Article Contributed by Gary Jordan

It sounds easy – knowing who you are. It should be a given, right? Knowing and understanding who you are is a lifetime process that begins in childhood, on the playground, when you begin the process of learning just where you fit in. But where you fit in as an entrepreneur is a whole different question!

Most people start a business because they have an area of expertise. If they’re in tune with who they really are and what makes them happy, chances are, this area of expertise is also an area of deep personal passion. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs take the time for self-discovery once they start their business – and wonder why they’re not happy actually running their business, day in and day out..

After all, the focus of the business is something they love, and the products and services reflect that passion. Shouldn’t that be enough?

Well, actually, no – for one simple reason. Starting a business means that you’ll wind up wearing all kinds of different ‘hats’, playing a multitude of different roles, from accountant to marketing director, personnel director to chief financial officer.

The entrepreneurs who are actually happy in their businesses, day in and day out, are those who have gone one step further in their own process of self-discovery and determined the types of roles they actually enjoy filling, and the sorts of tasks they’re naturally suited for. They’ve found a way to focus in on those roles, developing what they do best – and delegating the rest. All of this benefits their businesses.

First, by freeing them up to do their ‘genius’ work’ – the work they truly do better than anyone else. Second, by filling the other roles with people who are actually happy and fulfilled in those capacities that bog down the entrepreneur and sap his drive. To be happy in business, it is vital for people to do what they naturally prefer to do and find engaging, because they will be more productive, happier, and, as a rule, procrastinate far less.

The business owner who understands how important it is to build his business around his natural strengths and abilities in this way also discovers exactly where he fits within the context of his business. These entrepreneurs also stop trying to do everything themselves, exponentially increasing their effectiveness with the help of a dynamic, powerful team.

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs fail to reach this point. They look around at the business they’ve built, based on a real passion in their life, and wonder, why am I not happy with this? What’s missing? And (worst of all!), what’s wrong with me?

About the Author
If you’ve ever felt this way, take heart: there’s nothing wrong with you. But it’s high time you honored yourself enough as an entrepreneur to discover your natural strengths and put them to work for you in your business.
Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 27 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development, and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology – Berkeley. He is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. He’s a partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., a consulting firm that specializes in helping people discover their true skills and talents. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.YourTalentAdvantage.com

I believe that life is a journey, and just like any journey, it has some bumps in the road along the way. For me, those “bumps” came in the form of three layoffs in two years.  I drove home from my last job, the remains of its existence in a cardboard box beside me, and I received this message: “Why go to work for somebody else when you can work for yourself?” I literally looked around like, “Who said that?”  And then I realized: “This is my life. I need to create a way for it to support me and bring me freedom and joy.” So… I started on that journey of entrepreneurship.

I knew that the road to entrepreneurship would not be an easy one to travel – with fear, risk, and uncertainty lurking around every corner. But as I drove down that freeway, I also knew there was no turning back now. It was time to follow the right path, and for me, that path was helping others discover theirs!

That third layoff was a turning point in my life: a point in which I realized I needed to make a change. And that change resulted in helping others to make changes as well. In fact, this is a step in my “Stand Out, Be Juicy” program that I call Juicy Benefits – communicating how you change someone’s life. And we all do it! We, as entrepreneurs, all offer services that change people’s lives. You just have to realize it.

To illustrate this point, one of my clients, a professional organizer, wasn’t meeting her goal of making a six-figure income. While she viewed herself as an organizer of stuff, her clients were saying, “You’re so much more than a professional organizer!” She couldn’t see it. So I asked her: “How are people different after working with you?”

Like most people, she couldn’t answer. But I helped her find her voice, her answer, which was: “I help people get to the root of the cause of their clutter so it never comes back.” Ta-da! There it was. Her Juicy Benefits. She started charging more and hit her six-figure mark that year.

The answer to, “How are people different after working with me?” should roll off your tongue, but most likely, it doesn’t. For most entrepreneurs, this is the case.  My own dissatisfaction while working in corporate America should have been obvious to me, but it wasn’t. My point? We don’t always see what’s right in front of us. Sometimes it takes someone from the outside to help us see what we should see, say what we should say, do what we should be doing. Juicy Benefits is just a piece of the puzzle, one curve in your road to discovery. Take the wheel for a moment, and let’s see where we can go!

About the Author: 

Lisa Cherney, a.k.a. the Juicy Marketing Expert, founded Conscious Marketing 12 years ago to help small business owners find their authentic marketing voice, attract their ideal clients and increase their sales. Following her own Stand Out & Be Juicy program, which centers on owning your unique self and laser-focus marketing, Lisa has tripled her income while working
part-time.

Prior to Conscious Marketing, Lisa worked with many Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Lipton, Nissan, Blue Cross and Equal. She is a highly sought after speaker and often shares the stage with experts such as Jack Assaraf (The Secret), Jack Canfield and Jill Lublin. Learn more about Lisa at www.consciousmarketing.com or call 887-771-0156.

Article Contributed by Lynda-Ross Vega

Just as in the human body, the strength of a business comes from its core. A strong core facilitates growth and endurance, and in business, that growth equals success, and that endurance equals longevity. Naturally, a successful, long-living business is what we all want and strive for!

You are the core of your business. You are its strength, its heartbeat, its reason for being. As its core, your strength comes from understanding your skills and talents and applying them in everything you do. That’s where we come in. We call it strengths-based business building – a process of helping you develop your natural entrepreneurial skills.

Imagine the core of your business becoming as strong as the core of your body: the muscles that provide you with power and stability are essential in everything you do. As the core of your business, you are just as essential to its success as those muscles are to your body. You are the reason for your business’s success, and it is only as strong as you are.

Understanding that you are at the core of your business is the easy part; the challenge is making sure that the core is as strong as it needs to be for your business to succeed. The technique of strengths-based business building involves accentuating the your strengths, and those of your team, the two most essential parts of your business.

Your strengths – your talents, abilities, ideas and skills – are what we call your “genius,” and as a business owner, you want and need your “genius” to come first. That’s what differentiates you in the market place; that’s why your clients seek you out. It’s a waste of your time and talent for you to focus on mastering parts of your business that are not based on your natural strengths. You want to do (and should do) what you love to do, what you’re good at doing. We help the rest fall into place by showing you what skills your team members must have that compliment you and keep the core of your business strong and vibrant.

Building a business around its core, around you, is essential and easy with the right tools. Our guaranteed system combines science and psychology, and while we’ve done the hard part of creating this approach, it’s now your turn to do the easy part and let us help you implement it.

About the Author

A partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., Lynda-Ross specializes in helping entrepreneurs and coaches build dynamite teams and systems that WORK. She is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.YourTalentAdvantage.com

Every big business had to start out somewhere, right? Some have come from more humble beginnings than others, launching with no more than some basic equipment, a couple employees, a garage space and a big idea. Whether you’re a business or finance student hoping to follow your own path to entrepreneurial success or already working in your own garage on the next big thing, these stories of companies that rose from obscurity to be multi-million (or billion) dollar industries can be a big inspiration. They may very well help you finally realize your dream of getting out of that garage and onto bigger and better things.

1. Apple: Today, consumers will wait in line for hours just to get their hands on some of Apple’s latest products, but once upon a time this electronics giant was a mere blip on the technology industry’s radar. Back in 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniack and Ronald Wayne started a business out of a garage in Cupertino, CA, putting together one of the first prototypes of their personal computers. Over the next decades, the company would introduce several more models, including their Macintosh line in 1984, arguably what turned them from a struggling startup into a fully fledged business. Today, the company manufactures much more than computers, has almost 50,000 employees and brings in revenues of over 14 billion each year.

2. Google: Google might be a household name today, but back in 1998 the search engine giant was just starting out. Their corporate headquarters? A Menlo Park, CA garage. For the next five months, Google’s staff of three would work out of this garage, perfecting their search algorithm, indexing web pages, and raiding the refrigerator of their friend’s attached home. By the next year the company had outgrown the garage and eventually moved into what is today known as the Googleplex. To celebrate their 8th birthday, Google purchased the garage and intends to preserve it as a lasting legacy to the humble beginnings of their business.

3. Mattel: Mattel wasn’t always the toy maker we know it as today. When the Handler’s got their start in the 1940’s in a Southern California garage, they were making picture frames, not toys. Ruth Handler began taking the scraps of wood from those frames and making doll furniture, a side business which proved quite successful. Because of this, the entrepreneurs decided to change their focus to toys instead. In 1959, they introduced the first Barbie, and afterwards became a household name. Today they’re home to big names in the toy business like Fisher Price, Hot Wheels, American Girl and a number of board games.

4. HP: Back in 1939, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard decided to establish their own electronics manufacturing company. Based out their garage in Palo Alto, CA, with an initial investment of only $538, the two helped establish the technology hub that would become Silicon Valley. When they started out, they made everything from high-tech electronics to agricultural products but by the 60’s were homing in on the tech market exclusively. Today, the company is an electronics giant, with some of the highest quality personal computing products on the market. They have opted to preserve the garage where they got their start, making it into a museum.

5. Amazon: In 1994, Jeff Bezos laid the foundations for what would be the online retailing giant Amazon in his garage, hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow garage entrepreneurs HP. With a strong foundation, the company grew very quickly, and before long was in need of a much bigger space to house their operations. Today, there are few people who haven’t shopped with the online retailer, buying everything from food to televisions to electronic media. This small business had become one of the leading retailers in the world, with billions of dollars in sales each year.

6. Disney: While he would go on to build an animation and entertainment empire, Walt Disney’s first studio was a tiny, one car garage in Hollywood. There he worked on a variety of animation products, setting up a makeshift studio in the space, while he waited to see if his Alice in Wonderland pilot would be picked up by any major distributors. It was, and the company quickly moved out of the garage into a proper studio. These days, Disney is an entertainment giant for kids and adults alike with movies, theme parks and products around the world. That tiny garage was almost torn down, but the dedication of a few interested citizens helped to save it and interested visitors can go there today to see where it all began.

7. Microsoft: In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, with just a few resources and an available garage space. Unlike Apple who developed both software and hardware, Microsoft homed in on the software market. Working with IBM, the company licensed their first OS for a mere $80,000. Later, they would go on to develop more sophisticated operating systems that would evolve into those we know as Windows today. The business would grow to be one of the most profitable and powerful in the world, dominating the personal computing market.

8. MagLite: Anthony Maglica started his dream of owning a business by working long hours to earn the money it would take to put a down payment on his first lathe. Working in a Los Angeles garage, he began to design and build precision parts for industry, aerospace and the military. By 1974, he was incorporated as Mag Instrument and the company was gaining a reputation for the quality of their products. In 1979, MagLite released their first flashlight, the product they are best known for today. It would help them to become a household name and secure their place in the market.

9. Yankee Candle Company: Unable to afford a present for his mother, young Michael Kittredge created his first scented candle from some melted crayons in his garage. Neighbors saw the candles and began purchasing them from him, eventually motivating the high school student to found a business with two high school friends. Kittredge sold the company in 1999 after a cancer scare, but it has gone on to even greater success and is now sold at many major retailers and a number of its own standalone stores.

10. Harley Davidson: It makes complete sense that a company selling vehicles would get its start in a garage or outbuilding, because that’s where those products eventually end up. Harley Davidson did just that, starting out in 1901 with a small business that built engines for bicycles. Of course, it wasn’t long before they started developing the motorcycles for which they are known, and in 1903 they had already released their first racing bike, constructed in a small wooden shed. Buoyed by the popularity and speed of their motorcycles, the company expands, constantly rethinking the best ways to build a bike. Today, they’re still known for producing some of the biggest, best motorcycles on the market and have become a household name.

10 Big Businesses That Started in a Garage [AccountingDegree.com]

Article Contributed by OEDB

The selection of books on business seems limitless, but entrepreneurs can pay special attention to those that offer a spark of entrepreneurial spirit. Inspiration, innovation, management, leadership, and more are all addressed in these books. Read on to find an excellent collection for any entrepreneur’s library.

Entrepreneurial Passion

In these books, you’ll learn about the passion behind entrepreneurship.

1. The Fountainhead: Ayn Rand’s book encourages entrepreneurs to work without asking for permission.
2. Oh, The Places You’ll Go: Dr. Seuss’ book will remind you to stay positive and focused.
3. The Little Big Things: Tom Peters explains how you can pursue excellence in your business.
4. Crush It!: Gary Vaynerchuk explains how to cash in on your passion with this book.
5. Never Get a “Real” Job: In this book from Scott Gerber, you’ll find out how to ditch the idea of getting a real job.
6. You Need to Be a Little Crazy: Read this book to understand how to be just crazy enough to grow your business.
7. Impro: Keith Johnstone discusses how to face the unexpected as an entrepreneur.
8. Ready, Fire, Aim: Serial entrepreneur Michael Masterson offers important business lessons.
9. A Whole New Mind: Daniel Pink’s book encourages reinvention for entrepreneurs.
10. Rework: Rework will inspire you to toss out the old rules of business.
11. How to Own the World: How to Own the World explains habits and attitudes that can make you successful as an entrepreneur.
12. Go Big or Go Home: Take Wil Schroter’s approach to business and go big.
13. The Winning Spirit: Build an excellent network with a winning spirit inspired by Lisa Wicker’s book.

Read more about the entire list of 60 books at OEDB.

In today’s day and age most people would say it’s crazy to turn down business. Don’t we all need the money? And isn’t work so scarce that it’s better to take a “so-so” job than to hold out for the “yay” job that has you excited when you get out of bed?

I can definitely relate. For a long time I held onto a lot of clients who didn’t excite me and weren’t a great fit for me because I felt it was what I “should” be doing. But then I stopped – I let go – and it made such a difference not only in my business, but my passion for what I was doing.

I needed to let go because I wanted to create a place in my business for a new level of service. I created a way to work closely with a small group of people for a year and I’m giving this group my all. And I could not have done that by not getting rid of everything else.

Focus on services in your business that you love, and let go of the rest. Yes, it can be really scary. So many of us have a mentality that says, “I need to take what I can get.” But I can tell you from my experience and the hundreds of clients I’ve worked with that it’s much easier to start by saying yes to the right opportunity than it is to change later or turn around the Titanic. You don’t want to get stuck with negative momentum.

A recent client of mine was a chiropractor who had 400 patients a week. And he was miserable. Almost all his patients were workers compensation claims and personal injury. All of his marketing efforts were bringing these people in and he was getting ready to quit.

I helped him gain clarity of his ideal client, and while it was pretty detailed, he mainly wanted to work with folks focused on wellness. He started offering wellness and educational seminars and it totally transformed his business. He was able to raise his rates because people focused on wellness really valued what he was doing and he was working in line with his mission of being a chiropractor and healer.

Until he was willing to say “no” to the clients who weren’t working for him and do something different, he wasn’t seeing a change and he was getting really burnt out.

Don’t worry that the clients you say “no” to won’t be served. Refer them to trusted colleagues — your “no” is somebody else’s “yes.” (And everybody is probably much better off!)

There are so many of us holding onto things because we need the money, or this is what you’ve been doing for 20 years. But they are out of alignment with what you really should be doing. You need to create a vacancy. And when you do, the universe will find something to fill it with. But first you have to say “no” and let go.

About the Author:

Lisa Cherney, a.k.a. the Juicy Marketing Expert, founded Conscious Marketing 12 years ago to help small business owners find their authentic marketing voice, attract their ideal clients and increase their sales. Following her own Stand Out & Be Juicy program, which centers on owning your unique self and laser-focus marketing, Lisa has tripled her income while working part-time.

Prior to Conscious Marketing, Lisa worked with many Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Lipton, Nissan, Blue Cross and Equal. She is a highly sought after speaker and often shares the stage with experts such as Jack Assaraf (The Secret), Jack Canfield and Jill Lublin. Learn more about Lisa at www.consciousmarketing.com or call 887-771-0156.

What’s your area of self marketing expertise?

Not sure what that means? Well, you have one, but it’s possible you haven’t isolated and cultivated it yet.

Before defining “area of self marketing expertise,” allow me to share how I unwittingly stumbled into one years’ ago at a cocktail party.

“You’re in real estate; you’ll know,” my friend said with an inquisitive look on his face. “What company is moving into that big office building under construction along the freeway?”
This was a problematic question for me, because I hadn’t even noticed the office building under construction along the freeway.

It was 2001, and I had just left a position in college administration for a brand-new career in commercial real estate. After two weeks on the job, I went to a party where three separate people asked me questions about office buildings, retailers and condominium construction. I must have sounded pretty stupid, because I had trouble answering all of them.

I had spent my first two weeks on the job diligently learning about the legal, technical and even mathematical aspects of real estate. But at the party, nobody wanted to know the boring stuff. They wanted to talk about the sexy, glamorous side of the industry.

Something suddenly became quite clear: It wasn’t enough to become technically proficient in my new trade. I had to become an expert on those things related to commercial real estate that were most fascinating to people outside the profession.

I made a commitment to become an expert on the most interesting aspects. I studied the local marketplace. I read every magazine, newspaper and website I could find that related to construction, real estate, business expansion and economic development. I became the “Cliff Clavin” of growth and development in my town.

Armed with a collection of eyebrow-raising stats and trivia, I had something to talk about at social gatherings. Better yet, I had material to pitch to the local media, allowing me to become a go-to source. Community groups booked me as a luncheon speaker, and I even started an economic development radio talk show. All of this public exposure was good for business.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I accidentally discovered an “area of self marketing expertise.” Everyone is hopefully an expert in his or her profession, but an area of self marketing expertise is quite different. It consists of the most fascinating aspects of your job, company or industry.

So, what’s your area of self marketing expertise?

If you’re not sure, sit down with a few friends and explain what you do. Ask them what they find most interesting. Take notes.

Once you have decided on your area of self marketing expertise, think about how you will communicate it in an intriguing way. When that’s mastered, it’s time to put your area of self marketing expertise to work for you. Use it at networking events, in newsletter articles, in public speaking, when dealing with the press and in your social media postings.

Professionals who have well defined and carefully crafted areas of self marketing expertise will ultimately be more successful, because they never run out of interesting things to talk about. An area of self marketing expertise becomes a magnet, attracting people to you.

When people are dazzled by what you have to say, they’ll be more than happy to hire you when they need help with the more technical and “boring” aspects of your profession.

About the Author:

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques.  As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide.   You can learn more and follow his “Business Motivation Blog” at www.JeffBeals.com.

Article Contributed by Skip Weisman

Trust is the fuel that propels teams and organizations to high-levels of success. Yet, organizational leaders today unknowingly do almost everything in their power to sabotage trust.

The primary way in which trust in organizations is sabotaged is by a leader’s communication style. One particularly egregious style of leader communication, which significantly undermines trust, is called “indirect communication.”

We have all fallen victim to indirect communication at one point in our professional or personal lives. For example, have you experienced…

• A team member going first to a boss to inform them of a mistake a co-worker or manager made on the job
• A manager calling a mandatory team meeting to review policies and procedures because one individual has acted inappropriately.

Let’s give a closer look to these mistakes…

Trust Building Mistake #1: Are You Allowing Teammates to Throw Each Other “Under the Bus?”

The phrase “thrown under the bus” is quite common in corporate America. It occurs when co- workers directly try to undermine the credibility and reputation of a teammate by talking behind their back with peers, or going to a superior to discuss poor behaviors of someone.

This form of indirect communication can be devastating to an organization’s culture because it ruins trust between team members and killing employee morale.

But, it can get worse.

It gets worse when organizational leaders call the offending person on their behavior using this second-hand, hearsay evidence. This accelerates the destruction of trust in your organization. Organizational leaders have to stop taking the bait dangled by the employees trying to make themselves look good at the expense of their teammates.

When a leader goes directly to the accused individual, without directly observing or experiencing the behavior first hand, organizational culture and morale deteriorate.

The proper approach would be for the leader to tell the bearer of this information that they need to address the issue directly with the perpetrator. Pushing the issue back down in this manner is what must happen with this type of indirect communication.

This is the only healthy way for teams and organizations to function. It builds high-levels of trust and commitment throughout. This will also help prevent a leader’s need for fire-fighting and crisis management

Trust Building Mistake #2: Are You Holding Generic Policy Review Team Meetings

When one individual violates a company policy or procedure, a weak organizational leader will decide its time to call everyone together for a meeting to review the issue. Now, you may think this is a great approach so all team members are clear on the expected behavior – but it’s not. Let me explain…

There are three reasons why this is a very poor approach to leadership communication:

• As everyone knows why the meeting is called and who the perpetrators are, it causes resentment among those team members not guilty of the infraction. This sabotages trust at all levels of the team.
• It diminishes the respect of the leader, who is choosing not to address the issue directly with the individual
• It doesn’t solve the problem because the perpetrator doesn’t change their behavior since it always seems they never “get it.”

Organizational leaders must take it upon themselves to address these issues promptly and directly with the individual perpetrator. By doing so they point out to the individual the specific behavior they witnessed, outline why and how it is a problem, and ask directly for a change in behavior to which they can then hold the individual accountable.

It is the only healthy way for leaders to lead their teams to build a high-trust work environment with a team committed to achieving great things together.

Non-direct communication in an organization’s culture is just one of “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication.” If you or other leaders in your organization are struggling to get greater results from your personnel at any level, the problem can be just one of two things. It’s either the habits of communication that are tolerated throughout organization,
or how performance is managed.

About the Author

Skip Weisman works with organizational leaders to improve personnel, productivity and profits by helping them “Create a Champion Organization,” now you can get his latest white paper “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication” at www.HowToImproveOrganizationalCommunication.com. This will help your organization communicate effectively and take action with commitment towards a shared compelling vision.

Article Contributed by Tami Stodghill

I read a great ebook awhile back. It actually provided potent pointers on how to set your business apart from all of the other business opportunities out there. And having read the whole book, one suggestion in particular stuck out as a great way to tell if a prospect would really be able to be successful in the opportunity you have.

Most business owners conduct a phone interview with prospects asking what they are currently doing and what they liked about it, and what they are looking for, exactly, in a home-based business opportunity. What they may fail to do is ask “why” the prospect is looking for the opportunity. What’s the difference? A big one!

See, when asking a potential client about his or her present situation and desires, in a great number of the cases, you will get a pretty general response—something like “I want to make alot of money”, or “I want to work from home”. But those responses, although telling, are not the key to what may or may not mean that this person would be a good fit for a home-based opportunity. Because it’s the “why” they want those things that matters and drives a person to succeed.

After reading this ebook, I began making it a point to ask prospects who contacted me exactly “why” they wanted to “work at home” or “make a lot of money”. The answers were surprising and actually very insightful. They let me get to know what the prospect was “about” so to speak. From the single mother who wanted to work at home to avoid daycare costs which were stifling her, to the gentleman who wanted to make lots of money to help his parents pay their medical bills and get health insurance himself, the reasons speak volumes about whether this person will indeed have the drive necessary to succeed.

When a person doesn’t know why they want a home-based business, I believe they are sometimes setting themselves up for failure. Not always. But many people don’t see it as real work and picture sitting at home and waiting for the phone to ring or an email to come in. It has to be much more than that to really be lucrative. Sure…alot of opportunities say “sit back and watch the money roll in”. And I suppose in some cases it might to some degree. But would I want to be a part of a company that didn’t offer continued support and mentoring, a great product or service, new and exciting marketing ideas, and key, ambitious people that were continually striving to expand? No. I want to know that the people out there who are offering the business opportunity and product that I have brought them in on, are willing to take the time to ensure that they are, in turn, selling the opportunity to like-minded people. I value the business we are in and try to work with quality people who are in it because they, too, believe in the product and business.

We only put in part time hours, that’s true. But those are quality, dedicated hours and we continually are seeking new ways to market and advise prospects about our opportunity. We do a few key things daily, but we also explore new options and most certainly have never “sat and waited”. When we aren’t marketing, we are learning more about the product and the company and participate in anything the company has to offer that will further our success.

If you sell to just anyone and their “why” isn’t enough to drive them, will they succeed? Maybe. But I assure you that if you sell your opportunity to someone who is goal-driven, they will make far more of the opportunity and your business will secure key people that will contribute to the continued success of your product or service in the market place.

About the Author

Tami Stodghill was the Press-Relations manager, for a world-wide extensible-technology distributor based in London and the US for 20 years. She was also a freelance writer for several industry publications and is now a home-based business owner with WMI. She makes her home in Page-Lake Powell, Arizona, in the summers and Palm Harbor, Florida in the winters where she enjoys boating and reading, camping, hiking and meeting new people. She runs a blog site exclusively to offer tips for success for any small or home-based business.

One day I was struck with the creative muse!

Twenty minutes later I completed six poems. I started creating websites to showcase my work. But I still felt incomplete, unworthy, and sad. My websites and my poems were not well-known, or even publicly available. Even my family and friends were quiet about my writings.

I realized that I would forever be unhappy and unsatisfied unless I could find an established authority to support my writing and help me share my work with the world. But finding an establishment was difficult.  I continued to look as I continued to write.

Then in 2006 I stumbled across a website for authors who want to self-publish. That website was: Outskirts Press.

Many Authors Are Now Becoming Self-Published Authors Because…

*  Traditional publishers are picky! They take your rights, require you to have a marketing platform, and take up to 2 years to publish your book.
*  Self-publishing authors keep all the rights to their work
*  Self-publishing authors have control over their pricing and profit
*  Self-publishing authors can pursue other opportunities thanks to non-exclusive contracts

How Self-Publishing Transformed My Life

Within a few months, my first book, “The Book Of Life: Existentialism, the Will and the Truth” was published.  I was ecstatic and, just like that, my life changed. For 13 years, my life was a constant struggle to be recognized and appreciated as a writer. Suddenly I had achieved a goal that had been imprinted in my mind through sorrow and pain in my wonder years.

You can imagine the relief and personal satisfaction that sets in when you overcome a life’s hurdle and the change in feelings that occur when a book you have toiled to write is finally published.

What a tremendous achievement!

My book was in my hands and available for purchase throughout the world on Amazon.com. It made me feel whole, complete, worthy, revived, excited and motivated to live my life happily, fully and more inspired.

I became more prolific, too, with a renewed zest and love for writing.

Since, I Self-Published My First Book…

*  I wrote and published six more books with Outskirts Press.  When something this easy makes you feel so alive, you pursue it with all your heart.
*   I have book videos for all my books available on YouTube. I have audio excerpts on iTunes for some, and business cards for others. My reviews have mostly been positive and some were even exceptional.
*  My first six books are in the Hong Kong public library and my first book is also for sale in a major bookshop, Swindon Book Co. Ltd. in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. The gladness in my heart grows ever stronger every day.

Without self-publishing, I would have missed one of the most delightful moments of my life — seeing my own books on the website of a bookshop, WHSmith, where I used to buy school books as a youngster.

Would I ever have imagined my own books on display?

No.  But there they are, and all I can say is, it is worth it!

I am hoping to self-publish more books and I am also planning an exhibition with other artists in Hong Kong. By helping ourselves, we artists and writers can help others in society through inspiration and motivation from our words.

Publishing makes me feel like a first-class citizen. I feel self-publishers like Outskirts Press saved my life. Without them, I would still be lost. Now self-publishing has made my life’s work honorable.

I have achieved more than I could have ever expected.

About the Author:
Ronnie Lee, author of “The Book of Life: Existentialism, the Will and the Truth” and 5 other major books, dramatically changed his life by self-publishing with Outskirts Press. Now, you can get 2 free self-publishing guides at http://outskirtspress.com/ebook and see if self-publishing can help you live your dream of sharing your information, knowledge and life’s work with the world!