and although I don’t remember the exact topic of the call, I remember one thing he said very distinctly:
To build a large network and attract lots of clients, you need to continually add value, just for the fun of it. However simple this statement (and the longer I’m in business, the more I realize that it’s the SIMPLE things that are the most powerful), it’s one that struck me like lightening and has stayed with me ever since.
Thomas was a MASTER of adding value. I remember him giving a LOT of information, so every time I got an email from him (an ezine or something else) I read it without fail, the WHOLE thing. And when he launched a product or service and promoted it, I read that too. That’s because he added value no matter what he did. He used to say, the more value you give, the more people want to “hang out” around you, the more they’ll follow your lead, the more they’ll recommend you.
His theory, as he stated once, was to offer lots of freebie stuff of value, just for the fun of it, to help others. This built him a HUGE network of people reading his ezines, going to his teleclasses, buying his products and reading his books, in just a short time—over 10,000 people at the time that he spoke about this.
The theory he shared with us was this:
FREEbie, FREEbie, FREEbie, fee, FREEbie, FREEbie, FREEbie, fee.
Because he was providing such fantastic no-charge content and value, people were naturally attracted to him and referred lots of others to him. When he offered something for a fee, people jumped on it. Their perception was probably similar to mine: if his FREEbie stuff is that good, his FEE stuff must be GREAT! And it always was.
Many people over the years told me they’re attracted to working with me because of the value and content that I’ve offered, without charging for it:
Not only do all these freebies create a BUZZ amongst people who need new clients (a buzz generates lots of referrals), but they also helped me establish credibility a long time ago, so by the time people want to work with me, they already know how much value I will add during our one-on-one work.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
Start thinking of how you can add value, continually and in everything that you do, just for the fun of it. Based on the elements I use listed above, what can YOU start offering to your network, your clients, and at networking meetings? Make a list of them and then start doing them on a regular basis. Over a very short period of time, you’ll start getting a large following as well as clients and referrals, in a way you’ve never had before.
While you’re at it, make these a SYSTEM to include in your marketing plan, like I do. This way, you’ll always be doing what it takes to get clients. If you’re looking for the blueprint to marketing your business in a way that feels easy and authentic to you, then you’ll want to get yourself the Client Attraction Home Study System™. It includes everything you need to know to fill your practice quickly and close the sale consistently without ever feeling icky; no matter if you’re just starting out or have been in business for years. All the tools, scripts, templates and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. You can get it at www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com. (Why struggle when you can just attract clients easily?)
© 2007 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Expert, is founder of the Client Attraction System™, the proven step-by-step program to help you attract more clients, in record time and consistently. To sign up for her freebie how-to articles and no-charge teleclasses on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.Fabienne Fredrickson may be contacted at http://www.clientattraction.com or articles@clientattraction.com
by Donald A
“How to Use the broken Heart formula to increase your sales by 300%”
As the saying goes “only the strong survives and only the wise excel” is a true statement of fact if you want to succeed in the business world.
A broken heart is known to be a devastating thing in a human being but how does it increase sales?
When you’ve being dumped, now that hurts a lot but you have to estimate the gravity of the break up. Some people when dumped, remain in a depressed mood for a very long time but that’s not how’s suppose to be. My concern here is how to extract the good from this misfortune.
Look at it this way, when you come out of a failed relationship or marriage depending on the situation you find yourself and get involved in another one, you tend not to give a damn about the kind of things you do because deep within you, you feel as though there's nothing to fight for since the one you you tried protecting, you lost, so what's the use.
You become much stronger, bolder, take any risk and not care what could happen to you and in most cases, you’re really right because you tend to succeed. You become a RISK taker.
Now how does this apply to your business? Most people wish they owned Microsoft, Dell or Apple but they never allow their thoughts see the light of day because of FEAR. The only way you can ever succeed in a business venture is to take risk and damn the consequences. You need to harden your heart after you’ve made the right decision and ready to carry it out. I would share one secret with you here and i would want you to ponder over it in your heart until you fully grasp the meaning and apply it to your life.
Do you know that the fear of loosing something actually makes you lose that thing? whenever you become so overprotective of something because deep within you, you don't want to loose it and that its loss could be devastating, actually you end up loosing it. it's a natural phenomenon and hasn't fully being explained but what you need to understand here is that whenever you become afraid of loosing, you tend to do things that are contrary to what you ought to do to succeed and in the end, you fail.
Money you thought you could never make because you were considering the odds, you’ll see yourself making such money. Some small Internet wannabes usually get discouraged after they must have spent enough money buying books on how to get-rich- quick or how to earn $3,000,000 a year. Their income is neither equal to nor greater than their expenditure rather, it’s far less, in fact almost $0. This is absolutely sad and has to be eliminated. Get out there and compete, life cannot be healthy without a little form of competition.
Do what you’re suppose to do no matter how difficult it may appear, get the ads running, put up the site, market the product offline and online, on your business cards, write the sales letters very well and when you’re done, go home and have a good night sleep then when you wake up the next morning, look and see how much of your product or service is in demand.
With the broken heart formula, you remove sentiments when making a decision, you now do more thinking with your head rather than your heart. Your emotions no longer cloud your judgement, your brain becomes much clearer and is ready to produce great ideas which you’re to put into action without delay or refusal.
A lady who was once the MD of a company had an employee who wasn’t productive according to the company’s standard but due to sentiments and age on this employee’s side, the lady found it difficult to relieve him of his job. She has always wanted to but how she was going to do it without feeling bad was her only problem until the right moment came.
After she got involved in a certain fight with her man, due to unresolved issues, the two decided to part ways and this lady was out of work for almost a whole month. When she finally got over the heartbreak, she took a good look at the company and said to herself “ this company is my only Boyfriend, husband, and family and i must take care of it with all I’ve got”.
She knew that if she wanted to succeed in the business, she had to make some drastic decisions and that was when she had the guts to fire all those unproductive staff of hers while retaining the hard working ones and employing able persons with skills in the job. she was neither interested in knowing how the sack affected their personal lives nor was she ready to nurse any crying baby. Hers was strictly professionalism. After two years, the company’s turnover was more than that which was got from the past three years combined. She did one intelligent thing, apply the broken heart formula to making more money.
So if you are in a fix and don’t know how to move forward or your emotions seem to be taking over you, don’t allow fear to control your thoughts anymore, just remember the broken heart formula and apply it because it works. It worked for my clients, my friends and i and I do know it would also work for you. when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Good luck.
Donald A. is the author of "Hundred Sex Positions to spice up your sex life" and "How to successfully break up a romantic relationship". He helps lovers draw closer to and appreciate each other. Get your copy of his ebooks at www.justusalone.com/download.asp. To subscribe, send a blank email to subscribe@justusalone.com. You can reach me at donald@justusalone.com.
Donald A may be contacted at http://www.justusalone.com
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