Best small business idea it s all about you

Getting More Focused -- It’s All About You Jeanna Pool from Catalyst Creative writes a great ezine on marketing each month. In January she shared 5 Great Marketing Tips for 2006. Number 1 was “Stop Focusing on You”. She declares 2006 the year of the client and exhorts you to focus totally on your clients and their needs. I think she’s right on. And I think she’s completely wrong. Why right and wrong? Because if you’ve been in business for awhile and have great products and great services and aren’t getting the results you want, you may be too focused on your clients and not focused enough on yourself. Last week, I encouraged your to revisit your vision of your business and ask yourself why you started your business in the first place. Now I want you to focus even more on what you want. What exactly do you want out of your business? Do you want more money? If so, how much? Write down a number. Do you want more flexible hours? If so, write out exactly the schedule you’d like. Do you want to change the world? If so, write out specifically how that would look. Why all this focus on you? Because if you aren’t absolutely clear on what you want, how are you going to know if you are successful? How are you going help your clients if you aren’t taking care of yourself as well. Maybe you need to be making $150,000 a year to provide your family with the life that you wanted. You want to send your kids to college. You want to retire while you are still in active and in good health. Or maybe you want to just make an extra $20,000 a year working part-time while you take care of your children until they are in school. Or perhaps your goal is to make a million dollars a year and live a really incredible life. Defining this is very important. Why? Because what you want will shape your business. It will determine who your customers are and how you will help them. If you want $5,000,000 in sales, your products and methods are going to be a whole lot different than if you want $50,000 in sales. If you want to work only afternoons, that is going to shape your business as well. If you want to sell your business and retire in five years, that’s going to affect your decisions as well. So right now, get out a paper and pen and get ready to write. Did you get your pen and paper out? Answer the question, “What do I want out of my business?” Write in as much detail exactly what you want your business to give you. Be as specific as possible. Write as much as you can. Think income, lifestyle, schedule, partners, travel, location, employees. What exactly do you want? Throughout the week, add to this and revise itpare where you are right now to what you really want. How large is the gap? Next week, I’ll help you create a plan to narrow the gap with: Why Business Plans Don’t Work -- How to Create an Effective Action Plan

Bad beat

If you aren’t familiar with bad beat jackpots, let me explain. In most brick and mortar casinos there is a progressive jackpot that builds over time, called the bad beat jackpot. Poker rooms usually take out a dollar or two out of every raked pot and put it into? the bad beat jackpot. The rules for hitting the jackpot are different in each casino. At some casinos you only need Aces full of Jacks or better beaten, while some casinos offer even harder beats such as a four of a kind beaten. In most card rooms, you must also be playing at a limit table. No limit games generally don’t qualify, as the jackpot would be hit much more frequently with players constantly all in and seeing every card the board has to offer. When a bad beat happens and is verified, everyone gets paid. The structure for a bad beat jackpot payout also varies from casino to casino. It is common to see the losing hand receive 40% of the jackpot, the winning hand receive 25% of the jackpot, the rest of the table split 15% of the jackpot, and the rest of the poker room split the remaining 20%. As you can see, when someone hits a jackpot, there is plenty of room for everyone to celebrate. In the last four years I’ve played countless hours of poker in casinos in Missouri, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma and had never experienced a bad beat jackpot until last night. I headed up to Cherokee Casino, in West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma, with a buddy of mine, to get a few hours of play in. While waiting for our seats to open, we sat down in fairly loose $4/$8 limit game. In this poker room, $4/$8 limit is the lowest limit game offered, so it feels much like playing $2/$4 and $3/$6, where having 7 callers pre-flop on a raised hand is common and where Aces hardly stand a chance. We had only been playing for about 30 minutes when it all went down. I was sitting in seat 9, with a loose player sitting to my right, in seat 8. This player was 23 years old and was also a dealer at the casino. (In the larger casinos, usually if you are a dealer you are not allowed to play in games in your own card room, but this isn’t a rule at Cherokee Casino.) The player in seat 8 was holding JJ and the player in seat 5 was holding QQ. The majority of this hand was heads up and the final board was: J J Q Q 4 Both players were trying to slow play their hands so the betting didn’t get very high until the river, where the player with JJ 3 betted the pot and was all-in for his last few dollars. Our table was only half paying attention because this pot didn’t seem very exciting. The player in seat 8, holding the JJ, turned up his jacks to show his quads and said, “Can you beat this!” with a smirk on his face. The table woke up a little because a player was showing four Jacks. The player in seat 5 smiled big and said, “Sure can!” and turned over his quad Queens. Only about three players at the table really knew what this meant; it was bad beat jackpot time. After about a few seconds of explaining the situation, everyone at the table, except for the two first time players, knew what was happening and the table erupted in cheers. Players from around the poker room were surrounding our table trying to see what had happened. After all, usually players don’t start cheering and jumping around at a $4/$8 limit table. The bad beat jackpot was up to a little over $80,000. After about an hour of camera checking, card checking, paper work, and verification, the bad beat was confirmed with 4 Jacks losing to 4 Queens. The player next to me, with the 4 Jacks, won $32,000. The player across from me, with the 4 Queens, won $20,000. The other 7 players, including my friend and me, split $12,000, which ended up being about $1720 apiece. The rest of the poker room players ended up getting around $130 a head. The two first-time players at our table had no idea what was going on and why they were being handed $1700 in cash. We made sure to tell them poker wasn’t always this easy. After playing for a few more hours and never leaving our $4/$8 seats, it was time to head home. Not a bad night, at the $4/$8 tables. Internet Black Jack Betting and Casino @ WagerWeb

Stag weekend in budapest the thrill of horse racing

: Budapest, with its perfect blend of eastern and western cultures, is the best locale for a stag weekend. Referred to as the “Paris of the East”, this stag weekend venue will provide you with all that you can ask for - beautiful landscapes and undulating hills on one side, and shops, restaurants, markets and exciting nightlife on the other. The Pilis Mountains provide an ideal location for all sorts of adventure sports and rally driving stag activities. If you feel fatigued after some hectic stag weekend activities, you can definitely visit one of the numerous outdoor thermal spas to relax yourself. Filled with bars, pubs, clubs, restaurants and open-air dance clubs, Budapest is the best place for spending your stag weekend. Stag Do in Budapest – Bet it up at the Traditional Tracks From quad biking, paintball, horse racing, five a side football matches to thermal baths and bacchanalian spa, Budapest is filled with stag weekend activities. One of the most exciting stag weekend activities in Budapest is the thrill of Horse Racing at the traditional Hungarian racetracks. More attractive than the actual horse racing is the price at which you can buy a can of beer – this stag venue is the best place for extremely cheap beer and liquor. This is one of those stag weekend activities where you get a chance to place your bet. Bet it up at the traditional racetracks of Hungary. Sit at the gallery and watch the fun as the horses perform carriage and gallop racing for you. Remember to keep your fingers crossed; you may even win the bet! Don’t worry about your stomach; there is constant supply of food available to purchase on-site. Chillisauce makes sure that this stag weekend of yours turns up to be the best stag weekend you ever had. You will be provided with transportation, a proper guide and rounds of beers. The Benefits of a Stag Do in Budapest Chillisauce, after years of fine-tuning, live, eat and breathe stag dos thus making your stag weekend in Budapest a perfect one. The horse racing in Budapest is one of the best stag weekend activities; as it absorbs you completely in the game, and makes you feel one with the game. Apart from providing a steady supply of beer and entertainment, this stag weekend activity relieves your mind and cheers you up from the core of your heart.

Dealing with diabetes to enjoy healthy aging

Dealing with Diabetes to Enjoy Healthy Aging Learning to deal with diabetes is never easy. It is bad enough we have to live in a greed-based world filled with confusion, violence, media junk, and so on. Still, those with diabetes can live healthy providing they adhere to diet, medications and exercise. Diabetes is a serious condition. The disease is the mother of all disease in the world and it is a killer. What is diabetes? Diabetes is a disease that you can get if you do not eat right or take care of your body. Genetics play a part in diabetes as well. In fact, hereditary is a hard cause of the problem. The disease can cause blindness. The disease can lead to amputation of legs, or feet. Diabetes is a disease that when your body does not produce enough insulin to break down sugar in the bloodstream. Diabetes includes two types, yet various levels are considered. Diabetes includes Diabetes Insipidus and Mellitus. The first diabetes is where your body is incapable of producing enough insulin to do what its supposed to do. This type of diabetes is treatable. You will need medications, exercise and strict diet to maintain your health. Diabetes Mellitus has five types. Each type results from insulin interruptions whereas the system is disrupted. The disruption causes chaos within the body’s ability to function. The body cannot act naturally and it takes insulin shots to treat this condition depending on the type. How would I know that I have this disease called diabetes? If you go to your doctors on a regular basis, your doctor will monitor your health. If you have family history of diabetes, let your doctor know so he/she can conduct random testing. A glucose test is necessary to find diabetes. Blood lab tests are useful also to spot diabetes. What you should watch for? Drinking but not filling your thirst quench. If you feel fatigue often and don’t know, then you should be tested. Diabetes, depending on the type makes a person feels weak, endure pain, lose weight, gain weight, etc. The disease is so confusing to the bodily functions that it doesn’t know the direction to head. What can I do to help me not to get this disease? No one has control over disease but you. If you adhere to regular checkups, the doctor can spot the disease at an early stage, which the disease then can be managed. You need to eat right and do excises daily to help maintain your weight, since diabetes takes delight in feeding the disease to the point of death. What happens to those with diabetes? Unfortunately, the disease is not partial. The disease targets young and old alike. Once the disease develops it puts the person at risk of blindness. Some people lose their legs or other limbs resulting from diabetes. Most people with diabetes are at risk of kidney failure. If you already have diabetes then listen to your doctor and follow all instructions. One of the top recommendations to diabetes patients is to consume much fluids. Your body is losing fluids as diabetes drains your bodily organs of its natural elements. You will also need to avoid saturated fat foods and basic sugars. In addition, your doctor will need to test you regularly to control your illness. You want to take care when diabetes is present since it can lead to meningitis, headaches, tachycardia, dehydration, muscle weakness, pain, and so on. In addition, you may endure blurred vision, sexual dysfunctions, slow healing, and so on. Again, diabetes is a killer; so take care of your health.

Impressing your customers is easy with 3 guaranteed tactics

Customer satisfaction isn't one single act, but a group of actions that work together to make their experience a pleasant and satisfying experience. You've probably eaten at a restaurant where the food was wonderful, but the service slow and unprofessional. Somebody was doing a good job, but your overall experience wasn't up to par. There are three areas of service that work together to impress your customers. Provide good service in these three areas, and they'll be back... time and time again. 1. Instant Response Let's face the facts... people just don't like to wait. When they walk out the door, they want to have the product at their fingertips. Hey, they may have taken weeks to decide on the purchase, but once the decision has been made, they want it NOW. The best way to make customers happy is to make the product available at the point of sale, but not all businesses are able to do that. Internet marketers obviously cannot provide immediate service, but can be sure to keep delivery time to an absolute minimum. 2. Make Buying Simple Keep the buying process as simple as possible. Customers are just like you, they hate paperwork. To an online customer, clicking on 20 different screens translates as paperwork. It's annoying, time consuming, and a turn off. Use the "easy as 1, 2, 3" idea as a selling point in your advertising campaign. Busy and tired customers take notice, and you'll see results! 3. Give Customers Personal Attention Good listeners are hard to come buy. The world is full of people trying to sell us something, or trying to persuade us to their viewpoint. You want to make an impact? Learn to listen to your customers. Make it easy to ask questions. Yeah, yeah, I know. That's time consuming and you don't have time to spare. But listen, you'll find that a lot of questions are repeated over and over again. Create a frequently asked question form, and you'll be able to answer a lot of consumer questions without sacrificing as much of your time.

Money is emotional

Pathfinder operates on 10 principles originating from books “Money Mastery” by Alan Williams and Peter Jeppson and “The Richest man of Babylon” by George Clason as well as information I’ve learned over the years. Principle No. 1: money is emotional. When we make and spend money, it’s an emotional event. When we get a raise, we celebrate. When we get laid off, our routine and activities are often derailed because of it. Most of our spending patterns are emotional. For example, we don’t plan ahead of time to buy a car. Daily, we’re barraged with ads and commercials that tug at our emotions. Even if you deserve the new item and you’ve been working hard, you still bought the item emotionally. The point: If we can acknowledge money is emotional, we can then plan and master its power over us. We’ll never change the fact that money is emotional, but we can change our spending behavior. Student testimonials say tracking their spending helps them realize how much they actually spend. Tips from those who have curbed their spending are helpful: >Paying with cash helps some people spend less (compared to paying with credit cards or by check) >Shop with a plan or list and stick to it > Get an accountability partner, someone who you can share what you purchased during the week. >Instead of ordering two full meals when they go out to dinner with someone (taking home leftovers), split a meal and order an appetizer or dessert instead.

What to say to is this a pyramid scheme

On a call yesterday following the pyramid post, people wanted to know what to say if, they're presenting the business or product, someone pops the question, "Is this a pyramid?" Before you brainstorm over your winning comeback, how about a quick check to see whether 1) your company acts like one or not, or 2) if you are acting like one (without realizing it, of course)? Here's the question we discussed: 1. Is your business all about recruiting? If so, you are acting like a pyramid, according to Rushkoff's book, Coercion: "a pyramid scheme is...[where] the need to subscribe newcomers outweighs whatever benefits the products or system has to offer. Many MLMs sell distributorships more than cosmetics [name your product or service - KK]." Yes of course you want to recruit reps - but if that's all you do, you are in the pyramid zone, because you give the impression that the product and customers don't matter, except to sell distributorships. Everyone quickly re-evaluated what they were doing to be sure they weren't coming across like that. All could see how a fixation on doing 1. above might give someone else the impression that "Yep, there goes one of those pyramid schemers." After a quick review of 9 different company pay plans (of distributors on the phone) it became clear - it's true what the recruiters say: "There's no money in customers. All the money's in the recruiting." Company owners decide where to put the money they pay their reps. Say a network marketing company pays out to the field, 50% of what it takes in. They have complete disgression on how to divide that up - between paying for recruiting and amassing customers (for those companies that make the recruiter/customer distinction - and some don't.) So, how much were companies paying for getting customers (who were not also distributors)? On product orders ranging from $85-120, some people reported getting paid from 0 - 7%. In one company, they got nothing on those customer orders if they hadn't reached a certain position in the company based on their sales; and for other companies, the reps reported getting 5 or 6% for orders of $100. (A few paid more. List to be posted soon.) Five bucks for a hundred dollar customer order? There are much easier ways to make money than that! However, for recruiting, we got much higher returns. With sign-up bonuses and fast start bonuses of $50-350 or more, for orders ranging from $300-1000. Who else wouldn't rather make $50 than $5 for making one sale? Big money in selling distributorships (which may include products). Versus getting just customers. So yes, companies whose pay plans are weighted so much to recruiting are acting like a pyramid. Worse, they make their reps look like it too, since they want to get the most return they can for their time, and would rather make $50 than $5. Who wouldn't? Well, as they say, if it quacks like a.... Oh. What to say to that question, "Is this a pyramid" (or 'one of those things')? One option (we discussed several): Let me tell you what we do, and you can call it whatever you want ok? PAUSE We market products directly to consumers, people like you and me, and we also find people who want to do that with us. You think you could do that if I showed you what to do? (That's from the Truth book.) And yes, there are other options...for another post...send in yours that have helped. (Use 'Comments' below).