Many Coaches and Consultants experience the “feast or famine, chicken or feathers” ups and downs in income - they’re either out there selling, or they’re delivering. In addition tp the resulting yo-yo income, they have to deal with:

• Either busy times or quiet times.
• Increasing competition.
• Because they’re selling time, they have limited income earning capacity.
• Many clients regard the consulting or coaching service as a luxury that can be terminated as soon as cash flows get tight.
• The popular perception of coaches and consultants leaves a lot to be desired, which is quite understandable, given the fact that many who use this label are about as valuable as a rotten peach on a busy sidewalk.

How do I know this? I was a consultant for eighteen years. And I’ve specialized in Joint Ventures for small and medium businesses for twenty two years.

The Obvious Solution

The solution to increasing your coaching or consulting business as well as income from other sources, while at the same time differentiating yourself from the herd, is Joint Ventures. It’s a great fit and a great complement to any coach or consultant’s business. Use your insight and communication skills to create lucrative JV’s. Have the money and the time to enjoy it, as well as the luxury not to rely on your income from consulting or coaching.

This is exactly what I did. I no longer sell my time as a consultant, but this information has worked for me for twenty two years and it will work for you.

3 Obstacles Holding You Up…

1. First, understand that you do not have a 100% profit margin, which you do have from Joint Ventures.
2. Second, know that you cannot possibly be all things to all men.
3. Third is the hardest – getting rid of that giant ego. I think ego is the enemy of coaches and consultants. Business is not about sales or being well known – it’s about bottom line, after tax PROFIT.

… And 3 Strengths You Have to Turn It Around

1. You have the ability to cut through the BS and guide and direct people.
2. You can gain their trust.
3. You are a good communicator and you have an understanding of business and human nature.

These are very powerful skills and tools in the hands of a Joint Venture Broker.

Don’t Push. Find a need and meet it.

If my doctor called me last week and informed me that he had a great deal on heart bypasses, I would get worried. Instead, he examines me and points me in the direction of a solution or relief. That’s real business. “Find a need and meet it.”

In a room of 20 “Business Networking” people, not everyone wants a coach. But they all have needs, hopes and dreams. If you’re there to make money by helping people, why not simply link these people, be they clients or prospects, with the solution to their needs and get paid for it? When they want a new house, why try to sell them coaching, instead of introducing them to a good Realtor and getting paid 20 – 50% of her commission? Easy money, no time, no risk, 100% margin. Think about it.

Triangulating JV Deals

Business consultants can make a lot more from triangulating JV deals than selling their time. Become a “Toll Gate” – something like Bill Gates. Create solutions that pay you well. Leverage other peoples’ time, resources, money and access. Something like Ari Onassis. Think about that!

Anything that is customized or personalized suddenly becomes very much more valuable. We like our own names and our company names and our sports team names, don’t we? So when we customize a product or service for an industry or a specific business, we create massive increased value at very little cost.

Here’s How It Works

You can private label an innocuous shampoo for a good hair salon and make serious money. You can make a seminar or sales training program industry specific and sell ten times as many. I was recently talking with someone who created exercise DVD’s. How about making one for seniors, one for travelers, one for children, one for ladies, one for teens, one for busy executives… then market each one through the marketing and distribution channels reaching that particular demographic? For example, you would Joint Venture with seniors publications and clubs, AARP and seniors tours to reach seniors with your seniors exercise DVD.

Private Label Training, Seminars or Teaching

When you find excess inventory, you can re-purpose it in this way. You can also approach someone who presents training, seminars or teaching, and Joint Venture with someone who has access a particular market segment, while procuring the rights to market their products and services to that segment and receive ongoing commissions. For example, how about Training for Realtors? Get more specific with Training for Female Realtors and you’ll make more money. The more specific, the more terrific.

Let Your Access Lead the Way

Which segment of the population do you have access to, or can you get access to? Once you have access to a demographic/psychographic sector, you can go out and find products that can be customized or relabelled for that sector. Once you have strategic alliances in that sector, it’s easy to expand to the entire sector.

I once did seminars for an Executive Women’s Club and ended up serving all their clubs nationwide. Had you set that up, you could have asked for and received up to 20% of all my income from that market, and that would have put at least $20,000 in your pocket. All it took to get me into that market was a friend making one, single phone call. One phone call can be worth $20,000 to you. Do Joint Ventures work? You’d better believe it!

Sales Tip

Specialists get paid more and have more credibility. Understanding more about an industry than your prospect positions you as an expert. In order to do this, use statistics and education to differentiate yourself from the generalists who think they can cure anything from recessions and receding hair to bad knees and bad attitudes.

Management Tip

The more you understand your prospect and his business, the more likely you are to sell to him. Train your employees to ask questions, make notes, do research and create industry specific solutions. Learn the language and jargon of the industry you’re targeting. Become familiar with their hopes, dreams, challenges and unique opportunities.

“I am an innovator. This is a term of distinction, a term of honor, rather than something to hide or apologize for. Anyone who has new or valuable ideas to offer stands outside the intellectual status quo. But the status quo is not a stream, let alone a ‘mainstream’. It is a stagnant swamp. It is the innovators who carry mankind forward.”
~ Ayn Rand

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Strong and successful entrepreneurs make decisions fast and stick to them. They don’t wait for the cat to fall out of a tree or Grandma to buy a new dress. They don’t have twenty committee meetings before they decide whether or not to order the Beef Wellington.

• They say, “Yes” or they say, “No.”
• They are fast on their feet.
• They don’t find excuses to procrastinate.
• They will weigh the information, do their due diligence and decide.

You don’t have to run after them for a decision, either; they will get back to you when they say they will. They are winners.

“All I needed was a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’.”

One seminar attendee gave me SEVEN reasons why he wouldn’t be able to attend an event. At the end of his whining, I said, “All I needed was a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’.”

Winston Churchill put it this way: “They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.” And George Canning said,

“Indecision and delays are the parents of failure.”

Those who vacillate, dither, hesitate and flounder are simply fearful of making ANY decision. They are afraid of the consequences of agreeing and equally terrified of the results of disagreeing. As Tony Blair once said of a certain politician, “Weak, weak, weak!”

Be willing to make decisions.

The chairman of Mesa Petroleum said,

“Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader. Don’t fall victim to what I call the Ready- Aim-Aim-Aim Syndrome. You must be willing to fire.”

Any decision is better than no decision. “I’ll get back to you” and “I’ll think about it / discuss it / review it” usually means, “I’m too scared to decide – please leave me in my misery and go find a real man”. Let us decide to decide. Let us be warriors and Eagles. Let us be confident, courageous and focused. Time is money and the window of opportunity doesn’t wait. Seize the day!

I asked the bell captain to call a cab for me to get to the train station for my trip to Ottawa. He replied that, with all the freezing snow Montreal was enjoying that morning, a cab would take 45 minutes to arrive! Shock and awe – what was I to do? I had meetings and a seminar lined up in Ottawa – carefully planned down to the last minute. I couldn’t afford to miss that train!

Then I realized that the bell captain was still there, talking. He was saying, “But, Mr. Elliott, why not take the underground to the train station? It’s right around the corner, here.” In only twenty minutes I was at the station via the underground, saved money on the cab and enjoyed a great, relaxing train ride to Ottawa.

Has Conditioning Got in the Way?

When he walked into the huge seminar venue in the Toronto hotel, he seemed pretty professional and successful Well dressed and groomed, poised, aware. He handed me his business card and I was impressed. Thirty minutes into my seminar, I asked the audience, “How many of you think this looks ‘Too good to be true’?” and the same man put up his hand. Shock and awe! It was hard to believe that this sophisticated businessman was, in fact, seriously handicapped by his mental conditioning. We all are. How many wonderful opportunities have we all missed, because our conditioning got in the way? We all have mental programming that hampers and restricts us.

We don’t have money problems, we have thinking problems.

The same goes for technology – I searched for YEARS to find a way to record sound bytes on my computer at home and then to e-mail them. It only took one e-mail from Member Andrew Cavanagh in Australia, and within ten minutes I had the solution, which has been working great ever since.

We don’t have money problems, we have thinking problems. And the same goes for everything else. We already have whatever we want and need – it’s all in the way we think. Understanding that we have mental blocks is the first step on the road to overcoming all obstacles on our way to success.

The Fastest Way I Have Discovered to Get Over Blocks

Other people know things that we don’t know. They have different perspectives and they know how to get to the train station. The fastest way I have discovered to getting over, under and around mental blocks is by associating with a wide variety of Eagles through our DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum.

Hundreds of ethical people around the world with a Joint Venture Mindset are available to help me to succeed in a win/win way. They have different frames of reference, experience, skills, connections, access and resources that are readily available. We help each other to see through the mental blocks and solve problems. Together, we can do amazing things.

Einstein told us,

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

And we tend to subconsciously seek evidence to support our dominant beliefs. So we get stuck in a loop – we continue to look for proof that we’re right, so we don’t change what we believe, so we don’t change. Then we complain that nothing changes. Well, our circumstances won’t change until WE change what we believe to be true. How do we do that?

Sabotaging Future Success

We created our beliefs by gathering evidence to support those beliefs. For example, Uncle Patrick was dishonest in business, Lonny ripped us off and Sam lost his savings in a bad business deal. And, as a result, we believe that business owners are dishonest and that we will lose money by getting into business. This can sabotage your future success. Or you’ve had six bad relationships and two divorces so you believe there are no good men in the world. That’s simple human nature: once bitten, twice shy. Seven times bitten…

Brainwash yourself

Actually, it’s easier than we may think. The best way I have found to change my own beliefs is to immerse myself in evidence that produce empowering, uplifting beliefs. If I had a bad experience in business, I can:

• Read the biographies of successful entrepreneurs
• Spend a lot of time on a regular basis with successful business owners
• Watch movies like “Tucker”
• Read business magazines
• Read “Atlas Shrugged”
• Read “Think and Grow Rich” and other good material
• Listen to podcasts and CD’s

Eventually, inexorably, my beliefs will change and my life will change.

If you had bad experiences in relationships, how about only mixing with people who have great relationships and marriages, read books about good relationships, work on yourself and concentrate on flooding your mind with positive information on relationships.

Brainwash yourself – wash out all the silly, weak, disempowering beliefs with good, clean beliefs! Focus on your input. Strategically plan to change your beliefs. Take massive, passionate action. You can dramatically change your life by changing your beliefs.

You talk to yourself at a rate of 600 words a minute. Even when you’re talking to yourself out loud, you’re talking with yourself internally as well. You’re constantly evaluating your circumstances and choices, based on your frame of reference and conditioning.

Choosing a New Program

Many of the confusions we jump to are automatic; conditioned responses based on past experiences which were often painful. So, many of the choices that we make are guaranteed to keep us in a negative loop, unless we consciously and actively stop the downward cycle and interrupt the negative pattern. Here’s a proven and simple way to do just that.

Asking Better Questions

Have you noticed that you always answer your own questions, and that the question determines the answer? And that we act on those answers?

• If you ask yourself, “Why am I so stupid?” You’ll get an answer that confirms that you are stupid, by telling you why you are stupid.
• If you ask, “Why do I have to work so hard?” you’ll trigger the same, negative response to confirm and support a negative belief or paradigm.
• “Why can’t I get out of debt?” will elicit an automatic, programmed response that will keep you in debt.

Break Free with This Recipe

The way to break free and escape this trap is to consciously and purposefully construct and ask questions that are designed to break the mold of pessimism and failure in any area of your life. In order to break disempowering habits, one fast way is to constantly ask yourself the right questions.

Write down the questions and be sure to ask yourself these questions (out loud, if possible) at least seven times every day. Try these for a start:

1. How can I double my income?
2. What is great about my life?
3. What do I like, respect and admire about the person I just met?
4. How can I add more value to the products and services I sell?
5. What am I grateful for?
6. How can I do more in less time?
7. What am I happy about? What is great about this situation?
8. Why do I have so much energy and joy?
9. How can I joint venture with others to make my dreams come true in a fraction of the time?
10. What can I do to increase the happiness and comfort of those I work with / my vendors / my family?
11. What did I learn today that will help me for the rest of my life?
12. Why am I such a great person? Why do people like and respect me?

Tips to Manage Your Mind

Tailor your questions to overcome mental and emotional challenges in your life. Focus on good things, solutions and events that you’re grateful for. Focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Create vivid mental pictures of your goals. Manage your mind and thoughts and everything else in your life will improve. Most of all, mix with Eagles instead of turkeys – Eagles will help you, support you and encourage you. Want to know where to find them?  Check out the  DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum at www.jvwisdom.com.

When you’re ready to start doing Joint Ventures, you should look at opportunities that fit the following criteria:

1. No Cost & Risk

There should be no cost or risk to you and it should not involve a lot of time, and definitely no selling.

2. Worth Your Time & Effort

The deals should be able to create enough money per deal to be worth your time and effort.

3. Pick Excellent Partners

You should only work with people you like and trust, who take action and are reliable. Don’t deal with whiners, losers or flakes.

4. Quick Turn-around Time

Look at the turn-around time. If you’re bringing leads to realtors or financial planners (insurance salespeople), for example, their deals generally take a long time and often fall apart, whereas certain deals are time sensitive (like a seminar) and people have to make fast decision, so the deal happens or it doesn’t in a shorter period of time. We want high-return, no risk (to EITHER party), little time invested, no money invested, and a quick turn-around time.

5. Multiple Complementary Income Sources

Structure your multiple income sources to complement each other. Instead of a “feast or famine” scenario, have different businesses with different busy cycles in the hopper, so that you get an even flow of income. Also look for synergies between the different demographics and buyer needs so that the same customer can buy from more than one income source.

6. Put it in writing!

Put the deal in writing - who does what, how they do it, when they do it, how payment takes place, the exact amounts or percentages paid, when payment takes place, etc., the more detail the better so that there are no misunderstandings later on. Do you get paid on the first transaction or on ongoing transactions?

7. Get Educated!

Attend the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum Member meetings and conference calls and attend Bootcamps so that you stay connected and keep on learning. Remember, if there’s no risk to either party and a deal doesn’t work out, nobody gets hurt, so don’t be afraid to fail. Also, some people will not want to Joint Venture with you. Don’t take it personally; they simply don’t understand value yet.

8. Come Prepared

Create an action plan and be prepared to do some research on people whom you intend to approach. For example, what are their profit margins, underutilized resources and needs? What kind of reputation do they have? Google them, check the Better Business Bureau, run a credit check, ask around.

9. Maintain Your Confidence & Strength

Be upbeat and optimistic when approaching potential Joint Venture partners, but never be desperate. You don’t need them. Be prepared to walk away from any deal at any time.

10. Think Big & Take Action

Finally, business is a numbers game. The more people you talk with, the more you try, the more you fail,  the bigger you think, the better. Joint Ventures is the fastest, best and most fun way to make an unlimited amount of money with no risk, little time and no money, that I have ever seen. Make it happen!

When you sell your time, you sell your life. You might as well be a slave or a mercenary – or an employee.

You cannot get rich selling time unless you’re very highly qualified or a rock star or film star. That’s why most consultants and coaches experience peaks and valleys - “chicken or feathers” – their income is seasonal and they work harder and harder for less and less.

Make A Money Machine Instead

When I meet with my Joint Venture Forum Members, I always tell them that they should have each Joint Venture they consider fit within the following parameters:

“No time, no risk, no cost, win/win.”

That doesn’t mean a Joint Venture won’t take time to set it up, or a little expense up front – it simply means that ideally, the JV should run like a money machine, without your presence or time. The idea is to utilize and leverage underutilized resources and create links as a broker would. You get paid a percentage of resulting business. You link supply with demand and piggy back distribution and advertising.

How Much Is Your Freedom Worth?

The average consultant or employee (a consultant is simply an employee with many bosses) doesn’t realize that his hourly rate is not what he actually earns. When you look at your real profit, you should also consider what your freedom is worth to you.

• Are you free to do what you like, when you like?
• Are you free to go skiing or hiking when the weather permits, or when a boss permits?
• Are you really like a child in a classroom who has to ask permission to go to the little boys’ room?
• How much is time with your family worth to you? What will you sell it for?
• Do you really want to have a boss decide whether or not you’re allowed to take your wife on holiday or go fishing with your friends?
• How old are you, anyway?

Maybe it’s time for your personal Independence Day.

Fire Your Boss

Other peoples’ time, money, resources, equipment, expertise and access is freely available to smart JV experts. We don’t have money problems; we have thinking problems. Let us understand that we don’t have to sell our time. Fire that boss, once and for all. Fire your consulting and training clients like I did. They don’t deserve you. You family and loved ones deserve you.

One phone call can earn a good JV broker more than the average employee earns in a month or more. Attend our Joint Venture Broker Bootcamp and find out how you can have all the time and money you want.  Contact Us to attend one yourself.