Archive for the ‘Smart Money’ Category
Business networking is one of those things you know you should do, but if you’re like most people you’d rather be doing something else. Since so many people know how to do business networking the hard way, I am going to show you how to do your business networking the easy way. There is an easy way to make business networking fun and highly profitable.
There are two BIG mistakes people make at a business networking event:
1. They think you have to sell and promote yourself at the time of the business networking event 2. They don’t have a proper follow-up system. (Most people throw away all the business cards they collected without following up. They are losing the power of business networking.)
Business Networking Isn’t about “Making the Sale”
Business networking is about building a relationship with a few key people over time. Don’t try to close a sale right there at the business networking event. Your job is to move people into your marketing funnel.
Your marketing funnel is a process where people first get to know you, then buy from you, then refer others to you. Think of it as a spiral – the more people go down your funnel, the more money you make.
The funnel itself consists of four parts. You help the person move from being a prospect, to a lead, to a client, to being your unpaid promoter or champion.
This process happens over time. The people you meet at a business networking meeting are prospects because they don’t know you yet. Your goal is to give them a positive experience of you. They will then spiral along your marketing funnel and you will see long-term success from your business networking.
How to Get Prospects into Your Marketing Funnel using Business Networking
Remember, a prospect is someone who doesn’t yet know you, so your job is to stand out from the crowd and “introduce” yourself.
1. Hand out a 30-minute audio CD at business networking events in addition to your business card. Imagine how impressed people will be!
2. Put a call-to-action on the back of your business card. Here’s what mine says (feel free to swipe it), “Want More Profit and Prestige? Get our Special Report 5 Steps to Passive Revenue With Information Products at www.InfoProductGuy.com”.
3. When you introduce yourself to people, tell them that you’d be happy to email them a free tips sheet.
4. If you get the chance to speak for a few moments to the whole group, tell them you have a special report you’d like to send them if they give you their business card.
5. Conduct your own raffle where you give away a valuable offer so you can gather business cards. Then follow up with emails and some kind of special offer like a consultation call with you.
6. Follow up with everyone by offering them a free sample of what you do.
Bottom line – you want to entice people to give you their business cards so you can market to them after the business networking event. Make it something so irresistible that they would be foolish not to take you up on your offer. It can be as simple as meeting with someone one-on-one for coffee after the business networking event.
Think “build relationships” over “I’ve got to make a sale!” This will serve you for the long-term because once you become friends with someone they become your marketing champion. Leverage business networking as a starting point for those deeper, more meaningful relationships.
Anyone can start a legitimate home based business, but not everyone is willing to do what it takes to have a successful home business. A successful home online business entrepreneur, you must first possess or create within themselves these key elements:
1. A Vision: Solomon (the wises man who ever lived) said, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). If you have no goal or vision of what you want to achieve from a home business you will likely not follow through and see your business become a success. You must envision yourself as successful already – it called the winners mind set and it is the first attribute needed for any successful entrepreneur.
Your vision must include your “WHY” – Why are you wanting to start an online business? The answer must go beyond merely to make more money, pay off debts, have a bigger house, or dive a fancy car. Think of it this way – If all your debt, were paid off and you did not have to punch a time clock anymore, and money was no object – how would you like to spend the rest of you life? What would be the most valuable thing to you if you had true financial freedom? Once you decide what this is for you, and then write it down on paper, put in a place where you will see it every day. From there create a vision in your minds eye of enjoying your “WHY” This will set you on the path to fulfilling you vision of being successful.
2. Determination – It must be understood that anything worth having requires hard work and determination to achieved or get what you desire, otherwise you will not truly appreciate whatever are trying you get.
It is recorded that Jesus set his face link a flint to go in to Jerusalem to face the crucifixion, and in another place it says that he did this for the joy that was to be gained after enduring the cross.
To enjoy the financial freedom that is possible from a home based business, you must be set in your mind to go do what is necessary accomplish your goal, and be determined to work hard and not to let anything or anyone try to stop you from reaching that goal.
You must realize that many scoffers (aka: friends or family who do not believe it is possible to make money form home) will say that it is just a pipe-dream to own your own business and be independent and financially free. The fact is the one who fail or those who never try, or those who try, but have no real desire to follow through – they have no vision so when things get tough they quite. Any one who has a vision of working from home, and who sets their face like flint towards that goal can in fact enjoy the rewards of their labor in do season, but you must have determination to succeed. There is in this business a delayed gratification – it takes time to grow a business and that is why the next element is so vital.
3. Faith – If you don’t believe that it’s POSSIBLE for you to have a successful home based business or make your living from home, you won’t. It’s that simple. There is a natural law of sowing and reaping. If you sow good seed in fertile ground, you will in time reap the fruit of your labor. The good seed in this case is quality affiliate opportunities. The fertile ground is the world via the internet.
Believing that it is possible to make money online is just a matter of realizing that many other people are ALREADY making great money working from home. If they can do it, we can too. All you need to get started is to figuring out what those people are doing and then adapting it to my situation.
This is not blind faith because there are many undeniable PROOFS that people (millions of them) are making money working from home. Just get online and do some research and you’ll find countless testimonials and stories of REAL PEOPLE making real money on the Internet. Or head to your local bookstore and you’ll find the same documented evidence of this fact. Truth is it’s getting easier and easier to make money with your own home based business.
It has been said, that “affiliate marketing” (a simple way to make money from home) is the job of the future. In the past, you had to go to a company, apply for a job and hope for the best. Today you can simply go online to any company you want, fill out their affiliate application and start work immediately. Affiliates are the new working class. In fact, making money with affiliate programs or making your living on the Internet is WAY MORE than possible. Affiliate marketing is the “job” of the future that’s already here TODAY.
4. Opportunity is the element needed to getting started. The good news is that the cost of starting your own home based business is very small. A traditional “brick and mortar” business opportunity would require you to evaluate things very carefully before you decide to open up a business. It’s almost always necessary to invest thousands of dollars to get an offline business off the ground. However, on the Internet you can often start a successful business for less than $100.
You simply need get IN THE GAME… Get a Vision, Be Determined to succeed, and then have Faith in the Opportunity that is before you right now! Each moment that you stay “out there,” you’re wasting valuable time that you could be learning and the skills necessary to build a successful home based business. In fact, if you’re not in the game yet, you’re ALREADY behind the times… Make the leap to starting and building a successful home business TODAY!
The reason why you read this article is obviously because you are interested in knowing more about Day Trading. You might be surprised by what you are going to read. Here is a brief introduction to Day Trading, with an emphasis on what makes traders successful. It may not be what you expected …
Although the word has a negative meaning, Day Trading IS speculation indeed. In Day Trading, one buys (sells) securities and closes their position within hours, that is, before the day closes – thus the name of Day Trading. While Day Trading is speculation, that does not mean that it is useless. To the contrary, it contributes to more “liquid” markets, which means it facilitates transactions.
Day Traders base their decisions on statistics and mathematical models (this is called “Technical Analysis”). Nowadays, orders are made through the internet. Processing is sometimes 100% computerized/automated (e.g. NASDAQ). Everybody can trade from the comfort of their home and make really good money. This is why there is such a buzz about it.
You likely knew that. Now let’s look deeper into what Day Trading is not, what else it is and what makes the difference between the good traders and the others.
What Day Trading is not …
Day Trading is NOT Investing, per se. Like I state above, it is speculation. Useful speculation.
Day Trading is NOT an easy way to make money – it requires hard work and commitment – … unless you trade with a good Robot (more on that in another article).
There is NO such thing as (bad) luck in Day Trading.
Day Trading is NOT about Ego. Always remain humble. No bragging when you succeed: respect the profession and respect other traders.
Day Trading has NOTHING to do with emotions. Keep your emotions in check when you day trade. If you don’t, take a break.
What Day Trading is …
Day Trading IS about flowing with the market. You never control the market. But if you respect some elementary principles, you find out that the market is your ally.
Day Trading MAY be a way to get rich but only for a minority of traders. Most traders hardly break even as transaction fees and costs remain high. Therefore, keep in mind that this IS a risky business. Unfortunately, most people forget some very basic principles that are essential to suceeding. I have known some very good, fundamentally sound traders. That is, technically sound traders. Unfortunately, their mental approach was imperfect and they failed eventually.
Learning the basics is easy. Defining a good system is not too difficult. Next, determining Money Management rules comes naturally. Sticking to the rules that you have carefully designed, under any circumstances, IS the most difficult part of Day Trading.
Succeeding
Therefore, keys to success are (beside a reasonably sound system): Psychology and thoroughly applied Money Management. That may seem obvious but you will understand it better along the way as you start your Day Trading career. By the way, during your journey to Day Trading success, you will also understand a lot about … yourself. You will realize that emotions run your life – something you cannot afford while Day Trading.
If there was one aspect of Day Trading that I would like you to remember, it would be that two things will be critical to your success – more so than any system will ever be. Psychology and Money Management. If you respect some key rules (that will suit you because you will have determined them) at all times, you will likely succeed. People who have no significant experience cannot fully realize how important the mental approach is to Day Trading. Money Management is critical as well; but it is strategy. It is part of a plan (the system). On the other hand, your mental readiness will be 90% of your success because it has to be tested in the heat of the moment as opposed to being planned.
The mental approach of Day Trading is like the foundation of a house. Should it ever collapse, the whole edifice will collapse. On the other hand, if your mental approach is solid, you will build success with relative ease.