Lifestyle Blog

If you own a home business, there are 3 things you absolutely, positively must have, if you want to be successful:

1. You must have a guru or mentor:

If you aren’t proficient in Internet marketing, website design and copywiting and most people aren’t, do the smart thing and seek out an Internet marketing expert to help you. This can be a huge financial advantage for you, because 90 percent of those individuals coming online don’t have a clue what their doing. And instead of doing the smart thing and seeking out an expert for help, they’ll just struggle along trying this and that and losing money, until they’re finally forced out of business.

2. You must have a back-up plan:

Not having a back-up plan for your home business is like being stuck out in the desert with a flat tire and no spare. You just aren’t going anywhere. Sometimes, try as hard as we might, our ideas just don’t work and we have to scrap them. That’s why you should always have a back-up plan. Give your home business every chance to succeed, but if you sense it’s not going to happen, don’t be afraid to pull the plug on it and move on to plan “B.”

3. You must have relentless desire and determination:

This is the number one reason why most people don’t succeeed. They don’t have relentless desire and determination. I want you to commit the following words to memory:

“Any success you achieve will be in direct proportion to your desire and determination. The more desire and determination you have, the greater will be your success!”

Here’s another example to illustrate my point:

Most people think it’s Kobe Bryant’s amazing talent that sets him apart from the other players in the NBA. And make no mistake, his talent does play a significant role in his success. But what really makes Kobe Bryant special is his “relentless desire and determination.” He just wants to win more than everybody else.

That’s the mindset you have to have. You have to want to succeed with your home business more than anything else in the world anything!

And remember these words:

“Any success you achieve will be in direct proportion to your desire and determination. The more desire and determination you have, the greater will be your success!”

Manufacturers and distributors are rolling out more sales incentive programs for their channel partners than ever before.

Some of these programs are not as successful as they could be, however, because they fail to appreciate fully what motivates salespeople and drives them to overachieve. Read on to learn six key concepts that can make your incentive programs more effective.

The dangling of the proverbial carrot is an ancient art that is commonly understood to be at the heart of human behavior, psychology, motivation, and, in particular, business. Manufacturers and distributors commonly use this technique with their channel partners in an effort to add unique motivational value to move specific products or services. The reason this technique has stood the test of time is because, for the most part, it works! At times, however, elements of the technique are executed improperly. Sales incentive programs under perform or fail as a result.

The monetary values of incentives are often not the critical factor in motivating sales people to succeed. Take my own example. I was fortunate to work in an industry that provided an unending supply of incentives and awards for overachievement. I knew that, if I won every trip, every TV, every incentive offered, the money would come with it! For me, the money and the goodies were not my primary motivation. My philosophy was simple; “If you win all the incentives there are to win, you couldn’t help but be at or near the top every time.” Corporations use incentive programs to drive behavior and I agreed to play the game and conform to their wishes; what gets rewarded, gets done.

The problem, from the vendors’ point of view, is that not all salespeople are motivated the same way. Consequently, not all incentive programs work. Why is that? From my experience, I’ll make the following observations: Read the rest of Incentive Dilemma »

Whether you sell products or services on the Internet, you should get an autoresponder as soon as possible. It’s an immense time saver. And for most online entrepreneurs time is in short supply.

What is an autoresponder?

Without getting too technical, it’s like an automated email program that responds twenty four hours a day to any inquiries you receive about your product.

When a prospect sees your advertising, they send an email to your autoresponder address, and it replies immediately with your prewritten message about the product. Remember, people want info as soon as possible. If you have hundreds of inquiries a week, you’ll eat up too much time following up individually.

Best of all, you can load a series of email messages into the autoresponder and have it automatically send messages at specific intervals.

Why is following up with several messages better than only one? Consider this fact from the National Sales Association: 80 percent of sales are made between the fifth and twelfth contact. Impulse buyers are a rare breed.

How do you get started with an autoresponder

Once your account has been activated, you’ll be assigned your own autoresponder email address that you can use in your advertising. Write a series of email messages to load into your account. Concentrate on the benefits your product offers.

If you’re not confident about your writing abilities, you can get sales message templates to model or adapt for your own use. Try Autoresponder Magic: http://www.autorespondermagic.com/?19597.

Once you’ve loaded messages, you need to decide on when each message will be sent to your prospects. Most experts suggest you should contact prospects at least weekly. Experiment to see what’s best for you.

Your autoresponder will create a mailing list that includes everyone who’s inquired about your product. Most accounts will let you import and export name to and from your list.

You can also send out an ezine using an autoresponder. Just cut and paste your content as you would with a sales message.

Be sure to include a way for prospects and customers to unsubscribe to your mailings. GetResponse will automatically remove unsubscribers from your list. It can also tell you if it was unable to contact recipients due to invalid email addresses, over quota accounts, etc.

Once you get the hang of using an autoresponder, you’ll wonder how you managed your business without one.

Even the best business will receive an occasional customer complaint. Knowing how to resolve these complaints will help you gain loyal customers who will then refer others to your business. Here are some important tips.

1. Listen carefully to the customer and gather as much information as possible.

2. Restate the complaint as you understand it. This ensures that you completely understand what the situation is.

3. Resolve the problem as quickly as possible. Tell the person you are sorry this happened and ask what you can to do to make this right. Do not argue with the customer, even though you are right and do not become defensive.

3. After correcting the problem, tell the customer thank you for bringing it to your attention and that you appreciate their business.

4. Develop a written policy for your staff to follow and reward them when they do a good job.

Remember! The customer may not always be right, but an unhappy customer treated right may well be one of your most loyal customers.

Make sure you understand all the details of the program. Avoid MLM programs. Only the first tier group will reap rewards. Avoid any program where you recruit other affiliates. And your earnings are based on a percentage of their profits. Your profits plummet if your recruits abandon the program.

Affiliate programs pay their members a fixed amount for each sale, click through, lead, or banner impression.

Here’s a simple breakdown of most payment plans:

-Pay per sale.

A commission is paid for each sale your site/ezine generates.

-Pay per click through.

You receive a payment for each valid click to the sponsors website.

-Pay per lead.

You receive a payment for each sales lead for a service or product.

-Pay per impression.

You receive a payment each time a merchants banner or link is displayed to the merchants site.

Joining an affiliate program is easy! Just be sure to select an affiliate program with appropriate services or products that match your targeted audience.

If your ezine/website attracts Rugged Out-doors motorcycle enthusiast, you certainly would not display maternity clothing or baby booties.

Or if your ezine/website attracts young teenagers, you certainly don’t want to display senior citizen products like walkers or vitamins for older adults.

Always read the fine print. Make sure you understand the payment clause. Many affiliate programs will only send you payment after you’ve accumulated a certain sales amount. Anything from $10.00 and up.

Affiliates might pay every other week, per month or per quarter. You will receive a payment if you reach the minimum balance in sales during that pay period. Most balances are accumulative. So, if you do not reach the minimum during one pay period it will be rolled over to your next pay period and added to any sales balances. Once again, read the fine print in the affiliate agreement when you sign up for pertinent details.

Whether you are already running your own business, or still thinking about starting your own business, I suspect that deep down you know you have gifts and talents that can really make a difference to others. In an ideal world, you’d spend the majority of time doing the work you love to do, with a steady stream of clients knocking at your door as and when you want them. The reality, however, can be somewhat different, and the whole process of finding new business can be a time consuming challenge full of uncertainty.

Some would be entrepreneurs are so intimidated by the idea of finding clients that they never put their dreams into action. Others start promising businesses, yet give up disillusioned by the frustrating lack of clients. Some die-hards persist, but at great emotional and financial cost as the uncertainty about attracting and maintaining clients takes its toll. Read the rest of Attracting Clients With Ease »

Work addiction is very common in our society today, yet it is not one that is not highly recognised.

An interesting article in the March edition of The Success Report published by Success Technologies stated:

“Of all the addictions receiving attention today (including alcohol, drugs, gambling and food) work addiction is perhaps the least recognised and possibly the most dangerous.

This is because a work addiction is a compulsion that is rewarded and reinforced by society. In particular, it’s rewarded by corporations that encourage overwork as the norm. The lure of work is increasing as innovative, flexible companies use and reward fewer people to get more accomplished.

Yet work addiction should not be confused with hard work; So how can you tell if you’re just working hard or have crossed the line into work addiction?

When work begins to hurt, you’re addicted, say specialists. But how can you spot the work addict among your colleagues? According to Workaholics Anonymous, these characteristics are common to compulsive over-workers:

The Characteristics of Work Addicts

They are usually in a hurry
They have a strong need to control
They expect perfection of themselves and others around them
They have difficulty in relationships
They forget birthdays and anniversaries
They are unable to relax and have fun
They are impatient and irritable
They suffer from physical problems usually brought on because of stress, poor eating habits and lack of exercise such as headaches, fatigue, indigestion, allergies, stomach upset, ulcers, chest pain, shortness of breath, nervous tics and dizziness
Addicted workers often try to do several things at once. They eat breakfast while balancing figures, return phone calls while typing on the computer, or read the business and trade papers while going over meeting notes. Work addicts also feel indispensable and are consequently unable to delegate.

Yet as bad as work addiction can get, there is hope for the work addict:

Steps toward personal recovery

Take a time management course.

Reorganise your life so that work becomes proportionate to family, friends and self. Switch your focus to relaxation, exercise, nutrition and spiritual development.

Slow your work pace and also learn to eat, talk, walk and drive slower.

Learn to relax through massage or relaxation exercises.

Work in moderation and keep regular hours.

Set boundaries between work and personal life.

Strengthen family ties through shared activities and rituals.

Renew old acquaintances and join social clubs that don’t include co-workers.

Learn to live in the present, truly listen to others and as trite as it may sound stop and smell the roses. “

What to you do in Virginia if you suffer an injury at work?

First, you should report even trivial injuries to your employer immediately and make sure a written accident report is filled out and sent to the employer’s insurance company.

Second, you have two years from the date of your accident to file a claim with the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission. If you have medical bills or lost time and the insurance company has not sent you an agreement to be filed with the Commission, it is your obligation as an injured worker to file a Claim for Benefits with the Commission.

Third, if you claim is disputed by the insurance company, then you need to contact an attorney preferably an attorney who is experienced in Virginia Workers’ Compensation Law.

Let’s be crystal clear, right up front. Paying someone to “fix” your credit is a waste of your time and money, since the negative issues that are temporarily removed from your file will only reappear again in a couple of months.

Be careful with credit repair scams.

Most “credit repair” companies really don’t help. In fact, you can improve your credit more effectively on your own. By using credit repair companies, you may also be opening yourself up to identity theft, unsolicited emails, and direct mailings. Protect yourself; don’t ever share your personal information with strangers or give up your right to handle your own financial affairs as you see fit.

Another important point: credit counselors only promise to get you out of debt, not to improve your credit. Some companies will have you send them a check every month, out of which they’re supposed to pay your creditors for you. However, some credit counselors will often pay your bills late, which means that your credit report soon becomes filled with “over 30 days late” notations and your credit score drops even lower than it was.

“Debt negotiators,” posing as non-profit organizations, can ruin your credit even further, advising you not to pay your credit card bills at all. They also charge upfront fees, maintenance fees, and monthly fees, all of which are supposed to be placed in a “trust” account. Then, after many months have passed, debt negotiators finally convince creditors to settle for less money than was owed, making yours an “uncollectible account.”

That tactic not only ruins your credit, due to the many “over 90 days late” remarks and collections notations, but all the money you supposedly saved, which was actually money you owed, will be considered as income by the IRS! In other words, if you owed $20,000 and settled for $12,000, you’d be required to list the $8,000 difference as income!

Credit repair companies promise to help clear up your credit problems. They write letters to credit bureaus, stating that various listed information is false, so the agencies will remove that information while they investigate your account. During that time, the credit repair company sends you a clean credit report, thereby giving you the false impression that you now have good credit. But after you’ve paid off the credit repair company, you’ll discover that all the negative items will soon reappear on your report.

Remember: only incorrect items must be removed from your credit report if they’re proven to be false. If the black marks on your credit report are correct, no one can have them removed, regardless of what credit repair companies may try to tell you. Working with collectors to remove negative remarks is possible, but that’s another article.

Some credit repair agencies can probably do a reputable job removing items that are truly incorrect, such as: items after a bankruptcy that should have been removed, double items, children’s items on parents’ reports, and paid-off items that still show past due. Some people really just don’t like dealing with this kind of thing, so a reputable credit restoration company can help with these problems.

If you’re seeking legitimate financial help to buy a home, the best place to turn is to a mortgage broker. They’re the ones who can offer you the best FREE advice for settling credit disputes and problems, so when you find yourself in difficulty, consider using a mortgage broker as your credit counselor.

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