Thinking Like an Entrepreneur

The biggest problem in becoming self-employed for most people is the people themselves. In order to BE a self-employed person I had to start thinking like one. I found myself reverting to that nine-to-five mentality.  If I wasn’t accomplishing a task every hour, then I must not really be working. 

Sometimes a self-employed person has to make decisions about her business.  Sometimes she is just thinking about a solution to a problem. Sometimes she just has to quiet her mind so new ideas can come. Just because you’re not pounding away at the typewriter every minute doesn’t mean you’re not working.

I’ve also learned that it’s okay NOT to answer the phone every time it rings.  That’s what voicemail is for, and the same goes for email.  At my nine-to-five job I would leave the email program open all day and answer each one as it arrived.  It took me a while to realize it’s okay to only check email several times a day instead of constantly being interrupted. It’s actually more productive than having to stop your thought process every time “you have mail.” At my other job, I was able to let a phone call roll over into voice mail, but it took me a while to be able to shut down the email too.

You’re going to have days where you feel you didn’t accomplish much.  Then again, you’ll have days where you’ll feel you can conquer the world and you’ll be amazed at how much you got done. Some days you may not finish many tasks, but you’ll make a decision on a problem that needed to be addressed.  Or, you will have learned a valuable lesson about yourself.

And, I had to learn to stop breaking down all my tasks into dollars and cents.  I tended to worry about how much I was or was not earning every day.  The truth is, some days you’re going to make more than other days. If I spent my day on marketing issues, even though I didn’t earn any money from it that day, I would benefit from it some time in the future.

Rather than worry about what benefits I do or don’t have, I realized the benefit I have in my business is that I answer only to me. Everything I do will benefit me sooner or later.  Instead of my income being dependent on somebody else’s budget, I can go as far as I dream.

And because I’m now doing what I truly love and not what someone else tells me to, I’m much happier and more content. I learned if you start THINKING like an entrepreneur, then you’ll actually be one.

Happy marketing!

Tony

Tony Marino
Founder, Executive Publisher
Marketing Antics
http://www.MarketingAntics.com

Tony Marino is not only the CEO of Christian Times Online (ChristianTimesNewsletter.com), he is also Founder of Markteing Antics (MarketingAntics.com), and host of the Marketing Antics LIVE Radio.He is the author of the ePublishing Master’s Course.  Additionally, he holds Email Compliance Officer status for many of today’s leading Network Marketing companies, and business consults for businesses ranging from startup to Fortune 500.

He has also worked with the likes of legendary Direct Marketers Ted Nicholas, Gary Halbert, and Vic Conant (Nightingale-Conant). Best-Selling Authors, Harvey McKay, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Brian Tracy. ABC Television’s,  Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s, Carson Daly. Online Marketers, Dale Calvert and Jay Abraham just to name a few. His offices are located in Portland and Los Angeles and he’d love to hear from you anytime!

The 30-Minute Home Business Plan

When I started my first business I didn’t have a solid, well thought-out business plan. I threw together a rough one that I used to apply for a bank loan (which I didn’t get, by the way). I’ve found the best way to make sure a business is going to be successful is to create a business plan. It doesn’t need to be pages long and take you days and days to complete. Below I’ve created a quick 30 Minute Business Plan.

A good business plan will help you figure out approximately what your business will cost to get off the ground. You don’t want to guess at this. Knowing your costs will help you decide what you’re going to charge.

The 30 Minute Business Plan below also includes information about your competition. Don’t forget about them. In one way or another they exist and you’re going to want to get to know them.

The bottom line – most businesses fail because they don’t have a clearly spelled-out business plan. Don’t make that mistake.

For those of you who have been in business for awhile, don’t think a business plan can’t help you. Your business plan should be taken out on a regular basis, reread and updated.

Your 30-Minute Home Business Plan

1. What is your business exactly? Explain in one or two sentences. (If you can’t describe your business in a couple of sentences, rethink your business and focus your idea).
2. Is your particular business needed? List the reasons that make you thinks so.
3. Where do you see your business in one year? In three years? In five years? (Be specific.)
4. How will you fund your business? Savings, credit cards, loans?
5. What equipment/office supplies/licenses will you need to get your business started? Total Cost?
6. What organizations and trade publications will you need? Total Cost?
7. Who is your target customer? Describe them.
8. What other businesses will you be competing with?
9. What makes your business different from your competitor’s business? (Include price, quality, unique services, etc.)
10. Where will you set up your home office? Is it going to cost me money to make a nice workable office? Cost?
11. Will you use daycare everyday or once a week? Cost?
12. How much money do you need to make each month to help my family survive?

Once again, this is just a partial list, but there are enough questions here to give you a good idea of what you’ll be facing with a new business and the costs involved.

A business plan is essential to your successful home business. As one great quote says, Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. – Author Unknown

Happy marketing!

Tony

Tony Marino
Founder, Executive Publisher
Marketing Antics
http://www.MarketingAntics.com

Tony Marino is not only the CEO of Christian Times Online (ChristianTimesNewsletter.com), he is also Founder of Markteing Antics (MarketingAntics.com), and host of the Marketing Antics LIVE Radio.He is the author of the ePublishing Master’s Course.  Additionally, he holds Email Compliance Officer status for many of today’s leading Network Marketing companies, and business consults for businesses ranging from startup to Fortune 500.

He has also worked with the likes of legendary Direct Marketers Ted Nicholas, Gary Halbert, and Vic Conant (Nightingale-Conant). Best-Selling Authors, Harvey McKay, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Brian Tracy. ABC Television’s,  Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s, Carson Daly. Online Marketers, Dale Calvert and Jay Abraham just to name a few. His offices are located in Portland and Los Angeles and he’d love to hear from you anytime!

7 BIG Business Coaching Mistakes

Coaches are highly in demand these days because coaching has proven itself to be an extremely effective method for facilitating personal and professional development and fulfillment. The word is out everywhere, it’s in the media, it’s in corporations and it’s in the community. The word is out that coaching makes sense and it really works. In studies that have been done on the impact of coaching, the results have consistently shown a return on investment of more than 100%.

The Seventh Biggest Mistake  –  Having “Lone Ranger” Mentality.

If you think that the best way, or the only way for you to achieve your goals is to do it by yourself then you have Lone Ranger Mentality. Do you believe that reaching out to someone, and a professional someone for that matter, somehow indicates that you aren’t “something” enough? That it somehow means you’re incapable and not smart enough, strong enough or good enough?

Well let me assure you, the people who come to coaching are all of those things, extremely capable, smart, strong and a whole lot more. They choose coaching because they are ready to accelerate their personal or professional lives and work with a professional who will enable them to achieve their goals faster, easier and with better results than they could on their own.

A coach will facilitate your self discovery, the identification of your goals and the prioritization of those goals. Your coach will help you create your action plan as well as prepare for and overcome any challenges you encounter along the way.

Your coach will hold you accountable for taking consistent action toward the realization of your goals. Accountability is one of the greatest payoffs of coaching. It is so powerful because it can make all the difference in terms of you being a Goal Achiever instead of just a Goal Setter and someone who walks the walk instead of just talking the talk.

Think of your coach as your success partner, whose reason for being is to help you get what you want quicker, easier and with better results than you could on your own.

The Sixth Biggest Mistake – Settling for Good Instead of Going for Great.

If you’re thinking your life is good and you’re relatively satisfied, congratulations! That did not happen on its own. You have obviously done some fabulous work.

You’ve already proven you’re the kind of person who proactively goes after what you want and you get it. So why would you settle for anything less than great? Why would you settle for living in black and white when you could be living in technicolour? Do you really want to play it safe and stay comfortable? Playing it safe and staying comfortable can take you no further than good.

Most of our clients are people who are already very successful. Now that they’ve personally experienced the power of coaching they tell us that they realize just how much less they were settling for, for themselves and their lives. They were settling for good when they could have been experiencing great.

These clients also tell us that coaching has dramatically increased the quality of their lives in all areas, from increased sales to enhanced relationships and from better health to increased productivity. They feel, many for the very first time, that they are fully and vibrantly alive.

So we challenge those of you who are settling. We challenge you to stop settling for good. We challenge you to go for GREAT and beyond with coaching.

The Fifth Biggest Mistake – Believing that You Have to Work Harder in Order to Achieve Your Goals.

Do you have dreams or desires that you’ve left unfulfilled because you can’t imagine bringing them to life without adding a lot more to your already jam packed schedule?

It may surprise you to know that coaching can enable you to be more, do more and have more by working smarter instead of harder.

Your coach will lead you through an efficient process. You’ll begin by getting crystal clear about what you do and do not want in your life. What’s great about that is that when you figure out the things in your life that you’re tolerating or doing just because you feel like you should you can create a lot of extra space in your schedule to tackle the things that are truly meaningful to you. Next, you will develop an action plan that details what it’s going to take, the what by when, for you to reach your goals. Finally, you will stay focused and on track by being accountable to your coach for taking consistent action and you will learn how to overcome any challenges that come up along the way.

If you want to learn how to work smarter instead of harder, coaching is a wise investment of your time and money.

The Fourth Biggest Mistake – Blaming external factors for what’s not working in your life and waiting for them to change so you can have the life you dream of.

Do you find yourself wishing other people were different; easier to get along with, more positive, more successful, trustworthy or kind? Or, do you find yourself thinking about how your life would be better if your circumstances were different if only you had a better job, more money, more time or more opportunity?

Are you telling yourself that these external factors are responsible for what’s not working in your life or for preventing you from having what you want?

It can be very tempting to get caught up in this paradigm. But the reality is that if you are looking for or waiting for something outside of yourself to change and give you what you want, you will be waiting, and frustrated, for a very long time.

The reason for this is that you do not have control over anything outside of you. What you do have, though, is total control over yourself. You have total control over your thoughts, your actions and your results.

It is a fact that your circumstances will change when you make a committed decision to do the things that will move you in the direction of what you want to experience in your life, and then do them. Hiring a coach is one of the smartest things you can do to ensure you take control and create the reality you want to experience.

The Third Biggest Mistake – Wasting your time and money on stuff that doesn’t get you the results you want and is not ultimately fulfilling.

Let’s face it; there are an infinite number of things that you can spend your hard earned money and valuable time on these days. When you know you want things to be different or better it’s easy for you to waste your time and your money in one of two ways.

The first one is spending your time and money collecting information that comes in the form of books, software, seminars, reports or programs. You are collecting information that you believe can help you get what you want.

Now don’t get the wrong idea here, information is a great thing. We are big believers in books and programs being critical tools in helping you get where you want to go, but we want to make something very clear here.

Information alone will not get you results. You cannot expect that your sales will automatically increase just because you read the Guru of Sales’ latest book and you can’t assume that your monthly expenses will automatically organize themselves just because you purchased the newest expenses tracking software. You will get fulfilling results only by taking consistent action toward achieving your goals based on what you’ve learned from the information you’ve collected.

The second way you may be wasting your time and money is by acquiring and participating in things that have nothing to do with, and even go against, you having what you really want.

Have you ever allowed a month to go by where you indulged every food craving you had and did not exercise regularly, even though your deepest desire is to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight and lifestyle? Have you ever gone out and bought an expensive gadget you don’t really need or can’t really afford when what you truly desire is to feel successful and experience financial freedom?

If this sounds like you then you know what it’s like to be running on the hamster wheel of short term gain, in the form of immediate gratification, leading you to long term pain because your life experiences don’t match up with what you really want?

It’s very important to realize that spending your time or money on things that give you immediate gratification but have nothing to do with your goals and values will always leave you feeling empty. Completely and totally empty and looking for the next quick fix.

Instead of wasting your time and money, why not invest in yourself in a way that will accelerate your personal and professional development? Working with a coach on an ongoing basis is the most time and cost effective investment you can make in yourself and your quality of life.

Your coach can teach you how to make the most of what you’ve got and how to do more with less. Your coach will hold you accountable for taking consistent purposeful action towards achieving your goals.

By working with a coach, you will get crystal clear on what you really want, why you want it and how to get it. Having clarity takes the guess work out of things. That way, you will be able to evaluate all future investment opportunities, and by that we mean any and all opportunities for you to spend your time or money, according to their ability to enable you to fulfill your purpose, your vision, your values and your goals.

The Second Biggest Mistake – Waiting for a “good” time to make a change or go after the things you really want in life.

Guess what, there is no good time. Life will always be busy. There will always be family and business obligations to attend to, errands to run, chores to do, TV programs to watch and people and projects that want your time, energy and money. Your life will always be busy and it will always get in the way of what you really want, if you let it.

Wondering what you can do about it? You can stop kidding yourself. Today. Stop kidding yourself that the perfect time is just around the corner or sometime off in the future. Instead, decide to join forces with a professional who can teach you how to make the most of every moment starting right now.

Your coach will hold you accountable while keeping you focused and on track to achieving your goals no matter what life throws at you.

The Biggest Mistake – Telling yourself you can’t afford a coach.

The truth is that you can’t afford not to have one. Coaches are highly in demand these days because coaching has proven itself to be an extremely effective method for facilitating personal and professional development and fulfillment.

The word is out everywhere, it’s in the media, it’s in corporations and it’s in the community. The word is out that coaching makes sense and it really works. In studies that have been done on the impact of coaching, the results have consistently shown a return on investment of more than 100%.

Coaching clients from all walks and areas of life consistently report that it is the best money they ever spent because their investment in an ongoing coaching partnership enables them to achieve their goals. What’s even better is coaching enables them to achieve their goals quicker, easier and with better results. Now think about that for a moment. Think about what that means for you. Anything you want is available to you quicker, easier and with better results through the vehicle of coaching.

If you are still unsure consider this, it’s not enough for you to say you want things to be different. Just wanting something doesn’t make it so. You must make a decision and then take purposeful action toward what you want. When you put your money where your mouth is and invest in a coaching program you demonstrate your commitment to achieving the thing that you want and at the same time you cut yourself off from any possibility other than total success.

Happy marketing!

Tony

Tony Marino
Founder, Executive Publisher
Marketing Antics
http://www.MarketingAntics.com

Tony Marino is not only the CEO of Christian Times Online (ChristianTimesNewsletter.com), he is also Founder of Markteing Antics (MarketingAntics.com), and host of the Marketing Antics LIVE Radio.He is the author of the ePublishing Master’s Course.  Additionally, he holds Email Compliance Officer status for many of today’s leading Network Marketing companies, and business consults for businesses ranging from startup to Fortune 500.

He has also worked with the likes of legendary Direct Marketers Ted Nicholas, Gary Halbert, and Vic Conant (Nightingale-Conant). Best-Selling Authors, Harvey McKay, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Brian Tracy. ABC Television’s,  Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s, Carson Daly. Online Marketers, Dale Calvert and Jay Abraham just to name a few. His offices are located in Portland and Los Angeles and he’d love to hear from you anytime!

Why Build Your Brand?

At a conference in Dallas not long ago, a graphic designer from Kentucky and I sat down at a table where people were exchanging business cards. I looked at his logo, and he studied the name on my card.

“I know that logo. We’ve been in touch in the past,” I said.

“That’s right. I know your name,” he said.

Although we weren’t able to pinpoint when or why we’d exchanged mail previously, we guessed it had been at least five years back. Neither one of us has an extraordinary memory. Rather, he had created a distinctive visual identity for his design services, and I had devoted effort to linking my name with creative marketing.

For at least five years his look and my reputation had lurked in the other’s memory banks, while thousands or hundreds of thousands of other business identities had come and gone without leaving a significant trace. Why? Memorability. It illustrates a key element of successful branding.

What is Branding?

Branding is the process of creating distinctive and durable perceptions in the minds of consumers. A brand is a persistent, unique business identity intertwined with associations of personality, quality, origin, liking and more.

Although most people associate brands with big companies, the smallest of enterprises can use branding techniques with great rewards. When a home-based craftsperson ties a nicely designed tag on all her products telling the story of who she is and where her creations come from, she’s branding her work. When the local market bundles groceries in bags bearing its logo instead of generic “Thank you!” or plain bags, it’s branding.

While we associate brands with national names like Crest, Huggies or Healthy Choice, branding doesn’t necessarily require the budgetary resources of Procter & Gamble. Branding doesn’t even require a product or a tangible delivery mechanism. When humorist Dave Barry declares in almost every column, “I am not making this up,” and refers to “alert reader” so-and-so having sent in some news clipping, he is branding.

Techniques of branding include association of a company with logos, distinctive colors, slogans, musical sounds or songs, unusual qualities, mascots, packaging, a memorable name, behavioral hallmarks and much more.

Why Branding Pays Off

Time, money and effort spent on branding comes back many times over when the process plays out intelligently. Here’s why:

1. Memorability. It’s easier to remember the branded company than the “what’s its name?” one.
2. Loyalty. When people have a positive experience with a memorable brand, they’re more likely to buy that product or service again than competing brands.
3. Familiarity. Psychologists have shown that familiarity induces liking, and this makes even non-customers more likely to recommend a brand they know.
4. Premium image, premium price. Branding can lift what you sell out of the realm of a commodity, with customers willing to pay more for the well-branded product or service.
5. Extensions. With a well-established brand, you can spread the respect you’ve earned to a related new product, service or location more easily.
6. Greater company equity. Making your company into a brand usually means that you can get more money for the company when you decide to sell it.
7. Lower marketing expenses. Although you must invest money to create a brand, once it’s created you get a bigger bang for every marketing buck using it.
8. For consumers, less risk. People tend to choose the brand-name supplier over the no-name one when afraid of the consequences of a messup.

For these reasons and more, branding fattens your bottom line.

Happy marketing!

Tony

Tony Marino
Founder, Executive Publisher
Marketing Antics
http://www.MarketingAntics.com

Tony Marino is not only the CEO of Christian Times Online (ChristianTimesNewsletter.com), he is also Founder of Markteing Antics (MarketingAntics.com), and host of the Marketing Antics LIVE Radio.He is the author of the ePublishing Master’s Course.  Additionally, he holds Email Compliance Officer status for many of today’s leading Network Marketing companies, and business consults for businesses ranging from startup to Fortune 500.

He has also worked with the likes of legendary Direct Marketers Ted Nicholas, Gary Halbert, and Vic Conant (Nightingale-Conant). Best-Selling Authors, Harvey McKay, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Brian Tracy. ABC Television’s,  Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s, Carson Daly. Online Marketers, Dale Calvert and Jay Abraham just to name a few. His offices are located in Portland and Los Angeles and he’d love to hear from you anytime!

Busted: Five Writing Myths

One common element whenever human beings gather is the need to talk and share experiences. Often that need turns into something a little more fun, a little more dangerous — gossip. Gossip is often fun but it can also be dangerous because it spreads quickly (because it is fun) and often distorts or even completely avoids the truth. Gossip creates myths in many fields and professions, and the field of writing is especially prone.

The top five myths about writing are:

Myth 1: Writing is easy for some people. Let me tell you that is just about the biggest myth going. I have been a professional writer for going on three decades now. I also know many other professional writers of various ages, experience, and income. I don’t know a writer that will tell you that writing is easy. Writing is brutal, hard work and there are times when I think it would be easier to simply open a vein as Red Smith said. However experience and practice can make many writing tasks easier. There are some writing tasks that I can almost accomplish on autopilot because I have written that specific format and/or topic a lot.

Myth 2: Writing requires talent. I won’t lie. Talent can certainly help and talent is what separates the great writers from the good writers. But the truth is that talent is not enough to make a writer great or even good and talent is not a necessary requirement to be a good writer. Writing is a skill that can be learned, developed and honed. If you practice your craft, if you read the writing of others to learn more about your craft, and if you seek and accept guidance and suggestions about your writing then you will improve and grow as a writer. Dedication harnessed with talent can create amazing results but if I had to pick just one then I would go with dedication. You can always increase your skill level through dedication.

Myth 3: Writing isn’t a useful skill. I have made my living as a writer for my entire professional life but even if you don’t intend to make your living with words you will need this crucial skill. There simply isn’t a profession that does not involve writing. Perhaps the form will vary, but written communication is the cornerstone in every professional field. Your writing ability will often impact landing a job as well as advancing in your career. Today written communication is even more crucial in professional and personal relationships.

Myth 4: You can’t make a living as a writer. I can remember when I told my father that I wanted to be an English major in college. He was very worried that I wouldn’t be able to support myself. The truth is that I have never had trouble finding a job and today I own my own business because of this flexible and important skill. Not only can you make a living as a writer but writing is an essential tool for many other careers and professions.

Myth 5: Writers block is alive and torturing writers as you read this. I’m not dismissing the difficulties inherent in dealing with writers block but whenever I talk with writers purportedly suffering from it they fall within two general groups. The first group actually creates their own block by insisting on the perfect place, mood, or alignment of planets in order to write. This is beyond ridiculous. One of the many benefits I gained from years of newsroom experience is the ability to write in almost any condition or mood. Deadlines will teach anyone how to give writers block short shrift. The second group I have more sympathy for as their problem really is internal in nature. Usually the problem is that the particular story (whether fiction or nonfiction) they want to tell is not yet finished cooking in their brain. In this case, while the writing may be stalled I don’t agree that it is blocked. The writer must listen to that inner voice and respond appropriately. Sometimes the idea needs more time to percolate and sometimes more research and/or planning is necessary. Once the proper adjustments are made the writing will begin to flow again.

Don’t let your writing fall victim to these five myths about writing.

Happy marketing!

Tony

Tony Marino
Founder, Executive Publisher
Marketing Antics
http://www.MarketingAntics.com

Tony Marino is not only the CEO of Christian Times Online (ChristianTimesNewsletter.com), he is also Founder of Markteing Antics (MarketingAntics.com), and host of the Marketing Antics LIVE Radio.He is the author of the ePublishing Master’s Course.  Additionally, he holds Email Compliance Officer status for many of today’s leading Network Marketing companies, and business consults for businesses ranging from startup to Fortune 500.

He has also worked with the likes of legendary Direct Marketers Ted Nicholas, Gary Halbert, and Vic Conant (Nightingale-Conant). Best-Selling Authors, Harvey McKay, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Brian Tracy. ABC Television’s,  Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s, Carson Daly. Online Marketers, Dale Calvert and Jay Abraham just to name a few. His offices are located in Portland and Los Angeles and he’d love to hear from you anytime!