The most lucrative Joint Venture one can engage in usually involves a Center of Influence.

• This is a person who has the respect, admiration, trust, cooperation, and attention of a large group of people with whom he or she regularly communicates.
• This database of people is strongly inclined to follow the directions, instruction, advice, and suggestions of their leader, and they often do so blindly, as do most sheep.

And herein lies the challenge:

There are some dishonest and psychopathic centers of influence that misuse and abuse their power and their people, selling their loyal followers pigs in pokes, and taking advantage of their position of power to the disadvantage of their flock. One wants to identify and avoid these centers of influence like the plague.

You will be judged by your associations and the company you keep, and aligning yourself with con artists is financially tempting, but is as unwise as eating chocolate cake doused in strychnine.

The Most Valuable Activity of Any JV Broker

Seek out the honest and sincere centers of influence.

I would rather spend $2,000 working on a relationship with one genuine center of influence who has integrity, than reach hundreds of individuals who are not centers of influence. Those who have successfully Joint Ventured with good centers of influence know how valuable those relationships are. This is BY FAR the most valuable activity of any JV Broker: finding and pitching centers of influence.

7 Pointers for Gaining Top Notch Associates

Here are seven pointers that you would do well to be aware of:

#1 – Not everyone who has a large database is a center of influence.

There are characters lurking on the Internet who have plagiarized lots of information and built large opt-in databases under false pretenses – those databases are usually low quality, and your hit rate and conversion rate will be very low, while those you do convert will be low quality, too.

You want a high quality relationship between the center of influence and his or her people, and a high quality person in the database. Quality is more important than quantity.

#2 – Centers of influence can lose their credibility…

…with their flock as the products, services and investments they sold their followers prove to be scams at worst, and empty promises at best. The chickens come home, as it were, to roost.

Be on top of things and be current in your information about your target centers of influence. Things change, and there are a lot of posers and has-beens out there. Some centers of influence are on their way out.

#3 – All centers of influence are busy

…and what we hate more than anything else is an MLM type that sells lotions, potions, swill, and pills, snake oil and weight loss products, magic drinks, and overpriced vitamins and placebo effect products.

Realize that JV’s that involve the aforementioned and start-ups, unproven, miracle investments, gold mines in far-away places, and property/real estate “investments” in volatile, unstable third world countries are not JV’s most intelligent and honest centers of influence will even consider. We hear a lot of hype, and we have “BS Detectors”.

#4 – Don’t be intimidated by a center of influence.

They all want more money, and they all realize they can leverage their database. And they’re all looking for good, solid, lucrative, and viable JV’s that don’t involve cost, risk, or time.

#5 – Your Presentation:

Look, act, groom yourself, dress, and present yourself at least at the same level of professionalism as your prospect.

Showing up badly dressed, unshaven, covered in cat hair, answering your cell phone in the meeting, surreptitiously  glancing at your Blackberry or cell phone every few minutes (usually the sign of a lack of discipline and/or desperation), being unprepared, or smelling of tobacco, will simply irritate your prospect and end the meeting before it begins. And if you’re overdressed (glitzy, embroidered French cuffs, bling, big mouth, loud, ostentatious, aggressive and egotistical), you simply reveal that you’re intimidated, nouveau riche, or stupid. (Or all three.)

Be demure, professional, high quality, self confident, relaxed, and focused.

#6 – Your Offer and Approach:

Your offer has to be sufficiently financially rewarding to get the avid attention of your prospect.

• Get it in writing.  Click here for information about writing up an MOU, otherwise known as Memorandum of Understanding.
• Run it by your lawyer. I use Pre-Paid Legal and save a fortune on lawyers.
• Be very specific.
• Be concise and to the point, and remember that you have little time and only one opportunity to make a good impression. Talk about the bottom line and the time it will take to deliver the profit.
• Also mention who will control the money. This can easily be a deal breaker.
• Do your homework and position yourself.

#7 – This is a JV between equals.

…and you’re not a sales person or employee, so don’t act like one.

Be prepared to walk away from the deal. No center of influence wants to deal with someone who is in financial distress or under pressure to make money.

By seeking out solid, professional, and honest JV partners, you build your financial future on a firm foundation. Be selective, patient, and focused, and the sky’s the limit when dealing with centers of influence. DollarMakers is built on JV’s with good people.

I just noticed that a fellow with a massive database is following me on Twitter. He knows who I am. I could show him a system that is:

1. Simple
2. Proven
3. Safe
4. No-cost
5. Risk-free

- that he could introduce easily to his database.

Conservatively, it would earn him $5,000 per month in passive income within three months. (No, it’s not Network Marketing.) Yet I can virtually guarantee that he won’t even consider it. Why? His giant ego.

Seminar leaders, “gurus” and “trainers”, much like many of the owners of small and medium-sized business, allow their egos to steal massive potential profits from right under their noses.

The Most Sophisticated Tools In Business

We’re not in business to feel important or to impress people; we’re in business to make the most possible after-tax profit, with the least cost, time, risk, and effort.

The fact is that most “gurus” and “entrepreneurs” are not really entrepreneurs – they’re really just slick salesmen and pitchmen.

Anthony “Sully” Sullivan, the well-known “Pitchman”, says, “Life’s a pitch, and then you die.”

Smart entrepreneurs understand that Joint Ventures and strategic alliances are the most sophisticated tools in business –

• They are strategic,
• They employ leverage,
• They are scalable.
• They are not based on ego, but rather on profit.

Get Your Ego In Check

Look at the people who make the really big money, and you’ll find that they seldom sell their time, they actually prefer not to be on a stage unless they have no other option, and they evaluate business opportunities objectively and rationally.

When we get our egos under control, we suddenly see new options opening up. But for that, we need to understand the back-end, leverage, and positioning. Calvin Coolidge said,

“Civilization and profit go hand in hand.”

Most wanna-be business owners are simply broke, desperate, self-employed salespeople, whose arrogance is exceeded only by their ignorance, yet these are the very people who allow their egos to dictate their business choices.

A big fish is a small, rancid pond is only impressive to those even more pathetic and needy than he is.

Focus On The Bottom Line

The most successful businessman with whom I was ever privileged to work, partnered with me in my business and taught me a very important lesson. He said,

“Robin, it’s all about the bottom line. If you maintain your integrity and sublimate your personal feelings and pride, your profits will soar. There is always going to be someone richer and smarter than you are – don’t try to be a legend in your own lunchtime, don’t believe your own PR and BS, and focus on the bottom line.”

He was a very wealthy man, one of the most humble, soft-spoken people around, and very strong and disciplined.

If you want to feel important, act in a pantomime, join a service or fraternal club and rise in the ranks to get a title, or teach kids.

If you want to get rich, focus on the bottom line.

Here’s a simple formula to predict someone’s future choices and actions.

This virtual crystal ball has helped me significantly over the years to save time and money and allocate my resources more accurately.

Here’s How To Do It – Quick and Easy!

Sit down and do a spot of goal-setting with them, including the creation of an Action Plan.

There are really only two responses to this activity.

Winners who intend to produce will set goals with an Action Plan to Support them that are:

• very specific,
• realistic,
• measurable,
• time-related,
• and significant.

Those who do not intend to produce will set vague, mediocre goals that focus on activity rather than results, and are hard to measure and check.

Clues: What Winners and Losers Say

For example, the winner writes:

“I will make four paid, $2,000 sales by November 1st.”

The loser writes:

“Contact fifteen new prospects, advertise in the newspaper, ask for referrals from existing customers, read ‘Think and Grow Rich’ again.”

You get my drift.

How do I know he/she called fifteen new prospects or read the book, and how does reading the book put money in the bank? Did he/she really ask for referrals? It’s easy to advertise in the newspaper, but that doesn’t create sales.

Also, listen to their words:

• Winners says things like

“I will, I commit, definitely, exactly, certainly, I know.”

And they will put themselves on the line, invest, and face the consequences.

• Losers will use words like,

“I guess, I hope, I’ll try, IF, it depends on, maybe, I can’t control the future”, etc.

They will deflect blame.

Have Something to Show For It

When November 1st rolls around, the Winner will either celebrate their success, or they will have to explain why they didn’t attain their four sales, because it will be plain to see whether they succeeded or not.

The loser has protected them self by insulating them self from criticism; they will claim that they achieved their goals by reading the book, contacting people, asking for referrals, and advertising, yet they made no sales!

So he/she feels very successful with no sales, while the Winner, who in fact made three sales, determines to do much better next time by applying more self-discipline, something which the loser knows nothing about.

Motivation for Losers Vs. Winners

Losers (parasites and moochers) are motivated by:

• being busy,
• feeling important,
• impressing others,
• and teaching others (the blind leading the blind.).

Winners (producers and creators) are motivated by:

• results.

The way they set goals is the first way to predict their futures. The second way is to listen to what they say after their results are revealed.

Losers will:

• make excuses,
• blame others,
  • the economy,
  • circumstances,
  • their tools,
  • products and services,
  • pricing,
  • the market,
  • you name it.
• be “offended” if confronted with the fact that they failed to produce.

Winners will:

• take personal responsibility and
• resolve to do better by
  • changing their action plan,
  • working harder,
  • honing their skills.

Before you commit time and resources to working with someone, apply this simple formula – it could save you a lot of time and money!

BLOOMBERG.com

Hard Workers

Some people work hard pumping water in the hot sun, filling buckets with it, and carrying it to another location, where they sell it to their customers.

They work too hard, they sell their time, they have very limited potential, and they are terrified of their competition. They are, essentially, controlled by their customers.

These are: the self-employed, broke salespeople / laborers who call themselves entrepreneurs.

Real Entrepreneurs

Few people have guts to tell it the way it is. Robert Kiyosaki, in this incredible video, says things like,

“Four things make 90% of the people poor: taxes, inflation, debt, retirement plans.”

And then he provides solutions. He says,

“America will become a third world nation – rich and poor. That’s it. Tell me something money does not affect. Most guys are just wimps. Pussies. Cowards. They don’t have it. so they should get a job. It takes discipline. Most people would like to have a great body like Charles Atlas, but they’re at Burger King wolfing down a Whopper with fries. I don’t know how you can expect to get anything you want without some degree of long-term commitment. Quitting is the easiest thing to do. That’s why most people don’t make it. Everybody has doubts and fear of failing. But look at Tiger Woods or any great athlete: when the going gets tough, that’s when they turn into geniuses and most people turn into wimps. Get off your butt. If you want to be a mechanic, you go hang out with mechanics. If you want to get rich, hang out with rich people.”

3 Things You Need to Succeess

When it comes down to it, you need three things to succeed in business:

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.

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