How are you Surviving? - Part 2

Last week we briefly questioned how you were surviving. We also identified the difference between a job and enjoying what you do to earn an income. Tonight we are going to cover some places you can go to find other business opportunities you can get involved in without having to give up your current working job.

As we talked about before, working for someone else is not necessarily the most lucrative thing you can do and usually not the best way to make your money work for you. You have most likely heard many people talk about having your money work for you, not you work for your money. In Robert Kiyosaki's book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", he talks at length about how most people who work for someone else will not really be able to acquire wealth of their own. Once you have learned what he terms "financial literacy" you then begin to understand how to make money work for you.

The key though, is to not always work for someone else and expect to become wealthy. A job will keep your bills paid (mostly) and a roof over your head (most of the time), but you need to find other means to make money work for you. One way to make money work for you, according to Robert Kiyosaki, is in learning and working the real estate market. Even in this current economy and the massive foreclosures that have been going on, there can be money to be made in the real estate market. Just now, you really need to know what you are doing and when to purchase.

Some other ways that you can possibly earn additional income without picking up a second, or third job is to find a home based business. The start-up costs for many home based businesses is much less than the cost of purchasing your first real estate transaction. Some home based businesses can have you up and running for around $200 (not monthly, a one-time investment). The key here is not necessarily the start-up costs for a home based business, but your desire to work in that particular area.

If you look around, there is a myriad of different home based businesses that you can get involved in. If you have a large group of friends who love to get together for informal parties, there are businesses that cater to that type of socializing. There are also businesses that can be run predominantly from your computer. What you have to decide, is if you believe in the product you are to be selling or providing, and if you believe in the compensation plan.

It is wise to investigate as much as you can into the home based business opportunity before getting involved. You have most likely heard many horror stories about some business opportunities that took people for all they had. It is critical, when looking at small home based business opportunities to do as much homework on both the product and the company as you can. You do not want to get involved in a company that may be "the next best thing" only to discover that they are closing their doors after the first 6 months of being in business. Looking into business opportunities may sound like a daunting task, but, if you have figured out what you want to do (basically what niche you want to be in) and why you want to do this new opportunity, you will discover that the research can be exciting and fun, especially once you have found a company and product that you are happy with.

If you have wanted to be in business for yourself, but are wondering where to begin, the best thing to do is to find a small business person you can trust and start asking questions. You may be surprised by how many people you know at your work that are actually in some form of home based business outside of work.

If you are not sure who to turn to, we may have some ideas on our website, www.hawgwash.net. The opportunities on our website do not represent anywhere close to the depth and breadth of opportunities out there, these are just opportunities that we have first-hand knowledge of and have found to be very reliable. You can also e-mail us with your questions, even if we do not have the opportunity on our site that you are interested in, we have a considerable database of other opportunities that may be more along the lines of what you are looking for. (P.S. - if you are wondering, we do not charge for any advice or suggestions for other business opportunities - we want to see everyone become successful). Our goal is to help people become more financially independent. The logic behind this concept is that if more people are financially independent, this great country of ours will become stronger and healthier so we all end up winning. So, the question tonight is, how are you surviving? Are you happy with where you are headed? If not, start asking yourself, what do you want and how badly do you want it.

Tomorrow we will bring more fun trivial facts to light so you can continue to amaze and frighten your friends.

Until tomorrow...

How are you surviving?

Tonight's topic is on various methods you may take to survive in this economy. Even though it looks like there may be some improvement in the current economy, the job market is not following very well. The million dollar question is, how are you surviving?

Many people are still unemployed, many more are seriously underemployed. Some are employed and earning what they should and most likely the remainder of working people are working at something they don't like, but it pays the bills. How do you stay sane when you are working a job you don't like, but have to work? You know the bills have to be paid, you may have even looked at the prospect of bankruptcy, but don't want or can't go that route. Working just to pay the bills is no way to live your life. Most likely, for those of you who are working because you have to, not because you want to, you come home from work just exhausted and not looking forward to your next day of work.

The key is to find something else you LIKE to do. Even if you come home from a killer day at your J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) and you don't think you could put one foot in front of the other, doesn't mean that there is not something out there that will re-energize you. No, the energizer bunny will not be of assistance here. You need to take a serious look at what you really want out of life. This will help you to start building towards that goal.

Just because you may think you know what you want to do, that will not be your driving force. You need to identify your "why"...why are you working so hard, why do you want to change what you do? Those kinds of "why"s will help you to identify the true goals you want from your personal life. Everyone wants more money, but WHY do you want more money. If it is just to pay the bills, what will you do when all those bills are paid off? Quite honestly, you will not work hard toward a goal if you are not absolutely, positively SURE of why you want to work hard...

Identifying your "why" will be your first step towards building your goals to obtain your dream. What may be helpful is to create a "dream board". This may just be a cork board, or wall in your house where you post pictures of things you really want, places you really want to see. Basically this "dream board" will be the visualization of all the things you talked about WANTING to do, but never got around to doing those things. By posting pictures on your "dream board" and placing your "dream board" in a place that you look at many times a day, you will continue to keep focused on your goal.

When things start getting tough, or you are getting tired, just take a look at your "dream board" to refresh WHY you are driving so hard. Just working will not get you there, you need to make extra effort to get to your real goals. That extra effort is not easy, and it will not be without it's setbacks. Reminding yourself several times a day as to WHY you are doing this will keep you focused enough to work past the obstacles that appear.

Now that you have your "why" identified, and perhaps are building your "dream board", you need to figure out how you are going to earn that extra income that will ultimately provide you the path to your goals...

Tomorrow we will cover ideas on how to earn that extra income and where you can look for ideas.... Hopefully soon you won't be just surviving, but thriving...

Until tomorrow...

Three most important intangibles that you never want to lose

There are many things I do not want to lose. I don't want to lose my car keys, I don't want to lose my wallet, but there are three very important intangibles that I never want to lose. The three most important intangibles that you never want to lose are your friendships, your time and your health.

Me In Time

These are some very important intangibles that I never want to lose. One of the most important intangible items is Friendship. You can't put your finger on the intangible concept of friendship, except to poke your friends. No matter how busy or stressed you may become, you do not want to lose the friendship of the people you really care about. This intangible can be very difficult to hang onto, especially if you are in the traditional job environment. Many people are worried about losing their jobs and unfortunately the stress involved with that worry can easily flow into your personal life and affect your friendships. Losing friendships due to overwork and stress can and will make your life even more unhappy and stressful.

The key here is to trust your friends. if you are feeling stressed, let them know, and if they are really good friends, they will let you know if you are becoming difficult to deal with. True friends will understand your stresses, and will work with you to help mitigate them. These are the friendships that you definitely do not want to lose.

Another intangible that you never want to lose is time. I realize that this sounds trite, but how much more time are we all working? Because of our stresses at work and the companies are downsizing people but not tasks, we tend to get sucked into the idea that we must spend more of our valuable time at the office in order to maintain the status quo of a job. The problem with that theory is that you may be able to retain your job, but you lose your most precious resource, time. You have now limited your personal time even more and that could easily affect your friendships. Time is an intangible that once lost, you can never regain.

When working at a traditional job, you are trading your time for their money. If your company requests, or even demands that you give more of your most valuable resource, time, to them without an equivalent return of money, then you need to start making some hard decisions. Your time is very valuable. If you give it to your current company, then there is that much less time for you to spend with your family and friends. Despite all the jokes, time is finite, once gone, you cannot retrieve any time.

The last very important intangible item I never want to lose is my health. If you lose your health, then you won't have the time to spend working on your friendships. Health can be affected by stress and overwork. All three of these intangibles tie together, if you are having problems maintaining your friendships because you don't have the time to spend with friends and family, you can get so stressed out that your health is adversely affected. You have to learn how to balance your finite amount of time with your health, friendships and work. This is not an easy balancing act, but is critical to your overall personal success.

Of the three intangibles that have been covered tonight, I believe that time is the most valuable intangible that you really cannot afford to lose. It is important to learn efficient ways to manage your time so that you continue to spend quality time with your family and friends. Quality time does not mean sleeping at your friend's house, but being awake to honestly listen to their troubles. You need the time to spend with your spouse or significant other so that they do not feel like you take them for granted. You also need time to spend with your children, because once they are grown (time again...) you cannot regain or repeat their childhood.

If you feel that your current job is sucking your time dry and not leaving any quality time for you to spend with the important people in your life, you may want to consider finding alternate sources of income. Again, at first blush, you will think that if you don't have time now, how can you spend what little time is left on an additional income stream. In actuality, if you do not invest a little extra time up front, then you will never have the ability to spend more time with your loved ones. Even more importantly, if possible, try to find an additional source of income that the whole family can participate in. You will then be all working together and most likely having fun doing it. You are now spending your time doing two very important things at once; earning an extra income and spending quality time with your friends, family and loved ones.

If you need ideas for additional income streams, check out our website at www.hawgwash.net. We offer several different types of income streams. If what we have to offer does not "float your boat" we may know where else you can look so that you can find that perfect second income which will ultimately allow you to spend more quality time in pursuit of other intangible things that are very important to you. All you have to do is to ask, we will be more than willing to assist you in your search.

Until tomorrow...

Why should I look at a home-based business?

Why should I look at a home-based business? I just heard on the news today that businesses (specifically in the Phoenix, AZ area) are not quick to hire anyone and for those positions that are open, instead of looking for someone who can be either molded or can create the job, they are looking for someone who will fit into a pre-determined box they call a specific job task. If the candidates resume does not fit within the box, the employer will not even call the job-seeker in for an interview. Because there are so many people looking for work and there are much fewer jobs available, employers have the luxury of picking and choosing candidates. Not only can they choose the specific qualifications of each candidate, but employers are also able to define what they want to pay for that particular skill-set.

Please don't get me wrong. Working for someone else is not a bad thing, it is just not something that most people will do if they want to become financially independent. I have yet to meet one person who worked for a company or organization and became wealthy just from working for that organization. Your wealthy workers were those who found other uses for the money they earned. These people took the money that they worked hard for and then started making that money work for them. By the end of their working time with an employer, their money was making money and they had no more need for trading their time for someone else's money. That is why many people, when coming upon retirement age, find that they cannot retire when they wanted and live the life they had dreamed.

The key here is to find something to do with that little extra money you keep putting aside. Putting your money in a bank savings account is good, but the interest earned on that money is minuscule compared to what you could earn with other investments. I am not about to give any of you investment advice on where to put your money, but am here to suggest that you start looking for additional ways to earn an income. Going back to the job situation again, even if you are gainfully employed, there is no guarantee that tomorrow your current company will let you go, either due to down-sizing or other issues. In today's work environment, companies are looking very hard at their bottom line and may decide to let go of their higher salaried people because they can obtain the same skill-set for less money because there are so many unemployed people out there.

By starting to get your money to work for you, you will free yourself up from the "rat-race" of trying to make a buck - trading your valuable time for their money. Once you start having your money work for you instead of you working for your money, you are starting on the road towards financial freedom. Eventually, it is entirely possible that your money will be earning enough that you won't have to worry about working for anybody else. That is the true form of financial freedom.

So, as you continue to save a little bit here and a little bit there from your regular 'job', think about how you are going to get your money to work for you. You may decide to try your hand in stocks and bonds, or you may try real estate, or there are some very profitable home based business out there that can also become self-perpetuating. Be sure that the money you do start to invest is something that you can afford to lose if the investment does not pan out. As we have discussed in prior Millionaire Focus articles, many of those millionaires have put money into investments and lost the investment. But, they kept looking for other investments to get into. They continued to find ways to make the money work for them, not the other way around.

If you are interested in some home-based business opportunities, please check out our website. We also have some ideas for starting your own waterless car cleaning business if that is what interests you. If you would like to discuss other investment ideas, we are here to talk to if you want to bounce some ideas around. No matter what you decide, find something you love that will also help your money to grow at a faster rate than you would find in basic bank savings and CD accounts. These are some reasons why you should look at a home-based business.

Until tomorrow...

Adventures in Thanksgiving Shopping

Tonight was supposed to be the Weekly Fun Facts, but we will push that off until tomorrow. There is so much more fun to be had talking about grocery shopping three days before the Thanksgiving holiday this upcoming Thursday. Tonight's topic is my annual Adventures in Thanksgiving Shopping...

Don't ask me why, but I ended up putting off grocery shopping until the Monday night before Thanksgiving. Actually, I did to a little shopping on Saturday, but the crowds were so crazy, and the people so rude, I did the bare minimum and decided to shop later on... Well later on is now and boy, I am not sure that Saturday was all that crazy now. At 7 pm, there were so many people in the grocery store that you could not go down any aisle without having to ask someone to move.

The crowds were one thing, but the way they were behaving was very entertaining. Granted, I went shopping because I HAD to go shopping, but it was fun to stand back and watch all of the activities going on around the store. For starters, in the produce aisle, there were people rapidly pushing carts around the fresh produce like it was a NASCAR track. I didn't know the shopping carts cornered that well, especially with their high center of gravity. People were in the fresh produce section literally grabbing fresh vegetables without even looking at them and then tossing them into the carts.

As I struggled to find my way into the bakery section, it was very difficult to find any loaf of bread that was not over $4.00 per loaf. All of the inexpensive bread (primarily used in making turkey stuffing) was gone, the shelves were almost licked bare. You could not even locate a crumb where the bread had been placed. The people in the bakery section were not quite as frantic, most likely because they already had their stale bread for stuffing.

The second most entertaining section of the store was in the meat department, as you can probably well imagine. There you had people 2 and 3 deep, buried up to their shoulders in the open freezer boxes, digging for that perfect turkey. Not only were people looking for that perfect turkey size, but they were looking for the very few birds that still had the $0.29/pound price tag. Once someone was able to locate that rare bird, they would squawk (the people, not the turkey) in delight, hug the frozen turkey to their chest and scurry back to their badly parked shopping cart.

The fun part was watching all the people try to squeeze into that one opened spot by the freezer so that they can have a turn diving into the freezer and locating their turkey. I think it would have only been more fun if lights, bells, whistles and confetti would be included in the hunt for the perfect frozen, cheap turkey. The sad part was when some little person would look into the freezer, and only see a 12 or 18 pound bird way down at the bottom of the freezer. These people were so tiny, that I suspect if they tried to lift the bird out of the freezer, they would be pulled in instead. Occasionally, one would have to rapidly dodge the carelessly tossed frozen bird from a customer who may have decided to either go for a ham or just quit shopping altogether. Then, once that tossed bird settled to the bottom of the freezer compartment, people would literally flock back to see if that newly discarded bird would be perfect for them.

What made shopping such an adventure for this Thanksgiving was the inclusion of the electric carts along with all of the shopping carts. Some of these people would get so tangled up with the shopping carts, that you might consider sending in the search and rescue teams. One poor woman got herself stuck in the middle of an aisle, and tried to make a U-turn. The problem was that there was extra stuff in the aisle, so she kept bumping into one stack of product, backing up into yet another display, so much so that some customers came to her assistance to move the products so that they did not topple onto this poor woman.

Believe it or not, buy the time I was able to locate my remaining groceries, the lines (which had been insanely long when I arrived) were only 1 or 2 people long. Perhaps I entertained myself too long watching everyone else get stressed out, but all the same, I had the pleasure of going through the check out line much faster than it took me to navigate along the length of one of the aisles.

I pity the store workers this time of year. The cashier that took my money had been working at this particular grocery for all of 2 days and had no idea whatsoever where anything was. At least she didn't ask me if I found everything OK. What could she do if I couldn't locate that odd bit of canned matzo balls? Better yet, I had spent almost 15 minutes looking for pickling spices in the spice aisle. I had asked two employees who looked at all the spices and said with surprise, "Pickling Spices...huh...should be here....", and then wandered off. Another customer took up my cause (because the store employees had no idea where to look) and between the two of us, we located on small bag of pickling spices. So even in the heat of trying to get the last minute shopping done, there is still good in many people and they are willing to help their fellow human being.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Enjoy your own personal adventures in Thanksgiving shopping. Hopefully when you do sit down to Thanksgiving Dinner this Thursday, you will all find a lot to be thankful for.

And yes, the weekly fun facts will be tomorrow, Tuesday. That way you can have some fun trivia to entertain all at the Thanksgiving dinner table this Thursday...

Don't forget to check out our website for business opportunities (if you are looking for one) or for some cool Holiday ideas.

Until tomorrow...

Growing your Business

Last night we reviewed some ideas on new business opportunities. Tonight we are going to briefly cover other ideas on growing your business. When the economy is great, money flows easily and readily. When the economy is robust, even poorly run businesses survive. They say that money cures many evils, which is true. But when the money flow slows, or even comes to a halt, that is when we separate the good from the poorly run businesses.

As money coming in slows down, many business owners finally take a good hard look at their financial statements (sometimes this is the first time they have looked in a very long time) and start finding ways to reduce expenses or basically cut costs. It is in times like these where you find the efficient businesses begin to grow. In times of economic downturns many new business opportunities spring up, filling the gap from those that no longer exist. It is less expensive to find rental space, products may cost less and more companies and people are more willing to sell at lower prices.

If you want your business to grow though, you always have to remember the customer. Continue to build your long-relationship with them. Don't forget to do a follow up call, find out if the customer is happy with your product or service. Find out what else they would like to see you provide. They may offer some very helpful insights into growing your business or product line. Keep your customers happy because they are one of the best marketing tools that you have. If your customers are happy, they will do all the advertising for you at no cost to you. But, conversely, if your customers are unhappy with your business, product or services, they will tell more people than you could ever reach with expensive advertising campaigns.

As we have discussed before, the customer is king and they are your best marketing tool. Be sure that you have under-promised and over-delivered. Always smile, and smile honestly, do not put on a fake smile, the customers can tell the difference. If you are having a bad day, strive to not let that problem run over onto your sales floor so that the customers may experience it too. Be sincere, and most importantly, be honest with your customers. They will remember and reward you with your honesty by keeping a long-term relationship with you.

If you have a list of customers who have utilized your products or services in the past, don't be afraid to send them a brief newsletter, letting them know what is happening and what new promotions you may currently have in place. You may be surprised to see some older customers come back because of your brief newsletter. In your newsletter, do not try to sell your customers something, more importantly, offer a service for them. Become a "go-to" source of information for your customer. Allow them to feel comfortable asking you questions without them fearing you are going to push a sale onto them. You want your customers to see you as a valuable asset, not someone to be avoided.

If you keep your communications up with your current and old customer base, you may be surprised at the positive response you receive. Don't send them countless messages about sales, send a brief, monthly newsletter and perhaps sprinkle that newsletter with some fun anecdote's. People are always looking for something to feel good about, perhaps provide a positive, or inspirational story (again brief) and you may discover your customers looking forward to your monthly missives. If they like what they read, they may even share your newsletters with others, again advertising for you.

The benefit for keeping the message short should be obvious. How many of us have time to read all of the messages from our Inbox anymore? Keep your message short, don't advertise too hard, and allow your customers to have fun reading your monthly message.

Hopefully these ideas were helpful and will benefit you in growing your business.

If you are looking for an additional income stream, we do offer some small business opportunities. Feel free to review our website for ideas and contact us with any questions you may have.

Until tomorrow...

Looking for a Business Opportunity

All right, that question can go either direction. Am I looking for a business opportunity, or are you looking for a business opportunity? For the record, I am ALWAYS looking for business opportunities, if I didn't then I would stagnate (not literally). By always looking for the newest trends, newest products, or just different opportunities, I keep my own ideas fresh. There is also the distinct possibility that I will find an awesome business opportunity to incorporate.

So, the million dollar question that is most likely burning in the back of you head is... what business opportunity should I get involved in, and is it legitimate? Unfortunately, that is a very difficult question. There are so many "business opportunities" out there that really aren't opportunities (at least not for us) and won't turn into a legitimate business. You don't necessarily want to throw your money away, yet you don't want to miss an up-and coming opportunity either.

There are so many new and very good pitch-men (or pitch-people) out there, that you really have to do your homework before putting money into any opportunity. Tonight I am going to suggest a few places you can look for your next opportunity and let you decide if anything looks interesting. Perhaps, with the ideas I throw out there, they will trigger something that will cause you to discover an opportunity that has not been mentioned.

You may also be wondering, why would anyone want to get involved in a new business opportunity in today's depressed economy. The answer is really pretty simple. Costs of buildings/rentals are low, product costs are going down, and people are motivated to sell stuff for relatively low prices in order to drive business. If you are able to get a business up and running in this economy, think of how successful you will be when the economy picks up (and yes, it will get better...eventually). So, now is a great time to start a business, either a home-based business or a brick-and-mortar business.

If you want to get started on a business, but don't know what you want to do, here is some food for thought: do you have the ability to help others live better for less money? Are you able to help others to trim their expenses and still live comfortably? There is a huge demand for people with that talent right now. Do you have ideas for helping cars to increase their fuel mileage? Can you organize car and van pools to help people save on fuel costs? How about helping people collect coupons (perhaps you provide the coupon service for a small fee...) so they can save at the store? Can you help people invest in higher yield investments?

If you are looking for a business opportunity in today's market, you need to look at what people are complaining about and see if you have the particular skill set to resolve their problem. Don't just take one person's problem and strive to correct it, but find a common theme and then see if you can find a solution to the overall problem. That can become a very lucrative business segment for you.

These are just a very few ideas that are out there to generate a business opportunity. The overall key is to find a need and fill that common need. That way your customers win and you win.

If you would like some other business opportunity ideas, please feel free to visit our website. We can help you start your own vehicle detailing service, or we can show you how Pre-Paid Legal could help you, or we can introduce you to our Stem Cell Nutritional line that has the ability to provide you an additional income stream. We would be more than willing to talk with you about your thoughts and ideas and answer any questions you may have. Happy business opportunity hunting...

Until tomorrow...

How to keep blogging

Last night we talked a little bit about how to stay motivated to continue posting blogs. We covered some pitfalls of blogging and how to possibly get past the excuses... Tonight we are going to continue our theme on how to keep blogging. I was never very consistent writing in my diary as a child, so am constantly amazed that this blog has been going for over a year now.

The biggest difference between blogging and writing in a diary is that when blogging, you may not be divulging your innermost secrets, you are actually talking with others. At least that is how I view blogging. It really is no different than being a reporter writing a column for a paper. The biggest difference is that usually what you print will post without any editor checking your work. Not sure if no editor is a good idea, but hey, at least you get to say what you want to say when you want to say it. The downside is that depending on discussion topic, you could easily alienate your readers. That is a risk you take though, every time you take up the proverbial pen and paper (or keyboard and computer screen...)

So, the question is, how to keep blogging when your ideas may be running thin, or you just aren't in the mood. As we touched upon last night, theoretically, you should have a backlog of written blogs already scheduled to post, but some of us don't have THAT much to say at one time of the week. One of the tricks I use to keep my blogs short, but useful is to basically bribe myself. There are things I would really rather be doing on some nights of the week. In order for me to enjoy those activities, I make myself blog before the activity takes place. That is an amazing way to inspire blogs.

If you know what you want, and see a definitive end to your blogging day, you tend to get more inspired than if you saw the whole evening stretching out in front of you with no sense of urgency. Granted, some people are not driven well by deadlines, but I have found setting specific deadlines does keep the ideas flowing better. Sort of like a synthetic procrastination. You have a deadline to make, and that could be when you do your best work.

Another trick that has been helpful, is to not over think a subject. This may sound a bit odd, but it may make more sense once explained. You have a blogging idea, you research the daylights out of that idea. You now have squished in your brain a ton of information on your topic, and suddenly you are in a brain vapor-lock. You now have too much information vying for position on your blog page. What I have found helpful is to write down what you know, or want to say, in outline form and then put the outline away for a day or two. Yeah, that doesn't help the blog you want to write tonight, but it will make a much better article tomorrow. If you give your brain some time to absorb and process all the information it obtained, you will find that if you give it a day or so, your ideas crystallize and your article will practically write itself.

There are times when you need to give your brain the opportunity to process and compartmentalize the information you have been stuffing into it. Otherwise, you may end up putting too much information in your article and losing people along the way. In today's rushed life, we only have a little time to dedicate to relaxing and/or informative reading, so it is important to provide good information, but not information overload. Keep it short, effective and sweet. You will have more fun writing, and your readers should have more fun reading.

Tomorrow, we will switch subjects, (to help prevent the aforementioned information overload) and you will just have to dial in to see what the new topic will be.

If you are looking for a second income stream are interested in starting your own home based business, our website might have something to interest you. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding earning a second income or starting your own home based business. We would love to hear from you.

Until tomorrow...

Where is your business focusing?

When asked about his outstanding performance on the ice, Wayne Gretzky replied, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

The million dollar question for any business entrepreneur is basically, where is business going to be in 1-year, 3-, 5- and hopefully 10-years out. Where is your business focusing? Where do you see your business and yourself in the the next 3 years? If things were going according to your master plan, where do you see yourself an your business in the next 5 and 10 years? As you may be struggling with business today, it is very easy to get caught up in the minutia and forget about your long-term focus.

Now is the time to review your business plan, and measure your current success against the goals you set in your business plan. Mark every success and celebrate it. As you find areas you may have fallen short in, do not berate or punish yourself, but look at the underlying reason why you did not achieve that particular goal and then find ways to improve so that during the next measurement period, you will hopefully meet or exceed your goals. You need to keep your business focused on both the long- and the short-term goals.

If you focus only on your short-term goals, you may lose sight of where you ultimately want your business to grow. It is like looking directly at your feet while you are walking down a sidewalk. Even if you use the cracks along the side of the sidewalk to guide you, you will get off track and possibly wander off the sidewalk. Even if you do stay on the walkway, you will not be moving forward very effectively. If you set your eyes ahead of your feet as you walk, you will observe obstacles and barriers to your way before you come upon them. By focusing forward (not too far) you are able to see and anticipate potential problems and begin working on a solution now instead of going head-first into the obstacle and getting tangled up in it.

Focusing your business goals is the same thing. You need to look ahead an anticipate problems and challenges. No matter how well you plan, there will be problems to deal with. That is life, don't dwell on the bad parts, focus on what you are going to do to get past those proverbial bumps in the road. Do not take a Pollyanna attitude about your business either. There will be situations that will not be easy to navigate through. There may even be situations that you cannot get past. The difference is, if you anticipated the situation, or if you saw it before it became a huge problem, you may have been able to mitigate the damage to your business.

Don't let your feelings of self-doubt, insecurity and vulnerability affect your business plan. You most likely made a good plan, hopefully you had others review it for reasonableness, so, stick with your plan, adjust to accommodate your current situation and continue moving forward with your business. Don't let any negative emotions you may be having damage your business. When we feel down or negative about the business, that is not the time to make significant business decisions because those decisions may result in financial losses, lost jobs or bankruptcies.

Tomorrow we will continue along these same lines and debunk some myths about attitude. We will provide tips on what you can do to combat these false beliefs and help your business to grow. Where is your business focusing?

If you are looking for an income opportunity, we may have something that would interest you. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Until tomorrow...

Millionaire Spotlight

Well, it is Friday and we are back on track for our Millionaire Spotlight. Tonight we are going to look at the Forbes Ranked 18th richest American (and ranked 43rd in the world), Jeff Bezos. Each week we spotlight a millionaire and see what business points we can learn from these people. Many of the millionaires we spotlight started from humble beginnings, like you and I. The difference is in how they managed to build their fortunes. Hopefully as we continue to spotlight various Millionaires both in the United States and around the world, you will find some pearl of wisdom that will help you too to build your personal business into a million dollar industry.

Have you heard of Jeff Bezos? He is a self-made millionaire and is the founder of Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico January 12, 1964. When Jeff was born, his mother was still in her teens. Her marriage to his birth father lasted a little more than a year. His mother eventually remarried by the time Jeff turned 4. His stepfather was a Cuban refugee and had escaped to the U.S. alone at the age of 15. His stepfather, Mike Bezos, worked his way through the University of Albuquerque and ultimately became an engineer for Exxon. Jeff's grandparents had a 25,000 acre ranch where Jeff spent much of his summers working.

Early on, Jeff Bezos showed great mechanical aptitude. He developed many scientific interests and continuously worked on a variety of science projects. It was in high school that Jeff discovered and fell in love with computers. He entered Princeton University planning on studying physics, but ended up returning to his first love, computers. He graduated with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering.

After graduation, Jeff Bezos began work on Wall Street, where the demand for computer science was growing quickly. He remained in the financial realm, first with Bankers Trust, and then at D.E. Shaw which specialized in applications of computer science to the stock market. It was at D.E. Shaw where in the spring of 1994 Jeff discovered that Internet usage was increasing by 2,300 percent a year. He saw a new opportunity for business and immediately began considering possibilities. As he searched various mail order companies, he found that books had no comprehensive mail order catalog. Since a comprehensive book catalog was never economically feasible to mail, the Internet became a perfect tool. A vast book database could be maintained, and a limitless number of people could access that book database. That was the beginning of the concept of Amazon.com.

After more research with booksellers to learn everything he could about the book business, Jeff and his wife decided to go into business for themselves and compile a comprehensive book catalog. He and his wife decided to name the new company Amazon, for the seemingly endless South American river with numberless branches. They set up their new business in a 2-bedroom home with computers on tables made from door blanks. July 16, 1995 Jeff Bezos opened Amazon.com to the world. Within 30 days, with no actual advertising, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries. By September of that year, it had sales of $20,000 a week.

In order to continue growth, Jeff increased his market share as quickly as possible, at the expense of initial profits. He wanted to be more than "Earth's biggest bookstore" and really wanted to be "Earth's biggest anything store". Throughout this growth, Jeff Bezos focused on his 6 core values - customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring bar and innovation. His company vision was to be "the world's most customer-centric company. The place where people come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

Jeff's focus on his Six Core Values is something we can all apply to our own businesses. These are not difficult concepts, and implemented honestly and consistently will help you to build and grow your home based business too. As you can see, Jeff is always looking for more innovations to provide his customers an even better buying experience. Amazon.com has become a household name. Another wise action that Jeff Bezos took was to reinvest in his company. Instead of spending the early company profits on personal "toys", Jeff reinvested those profits back into his company to continue to grow and develop it. We can all take a page from Jeff's playbook and most likely make our own businesses more profitable also.

Good luck in continuing to grow your small or home based business. Hopefully these Millionaire Spotlights will provide some spark of innovation, or inspiration for you to move your business to the next level.

If you are looking for some second income opportunities and have no idea what you might want to do, our website might be of some assistance. Please feel free to e-mail us with any of your questions. We would love to hear from you.

Until tomorrow...

What is My Greatest Achievement

While searching for an interesting topic for tonight's blog, I came across a great question from Plinky.com. Tonight I am going to answer the question, what's your greatest achievement? How many of us can actually answer that question? There are so many small achievements to be proud of, but to find one that you would classify your 'greatest", well that takes some serious thought.My greatest achievement to date is having started Hawgwash, LLC and kept it running successfully for over 4 years. We have beaten the odds for new start-up companies so far. This January Hawgwash, LLC will be 5 years old. This is a huge achievement, especially since we have had a declining economy for most of those 5 years. (no the decline in the economy is not because we started Hawgwash, LLC)

I had been a corporate person for the majority of my adult life, working my way up from general sales, into accounting and finance. It had been tough, slowly climbing from rung to rung, long hours, minimal pay increases, but with time I succeeded in the corporate world. The difference was that I was still working for someone else, helping them to get rich. Four and a half years ago, with help from Steve, I left the corporate world to start Hawgwash, LLC.


We now travel around the country, from various shows (Motorcycle Rallies, Car rallies, RV Rallies) meeting the neatest people and promoting our products ad services. When we first started Hawgwash, LLC, we had a pretty basic business plan and a limited product offering. We were the Waterless Cleaning people. We would detail cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats and RV. Basically any vehicle you had, if it had decent paint on it, we would clean it for you.


As the economy started changing, we started adjusting our marketing strategy and expanding our product line. Our initial products went from the waterless cleaning items, to towels and additional cleaning supplies. At the suggestion of a good vendor friend of ours, we began carrying other items not specifically related to waterless cleaning techonolgy. This way, if we were in an area where they could care less about keeping the paint of their vehicle clean, we had other product offerings to entice customers.


We continued experimenting with other product offerings and removed products that did not produce solid results. As time goes on, we will continue to expand our products and services, always on the lookout to provide the best of the best for our customers. This philosophy has served us well over the years and we will continue to review products and services to be sure we are providing the best value for our customers


Because of our constant search, we have changed our goal of Hawgwash, LLC. We are not just the waterless people anymore, but are now Second Income Specialists. We offer several small business opportunities for people looking for a second or additional income stream. We have business offerings in the legal, nutritional and waterless technology fields. We are always open for questions and are more than willing to help guide people to find an opportunity that best suits their needs, even if it is an opportunity that we do not work with.

If you are interested in what we have to offer, or have questions, please check out our website at www.hawgwash.net or feel free to e-mail us. We welcome your comments and suggestions. As you can see, after almost 5 years, I am still very proud of this business of ours, Hawgwash, LLC. I consider it my greatest achievement to date.


Until tomorrow...

Photo shoot for new product launch

Well, tonight we spent in Scottsdale, AZ at a photo shoot. I have never attended one of these before and had a great time. Some of you may be aware that we are involved with a new company preparing to launch a new and innovative product. It is a new twist to energy products, and I am so very EXCITED about the imminent launch.

The new company is called Wink Energy and it is going to offer to the public an energy product that is more convenient than the 5 Hour Energy drink. Another good part is that our price-point will be better than the 5 Hour Energy, and you won't have an energy boost for 5 hours. This new and innovative product will only provide a 20-30 minute "alert". You can take as much as you want and one dose has about 1/10th of the caffeine as a regular cup of coffee.

We have final approval of the formulation and are now only waiting for the formulator to create the product and package it. We expect to have the company doors open in about 2-3 weeks when the first retail shipment of Wink Energy is available.

This product is the coolest thing since slice toast (my humble opinion) and I can't wait to tell you all more about this new product. In the near future, you will be able to find Wink Energy in your local grocery stores and local convenience stores.

In the meantime, we had an absolute blast with the photo shoot tonight. The models were great, the weather was great and we all had a fine time. I look forward to creating more photo shoots as Wink Energy starts flying off the shelves. In the next few months we hope to travel around the Las Vegas and Phoenix areas with our Wink models showing people this great new energy product.

I will keep you posted as to when we will actually open the doors to Wink Energy. Wink Energy is the next and newest generation of energy products. If you are interested in getting more information on Wink Energy, please e-mail me at HollyWinkEnergy@yahoo.com. Our website should be up in the next week or so too. These are exciting times...

Until tomorrow...

Discovering a Business Breakthrough

I have been talking at length about home based businesses and presenting various ideas on how to grow your business. Some of you may have been in business for several years and may be currently stuck in the proverbial rut with your current small business. It is times like this when you need to find that business breakthrough that will propel your business into the next level. For many of us with a small business, it is hard to find the time to discover a business breakthrough. We have our hands full with the day-to-day processes, sales and associated issues and concerns.

Tonight I would like to suggest a few different ways to view your current business. By taking an outside view of your business, you may find that critical breakthrough that you have been searching for. Most of the time we need to step back from what we do to take a fresh look at our businesses. It is very hard to do when you have so much that must be completed on a daily basis. You end up getting into a routine and not even realizing that you are doing the same thing day in and day out. That is when your business may become stagnant. Hopefully these questions will help to get your creative juices stirring.

These ideas are similar to free-association, hopefully they will get you looking at your current business situation in new and different ways. It is very difficult to discover new and better ways to do things if you don't have an uninterested third party looking at what you are doing and asking questions. This is a way that we can simulate an uninterested stranger looking at your business and asking questions.

How do you see your products or services changes in the next 3-5 years? Do you see yourself adding or removing product or service lines? If so, why would you change? If you changed products, why did you offer the products in the first place?

Is there a new way to market your product to your customer base? Is your product environmentally friendly? What does your product do that your competitor doesn't do? Is there some off-the wall use for your product that works, but you never tell your customers about? If so, why don't you talk about it? Sometimes a new application for your product can revitalize sales.

Can your products be used by children? Or, if you have products for children, can they also be used by adults? What would need to be adjusted if you changed your demographics?

Is there a different way you can introduce your products to new customers? Do you have testimonials? If not, why not? If you do, are they current? I many businesses I have visited, I have noticed that many testimonials hanging on the walls are years old. Does this describe your business? If you walked into another business and saw testimonials years old, what would go through your mind?

Can you do any word association with your products? Is there a way you can create a silly jingle for your products or services? (i.e. wacky widgets, squeaky clean mouse car cleaners, donut dusters) Even if you don't publish your jingle, it may be enough to get you thinking about your product or service in a new light. That may then suggest other marketing ideas for you. Have fun with the jingle, the only person who may ever hear it could be you. Be sure to record all of your attempts, then come back to your attempts another day. Taking several days to create a jingle and then review it may help to again find new advertising ideas.

Hopefully some of these questions will trigger other ideas for you, they are not meant to be followed religiously, but they are intended to get your creative ideas flowing so that you can come up with even more creative ideas for your specific products or services. With luck you will discover a business breakthrough that will allow your business to be even more profitable than it currently is.

Check out our website if you are interested in adding a second income to your current portfolio. We may have something that will compliment what you are currently doing, or we may have an opportunity that will expand what you want to do.

Until tomorrow...

4 Tips to keep moving your small business forward

Tonight we are going to cover 4 tips to keeping your small business moving forward. In the current economy, it is very easy to find that your business is not moving forward and may even be moving backwards. Instead of considering packing it all in and calling it quits, now is the time to get back to basics. New, trendy ideas right now are not what is going to gain your customers' trust, they are tired of empty promises. What is really going to resonate with your customers is good, old fashioned customer service.

As we have become more digitized, we are losing the personal touch with people, in particular our customers. How many people now choose to order products directly from the Internet instead of dealing directly with a living, breathing person. Granted, since we are all so busy, it is extremely easy to order products and some services over the Internet, but now is the time to find a way to personalize your customer's Internet experience. So many websites gather e-mail addresses, names, phone numbers, but none the ones I have seen actually thank you for providing that information. I am personally uncomfortable providing all that information when I know what I want to order. I worry about receiving mountains of junk e-mail after submitting that information. It is important as a small business to collect this information, but perhaps instead of collecting it in order to send out more marketing pieces, perhaps you would want to send out a nice, homey, friendly (and SHORT) letter to your customers, thanking them for their patronage. Do not sell them anything, just thank them for coming to you with their request. If you want to open a dialog with them, ask them for any suggestions to improve their shopping experience. I like to periodically (about once or twice a year) send just a little news letter that is entertaining. I will not sell anything directly, but will provide my website and phone number at the bottom if the recipients are interested. You want your customers curious and happy about receiving occasional messages, not dreading all your selling pieces. This friendly, fun newsletter will keep your name uppermost in your customer's mind without all the negative feelings.

Another suggestion to keep your business moving forward is to do the right thing for your customers, even if may not be the most profitable thing for you to do. Customers will remember a bad experience 3 times longer than they will remember a positive experience. If there is a problem with your customer's order and you catch it before your customer does, do the right thing and correct the error instead of waiting for the customer to come to you. It may hurt initially, but your customer will remember your diligence far longer than your brief pain. Your customer will happily tell all their friends about your integrity and honesty when you correct a problem before they even knew about it. Sitting back and hoping the customer will not notice a problem is not realistic. Sometimes customers will discover a problem and if it is minor, will not let you know. The downside is that they will probably not ever shop with you again. You may not know how many customers you lose this way, you may just notice a decrease in customer activity. If you find a problem, be proactive, let your customers know and resolve it without being asked to. This gesture will increase your loyal customer base much faster than you can imagine.

The third tip is to treat your customers like family. No, not like a dysfunctional family, but care for them. Listen to their concerns, because those concerns may provide clues for you to assist your customers further. Families talk with each other, air their concerns and offer support to each other. Do the same for your customers. Listen to their concerns, strive to assist them where you can, and honestly care about their well being. You have to honestly care because your customers will know if you are not sincere. Your customers will return to you more often if you stop to listen to what their needs are instead of trying to tell them what you believe they need. Family strives to help each other for the betterment of the whole, you should do the same for your customers. Then both you and your customers will win.

The last tip to help move your business forward is to over deliver on your promises. This all goes back to good customer service. I am not suggesting always giving more product than what the customer purchased, but to be sure you go above and beyond what your customer was expecting. Remember the days of the "bakers dozen"? If you purchased a dozen donuts, the baker might throw in an extra donut. Didn't you feel special when you found that extra donut? Do a little something extra for your customer. It does not need to be expensive, but provide a little extra service or product so that your customer will be smiling when they see what they have. Especially now, when money is tight, based on your customers' needs, find something small, that won't impact your business financially, but will give great pleasure to your customers when they get a little extra something with their purchase. If you have products to deliver, always be sure to deliver on or before the date you told your customer. They will always appreciate accurate and timely deliveries.

Following these for tips may make the difference between remaining successful or closing your doors. Remember to treat your customers with respect, do what is right, not what you think you can get away with, care for your customers like you would your family and lastly over deliver on what you promise. These four tips will pay dividends for years to come.

If you are looking for a business opportunity that requires minimal cash outlay, check our our website. We offer business opportunities in stem cell nutrition, Pre-Paid legal services and Mona Vie - a nutritional drink. We can also help you start up your own waterless technology vehicle detailing business if that is what you are interested in. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Until tomorrow...

Millionaire Focus

Hi guys, sorry about being offline for the last 2 days. As you know, I have been taking Saturday's off, but this last Friday, I was so tired after it got dark, I fell asleep. I then intended to post on Saturday to make up for my missed Friday, but again fell asleep. I guess I needed the rest. I am back in the saddle this evening and will pick up tonight where we should have been on Friday - Millionaire Focus.

Tonight, we are going to cover some spending tips that are used by various modern millionaires. As we have discovered in prior posts, many of our modern millionaires do not spend money like we had seen in the past. Many do not go in for the gigantic estates, the fancy cars, etc. Many modern millionaires are much more frugal and it could be useful to see what they do and perhaps mimic some of their behaviors.

Forbes posts a list of the world's billionaires, and as of 2010, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu (Carlos Slim) currently holds the number one spot for being the world's richest billionaires. He is now richer than Bill Gates ad Warren Buffett as being the wealthiest person on earth. He is also known for his frugality. His net worth is somewhere around 60.6 billion dollars. What that means to you and me is that he can spend $1,150 a minute for the next 100 years before he runs out of money. What would you do with that much money.

Part of Carlos' frugality includes living in the same home for more than 40 years. Just because you have the money does not necessarily mean you need to get a larger home. The key is to keep your home simple, get the best you can, within your means. Before you go out and purchase that huge mansion, ask yourself, do you REALLY need all that extra space? With a larger home comes larger maintenance costs (electric, water, cleaning, etc.). Consider all the costs involved with a larger home and determine if the larger home is necessary for your comfort, or if you are just looking for a larger, more expensive home because you want to impress friends and neighbors. By keeping your home simple, you should be keeping your costs more reasonable. Just because you may be making large quantities of money now, does not mean that cash flow will continue indefinitely. By keeping things simple, you are increasing your chances of success for the long term.

Another trick many millionaires use it to purchase their clothes off the rack. Do you really have to have that designer outfit that costs hundreds of dollars? Will anyone really care how much you spent on your clothes. Make sure you have good quality clothes, but you do not need to go overboard on clothing. Some frugal billionaires believe it is not worth the effort or expense to purchase designer clothing. Heck, you may meet some billionaires who predominantly wear jeans and a t-shirt. It is not the clothes that make the person, but rather the person who makes the clothes.

Carlos Slim also does not own a yacht or a plane. He does not spend on any luxury items that he does not need. The key to remaining wealthy is to reduce the amount that you spend. If you do not purchase what you don't need, you can invest your money elsewhere, where it will work for you instead. You should not be working for all the "toys" you purchase. Making your money work for you instead of the other way around will help you to continue to grow rich. Another billionaire who skips many luxury items is Warren Buffett. He believes that "Most toys are just a pain in the neck."

As we continue our our odyssey of examining millionaires and billionaires, we will most likely continue to discover a commonality, that most of these people are extremely frugal. If we can reduce the amount of money we spend on things we really don't need (analyzing want versus needs...) we stand a better chance of keeping our money where it belongs, in investments. If we spend less than we make, and reinvest the money we have saved, then there is a good chance that we too can enter the ranks of the millionaires. If nothing else, we will become richer without having to work much harder.

If you are looking for a second income stream to help build your cash portfolio, you may find some interesting business opportunities on our website. Please feel free to contact us with any questions regarding the business opportunities we offer. If we don't have what you are looking for, we may be able to at least point you in the right direction.

Until tomorrow...

More thoughts on Millionaires

As you may be aware, we have been having a weekly discussion on modern millionaires and what they do in order to create their wealth. I have been researching the people who did not start with a lot of money, but now are worth millions. The thought process is that if we can understand how they managed to become millionaires, then we can do the same thing. Granted there are occasions where millions were made by being in the right place at the right time, but that is not always the case.

Last week we talked about our perceptions of what a millionaire is and why shouldn't we be one of them. We reviewed some of the strategies these self-made millionaires used to get to where they are today. We are going to continue this line of thought tonight.

Two of the traits of millionaires we have covered were to stay focused on where you want to go and to continuously educate yourself. Another very important trait that they all seem to have in common is passion. You need passion for what you do. We have talked at length about how hard it is to get a business going. If you are not passionate about what you are doing, then the work to get there will be that much harder. If you are not passionate about what you do, odds are you will not be successful. You may earn an income, but there is more to being a millionaire than just money. You need to believe in what you are offering and you need to have emotional satisfaction with what you are doing. If you are not passionate about your business, then you may be in the wrong business. Passion denotes emotional commitment that that is necessary for a successful business opportunity. That passion will carry you through both the good and the hard times.

Another commonality among modern millionaires is the fact that they make their money (even a little bit of money at first) work for them. They are not working for money. They make a point of spending far less than what they bring in. Then the money that they have saved, they reinvest in a place where that same money will grow dramatically. Obviously, the key is to find the right investment to grow your money. There are innumerable ways to make extra money to invest, but they all do require that you be willing to do the work. We all have some skill or talent that others are willing to pay for. Most importantly, you need to not spend every extra dime you earned. Take that money and invest it in at least a retirement fund or some savings fund if you don't know what else to do with it at the moment. You will be amazed at how fast that little bit of money will grow if you continuously spend less than you bring home. Even if you put the money in an interest earning savings account, your money is now starting to work for you and not the other way around.

What all the modern millionaires also have in common is their willingness to go out on a limb for what they believe in. If you are not willing to take risks, then you will most likely not earn that additional income. Again, you need to learn to take calculated risks, but if you take no risks, then your money will not grow at a very fast rate (like putting your money in an interest earning savings account that only earns 1%). You do need to take some risks in order to grow your money. Do your homework before taking that risk, but life is all about risk taking, so you might as well give it a shot. The light bulb would never have been created if Henry Woodward didn't continue to take risks. Each time he failed, he tried something else until he was able to get the light bulb to work. (Henry Woodward sold his patent for the light bulb to Thomas Edison who ultimately developed a better light bulb). The upshot here is that both of these gentlemen took a risk, calculated, but they still took a risk and followed a path that they were passionate about.

We all need to keep these in mind when we are working towards being our own millionaire.

If you are looking for a small business opportunity that may help you to earn that extra income, we may have something that would tickle your fancy. We have several business opportunities on our website, and one may just ignite that passion you didn't know you had. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Until tomorrow...

Scorpion Attacks

Just when I thought things might calm down enough for me to get back to business writing, more fun occurs. Tonight we are going to talk about scorpion attacks. Some of you may have only heard about those nasty little bugs, but for those of us that live in the desert, scorpions are very real. The worse part is they seem to be like the cockroaches of the desert. I have never, ever liked scorpions, I like them even less than spiders. At least with spiders, I catch them and throw them outside. I am not as charitable with scorpions. If I see them, they get squished, no "and's if's or but's" about it.

When I first purchased my current home, despite what the prior owner said (she flat-out lied to me..) the house was infested with scorpions. There was no where I could go where I didn't encounter scorpions. The prior homeowner even left her cats at the house and the only reason I let the cats stay was because I had been told that cats are great at getting rid of scorpions....NOT!!! A word to the wise, do not trust anyone who would willingly leave their cats behind when they sell a home, no matter what they tell you about the cat's amazing ability to keep your home safe. After about a year of squishing scorpions myself, I fired the cats and found a loving home for them (I am allergic to cats, couldn't just give them to a shelter..). After that, I had an exterminator come in regularly to rid the house of unwanted scorpions (and millipedes and all other nasty bugs that were poisonous..)

Since then, the house has been mainly scorpion free. I usually find a scorpion in the house about once or twice a year, that's it. Well, since we have been on the road, I have not had the exterminator in the house (obviously) for a good period of time. Arizona has also apparently had a pretty wet year, and the scorpions are out in force.

So, today, as Steve and I were sitting down in preparation for a conference call, he starts fidgeting with his ear and then begins yelling he was bit... I figured he just poked himself with his hangnail..(yeah, he gets no respect at all...) or pulled a wild hair, but he did start bouncing around and continued yelling. As he is bouncing all over the place claiming he was now stung (a second ago it was bit, then stung, then bit...you get the idea he had NO IDEA what was going on...) we started frantically looking for the culprit so we knew how to counter the bit/sting. We found nothing, which was no surprise. Steve was still bouncing all over, literally flipping anything on the floor over in hopes of finding something, the dogs were frantic and barking, I am trying to methodically find the bug and all of this is happening in a 10x12 room that does have furniture in it... I end up going to the kitchen (still believing he got stung by a spider) to mix a batch of baking soda and water to calm the bite down and then slap the mess on his neck. Try doing that to someone who won't sit still because he couldn't find the offender...

Steve claimed he flicked whatever it was onto the floor, but also tore his shirt off his body. Eventually, after exhausting all other means of searching, he picks up his shirt (I think he was planning on putting it on...) only to discover the offender on the back of his shirt, that nasty little bugger, the bark scorpion. He then proceeds to freak out again, wad the shirt up into a ball and start running for the pool. I wasn't sure what was going in the pool, the shirt, him, the scorpion or the whole group... What we did was lock the dogs inside, we had the shirt, Steve and the scorpion outside. Next task was to squish the bugger, but Steve was barefoot, bare handed and not thinking straight. I take off my flip flops and hand one over so Steve could have the pleasure of the total annihilation.

Steve slapped at that nasty little bugger (about two inches long including it's tail) until it was not twitching anymore. Then, to add insult to injury, Steve grabs some box tape, catches the remainder of the squished scorpion on the tape and proceeds to tape the dead scorpion with detached tail (something about repeated slaps with a flip-flop made the tail break...go figure) onto a piece of paper. He is now carrying that whole mess around with him. We do a quick search on the Internet to find out solutions to scorpion stings and basically found that if you don't have an allergic reaction, you just have to tough out the pain of the sting (which feels like a white-hot pin stuck in your skin) for the next 24 - 48 hours. After that, we did take a trip to the local Fire Department to make sure Steve was not experiencing any of the potentially fatal reactions to a scorpion sting (he wasn't and the FD guy was not entirely impressed with Steve's scorpion stuck on paper...).

So, Steve gets to spend the next 24 - 48 hours with a very sore neck (right behind the ear) and just basically pissed because he got stung. Needless to say, I will have the bug guy back shortly to the house to treat it for all kinds of critters that bite and sting. Steve will survive, his pride is not quite intact, but given a few days, you can bet that 2 inch scorpion will grow in size...even though we still have the exact proof of "who done it...". Now you know what happens when a scorpion attacks, it is not fun, but at least all involved survived...and I think Steve will be carrying that little bugger around with him for some time to come.

Next time you see Steve, ask about his pet scorpion...hehehehe...

For those of you who had been hoping for a more serious business article, that should occur tomorrow, unless we have more excitement. Otherwise, if you are looking for business opportunities, check out our website for some ideas. Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions regarding the opportunities listed on the website.

Until tomorrow...

There is no magic bullet

Tonight's topic is regarding the myriad of e-mails I have been receiving about the latest and greatest "magic bullet" that will make all of my financial woes go away. Personally, how did they know I had any financial woes, and really, it is none of their business if I did have any woes at all. My woes are my problem unless I consult someone else and these people are complete strangers to me. Even still, I am compelled to read some of these messages, not because I am looking for that magic bullet, but because I am curious as to what the particular company/person is trying to get me to purchase. Another reason I like reading these messages is that it gives me ideas about what not to do. Sometimes you really have to wonder about people, and how many would really purchase the latest and greatest system to do all the work for them and the money just rolls in.

Honestly, who in their right mind really and truly believes that there is a magic bullet system out there that can resolve all their financial woes? Really... Guess what folks, there is no magic bullet. The only 'magic bullet' I have ever know is good, hard, honest work. That's it. If you want something done, you have to work at it in order to get it done. You cannot think it done. You may believe you can think things done, but there has to be some exchange of energy to get other things done. It is the law of physics. Money does not just roll in your door just because you purchased this nifty computer program and it is doing all your selling for you. Come on, do you really believe that?

Granted systems do work, but not the way most of them are promoted. Systems work because somebody did the work and figured out a way to streamline a process. Purchasing a system may be helpful to your small business because is streamlines a process, but you need to look critically at what you are being offered. Will it resolve some problem that you have been struggling with? Will it do a particular task that you have been manually doing? The bigger question is, what does the person selling the program get out of this? If it is just money for the program, and the program works for what you need, great, it's not a magic bullet, but a solution to a particular problem you are having. Otherwise, if this 'system' is going to generate leads for you to sell someone else's stuff, how can that really help you? You may read about how Joe Blow earned a six-figure income in the first 4 weeks of using the system, but Joe Blow may have been the first person to use the program.

The minute this program is offered to the world for sale, do you really think that it is going to work for everyone? It MAY work for the first few who use it, but my bet is that it will not work for everyone. If it did, you wouldn't see any other offers out there, would you? If one system worked as well as it is promoted to, and generated as much money as they claim for EVERYONE, then EVERYONE would have gotten on the bus and there would be no more competition. But you are probably seeing at least 2 or 3 offers for the latest and greatest magic bullet that will solve all of your financial worries on a daily basis. If they discovered the one solution to all your problems, why are there so many other "solutions" out there?

What I find interesting is that I am receiving the same offer for a particular software solution from several different people (none of whom I know). The wording is slightly different, but they are all hawking the exact same system just adding different bonus packages to it. If it works so well, why is everyone selling it? Would you give away your company secret because you have already made all the money you possibly want? Come on now...really? I believe there are people out there who have made as much money as they want, and that is fine. Those people also most likely give back to their community by helping others. I just seriously doubt that those same people would tell you that they purchased this one program that solved all of their problems and they want to sell that system to YOU. It's just not there.

We have been doing a weekly series on modern millionaires and the common theme within this series is that the particular person worked their tail off getting to where they are today. There was no magic bullet, there was no working 2-3 hours a day to make their millions. They worked hard, they put in long days for YEARS to get to where they are now. They also had bumps in the road, there were failures, but then as they worked, there were also fabulous successes. But the common thread to all of those millionaires is that they WORKED for what they have today.

Some of them were lucky, found a niche that worked well for them, found a need that had been previously untapped, but even with that luck there was a lot of good-old fashioned work (sweat equity) involved to making those millions. I have not met or read about one modern millionaire who just waved their hands in the air, purchased one 'magic bullet' software program and "POOF" all the money they could ever want came rolling into their life. There is no magic bullet, no matter how much you wish there was. Heck I really wish there was a magic bullet that would solve all of my financial woes.

When you see offers for systems that will make you a six-figure income in a short period of time, take a step back and really look at what they are offering. Is it something that you could really and honestly use? We have talked about additional income streams, and having more than one income stream is important, but take a good hard look at what is being offered. I have seen a frightening number of people get bamboozled into purchasing programs that they don't need, won't use, or don't understand and then wonder where the money is. Do not lose your head when you read these offers.

Keep in mind, if you expect to make money, there will be a large amount of work involved. It will not be easy, but in the end, you will be able to look back on it all with pride and see that you earned every penny you have. There are good, legitimate business opportunities out there, but as in any opportunity, there will be work of some type involved. The key is to find the business opportunity that suits your personality, your work ethic, your passion. If you are doing something you are passionate about (we have covered this before too...), then it won't feel much like work, but there will be (should be) some version of sweat equity in any business opportunity you enter into.

There is no magic bullet. Do not expect to purchase one thing that will solve all of your problems. How do they know what your problems are? How do they know how much money you want to make? And again, how do they know that this will work all the time, every time.

In a nutshell, when presented with other opportunities or solutions, look carefully at what is offered. Focus on what they are selling, do not get lost in all the wonderful stories they will tell you about how Joe Blow and Jane Doe made so much money while they slept. Look at what is being offered, how it works, and then ask yourself, if it is so great, why are they selling it to everyone? A bigger question to ask is, "Will it blend well with what I am currently doing?" Don't lose sight of your core competency. If you wander out of what you are good at, you will probably not do well in the new endeavor. Even if you are told this is an "Exclusive Offer", do you personally know the person who is making this offer to you? If not, then odds are that same message is being sent to thousands of people at the same time. Look before you jump.

If you are looking for second income streams, we do have some different ones that may interest you. Not all business opportunities are for everyone, so look carefully and ask a lot of questions. If we do not have anything that is interesting to you, send us an e-mail, even though we may not offer a solution, we may know someone, somewhere that may have what you are looking for. We are here to help, and if we refer you to someone else, we do not get compensated for the referral, nor would we want to be compensated. It is not our style. Happy hunting, feel free to shoot us an e-mail if you have questions, we may be able to assist. If not, we will tell you that too..

Until tomorrow...