Archive for Successful Small Business
Are You Really Accountable for Your “Word”?
Posted by: | CommentsCan you believe the first quarter of the year is almost gone? Time flies when you’re having fun! Are you noticing this year that the same actions you have taken in the past are not producing the results they used to? If you are doing the same things over and over and missing your target – it’s probably a good time to try out something new.
Well, I have a simple message for you. If you want to get more stuff done, you need to be accountable for your “word.” When was the last time you were able to check off all the items on your weekly commitment list? I’m sure you’d agree the truth is that most of us have a wide gap between what we hope to accomplish and what we actually do.
I was talking with a close friend at dinner on Sunday about the roadblocks she keeps running into when it comes to meeting and achieving important goals.
She was talking with a sense of utter desperation, telling me that no matter what steps she takes she just can’t master a meaningful goal she’s ever set for herself.
When my clients use the techniques I’m about to share with you, they get massive results. You need strategies to get control over powerful motivating levers in your life. Accountability techniques make it almost certain you’ll do what you say you’ll do. Accountability coaching is the way many executives and top performing professionals raise to the top of their game because coaches help them become answerable to their own goals and commitments.
Start keeping track of the things you say you will or want to do and see how often they get done. In reality, we are not always our “word.” But, the point I’m making here is the more we are our “word” or the more we answer to our selves, the more you’ll accomplish what you say you want to get done in your personal or professional life.
Leap Ahead Coaching
You may have heard of all or some of these accountability strategies. I didn’t realize the power of these ideas until I fully understood the psychology behind them. I now creatively leverage simple accountability techniques such as the ones below to effortlessly increase how much I get done on a weekly basis. It’s truly cool!
- Time blocking
- Accountability partner
- Peer group
Time Blocking
Just the fact you create space on your calendar for a particular activity increases the probability you’ll get the task done. If you’re true to your “word”, you’ll follow through. Time blocking increases the probability of completing that task, but it isn’t always enough to ensure every item gets done or for every person.
You’ll need to avoid distractions during the blocks of time you’ve allocated for a particular project. If you have complete focus on your activities during the blocked out time, you’ll increase your creativity and productivity with this one idea alone.
Accountability Partner
If you time block and also commit to your accountability partner you’ll be more likely to perform a specific task. For example, if you say you’ll get up at 5:00am to go swimming tomorrow morning, the likelihood you’ll get up at 5:00am and actually go down to the pool in your swim suit and jump into a pool is very slim.
However, if you’ve agreed to meet a friend at the pool at 5:00am, the probability you’ll really show-up is significantly improved because you wouldn’t want to disappoint your friend.
Peer Group
Peer groups are similar to an Accountability Partner except you surround yourself with a group of people who have similar interests. Say for example, you have a goal to become a public speaker. The probability you’ll actually stick with your goal is much higher if you involve yourself in an organization for professional speakers.
I know this might be a little scary for you, but let the community know what you’re up to. When you become a part of the community, declare your goals and intentions to key members of the community so you force yourself to be responsible for your “word.” This will be a powerful motivator for you.
Many people who desire to be public speakers start off in Toast Masters to gain experience presenting in front of audiences. Toast Masters has a formal feedback process which helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses to help you improve your presentation skills over time.
Your next step could be you join the National Speakers Association (NSA) to collaborate with other professional speakers. NSA helps you stay in tune with trends in professional speaking. You also learn successes and challenges of other presenters.
Over time, you’ll naturally begin to pick-up the skills of public speaking through osmosis, learn to market yourself as a speaker, and identify the activities you need to follow through on to make the transition into making your professional speaking dream a reality.
Here you immerse yourself into the peer group hoping the identity, talents, and mindset of the group rubs off on you.
Take note that organizations like Toast Masters and NSA create the structure for you to force you to be accountable. Your coach can help you creatively apply the “peer group” effect when formal communities don’t exist. It’s amazing how a skilled accountability coach can increase a person’s results in one session.
Being Your “Word”
These are a few of my Leap Ahead Accountability Coaching strategies to help you get “leverage” on yourself by realizing what being your “word” does to help you stand out above the crowd. You’re no longer leaving your life up to chance when you are your word. An accountability coach helps you be your “word.”
Coaching Tune-Up
Do you want my help to become the “rock star” of your dreams? I help business owners, entrepreneurs, and corporate employees get “leverage” on their life to help you:
- Double your sales in six months, which will enable you to buy the car or dream home you want.
- Get your projects done, which have up to this point been evading you so you can take them off your list and free yourself for bigger and more rewarding things.
- Get your blogging and social media plan created and implemented.
- Get the chapters in your book written which isn’t going anywhere right now.
- Focus on your marketing to generate more leads in your business and improve your cash flow.
- Raise capital for your new venture by getting your business plan done and your capital presentation completed.
- Get the promotion you know you deserve and make your family and friends proud of you.
- Get financing in place to improve your cash flow or invest in commercial property.
- And much more…
No matter what your goal is right now, I’ll help you to creatively apply powerful accountability tactics in your personal and professional life to help you be your “word.” Don’t leave your success up to chance!
I invite you to call me at (866) 323-9123 to sign-up for my Coaching Tune-Up. I’ll give you a complimentary session where I’ll help you right away to get much more done, which will increase your self-esteem and create more success in your life.
Business Leaders Discover the Value of Being Coachable
Posted by: | CommentsBusiness Leaders Discover the Value of Being Coachable!
One thing professional athletes and business leaders have in common is both of you need to find the right strategic coach to maximize your results. A growing number of business leaders such as business owners, entrepreneurs, speakers, coaches, consultants, and corporate executives find coaching to be the best way to breakthrough their invisible barriers.
Are YOU coachable? When you think of all the great athletes in basketball, football, golf, and tennis, how many of them do you think would have been successful without a premier coach?
Tiger Woods is the best golf player in the history of the game. Why does he still work with a coach?
Coaches provide feedback, support, a different perspective and accountability to lift your game to a higher level.
Most people who are truly committed to their objectives, goals, success, and their quality of life work with a coach. Great leaders surround themselves with consultants who provide expert support and who are there as a “sounding board” for them to sharpen their ideas, polish their goals and create balance to enhance their decisions.
So, why don’t we seek expert advice when it comes to living our own personal lives and running our businesses? When it comes to our own lives we struggle because we think we should be able to do it alone based on our willpower. We sometimes end up overburdening our own friends and family because we expect a level of support that they are unable to give us.
Tiger knows the value of expert advice in golf and business, but he lacks maturity in life in terms of spiritual knowledge. This makes him vulnerable to all the temptations in the world which affect all of us, especially when we’ve achieved great financial success. I suspect this will be the next area in Tiger’s life where he’ll seek out balance through an expert who understands issues of life
I mentioned above that coaches have coaches. I am a coach, but I also have different coaches I work with on a regular basis because it’s only human to have invisible barriers. I’ve discovered coaching is the best way for me to overcome my blind spots.
Invisible Barriers
- Your weaknesses
- Your strengths
- Your blind spots
The tricky thing for you to understand is that most people who desire to be business leaders already know what they want and have powerful strategies they need to follow. The challenge is they don’t know how to get it done! It’s not enough for you to know what to do. You need help in breaking through your invisible barriers to execute on what you already know you need to do. You need to be coachable! I give you the “secret sauce” below.
The most successful people in business are those who understand who they are; those who are honest with themselves about their strengths and weaknesses. These successful business people develop strategies to perform at a high level no matter the environment they operate in.
Improving on your behavior patterns is critical to getting what you want in business and life. Much of our behavior is inherent and our upbringing shapes how we respond in various situations.
Do you realize that many people don’t even recognize all of their strengths? Yes that’s right; they don’t use the power they already have at their becking call! Compound this with the fact that people don’t want to admit to their weaknesses even when they’re aware of what they are.
It’s critical for you to know:
- How you react to problems and challenges.
- How you persuade others to your point of view.
- How you act in response to changes in your environment.
- How you react to rules and procedures set by others.
“All people exhibit all four of these behavioral factors in varying degrees of intensity.”
–W.M. Marston
Assessment Tools
I can help you with assessment tools to find out where you stand. My assessments will give you the information you need to clarify your invisible barriers. The point I’m driving home here is that logical intelligence is just one factor that determines your success. Emotional and behavioral intelligence are just as important for you to grapple with to make a measureable difference in your life.
Coaching can help you to:
- Improve relationships with your family, employees, and peers
- Enable you to be a better team player
- Double your sales
- Increase your effectiveness in influencing others
- Focus on what really matters to you in business and life
- Stop doing the things which have nothing to do with your business and life goals
- Leverage your strengths
- Mitigate your weaknesses
What would Michael Jordan have accomplished in his life if he had not been coachable? I would venture to guess much less than the intensity at which he played for years in the NBA. Michael was so bad at basketball in high school, he didn’t even make the team.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
- Michael Jordan
How do you view failure in your life and business? Because Michael was coachable, he accepted advice from his coaches who knew what it took to be a great basketball player. I train constantly to become a premier coach for my clients. Jordan’s coaches helped him to capitalize on his strengths and mitigate his weaknesses. Michael became a premier basketball player in the NBA and his coaches are revered as among the best coaches who have ever coached the game.
Many business owners I interact with in my business, at networking meetings, and on conference calls, don’t appear to me to be coachable. But, their progress is slow. They’re dissatisfied with their progress and change their focus frequently because they can’t figure out why they’re not breaking through their barriers.
It’s not about your intellect!
It’s not about your will power alone!
It’s not about me dumping a lot of information on you.
I’m sure your already drowning in too much information.
The Secret Sauce
Coaching technologies make the difference by fine tuning your performance.
Coaching technologies can be used to find out where you are currently, your invisible barriers, and clarify your goals.
Coaching technologies can help you create your intellectual, emotional, and behavioral roadmap in your life to powerfully reach your goals.
Do You Need A Coaching Tune-Up?
Test drive my strategic coaching program right now! My Coaching Tune-Up will help you turn-up your performance in the areas which will give you the power to accomplish your specific goals. I only worked with people who really want to make progress in business or in their life.
Call me at (866) 323-9123 or click this link to sign-up today for a complimentary Coaching Tune-Up with me. I will let you test drive my strategic coaching program for free so you can experience the power of my coaching prowess.
Each month, I give away one free assessment. This is an opportunity for you to discover where you’re at right now, which will enable you to breakthrough the invisible barriers which have been in your way for years!
Breakthrough Sales Ideas for Small Businesses In 2010
Posted by: | CommentsOn February 2, 2010, I hosted a training conference call with my sales mentor Eric Lofholm. Thank you for sharing great tips with the Donald Hunter Financial community.
Eager entrepreneurs and business owners around the planet dialed in to get some “golden sales nuggets” to help them boost their financial results.
This call was fantastic! And, I’ve made the recording available to you below! Eric touched on powerful ideas to help you breakthrough your fears around selling. I picked up a couple of “golden nuggets” on this call which will boost my sales results!
My breakthrough was in the area of getting connected to the benefits influence skills can produce in my life by linking personal financial outcomes to my persuasion abilities , which is actually a powerful business coaching technique.
What benefits would you enjoy in your life if you were to double your sales results?
As you listen to this valuable call , you will discover :
- Why a top insurance salesperson consistently out performed his peers
- How to embrace persuasion skills by changing your view of selling
- How your fear of selling can stifle your results
- Why Eric’s proprietary “Sales Mountain” process can help you produce predictable, sustainable outcomes for your business
- How focusing on three sales systems will boost your results
You can request the slides for this call by emailing me or following Eric’s instructions at the end of this recording. My contact information is always at the bottom of every post.
Complementary Sales Tune-Up Coaching Program
If you have any fears around selling, you should take advantage of my Complementary Sales Tune-Up sessions today. Increases in your sales means you’ll be stronger financially. My goal is to help you get into a stronger financial position long before you need commercial funding.
I’ve spent the past two years studying persuasion techniques, strategies, and sales processes to enable me to produce better results in my own business ventures. My sales and marketing mentors include heavy weights like:
- Dan Kennedy
- Berry Rhein
- Eric Lofholm
- Genie Laborde
- Stan Billiue
- Tommy Hopkins
- Zig Ziggler
- Etc.
I’d like to be your breakthrough business coach and help you to get incredible sales results in 2010. You can sign-up with me today for your complementary Sales Tune-up Coaching session.
In your complementary session, I will mentor you with my powerful coaching technologies to:
- Assess your personal sales goals
- Identify your limiting fears around selling
- Guide you in developing powerful strategies to enable you to generate leads online and offline on a daily basis
- Help you to breakthrough what to say, how to say it, and when to say it to increase your sales conversions
- Improve your financial bottom-line through helping you create a “burning desire” to produce breakthrough sales results
I’ve discovered through studying coaching technologies, persuasion techniques, and financial planning a powerful link between what you believe about your finances and the impact your beliefs have on your sales results. My business coaching will help you “play at a level 10”!
Are you prepared to receive the sales outcomes you’ve been seeking? Increase your influence skills and you’ll improve your business cash flow too.
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Your comments on Donald Hunter Financial give other business owners and entrepreneurs access to helpful resources you have like your own web site or blog. And your remarks add value to the conversations I initiate here for you every week.
Small Business Coach Top-Ten List
Posted by: | CommentsBlast your business off this year with my small business coaching top-ten list. First, I start by giving you ten business planning tools to fuel your growth. Then, I fire you up with business coaching services, websites, and recommended books to give you a business planning boost.
Before we get started, I want to share this quote from Michael Jordan with you. It shows you how a real champion thinks about success.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
Business Planning Tools
1. Work with a professional that has deep knowledge in business, financial, marketing, and technology. You need a small business coach who knows how to accurately calculate the cost of launching your rocket ship. You may need funding for your business plan. The more business, market, and customer analysis you do upfront, the easier it will be for you to execute on your business plan and get commercial funding in place to ensure you’re successful.
2. Analyze your current business and financial situation. Be truthful. What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? What are your limiting beliefs that will stop you from getting into orbit and reaching your financial targets? As a small business coach, I can help you with this step.
3. Make a clear vision of where you’re going in your business. Use the analysis step as input. Break your vision down into a few high level goals, objectives, and key success factors. A clear vision and attainable goals motivates you and your team to sustain your financial trajectory.
4. Profile your customer – what they do from the time they wake-up in the morning until they fall asleep at night. If you don’t understand what your customers want and need and their problems, frustrations, and fears, then your marketing and sales messages won’t resonate with them offline or online.
5. Create a strong web presence. You need to master blogging and social media marketing to be competitive in business today. Without going into the details of the blogosphere here, you must understand it will get harder and harder to capture brand recognition in the future once your competition gains a strong foothold on your market. Lock down your brand on the web while your competition is asleep at the wheel. Sign-up for your free business plan consulting consultation with me. My business coaching services will give you powerful ideas to secure your brand space.
6. Complete your yearly business plan. It’s like a flight plan. NASA would be foolish to launch the shuttle with out having a detailed flight plan, right? Your plan lays out how you’ll reach your financial targets. I suggest you start with a high level five-year plan, and then break it down into the first year. You will need to further break it down by quarter, month, and week.
7. Create a separate marketing plan at the beginning of each quarter. You must market constantly so your target market knows you exist and what you’re all about! How many hours do you currently market per week? Layout a step-by-step plan for a unique blog design and specific post. You need to set targets in terms of traffic and conversions. This means you’ll be adding more money in your bank account. Identify the social media sites where you want to promote yourself and your business. Set specific goals for each of these sites: What partners do you need to be successful? Who do you need to build relationships with? What associations and conferences you need to target? Social media helps to speed-up offline and online relationship building. All this activity will help fuel traffic to your blog. Review my highly recommended eBook for doing blogs the right way. You’ll need to know how much this marketing plan will cost you. And if you need help planning and implementing your online plan, check out my business coaching program below.
8. Focus on flight execution. You can’t afford to fall asleep like the Northwest pilots did last summer over Minnesota and miss your financial destination! This is where most people have problems: financial focus. You’re in business to make money! Aren’t you? So you need to ensure the daily tasks add up to the weekly goals. Then the weekly goals add up to the monthly goals, and so on. This focus will ensure you reach your five year business plan successfully. Get targeted education and training to fill in the gaps. Consider hiring specific talent to complement your strengths.
9. Measure results. In the book, Psycho Cybernetics, the author, Maxwell Maltz, uses the analogy of a servo mechanism or rocket. Your rocket processes negative and positive input to stay on financial track. Measure for goals, set objectives, and determine reasons why you don’t meet your financial targets. If you find something doesn’t work well, revise your plan and continue measuring. If something works well, do more of it and you will arrive at your desired financial destination safely.
10. Guard your time. To use the analogy of a teenager, if you’re always texting someone while you’re driving your business, your negligent behavior may cause you to have a financial crash, run out of financial fuel, or burn your money upon take off. You’ll need to stop doing things that don’t produce financial results. If it’s not important to your financial goals, then don’t do it. Otherwise put it in your financial goals. Block off time on your calendar for tasks you know need to get done.
I think this is a pretty good map for creating your financial flight plan. My business coaching services help you define the costs, measure for success, and improve your plan during the year. For more powerful business transformation, sign-up for my free Business Survival Report right away. Or call me and we’ll schedule a time when you and me can discuss your unique ideas and goals.
Now I want to share some of my favorite resources with you to help motivate you to be successful, give you some business and financial planning tips, and help you with time management.
Recommended Reading for Your Business Success (Do You have any other books that you would add to this list?)
1. Think and Grow Rich: Napoleon Hill
2. As a Man Thinketh: James Allen
3. How to Win Friends and Influence People: Dale Carneige
4. The eMyth: Michael Gerber
5. See You at the Top: Zig Ziglar
6. The Power of Positive Thinking: Norman Vincent Peale
7. Awaken the Giant Within: Anthony Robbins
8. Rich Dad Poor Dad: Robert T. Kiyosaki
9. The Laws of Success: Napoleon Hill
10. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude: Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone
11. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Stephen R.Covey
12. Maximum Achievement: Brian Tracy
13. Developing the Leader within You: John C. Maxwell
14. The Richest Man in Babylon: George S. Clason
15. The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Suze Orman
16. Who Moved My Cheese: Dr. Spencer Johnson
17. The Magic of Thinking Big: David J.Schwartz
18. The Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives – by: Dan Millman
19. Acres Of Diamonds: Russell H. Conwell
20. The Seasons of Life: Jim Rohn & Ronald Reynolds
21. The One Minute Manager: Kenneth Blanchard
22. The Automatic Millionaire: David Bach
23. The Greatest Salesman in the World: Og Mandino
24. The Sales Bible: Jeffrey Gitomer
25. Chicken Soup for the Soul series: Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, with other contributors
26. Good to Great- Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Other’s Don’t: Jim Collins
27. Break From The Pack: Oren Harari
28. Stepping Into Greatness: Daniel Gutierrez
29. The Secrets of Successful Inventors: John R. Hobbs
30. The Success Principles: Jack Canfield
31. Little Green Book of Getting Your Way: Jeffrey Gitomer
32. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind – T. Harv Eker
33. Money and the Law of Attraction-Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness: Esther and Jerry Hicks
34. The 5 Laws That Determine All of Life’s Outcomes: Brett Harward
35. The Science of Getting Rich: Wallace Wattle
36. People and Performance- The Best of Peter Drucker on Management: Peter Drucker (and all other books by Peter Drucker
37. Re-Imagine: Tom Peters (and all other books by Tom Peters
38. Busting Loose from the Money Game: by Robert Scheinfeld
39. Three Feet From Gold: Greg Reed
Business Web Sites:
Small Business Blogging Information at About.com
Business Coaching Program
I occasionally do a free webinar I call “Wealth In Commercial Niches.” On my webinar, I give you powerful tips to win in this economy. I cover profitable commercial property types, business niches where demand is good, and show you what you need to know financially to launch your business plan.
Call me to find out more about my business-coaching program or schedule a complimentary consultation. I’d love to help you. I have an extensive business, marketing, technology, and finance background. I could be a very valuable member of your success team. I’m a unique small business coach because of my broad talents.
You can “Share” or “Tweet” this post below to help other small business owners and entrepreneurs in your network get fired up about their business and marketing plans.
Scam Warning to Distressed Property Owners From My Certified Financial Planner Training!
Posted by: | CommentsWatch Out for Multi-Level and Social Media Marketers and Especially Self Serving Mortgage Brokers!
I want to shine the spot light for you on a financial product being sold today by multi-level marketers (financial salespersons), which isn’t good for distressed property owners, and accounts for around 23% of homes in the United States. Now, this product doesn’t have the same magnitude of disaster we’ve seen so far with toxic mortgages, but you should be aware of a few important facts about this product. And I’m not going to be silent about its potential negative consequences.
This product is software that requires you to pay $5000 to help pay down your mortgage in half the time. If just 10% of homeowners would make this investment, these multi-level marketers will make a killing while pushing distressed property owners further into debt.
I began my Certified Financial Planner courses in 2005 at Kaplan University because I want to be more than just a financial salesperson. Every 30 days (for six months) I had to take a mind bending exam for my certified financial planner training. In 2006, I told friends and family to sell their homes because the real estate market in the U.S. was way overheated. Some listened. Others got out and reinvested in another state and ended up in foreclosure. I thought they realized it was a U.S. problem and not a California problem. And it turned out to be a world problem, didn’t it?
Mortgage conferences I attended summer of 2006 discussed the government requiring “suitability” laws in purchasing homes like we have for purchasing stocks. The U.S. government offered up homeowners as prey for ambitious financial salespersons. And after all of this, some politicians still think consumers don’t need to be protected from self serving financial salespeople. You’ve got to protect yourself!
I heard lots of financial professionals talking about how we were heading towards a big crash, but only a few warned the market about the fraud that was occurring. In 2004, Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) in Walnut Creek, California, refused to write insurance on high loan to value debt because they believed the properties were over valued. Then, they went silent on the issue. I wonder who told them to hush. I’m sure you can probably guess.
My reasons for warning you about this product which promises you can pay down your debt in record time is based on my certified financial planner courses. Here is my analysis for why this product is not good for distressed property owners:
- Property values are still falling!
- Mortgage interest rates are at an all-time low
- Your age is a huge factor.
- You don’t know how long it will take for the real estate market to recover.
- You don’t need to buy software and pay $5000 to pay your mortgage down in half the time! And, you should think long and hard about sinking more money into your home than required while the real estate market is in turmoil. Diversify your investments instead.
- You simply need to understand the financial rationale for paying down your mortgage faster and just create a plan to follow and keep your $5000 in the bank or off your credit card. Most financial people can tell you how to do the same thing this software does yourself!
- You should pay down high interest rate loans such as credit cards. Pick the one with the highest interest rate to pay off first, and so on.
- Cash is king right now. You need reserves of six to nine months for emergencies. I’m sure you’ve heard Suzie Orman, the TV financial guru, talk about why it so important for you to have an emergency fund. Ms. Orman is also a Certified Financial Planner like me.
You can see my reasons why it is unwise for you to pay down your mortgage right now. The risk you are taking is huge to put more money into your home than your bank requires. If you’re able to cover your fully amortized mortgage payments at this time, then that’s good enough until we see where this economic crisis leads us. Paying down your mortgage in half the time while interest rates are at an all time low doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. You run the risk of throwing your money down the drain. Your property may continue to decline in value and who knows what other financial challenges life will bring your way! Does my analysis make sense to you?
It would be better for you to diversify your investments to reduce your risk. If you have extra cash to invest, look for investments that will give you cash flow or a positive return based on your time horizon. Diversifying your risk was one of the most important concepts tested in my certified financial planner training.
Consolidating debt also makes sense–home equity debt consolidation. If you can get a lower interest rate by consolidating, then you will benefit by lower monthly payments right away.
If I had to choose between paying down my mortgage faster or refinancing my home, I’d refinance to get a lower interest rate.
Donald Trump said “If it sounds too good to be true, then it’s probably not true.” If a multi-level marketer says to you to buy consumer or business products and services from them and they’ll give you points towards paying down your credit cards or mortgage, it’s too good to be true. You most likely can find the same products and services on the Internet for lower prices. I would suggest you try Wal-Mart first! Don’t fall for this multi-level marketing nonsense! They’ve developed a convoluted scheme to line their pockets with your money, which offer you no real value.
Social Media Experts!
If you don’t have a finance background, I’d suggest that you don’t promote financial products. I’ve seen social media experts helping to promote this financial product and other ones recently. They said they “felt” that the products and services were the best thing to help distressed homeowners. I think they were being paid handsomely and didn’t disclose it. Some internet marketers have gone to jail for this kind of scheme recently. One marketer even had testimonials which said thousands of homeowners felt they benefited from this product.
I think social media experts should stick with social media and let licensed professionals and people with certified financial planner training judge the efficacy of financial products and services.
Just because a home owner is happy with a financial product and gives it rave reviews doesn’t mean anything about its financial value. People loved “option ARMs” and other toxic loan products until they blew-up in their faces. And that really wasn’t their fault! People buy based on emotion and emotions are running very high at this time. And your friendly financial sales person wants to take advantage of your emotional distress with product and services which promise you good things, but in reality lack sound financial benefits.
Mortgage Brokers and Subprime Mortgage Lenders
You sold consumers toxic loans like “option ARMs” based on emotion. You said things to them like “Imagine what it’ll be like when you move into your new home”! You wanted them to convince themselves to buy right now. And you’re so hypocritical because you now say it was their fault they signed onto such a ridiculous loan. And now you’re selling this software product too because your loan commissions are down.
You depend on financial professionals to tell you your options with full disclosure so you can make an informed decision. When your financial professional is more motivated to earn a commission from your financial distress, you’re in serious trouble.
You might ask: are you the judge and jury? No. I am simply pissed off because I think these multi-level marketers know they’re taking advantage of distressed homeowners for their personal gain!
I had the opportunity to sell this product two years ago and I rejected it because I felt homeowners could do themselves what this product does if they only had a 30 minute consultation with a Certified Financial Planner. If it was free to you, it might have some value. But, $5000 (I would be willing to bet) is a bit of a stretch for you today! You want products and services which offer real value and make sense for your financial situation.
The United States and the world are in big trouble today because financial salespersons sold products which had huge risks built in for consumers. These financial wannabe gurus don’t know anything about tailoring financial solutions to fit your specific situation!
Who Can I Trust for Financial Advice?–Independent Financial Adviser
Given where we are financially in the United States, I’d recommend you speak with a financial advisor who’s been through certified financial planner training. Certified Financial Planners are held to a strict financial standard. If they sell you “crap” and you find out later that it was junk, you will have more success in taking legal action against them. Most Certified Financial Planners will help you make better financial choices for your life. My certified financial planner training prepared me to objectively look at my client’s specific situation, analyze their documentation, and make sound recommendations.
I passed my Certified Financial Planner courses in 2006. You can call me at (866) 323-9123 or sign-up right now for a complimentary consultation to get my advice on your financial case. I hope whatever choices you’re considering you will first speak with a Certified Financial Planner before you get involved in a financial scam.
During your consultation with me, we’ll cover ways you can diversify your investments and other financial options you should consider for your specific financial situation.
You can easily “Share” or “Tweet” this post below to make more distressed property owners aware of this scam.
If you’re interested in commercial finance and business “survival” tips for 2010, you can sign-up for my free Business Survival Report to the right of this post.
You will find all of my contact information at the bottom of every post.
Are You Slacking On Business Planning for the New Year? Don’t!
Posted by: | CommentsBusiness planning for 2010 may be the most important project you need to complete in 2009. I started planning for 2010 on December 1, 2009. That’s right, as of yesterday, I’m moving through my marketing planning process with a renewed sense of clarity and power.
My plan surrounds a few major categories. With a glimpse into my planning system, I hope you get a starting point from which to begin developing your own plan. Matter of fact, I want you to improve on what I’ve done. I’ve simplified the process for selecting my priorities from a big list of items with my “forced” ranking techniques, which will help you in making complex business decisions.
I’m not going to share the exact details within each category (sub-plan) with you because I’d be giving away major secrets; my stockholders wouldn’t appreciate that.
The Donald’s Marketing Planning System
Sub-plans
- Segmentation Plan (The segmentation is the basis for messaging and I use this category to define my “forced” ranking technique below)
- Blog and Social Media Domination Strategy (most other categories flow into this function. It’s a majorly powerful function)
- Blog Post Plan (Keeps me focused on my blog theme or purpose)
- Comments and Link Back Plan (Generates more traffic to my blog. You should see the tracking theory I’ve applied!)
- Competitive Analysis Plan (I don’t want to be like the other guy. You need to stand out, so check out other players in your market.)
- Blog Updates Plan (I’m incorporating what I’ve recently learned from my mentors into the mix! You probably already know, search engines love blogs that give your visitors relevant and fresh content)
- Keyword Research Plan (I’m all about relevance!)
- Marketing Plan for Social Media (Having special relationships is key to winning in 2010 you know. And, social media is the fastest and most powerful way to get relationships started!)
- Update Free Consult System (It’s about letting people have a risk free way of getting to know me. Well, I’m automating it and refining it. Notice I call it a system.)
- Update Free Report System (My free report is good now and it gets better all the time as I augment it with fresh ideas. It’s a living document.)
- Finance Products Plan (It is crucial for my firm to keep my finance store full of the best finance products available to satisfy your situation. It’s like a grocery store needs to make sure they keep the shelves stocked with items people want to buy.)
- Offline Marketing Plan (Because I love social media so much, I’ve been accused of not understanding terrestrial relationships. People will say and do anything to protect the “old” ways of doing things! In this plan I tie my offline strategy into my online strategies to make it easier for customers, suppliers, and joint venture partners to work with Donald Hunter™ Financial.)
- Product Development Plan (Innovation is the only way to stay relevant.)
All of these sub-plans compose my 2010 marketing plan. It’s a system. They all feed off one another to create exponential power. As you can see, I have a few things to do here. I’ve added a number of sub-steps in each of these plans, which I am keeping a secret.
Forced Ranking System (Segmentation example)
In a few cases, I used a “forced” ranking technique to help me zero in on my priorities.
For example, under segmentation I wrote down 25 different ways I could segment. To deal with this complexity, I first wrote my goal for segmentation, which had multiple criteria (criteria 1, criteria 2, and criteria 3).
Then, I created a measurement system to rank each one as (N) neutral, (S) Strong, and (W) weak.
My process was to go through the 25 different segmentation possibilities I wrote down and compare them to my goal criteria. In segmentation, my goal had three criteria, as shown above. The ranking process looked like this:
- Segmentation idea 1 (segment by industry): N1, S2, W3
- Segmentation idea 2 (loan product): S1, N2, S3
- Etc.
My goal measurement system (N, S, W) evaluates how the segmentation idea satisfies the goal criteria in a neutral way, strong, or weak. I selected the ones that had the highest ranking. Then, I picked two out of the 25 to simplify my marketing messages.
I have no doubt that I’ve picked the right segmentation strategy. If you don’t do “forced” ranking when you have more than three items, you’ll spend a long time trying to figure it out or you’ll really make a huge mistake. It’s not necessarily intuitive when you have that many choices as I had.
I feel that my segmentation strategy will set me apart from my competition as many of them use the segmentation strategies I eliminated, because I let my marketing goals drive my decision-making. Instead of following the leader, I focused on my core values to lead me to the answer.
I’m so excited because I can see by doing this planning; I’ve shaved off hours of guessing, rework, and eliminated problems I resolved in the planning process. By sharing a bit of my planning process, I hope it’ll give you some ideas and motivate you to stop “slacking” and get on your “JOB”! That’s a friendly push.
I did all of this work in about 6 hours of planning. It will take me a few more hours to complete my business and marketing plan for 2010 and the first quarter of the year. I’ll add a few more sub-plans as I move forward in the planning process. But, if I stopped here, I’d have some very powerful actions to act on in 2010!
I wish I could show you all the details in my plan, but I want you to let your planning process be driven by your own core values and goals.
Do you have any questions about my planning system? You can use the comments section below to ask questions.
Sign-up today for your free business and marketing planning consultation if you’d like help on your 2010 planning process. Take advantage of my years of marketing and product management experience too. Who knows, you might learn some powerful ideas about finance!
Sign-up for my free “Business Survival” report to the right. Be better informed than most real estate and financial professionals about your financing options and strategies. Happy Planning!
How Do You Make Good Financial Decisions In Business and Life?
Posted by: | CommentsI’m writing about “good” and “bad” financial decisions today because we’re all going through very emotional times. Balanced decision–making will help you keep your emotions in check so you don’t get caught up in making critical selections based on negative emotions like fear, worry, and doubt. Emotions can help you achieve good financial results, but fear, worry and doubt are not the place from which you want to make life changing decisions.
Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time examining what drives people when making choices about their finances. I’ve spent time observing my clients, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and family members. I’ve even studied what people say and do on TV. In this post, I want to discuss with you what people almost always base their financial decisions on and how they defend their choices.
In the following personal example you will see:
- How good and bad financial decisions are in the eye of the beholder. I’ll let you judge my story below.
- How your financial selections may change from good to bad as time goes on.
- Growing older makes a huge difference in the financial decisions you make. Aging often brings newfound wisdom which plays a bigger role in our financial choices.
- How other people like your family and friends consciously and unconsciously assess your financial decisions although they often don’t share in the consequences of your results. Their comments or unspoken opinions affect us emotionally!
I could use the story which I’m about to share with you to explain almost any financial arrangement you could make. We could be talking about stocks, bonds, real estate, or purchasing insurance. It doesn’t matter. It’s all the same.
A Good Decision
First, what is a good financial decision? A good financial selection maximizes your desired outcomes, including: security, peace of mind, growing investments, and paying fewer taxes.
A Bad Decision
Now let’s look at why a decision might be considered bad. Well, bad financial choices cause more stress, drive investments to shrink, keep you up at night, and cause the IRS to send you scary letters.
Men Will Be Men!
This unusual story involves one of my own financial decisions. When I was 25 years old, I bought a fancy car. Even though I couldn’t drive, I needed wheels. Not just any old wheels. I bought a brand new 1985 baby blue Cadillac Seville, equipped with a Bose stereo, white leather interior, white convertible top, a Rolls-Royse grill, with wire wheels and Vogue tires. I loved that car!
My Seville drove and felt like a dream. It was! It even had my name engraved on the dashboard! I probably would never buy another car like that for myself. But, it made sense for me at the time. No one else my age had a car like that and it was very easy for me to get someone to drive me around town or go on trips.
I have to admit it was a bit stressful sometimes making a huge car payment and letting some friends drive me who weren’t very good drivers. My stress was compounded because I also owned real estate investments I needed to maintain and support. I kept this car for 20 years. The last few years I had it, I really didn’t drive it much. So I thought, “why should I keep paying insurance, registration, and maintaining it?” It was becoming more of a hassle than it was fun. And as I got older, I felt it was a risk to my financial security having people driving me around. I had to use my big sister as the primary driver to get my car insured because insurance companies wouldn’t insure a blind person. So I didn’t want to affect her too.
When I was ready to sell it, I advertised on Craigslist and told my friends. When my nephew Gregory found out I was selling my car, he wanted it.
I said, “Greg do you realize this car is getting older now, even though it only has 42 thousand miles on it. It will need some major maintenance soon and I can’t promise you how long it’ll last.” Gregory wanted my Caddie no matter what.
Gregory said, “let’s go for a drive and check it out.” After our drive Gregory was even more convinced that he wanted my car. And I fell in love with it all over again too.
A long story short, Gregory bought my car that very same day. To be honest with you, I experienced some separation anxiety. This Caddie was my “baby blue” that I had taken very good care of for 20 years! I only sold it to Greg because I knew I would still be able to use it when I wanted.
It was a holiday and the Department of Motor Vehicle was closed. So Gregory had a breakthrough idea. He wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way of him getting that car that day. I could tell he wasn’t going to risk me changing my mind because he knew how much I loved my baby blue Seville.
Gregory said, let’s go to AAA. You can transfer the car over to me and get insurance at the same time. I bet they’re open today.
I said okay, and we were off to AAA. Once we got there, we transferred the registration and title over to Gregory. Gregory was getting more and more excited. He knew he was getting a steal! Then we walked over to the insurance agent.
The agent gave Gregory his options and asked him what type of coverage he wanted and how much did he want his deductable to be. Gregory said full coverage. Well, I thought to myself, “full coverage?”
Before they would let us get insurance, we had to get the car smogged. We left AAA going to get the car smogged.
I said to Greg as we left AAA’s parking lot, “why do you want full coverage? You know that your insurance will only pay you blue book value if you total the car. It is a waste of your money to have full coverage.”
I could sense Gregory really mulling over my question in his mind. Then Gregory said 30 seconds later, “I feel better with full coverage.” I said to Greg, “even though your annual premium plus your deductable is around the blue book value of the car? And, you’re going to pay an extra $75 to $100 per month?” He said, “Yes. I feel better knowing I’m fully insured.” I felt his answer in my gut! I was a bit taken aback.
Greg taught me a lesson. I had just passed the Certified Financial Planner examination and thought I really already knew how to help people to make good financial decisions by maximizing their outcomes. Gregory taught me a lesson in how people make financial decisions. Greg was willing to give AAA an extra thousand dollars or so per year so he would feel good! Rational thinking is not the only criteria people use to make decisions.
The Gregory Effect
I bet you can see similarities in how you make your financial selections and how my nephew Gregory makes his financial decisions. What happens emotionally for you when you decide to make a financial selection? As I describe Gregory’s rationale for coming to his financial conclusion, tell me if it is a good or bad financial result? You can type your responses in the comment section below.
I was so bent on maximizing monetary outcomes to produce a tangible result for people. Greg taught me that it also has to feel good. I call this the “Gregory Effect.”
My friends like Donnie Moore from Levi Strauss always assessed my financial wherewithal when they saw me in my Seville. No matter how many times they saw me in my Caddie, they would always remind me that, “you can’t drive. You’re blind. Why do you need a car?” As if I didn’t already know. Now I know what to tell Don, “Because it felt good!” That’s why I needed a fancy car. It felt really good to me to own a fancy car and I had fantastic social experiences once I bought it.
Business Decisions
People make financial decisions based on emotions and justify their decisions with logic. Well, I want you to understand our emotions also play a big role in the financial selections we make in business. The same buying patterns we use in our personal life to buy things like clothes or cars come into effect when we make our financial choices in business. We need to recognize this phenomenon if we want to increase our “good” financial decisions. Intuition may keep you from making bad choices. You must learn to trust your feelings and not allow an aggressive advisor, supplier, or other’s criticism to force you into something you don’t “feel” is good for you.
Remember, your decision not only has to produce a good outcome, it also has to feel good! If it doesn’t feel good, you’ll always second guess yourself, and you’ll have lingering anxiety about your selection. A good financial planner will recognize not all of your financial decisions will be based on rational thinking. Your human side needs to be included into your financial plan along with your risk assessments, tax consequences, investment strategies, and financial calculations.
This is how I help you at Donald Hunter™ Financial. I personally want to know about your whole life and expectations. The “Gregory Effect” taught me to work with your personal convictions and your financial goals. I help you uncover the true emotions driving your financial decisions. Financial planning is not about numbers. It’s about people.
Sign-up today for your complimentary financial planning consultation to meet with me to see how The Donald can help you succeed financially. You can see from my story that my personal philosophy is to have fun early in life while you have good health. Health care expenses will be your biggest outflow as you age. I can’t wait to hear about your personal financial philosophy!
You should sign-up for my free business survival report to the right of this post. It’s packed with powerful information to help you understand your commercial finance options.
Is the Chamber of Commerce Dead?
Posted by: | CommentsIs the Chamber of Commerce Dead?
Simply put: YES… and a lot of other things have died during this “cataclysmic shift” that has come upon the world.
Thanks to social media sites like Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter, Myspace, and social bookkmarking services like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Technorati, small businesses have endless opportunities to showcase their expertise.
What social media has done is enabled faster communications at a much lower cost: time and money.
A small business owner can now:
- Friend or follow other like minded people who have a strong interest in developing a relationship in the real world.
- Truly highlight their strengths, personality, and sincerity in front of thousands of people on a daily basis versus 10 to 75 per month through their local chamber of commerce.
- Network, in most cases, without paying an annual fee compared to the $300 to $600 price tag just to be part of a chamber of commerce, and another $200 to $400 to attend chamber of commerce functions.
- Advertise on a daily basis for free as opposed to paying the chamber of commerce advertising fees ranging from $100 for a very tiny ad to $700 for the prime spot.
- Promote their small business through podcasts, Youtube and Viddler videos, photos, and multimedia to show their expertise and connect with their target market in a personal, intimate way.
Social media has given small businesses the freedom to break out of the confinements of groups like the chamber of commerce.
Donald Hunter loves social media because it:
- Vets business owners and entrepreneurs, which will get rid of imposters.
- Helps business owners to gain massive exposure at zero or very low cost.
- Helps business owners by providing them simple marketing tools, which many business owners don’t do marketing on a regular, consistent basis.
- Creates an even playing field, which gives people who want to start businesses a more powerful platform to breakthrough historical and organizational barriers.
The chamber of commerce is dead, but I don’t think they know it… Donald Hunter left the chamber of commerce last March when he committed to implement social media in his business. “My business has expanded nationwide in a few short months. My challenge in the chamber of commerce and groups like Business Network International was the “clique.” A very small group of people who have been around the chamber of commerce for years really have the power, and newcomers are at their mercy.”
When I left my local Chamber of commerce I spoke with Dianna, the membership coordinator. I told her the reasons why I felt it was a lost leader. Dianna’s argument to get me to stay was that they were going to have Facebook speak at their Young Professionals group in a few months. Diana said I should stay because that showed the chamber of commerce embraces social media.
Hmm….Newspapers embraced Craigslist because they thought it was only for people looking for apartments. Look at the number of ads in your local paper today… Nilsson reports that social media usage has tripled over the past year!
We welcome your comments on this article with a link back to your own blog.
OH! BTW guys if you haven’t signed up for a free consultation it’s time to take advantage of it now because I don’t know how long it’s going to be available. So go ahead and signup now before it’s gone.
Also get my Business Survival Report it’s absolutely FREE! There’s no catch whatsoever this is just a way for me to give back and help small businesses in these tough times. Here’s the link to my Free Business Survival Report again.
Is It Time to Rediscover Your True Love and Passion?
Posted by: | CommentsWhat Is Your “Why”?
Since my early twenties, I wanted to own and operate my own business to build something that no one else has ever created. I wanted to make a positive impact in people’s lives to help them achieve their dreams. I wanted to provide my family a life style like most middle class American’s can.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill taught me to use “autosuggestion” which is positive thinking and reflecting on what you want versus what you don’t want. Knowing that more than 75% of visually impaired people in the U.S. are unemployed, I decided that my definite major purpose in life was to own and operate my own business. I determined to defy these odds!
My visions in life have gone from being a software developer for an apparel manufacturer to a product manager in a high-tech company. My education is in computer science with a Masters of Business Administration. I am also certified in financial planning, real estate, taxes, insurance, and project management. I still use “autosuggestion” and the other 16 principles from Think and Grow Rich daily to remind myself of my definite major purpose in life.
My experiences prepared me to be the “good steward” of a business that affects lots of different groups of people:
- My family
- My friends
- My employees
- Business owners and entrepreneurs
- My readership of DonaldHunterFinancial.com
- My affiliates and partners
It gets tough in business sometimes, but as business owners and entrepreneurs we need to rekindle our love and passion for the “why” we’ve taken on such a great responsibility to so many people.
Two Weeks On the Road
Last March, I discovered an organization called CEO Space through one of my mentors, Eric Lofholm. At the end of 2008, I invested heavily in education and training to transform myself into the “business owner of 2010.” I left San Jose on the Amtrak train on a Wednesday, headed to Rockland (a suburb of Sacramento), California, for a training course on business finance. I was thoroughly exhausted after three full days of finance training.
Sunday morning, I left Rockland for Incline Village on the Amtrak again. It was pouring rain and the train was late. As many of you know, I’m blind, and I had all this luggage to cart around in the rain since I was going to be gone for a week. That little annoying voice inside my head started pestering me, “why did you schedule two different trainings back to back, fool? What’s going to happen when you show up in Truckee and your ride ain’t there?” I told the voice to shut up immediately! Nothing was going to get in my way.
I never worry because there is always an angel who shows up from out of nowhere to help me out of a pinch. These angels were from the Carolinas. I wondered why in the world they would take a train from Sacramento to the Carolinas. I was confident we were at the right place at the right time.
Rediscovering Love
Well, I ended up staying three extra days in Incline Village. It was such a peaceful place in late March. There, CEO Space rekindled that spark in my soul for business. I learned to create large visions that I myself could not accomplish on my own. I learned that is the key… In the Space, I learned at a deep level that “cooperation is better than competition.”
It was so apparent last March when I arrived at the CEO Space forum in Incline Village, something was different. The spirit in the air was friendly, open, free, and enthusiastic for the possibility of making a huge impact on the world.
I met business people from almost every state in the U.S., business owners and entrepreneurs from Canada. I broke bread with successful entrepreneurs who have stayed the course until they saw their dreams come true.
Lisa Nichols of The Secret is one of those business warriors that had a profound effect on rekindling my drive to create and do the impossible. She began her entrepreneurial career at CEO Space and now has grown into a mega superstar entrepreneur. As I left the forum last March and everyone was saying their goodbyes, Lisa came over to acknowledge me.
She was so impressed that a visually impaired person would strike out on their own to come to CEO Space alone. And she was moved by my enthusiasm for big dreams and hopes to impact the world and leave a legacy long after I am gone.
I said to her, “I want to become a speaker and move an audience and have them listening intensely to every word just like you.” Her enthusiastic response was, “Bring it on!” I was a little shocked because I expected her to say the usual words of gentle encouragement… But that’s not Lisa.
Today I am “Bringing it on!” in my life and business. There’s no time for maybes, fears that hold me back, nor concerns of what others want for me – like my family who only wants to see me as little Donnie.
My visions are large and my passions are high, and I’m so thankful I met people like Lisa Nichols and Mark Victor Hansen to remind me that simple, ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they are freed from their self-ascribed bonds.
What is your “why”?
Rediscover your why and you too will be on your way to rekindling your passion for your vision.
OH! BTW guys if you haven’t signed up for a free consultation it’s time to take advantage of it now because I don’t know how long it’s going to be available. So go ahead and signup now before it’s gone.
Also get my Business Survival Report it’s absolutely FREE! There’s no catch whatsoever this is just a way for me to give back and help small businesses in these tough times. Here’s the link to my Free Business Survival Report again.
News: Bad Small Business Coaching Revealed
Posted by: | CommentsYou must be very careful about how some small business coaches operate. There are those who will say anything to get your money even if their advice is detrimental to your business.
Coaches like Mike Searls from Success Training Systems, for example, who claims to be able to help small businesses get ‘unstuck’. He argues that you don’t need money to grow your business.
The truth is that in business, you can’t get something for nothing. In my experience, it takes money to make money. You make and investment and you expect to get a return (ROI).
Discouraging Mindset
Believing Mr. Searls’ advice will drive small business owners straight toward one of the discouraging mindsets that will get them stuck – the state of mind of “lack.”
- Lack of money.
- Lack of resources.
- Lack of time.
- Lack of sleep.
- Lack of people who take you seriously.
- Lack of success!
- A divorce…
Letter to Mr. Searls
Donald Hunter™ would never compromise the truth at the expense of your business! This is why, after listening to Michael’s free webinar, I confronted Mr. Searls with hard facts about his claims.
Hello Mike Searls,
I listened to your free webinar today and you said to small business owners and entrepreneurs “you don’t need money to grow your business.”
I respectfully disagree with you. Check out my blog post on getting “unstuck”
Michael has not yet responded to my email dated October 31, 2009.
My reasons for disagreeing with Michael:
1. You have communications expenses such as a computer, phone, and mailing.
2. It costs money to buy software to automate your sales and marketing (such as AWeber, iContact, and Infusionsoft)!
3. Based on the seven functions of business, most people can only do 1-2 of these efficiently at any one time. So, you have to pay in money or stock hired employees or consultants to get the other functions done.
4. You need to use some form of incorporation to protect your personal assets, which costs money initially!
5. To join Mr. Searls’ boot camps cost money! Right?
6. If you’re going to really start a business you have to do it full-time. At the same time, you’re not making money. You’re living off of savings or some equivalent resource.
Think Strategically
I could go on and on with little expenses you have if you want to build a credible business. Most people are not sure how to do effective competitive analysis, effectively use all the social media sites, and do audio and video, and so on. Plus the hundreds of other things they need to be good at to run a business.
And Lord knows that most people have not been trained to think strategically. You have to be trained to think strategically and most people’s jobs are so watered down to control the flow of information or to protect intellectual property, they never learned these skills.
And strategy is a difficult thing to get right. Large companies fail at it all the time: GM, Chrysler, Sun Microsystems, MCI, etc..
The Challenge
So Mike, what’s your rationale in saying “you don’t need money to start a business” while the SBA says “undercapitalization” is one of the top reasons why people fail?
I am a business owner and money certainly helps me get things done. Hiring other people who have skills I don’t have or they can do things I don’t really want to do is incredibly important to keep my small business moving forward. And they won’t work for me for nothing.
Branding
Michael, once we finish this topic on “does it take money to make money”, I want to discuss with you why you think branding should come later. I respectfully disagree with you again.
The difference between you and me on branding is you have the traditional view of what branding does for a business… I used to be “stuck” in that mindset too!
I paid thousands of dollars to get “unstuck” from that way of thinking.
Aggressive Sales Tactics
Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to beware of these aggressive sales tactics. Don’t risk your business and your financial future by following bad coaching advice.
OH! BTW guys if you haven’t signed up for a free consultation it’s time to take advantage of it now because I don’t know how long it’s going to be available. So go ahead and signup now before it’s gone.
Also get my Business Survival Report it’s absolutely FREE! There’s no catch whatsoever this is just a way for me to give back and help small businesses in these tough times. Here’s the link to my Free Business Survival Report again.
