It’s Mother’s Day in the United States.  This is a holiday reserved for the women who gave us our lives and, if you are as fortunate as me, the person who believed in us so much that we knew we could never fail.  Today, I will tell you some of the most memorable stories that I have about a remarkable woman who was my mother, my mentor, and my friend. 

My mother was born in 1926, which means she grew up during the depression.  She was the oldest in a family of 12 children and, because times were difficult, her father expected her to quit school so she could help earn money to feed the family.  Mom didn’t honor that request for she knew it would inhibit her future possibilities.  At the age of 15, the same year that World War II began, she left her family and moved into a girl’s home so she could finish high school and make something more of her life.  Her courage and focus were quite admirable. 

Perhaps one of the bravest things that my mother decided to do was to have a career other than being a homemaker.  I know this doesn’t sound amazing at all these days but, during the 50’s, this was not popular.  Many of  the suburban housewives whispered among themselves about how she was neglecting her duties as a mother and a wife.  Some of those women even prohibited their children from being friends with my sister and me but, in my eyes, nothing could have been further from the truth!  Mom and Dad explained that she was going to work so we could have greater oppotunities.  Her working created income opportunities for me around the house, which taught me to be enterprising, industrious and responsible.

Mom took a job as a secretary, which was about the only position that women were allowed to have at that time.  Within a couple of years, she was promoted to the position of Wholesale Buyer which caused a bit of conflict within the secretarial pool. My mother loved what she did, and she was quite good at it too.   Twice a year, she would travel to New York City and negotiate large purchases for her company.  I got to tag along with her a couple of times.  Having the chance to see her at work was nothing short of inspirational.  She was well-respected and a tenacious negotiator.   

One of the fondest memories that I have of her is a reaction she had to an editorial in the local paper.  Some man had written that women should not work outside the home and, if they did, that they should stick to “jobs for women” and stay out of the more challenging business roles because men were better suited for those sorts of positions. 

Mom had a fit!  She went straight to her typewriter and prepared a response that was published by the paper.  This created quite a stir in the family, since she had used her married name on the letter.  I will never forget listening in on a debate between my mother and grandfather, who was unhappy that she had used “his” name on such a controversial subject.  She stunned him to silence when she retorted, “It’s my name too!”   In that moment, she taught me that it was OK to stand up for what you believed in and be who you are, regardless of the circumstances.  Remarkable!

I’m chuckling as I write this … and experiencing a little emotion too.  I miss my mother very much.   

Although Mom didn’t always agree with my ideas as a youth, she never told me I was wrong.  In the truest sense of the word, she mentored me by discussing the pros and cons, just as she would with any adult.  Those conversations always ended with her telling me that she trusted my judgment, which was empowering.  I got to test my strategies and, if something didn’t work out the way I expected, she never said, “I told you so.”  She would offer her advise and recommend solutions but it was always up to me to decide what path to choose.  That was her greatest gift to me.  Over the years, her strength became my will. 

Her independent style and tireless encouragements are factors that still motivate me today.  Her belief in me allowed me to rely on my good instincts, which has been the basis for every decision that I’ve made in my career.  She taught me to disregard the nay-sayers and follow my own path.  This is  something you will feel in many of my articles and it is one of the primary reasons that  GetIncomeBlog.com was launched in 2008. 

Whether I am writing about following your passions or shutting out the noise around you so you can try something new, my message is always the same; Believe in Yourself first.  It isn’t always comfortable to follow the road less traveled but, if you believe in yourself and your abilities, the pot holes on your path are never so deep that the axle will break on your carriage.   

Mom’s resilience never ceased to amaze me.  Up until the day she went into a coma, a week before her death, my mother’s mind remained sharp, she never doubted my ability to succeed, and she was a good friend to me.  I was blessed to have her in my life. 

So, this one is for you, Mom! 

We all set Goals in some form.  At the time we establish them, they feel exciting and new.  Sometimes are goals are set with a purpose of diverging from our ordinary daily lives.  These sorts of ideas enthuse us, no matter what they are related to. 

One such goal could be to branch out in your business.  Many pursue the goal of passive income and this doesn’t always entail joining a business opportunity or MLM, thank goodness.    The difficulty that exists, however, is that you can become swept  away by your primary income-earning activities because you enjoy what you do, have built a reliable reputation and you like the people with whom you are working. 

My primary business is project based.  A very high percentage of that business is returning customers with new projects.  If the experience of working with them in the past was mutually beneficial, as well as being fun, I have no qualms about taking on their requests.  On the other hand, there are some clients whose projects I can’t wait to finish and with whom I will not work again. 

New projects and cash flow are great to have, and hard to say no to.  But, with only 24-hours in a day, you begin to wonder if you are spreading yourself too tasks to forego are the ones that aren’t producing income for you yet .  It is true that you can outsource some aspects of your business but, when YOU ARE THE COMMODITY that people are seeking, you ultimately must decide if you want to decline new business so you can stick with your business building plans. 

This is what I lovingly refer to as a Creative Conundrum. 

The best strategy that I’ve found for achieving balance between what I have and what I want is to list all of the things that I want to do, as well as the things that I must do, on a schedule of some sort.  Don’t forget to set aside “me” time. 

Blocking time is not a new concept but it works.  In fact, this was the basis of Steven Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.   Among other things, Covey recommended establishing your task list, prioritizing those tasks and checking them off or updating their status on a daily basis. 

A little more tedious, but also helpful, is keeping some sort of log on how your time is being spent.  If you do this for a week or so, you will notice patterns in your days and where you are spending time that takes away from your business building or income generating activities. 

Once you have a handle on how your time is being spent, you are in a position to determine what you can spend less time on, or possibly stop doing, so you have more time to pursue your creative goals.   Those are the things that you really wanted to do when you imagined them, right?

Yep!  It happened again today.  I was invited by a Skype friend to look into a free program.  Their claim was that it was free to join and I would not have to pay anything to earn money.  I’ve been around the internet long enough to not believe claims of overnight wealth and to distrust “free” joins but I indulged their request to click on the link anyway. 

Non-English Landing Page

The first thing that I noticed was that the page was in German.  I have a toolbar installed that allows me to instantly translate to English so this wasn’t a huge issue. 

Analyzing the Offer

The first sentence on the landing page was a disclaimer: 

This is no joke and no dream … You get paid money, because investors want to distribute funds.

If you have to begin by telling stressing the fact that your incredible program is really incredible and go on to suggest that investors want to give away their money, I’m immediately suspicious.  Investors want to leverage their money by investing in things which will earn them money.  At least that is what I’ve learned… 

The landing page encouraged me to read the terms and conditions, although I would have done that anyway before filling in any forms.  It’s called due diligence.   

Free Isn’t Always Free

The second paragraph on the Terms and Conditions page said this: 

Once you receive the gift, you have to pay into this program.

I didn’t need to read any further.  Clearly, if payment is required to benefit from the program, it isn’t free. 

I responded to my Skype pal by copying and pasting that text into our chat window.  I added that I was a conscientious objector of cash gifting programs and that having to pay into it made it clear to mea that it wasn’t free.  I thought that would be the end of it but they replied that I had misunderstood. 

I re-copied and pasted the same text into our chat window and told them, in addition, that there was nothing ambiguous about the phrase: YOU have to pay into this program. 

Denial of the Facts in Front of You 

My Skype pal protested by saying that “no one had explained this” to them.  I suggested that reading the fine print before joining anything, free or not, is a personal responsibility … and it is! 

Are you entitled to a do-over if you sign a contract that binds you to a commitment you didn’t understand just because you expected it to be explained to you?  If you are of legal age, the answer to that question is no. 

I’ve worked in a business where contracts were necessary to proceed.  I would spend no less than an hour going over the terms and conditions that my clients would be obligated to once they put pen to paper.  I took pains to explain what their obligations were, as well as the authority they were granting to me as their agent.  I never put paperwork in front of someone who might later claim diminished capacity because they had had a few drinks.  I scheduled the meeting for another time and instructed them to hold off on the beers until after we were finished. 

Not everyone will do this … especially if they are promoting a get-rich-quick-and-easy internet program. 

Money for Nothing? 

Call me old fashioned or jaded, but I’m not of the mindset that money will flow into your bank accounts without applying some effort. 

When I was new to online marketing tactics, I got suckered into things.  We all do.  Once I abandoned the belief that the hype was more than it was and began to focus on things that I enjoyed doing anyway, which could earn income for me, my life has been simplified and I’m having a lot more fun too. 

Many of the people whom I used to communicate with on a daily basis are still chasing the dream of instant wealth and fly-by-night programs.  For them, and for those of you who pursue similar things, I wish you the best of luck and encourage you to return and post your results to my blog. 

There are no Magic Wealth Pills.  The recipe for business success is the same:

1. List the things that you are interested in doing
2. Analyze those things to determine if their might be a market for you to leverage
3. Construct a plan for pursuing that business
4. Devise a list of measurements you can use to validate your success
5. Determine the best approach for marketing and promotion
6. Follow your plan and monitor results
7. Know when to revise or abandon the plan and try the next thing on YOUR list

When your life changes in a radical way, what do you rely on to keep yourself moving forward? That’s a good question to have a solid answer to, I believe.

Many people define themselves by the accumulation of their material belongings, their careers, or their family roles. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, unless it is the primary method you use to define yourself TO yourself.

Take a young parent who immerses themselves in the very important job of being the best parent they know how to be. This can include a lot of sacrifice, especially in the early years. As children get older and more self-sufficient, that dedicated parent can find themselves feeling directionless if they have not maintained perspective on their personal goals in life.

Another example would be a career-minded person who has devoted themselves to being a loyal employee, which also can include a lot of sacrifice. In these unpredictable and tumultuous financial times, executives and individual contributors alike are surprised to discover that loyalty means nothing when shareholders are demanding better returns on their investments or a private company owner must cut back on expenses to keep their business viable.

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

~Alexander Graham Bell, US (Scottish-born) inventor (1847 – 1922)

When One Door Closes, Another Opens...

We have choices to make at the time of a significant change. If our moorings are based on a self-perception that can withstand exterior influences, we will embrace the changes and use the opportunity to GROW.

Goals
Establish some goals for your new life. Make sure these goals are aligned with your personal passions so they are goals you will enjoy pursuing and bringing to life. Once you have selected goals, find a group of people who share similar interests and hopefully people whom you can look up to so you can emulate their successes and learn from their mistakes.

Reality
Appreciate the fact that reality, as you previously understood it, has changed. If this causes you to feel dread, you must find a way to adjust your mindset. Perhaps it could be something as simple as finding at least one thing everyday about the difference that you like better than your previous reality.

Options
Know all of your options. If you feel limited in any way, introspect about what is the source of that feeling and create a solution where the problem exists. Truly creative often see a problem seeking a solution long before anyone else. Could that be the purpose of the perceived limitation?

Will
Especially for entrepreneurs, there are times when sheer force of will is all that propels you forward toward your goals. If you are willing to believe in your own success, that will make all the difference in the world.

Perhaps the most important thing to investigate each day is your willingness to get out of bed. It is important to know why you are living and working each day. Write these things down and keep your list near the alarm clock. If you find yourself hitting the snooze button, rather than getting up right away, you might need to make a new list or evaluate your priorities. Face it; If your “whys” aren’t compelling enough to get you out of bed, they clearly aren’t important enough.

Recently, a newsletter arrived from a self growth website which explained dysfunctional personal productivity personalities.  Because productivity styles can mean the difference between entrepreneurial success and failure, I’ve taken some time to analyze this topic and provided some tips and techniques that have worked for me in overcoming some of these productivity inhibitors.

Scrappers are people whose offices and desktops look like modern art with a collage of post-its and paper scraps. While conventional wisdom accepts that a cluttered desk is an indication of a cluttered mind, disorganization can result in missed deliverables and over-commitment.

Personal Styles and Business Productivity

If this is your style, whether you are working solo or in a partnership, adopting a method that serves to remind you of what you have to get done can be useful. If you have a partner, ask them to send you email reminders prior to important deadlines. Using a website like Airset allows you to set up a system that will allow you to put your projects online with automated reminders about deliverables sent to your email. Face it, a little up-front planning is needed for any endeavor.

Pilers don’t throw anything away and file nothing. They can sometimes find what they’re looking for quickly but watching them sift through their piles of books and papers can be unnerving. Many years ago, I adopted the tactic of dating a hard copy document if I decided I needed to keep it after reading it. These days, most of my files are kept on my hard drives and I still tend to precede the document name with a date, year first, if I’ve taken notes using notepad.

My work entails writing business proposals, marketing plans, project plans, website code, creating website artwork, and researching business niches for good keywords. For obvious reasons, these sorts of files must be saved for a period of time, even if the project has ended.

At the end of 2008, after a cross country move, I spent several hours moving client folders off of removable storage and onto a secure location within my network. Using a standard folder hierarchy allows me to go directly to a client folder to locate content related to those projects immediately. My clients seem grateful for my organizational skills when they call to ask for a password that they’ve lost!

At the beginning of each month, I set aside a few hours to sift through file folders in my inbox and in the folders related to my clients. It takes time but the time is well spent.

Multi-taskers have millions of things they hope to get done simultaneously and seem to take great pride in talking about their long lists. A downside for some can be that a lot of things get started but none get finished.

If you are an entrepreneur with clients or own multiple websites multi-tasking is essential, but if you’ve begun to notice that you are feeling frazzled or overwhelmed by your work, it is time to take a serious look at your short and long-term goals. Document all the things you have committed to do and organize it into do-able chunks that are prioritized by relevance. Aside from family commitments, your most important things to do ought to be money making activities.

Interrupters are people who do not respect the fact that, just because they have time to talk about something now doesn’t mean that you do. Because I am sensitive to this myself, I’ve always allowed the person whom I think I need to talk with know why I’d like to talk with them right away and never fail to ask if it is a good time for them.  If not, I negotiate a more agreeable time for them.

When someone unexpectedly requests my time, I’ve found that my best defense is to be honest with them and, if I don’t have time for the interruption, I force myself to refuse and also let them know when I’ll be free. If I feel that I can take a few minutes at the time of their request, I inform them up-front about my time constraints and hold to that schedule by curtailing the conversation or text chat when the boundary is reached.

Procrastinators claim to work well under pressure and use this an excuse for putting things off to the last minute.  Their real crime is that they work on things that they would prefer to work on, which pushes the less desirable, and often more complicated tasks, back and puts them at risk.  Sure, we all are guilty of this sometimes but the pursuit of business success doesn’t guarantee that everything you will work on will be easy to do or fun.

Unmanaged, a procrastinator on a project can create havoc for other members of that group. While their creativity and talents might be welcomed, they require firm guidance and follow-up from a more focused team member.

Socializers waste incredible amounts of time communicating in frivolous ways. With the advent of social networking, people I was fascinated by and lost a lot of time on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook profile updates and responses. In an effort to recover my productivity, I established an hour or so at the end of each day to research topics that I wanted to post to Twitter and set up those transmissions using one of the many tools available for timing them. Many of these sites allow you to update multiple social networking profiles at once, and always include the highest quality sites.

I use a very similar tactic with both phones and Skype. Turning off the ringer during times of the day that I need to focus avoids phone interruptions. Similarly, putting Skype on “do not disturb” allows me to see when someone is trying to contact me and choose whether or not an immediate response is required.

Meeting addicts are obsessed with convening to talk about what needs to be done. So much time can be spent talking about such things that forward progress is hindered, however. If you’re invited to attend a meeting, ensure that the organizer has a clear purpose and that an agenda is issued in advance. If the topics on the agenda do not mesh with what is critical to your immediate needs, take care of yourself and decline the meeting.

If you are in a meeting and have something to say, make sure to apply the “So What?” rule before opening your mouth. This may sound like a statement from a belligerent child but it does force you to evaluate, in advance, whether what you have to say is relevant or useful to the group at the meeting.

E-mailers never use the phone to deliver a short update and love to broadcast their news to everyone on their list. It’s easy to ignore superfluous emails but, IM broadcasting software has opened up a new arena for pointless intrusions. Without exception, everyone who uses a Skype broadcast tool to communicate useless BizOp updates has been blocked from my list.

Although it is “polite” to acknowledge communications, not all emails or IMs require a response, especially if it is an uninvited solicitation.

Crisis creators dwell in a state of anxiety and everything is critical to them. The slightest problems can be exaggerated and their alarmist mentality can draw you in, if you are close to them.

Fire-fighting is a part of my business, at times, but keeping a cool head is what my clients seem to appreciate. If I cannot see an immediate way to help them with their problem, I will get offline with them and decide or do what needs to be done.  If I am able to resolve the issue without another conversation, I will provide a real-time or email update apprising them of the cause and the solution.  If not, I get back to them with a strategy, at the very least.

Packrats have never thrown away anything in their lives. This obsession has become a matter of public interest but not all packrats are obsessive. Like clearing your desk on a regular basis, making sure that you are eliminating clutter from your office or household is important. If you are looking over stored items and realize you haven’t opened the box or envelope in years, then you might want to honestly evaluate whether or not you need to hang onto it.  Heirlooms and sentimental keepsakes are excluded from this, of course.

As a funny aside, I once dated a fellow like this. The first time I visited his apartment, the ancient computer equipment and stacks of printouts astounded me. There was but a narrow path between spaces to a chair in the living room, his bedroom, and the kitchen. When he moved to a new place, all of these things wound up in his garage too.

Perfectionists are so interested in doing things perfectly that they often neglect to get them done. Impressively long lists and generous offers to contribute are part of their style. I have known people whose lists were so lengthy that their lack of completion caused them distress. I recommended that they write shorter so things could be checked off quicker.

This actually could related to the multi-tasker style and the suggestions that were made there are certainly applicable here. Organizing and prioritizing “to-do” items into chunks that are easily accomplished not only gives a sense of personal satisfaction but also demonstrates to your clients that you are capable of getting things done.

Workaholics can’t seem to think of anything but work and also can’t seem to avoid reminding people about how much they work. As an entrepreneur working from my home, it has sometimes been difficult for me to separate my work and personal life but assuming dual expenses for internet, phones, utilities, and rent is not desirable to me.

I’ve learned to schedule “free time” for family, play, and personal projects figuring that, as human beings, we were given life so we could experience pleasure and fun too. I like to call these things mini-vacations, for all work and no play can make one dull and this is the last thing any of us wants.

This is a fairly complete list of things that could be hindering your entrepreneurial output but I’m sure that those of you reading this post can think of others. Any thoughts that you have and want to leave as comments are welcomed.

During holiday seasons, when stress levels are higher, make sure to take care of yourself.  Business success may be critical to your survival but so is your emotional health.

James Arthur Ray was featured on Nightline this week. It seems that some of the participants of his Spiritual Warrior Retreat, held in Sedona in early October, died in a sweat lodge exercise at the end of a grueling week of motivational activities. The sweat lodge exercise was mandated after the people had spent days in the beautiful canyons of Sedona, without food or adequate rest, to connect with their inner truth … supposedly.

Human physiology is fragile. It didn’t seem at all odd that some people might have been dehydrated and unfit to go into a sweat lodge for hours on the heels of their Sedona experience. I’ve wandered through the trails of Sedona. The trails to the vortexes are not paved and most of them involve a climb. As I listened to the statements on Nightline, made by survivors of this experience, as well as from family members whose loved ones had died, I pondered the huge industry that has grown around The Law of Attraction and The Secret over the past couple of years. If you are operating in this niche, you are well advised to monitor the progress of this story!

Don’t get me wrong, I watched The Secret, in the fall of 2007, and the movie was nothing other than inspirational. The underlying message of this movie, and others like it, is that you have the ability to change your viewpoint, and in so doing, have an opportunity to change your life’s course. If you are under the tutelage of a charismatic leader, like James Arthur Ray must be, it’s probably easy to get swept into a belief system that causes you to want the success he says is so easily attainable. And, to his credit, he has a large following.

The fact that our mental approach to a problem can either resolve it or lead us further astray isn’t new information. In the United States, this was discovered by a couple of drunks as they commiserated with each other over a cup of coffee, so the story goes. The relief these two men felt led them to start a movement called Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) that has helped millions of people all over the world for nearly a century. AA text suggests “stinking thinking” is the source of emotional problems that lead people to make bad decisions, in this case, drinking. In fact, AA could possibly be the very first Law of Attraction program!

The big difference between AA and programs like James Arthur Ray’s is that AA doesn’t define its membership by the amount of money they have to spend to join. This is written into their 12 Traditions at article six, which is a spiritual tradition recognizing that money, property and prestige can distract an AA group from its primary purpose … to help people.

James Arthur Ray’s Spiritual Warrior Retreat was selling for a whopping fee of $9,695! This adventure built on a previous product offering called Practical Mysticism which sold for $5,295. The funny thing about reading Ray’s promotional materials is that they are merely sales letters, no different in psychology than the sales letters that compel one to purchase anything they’ve never heard about before. Personally, I doubt that Ray is any different than any other person who knows the truth about mindset; he’s just used his connection to The Secret to create a multi-million dollar enterprise.

One person might say this is clever. Another might say it is opportunistic. In the end, only James Arthur Ray knows his motivations and, in light of civil suits already filed against his organization after the Spiritual Warrior debacle, with the strong possibility of forthcoming criminal charges, the law will intervene to make judgment. This judgment could lead to a need to regulate the industry which will wash out a lot of self-help charlatans.

What disturbs me most about Law of Attraction practitioners-for-profit is the disparity of their words against their self-serving style. Last year, I observed this in a “joint venture” where the time I spent developing technology wasn’t recognized as having value and my “partner” asked me to pay for an EFT session. Without exception, every client that I’ve worked with who practices a “wealth attraction” coaching or information business has seemed to be the most tight-fisted and demanding client on my list for, when it comes to completing a project paying the final bill, they will always manufacture excuse after excuse for not producing a final payment when the terms of our contract have been fulfilled.

Is this indicative of the industry at large? One can only hope it isn’t…

The other day I overheard an actor in a movie say that it was necessary to earn a viewpoint before speaking about something with authority.  The truth in that statement felt profound. 

As an internet entrepreneur, encounters with people who purport themselves to be experts at something they haven’t experienced can be amusing to expose in a private conversation but it is alarming to imagine that people who aren’t savvy enough to ask the same questions might be seduced into believing that they’ve found an individual who can lead them to success.  Allowing for the benefit of a doubt, it could be that these people who claim to know what they don’t are operating within the guidelines of The Law of Attraction.

Although the BE-DO-HAVE philosophy was known to me years before The Law of Attraction gained popularity, the mindset is powerful and should not be overlooked.  It has everything to do with self-belief and that is on the critical path to finding success in anything! 

Our culture has largely omitted the part about Being leading to Having and it is so clearly important.  One has to BE what they envision themselves to be so they will be motivated to DO what is necessary to HAVE what they’ve envisioned having. 

Entrepreneurs are independent by definition.   Usually, we have analyzed our interests and passions, as well as our capabilities, before choosing a new direction.  The pursuit of income should be a secondary consideration because building a business takes time and, if we don’t enjoy spending the time we must invest, our business will not flourish.  We also should conduct market research to assure ourselves that our niche is wide enough to allow for long-term growth. 

Internet entrepreneurs can conduct market research by investigating what people are searching for, using keyword research, and determining whether or not what we have to offer will fill their needs.  We also must evaluate competition in our niche so we can enter the market at a price point where our offers seem valuable, especially in an economic climate where discretionary income is being squeezed by the rising costs of necessities. 

Broaden your Viewpoint

Regardless of your business model, I encourage you to ask yourself this important question.  Do you feel that anyone can be in business today without having a website that is more than a replicated page?  I admit to having a bias but I feel the answer is a resolute no! 

Many people fail to understand that their website needs to convey information that their audience will use when they decide whether or not they want to spend their hard earned cash.  Since people do business with people, your website needs to inform your visitors why they should trust you more than anyone else offering an equal or similar product or service. 

Returning to the original idea of this post, I’d like to come back to the importance of earning a viewpoint before speaking with authority.  Each of us has accumulated experiences in our lives and we all have opinions too.  It isn’t imperative that maturity makes anyone’s opinions more qualified but having real-life experience is essential.  Thus, BEing what you envision yourself to be will force you to DO things that will create experiences allowing you to HAVE what you desire.

Recently, I glimpsed images of the skyline from my birthplace in Minnesota. The scenery from my former home town in Minneapolis was interesting to see again for it is a pretty town … during summer months. While I watched the images, I reflected on time spent there. So much has changed since moving to California last year!

Probably the most challenging thing to overcome is the advice of people who believe they have found the “right” answers. They have … for themselves. Putting distance between myself and my well-intentioned friends and colleagues who had known me in the past has proven to be a good decision. The past is a good guide and certainly something one can use to learn from but no place to dwell when endeavoring to innovate and create something new.

Along with realism, unwavering self-belief is an important aspect of being an entrepreneur. For instance, degree work in business coupled with trench-time experience qualifies me to assist my clients with their branding and marketing campaigns. In my former role as an IT executive, insights offered in those areas were rarely valued. Breaking free of those previously imagined constraints has opened the doors of possibilities for many people who have chosen to work with me.

As an entrepreneur, desire for income can never eclipse good business ethics and brutal honesty about whether or not your contributions will be an asset to any client request. In other words, know your limitations. Granted, anyone can do anything with enough time or money but it is not fair to charge someone for your training. Don’t hesitate to ask for the business if it will add skills to your repertoire but be emotionally prepared to work at a loss with regard to your traditional hourly or project rates. Remember also, when you complete the project and it delivers the expected results or better, don’t hesitate to ask for referrals and testimonials!

While perseverance is the key to success, remember that patience is a virtue and no great thing can be created instantly. You may even experience setbacks and disappointments along your way but they are easily overcome if your focus is trained on what you have rather than what you are lacking. The law of attraction works both ways.

If you enjoyed this post, please bookmark it to your favorite site. Feedburner subscriptions are available via email or through your favorite RSS reader too. If you’d like to contact me directly, use the convenient contact form or look me up on Skype. My ID is marj.wyatt.

The other day a pal of mine indicated that people in my generation would not survive long enough for me to pursue an idea unrelated to business that I had imagined. We got a good laugh about that but their feedback caused me to reflect on other matters that baby boomers are facing, specifically reduced income caused by long-term unemployment.

People born between 1946 and 1955 are referred to as baby boomers, or more specifically older baby boomers. Demographically, I fall into that group. Ours is largely a generation of rebels who cast aside social norms during our development years. We challenged the need to wear underwear, the values of our government, the teachings of our educators and parents, the Viet Nam War, and the establishment in general. It was a fun time to come of age and a time of social enlightenment, even for our folks.

At some point in time, each of us who were rebels in the 60s grew weary of taking books from orange crate shelving, eating ramen noodles, and dusting wooden utility spindles so we gave into materialism. Working for Honeywell during the tail end of the Viet Nam War was difficult. The hippie inside cringed each time a large government contract was announced on the over head speakers but, as part of that machine, it was common.

Having the ability to enjoy a lifestyle sustained by the trappings that regular paychecks afforded propelled me forward toward corporate ladder climbing aspirations. I gained good altitude but it didn’t lead to a feeling of freedom. The responsibilities associated with leadership positions caused me to have to obfuscate facts that staff needed to have to make informed decisions for their own futures and this caused discomfort. Generally, I am a straight forward individual and had difficulty hiding my incredulousness at directions given from corner offices.

When a lucrative severance package was offered during a merger in 1999, there was no other decision for me. Management complained about my not pursuing the position they expected me to want but, to me, it seemed like another turn on a faulty wheel with no potential for growth. Floating gleefully out the door on that beautiful fall afternoon with my paperwork and confidence, I knew the rest of my life would be very different. I was finally free to choose whatever I wanted to do.

My former colleagues pursued interviews and regular jobs while I considered entrepreneurial options. Technology was still interesting but with IT outsourcing being trendy at that time, my motivation to remain independent led me to a Real Estate career and has since guided me toward my present role as an Online Branding Consultant and Website Designer.

Daily, I converse with people who are confronting changes they never could have imagined. When I sense their trepidation about the future, I can’t help but advise them to remain open to possibility and to introspect about the source of their real passions. This sort of coaching is not a service that I offer but my colleagues and clients do seem to appreciate it. Many of them are near or beyond my age and don’t know how to make themselves over again.

Starting over in one’s 50s is a common theme these days. Many baby boomers are turning to the internet for alternatives to traditional employment because, whether or not employers admit it, discrimination occurs when the qualifications are equal but salary expectations are weighted by age and experience. In all matters, perseverance is the key to getting what you want but it never hurts to have a Plan B.

If we don’t permit fear to cloud our judgment, we know we are never out of options. When considering yours, try listing all of the expertise that you have accumulated, no matter how trivial they seem, and juxtapose that with a second list of things that you most enjoy doing. While you do this, ensure that you are in a place where you cannot be distracted by family or phones. Although it is important to be realistic when you do this, try to not restrict yourself with arbitrary limits or well-meaning negativity you may have been forced to endure.

Another tactic to choosing a new direction is to connect with and talk to others who are in the industry that you want to pursue. Projected income is a secondary consideration at this phase. Ask these people about the nature of their work and try to imagine yourself in that role. If this person seems hypey in their responses, re-direct them with specific questions that will help you gain clarity as to whether or not you would look forward to getting up in the morning to do the things they are doing to be successful in their business. This is a very important consideration for an entrepreneur. If they will not answer your direct questions directly, you may not want to pursue what they are promoting.

Generally speaking, here are some guidelines associated with different business models:

Network Marketing includes talking and recruiting. Good MLM sponsors also provide tools for their downline teams that will help them differentiate themselves and grow their businesses. There are many Network Marketing companies to choose from and it is prudent to investigate MLM Watchdog for information about the opportunity. It also is important that you connect with the product that you will be asked to promote on some level because you’ll need to know about it in order to sell it, or the business opportunity that surrounds it. If you can casually bring up the benefits about your company’s products and business opportunity during conversation, it will seem less like a pitch.

Affiliate Marketing entails knowing where to find information about the affiliate product you are promoting and building a list so you can advance new offers to your responsive list members. Credibility is important in any business so don’t worry if they visit your page and don’t buy. If they have opted into your list, you will have a chance to impress them with your generosity and expertise through email over the course of time. There are other ways to promote an affiliate product and I always recommend having an optin site in front of the replicated sales page.

Perhaps you have niche expertise that others would like to know more about. In this instance, you may have an e-product that you could create and sell. There are many forms of media and you can package audio/video with a PDF file to increase the sales price. Creating a product is not as daunting a task as it might sound. It merely takes time and attention, as well as a venue for promotion and sales. Normally, this is a website.

Each of the business models available online could be posts, or books, in their own right. Thus, there is not a good way to provide all the details about each business type in a single blog post.

For those of you confronting changes caused by external forces outside your control, never stop believing in the power you have to create something new, regardless of your numerical age. As a thriving baby boomer, I have recreated my career path several times. If my dreams come true, there is another change on the horizon.

I’d like to invite you to subscribe to my blog via feedburner or contact me directly if you want to converse with me further. As always, your readership and comments are always appreciated.

This post is not about business or marketing in any sense other than we have to pursue our passions to live our life dreams. Sometimes, we are so caught up in our material pursuits, we do not take the time to pause and consider what we may be missing by choosing to not be aware of what is beautiful in our midst.

This poem arrived in an email subscription from The Writer’s Almanac years ago. I have never forgotten how this profound poem affected me when I first read it and have since shared it with many of my friends and colleagues.

 
The Size of Spokane 
The baby isn’t cute.
In fact he’s a homely little pale and headlong stumbler.
Still, he’s one of us-the human beings stuck on flight 295 (Chicago to Spokane);
and when he passes my seat twice at full tilt this then that direction,
I look down from Lethal Weapon 3 to see just why.
He’s running back and forth across a sunblazed circle on the carpet-something brilliant,
fallen from a porthole.
So! it’s light amazing him, it’s only light,
despite some three and one half hundred people, propped in rows for him to wonder at;
it’s light he can’t get over, light he can’t investigate enough, however many zones he runs across it, flickering himself.
The umpteenth time I see him coming,
I’ve had just about enough;
but then he notices me noticing and stops-one fat hand on my armrest-to inspect the oddities of me.
****
Some people cannot hear.
Some people cannot walk.
But everyone was sunstruck once, and set adrift.
Have we forgotten how astonishing this is?
so practiced all our senses we cannot imagine them?
foreseen instead of seeing all the all there is?
Each spectral port, each human eye is shot through with a hole,
and everything we know goes in there, where it feeds a blaze.
In a flash the baby’s old;
Mel Gibson’s hundredth comeback seems less clever;
all his chases and embraces narrow down, while we fly on (in our plain radiance of vehicle)
toward what cannot stay small forever.
 

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