Scotiabank has a slogan, “You’re richer than you think” – I wholeheartedly concur.

Most of us focus on what we don’t want to happen, what we don’t like, our fears, and the bad things in our lives. You only have to open any newspaper (do people still read those?) or turn on CNN to see how bad news dominates the thoughts of the average person.

The fact is that you have access to wealth and prosperity of which you’re probably blissfully unaware.

Bear with me, and you will see both the logic in my statement and the way to turn problems and goals into hard cash.

A Mind-blowing Epiphany for Entrepreneurs

We’ve all heard the truism, “Business is finding a need and filling it”, so people rush out and find a product or service to sell, or they buy or build a business to solve problems. Then they have to sell those products or services.

That’s why 87% of new business fail in the first five years and 87% of the remaining 87% fail in the next five years.

And that’s also why most “business owners” are in fact broke, self employed salespeople, and why most entrepreneurs either have money or time, but seldom both.

The problem is that they are working BACKWARDS.

Make Money Linking Problems to Solutions

The fact is that:

1. Everyone in the world has access to resources, and everyone knows many people who have access to resources. By the same token, everyone has problems, challenges, hopes, and dreams.
2. Every business is looking for more customers and more sales, and every business has excess inventory, perishable resources and other resources, hidden assets, and customers.

There is a proven way to create unlimited, residual wealth by linking supply and demand, solving those problems, and helping people reach their goals, without limitation, cost, risk, lots of time, or even selling – it’s called Brokering Joint Ventures.

I’ve been doing it for 22 years. Very few people understand how to do this, and that’s what DollarMakers is all about – teaching people to make money by simply introducing people to solutions and being paid.

Anyone Can Do It

Anyone, regardless of their circumstances, age, education, or background, and whether they have a business or not, can create wealth by setting up Joint Ventures.

Bill needs what Sally has, so you link Bill and Sally and get rewarded. This is not a new concept, and it can be as sophisticated or as simple as you like.

You Can Profit from What Others Don’t Know

Most small and medium sized businesses operate on about 10% of their potential net profit because they simply don’t understand the concept of Joint Ventures. It’s also why so many of them fail. Joint Ventures give businesses the edge and provide them with a way to dramatically increase their profits, while lowering their risk and overhead significantly.

It’s Shawn here, Technical Director of JVWisdom.com.

Robin J. Elliott’s video ‘Creating a Bulletproof Mindset’ has been available to purchase as a DVD for 65 bucks.  For the next 15 days it will be available to view at no cost.

The feedback we’ve gotten on this DVD has been incredible.  Some people have told us they’ve watched it over 5 times in the course of a week.  It’s been a solid seller since it’s release, and we feel it’s one of the best pieces of ‘mind mastery’ material we’ve seen.  Obviously we’re a bit biased however, so I encourage you to see for yourself.

Bulletproof Mindset Video - Free for 15 days

We actually released this video at a Bootcamp Robin did in Edmonton.  We played the trailer (http://www.jvwisdom.com/bulletproof) and then before we could even give anymore info people wanted to buy their copy.

The thing was, we were only taking pre-orders because we hadn’t even gotten them printed yet!

95% of the attendees ended up pre-ordering their DVD.  We had a special price for them that day, but I can guarantee you the special price wasn’t what it is right now (nothing).

Like I said above, we’re only keeping this up to watch for the next 15 days.

http://www.jvwisdom.com/bulletproof

Oh, and have an EXCELLENT weekend everyone in the great country of the United States of America.  Enjoy your Independence Day - it TRULY is a great thing to live where the ‘American Dream’ was born!

Till Next,
Shawn Christenson
Technical Director
JVWisdom.com
JVBlogger.com

At a seminar I presented to business owners, a delegate told me that he discovered that one of his employees had cost him at least ten times what he paid her.

1. I had been telling my audience to incentivize all earnings…
2. and to link every cent earned to five cents generated in profits.

I told them that paying someone a fixed salary was not just stupid, but dangerous to one’s financial health.

Here’s his story, which adequately makes my point:

He had employed a middle-aged man whom he met at his church, and for whom he “felt sorry”, to “give him another chance”, at an above-average salary. Lots of red flags right there, but I digress.

Naturally, this “grateful” fellow promised to be the best employee he had ever had, and he went to work.

The business generated a lot of profit from back-end income, Joint Ventures, investments, and the like, and an important part of the duties of this employee was follow-up.

What the business owner didn’t understand was that he was dealing with an employee whose highest priority was to keep his job, not to create additional profit for the business. And that’s where he had made his mistake.

Why the Employee Mentality is Poison to Your Balance Sheet

The employee went through the motions of calling, closing, following up, and providing information, and completed all the required control and time sheets, but he was simply doing a job -

• he had no passion for profit or understanding of business,
• and he didn’t understand why his employer might want to make so much more money – after all, didn’t he have enough already?

His was a collectivist, altruistic, mystical philosophy, which was why he had never made money himself, and that philosophy is like poison to any balance sheet.

The Results Speak for Themselves

When the employer started getting phone calls and letters from his Joint Venture partners, his downline, his suppliers, and his customers, he started to put two and two together. He found that many of his valued customers had moved to his competition, where they got better services, more information, and more value from people who actually benefited directly from their patronage.

This employee had a lackluster, mediocre attitude when his boss wasn’t around, and we have all been exposed to that.

He realized that his lost opportunities, missed sales, lost customers, and diminished transaction values had conservatively cost him ten times what he had paid the loser that he should never have hired for that job in the first place.

The Moral(s) to the Story

An employee:

• Does the least and expects the most.
• Tells you exactly what you want to hear, and, like a politician, will bend the rules and overlook anything in order to keep his or her job.
• If they don’t receive a significant piece of new business, sales, or profits that they are responsible for generating, why should they bother? Where’s the passion and commitment?
• Their real agenda is far from that of the entrepreneur. They have no vested interest in the success or growth of the business, and they are in fact paid slaves or mercenaries. They are not capitalists.
• They will leave you for $100 per month increase, and you will never be able to pay them enough to secure their loyalty or commitment.
• A disgruntled employee can sabotage your business and reputation, and use the courts to hurt you.
• There’s a thin line between love and hate, and you tend to give your employees lots of information which they can use against you when they feel like it.

Create Overlap

Smart entrepreneurs work on creating a vested interest for people with whom they work, which we call “Overlap”. They remove the risk from their own business and force their employees to take responsibility for their duties and choices through financial incentives and commissions. They fire salaried people and rehire them on a commission only basis – no base salary, no leverage on the company except their ability to perform and produce, and no place for hidden agendas.

If that is a new concept for you, read “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand and examine the concept of Joint Ventures as presented at www.JVWisdom.com.

My Employee Free Business

After 22 years in this business, I run my business with no employees, cost, risk, overhead, or inventory. I can walk away from anyone at any time, everything I earn is 100% profit, and nobody gets to limit or sabotage me for long. Everyone with whom I work is a Joint Venture partner.

Audit Your Business to See the Truth

Audit what is really going on while the cat is away.

• Take a good, hard look at your employees.
• Shop your own business anonymously.
• Install cameras.
• Record all phone calls “for quality control.”
• Rethink the way you compensate your people, and what you are actually paying them for.

This is especially important for hiring web “masters”, often the most passive-aggressive people around, as well as secretaries, assistants, and office staff. You will find that you are paying far too much for losses, bleeding wounds, theft, and apathy than you should be.

The High Price of Altruism

By the way, when the business owner in this true story fired the loser who cost him so much money, he got sued, and his church excommunicated him for his “sinful and selfish” behavior.

You’re in business to make the maximum after-tax profit, with the least cost, risk, time, and frustration. Remember that.

In a world where we’re constantly told to slow down, dress down, calm down, pipe down, and keep your head down, with the controlled dumbing down of society to the lowest common denominator, let’s review the Winner’s Declaration, which I devised while riding my bike around Rocky Point this morning.

The Winner’s Declaration

“I accept that I am solely responsible for my present circumstances and predicament.

I have chosen my response to and my interpretation of all my options, and will continue to do so.

I acknowledge that my future will be whatever I decide to create through my own volition and choices.

I commit to remain true to my values, beliefs, and philosophy, and determine to advance tenaciously and steadfastly toward my personal goals without being diverted, slowed, or sabotaged by the opinions, words, or actions of other people.

I do not need the permission, endorsement, or agreement of any other person to achieve my objectives – I am the captain and purpose of my own life.

I accept the consequences, both good and bad, of my choices, and I progress confidently, boldly, and joyfully in the direction of my goals.

I believe in myself, I am my own best friend, and I answer only to my own conscience.

I will reach my own fullest potential. I expect to succeed. I am my own moral compass.”

Ayn Rand said:

“I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.  A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.”

If you track the lives of truly successful people, you will see they all have a history of taking action, raising their hands, and stepping up. Successful people:

• take the lead
• innovate
• break the mold
• get out of their comfort zones
• put themselves on the spot

…And they do it consistently. They immigrate, start new ventures, and volunteer. And they never quit.

But there is a BIG difference in the way winners do things to the way losers attempt things.
Begin It… and Begin It Now.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote:

“…the moment one commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

4 Things that Make Winners Successful

There are four things that make winners successful WHEN they raise their hands and take action:

#1 - Model Successful People

They model successful people – they make sure they are mentored and lead by champions, not chumps in shiny suits or pretenders that ride on the coattails of the real leaders.

• They take advice from the right people.
• They align themselves with winners and avoid losers like the plague.

#2 - Work with Successful People… Even if They’re “Competition”

They realize that they can’t do it alone – they work with other successful people.

“If you think I am your competition, I will be your competition, and you will make less money. If you realize that together, we can accomplish more, and you will get your ego in check and work with me.”

#3 - Lead Yourself

They are their own bosses, never lead, manipulated, or directed by others behind the scenes, like spouses or silent business partners. They don’t have hidden agendas.

They are their own moral compass – they don’t need gurus and witchdoctors to tell them what to think. This means that they make decisions in line with their true values and beliefs, honor their word, and never quit.

#4 - Take Consistent Action

…And they consistently take action, because it’s easy to move when your ideas, motives, and choices are aligned with your values and objectives.

#5 - Have a Winning Mindset

• They are “abundance thinkers”, which means they think big, expect a lot, and take massive action.
• They are generous and humble.
• And you won’t hear them whining about being ripped off or taken advantage of or “what’s in it for me?” all the time.
• They understand reciprocity and relationships.

A Good Example

I saw a good example of this kind of winner in the person of a young man who attended one of my Joint Venture Broker Bootcamps recently – he consistently makes good choices, takes action, steps up, and deals with the top dogs instead of their gofers and emissaries.

Tim Francis is someone who will achieve a lot, because he is smart enough and confident enough to take advice from the right people and take action until he succeeds. He raises his hand.

If you know what you want out of life, you need to create an environment that will nurture your growth and support you through the realization of your dreams. W. Clement Stone said:

“You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective.

Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success – or are they holding you back?”

Napoleon Hill said:

“We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.”

The people in your life, the books you read, and the places you go are all important factors in your environment.

The Koi Principle

Remember that the Japanese carp or koi has the natural ability to grow according to the size of its environment. Thus, in a small tank, it usually grows to no more than five to seven centimeters, but if placed in a lake, it can grow to three times that size.

If you have big, important, exciting dreams, you want to be sure to put big people and big brains and big ideas into your environment, and it’s easier than you think.

Who Will You Be in 5 Years?

Charles Jones said:

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”

Let’s just focus on these two aspects of your environment for now. But, before we do, consider what Alvin Toffler once said:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

If you’re not ready to learn, unlearn, and relearn, no amount of good books or wise people will have any impact on you.

Meet the Right People

When people who are serious about success approach me for advice, I suggest they meet certain people whom I recommend. Those who do, benefit tremendously.

Your network certainly does determine your net worth.

Great people with great minds can excite, motivate, encourage, challenge, and assist you beyond your greatest expectations. By contributing to their lives first, great people will generously reciprocate, but don’t approach them with your hand out like a beggar.

Read the Right Books

When you have read “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, you will want to read all of her books. “Atlas Shrugged” will change your life. Also read

• “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi,
• “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill,
• “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber.

By reading the books of great thinkers, you get to actually think their thoughts. That is a profound revelation for most people.

Engineer Your Environment

Every person, book, Joint Venture, and physical aspect of my personal environment is very carefully selected, and those that no longer work are removed and replaced – fast. I monitor my environment very carefully and consistently. My peace of mind, integrity, and goals are far too important to be compromised.

How about yours? How strict and selective are you about your input, influences, and environment?

Time will tell.

Bridges don’t collapse for no reason. And Joint Ventures don’t fail for no reason. A well-constructed bridge lasts a long time and does the job it was meant for, as do good business deals. The main reason why Joint Ventures don’t work are essentially very simple, and DollarMakers is designed to use our 22 years of experience to teach people how to create lucrative, long-term JV’s with no cost or risk, so that if something doesn’t work out, nobody gets hurt and we can all remain friends.

Seth Godin brought up some excellent points about where joint ventures can go wrong in his post “Why Joint Ventures Fail So Often” - however he does not provide any solutions other than to say ‘do something that requires more risk and causes you yourself to have a lot more at stake.’

Here are the 6 Top Reasons why Joint Ventures don’t work and their effective solutions:

1. Wrong premise or expectancy: If we assume things which aren’t true, have unrealistic expectations, or misunderstand certain market shifts or requirements, or if we misjudge buying trends or the choices of consumers, a JV won’t work. If set up correctly, with no cost or risk to either party, we can learn from the mishap and live to fight another day, as friends rather than foes. We’re not fortune tellers, and we can’t predict the future, but we can arrange our JV’s in such a way that we avoid any harm being done.
2. Wrong partners: If you’re dealing with weasels, parasites, losers, or conmen, your JV’s won’t work. Do your due diligence and be prepared to walk away as soon as you see the red flags. Again, if you roll out your JV in a small way before committing to a large launch, you can test your partners and the market before going big. In some cases, the JV partner is honest but incompetent, or he simply can’t handle the volume or demand when we have underestimated the response. A good “What if?” planning session with objective evaluations and checks and balances can help avoid that scenario.
3. Greed and ego: When one of the partners gets his ego in the way or gets greedy, things can go awry. Avoid this with solid agreements and contracts and work with mature, seasoned business owners, not incompetent upstarts who don’t know that pride does, indeed, precede the proverbial fall.
4. Insufficient planning and/or quitting prematurely: Often, we’re so excited and in such a hurry to get going that we neglect to plan the details and specify amounts and quantities, percentages and responsibilities, and things fall part because of that. Miscommunications and misunderstandings come from haste, and inexperience and a sense of entitlement, along with the desire for instant gratification result in quitting too soon, instead of tweaking and fixing what could be a lucrative JV.
5. Inconsistency and a lack of self-discipline break down trust and repel good JV partners. A good reputation attracts a good database and solid JV partners, which results in successful Joint Ventures. Don’t get involved with people who are not consistent - reliability and honesty, along with proficiency and integrity, are the mortar that hold good JV ‘s together. Both parties are responsible for the success of any JV.
6. Finally, communicate regularly and effectively. Losers hide behind excuses and don’t communicate well. Most flaws in any JV can usually be rectified through effective, adult communication and openness.

Joint Ventures are the most sophisticated way to make money, and people who genuinely understand Joint Ventures can make an unlimited amount of money with no cost or risk and little time.  Just keep the above 6 points in mind when executing any JV, and you’ll find yourself breezing through your JV’s.

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt.

Winners say, “Talk is cheap. Your past actions predict your future choices. Show me, don’t tell me.” I agree.