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via Amazon Introduces Free Personal Cloud Storage; Will Consumers Use It on Capped Accounts?.

Blog Your Passion

By Grant Griffiths

Lorelle on WordPress had a post the other day called How do you become a passionate blogger? Blog your passion. This is actually something I tell people whenever I visit with them about blogging. If you are not passionate about the topic you are blogging about, it will never work.

Passionate bloggers have advantages over non-passionate bloggers including attracting a higher quality and more supportive readership.

So, how do you become a more passionate blogger?

First of all, enjoy your niche. Blog about something you love. If you don’t like to travel, don’t start a travel blog. If you don’t like video games, don’t start a video game blog. If you don’t like American football, don’t start an NFL blog. Simple, right?

The key to being passionate is to figure out what excites you. Consider the niches you gravitate towards. What do you spend your money on? What occupies much of your time? What do you like to think about?

This is also why it is important to give some thought to your blog. Make sure before you start, you are excited about the topic. In addition, consider a niche or target audience. You will see better results with your blog if you do target a niche.

The “Essence” of Marketing

by Paul Polanco
www.OnlyTheSerious.com

It is now July of 2004 and the internet business community has gotten incredibly competitive. I remember back in 1999 when all I had to do was put up a website, submit to the search engines, maybe swap a few links, and I was making an extra 1 to 3 thousand US dollars a month.

Those days are LOOONG gone.

I’m still amazed at all the quick-buck artists that are out there. There are start page programs, software programs such as Traffic Tornado, Traffic Equalizer, Smart Page Builder, etc.

The problem with all those programs is that the Search Engines will eventually wise up to them. This is why you should either:

a) Offer solid content and don’t try and trick the SEs.

b) Have a Killer Sales Page with an opt-in.

As many of you know I am a HUGE advocate for investing in quality leads and personally calling every single one of them during your first year in network marketing.

Why?

Because it’s still proven to be the most cost-efficient way of building your business. This is assuming you do NOT have a large opt-in list or an already-existing network (such as a former downline or network of people that will do business with you no matter what you join).

Most people are afraid to pick up the phone because they think they have to do the high-pressure SELL. They are afraid of rejection and they are afraid of “Handling Objections”.

Yes, it takes skill to do these things, and the best way to learn these skills is to learn from someone else. Whether it’s from Hilton Johnson at www.mlmu.com or Todd Falcone at www.precisionmlm.com.

I always tell my new recruits that the first 100 calls are “throw away” calls; meaning that those first 100 dials they make are going to be filled with a ton of mistakes. And that the more mistakes they make, the better.

Since this will increase the learning curve dramatically.

If a shy man like me (ok, ok, I USED to be really shy) can build a large financial planning client base from the yellow pages, then ANYONE with the right amount of desire can build any quality mlm program by calling good leads.

But that’s the key.

DESIRE.

Quite frankly, most people just don’t have it, at least not to the level where it needs to be. I base this on the thousands of people that I’ve met and consulted with that continue to jump from one program to another.

Or the many that quit when things get tough. I remember when I first got started in networking. I didn’t get my first recruit until I made over 1,000 phone calls!

Of course, that was my fault because I was too stubborn to realize that calling business seekers was a lot different than calling potential planning prospects.

People usually think that the program is at fault, and while this may be true a lot of the times, it always goes back to them.

They haven’t understood what I like to call “The Essence of Marketing”.

What is the “Essence?”.

It’s understanding WHO your customers are, knowing EXACTLY what they want, HELPING them arrive at a decision, and having them SEE that your product/service is the solution to their problem, and then turning them into life long customers.

That is the ESSENCE of marketing.

Simple? Yes. But most people don’t truly understand it. They continue looking for that “magic” bullet, when it doesn’t exist.

The closest thing to a “magic bullet” is acquiring knowledge and skills that you don’t have yet. Once you acquire them they seem like “magic bullets” to those that don’t know them.

If people really understood the “essence”, they would never, and I mean NEVER stop their marketing efforts. They would never stop testing and tracking all their ads.

They would never join ten programs in one year. They would never violate the Laws of Business, one of which is The Law of Momentum, which they destroy everytime they quit a good program and join another one.

What I’m about to share with you is ONE of the many formulas that I have used to earn a nice, six-figure income. Most of you won’t value it because it didn’t cost you anything.

But I know there will be a handful of you that will run with it and one year from today you will email me at my personal email at peabs99@dslextreme.com and tell me that this formula worked for you (by the way, please don’t send me any offers to my personal email address, I won’t read them).

Now, I’m going to assume that you are in some kind of network marketing (or affiliate) company that offers some product or service. I don’t care if it’s health products, long distance, financial services, or some kind of magic juice.

This formula will work as long as your product is unique, has a large market appeal, and has good positioning and price points.

Ready?

Foaming at the mouth yet?

Just kidding, here we go.

Now, this is just ONE formula that I have used. It is not a get-rich formula and may take 3 to 12 months to really see it grow, but once you’ve got it going it will create sales for you every single month.

Once you fine-tune it, it will produce like clockwork.

First, let me give you the components of the formula:

MR + HTM + HPOS + HMS + AFS + BEP = RIFL

In plain english the formula reads like this:

Market Research + Hot Target Market + Hot Product Or Service + Hot Marketing System + Automated Follow up System + Back End Product/Service = Residual Income For Life

This formula is hundreds of years old, and though there are hundreds of derivatives of it, the basic formula is the same.

Let me break it down for you and then I will also give you some examples of how it works.

MR = Market Research.

This is so critical to any business that I call it the “make it or break it” step. Too many people jump into a business without even researching it. They don’t even know what the demand is for that particular business or service.

Here’s an inexpensive way to do some market research. Go to www.doteasy.com and register a domain name related to the MARKET you plan on selling to.

Then use any free FTP program that you can find at www.download.com to FTP your webpages and put them online. Most web hosts either offer one or have links where you can download one at no cost.

While you are waiting for your domain name to get online, you now go and use www.wordtracker.com or the free tools provided to you by Google.com at https://adwords.google.com/select/ to find some good keywords that people will type in to find your product or service.

You will want to come up with no less than 100 key words, but 1,000 is much, much better.

If you are in business for the long haul then I strongly recommend getting www.AdWordAnalyzer.com. I’m not an affiliate but I love that software program. It not only helps you find keywords but it also shows you how many competitive ads are on Google AND Overture.

It’s a real time-saver and a great tool for those of you that need keywords for PPC campaigns and building your own websites.

Using those key words you are going to open an account over at https://adwords.google.com/select/ for $5 (as of this writing).

You are now going to create a series of different ads. You should have 5 to 10 keywords per ad for maximum effectiveness.

Make sure the ads are “paused” and not activated yet.

Now you are going to build a survey, you may have to pay a college student or a friend a few bucks to make the form work, but it will be well worth it.

Me, I just figured it out on my own. You can go to websites like www.htmlgoodies.com to learn how forms work. I also have a book called “SAMS Teach Yourself HTML in 21 Days”.

That investment 5 years ago has paid of HUGE.

A few dollars now may save you thousands (or make you thousands if you hit a winner).

Most people don’t do this, even some of the ones that PAY me to tell them this. Then they wonder why their business failed.

You don’t have to do your MR this way as long as you find a way to survey your potential customers.

Ok, what should your survey ask? Well, it depends on your industry, but I would definitely ask:

1. What is your #1, #2, and #3 challenges when shopping for…..

or

looking for….

Let’s say you have weight-loss product called “Herb-E-Eddie” and it promises to make you lose 10 pounds per month. You may want to ask your visitors:

1. What is your #1 challenge when it comes to losing or managing your weight?

2. Do you have a favorite weight-loss product?

3. How much did you pay for it?

4. What did you like about it?

5. What other products are you willing to try?

6. How much are you willing to pay for it?

7. Would you buy a powder-based product?

8. Would you buy a capusule-based product?

9. What is the most important thing to you about a weight-loss product?

==============================

Now keep in mind I just came up with these, but you get the idea. You want to FIND out what it is your potential customers are looking for.

Get at least 30 to 50 completed surveys. Then compare the answers. You might be surprised at some of the answers.

Now go and FIND a product and/or service that matches their answers. Try and be as objective about this as possible.

You’re going to design your sales letter based on THEIR answers. This will help you dramatically with your closing ratios.

=====================
MR + HTM + HPOS + HMS + AFS + BEP = RIFL

Market Research + Hot Target Market + Hot Product Or Service + Hot Marketing System + Automated Follow up System + Back End Product/Service = Residual Income For Life
=====================

HTM = Hot Target Market. This one is simple. Look for a market that has existing, eager, ready-to-buy, proven buyers. I’ll give you two HTMs that will probably always be hot:

a) small business owners

b) single men and women

Find a way to find out their SPECIFIC problems, create a survey to find out what their #1, #2, and #3 solutions are, then go build a website or join an mlm or affiliate program that solves their problem.

Another HTM here in Calfornia is real estate sales. Though I don’t have the time right now, one of you that lives in California (or if real estate is hot in your area) can build a website with an opt-in form that gives them a no-cost report on how to buy a home and save thousands of dollars.

You can then SELL those leads to Realtors and/or mortgage brokers. If you go to Yahoo.com or Google.com, these companies are paying $10 to $25 per click!!! This is outrageous!!

If you can get them to pay your $25 per filled out form, they WILL sign up! A filled out form is always better than a click.

How would you do this? Find keywords that no one else is bidding on or very few people are bidding on.

Again, most people don’t follow this formula and then they wonder why they fail. I’ve paid a lot of money and time to learn this formula and I use it every time I build a new business, offline or online.

I just gave you a real gem there.

Never forget Market Research.

=====================
MR + HTM + HPOS + HMS + AFS + BEP = RIFL

Market Research + Hot Target Market + Hot Product Or Service + Hot Marketing System + Automated Follow up System + Back End Product/Service = Residual Income For Life
=====================

HPOS = Find a Hot Product or Service that will solve the problem that your Hot Target Market has. I see way too many programs out there that promise the sun and the moon.

Yet their product or service doesn’t really solve anyone’s problem. It’s a product or service that no one really wants or needs; these companies always fail.

Let’s take downline clubs as an example. Do these really work? In the long run they always fail because they violate too many fundamental business rules.

They promise sign ups, and yes, you get tons of sign ups, but how many of them turn into paid signups that become PARTNERS and hang around long enough for you to earn your commission?

Here’s another one.

This is why health products are very tricky to market (notice I said “tricky” not “bad” for those you that market health products). If you market health products they should have something VERY unique about them and should be CLINICALLY proven by an outside 3rd party to boost credibility.

This is just Marketing 101.

I’ve seen people sell tons of their health products when they follow this formula. Health products is an over-crowded, highly competitive market and is a game for men and women, not boys and girls.

How do you find a HPOS? You use a survey! I forgot to mention, to make your survey get results you have to offer something for no cost, such as a report, an audio file they can listen to, a CD rom, etc.

This will increase your results.

Once you get your answers either make your own product or go find a program that has that product or service.

=====================
MR + HTM + HPOS + HMS + AFS + BEP = RIFL

Market Research + Hot Target Market + Hot Product Or Service + Hot Marketing System + Automated Follow up System + Back End Product/Service = Residual Income For Life
=====================

HMS = Hot Marketing System. I could write ten books on just this one, so let me explain this one as best as possible with the short spacing I have here.

A HMS is any marketing system that PREDICTABLY creates more sales than your expenses.

Some examples might be creating a theme-based website and driving traffic to it using Pay-Per-Click Search Engines as well as optimizing tons of article pages to attract no-cost SE traffic.

I know some of you have written me stating, “I have no interest in building a website.”

I totally respect that. However, my way of thinking is that oftentimes to reach our lifestyle goals, we have to do things we don’t want to.

I know in my business there are plenty of things I’d rather not do, but I do them because I know it will bring me closer to my lifestyle goals. For example, I’d rather be watching the Lakers or football than writing an article that I can submit to 100 article directories.

But it brings me no-cost traffic and sales, so I continue to do it. Of course, you don’t need a website, but I think it makes it much easier on you because it can do most of the presentation and explaining for you.

It’s also a great way of building your own opt-in list. It all depends on your marketing goals.

Another example would be to create or have someone create a postcard, find a list to send it to, and then continue to mail postcards and test their response rates (1% is the industry average, so you want to shoot for at least that; then again, it’s whatever creates more profit for you).

I have a good friend of mine that markets his NONI-Juice (TM) through post cards and does very well (he earns over 8K a month in residual sales, not counting his new sales).

Another marketing system would be your very own e-zine.

However, e-zines are a HUGE commitment and need to be marketed constantly in the beginning (until you have it to where you are getting opt-ins automatically).

Here’s another one. I get 100 opt-in emails every single day by using Pay-Per-Click Search Engines. I simply put a web page with my picture, biography, and offer a free 5 to 10 day course via email.

I don’t talk about my business specifically, not until about day 3 or 4 of my email series.

Why? Because I want to give them VALUE first. Otherwise if you ask for a sale or talk about your business in your first email they will tune you out.

This cost’s me about $5 to $15 a day, depending on how many Google Ads I have running. I profit about 300% on average, so this system works very, very well for me.

If I spend $15 in one day, I make about $45 and profit $30. That’s an extra $900 a month and it’s all automated. This is just my lead product and not my back-end product (more on that later).

Man, aren’t you just loving this yet? Or maybe this is information overload. In any event, you may want to save this email and re-read it a few times.

Another simple, but powerful HMS is buying leads and calling them CONSISTENTLY and following up. I have friends in the mortgage, financial planning, debt consolidation, and also in networking that make a lot of money just using this ONE system.

The key here is that they NEVER stop calling. They always have their lead funnel full. They only focus on people that are interested and don’t spend any emotional energy on those that are not (key distinction there).

I think lack of training and discouragement are the two biggest culprits to phone prospecting. The right mindset is CRITICAL when prospecting by phone.

This is why if you are not getting results, find a mentor and follow what they have to teach you to the letter (we’re assuming here that they are ethical and honest, ok?).

Ok, next part of the formula.

=====================
MR + HTM + HPOS + HMS + AFS + BEP = RIFL

Market Research + Hot Target Market + Hot Product Or Service + Hot Marketing System + Automated Follow up System + Back End Product/Service = Residual Income For Life
=====================

AFS = I think virtually every business needs to have an automated follow up system. This is where autoresponders come in handy.

I haven’t decided one way or another on how effective desktop icons on a person’s PC is compared to email. Some people claim as much as a 300%-500% increase in responses compared to emails, but this is the minority.

Most people I talk to aren’t seeing those kind of results.

Email still works great for me and still makes me a lot of money with it, so until that stops working, I probably won’t be making the switch. If any of you use the desktop technology and have seen it blow away your email marketing campaigns, please let me know, I’ll make it worth your while.

Ok, I got distracted there.

Your AFS will vary. For some it means autoresponder follow up, for others it could mean hiring a telemarketer and have them do the follow up for you and then pay them a bonus based on how many more sales they make.

This frees up YOUR time to continue marketing or creating new products or promoting more affiliate programs.

=====================
MR + HTM + HPOS + HMS + AFS + BEP = RIFL

Market Research + Hot Target Market + Hot Product Or Service + Hot Marketing System + Automated Follow up System + Back End Product/Service = Residual Income For Life
=====================

BEP = Back End Product or Serivce.

Let’s say you market long distance service. Do you have another product that will compliment it? Something that you can also offer?

What if your prospect doesn’t want to buy long distance from you, what OTHER product or service can you offer them?

At some point, I believe every one needs a back end product (ok, ok, VIRTUALLY everyone).

For many of us, our back end programs are an autoresponder service or a leads program that we have our new recruits join. So many of you are doing this already.

Here’s a great way to increase your monthly income. Build your own email opt-in list and promote a new product or service about once a month to them. This is how EVERY big named marketer continues to make money every month.

Corey Rudl, Armand Morin, Marlon Sanders, Diane Hughes, etc. they ALL do this.

So start thinking about diversifying AFTER your mlm program has a solid team and is already in profit mode. You don’t want to rely on only ONE company for your livelihood. Trust me on that one.

In fact (this is the financial planner in me coming out), you want to eventually diversify into real estate, stocks, and maybe, just maybe a traditional business or two (paid from your profits).

And above all else, make sure you have the right kind of insurances. Too often I see people with 5, 10, even 20 life insurance policies and paying too much for life insurance.

Ok, there I go again on another tangent. But I’ve seen so many lives ruined because they did not have the right kind of life insurance, so make sure you get that handled even BEFORE you start any business.

At least that is what I advise my clients to do if they are married or have children. But it’s a complicated subject. Just beware the insurance sales person that only sells THEIR company insurance and no one elses. They have a vested intereste in trying to sell you their policy.

Shop around and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Especially when it comes to commissions. If they take offense to that, run for the hills.

When I was in practice I NEVER hesitated to answer that question. I was always upfront about all my fees and commissions. And your agent and/or planner should be too.

============================

So that is one of the formulas that I use. Now, just because you try something and it doesn’t work it doesn’t mean that the formula didn’t work, it just means that you either have a product that no ones want, you didn’t have a HTM, or you didn’t have a HPOS, or HMS.

Or maybe you didn’t do your market research.

The “Essence” of marketing is understanding this, tracking most, if not all, of your advertising efforts and constantly TESTING and improving.

Let’s take a look at Alex’s website at:

http://www.marketingwithpostcards.com/

Alex is such a great and detailed tester with all his advertising that this website only gets about 100 – 200 visitors a day, yet he makes a very good six-figure income from this.

He has all the components of the formula. He did his market research, he has a hot target market, his product simply over delivers, and he follows up with every one who opts-in.

And he has TONS of back-end products, all of which provide great solutions to people’s problems. So they are worth every penny.

This is just one real-life example of the formula at work.

I’ve seen it used for selling golf clubs, car detailing services, long distance service, baby carriages, massage services, dating services, books, ebooks, toothpaste, hair trimmers, vacuums, health products, financial information, real estate, loan services, and much, much more.

If you are NOT making money in your current program, I urge you to objectively look at this formula and see where you fall short.

Do you have a product or service that has a LARGE enough, Hot Targeted Market?

Sorry, 50 downloadable ebooks from a website is NOT a HTM or a Hot Product.

Are the people in that particular market PROVEN buyers? (E.g. such as business owners, home buyers, car dealerships, etc.)

Do you have a way of surveying potential customers or future reps on EXACTLY what they are looking for?

Do you do this every time you start a new business endeavor? If not, you’re walking on hot coals.

A lot of times I hear people make excuses such as, “I don’t have any money.”

I know I’m being blunt here, but those of you that know me, know it comes with good intentions and from the heart.

Talk like that is poverty-thinking, not millionaire-thinking.

Instead ask, “How can I afford this?” or “How can I find a way to market this anyway?”

I have a lady that I used to coach that started out without a single dime to her name. She spent all her free time in forums, giving advice to people and helping them. After a few weeks of this people started coming to her.

Why? Because she wasn’t trying to sell them. She first gave them VALUE and because she included her signature file to her website, people started joining her program.

But only AFTER she built a relationship with them. Again, most people don’t do this or think it’s a waste of time.

She built her own website by first going to www.doteasy.com because they have GREAT no-cost web hosting if you buy your domian name with them.

She built it borrowing her friend’s computer and using Microsoft’s FrontPage (TM). She knew NOTHING about building websites, but found a way to do it.

She would have gone to the library to do it if she had to, she later shared with me.

She also wrote about 20 articles and then began submitting them to ezine publishers, article directories, forums, and newgroups that allowed this.

This brought her about 50 to 100 new leads every month. Not a lot but they were leads that didn’t COST her anything except her time.

Unleash your creativity by asking that all-important question. “How can I get traffic to my website?” “How can I get my name out there?”

Here’s one more. Submit articles to your local newspapers, magazines, etc. Grab a copy of WRITER’S MARKET and start mailing in your articles. All you need is one national publication to pick it up to send a huge spike of traffic.

It may take some time, but it will be well worth it. This is something you should do continually.

Finally, the “Essence of Marketing” goes beyond the formula. It’s really about lifestyle. It’s about stepping outside your own comfort zone and taking calculated risks.

I’m about to turn 35 years old and I would never have acheived what I have today without just going for it and not being afraid to fall down.

I’ve just picked myself up and kept going.

And I still fall down to this day

Ok, bad joke.

But I talk to people all the time that say, “Paul, I don’t know where to begin” or “I don’t know what to do.”

Everyone starts there. Just start DOING something. Anything to start momentum. For some of you it might mean buying a copy of www.GoogleCash.com and learning Chris’s system.

For others it might be using www.SiteSell.com. Maybe for some of you it might mean going to http://www.rosalindgardner.com and picking up her affliiate hand book.

Or maybe going to Tood at http://www.precisionmlm.com and having him help you learn the skills to build your business.

I don’t know. It’s up to you. But the key is to do what Bob Proctor says, “Write down your goals, make a rough draft plan, and just GO FOR IT!”

You’ll feel more alive and the potential rewards are great.

I hope you enjoyed this article, I really do believe it can truly benefit you if you apply it.

Thank you for being a loyal reader, I truly appreciate it. And I hope to work with two of you in the near future (see below).

Good luck with all your endeavors.

Warmly,

Paul

How to talk to, meet, and date attractive women
www.TheDatePro.com

A Strategy Internet Marketing Plan Is Crucial

A strategy Internet marketing plan provides you with a way to define your potential market and allows you the chance to position your business for optimum sales. You wouldn’t start on a trip without map, would you? Likewise, starting an online business without a well thought out strategy Internet marketing plan is a recipe for failure. Let’s look at some things you must consider when starting to write your strategy Internet marketing plan.

A strategy Internet marketing plan should define goals and set objectives to achieve those goals. Having a solid yet flexible plan will assist you in building your business and will help influence the others that your business will be a success. The following items will give you a core of business principles that will give you a firm foundation to start your business. Each component that is mentioned below will move your site from failure to success.

To start, the first issue you must address in designing your strategy Internet marketing plan is define your target market. Step back and look at who your most valuable customers will be. Examine the age groups, income level, marital status, educational level, and other qualities that will be common ground for them and your website.

Your strategy Internet marketing plan has to figure out who your customers will be; now design your site to serve them. Custom fit your website to their tastes, pleasures, and desires. Give them a variety of products and services designed to fit their needs. Sell in such a manner as to build trust with your clientele. This in turn will build loyalty, as they will want to come back.

A third element in your strategy internet marketing plan is how will you close and execute the sale. Will your website contain a shopping cart? What about a secure server certificate? Will you accept major credit cards or will you work through a third party? Designing your website with the customer’s ease in mind will make them want to return the next time they are interested in purchasing.

Mentors are an awfully important part of one’s growth in any aspect of your life: personal, professional, community. In fact, I strongly believe a good mentor is a critical part of your success in your entrepreneurial endeavors.  [Met some of my mentors ...]

The value of a good mentor is immeasurable when it comes to learning the “tricks of any trade” be it developing a skill, mastering a sport or starting your own business. A mentor can help to alleviate many of the frustrations new or seasoned entrepreneurs often experience as they struggle to develop a successful business.

A good mentor can act as the wise adviser who can help you unmask some of your weaknesses, then help you discover and develop a road-map to fill those gaps.  All of this can happen on many levels: business evaluation and selection, technical, marketing, training, etc.

The importance of mentoring relationships becomes even more evident as one recognizes the value of maintaining an on-going relationship with your mentors and continuing to network with your mentors throughout your entrepreneurial development.

As you progress and grow in your chosen endeavor, you can never out grow the need for a good mentor.  This is why many professionals, especially the MEGA successful athletes and professional sports teams … continue to seek out and retain the services of good coaches (aka good mentors).

Identifying an appropriate mentor and establishing your objectives for the mentoring relationship is critical to your success.

In finding a mentor, it is important that you first establish your goals of the mentoring releationship.  Like anything else, you MUST do your due diligence. Otherwise you can end up wasting a lot of precious time and money.

I am priviledge (and blessed) to have found a number of high caliber mentors and they are making the absolute difference in my entrepreneural development.

I am proud to introduce you to some of my mentors as well as many of the techniques, systems and resources that I am LEVERAGING to build “A SOLID ONLINE EMPIRE”.

I sincerely hope that this will shorten the “learning curve” for you and accelerate your entrepreneurial growth.

[Met some of my mentors ...]

WELCOME … Fellow Empowered Entrepreneurs!

Welcome to LeRoyHodge.com – Focused on LEVERAGING Systems, Technology, Expertise and most importantly … The Internet … to MAXIMIZE our mutual $ucce$$.

I am glad you decided to visit my Blog-site. It is my pleasure to to share some key things I believe are essential in building YOU INC. (Your Online Empire) and creating wealth from you Online endeavors.

The first is Leverage. Leverage comes in many forms. As an employee, no matter how well paid you are, you are a source of leverage for your employer. As a real estate investor, you utilize leverage by borrowing money from the bank (opm or other people’s money, right?) The more leverage you have, the less of your own money you’re using. The key here is that you will never become wealthy as an employee working for hourly wages or on a fixed salary. You are a SOURCE of leverage for your employer and are not USING leverage to build your own wealth.

So what does that mean for the average person that wants to create an abundant, prosperous lifestyle? Clearly you need to be in a position where you are maximizing leverage, and that means for most people, being a business owner vs. an employee. Did you know that close to 90% of all people earning over $100,000 per year are running their own business and that the Home Based Business market is growing at around 12% per year. Over 20,000 people a day are responding to “start your own home business ads”. Lets face it, most people are tired of working so hard for so little. The Rules are different today than they were just 10 years ago; if you are truly going to prosper you need to be entrepreneurial AND you have to have LEVERAGE.

The hard part is figuring out the best business to start and run. First of all you have to know that there is a lot of junk out there and I include Franchises in that mix as well. The internet has made it so easy to throw things up against the wall and see if they stick. There are all kinds of money games out there and you want to make sure you are picking something that has some meat on it. Also, there are a ton of people out there that are more than willing to tell you what to look for, that are totally unqualified to do so. Alternatively, I’ve been a home business entrepreneur now for 2.5 years, have done very, very well with it and I’m totally comfortable and versatile in the home business world — and happy to share my observations with you…

1. First lets start with you. You have to know that a real business is going to require your effort. If they are saying that you don’t have to talk to people or that its fully automated then be a little skeptical. Talking to people is still a necessary part of business. Also a business requires money to run it. If you have no money then starting and running a successful business is going to be a little tough unless you are someone who doesn’t mind going out and meeting people face to face, or you have access to capital (OPM). In addition, you have to market. There is not a business on the planet that does not have to do some form of marketing to get customers, no customers no business.

2. Remember, leverage is important in selecting a home business — here’s an example — what provides the greater degree of leverage? A) Coffee shop that costs $75K to open, $15K/month to run and throws off $10K/ month in profit? or B) Home business that costs $20K to start, $2K/month to run and throws off $10K/month in profit. Business “B” is obviously using leverage to a greater degree because it produces the same result with less money up front and less money ongoing.. Also, is there some form of residual income possible through the business — In other words, can you do the work once, and get paid on your efforts over and over again.

– There’s very powerful LEVERAGE in creating Residual income.

Finally, there’s a lot to consider when starting a business … but I will tell you the number one mistake people make when starting a home business and that’s picking a business based on what it costs vs. leverage criteria laid out here. You can get into a business with very little or no cost, but it will likely not provide the leverage you require to really make a lot of money.

Remember — look for the leverage in any business decision and watch your bank account grow.

Also … remember these important points …

1. The 80/20 Rule Prevails … whether you’re talking about people, your marketing efforts, technology, what works and what doesn’t…. The trick is to constantly focus on finding the “20%” that provides you the most leverage.
2. Leverage Is King. This is the official “Hodge Family Corollary” to the *80/20 Rule and it must be respected. Anger the leverage gods at your own peril!  To my knowledge … No one, unless they won the lottery or got a fat inheritance became wealthy without leverage.
3. More often than not, when something isn’t going quite right, it is usually “us” getting in our own way. Mindset is so important and mindset is driven by the conversation we’re having with ourselves on a constant basis. Do you build yourself up? or put yourself down? Be mindful of your inner conversation and watch your mindset transform.

I hope you find the information my Blog-site helpful and I am looking forward to Connecting-With-You and to start leveraging our collective knowledge and resources to MAXIMIZE our mutual ambitions … sharing and growing together.

No man (or woman) is an island … but together we can achieve more!

To Our Mutual $ucce$$ …

LeRoy Hodge