There Are Only 4 Things You Do In A Home Business

There are only 4 things only you do in a home business…

When one of the trainings I attended introduced this concept to me, I was all over it. 4 key things to focus on in business… and you are golden! Sounds simple? That’s because it is.

Yes, there are a lot of moving parts within these 4 things but they all fall into these 4 basic things.

The truth is, people tend to over-complicate things in business… always looking for more complex things to add to the equation, hoping that this other tool or that other opportunity will fix what is wrong but really if you just take a moment and focus on these 4 basic things to determine where there might be a gap, you may just alter your results in a profound way.

Learn those 4 things, focus on those 4 things… and everything will change. Some have dubbed these the 4 C’s of business, I call them the Fundamental Four:

Collect

Simply put, you need to have a way to “collect” viewers, eyeballs, visitors. In an online business, this could include Facebook lives, blogging, banner advertising and social media, to name a few methods. In any other business, it could include anything like print advertising, radio, television, signs… anything that gets people to see you and gets them through the door whether it be onto a website page, or literally through the doors of your place of business.

There could be thousands of ways. You should have a few that you focus on with consistency.

Ask yourself every day… what are you doing to get those “eyeballs”?

Capture

So, you have got them onto you site, in your store, at your open house… whatever the case may be for your business. Don’t fool yourself, they can be gone in an instant, never to be seen again. All that effort to get them there … wasted! But, it doesn’t need to be that way. The second C goes hand in hand with the first. Don’t bring them there, only to lose them. Instead, “Capture” them, get their info!

On the internet, in the home business arena, we us what we call a capture page, opt-in page or lead capture page – a way to have prospects, potential customers give you their information willingly, usually in exchange for something of value, basically giving you permission to market to them!

Other ways to do this, perhaps in an offline business would be to collect business cards, add visitors info to your phone, offer contests or discounts in exchange for their information.

Got an event going on… ask people to sign in!

Bottom line: How are you capturing people’s information so that you can speak to them over and over again? How are you generating leads? How are you maximizing the value of the “eyeballs” you are collecting ?

Communicate

Leads are useless unless you have a plan to communicate with them. You must have a method of communicating with people regularly until they are ready to make a buying decision.

Mail/Post cards

Facebook message

Social Media/ Facebook Groups/

Phone/ text and calls

Skype

Blogging

Once you have collected them, captured them …you absolutely need to have a plan to communicate with these people repeatedly and do it in a way that they want to receive the ongoing communication from you.

Send content and provide value via email or mail (an email autoresponder like Get Response or Aweber is essential). Send them something relevant to them and what had their eyeballs on you in the first place. Send them your blog posts, links to valuable videos. Let them know what’s new, when you have an upcoming event, a webinar … get them to love you and expect you in their inbox, their mailbox, their phone.

Close

You must also have a plan to get them in front of your offer so they can make a buying decision when they are ready. The key here is when they are ready.

They may not be ready when you first ” Collect” them. When you ” Capture” their info, they are just beginning to trust you… getting to know you enough to give you permission to market to them.

Communicating with them on a regular basis is where they are getting to really know you and decide if they like you and if what you are about is what they are really looking for. After these 3 are in place, and only then make sure your you have a way to present your offer.

It is essential that you learn to mass communicate and get your offer in front of a lot of people. Sometimes this is in the form of an email to your list, telling them about your offer. Sometimes, it is a webinar, tele-seminar, or event you invite your list to where you will present them your offer….

The point is… you need all 4 of these to be working in order to make sales…. and if you are not getting the results you want, there is a gap somewhere in the Fundamental Four that you need to evaluate and fill.

To your success and outrageous goals,

Productivity · Small business tips

My Love/Hate Relationship with Automation

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We live in an era of automation – push-button this and automatic that. The home-based business industry changed abruptly in the last decade introducing lead capture pages, funnels, autoresponders … and a whole lot of other stuff we were told we needed.

So, I got my autoresponder. I learned how to build a funnel. I bought the tools necessary for broadcast emails, lead capture pages, tracking clicks and off I went.

The internet, with its promise of international riches combined with all these tools were sure to make us all rich right?

The truth about automation

All these tools are amazing. That is the truth.

But… they are tools. That’s it.

I love that I have a sales presentation that works for me 24 hours a day, even when I am sleeping.

I love that my clients can download a PDF from me, anytime.

I love that I can reach thousands of people at the click of a button. That’s leverage!

I love that there is a way I can share my knowledge and value beyond the one on one’s from the “olden days” .

I love that some of the systems I use have “done for you” traffic and sales.

Systems are awesome. I love it!

But all this comes with a price. What it’s costing this industry saddens me.

I HATE that newcomers to the industry think that riches and success are just a push of a button away and this is what they are being sold on.

They are selling you on lack of action and work. They are selling the tools as the means versus selling them as tools to make your business run smoother and easier….Something you may or may not need depending on the level you are at.

Uploading a bunch of pre-written emails into an autoresponder is easy sure…. But if you are building long term clients and relationships, are you connecting with people who are interested in your offer? Only you can do that.

That snazzy blogging platform doesn’t brand you. YOU brand you.

Tracking clicks and conversions… awesome.. But you shouldn’t even be looking into that until you know what you are doing. There are many who are told to get tracking links yet they don’t even know what they are tracking, how to read the information they get and what to do with that information. Sad isn’t it?

And so the madness goes on and that’s how it started… my love/hate relationship with automation in this industry.

So a while ago, I decided to stop the madness in my own business. I sent out an email to my list announcing that I was turning off all my autoresponders! And I did. I have one email that goes out to new subscribers that let’s them know who I am, what I do and where to find me if they want to connect with me and then I try to connect with each and every person that reaches out to me.

I make sure that I don’t get too caught up in the automation, that I connect with the people I need to connect with.

Don’t get me wrong. As an Internet Marketer, I buy into the automation to make life easier. A laptop lifestyle is possible with the help of these tools but not because of these tools. Something got lost in the message of outrageous goals and dreams that I believe in so much.

More than ever, I am dedicated to helping people leverage this wonderful thing called the internet to build a business. Let’s just keep the focus where it needs to be.

To your success and outrageous goals,

Leadership · Productivity

What Those FREE Trainings Are Really Costing You

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First off, to be clear, I am a huge fan of constant learning, attending events and training webinars. I love free trainings and give away tons of free training too ( Check it out on my free training tab on this site). But I find a lot of people attending these trainings falling into a trap, one that is unhealthy for their business and their personal growth.

It’s o.k to attend trainings … In fact, I highly recommend it. But your motive behind attending the training will have an enormous effect on whether or not they will be beneficial to you. If you are attending yet another webinar and not having any success, it may be time to do some self reflection to see what is really going on.

Here are some things to consider and ask yourself before you attend your next training:

Are you looking for a magic pill?

Is this your 4th webinar this month on Instagram, yet you haven’t consistently implemented anything from the first three trainings? Are you looking for the magic button you press and leads and sales pour in?

Truth is, there is no magic pill. You need to go through the process and you need to do the work. Try it, master a skill. Stick to the method for at least 90 days before you add anything new.

You don’t need to know everything.

You really don’t. You can be a leader without having all the answers. It’s much better to be great at one thing and sharing that knowledge with the world rather than trying to perfect everything but never really doing anything with the knowledge you acquired.

Truth is, that one thing you learned can really help someone if you use the skill.

Are you procrastinating?

Are you not willing to take action on that which you already know ? Perhaps it is out of fear . Perhaps it is because of lack of confidence or unwillingness to get out of your comfort zone, using more training as an excuse not to implement what you already know.

If that’s the case, it is time to get unstuck and take some action to get out of this cycle. Start small but take some action on something you have learned in your training rather than becoming an expert at attending training.

There is nothing that activity can’t solve.

Does that mean you need to skip the next training? Absolutely not! Whatever it is you are mastering in your home business, learn everything you can about it, but implement your learning.

Stop looking for that magic pill, don’t think you need to know everything about everything and stop procrastinating.

It’s costing you. It’s costing the people that need your expertise.

There are people waiting for you to step up. There’s someone out there waiting for you to write that email, make that video or write the blog post just like someone needed to read this blog post. They want to hear from you! Go show them what ‘ya got!

To your success and outrageous goals,

Productivity · Small business tips · Uncategorized

Combining Value and Leverage in Your Life

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Years ago someone shared with me a valuable tip about creating and providing value. It was so obvious, but so often neglected. I wrote about it in my previous blog post here.

Your earnings are directly related to the amount of value your business provides, I was told.

There are many ways employees and entrepreneurs can provide more value:

They can increase their value by educating themselves, learning more skills and thus being more valuable simply because their skillset has improved and are able to offer their employer or customers more.

They can always work harder and longer. They can put in more hours, show up early and work late… There is nothing wrong with this by the way. Working hard, putting in long hours is the way a lot of people make a living and are able to pay their bills, put the kids through school, save for retirement and live very fulfilling lives. …

It has it’s limitations, however.

The problem with the latter, is that many people are already working as much as they can work. They simply can’t give any more of their time but have hit a ceiling in their income. There’s nothing more to give.

That’s where leverage comes in.

Combining value and the power of leverage in your life can not only increase your income but your time freedom too.

Business owners know about leverage. They know that when they increase their productivity with employees, with more tools or machinery, they are leveraging these tools to create more without sacrificing more time. They know the importance of having the means of scaling their production, distribution and their customer base via tools, employees, teams, the internet, automated systems.

Real Estate brokerages, insurance brokerages and mortgage brokerages use leverage by hiring agents. They generate income from the efforts of the agents, while the agents bring in the customers and build the brand.

Network Marketers build teams. They continue to provide value to the customers but by building and training their teams, they increase the value they are bringing to the world, without compromising their time freedom.

Franchises are another way that businesses can grow by leveraging systems that have been created to save them time, both on the learning curve of running a new business as well as the time frame it would normally take to build a new brand and customer base.

BUT Here is my favourite example of combining leverage and value …

Internet Marketers, bloggers and digital franchise owners understand the power of combining value and leverage very well. Constantly providing value, via trainings, blog posts, youtube videos but leveraging the internet ( so that their content is available 24-7) as well as systems (lead capture pages, sales videos working day and night, and often coaches and sales teams working on their behalf).

The result is more than just increased earnings. The result is a message, a product a vision that needs to be seen, heard and utilized reaching more people with less effort.

Here are some of the ways I create value and use leverage to increase my reach:

I blog. I write content and I leverage the internet so that my content is available anytime, anywhere there is an internet connection.
I use automation. Auto-responders and software help me get my message out.
I use Social Media and leverage the power of my connections, my friends and the ability for my content to go viral.
I outsource things that aren’t my strength or do not produce income for me. Not only does this speed things up for me but it allows me to focus on productive activities that don’t take up too much of my time.
I use systems. My business has a system in place that I did not create. It’s filled with valuable trainings. Coaches speak to new members and prospective clients. Payment processing is in place. The system works for me while I sleep. The system allows me to spend my time, blogging, creating videos and my free time with my family while it works for me.

Ask yourself if there are ways you leverage your efforts and the value you bring to the world. How can you scale things so that your efforts are more productive and profitable without compromising your time. How can you reach more people? How can you stop trading hours for dollars?

To your success and outrageous goals,

P.S There’s an unusual new business model that allows you to earn huge commissions while the huge lifting is “done for you” in the back end. Learn more about this “digital style franchise” here.

Money Making Ideas · Productivity

Why I decided to market a physical product

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Potions, pills and powders … Oh my!

I am blogger, an internet marketer… a network marketer. I am successful Mortgage specialist. So .. what that means is that I have sold and marketed a variety of products …but none of them physical products. No potions, pills or powders for me… I always said.

And, the experts told me that digital products were better – Truthfully I agree that there are tremendous benefits in selling digital products and I continue to market digital products.

It just makes sense.

~ You don’t carry any inventory

~ There are no shipping costs you will incur as a vendor.

~ You won’t get stuck with unsold or expired items.

~ It’s quick and convenient, downloadable. All sales are done online.

~ Systems and funnels and online sales presentations make sales easy.

BUT recently something changed.

I was actually looking for a physical product for myself, for some pain and sleep issues surrounding fibromyalgia. I had a need and I found someone to fulfill the need. As a marketer, looking at it from the perspective of both a marketer and a CONSUMER, I had a profound realization.

Great businesses succeed because they solve a consumer’s problem.

I had a problem that needed a solution.

I found a quality physical product that would solve the problem.

10 million people in the U.S alone have a similar problem.

So remind me again why selling “a physical product” doesn’t work, as the interenet marketing experts say .. and why network marketing with physical products is a bad idea?

For the record, my post isn’t about weight loss products or products to help fibromyalgia . What it is about, is recognizing that there is often a stigma attached to marketing and selling physical products – shakes, potions, pills and I wanted to dispel some myths…about the dreaded autoship, about earning any ‘real’ commissions with physical products .

I must admit that I myself had doubts about the ability to earn any real commissions. I struggled with the thought of the autoship. I wondered if anyone joined these companies for the products or just for the opportunity.

And then I looked at it from the point of view of a Marketer and a Consumer whose problem was being solved. All of a sudden the autoship made more sense and the ability to earn an income from millions of people who needed a problem solved seemed easy. AND

~ You don’t carry any inventory

~ There are no shipping costs you will incur as a vendor.

~ You won’t get stuck with unsold or expired items.

~ It’s quick and convenient, (not downloadable but All sales are done online).

~ Systems and funnels and online sales presentations maKe sales easy.

Sounds just like selling the digital product, doesn`t it?

Home Parties and Network Marketing

Home parties were just never my thing. I never understood the promise of freedom to moms who had to leave home to attend home parties to sell products. Where`s the freedom in that?

The industry has come a long way since just party plans and selling door to door. Selling physical products in Network Marketing or Affiliate marketing is not like it used to be and they are now combined with systems and pay plans to help the average person succeed.

This doesn’t mean that digital products or physical products are the only way. Instead of asking the questions digital or physical, high ticket or low ticket… ask yourself this:

Does the company have an actual product or service that has a market value, something you can use, and get benefit from?

Is this a product you would buy and use the yourself?

Does the product or service fit into what you’re passionate about?

Is the start up cost affordable? (high ticket doesn’t always mean high profit if you aren’t making sales and no one wants to buy)

Does the company offer a way, a plan, a team culture that could help the average person succeed.

Is freedom possible ? ( I am talking more than just compensation plan here…can you do it from home? Will you be on the phone day and night? Do you need to be presenting all the time? Is there some automation ?)

Will the product be marketable for many years to come?

Because I was able to find a product and company that answered these questions in a way that was in line with what I was looking for, I decided to add a physical product to my inventory of things I promote.

To your success and outrageous goals

21 Day Blogging Challenge · List Building and Email Marketing · Productivity

Twitter, Tweetlead and building your list.

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I love twitter.

Years ago, I started a networking group for women in business. I knew nothing about Social Media but it was suggested to me that I start using twitter. My first experience with twitter was a positive one. Shortly after joining Twitter I ended up filling a room with strangers on the launch of my networking group … people I had met and interacted with on Twitter.

Twitter has come a long way since then and is still going strong…

320 million people use Twitter today.

1.3 billion are registered on Twitter

500 million people visit twiter.com without logging in every month

66 million twiter users in the United States alone

When I started on Twitter, it was great with just engagement and content but imagine now with new tools what it can do.

As we leverage the internet to reach a wider audience and impact more people with our messages, we know the importance of collecting information from our audience so that we can build relationships with these people.

Enter Tweetleads and Twitter cards to help you get your message in front of large groups of targeted audience while also enabling you to collect their email address so you can bring them further value and market to them.
Here’s a brief overview of how Tweetlead works:

When you tweet your offer you can get one click signups to your list
Instead of the usual 140 characters, your tweet is automatically extended
No need for landing pages or forms. Prospects information is auto populated and they are added to your list
Integrates with Mailchimp, Get Response, Aweber, Constant Contact, Ontraport and Sendreach
Works with all devices
Official feature with Twitter Ads

To learn more about Tweetlead and to join and get started on collecting unlimited leads with just one click, check it out here.

To your success and outrageous goals,

21 Day Blogging Challenge · Productivity

5 ways to work your online home business without really working during the holidays

17 Comments

Whether it is the Fourth of July, Christmas holidays, Spring Break or Summer Holidays, it can be difficult to manage family fun and social activities while still building and keeping revenue flowing in your home business.

… but it isn’t impossible and can be done with just a few tweaks to your current daily activity. It is especially fun and easy to do in an online business. And if your business involves positive change for your clients, the holidays are a perfect time to continue marketing as people are ready for change in the new year and they are searching for you to provide them a solution. There is a huge opportunity to actually increase your business and clientelle during the holidays without losing your mind.

Here are 5 tips you can implement immediately to prepare for the holidays and be able to spend time with your family:

1. Create and schedule your blog posts well in advance. Imagine having 10 ready to go blog posts that get published automatically every day during the holidays. Providing value to your clients and prospects during the holidays while you are sipping eggnog… It’s a win-win. Imagine how amazing and dedicated you appear to your readers. And truth be told, whether they know you are sipping egg nog or not, you are dedicated because you prepared it for them in advance! Most blogging platforms allow you to schedule posts in advance so there is no need to login and publish your drafts AT ALL during the holidays!

2. Have a a lead capture page in place. Whether you are currently running an online business or not, you should and need to have something in place where you can capture the names and emails of people who are interested in your business. This is a key in automating any type of business. The ability to capture leads and make sales even while you are sleeping or out singing Christmas Carols is absolutely necessary.

Automate it even further by having a preset campaign of emails going to your prospects and you are set. I use MLSP for my capture page and Get Response for my autoresponder. You can also use a variety of different autoresponder services from free ones like Mailchimp to Aweber. . They key is to do this before the holidays so you are set to work without really working.

3. Schedule social media posts. I don’t wait for upcoming holidays to implement this. I use Hootesuite to schedule posts on all my Social media platforms well in advance. You can manage up to 5 Social Media accounts for free on Hootesuite. I personally prefer to set a certain time aside once or twice a week to schedule posts. Then I return every so often to engage with others and post something relevant .

4. Take pictures! Take advantage of the “social” part of the Holidays and implement it in your marketing. Some refer to this as lifestyle marketing. It does not take any more time to take some quick photos during the holidays of you having fun. These can easily be added or implemented in your marketing during or after the holidays. People love happiness. Post some ‘happy’ pictures during the holidays.

5. Put it all together. To be truly successful during the holidays without losing your mind, you will learn to put all the above steps together. Create your blog posts, schedule them to be published and emailed via your autoresponder. Schedule those blog posts to be posted on all your Social Media platforms as well and make sure all of this content going out has a way of collecting the leads via a Lead capture page so that you can continue to market to them and make sales while you are having fun!

It might sound complicated but it isn’t. Once done, there is very little to do to maintain. The point is leveraging the automation ability of these tools and the fact that the internet never sleeps so that your business isn’t barely surviving during the holidays but thriving.

Keep in mind though that the most important thing is taking time for you and your family. That’s why we do what we do, isn’t it?

To your success,

P.S If you are interested in learning more about creating income online, send me a PM on Facebook .

Personal Development · Productivity · Uncategorized

Knowledge is Power… or is it?

6 Reasons why you need to take a vacation and why I finally did!

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I just got back from a much needed vacation and it wasn’t just any ‘ol vacation either. I took a full month with my family and recharged in Croatia.

It was much needed and I don’t regret a single dollar spent or a single missed day of work.

I was with my family. I didn’t have my kids spend their summer bored and under someone else’s care while mom and dad worked and I am a much happier, productive mom and entrepreneur because of it.

I look around me and I hear it all the time… “ I never take vacation” or “ I don’t have time for vacation” … as if it is some badge of honour people wear. And while I don’t propose we all take 1 month vacations (go ahead if you can and want to!), we should all take a day, a weekend or a week to recharge our batteries and connect with those we love. We will be better for it. Here’s why:

1. Your office is not a place of inspiration. Generally it just isn’t. Day in, day out at a desk or in an office doesn’t really stimulate the mind. Diverse cultures, interesting new surroundings and scenery (like my amazing view from my balcony in Zadar, Croatia below) prompt great ideas.

2. Time off is medicine.

Your stress and anxiety levels are lower – not just because you are not working but because you are away from your usual day to day grind and responsibilities – at least for a brief moment. You get to disconnect and turn off panic mode just for a bit.

In a study at State University of New York at Oswego, 12000 men between 35 and 37 were surveyed. Men who went on vacation regularly reduce their overall risk of death by 20% (Source; Home and Garden)

3. You get some much needed sleep. Better sleep equals more energy.

4. You can get some much needed sunlight. We all know that too much sun is bad for you but did you know that too little sunlight is bad for you too. Sunlight is a natural way to reduce stress. Natural sunlight provides much needed Vitamin D, is essential for absorption of Calcium, boosts serotonin and staves off depression. A day at the beach (within reason and with the right protection, of course) can do wonders for your mental and physical health.

5. It can be a perfect time to reconnect with your family. I am with my family whenever I can but it is just not the same when you are in the midst of your daily grind – driving to school, doing homework etc. It’s when you are away from the every day chaos that you have a chance to get to know each other again, learn what makes them tick, see what makes them smile. Those moments of silliness this summer when we were away from computers and phones were priceless.

6. You get to know you. When was the last time you had a moment to yourself – not worrying about the next meeting, what you were going to cook, who was going to go to the bank, when you were going to go grocery shopping, clean the furnace, call the insurance guy… etc.. … you get my drift? When was the last time you emptied your mind and focused on you. A break in your routine away from it all may be just what you need to let go, find out what makes you tick and discover yourself, where you are and where you want to go. You can’t do that when you have a million things on the go.

Avoid burnout…

To be more productive, to unleash your creativity and to rejuvenate, I suggest everyone takes a break every so often. It does not need to be a full out vacation.

Take a break mid-week. A “mental health day”, perhaps. A day off – just to clear your mind and rejuvenate.

Plan long weekend getaways by yourself or with your loved ones. Changing your surroundings can make a huge difference.

If you don’t go away, treat your weekend like an actual break. Do what you love. Turn off your phone and computer – read a book, get a massage, or have some “play time” where you actually have some fun with family and friends without work interruptions.

If you are employer, know that time off for your employees can make your employees much more productive and happier. It can reduce the number of sick days and poor decision making. Too much accrued vacation time is a red flag for burnout.

My vacation this summer was a different kind of vacation. We returned to our roots, we visited family, my husband and I went back to where we were married and began our lives together. I rediscovered the beauty, the people, the food, and the amazing culture in one of my favourite countries in the world… Croatia. Most of all… we took a break. We lived. We enjoyed. We realized that we should be working to live and not living to work.

My kids experiencing farm life while on Vacation

I can’t wait for my next vacation!

Don’t forget to book yours.

To your success and outrageous goals,

Personal Development · Productivity

6 Absolute Musts To Having an UNProductive Day