Self-Discipline - The Single Most Important Prerequisite For Success

Self-discipline just doesn't sound like fun, does it? Most people equate anything to do with discipline with pain and suffering, like fingernails dragging across a chalkboard. Hearing the word discipline almost makes you want to rebel, as though you were a school kid who knows that it must mean trouble.

Recognize that self-discipline has the potential of being one of your greatest assets. It offers the ability to distinguish you from your competition. It can make all of the difference for you in every area of your life.

Your willingness to apply self-discipline to your life will separate you from the average person, as clearly as the difference between a great attitude and a terrible one. This is one of those areas in life where you have the ability to choose which side of the line you want to live on. You can live on the side that exercises self-discipline or the side that exercises immediate gratification with no thought about the long-term consequences of your actions or inactions. Which side of the line you choose on a moment-by-moment basis will have a direct effect on the quality of your life and the magnitude of your achievements. This is an area of your life just like attitude, where you have total control if you make the decision to exercise it.

Self-discipline is about making a decision or choice to deny yourself pleasure at the moment in trade for a better moment sometime in the future. It is a willing to listen to the voice that opts for excellence instead of settling for just being average.

You will have a higher degree of satisfaction in your life and will accomplish so much more as a human being if you learn how to discipline your decisions with a long-term perspective. As you make your decisions, you must consider the long-term consequences of the decision, that you are making that moment. Every decision you make today, to act or not, will have future ramifications.

Your ability to exercise self-discipline is dramatically increased if you have goals in your life that motivate you to be in action with an expectation that these actions will be productive in bringing about your desired results. If you have a goal to be in shape, if you have a goal to be respected by your peers, if you have a goal of personal excellence in business or in your personal life, the goal puts the immediate decision in a different framework.

It is important to realize that if you are in a business today, appearance counts. Keep in mind, however, that appearance has to do with more than the clothes you are wearing and the makeup you have on. Your daily habits that reflect self-discipline (or not) will speak volumes to other people about who you are. People are much quicker to respect, believe in, and follow someone who exercises self-discipline and delayed gratification than someone who lives just for the moment with no strong sense of commitment to greater goals and dreams.$

[Ed. Note: If you're not happy with your financial situation, you're in the perfect position to change it for the better – right now. Ray has just released a special video that covers an online business system that you can use to start growing your wealth. To watch this short video, click the following link: http://www.raybuckner.com]

The Power Of Failure

One of the most valuable experiences that you can have in your life is failure. How you handle failure is another area where you can dramatically separate yourself from the crowd.

Building a home-based business is more about failure than it is about winning day after day. Without a willingness to experience failure, you will not create the room to do what it takes to also experience success. Home-based businesses are also about sales. In reality, most everything in business is ultimately about sales. Whether you are selling a product, your concept, or yourself, you are in a constant state of sales in the network marketing industry. Because you are in the sales business, you are going to get turned down (fail) far more times than you are going to win. It's just part of the winning process.

Setbacks will happen, and they can be painful. Therefore, rather than viewing failure as a deadly enemy that destroys your dreams, learn to change your perspective. Teach yourself to see failure as an important ally, which increases your knowledge and builds your internal fortitude.

People who achieve great things are not afraid to fail. This is because they recognize that failure is an excellent teacher when it is viewed through the eyes of a winner. As children, we fell down countless times while learning to walk; today we can walk around all day without even giving the task a conscious thought. Thomas Edison failed more than a thousand times before he invented a working light bulb; today he is remembered as a great inventor, not a great failure. Babe Ruth struck out more than a thousand times, yet he is called The Sultan of Swat to this day, not The Whizard of Whiff.

Everyone has experienced failures and lived to tell about them. We learn from our failures and use them to add to our base of knowledge. When you experience failure, there are several things you can do to turn discouragement into determination. First, make time to study the attitudes and actions of those who have earned great victories in your world. Read the biographies of men and women who have overcome adversity and gone on to great success. The more you see how other people experienced similar struggles in their early years, the more you will reinforce your determination to push past whatever discouragement or setback you are experiencing.

A second way to turn discouragement into determination is to find a coach or a mentor who will help you keep your attitude where it needs to be.A good coach or mentor will help you keep both failures and successes in perspective.

Third, you will turn discouragement into determination when you create written values, mission, and vision statements, which spell who you are and what you want  your life to become, and keep them close at hand for regular review. When a setback has left you momentarily disheartened, pull out your written statements and remind yourself of who you are and of the emotionally compelling vision you are working to achieve. This will help you refocus on your ultimate destination and reconnect with your passion.

Fourth, you will turn discouragement into determination by developing a method that enables you to put things into perspective at will. Whether you take a drive, listen to soothing music, go for a walk, or engage in strenuous exercise, you should create a mechanism that offers a way to return your thoughts to a place where mental clarity and confidence in your vision are restored and reinforced.

Finally, and most importantly, you will turn discouragement into great triumphs by developing the right attitude toward failure. A failure should trigger a careful, moment-by-moment examination of the thinking, planning, and actions that led up to the failure. You will always learn more from failure than from victory. Get into the habit of dissecting each failure to analyze what may have been missing, that if put into place next time, would possibly lead to a much different outcome.

If you allow your mistakes to stop you from moving forward, you've allowed failure to have the victory. Why in the world would you give the potential for failure, or failure itself, that much power over your destiny? Don't do it! Harness the power of failure and continue to pursue your dream.$

[Ed. Note. Ray Buckner is dedicated to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]

Why Quitting Is Not An Option If You Want To Win

Here is a sad fact: Most people who come into the network marketing profession quit! There are many ways to view this statistic. Quitting is not unique to the network marketing industry. People quit school, they quit jobs, they quit marriages, they quit exercising; quitting is easy. By their nature, people often quit when the going gets tough. Deciding not to quit ensures that you are going to be way ahead of the masses. When you realize that you can be quite successful by sponsoring as few as 1, 2, 3, or 4 leaders, it just makes sense to persevere until these leaders show up.

Can you imagine going through life with a voice inside of you crying out that you are a quitter? What a terrible thing to think of yourself or of someone else. Those who choose to quit fail to persevere because they lack an expectation that they will discover what is missing that would result in the achievement of their goals.

Virtually every day of your life you will hear an inner voice encouraging you to quit something. Quitting always represents the easy (but undesirable) road, the path of least resistance. This path leads to a lack of belief in yourself and in your ability to accomplish what you have conceived mentally and emotionally. The quitter's path of least resistance leads to doubt and disappointment. It is the path that ultimately leads to failure.

The path of least resistance destroys any potential for character, because it steers clear of those events that must occur in your life if you are ever to test your mettle, toughen your character, and temper your resolve. Each time you embrace challenge as a new opportunity to grow, you will become more and more disdainful of the path of least resistance. You will be too busy blazing the trail to your greatest potential to even think about quitting.

One of the greatest gifts that you can give yourself is the promise not to quit. Making the promise is one thing...fulfilling the promise is entirely another. You see, quitting is easy...it creates a sense of instant gratification. Quitting does not call  you to dig deep within yourself to test the measure of your character.

One of the great things about a network marketing business is that it doesn't cost much to become involved. One of the terrible things about a network marketing business is that it doesn't cost much to become involved. With such a low threshold of risk, it is easy for people to walk away if they are not immediately rolling in money.

By deciding early that quitting is not an option, you will have passed 85 percent of the people who come into this profession. That decision alone will put you in the top 15 percent of distributors who get started in the first place. As in life, just showing up every day to work your business with a great attitude is half the battle. Decide very early in the game that quitting is an unacceptable response to adversity, rejection, and difficulty.
Become a perpetual student of the network marketing game, committed to acquiring enough information and expertise to convince you that your ultimate success is inevitable.

If you are unwilling to go through the process of rejection, rise up above the daily difficulties, and experience the personal development necessary to become an attractive business partner and sponsor, then this business is not for you. You are likely going to be personally tested more in this business than with anything else you have ever done. Are you going to shy away from these challenges or embrace them, knowing that the struggles and defeats will turn you into the person you need to become to achieve success? Don't fear the process, embrace it. Embarrassing the process of becoming the person you wish to be will separate you from the masses of people who hope for a better tomorrow but are unwilling to pay the price necessary for success. Make yourself a promise. Quitting is not an option. Quitting is a pattern of behavior that is all too easy to repeat. Persevering is also a pattern of behavior that will repeat itself. Draw your personal line in the sand. Decide that with this journey, there is no such thing as quitting. It is simply not an option. When you make the firm decision that there are no events, no people, no disappointments that will bring you to the point of saying, "I quit," you will have given yourself permission to do whatever it takes to be successful.$

Resources For Women Entrepreneurs

Anybody who thinks of business as a man's world is living in the wrong century. The fact is, by a wide margin, most entrepreneurs these days are women. Indeed, when it comes to starting new businesses in the United States, women currently outnumber men 2 to 1.

Reflecting on this, there is no end of resources aimed at smoothing the path for women entrepreneurs. One of the best is a government outfit called Women Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century, or Women-21 for short. A partnership of the SBA and the U.S. Department of Labor, Women-21 has an excellent web site, http://www.women-21.gov/, that accurately describes itself as "a premier one-stop federal resource for targeted information, registration for online programs, and networking opportunities to help women entrepreneurs navigate the ever-changing business world."

Women-21 boasts a long lost of partners, many of them nonprofit, offering help for women interested in starting new businesses. I've listed a few of them below. But if you want to get a real sense of the array of resources available to women entrepreneurs, visit the Women-21 web site.

• The Association of Women's Business Centers (http://awbc.org). A national nonprofit organization representing women business owners, the AWBC provides educational, training, technical assistance, mentoring, development, and financing.
• Black Women Enterprises. Dedicated to advancing the interests of Black women business owners (though everyone is welcome to join), BWE provides educational, networking, and technical resources for its members.
• eWomen Network.com. An invaluable networking resource, eWomenNetwork has a searchable online directory that boasts the world's largest photographic profile database of female business owners and corporate professionals. With more than 10,000 members and 80 U.S. and Canadian chapters, eWomenNetwork provides women entrepreneurs with a steady stream of new contact and business-development opportunities as well as cost-effective ways to promote themselves and their businesses.
• MANA, A National Latina Organization (http://www.hermana.org/). MANA is a nonprofit advocacy organization that promotes Latin women in business and community service.
• National Association of Women Business Owner (http://www.nawbo.org/). With more than 8,000 members in more than 80 chapters around the country, NAWBO calls itself "the voice of America's women-owned businesses." In addition to providing unparalleled networking possibilities, NAWBO lobbies vigorously on economic and public policy issues affecting women business owners.
• National Women Business Owners Corporation (http://www.nwboc.org/). The NWBOC, a sister of the National Association of Women Business Owners and the Center for Women's Business Research, runs a national certification program for women-owned and -controlled businesses that can help them compete for corporate and government contracts. More than 100 private and public agencies now accept NWBOC certification.

[Ed. Note: Ready to step up to the plate and start your own Internet business? If so, online marketing expert Ray Buckner and his team of friendly experts are standing by to help you. Start with nothing – no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how – and build your own online business. Check out this FREE video presentation! No experience required.]

Why The Government Wants You To Start Your Own Business

The government wants you to start your own business because small businesses are the fuel that drives our economy. According to the Small Business Administration, there were 27.5 million small businesses in the United States in 2009, providing employment for more than 57 million workers - which is to say roughly half the jobs in the country.

Even more important, small businesses are responsible for creating the lion's share of new jobs in the United States. Throughout the 1990s, they generated between 60% and 80% of new jobs, and over the past 17 years, they have generated 65% of the net new jobs in the United States. The government knows that a business being started today in your garage, kitchen, or even dorm room could be a future Fortune 500 company that someday will employ thousands of people.

How The Government Helps You Become Rich

In order to encourage people to start their own business, the government has created a wide variety of tax breaks for business owners (including independent contractors with direct selling companies).

The most obvious and immediately useful of these are the benefits you get from a self-employed retirement account. When you own your own business, you are allowed to put more money in a pretax retirement account than an employee. A self employed person can save up to $49,000 pretax in a SEP IRA. By contrast, the most an employee under 50 could contribute to a 401(k) is just $16,500.  In other words, if you are self-employed, you can save at least $32,500 more a year tax-free than an employee can. This is a huge difference. (If you're already contributing to a 401(k) or other qualified plan at work, your ability to contribute to a SEP IRA may be limited. Check with your accountant.)

Putting The Odds In Your Favor In Direct Selling

The best way to maximize your chances of succeeding at direct selling is to choose the right company the first time you try. This is not easy. Here are five tips for how to do this.

Tip No. 1: Only Get Into A Business You Are Passionate About

Remember, direct selling is a "people business," in which you have to share with others your passion for the product or service you're offering, whether it be health, wellness, travel, legal protection, clothing, collectibles, home furnishings, or something else. So you need to find a business that you want to talk about all day and dream about all night.

Tip No. 2: Only Sign Up With An Established Company

The best way to avoid heartache is never to be "first" in this business. There's too much risk in being first - and while I know all the stories about how it's the pioneers who get very rich, it's too much of a risk for people who have started late and want to finish rich. Find me a company that's publicly traded, that's already doing a billion dollars a year in sales (and there are at least twelve right now), that has an established track record of earnings and growth - and the odds are in your favor they won't be going out of business anytime soon. Of course, anything is possible (look at Enron). But you do have a better chance of not losing your shirt. At a minimum, I'd want to see revenues of $50 million a year and at least five years of solid earning and growth before I signed up with anyone.

Tip No. 3: Visit The Company And Meet The Management

Nothing beats a face-to-face meeting at company headquarters. It's by far the best way to get a good sense of what kind of people are running the company, now it's doing, and where it's going. You'll get a sense of their integrity, and whether or not they are people you can trust. Go with our gut on this one. Even if it costs you $1,000 to make the trip, you should do it. And if the company doesn't roll out the red carpet to meet you, then cross them off your list. If you can't afford the expense or the time, then study the materials you get from the company extensively and completely. Really read (don't just flip through) the entire distributor agreement and ask questions about items you do not understand. In addition, meet the company's leaders who are in your local area and attend some company events prior to signing up.

Tip No. 4: Read The Financials

Seriously. No joke. You are making a HUGE MISTAKE if you sign up with any kind of company, direct selling or otherwise, without first taking a close look at its financial records. Whether you are buying real estate, investing in a franchise, or getting into direct selling, you have to look at the numbers. This is why I recommend that you consider only direct selling companies whose financials you can obtain. This is easiest if the company is public, since by law the financial results of publicly traded companies must be made public - meaning you can either get them from the company itself or by going online. You should check the company's history with your local Better Business Bureau, your state's Attorney General, and the Federal Trade Commission. Specifically, you want to look for some simple things: Does the company make money? Does the company have debt and if so, how much and why? What's the attrition rate of people who join the business? This kind of information should be readily available from a publicly traded company. If the company you're considering is not publicly traded, they still should be willing to show you their financials. If they're not, don't get involved - PERIOD!

Tip No.5: Consider Only DSA Members

The Direct Selling Association has essentially become the Better Business Bureau of this industry. There are more than 1,000 well-established direct-selling companies in business. Of these, fewer than 200 have applied and been approved for DSA membership. As this statistic indicates, the DSA sets a very high standard. Visit its web site at www.dsa.org and check out its membership requirements and Code of Ethics. Among other things, it subjects companies to a yearlong review process before it lets them join - and to discourage "front-loading," it require members to repurchase unsold materials from distributors for at least 90% of the original cost within 12 months of the original purchase.$

Becoming Your Own Boss - Without Quitting Your Day Job

"If I'm going to bet on a business - let me be the one who owns it." David Bach

Let's get straight to the point - creating a second stream of income can change your life. As I said before, if all you did was spend less and save more, you could probably start late and finish rich. But if you spend less, save more and MAKE more, nothing will stop you from achieving your goal of financial freedom. And if you ALSO develop a second income stream, you can finish richer than you might have if you'd started early.

Wealth Is All Around You

Part of finishing rich is understanding that wealth is all around us. Everywhere! Every day, people who are not as smart as you are making money in every kind of business you can think of. Look around. Just about everything you can see right now is the result of a business that someone owns. Just about everything you use, consume, or enjoy - someone's business created it, manufactured it, shipped it, or serviced it. And these days, what with the Internet and corporate downsizing and jobs being shipped overseas, it is both crucial and smart to consider starting your own business...while you still have a job that provides you with a paycheck.

The Next Wave Of Millionaires Is Being Created At Home

The American Dream of owning your own business is coming true. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently more than 20 million home-based businesses in the United States, generating an estimated $500 billion a year in revenues. One out of every six working adults in the United States is connected with one, more than half of them on a part-time basis. Back in 2005, Newsweek magazine said that fully half of all households will be involved in some sort of home-based business.

As a result,most experts expect the next wave of millionaires to be dominated by small-business entrepreneurs, especially those with home-based businesses. Indeed, a survey by Money magazine found that one out of every five home-based businesses produces an annual gross income of $100,000 to $500,000. And the Small Business Administration reports that nearly 20,000 entrepreneurs have already grossed more than $1 million a year operating from home.

Now It's Your Turn To Join Them

I'm not suggesting here that you quit your day job (not yet, anyway). After all, while it might not make you rich in the long run, your day job BRINGS YOU INCOME. What I want to do in this post is to introduce you to a number of different approaches to creating a business you can run on the side while you keep your day job. As you will see, becoming your own boss is not easy. But it's not impossible.

Depending on our interests and abilities, there are all sorts of things you can do to develop an additional source of income. You can perform a service (like painting houses or editing resumes) or you can make something and market it (like cookies or jewelry) or you can buy something and re-sell it. You can take a skill you use at your regular job (like word processing or graphic design) and offer it on a freelance basis - on your own, of course! Or you can turn a hobby into a side business (like cooking into catering or sewing into tailoring). Finally, instead of you working for extra money, you can put your money to work for you by investing in real estate.$

[Ed. Note. Ray Buckner is dedicated to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]

Make More...In Franchising

What's always appealed to me about franchising - and may appeal to you - is the  opportunity to buy into a proven business system. Franchising is not really something you can do on the side while you keep your regular job. But if you are looking for a new career path, a second start in life, or a different approach to starting late and finishing rich, franchising is definitely something you should consider.

What Is Franchising?

Franchising is all about systems. When you buy a franchise, what you are buying is an existing system for branding and marketing a particular service or product. Think about McDonald's for a second. McDonald's has a system for selling burgers and fries that is now recognized all over the world. Obviously, the McDonald's brand is about more than just burgers and fries - it's about a restaurant that serves food quickly and with a smile (and sometimes it's even healthy food). The moment you see the McDonald's Golden Arches, whether you're in Tennessee or Timbuktu, you instantly know what to expect.

When a milk-shake-mixer salesman named Ray Kroc first came across the original McDonald's restaurant, it was nothing more than a popular burger joint run by two brothers. Kroc was struck by the fact that the McDonald brothers were so successful yet owned only one restaurant. Since they were adverse to expanding, he took it upon himself to make it happen. What Kroc did was figure out what made the original McDonald's so popular and then translate that into a detailed system that specified everything from how a McDonald's restaurant should look to how the food should be prepared to how the counter people should interact with customers. Kroc's real brilliance, however, wasn't in designing a popular restaurant. Rather, it was in realizing that instead of running around the country trying to open and manage branches himself, he could do much better licensing his system to independent entrepreneurs, who by following it (and Kroc made sure they did) would wind up with a McDonald's restaurant that looked, smelled, and felt exactly like every other one.

By the end of 2009, there were more than 32,478 McDonald's restaurants in 119 countries around the world, generating more than $23 billion a year in revenues.

How's That For A System!

So when you buy a franchise, you are buying a license to use a system that was created by someone else - a "franchisor." As the "franchisee," you do not own the system. You are merely paying for the right to use it. Most franchises pay an up-front fee for this right (known as the franchise fee) and then a royalty on all the sales their business generates (the licensing fee or royalty).

But becoming a franchisee is not only a matter of paying fees or royalties to the franchisor. You also have to commit to following the franchisor's system religiously. this means using their building plans, their price schedules, their menus and recipes, their suppliers, and on and on.

Their is a good reason for this. The main reason franchises work so well is that most consumers like to know in advance what they are going to get. If you drive into a strange town looking for somewhere to have lunch and you see two hamburger places - one, a local cafe called "Dave's Burgers," the other a McDonald's - chances are you'll head to the McDonald's. That's because even though you've never been in this town before, you know exactly what you're going to find there - what's on the menu, how much it will cost, how it will taste. This wouldn't be the case if McDonald's allowed its franchisees any leeway in how they operated their individual restaurants.

So, if you're looking for a business in which you can create new concepts on a whim, franchising probably isn't for you. On the other hand, if you're looking for something in which hard work can pay off big-time, keep reading.

You Name It, There's A Franchise For It

If you live anywhere in the developed world, the odds are almost certain that sometime this week - and quite possibly today - you did business with a franchise.

In the old days, people heard the word franchise and thought hamburgers. Today, the franchising industry is EVERYTHING. It's the real estate firm you used to buy your home, the accounting firm you used to do your tax returns, the salon where you got your hair cut, the store you ducked into to pick up some groceries, the gourmet coffee shop where you had that latte, the private post office you visited to send a package and pick up your mail, the tutoring academy your kid attends to boost his math grades.

According to the International Franchise Association, the franchise industry is now over a $1-trillion-a-year business. That's trillion with a "t".

In all, according to the IFA, franchise outlets account for over 40% of all retail sales in the United States - and employ more than 8 million people, or one out of every nine working Americans. Entrepreneur magazine states that there are more than 1,500 different kinds of franchised businesses operating more than 320,000 franchise units. That works out to about one out of every 12 retail establishments in the country.

To put it mildly, the growth of franchising has been truly mind-boggling. Yet how surprising is that? When you consider that a big part of the American dream is to own and run your own business, it's not surprising at all.$

Why Consider Direct Selling As A Home-Based Business Opportunity?

I know I'm going out on a limb here by recommending direct selling as a business to consider. I'm doing this because it really can be an excellent source of additional income. To me, what many people see as a downside to direct selling is actually an upside. The fact that most people don't get rich in this industry, but instead "only" make an extra $500 to a $1,000 a month, is exactly what excites me.

As I noted in my last video, the average wage earner in America makes around $36,000 a year. If you're in that range, earning an extra $500 to $1,000 a month amounts to an increase in your income of anywhere from 16% to 33%! Saving just a quarter that could represent the difference between being able to retire and having to work until you drop. And if you're lucky enough to be earning more than the average, the extra income could be what winds up buying you your financial freedom.

13 Reasons To Consider Direct Selling

Reason No. 1: The Moment You Join A Direct Selling Company, You Are In Business
Generally, when you start a new business, the first weeks and months (sometimes years) are spent developing relationships, finding reliable suppliers, testing marketing plans, and the like. Not so in direct selling. Once you find a company that's right for you, it's all there, ready to go. You can start going after customers from day one.

Reason No. 2: You Don't Have To Reinvent The Wheel
The hardest part of becoming your own boss is figuring out what business you're in. What are you selling? Who are your customers? What's the best sales approach? A direct-selling company that's been in business for a while and has a proven track record (which is the only kind to join) has long since figured all this out.

Reason No. 3: You Don't Have To Do It All Yourself
Trust me, as an entrepreneur creating a business from scratch, you will spend tons of time and lots of money going to coaching programs, attending entrepreneur clinics, and taking marketing courses. When you join a top-notch direct-selling company, they provide you with an entire training system that usually includes "learning in a box" along with regular training and motivational seminars.

Reason No. 4: You Will Be Forced To Stretch Yourself
Let's be honest here - you're not going to start a business (any business) at home in your extra hours without massive effort. And you're not going to succeed at direct selling without really working hard.

Reason No. 5:  You Will Find Mentors And Experts
While groups like SCORE can help, the fact is that when you start a business, it's often hard to find experienced mentors with the time and inclination to help guide you to success. This problem does not exist in direct selling. Since the person who introduces you to the business gets paid only if you succeed, he or she has a vested interest in seeing that you succeed. This means you should be very about the person you allow to sign you up, since he or she will become your mentor.

Reason No. 6: You Can Create Passive Income
The hardest dollar you will ever earn is the one you are paid in exchange for your time. Whether you earn $8.25 an hour minimum wage or $500 an hour like my trademark attorney, people who are paid by the hour are trading time for money - and there are only so many hours in a day. The key to being rich, therefore, is getting money to come to you 24 hours a day without your having to be working all the time. In direct selling, as you build a customer base, you not only earn money from your own efforts but, as you get other people to start their own businesses, you begin earning money from their efforts as well. This idea of earning money from other people's efforts - or what is known as passive income - is not unethical, by the way. It's called being a "business owner."

Reason No. 7: You May Make A New Circle Of Friends
Here's something you may not realize: A lot of the people you hang out with today are really about your past. You may have a ton of friends you made 5, 10, maybe 20 years ago who have no desire to do or be more than they are right now. And the moment you tell them what you are doing, whether it's going into direct selling, buying a house, paying yourself first, or simply learning about all of this, they are going to put you down and tell you you're being stupid.
This will hurt and upset you, and you will find yourself tempted to "throw in the towel" in an effort not to alienate your old friends.
The beauty of direct selling is that you join a team of people who have similar interests and dreams to do and be more. As a result, you may find yourself building a whole new world of new friends.

Reason No. 8: You Don't Have To Retire
The beauty of a direct-selling business is that if you are successful and enjoy it, no one can force you to retire from it. You won't get downsized or outsourced into retirement.

Reason No. 9: You Get To Help Other People
Direct selling may be the ultimate "people" business. It's all about helping and being helped by the people you work with - not only your customers buy your colleagues, whom you mentor and who mentor you. Not every line of work gives you the opportunity to do this and to make a good living at the same time.
This aspect of direct selling is one of its greatest strengths. Whether you get involved in direct selling or some other business, what will make you successful is your desire to help other people. If you work from that place with integrity and honest intentions, you will lead a life of significance - and you will be a better person at the end of the day. You will also earn more money.

Reason No. 10: You Make Your Own Hours
Direct selling tends to attract women, couples, and families looking for a way to balance their lives with their need for additional income. Because you decide hard you want to work and how much you want to earn, you can create the life you desire in this business.

Reason No. 11: Tax Incentives!
The tax advantages of owning your own business are huge. It's not just the great retirement accounts business owners qualify for. There's also the fact that many daily activities - such as travel, telephone conversations, entertainment and the like - can turn to be legitimate business expenses that are at least partly tax-deductible. One of the great things about direct selling is that the business is so intertwined in your life that many normal activities become business-related - and, hence, deductible. (For details on what constitutes a legal tax write-off, consult your tax advisor or visit http://www.irs.gov/ and request Publication #535, "Deducting Business Expenses.")


Reason No. 12: Direct Selling Is Less Expensive To Get Into Than Many Other Businesses
As I noted in my last video, some direct-selling companies sell start-up kits for as low as $99; some are even $10 - or free! There are not many other businesses where you can get started on such a small initial investment - especially when you consider that you'll be associating yourself with an established company that will more than likely provide you with a completely automated accounting and billing system, as well as introductory training, access to professional marketing materials, and business and personal development resources.

Reason No. 13: It's A Family Business
While working with your spouse and children might not be tops on your list, a direct-selling business is an excellent way for you and your family to spend time together. Meeting new friends together, sharing products you love with others, and taking the incentive trips many companies reward distributors are just some of the opportunities. And that doesn't include the extra time you can spend with your family once your business has been established. There is no boss to tell you when you have to work.
Often, children can help you in certain aspects of your business, giving you an excellent environment to teach them self-reliance and responsibility. Lastly, many direct-selling companies allow children to either inherit the business you have built or start a business under you, giving them multiple options as they plan their own lives and careers.$

Poverty stats show the damage - Budgeting & Saving News - AARP Bulletin

Poverty stats show the damage - Budgeting & Saving News - AARP Bulletin

7 Years To 7 Figures - What Will It Take?

[Ed. Note. Ray Buckner is dedicated to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]

Rules No. 6 and 7 For Starting A Home Business

Rule No. 6: Sell First, Tweak Your Product Later

Another very common cause of failed start-up businesses forgetting that making the first sale is the first job.

Many people go into business with the idea that they should get all the details worked out before they open shop. They get all their plans done (sometimes to the nth degree), rent and equip an office, print business cards and brochures, and then get busy with the operational and fulfillment issues before finding out whether they can sell the product.

Good start-up businesses have efficient marketing models (see Rule No. 2), and the only way to find out whether your marketing plans will work is to test them. Testing them doesn't mean marketing studies, prospect studies, or even simulated sales situations. Most of that stuff is a waste of time.

To give your business its best chance of succeeding, you have to find a way to bring in customers profitably before going out of business. There is only one way to do that properly, and that's to create a great advertising campaign, to expose it to your prime audience.

If you employ a direct-marketing-driven marketing program, you won't have to spend a fortune testing your advertising. You need only a handful of very strong, vertical lists (i.e., addresses of buyers who bought products very similar to yours) and a very strong promotion. (Don't be penny-wise with copy. Pay for the best copywriter you can afford).

By focusing the lion's share of your time, money, and talent on advertising, you can quickly find out the most important thing you need to find out about your business: how to effectively acquire new customers.

Nothing else you can do in the beginning is as important. And everything else you may feel like doing - with the exception of creating the product, of course - probably can be done later.

Rule No. 7: Don't Throw Good Money After Bad

If you create a great advertising campaign and it fails, stop everything immediately and regroup.

You may be tempted to throw good money after bad by testing other marketing ideas. You may decide that if you reinvented the product, the next promotion would succeed. Any or all of your post-failure ideas may be valid, but you'll waste a lot of money and undermine your chances of succeeding by keeping the business open while you get set up for a second chance.

It is usually only ego that compels you to go forward with a business idea that the market has told you it doesn't like. This mistake is common not only among new entrepreneurs but also among mature and successful people.

To make your cut-and-run decision easier, set a stop-loss before the first test. Figure out what kind of return you expect from the advertising campaign and stick to it, even if the results are close.

If you don't expend all your money, time, and patience by pursuing a not-so-good or bad idea, you'll have enough of each to come back with a winning promotion the second time around.$

[Ed. Note. Ray Buckner is dedicated to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]

Rules No. 4 and 5 For Starting A Home-Based Business

Rule No. 3: Make Sure There Is An Active Market
The most common fatal mistake would-be entrepreneurs make is the failure to find out whether there is an active market for their intended product.

The mistake occurs most commonly when people violate Rule No. 1 by starting a business that they know little or nothing about.

It's an understandable mistake. You have a special interest or a pet peeve and you think of how to turn it into a great business. You assume there are plenty of people n the world who share your feelings and imagine it would be very easy to sell your new product or service to them.

You talk to a few friends and they bolster your courage (though they don't know anything about it, either). And before you know it, you've spent a year and most of your life savings getting a business going that falls flat on its face with the first promotion.

"What went wrong?" you wonder.

Answer: You forgot to see whether there was an active market for your bright idea.

We would like to think that we could create the next Wite-Out or Post-it pad or AOL. In fact, 99.9 percent of such brand-new ideas result in dismal, disappointing failures. The reason is simple: There is nothing new under the sun. Although you may feel sure that your brainchild is unique to you, chance are that it, or something very similar to it, has been thought of by countless other people  - and months, or years, ago!

That is true in every aspect of business, but it's especially true when your great idea is outside of your experience. That's because most "good ideas" don't work for reasons that are invisible to outsiders (including new employees) but are obvious to anyone who's had the benefit of seeing such ideas fail in the past.

The solution is to follow Rule No. 1. If you do, you'll probably avoid most of the mistakes you're likely to make. But if you must (or simply really want to) get into a business you know nothing about, don't invest a nickel in it until you've determined that there is an active market for your product.

What do I mean by that? I'm talking about lots and lots of buyers already out there purchasing similar, if not identical products.

When it comes to investing your time and money in a side business, you want to be very careful not to blow everything on your first effort. A good way to increase your odds is to make sure that there is already a ready market for your business.

I'm not recommending getting into a crowded market with a weak, copycat product. But your chances of success doing that would be much greater than trying to create a new market with an untested product.

When it comes to launching a new product, a very good position to take is second or third place. The marketability is proven with the first success. By coming in second or third, you reduce your risk while still enjoying the momentum that the first product may have created in the marketplace.

But even if you are fourth or fifth, or tenth in your market, you can still be successful so long as you price your product competitively, sell it forcefully, and develop its own peculiar benefit to distinguish it from the competition.$

[Ed. Note: If you're not happy with your financial situation, you're in the perfect position to change it for the better – right now. Ray has just released a special video that covers an online business system that you can use to start growing your wealth. To watch this short video, click the following link: http://www.raybuckner.com]

Rule No. 3 For Starting A Home-Based Business

Rule No. 3: Make Sure There Is An Active Market
The most common fatal mistake would-be entrepreneurs make is the failure to find out whether there is an active market for their intended product.

The mistake occurs most commonly when people violate Rule No. 1 by starting a business that they know little or nothing about.

It's an understandable mistake. You have a special interest or a pet peeve and you think of how to turn it into a great business. You assume there are plenty of people n the world who share your feelings and imagine it would be very easy to sell your new product or service to them.

You talk to a few friends and they bolster your courage (though they don't know anything about it, either). And before you know it, you've spent a year and most of your life savings getting a business going that falls flat on its face with the first promotion.

"What went wrong?" you wonder.

Answer: You forgot to see whether there was an active market for your bright idea.

We would like to think that we could create the next Wite-Out or Post-it pad or AOL. In fact, 99.9 percent of such brand-new ideas result in dismal, disappointing failures. The reason is simple: There is nothing new under the sun. Although you may feel sure that your brainchild is unique to you, chance are that it, or something very similar to it, has been thought of by countless other people  - and months, or years, ago!

That is true in every aspect of business, but it's especially true when your great idea is outside of your experience. That's because most "good ideas" don't work for reasons that are invisible to outsiders (including new employees) but are obvious to anyone who's had the benefit of seeing such ideas fail in the past.

The solution is to follow Rule No. 1. If you do, you'll probably avoid most of the mistakes you're likely to make. But if you must (or simply really want to) get into a business you know nothing about, don't invest a nickel in it until you've determined that there is an active market for your product.

What do I mean by that? I'm talking about lots and lots of buyers already out there purchasing similar, if not identical products.

When it comes to investing your time and money in a side business, you want to be very careful not to blow everything on your first effort. A good way to increase your odds is to make sure that there is already a ready market for your business.

I'm not recommending getting into a crowded market with a weak, copycat product. But your chances of success doing that would be much greater than trying to create a new market with an untested product.

When it comes to launching a new product, a very good position to take is second or third place. The marketability is proven with the first success. By coming in second or third, you reduce your risk while still enjoying the momentum that the first product may have created in the marketplace.

But even if you are fourth or fifth, or tenth in your market, you can still be successful so long as you price your product competitively, sell it forcefully, and develop its own peculiar benefit to distinguish it from the competition.$

[Ed. Note: If you're not happy with your financial situation, you're in the perfect position to change it for the better – right now. Ray has just released a special video that covers an online business system that you can use to start growing your wealth. To watch this short video, click the following link: http://www.raybuckner.com]

MLM Secrets Unleashed

If you've been struggling in MLM like millions of others across the globe, it's not your fault! You've just never been taught how to properly build your MLM business, UNTIL...Today!

Follow the link below to discover what my 7-figure earner partners and I have to reveal to you. Basically, I'm going to show you how the top earners are able to go into any company and become the #1 producer in under two weeks...and how you can implement the EXACT same strategies for your business starting TODAY!

7 Years To 7 Figures In MLM

Rule No. 2: Choose a Business That Has These Three Qualities

I don't invest in businesses unless they have three qualities:

1. An efficient marketing model
2. A substantial profit margin
3. A considerable back-end potential

An Efficient Marketing Model

By "efficient marketing model," I mean a proven way to acquire customers without going broke. This may seem ridiculously obvious, but the truth is that many start-up businesses do not have this.

Most business plans I look at have unrealistic expectations about marketing.  Two key issues, in particular, are usually off the mark:

1. How much will it cost to acquire a new customer
2. How many new customers can be acquired in a given time

If you get the wrong answer to either of these questions, you will usually go broke because you'll be spending money on other aspects of your business - product fulfillment and administration, among others. That will deplete the funds you need to reach the point at which repeat and back-end sales begin to cover expenses.

The primary of Rule No. 1 - starting with a business you know - is the knowledge you have of this one aspect of business: how to acquire new customers efficiently.

Every sector of every industry has its own model. And many individual businesses within a particular sector have their own peculiar formula for bringing in new customers. You can't possibly expect your home-based business to succeed unless you have a very good idea how you are going to attract new customers efficiently. And you can't do that unless you have working knowledge of how other, similar businesses have done so in the past.

A Substantial Profit Margin

Knowledge of how to acquire new customers efficiently is, as I said, the first and most important thing I look for when investing in a new business. But it's not the only thing. I like to see a large gross profit, too.

By "gross profit," I mean price minus cost of goods and refunds. A paperback book on building wealth, for example, that sells for $7.95 might have a $3.95 production cost. That's a gross profit of $4.00 on $7.95 - the cost of product (including refunds) being about 50 percent of sales.That's a gross profit margin many businesses find acceptable, but it's the kind of number that makes me nervous.

I like big profit margins - the bigger the better. That's why I love information products. In the twenty-first century, there are many businesses that offer large margins. Along with information based products,  entertainment and prestige products also offer large margins.

As a general rule, the larger the gross margin, the more cash you can generate with each sale. And the more cash flow your business has when it begins, the better able you'll be to keep the business going while you figure out the perfect customer acquisition model - the one that will allow your company to keep on growing.

A Considerable Back-End Potential

The third and final quality I look for in a start-up business is the potential for back-end sales. By "back-end" sales, I mean more, better, and higher-priced products and services sold to the existing customer base.

I like businesses that have customers who keep buying. I like the feeling that the work that is done to acquire a new customer will be the hardest work done. I like the thought that for every dollar I get bringing in a new customer into my business, there will be 3 or 4 or even 10 more dollars down the road.

It's much, much easier to make a second sale to an existing customer than it is to get that customer in the first place. Businesses that have this potential are natural moneymakers, because they allow the business to reinvest 100 percent or more of its front-end sales into acquiring new customers.

When you have an efficient marketing model, a good profit margin, and a substantial back end, you have everything you need to make your business grow exponentially. Your margin allows you to continuously build your active customer base, even accounting for those customers who expire or drift away.

As your customer base grows, your back end explodes - because a good back end stimulates itself. The more back-end products you have, the higher the response (and income yield) you'll get from each existing customer. When you are dealing with small business development in industries with back-end characteristics, supply-side economics is a wonderful fact of life!$

[Ed. Note: Ray Buckner’s personal team will create 10 six-figure earners before the year is over. The Traffic Authority system walks you through the process of growing your profitable online business using a proven online business model. Ray shows you exactly what he did to grow his six-figure business. To find out more about Traffic Authority, go here.]

Rule No. 1 For Starting A Home-Based Business

The classic business start-up occurs at the kitchen table. The great thing about starting a business from your home is that you don't have to spend extra money on rent, furniture, and utilities. You use what you have at home and devote all of your time and money to other, more important matters.

I have had the opportunity to have many, many, conversations with friends and family about starting new, second-half-of-life careers. By and large, the people I speak to want to be in businesses they know nothing about.

• An engineer wants to start a commercial airline.
• A corporate lawyer wants to sell exotic travel vacations.
• A high school teacher wants to open a health spa.

Most of these fantasies are held by 40- and -50-year-olds who have been working in one area for many years and can't stomach the idea of starting a business doing what they've been doing. "I'm through with that," they tell me.

The old work bores them. They would much rather start something new and different, something that inspires them with romantic thoughts of fun, tranquility, excitement.

This sort of escapist approach to business is understandable but inadvisable. Your chances of being successful are much, much better if you start with what you know.

Successful start-up businesses depend primarily on knowledge - specifically knowledge of the customers and the products.

Knowledge of the customer includes knowing:

• Who are my buyers?
• Where are they located?
• How can I reach them?
• What do I need to say or do to sell them?
• How do I get them to buy more?

Knowledge of the product includes knowing:

• What kind of product does the customer want today?
• What are its necessary features?
• What are its possible benefits?
• How much should I charge for it?
• How can I replicate it?
• How can I increase its value?

So that's the first rule: Begin with what you know. Start a business that sells essentially the same market, using essentially the same marketing techniques as the business you are in right now.

Another Way To Start With What You Know

If you are lucky enough to have a lifelong hobby, it's quite possible that you can create a successful business by leveraging your knowledge and contacts there. I've mentored several people who made this transition - from marketing executive of a publishing business to CEO of a business that teaches children about financial responsibility, to give just one example.

The trick to turning a hobby into a business is to use the experience you currently have in marketing and sales and couple it with the knowledge you have about your hobby. If, for example, you make a living selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door and you want to turn your passion for cooking into a business, consider creating your own cookbook (or better yet, home-study cooking program) and selling it door-to-door.

This sort of marriage - linking what you know about selling with what you know about your hobby - isn't always possible. For example, I can't think how you could sell vintage cigar lighters door-to-door.

But if you think you can do it, you probably can!$

[Ed. Note. Ray Buckner is dedicated to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]

The Winning Edge Concept

Developing Your Second (And Third And Fourth) Incomes

By mastering a financially valued skill and marketing yourself properly, you will soon be on track to making at least $130,000 a year. But there are many other ways to boost your income.

The simplest way is to use the skills you've developed to start a side business that can feed you a steady, healthy, second stream of income.

Not everyone has the time or energy to do this. But if you can find a way to give it a try, the results may surprise you. I know more than a few people have created side jobs for a little extra income. Before they knew it, they were earning more money on weekends than they were making during the week.

Consider Branching Out into the Direct-Mail Industry

If you would rather supplement your income by trying out a different financially valued skill, consider becoming a salesperson, advertising copywriter, list consultant, marketing manager, or graphic artist in the direct-marketing industry.

Why direct marketing? Three reasons:

1. Direct marketing is (if you include direct marketing on the Internet) by far the largest single form of advertising. It is larger than television, larger than cable, larger than magazines, and larger than newspapers.
2. Not only is it immense, but it's growing. This is especially true since e-mail advertising has become such a large part of Internet commerce. It's fair to say that no other form of advertising is growing as quickly as direct marketing.
3. Finally, and most important, direct marketing is a business that measures results in terms of dollars and cents added to the bottom line. Freelance professional, who help direct-marketing companies make money are capable of demanding large incomes. That's because it's easy for everyone to see the positive effect they have on sales.

Your Best Bet: Selling Your Own Products or Services through Direct Mail (or E-Mail)

If you have an interest in direct marketing, here are some samples of profitable mail-order businesses to consider:

1. Artist supplies. The market for art supplies is a $30 million-plus industry, and it's growing at more than 10 percent a year. Direct-response art supply companies sell professional-quality painting, sculpture, and woodworking materials, as well as beads and jewelry stock. Working artists like high-quality equipment. If you can give them something that lasts, they'll remember the brand and reward you with repeat purchases.
2. Audiocassettes and CDs. There are all sorts of subjects that lend themselves to audiocassette, CD, and DVD sales. In the business-to-business arena, there are training programs, and in the consumer arena, you have books on tape, language programs, and music, just to name a few. The trend toward electronic forms of information, advice, and entertainment is unstoppable
3. Diet and weight-loss products. The direct-response market for diet and weight-loss products is enormous, encompassing everything from videos and books to exercise equipment, pills to curb the appetite and burn fat, support groups, weight-management programs, and simple products like bathroom scales and fat monitors. Body-conscious Americans spend $40 billion each year to lose weight, and the industry is growing at 5.6 percent annually.
4. E-mail publishing. There are e-mail publications for virtually every area of interest. Especially profitable market segments include financial investors, sports enthusiasts, hobbyists, business opportunity seekers, and people interested in personal growth. Sources of income for e-mail publishers include subscription fees, advertising revenues, and back-end sales. E-publishers earn money on the back end by offering products and services related to the topics covered in the publication. An extraordinary benefit of e-publishing is that there is very little cost associated with distribution (via the Internet as compared with U.S. mail). To do this, you must offer valuable information, adhere to a delivery schedule, provide an easy-to-read and consistent format, and not badger your readers with too much advertising. Once you have built your subscriber base, there are companies that will market your space to potential advertisers.
5. Fitness and exercise videos. Mail-order fitness companies specialize in exercise videos featuring aerobics, boxing workouts, yoga, Pilates, and dozens of other systems. Buyers in this segment are men and women of all ages who are interested in self-improvement. They are generally middle to upper income, and respond well to targeted direct-response advertising. 
6.  Gardening seeds and tools. The indoor and outdoor gardening industry achieves revenues totaling $40 billion per year, and this number is growing by 4 percent annually. Mail-order gardening companies specialize in sales of tools, outdoor power equipment, magazines, books, seeds, bulbs, and plants. To set yourself apart in this industry, provide high-quality products, ease of ordering, and free educational information via editorial content in your catalog or on your website. It's also a good idea to consider producing a newsletter.
7. Hobby and craft products. Mail-order companies in this category specialize in kits and supplies for projects such as stained-glass decorations, decorative painting, woodworking, jewelry, and scrapbooking. The industry is very lucrative and growing rapidly, as it is being fueled by several consumer trends.
8. Natural health products. Mail-order health and nutrition companies specialize in organic foods, vitamins and supplements, and other minimally processed natural products. There is enormous opportunity in this industry, because sales continue to grow. Buyers in this category are affluent, well-educated men and women of all ages. These buyers respond well to direct-response advertising, and good mailing lists are plentiful.
9. Newsletters. According to the Custom Publishing Council, more than 50,000 unique newsletters are produced annually, resulting in revenues of $20 billion each year. Most of them provide financial, health, business, and travel information - subjects that all have one thing in common: They provide information that would be difficult for customers to find in mainstream media publications. The more highly specialized the information, the higher the subscription rate that can be charged. Because they are an information product, you can make a substantial profit with newsletters. The physical product you send customers will be very inexpensive to produce.
10. Pet supplies. The pet industry is a major segment of the U.S. economy. Last year, American pet owners spent over $26 billion on their pets. More baby boomers are purchasing pet supplies because they increasingly view their pets as family members. And as empty nests become refilled with dog beds and litter boxes, older adults have new ways to spend their money. The direct-marketing strategies in this area are similar to those in other markets. Online marketing is especially effective, as is producing a catalog featuring a series of front-end products that the customer can order directly.

[Ed. Note: Ray Buckner’s personal team will create 10 six-figure earners before the year is over. The Traffic Authority system walks you through the process of growing your profitable online business using a proven online business model. Ray shows you exactly what he did to grow his six-figure business. To find out more about Traffic Authority, go here.]

Turn Yourself Into A Marketing Genius

Skilled marketers are consistently among the highest-paid individuals in any industry. They earn high salaries, extraordinary bonuses, and the respect and admiration of colleagues and competitors. Marketers who master their trades are all but guaranteed a life of wealth, security, respect, and satisfaction.

Anyone of average intelligence can become a skilled marketer. You don't need a quick wit, a flair for the dramatic, or a degree from a top business school. What's required is an understanding of why people buy things.

Basically, the best marketers know how to apply three fundamental principles. I'll give you a brief overview of them here to help you decide whether this is something that interests you.

The Principle: The Difference between Wants and Needs

In today's consumer-driven economy, it's easy to mistake a want for a need. How many times have you heard the following statements:

• "Sally needs a new wardrobe. The clothes she's wearing make her look silly."
• "John hates the way his hair looks. He say he needs a better barber."
• "I simply have to have that new handbag!"
• "We need a bigger house."
• "We need a nicer car."
• "We need a bigger lawn."

None of those things are needs - as in something you can't live without. Our needs are really few and simple: air, water, food, shelter, transportation (sometimes), and clothing (usually). Everything else we buy is based on our wants. And even when it comes time to purchase needs, such as food and clothing, our buying decisions are usually based on wants. (We want a certain type of bread, a specific brand of clothes, a house in a particular style, etc.)

When you realize that you customers don't need your product or service, you recognize that the way to convince them to buy is to stimulate their desire for it. The most effective way to do that in your advertising is to:

• Promise your prospective customer (usually implicitly) that taking a certain action (buying your product) will result in the satisfaction of a desire (want)
• Create a picture in your prospect's mind of the way he or she will feel when that desire is satisfied
• Make specific claims about the benefits of your product and then prove those claims to your prospect
• Equate the feeling your prospect desires (the satisfaction of a want) with the purchase of your product

The medium doesn't matter. Wherever you find your customers - on television or radio, in magazines or newspapers, at home reading the mail or on the Internet - the basic process is the same. The moment you forget this first principle - that you are selling to wants rather than needs - your marketing will fail.

The Second Principle: The Difference between Features and Benefits

A pencil has certain features:

• It is made of wood.
• It has a specific diameter.
• It contains a lead-composite filler of a certain type.
• It usually has an eraser at the end.

And so on.

These features describe the objective qualities of the pencil. So if buying were a rational process, selling would be a matter of identifying the features of your product.

But as you just learned, buying is an emotional process. And that means you must express the features of your product in some way that will stimulate desire. You do that by converting features into benefits.

For example, the features of the pencil might be converted into the following benefits:

• It is easy to sharpen.
• It is comfortable to hold.
• It creates an impressive line.
• It makes correcting easy.

The Third Principle: The Difference between Benefits and Deeper Benefits

The reason some marketers do a better job than others is because they understand the difference between benefits and deeper benefits.

In our example, for instance, what might be the deeper benefit of having a pencil that sharpens easily?

To figure that out, master marketers ask themselves, "Who is my target customer? And why, exactly, does this customer want little things (like sharpening pencils) to be easy?"
Of course, there's no single answer to such a question. It depends entirely on who that target customer is. If he's a busy executive, his deeper reasons are going to be different than if she's a busy housewife.

Perhaps the executive wants more ease because he's buried in minutiae. Perhaps he senses that if he could just get a little more spare time in his day he could catch up with his work. And if he could finally get his in-box conquered and his e-mail cleaned up, perhaps he could write that memo or make that phone call that would boost his career.

Master marketers who understand these deeper motives - the desire to be more successful at work, for example - can create stronger advertising copy because they will be appealing to emotions that are closer to their customers' core desires.

The example I'm using is, admittedly, far-fetched. But I'll continue to push it to make the point. Our master marketers have dug a bit below the surface now. The recognize a deeper desire than mere ease, and they are going to appeal to it. But before they do, they stop and deconstruct the deeper benefit. The ask themselves more questions: "Why does my customer, this busy executive, want more success? Is it because he wants a better salary? And if so, why is that? Is it because he wants a nicer home? And if he wants  a nicer home, why? To please his family? To impress his friends? And why does he want to please his family and impress his friends?"

Marketers who can figure out the answers to questions like these hold their prospects' hearts in their hands.$

[Ed. Note: If you're not happy with your financial situation, you're in the perfect position to change it for the better – right now. Ray has just released a special video that covers an online business opportunity that you can use to start growing your wealth. To watch this short video, click the following link: http://www.raybuckner.com]