If all your friends are plantation slaves, you probably don’t think things are too bad. And most entrepreneurs are owned and controlled by the very businesses they created! Here’s a question to ask yourself in a quiet moment:

• What do I need?
• Whom do I need?
• What and who controls me?

Michael Gerber teaches us the “The E Myth” to systematize one’s business so that you can leave it for extended periods of time without everything collapsing. It takes time to establish that, but we should all be working on it.

How a Guy with a Hundred Companies ALSO has Free Time

This is where Joint Venture Broking comes into play. By diversifying your marketing, income sources, and operations, you start using your brain instead of your brawn. By leveraging the resources and time of others, you become the Chess Master, the Strategist, the Brain. You control and manipulate and think, while other scurry around selling and persuading and begging and serving. Jimmy Pattison is a billionaire in British Columbia who owns over a hundred companies, and yet he has plenty of spare time. Then you meet a self-employed, broke salesman who pretends to be an entrepreneur and has no time and no money, but is an expert at playing the cash flow game.

1. When you find yourself controlled by one person, one product, one market, or one system, immediately start working on diversifying, duplicating, and establishing alternatives and additions.
2. If you use your time, it should be because you genuinely have no alternative – you are the only person who can do what you’re doing – for now.  Slavery steals your peace of mind, time, money, and freedom, and most entrepreneurs endure severe slavery while claiming independence.
3. Get an assistant, outsource, and start acting like a real business owner.
4. Play the “What If?” Game. Create Succession Plans, prepare for the worst case scenario, and look at your Bottom Line, not your sales.
5. Leverage is power. Wikipedia says, “Leverage is related to torque; leverage is a factor by which lever multiplies a force. The useful work done is the energy applied, which is force times distance. Therefore a small force applied over a long distance is the same amount of work as a large force applied over a small distance. The trick is converting the one into the other.” That “trick” is Joint Ventures.

Use this Suggestion & Operate with Your Eyes Wide Open

I know someone who is absolutely controlled by his “Joint Venture partner”, works his tail off, has no time to call his own, has all his eggs in one basket, loses a fortune of lucrative back ends which he refuses to accept, and yet believes he understands Joint Ventures. He has no idea.

Most businesses operate on about 10% of their potential profit, and DollarMakers Certified Business Mentors help business owners to dramatically increase their profits using the power of Joint Ventures. To apply for a complimentary consultation with a Mentor, e-mail me at robin@jvblogger.com with your details and questions.

“Hi Robin,

Thank you very much for the exciting boot camp this past Sunday.

After it was all over, I was speaking to Rika, and she suggested I contact you with this question.

I have been in a successful business for 37 years and am well aware of networking……for free, of course.  Joint Ventures is a networking process…..but I would get paid.  Rika was suggesting you have a script for this.

How do I start charging people that I have given many free referrals in the past?

I know how to approach new people, but what could we say to our existing friends/clients that we have being helping out for free, as well as the reverse for them?”

Here’s the pitch:

Thanks for your e-mail. Here’s the pitch for your imaginary associate “John”:

YOU: “Hi John, I want to apologize to you.”

JOHN: ”What for?”

YOU: “Well, John, I attended a Joint Venture Bootcamp with this funny looking bald character, and he said I’m cheap, because I never offered to pay anyone a commission for business they send my way. So, here’s what I will do: from now on, whenever you send me any business, I will pay you 20% of my profit, on an ONGOING basis, because without you, I would never have had that business.”

JOHN: “Why thank you, Sally, that’s very generous of you.”

YOU: “No problem, John. I think 80% of something is better than 100% of nothing, so from now on, expect a check for 20% of my profit whenever you send me business. AND JOHN, WOULD YOU MIND DOING THE SAME FOR ME WHEN I SEND YOU BUSINESS?”

Gotcha!

You’ve been laid off, or fired, or you can’t get a job, or you’re plain bored, or you’re a new immigrant, or you simply can’t make it on your salary, so you strut off to the local franchise show or business broker, risk your house, your life savings, and your aged parent’s retirement funds, and you buy a business. Bad idea. There’s a reason why he’s called a business BROKEr, and he’s not the one that’s going to go broke. Worse still, you attend a seminar where a conman sells you an “investment” or “business opportunity”.

Why It Doesn’t Work… No Matter How Good It Looks

There’s a very good reason why savvy entrepreneurs will never buy a business at a franchise or business opportunity show or seminar – they’re not that stupid! There’s a reason why people sell a business, and it’s usually pretty scary. I could tell you stories all night long about how dishonest people can make any business or business opportunity look very good when they put it on the market. There are ways to make it look so good and so safe that it seems crazy not to buy it right away, but buying a business is not a smart move.

• Not just because 87% of new businesses fail in the first five years and 87% of the remaining 13% fail in the next five years, leaving a terrible 98.31% of new businesses in smoldering ashes before ten short years and many of the owners (and often members of their extended family and closest friends) financially ruined for life.
• Not simply because the owners of most small and medium sized businesses would make more money working at the local MacDonald’s.
• And not because it is statistically more risky to start a business than to go gambling in Las Vegas, and we all know how silly that is.

No, the reason why you shouldn’t even CONSIDER buying a business, “business opportunity” or franchise, is because it is a stupid choice for the following reasons:

1. Most business owners are not salespeople, yet they need to sell their products or services in order to stay in business.
2. 92% of businesses are desperately undercapitalized.
3. The majority of business owners have 90% of their sales and marketing based on one principle system, the failure of which will instantly BANKRUPT them.
4. 95% of businesses are susceptible to political, geographical, and demographic changes, which are completely beyond their control.
5. A Franchise is really only a glorified job – you will never work harder or earn less, and MANY franchisees fail dismally, however the franchise is simply resold to another sucker, and the business is therefore statistically deemed “successful” – after all, the business is still running, isn’t it? Never mind the last two franchisees went bankrupt and lost their houses and savings and their middle-aged wives are now working two jobs, if they didn’t divorce their dumb husbands for buying the franchises in the first place. Oh, you think a franchise is “safe?” Note that Starbucks is not even a franchise, yet stores are closing down all around the world.
6. In the case of most “business opportunities”, the only people making money are those selling them, and they’re selling them to people who have never been in business. That’s like a surgeon explaining the intricacies of an operation to a plumber – the plumber has no choice but to believe whatever he’s told!

“There’s Got to be a Better Way!”

Now it’s no good telling you how dangerous it is to buy a business without providing you with an alternative vehicle to take you all the way to glorious financial freedom. So here goes. You need a system and a technology that is proven and is designed to carefully avoid all the reasons why the conventional business only has a 1.69% chance of success in ten years, things like:

• The need to sell
• High overhead and inventory
• Royalties, franchise and license fees, rent, and employees
• Massive capital investment with many hidden and secret costs, which you will only discover AFTER you have bought the business
• Seasonal ups and downs – busy and quiet periods, chicken or feathers, feast or famine
• Long working hours
• All your proverbial eggs in one basket
• Subject to local competition, off-shore competition, big box store competition, weather changes, road changes, political changes, changing legislature, and things you could never expect (but the previous owner knew all about them, and that’s why he sold!)
• Massive risk and stress
• Shrinking margins
• The inability to sell
• A limited or diminishing market (what happened to camera stores when digital cameras came along?)
• Hard to find good people, sales people, skilled people, honest people…

The Proven System that’s Made Me Money for 21 Years

OK, enough. You’re already in tears, I know. Here’s a Kleenex. What money-making system that is proven, legitimate, and available can avoid all the above? Is it even possible? Yes, it is. There is a practical system that has been around for hundreds of years, that you can use with no overhead, no employees, no license or franchise fees, no capital investment, and no selling required, than can make you an UNLIMITED amount of money. This business system works anywhere in the world, and you can run it from anywhere with a telephone and a computer. How do I know? I’ve been doing it for the past 21 years. I work internationally, I have no overhead, my income is spread over 22 income sources, most of them residual, and I have no risk. Everything I earn is 100% PROFIT. And here’s the best part: I can run my core business in one hour a day. That’s right. One hour a day. And I can increase my income quickly and easily. Now, that’s freedom.

Too good to be true? Not if I can prove it, and I can. Now, if you already have a business, we can show you how to apply this system to YOUR business, and double or quadruple your profits, cut your time and overhead, and dramatically lower your risk.

What would it be worth to learn this skill, and to have the support and access necessary to create multiple money machines at will?

If you want to know more, visit www.jvwisdom.com.

Your Self Talk is your secret weapon for success in whatever you do, no doubt about it. What you tell yourself about your circumstances, options, challenges, opportunities, strength, and abilities, determines, MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, what you will become, and what you will achieve in life. Your self talk is a prophecy of your future. I can predict what you will do by what you say. And what you do determines what you achieve in life.

Talk Like a Winner

Winners never say, “IF I win”, or “I’ll TRY”, or “I’ll do my best”, or “I hope”. They believe in themselves, they are self disciplined, the have high self-esteem, and they they expect to succeed. They say, “I WILL”, “WHEN I win”, and “I CAN”. And they mean it.

Think Like a Winner

Victors tell themselves, “I can handle anything. I am unstoppable. I and strong and focused. I’m a lean, mean, money machine. I never quit. Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better. “I believe it and I will achieve it.” They consistently act in spite of the opinions of others. They don’t allow losers to get in their way. They have high self respect, they set their own standards, and they make no excuses. They never fear the opinions of other people. They are honest and outspoken. Read the words of Winston Churchill and General George S. Patton.

Act Like a Winner

Listen to what a boxer says before his fight, and you can accurately predict if he will win or not. Think of Mohammad Ali. Achievers take responsibility for thier lives and choices, and they don’t make excuses. Control your self talk, and you control your destiny. A congruent lifestyle empowers winners, and they never compromise their values. Winners are eagles, warriors, and visionaries.  Read “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand.

Live “Unconquered”

“Invictus” is a favorite short poem of mine, by the British poet William Ernest Henley. The title is Latin for “Unconquered”. It was first published in 1875. At the age of 12, Henley became a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. In spite of this, in 1867 he successfully passed the Oxford local examination as a senior student. His diseased foot had to be amputated directly below the knee; physicians announced the only way to save his life was to amputate the other. Henley persevered and survived with one foot intact. He was discharged in 1875, and was able to lead an active life for nearly 30 years despite his disability. With an artificial foot, he lived until the age of 54. “Invictus” was written from a hospital bed.

INVICTUS
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

Most people confuse brokering deals with selling things, and it’s good to know the difference, so that you can decide what you want to do when you grow up.

• Brokers respond to needs and solve problems, and get paid a portion of all the ensuing business.
• Salespeople run around trying to sell stuff. Their service / product is unsolicited, usually unnecessary, and singularly unimpressive to people who broker Joint Ventures – it’s too much like a combination of hard work, selling time, and limited thinking. It’s like running a V8 engine on one cylinder.

We BUILD tollgates – we don’t work in them!

I talked with someone who told me they had a great new “Joint Venture” – they were asked to be the distributors for equipment that cleans computers, and they didn’t even have to pay for the right to become a distributor! Whoopee do! Now, if you create a conventional distributorship, pay rent, employ people, start advertising the cleaning equipment, bring salespeople on board, etc., you’re not doing a Joint Venture – you just built yourself a job. A REAL Joint Venture Broker would find a distributor, set the deal up, and take a piece of the action on an on-going basis; he would simply triangulate the deal – little time, and no cost or risk to him. It’s called leverage. 

A REAL Joint Venture Broker:

A Joint Venture Broker is a problem solver, and we’re not limited to any product or service or demographic or geographical area. When we find a need, we simply find a business to solve the need, and we get paid. Within DollarMakers, we have hundreds of Members in 14 countries, and by understanding the principle of “Six Degrees of Separation”, it’s easy to find solutions and help people. Knocking on doors, cold calling, or advertising to sell one product or service automatically limits what you can make.

• A Joint Venture Broker has people calling him or her with requests – we kindly respond and make money. Salespeople are the ones calling and harassing other people to buy stuff. I know, I’ve been a salesman all my life, and there is a big difference between selling and solving.
• Also, smart Joint Venture Brokers look for natural synergy and flow between their Joint Venture partners and the demographics they target; they’re not all over the map.
• They build growth and strength when their Joint Venture partners, products, and services overlap.
• They understand how important integrity, consistency, and relationship is in business. They see the big picture.

Salespeople who learn what a Joint Venture is and how it works seldom remain salespeople; they change their approach and start making much more money from many more sources.

Set Yourself Apart

Only 1% of entrepreneurs understand and use Joint Ventures, and that’s why DollarMakers operates the way it does; we create and educate our own Joint Venture partners and we make our money doing Joint Ventures, not selling memberships and training. DollarMakers is unique in that we have the track record and the branding that nobody else has in the area of Joint Ventures for small and medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs.

If you want the maximum market impact and exponential growth, multifaceted marketing is essential. A combination of a variety of well-planned, consistent, congruent attacks and exposures will establish your brand and identity in the minds of your prospects and those who can refer business to you. When you combine leverage, duplication, and viral components in your marketing, you get even stronger. Niche marketing can further enhance your progress. And the most powerful marketing system ever created is Joint Ventures.

Every aspect of your marketing should link to as many other aspects and systems as possible, so creating a symbiotic and synergistic approach is very important. Think of warfare as an analogy: everything should work together seamlessly, driven by Operations Intelligence, and you’re the Commanding Officer in the war room. You’re the mastermind, not running around with a rifle or fixing broken machine guns or driving an ambulance. The air force, navy, and army all work together for the common good, all offering what they do best, enhancing the efficacy of the other forces in many ways.

Strategic marketers know that the ripple effect works to create spaced repletion – the old operant conditioning tool – and by impacting the consciousness of your target market in different ways, from different sources, with different media, on a consistent basis, with a unified message, the brand and the message is established. Combine that with the wonderful information we learned in two great books, The Tipping Point and The Long Tail, and it makes sense to develop a scientific approach to marketing, instead of the haphazard, desperate, loose, random approach used by broke, self-employed salespeople who masquerade as entrepreneurs.

If this all sounds terribly expensive and complicated to implement, remember that a smart Joint Venture Broker can do all the above and more, with no cost, no risk , and relatively little time. Utilizing existing resources and developing strategic alliances with the right partners makes it all possible and a lot of fun when you remove the risk. One can be very creative when one has nothing to lose.

So take off the blinders, get out your crayons, think big, and climb out of that stale little box – marketing is the key to business success, and this is the way to do it. DollarMakers Certified Business Mentors are standing by, locked and loaded, to help you apply this powerful information directly to your business and multiply your bottom line.

I have been reading General George S. Patton’s account of the invasion of Sicily. Most enjoyable. A great historian and strategist, General Patton is widely considered the best field commander in the American army of World War 2. Franklin D. Roosevelt called him “our greatest fighting general.” Patton once wrote to his wife, Beatrice, “When I am not attacking, I feel bilious.” General Patton and Winston Churchill are my heroes.

What 97% of Entrepreneurs Do

When you decide to capture a new market for your business, your approach can be strategic, smart, planned, and effective, or you can do what 97% of entrepreneurs do. Ten years ago, I would have concluded that a particular caller on my recent conference call was either inebriated or mentally damaged; however, after ten years in this market, I realize that he is simply another narcissistic, socialist fool. He asked a question that revealed his utter ignorance of basic psychology, but also of the power of the Joint Venture mindset: “So how can you help me get investors for my real estate development in Costa Rica?”

Why They Fail

This type relies on cold calling, shotgun approach advertising, networking with equally slothful and desperate, broke, self-employed salespeople, and wild, groundless lies about the return on the “investment” he is touting. He has no battle plan, no brains, and no pity from yours truly. This is how most employees who pretend to be entrepreneurs try to capture a market, and why they fail so miserably. Let us expend as little time as possible exposing the hopelessness of his approach, and then move on to what actually works.

First, the caller has no traction, credibility, leverage, or relationship with me, and yet he asks me how I can help him. A beggar on the street would get the same amount of attention from me. Why would I want to help him? I only tolerate his ignorance out of courtesy to the person arranging the conference call. I have no reason to help him. Second, his arrogance knows no bounds. He is not interested in learning about Joint Ventures, only how to make another dollar off some unsuspecting and equally slow “investor” in his scheme. Let’s move on to what works.

What Works for the Other 3%

Here is the simple answer to capturing a new market:

1. Decide what your ideal demographic is: Whom do you want to sell your products and services to?
2. Determine who, exactly, has access to, influences, controls, communicates with, and has the attention and respect of that demographic. These people are Centers of Influence. They are the key to fast, effective, risk-free access to the market you want to capture.
3. Develop a specific plan to meet, impress, and get the active cooperation, assistance, and support of these Centers of Influence. And this is where the Joint Venture Mindset comes into play. You have to give me a very compelling reason to help you. You have to develop an intelligent strategy to get my attention and build a relationship with me. And in order to do that, you have to know a lot about me.
4. Set up and execute a Joint Venture with each of the Centers of Influence that allows you to capture the market fast, in a bloodless coup. (You can learn more than 40 effective strategies to do his through  DollarMakers.)

The Mindset that Separates the “Men from the Boys”

Joint Venture Brokers are strategists. They understand psychology. They are capitalists, who expect to pay for the value they receive. They are realistic and street smart, so they work smart instead of hard. They don’t have that sense of entitlement that permeates our society. They develop their skill conscientiously. They understand the importance of long-term, reciprocal, symbiotic relationships in business. They are consistent, persistent, professional, and honest. They plan their campaign with the JV mantra, “No money, no risk, little time” running in their heads, and differentiate themselves from 97% of others by using their heads and creating massive, unprecedented value.

Joining the DollarMakers Joint Venture Broker Club gives you instant access to hundreds of potential Joint Venture partners in 15 countries. For more outstanding Joint Venture information, visit www.jvwisdom.com.

When I stay at a Radisson Hotel, I enjoy the Sleep Number bed – one can adjust the comfort level on each side of the bed independently – firmer or softer. When I get into my car, I can adjust the seat so that it fits my body – forward, back, up, down, lumber support, etc. We live in an adjustable, customized world. We choose what we want on the remote control, off a menu, on the Internet, everywhere.

How about your business?

Is it very comfortable? Does it adjust to your lifestyle and values and schedule, or are you a bloodied slave to your business, serving your demanding master, a love-hate relationship bordering on Stockholm Syndrome?  Ask yourself:

• Has your business turned from your passion into your persecutor?
• You wish you could sell it but you can’t?
• It’s turned from adoration to addiction?
• It becomes ever more greedy and consuming, but you get less and less profit out of it?
• Perhaps it’s a fantasy that is now flat lining, but you can’t afford to get out because you’ll lose even more?
• The dream became a nightmare?
• Or you enjoy your business and you make money, but you have no time for your family and your hobbies?
• Are you controlled and manipulated like a puppet by external forces, the competition, weather, government, environment, market, suppliers, customers?

I understand, because I have worked with thousands of owners of small and medium sized businesses since 1987.

My “Sleep Number” Business

My business is adjustable to what I want. I do what I like, when I like, with whom I like, how I like, I call the shots, and my business is like a well trained dog. That’s because I’m a Joint Venture Broker. I use leverage and duplication, and so I can walk away from anyone at any time. That’s what I call freedom. Ayn Rand said,

“Freedom is to want nothing, to expect nothing, to depend on nothing.”

I am not attached to any one of my Joint Venture partners or any of my Joint Ventures to the extent that they control me, my time, or my choices. I am in charge and in control of my business, my money, and my time. That’s how it is SUPPOSED to be, as Michael Gerber said,

“Working ON your business, not IN your business.”

The Freedom to Adjust Your Lifestyle

Business owners can adjust and adapt their business through the use of Joint Ventures. People who don’t want to own a conventional business can simply become Joint Venture Brokers. You have the choice to control or to be controlled. Real time and money freedom is available through the use of Joint Ventures. You can be comfortable and content and make a lot more money with a lot less time and risk. You can spend as much or as little time you wish, and you can live according to your own values and priorities. You’ll have less sleepless nights. For more information, visit www.jvwisdom.com.