I once knew a Greek fellow who told me that he and his six brothers each owner ten percent of each other’s businesses. That meant that when one of their businesses had any kind of problem, six successful entrepreneurs would collectively take a serious interest in using their skills and resources to solve the problem. After all, they each had a vested interest in the success of each business.

Create “Overlap” with Joint Ventures

One reason for my success in business is to create “OVERLAP” with other successful entrepreneurs, where we each benefit from the success of the other person’s business. I’m not talking about partnerships or shares, but rather creating overlap through the use of Joint Ventures.

It makes a lot of sense to me to give a well-known, successful business owner a vested interest in my success, because I then get access to his resources, connections, experience, skills, and input. This is s smart strategic move that:

• increases profits,
• prevents losses and silly mistakes,
• gives you a sounding board for new ideas,
• and adds security and balance to your business.

Ani Defranco said:

“I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort where we overlap.”

A Real Mastermind Situation

The more overlap you have with other people, the more insight, perspective, opportunities, and options you have. This is a real Mastermind situation, and DollarMakers works on this principle. It is leverage, duplication, and optimization par excellence.

By the same token, it is important NOT to have any overlap or association with the wrong people, and to remove dishonest characters from your business connections as soon as possible. Quality is everything when it comes to Joint Ventures.

Reward (aka Pay) Only for Results (aka Production)

It is also important to note that people should be rewarded for production, not simply for being around. We have all made the mistake of accommodating parasites who pretend to work and get paid without producing anything, and when you see that happening, get rid of them ASAP. All Joint Ventures should be designed to reward people in direct proportion to their contribution, not their title.

Start with Those You Know… Who’s Also Successful

Finally, I encourage you to make a list of the most successful people you know and to work out a way to create overlap with their businesses. Smart entrepreneurs know that it’s not “what” you know, but “who” you know, however knowing someone and giving that person a vested interest in the success of your business is a different kettle of fish altogether.

They need to see a specific, measurable, and significant benefit to their contribution towards your success, and this has to be clearly communicated and effectively implemented. DollarMakers runs on this principle, and it works for us. Babe Ruth said,

“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”

Together, we can do amazing things.

Does your business resemble this man’s workshop?

A man has a lot of great tools in his workshop. Sharp chisels, bench saws, drills, planes, you name it. He makes wonderful things, fixes things, has fun.

But one by one, the lights in his workshop start going out. He can’t afford to replace the bulbs, so his workbench and working areas get darker and darker.

He starts cutting himself on sharp edges, making mistakes, damaging his creations, and measuring inaccurately, because he can’t see properly in the dim light. He finds he is bleeding from all the cuts and scratches, and he fears that sooner or later, he will lose a finger or worse by working in the dark.

• Do you feel you’re bleeding profits, and the more things you try, the more you hurt your bottom line?
• Are things that once worked well, not working so well anymore, and you can’t see a way out?

Shed Some Light on the Subject

You may feel you can’t afford the things you need to buy to shed some light on the subject, to lighten your load, as it were, but I assure you there are solutions available through the use of Joint Ventures. Let me shine the DollarMakers light on your workbench for just a moment.

Look at Business Through a Difference Lens

When you look at life and business through the lens of Joint Ventures, you suddenly realize that what you thought were barriers and limitations are simply illusions that have been conjured up by the myths sold to us by those with a vested interest and hidden agenda.

Don’t Accept Less from the “Experts”

Banks are a good example; they want you to believe that you are “safe” when you follow their advice and use their “financial planners”. They offer you ridiculously low interest rates, attack you when you’re weak, and lie about money. The fact is that you can use that bank’s money and leverage it, and you can use other peoples’ money, too.

My bank manager tells me she can offer me 3% and I tell her I’m happy with nothing less than 12%. Mutual funds and RRSP’s are a joke to me.

Medical insurance in Canada is also a joke, when I get all my medical expenses tax deductible.

• Look at your return on investment, take a good, hard look at PROFITS instead of SALES,
• …and take the advice of people who actually have money and know how to make it – lots of it - instead of being ripped off by weasels and parasites.

Believe It or Not, You Already Have Everything You Need

Every resource you need is readily available through Joint Ventures – skills, money, time, equipment, advice, relationships, reputation, labor, credit…  There is no shortage out there – just a lack of understanding.

Leverage is what rich people use to get rich.

• You don’t have to buy what you can get for nothing.
• You can pay for results instead of promises.

Selling your time and following the advice of people who are bent on selling you placebo effects and Band-Aids is for those who wish to struggle through the rest of their lives, along with the moribund and the mediocre.

You are much richer than you think you are. You have access to massive Hidden Assets. There are thousands of people who will write you a check any time when you understand how Joint Ventures work.

Why the Pain You’re Feeling is a Good Thing

It is always coldest just before the sunrise, and sometimes we need to exceed a pain threshold before we are ready to look at our businesses from a different perspective. Comfortable entrepreneurs are seldom open to change and learning, but when you’re bleeding enough, you might be ready to call the doctor. Just don’t wait until you have lost too much blood.

Joint Ventures is CPR for your cash flow, and DollarMakers is the doctor with the key to the blood bank, as well as the combination to the bank vault.

Don’t tell me what you will do – show me what you’ve done.

Talk is cheap, but money buys the whiskey.  I’m tired of tired old promises from people who can’t even trust themselves.

So I want to suggest to you that you start doing what I have started doing: When people promise stuff, and you know they are good at making promises, but seldom deliver or always deliver late (in many cases a subconscious need for control, due to a poor self image), simply say,

“Don’t promise what you will do – just tell me when you’ve done it.”

Promises are a Red Flag

Just as you have learned not to trust the posers, parasites, and pundits who spew licentious lies from their podiums and pulpits, so you should begin to doubt the pageantry, prevarications, promises and pledges paraded out by schlemiels that have no intention of fulfilling them, let alone the ability to do so.

Follow This Rule of Thumb

It’s time to move from hopeful, blind, childish naivety to mature, reasonable skepticism until someone proves themselves, and we should take note of their track records. I know people that regularly promise things that I have no expectation of ever seeing, because they have proven to me over time that they don’t deliver, or that they are always late. I feel like taking them to a tattoo studio and having a large “L” for Loser tattooed onto their foreheads, to save other people time and disappointment.

I have one particular fool who promised to put a system in place in August, and he still hasn’t delivered. I will never trust this specimen in any business deal or refer him any business. Mostly, I remove these types from my life – I scrape them off my shoes.

Take Heart.  There are Some Winners.

The good news is that there are a few winners out there (3% of the population) who actually do deliver on time, and they are few and far between. Work with them, trust them, and carefully foster those relationships.

Believe and pay for RESULTS, not promises.

A healthy dose of skepticism is in order until people prove themselves. Until then, don’t allow yourself to be set up. Focus on the producers.

I saw this on BBC World this morning:

“One Quarter of the Honey Industry in England Destroyed.”

Yes – a mite infestation wiped them out.

• Beetles in Canada closed down lumber mills.
• Locusts invade an area in Australia, just as the farmers are about to reap.
• In Vancouver, the new Skytrain development on Cambie street, in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics here, bankrupted local businesses that depend on their walk-in trade.
• The digital photography development caused thousands of conventional photographic businesses to go under.
• Fires destroy properties and businesses in California.

Are You Putting All Your Eggs In One Basket?

When you have 90% of your income based on one anything – one geographical area, one product or service, one industry, one major marketing system, or one or two big clients or key employees, you’re in a precarious and dangerous position.

When you slave for three weeks per month just to cover your payroll and overhead, you’re on a slippery slope.

Beware of People Pitching “Focus”

People who pitch “Focus” usually have a selfish, vested interest in taking everything they can get out of you. This is particularly true of the Network Marketing business. Although I enjoy being involved in that business, it is only one income source amongst many, but most MLM companies operate more like cults than businesses, demanding absolute focus and attention, in spite of the fact that there is a higher way.

What Joint Ventures Has to Offer

Joint Ventures offers you the opportunity to:

• spread your risk
• lower your overhead
• remove all limits from your income potential

Your JV’s can be designed to “feed” each other, resulting in exponential growth through strategically created synergy.

Understanding business, value, supply and demand, and most importantly, Joint Ventures, removes the ego and desperation that most business owners demonstrate in the way they operate. An inclusive, reciprocal, unthreatened approach shows an abundance mindset and maturity and sophistication that is scarce in today’s world.

Don’t Panic… Profit!

As the world-wide recession bites deeper, Joint Ventures becomes the only viable alternative to conventional sales and marketing, and will save many business owners from bankruptcy, shortage, and loss.

DollarMakers is the world leader in JV’s for small and medium sized businesses and professionals. We provide the training, access, and support that will open your eyes to a whole new way of running a successful, bottom-line oriented business.

• Do you have trouble convincing people to buy / accept your idea, product, service, Joint Venture, or suggestions?
• Do you find your offers and proposals being rejected too often?
• Is it hard for you to get appointments and time with successful people?
• Is your closing ratio / conversion ratio too low?
• Do you want more access, acceptance, sales, acknowledgment, and buy-in?

You Can Do Something About It

First, recognize that if someone else in the same area, industry, and environment, with similar products, services, and offers, is doing better than you are, then there is definitely something you can do about it. That’s good news. So here are some pointers that will work for you:

Tip #1 – Up Your Enthusiasm

Your level of enthusiasm and belief will open many doors. Enthusiasm is contagious, and if you don’t believe in yourself and your offer, nobody else will. The higher your confidence level, the more impact you will have.

How can you increase this?

The word “Enthusiasm” ends with the letters IASM – I Am Sold Myself. You have to believe in, buy, and use your own product or service. You have to be “a product of the product.”

You increase your confidence and self-esteem by knowing everything there is to know about what you’re selling, the benefits, and the details, so training and learning about what you’re selling is essential. The more you learn, the more you will earn. Disciplined learning will increase your self-esteem and expectations.

Tip #2 – You have to look (and act) like a million dollars before you earn it.

Your personal presentation is important. If you’re badly dressed with bed head, sleep creases on your face, cat hair on your coat, and unshaven, no winner will want to talk with you. BO, halitosis, showing up late, not delivering on your promises, and a bad haircut will simply destroy any credibility you might have had.

You have to look successful and act successful in order to BE successful. Look like a million dollars before you can earn it. BE – DO – HAVE. Remember that. People DO judge a book by its cover, and first impressions are lasting impressions.

Tip #3 – Keep It about the Other Person

Talk in the interests of the other person, get your ego out of the way, and don’t waste your prospect’s time. Be very well prepared with a specific sales strategy.

Tip #4 – Look Good On Paper Too

If you have anything in writing, keep it concise, to the point, professional, bottom-line oriented, and on good paper. You will be judged by your written material, hand-outs, and spelling mistakes. Your prospect is looking for clues, so make sure the clues he finds are good ones.

Tip #5 – Set the Bar High and Be Ready to Walk Away

Self-respect, selectivity, and setting the bar high will label you as a professional to be taken seriously. If you’re desperate, needy, broke, and tense, you will frighten any winners away fast.

Be relaxed, well prepared, and ready to walk away from any deal. The more prospects you have, the easier this is, so use Joint Ventures to procure on-going streams of qualified prospects.

See yourself as your prospect’s equal. Be strong and focused.

Tip #6 – Carefully Choose Your “Field of Battle”

Choose the environment in which you present yourself carefully – the Four Seasons is better than a Mac Donald’s.

Tip #7 – Craft a Win/Win Offer…

Make sure your offer is genuinely win/win – think about what’s in it for the prospect, his return on investment, and his goals.

Try to remove the risk and cost from both parties as much as possible.

Tip #8 – …And Craft an Offer that’s Too Good to Be Refused.

Sweeten the pot through the use of Joint Ventures, by adding massive value – “an offer too good to be refused” – this takes preparation and thought, but you can differentiate yourself from your competition by adding four times the value, at no cost top yourself, through Joint Ventures.

Tip #9 – Stop Blaming Outside Circumstances

Stop blaming others and the economy for your poor ales – take personal responsibility – that is the mark of a winner.

Tip #10 – Remember to “Yahoo”

Finally, be sensitive – when someone makes it clear they’re not interested, walk away fast.  There are many fish in the sea, you have many options, and walking away from uncooperative prospects will increase your self-esteem and therefore your income.

Remember “Yahoo”.  You Always Have Other Options!

DollarMakers provides on-going, ever-improving training and support, access and information on how to be a successful and professional Joint Venture Broker, based on our own experience and the changing marketplace. JV’s will help you to increase sales, whether you have a business or not, and we’re here to help.

First: The Hotdog Story

Once upon a time, a man decided to start a hotdog selling business. He wanted to provide the best quality, so he bought only the best quality buns and sausages, gave excellent service, and never cut corners.

He became well known, and soon he had many hotdog carts with employees running them for him. He paid for his son to go to college, where the son learned about business from academics who didn’t have successful businesses.

One day his son came home and told his dad, “Dad, don’t you read the newspapers? There’s a recession on, and according to my business knowledge, you should cut back and start saving. Things are tough out there. People can’t afford your expensive hotdogs!”

The man didn’t have time to read the newspapers and his business was flourishing, but since his son was “educated”, he thought he had better take his advice, so he cut back on carts, quality, and ultimately, customers. When he had lost everything, he said to his son, “Son, you were right! There IS a recession!”

Second Story: “It’s Not Going to Work”

Recently, we presented a Women’s Extravaganza event in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A woman who owns a singles club told the organizers that nobody would be interested in attending the event, entitled, “How to Find the Man of Your Dreams and Marry Him in Six Months.”

The organizers, Bob, Clara, and Kathy Lauze, are positive, responsible, proactive winners, and they took no heed of this loser with a flair for despair. Instead, they went boldly forward, worked hard, and kept smiling, and they packed 72 women into the successful event, to be followed up with a Women’s Wealth Workshop.

Refuse to Allow Others to Drag You Down!

How many times have winners been told to quit, to “take it easy and not work so hard”, to lower their expectations and drop their prices by losers?  Ignore those ankle biters and parasites and insist on success. Whatever the mind of man can believe, it can conceive, and successful people are not slowed down or sidetracked by pessimists and doom and gloomers.

Words to Live By:

A smart man once said, “Don’t take advice from people who don’t already have what you want.” Another said, “Don’t take advice from people who are more screwed up than you are. “ I say:

“I can’t learn from someone who teaches what they haven’t done, and always check their motives.”

Remember: The media makes money from bad news, not from good news.

The media makes money from bad news, not from good news.

• They would rather tell you about soldiers getting killed than about successful elections in Iraq.
• They focus on bankruptcies and recession instead of business success stories.

And the seething herd of sheeple believes most of what they get fed from the media. So we believe what the media tells us, and then seek evidence to support those beliefs – a self-fulfilling prophecy. Social evidence. Sad.

12,000 cars cross the Port Mann Bridge into Coquitlam every day. Nobody mentions the 83,999 cars that crossed successfully last week, but three radio stations and two newspapers announced the one car that stalled on the bridge.

Time to Choose

There are two approaches – two choices you can make in this recession – get richer or get poorer. To get rich:

• Get the right advice from the right people.
• Take massive, focused action.
• Don’t follow the sheep.

You can be like most people – reactive, scared, pessimistic, lazy, and cheap, or you can be proactive, courageous, optimistic, innovative, and successful.

When the masses run west, Champions run east. You don’t see Rolex dropping their prices or having a fire sale, do you?

DollarMakers is the Home of Winners. We teach people how to use duplication, innovation, and leverage to create wealth internationally and them we show them how to grow that money and protect it. While most people are losing money on their investments and RRSP / 401K money, we show them how to make money with no cost or risk, and very little time.

Join DollarMakers and make all your dreams come true, regardless of the recession, or what other people may say, think, or do.

Many people talk about “Freedom”, and since it’s my highest value and objective, I wanted to throw out a few thoughts on it.

First, we need to think of its opposites: fear, restriction, scarcity, and unhappiness – turmoil and tension.

We know that to be truly happy, we need to live according to our uncompromised values, and to create a congruent lifestyle. We also know that, only when you’re happy, fulfilled, and feeling good about yourself, can you be truly creative.

As a Capitalist It Is Your Responsibility To Be Free

According to Ayn Rand, there are two classes of people in this world:

• the prime movers, creators, moneymakers and producers,
• and then the second-handers, parasites, leeches, and money appropriators.

In order to belong to the first group, which comprises perhaps 1% of the population (statistically, anyone earning over $250,000 per year is in the top 1.3% of the North American population), we need to make sure we are independent, happy, and free.

… And when you are free, you can create wealth, by which everyone will benefit. It is, therefore, the primary responsibility of intelligent, driven capitalists to become free.

Step 1 – Overcome Fear of Failure

The first step to freedom is to overcome your fear of the opinions of other people. People don’t fear failure per se – most of the time they fear the opinions of others. And if you didn’t fear failure, and didn’t give a rat’s ass about what others say, think, or do, what would you do differently?

1. The thing is, the only people who will mock you when you fail are losers. Winners regard “failure” simply as a stepping stone, feedback, and interruption, a detour.
2. Fear of success? The only people who will resent your success are the leeches, who will look for ways to appropriate your wealth and steal the milk out of your tea.

Reinterpreting “Failure”

In order to accomplish this first step, we need to reinterpret “failure”, and realize that you can only fail if you quit. Even then, you are free to quit any time you tire of a goal, which means that you simply can’t fail, unless you’re a quitter for the wrong reasons.

We’ve all heard the old question, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” Well, there you go, then. To be truly independent, we need to understand what that implies.

Ayn Rand, according to authors Greiner and Kinni, teaches that

“The act of living by the work of their own minds is the primary difference between [the two classes of people mentioned above.]…They have the strength of character to act alone without the comforting support of tradition and popular opinion.”

Step 2 – Define Your Purpose

The second step is to define your purpose, your raison d’etre, your life objective, and that is where most losers fall out of the tree. When your purpose is big enough, (your “WHY” in seminar colloquial), when you commit absolutely to your objective, you suddenly access strength and energy beyond what you ever experienced before – you find your groove, your Mojo, your inner powerhouse, and you start becoming unstoppable.

Step 3 – Align Your Life to Your Purpose

At this point, alignment is everything. EVERY aspect of your life needs to be aligned with your major purpose:

• physical, mental, social
• every choice, word, deed, and thought
• all your input

…and that means cutting away and discarding the  posers, the passengers, the pretense, the passivity, the poison, and the  pussyfooting.

Warriors are not hesitant, timid, pessimistic, or nervous.

• They discard anything that will encumber them, slow them down, or sabotage them.
• They shoot deserters, and when their friends befriend their enemies, those friends become their enemies, too.
• They are focused, lean, and mean, and they make things happen.
• They are proactive and determined machines.
• They are leaders, and they never doubt that they will win.
• They are ready and willing to courageously pay whatever price is necessary.

Step 4 – Take Action!

Finally, freedom is the result of ACTION. Losers live vicariously through their sports heroes, become seminar junkies, and excel at excuses and mediocrity. They hide, delude themselves, and believe their own lies. In today’s world, money is a major component of freedom, and you can’t make money watching hockey or smoking pot.

Live Life On Your Own Terms

According to Ayn Rand, Freedom means:

“To ask for nothing, to expect nothing, to depend on nothing.”

To me, Freedom means the same – to do what you want, when you want, how you want, where you want, with whom you want, if you want – life on my own terms, in alignment with my personal, rational values and beliefs. I have to create this freedom, and I cannot do that without the appropriate and necessary action.

True warriors and Prime Movers are people of action; they are the rainmakers, the movers and shakers, the producers. They make their dreams come true, they believe in themselves, and they do not need the permission or sanction of anyone to do that. They insist upon success, and they are free.

DollarMakers provides the vehicle for people to achieve financial freedom, and in order to maintain the freedom that I have created for myself, I am free to choose whom I work with, so the Members of DollarMakers that are accepted and allowed to remain Members are people with whom we are comfortable. We live what we teach, and we discard losers and rats from our lives. That is freedom. Talk is cheap. Results matter. No compromise.

Face the truth, embrace reality, make your choice, and become free.

Some entrepreneurs feel they are running on empty; no more savings, tried everything, cut costs and overhead to the bone, working the remaining employees like indentured workers, the ship is sinking, and there’s no way out.

Hanging on by the fingernails, burning the candle at both ends, and all that. You feel like you’re coasting to a stop on a steep hill and you have no brakes, and when you stop, you’ll run backwards down the hill and into the smelly swamp of bankruptcy, humiliation, and some heavy weeping. I have a solution for you.

Serious Coin in Your “Empty” Pail

When Houdini promised to escape from a prison cell in ten minutes, and after nine minutes of unsuccessfully picking the lock, he leaned back, exhausted, against the door, it simply swung open; it was never locked. The door, my frantic friend, is not locked.

The biscuit tin may seem empty, but there’s a false bottom in it – that false bottom is analogous of the conditioning most entrepreneurs have been subject to – and there is some serious coin under that false bottom.

Ready to Consider the Alternative?

This recession may well be the best thing that ever happened to your business, since you might be in a place where you are desperate enough to consider some alternatives that you missed during the “good” times. I have met some pretty arrogant entrepreneurs in my time – they felt very important while riding the wave of prosperity, and now they’re getting dumped, they’ve swallowed a healthy dose of salty seawater, and they’re gasping for air.

5 Hidden Assets to Access

Here are some of your Hidden Assets that you can leverage and quickly turn into multiple rivers of residual, 100% net profit income through Joint Ventures:

1. Your database
2. Your relationships
3. Your employees
4. The  resources of your friends, associates, and competition. (Yes, I said “Competition” – that which you feared, fought, faulted, and defamed is actually a Hidden Asset.)
5. Your existing advertising, distribution, excess inventory, inactive customers, unconverted leads, perishable assets, and intellectual property.

Your Most Valuable Hidden Asset

And here is your most valuable Hidden Asset: Your MIND. Time for a turn-around!

When you look at your business through the eyes of a Joint Venture Broker, everything changes. Suddenly, we think about value, profit, leverage, and options, and ye olde ego takes a back seat.

Do yourself a favor: take a good, long, objective look at what DollarMakers has to offer you. This isn’t a lifeline to a muddy shore; it’s a golden bridge to Treasure Island. Talk is cheap; we pull no punches, and we specialize in straight talk, action, and results.

Get excited – get very excited. DollarMakers is on the line.