Discover Your Path
From the monthly archives:
If you’re trying to do business on your terms rather than on your customers, it may be time to wake up. That is, unless you’re happy with where you are now in business.
I’d love your feedback on the length of this video. Every video I shoot is less than two minutes. Was this one too long? What do you think?
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Everyone remembers Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. There have been about 8,000 different renditions of it, many of which have been on television for the past few weeks (I’m particularly partial to Scrooged, the 1988 comedy starring Bill Murray).
Of all the themes covered during the story, I draw financial connections with the concept of Christmases past, present, and future. For many of the people I meet with, Christmas is always about eight months away – even in October. And when Thanksgiving is upon us, reality sets in that only a few weeks separate us from the annual tradition of spending money we don’t have.
Christmas Past is typically comprised of great memories (we have selective memories, of course): the kids are opening what they so passionately desired Christmas morning and we’re visiting with relatives and in-laws we haven’t seen in a long time. And each January, the piper comes along to be paid. The piper named Visa, or MasterCard, or Discover.
How did you handle this Christmas? Christmas Present is still seen in lighted trees, neighborhood manger displays, and the trash bags bursting with wrapping paper piled around your garbage can. We’re you ready for gift, food, and travel expenses this year? How much of this Christmas went onto a credit card?
It should come as no surprise that if no changes are made next year, you can expect Christmas Future to look exactly like Christmas Past and Christmas Present. The best time to begin preparing for next Christmas is January. That means you must include a line item in your January budget for Christmas. If you determine what you intend to spend for next Christmas, divide by twelve, and begin saving that each month of the year, you’ll have exactly what you need come December.
You don’t have to be a Scrooge to save money for next Christmas; get started with a budget for next month.
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I received this letter from Google last week. If you’re not using this marketing strategy you’re really missing out. Visit google.com/localbusinesscenter. It’s will take about 10 minutes to get listed and it’s free.
Click here if you can’t see the video
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A friend of mine makes wonderful homemade soap. If you like natural products then you know that just about everyone seems to be making their own brand and to selling it. Most of them will make less than $1,000 for their hard work over the next 12 months.
So a package shows up to my house with this soap and my wife, Christine, loves it. It got me thinking, what would it take for people to talk about soap?
It’s an average product and most people use it (or should use it). But even the homemade stuff is hard to talk to your friends about. Remember the last time you were so completely surprised by soap that you told everyone you know? Right, probably never.
If my friend could solicit testimonials from people actually using the soap, wouldn’t that be great? I’m not talking about at the sink, I’m talking about in the shower.
Here’s the tricky part… would you record a video in the shower all lathered up? I’d think twice about it too. But, if it was done very tastefully from the shoulders up, with just the right amount of lather and the sound of water hitting the bathtub floor in the background, a lot of your senses would be floored.
It’s going to be tough to get the first three videos, but after a small community of “insiders” has done it, everyone will want to. Throw in a few bars of free soap for every approved video and it may just become viral and the thing everyone talks about. Your video page might even make an end-of-the-year top 10 list.
I ran this by a few people and you’ll never guess who volunteered to go first. I’ll point you to the video in a few months.
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I spoke with someone recently who said he felt like he’s selling McDonald’s hamburgers in a Burger King parking lot.
Does your life feel like that? You might be doing the right things, but in the wrong place or at the wrong time?
You probably got there because you didn’t have a plan. We’re at the end of the year as I’m writing this and it’s a great time to put things in perspective regarding your future.
You’re in your current place now because the choices you’ve made put you there. There’s just no other way to put it. If you want to be somewhere else you have to not only begin making different choices, but also acting on them.
What will you chose to do differently this year to make your life better? Add to the discussion below.
Picture by eneko123
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If you do what we teach, eventually you’ll have cash left over at the end of the month. Here’s what to do with it.
Click here if you can’t see the video.
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