Month: November 2012

End Drama. Manifest Your Heart’s Longing And Prosper

Post author By
Post date November 11, 2012

I spoke how your mismatched intentions, desires, and expectations are sabotaging your dreams. I invited listeners to look at something they are struggling with to see how they might be misaligned.

I suggested asking the question, “What is the sincere longing of your heart?” instead of focusing on what you want. Asking a Destiny question will begin to lead you on the path you seek.

Change feels threatening to your ego. Big change freaks your ego out.

It gets scared and fears for its safety. So, it desperately tries to control, manage, and direct your thoughts, feelings, and actions, and often everyone else, to regain power.

As long as you rely on your ego and mind to guide your life, you will stay trapped in fear and Drama and cut off from living your destiny. Your ego sees life through a narrow lens of constriction, problems, and struggles. Your heart sees life filled with rich possibilities and potential.

Look at your life right now.

Are you living a love story – one that is filled with abundance and meaningfull purpose? Perhaps you feel more like you are living a horror story; one that is filled with struggle, pain, and fear? Maybe you feel your life is a little of both depending on the day and the situation?

When I ask folks what their biggest challenges many say: money worries, health and weight issues, forgiveness, fear of really living their destiny, self sabotage & procrastination, blocking love, lack of self-love, self-confidence & self-worth, starting or growing a business…. I see these answers all the time.

Can you relate?

If you said yes…How long have you been dealing with the same challenges?

If you have been on a journey to liberate yourself from the limitations of your mind, the pain of your past and are still struggling, there is a misalignment. Being misaligned with your desires, intentions, and expectations will keep you stuck in “wanting and longing” that fails to manifest your greatest life.

The story you tell is the story you live…

To live your Divine Destiny means making some radical shifts that can feel scary and uncomfortable…temporarily. It means changing your inner state and challenging your ILLUSION of comfort and safety to find out the TRUTH – how LOVED and supported you really are when you allow Divine Grace into your life.

To live your Divine Destiny means shifting the voice that guides from your ego to your soul; to live from faith and trust rather than fear and suffering.

It’s like learning a new language that is being taught to you in bite-size pieces, one piece at a time without being able to see the larger picture and without any guarantee of success. Your soul and the Divine become your North Star.

You were born to love and have a joyfull life no matter the cost, no matter what someone else said, and no matter how the past once played out.

Starting Up

Start-Up Movement

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date November 8, 2012

Start-ups have been on the rise in recent years, especially as the economy has begun its slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. Several promising new start-ups have arrived on the scene, from Lumos, which brings power to isolated areas in the developing world, to Truthmarket, a place where people can put their money where their mouth is on debated claims. These companies have already passed the difficult stage of getting initial financing, which is generally considered to be the biggest initial hurdle of any start-up. Thankfully, the process doesn’t have to be as difficult as this implies. Here are a few short tips on how to launch a start-up of your own.

The Three Essentials

First, you need to have a really good idea. It not only has to solve a problem, but must also be potentially marketable.

Next, create a business plan. If your idea really is good, then creating a business plan should logically follow from what you intend to do.

Third on the list is definitely putting together a solid team. Start-up employees must be highly driven and highly competent. Specialization can be very useful as your business grows, but when you’re just starting out, it’s far more important that your team can work together on everything and double-check each others’ contributions.

Unfortunately, the next step is a big one: acquiring start-up capital. This is definitely one of the hardest steps in any new business. Yet a little creativity on your part will go a long way toward ensuring you can find small business investors or other sources of funding that can get you started. Create a good elevator pitch; try presenting to investors like Y Combinator or TechStars; and submit your ideas to press events like Global Entrepreneurship Week. If all else fails, consider the old standard of borrowing from your local credit union or bank.

Get to Work

Once you have capital, it’s time to get to work. Your business plan should specify exactly what you intend to have accomplished by the end of this process; achieving that goal on time and on budget will go a long way toward attracting future funding before you actually move on to monetization. Just remember that the success of your start-up depends a great deal on your ability to use already existing investments to get to the next step in your business plan. Be flexible, but always stay within budget. Following this simple rule will greatly increase your chance of success.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

How-To Guides

How to Add 10 Income Streams to Your Business (And Increase Your Bottom Line)

Post author By
Post date November 8, 2012

In a nutshell, multiple streams of income means your business has more than one way to make money. For instance, you sell products and you sell services. Those are different streams of incomes. But that’s just the beginning. Below are 10 ideas of different income sources you can use to increase your business’s bottom line:

1. Sell a variety of services. Or you can bundle your services into packages depending on what your typical client is looking for. But be careful about this one. Don’t spread yourself too thin. You want to offer a few different services or a choice of packages but you don’t want too many options because it’s very difficult to market yourself effectively.

2. Sell your own products. These can be information products (books, home study courses, CDs, special reports, etc.) or they can be physical products. You can also group similar products into product lines. Then you can upsell, downsell or cross-sell products to different customers on your list.

3. Sell other people’s products (or services). Here’s where you become an affiliate. Basically how it works is once you’re approved to be an affiliate, you get your own link. Anytime someone uses that link and buys a product, you can a percentage of the sale. That percentage can be anywhere from 10 percent (mostly for services) to more than 50 percent.

Which leads me to my next tip:

4. Put together your own affiliate program. Now you can get other people to market your products and services, and the only time you pay them is when they actually sell something! How cool is that!

5. Create a teleclass, seminar, workshop or other event. This can be a one-time deal or a series of classes. (But if you do this, make sure you record it so you can sell those later.) The nice thing about this tip is it’s a good blend. You can reach groups of people at one time while at the same time providing a personal touch.

6. License one of your programs or services. This is a neat idea if it works in your business. (For instance, a coach could license tools or a program to other coaches.) I don’t know much about this one, but Suzanne Falter-Barnes sells a program that can teach you how to do it.

7. Create a paid membership site. Not only will you be getting regular income each month, but you’ll also building your customer base — people who are interested in purchasing your products and services. It’s much easier to sell to people who are already customers than to find new ones. Plus people like being a part of a community, and becoming a member of something is a good way to do it.

8. Start a continuity program. This is similar to a membership site where you charge a monthly fee for a product or service. Maybe you create a paid newsletter subscription or you offer monthly coaching calls or you interview successful people. Whatever it is, it’s something people find valuable enough to pay you a small, but regular, monthly fee.

9. Sell ads on your web site or e-zine or whatever. This one is probably not going to make you rich, but it could turn into a nice little income stream depending on how many people are looking at your e-zine or web site.

10. Use Adsense. This is when you allow Google to place its pay-per-click ads on your web site or blog. In return, every time someone clicks on one of those ads, Google will pay you a percentage. Pretty nifty program, huh? Anyhow, I do think this is one you have to be a little careful with. Most of the time I don’t think people clicking away from your web site is a good thing (especially since they’ll be going to one of your competitors). But there are times when this is very appropriate. For instance, maybe you’ve developed a web site or blog around a hobby. Or maybe you build a web site or blog for the express reason of selling Adsense. Once it’s set up, you just ca^sh the checks.

Exercise — Find time to create multiple income streams

Probably the hardest part of creating multiple income streams is finding the time, especially when your primary business is service-based. So, now that you know how important it is, how are you going to find the time to start doing it?

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

Hire a virtual assistant (VA) or bookkeeper to take care of some tasks you have no business doing anyway.
Create systems in your business so you can complete business tasks faster and more efficiently.
Raise your prices so you can take on fewer clients and make more money.
Dedicate a Saturday or Sunday to working on your business. (Be careful with this one as you could very quickly end up burning yourself out.)

Get a pen and paper and do some brainstorming to see how you can find more time to start creating more income streams.

Starting Up

The Only 10 Questions You Need to Answer in Your Business Plan

Post author By
Post date November 7, 2012

Writing a business plan for your Solo Entrepreneur business doesn’t have to be a daunting project. If you can answer 10 straightforward questions about your business, you can be ready to go.

The key to success is to answer all of the questions in enough depth that if a friend asked you to invest in this business, you’d say yes. Most importantly, make sure you record your business plan somehow…whether you write it by hand, type it into your computer, or put it on stickie notes on your wall. Keep it someplace handy where you can refer to it when you are making important business decisions. And, make sure you review it monthly–or, even better, weekly–and update it at least annually.

Your Dreams: What do you want your business to provide for you? (think time, money, freedom, who you work with) Be specific–how much money, how many hours, when do you want to “retire”.
Customers: Who are your customers and what do they want/need?
Your Products and Services: What products/services will you provide to meet customer’s needs?
Markets: Where are your customers and what do you know about them as a group? “Where” might be geographic, it might be what kind of places they hang out, or where they go to find products or services like yours. What is their age, income, gender, hobbies, family structure, etc.
Your Style: How will you reach customers and what will you say? Your methods of reaching customers needs to match with where your customers are–and with a message that they can relate to.
Competitors: Where else are your customers likely to get this need met? Find out all you can about how your competitors price, market, and provide service.
Your Uniqueness: How will your product/service meet customer’s needs differently than your competitors? Consider how your personal uniqueness impacts that.
Your Abilities: Of the skills necessary to run your business, what do you do well, and what do you need help with?
External Resources: What people/technology/services will support you in the skills you need help with?
Fulfilling your Dreams: How will your business provide the kind of working environment you desire, both in how much time you spend, how you perform your work, and how much money you make? Here’s where the rubber meets the road–make sure you can show how you will sell X amount of product or service at Y price, cover your expenses, and reach the goals you set in 1. above.

Once you can answer all these questions, have it reviewed by some trusted, experienced professionals who will give you objective feedback. Consider a business coach, as one such resource