Your New Year's Resolution:Start A Home Based Business

Start your New Year off with a Home based business. I always tell people that unless you are working for yourself, you're simply fullfilling someone else's dream. And you know it. I have learned many exciting techniques in running a successful home based business and I would like to share them with you.

Now Consider this:

I am sure, if you have been reading my posts for long, that you see it is possible for you to start your own business and kick start your legacy Are you beginning to see how realistically staggering it truly is? If not, I need to apologize to you because I haven’t done my job.

I am extending you an open invitation to duplicate my success and the success of countless others by first changing your mindset and then your life. If I was able to do it, I I know you can.

So I ask you...

         Will you be the next Success story in a home based business in 2016?

Sadly, most people have flat-out given up on the life of their dreams... and they've resigned themselves to a life of struggle, lack, and limitation.  They suffer in the Land of Opportunity.  And they are fooled into believing the lie that it has to be this way. Most people don't realize that with proper leadership and the right opportunity, virtually anyone with desire can achieve the lifestyle and level of income the want with ease!

I'm living proof: Ever since I've started my home based business I feel a rush of internal excitement. I am literally helping people just like you exit the rat-race and achieve the same level of success I enjoy.

You need to possess a willingness to be successful. The individuals you associate with will help you be that person.  Successful people tend to affiliate with others who posses the same attributes. 

Wishful Hoping & No Action is Not Going to Cut It.

 

Here a three reasons why:

 

1.  There is nothing Casual About Worthwhile Achievement.  You must Earn your way to success in life-no matter what you do.  Only then will you achieve  a casual life style with enough money for you and your family to enjoy it in style. My personal achievement channel was my home based business.

 

2.  Trying is Not Doing. People with a " see what happens" attitude get to see what happens,alright...they sit their lazy butts down as they "see" others rapidly making wheelbarrels of success-but they  never do it themselves.  The success of entrepreneurship depends soley on YOUR drive and desire.

 

3.  You need to be honest with yourself to avoid wasting your time in a home based business.  If you only kid yourself, you won't experience a positive change in your life until you First make a postive change. Through personal growth techniques I realized that focusing on positive energy will replace the negativity that is keeping you from achieving the success in your home based business that is vital for your financial freedom.

 

I deserve my success because I took charge of my life.  If you’re wondering what I do with the rest of my time, I spend it with my family; I help worthwhile charities, I ENJOY LIFE and I CHOOSE MY ACTIVITIES.

Make 2016 the year that you decide to move forward and not just be a pawn in creating someone else’s life.

 

Budgeting- Another Business Swear Word

Ugh, budgeting is one of those topics we'd rather avoid, but in business, it's an absolute necessity. To prepare a reasoned and thoughtful budget, an accountant must start with a broad-based critical analysis of the most recent actual performance and position of the business by the managers who are responsible for the results. Then the managers decide on specific and concrete goals for the coming year. It demands a fair amount of management time and energy. Budgets should be worth this time and effort. It's one of the key components of a manager's job.

 

To construct budged financial statements, a manager needs good models of the profit, cash flow and financial condition of your business. Models are blueprints or schematics of how things work. A business budget is, at its core, a financial blueprint of the business. Budgeting relies on financial models that are the foundation for preparing budgeted financial statements. Those statements include:

 

--Budgeted income statement (or profit report): This statement highlights the critical information that managers need for making decisions and exercising control. Much of the information in an internal profit report is confidential and should not be divulged outside the business.

 

--Budgeted balance sheet: The connections and ratios between sales revenue and expenses and their corresponding assets and liabilities are the elements of the basic model for the budgeted balance sheet.

 

--Budgeted statement of cash flows: The changes in assets and liabilities from their balances at the end of the year just concluded to the projected balances at the end of the coming year determine cash flow from profit for the coming year.

 

Budgeting requires good working models of profit performance, financial condition, and cash flow from profit. Constructing good budgets is a strong incentive for businesses to develop financial models that not only help in the budgeting process but also help managers in making strategic decisions.

Bookkeeping Basics

Being that we are so close to the end of the year, I thought I would do a small post about book keeping. This is where a lot of self employed and new small business owners get confused, frustrated and sometimes in trouble with the IRS.

Most people probably think of bookkeeping and accounting as the same thing, but bookkeeping is really one function of accounting, while accounting encompasses many functions involved in managing the financial affairs of a business. Accountants prepare reports based, in part, on the work of bookkeepers.

Bookkeepers perform all manner of record-keeping tasks. Some of them include the following:

-They prepare what are referred to as source documents for all the operations of a business - the buying, selling, transferring, paying and collecting. The documents include papers such as purchase orders, invoices, credit card slips, time cards, time sheets and expense reports. Bookkeepers also determine and enter in the source documents what are called the financial effects of the transactions and other business events. Those include paying the employees, making sales, borrowing money or buying products or raw materials for production.

-Bookkeepers also make entries of the financial effects into journals and accounts. These are two different things. A journal is the record of transactions in chronological order. An accounts is a separate record, or page for each asset and each liability. One transaction can affect several accounts.

-Bookkeepers prepare reports at the end of specific period of time, such as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually. To do this, all the accounts need to be up to date. Inventory records must be updated and the reports checked and double-checked to ensure that they're as error-free as possible.

-The bookkeepers also compile complete listings of all accounts. This is called the adjusted trial balance. While a small business may have a hundred or so accounts, very large businesses can have more than 10,000 accounts.

-The final step is for the bookkeeper to close the books, which means bringing all the bookkeeping for a fiscal year to a close and summarized.

There are quite a few good accounting programs out there. I am not an affiliate and I am not getting any kickbacks for this, I just enjoy the program and passing it on to you guys.

I have been using this for a few years now and it is awesome. It’s free to use and they have other pro services that you can purchase. For over a year, I used the free services solely and it worked great for my start up.

Go to Wave by clicking here if you are interested.

Being a Continuous Learner

When people ask me what business I’m in, I often say, “I’m in the learning business.”  It sounds intriguing, and it is certainly true.  But, truth be told, we are all in the learning business.

 

Why?

 

Because as humans, we are learning machines.  We are most alive and functioning closest to our potential when we are learning, adapting, adjusting, and finding new ways, approaches and techniques to improve our lives (or the lives of others) in some way.

I believe in the above statements.  They are as true as any other statement I could write here.  But rather than talking about the philosophy of humankind, let me get much more pragmatic. 

 

Change and Learning

Change is all around us.  Some say the rate of change is increasing, but whether that is true or not, this is definitely a fact in our business lives.  Products change, Customers change, process and policies change.  We are put on a new team, we are entering new markets, and we have set new goals.  In all parts of our daily professional lives change surrounds us.

In order for us to cope with that change, we need to be willing and able to change.  And learning is a key component in developing that ability.

So when I talk about continuous learning or life long learning, I’m not suggesting everyone needs to take a course at their local college, or go back to school for a new degree.  Continuous learning is an attitude and a set of behaviors that allow us to succeed in our ever-changing environment, and is the best lever we have to turn who we are today into who we want to be tomorrow.  Change requires learning and conversely, there is no learning without change.

So if life long learning doesn’t necessarily mean the “professional college student” and doesn’t require us to be the person who was always asking questions in every class we ever attended, what are the behaviors that make up a true continuous or life long learner?

I’m glad you asked.

 

The Behaviors

 

There are some common threads among those who actively are learning and growing as professionals (and humans).  Life-long, continuous learners:

Have a beginner’s mindset. If you approach anything with the mindset of an expert, you will learn nothing.  With the expert’s mind, you are looking for confirmation and validation of what you already know; a beginner on the other hand, looks constantly for one new tidbit, one or more ways to expand on their current expertise.  In other words, expert or not, they don’t think that way, because they know that only with a open, beginners mind, can they benefit from the learning opportunity.

Make connections. Peter Drucker, the famous and influential management thinker wrote, “To make knowledge productive we will have to learn to see both forest and tree. We will have to learn to connect.”  Continuous learners do that.  They continue to think about what they have learned in one part of their life and how it relates to and connects with challenges, problems, opportunities and situations that occur in other parts of their life.

Are flexible and adaptable. Learning requires change, so continuous learners realize that they must be willing to adapt and change if they want to grow.

Are always learning something. Continuous learners learn new things “just because.”  They’ve always wanted to play guitar, so they take lessons.  They want to ride a unicycle, so they try it.  They learn how to quilt.  They learn a new language. These people don’t invest the time required just so they can play “Love Me Tender” or say “good morning” in Chinese.  They also do it because they realize that our brains are like muscles.  The more we exercise them the stronger they will be. 

Are continuously curious. One of the most powerful learning questions we use is “Why?”  Why is the question of the curious.  Continuous learners remain curious about people, places, important and mundane things as well.  By cultivating their curiosity they are adding to their knowledge and perspective, while exercising an important part of our learning brain at the same time.

Learn in multiple ways. In school we learned in a relatively limited number of ways, which unfortunately leaves some people with a limited view of learning.  Continuous learns know that they can learn by reading, by listening, by trying, through others, with a mentor, etc. (etc.!) 

Teach others. Something magical happens when you teach someone something – you suddenly understand it better yourself.  Continuous learners teach others not just to help the other person (or to show them how much they know) but because they know it helps them deepen their mastery of their own learning.

 

How to Use This List

 

Now that you have read this far I hope you are convinced of how valuable it can be to be a more active learner.  You have also read a list of characteristics.  Now that you have read that list of characteristics, I’d like you to read it again.  As you read it ask yourself these questions:

How well do I stack up against these behaviors?

Which ones would I like to get better at?

Who do I know that is exceptionally good at each of these characteristics?

How can I learn these traits and habits from those I know who are better at them than I?

Your answers to these four questions (and the action that you take) will put you on the road to being a more continuous and life-long learner.

Enjoy your journey.

 

 

9 Strategies For Regaining Your Work Life Balance

 

I like working with independent professionals and artists because of the way the work life balance shows itself in our lives - for us, life, work, and business exist in a nexus from which we cannot easily extract our ways of loving, relating, and making meaning. The challenges we face in business inform our personal lives and personal challenges affect our businesses.

Rich as it is, the relationship between personal and professional life can be rocky and maintaining that work life balance is often a tricky issue. I experienced this before when, within a few weeks of declaring some new goals for my business, my wife lost her job unexpectedly followed my my daughter needing surgery just a few days later. If this wasn’t bad enough, a job that I was doing on a major client’s personal items messed up due to a material flaw in the product he purchased, but, though it was on him, he decided to discontinue our working relationship. All of these factored together to lead to a personal melt down.

The problem was that I felt like a loser. I enjoyed the work that I did with this client and I couldn’t get out of the funk. Before I knew it, we were looking bankruptcy in the eye and didn’t know what we could do other than give up.

I've been caught between the promptings of my spirit and the requirements of my business more than a few times, and I knew all sorts of success formulas, but none of them seemed to help. I also knew it was possible to take care of ourselves and our businesses if we are willing to do the work, but I couldn’t shake the funk and it led to a deep depression.

We lost our house, one of the cars and had to move to the other side of the state; we had to borrow money from family just to get settled, but my wife had gotten a new job and I was able to reestablish my business in a better location and things finally started getting back to a level that I could see a light.

As Les Brown once said, “When you fall down, always land on your back. That way you can always be looking up no matter how low you fall.”

Here are nine strategies that, taken together, can help to change course without abandoning the destination and help you restore your work life balance:

 

1. Don't panic.

Even if you feel panicky, you can choose modest, recoverable steps to address the situation. This is no time to get a divorce, fire an employee, or buy a new computer system. Tip: Talk with a coach or therapist to get perspective.

 

2. Return to Source.

Whatever your spiritual orientation or tradition, connect with what for you is the Source of life or spirit. Know that there is something larger than you that encompass you. Spend at least 15 minutes each day connecting with that Source. (I like Mark Silver's Remembrance Practice described in his free downloadable workbook Getting to the Core of Your Business.)

 

3. Take a body inventory.

Are you sleeping well? How are you eating? What's your energy level? If these are not up to par, get a professional evaluation and take the steps that will restore your well-being.

 

4. Tell the truth.

Sometimes energy flags when we've gotten into a pattern of pleasing others or living according to standards that are not our own. Notice if there is any misbalance. Notice where you're being less than forthright with yourself and get clear about your motives, then clean it up.

 

5. Keep good company.

Are you stimulated and encouraged by your peers and clients? Do you have great playmates? Playing on the wrong playground with the wrong kids is neither fun nor productive.

 

6. Tune Up Your Thinking.

There's substantial evidence that managing the way we think can have a profound and lasting effect on mood and motivation. See Amazon.com for books you can use to tune up your cognitive skills and/or make a date with a therapist. (If you are otherwise in good psychological health a skilled coach can help, too.)

 

7. Set Healthy, Flexible Boundaries.

Yes, real life and real business are intimately connected, but that doesn't mean that you need to give up your privacy. To find your work life balance, set boundaries so that you can feel generous without feeling depleted and available without feeling invaded. Keep them flexible, because things change.

 

8. Create or Refine Systems.

We can't manage real life and a real business without good systems. Look at where things feel most out of sorts and resolve to create or improve a system to get things on track.

 

9. Keep the Goal, Drop the Plan.

Sometimes the best way to achieve a goal is to let go of our plans. Promptly and clearly revise commitments and offers as necessary to bring current activity in line with current resources. Why abandon ship when you can drop anchor while you make some repairs?

For me, these strategies led me to go past what I was doing and concentrate on this dream that I had to help others get out of the rat race and make a legacy that the future will benefit from. Having stopped the war between myself and my business and realizing that there was more to me than my work, I was able to restore my work life balance and now feel more engaged with the things that I choose to take on (like writing this blog and creating a training program.) My goals have went from safe to audacious and are now shining possibilities instead of looming obligations, and if it takes a little longer to reach them, arriving will be all the sweeter.

In 2016, make it a goal to balance your life.

 

 

Are we our own prisoners?

 

Imagine a person in a prison. He/she has been imprisoned for life and will wait till death in the prison.

What can possibly motivate such a person? What do these people look forward to in their lives?

Sometimes, we are also prisoners of our thoughts and our past deeds. We also have nothing else to look forward to. We only have regrets. At least, we can do something about the conditions, but the prisoners can do nothing. Life can be depressing at times. How to inspire ourselves in such conditions?

 

What is inspiration?

 

'Inspiration' the word as it is commonly understood means to experience a state of mind that propels us to work happily, try to achieve goals, and feel good about ourselves and the world.

 

How to break open the prison?

 

When we are not inspired and can set no goals, we feel that we are so helpless that nothing can be done. The first step would be to try finding stories of people such as Helen Keller who overcame so many difficulties to emerge victorious. That will give us a basic thought that things are not that bad. We will open at least one door of our prison with this thought.

 

Then go back in your memory. Try and think of instances when you felt good because of some achievements. It could be something very small. Anything. Like coming first in the class in your second year in school, or getting a good remark from a teacher for an essay or for a math answer. That will break open another door.

 

Now begin counting your blessings. Do you have a functioning kidney? Can you see? Can you hear? Can you smell? Are your hands ok and so on. Will you sell your eyes for any price? No! Who said that you have no money? You are a wealthy person who is unaware of your wealth, your blessings, Isn't it? This will open one more door.

 

Break the last door open by thinking of the goals you might want to achieve. Believe that you can do that. Start planning. Think of ways. Talk to people. Be ready for a long struggle but with a firm resolve that you will achieve the goals. This will take you out of the prison of your thinking and make you a new person ready to fight.

 

Get set to go ahead. You are a winner in making!

As always, here’s to your success.

 

 

Believe In Yourself And You’ll Change Your Life!

Today is my birthday and as a special gift to you, I want to send you some inspirational videos and a free book to help you in this upcoming year. It doesn’t ask for your email address, I am not soliciting anything, this is for you and your success, absolutely free.

Just click here and enjoy.

You may have heard someone say this about beliefs. It sounds contradictory, even ridiculous, but you had better believe that it’s right! Understanding your beliefs, how they control your life and the traps caused by beliefs is a key ingredient in the mental game of success.

WHAT ARE BELIEFS

Very simply beliefs are those things that we believe to be true.

”If  You Believe You Can Or You Believe You Can’t, Either Way You’re Probably Right…”

You may have heard someone say this about beliefs. It sounds contradictory, even ridiculous, but you had better believe that it’s right! Understanding your beliefs, how they control your life and the traps caused by beliefs is a key ingredient in the mental game of success.

WHAT ARE BELIEFS

Very simply beliefs are those things that we believe to be true.

The first trap is that beliefs are personal – what we believe is not the same as what other people believe – two people can look at exactly the same thing and have different beliefs about it… and both can be right.

Yet we all fall into the trap of believing that our beliefs are right while anyone who holds different beliefs is wrong!

Some beliefs are built from shared experiences – we all believe that gravity will cause objects to fall to the ground – most people recognise this one! These basic beliefs which come from incontrovertible external facts are shared by the whole of humanity.

However, the majority of beliefs are not so clearly defined. They are about ourselves and the world we live in- who we are, how we should react, what is good for us, what is bad for us, who we should trust, who likes us… These beliefs are more likely to be shared by smaller groups of people – our friends, family, our cultural groups – or be personal to you as an individual.

Beliefs are formed throughout your life, in childhood, by copying people you respect, as a results of repetitive events, or even single, very emotional or traumatic events. You can also pick up beliefs from your culture and your environment. You will have some beliefs for your entire life while beliefs about some things may be changed several times during your life.

It is also important to realise beliefs are not values. Values are more fundamental statements about what is important for you and often underpin your beliefs. You can find out more about values in my article “Are Your Personal Values Aligned With Your Path to Success?”

 Values frequently support your beliefs, although you can also hold beliefs that conflict with our values. Getting beliefs and values lined up is important if you want to be successful.

While you have maybe a few tens of values, you certainly have thousands of beliefs about every subject under the sun.

WHAT DO BELIEFS DO FOR US?

Beliefs are like a lens through which we look at the world. Like a lens they fundamentally distort, reshape and change the importance of the information that we take in through our senses creating the view that we really have of the world.

Beliefs have a strong effect on your behaviour, if you believe you should do something or think something then you usually end up doing or thinking it!

Beliefs strongly influence both what we do and what we learn from our environment - it is difficult for you to learn anything or do anything that you believe is going to be unpleasant or bad for you.

"IF YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN OR YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN'T..."

Beliefs not only shape our view of the world but they also control the way that we react, for example if you believe that someone does not like you, you are not going to react to them in same friendly way that you would to one of your friends.

Of course it may be that your belief is completely mistaken, that person may actually like you. However because you have decided that they don’t like you, you continue to react to them as if they were hostile and little by little their opinion of you becomes more negative.

If only you had started with a more positive belief…

Another example is the well known medical “placebo effect” in which something as simple as water administered in a way that causes you to believe that it is the drug that is going to cure you can in fact be as effective as the real drug.

 

==>Beliefs can have a shockingly powerful grip on your mind!!

 

WARNING - LIMITING BELIEFS CAN RUIN YOUR LIFE!

We’ve seen that beliefs can shape our world by affecting the way we perceive it and by affecting the way that we react to it. We have also seen how powerful they can be. This can make them a fantastic tool for you or a mortal enemy.

Positive beliefs that support your goals and values  will produce very positive results for you. However, through no fault of your own, you have almost certainly acquired some limiting beliefs during your childhood.

Limiting beliefs often begin with you saying to yourself “I can’t…”. They may even have been true, or are still true at some time in your life. The danger is that you are likely to automatically apply these beliefs to the rest of your life – jeopardising your future and your success. 

For example it may be true that you don’t know how to do something today, but so often, the way that this is expressed is as “I can’t do…”. If you say that often enough it becomes a belief and as you’ve seen, this belief becomes the truth.

Even worse are limiting beliefs that are not based on the truth but on some belief that has been instilled into by your parents, your friends, your society… If you believe that you’re destined to be poor or that you’re not capable of making money, well the outcome is inevitable.

GIVE YOUR BELIEFS A CHECK-UP

Think very carefully about your beliefs, for the next seven days, watch yourself as you interact with people. Look for those “I can’t…” statements. Identify them, write them down, ask yourself just how much harm are they doing you. Do you really want to let them kill your chance of success?

Every time you find yourself making one of those “I can’t…” statements, turn it into a “How can I…” statement – “I can’t make more money” becomes “How can I make more money”. Can you feel the difference? If you do this consistently you’d better believe that you will find a difference in your life!

Again, it's my birthday and you get a gift. Click here to get an absolutely free, no solicitation, no requests. Just enjoy.

Christmas Shopping For Your Employees

If you have employees or you deal with quite a few sub contractors and your company has had a successful year financially, you may, want to share some of that success by giving out bonuses. My suggestion is to not just give bonuses, make it personal and show your employees that you see them as individuals and not just a means to an end. Purchasing Christmas gifts for your employees also.

Christmas shopping for your employees is not an easy task, however. There are a number of factors, which contribute to the difficulty of the situation. The number of employees is one such factor. You may have a large number of employees and they may not share similar interests making it difficult to decide on a gift. Additionally, you may be concerned with the prospect of employees talking about their gifts and jealousy arising if it is believed some employees received more expensive or better gifts than others. This article will discuss some of these concerns and will offer tips for dealing with these dilemmas.

Favoritism is a serious issue which all bosses should carefully consider when Christmas shopping for their employees. Bosses should assume the gifts they give to their employees would be discussed and compared so it is wise to not purchase any gifts, which will be viewed as favoritism. One way to avoid this problem is to purchase the same item for each of the employees. This may seem impersonal but office politics often takes precedence over sentiment and in this case it is wise to give each employee the same item to avoid any potential problems. I started my journey in self employment with a purchase of a laser engraver, so I assure you that you can get the same thing for all of them and make it absolutely personal by placing their names on the item.

You may opt to give more expensive items to higher-ranking employees. This is an acceptable practice as long as each employee on the same tier is given the same gift and employees on higher tiers are given the same gifts as their peers at that level; make the gift fit their position.

Bosses also have to consider finances when Christmas shopping for gifts for their employees. This is a particularly important concern especially in cases where the boss has a large number of employees working for him. In this case the boss may have to consider giving only small token gifts due to the large number of employees. If you are paying for these gifts out of your own pocket, it is not reasonable to expect to purchase extravagant gifts for many employees.

In some cases, you may purchase gifts for the higher ranking employees (managers, foremen, etc.) and a lot them a budget to purchase Christmas gifts for the employees that work under them as it is viewed to be a method of keeping morale high and retaining employees.

The important thing here is to express good will to your employees and sub contractors by making them feel that you were thinking of them as an individual and not a number. The smallest gesture can go along way. Even though they appreciate the bonus, it still doesn’t have the same impact as a personal gift.

Now, saying that, don’t skimp on the bonuses. If they truly deserved the bonuses, make sure that you don’t use that extra money on gifts and leave them with financial issues because they might have been depending on that bonus to help with their Christmas shopping.

 

5 Keys to Success

Can you believe that 2016 is just around the corner? I believe that this is a beginning of renewal for the country, the world as well as ourselves. Change happens, it is unavoidable and if last year didn’t go as smoothly as you would like, know that this year is a new beginning, so start gearing up for it now.

Follow these five steps in creating your plan for success and make this year the beginning of greatness for you and your family. 

Successful people know what they want and work out a strategy to get what they want in order to get where they want to be. This is the very foundation for building success. 

With the New Year just around the corner you have to remember the adage, “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten” then ask yourself what you could do in this new year to be more successful.

Step #1 Build the right plan.

This plan has to be yours and yours alone. As long as you work on a plan for someone else, then that plan is his or hers and not yours. Everyone’s plan is unique and different, so make your plan.

If you find yourself working on someone else’s plan you may find yourself in a successful situation, but it will be a golden handcuffs type of situation.

Also, if you build your success off of someone else’s plan you will only find that when you reach the top of the success ladder, you had your ladder against the wrong wall.

Step #2 Keep a Journal.

Think of this as a written record of your life. Ideas, plans, strategies, etc., all need to go in this game plan. Never rely on memory.

Quotes that inspire you, reflections of the day; it all needs to be recorded so that you can stay on track and keep an account of where you are going and where you have been.

Step #3 Reflection.

Playing off of step 2, make time to reflect. Study the things that you have done right and wrong. Like I always tell my clients, friends, even my daughter, “he who only knows one side of a wall is often defeated by that which is on the other side” so it is important to, not only review your victories, but also your mess ups. Keep record of it all and reflect on it all to know how what to do next time and what to improve on.

At the end of each day, take time to go over the previous day and create a game plan for the next day.

Step #4 Set Your Goals.

Again, this is about you, set your goals, not what you need to do for your boss at work, or someone else that is using your time to advance their agendas.

Creating goals is the number one most important thing that you can do to move yourself forward.

Every effective game plan is written down, studied, modified and gone over again and again. Make sure to know your destination and what you need to know or achieve in order to reach that destination and then create a game plan to get there.

Step #5 Take action

The one thing that separates the successful person from the not so successful is action (or lack there of).

The number one thing that kept me in a state of despair, poverty and depression was this very thing. When it came to ideas, my brain was a computer, but when it came to following through, I dropped the ball so many times.

I heard the cemetery once described as the biggest concentration of wealth, intellect and achievement because there were so many people buried there who had the knowledge, ideas and creativity, but never acted and it died with them instead of spreading. I always thought this was sad, but true.

Values were meant to be costly. If they didn’t cost much, we probably wouldn’t appreciate the value.”-Jim Rohn.

I know I said five, but here is a bonus one for you. Values…Your values will tell the world who you are and what you are made of. To have effective goals, they must first be rooted in your values or you will not be committed enough to stick with them.

How To Achieve Great Success From A Home Based Business

Profitability is the most important factor to success with any home based business. A home-based business can run for a long period of time as long as you make it profitable.

However, as many businesses don't make a profit to start with this is often the first goal of the home-based business owners, and you should achieve this goal as soon as possible.

To achieve this goal you should focus on business development, be careful with your expenses and focus on what you are offering.

Focusing on growth is a key way to build your home-based business profits. In order to influence your results you should have the right mindset. If you don't have a profitable mindset then you are likely going to stay where you are.

Rather focus on growth and have the mindset to notice opportunities when they come along that can lead to gain, and then take action on these opportunities right away before they are gone. Again, success loves speed.          

Next you must pay attention to your expenses seriously. All businesses have some expenses when they first start out even home-based single person businesses. Make sure you set up a budget that includes things such as advertising, utilities, office supplies and anything else that may be necessary to the specific home-based business you are considering.

On your list write down the expenses that are necessary for operating your business, these should be items that you need in order to make your home-based business profitable.

You will likely run into some expenses that you don't really need to operate your business. These are the expenses that don't make your business grow and only take away from the profits of your business.

Carefully consider before you truly need these expenses and if they don't make any profit then you should cut them for something that will actually help with the growth of your business.

However, you can only move your business so far by restricting your expenses. You also need income in order to gain profitability from your home-based venture.

Promotion is the most important factor to developing any business and gaining profitability. Basically you should focus on making your business known to people.

You can't expect to do business with them if they aren't aware of your company. While this may seem like an obvious point, the fact is that many businesses (home-based, store front, and internet based alike) fail simply because individuals don't spend enough time promoting their business. Once again, promotion is the key for your success.

If you have more than one product that requires promoting then consider focusing on just one main product for your business since you can focus most of your attention on marketing one product and once you get interested customers or visitors you can tell them about the additional products.

This will make it easier to run your business and you will also have better results from your actions. Remember, it isn’t impossible for you to promote many products at the same time, just time consuming and has a habit of dividing your concentrations.

These tips don’t just apply to those who are starting a new home-based business. You can still use these helpful advice to let you move your business in the right direction if you have been working on it for awhile and just can get it to work for you. By applying these tips you will be able to have success with your home based business no matter how long you have been in business.

Don’t forget that I am here for your success, if you have any topics that you want me to cover, drop me a line and let me know.

Black Friday is Coming

Christmas Shopping the Day after Thanksgiving

I know, I know, you are still trying to get ready for tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast and don't want to hear about Black Friday. For those readers who may not be accustomed to U.S. holidays and traditions, or you may just live off the grid, another famous tradition in this country is the day after Thanksgiving, which is commonly referred to as “Black Friday”.

This day is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the years and for many signifies the first day of Christmas shopping.

While the term black Friday was originally used to represent the day in which retailers returned to profitability many who work in the retail industry use this term as a way to describe the crowds and chaos which accompany Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.

Likewise consumers expect significant sales to go along with the large crowds, which flock to stores, camp out the night before to be the first ones in the door and often fight each other over the last toaster on the shelf.

For many shopping on the day after Thanksgiving it is a tradition, which wouldn’t be missed for the world. These individuals look forward to the sales and starting their shopping as a way to get into the Christmas spirit.

These individuals can be counted on to arrive before the malls and shopping centers even open to get a great parking spot, to make multiple trips to their cars to drop off packages before returning to the shopping area to make more purchases and to almost literally shop until they drop.

These are the individuals that retailers count on each year to boost their quarterly earnings and to help them report profitability for the year.

Those who enjoy Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving feel this way for a number of different reasons. Some enjoy shopping on this day for the tremendous sales, which are inevitable.

Still others enjoy shopping on this day because they like to take things one season at a time and figure now that Thanksgiving is over; it is time to start focusing on Christmas.

There are even others who like shopping on this day for the excellent people watching opportunity the day presents (trust me, the only reason I would get out on Black Friday would be to watch the craziness that takes place).

Whether or not they get any actual shopping done these individuals flock to shopping malls on the day after Thanksgiving because they know there will be tons of other shoppers to observe.

Finally there are those who start their Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving because of a sense of tradition. It is these individuals who have simply always started their Christmas shopping on this day out of habit.

Their parents probably started Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving and they simply learned this is the day to start Christmas shopping. They will also likely pass on the habit to their own children.

Conversely there are other shoppers who absolutely refuse to step foot inside a mall or shopping center on the day after Thanksgiving (ME). For these shoppers trying to get any shopping done on this day is near impossible.

They are willing to sacrifice the opportunity to buy some items as gifts at excellent sale prices just to avoid the cattle stampedes of shoppers who swarm the stores on this one particular day.

However, it is important to note that just because these shoppers avoid shopping areas on the day after Thanksgiving does not mean they don’t enjoy great sale prices on the Christmas gifts they purchase.

These shoppers may take advantage of sales throughout the year to accomplish their Christmas shopping within their set budget. Or, like me, you may do most of your smaller items, stocking stuffers, etc. the week after Christmas to set up for next Christmas and then only concern yourself with the bigger gifts as it gets closer.

There are still others who typically do not do any shopping on the day after Thanksgiving but these individuals do not necessarily avoid the malls and shopping areas on this day either.

Whether you are an early Christmas shopper, a last minute Christmas shopper or just a people watcher, you likely understand it is appropriate to expect large crowds in malls and shopping centers on the day after Thanksgiving. It is up to you to decide whether or not you choose to join the shoppers on this hectic day.

Now you are probably asking why I posted all of this. First, I want to be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas season, second I want to remind you that tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so try not to celebrate being thankful on one day only to follow it up by being ungrateful the next. If you are getting out and about on Black Friday, remember that every retail worker, from the store clerk to the server at the restaurant is going to be stressed that day and swamped, so give them a little slack. Also, thirdly, I want to remind you to be safe if you are getting out and about for this sub-holiday tradition that we call Black Friday.

Take care.

Planning Your Thanksgiving Party on a Budget

 

Are you hosting a Thanksgiving party this year?  If so, how much do you intend to spend on your party? 

Unfortunately, a large number of party hosts do not have as much money to spend on their party as they wish they had, but at the same time, often spend more than they wanted to. Whether you are looking at a personal party or a business party, budget can get you in over your head and make you regret the holidays if you aren’t careful.

While this may make you want to change your mind, about hosting a Thanksgiving party, it doesn’t have to. There are a number of different ways that you can go about planning a memorable Thanksgiving party while on a budget.

One of the best ways to plan a Thanksgiving party on a budget is to develop a plan for everything.

You will want to plan what types of foods you would like to serve at your party, how many guests you would like to invite, and what forms of entertainment you would like to have on hand. 

Making a detailed list of everything mentioned above is the best way to determine how much money you could expect to pay for everything that you want. 

Now, it is important to remember that what you could expect to pay might not necessarily be what you could afford to pay; that is where the budgeting comes in. 

After you have created a list of what you need to purchase, including food and other party supplies, you will need to determine exactly how much money you have to spend on your Thanksgiving party. 

If you notice a difference between what you want to spend and what you have to spend, you may find that you need to cut a few corners.  While it is nice to have the Thanksgiving party of your dreams, you will not want to go broke while doing so.

If you eliminate a certain type of food or a number of guests, to cut down your costs, you may easily be able to add them back on, depending on how much money you save when shopping for all of your needed Thanksgiving party supplies.

If you want to save money, when purchasing the supplies needed for your Thanksgiving party, as you likely do, there are a number of different steps that you can take to make that happen. 

Perhaps, the most important step to take is buying your food whenever you see it on sale, especially if you need to have a large amount of food.  Whether your party includes snacks or a full fledge Thanksgiving dinner, you can save yourself a fairly large amount of money by purchasing your food or drinks while they are on sale.  Typically, in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, you will find that many grocery stores lower the prices on their most popular Thanksgiving foods and cooking supplies.  This may be the best time to get your shopping done.

Since a party really isn’t complete without decorations, you may wish to purchase party decorations for your home.  For the largest selection of Thanksgiving decorations, it is advised that you purchase your decorations as soon as they hit the store shelves.  Unfortunately, it seems as if many retail stores skip Thanksgiving and jump right to Christmas.  This means that many retail stores are limited on the number of Thanksgiving decorations they carry and when they are gone, they are often gone. 

For the most affordable Thanksgiving decorations, you are advised to shop at discount stores, dollar stores, and department stores.  However, since there is a good chance that thousands of other shoppers are looking to get the same deals as you, it is important that you act fast, while you still have the chance. As I have often heard people like Brian Tracy say, “success loves speed’, and in this case speed can make or break the bank on supplies.

Along the lines of Thanksgiving party decorations is party seating.  Whether you are hosting a formal Thanksgiving party, complete with a sit-down dinner, or just a casual party, there is a good chance that you may need extra chairs and tables.

Your first impulse may be to buy them yourself, but you can save money by renting extra furniture from one of your local rental stores, particularly a party rental store.  You can also get extra tables and chairs, for free, by asking those that you know if they have any seating arrangements that you could borrow. 

The tips mentioned above are just a few of the many ways that you can plan a Thanksgiving party on a budget.  With the right amount of planning, it may be a well-kept secret that your party was not only easy to plan, but easy to afford.

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

(My favorite Recipe)

You Make The Money - Let Someone Else Sweat The Small Stuff

This one is for the control freaks reading my posts…come on, you know who you are.

Most people with an entrepreneurial spirit are looking for the right opportunity for them.  Many of them end up jumping from opportunity to opportunity, never really settling in on the system that will work well for them in their own particular circumstances. 

One of the main problems with these types of opportunities is that they look good on the outside but on the inside they are full of unrealistic dreams and just far too much work for the average person to be able to do. 

That is why in order for you to actually make money realistically in today's marketplace, it is necessary for you to be able to start up a business and let somebody else take care of most of the work for you.  It truly turns into a win-win situation.  But does such an opportunity actually exist?

15 years ago, nobody would've thought that you could sit at home, behind your own personal computer and reach an audience that was almost unlimited in size. 

Most people that do have a basic understanding of how business and the Internet work, realize that it is not only a possibility, it is truly a reality. 

Any good business opportunity is going to make use of the Internet but not in the same way as many of the opportunity hopping systems make use of it.  The Internet is commercial in nature, and it certainly is possible for you to build a successful, long-term business by using it. 

By going with the proper system, you will be able to build your business by piggybacking on the strengths of those who both started and maintain the system to the benefit of everyone involved.

Automation is really the key when it comes to Internet marketing. 

Although there is some work involved, any good online home based business opportunity will take on the bulk of the work involved. 

There are so many different scripts and automated systems that can not only help you to understand how the business works, it can also put it on autopilot for you.  The true leaders in these businesses know that they must take on the bulk of the work in order for their members to be successful.

That helps you to be able to start your business and to maintain it in the time frame that you have available.  They will be able to take care of everything from getting new leads to selling to those leads for you.  Once you are in the system, the entire process should be fully automated.

Don't fall for the marketing tactics of fly-by-night online business opportunities.  Success can certainly be yours by choosing an opportunity that will not only fit in with your lifestyle; it will be able to help you with the process as you need it.

 In this way, you will be able to build yourself a successful business and to progressively grow it around your own existing schedule.  Small successes feel good, large successes feel great and so does build you a future that you can actually see.

 

Accounting Principles

Yep, another one on accounting, but trust me when I say that this is only going to help you to make a successful transition out of the rat race into a successful lifestyle that you want, deserve and will enjoy.

 If everyone involved in the process of accounting followed their own system (or no system at all) there would be no way to truly tell whether a company was profitable or not. Most companies follow what are called generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, and there are quite a few books in libraries and bookstores devoted to just this one topic. Unless a company states otherwise, anyone reading a financial statement can make the assumption that company has used GAAP.

If GAAP are not the principles used for preparing financial statements, then a business needs to make clear which other form of accounting they've used and are bound to avoid using titles in its financial statements that could mislead the person examining it. 

GAAP are the gold standard for preparing financial statement. Not disclosing that it has used principles other than GAAP makes a company legally liable for any misleading or misunderstood data. These principles have been fine-tuned over decades and have effectively governed accounting methods and the financial reporting systems of businesses. Different principles have been established for different types of business entities, such for-profit and not-for-profit companies, governments and other enterprises.

GAAP are not cut and dried, however. They're guidelines and as such are often open to interpretation. Estimates have to be made at times, and they require good faith efforts towards accuracy. You've surely heard the phrase "creative accounting" and this is when a company pushes the envelope a little (or a lot) to make their business look more profitable than it might actually be. This is also called massaging the numbers. This can get out of control and quickly turn into accounting fraud, which is also called cooking the books. The results of these practices can be devastating and ruin hundreds and thousands of lives, as in the cases of Enron, Rite Aid and others.

I promise, this will be the last dry post on accounting, but I cannot stress enough that proper accounting will keep you out of the hot seat.

Again, make sure to subscribe, 2016 is the year that you can change your destiny.

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The Basics

Basic Accounting Principles

Going off of my last post, I have gotten some feedback that indicates that accounting is one of those areas of contention for new start ups, so I will hit on the subject in a little more detail.

Professor of Accounting at the University of Michigan, William A Paton, is defined as having one basic function: "facilitating the administration of economic activity. This function has two closely related phases:

1)      Measuring and arraying economic data;

2)      Communicating the results of this process to interested parties."

Ok, before you tune me out, I know that was a little dry, but I can’t stress that your business is going to comprise of many “dry” things that project your business forward.

As an example, a company's accountants (if you are a solo act, this is you) periodically measure the profit and loss for a month, a quarter or a fiscal year and publish these results in a statement of profit and loss that's called an income statement.  These statements include elements such as accounts receivable (what's owed to the company) and accounts payable (what the company owes). It can also get pretty complicated with subjects like retained earnings and accelerated depreciation.

Much of accounting though, especially if you are just starting out, is mostly concerned with basic bookkeeping. This is the process that records every transaction; every bill paid, every dime owed, every dollar and cent spent and accumulated. 

But the owners of the company, which can be individual owners or millions of shareholders are most concerned with the summaries of these transactions, contained in the financial statement.

The financial statement summarizes a company's assets. A value of an asset is what it cost when it was first acquired. The financial statement also records what the sources of the assets were. Some assets are in the form of loans that have to be paid back. Profits are also an asset of the business.

Where this comes into play in the very beginning is when you are trying to create business accounts at a bank, get loans, or lines of credit from suppliers.

In what's called double-entry bookkeeping, the liabilities are also summarized. Obviously, a company wants to show a higher amount of assets to offset the liabilities and show a profit. The management of these two elements is the essence of accounting. javascript:void(0);

There is a system for doing this; not every company or individual can devise their own systems for accounting; the result would be chaos!

I know, I know, it bores me at times too. I just noticed that this was an area that new business start ups have a problem with, so I am doing what I do best, informing the masses. If you can use this information, great, if not, keep reading future posts they aren’t all this dry.

I have actually had a few start ups and when I first created my business, it lasted about three years, all because of not keeping accurate accounting records, so I can’t stress enough that if you haven’t got a good accounting system in place, start one immediately.

The shoe box of receipts in the bottom of the closet doesn’t work when your business actually starts bringing in revenue.

Make sure to to subscribe to the RSS feed so you don't miss a post. There are new changes, freebies and more coming in 2016. Come be a part of it. In the mean time, if you need extra help geting started with making money online, check this out.

Love Your Accountant

 

Even if you are great with numbers, you should still have an accountant or CPA go over your numbers just to double check. Remember, these people are trained to find things that you may overlook.

The accountant is the person that generally gets overlooked in a business until tax time comes, but a good relationship with a great accountant all year round can and will be an asset to your business.

It doesn’t matter if your business is just you and a computer working from the library, (My business model for almost a year) or if you run a corporation with multiple employees, your accountant will help keep the numbers straight and the IRS off of your back.

What Is Accounting Anyway?

Anyone who's worked in an office at some point or another has had to go to accounting. They're the people who pay and send out the bills that keep the business running.

They do a lot more than that, though. Sometimes referred to as "bean counters" they also keep their eye on profits, costs and losses. Unless you're running your own business and acting as your own accountant, you'd have no way of knowing just how profitable - or not - your business is without some form of accounting system in place.

No matter what business you're in, even if all you do is balance a checkbook, that's still accounting. It's part of even a kid's life. Saving an allowance, spending it all at once - these are accounting principles.

Every business and every individual needs to have some kind of accounting system in place. Otherwise, the finances can get away from you; we wouldn’t know what we've spent, or whether we can expect a profit or a loss from the business.

Staying on top of accounting, whether it's for a multi-billion dollar business or for a personal checking account is a necessary activity on a daily basis if you're smart. Not doing so can mean anything from a bounced check or posting a loss to a company's shareholders. Both scenarios can be equally devastating.

Accounting is basically information, and this information is published periodically in business as a profit and loss statement, or an income statement.

I, myself, have always had issues with numbers; long story going back to 7^th grade and a teacher that didn’t like me much…but I digress. Anyway, in business, it is important to know the numbers but it is also one of those jobs in your business that you can turn over to a professional and concentrate on whatever it is that you do that makes your business money.

Remember that anytime you are doing something in your business that takes you away from what it is that brings in the money, you are losing money.

That being said, the next few posts are going to be about accounting, because even if you have the best accountant in the world, you still want to have an idea of where every dollar goes.

You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression

 

 

In many cases, your website is the first thing your new potential customers will see when they meet you. Are you making a good first impression? Meeting someone online is little different than meeting them in person; unfortunately, you have less than a minute to catch their attention and keep them reading.

Do they like how you look? Are you saying what your customers are looking to hear? With the future of your online business riding on your words, are you making a good impression? Here are five ideas to have your customers staying longer and remember you long after the encounter ends:

l. Dress nicely and be well groomed. Have you ever been to a website you were ready to leave as soon as you got there? I have. Chances are things were too loud and too busy.

Though there may have been something there of interest to you, you weren't likely to have found it because there was just way too much stuff going on.

So what is the well groomed website wearing this season? Not too many loud flashing headlines. Instead, make sure your site is calm and confident. Your headline and first paragraph should be a summarization of the website theme. Who you are, what you're going to share with them and why you decided to do so.

No one likes to read half a page only to find the site didn't deal with his or her issue of interest. No flashing lights, no neon headlines, no blaring music or boisterous sales pitches blasting away.

2. Have a nice voice; be friendly and pleasant. Have you ever met someone you initially thought you'd like to get to know... and then they opened their mouth and you realized you knew all you needed to? Your website should speak to your readers like a good friend might. Be easy to understand. Write in short sentences, with short paragraphs.

Each paragraph should have a theme, stated in the first sentence, and elaborated on through its conclusion. And though it's so tempting to put some fancy font on your website, you have no idea what they'll see based on how their browser may be set up, which browser they are using, or if they are reading your site on a laptop, desktop or smart phone.

Stick to the basic Arial, Helvetica, and other Sans-serif fonts. They're easy on the eye.

3. Talk just to them; treat them like they're the only one. Rather than talking to the masses as a whole, write to a particular person. Picture them in your mind and write as though you are having a private conversation with them.

Be their friend - This is something for 'you', not just anyone. They'll feel like you really like them and like they have your undivided attention. Always use active voice rather than passive.   It will make them feel as though you're speaking directly to them.

4. Always focus on their needs rather than being pushy and trying to move too fast. Nobody likes to be around someone who pushes the relationship too quickly. You want to get to know someone before you get too emotionally involved. There was a reason this person chose to visit your website. Address that need. How can you solve their problem? Don't tell them what you have; tell them what problem of theirs you can solve. Making a purchase is an emotional decision. If you move too quickly, they won't be ready to commit emotionally. Get to know them first.

5. Give them a reason to stick around or come back. Give them something they can't get anywhere else. While yes, they probably won't feel as special at any other website, but on the off chance the competition is also following these five steps, give them a free mini-course. Let them see you care about their success and about them. Show them you value the relationship. Give them a free report; something to help them reach their goal.

If you follow these guidelines, you'll make a wonderful impression and your new friends won't want to leave. They'll appreciate your thoughtfulness and stick around long enough to see what an absolute 'peach' you really are.

 

 

Boo Activities

OK, A little away from business success here; Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so I won’t apologize for creating a post that has a little Halloween fun in it. Use your knowledge of leadership (keep an eye out for my next post series that discusses this very topic) to get this started in your neighborhood, workplace, etc.

If you want to get your neighbors or co-workers in the Halloween spirit, be sure to engage them in a little game known as "Boo!" It's a popular game in some parts of the country, while in others, nobody has heard of it.

You might live in a neighborhood where you think nobody will participate in a round robin type of event as this, but you might be surprised. Sometimes during the holidays people will step up and get involved where before they wouldn't. It's possible, anyway and with you being the successful leader that you are, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal for you to get this going.

The game goes something like this, and then I will be described in more detail later. You print up a few poems and instructions on colorful paper (likely, orange). You get a treat bucket, or bowl or something and fill it with candy. You can also "Boo" people with candles, Halloween socks, and really whatever your imagination comes up with. You "Boo" two people at a time, leaving the items anonymously on their doorstep, desk, etc. You leave it with the instructions and the poem and hope they "Boo" other neighbors, co-workers, etc. Once you are done, you tape up a large "Boo!" on your door or desk so they know not to hit you up again.

Specifically, here's how it's done. Start this game around the very end of September or very beginning of October. If you want until everyone is decorated for Halloween, you're probably too late. You want this to spread around the neighborhood and that takes time, so you want to start it right as the season starts (or a little before, perhaps) and just as people are starting to think about Halloween. If you start too early, however, you might be out of luck as far as being able to purchase items.

So, it's the right time of the year and you're ready to go. Find a "Boo" poem and photocopy it. There are many variations of the poem. Here is a sampling:

 

"Boo!

To our good friends on the street;

Our homes' locations made us meet;

You now have been Boo'd, but who would we be?

We'll never tell, it's a secret, you see.

We placed these goodies for you and yours;

Then we ran fast, after knocking the door!

Happy Halloween!"

Or it might be a bit longer, something like this:

 

"The air is cool, the season fall

Soon Halloween will come to all;

The neighbors are after things to do

In fact, a neighbor brought this to you;

"Boo" is a sign of friendship power

Just hang it up and watch it double by hour;

On your front door is where it works

It wards off solicitors and scary jerks;

The treat that came with friendly note

Are yours to keep; enjoy them both;

The power comes when friends like you

Copy this and make it two;

Then others here among our friends

Will give warm fuzzies that will not end;

We'll all have smiles upon our face

No one will know who "boo'ed" whose place;

Just one short day to share your Boo

You must be quick so they don't know who;

And don't forget a nifty treat

Like something cute or something sweet;

Please join the fun, let's really hear it

And spread some "Boos" and neighborhood spirit!

 

 

Be sure to include a cute graphic of a ghost or something else that looks like it might say "Boo!" You might want to include some details on the flyer about what should be done next, in case you think the poem itself won't be clear enough. Then attach the poem to the goodie bag, basket, whatever you have created, and run out one night dropping your goodies on peoples' doorsteps. If you are just getting this started in your neighborhood, be sure to do more than 2 houses. You might find that some people don't participate and in that case, you want to have "Boo"ed enough people that you will get adequate participation.

What you're striving for is a neighborhood or office full of "Boo" doors by Halloween.