Look for Opportunities
How do you find a new product or service, recognizing that 80 percent or more will be new in five years? Here's a series of ideas. Number one, begin with yourself. Begin with your own talents, your abilities, your experience, knowledge, interest, background, education, and so on. Look carefully at your current work, your current business, your current position, or your current product or service. Seek for what is called your own acres of diamonds. Look under your own feet.

Look Into Yourself
Here's a question. What qualities account for your greatest successes in life so far? What personal qualities and abilities have gotten you to where you are? And how could you apply those qualities and abilities to starting and building a new business?

If you already have a company, ask what are your companies' talents, abilities, experience, knowledge, interest, background, and so on. What qualities and talents and abilities have enabled your company to succeed up to now? Where can you specialize? Where can you make a difference?

Identify What You Really Enjoy
Number two is look for a product or service about which you can really become enthusiastic. Sometimes people become wealthy by translating or transforming their hobbies into a business. You will be most successful doing something or marketing something that you really love.

Every product must have a champion. Every product or service must have someone in the business who really, really loves the product or service and is eager to get out and tell other people about it.

Improve On Something Else
Number three, look for something that is an improvement on an existing product or service, not something brand new. Look for something that's cheaper or better quality. Or that has additional features or functions. Look for something that's an improvement.

Remember improving an existing successful product or service is the fastest and surest way to build a successful business. An idea only needs to be ten percent new and better to capture substantial market share. Brand new products or services are very risky.

Be Willing to Work Hard
The fourth key to finding a new product or service is this. Don't look for easy money. Don't look for gimmicks or useless knickknacks. Don't look for get-rich-quick schemes or rewards without working, because they're aren't any.

More people have wasted more time and more life and more money trying to find quick ways to make easy money than you can possibly imagine. So be willing to put in a lot of hard work before you start making real money in a business.

Success Takes Time
It takes two years to break even in the average business. It takes four years to show a profit. It takes maybe eight to ten years before it starts to generate real cash flow. So you have to be patient. If you're impatient, what will happen is you'll end up setting yourself further back than you can imagine.


By: Brian Tracy

Goal Setting Success
Yet, for all the initial enthusiasm, keeping yourself motivated, committed and moving toward the accomplishment of your goals, is often tough. Tired of setting goals and making resolutions which fade fast from your daily thoughts and actions? Consider adopting some or all of these tips to experience awesome success in accomplishing your goals and living your resolutions.

The Goal Is Yours – You Own the Goal
Whether the goal is a promotion at work, a streamlined work process, a new customer, a published article, an exercise program or weight loss, the goal must be your goal. You are unlikely to achieve your manager’s goal, your spouse’s goal or the goal you think you “ought” to work on this year. Your goals must generate excitement when you ponder their accomplishment. You must believe there is something in it for you to accomplish them.

Sometimes, especially at work, if you perceive the end reward is worth the work, you will take on challenges in support of the organization’s goals. These goals might not be as close to your heart as your personal goals, but you work to achieve them for the good of the organization and your success there.

Base Your Goals Firmly in Your Values
Hyrum Smith, the founder of Franklin Quest, later Franklin-Covey, Inc., developed a model for goal setting. Smith's "Success Triangle" puts governing values at the base of the goal setting process. Smith recommends that every goal is linked specifically to a governing value. For example, if diversity in the workforce is a value espoused by your organization, then at least one goal must further diversity. Every goal should be linked to a governing value.

Short-term, mid-term and long-term goals are then established based upon the solid foundation of your values. If the goal you set is congruent with and allows you to live your most important values, you are more likely to accomplish the goal.

According to Gene Donohue, of TopAchievement.com, set goals in all aspects of your life, to maintain your life balance. The balance also helps you accomplish goals as each aspect of your life is represented in your goals. You are less likely to experience warring priorities if every aspect of your life has a value-based goal. He suggests goals in these arenas.

• Family and Home
• Financial and Career
• Spiritual and Ethical
• Physical and Health
• Social and Cultural
• Mental and Educational

Believe You Can Accomplish the Goal
Each of us has a little voice in our head. It is the voice of our sub-conscious, judging self. On a daily basis, we engage in self-talk; we comment on each situation we encounter. We discuss events and plans in our minds. Our commentary is both positive and negative. Positive thoughts and planning support the accomplishment of our goals. Negative thoughts and comments undermine our self-esteem and self-confidence, and negatively impact our ability to accomplish our goals.

Listen to your voice. You can change its tone by believing in yourself and in your ability to accomplish your goals and resolutions. Use this unconscious critic to positively support your goal setting success.

If you are a manager, one of your more important tasks is to support the development of positive self-esteem by your staff members. Your positive outlook and belief in their ability to accomplish great goals fosters their increased self-esteem and self-confidence. This, in turn, magnifies their ability to accomplish more and contribute more to your business.

Paint a Vivid Outcome
Traditionally, goals were established around measurable outcomes. This works well when the outcomes are measurable. Don’t tie yourself to setting only measurable goals, however; you may find yourself concentrating on the trivial, because it is measurable, rather than on your most important outcomes. Sometimes the most important goals, the non-urgent, critical goals, are hard to measure.

“Explore alternatives for a business in the World Wide Web,” is tough to measure, whereas the steps, once you make a decision, are easy to measure. “Learn about new options and thinking around performance management,” is tough to measure in any significant way. The next step, “design a new appraisal system,” is easier to define and measure.

As you move up the management ranks, you may find more of your goals are harder to measure. The key measurable aspects of your job will likely be the results produced by your reporting staff.

With goals that are hard to measure, start with a picture in your mind, that you commit to paper, that describes the outcome you are seeking. Make the picture as vivid as you can. I have a published book in my mind, while I am still thinking about and exploring potential topics.

Write Your Goals
Writing out your goal is your commitment to achieving the goal. Writing a goal is a powerful statement in comparison with half-formulated thoughts in the back of your mind. It is the conscious promise to yourself to pay attention to the accomplishment of the goal. Writing out potential action plans and due dates makes the goal even more powerful.

Share Your Goals With People Who Are Important to You
If you are certain your significant others will support the accomplishment of your goals, share them. Your manager is likely to support your goal accomplishment as your success is her success. Honestly assess the ability of family members, peers and friends to provide support. In close relationships, many different feelings, experiences and historical events are at play. If you don’t believe you will have whole-hearted support, keep the goals to yourself.

Check Goal Setting and Achievement Progress Regularly
One of the weaknesses of any annual appraisal system is the lack of frequency with which progress and success are measured and tracked. You are most likely to accomplish the goals you set if you review them daily as part of your normal planning process. (You do have a normal planning process, don’t you?)

Whether you use a paper planner or a hand held computer, you can enter your goals, and schedule daily and weekly actions that support their accomplishment. The discipline of the daily review is a powerful goal accomplishment tool.

Take Action to Identify and Eliminate Obstacles to Goal Setting SuccessSimply tracking your goals daily is not enough. If you’re unhappy with your progress, you need to assess what is keeping you from accomplishing the goals. Ask yourself questions such as, “Is this goal really important?” (If not, why did you pledge to accomplish it; maybe it’s not important, or less important than other goals.)

”Are there specific obstacles you are experiencing which are interfering with your ability to accomplish the goal?” (In this case, make action plans to remove the obstacles or seek help from a co-worker, friend or family member.)

If you are not making progress on a particular goal, attempt to do a root cause analysis to determine why. Only by honestly analyzing your lack of progress can you determine steps to take to change this picture. In this era of the hand-held computer and PDA cell phones, picture your goals automatically forwarding for 365 days. Talk about a daily reminder about failure!

Reward Yourself and Celebrate Goal Accomplishment
Even the accomplishment of a minor goal is cause for celebration. Don’t depress yourself with thoughts about all you still have to do. Celebrate what you have done. Then move on to the next milestone.

Goals Change
Periodically look at the goals you have set for this year. Are the goals still the right goals? Give yourself permission to change your goals and resolutions based on changing circumstances.

Don’t spend an entire year failing to achieve a particular goal. Your time is better spent on achievement than on beating yourself up for lack of progress. Maybe you made the goal too big; maybe you set too many goals. Do an honest assessment; change what needs to change periodically, and move on.

Paying attention to these ten guidelines can make all the difference in your year. Will this year be a year of triumph for you, a year of awesome success? Whatever your goals and resolutions, these tips can help power your success.
By Susan M. Heathfield

Build Your Own Business
The high road to becoming a self-made millionaire in America is starting and building your own business. But this is not as easy as it sounds. Most businesses started by inexperienced people fail.

Probably the primary reason why people don't start businesses is because they're afraid that they're going to lose their money and for good reason. 99 percent of businesses started by people lacking business experience fail within the first two or three years.

Why Businesses Fail
And why is that? It's because they don't know how to succeed. They haven't the slightest idea how to make a business successful. They may have an idea for a product or service, but they don't know all the things that they need to know to run a successful business.

Why Businesses Succeed
However, surprisingly enough, 80 percent of businesses started by experienced businesspeople succeed. Now why should this be so? The reason is because experienced businesspeople know what to do. They know how to purchase their products and their services. They know how to negotiate with their suppliers. They know how to raise money. They know how to negotiate leases. They know how to sell and to market. They know how to manage their finances. In other words, experience is the key. In order to start your own business and succeed, you have to learn how.

Competence Makes the Difference
Now according to Dunn and Bradstreet, 96 percent of businesses in America that fail, fail because of what is called "managerial incompetence". Managerial incompetence means that the people running the businesses don't know what they're doing. And here are the two critical areas of managerial incompetence that cause business failure.

First is sales and marketing. 48 percent of businesses that fail in America fail because the business cannot sell enough of its products or services. Very few businesses fail when they have high levels of sales and revenues coming in.

Control Your Costs
The second reason that businesses fail, 46 percent, is because of poor cost control. They may be selling enough on the front end, but they're losing so much on the back end that they go broke anyway. Sales and marketing, financing and cost control, both require experience. And if you're serious about becoming financially independent, you have to learn how to do both of these.

Put Luck On Your Side
You must learn the skills you need to be successful. Business success is not a matter of luck. Business success is a matter of application. It's a matter of ability. It's a matter of experience and skill and intelligence, and wonderfully enough, you can learn what you need to know to be successful. And you can start by learning through on-the-job training, which is called OJT. Most successful businesspeople become successful because they get all their training by working for someone else.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to make sure that your business succeeds greatly:

First, take the time to get the knowledge and experience you need in business by working for someone else where you can learn a lot in a short period of time. Go to work in an area in which you are interested and learn everything you possibly can.

Second, read and study in business, especially entrepreneurial business, all the time. Read one or two business books per week and read every business magazine that is published on your subject. Never stop learning and growing.
Source: Brian Tracy

No matter the size of your company, having a team of motivated, hard-working employees is crucial to your business success. When people lose their motivation, however, their job performance suffers -- they become less productive, less creative, less of an asset to the company.

The bottom line: You pay a heavy price when employees have motivation issues.

How then to light a fire under an employee who has lost his or her motivation, whether a former hard worker whose performance has declined over the years, or a long-term problem employee who has failed to improve?

Here are 10 useful pointers on getting your employees enthused, productive, and ready to give their all:

1. Build a foundation. It’s important to build a solid foundation for your employees so they feel invested in the company. Tell them about the history of the business and your vision for the future. Ask them about their expectations and career goals, as well as how you can help them feel part of the team. When any new employee starts, make sure he or she receives a thorough welcome orientation.
2. Create a positive environment. Promote an office atmosphere that makes all employees feel worthwhile and important. Don’t play favorites with your staff. Keep office doors open and let folks know they can always approach you with questions or concerns. A happy office is a productive office.
3. Put people on the right path. Most employees are looking for advancement opportunities within their own company. Work with each of them to develop a career growth plan that takes into consideration both their current skills and future goals. If employees become excited about what’s down the road, they will become more engaged in their present work.
4. Educate the masses. Help employees improve their professional skills by providing on-the-job training or in-house career development. Allow them to attend workshops and seminars related to the industry. Encourage them to attend adult education classes paid for by the company. Employees will feel you are investing in them, and this will translate into an improved job performance.
5. Don’t forget the fun. Once in a while you have put work aside and do something nice for the people who work for you. Treat the office to a pizza lunch or take everyone to the movies. Reward employees with an unexpected day off or by closing the office early on a random Friday afternoon.
6. Acknowledge contributions. You can make a huge difference in employee morale simply by taking the time to recognize each employee’s contributions and accomplishments, large or small. Be generous with praise.
7. Provide incentives. Offer people incentives to perform well, either with something small like a gift certificate or something more substantial such as a performance-based bonus or salary increase. Give out “Employee of the Month” awards. Such tokens of appreciation will go far in motivating employees.
8. Honor your promises. Getting people to give their all requires following through on promises. If you tell an employee that he or she will be considered for a bonus if numbers improve or productivity increases, you’d better put your money where your mouth is. Failure to follow through on promises will result in a loss of trust -- not only that person’s trust, but the trust of every employee that hears the story.
9. Provide career coaching. Help employees reach the next level professionally by providing on-site coaching. Bring in professionals to provide one-on-one counseling, which can help people learn how to overcome personal or professional obstacles on their career paths.
10. Match tasks to talents. You can improve employee motivation by improving employee confidence. Assign individuals with tasks you know they will enjoy or will be particularly good at. An employee who is successful at one thing will have the self-confidence to tackle other projects with renewed energy and excitement.

Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development-employee-productivity/11136-1.html#ixzz1VHK620YF

How to start a business with little to no money!

Everyone Starts Off Broke
I used to feel sorry for myself because I came from a limited
background and I had no money. Then I found that nobody has any money.
Everyone starts off broke. In fact, most successful people go broke or
nearly broke several times during their lives. Don't let this hold you
back.

Practice, Practice, Practice
Transformational leaders empower others by keeping them "in the know,"
by keeping them fully informed on everything that effects their jobs.
People want and need to feel that they are "insiders," that they are
aware of everything that is going on. There is nothing so demoralizing
to a staff member than to be kept in the dark about their work and
what is going on in the company.

But if you are willing to put in the time to learn, remember about 95
percent of the working population in America have the ability to start
and build their own businesses if they would only do it. Multi-level
marketing is an excellent second income opportunity where you can
learn vital business skills at low cost. Especially selling,
organizing, making presentations, accounting, team building,
negotiating, persuading, and communicating. 85 percent of what you
need to learn to be successful in business you can learn from running
a successful multi-level marketing business.

Roll Up Your Sleeves
Remember this, though. Leaders are always willing to do what is called
dog work. They're willing to render humble service. They're willing to
roll up their sleeves and plunge in. They never think of themselves as
being too good for a job. There are an enormous number of people who
are presented with second income opportunities who turn them down
because they think that they're too good to do something like that.
But the people who are thinking that they are too good are the people
who retire poor. You'll find that leaders of all organizations are
always willing to roll up their sleeves and to get in there.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to put these ideas into action immediately:

First, remember that buying and selling things is the essence of all
business. Look for opportunities to buy and sell things on your own
account. Visit garage sales or hold a garage sale of your own. Visit
swap meets and negotiate with people with things for sale. Make it a
game to learn these skills.

Second, start in a small business of some kind. Look for other streams
of income. Many people become wealthy starting off with virtually
nothing in this way.

What is selling? Simply put, it is the method of helping a person see that your products and/or services are worth more to them than the cost!

How Markets Work
Our market culture is based on the principles of freedom and mutual benefit. Each party to a transaction only enters into it when he or she feels that they will be better off as a result of the transaction than they would be without it.

The Three Options
In this free market, the customer always has three options with any purchase decision.

1. The customer can buy your product or service.
2. The customer can buy the product or service from someone else.
3. The customer can decide to buy nothing at all.

Convincing the Customer
For the customer to buy any product or service, he or she must be convinced that it is not only the best choice available but they must also be persuaded that there is no better way for him to spend the equivalent amount of money. Your job as a salesperson/business owner is to convince the customer that all these conditions exist and then to elicit a commitment from them to take action on your offer.

Customize Your Sales Presentation
In a way; selling methodologies are merely responses to customer requirements. At one time, customers were relatively unsophisticated and poorly informed about their choices. With today’s informed prospect base, Salespeople must cater to this customer with carefully planned and memorized sales presentations that not only feel natural, but look it also! The presentation needs to have loads of enthusiasm and most of all, needs to be HONEST!

Treat Them With Respect
But the customer of the 1950s has matured into the customer of the 21st century. Customers are now more intelligent and knowledgeable than ever before. They are experienced buyers and they have interacted with hundreds of salespeople. They are extremely sophisticated and aware of the incredible variety of products and services that are available to them, as well as their relative strengths and weaknesses of those products. Many of them are smarter and better educated than most salespeople and they are far more careful about making a buying decision of any kind. Treat them with respect! If you don’t, the next will!

The Need For Speed
In addition, they are overwhelmed with work and under-supplied with time. Because of the rapidly increasing pace of change, down-sizing, restructuring and the competitive pressures surrounding them, customers today are harried and hassled. They are swamped with responsibilities, impatient, suspicious, critical, demanding, and spoiled. To sell to today's customer requires a higher caliber of sales professional than has ever before been required. And it is only going to become tougher and more complicated in the months and years ahead. Stay ahead of the game, CHANGE is good!

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do NOW to put these ideas into action.

First, think persistently about how you can convince your customer that your product or service is the very best available. Why do they buy, or refuse to buy?

Second, upgrade your knowledge and skills every day so you can sell more effectively. Remember, your customers only get better when you get better!

Even the most experienced managers are faced with adversity when "big game" decisions need to be made! Using these THREE strategies will propel your decision making process!

Challenge your gut feeling, then TRUST IT! Good business and life decisions are not always made on first instincts! In fact, first instincts are not usually based on rational thoughts! Challenge your initial feeling and instinct, weigh the possible outcomes, test the waters, then TRUST IT! It is important to trust your decision if you have based it on a solid thought process!

Don't be Bias! It doesn't matter what you think...you ARE self-interested in this decision! DO NOT let your bias be the decision making factor! Take a step back...now take a deep breath...your business decision is always about you! Remember that when reviewing this step!

Involve others. "Big Game" decisions shouldn't be made in a 4x4 room with one chair!  Consult with others to get different opinions and criticism. Surround yourself with people that have expertise in the arena that you are looking to fill. This step will help you make a more informed decision!