4 Ways to Bullet-Proof Your Entrepreneurial Career

Even entrepreneurs have career paths, despite the fact that said paths wind far outside the bounds of traditional employment. When was the last time you thought about yours?

To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about my own business in these terms until I read the book, “Guerrilla Marketing for a Bulletproof Career,” by Andrew Neitlich and Jay Conrad Levinson (the man who coined the term “guerrilla marketing”).

But it makes sense. When it comes to their careers, people need to realize that they can be ambushed by any number of factors outside their control. The same is true for entrepreneurs who, at any given time, might face the kind of unexpected hurdles that threaten to bring a business to its knees.

So how do you prevent that? As the title of their book suggests, Neitlich and Conrad Levinson think you can borrow some career lessons from the guerrilla marketing toolkit. Here are some of their tips:

1. Be indispensable in 2 areas: technical expertise and relationships

“If you lack valued functional expertise as well as valued relationships, you’re basically what we call a ’sitting duck,’” says Neitlich. In other words, you have neither the skills nor the pull to be indispensable. At the other end of the scale are what the authors call “double spikers,” or those who have developed both to such a degree that they are able to meld the two to create highly successful businesses. That’s what you want to aim for.

2. Test yourself

Neitlich suggests asking yourself a series of questions to see how far you are from being a “double spiker,” including:

• What skills do you need to be truly valued in your industry?
• How does that compare to where you are now?
• What can you do to bridge that gap?
• Who are the movers and shakers in your industry?
• How well-connected are you to them?
• What can you do to meet more of them?

 Answering these, and then acting on the answers, will move you into a position of being able to take advantage of the best opportunities that arise.

  3. Guerrilla market your expertise

A book with “guerrilla marketing” in the title would not be complete without addressing this technique, now, would it? Here’s one of my favorite tactics from the book: Develop the three marketing messages every entrepreneur needs to communicate her value to others:

• Frame a one-sentence hook that describes exactly what results you produce, and for whom.
• Develop a concise but powerful “war story” that describes your most “jaw-dropping result.” The difference between this message and the first is that this second one will have concrete results in it, e.g. “by doing X in Y time frame, I got Z results.”
• Devise a third, “complete” marketing message that builds on the previous two, that you can use on your website, marketing materials, and so on.

Quite the quiver full of arrows, you might say. But I don’t mean to sound facetious; far too many businesses put far too little emphasis on creating good marketing messages, more often than not choosing to wing it, in my experience. Neitlich’s technique forces you to craft something purposeful, which I’m pretty sure is better than what you have now if you’ve been winging it.

4. Grow your “power base”

Interestingly, the authors tell you to stay away from the “six degrees of separation” theory. Instead, they want you to be one or, at most, two phone calls away from the power players.

Here’s how to do it:

Figure out how many phone calls away you are from people like: a billionaire; a millionaire; the president of the most important professional development association in your company; a CEO of a major bank; a news anchor; and so on. This is your power base.

Every few months, analyze your power base. Who provides you with value? Who could provide you with value? Whom do you provide with value? How? And so on.

List the 20 people you don’t know but should.

Develop a way to meet these 20 to start building a relationship.

Categorize your power base from A-D, “A” being the most influential and powerful, and “D” being on the periphery with little proven value but some potential.

Develop a system whereby you contact each of these people on a regular basis; you’ll reach out to your “A” list most regularly, and your “D” list least regularly.

Now you have a way to systematize it, understanding that the core of relationship-building (which Neitlich also stresses) is in being authentic and reciprocal in nature.

A last word

While “Guerrilla Marketing for a Bulletproof Career” has ample doses of motivational stories and self-help lingo, it’s not cheesy, primarily because of the numerous practical exercises and template you are given to put to work for yourself — if you choose to do so.$

[Ed. Note: Ray Buckner is offering a complete blueprint 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.]

Two Reasons Why You Haven't Been Successful In Your Network Marketing Business

It is said that over 97% of people fail in their Network Marketing Businesses, while 3% thrive, gracing stages at conventions, getting 97% of the money and living the life that the 97% can only dream of.


As I sit back and think about that statistic, it simply means that if we were all in back school, 97 people would flunk out, while only 3 people would graduate.... ARE YOU KIDDING Me!!!



How lame!

So what's the deal???



Why is it that so many people are flunking out of "Success School", although they're eagerly attending events, promoting their products, investing in personal development products and following their leaders?



What is it that has created this warped statistic???



I'll tell you what it is....



After getting ton's of complaints from people desperately in search for success, I took the time out to assess the common challenges that are faced by the 97%'ers, and have demystified the 3%'s Success Formula... that NO ONE is talking about.



The Top Two Challenges:



1. Sales. We are in the sales profession. Most people are not comfortable with the word sales, but it is the bottom line. Get comfortable with that word if you want to be successful. We all sell, in one way or another, every single day.



2. Marketing. Marketing must contain the sales component. Your social networking must generate leads to build your list. You must get the contact information AND follow up.



Make sure that you plug into the free training available at: www.7figurewealthcoach.info.



To Your Success,



Ray Buckner

7-Figure Wealth Coach

630-890-1458

Ray@7figurewealthcoach.info

Building Your List

Build Your List Three Ways


"How do I get more traffic to my website?" "How do I build a list?" "How can I make more money online?" These are three of the most common questions I get from aspiring Internet entrepreneurs, as well as seasoned online professionals.

Marketing guru Jay Abraham teaches that there are really only three ways to grow any business: Increase the number of customers, increase the number of purchases they make, or increase the average amount they spend on each purchase. Of course, in network marketing, I include building your baseshop.

In the world of online business, this translates into getting more traffic to your website and collecting their contact information. By building -- and marketing to -- your own in-house e-mail list, you'll find that you'll make more sales and gain more prospects. You'll also find that you can sell increasingly expensive products to those repeat customers.

There are hundreds (possibly thousands) of ways to get traffic to your website. The way I see it, all of them can be broken down into free traffic, paid traffic, and what I call leveraged traffic. Let's take a closer look at each one...

1. Free Traffic

As its name implies, free traffic is traffic that you don't have to pay for. The main benefit of this type of traffic is pretty obvious: It's free. And because of that, your potential return on investment (ROI) is almost unlimited.

The downside (relative to the other two types of traffic) is that it usually takes time to get a consistent, steady flow of visitors to your website, and it does take some work. The good news is that once you get it going, it builds on itself and the effect is long-term.

Here are my two favorite methods of generating free traffic...

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing the amount of traffic you get to your website from the search engines' natural or "organic" search results. In human language, that means getting your site listed by Google, Yahoo, and other search engines when people search for information related to what you're selling.

To get the most bang for your buck, you should identify the specific keywords that your potential customers are typing into the search engines, and create useful content for your website based on those keywords. Tools like SEO Book and Word Tracker will help you do this.

The idea, here, is that by adding valuable content to your website, the rankings will follow.

• Article Marketing -- submitting articles to other websites and article directories (like EzineArticles.com) -- is another good way to get free traffic to your website.

As with the content you create for your website, you write useful articles based on the keywords that your potential customers are searching for.

When submitting articles, I like to find websites related to my niche that already have high rankings in the search engines and already get a lot of traffic. Let's say you run a distributor for an energy drink company. To find likely websites to submit articles to, you might go to Google, type in "energy drinks," and make a list of the search results for that keyword. Then you'd do another search, this time for "sugar-free energy drinks." You'd repeat the process for 10 or 20 related keywords. Once you have a list of top-ranked websites, you'd contact them and offer to submit articles in exchange for a link back to your site.

2. Paid Traffic

The advantage of paid traffic is that it is immediate. Also, as compared to most free traffic, it is quantifiable -- and, thus, it is easy to tell whether a paid traffic campaign is profitable or will be profitable in the future. The disadvantage is that it costs money, and you'll probably experience some losses up front when you begin testing.

Here are two of my favorite methods of generating paid website traffic...

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising works in a way that is similar to SEO. When a user types a phrase into the search engine, they get a list of organic results. On the same page, they see a list of paid results -- ads placed by advertisers based on the keywords that had been typed in.

Getting started with PPC is fairly simple. You set up an account with one of the major PPC networks (like Google). You select the keywords you want to bid on and get listed for, and you write a short ad that will entice qualified prospects to click on your ad and visit your site. You can begin driving traffic to your website within minutes.

There are many factors that will determine your success with PPC, including how much you bid for the keywords and your ad copy. To make PPC work, you have to constantly test, test, and then test some more. It may take some trial and error, but once you find a winning combination, you can roll it out and be more aggressive.

• E-zine Advertising can help you reach a large group of highly targeted prospects. You can find e-zines and online newsletters that are related to your niche simply by doing a search on Google. Let's say you are in the credit repair niche. You might search Google for:"credit repair newsletter," "credit repair e-zine," and "credit repair e-newsletter." Then check with the e-zines/websites that come up to see if they run paid advertising. Those that do will probably offer several options, including short, inexpensive classified ads and more-expensive dedicated e-mail blasts.

Before testing an ad with an e-zine, I would first subscribe to it to see what it's like to be one of their subscribers. Do they send out good, useful content? Do they publish regularly? And do they have ads for products/services that are similar to those you plan to advertise? If the answer to those questions is yes, that publication is a good candidate for you.

Another tip is to look at the top ranked websites for your niche and see if they are acquiring names with any type of lead-capture or subscription box. If they are, contact them to see if they would be open to running your ad to their list.


3. Leveraged Traffic

What is unique about leveraged traffic is that it has all the positives of free and paid traffic without the negatives. It is both free and immediate -- and highly responsive, to boot. There are several ways to get leveraged traffic, including viral marketing and affiliate marketing. But I want to talk about my favorite: joint ventures (JVs).

JVs give you a quick and powerful way to get traffic to your website, build your list, make sales, and build your downline. It's one of the methods I used to start and grow my online business.
While there is no one way to do joint ventures, the most common JVs in the online world involve cross promotions, also known as e-mail swaps. Your JV partner sends an e-mail to their list promoting your product or service. In exchange, you send an e-mail to your list promoting their product or service.

With the kind of traffic generated this way, not only will you get a lot of it fast, but it will be much more responsive to your offer because it comes as the result of an endorsement from your partner (assuming you selected a good JV partner). And as you do more joint ventures, you'll build your in-house e-mail list and will be able to leverage off of that to do more joint ventures with the owners of larger lists.

So how do you find a joint venture partner? It's as simple as sending an e-mail, picking up the phone, or meeting someone at a conference or event. Introduce yourself, develop a relationship, and see if it makes sense for you to do business together. Once you experience the power of a joint venture, you'll never look back.

There you have it -- five specific ways to start driving traffic to your website and build your in-house e-list… five of the methods I use. As you can see, I use a multi-channel approach to online marketing, and so should you.

Improve on what you are already doing, and continue to learn new ways to generate more traffic and, ultimately, more sales and business partners.$

Pleast tweet or facebook this post if you found it useful. Thanks!

Using YouTube to Dominate Google

Back in 2006, Google shocked the world by purchasing YouTube for over $1.4 billion. Fortunately for you, Google is a smart company and isn't going to waste that investment.


As a result of this purchase, Google now gives YouTube videos a search engine ranking advantage. That means YouTube videos often come up on the front page of Google's search results - even if the videos are much newer additions to the Internet than established Web pages featuring written content.

Thanks to Google's self-interest in YouTube, here's how your business can benefit by using videos as a promotional tool...

•Your videos will get a high ranking in Google's search results - and, therefore, more views.

•You will get more traffic to your site.

•You will build more trust with your audience.

•You will add more people to your e-mail list.

•You will sign up more distributors and make more sales.

You can get your videos up on YouTube and start getting traffic and sales from those videos immediately. I have recently stumbled upon a few techniques that can help you get even more out of your YouTube videos.

So here's how to dominate Google via YouTube. (But don't tell anyone else!)

1. Film your video.

Create a 90-second (or shorter), content-rich video on a single topic. Short videos get watched more frequently. Once your video is done, upload it to YouTube. (Just follow the instructions you get when you create your free account.)

2. Name the video with appropriate keywords.

This is very important. You must name your video based on the keywords you expect people to type in when looking for the information in your video. (Note: Every word in your title has to be relevant. Don't include the date or location of the video, unless they have something to do with the keywords you expect people to search.)

Doing this can put your video on page one of Google's search results in only 24 hours, even if you are competing with popular articles that have been posted on the Internet for years. Remember, Google heavily favors the content on YouTube. (After all, it didn't pay $1.4 billion for nothing.)

Okay, so now you've filmed a short, content-rich video, uploaded it to YouTube, and named it with the right keywords. This alone should get you a good ranking on Google. But there are ways to supercharge your search engine position...

3. Get incoming links to your video with appropriate anchor text.

Anchor text is simply the visible text on a hyperlink. (For example, the words "anchor text" in the previous sentence is anchor text itself. Click on it, and you'll be hyperlinked to an article by Alexis Siemon.) On your website and/or blog, link back to your video using the keyword in your anchor text. Get other people with related blogs and websites to do the same.

By doing this, and having other sites do the same, it "tells" Google that your video is relevant to that keyword phrase. And if you weren't already right at the top of the Google rankings, this will remind Google to put you in the right spot, right away.

So now you've got yourself a top position on page one of Google for your search term. But how does this actually help you attract more prospects and sell more products?

4. Get people from YouTube to your website.

If you get a lot of people to find your video through a Google search, you can get them to visit your website. You're simply using YouTube as another form of lead generation.

Here's how you maximize the number of people that visit your site after they watch your video:

•First, make sure to mention your website name (or business location) during the video.

•Second, put up a screenshot at the start and end of your video encouraging viewers to visit your site. (You may want to offer them something in exchange for visiting your site. For instance, I tell viewers of my videos to visit my website to get a free report.)

•Third, you can use a watermark (stamping the video with your website name) that shows throughout the entire video.

Until recently, I thought I was limited to the three options above. But then I stumbled on a way to get a direct link to my website without the video - and this method turned out to be a real success secret. In fact, it was so obvious, I'm a little embarrassed to say I wasted months not having a live link to my site. After all, people are lazy and, in most cases, aren't going to bother typing your website name into their browser. But if you give them a live hyperlink to your site, they'll click on it.

Here's how you do that on YouTube...

In the "About This Video" section, post your website name (being sure to include http:// at the beginning of it). By doing this, you get a live link that allows viewers of your video to simply click a button on their mouse and get transferred to your website.$



Once they're there, your sales copy will persuade them to opt in to your newsletter or purchase your product. And it will be easier than it ever was before, because you will already have made a personal connection with them through your video.$

The Magic Formula For Online Business

If you’d like to run an Internet business but have no clue what type of business, what you need is an idea.

But coming up with the right idea — one that will not only get you excited and motivated but also generate profitable sales — can be elusive. And even if you have an idea, putting it into action, and making it work, can be even more of a challenge.

And this is where I can help you…

1. If you have no ideas whatsoever: Surely there’s something that piques your interest, even if just a bit. Maybe some sport or hobby. Identify a product related to that interest, and start your business with that.

There are two ways to do it — instantly and without having to buy or worry about holding inventory: You can work with a company that “drop-ships” products you think you can sell. (You take the order and payment online. They fulfill the order. The website worldwidebrands.com has a good selection of companies that do this.) Or you can become an affiliate for a company with a product line that appeals to you. (As an affiliate, you get a commission every time you sell something for them.)


2. If you have loads of ideas, but haven’t taken action on any of them: Maybe you haven’t yet come up with an idea you truly believe in. Or maybe the problem is a lack of self-confidence.

Don’t let that hold you back. It’s okay to be unsure of your idea, yourself, or your abilities. Even people with all the skills and resources they need fail to take action — delaying, planning, and procrastinating. “Procrastiplanning,” as I call it.

Planning how your business could work but still not taking any action — well, it’s like trading on the stock market with paper money. You can shake this off today by picking one of your ideas — any one — and starting on it. Try a few pay-per-click ads on Google. Or buy a domain name and set up a blog. Even starting with dingdongdang123.com right now is better than waiting until you can think of the “perfect” domain name. Start. You can always makes some changes later on.

3. If you’ve started an Internet business, but it stalled or flopped: My grade school science teacher used to say that even the result of a “failed” experiment is a result. The question is, how fast did you fail? More important, what did you learn from that failure? Based on what you learned, start again… perhaps taking a slightly different approach. In my experience, even a small shift in direction can make a big difference.


Don’t Try for Perfection

As every successful businessperson knows, perfection isn’t possible. Even handmade Swiss chronometers — the finest mechanisms on the planet — are only 99.99 percent perfect, with a tolerance of -4/+6 seconds per day.

So don’t get caught in the trap of trying to make everything perfect before attempting to launch your Internet business.$

[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]

Why Common Knowledge Kills Success

Picture this:

A hot prospect stumbles across your blog...

... pulls up a recent post...

... starts to read it...

... stops midway through...

... leaves your site...

... and never returns again!

An unfortunate, costly event? YES, but...

It Happens All the Time

What can you do about it? PLENTY! (Just keep reading.)

There are six types of content that immunizes your website from the sad story above... six types of content that sucks your prospects in, instead of sending them away.

Briefly, here they are:

1. Counter-intuitive content -- an approach to solving a problem that runs counter to conventional thinking.

2. Complex made simple -- where you take something that seems complex, then break it apart and make it simple to understand and use.

3. A unique process -- where you solve a problem or challenge your prospects face with a process you developed that's easy to execute.

4. Paradigm shift on the problem -- where you share a new perspective that gets your prospects looking at their problem in a new and different way.

5. A powerful tool -- where you give your prospects a tool that transforms something that was difficult into something easy.

6. Fast shortcuts to time-intensive activities – this is where you take an important task or activity that usually takes considerable time to complete and make it push-button to finish.

Let's expand on content strategy #1 -- Counter-Intuitive Content. Here goes...

First, let's define counter-intuitive content:

Counter-intuitive content expresses an idea that doesn't seem likely to be true. Often, it contradicts common wisdom, conventional thinking, or common sense.

Still unsure? Here are some examples...

• Give your best ideas away for free to get rich...
• Do less to achieve more...
• Self-help can ruin your life...
• Fail more to succeed...
•  Learning more tactics will make you fail faster...
• Send fewer e-mails to make more sales...

 Do you notice how each of these examples stirs up your curiosity?

They stimulate the little voice in your head to say...

  

"SAY WHAT?"

 And that's the reason counter-intuitive ideas are so powerful. They provoke your readers to want more.

Let's contrast that with an idea that isn't counter-intuitive: Persistence, discipline, and hard work lead to success.

  

Ho-hum. That's common knowledge, right? So repeating it is unnecessary and won't have a WOW effect on your readers.

In fact, common knowledge bores your readers into bailing on your content and your site... often permanently.

But if common knowledge says one thing and your content proves the opposite...

  

Your idea is counter-intuitive. It's original. And...

It's More Valuable!

Okay.

So how do you go about creating counter-intuitive content?

Glad you asked. Here's how...

Step 1. Make a list of the common problems and goals of your prospects...

Step 2. List as many conventional, common-wisdom solutions as you can -- next to each of those problems and goals...

Step 3. Brainstorm ideas that contradict the solutions you came up with in Step 2...

Step 4. Highlight the ideas (from Step 3) that you believe are true or could be true in certain situations...

Step 5. Circle the ideas you can back up with your own experience or the experience of others...

Step 6. Pick the idea that you feel like riffing on.

That's it. It's a simple process. But make no mistake, it...

Boosts Readership...

Multiplies Traffic, and...

Increases Your Influence.

Easy-peezy, right?

  

Well, one more important point.

  

In order for your counter-intuitive content to work, you need more than just the idea.

  

You need to back up that idea with enough evidence, logic, and persuasion to make your readers believe it's true. Which is why I told you to circle the ideas you can back up with experience or the experience of others (Step 5). Because if you don't back up your idea... all you have is a clever headline and an unresolved promise.

  

And don't make the mistake of thinking that what I just shared with you is only for your blog. In fact, it can be used on your website, in your e-mails and presentations, and practically anywhere else that communication occurs.

  

But one of the best things to populate with counter-intuitive ideas is your information products. Because it gets your prospects excited... and referring others to you in droves.$

Your Optimum Selling Strategy

I hope, by this time, I have convinced you that when you are starting a new business, selling must be your primary job. (For network marketers, that includes selling your opportunity as well)

This is true even if you don't know anything about selling, if you've never taken a course in marketing and never sold so much as a glass of lemonade on a street corner. As an entrepreneur, you have to become your company's number one salesperson - even if you fear or hate the very idea of selling.

Selling is not optional for the Stage One entrepreneur: it's essential.

And if selling is essential, learning to sell (i.e., developing the knowledge and skills needed to sell your company's main product) is an obligation, not a choice.

In this blog post and the next several, I will show you how to become an expert at selling your lead product. Don't worry if you don't know anything about selling. Everything you are about to learn is easy. I will teach you one concept and four secrets. You will learn the concept in about five minutes. And it will take you about half an hour to understand the four secrets.

Discovering how to apply the four secrets to your particular business and your particular product - well, that will take a little time. But I am talking about  days or possibly weeks, not months.

Your educational objective during the start-up stage of your business is very narrow. All you really want to learn is how to sell one particular product to one particular market. You don't need to acquire any generalized marketing expertise or dozens of selling skills that won't apply to your situation. In essence, you are going to become a one-trick pony - someone who can do one thing, and perhaps only one thing, very well: selling the hell out of your lead product/opportunity.

If you have faith in this concept and the four secrets you are about to discover, your success at getting your business from zero to a six-figure income, from Stage One to Stage Two - will be virtually guaranteed. In fact, it's very possible that you could see your business grow on the fast-track, simply by repeating this trick over and over again. As long as it keeps working, you should keep doing it. Later, you will acquire other selling skills. For now, this one thing is enough.

The Optimum Selling Strategy

I believe that for every business at any given time there is one best way to acquire new customers. That best way is the way that meets the company's greatest current need. For the Stage One entrepreneur, generating positive cash flow is usually - or should be- the greatest need. Therefore, Stage One entrepreneurs should focus on that: figuring out how to acquire customers/prospects in a way that creates cash flow.

Most entrepreneurs never stop to think about cash flow or long-term profits when they are starting out. They are so excited about their product/opportunity that they imagine it selling itself.

Nothing could be further from the truth. How you sell your product/opportunity - the specific decisions you make about presenting and talking about it - has a huge impact on whether you will be successful.

The product/opportunity is important but almost never sells itself. To start your business and successfully take it to the next level, you have to discover what is called your optimum selling strategy (OSS).

Discovering the OSS for your product/opportunity will put your business on the right track. It will make everything that happens afterward easier. Problems will be easier to solve. Obstacles will be easier to overcome. And objectives will be easier to reach. Your business will grow quickly, because you will have taken care of its biggest problem: acquiring new customers/prospects without depleting your bank account.

Discovering the OSS for your product/opportunity has other benefits too. For one thing, you will always understand the most important secret of your business: how to acquire new customers/prospects. This understanding will allow you to lead your team with confidence as the business grows, and to help them fix problems if and when they arise later. There are many problems that can occur as a business grows, but there is only one that is deadly - and that is the inability to bring in new customers/prospects.

When you understand the basics of how to sell to your marketplace, nobody can fool your with worthless marketing strategies and idiotic sales programs.

By establishing your marketing credentials during the first stage (beginning), when you are just learning the selling secrets of your business, you will gain a deep understanding of your business that will serve you well for the rest of your career.$

The Supremacy Of Selling

Of the major functions of business - product development, customer service, accounting, operations, and marketing - the one that should always be given top priority in an entrepreneurial venture is marketing.

The other functions are important, but without marketing you will not have sales (or build massive downline) and without sales you will not have cash flow and without cash flow you will not be able to pay for all the other functions. Put differently:

Without sales, it is very hard to sustain an ongoing business.

Consider this to be Rule Number One of Entrepreneurship.

It's amazing how selling is not emphasized by business gurus and even business schools. Even at Harvard Business School, there are dozens of courses on marketing but not a single one on selling. It was if selling was something secondary and unappealing.

The Real Business Every Businessperson Is In

Most of a business owner's time should be spent on the real business that every business owner is in - selling. As a business owner, selling should be your number one priority - and you must act accordingly. This means spending the lion's share of your time on marketing and sales- related activities.

It doesn't matter what sort of expertise you bring into a new venture - whether you are a numbers person, a people person, or a systems person. To be a truly effective entrepreneur, you must become your business's first and foremost expert at selling.

There are many ways to get busy with a new business, but none that is more urgent than making the first sale (and helping your new business associates make their first sales). Making the first sale is critical for two reasons.

1. You need to create cash flow to keep your business going.
2. You will never really know whether your decision to go into business is a good one until you give it the ultimate test in the marketplace.

Think of it this way: When you begin a new business, you have no idea whether it will work out for you. The faster you find out, the better for you.$

The Four Ws Of Career Satisfaction

They say that the three most important decisions in life are:

1. What you do.
2. Where you do it.
3. With whom you do it.

I think that is true. To have a great career, you must choose work that gives you satisfaction, a working environment that is pleasing, and coworkers/business partners who make it easier for you to achieve your objectives.

To those three Ws, I'd add a fourth: when - as in when you work and when you don't. Being in charge of the hours you work and the vacations you take is an important element in the mix that makes up the perfect working lifestyle.

This blog is all about business, about taking your business to the next level. But it is also a blog about personal power and satisfaction, about changing the way you work so that you can become increasingly in charge of the four Ws of career satisfaction and thus be able to say, "I have the greatest job in the world!"

Being In Control Of Your Time

My working time used to be directed by other people and measured by a time clock. When I went into business for myself, I began with the happy illusion that I could work the hours I wanted. But I soon discovered the truth about entrepreneurship: that the freedom it gives you is usually the freedom to work twice as long and twice as hard as you ever did, even if you thought you were working too much for someone else.

Nowadays, though, I don't work that hard. In fact, most days I don't do any "work work" until about two o'clock in the afternoon.

For me, "work work" is interviewing prospects for my business and helping families with their financial situations.

What I do during the rest of my day is pretty much up to me. Most mornings I spend writing and planning. I work out every day at 10 am. Sometimes I lunch with business colleagues, and sometimes I lunch with friends. Once or twice a week, I'll have hour-long brainstorming sessions with creative people - not because I need to but because I like to. I spend 15 minutes with my personal assistant every day, and that's about it.

Doing What You Like To Do

Except for about an hour a day of e-mail drudgery, my time is entirely my own and entirely enjoyable. I take off early when I want to and come in late anytime I wish. I have eliminated all the stress that used to characterize most of my workday.

The majority of my day is spent doing things I love to do:

1. Writing down my thoughts and experiences.
2. Having lunch with successful people.
3. Reading and learning.
4. Working out and playing sports.

This is, as you can see, pretty much what I always hoped my retirement years would be like, except that I'm getting paid to spend my time like this now. If you can do exactly what you want, where and when you want to do it, and get paid well for it - that's about all you can ask for.

Except for one more thing: I couldn't tell you that I have the greatest job in the world if I didn't also work only with people I want to work with.

Hanging Out With Great People

In determining where you want to work, when you want to work, and what you want to do, no consideration is more important than who you choose to work with. That's because if you fill your working life with really good people, the problems that usually hamper and plague a business at every stage of growth will be easy to solve and will eventually disappear.

Great people make all the difference.

Many times I have been told by an ordinary business partner that certain problems were impossible to overcome...only to find another partner who went ahead and fixed them so that they were never again troublesome.

That's the difference between an ordinary partner and a superstar.

Have you ever had a business that failed because your partner turned out to be unreliable, untrustworthy, or incompetent?

By surrounding myself with the right whos - lots of hardworking, problem-solving superstars - I have been able to master the whens, wheres, and whats of my business life.

I really do have the world's best job. And, by the way, I make a pretty good living at it.$

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]

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.$

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.$

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.$