I have been fortunate to have a number of mentors and coaches who help me with every facet of my business. And though I have never credited him as being one of my mentors, bits and pieces of my father's advice play a major role in how I conduct my business. One of his favorite ditties has to do with "execution." He likes to say that "the world is filled with ideas and plans, but execution is the key to success."What may father means is that...more
A number of my coaching clients are small business owners. They are like the majority of small business owners in the world - They have a small business which they dream of turning into a large business someday. During one of my recent sessions, a client pointed to several companies that had blossomed "overnight" (really within one to two years) and were doing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in business in a very short time. He...more
Walk into your office sometime and flip the light switch. If your lights do NOT come on, you'll surely be unhappy, upset, frustrated and ready to chew your electric utility's head off. Worst of all, you may be facing the loss of a serious amount of revenue. Your business can simply not carry on without electricity and lights.Does your Information Technology (IT) share this exalted "essential" status? If not, you're risking serious business damage as IT has now joined electricity, heat, and air conditioning as utilities that we cannot afford to be without. Just about everywhere, at the very least from an expectation standpoint, your network infrastructure must absolutely be up and running every minute of every day, keeping your Internet access open, your phone system reliable and clear, your fax machines ready to give and receive, and a host of other mission-critical applications functioning at peak efficiency. Should your IT systems break down, you, your company, your people and your customers cannot hope to continue functioning properly together.CIO Magazine Editor Richard Pastore understands this new reality. He recently wrote a piece touting "convergence" as the new CIO...more
1. End your slow sales periods by planning ahead. Plan to add extrabonuses, hold a sale or package your product with other products.2. Make more commissions off the affiliate programs you join by givingyour personal endorsements for the products. They usually pull moresales than ads.3. Speed up your internet access. You can get your online business...more
Spam filters or spam blockers or spam eliminators have one purpose and that is to block, ban, delete unwanted, unsolicited commercial email and prevent them from entering your inbox. Their intentions are good since email is intended for personal communication but often abused by internet marketers and opt-in newsletters. However, spam filters are...more
All good and bad newsletters or ezines require subscriptions. Newsletters will ask you for your name and email address before you can receive valuable information from them. You might ask yourself, "Am I too important that someone wants to know my name and email address? Yes, you're that important as a lead or contact for the newsletter owner, that's why they're giving you free for something in return and that's a little bit of your privacy. Some newsletters will go to the extent of asking a survey-type question or majority will concentrate on your personal information. You know what, majority of people that I "meet" on the internet are like that. They are pleased to let them know you using their username or an alias. I was like that before hiding under username: weblord but now I know better.So now, you may ask how can I reach these majority who does not want to share their email address or name? The answer is: create subscription-free newsletters. Actually, we're all doing this since the start of internet and that is our personal homepages or an entire websites. Everyday, users with no faces flood my websites looking for something that I can't help them with or something that I...more
Credit runs into our lives and has effect on almost every decision we make. Bad credit runs in our credit application and has effects on every loan we borrow. A recent survey has shown that one fifth of the adult population cannot qualify for regular...more
Most people don't think of loans until the need originates in their own lives.Borrowing money is neither an easy decision nor a decision which has no serious repercussions. Taking loans will have an impact on almost all other decision and your future...more
With the new bankruptcy law in effect as of October 17, 2005, there is a lot of confusion with regard to the new "means test" requirement. The means test will be used by the courts to determine eligibility for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. The...more
Have you been told by a creditor that your debt is about to "charge-off"? Did the bill collector make it sound like you will be ruined financially if you allow this catastrophe to happen? If you're behind on your bills, unable to keep up with...more
Debt settlement has become a popular approach to resolving problem debts without having to file bankruptcy. With this approach, creditors agree to accept a portion of what you owe (usually around 50% or less) to settle the account, and the remaining...more
Pick up any "business opportunity" magazine at the local newsstand, and you'll see a glossy attractive publication designed to attract people who are actively seeking ways to earn extra money, buy a franchise, or open a business of their own. After...more