Sunday, May 20, 2007

How to Make Your Business Work


Perhaps you've been in business for awhile... You're not a "newbie", but you've fallen stale, developed some bad business-building habits.

Maybe...just maybe... it's time to look at your business with fresh eyes, as if you were starting a new business.

Here are nine secrets from Michael Masterson, the editor of Early to Rise:

Apart from starting off with (and sticking to) a good plan, there are nine secrets I’ve discovered to making a start-up business work:

  1. Business doesn’t happen until you’ve made the first sale.
  2. The most effective way of entering a new market is to offer a popular product at a much lower price.
  3. It’s ultimately about selling.
  4. When choosing a business, select one that can be grown without your personal involvement.
  5. Before you invest time and money in any business, know exactly how much you are willing to lose - and get out if you hit that point.
  6. First, improve your strengths. Then, eliminate your weaknesses.
  7. Focused effort is more effective than a diversified approach to business building.
  8. Let your winners run and cut your losses short.
  9. Pay attention to Pareto’s Law (the 80-20 rule): 80 percent of your success comes from 20 percent of your resources.

[Ed. Note: The above article was excerpted from Michael Masterson’s book Automatic Wealth for Grads… and Anyone Else Just Starting Out. Get the book to learn the details… plus much more.]

The key take-aways here:

FOCUS your efforts. You focus your efforts when you target your market.

Work to your Strengths.

It's all about sales. Pay attention to the 20% that drive 80% of your sales volume.





Friday, May 11, 2007

Target Marketing Works...

... when you break out of "average" and "mediocre" and commit to being the best, the top EXPERT in your field or chosen market niche.

Seth Godin's "Manifesto" on his new book The Dip suggests that you quit all the stuff where you can't be the best.

Are you focused on your "Best"?

Sunday, May 6, 2007

DO NOT

"In the name of the best within you, DO NOT sacrifice this world for those who are its worst.

In the name of the values that keep you alive, DO NOT let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless, in those who have never achieved their title.

DO NOT let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.

DO NOT let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved but have not been able to reach.

Check your road and the nature of your battle - the world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible."

- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged


Now... If you've never read Atlas Shrugged...


READ IT!

It's been voted one of the most influential books in America, second only to the Bible.


Thursday, May 3, 2007

MySpace?... YourSpace or DeadSpace?

As a Financial Services Pro looking to market your services and attract new clients, should you join the MySpace social network and build some buzz about the problems you solve?


Here's an article about a recent MySpace study to get you thinking

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Stop Screwing Up!

Are you working IN your business...

Or...

Working ON your business?

Check out this inspiring video from Michael E. Gerber