The_Business_Success_Factory_V1.32_Part_1 by Nicola Cairncross

By Nicola Cairncross

With Thanks To Rich Schefren My Biggest Business Influence Since 2006 Who Is Still Tirelessly Working To Turn Clueless But Aspiring Business People Into Strategic Entrepreneurs

To my sisters Heather Cairncross & Sarah Cairncross without whom I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have survived my entrepreneurial journey so far! To my wonderful children Phoebe & Nelson who inspire me to keep going in building a business so that I can show them a different way and who make it all worth it with their hugs. To Steve Watson, my stalwart friend (and most worthy adversary) I love you all!

ÂŠ 2011 Nicola Cairncross

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First Published 2011 by The Business Success Factory This Edition Published in Great Britain 2011

© Copyright Nicola Cairncross All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. The Business Success Factory & Business Barter Club are Trademarks of Nicola Cairncross

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What You Think "I really like this book. Why? Because Nicola personally knows each expert she's interviewed. So this isn't just a cookie-cutter series of interviews. Nicola's insights into each expert's subject area, coupled with her own wisdom, make this book a great read. And... you'll get a lot of take-away value too, so get your pen ready to take some very helpful notes as you read. I know I certainly enjoyed being interviewed by Nicola and she was able to get me to talk about things I hadn't before. So enjoy and profit." Brett McFall, Australia's internet marketing expert & co-founder of World Internet Summit www.brettmcfall.com

Brilliant stuff Nicola. Thanks for sharing this. I’m very excited to learning the way you’ve built your business. Thanks also for introducing me to Rich Schefren. Neil Asher was a mentor of mine and you introduced me to Brett several years ago. Look at you being the Maven! Also can’t wait to release our interview on my blog. Keep up the brilliant, inspiring work. Anyone reading this will learn from Nicola and you’ll be on track for some serious success. Matt Duggan, AdventuresInInternetMarketing.com Thank you Nicola. I found this to be most inspiring, astute and full of insight; especially when you referred to different reasons that may have spurred us on and that what we are looking for is right under our nose as this touched a nerve! It is helping me to be more aware of strategies, and examining my own inner being for more answers away from all that information overload and confusion I was bogged down with over last few months as a beginner to IM. Charmaine Allette

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Hi Nicola, I need new biz cards and the Idea of putting my face on it has never occurred to me- what a brilliant idea. Also I like the idea of the front being about the customer and the reverse being about me. I will plan them over the weekend and place the order next week. Matthew Lloyd-Winder, StainedGlassStudio.co.uk

Thank you Nicola, I will set up your cashflow spread sheet system, and get hold of Daniel’s book – today ! Your info has also highlighted the areas where I need to learn more – i.e. techie stuff. I look forward to learning more. Sherree Ginger, SherreeGinger.co.uk _________________________________________________________________ Thanks again for the fantastic information. Not only is it inspiring, it also shows me how much I don’t know and how little I’ve been utilising the market place. You must give us all the secret of how you manage to get so much into your day and get so much done. You appear to be an amazing dynamo. Have a great day, Sheila Gray

Hi Nicola, that was great- perfect timing for me and very affirming to where I am now with my business. I got loads out of Spartan Marketing with you and am ready to propel my business to the next level. What you said about a vision & a strong self belief that you can do it resonated with me- I just know that I am not going to stop, ever. I have recently picked just 1 idea and am going to pursue it. Thanks, Sarah Leather, TheBabyMakingClub.com

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Wow, you cracked through a load of stuff on this one! There was such a wealth of information …. Thanks for giving us so much…Lots of fantastic insight Nicola – thanks again. Karen Burge, KimberleyBurge.com

This is so good! When I started watching, I was tired and felt unwell – I really just wanted to have a shower and pour a glass of whisky. After a couple of minutes, I forgot all about being a victim in search of tlc; you had my total attention and even that single malt in the cupboard didn’t enter my mind. Most of us “know” what we should be doing but we need to add self-belief and determination. Your rare gift of combining wisdom and practicality with some tough-talking, but also much encouragement, is a powerful catalyst in making that transition. Thank you. Nick Winter, Understanding-Cement.com

Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Oh Nicola. Are you on the money or what! (No pun intended.) This is exactly the kind of financial management information and advice I needed. And, you have given me more information than you realise. By doing lots of projections at different rates for my proposed income producing hours, I’m able to design a suitably sustainable working life to fit my abilities when I am able to return to work. You have no idea how daunting this was. All in all, you’ve not only seriously reduced the stress of approaching work, by adopting your time management plans now, and increasing my daily activities into this pattern, it’ll make the transition into work relatively seamless. Just some of the things I’ve done this week. Made a gravitar, installed subliminal software, set up weekly cashflow forecast (brilliant)and time management spreadsheet.

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Response to Secret #1. Most of what you highlighted; pain, investment, time & commitment all being done now. A local business opportunity has been identified (which isn’t covered) and I’m gonna corner the market when I’m working up to speed and then you’ll see some fast action, I’m planning it now. Response to Secret #2. Marketing Plan, I’m doing it now. Boy have I taken the concepts of branding to heart! That was really informative. Website and internet tools. Most of this was relatively new or demystified for me, i.e. what is the point of twitter? However, this year I’ve done @ 10 of Sue Okell’s webinars, which were new to me, and how I came across you, so I’m on a steep learning curve. This is where most of my investment in learning is going to be i.e. how to use these tools more productively. Boy, are you right about conventional management/business software. Social Media, blogging, audio & video etc. I’m going to learn how to use these more effectively. I have a blog set up, but as time goes by, I’ll change its direction to my new business ventures. FB is a bit more of a challenge. Response to Secret #3. Money. May God kiss you hand for writing that. You are going to see me lurking round your sites for quite a while. You are nothing short of a marvel. I’m so grateful that I found you. PS. I’ve had Steven Covey’s book for ages and been too frightened to read it. I found him inspiring but so awesome; I was too intimidated to read it. But you’ve pushed me in its direction, I’ll take the plunge. But because of him, I’ve always remembered to keep sharpening the saw. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have found or been receptive to you. It’s all fitting into place. Annia Summers

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Hi Nicola, So great to get some real inspiration from the UK instead of trying to weed it out from amongst all the sales pitch disguised as useful content from across the pond!! I have been running an online Business together with my lovely wife for a couple of years now after we were both made redundant (me in 2008 and Debs in 2010). Do you know what? Being made redundant was the best thing professionally that has ever happened to us. Despite still being on the journey towards success (a journey that takes us closer with every day) our quality of life being able to be an integral part of our 4 kids growing up, is utterly amazing. Like many I am sure, I dabbled with every shiny object going, trying to find a system that resonated with me and also worked. That came at a price – quite a hefty financial one!! However, we see it as an investment as it has got us to where we are today. Debs now runs 3 crystal healing websites (all linked) and I have been having some growing success with local business marketing which I know is dear to your heart. Like you, I feel very passionately about being able to help bricks and mortar business owners market themselves more effectively online. Thank you for the very clear and inspiring outlines on how to structure your success – I particularly like the subliminal messages idea on the PC. Jonathan Lake, CrystalHealingOnline.com

Nicola.. Thank you for the video. Refreshingly informative. Have enjoyed learning about you and your habits. Once again thanks for sharing. Christine H.

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Hi Nicola, It has taken me while to get back here but I’m really glad I did, I’ve been making piles of notes on all the information. For the first time in ages I’m excited about my business and making plans for actually marketing my business instead of relying on word of mouth and recommendations. Maybe some of what I’ve learned here will get me to a place where I can join you in the future but until then I’ll definitely be recommending you as you clearly know your stuff! Wishing you all the best for the future. Neil Gray

Dear Nicola, Thank you for sharing your journey into this marvellous world, the “internet”. Your daily habits make a lot of sense and I will definitely make more of an effort in incorporating some of the habits, adding to my own, of course. I don’t watch the news and don’t do soap operas; like more classical television. I do find it interesting to realize that here in the US the people who were successful started out with owning property and investing in the stock market. Must be that old English habits die hard. Stephanie.

Nicola, it is great to hear your incredible journey. I am constantly teaching myself good habits too. You are such an inspiration. Thank you for sharing. Anita Li

Hello Nicola, I’ve been learning so much. Till now I have always been working as an employee. I am so hungry to create a business and you inspire me. Although, I see that there is so much I do not know anything about and I would LOVE to be accompanied, coached by a person like you. I will follow through and listen/watch

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to all of your content. Anyway, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ll find a way to get started, that is for sure. Thank you. Amy Debierne

ÂŠ 2011 Nicola Cairncross

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Contents What You Think ....................................................................................................... 4 Contents ................................................................................................................ 11 Welcome & Introduction......................................................................................... 15 A Moment Of Inspiration ............................................................................................16 Nicola’s Story ................................................................................................................17 The Princess Syndrome ............................................................................................18 Do You Feel Special? ................................................................................................18 What Makes The Difference? ...................................................................................19 Why Is It So Hard For Some? ....................................................................................20 Are You Doing Enough?.............................................................................................20 If You Want Different Results…................................................................................21 Secret Of Success #1 – The Business Owner ....................................................... 23 The Four Lanes Of The Wealth Highway ...............................................................23 What We Learned About Success From Our Clients .........................................24 A Great Business Model .............................................................................................25 The Keys To Success As A Business Owner .......................................................25 Having The Vision & Belief .......................................................................................27 Making The Investment .............................................................................................30 Taking Responsibility .................................................................................................32 Making The Commitment ..........................................................................................34 Getting Support ..........................................................................................................34 Making Time................................................................................................................36 Taking Fast & Massive Action & Getting Early Results .......................................39

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Accelerate The Success Process ............................................................................40 Finding A Mentor ........................................................................................................40 Creating A Mastermind Group .................................................................................41

Finding Your Dream Team .......................................................................................42 Watch What Successful People Do ........................................................................43 What Does All This Mean For You? ........................................................................44 5 QuestionsTo Ask Yourself Before You Create Your Marketing Plan.... Error! Bookmark not defined. Old School V New Skool Business ............................. Error! Bookmark not defined. The New Way Of Doing Things .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. The Joys Of Automated Marketing ............................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Building A Powerful Brand ........................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. BOOK BONUS: See Mark’s Powerpoint slides here at the special page I have set up for you to access the bonuses I’m giving you: ............ Error! Bookmark not defined. Going Local & Dominating............................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Get Started With Local Advertising ............................ Error! Bookmark not defined. What Next For Our Potential Future Customers? .. Error! Bookmark not defined. A Website That Works.................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Mashing Up Direct Mail With Email ............................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Creating A Mailing List .................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Email Marketing ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Ethical Bribery ................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Social Media Marketing.................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

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The Rise & Rise Of Blogging....................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Business Networking Online ....................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Follow The Birdie........................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Audio & Video Marketing .............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. An Introduction To Audio & Video Online.................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Effective Audio Marketing ............................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Creating The Audio ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Creating Audio Content ................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Effective Video Marketing ............................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Create Video Content ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Effective & Fun Networking ......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Developing Strategic Partnerships ............................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Creating Joint Ventures ................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Secret Of Business Success #3 – The Business Money ....... Error! Bookmark not defined. What Is Your Biggest Business Challenge? The Survey Results ............ Error! Bookmark not defined. Let’s Talk Money.............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Time Is Money .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. The Business Success Factory “Magic Money System”....... Error! Bookmark not defined. An Introduction To Bartering ....................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. More Thoughts On Success .................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Recommended Reading / Listening ......................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Success Thinking ............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

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Great Business Books ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. The Internet ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Practical Finances & Wealth Creation ....................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Work With Nicola Cairncross ................................................................................. 53 Speaking .........................................................................................................................53 Marketing ........................................................................................................................53

ÂŠ 2011 Nicola Cairncross

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Welcome & Introduction It’s been seven years in the making, but now it’s my pleasure to share my knowledge with you in this book. Welcome! I’m Nicola Cairncross, self-taught lifelong entrepreneur and serial business failure until the age of 38. I’d made pots of money for everyone but me but then my thinking changed. I discovered how money works, bought and refurbished a £500,000 hotel in Worthing, West Sussex “no money down”, giving me a business, a beautiful place to live and a property investment. My journey had begun. The Money Gym was born shortly afterwards as I continued wealth-coaching, running seminars and workshops from the hotel. Twenty-seven people signed up in response to my first publicity email and the fledgling business grew to a turnover of £250,000 in our last year of trading, without bank financing, in just a few years. Success at last! I’m proud to say The Money Gym changed hundreds of lives. We were successfully flying high when, without warning, the mortgage supply dried up and the property market went into meltdown. As 80% of our clients came to learn about property investing but could no longer secure mortgages, they stopped coming and we were forced to mothball The Money Gym. This came as a real shock but I should have seen it coming! Suddenly, I was back to square one and living off various passive income streams, re-thinking the future. You might be asking yourself why, given my checkered history, you should bother to read this book, particularly my 3 Secrets of Business Success? The simple answer is that I’ve learnt from being in the trenches myself, have coached

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thousands of people from jobs to freedom and many business people who are more successful that me!

A Moment Of Inspiration Inspiration strikes in the most unlikely moments, and so it was with the idea for this book. The psychology of success has always interested me and in the dark days after The Money Gym mothballing, I began earnestly studying the ‘success mindset’. Insecurity reared its ugly head as I questioned whether I was qualified to write about success, as I knew many people who were hugely more successful than me. During a family celebratory visit to see Fame The Movie in 2009, I was struck by a speech about success which I’d like to share with you: “There are a few things that success is not. Success is not fame, money or power. Success is waking up in the morning so excited about what you have to do that you can’t wait to get out of bed. Success is getting to work with the people you love. Success is finding a way of connecting and binding people together. Success is connecting with the world and making them feel what you feel; success is falling asleep knowing that you did the best you could. Success is joy, friendship and freedom, success is love.” I realised that, by those standards, I’m pretty successful. I earn enough to live without having to work for anyone else which is my definition of success. Please take a moment to think about what success means to you. How will you know if and when you are successful? My aim is to show you how to achieve that success.

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Is there a difference between Brett McFall, a mega-successful copywriter and cofounder of The World Internet Summit (just one of the people interviewed for the companion book ** to this one “The Success Interviews”, and you? Is there a difference between me and anyone reading this book? What makes the difference between success and failure for any of us?

** Your complimentary copy of “The Success Interviews” is waiting for you at: http://TheBusinessSuccessFactory.com/members/book-1

Nicola’s Story Born in 1961, my personal journey towards self-awareness began in 1998, at the age of 38. Unable to pay the monthly rent and with two very small children, my husband faced redundancy several times, through no fault of his own. We were forced to live in my sister’s front bedroom. I felt blessed by her generosity but it was far from ideal. The local employment agency assessed my ability and worth as secretarial jobs earning about £12,000. (I tell that story live here http://youtu.be/BtWI5E43S9k.) I was heartily sick of never having enough money to live on, let alone any disposable income. My quest to become a more effective human being had begun, eventually leading me to hire a coach and subsequently train as a coach myself. My outgoing personality attracted coaching clients quickly as I sent an email ezine to my 25 contacts, which included my family and friends.

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I knew I needed personal and public accountability to ensure I took action so I kept a diary of my wealth creation journey, recording my learning and what did and didn’t work which I shared in the ezine, along with interesting articles. My readers loved it and the ranks swelled to today’s 4,000 readers who have grown to like and trust me. The sign-ups for The Money Gym and the coaching programme came from this successful little ezine idea. And that’s probably why you’re reading this book today; you may be on either my or publisher’s mailing list or know someone who is.

The Princess Syndrome Born with a burning desire to be successful, I had no idea how to fulfill it. I felt special. I wanted to be a successful businessperson or a princess. Having missed out on the princess-by-birth thing, only one option remained. Through painful trial and error, I continue to learn how to achieve success. I can share those treasures with you but you have to take action.

Do You Feel Special? To be successful, you have to be hungry for it, to feel a burning desire deep inside. When I meet potential mentoring clients who say: “Well I have a really well paid corporate job”, my heart drops. They’re probably too comfortable; not only will they not be feeling enough pain to stimulate action, they will be stressed as big corporate salaries are usually paid in exchange for the proverbial pound of flesh. My hope is always that it’s not the money driving them but the stress, or the burning desire for a different kind of life. You have to want change for YOU and nobody else.

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I am interested in you because you are reading this book. I can do something for you as you are in my little world for a while. I really care because I was there; in emotional pain, broke and fed up. But you have to know that no amount of seminar attendances or bright, shiny training packages with make an iota of difference without action. We’ve all done it; I was worse than most until I took control of my life.

What Makes The Difference? So what makes the difference between really successful people – even if they fail a few times along the way – and those who get stuck or never leave the starting blocks? While preparing to write this book, I interviewed every genuinely successful person I could locate, asking the same set of questions and marvelling at the range of diverse answers containing interesting parallels. I also started my Business Success Factory podcast and blog, discussing what really makes the difference. (I invite you to subscribe to the podcast here, if you enjoy in-depth interviews with down to earth, successful people.) http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-business-successfactory/id421100588#ls=1 I’ve come to realize there IS a difference between people who are phenomenally successful and people who aren’t there yet. However, everyone can learn and implement success strategies and I’m looking forward to sharing some with you.

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Why Is It So Hard For Some? What’s the difference between people who have taken action and achieved amazing success and those who never begin, or give up at the first hurdle, or flit from shiny object to shiny object? There have been mentors and friends, Money Gym clients and Internet marketing mentees (thankfully not many) who haven’t made it despite being coached and coaxed towards success. What's the difference between those who give up and those who go on to do amazing things? I’ve also done many, many speaking events now and, like Brett McFall confirms when he speaks in 17 countries, we see the same faces in the audience over and over again. Why? Speakers I meet always ask what we can do to inspire our audience to go home, follow the instructions and keep going, even when challenges present. It can be so frustrating knowing that the majority of the audience will do nothing with the precious information they’re receiving. Failure isn’t making mistakes but giving up!

Are You Doing Enough?

An exercise at a T. Harv Ecker event in New Jersey made me realize that one of my default modes is that I only ever do as much as I think is required and no more, and then only when my when my back is against the wall! Suddenly I saw that I needed to increase the level of action I take. I have to regularly give more than I think is necessary every time. I am not just talking about working hard here, but working smart and hard.

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If You Want Different Resultsâ&#x20AC;Ś Securing jobs I found easy enough, having an entrepreneurial energy that appealed to business owners and I did well for about 18 months setting up (but not following!) systems until boredom set in. On the entrepreneurial front, I dabbled with making and selling waistcoats to upmarket boutiques in Brighton. Then it was back to helping others feather their nests. Finally, the scales fell from my eyes as I battled the frustration of limited progress in my ambition to become financially free. I was bright, energetic and hardworking so what was missing from the equation and where would I find it? Actually, the answer was frighteningly simple; the potentially within me and if I was to achieve different results I would have to do something differently! So, 13 years ago I began reading books on success. My first choice was Swimming with Piranhas Makes You Hungry by Colin Turner which reinforced and added to what I already knew. 7 Habits of Effective People by Stephen Covey made me realise the importance of personal responsibility and the need to avoid being in victim mode. I highly recommend it to you if you ever feel afraid, powerless or clueless. Having discovered that successful people themselves have mentors, I engaged Rachel T, a phenomenally successful music industry executive turned coach, who broadened my thinking and encouraged me to also train as a coach. At last, I was moving forwards, with the added benefit of working from home. I began training with Coach U in America, and came across the genius who founded the coaching movement, the late Thomas Leonard.

ÂŠ 2011 Nicola Cairncross

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Very quickly I realised I wanted to coach people towards business success or career success – the practical rather than the emotional aspects of coaching. My text-only ezine attracted clients and I uploaded this each week to my five-page website. Although it looked like a five-page website from the front, it actually had an archive of constantly updated relevant content. I didn’t realise how groundbreaking that was at the end of the 90s. In effect, it was an early form of blogging which I’d stumbled upon and the search engines loved it. Increased traffic brought a surge in sign-ups for my mailing list and I was asked to share my business knowledge in the form of a coaching programme. Eureka! Many of The Money Gym clients were over-worked business owners wanting to learn other, less time-intensive methods of making money, such as property. My speaking engagements increased and I delivered talks to businesses across the board. I realised the power of the spoken word in touching emotions which caused people to share their stories with me afterwards, often signing up as new clients. I became fascinated by the mechanics of success, having had a taste with The Money Gym and then having to start all over again. I began researching how successful people think and what they do differently, noticing similarities among the people I interviewed. I believe I have identified the “3 Secrets of Business Success” and I’m about to share them with you.

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Secret Of Success #1 – The Business Owner

The Four Lanes Of The Wealth Highway In The Money Gym, we taught people about the Four Lanes of the Wealth Highway. My first wealth mentor said there were three ways to become rich, but I’ve added a fourth: •

Property – In earlier times, the wealthy were always landowners. This route, together with Stock Market investments, was the traditional way to wealth.

•

The Stock Market – Many landowners also invest in the Stock Market, typically in long term ‘blue chip’ shares of really stable companies

•

Business – Historically, wealthy landowners made their money from services to the Crown or in business. Initially, non-inherited wealth was looked down upon but in time those with earned wealth became lords and baronets and so entered the aristocracy.

•

The Internet – A modern money-making machine. While this is a business and must be treated as such, it is an avenue for making money without having a fully fledged business. The potential is vast and warrants a category of its own.

Many Money Gym clients found property investment difficult because of a poor credit history and lack of capital. The Stock Market route remained a mystery to clients who were afraid to embark upon the steep learning curve and/or were financially challenged. Despite claims to the contrary, a pot of cash is required for Stock Market trading and lack of funds often proved a further barrier to wealth. If ever an endeavour was designed to

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bring out fear or greed, this is it. It’s necessary to keep the emotions firmly in check and the Stock Market is neither for the feint hearted nor starter-level investors.

What We Learned About Success From Our Clients The Internet route to wealth brought the added benefits of low start-up and overhead costs. Time-rich and cash-poor clients had time to learn about the phenomenon that is the Internet and benefit enormously from it. However, the biggest and fastest successes usually came from taking a real world business with an existing customer base and expanding it to have an online business running in parallel. These businesses already had a track record and existing products or services and were ripe for development. Our very successful clients had a positive business mindset and realised that taking action and embracing developing technology were the keys to business growth. Let’s look at this in reverse as I reveal what the first key to business success is not.

A Great New Business Idea The first key to business success is not a great business idea. It’s not necessary to have a great business idea and or a new idea. Why not take an existing business model and simply do it better than anyone else? For example, how many coffee shops do you see on the High Street? Do we need another? No.

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The American coffee people came in and created a “coffee experience”, replacing poor coffee with a quality product. They increased choice - types of milk, toppings, etc. They took an average business idea (a café that served coffee) and turned it into something interesting and exciting.

A Great Business Model A great business model, on the other hand, is essential. What is a business model? It’s how you make money from your business. You need to think really carefully about this. Many business owners (or aspiring business owners) think they have a great business idea but haven’t thought through how they’ll make money from it. Often, their business model is so labour intensive and unprofitable it would be impossible to make a living. Unfortunately, this is a shocking conversation I have on a regular basis. Co-incidentally, I’ve recently advised the owner of a coffee business whose business model contains several revenue streams, which is great. Sadly, no thought had been given to which streams are the most profitable or easiest to run, as these are where their focus should be. Why make life harder than it needs to be?

The Keys To Success As A Business Owner

Many trainers and coaches will tell you anyone can learn to be successful in business and I used to agree but have since revised my thinking. Controversially, I

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now believe the first keys to business success are the business owner’s attitude, resilience, bravery and downright stubbornness in refusing to give up. The desire to succeed has to emanate from within. You have to make it happen using all the tools and learning at your disposal. Steven Covey advises that, on a deep and fundamental level, we have to understand that nobody owes us a living or really cares about us – sorry to share this truth with you. When contemplating the difference between moderately and hugely successful people, I realised I was looking in the wrong area for answers. If you want to find the cure, you don’t look at the sick but rather at those who remained well either because of natural immunity or the ability to fight illness. Another eureka moment! Applying this new thinking, I talked to the really successful people I know personally. Interestingly, some of these entrepreneurs have previously gone bust and many would therefore class them as failures. There’s someone I know (and I suspect you do too) who tells me he’s “currently between fortunes”. I know he’ll recover and experience huge success again because he shares that special something associated with achievement. I found nine core attributes or qualities in the successful entrepreneurs I interviewed which will be invaluable to you. Hold up a yardstick and see which core attributes and qualities you already have and which ones you need to develop.

Feeling The Pain

You have to be feeling the pain. The pain might be financial, from a life event such as redundancy or the old enemy, boredom.

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Gill Fielding, one of my first wealth mentors, used to become very frustrated because she believed that through taking baby steps every day, everyone has a 100% chance of becoming a millionaire in their lifetime, and yet people just don’t make that daily effort unless they’re experiencing pain of some kind. Many people feel the pain of unfulfilled potential but have no idea how to bring that potential to fruition. The difficulty is there is no incentive to try harder if you don’t have a vision of how to succeed. The “swivel factor” is a great motivator. Most of us remember someone in their past whom they would love to prove wrong! My maths teacher would never believe that I’m now making money from doing quite complicated sums, given my performance at school! My English teacher made me pay to enter my English “O” levels because he didn’t think I would pass and didn’t want the school to lose money by entering a “failure”. Ironically, I don’t recall receiving a refund when I achieved 2 ‘A’ grades. Perhaps I should apply for it now, adding compound interest? It could be a life changing moment when a medical diagnosis forces unexpected change upon you. Maybe something happens to a loved one, or it could be that you wake up one morning determined to do something to change your life for the better.

Having The Vision & Belief In my Money Gym book I discuss having a vision in the context of “The Tuesday Exercise”, and this is how it goes:

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Picture what your life would be like on a Tuesday, any Tuesday in the future, from the minute you get up to the minute you go to bed - and if I’m coaching you, I want details. I am talking about your ideal life. Who are you with? Who do you wake up next to? Where is your house? Which country is it in? What does it look like? What does it smell like? We associate smells with things, places, people and emotion, so these are essential details. The more specific you are with your ideal Tuesday, the easier it is to work out what kind of business would really suit you because Tuesday is just an ordinary day. Successful people have ordinary days too. By creating a really strong vision of your Tuesday when you are mega-successful, you will start to be drawn towards it and take actions to bring it into being as it will be irresistible. When you’ve moved away from the immediate pain, what will keep you going is your vision of the ideal Tuesday. Write out your vision and put it away in a drawer, believing it to be possible. You’ll forget about it but your subconscious will be creating ideas in your mind which will stretch you towards that ideal Tuesday. Believe that you are as good as anybody else and are entitled to success – why wouldn’t you be? Remember that amazing Marian Williamson poem which goes “who are you not to shine?” I believe you can do it, in fact I know you can, because I did. In 1998, I had the vision and belief that it was possible for me to be a successful entrepreneur and that I deserved it as much as the next person. Now is the time for you to do the same.

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Finding The “Right” Opportunity This is a good one, the belief that you have to find the right opportunity for you. Heard the story about the guy who owned a diamond field, spending ten years looking for diamonds, working hard uncovering every stone but finding nothing? He sold the diamond field and went off to do something else. The new owners find oil on his land. When I first heard that story, it really hit home. The right opportunity is probably under your nose. Could you run gardening or babysitting business, or a coffee shop? The right opportunity is simply an ordinary business run extraordinarily well. You don’t need the right opportunity, just any opportunity upon which you take action. Are you playing the ‘what if?’ game and avoiding doing anything? What if the first, second or third opportunities you try don’t work out? Keep going until you find one which does! Don’t fall into the trap of giving up too easily and not allowing time for the business to flourish because, with perseverance, one surely will. Any opportunity that’s been proven to work for someone else can work for you; there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Once you get started, opportunities will present in abundance. Here’s an example of one you can have on me: My long-handled spider catcher broke and I haven’t been able to find the guy on eBay who sold it to me. He was pretty old, bless him. I emailed pictures of it to an inventor. He’s looking at it with a view to making a prototype. Any day now an Sword is going to march through my house and, without my long-handled S-Catcher,

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I’m in deep trouble. There must be millions of other arachnophobes out there who need this device. Opportunities are everywhere so please don’t waste time looking for the right one. In exploiting your first opportunity, you’ll learn so many things which will make the next opportunity easier and faster to capitalise upon and thereby generate an income.

Making The Investment Yes, you are going to make an investment in your new business and in learning. You’ll need to read, listen to or watch new material. You may be worried about taking on new learning, or perhaps hadn’t realised it would be necessary at all? Perhaps you thought you’d go straight to business success without taking time to expand your knowledge? Have you heard the story about overnight success, as outlined in the brilliant book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell? The story goes that it takes ten thousand hours to become good at something and that is why so many adults give up too soon on learning new skills. They are not prepared for the ten thousand hour investment. Put another way, that’s the equivalent of 20,000 average length soap opera episodes! One of the best investments you can make is time and money in new learning which will be with you for life and enable you to take action. Robert G Alan, another of my author heroes, said: “You can take away everything I have and put me on the street with 100 dollars and I will make it again because you can’t take away what’s in my mind”.

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Remember, too, that you can make money by sharing your knowledge and new learning. You may not yet be an expert in the subject but you will be a few steps ahead of others seeking that same knowledge. However, despite the low start up costs, profits from an Internet business can be huge. It’s exciting to have a steady trickle of income with the occasional big payday along the way. My most exciting Internet day was New Year’s Eve, 2006. I was thinking of making a new product and, in order to test the market, sent out an email. Without thinking too much about it, I went out to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. When I returned, I casually checked my emails and found I’d made a staggering £14,000 while I’d been out enjoying myself. I’d made that money from orders for a product that only existed in my head! Needless to say, the product was successfully produced and dispatched. This success story also illustrates the power of a mailing list for market research. Like I did, you can sell a product in advance of creating it and only if you achieve sufficient sales do you invest the time and effort to make it. Remember, though, that time is money and your time has a value. Every hour you spend working on your business is time you could be out earning money, even if it’s stacking shelves or working in MacDonald’s. Your time is worth at least the value of the minimum wage and probably much more so when shopping, cleaning the house, or putting on the washing, it’s costing you in missed opportunity costs. Most people don’t value their time but they should. You can justify hiring a cleaner for under £7 an hour if your hourly rate is more than that; it’s worth it to buy you some more time, surely? Interestingly, many people don’t view an Internet business like a ‘real’ business and resent investing in essentials like a shopping cart, the absolute backbone of an

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Internet business, costing around £50 a month. Where else could you start a business for so little? Sometimes clients don’t want to proceed when I suggest it’s time to build their mailing list of potential future customers by investing that £50. You couldn’t start a coffee shop on the high street without investing a great deal more money so I’m perplexed when they expect to run an online business with no investment at all. I had a new business idea while on the train recently and, by the end of the 5-hour journey, I’d researched the idea via the Virgin wifi hotspot. Within five days I’d implemented my plan and attracted my first paying subscriber. Interested? See my idea at http://BusinessBarterClub.com

Taking Responsibility The Money Gym mantra was “nobody will ever care about your money like you do”. So often, people happily pay others for investment guidance and advice while simultaneously handing over responsibility for decision-making on their money. In the early days people used financial advisors, thinking they were independent, not understanding this meant they could sell many products rather than being tied to selling the products of just one company. Seeing the word “independent” they believed it meant “unbiased” whereas, in reality, they were biased towards selling products which attracted the highest commission payments. The only independent advice you should trust is your own, having done the research, weighed up the risks and reached your own decisions. Do you consider yourself a victim? I thought I was, blaming anyone or anything except myself for things constantly being wrong in my life and my lack of achievement. I realise now I was seeking attention, sympathy or praise.

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I believe I was like that because I grew up with an over-supportive mother. We didn’t grow up to be totally independent as she was always there to bail us out! Even today, I still have to be self-aware with regard to personal responsibility or I can easily slip back into that victim mentality. Abdication of responsibility manifests everywhere and is covered excellently in the great business book, The E-Myth Revisited. Specifically, it deals with the dangers of abdicating responsibility when hiring staff and of not holding people accountable for the successful completion of the tasks required in their role. One thing I recommend to anyone wanting to succeed is that they seek help and advice from someone who has already achieved their chosen objective. However, the inherent danger in hiring a coach or mentor is the abdication of responsibility. We may enjoy being told what to do but the reality is that we must assume responsibility for making our own decisions. It’s particularly dangerous to take advice from friends, family or anyone who has not succeeded in your area of interest! Another great book, Synchronicity: The Inner Path Of Leadership, discusses the dangers of feeling too responsible for others, particularly feeling responsible for the well being and happiness of colleagues and employees. At the end of the day, they are grownups and responsible for their own happiness and well being, particularly at work. Feeling too responsible for employees, their families and livelihoods can lead to the making of bad decisions in business, such as keeping an unprofitable company going for too long because you can’t bear to let anyone go.

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Making The Commitment Here’s a great story about someone going to the doctor only to be told that he was too fat and it was affecting his health. He was told he had to lose weight immediately or it would affect his health to the point where he could die. The doctor then said: “I want to see you in 3 months and those 3 months are going to pass, come hell or high water. Unless you make a commitment to lose weight, you will still going be fat and dying in 3 months’ time”. This man had to commit to shedding weight quickly or possibly losing his life. Nice and clear, that one! In life as in business, the hard part is making a real commitment. You need to commit yourself to becoming a success by overcoming any obstacles and challenges, regardless of how difficult they may be. You will encounter obstacles – that’s an absolute certainty. However, your personal commitment to finding a way past, over, under, through or around obstacles is essential or you will simply give up. One of those obstacles may be focusing on one idea at a time which is a huge challenge for those of an entrepreneurial disposition. Commitment is promising to do whatever it takes to create success.

Getting Support Having support will help make commitment to the tasks in hand so much simpler and you’ll find it easier to make time to advance your business.

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Many Money Gym clients hadn’t told anyone they had joined, fearing ridicule. Actually you are unusual because not many adults dedicate their time to new learning or to reading a book like this one. Seek out like-minded people for company as they understand what you are trying to do, feel the same as you and value your contribution. It’s so important to decide either to seek support from those around you or not to tell anyone; the choice is yours. However, it’s essential to find support from somewhere and the Internet is fantastic for building a virtual community. I have a private Facebook Mastermind Group for clients which is an invaluable resource where members ask questions, receive answers quickly and receive support and help. Here’s an example of that support and help. Before doing the presentation on this very topic, I decided I needed to find the closing speech from Fame The Movie but didn’t have the time. I posted to the Group and, when I walked in to do that presentation, someone had already emailed it to me, saying she’d watched the speech three times in order to copy it down - isn’t that cool? If you are in a marriage or partnership, it’s very important that you have your partner’s support in your quest for business success. Without this, they will subconsciously divert you from your task without even realising they’re doing it. They will be trying to steal your time back for them, which is natural. So ask for the support you need and make the time.

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Making Time I used to coach coaches on Marketing and ask them: “When are your coaching hours going to be?” Generally, they didn’t actually have any clients and would reply “Why do I need to make room for coaching when I don’t have any clients? When I have clients, I’ll book in my coaching hours then”. Wrong. Your clients won’t come until you have space in your diary for them - that is just how it works. No commitment to the idea of clients equals no clients. I used to ask how many clients they wanted to work with … 5, 10, 20? If you want 20 clients, make 20 drop files in your filing cabinet right now and put on the drop-files Client No 1, Client No 2, etc. This may seem rather meta-physical but, when you make that commitment to yourself, somehow the Universe or Fate, call it what you will, responds. Unless you carve out the time to become mega-successful, you will struggle. If you haven’t even chalked out the time in your diary, what chance do you think you have of success? We encouraged our Money Gym clients to set aside time each week to focus on their wealth creation without allowing everyday life and jobs to interrupt their flow. It’s true that what we focus on increases and so it is with business success. It doesn’t matter if you don’t yet know what you are going to do, if you haven’t made the time in your diary to at least think about it and take some action, you will never succeed.

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A question I ask my business mentoring clients is what they think they should be doing if they are not working “in the business” during the working hours they have set aside. The answer is, of course, Marketing. Yes, you are either delivering your service or you are marketing your service. Make time for this income producing activity clear in your own mind, then sit down at your computer and treat your own success like a day job. You have to work to earn money so why should it be any different with success? It’s important to carve out the time to work on your own success. I find diary zoning works brilliantly because it takes a different kind of energy and brain activity to be marketing, delivering your service or doing admin and accounts. It’s useful to group similar activities into the same days. I have Mondays for admin, finance, strategic planning and goal setting. This is because I like to start the week focused, up-to-date and knowing my priorities. Tuesdays and Thursdays are either hosting new clients’ strategy sessions or coaching my existing business mentoring clients. Although strategy sessions are technically marketing activities, they take a similar kind of energy to coaching sessions, so I do them on the same days. Wednesdays are webinar days and perhaps I might do interviews for my podcast. I like to group all the intense group webinars and telephone work together on the same days so that my head goes into that kind of brain activity and stays there all day. I’m exhausted by the end of it but I prefer it like that. I also know I can’t book any meetings or trips away from the house on Wednesdays. My friends and family know not to call until after 6pm and know that I’m unavailable on Wednesdays.

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Fridays are for marketing; writing my ezine, creating my podcast and going to seminars and networking events. If I’m out all day, I’ll write my ezine and create my podcast on Saturday morning. It’s interesting that as someone who is horrified by routine, systems and repetition, I love to zone my diary! I don’t see it as routine as every call is different. However, I do enjoy designing supporting systems which help me work at my optimum performance level and diary zoning is one of these. Perhaps you could try it and see if your productivity and focus increase? These days I use a Google calendar which updates automatically and syncs with my iPhone. Actually, I have several Google calendars as I enjoy having different ones for different activities and being able to view them all at the same time. Different types of activity have different colours, which is exactly what I used to do on my weekly planning sheet. This sheet was derived from a template I found in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It looks a bit like an old school timetable with the days along the top, the hours down the side and with a box for each hour from 7am to midnight. My weekly planner also had two other important columns at the far left hand side, which were Roles and Goals. These columns were more important when I was married and when I was trying to juggle the demands of young children and working at home. Google calendars are great because, once you have merged the views of the different calendars, you can print out your week at a glance. I stick the printed page onto the left-hand page of a Black & Red spiral bound hardback notebook. On the right-hand side I have a ‘To Do’ page, cribbed from the uber-successful Neil Asher. It becomes my ‘Focusing’ page, divided into "see at a glance" boxes such

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as "My Top 10 Things To Do Today", "Joint Venture To Focus On Today" and "How Could I Make £10,000 Today?" and I love it. You can see a photograph of my time management system online here http://www.thebusinesssuccessfactory.com/?p=3745 In the final part of this book, I’ll be going into detail about fun, easy and effective time management systems that work.

Taking Fast & Massive Action & Getting Early Results Failing to take fast and massive action to secure early results will cause you to give up. The T.Harv Ecker exercises I mentioned illuminated for me the fact that I wasn’t taking massive action but just doing enough. This exercise involved a task which could only be successfully done by doing more than enough and, after a few false starts, I did it. The feeling of incredible achievement made me burst into tears! I brought home a memento of that exercise which sits on my desk as a daily reminder to upscale the degree of action I take. It’s very important to identify which type of action taker you are. There is a great test by the Kolbe Corporation, called the Kolbe Index, which you can take online. I recommend you take the test at http://Kolbe.com. The Kolbe test is an online psychological profiling test which will identify your preferred methods of working. You will be awarded four scores (up to 10) in Fact Finder, Fast Start, Follow Through and Implementer.

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I was number 9 on the Fast Start and number 2 on everything else which means I am great at taking action, terrible at implementing and following through and not great on research either. I don’t agree completely with my score as I can implement but it is true that if I don’t swing into action and achieve fast results, I lose momentum and go off the boil very quickly. Knowing your personality traits means you can put support systems in place to make sure that you work with your strengths. Achieving fast results proves to you that you can do it and you know you won’t give up. (We have already talked about belief, but if you read Andy Shaw’s interview in the Success Interviews book you will recognise that know is a better word than believe.) So achieving fast results - whether for you that means increased income, traffic, subscribers, a Google listing or comments on your blog - is really important.

Accelerate The Success Process

It’s now time to accelerate your success in one of four ways.

Finding A Mentor

Mentoring was mentioned earlier but is the golden key to accelerated progress and we can look to Nature for an example of this. Migrating geese fly in formation, the lead goose taking the brunt of the wind while the others fly in the slipstream,

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making it easier for them. The geese take it in turn to be leader; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not always the same one, and so it is with mentors. Find the mentor successful in what you wish to achieve and slip into their slipstream (learning) to reach your destination more quickly. Minesh Bhindi calls them Success Paths. It was very rewarding to see some of our Money Gym clients becoming more successful than we were in some lanes of the Wealth Highway, generating some friendly rivalry. It was terrific to watch their unfolding success as a result of taking action on the mentoring messages they received. This was sometimes a two-way process, and I love to learn from clients when they come up with something which is new to me. Using that wonderful tool, 20/20 hindsight, I realise how much I would have benefited by investing some of my early earnings in a high level mentor. Had I done so, I would have learnt more quickly while making money faster. At the time, I was financially-challenged and cynical, a dangerous combination. I was cynical about mentoring in the same way as I am about expensive skin and hair care products, believing them to be all hype and advertising with no real substance. I struggled on alone, taking years to make my own mistakes, rather than accelerating the process by hiring a mentor. A mentor will show you the shortcuts, flag up the pitfalls and help you to avoid them, thereby making your journey to success simpler and easier than mine.

Creating A Mastermind Group Forming a mastermind group empowers success. There is something about the power of putting human minds together. Did you know that one mind plus one

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mind has been proven to equal three minds, not two? The optimum number for a mastermind group is eight and, as there are eight in the one I attend, I can confirm this seems to be correct. How do you select a mastermind group? One of the people I most respect and admire was talking about forming one and we each suggested potential members. If we both agreed on the selection, they were in. If one of us was unsure, then that person wasn’t invited. We meet once a month in person, for a day, sharing what we are working on and our challenges. Next we brainstorm, make suggestions and offer contacts and ideas. The following month we each report back on the actions taken and the results achieved.

Finding Your Dream Team

The third success accelerator is to join a ‘dream team’. A dream team differs from a mastermind group in that they are usually bigger groups of people whom you like and respect and who have different skills, knowledge, abilities and cultural backgrounds from you. There may be 30-40 people in your dream team. My clients have a dream team in our private members’ group on Facebook. It’s incredible how the synergy between human brains works, growing exponentially. The more people you have in your dream team the better, which is why my private client support group works so well. Recently, someone was asking for advice on how to fill up her luxury B&B in France in the low season. Dream team members offered some excellent ideas and, by the end of the discussion, a new business plan was laid out.

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Did you notice what had to happen? This lady had to take action and ask, to “bare her ass in public”, as we laughingly say, which is often a frightening prospect. We are terrified to reveal what we perceive as “weakness” but nobody can help if they don’t know you need it. Mastermind groups work so well because they formalise the sharing of challenges and give everyone a chance to both help and be helped. A great book on the concept of masterminding is One Minute Millionaire, which is not only a great read but it’s written in a very novel way – designed to appeal to both right and left brained people. I recommend it to you.

Watch What Successful People Do

Success leaves traces, a great expression which is very true. When putting Money Gym events together, I didn’t have to think too hard about who I wanted on the stage, because I know who is successful. I believe it’s true to say that it’s not relevant whether a person is currently successful by most people’s standards. If they have achieved success once, then they will usually be successful again. After I’ve given a presentation perhaps twenty or thirty people come to speak with me afterwards. It’s easy to spot the potential winners because they have a spark about them, an energy, a mission or purpose.

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When choosing your dream team pay close attention to the energy of the people around you, rather than their cars or their houses. Look at their potential for success and the steps they are taking to move themselves forward. It’s amazing how working with the right mentor, mastermind group and dream team can move you forwards but choose your gurus carefully, ensuring they are authentic people who have the same beliefs and values as you. Seek out successful people, watch them carefully, support each other and prepare to fly.

What Does All This Mean For You?

You might be wondering whether, because you haven’t achieved great success so far, you’re not different enough or don’t have ‘it’ and therefore are beyond hope. Banish those thoughts! Whilst I can’t do it for you, I can try to inspire and educate clients in business success through coaching, speaking and writing a book or blog posts. Study successful people, create a vision and emulate the qualities and habits of those successful people. You can acquire their skills and knowledge but you must be ready to take control of yourself, for yourself. May I share a few practical tips with you right now? These are things I use or do every day that really make a difference to me. Having just come through one of the toughest years of my life, if I hadn’t used some of these strategies, I would have been backsliding in my attitude and outlook. Here’s what I do daily to keep myself on track.

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Avoid Normal TV

I find the news really, really depressing as it’s usually negative. I find the important items I really need to know about get through anyway. I avoid watching depressing soap operas because they depict ordinary people and I don’t want to be ordinary; I want to be a success. So I only watch programmes about successful people.

Positive People

I surround myself with positive people and I avoid spending time with ‘energy vampires’ and, as a result, have a fantastic social life. I absolutely love all the people I hang out with. I network locally with business people to get away from the computer and enhance my social life. Often, I find the positive business people with whom I network become friends and we begin socialising together.

Keep Learning

I go to seminars not only to keep my learning current but to meet up with my friends. It’s a long-distance networking exercise as the seminars are all over the world. I learn new skills all the time. I love to learn. There’s a video for everything on YouTube. If you want to know anything at all on how to do something, type it into

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Google and the chances are they’ll be an instructional video on YouTube. Beware of trying to know everything about a subject before you get started – you only need to master “just in time” learning not “just in case” learning.

Keep Reading & Listening

Last thing at night, I read inspirational books, thinking if that’s the last thing my brain processes, my subconscious will work in a positive way while I’m asleep. I’m currently reading Creating a Bug Free Mind and Using a Bug Free Mind by Andy Shaw. If anyone can teach you about working with your own mind and winning, it’s Andy. These books should be generally available shortly. I’ve interviewed him for the companion book to this one and you can get access to that second book with my complements at http://TheBusinessSuccessFactory.com/members/tbsf-book-bonus I’m also reading Recreate Your Life by Morty Leftko

Journalling

I journal about life and business on a daily basis. This process brings clarity of thinking. As it’s an activity best carried out away from the computer, I treat myself to Moleskin notebooks to write in. Start by writing about things daily, planning what you want to do and recording how you feel about what’s happening in your life, making sure you capture the

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associated emotions. Having downloaded all that swirling emotion from your head to the page, you work with a clearer mind and more focused direction.

Subliminal Power

For the last few months I’ve had subliminal power software permanently running on my computer and have really noticed a huge difference in how I’ve been feeling. It’s well worth the $30 investment. It’s set up to run in the background when your computer is on and you have a choice of twenty pre-set programmes on which you can customise the messages. Little messages flash up all the time so that, while I’m working, my brain is subconsciously taking them in. I’ve found them really helpful and feel much better.

About The Business Owner - In Conclusion

Taking the following steps will ease your path and accelerate your journey to success: •

Take responsibility for your own success.

•

Study the habits and actions of successful people.

•

Decide you are going to succeed, no matter what.

•

Seek assistance and guidance from mentors.

•

Form (or join) a mastermind group.

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•

Participate in a dream team.

•

Learn new skills.

•

Gain inspiration and knowledge from books, e-books, subliminal messages.

•

Find a way through, round and over obstacles.

•

Never give up.

•

Enjoy the journey.

Part Two of this book reveals the second secret to business success and includes more practical steps to make your business even more successful.

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Secret Of Success # 2 - The Business Marketing 21st Century World-Class, Business Marketing is the second key to success. What is 21st Century World Class Marketing? One of my mentors, Rich Schefren, described it like this: “Marketing is bringing your market to desire your product or service so well that selling becomes unnecessary.” So how do you become world-class at marking? You need knowledge and to know which marketing tactics no longer work – hint, Yellow Pages! Newspaper and radio advertising can work if done correctly and, sadly, not many people do it properly. You either need to have the skills to do these activities correctly or the ability to hire those who can. This is one area where you could spend a lot of money for a miniscule return but it doesn’t have to be like that. I’m going to cover why you need a powerful marketing plan, how to build your unforgettable brand and I’m asking a friend of mine, Mark Donnan, to give us the benefit of his expertise in this area. Marketing success is not so much about what you do as what you don’t do. As you go through this book, think about what percentage of the things I talk about you actually do. If the figure’s low, don’t beat yourself up about it, as I’ll show you how to market effectively.

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Decide which one, two or three things you’re going to implement from the suggestions I make and then do them this week, next week and each week thereafter. This is the start of your marketing plan.

Why do you need a marketing plan? Without a marketing plan you’ll fall into the ‘feast or famine’ syndrome where you’re either overloaded with work or without any. This is because you’re not marketing on a regular basis. It’s important to discover which marketing activities you enjoy because, if you don’t enjoy them, they won’t get done. Traditionally, marketing involved prospecting for appointments, doing presentations which involved a great deal of preparation and, if you were lucky, an opportunity to present to the decision maker. In reality, the decision maker often wasn’t in the room. Sometimes, by the date of the presentation, the person you expected to meet was no longer even with the company. This model is also unsatisfactory as you remain at the mercy of budgets, never knowing whether there’s any slack for the company to invest in your product or service. Freelancers also fall into a trap which I’ve witnessed with everyone from web designers to photographers. They frenetically try to deliver the best product or service they possibly can but fail to allocate time for marketing their business. At the end of their current project, without marketing, they may come to a grinding halt with no work in the pipeline.

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A marketing plan is important in any economy but, when the economy dips, marketing is often seen as an unnecessary overhead when actually it becomes even more essential. Effective marketing can break-even or even be a profit centre in its own right in the 21st century format. Businesses with a strong brand and which maintain marketing activity survive and ride the recovery wave higher and faster.

7 Steps To A Successful Marketing Plan 1) Establish now what could be done to market your business. 2) Choose the marketing activities that you enjoy. 3) Plan to be consistent in those chosen activities. 4) Automate as much as possible â&#x20AC;&#x201C; youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be amazed at how much you can automate nowadays. 5) Track your results. 6) Do more of what works and is making you money. 7) Work out which of your marketing activities brings in the most profit and increase them.

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Would you like to read the rest of the book, download the Success Interviews Transcripts, listen to the audio and enjoy a mentoring Special Offer trial working with Nicola?

Great! Just visit the website today at http://TheBusinessSuccessFactory.com/members/book-1/

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Work With Nicola Cairncross Mentoring Nicola has been mentoring business owners how to market their businesses more effectively online for nearly 20 years now. She bought her first domain name in 1995 when her daughter was born and she bought the whole familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s names as dot com domains, for future use. If you would like to work with Nicola, visit her at the website at http://thebusinesssuccessfactory.com/members/internet-marketing-mentoring/

Speaking

Are you having an event and need a dynamic, down to earth, inspirational speaker? Nicola loves to speak on her core topics of wealth creation, business success, internet marketing, success thinking and entrepreneurialism. Just email Nicola@NicolaCairncross.com in the first instance with details of your event.

Digital Product Creation, 21st Century Marketing & Online Brand Management

Need help with your business or your marketing?

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We can either mentor you to do it yourself via The Business Success Factory or we can do it all for you at Cairncross Media. We specialise in digital product creation, product launches and 21st Century marketing and brand management. Visit us and download our Free White Paper Report “How To Market ANY Business Online” which has a value of £47.50 but which, as a reader of this book, you can download for free. http://CairncrossMedia.com

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