Business Success - Issue 1

BUSINESS

SUCCESS

VOL 1 ISSUE 001

FINDING OPPORTUNITIES IN ANY ECONOMY Page 03

WHY SMALL BUSINESSES STAY SMALL Page 06

RICH AUTHOR FORMULA Page 11

LESSONS LEARNED FROM

STEVE JOBS Page23

page 21

9 KEY AREAS OF A BUSINESS GROWTH EDUCATION

Business Success

FIND INSIDE TABLE OF CONTENTS

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08

11

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16

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27

03

FINDING OPPORTUNITIES IN ANY ECONOMY

11

RICH AUTHOR FORMULA

20

9 KEY AREAS OF BUSINESS GROWTH EDUCATION

04

SEVEN STEPS TO GETTING KNOWN

13

FIND YOUR THING FOR BETTER BUSINESS

22

BUSINESS SUCCESS WITH STEVE JOBS’ LESSONS

06

WHY SMALL BUSINESSES STAY SMALL

15

COMMUNITY AROUND YOUR BUSINESS

24

COMMUNITY AROUND YOUR BUSINESS

08

A TOUGH LESSON ABOUT LEADERSHIP

16

INTERVIEW WITH MIKE BERRY

27

LONGEST JOURNEY BEGIN WITH A SINGLE STEP

FOR ADVERTISING ENQUIRES CONTACT Volume 1, Issue 001

CHRYSALIS HOUSE PUBLISHING PUBLISHINGUK@ME.COM 7 NEWTON PLACE, GLASGOW, G3 7PR

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Business Success

FINDING OPPORTUNITIES IN ANY ECONOMY Your own beliefs and behaviors are greater predictors of your success than any fluctuation in the marketplace. Even when the newspapers splash the word recession across the front page, you can write your own success story.

Master the Art of “Inverse Paranoia” Start by becoming an “Inverse Paranoid”.

What I mean by this is, believe that every event in your life is the seed for your greater good; something meant to enrich you, empower you or advance your cause.

Imagine how much easier it would be to succeed in life if you were constantly expecting the world to support you and bring you opportunity.

You can easily verify this belief for yourself.

Just think about the last time that a terrible event turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

A big blessing for me came during the 1970’s when I lost my job. I was working at the Job Corps Center in Clinton, Iowa, pioneering new ways to teach underachieving students. One day the word came down that the center was being relocated – and I was being laid off.

While attending a workshop at the W. Clement & Jesse V. Stone Foundation in Chicago, I shared my predicament with the presenter. He happened to be vice president of the foundation, and he immediately offered me a job working with inner-city black and Latino kids.

I accepted the offer, and what I got in return was a bigger salary, an unlimited budget, and a laboratory for learning the suc-

cess principles that transformed my life and launched a new career path.

Ask Yourself: What Opportunity Exists Here?

Take the fast track to inspiration by constantly asking yourself: What’s the opportunity here? Make this a habit, and you’ll stay calm and centered during any event that seems like a setback.

The beauty of this question is that it triggers your mind to respond with positive suggestions. Compare these to the useless information you get by asking yourself the questions such as: Why did this happen to me? Or, Who’s to blame for this mess?

If you get passed over for a promotion or your retirement account takes a hit in the stock market, remember to ask: What’s the opportunity here? – or one of its inspiring variations: • What can I learn from this event?

• What will I do differently from now on?

• Who can I turn to as a mentor or coach?

• What’s my next action?

Remember the Three Things You Control In a way, the economy is just a vague and sometimes ambiguous idea. It refers in a general way to trillions of dollars of goods,

services and products by billions of people across the planet. When you face a financial challenge, it is the vast, impersonal economy at work? Or is it your personal economy, which you can directly control?

You can’t always count on the economy, but you can always rely on yourself.

Remember, you have absolute control over three things in your life: 1. The thoughts you think 2. The images your visualize 3. The actions you take (including what you say to others) Your life experience is simply the sum total of the choices you make in these three areas. And you can attract new results at any time by making new choices. Use the ideas and exercise found in this article to do just that!

ABOUT JACK CANFIELD Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul® and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

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Business Success

SEVEN STEPS TO GETTING KNOWN GUERRILLA PR FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR

n i l b u L l l i J By So you’ve started your own business and you’re ready to let the world (or your neighborhood) know.

Now it’s time to add public relations to the list of your entrepreneurial skills. Public relations is human relations and a critical aspect of growing your business. Everything you say and do is part of your PR campaign. It is the image you project every day to everyone you meet. It is about you and your company becoming a force in the public eye on a regular basis, PR that you undertake yourself can be a primary way to grow your business and become known without major expense.

There are seven basic steps involved in mounting your campaign.

Step #1

involves figuring out who you are, what you do and how to express it in the most succinct and interesting way possible. There may be situations such as networking functions where you have only 30 seconds to introduce yourself and make that all important first impression. Spend as much time as necessary practicing your ‘intro’ until it truly flows in a positive, strong, and confident manner.

Remember that success begets success and great first impressions will speak volumes about you and your business.

Now that you have developed the most effective message possible,

Step #2

is to determine your ooh-ahh factor, the ‘story’ about you. It’s important to understand why you are news from the media’s perspective and how your products help people or your service gives value and benefit. Once you know your ‘ooh-ahh’ factor, you can begin to create materials, which will tailor your story to the specific media, whose attention you wish to gain.

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And this leads to

Step #3

which is to define your audience and create a media list. Your list will, of course, be determined by the nature of your product or service, whether you are a local, national or international company and on which markets you are focusing your growth. If you are a ‘local’ trying to build a business in your community, then you will focus on local media.

On the other hand, if you are pursuing national growth, you will want to check out major newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, entrepreneurial publications such as Fortune or Inc., or gender specific magazines such as Good Housekeeping or Men’s Health. There are sources for purchasing media lists such as Bacon’s in Chicago or the United Way. It’s important to familiarize yourself with all the media you contact and to make preliminary phone calls to get the appropriate name for directing your release or media kit.

Do an update at least every three months.

At Step #4

it is time to put together a press release, a simple 3-4-paragraph, one-page document that tells your story clearly. It must be unique to grab media attention FAST. The first paragraph must

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Business Success contain the ‘catch’ phrase to grab them quickly. It should contain the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your story and begin with the city and state of origination. Techniques for grabbing attention include giving a statistic that shows that their audience needs this information, which makes it relevant to current events or business news. The second paragraph might consist of a quick biography or additional information and the third should contain a quote from the highest source you can find. Sometimes the press will only use the first paragraph so it must contain all the relevant information.

The press release should be done on your letterhead on the top left hand column; it should say FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. The upper right hand should show the CONTACT and give the name and phone number of your publicist (or yourself). Be absolutely sure it is 100% accurate in terms of grammar, facts, punctuation, spelling, and names.

Step #5

will involve creating a media kit, which will include a copy of your press release(s) as well as other information. This is used to create interest for the press to do a full story or having you appear on a TV or radio show. It should also include a company background piece or brochure, a pricing sheet, any press clippings (reproduced on your stationary) and any other public relations materials. Grabbing attention is imperative so packaging is critical. It involves the careful selection of eye-catching colors for the folder as well as the contents. Quality says a lot so don’t skimp.

Now that you’ve assembled your kit, it’s time for

Step #6,

the all-important mail out. Presumably you have created your media list and have the appropriate names with (correct spelling) and titles. Now comes the most critical part, the follow up! The phone may not ring. It is up to you to make the calls. Start by saying, “hello, my name is “and start your pitch within 10 seconds Remember your ‘hook’ and tell them in 30 seconds or less why you are the news. A good rule of thumb on follow up calls is within one week for national, within three to four days for local/regional or if email, with a day or two. You might want to create a one page synopsis to use as a guide when you call which should include who are you, why are you news, and how your product or service benefits people and gives value.

Step #7

is a series of seven reminders to help you create powerful publicity 365 days a year. If you follow these tips, you will be well on your way to capturing the media’s attention!

Make personal contacts as often as possible.

Always carry your business card and materials.

Know what is special about you and get the word out using the media.

Know the media you are pitching—always watch or listen to a show before you are on it.

Be prepared for interviews. They might just call you before you call them.

Be consistent with your image and make sure all your materials reflect the image you desire to project.

Participate in social and civic activities and help others get business by networking.

Jill Lublin is an internationally acclaimed speaker and best selling author of the books,Guerrilla Publicity and Networking Magic. She is the CEO of the strategic consulting firm Promising Promotion and founder of GoodNews Media, Inc. Jill hosts the nationally syndicated radio show Do the Dream, has a TV show called The Connecting Minute, and is working on her third book. She can be reached by phone at 415-883-5455 or by email at info@promisingpromotion.com.

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Jill Lublin 5

Business Success

JONATHAN JAY MY VIEW

WHY SMALL BUSINESSES

STAY SMALL Personally, I find the title ‘small business’ quite irritating.

I know there are some people that actually want to keep their business small – they’re the ones who like a ‘lifestyle’ business, something small-scale they can operate from home without any other staff. They’re quite happy earning little more than a salary, even if they have to work longer hours than they would do for someone else, because they have autonomy.

However, the business owners I meet who have what the Government would term a ‘small business,’ don’t really want one – they want a growing business that will one day be a big business. However they have no idea how to make the transition from ‘small’ to ‘large’. The hurdle seems too big.

I can understand the frustration they feel. I have also heard all the reasons (or excuses) why they can’t achieve their goal of a ‘growing’ business: things like “There are some big competitors out there”, “I don’t have the money to expand” or “I can’t afford staff”…

If you’re in that position, you have two options: you can either accept the reasons and have a business you always know in your heart has enormous untapped potential OR you can find a way to circumvent the reasons, dispel the excuses and go about getting your product or service into more people’s hands. Remember, the simple distinction between a small business and a big business is the number of customers you have.

So, if that’s the simple distinction, the simple question is – How do you get more customers?

And the simple – but not easy – answer – is you need better sales and marketing.

But, of course, having more customers brings more challenges.

For example, increased necessity for financial control, better logistics, better planning, more administrative responsibilities, more management (Heaven forbid, a corporate structure) and other headaches.

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Business Success And if there was one reason why small businesses stay small is that the business owner tries do it all themselves.

They answer the phone, open the post, fix the IT issues, build the website, etc, etc, etc.

It’s a recipe for disaster, madness and constant frustration.

In fact, that kind of stress can kill you – and many business owners are heading for a D.O.A (Dead On Arrival) situation.

But that’s part of the solution as well.

D- delegate O –outsource A - automate When you delegate, outsource and automate, you free up time and energy. You stop doing all the jobs you hate and aren’t good at any way.

And you focus on the number one priority of the business owner - the strategy of taking today’s business into tomorrow. And you do that by improving your sales and marketing strategy.

Most people appreciate Pareto’s 80/20 rule which states that 20% of your effort produces 80% of your results. However, as far as your success is concerned, I believe that 80% of your effort in sales and marketing will produce 100% of your results. Only income-producing activities produce income.

Virgin isn’t Virgin because of its superior filing system – it’s so hugely successful because of its superior positioning, marketing and strategy.

When you delegate, outsource and automate, you free up time and energy.

You stop doing all the jobs you hate and aren’t good at any way.

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And those are three things small business owners (who are actually frustrated growing business owners) don’t do – because they are too busy filing.

The only way out of this cycle – which only gets worse over time – is to D.O.A. (Delegate, Outsource and Automate) so that you, the business owner can focus on your most important role as CEO – the growth of the business.

So – get out of the business for two days and stay in a hotel, without your phone and without email access.

Get a good night’s sleep and then start thinking – what could this business look like if I couldn’t fail?

This is an important question. One reason why the (secretly) ambitious business owner doesn’t try and expand their business is fear of failure – and that fear rises from not have the knowledge or skill to make that expansion. But for the moment, ignore that fear – skills and knowledge can be learned. Instead, focus on the outcome and ask yourself what the business would look like and what would be required to make it happen.

Perhaps you would need to double your customer base. That’s not difficult: I work with business owners who have done so or are on track to do exactly that (and often in months, rather than years).

Perhaps you would need to find new suppliers. Google is a great starting point for that. Perhaps you would need skilled (or unskilled staff). There are more people available now than in the past 20 years.

In fact,- if you start with the attitude of nothing is impossible because someone has already done it before you (and somebody always has, even if they’re in another industry or profession), then you start expanding your mind to what’s possible.

This should get you excited because now all you have to do is find a way of achieving it.

One way is to get a mentor – someone who has achieved something similar.

Another way is to get around like-minded people who can provide input into your business as you provide input into theirs – with some external guidance from someone with expertise.

You need to get a sales and marketing education. Since the cornerstone of growing a business is finding more customers, creating an effective lead generation and sales conversion strategy is essential.

Turning a small business into a growing business is a big job and rarely an overnight operation; with the right team however you can do it faster than if you were trying to do it by yourself – and if you feel we can help, come along to the free Business Accelerator Programme and we can spend two days getting the process started.

This is your opportunity to accelerate your dreams of operating a successful (profitable) growing business. Don’t let it slip through your fingers!

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A Tough Lesson About

Leadership They say money doesn’t bring happiness, well I am here to tell you I am very happy. I have been very broke and many might say I am very rich. In fact I remember 8 years ago I had negative $34,000 in my bank account and everyone said I wouldn’t make it. Which would you rather be? Rich and miserable or poor or happy. Now it’s not that money brings happiness but money brings freedom. The ability to do whatever you want, when you want, with whomever you want. I have never been happier. Although the truth is when you have no money, it’s all about the money, but when you get it you often feel a sense of emptiness or what’s next?

Life is not measured by how much money you make but rather how many lives you change.

If you are a true entrepreneur money shouldn’t be your driving force. I always found that when I focused on growing my business rather than how much I was earning, that is when the money came. In fact, I made my first million when I was 24 years old and since then I have never looked back.

Life is not measured by how much money you make but rather how many lives you change. Yet on the other hand, success in business is measured by how much you make. No one has ever said, “Wow he or she has a very successful business that makes no money”.

Ever since I became successful I have developed a new purpose. A sort of inner leadership and a responsibility to become a better person and more of a social entrepreneur like Richard Branson or Elon Musk. I am not interested in money. In fact, if you take care of your clients, your clients will take care of your profits. I am more interested in significance and leaving a legacy. John F. Kennedy once said “Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country.”. So let me ask you, are you a leader or a follower? Here are a few questions that might help you answer that question:

So what? You want to be a leader? You want to be rich?

1. How have you made this planet a better place?

2. Are you a leader who leads by example or do you lead from the back?

3. Have you thought of the legacy you will leave?

4. How many times have you heard this phrase from people ‘“Thank you for changing my life” 5. Are you a charitable person?

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As the world’s #1 wealth coach I have made people successful in as many as 30 plus countries and everyone wants to know two things: How I became rich and how I became a leader. Well let me give you some free coaching.

Lesson #1: Stop Dreaming!

Unfortunately, dreams don’t come true.

Dreamers only talk about what they want to do while visionaries actually do. Richard Branson, Donald Trump, and Jeff Bezos were all visionaries. Visionaries think 8 moves ahead of everyone and always do whatever it takes to succeed.

Lesson #2: Stop The Insanity The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The business world is full of people who keep repeating the same mistakes.

How you change is how you succeed. Leaders know that in order to succeed they have

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Business Success to be like chameleons. They always have to be changing because every successful entrepreneur knows that what works today may not work 6 months from now. The market is changing so fast and you need to change before it does, because the threats are no longer the companies that are bigger than you. They are often the companies that haven’t even started yet. Stop the insanity and start changing your ways, because if you have made it so far doing what you are doing and you expect things will be different you are heading to the business graveyard of broken dreams.

Lesson #3 You Have To Be The Best To become a successful leader and entrepreneur, I always had to strive to become #1. Whether you are #1 or not is irrelevant but I meet too many entrepreneurs who are too comfortable. To become successful you have to be uncomfortable and that means never being satisfied. Being #1 is a culture and for most entrepreneurs money does not drive them. It’s merely a way of how we keep score. The latest thing I have now achieved on my bucket list is being on the Forbes 400. After being named “The next Billionaire” recently in a magazine, people have often asked, “What will I do with my first billion?” My answer is simple, “I will give all to charity and make another.”.

When I play golf, I play to win, I play for a better score, I play to improve. I am upset if I don’t play well. That is the same attitude as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, or any business Icon. When you compete in the Olympics no one remembers Silver and Bronze. When you win the Gold you get the national sponsorship, you are a national hero, you are on a cereal box, you get the speaking engagements, the endorsements, the fame and the success. The best congratulations you may receive when you get a Silver and a Bronze medal is probably a used coaster for your drink. The difference between Gold and Bronze is not seconds but milli-seconds. It’s not just about you being #1 but also instilling this culture in your Organization with the underlying theme of “Did you give it your very best.”. I don’t care if you won or lost, if you gave it your very best, than I can live with that. Nothing creates better leaders than when you win.

Winning and leadership go hand and hand.

Lesson #4: How Can You Improve?

I have been around the best. From Mr. Trump, to my friend Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak, to spending 5 days at Necker Island with Richard Branson, I’ve come

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to learn that all great entrepreneurs and CEO’s have one thing in common. They all ask themselves, “How can I improve this?

How can I make this better?” They ask “How can I make this faster, better looking, smaller, slimmer...?” It is the constant attention to detail that makes great leaders.

Hence look at the evolution of the iPhone or walk through one of Mr. Trumps golf courses and you will understand why these icons are truly the best at what they do. The details are so important but also the over analysis and emphasis on perfection can have it’s downfalls. If it is not managed, it can lead to delays, increased costs, and failed launches. Nothing is more proof of this than the Lisa 2 project held by Steve Jobs at Apple.

Lesson #5: Become a Paranoid Optimist Leaders are always paranoid and never too comfortable. But the minute you become too comfortable is the minute mistakes start happening and things start slipping.

I am a paranoid optimist. Always worried something will go wrong but I am an optimist that I will succeed. I think it is that edge that helps fuel my inner leadership.

Passion is not something you can put inside an entrepreneur. You either have it or you don’t. But without that paranoid edge you can make careless mistakes.

Lesson #6: Stop With Your Excuses Every successful leader knows that the less excuses you have the more successful you will become. They also know that no one cares about how good your excuses are. One

of the very first things my coaches said to me is “If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me”. People often point the finger at someone when it goes wrong but more often than not they have 3 fingers pointing right back at them.

I had a former partner whose style was collaborative, working together and everyone was accountable. All the great CEO’s I know, the buck stops at the top. That is why CEO’s make as much money as they do. It is because when things go well, they get the credit, and when things go wrong, they get the blame.

Lesson #7: Partnering As a successful entrepreneurial leader, 70% of your time should be spent on building and monetizing relationships. A great entrepreneur knows it’s not what you know, it’s not who you know, but who knows you. 4 years ago I created what is now known as Mega Partnering. Mega Partnering known as the world’s top wealth networking and business conference. The idea of Mega is to put 800 successful people in the room to network, do deals, and infiltrate each others circle of influence. We have had in the past Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donna Karan, Donald Trump, Michael Eisner (Former Disney CEO), Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder), Jack Welch (Former GE CEO), Al Pacino ,and Sylvester Stallone. What’s the key to success? It is to Learn, Earn, Return, and Re-Learn!

Lesson #8 Get a Coach There is no such thing as a self made man or woman. Whether it is a sports athlete, a top executive or an entrepreneur, all

the thing that kills most leaders is FEAR. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of what other people think, and fear of loss

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Business Success the great ones I know have a coach. Ask yourself these questions: “Why do sports teams have coaches? Why don’t the players coach themselves?” A Coach provides accountability, focus, the strategy, and they help to make the tough calls. In business we often see the world with blinders on. Our coach often sees the world from an outside perspective without blinders. So the question is “Why don’t you have a coach?” Some say it’s because of cost. Well a great leader doesn’t look at how much something costs but rather how much it will make them. Secondly, people often ask, Where do I find a great coach?” Well, great coaches pick you, not the other way around. I have 8 coaches from George Ross, Donald Trumps right hand man of 40 years, Nido, and Hugh Hilton. I rarely make a big business decision without checking with them first because in today’s market the margin of error is so small. One small mistake can

kill your business and one small move can lead you with financial freedom forever. If you want a great coach come to one of my live events at www.JTFoxxLive.com Lesson #9 Be a Fearless Leader Finally, the thing that kills most leaders is FEAR. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of what other people think, and fear of loss.

Here is the problem, fear is a choice! In life, if you take risk out, you take opportunity out. All great leaders know that as in life it’s ok to fail in business, but as long as you don’t repeat yourself then you will fail forward. People tell me you only live once and that’s why they live in fear. I tell them you don’t live once, you live every day and die once. So don’t be afraid to live and be ok with feeling uncomfortable because that is how you become successful.

In the end, leaders lead from the front,

not the back. Leaders are visionaries.

Leaders are willing to do what unsuccessful people won’t. It’s not easy being successful and I believe that this world needs more heroes, more role models and coaches to inspire our future generation.

From our youth of tomorrow to a growing demand of women entrepreneurs, the world is changing and if you want to become a leader or remain one, you will have to change. The market place can be a difficult place to thrive and in order to cut through the clutter, you are going to have to be different. A leader is willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, a leader will never quit on himself and a leader will not hesitate to make the tough calls even if others will be affected by it. Leaders are not born, they are made. You just need to make a choice as to what you want to be and do it and the universe will get out of the way. Leaders don’t talk about what they are going to do, they simply do.

ABOUT JT FOXX JT Foxx is a serial entrepreneur, Philanthropist and wildly known as one the top speakers and wealth coaches in the world.

He currently does business in 29 different countries and started 9 years ago with $974 dollars to his name. His business model is very simple, “He is Powered by Your Success:”. Visit www.JTFoxx.com

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Business Success

RICH AUTHOR FORMULA So what is more powerful than a well written book with a fantastic cover? A best selling book of course. A best selling book (top 10) is the way to excel your credibility and success. If you hit the No1 position you then become a No1 Best Selling author which no one can take away from you. For this book I will be explaining how to get to that No1 position. Once you have done it for your first book you will find that it gets easier to do. We are focusing on producing an Amazon No1 best seller as this in my opinion is the easiest to achieve and not that time consuming.

Plan before your book is written.

The best time to plan your books promotion is before it’s even written. However if you haven’t done it at this stage don’t worry you can still become a best seller.

before they download).

8. Your Press Release so that its ready to go when your book is ready.

9. Price 10. Marketing plan / timing

So why should you plan so far in advance?

You will need people to promote your book to. You can not rely on people stumbling across your book and buying it.

How I built my list My list for my first book was my customer list, so everyone who had ever ordered anything from me. My list now that I am in a different business is different, I had to build this list from scratch.

Here is a list of things we are aiming for at this stage.

1. A List - A database of people who you think might be interested in buying your book.

2. Social Network Accounts - A company Facebook and Twitter account.

3. Joint Venture Partners - Essential if you don’t have a list.

4. A Front Cover - You will need a front cover so that you can start promoting your book.

5. Amazon Advantage account - You will need one for your business if you are self publishing if you are going through a publisher they should have one of their own.

6. The blurb - What your book is about, why people should buy it.

7. Your bonus - It is much easier to sell books if you give a free bonus with each copy. This is usually in the form of a download from your website (so you can collect the customers email address

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I publish an eyelash magazine ‘Lash Inc’, when I started I had zero subscribers and I had to get a list quickly. How I did it.

1. I came up with an offer, 6 months free digital subscription to the new magazine.

2. I had a 1 page - squeeze page made up to collect the sign ups which was linked to my mail chimp account.

3. I joined and posted in every Facebook group I could find on Eyelash extensions or Beauty therapy.

4. I would post weekly, inviting people to join my Facebook page and I also sent this invite out to the people who had subscribed to the free digital edition.

Just before the first issue I had over 6000 email addresses! So as you can see if you don’t have a list at the moment you can put a plan in place to get one.

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First think about your list.

If you do not have a list you need to build one. Or have a joint venture with someone who does until you have one, but either way make it your mission to build a good list.

To build your list you need to think about...

1. Your offer. What are you going to give for free and of value to the people subscribing to your list?

2. How are your going to collect the data?

Do you have a website or even just a 1 page squeeze page? You can order a squeeze page from $5 from www.fiverr. com that’s where I got mine.

3. Join online groups for your area of business. For example if you are in coaching you will want to join every coaching group you can. Type in coaching group on your Facebook search and it will come up with all of them.

This article is based on information from ‘Rich Author Formula’ available on Amazon from No1 Best Selling Author Louise Prunty.

Louise has written eight No1 best selling books and as a publisher has marketed six additional books to No1 best seller status. www.louiseprunty.com

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Business Success

FIND YOUR THING

FOR BETTER BUSINESS

Your Thing is the thing that you do that’s brilliant. The problem with that is you either have no idea what that is or think you have lots (and lots) of things. But here’s the Thing – you have one brilliant Thing – a result or outcome that you can give – that is so easy for you, so effortless and ‘obvious’ that you probably overlook it and almost certainly aren’t selling it.

yet, gets it immediately. They’ll know. Just like you know.

My Thing (and it took me a while to find it) is seeing other people’s and businesses ‘Thing’ and helping them get paid for it. I used to be ‘good’ at lots of things (and still am) like marketing, and business strategy, and copy writing (and the list goes on) but my ‘Thing’ thing is seeing what is there in the first place. I wonder what your Thing is?

There are just 2 ways to find your Thing.

It’s hard to put your finger on it but if you know you’re doing it, you know. Just like you’ll absolutely know if you’re not doing your Thing. The reason I know is that I can stand up in front of a room of people and say ‘I help people find their Thing’ and anyone in the room who hasn’t found their Thing

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So if you’ve not found your Thing yet you’ll find this super useful (and even if you have found your Thing, read on and take note incase you’re selling your jam instead of your cake…)

One way to find your Thing is to work out what you do SO easily that you almost think ‘I can’t get paid for this it’s too easy.

Ha! Well let me tell you what I know about easy… what YOU find easy is very often not what other people find easy. What you ‘get’ or ‘see’ or ‘understand’ in an instant is very often not what everyone around you gets or sees or understands. And there already you can start to see the value in your easy Thing – the very fact that other people find it ‘hard’ means you have an opportunity to help make it easy.

Now selling your easy Thing can look like you doing it for other people, or teaching people to do it easily like you do it, or making a product that turns into an easy thing, or supporting people with a process or system that makes it easy. There are lots of ways to sell your Thing and they absolutely do not have to be you doing it.

But the good thing about a Thing is you already know you have a market. If you understand that you find something easy that other people/businesses/industries don’t, then you have something of value to sell. It really is as simple as that.

The other way to find your Thing is to notice what annoys you. Being grumpy is great when it comes to looking for your Thing.

Because you’re very likely to DO SOMETHING about it if it pisses you off!

There’s bound to be a way that people do things now, or a belief that certain things have to happen ‘this way’ that right royally peeves you. Maybe it’s irritating you how

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Business Success much (or how little) something costs. Do you have quicker/better/smarter/easier/something-y way of doing a thing that you can’t believe no-one is telling people about (hint with that one – it’s probably because we’re waiting for you).

If there is some-thing that properly makes you grumpy AND you know you can do something about it, take a close look as that may well be your Thing (that’s how I found mine btw). Oh how it used to annoy me when I met brilliant business owners ‘complaining’ they didn’t have the business they wanted when it was ‘slap-your-head’ obvious to me it’s because they weren’t telling us what their Thing was, no story, no here’s how I’m different and here’s what I can really do for you.

SO. ANNOYING. You already have it.

Oh and just in case you’re now thinking, oh here we go, I feel a ‘quest’ coming up…the good thing about your Thing is you already have it.

Everything you have done up to now, everything you’ve learnt, and watched, and read, experienced, understood, formed an opinion on, worked out a better way for, reacted to, adapted to, challenged, accepted and said – all of that is your Thing.

And the other good news is that no-one else’s Thing is exactly like yours. And that’s a brilliant position to be in business – a mini monopoly of just you puts you completely in charge of the price of your Thing and how much you want to sell of it.

Now if you already think you’re doing your Thing (and you may well be) make sure you’ve not got too specific. Often when we go ‘Thing’ finding we think we’ve hit on the whole Thing but actually it may just be a piece of it. I call this jam. So you may have absolutely yummy jam that’s easy for you to make, and you may even already be a little bit famous for your jam, BUT you have this ‘feeling’ that there’s more to you that just the jam. That ‘more’ is of course your cake. When you realise that you know more ‘around’ just what you’re known for, is when you need to start selling all the ingredients of the cake you can make. Your Thing is ALL the things that make up what you do really well – which includes your jam (you don’t lose the jam) but you just get a bigger cake.

So if you like the idea of selling what you find easy, find your Thing. If you like the idea of being in total control how much you sell and how much for, find your Thing. If you want to stop doing what you’re ‘good’ and do what you’re brilliant at instead, find your Thing. It’s a lot more fun when you’re Thinging.

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Lucy Whittington Being a Business Celebrity Author of Find your Thing!

Office +44 (0) 333 444 0143 www.BeingaBusinessCelebrity.com www.FindYourThingBook.com

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Business Success

A FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING A THRIVING COMMUNITY AROUND YOUR BUSINESS Building a strong community is one of the best things you can do for your business. It can help you get to know your customers and prospects and help them get to know you; it can keep you in the forefront of your customers’ minds and set you apart from the competition. Community members can become great advocates for your business, increasing awareness of your brand and, in some cases, doing the selling for you!

When I talk about building a community I’m not talking about starting from scratch. Every business already has some sort of community even if it isn’t a particularly engaged community. If you have any customers, you’ve got a community. If people read your posts on social media, you’ve got a community. If you are still in the planning stages then you might not have a community yet but this means you can start as you mean to go on.

I have developed a framework of elements that you need to think about in order to create a successful, thriving community. These five essential building blocks are the character of the community, its purpose, the language used, its members and the energy of the community. The character of your community should reflect the character of your business. If your business was embodied in a person, what words would you use to describe him or her? For example, a restaurant could be sophisticated and slightly reserved or young, fun-loving and brash. These same characteristics should come through in your community.

Your community’s purpose is twofold. If it is to be worth your time and effort then it must serve a purpose for your business, but it must also serve a purpose for its members. You need to give people a compelling reason to be part of your community. For example, perhaps you give your community members information whilst establishing yourself as the go-to expert in your niche.

The language you use helps to define the character of your community and it’s a very strong signal to people of whether they belong or not. This may be to do with geographical variations or perhaps you use specialist terms that only people in your community would understand. Obviously your members are an essential part of your community and it is important to recognise the different personalities and how they interact. When I work with people to build their communities we look at five different types of members because you need to ensure you are attracting and connecting with them all.

The final element of the framework is the energy of the community. When you first start actively growing your community it’s like setting off in a car, you need to put your foot down and inject more energy in order to get it going but once you get going it takes less energy to cruise along. Take some time to think about the kind of community you would like to create and then work through the framework and you will be well on the way to building a community that grows your business.

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Lucy Davies works with business owners who place a strong emphasis on customer relationships, helping them to build communities that grow their businesses. You can find out more at www.thecommumitybuilder.co.uk.

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Business Success

MIKE BERRY I successfully ran my own Independent Financial Advisory practice in Edinburgh, as one of the highest qualified in the UK, until I decided that my heart was no longer in it, so I closed that business during 2006 and instead I chose to concentrate on my new project called “Inspire Scotland”.

My goal was to Inspire 10,000 people at once, so I hired the largest conference centre in Scotland (SECC) and invested 1.5 years and all of my own fairly substantial savings to make it happen - and it did!!

I generated my first income online in 1996 (yes 18 years ago), and now generate 100% of my income via the web. I have helped hundreds of people to Make Money Online.

MY BIO I ran my own very successful IFA (Independent Financial Adviser) Practice in Edinburgh for 17 years. I was Chairman of the Professional Body in 2000, and a member of the elite Million-Dollar Round Table (MDRT) reserved for the top 3% of Financial Advisers in the World.

I have founded and Chaired many groups and associations, all in the realms of Personal Development & Charitable Fundraising.

I was invited to HRH The Queen’s Royal Garden Party at age 25 (I reckon I was the youngest person there), President of Rotaract 3 times, Chairman of Area twice, winner of various achievement awards (all of which came out of the blue) including

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‘Contribution to the Community’. Amongst others, I founded and Chaired YESScotland, Yes-musketeers, Basket Brigade, Inspire Scotland (The Largest Inspirational Event Ever To Come To Scotland), The First Internet Summit In Scotland.

It took me a long time before I realised that I was doing what most people do, especially entrepreneurs... I was paying all my bills, living for the moment (nights out, conferences etc), and saving virtually nil.

I reflected on one of my school friends who always pleaded poverty & then at 18 he went out and purchased a brand new car... so all this time when I was sharing my sweeties with him, because it seemed I had more cashflow than him, and then I was stunned to discover that his version of having no

money was entirely different from mine.

I was speaking on the Internet Marketing stage in Dublin in 2009, and I asked the audience for a volunteer who thought they were down on their luck, and when I asked “have you been deliberately avoiding answering your phone because you know it’s the debt collectors?” I discovered that I’ve probably been to a more destitute financial space than many people.

However, since 2009, with the explosion of personal bankruptcies, I think many more people can relate to that feeling, although personally I decided not to declare bankruptcy, I was guilty of hiding my head in the sand & choosing not to answer my phone... I even renamed those callers on my mobile to contact names such as “don’t answer”

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Business Success Q. Which advice has been the most influential in your business?

A. I flew to Las Vegas in 2006 specifically to attend an Internet Summit, and I met a nice young guy from New Zealand. A few months later, he and his new wife came over to Scotland & lived with me for 6 months.

He was not a public speaker, and quite introvert, but obviously quite successful.

During a kitchen chat one day, I discovered that he had 37 employees in NZ, and I later discovered that he was infact a self-made multi-millionaire via the internet, and he was only aged 25.

The advice he gave me one day was quite profound. He said simply “Focus on one project at a time”.

I had previously observed that most of the (apparently) successful speakers on the Internet Marketing platform were happy to tell the audience how ‘thick’ (unintelligent) they were.

They had been through so many challenges; drug abuser, jailed, stabbed, bankrupted etc and I didn’t have ANY of that in my story!

What I had already concluded was that I was ‘too clever’ and I was always listening to what had worked for them & deciding that I could improve on their systems. I would ensure that my promotions had proper spelling & spacing etc.

By contrast, they only knew how to do one thing, and they got on with that & generated more than me!!

focused his life on building just one High Tech business.

Another Billionaire, Oprah Winfrey simply plays to her personality as a Star, whilst Mark Zuckerberg hides in the back wearing his hoodie, and they simply employ other skilled people to do all of the other tasks that they are not uniquely skilled at.

The average Billionaire has 10,000 + employees, so what does that tell you?

LEVERAGE... don’t be scared to invest in others to do the things you don’t want to do.

Look at Richard Branson & his Virgin empire... you know he’s not driving the train or serving the drinks or checking the tickets etc. There are simply far too many tasks to be done!

Q. If you were no longer wealthy, do you think you could (or would know how to) earn it all again from scratch?

A. Like many successful people, I somehow managed to ‘lose’ all of my money.

Actually it took me three years before I realised that I had mostly been playing victim and feeling sorry for myself, before I managed to reframe that phrase thanks to a friend who pointed out to me that I hadn’t ‘lost’ my money, I had deliberately chosen to encash my savings in order to make my project happen... and it did!

I’ve since realised that I am a natural creator, and my biggest financial successes have come when I was employing a team to work with me & do all the things I delegated.

So I made my project happen, and I realised at the time that I was deliberately encashing my savings to fund it, and I decided that it was my money, and that was exactly what I wanted to do with it. Of course at the time, I believed that I was making an investment & I would reap the rewards, but meanwhile the project needed to be funded.

Q. Are there any secrets to making millions?

A. I think the answer to that, is to recognise your personality profile and follow that.

In hindsight, if I hadn’t had all of my personal savings to dig into, I would simply have been more determined to creatively fund the project.

eg. Two of the world’s richest men; Bill Gates & Warren Buffett have totally different personality profiles & different strategies and this simply highlights that the ‘secret’ is to recognise your own unique skills & do what resonates with you, and allow (employ) others to do what they do best.

Q. Do you think that some of your success is from luck or a one-time opportunity rather than sheer skill?

A. Interestingly it seems that most Billionaires and self-made multimillionaires would acknowledge ‘luck’ as a factor of their success.

Buffett invests in many businesses, but never anything High Tech. Whilst Gates

I think the ‘luck’ that we all have going for us, is being born into the world TODAY.

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In 2014 we are ALIVE & look how many advances our planet has made over the last few centuries, and thank goodness we weren’t around in those days (as far as we are aware).

Electric lighting, flying from one country to another, most people surviving major surgery, 200 years ago, this would seem like a joke... impossible (limiting beliefs!)

Q. Was there a “turning point” for your business?

A. I guess the main ‘turning point’ was when I starting building my team & investing more into Personal and Business Coaching, thus making myself accountable to many more people, and allowing myself less excuses.

Q. Have you had any ‘failed’ business ventures?

A. Oh yes... Many times I have put hundreds, even thousands of hours into something that I thought was going to bring my next big break, and then sold maybe only $40, and became so disillusioned, that I moved on to the next shiny object.

The ultimate failure is giving up!

Imagine learning to ski or snowboard... you KNOW before you even begin to learn, that you are going to fall down, and you simply treat it as part of the learning process.

When you were a child, we all fell many times whilst learning to walk.

Fortunately we were encouraged, and not told “I think you should give that up and accept that you’ll never walk. You’re never going to succeed.” - unfortunately however, many of those same supporters didn’t give us the same encouragement with other projects, and with their intention to protect us, they actually discouraged us from many, many more projects that we could probably have mastered and enjoyed if encouraged to stick at it.

What do the following words mean to you...

1) Failure 2) Success 3) Wealth All of these words are subjective, and open to differences in opinion.

You only reach those opinions when you ‘judge’ and compare yourself to others, so the real ‘secret’ to happiness is to

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Business Success catch yourself ‘judging’ (I maintain that ‘awareness’ is the first stage of successful change), and then choosing to ‘accept’ and let it be without interference from you.

Horizon When you look out to sea, that line that we can observe between the sea and the sky, we call the horizon... and yet, if we were to go to that horizon, we’d discover that it is no longer there...

I find this is a great analogy for life; It’s natural to strive for the next thing, and then the next. It’s natural to want better, and the simply balance is to be grateful, acknowledge & appreciate what we DO already have right here and right now.

1) Failure can be debilitating if you allow your self-talk to dominate your thoughts.

I know one fellow inspirational speaker who says; if he wakes up in the morning, and doesn’t feel the wooden confines of his coffin around him, he knows it’s a good day... in other words, he still has clean air going into his lungs & he can choose to enjoy the day.

I’ve ‘failed’ many times with many projects, and yet on reflection, I realise that my biggest failure has been allowing myself to play victim and feel sorry for myself for far too long!

Failure is not in falling down, it’s staying down!

2) Success; again comes down to your own definition.

I know that for me, success has previously been measured in monetary and physical ‘things’, but in the process of ‘losing’ all of those, I also realised how shallow I had been.

I have two lovely friends who have now been married over ten years, and when he first introduced me to her & I discovered that she ‘only’ worked as an assistant in a large Solicitor’s practice, I wasn’t impressed! He and I both ran large businesses & enjoyed a great lifestyle.

Apparently I said some demeaning things about her & it was all based on her current financial status. And now they have three lovely children & they are very happily married, and I can be big enough to acknowledge that I was a total knob!

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3) Wealth; I remember hosting a workshop one time & confidently I asked the room who they thought was the wealthiest person in the room at the time (I was pretty sure I was one of the largest earners, but that doesn’t mean that someone hasn’t maybe inherited or won more than I had in savings).

One of the responses threw me when he answered that it was indeed me, but for a different reason than finances...

He concluded that I had a beautiful fit & intelligent young girlfriend who obviously idolised & supported me, and therefore I was easily the ‘wealthiest’ guy that he knew!

Q. If you could give some advice to your younger self, what would it be?

A. Believe in your dreams & GOYA (get off your ass...) take massive action!

About Mike; dynamicmike - 25 things you (probably) didn’t know 1. I feel very lucky that I have known true unconditional love in my life. (currently single, and yet with SO MUCH to give cheeky smiles).

2. I don’t smoke, don’t drink (any alcohol, ever), have never even tried any drugs (and no intrigue there either). Love juicing.

3. I was one of the highest qualified Financial Advisers in UK, and had a very successful business for 17 years.

4. I was a member of Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), and apparently only 2% of Financial Advisers in the world qualify.

5. I was Chairman of the Professional Body of Financial Advisers in Scotland.

6. I have founded and Chaired many Businesses and Charitable Projects.

7. I was invited to the The Queen’s Garden Party at age 25 as a result of my Charitable Events.

8. I created an amazing event called “Inspire Scotland” in 2006 and booked a venue to hold 10,000 attendees. Unfortunately I didn’t sell 10,000 seats and the project, although very successful, with no sponsorship and entirely self-financed, left me financially destitute... big shakeup for me!

9. I have qualifications in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, Computer Studies, Accounting & Business Studies (oh, and Financial Advising, I was one of the highest qualified).

10. I learned to ride a unicycle for a Rotaract charity bed push at age 21. I col-

lected least amount of cash as I hadn’t learned how to stop. (I created the catch-phrase “Rotaract put the FUN into fundraising”).

11. I have spoken on stage on many subjects including; Time Mastery, Inspiration/Motivational, Goal-Setting, Internet Marketing & How To Make Money Online.

12. I used to teach windsurfing (yes, in Scotland!).

13. At one stage I had three full-time jobs plus studying two nights per week.

14. I am now living the lifestyle of a retiree.

I rise when I want, turn left or right if I so desire and work for no-one. Earning entirely online and currently touring Europe in my Campervan with my dog.

So far he has travelled with me to 19 countries (and his navigation skills are still rubbish). Personal Coaching spaces now avail.

15. I love taking photographs and capturing “Magic Moments”. Love photo editing too.

16. I joined Rotaract at 18 and was Club President three times and Chaired two of the three Scottish Districts.

17. I was the youngest member of Rotary Club of Edinburgh and brought the average age down to 68.

18. I used to fly to Toronto every three months for ONE DAY of business coaching.

19. I have been lucky enough to crew many Tony Robbins events, including Life Mastery in Hawaii during the 9/11 event.

20. I founded and Chaired the YES-Scotland group.

21. I am now an expert in many fields including; How to Get to the Front Page of Google, and love teaching others how to Make Money Online.

22. I have owned convertibles since age 19 (yes, in Scotland).

23. My last car was a brand-new Mercedes convertible.

24. I have been to many fantastic places including cycling New Zealand’s South Island to raise money for Charity.

25. I still want to; ride on an Elephant in Thailand, stroke a Tiger, ride a Camel in Egypt, walk the Great Wall of China & Meditate in Nepal. I still want to ride in; a Ferrari, Lambo, Noble, Rolls Royce, Jeep, Ducati, Harley Davidson.

26. I love staying fit, cycling and kickboxing for 15 years (not at same time).

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Business Success

Mike Berry http://facebook.com/dynamicmikefan https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=390388366953 http://lifewillneverbethesameagain.com/dynamicmike

MIKE FEATURES IN

IN SECRETS

OF THE SELF MADE

MILLIONAIRES AVAILABLE FROM

AMAZON Volume 1, Issue 001

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Business Success

9 KEY AREAS OF A

BUSINESS GROWTH EDUCATION PART 1

One of the big mistakes I’ve seen most business owners make over the years is to think that their current level of education will see them through the dynamic changing world of Business that we live in.

This is usually because they think that running a business is about the knowledge they have for being able to do the “job” of that business. Not true!

When they start to appreciate the real level of knowledge they are going to need, some Entrepreneurs head for the hills, while others pay the ultimate price for their lack of a broad Business education and fail or go bust. A few smart Business Owners seek out Coaching, Mentoring and Support to bridge the gap from where they are to where they want to be.

Shockingly, 80% of Start Up’s don’t make it to the 5 year point! Now imagine if somebody told you those were the odds before you got on a plane – would you fly? I bet if you are honest you wouldn’t!

When I first got involved in personal development and reaslised that if I wanted to Earn more I needed to Learn more - the impact was almost immediate and I saw my sales increase.

Some Professions like Accountants and Lawyers force their members to complete a minimum number of Continuing Personal Development (CPD) hours to remain current and up to speed on changes to the Law etc. Just think about the financial success theses professions enjoy, it’s no accident.

The crazy thing is that as Business Owners nobody forces us to keep learning new skills.

When I started Business Coaching & my F10 Mastermind over 11 years ago, I wanted to create an environment for growth

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that is based in a Balanced Business Growth Education.

What do I mean by this?

I mean being able to understand ALL the critical functions within your business, not just Sales & Marketing for example. After all if you sell your product or service and never get paid it’s a waste of time!

So lets take a look at the 9 Strategic and Tactical Business Growth Drivers I Coach my clients in so they build and grow a business that generates wealth for them.

As we go through these together I suggest, as your coach, that you assess how good your skills and knowledge level is for each area with 1 being very poor, 10 excellent.

This way you’ll be benchmarking your current skill levels and get a perspective on where you need to invest time learning to grow your business moving forward.

After all if you are not growing you are dying. Lets start with: 1- Mindset: The day to day reality of running and growing a business is that it’s tough and you’ll face failure, rejection, setbacks and adversity. How you choose to respond to these will ultimately have more of an impact on your success than you can ever realise.

In my experience 80% of your success is based in your mental skills, resilience, positivity, belief, confidence, focus and creativity to name a few.

20 minutes every day and turn dead time or down time, like driving, working out or walking the dog into growth time by listening to Podcasts, Online Programs and Motivations CD’s. This is the fuel that will help you go the distance.

A word of caution though, even the most positive can do mindset will not beat an outdated business model. Your mindset is critical but finding the right market is vital.

2 - Vision: We start with the big picture first. Where do you want your business to be in the next 3/5 years? What Sales and Profits will you be making? What countries will you be operating in? What markets will you be serving?

How many people will be working for you?

Do you want to sell the business for Asset Wealth or build it for a Lucrative Lifestyle?

These questions are critical, as without a destination we just end up going round in circles. Think about it, would you get into a car to go on holiday with no idea of the destination?

It’s important to find your bigger Vision, or what is sometimes referred to as your “Why” power. The reason you are doing what you do is more than just about money. It’s about making somebody elses life better, by helping them solve a problem or making their life or businesses easier, faster and less stressful….big drivers in today’s world.

As the saying goes…”the man who says he can and the man who says he can’t are both usually right”.

Growth Tip: Take 15 min a day to review your vision. This can be powerful if you can put it on Keynote slides or Power Point and mix with Music to get your emotions involved. Visit MindMovies.com who has some powerful software that also does this.

Growth Tip: Set up the success habits of reading a business book for a min of

If you can see it in your mind you can hold it in your hand, so take time to work on

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Business Success the pulling power of your Vision. After all if your “WHY” is big enough you’ll always find a way to win!

3 - Strategy: Now we know your destination, we can start to evaluate and Plan HOW we pull it off. It amazes me how many of my clients over the years have called me to help them without a great vision, no documented plan to navigate by.

Do you have one right now that you to look at on your wall every day? If not start planning! Your strategy should have evaluated the true market opportunity not what you just feel is a good market. As I say to a lot of clients “act on fact” and the numbers need to stack up.

Start by answering these Strategy Questions: »» Where is the Niche with the biggest pain or problem? (Profit will follow) »» Describe who they are in detail? Imagine they are standing in front of you now. »» How much disposable income do they have to solve their problem? How high is the level of desire to fix the problem?

(No desire means that making sales will be tough) »» Can you get your product / solution in front of them for a low enough cost to make acquiring customers cost effective? »» How can you test your market assumptions in a low cost low risk way? (Research is great – reality is better) Growth Tip: Defining your growth strategy

is never easy on your own so consider bringing in expert help. I offer a Strategic Planning Program and if you want to know more and claim your 3 FREE Training Videos on this key growth area visit PaulAvins.com Remember thought, hope is not a strategy!!

4 - Marketing: OK, this is one of my personal favorites to study, and as a business owner your ability to generate leads into your business is one of the key success skills you’ll need to learn and master.

This is a huge area and you have more and more ways to reach your customers so for now lets give you some of the fundamentals of marketing mixed with some practical and tactical tools you can use.

Lets start with the 3 M’s of Marketing Mastery as I like to call them…

1. Market – your “who” of who you want to sell to.

2. Message – your “what” you are going to say to your target market that will connect to this challenges, problems and pains so that they see you as the solution provider to go to.

3. Media – your “how” of getting your message to your key target market so that they see it and most importantly respond to it.

Now what most business owners do in my experience is to spend more time on the “how” question for example, Social Media,

Google Adwords, Facebook, Networking, direct mail, YouTube or whatever else newest “silver bullet” marketing platform being sold by online marketers.

I suggest clients invest time in learning skills like Copywriting that apply to all media, online and offline, you’ll find you get great response if you have identified the right market.

As a business owner 80% of your time needs to be invested in the demand side of the business generating leads and future clients so you must get out of operations as fast as possible.

Growth Tip: Marketing is more about Math’s than it is about creativity so make sure you know your numbers. To start with Cost per Lead, Cost per Sale and Lifetime Value then you test and measure differing creative.

People always get revved up when they realise just how much there is to learn on this subject that can be applied to their business.

To help you get started I have a Free Online Marketing Course 7 Sins of Marketing packed with advice on what NOT to do in your marketing that could be costing your Millions!! Grab your copy today at PaulAvins.com/7sinsofmarketing In the next issue I’ll be revealing the final 5 areas you need to understand and learn to master as a business owner if you want sustainable growth.

ABOUT PAUL AVINS Paul Avins is an Award Winning Business Growth Coach, creator of the F10 Mastermind and a Business Speaker who has trained thousands of Entrepreneurs, Sales People and Teams all over the World. His passion to help business owners achieve personal and financial freedom from their business has led him to write a number of books including – ‘Business SOS’ and ‘Business Truths’ as well as creating many products, online training programs and tools to Accelerate Profitable Growth.

TO CLAIM A FREE COPY OF HIS LATEST BOOK “BUSINESS TRUTHS” VISIT WWW.PAULAVINS.COM TODAY!

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Business Success

ACHIEVING BUSINESS SUCCESS WITH

STEVE JOBS’ LESSONS Starting your own business as an entrepreneur can be a daunting task, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the time you should be excited for the new venture ahead of you.

Even after your start-up business found its legs, staying positive can be difficult at times with all of the tasks that you still have to face, especially with developing a professional branding image that will continue to bring you to the next level of success.

However, there are some advices offered by Steve Jobs, the developer of Apple that can be taken to heart and applied to the aspects of your personal and professional life to help you achieve success in everything that you do. Developing marketing strategies, learning to innovate with the changing times, and reaching out to customers can become easier for you to master and attain business success.

Before Steve Jobs become one of the pioneering innovators for Apple, he was just a regular person with a dream of his own to develop a new kind of computer for customers to use. One of the key lessons he brought with him throughout his life was to accentuate the positive, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem at the time. Even when things don’t go exactly the way you planned, instead of focusing on the mistakes, take the time to see it as more of a learning experience and how it can be used to improve on something else in the future. Business success is always about adaptation, so it’s better to come away with a better understanding of how to make improvements than to remain stagnant, focusing on what went wrong.

Many people are tempted to innovate new ideas on their own, believing that it provides them with all of the control that they need so that mistakes can be avoided in the future. However, this is one of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur could ever make.

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Business Success Creativity cannot be developed in a vacuum, and the tricks of the trade aren’t something you can find in a textbook. Learn from others in order to discover how the field of your business works, which ventures have been accomplished and succeeded (or failed!), and which strategies seem to draw out the best responses. Learning from other people tends to make some entrepreneurs feel uneasy, believing that they’re merely copying from others, but everyone who starts up their own business needs a foundation to work off.

When it comes down to it, many entrepreneurs have started up their own businesses for the pursuit of money. This may work for some, but it shouldn’t be the end-all of why you get into the field of developing ideas and learning to innovate in order to fill your own pockets. It can be easy to value money, but valuing people is a lot more rewarding. Finding people who are the same passion for what you’re trying to accomplish with your business can actually nurture and inspire motivation and creativity in the workplace. And on the off-chance that you end up with no money at the end of the day, the people will still be there to support you when you need it.

When developing a branding campaign, there is always a need to focus. It can be easy to look at the market and want to employ every single strategy that has proven to be successful in the past. However, creating such a jumble of techniques can actually work to your detriment. You don’t want to spread yourself out too thin in trying to accomplish everything before you. The majority of the business success of Apple was because Jobs knew how to focus. On their annual retreats, he would take his employees into a room and create a list of the top ten things they should be doing in the upcoming year, and then only use the top three ideas. Using such a method forced them to dedicate all their time and effort into perfecting and developing ideas to innovate to keep them ahead of their competitors.

Being able to focus also makes things much simpler. The secret to business success knows what

works, and what doesn’t work is throwing everything out there at once for your customers to try and sort things out for themselves. Eliminate the unnecessary in order to reduce things down to the most basic components. Not only does this make it more attractive for customers to use by providing what they need in its most simplest form, but it also provide an aesthetic quality that could not be achieved by adding more bells and whistles to the mix. Simplifying also reduces the number of problems that may arise in the future, and can make it easier to innovate: the “less” there was, the more easily it could be adapted to new situations and ideas.

If you do find your business falling behind on the curve behind the rest of the market, it can be easy to despair and what to give up. However, there are other ways to innovate to leapfrog yourself back to the head of the pack. When Apple first made their iMac, they provided an easy way for users to handle their files, but they missed out on giving them access to storing music. The CD drive was incapable of burning CDs or ripping the files to one’s computer for personal use. However, instead of letting this affect the way they developed their technology, they jumped ahead of everyone else and created a separate, integrated system that has changed the music industry forever. Their ideas brought about the innovation of the iPod and iTunes, allowing people to buy whichever songs they wanted and carry their music with them everywhere.

Branding one’s image doesn’t mean giving up on the integrity of one’s own products and services in order to achieve an end goal. It means having to adapt, to know when to cut one’s losses and focus on a new innovation, and to evolve one’s methods with the changing times in order to stay ahead of one’s competitors. The concept of business success is more than just making more money than everyone else; it’s about creating a professional image that your customers can rely on when they need it. Take it from the man who has made Apple what it is today.

When developing a branding campaign, there is always a need to focus. It can be easy to look at the market and want to employ every single strategy that has proven to be successful in the past.

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Business Success

YOU KNOW, IT IS SAID THAT “THE LONGEST JOURNEY BEGIN WITH A SINGLE STEP”!

Come with me now on a short journey through time that helped me to make massive changes in my life. I am not unique therefore, I hope that you too will take something away with you that will stir up your potential.

It was a cold winter in the early 2000 I was breast feeding my baby Filiph in the kitchen while I was reading the newspaper.

All of a sudden there was an ad that said, ‘are you related to somebody that drinks too much?’

It was the first time in my life the words came out of my mouth, ‘Yes I am, mum is an alcoholic!’

I had to go to this meeting! I walked nervously into the building where the advertised meeting was being held. As the meeting progressed, I dared to look around at the other nervous, expectant faces around the room. It was then I realized for the first time in my life that I was an adult child of an alcoholic.

I was 25 years old at the time and it was terrible to finally realize that for my entire life, I had been denying that my mother is an alcoholic. Now I had a lot to think about!

Later in spring of the same year, an old friend called me and gave me a business opportunity and I saw my way out.

I had started on the journey of realizing how co-dependent I was! My whole life I had been living after how my mother was. If she was drunk I had to take care of everything in our house even though I was a little child. I controlled everything

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and now I realized how co- dependent I was. It was a problem for me and my surroundings. When you live in a family with an addict the whole family is affected. I even realized that my husband, the father of my two kids was in my life because of the choices I had made, as a result of my dysfunctional childhood. Here I was, with two angelic children but enduring my husband physically and mentally abusing me.

At that time I didn´t knew how to leave or even if it was possible.

When I started the business, the business was a network marketing company in Sweden, one leader in the company one day gave me a cd and said, you need to listen to this man. As soon as I finished a business meeting that day, without even wait to get home, I jumped into my car and immediately put the cd in and pressed play……….

The cd was called, motivation. I waited for what I would hear….And there it was…..the voice that changed my life. The voice said, ‘You have got something special, you have greatness within you!’

NOW I understood that there is a way out!!

What ever dreams you have, you can achieve them! If you only change your thoughts your life will follow.

He said that someone’s opinion of me does not have to become my reality…That was a turning point in my life. I listened to his cd and his voice every single night and day. I learned that my subconscious mind never sleeps so I played the cd all night. I realized that if that man on the cd that was so successful, even though he had a background of poverty, then if he can, so I can.

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Business Success I went to an event where he was the keynote speaker in Sweden. It was the 8th March 2003. His voice got right into my heart. I felt like he was talking just to me. There was an audience over than 1000 people in the room but right there….I started to cry!

I tried so hard to pull myself together and stop the tears because all he said went right into my heart. I knew that I had the strength to be anything that I dreamed of. That same day, I made my decision to dare to leave my husband and abusive marriage.

Susanne the speaker woke up inside of me.

I realized that it was my time now and that I had to stand up for myself and more importantly, for my wonderful children. I decided that one day I would be on stage with that man, his voice and words had literally changed my life. I promised myself that I would work with him one day. To do that, I understood that I had to step up my performance. To get another result in life I had to do things I never done before.

It was not easy but that spring I divorced my husband. I sold all I had, took my two kids and cats and bought a one-way ticket to Alicante in Spain. Sometimes in life it´s necessary to change places, literally!

My best friend lived in Alicante and she told me that she had found a job for me. I arrived in Spain with two kids. Natalie was 7 and Filiph 3 years old. I had some savings but that was not much. When we arrived, I expected to start work but there was no job!

I could not believe that I brought my children all this way and there was NO job for me to earn money to feed them. Have you ever experienced when someone you trust, has not told you the truth? I felt horrible, terrified. How would I support my kids?

There I was, alone in a new country with two kids! They had not chosen to be there.

I could not believe it…….there was no job as I was promised.

I couldn´t speak the language. I was totally committed and there was no other option. I couldn´t go back to an abusive relationship.

I had to figure it out and I did. I wanted to give my kids a new life free from misery. I was determined that my daughter would not grow up thinking it was ok for a man to abuse a woman and for my son to think it was normal for a woman abuse a woman! Everything rested on me figuring it out!

There was no going back.

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I realized that to get work in Spain I would have to speak the language so I started to study Spanish at the University in Alicante.

I reinvented myself to fit my new life. I also understood that in order to one day be on the stage with the man with the voice, I had to develop my skills. Every night I listened to personal development tapes.

That was my investment in my children’s and my futures. I suggest that it can also be an investment in your future. And the future is in your hands. You can never blame your failures or prosperity on others. It´s up to you how you handle all situations in your life. I’m not telling you that it´s going to be easy but I am definitely telling you that it´s going to be worth it.

It´s called life!

I encourage you to dream big. People around me said I was crazy and asked me if I thought I was more worthy than others.

My answer then and now is ‘no, I’m not better than or less then anyone else but I know I can achieve more and I WILL!’ The inner strength that I felt was so strong.

My dream about working with Mr Brown and to give my kids a better life, a life of feeling free was stronger than the negative surroundings.

I believe, that if you do the hard work you will get an easy life but if you choose an easy life, you life will be hard.

Growing up, I was an only child. Therefore, I have always been the family’s public face, the hero. At a very early age, I felt like I was being guided and given strength but I did not understand how. No one in my family went to church and God was just a lie that someone invented. I never thought about it until a few years ago. A woman asked me where I found my strength and how I managed to be so driven and determined.

I fought my way through the University and managed to learn Spanish. I started to work in the real estate business.

First I didn´t have any answer but now I know. My inner strength and determination comes from my faith, my beliefs.

My dream and my promise that I made to myself on 8th March 2003 was always on my mind. I didn´t know how to reach my goal, but as the man with the voice said ‘how none of your business!’ if you and I just developed ourselves.

There I was in beautiful Spain. Kids in school, fluent in Spanish and a job at least for a few months. I still cherished my big dream about being a world renowned motivational speaker and to work with the best.

I have learned that I listen and learn from those who have achieved results in life that I want.

Brian Klemmer said that, if ‘how’ was enough everybody would be skinny, rich and happy!

The old Chinese proverb is true! So I can promise you today, that ‘When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. My teacher, mentor and the man behind the voice, is the world renowned motivational Speaker Mr Les Brown.

Who do you take advice from? My advice when taking advice is to remember what Tom Hopkins said “I NEVER take advice from anyone more messed up than I am”.

You will get lots of advice and it is well to listen but be careful whom you share your dreams with because there are many dream stealers out there.

Dreams can come true and I am proof of that. I started my own company as a Speaker and event organizer.

On the 23 March 2014, I had the honour and privilege to arrange Scandinavia’s first Scandinavian Mastermind in Gothenburg Sweden! YES, it was with Les Brown as a Keynote Speaker. It was a great success too.

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Business Success I spent 5 challenging but great years in Spain then moved back home to Sweden 2008. I took work as a salesperson. At that time I had developed myself for 8 years. I knew that I was a few steps closer to my goal. I have learned that no matter what you are doing in life, you don´t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.

left the place. My whole body told me that I have things to share with people. Give them faith and give them strength to dare to take the next step in life.

started when I met him in London and he invited me to come to Orlando USA to train me as his student and one of his Platinum Speakers.

As I said in the beginning my goal and dream in life was to work with Mr. Brown and to be on stage with him. Don´t ask me how, but he became my first client…..!

Considering that I am an entrepreneur, I felt that I could add value to the Company I worked for. I felt that the company could easily increase the sales by giving the employees coaching hours in groups or personally from me. This would give them the knowledge that I had acquired about the power of your own thoughts. I took action and met with the Owners but when I set out my vision they just looked at me and laughed. I knew it was their loss if they could not catch the vision and I could not stay in a place where they would not invest in their sales team or ultimately their own company. Their laughter did not hurt but it signaled that there was better out there so

I programmed my subconscious mind the 8th March 2003. I affirmed it and when I closed my eyes I saw everything crystal clear. What have you programmed your subconscious mind about?

He said that he saw something in me……He saw what I felt. And my advice to you is to always have someone that sees something in you that you can´t see yet. Then trust the process!

In order to achieve your goal in life or overcome the hard times you have to step up your performance, make a total commitment to your self and what´s important to you. Reinvent yourself, invest in your future.

In my case, it was to develop myself by for example, listening to tapes cds and studying with the best people in the industry.

Dreams can come true and I am proof of that. I started my own company as a Speaker and event organizer. On the 23 March 2014, I had the honour and privilege to arrange Scandinavia’s first Scandinavian Mastermind in Gothenburg Sweden! YES, it was with Les Brown as a Keynote Speaker.

It was a great success too.

This journey to the fist Scandinavian event

I had big dreams and a huge hunger to achieve my goal. Let me close with the words of my Mentor ‘You’ve got to be HUNGRY!’ Sincerely -Susanne Stridh-

Susanne Stridh is a powerful speaker who lives the message she delivers.

People need hope and inspiration from someone who is a positive example.

Susanne´s life of achievement and overcoming challenges will motivate any audience to pursue their dream and manifest their greatness. Her passion and heart will move you deeply.

-Mr Les Brown-

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Business Success

3 KEYS TO HAVING A BIGGER IMPACT WITH YOUR MARKETING We are all bombarded with information and specifically with marketing messages each and every day; literally thousands of them. So how do you, as a business owner, get heard above all of the noise? How do you have an impact with your marketing on the right people for your business?

Just like me and you, your prospective clients and customers have filtering systems which are becoming increasingly fine-tuned to pick out the relatively tiny percentage of information that they feel is relevant to them. They are constantly, and without much conscious effort, filtering information according to their interests, values and beliefs, along with their immediate concerns, challenges and problems.

If you’re going to create a business that has a big impact, then it’s imperative that your marketing has an impact too and gets the attention of the people you want to attract. There are too many people out there who have tremendous services and products to offer but they aren’t making the difference they could be because their marketing efforts are keeping them in the dark.

If you feel like you and your business are like a best kept secret, then I want to share 3 fundamental marketing ingredients that

will help you to communicate more powerfully about your business. #1. Know Your Audience Who are your ideal clients and what do they really really want?

Do you know the answer to this question?

Many business owners don’t, at least not in the detail that is needed, and yet the success or failure of your business starts with the answer to this question. The more you understand the needs, wants, desires and challenges of your target market, the easier your marketing (and growing your business) will become. Once you really get inside the minds of your target clients your marketing can begin to connect with them in a deep and powerful way. #2. Know Your Impact What is it that you do for your clients – not just generally but really specifically? What is the impact that you have on the lives of your clients? People don’t invest in products or services for no reason. They invest in themselves and in getting a very specific result. The clearer you are on the real results and the ultimate transformation your clients get through working with you, the more powerful your marketing can be because it will speak the language of results loudly. That’s what your clients want and need to hear.

#3. Be Yourself Nobody loves plastic flowers and nobody loves plastic people. Marketing with impact requires you to inject yourself into what you do. But because so many people have fears around marketing, what you tend to get is people not being themselves. Instead you get a façade, you get people trying to be perfect or trying to appear perfect. Nobody is perfect. Imperfections are real and people respond to real. My suggestion is that you think less about what you think you’re supposed to say and do and just do and be who you are, warts and all. The right people will love you for it.

There are many more ingredients involved in marketing with impact but if you give some real focus and attention to these three things and put the work in to getting them nailed, you’ll be in a position to achieve far more inspiring results with your marketing.

Yvette Nevrkla - The PT Business Gym Specialising in helping PTs and fitness professionals to build big impact fitness businesses. www.theptbusinessgym.com

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