Posts tagged business

Embracing the stress (and 5 simple solutions to transforming stress)

By on May 13, 2012

coping with stressAs explained in a previous post, I believe that challenges will come on any journey of significance. Indeed if they did not the masses would pour down those paths making them crowded and they would become routes with less reward.

Challenges bring with them stress. This is natural yet many try to avoid the stress, or think it is a sign they have made a wrong decision.

When a tree grows it requires the stress of the wind to make it grow strong. No wind and the tree grows weak.

is not the solution. Learning to understand and work with it is.

It is all too easy to allow stress to accumulate, build and become ovwhelming. This is dangerous for our physical health, the health of our personal relasionships and the quality of our descisions.

Yet stress in business is simply a matter of perspective. Often in retrospect many stressful situations can have a positive outcome, or if managed well can be the catalyst required to take necesary action.

So how then do we deal with stress as it occurs?

Here are 5 simple solutions to not only cope with stress, but to embrace it.

1) See . This is about shifiting your entire perspective on what you do. If you play a game with you will know that it is not always easy. It is full of ups and downs, and sometimes blood, sweat and tears. But ultimatley you do it because you love it.

It is a matter of finding the balance between taking the game seriously enough to play it to the best of your ability, to live and breathe it, to spend your spare time learning more, and not taking it so seriously as to believe that the outcome of any individual game is life and death, or a reflection of you personally.

Seeing business as a game that you will not win every round, and that is something you are CHOOSING to play helps relive the pressure more than you may think.

2) Meditate. Do not underestimate this simple step. I once saw Michael Hill talk at a business seminar. Michael is one of New Zealands most men, and when asked for his number one tip to be successful he replied learn to meditate.

Not learn accounting or go to business school. Meditate.

Just 20 minutes each day will help you relax more, cope with stress better and make better business decisions. Too many people claim (in the past myself included) that they don’t have time. I can assure you that when you meditate the time you do work will become far more productive and easily offset the time spent meditating.

3) Aceppt making mistakes is inevitable.

If you are not making mistakes you are not taking action.

Another way to put this is:

‘if you are not making mistakes you are not making money’

No one gets it right every time. No one. So don’t be hard on yourself. Making a mistake means you did something.

The trick is to learn from your mistakes and try again. When you make it OK for yourself to make mistakes you relieve a lot of the stress and pressure from yourself to get it right every time.

This acceptance is a type of Tai Chi for the mind. Redirect the energy of stress from attacking you to attack the problem and trying again.

4) Eat well. Not rocket science, but so few people do.

Stress burns a lot of essential nutrients. Knowing this and eating well to support this process will help you better cope and even thrive in times of stress.

Good preparation is better than a good cure.

Eat fresh fruit and vegetables, minimize or eliminate refined carbohydrates (including sugar), limit the amount of coffee you drink and supplement with power foods such as bee pollen.

This will give you both physical and mental strength to keep going through challenging periods when others would give up.

5) Excercise. Another of my key inspirations in business, Sir Richard Branson, gave his top advice to business owners – excericse regulary.

Again he did not say go to Harvard, get an MBA or any other such typical advice.

Excerise helps release endorphins that can make you feel more positive, circulate nutrients and oxygen to the brain helping improve the quality of your thinking and is a channel for relieving any excess stress.

It is not so important what excerise you do, so long as you do something.

That’s it. 5 simple things anyone can do to better deal with stress. But as with any advice you will only see results if you put it into action.

Don’t believe me, try it for yourself and see the difference. Test it out for just 10 days and I am sure you will start to feel a real difference.

 

Passion vs Profit (and the 3 myths to wealth creation)

By on May 6, 2012

passion-vs-profitDo you do what you love and the money will come?

If you listen to many self help gurus they will certainly tell you this. Certainly in some cases it is true, however I’m not so sure this is right for everyone.

That said I do not believe you should chase the money either.

Both arguments have pro’s and cons, but I think the answer may be more a hybrid of both schools of thought.

I think the first thing you need to identify is what your goal is. If it is to make a multi-million dollar company and challenge yourself and your industry on a daily basis your strategy will be quite different to a goal of having a financially ‘OK’ life, stress free focusing on your relaxing and enjoying life.

I don’t believe either choice is right or wrong, and of course there are many who fall somewhere in between. However for the purpose of this post we will assume you are looking to make some serious cash.

The first I wish to dispel is that you can sit back and watch the money flow to you if all you do is choose the right strategy. I have yet to see this happen (again I am sure there are exceptions, but the are exceptions and not the norm).

The second myth (perhaps more a common false belief I find in many students) is that if you focus on what you love it will be easy and always fun.

The third myth is that you can outsource everything and do virtually nothing while the builds itself. Again, never seen it happen. Long term this is the objective, but in the early days be prepared to get your hands dirty, and to put in hours longer than anyone else on your .

So back to the vs question…

I think that you need to be passionate about what you do. An you should believe in the purpose of whatever project you are involved with. It is this passion that will allow you to work 16hrs a day when needed, and this passion that will carry you through the challenges and setbacks every new business experiences in its startup phase.

However you should also be sure that you are not focusing on your passion if there is no potential for profit, or you have no skill in this area.

For example I am passionate about music. But I have no skill in this area whatsoever. There is potential for profit, and in theory I could create a music company, but as a musician it would be a total disaster.

There is a danger for people to mistake their passion for hobbies as a potential for business. Someone who like baking may be encouraged to open a bakery, only to find he or she hates the reality of trying to monetize this passion.

There are many methods to wealth creation. Gurus in each avenue will tout their methods as being the best. Truth is if you plan to use business (online or offline) as your vehicle to creating wealth you need to become passionate about business itself.

That does not mean you have to do everything yourself (for example accounting, legal stuff, programming, office management etc are way outside my skill sets, and difficult for be to be passionate about).

Gurus like to sell simple ideas that appeal to us. It’s what makes an easy sale and makes for simple communication. Just be aware that they are often over simplifications designed for the purpose of more than they are actual truths.

If you are starting a business understand that very few things are so black and white.

Perhaps we need a new word to describe what is required. Profassion. A blend of profit, passion and a little profanity.

Prepare for passion. Prepare for profit. Prepare for profanity during perspiration.

Do you have an MVP? (and the benefits to having one)

By on May 4, 2012

The Lean StartupMy latest read, ‘The Lean Startup’ by Eric Ries discusses an aspect of many new (and established) businesses get very wrong.

I have seen so many people fail online simply because they are ‘never ready’.

The truth is that you can always improve a product or service. The problem is you may not always know which is the most important areas to improve.

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) solves this dilemma.

By releasing the most basic functionality, or minimum amount of service, you can get to market faster. This has several benefits.

1) You can test you basic product on real . That means instead of guessing want they want you can learn what they want. (often product owners are wrong on this point)

2) You don’t waste more time, money or resources than you have to. My listening to actual users you can modify your design as needed, rather that finding you wasted time on features customers never wanted.

3) You can start making money quicker. This is a big one, especially for . You want cash flow, and fast. You can’t make money if you have not released yet.

4) You have a better chance of outside investment if you can show there are customers actually buying. If you prove people love your idea, and are willing to put money where their mouth is, then investors will be more interested.

5) You can grow steadily. This point should not be taken lightly. Rapid growth can cause the death of a company as easily as no growth. If your product, production processes or customer support has not been tested well, then fast growth can cause collapse. Using an MVP allows you to refine all aspects of your systems as you grow, giving a stronger foundation for your product or company to survive then thrive.

On the opposite end of this I also see many products released early, marketed hard and then abandoned. This is sad for the potential of that product, and for the customers who bought it.

If you want to building something long term and sustainable start with an MVP, then improve and re-release regularly.

FusionHQ Live again

By on April 27, 2012

students at the last FusionHQ live event

students at the last live event

Once again FusionHQ is proud to announce our live event in (northern Thailand).

This will be 3 days of fun, , learning and action.

Unlike most it will not be a pitch fest. we teach proven strategies, building and implementation in a fun filled environment.

The event is aimed at those who have chosen to make FusionHQ the platform from which to build their .

For more information you can see www.3waysin3days.com/live

Numbers are kept low so as to ensure maximum personal attention. Typically staff to ratios are 1 staff for every for participants.

Not only due students learn they also walk out with a business online, and the experience of having worked together to build and launch a real project.

The event will be held in the , so nothing but 5 star experience from beginning to end.

We hope to see you there…

Day 14

By on August 15, 2011

You Do NOT Have the Right to Reprint or Resell this Report!

You Also MAY NOT Give Away,

Sell or Share the Content Herein

 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without express written, dated and signed permission from the author.

 

DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES:

The information presented herein represents the view of the author as of the date of publication. Because of the rate with which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update his opinion based on the new conditions. The report is for informational purposes only.

While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided in this report, neither the author nor his affiliates/partners assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are unintentional. If advice concerning legal or related matters is needed, the services of a fully qualified professional should be sought. This report is not intended for use as a source of legal or accounting advice. You should be aware of any laws which govern transactions or other practices in your country and state. Any reference to any or person whether living or dead is purely coincidental.

 

 

Day 14

 

Welcome to today’s task, if you haven’t completed yesterdays task, go and do it before you begin this one.

I want to congratulate you on making it this far. By sticking to this 28 day training you will be building a solid foundation for your business.

Long term traffic is a very important aspect of your business. Without traffic, you have no sales. Without sales you have no business – simple as that!

Many people think well, I have a website, that’s a business.

NO

A business has , if your website doesn’t have customers it’s not a real business. In order to have customers you need traffic. Therefore traffic literally is the lifeblood of your business.

Traffic generation needs to be done on a consistent basis to maximize its effectiveness. You need to keep following these steps for maximum results.

Today you will learn something new - .

Social bookmarking is a strategy that has actually changed quite a lot over the years. Nowadays, many people are hurting their sites and not even realizing.

Truth is, most people don’t use social bookmarking correctly and are wasting a ton time and money.

In this training I go through the truth behind social bookmarking. Traditionally Social Bookmarking became popular for .

Why?

Because help you rank better in the search engines.

Nowadays nearly all of those links are worthless and a complete waste of time.

I go into more detail about it in the manual.

There are so many social bookmarking sites out there, after testing I have found StumbleUpon to be one of my favorites. It can generate a flood of traffic and most importantly – it converts.

There are so many traffic generation strategies out there, but if the traffic doesn’t convert – it’s useless.

That is why we’re focusing on long term strategies that generate qualified traffic to your website. I’d much rather 300 visitors that make 10 sales than 30 000 visitors, making 0 sales.

Anyway, social bookmarking can be a great way to drive traffic – especially if it goes viral…

So let’s get started with today’s task:

 

Social Bookmarking

1. Download your Social Bookmarking Training Manual

2. Read through the manual.

3. Create a StumbleUpon account. Be sure to select your interests for when playing around with the “Stumble!” feature.

4. Install the StumbleUpon Toolbar for your browser. Use the “Stumble!” feature.

5. Get the hang of it, “Like” some pages that interest you.

6. “Like” your best content by visiting it and clicking the “I Like It” button on your toolbar.

TIP: Only “Like” your best content once, and don’t do it to all of your content – It looks spammy and won’t do you any favors.

It is recommended to occasionally “Like” other content that isn’t yours – this will help it look more natural.

page 1

By on April 10, 2011

Forward Thinking Will Make You More Money

Before you get started on your online it’s helpful to sit back and consider what exactly you want to achieve, and why.

A bit of foresight can save you a lot of time, effort and money further down the track.

It’s wise not to rush in eager without some form of preparation. Instead position and plan your business from the very beginning.

Most people don’t do this; and then, most fail.

Be honest with yourself and your .

What would you really like to achieve? What outcome would you like your business to have? There’s no pressure to create the next Google.

Would you like to own a small business? Perhaps you want to keep your day job, but earn some extra money on the side. If so how much will your business need to make?

Maybe you would like to create a quick flood of money and then move on to a new business?

When you take time out to set yourself up for success and long-term profit, you can plan what to do in your business to ensure that happens.

The ideal position to be in, is where your product holds authority over your niche—where you lead in one powerful aspect, where no one else can threaten or touch you.

As well as setting yourself up for profit you have to be aware of your weaknesses. What are the main challenges that will impact your profitability and your journey getting there?

For many marketers it may be a fear your website simply disappears into Google’s ‘sandbox’. Is Google the main barrier to your business succeeding or not?

page 4

By on April 9, 2011

Remember to enjoy yourself

Make fun. For me, life is about enjoyment. Whatever you choose, do it because you love it.

Yes, if you chase the money you can be financially successful (despite claims by many ultraistic self help gurus), but you may not be happy. Choose both.

Business is just one part of life—a part of life that will probably occupy a large percentage of your time. It is because of this that often, the best businesses are the ones that are built by people out of .

Seeing can help you through the challenges and make it more enjoyable.  To be successful in any sport you must train hard, sometimes endure pain, and face your competitors. In the end though, it is the love of the game that will keep you playing.

Victory should be aimed for, but not the sole purpose. Have fun along the way and you will not only be happier, but far more likely to continue in the game and attain your goal.

So if your skills involve golf, maybe the best business that you’re going to create involves something to do with golf.

is a tool.

It is not an end in itself!

The point is not to become another internet marketer who sells products (unless this is an area you’re enthusiastic about).

Internet Marketing is there for you to use as a tool to create your business, or as a tool that your business uses to leverage itself.

page 3

By on April 7, 2011

By approaching traditional owners with joint venture opportunities is something that is rarely done, yet holds massive, passive potential.

For those who already operate an offline business I encourage you to read this with an open mind. If you consider yourself too busy to implement these strategies, or they’re simply not your , then consider partnering with someone who can. You will be glad you did. Whatever your starting point let’s take a look at 3 of the main reasons for taking advantage of the

3 Perks of Running an Online Business

There are so many perks of running your business from an …

1. Economic Leverage (Global Staff / Contractors)

You can leverage your business by employing staff or contractors from developing countries that you couldn’t afford in a first world country.

You can work with highly-skilled individuals at a fraction of the price. You’re not exploiting anyone when you pay above-average rates. It’s a

win-win situation that makes great business sense.

2. Minimal Set-Up Cost

If you have a computer and an internet connection, that’s all you need to get started. Even if you don’t own one personally, there’s always access

to one—at the local library, an internet café or at a friend’s house. Other than that you will need some form of hosting and at least one

domain name. This should set you back no more than about $80 or so per year.

Compare this to traditional businesses with large fixed overheads, material prices and fuel bills; the internet is a business paradise.

page 1

By on April 7, 2011

Exposed! The myths, the lies and the real science to making money anywhere (with the )

Firstly I want to say, that I wrote this because I am really pissed off. Pissed off mainly with all the bullshit out there. Having an insider view, I can

tell you straight that much of what you read from the world is little short of science fiction. And what really pisses me off most is there is no need for it.

online has so much potential as a genuine tool for , and for creating massive wealth from any . Unfortunately too many unscrupulous individuals have given it a reputation more closely connected to shady used car salesmen than to respectable professionals.

Now that’s off my chest, let me continue…

This book is for:

1) The business owner looking to leverage the internet to maximize his or her business potential. This includes generating extra leads, making more sales and generating additional online .

2) The average person looking to escape the 9-5 lifestyle, or who needs to generate an income from home (or indeed anywhere with an internet connection).

3) Any person wanting to make additional income on top of their primary income.

This book is not just about how to make money on the internet… but how to build a real, long-term, sustainable business.