Similterra

Let me throw a few statements at you and see if they sound familiar. By the way, hide your thoughts from me because I’m going to try to read your mind and guess your answer.

Here goes…

“It’s a numbers game. The more people you contact, the more you will enroll.”

“You got to send out 50 magazines/info packs every month. You’re not serious if you’re not on a [insert number] autoship for [insert tool name].”

“You can sift through 20 people in a few hours. Ask them if they’re interested. If not, move on to the next person.”

“Just send them out; these tools have a long shelf life.”

Get the picture? Have you heard that or something similar before from your upline? Wait… don’t tell me. Let me guess. Hmmm… Yep, you have.

This is an approach that’s taught by many. I call it the “throw mud at the wall and see what sticks” approach. I’ve tried it. Guess what? Maybe it was just bad luck, but the walls I picked were made from Teflon. Nothing stuck. Several thousand dollars later and my results were a spectacular zero, zip.

Why is that?

The MLM rock stars usually tell you, “This is a million dollar tip.” Well, what I’m about to tell you is a thousands of dollars savings tip. So, listen up.

People DO NOT CARE about you and your wonderful opportunity. To them, you’re just another one that’s trying to either drag them into something or get your hand into their pockets.

Sending them tools that describe how wonderful your company and opportunity are serves just one purpose. It moves inventory and inflates the bank balances of the people who publish the tools. They love you, I promise.

At the other end of the chain, your prospects might send the tool back to you if you were smart enough to ask them to do so. Otherwise they just toss it in the trash. Your grocery money, in the trash.

I’m known as someone who networks with other network marketers, just for the sake of networking.

Ever so often I get an email from someone where I can literally picture the new distributor jumping up and down, shouting, “Look at my opportunity! Look at my opportunity!”

Poor soul, she has probably sent that email to hundreds of people. Why? Cuz her upline told her so. She may have received back a handful of no thank you’s and she has enrolled the grand total of zero new distributors or product customers for her efforts.

Even at a minimum wage, she has spent an awful amount in the time it took to send out all those emails, especially if she did not know about mail merge.

Also, what she didn’t know was that her domain was probably close to being blacklisted as an origin of spam. That would send all her future emails straight into the junk mail folder where her opportunity can rub shoulders with bigger boobs, higher sex drive, free credit cards, and all those other fantastic offers that we all cannot wait to read about every day.

Wait, I digress…

What do people care about?

They care only about their lives. They care only about their challenges, about their dreams if they have any left, and about their wants, needs, and don’t wants.

Here’s my “million dollar tip” to you. You’re wasting your time pitching your opportunity to people who don’t care. Heavy rocket science stuff. Duh.

Don’t even think about talking to someone about your company, products, or opportunity until you know what the person wants, needs, or doesn’t want.

Once you know that, you can show the person how your company, products, and opportunity can give them specifically what they want, need, or don’t want.

Then they will care, they will listen, and they will look.

“Wait,” you say, “that sounds like a lot of hard work.” Ever noticed the word work in network? Yes, network marketing is no different from any other business. It takes a lot of hard work to succeed.

I will devote future newsletters to several ideas and threads that I’ve raised here.

One last thought I want to share with you. Always remember, you are not dealing with prospects. You are not dealing with leads. You are not dealing with numbers. You are not dealing with entries on a list.

You are dealing with people. Treat them that way.

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Enterprise Holds Carnival While Poetry Keeps Lent

Since Geoffrey Chaucer wrote Parlement of Foules(Parliament of Fowls) to draft a scantily known Christian Martyr into fame, St. Valentines like Mothers’ day, and Fathers’ day have been caught up in what Leigh Eric Schmidt (1997) describes, in his book Consumer Rites: the Buying and Selling of American Holidays, as enterprise holding carnival while poetry keeps lent(This is actually a sub-title of a chapter).

Indeed with Valentine romance hardly out of the air, business outlets are working hard on our emotions with regard to the up-coming Mothers’ day. These carnivals belong to enterprise, and not to practitioners of the festivities. For the record, there is nothing wrong with buying a good gift for a loved one, or an expensive fur coat for your mother. What is intriguing is the thin line between the expression of affection and the item of expression.

We seem to be unconsciously forging a link between a (branded) red-rose and love. The more famous the brand, the better the perceived expression of love. No wonder what some of our younger people seem to associate valentine day with are only bad memories.One twenty year-old college student recently told his friends: ‘I hate Valentine day’

It is not that some things have been spared this wave of commercialization. But there is an attempt by festive merchants,to inflict some guilt in our conscience with regard to our obligations to certain members of our society for purposes of gain.Obviously the society shares the blame for allowing itself to be manipulated,showing the individualistic selfish nature of humanity.

Thus,husbands are reminded of their obligations to their spouses, children to their parents and society to the elderly or senior citizens in our midst. They are driven to believe that as a matter of necessity, there should be some material item to show this affection, otherwise it is deemed to be non-existent.

In my case, I have to approach March 2 with a lot of trepidation.I grew up in a largely communal society, where success, joy and sorrow are shared communally. As I prepare to send a gift to my mother, there are up to four other influential women who have shaped my life in one way or another. In remembrance of mothers’ day I cannot forget their contribution as mothers’ in shaping me.

This reminds me of a tragi-comedy about Mothers’ Day that I watched a few years ago. In this episode, a family literally flood’ their mother with gifts during a Mother’s Sunday, and ignore not only their father, but other important women in their community. These people feel rejected, and neglected and family harmony is ruined by lack of wisdom.

There is a moral to be learned from the scenario above; the need to remember the original purpose of the festivity and to think about other people around us; not just those that matter most, but the less fortunate in our midst as well.

In the end, the bigger question that needs to be answered is whether these festivals make us better partners, fathers, mothers or even responsible citizens.

Five trends determining the winning businesses of the future (in no particular order, except to create the acronym GOOSE):

• GREEN TECHNOLOGY (And not because Al Gore is advocating for it). Realities dictate it. Global warming. Depleting oil reserves. Air pollution. All these—and more—will push the demand for environment-friendly products from wind energy to geothermal energy, biofuel and biogas.

• OLD POPULATION. The population is growing older. Any product or service targeting their needs would be golden. Pharmaceutical products to extend life further. Retirement communities to take care of great grandfathers and grandmothers.

• OUTSOURCING. It makes business sense. Decrease expense to increase profit. Unless the unlikely happens (i.e. labor unions accept lower wages matching wages from developing countries), outsourcing will continue. Companies which embrace it stay competitive. Individuals who accept it profit most (as outsourcing need not mean hiring foreign employees; it can mean hiring more self-employed individuals).

• SECURITY. The stubborn existence of Al Qaeda and sudden wars like the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict demands the need for security products and services. Companies or individuals who address this need—manufacture military weapons, produce surveillance equipment, offer bodyguard services—profit. So will companies or individuals who “clean up” afterwards, from reconstructing bombed buildings and bridges to rehabilitating an injured population. (Leaves a bad taste in the mouth. But it’s true).

• E-COMMERCE. Microsoft profited and continues to profit from Windows. So did Google with its search engine. E-mail is revolutionary with how employees interact with each other and with customers. So is blogging with how individuals influence the news or simply communicate. Now, the business trend is—and will continue to be—how to ride on the shoulders of these giants (i.e. e-products like music and movie downloads) or those who do evil because of them (i.e. anti- products like anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-identity theft, anti-piracy).

If you are a martial arts expert, then you may be interested in starting your own business with demonstrations for those interested in getting an introduction into the technique. When starting a martial arts business, you will want to charge a reasonable fee to entice your guests into attending your class. If you want them to return, you will need to introduce new techniques and martial arts demonstrations at each meeting.

A martial arts class will involve students practicing and perfecting various techniques, which means you will need to have a building with ample floor space. The mat area should be padded to help students avoid injuries when they fall. Due to the nature of the martial arts industry, you may be required to pay a higher fee when it comes to liability insurance. For additional information and requirements, a local insurance agent will be able to answer all questions pertaining to insurance relating to hosting a martial arts class.

When it comes to getting the word out about any new business, the task can often be daunting. One of the best ways to begin is through self-promotion, which includes the use of press releases, local radio stations and a website. Paid advertisements are good if you have the budget, but most new business owners are struggling just to stay afloat. Regardless of whether you are working with a budget or simply don’t want to pay the high prices for a print ad, consider free promotion as the best money you will never spend.

A press release, which consists of up to one page, is a marketing expert’s best friend. If you are opening a new business, running a membership special or have recently added a new program to your martial arts class, consider writing a brief press release and submitting it to local newspapers, magazines and/or television stations. The beginning of the press release should mention your news and conclude with a brief paragraph about your business and/or your training as an instructor. If you have a photo to accompany your news, the chances of having your news published is even greater as editors always appreciate a quality photo to go along with a story.

The next step on your way to a popular martial arts business will be found with local radio stations. Every DJ runs on-air contests and may be willing to work with you in your quest for free publicity. In exchange for your granting the radio station permission to give away free martial arts instruction to selected radio callers, you will be getting free publicity as the station announces the giveaway and provides details about your new business location. This is one of the most excellent, and overlooked, forms of publicity.

Other ways to promote a new martial arts business would include creating a website and promoting it through the use of article marketing, link exchanges and press release submission websites. When word begins to spread about your new company, you may begin to notice a gradual increase in potential martial arts students. If needed, continue to repeat the promotional steps to include new press releases, membership specials and radio promotions until your company is off the ground and running.

For those who are Canadians, to remember going to large downtown department stores with friends and family were real fortunate. The atmosphere of Canadian department stores was what kept customers coming back to stores like The Bay and Eaton’s. With a growing Canada came a continual growth in the nations population. This fueled the growth of retail stores, and spread them across the west. It was time to let the good times roll, right?

Not exactly, the shopping experience has of course changed since the 50’s, but the retail industry has not seen as many drastic changes as it has in the past ten to fifteen years. Investors and Canadians alike are becoming aware of the growing trend of take overs and merges by foreign investors. It’s something that is tarnishing our reputation as Canucks in the business world. Are you ready to have little to no control over products and services that you require? With decision making now moving outside of the country, it’s not going to be long before this may happen.

Recent talks of a hostile takeover of a Montreal based company is keeping many on their toes. Along withtakeovers of Canadian companies comes the selling of many rights to our natural ressources such as aluminiumand wood. It’s something the government has less controlover and where foreign investors have the say in what goes.

Our world is changing in many ways, all in which affects how the market and economy evolves. Have you been noticing anything different when shopping? A growing trend in take overs comes as old news to some Canadians who have been aware of the changes when they walk into a mall. It’s no longer a safe bet to see Canadian companies staying based out of this country as the not so distant future approaches.

Some believe that there is still a glimmer of hope for locally owned and operated companies and my hat goes off to them. It’s either a real patriotic entrepreneur who will proudly hang the Canadian flag inside their store front window or a company who will incorporate a maple leaf into their logo. But don’t be fooled, the retail industry knows that we’re a patriotic country. U.S. marketing campaigns have lead to the use of many Canadian images and themes such as the use of a Maple Leaf. It’s not hard to find these kinds of companies using slogans like “Canadians serving Canadians” or “Canada’s favourite place to shop”.

It’s ultimately you, the consumer, who will decide the face of the Canadian retail and business landscape. Most of the time, when having the option of two stores side by side, we’ll often support the local “Canadian” store. The problem these days is that Canadian companies are not being managed properly. In addition to this, bigger stores and tougher competition are squeezing many of the local stores out of the race and are shadowing them from the spotlight.

Going “green” is all the rage now, as concerns about the current state and future of our environment have come to light, but employees and business owners often overlook or just don’t know how to create an eco-friendly workplace while remaining productive. In reality, there are several easy and cost-efficient ways to reduce a business’ environmental footprint that will actually improve productivity and the bottom line.

THINGS EMPLOYERS CAN DO

BE A PAPER MISER. It’s the Digital Age, after all. Institute a company policy to print only when necessary, and to reuse the backs of printed documents that would be thrown away. Send memos and other correspondence via e-mail, pick up the phone, or walk to an employee’s desk to talk (it’s good exercise, too). Burn files to disk for storage or to transmit large files to customers or other business associates. Subscribe to online magazines, news sites and trade journals, rather than having bulk or junk mail delivered.

BUY GREEN, BE GREEN. Purchase recycled paper and mailing supplies, eco-friendly cleaners, and power-saving products. Provide easy access to recycle bins and a place to wash cups and dishes. Have a water cooler, minus the disposable paper cups, and give each employee a water bottle to encourage reuse, while discouraging the purchase and discarding of bottled water containers. Used refillable ink and toner cartridges or send spent cartridges to recycling facilities. Decorate with potted plants to naturally enhance air quality (and because they look good). Invest in a reusable coffee filter.

BE FLEXIBLE. Lessen employee commuting (and office space overhead) by allowing employees who can do their jobs from home to telecommute. Allow workers to schedule four longer workdays and alternate days off each week (thus reducing commutes and giving staffers an extra day off – bonus points for company morale). Let the office supply list reach a certain length before ordering to greatly reduce packaging.

IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS. Encourage employees to submit their own eco-friendly ideas. Set an example by going over your business’ efforts and goals for minimal environmental impact, and practicing what you preach. Explain to your employees how a “green” business not only helps the environment, but bolsters the bottom line as well. Decreased expenses equals increased profits, which can amount to higher wages – that should provide a little extra motivation to conserve. Post your eco-credo in a conspicuous place

To understand where the retail price come from, we have to look at the business itself. What is a business? It is an organization created to provide products and services to customers. It’s main goal is to create profit. Profit, on the other hand, is gain achieved from making an investment minus all costs involved with that investment. The exception are non-profit organizations and state owned enterprises, which are not designed to profit but to break even.

How does a business make a profit? By selling the products and services it provides at a certain price.

The price is calculated based on several different costs that accrue from the moment of manufacturing a product to stocking it selling it. What are those costs?

Manufacturing cost includes purchasing raw materials for production, actual production, which might involve electricity, water, human labor (cost of wages- that’s where the issue of minimum wages causing the raise of prices comes in), machinery (amortization costs), etc.

Transportation costs the raw materials have to be brought into the factory and the final product has to be transported into the store. Higher gas prices- higher transportation costs.

Packaging costs we pay for every box we throw away. Have you ever bought a box of cereal that’s only half full (or half empty, if you will)? You paid for the extra card board.

Broker or dealer costs those are people who mediate between the seller and the buyer to get the best price for the product (they usually work on commissions).

Warehouse costs storing products costs too.

Store restocking costs when a product comes off the shelf, the store has to order more from the warehouse, pay shipping fees, etc.

Store employee wages and/or commissions.

Stolen or damaged product costs.

Advertising costs probably the highest off them all. Enjoy the commercials. You are paying for them!

Taxes several kinds of them.

Whew! Are we done yet? What kind of taxes are there and how do they raise the price?

Sales tax raw material’s sales tax, transportation company sales tax, etc. The tax goes up, increases production costs, so the price of final product has to go up.

Property tax if the company owns the factory it pays the tax based on it’s appreciated value. If the company leases a space, it pays rent which includes a percentage of the property tax. The tax goes up, increases amortization or rent costs, the price goes up.

Income or revenue tax price of product minus costs equals revenue. In today’s highly competitive world most companies reinvest percentage of their revenue back into the company. It goes into research, innovations, etc. Tax goes up, less money available for improvements, price goes up. A good example are the cell phone companies. They spend a good deal of money to come up with more fancy phones, or they’ll be out of business fast. If they don’t have enough money for innovations, they have to raise the price of the newest products to pay for it. That’s why prices of newest phones are so horrendously high. And then they go down as a new phone hits the market.

Gas tax it is already at 40%, which means for every dollar we spend 40 cents goes to pay taxes. Tax goes up, gas price goes up, transportation costs go up, price of product goes up.

Enough taxes already! One of the surest ways to boost the economy is to DRUMROLL! – reduce taxes!

“Business for Sale ! Baby-Boom Exit May Bring Glut”

That is a headline from the Kiplinger Business Resource Center. And it’s true we are at the beginning of a boom (no pun intended) period for businesses owners wanting to sell there business.

Meanwhile we also see this from the business brokerage industry:

* Over 90% of the people who begin the search to buy a business fail to ever complete a purchase. They look at business for sale listings for 18 months and still never buy!

* Only 25% of business broker listings sell; 75% of the businesses do not sell!

So we have a very significant and dynamic event shaping up. More business owners than ever in history reaching a point where they need to sell, faced with people who want to buy but 90% of the time, never do!

Why do “buyers” not buy and “sellers” not sell?

I have been involved in literally hundreds of transactions over the course of my business career and I can answer this question with absolute certainty.

The answer to that question is: lack of knowledge.

Buyers that do not know how to find, evaluate, structure and negotiate transactions and business owners who do not understand how proper valuation and deal structure can help them sell their business for a fair (in some cases premium) value and with a structure that optimizes tax benefits for them.

For buyers that understand these things there will be hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars made over the next few years as they are presented with opportunities from thousands of business owners motivated to sell their business.

You might have heard recent news about all the money being made by private equity and hedge funds by buying businesses.

Do you want to know their secret?

They can buy businesses without using any of their own money for the down-payment!

Do you want to know an even more important secret (you’ll love this)?

You can too! All it takes is knowledge of financial leverage and how to apply the knowledge. You don’t need a pile of your own money to buy a good small to mid-sized business (I’m talking businesses up to $10 Million in revenue … maybe more).

Again you don’t need the capital, you just need to learn how manageable leveraged transactions are done and go out and do it. Remember the big business buyers always in the news? There are hundreds, if not
thousands, of smaller business buyer success stories that happen every day that you never hear about … setting their life up so that when they retire, it will be with a pile of money … and all they are doing is buying businesses using other peoples money.

So if you are interested in buying your own business but think you don’t have enough money … THINK AGAIN … and begin to study how you too can buy a good business without using your own money for the down-payment.

Not everyone is cut out for dealing with people or chatting on the phone for eight hours a day. Some of us just do not like the drama of the office and truly do not want to hear about what Amy and John are doing Saturday for lunch. Angry bosses, annoying clients, and the morning commute are just too much for some introverts to handle. Fortunately, there are businesses that are perfectly suited for the introvert personality.

Stock Imagery-

Many online stock imagery sites have been developed over the years. There are the macrostock agencies(expensive imagery) and the microstock agencies(inexpensive imagery). Basically, you sell your photos, illustrations, or videos to these sites and are paid whenever someone downloads one of your images. This is perfect for the introvert personality because you don’t have to deal with people directly.

These agencies will only ask you for some personal information(like any other standard job), and it’s all done online. Whenever you submit an image to these agencies, you will be notified by email if they accept your image(s) or not. No telephone calls and no “real people” to deal with. All you need is a camera, a computer, and an Internet connection.

Online Article Writing -

Something similar to stock photography is online article writing. The principals are the same as stock photography. You simply give the online article companies some of your personal information, and you start writing articles. Some article companies will pay you per article, some will only pay you a percentage of the advertising revenue your article generates, and some will do both.

Granted, you will have to write a lot of articles in order to be prosperous. And it may take years for you to make a significant amount of money from this(it just depends on how much you write and how well). However, it is possible.

Create a Useful Website -

Developing a website that everybody wants to use is an excellent way to earn a living. Take Kevin Rose for example. Kevin is the creator of the news site called Digg. The idea behind Digg is to submit articles, videos, or photos that people are interested in. Kevin is now(or soon will be) a very rich individual.

You see, Kevin has a site that has a ton of users on it. This makes online advertising incredibly lucrative for his site. However, online advertising will only benefit you if you have the traffic. Without the traffic, there’s less revenue. And without the revenue, you’ll end up working at Walmart.

Introverts can have a difficult time dealing with people. Fortunately, thanks to the Internet, there are other options available today that can help make their lives a bit easier. And that’s how it should be.

With globally slowing down of economy and job cuts in career market, everyone has some sort of fear to loose their jobs or positions. During such insecurity, you can think of many small-scale businesses, which would be suitable to you and may be you have knowledge and experience for it.

* SELF – ASSESSMENT

If you are the one who love teaching and have good knowledge then you can surely consider tutoring as a business during a slow economy.

* BE SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR TUTORING BUSINESS

Once you have taken your first step to teach you will grow with many numbers of students and you can charge for the quality teaching. Tutoring business is such a business where you hardly require much of investment and hence this is a best option to think about getting into it during slow economy.

While you are thinking of tutoring, the first best step is to brush up your knowledge and skills with the current education system. You would require a small place to conduct teaching. If space is also a problem or concern for you, then you need not worry as many times parents love teachers coming to their place but in this case, you have either to give special class or convince parent to allow you to have few more student of same class and teach them together.

Apart from this, you will have to invest in your time and schedule yourself according to the school and other classes, which your students must be attending. With time management, you can take good break so that you do not teach continuously. To be a good tutor you need to have a good quality and loud voice. You should also have good sense of humor as sometimes hard things cannot be grasped by students but if same will be put with touch of humor or an act they will remember it for ever.

* MARKET YOURSELF WELL

It is but obvious that you know you are good but until the words spread out that, you are good at tutor you have to market yourself. In tutoring business you work is the only medium to market yourself. Take the challenge to teach a weak student and once everyone would find out about your tutoring skills you would not require to market as your work has done all marketing for you.

In tutoring business actually, you need to concentrate on your work and make sure you give your best to your student and you will see that without much of marketing, you have many students and their parents flooded in front of your office or home for enrollment.

* JOB SATISFACTION

Teaching is a noble profession that is what I think and so you should understand that when you think of tutoring as a profession you do it only for the sake of money. You should be able to gain the work satisfaction and pride to make the future learn well with proper training and understanding.

* TEACH ETHICS AND VALUES

At times, I have seen many tutors for their self-esteem and business growth help their students in cheating where they do give question paper in advance, so they only study what is going to be part of their question paper. With this, the student passes out with good grades and of course, this will be bringing good reputation for the tutor too.

If you are seriously considering tutoring as your business then you should make sure you take many efforts to teach and give practical and logical teaching to your students. When you give, your best you will not require to help your students in cheating. Future will see the best results and at that time, you shall be honored for your good work.