Feb 22

Last night, Rika and I enjoyed “The Sinatra Project” with Michael Feinstein and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum Theater in Vancouver.

Rika booked this a long time ago since she knows I love Sinatra’s work, and it was a great evening. Feinstein is amazing.

The orchestra was a wonderful -

Joint Venture Analogy

Many people see Joint Ventures as an alternative to other income sources.

They compare brokering Joint Venture’s with real estate investment or MLM or having a job, or running a retail business, whereas Joint Ventures is an all-encompassing, overriding, umbrella philosophy that includes all other income creators. Like the orchestra.

The conductor is the Joint Venture philosophy. Each musician is a different moneymaking activity – a different dollarmaker.

  1. The drummer could be retail,
  2. The saxophonist could be MLM,
  3. The violinist could be real estate – you get it.

The Conductor

Notice that the musicians keep their egos in check. They fit in to the bigger scheme of things. They play when it’s appropriate. The strategist would understand this, and the engineer would liken it to a PERT diagram. As a Joint Venture expert, YOU become the conductor, by:

  • delegating,
  • directing,
  • motivating,
  • organizing,
  • encouraging,
  • creating

you’re the general, as opposed to the broke, self-employed, egotistical salesperson – the soldier.

How Everyone Benefits

Our motto in DollarMakers is “Together, we do amazing things” – it’s a synergistic approach to wealth creation – everybody wins, based on their contribution. Joint Ventures create value. If  a musician refuses to play, shows up late, does a bad job, stops contributing, or let’s his ego get out of hand, he gets fired.

“You can’t serve two orchestras.” Zig Ziglar said, “You can get anything you want out of life, if you help enough other people to get what they want.”

As each musician contributes, produces, hones their skills, and improves, the whole orchestra benefits.

Win/Win Cooperation

The different musicians represent your Joint Venture partners. You are the conductor.

If you’re really smart, you will strive to “keep things in the family” and create “overlap” – Feinstein and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is a case in point. Musicians shouldn’t be in competition with each other. The higher their IQ, the more likely people are to understand the value of overlap, loyalty, vested interest, strategy, and philosophy.

The underlying philosophy in the orchestra is the love and understanding of music, and the way an orchestra works. Common goals, and a common philosophy – the real mastermind in action.

Setting High Standards

Finally, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has very high standards, as does DollarMakers.

Choose your Joint Venture partners very carefully, and cut non-producers and game players loose quickly.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for Email Updates below.



Jan 29

Too many people have jumped aboard the Mediocrity Train and caught the viral Excusiologist Flu that came sweeping in with the recession.

Everything gets blamed on the recession, from halitosis and hiccups to oversleeping and body odor. People make excuses for lethargy, low sales, their dogs’ fleas, and failing to stop at traffic lights.

ENOUGH!

Contrary to what the media is feeding you, not everyone is suffering during this recession. And YOU don’t have to, either.

Moving Towards Success

How does one move from the apathetic, comatose, paralyzed, unconscious state of suspended animation so common to the sheeple, to one of frenzied, happy success?

How do we become like those bold and audacious, excited, and unstoppable winners?

What will it take to shift from being baffled and bewildered to fierce and fiery, irresistible and irrepressible? Is it even possible to become a manic money missile?

Taking Action

People make changes when the pain of staying where we are exceeds the pain of change.

We take action when we truly believe that we can achieve our exciting goals, and that peak is, indeed, attainable. And the more action we take, the easier it gets!

Here are a few simple steps that will make it easier for you to break the chains of frustration and limitation and enjoy the abundance that is available to all of us through Joint Ventures:

1.   Belief:

Build your belief with an authentic action plan and surround yourself with winners and achievers. And know WHY you insist on nothing less than success. Paul J. Meyer said,

“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon, must inevitably come to pass.”

2.   Specifics:

Measurable, specific amounts and steps, like road signs along the way, are essential.

Your action plan is your Success GPS.

3.   Time:

By what exact date will you commit to achieving this specific goal?

Commit yourself publicly – put yourself on the line, so that there is a consequence to non-performance.

4.   Leverage on Yourself:

Be aware of the consequences on failing to achieve your goals. Remind yourself of the pain and suffering that comes with failure!

5.   Training and Support:

The more you learn, the more you will earn. DollarMakers provides superb training and support through our Membership, events, training, seminars, conference calls, and online information.

6.   Monitoring:

Monitor your progress daily. Adjust, tweak, and realign yourself like a guided missile. Confront issues, don’t get side-tracked, and only work with winners.

Communicate regularly with your team.

7.   Motivation:

Control your input and self-talk.

Only expose your mind to positive input that is aligned with your goals, values and beliefs.

Kick the losers and parasites out of your life, and design your information flow carefully. The best way to predict the future is to create it – your success won’t happen by accident.

8.   Celebration:

Celebrate small successes along the way. This builds self-esteem and belief and reinforces your commitment and self-confidence.

Jan 25

Entrepreneurs, more accurately termed “Solopreneurs”, often believe that they are an island, that they must accomplish everything on their own with their own resources.

These Solopreneurs think that they are maximizing their chance of survival and profitability.

They are totally WRONG.

Two Kinds of Business

Consider what Michael Gerber says in his world-famous book The E-Myth: Revisited

“Picture the typical entrepreneur and Herculean pictures come to mind: a man or woman standing alone, wind-blown against the elements, bravely defying insurmountable odds, climbing sheer faces of treacherous rock–all to realize the dream of creating a business of one’s own. The legend reeks of nobility, of lofty, extra-human efforts, of a prodigious commitment to larger-than-life ideals. Well, while there are such people, my experience tells me they are rare.” – Michael Gerber

I agree with Micheal Gerber that this image is absolutely absurd!

As long as you are a solopreneur, working on every facet of your business, you will be your business’ number one problem!!! As Gerber explains in his book, there are 2 kinds of businesses:

1) People-depedent businesses

2) Systems-dependent businesses

How do you know which one you are? Well, simply ask yourself this:

“If I (or anyone else in my company) were to leave my business for 6 months, would the business still exist when I came back?”

If you answer YES, then you have a systems-dependent business.

If NO, then you likely have a person-dependent business.

A System-Depentent Business

So what IS a systems-dependent business?

Consider this:

McDonald’s can deliver the exact same promise – the exact same food and customer experience – whether you are in Edmonton, Toronto, New York, or Kalamazoo. And it’s delivered by disinterested, teenage kids – some of the least qualified employees on the continent. And they do this BILLIONS of times every single year, at thousands and thousands of locations from sea-to-sea.

…and yet you can’t ever deliver that level of consistency to one set of customers of your one business, located in only one city or town. What’s the difference?

The difference is SYSTEMS. Your business depends on you (people-dependent) while McDonald’s depends on systems – the people can be swapped in and out.

On Your Own?

I will now ask you: why is it that you are taking care of making sales calls, balancing the books, dealing with inventory, answering calls, cooking, cleaning, and doing all of this ON YOUR OWN?

The true entrepreneur sets up a system, then delegates it.

Once that’s taken care of, then they create a system for another area of their business, and delegate that out. And they do this with every area of their business until they ARE able to walk away for 6 months or more.

Refocusing – The More Important Things

And the funny thing is that it is often the mundane, monotonous, pressing / urgent, and repetitive tasks that distract an aspiring entrepreneur from actually doing the “big-picture” items that will actually take their business to the next level.

Build a SYSTEM for these mundane, monotonous, and repetitive tasks, and DELEGATE. Then get re-focused on the MOST IMPORTANT things…

  • building your business,
  • learning new skills,
  • ideas,
  • and strategies,
  • and maybe even spend more time with your
    • kids,
    • spouse,
    • family,
    • and friends.

And What if You Don’t Own a Business?

Well, in your family life you likely DO have many mundane, repetitive tasks that take time away from being with your family.

  • Perhaps processing application forms for a charity you volunteer for.
  • Perhaps calling all of your relatives for the forthcoming family reunion.
  • Perhaps it’s really a pain for you to balance the family cheque book at the end of the month.
  • Or maybe it’s a hassle to always be coordinating the parents for Johnny’s soccer team.

Any of these items could be systemized and delegated.

So Many Routine and Mundane Tasks…

  1. WHAT IF you could get someone else to do any or all of this?
  2. Would that make you extremely happy?
  3. Would that give you more time to be with your family, kids, and friends?
  4. Would your life experience be better if you just didn’t have to deal with any of that boring, productivity-killing, repetitive brain-freeze?

Well, having your own Virtual Assistant (VA) may or may not be a fit for you. To find out if and how a VA would help you in your specific circumstance, contact Tina at 1-877-977-4776, or Info@SaveTimeBoostProfits.com to get a FREE 30-minute consultation.

Jan 08

A friend of mine went kayaking with his wife and two kids in beautiful Deep Cove. He sat in front of one kayak with their daughter in the back, and off they paddled. His wife sat in front of the other kayak, with their son in the back, and off they went. After a while, my friend noticed that, while he and their daughter had traveled far and wide and were having great fun, the other kayak was still going around in circles.

Upon examination, they found that their son had fallen asleep in the back of the kayak, and that one side of his paddle was dangling in the water.

So, even though his exhausted mom was paddling like crazy in front, their son was unwittingly preventing her from getting anywhere.

Passengers or Partners

In life, you have either passengers or partners, parasites or pals. Some people will help you to reach your goals, while others will hurt you, even when they don’t mean to.

You can work hard and be honest and commit and risk, but if you’re linked up with a loser, you’ll just keep on going round in circles, like a moth around a flame, until you burn out, and your well-rested passenger simply moves on to his next victim, laughing and smiling and hugging everyone along the way.

What Are You In Business For?

You’re not in business to provide bloodsuckers and freeloaders with a job.

You’re not working to sacrifice yourself and your family’s future for idlers and moochers. That’s what Obama wants to do – he wants to “spread your wealth” between the deadbeats and leeches out there.

But then he’s a socialist, and hopefully, you’re not. He’s never run a business, and that’s probably why he hates capitalism.

Measure and Monitor Production

Make sure that when your partners become poisonous passengers, you cut them loose – fast.

People should only eat what they kill, and anyone stealing off your plate should have his fingers severely beaten.

Measure and monitor production, and pay for results, not words and promises and compliments.

If you want your kayak to take you to Treasure Island, make sure you don’t have a pirate on board with you. And keep checking.

Jan 01

Shane was a clever business strategist and Joint Venture Broker from whom I was privileged to learn a very important lesson. I’ll tell you the story, and you can draw your own conclusions.

Strategizing the Target

Shane heard about an entrepreneur who could help him move a large amount of products. This entrepreneur (I’ll call him Dennis) was busy, successful, in demand, and very selective. Many people continually vied for Dennis’s attention, and salespeople spent a lot of time trying to sell him stuff. Shane took a month to do some serious due diligence and information gathering on Dennis –

  • his family,
  • business,
  • employees,
  • goals,
  • background,
  • philosophy,
  • hobbies,
  • you name it.

Then he paid a detective to gather even more information. When he was properly prepared, he spent a thousand dollars buying and using Dennis’s products and services.

Now Dennis knew who Shane was – a respectful client.

Setting the Bait

Shane knew that Dennis’s family was very important to him, so he paid a photographer to do a professional photo shoot of Dennis’s family. Then he invited Dennis to go deep sea fishing with him and a few carefully chosen friends.

He spent another month working on his relationship with Dennis until Dennis regarded Shane as a friend. This included buying Dennis a new guitar. Up to this point, Shane didn’t try to sell Dennis anything.

Catching the Fish

Three months to the day after Shane targeted Dennis, he closed the deal. Shane’s total investment, he told me, was five thousand dollars, which was tax-deductible. The deal made him forty-thousand dollars NET profit after deducting the five thousand. And Dennis made twenty thousand.

What Shane did was to strategically get the maximum amount of credibility and leverage before introducing his deal.

He told me that, at any time during this three-month process, if he felt the deal wasn’t going to work, he would have cut bait and walked away.

A General, Not a Soldier

That was ten years ago, and Shane and Dennis are still doing business. (I called Shane to make sure.) How different from the desperate posers who push their scruffy little business cards at you without even knowing you. Shane makes a lot of money, because he is a general, not a soldier. He is:

  • rational,
  • professional,
  • unattached,
  • reliable,
  • respectful,
  • and skillful.

He values relationships, and he takes nothing for granted. You would never see him in a “Business Networking Group” or a Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Many Ways to Achieve the Same Results

Of course, it doesn’t always take five thousand dollars to position yourself for a successful deal / Joint Venture. There are many ways to accomplish the same results for pennies on the dollar, and even for nothing but time and effort, but I like this illustration. As Ayn Rand said,

“Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.”

The emphasis is on THINK – something most so-called entrepreneurs avoid in favor of desperate sales pitches and their blind fumbling for a quick buck.

Which do YOU want to be?

Soldiers will grab a gun and rush out shooting. Generals plan before executing. They use:

  • military intelligence,
  • spies,
  • reconnaissance,
  • and input from other people.

They coordinate the activities of others.

Which do YOU want to be? Soldier or general?

To learn more about the Joint Venture Broker approach to wealth, which Shane understood so well, visit www.jvwisdom.com.

Dec 09

Leverage is what it’s all about in business. That is, after all, how the rich get rich.  And that’s why I love being a Joint Venture Broker – I use leverage.

How about getting leverage on your mind, so that you can accomplish your goals faster and easier? It costs nothing, and it’s simpler than one might imagine. They say, “Affirmations, like ‘I’m happy, healthy, and successful’, consistently spoken out loud with enthusiasm and belief, work.” Well, that’s at a very basic level. One can ramp that up significantly.

Stepping Up Affirmations

Instead of mindlessly intoning, “I’m happy”, how about asking yourself,

  1. WHY am I happy?
  2. What have I got to be happy about?
  3. What’s great about my life?
  4. How can I be happier?
  5. What can I do to make myself even happier? What specific steps can I take?

That will result in goals, and when you write them down and create an action plan, you can affirm your action plan.

This will in turn program your Reticular Activating System, which is like your mental GPS, and it will work tirelessly and subconsciously to help you notice and find ways to make your goals happen. Great leverage! That’s why you notice every new Lexus when you’ve just bought one.

How You Can Apply This Strategy

If you repeat, “I’m happy” and then interrupt yourself to ask, “Why am I happy?” you might find yourself answering, “I’m not happy – I am decidedly glum.”

  • Well, then you ask, “What do I have to do to BECOME happy?” It’s profound in its simplicity – it leads to positive, constructive action.
  • “What is making me unhappy?” Find the root cause and remove or adjust it.

Your Input Effects You

Have a good look at your input and its effect on your state of mind, aspirations, expectations, choices, and results. Every choice, word, and thought is either taking you towards your goals or away from your goals.

  1. What are you reading, watching, and listening to?
  2. Whom are you mixing with?
  3. What kind of exercise, diet, and environment is affecting your progress?

Managing Your Mind

What you think about comes about. What you focus on will grow. Managing your mind with questions and controlling your input makes sense if you want to fast-track your success. Written, specific, time-related, measurable goals will make your Reticular Activating System work overtime for you, even while you’re asleep. It’s the most powerful weapon you have – might as well use it for good.

Audit Your Inner Resources

Just as professional Joint Venture Brokers use Resource Audits, you might want to audit yourself sometime. “On a scale of one to ten, how happy am I? Why? What needs to change for me to be happier? How healthy? How rich?”

Evaluate your relationships, your present status – take a good, hard look in the mirror. It’s not easy; I sometimes get viciously verbally attacked (usually in writing by the passive aggressive, anal retentive types) when I say things at my seminars that forces people to see themselves in the mirror of their minds. They hate what they see, so they “break the mirror” by attacking me.

Interpreting Your Circumstances

The way we interpret our circumstances and experiences goes a long way to determining how successful we will be. The meaning you choose to give it is the meaning it will have for you.

When a woman told Churchill he was drunk, he responded, “Madam, tomorrow morning, I will be sober, but you will still be ugly.”

Glenn Beck, a true political prophet, is being violently attacked and threatened by people whom he’s courageously exposing in the media as frauds and weasels. He had his friend, a psychiatrist, join him on his TV show to discuss how one should handle these attacks. His friend illustrated how drug addicts refuse to admit they have a problem and attack you for suggesting they do – a great illustration.

Philosophy: Your Best Leverage

The best mental leverage of all is your beliefs and your philosophy – that is what guides you every second of your life. Your beliefs, world view, and philosophy is either hurting or helping you, so why not choose one that works for you?

  • Discard outdated, demeaning beliefs, and watch your life soar to new heights of success.
  • I highly recommend you read “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand – it has changed many lives, including mine.

One is faced with a buffet of belief choices – choose right. As developmental psychologist Gail Sheehy wrote years ago in her groundbreaking book, “Passages”, it’s normal and healthy to change your values and beliefs as you go through life, instead of being stuck in the poisonous beliefs some of our parents, preaches and teachers imposed on us – talk about child abuse!

Your most valuable asset in life is your mind.

Buddha said, “Thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.”

Control your mind, and you control your life.

Napoleon Hill taught us, “Whatever the mind of man can believe and conceive, it can achieve.”

Your circumstances are a clear reflection of your philosophy and thoughts. Have fun taking back control of your mind and your future – be free!

Dec 04

Entrepreneurs, more accurately termed “Solopreneurs”, often believe that they are an island, that they must accomplish everything on their own with their own resources.  These Solopreneurs think that they are maximizing their chance of survival and profitability.  They are totally WRONG.  Consider what Micheal Gerber says in his world-famous book The E-Myth: Revisited.

“Picture the typical entrepreneur and Herculean pictures come to mind: a man or woman standing alone, wind-blown against the elements, bravely defying insurmountable odds, climbing sheer faces of treacherous rock–all to realize the dream of creating a business of one’s own. The legend reeks of nobility, of lofty, extra-human efforts, of a prodigious commitment to larger-than-life ideals. Well, while there are such people, my experience tells me they are rare.” – Micheal Gerber

I agree with Micheal Gerber that this image is absolutely absurd!  As long as you are a solopreneur, working on every facet of your business, you will be your business’ number one problem!!!  As Gerber explains in his book, there are 2 kinds of businesses:

  1. People-dependent businesses
  2. Systems-dependent businesses

Which Are You?

How do you know which one you are?  Well, simply ask yourself this:

“if I (or anyone else in my company) were to leave my business for 6 months, would the business still exist when I came back?”

If you answer YES, then you have a systems-dependent business.  If NO, then you likely have a person-dependent business.

What IS a Systems-Dependent Business?

So what IS a systems-dependent business?  Consider this: McDonald’s can deliver the exact same promise – the exact same food and customer experience – whether you are in Edmonton, Toronto, New York, or Kalamazoo.  And it’s delivered by disinterested, teenage kids – some of the least qualified employees on the continent.  And this do this BILLIONS of times every single year, at thousands and thousands of locations from sea-to-sea.

…and yet you can’t ever deliver that level of consistency to one set of customers of your one business, located in only one city or town.  What’s the difference?

The difference is SYSTEMS.  Your business depends on you (people-dependent) while McDonald’s depends on systems – the people can be swapped in and out.

I will now ask you: why is it that you are taking care of making sales calls, balancing the books, dealing with inventory, answering calls, cooking, cleaning, and doing all of this ON YOUR OWN?

True Entrepreneurs

The true entrepreneur sets up a system, then delegates it.  Once that’s taken care of, then they create a system for another area of their business, and delegate that out. And they do this with every area of their business until they ARE able to walk away for 6 months or more.

And the funny thing is that it is often the mundane, monotonous, pressing / urgent, and repetitive tasks that distract an aspiring entrepreneur from actually doing the “big-picture” items that will actually take their business to the next level.

Build a SYSTEM for these mundane, monotonous, and repetitive tasks, and DELEGATE.  Then get re-focused on the MOST IMPORTANT things… building your business, learning new skills, ideas, and strategies, and maybe even spend more time with your kids, spouse, family, and friends.

Systems for More Than Business

And what if you don’t own a business?  Well, in your family life you likely DO have many mundane, repetitive tasks that take time away from being with your family.

  • Perhaps processing application forms for a charity you volunteer for.
  • Perhaps calling all of your relatives for the forthcoming family reunion.
  • Perhaps it’s really a pain for you to balance the family cheque book at the end of the month.
  • Or maybe it’s a hassle to always be coordinating the parents for Johnny’s soccer team.

Any of these items could be systemized and delegated.

So many routine and mundane tasks…

  • WHAT IF you could get someone else to do any or all of this?
  • Would that make you extremely happy?
  • Would that give you more time to be with your family, kids, and friends?
  • Would your life experience be better if you just didn’t have to deal with any of that boring, productivity-killing, repetitive brain-freeze?

Well, having your own Virtual Assistant (VA) may or may not be a fit for you.  To find out if and how a VA would help you in your specific circumstance, contact Tina at 1-877-977-4776, or Info@SaveTimeBoostProfits.com to get a FREE 30-minute consultation.

Nov 09

Why do you employ people? For each of them to produce value, resulting in net profit in excess of the amount you pay them.

Why would you accept less than that? I know some of us are saddled with unions, relatives that work for us, people we’ve inherited and can’t easily get rid of, and many other excuses, however here are a few pointers that I think will help.

Remember, getting the job is the first job of someone who wants to be an employee. After that, every day, they have to prove to you why you should still hire them. and not give them the sack.

1.   Link their income to their production.

Work out what your real net profit is, your incremental profit, and a way to measure the output of every employee. This takes some analysis and a spot of Work Study (Organization and Methods), but it is well worth the exercise.

  • Don’t be too generous, and remember you’re not a socialist organization. People should get paid according to what they produce, not what they need.
  • Set traps to catch rats. Take a really good look at productivity, shop your own business, record phone calls, restrict Internet use, use Secret Shoppers, send one employee on leave for a week and see if the others cope. If they do, get rid of the worst one.
  • Educate your employees about profit and business.
  • Look after your champions, and remember that people change.

2.  Increase the production of your salespeople.

Teach your salespeople to sell, make them accountable, don’t accept excuses, have a sales meeting EVERY day, and fire your worst salesperson on a regular basis. Focus on results, not pipe-line, reputation, branding, market share – just the bottom line. Get them all onto a commission-only basis. Beware of  “sales trainers” – they usually can’t sell.

3.    Weed out the leeches and parasites.

Make their job unbearable if necessary; simply give them lots of work that they hate and micro-manage them. They’ll soon leave if you do it right. You’re in business to make a profit, and you don’t owe them anything.

4.   Learn to Delegate.

The best program I ever attended to learn about management was the Dale Carnegie Management Course. I learned a lot of valuable information about delegation, and I highly recommend it. Most “managers” have no idea how to manage, motivate, or discipline people. Your people need to set their own goals, report to you how they’re doing and how they will improve, and be accountable for their commitments. No excuses acceptable.

5.    Understand Joint Ventures.

In my business, everyone I deal with is a JV partners. I run my company with no employees, no risk, no cost, no overhead and little time. So I make a lot more profit and I don’t have to deal with losers and users. Lean and mean. Learn how JV’s work.

6.    Don’t hire socialists, smokers, or people who don’t need a job.

If you need an explanation for this one, you have a problem.

7.   Reward innovation, honesty, loyalty, and ambition.

These qualities are hard to find. Look after your champions and lock them in with residual commissions and long-term incentives.

8.    Familiarity breeds contempt.

Don’t be their “buddy”, maintain your distance, be strict, hold people accountable, and lead by example.

9.    Set up a “Dress and Grooming Code”.

When people look good, they feel good, and they do better work.  Set and maintain high standards in every area of your business.

10.    Train them, train them, train them.

Especially in the Joint Venture mindset.

Clicky Web Analytics