By the time I was seventeen, I had lived in eighteen different homes. As a child and teenager, I attended more schools than I care to remember, and I never stopped moving. I had lived and worked in different countries before, traveled a lot, and made money.

Starting from Scratch… at 45

So when I immigrated from South Africa to Canada December 1st, 1997, it didn’t seem like a big deal to me.  (Every immigrant knows the exact date he or she arrived in their new home.) I discovered, however, that, at the age of 45, I had to literally start from scratch.

Why Many Don’t Immigrate

And that is probably why so many people don’t immigrate, even when their lives are in danger, or they see no future in their own countries. They fear the fact that they will start all over on a level playing field, literally at the same level as people with far less education, experience, and successes under their belts. And some return to their own countries, because they can’t make it in the new country – what a waste.

What I Lost When I Immigrated

When you immigrate, you literally have no credibility, no database, no connections, no credit rating, no testimonials or references that anyone will take seriously (“I’m only interested in Canadian testimonials, sir.”) You’re a nobody, and you have no leverage, old boys’ club, connections, or value.

In some cases, you arrive in your new country with depleted financial resources – when I came to Canada 11 years ago, I had to divide my South African Rands by 4.2 to get Canadian dollars – today you have to divide by eight – so your net worth is instantly reduced by seven eighths!

You don’t understand the culture, the language is different (even if you speak “English”, Canadian English is not American English, UK English, Australian English, or South African English)… I could go on all night.

That’s Why I Created DollarMakers

When I created the DollarMakers organization, I created it with three things in mind:

1. First, I based the philosophy and inner circle structure on Ayn Rand’s book, “Atlas Shrugged” – pure, laissez-faire capitalism.
2. Second, I wanted to it be international and diverse – we now have Members in eighteen countries.
3. And third, I wanted a structure that would make it possible for an immigrant or someone who had no business background or connections to start making real money fast – IF they worked hard and applied the tools and information.

Age, education, and background are not important; attitude is important when it comes to Joint Ventures.

Everything a New Immigrant Needs

The combination of Joint Venture education and facilitation, international Membership, and the communications and networking aspects of DollarMakers makes it possible for a new immigrant to access all the resources they don’t have, and then some: connections, credit, money, business deals, inventory, skills, experience, reputation, distribution – it‘s literally like owning dozens of businesses without the cost, risk, or time required to do so.

Compared to Other Organizations

If I was offered Membership in the DollarMakers organization the way it is now, when I first arrived in Canada, I would happily have paid five thousand dollars to join. In fact, I joined one particular “Board of Trade” networking group here that is very good at selling itself to new immigrants, for eighteen hundred dollars for the first year, and like most people, I didn’t renew that membership. Our annual Membership starts at just $247 per year.

Cut the Learning Curve

We teach people to do what we did when we came to Canada – borrow existing resources and piggyback on existing businesses, reputations, and infrastructure through the use of Joint Ventures.

The difference is that we provide ready-made JV’s, connections, education, and business deals and offers.

We cut the learning curve to ribbons.

You’re Protected by a Code of Ethics

Most importantly, we fire unethical Members who don’t abide by our strict Code of Business Ethics. This is unusual in itself. So we protect new immigrants from all the posers, liars, hustlers and losers who prey on new immigrants. I met many of them. And we provide real support through a united, motivated, and dedicated team of Directors and Mentors, along with many internal opportunities for participation, leadership, and wealth building.

We Get Where You’re Coming From

We have a 22-year, international track record, and DollarMakers is the world leader in Joint Venture Training and support for small and medium sized businesses, individuals, and professionals. We understand where immigrants are coming from, and the challenges they face. We’ve been there, and we know that xenophobia is a real thing, no matter what country you immigrate to. Protectionism, the old boys’ clubs, vested interests, and the lies of the academic organizations, schools, colleges, and universities that you need to spend your money on new education, can all be overcome with Joint Ventures.

Do You Belong?

We teach people how to make real money in the real world fast, with no cost, selling, or risk, and the only investment is our Membership and training. Immigrants that are motivated, honest, hard working, open-minded, and committed, can use this vehicle to gain financial security and freedom for themselves and their families.

NOTE: Sometimes, moving to another town in the same state of province is like immigrating – DollarMakers is here for you, too, whether you have a business or not. And if you do have a business, we can show you how to double your profits.

I was recently asked why I was so passionate about Joint Ventures. Here is why:

Money is the lifeblood of a free, capitalist society. Joint Ventures offer people who have no savings, little education and no connections or business background, the opportunity to make money quickly and build multiple streams of passive income. Joint Ventures is a tool:

• to create wealth and freedom.
• to help small businesses survive and flourish.
• to build strong relationships between good entrepreneurs.
• to allow people to regain their dignity and self respect through the ability to be paid what they’re really worth.

A Tremendous Opportunity for All

Joint Ventures are a business opportunity in itself – it is the great liberator. Anyone can learn how to use Joint Ventures to create financial independence.

• Students who finish college and still can’t find a job,
• Seniors who can’t survive on their pensions,
• Immigrants who face xenophobic attitudes in their new countries,
• Good people who are downsized and people whose educational qualifications are no longer deemed sufficient by bureaucrats…

… can all grab Joint Ventures as a drowning man in a turbulent and dangerous ocean would grab a lifebelt.

Quashing Desperation & Instilling Prosperity

Crime, drug dealers and terrorism needs poverty and desperation in order to flourish. By helping people to create their own financial independence through the understanding and application of Joint Ventures, we can save marriages and lives and our society. The only people who claim that money is not important are those who don’t have any.

People can make good money with no risk, no overhead and no previous experience or education, and they can do so very fast. Our one day, Joint Venture Broker Bootcamps teach people in one day how to start making money the very next day, with no capital investment, regardless of age or gender. It’s almost miraculous how powerful this concept is. That’s why all the large businesses use them.

Real Security

Joint Ventures also give us security – we can earn money even if we can’t work through illness or other reasons, because that is the nature of a good Joint Venture. This is the solution so many people seek, yet they don’t even know it exists. I want to tell people all over the world that they can create financial freedom through Joint Ventures. With Joint Ventures, we don’t put all our eggs in one basket and we don’t give someone else power over us. We can be independent and proud and free.

I love Joint Ventures and I love teaching others about this amazing business tool.  I strongly suggest you watch the following video on the home page of www.jvwisdom.com.

When we exchange resources, goods, time, inventory, skills, equipment, goods and services, we’re bartering. Instead of using cash, we can barter underutilized time, space or other assets and even future services and production, especially if the products and services have big margins. And they may be depreciating, hard to sell or easy and cheap to produce. Extra capacity is as good as hard cash when bartered.

Barter Benefits

I know a dentist who bartered his services for advertising time on a radio station and a restaurant that bartered meals for cleaning services. Hotel rooms and staff training, consulting and legal services, high margin electronics and a host of other products and services lend themselves to barter. Barter conserves cash, and the goods are always bartered at their retail price! That means that if your food cost percentage is 34%, you’re buying at a discount of 66%!

You can even pay people to work for you with barter. And with redeemable coupons and gift certificates, you are essentially being loaned money at no interest until those coupons are redeemed. “Breakage” makes barter even more attractive – a certain percentage will not be redeemed.

Barter is like printing money!

Deals can be triangulated and cash flow can be relieved and ramped up. Plus, one barter transaction can lead to repeat business and thus an exponential return on investment (without a cash investment!) Bartering services and slow moving inventory for advertising is extreme leverage. Barter can produce cash customers. Think about the resources you have and who would want them. Work ON your business instead of IN it.

“I find it difficult to find, motivate, and keep good employees. If only I could find people who are as motivated as I am!”

• When you pay people the same amount of money, regardless of their quality of work or level of productivity, you’re trying to run a capitalist business on socialist principles.
• When you overlook slovenliness, negativity, and bad service instead of punishing it, you are encouraging it.
• When you see people creating additional value for your organization without rewarding them in direct proportion to that value, you’re discouraging them.
• When you employ anything that breathes because you’re so desperate for workers, you’re setting yourself up for failure and lowering your standards.
• When you establish ceilings and limitations on earning potential, you lose the cream of the crop.

Successful, profitable businesses prosper by design, not by default. They create a climate of attraction, motivation, stimulation, and reciprocation. This is so unique and hard to find that it will bring you some fantastic people.

How to Get Employees AND Employees who Perform

Before you tell me how hard it is to find people because you live in a booming economy like that of Alberta or British Columbia, let me suggest that, if you pay more than your competition, that fails as an excuse. And before you tell me that you can’t afford to pay significantly more than the competition does, let me assure you that you can accomplish that through the use of Joint Ventures. That’s what my company, DollarMakers, does. But this is not about creating more profit through Joint Ventures; it’s about employees.

For Example…

I once provided some Joint Venture training for an award-winning restaurant. At this restaurant, all the servers had shares in the business and enjoyed a simple profit sharing process as well. Servers were hired and fired by the Servers Committee, and everything was results based. Uniforms, serving times, and menus were determined by the Servers Committee. This was a true capitalist operation, using effective delegation, profit sharing, and common sense. The owner told me, “Robin, I manage by Consequence.” They never had a shortage of job applicants.

The ONLY Way Worth Operating

Pay people in direct proportion to the value they create – measurable, bottom-line profits should determine individual earnings.

• No automatic raises.
• No unions.
• There should be no cap on the earning potential of anyone.
• There should be immediate consequences for overstepping the mark.
• People should be allowed to focus only on their strengths. (Generally, allowing an accountant or a chef into a management position is suicide.)
• Use personality type testing and give everyone a vested interest in the success of the business, while at the same time tying their income and security to the fortunes, good AND bad, of the business. When business goes down, salaries should decrease in direct proportion, depending on individual input and production, which means simply that an employee who produces exceptional profits can experience an income increase while everyone else’s wages decrease. That’s called capitalism.

Here’s my standard “Job Description: “Whatever it takes, 24/7/365, and we share the fortunes, good and bad.” My entire business is made up of multiple, interlinked Joint Ventures. I actually practice what I preach, and it works.

Before leaping blindly into a Joint Venture, here is a simple checklist to thoughtfully and objectively review, that could save you time, money, frustration, and even your reputation:

1. Is your potential Joint Venture partner truly successful, and does he or she have money and a solid track record? How do you know?
2. Can they deliver what they promise and afford to pay you the promised commission on time? How do you know that?
3. Have you done you due diligence? Are they Members of DollarMakers?
4. What impression did they make on you, what was your gut feel, and are you absolutely comfortable with them? Any red flags you’re ignoring?
5. Is this Joint Venture a good match with your other Joint Ventures and Joint Venture partners?
6. Are you being pressured into the Joint Venture? (Usually a sign that the other party has cash flow problems.)
7. How can you test this Joint Venture in a small way before rolling it out in a big way?
8. Have you bounced this off your Mentor?
9. Do you have a good agreement in place that covers all areas?
10. Is the income potential of this proposed Joint Venture worth the time and effort required to make it work?
11. Will it dovetail with your other Joint Ventures and back-ends?
12. What are your other options? (YAHOO = You Always Have Other Options).
13. Are you making an emotional decision, a desperate decision, a decision based on a feeling of obligation / reciprocation, or a business decision based on value and profit?
14. Is this a true win/win? Are both parties contributing equal value, or is it one-sided?
15. What is the time, risk, and cost involved, and is it justifiable?

Locate His Need

When I meet someone, I listen carefully to establish what pain he or she is suffering. It’s usually in one or all of three areas: Finances, Time, and Freedom. I then get the prospective customer to elaborate on his pain, using open-ended questions. I turn the knife in the wound, as it were.

• How does this situation affect him, personally?
• What impact does it have on his family?
• How will it affect his future?
• In fact, if he doesn’t solve the problem, what will his life look like in two years?
• What are the consequences of NOT solving his problem?

Help Him Realize Change is Possible

Now that he realizes he has a problem, and having dwelt on it, he is acutely aware of his need to solve it, I have him tell me what his life could be like should he be able to solve his problem:

• How will he personally feel once this problem has been resolved?
• What effect will it have on his family and profits?
• How will it change his future?

Give him a glimpse of the rewards he will reap by solving the problem.

Offer Him a Solution

Next, I become the solution, or the bridge to his better life, by connecting him with whatever product or service is necessary to solve his problem. When I connect him with the business that solves his problem, I receive an on-going (yes, I said on-going) commission from that business. That income is 100% margin to me, if it is not my own product or service, so I can’t lose. I create value and get paid for it, and I have a happy customer. Whether he buys from me or not doesn’t matter – he is happy and I made money. I solved his problem and was paid for the service.

Link supply and demand and get paid.

• It’s not about you or your business – it’s about value.
• Be a good listener, help people to get what they want, and you get rich.
• Stop telling people about your products and services – they don’t care. They care about their problems and goals, and you need to shut up and listen to them so that you can solve their problems and make money.

Selling is old hat, as out of date as a Commodore 64 computer, boring, childish, and naïve. Solving is the way things work these days, and the ideal vehicle is Joint Ventures.

We watched an old 1966 movie last night, called OSCAR, in which the Maitre D’, a failed film star, tells the famous film-star just how precarious the film star’s position really is. It’s human nature to avoid reality, wear blinkers, and stick our heads in the sand, but facts are facts. Your eager replacement is waiting in the wings. If you don’t perform, you will be replaced fast, and the scary part is that you won’t even know it until it’s too late.

We all buy life insurance, houses, websites, holidays, cars, furniture, and many other things, and we are free to decide whom to purchase from. I had someone call me and ask me, “Why didn’t you buy from me?” My response was very simple: “You didn’t earn the right. You need to earn my business. You didn’t.” Last week I had someone ask me to recommend a realtor. I know a few realtors, but there was not one that I would recommend – they didn’t earn the right.

I am currently in the process or replacing one of my service providers, and he is blissfully unaware that his replacement is already waiting in the wings. Why? He has been unreliable, unprofessional, and unresponsive. So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight. When he wakes up and wipes his eyes he will realize he has lost a fortune in future business and referrals. Too late for tears.

Pride comes before the fall. Take people for granted, let your service slip, and before you know it, you’ve been replaced by a hungry competitor. In order to avoid this unhappy and costly predicament, here are a few pointers to allow you not only to keep the business you already have, but to add to it significantly:

1. Respond promptly to e-mails, calls, and letters. That means FAST.
2. Pay on time. If I have to remind you, I might suspect you never intended paying.
3. Go the extra mile – add unexpected value.
4. Communicate effectively, respectfully, and regularly.
5. Reciprocate with referrals, invitations, and recognition.
6. Constantly improve your service and products.
7. THANK people for the business they send you with money or other real value.

Your replacement is eagerly waiting in the wings. He wants to take your business, and he’s ready to earn it. DollarMakers specializes in showing people how to add massive value and differentiate themselves from the competition with no additional cost, through the use of Joint Ventures.

The DollarMakers Credited Business Mentor Training Program

• Become a Certified Business Mentor (CBM)
• Learn how to Double the Profits in virtually Any Business
• Earn real money getting real results for business owners

As a Protégé of Robin J. Elliott and Patrick Giesbrecht, get five days of personal, hands-on coaching in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia

For 18 years, I consulted with the owners of small and medium sized businesses to dramatically increase their profits. As I got more involved with the DollarMakers Membership and traveled around the world more frequently, I stopped the consulting. My fees ran from $500 per hour to $1200 per hour and my monthly retainers were $5,000 plus profit sharing, but my heart was in the Bootcamps and my Joint Ventures.

I continually get requests from business owners to help them grow their businesses through my business mentoring, and there is nobody I would recommend to do that. After seeing how many “Coaches” and “Consultants” out there cost a small fortune and do more damage than good, I don’t know one person who can do what we do. OK, I know one person who can do it: Patrick Giesbrecht, the fellow who retired within seven months of attending my Bootcamp, but he doesn’t do mentoring either.

And so we came up with a solution: We would offer personal, intense, hands-on training to a few, carefully selected, qualified Protégés so that we can turn them into Business Mentors who are equipped to go into virtually any business and double or quadruple its profits, and get very well paid to do so. We created a five day, focused program, during which Patrick and I will personally coach and train these few, selected people and duplicate our skills in them. They will learn directly from my 21 years of experience and Patrick Giesbrecht’s business genius.

We will accept only a limited amount of Protégé’s per group, and we will include their accommodation, meals, and a professional city tour of our home, Vancouver, the most beautiful city in the world. Spouses and life partners can attend the training as well, at no cost, and their accommodation and tour will also be included (with the exception of their meals).

If you are interested in applying to be a Protégé, you can complete an application form on this site. We reserve the right to accept or reject applicants without an explanation, and since we will only accommodate a few people over five days, there will be very few slots to fill and we are already inundated with applications. If you’re interested in applying to be personally trained to be a Business Mentor, click here.

Read what you get and what investment is required before completing this Application.