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.

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.

Invaluable Information in Just 7 Minutes

While a good DISC assessment takes only seven minutes and will reveal remarkable, useful information that will predict choices and show one how to manage, motivate, and discipline an individual, as well as assist in hiring the right people and discovering their strengths and weaknesses, my system takes much longer, but costs nothing, and is infallible.

Ideally, one should use both systems.

My Infallible System: Monitoring Behavior

My system is as old as the hills, and it works inexorably. It is called BEHAVIOR. By allowing people access to many, diverse choices and options, and simply observing their consistent choices and behavior over time, one can predict what they will do in the future.

My business (DollarMakers) is designed like a giant filter. It attracts people and monitors their choices. The cream, as always, rises to the top. It’s like sorting coal from diamonds. Simple.

Just watch them. When they consistently make good choices, we offer them better stuff. They disqualify or qualify themselves. Their behavior tells us whether or not we can trust them, and what they will do in the future.

Other Critical Indicators to Watch

• Obviously, we also like to look at their past – track records help a lot.
• Also, if people CHANGE from good to bad, and many do, cut them loose – fast.

“Little” Things Speak Loudly

Simply observe the little things:

• How they dress, groom themselves, and behave.
• Do they show up on time?
• Do they leave early?
• What verbal clues do they give?
• Do they respond promptly to e-mails and phone calls?
• Do they hide when they are late with payments? That is a form of dishonesty.
• Do they lie? The more they talk, the more they reveal – good and bad.
• Are they cheap? Are the generous?
• Do they offer their help?
• Are they optimists or pessimists? Regardless of what they say, what they DO will tell me if they believe or not.
• Are they in for the long run, or are they quitters? Time will tell.
• Are they saboteurs, backstabbers, and thieves or are they winners, champions, and loyal friends? Their actions will tell you – just watch them closely.

Test Over Time

You can devise simple tests.

“Come hiking in the mountains at 8am Monday morning”, you suggest. Do they show up? Are they on time? How do they behave? Do they return? Do they bring friends?

Put them in a position where they can be dishonest – set a trap. Your loyal friends will report to you on bad behavior. Look for consistency.

The Tortoise and The Hare

Most people start off well, but quit soon. Some will start with a powerful fanfare, huge promises, massive action, and burn out just as fast. Others will start slowly and build over time – the tortoise and the hare.

Why Using Both Systems is Best

If you use DISC to assess people after observing them for a while, you will have even more information, and your choices will be even better, resulting in better business and a real win/win.

Other Helpful Situations to Observe

• Watch how people interact with their families and pets.
• See how they deal with laborers, waiters in restaurants, parking lot attendants, and hotel employees.
• Are they smokers?
• Listen how they speak with their spouses on the phone.
• Discover someone’s world-view / philosophy / religion, and you will know a lot about their future choices.
• Listen for pain, regret, guilt, fear, embarrassment, bias, political views, and you will find valuable clues.
• Look at the books they read, the pictures in their homes, the state of repair in their homes, what cars they drive, their hobbies, and most importantly, their friends.
• Are they gamblers?
• What groups or clubs do they belong to?
• Monitor them on Facebook.
• Say controversial things and watch their response. I love that one.
• Talk with their employees, vendors, and competition.

6 Vital Guidelines for Monitoring Behavior

1. Look for patterns.
2. Ask open-ended questions.
3. Do this due diligence before getting involved in serious business with them.
4. Make them qualify for the privilege of your company.
5. And be aware of who you’re dealing with / who the real decision maker is – is it their spouse or parent, or is it them? Spouses are often the fly in the proverbial ointment – be very careful.
6. Finally, remember that desperate people tend to do desperate things – look for vices and money problems.

In these turbulent financial times, one sees small signs of panic all over.

But Can You Recognize Your Own Symptoms?

While we’re all aware of the “fight or flight” response to panic, and we recognize the symptoms in others, it is not always easy to see them in yourself. We tend to suppress feelings of panic and deny them, get too busy to acknowledge and deal with them, and in the process start to slip down a slippery slope that includes sometimes irreparable damage to our relationships, health, and financial situation.

Men, especially, want to appear “Macho” and in control, so we tend to cloak panic with aggression and bravado.

A Lotto Desperation

Yesterday, Rika and I sat in a restaurant and watched a succession of men feeding a lotto machine. We were amazed at the tension and desperation we saw in these men. They were gambling precious time and money with extremely low odds of winning anything, yet they probably saw this as their only alternative. Sure, some were just having fun, and some were addicted, but my overall impression was men on the brink of panic.

Men vs. Women

This article tells us why unemployment is hitting men harder than women, and this article tells us that “Unemployment Rate Soars for Older Men with Limited Education”. Women are better equipped to handle stress, and they generally panic less than men do, but we are all vulnerable.

Manipulating the Herd

The herd instinct is much more pronounced in our highly connected society than in past years, and politicians and the media are milking it for all its worth. They know how to manipulate with fear, exaggeration, and spin, and this often leads to mass panic in different degrees. Anyone who believes what politicians, mystics, and the media tells them is living in a dangerous fantasy world.

Scam artists are also very busy tacking advantage of desperate people.

Deadly Panic

Many highly publicized cases of deadly panic occur during massive public events.

• The layout of Mecca was extensively redesigned by Saudi authorities in an attempt to eliminate frequent stampedes, which kill an average of 250 pilgrims every year.
• Football stadiums have seen deadly crowd rushes and stampedes, such as at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, England, in 1989. This led to controlled entry gates and stricter rules by the end of the 1980s to regulate seating arrangements.

6 Lifesaving Tips to Keep a Cool Head in Times of Panic

I know what it’s like to feel as though you’re on the verge of panic. From my personal experience, having been exposed to high levels of stress at different times in my 56 years of life, including military combat, business and finances, dangerous situations, fire, marital problems, divorce, and many other things, here are some tips on handling panic:

Tip #1 -Realize Stress Effects Your Perception

Perception is reality. Accept that our perception is never accurate, and that the more stressed we are, the less logical our assumptions, choices, and conclusions.

Realize that you don’t see the whole picture, and that you’re missing a lot of vital information as you develop tunnel vision and see everything through a lens of desperation, scarcity, and limitation.

Tip #2 - “YAHOO!”

Shout, “YAHOO!”

You Always Have Other Options.

The fact that we are not aware of our real options doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Your problem is in your mind, and you need a way to see through the eyes of a rational, intelligent, mature, relaxed, and creative person. As I always say, “You don’t have money problems; you have thinking problems.”

Tip #3 -Discriminate the Advice You Accept

Never take advice from someone who doesn’t already have what you want, or from someone who is more screwed up and stressed than you are. They will drag you further down the slippery slope to panic and loss of control. Taking financial advice from a social worker or teacher, for example, is just plain silly.

Question the motives of people giving you advice, and be especially careful of mysticism – this is a dangerous, irrational, and destructive escape route. Choose your mentors very carefully.

Tip #4 -Get Excellent, Level-Headed Support

It’s hard to cope alone, but help is always available from the right people. When you’re blindfolded, you need to be led by someone who sees the obstacles as well as the exits and solutions until your blindfold can be removed. Things are never as bad as they seem.

Finding a good support group usually means that what you currently have doesn’t work. If everyone around you is panicking, you want to remove yourself from that situation. Pessimists are no help to anyone.

Take note of the people in your life. Are they helping you or hurting you?

Tip #5 -Monitor and Improve your Self-talk

I have found the most tool to stave off panic and maintain a level-headed approach is my self-talk. I have always talked with myself, often aloud, and saying things like:

“This is a piece of cake. I can handle this. So what’s the big deal? What are my logical options? This is no problem for me – a mere hiccup to one of my talents…”

Remember, also, that the questions you ask yourself will determine, to a large extent, where you end up.  Find out more about this concept in my book, Break Free!, coming soon to JVWisdom.

Tip #6 -Is Your Philosophy Helping or Hurting You?

Finally, check your philosophy / world view / religion – it, too, is ether helping you or hurting you, and you have many other options. If a shoe doesn’t fit and gives you blisters, replace it.

DollarMakers is designed to provide financial solutions to any people in any circumstances, as long as they are prepared to learn, work, and persist until they are free.

Some Sales Managers experience the following challenges:

• Unproductive salespeople who specialize in whining new tunes
• Salespeople complaining that the customers can’t afford their products and services
• Economic downturns
• Absenteeism and showing up late
• Salespeople that are not loyal and leave for the slightest pay increase or incentive
• Salespeople that make excuses and are lazy
• Strong competition
• Hard to find and keep good salespeople
• No new information or tools to motivate their salespeople - they’ve heard it all before.

We offer Sales Managers the following tools for their beloved sales teams:

• Create unlimited streams of eager, qualified, and primed prospects
• Differentiate yourself from the competition by creating massive added value at no cost
• Offer huge, compelling incentives, bonuses and premiums to prospects for making a buying decision, at no cost to you
• Learn how to get the prospect’s undivided attention and lifelong loyalty
• Stop selling, and start solving
• Increase sales closing/conversion ratios through the roof  by using our proven systems
• Offer your salespeople exciting and valuable sales target bonuses at no cost to you

Our customized, in-house, 5-hour Joint Venture Bootcamps turn snailspeople into salespeople. We’re all about working smart and getting results.

A while back, my daughter took me horse riding. It was a wonderful and memorable day, and we’ll certainly do it again soon.

When we mounted, the leader of the ride told me that when we got to a certain field and we were cantering or galloping, my horse would start to veer to the right as he always did, and she showed me how to get him back on track with the rest of the riders.

Sure enough, as soon as we started galloping out of a canter, he started veering right and pulling away from the other horses. I simply followed instructions and soon had him back with the rest of the horses.

When I rode in Rhodesia, I used to ride a horse that always had to be second or have a horse in front of him in order to feel secure, however when we headed back home to the stables, he would move to the front and gallop like a crazy thing.

As the Arabian proverb goes, “The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse’s ears.”

How to Predict the Future of Your Associates

People are also predictable.  If you battle to get a $200 check out of someone, don’t labor under the illusion that they will ever pay you JV commissions. When people reveal who they really are, believe what you see.

• You get to know people when they’re under pressure and on the line.
• Don’t believe their excuses.

You can predict the future by their past choices.

• Watch their choices in small situations to understand what they will do when it comes to real money and important events.

Watch for small clues, take care of the small details, and you can prevent larger problems. Benjamin Franklin wrote:

“For want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe the Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was lost; being overtaken and slain by the Enemy, all for want of Care about a Horse-shoe Nail.”

Check Out the Spouse Too

When I was selling businesses, I would insist that the spouse was present at the interview. Usually, It was the man buying the business, and I would ask the wife about his habits, while he was present. I would ask her:

• if he had trouble getting out of bed in the morning
• if he did things he promised to do
• if he shaved on his days off

If she revealed that he was a lazy type, unreliable, or lacking in self discipline, I wouldn’t sell him the business.

Behavioral Patterns

Look for behavioral patterns, and do small Joint Ventures with people before going big, so that you can see who you’re really dealing with. Test in a small way before rolling out in a big way.

We often have people trying to JV with us who tell us, “As soon as I get time, I will join DollarMakers”, or “I am considering joining” – how pathetic is that? It takes five minutes to join. That is a sure sign of a liar.

Strong relationship are built on trust, and it takes time to build trust and respect. W.C. Fields said:

“Horse sense is the thing that a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”

Earmark of Success

Successful sports people are usually successful in business, because they are disciplined, reliable, and understand that it takes time to succeed. Farmers also tend to be successful, for the same reasons, they don’t expect to sow on Monday and reap on Tuesday.

Past  choices are usually a good indicator of future behavior, as with horses. The difference is that horses are honest and uncomplicated, but eventually people will reveal who they really are. R.B. Cunninghame Graham, in his  letter to Theodore Roosevelt in 1917, wrote:

“God forbid that I should go to any Heaven in which there are no horses.”

Would that people were as honest as horses.

Many years ago, a relative of mine made an appointment to confront an evil church pastor about a serious issue of hypocrisy and double-dealing in her church. She prepared her case very well, and there was no doubt about the fact that the “pastor” was, in fact, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I’ll never forget what she told me when she got home from that meeting.

She said she felt as though she had imagined the whole thing; he made her feel foolish, he actually laughed at the facts she presented, and she left feeling convinced that she was wrong, that he was right, that she was guilty of being disloyal and negative, and that she actually owed him an apology for wasting his precious time.

The Deceptive Art of Distraction

Politicians and psychopaths are good at diverting one’s attention from the important things and questions they would rather not answer. They know that attack is the best form of defense. Salespeople are singularly adept at sleight of hand or legerdemain:

• Answer a question with a question.
• Baffle with unimportant facts.
• Use complicated explanations and trickery to throw your pursuers off track.
• Make light of exigent issues.
• Brush off serious accusations with a condescending smirk.
• Hug them while you knife then in the back.

Magicians use distraction all the time.

Even Good People Do This to Avoid Responsibility

My point? I used to attend regular, weekly sales meeting with a group of other SMI Distributors. At every meeting, we Distributors would tell our amazing stories to the meeting leader.

We would talk about all the leads we had “in the pipeline”, all the sales we had narrowly missed, all the things we were “working on”, and all the promises we had heard from our prospective buyers. We also spent a good deal of time making excuses, blaming the weather, the competition, holidays, pricing, traffic, the products we sold, the packaging, the economy, and of course our leader.

At one meeting our leader got up before anyone could start mouthing off, and his words have stayed with me to this day. He said,

“Today, I don’t want to hear any stories, promises, excuses, or lies. Don’t you dare say a word, any of you. This is a silent meeting.

Walk up to the board, take the sharpie, and write down the amount of sales you made last week. That means PAID sales. I will check your figures. Then get out of here, and don’t contact me until the next meeting.

I am only interested in results. Next week, I will fire the Distributor with the lowest sales. Now get out!”

We doubled our sales as a result of that valuable lesson.

Shape Up or Ship Out

Losers and underachievers specialize in the deceptive art of distraction. They will:

• ask you irrelevant questions
• create rumors
• seem very busy
• make excuses for everything

If you allow this kind of behavior, you reinforce their failure to take responsibility and you encourage them to become parasites and posers.

When you focus on results and refuse to be distracted, you’ll get them to shape up or ship out. And you’ll save loads of time.

Talk is cheap, and money buys the whiskey.

I knew a jeweler who attended a Dale Carnegie management training program with me  and returned to his business a changed man.  Suddenly, mall security guards started arresting thieves in his store.

When he remarked to one of the security guards that it seemed that crime was increasing in the mall, the security replied that the crime rate hadn’t changed – the guards had simply started intervening and arresting thieves, whereas before, they had turned a blind eye. They were rewarding my friend for his change in attitude towards them. But I digress…

What REALLY Motivates Employees

In his book, “Persuasion IQ”, Kurt W. Mortensen discusses a working paper by Kenneth A. Kovack of George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. Kovack researched the differences between what motivates employees and what managers think motivates employees. Here’s the data:

What Motivates Employees as Ranked by Employees

1. Interesting work
2. Appreciation of work done
3. Being well informed
4. Job security
5. Compensation
6. Growth and promotion opportunities
7. Good working conditions
8. Personal loyalty to employees
9. Tactful discipline
10. Help with personal problems

What Motivates Employees as Ranked by Managers

1. Compensation
2. Job security
3. Growth and promotion opportunities
4. Good working conditions
5. Interesting work
6. Personal loyalty to employees
7. Tactful discipline
8. Appreciation of work done
9. Help with personal problems
10. Being well informed

“Shared Ownership”

One thing that I believe will cover many of these requirements is “Shared Ownership”. I’m not talking about giving your staff shares in your company.  I’m talking about profit-sharing Joint Ventures, where employees get compensated in direct proportion to the value they add as measured in profit.

Front line employees are often to privy to information of which management is blissfully unaware, and many times by design. Empowering your employees by partnering with them:

• gives them an “ownership mentality”.
• reduces absenteeism, laziness, and shoddy work.
• increasing motivation, loyalty, productivity, interest, enthusiasm, and innovation.

Managing the Potential Downside

Opening opportunities to your staff has its downside and risks, and therefore should be carefully managed, watched, and controlled, while allowing enough freedom and accepting enough damage through honest mistakes and inexperience to remove fear and hesitation.

Clearly defined boundaries, regular, open communication, and quick feedback, and awareness of the power of operant conditioning, with it’s requisite fast reinforcement, is essential.

As “partners” (without legal implications, please), most of the above motivational factors (we should also be cognizant of Hertzberg’s Hygiene Factors here) will be more than adequately addressed, indeed enhanced, and your bottom line will see the results.