Love. Fear. Lust. Envy. Pride: They Have Their Uses

Those are power-filled words that move us all to some kind of action. Just reading them evokes a response deep within us. This is part of the mystery of human nature.We all learned about the power of emotions in Marketing 101, but it was a long time ago, and the edge dulls over time. Let's sharpen the edge again. For thousands of years, emotions have been used as an effective way to stimulate people, and to control them. This is because, in general, humans are strongly motivated by their emotions. The most talked-about emotions are the Seven Deadly Sins: Fear, Greed, Vanity, Lust, Envy, Pride, and Laziness! Some other powerful emotions are Generosity, Curiosity, Love, Compassion, Regret, and the human need to "belong" or be part of a group.Guilt is a heavily exploited emotion, recognized more than two millennia ago, for its effectiveness in motivating people to do what's wanted. Unfortunately, there are still a few companies, today, who use guilt to gain and retain customers. Marketing and advertising people rely heavily on the use of emotions to sell their products. Politicians smother us with these emotions during campaigns. Parents use threats (Fear) and praise (Pride) to raise their children.Bottom Line: Emotions sell, if you know how to use them correctly.What's The Best Way to Use Emotions?You do it by turning your features into benefits. Those benefits can be filled with the emotions you choose. Paint a word picture, supported by graphics that will appeal to the desires of the reader. Put in enough details that your prospect can visualize himself in the picture. If you're a clothing manufacturer, talk about how meticulous you are in finding and using the best fabrics, the most up-to-date, flattering fashions, or the feathery softness of your silks, the unbeatable comfort and endurance of your cottons. Describe the stunning beauty your dresses bestow on the wearer. Paint pictures with the lively colors of the fabrics. Show them the cloud of downy softness that will surround their customers.
If you manufacture a unique ingredient, paint a word picture describing how your ingredient will transform your customer's product. Tell how it will give their product an irresistible flavor, or make it smooth and creamy, mouthwatering. Make the unique ingredient the one thing they can not do without.If you are in the restaurant business you can paint a savory, mouth-watering picture in th mind of your reader by describing some of the aspects of creating a dish: "The Master Chef then gently adds a splash of fruity wine to the golden sauce, bringing a hint of summer days to delight your palate and tickle your senses." Or, "When our steaming dishes are placed before you, your eyes will be bathed in the eternally delightful combination of earth-brown mushrooms, golden garlic, and glowing green peppers, all of it caressing the mouth-watering, juicy sirloin nestled beneath.Remember: Benefits support features. You can illustrate the benefits by painting word pictures with the features. When people can envision your product, and experience an emotional response to your message, the features magically transform into benefits!Emotions Plus RepetitionRepetition locks your company into a buyer's memory. The real secret here is to combine the use of emotion with repetition. As a Clinical Hypnotherapist, I knew that if a client could evoke the desired emotions to go with a desired behavior change, the awesome power of the subconscious mind would almost always guarantee success. Emotions, combined with repetition, helped people lose weight, give up smoking, recover from panic attacks, sleep better, and deal with chronic pain.When you evoke an emotion, coupled with a repetitive idea, you sell more products. Emotions super-charge the subconscious mind, and drive it to achieve it's strong desire. Repetition locks the desire in memory.Emotions, plus repetition, are an unbeatable combination.Your customers will remember you, loyalty will grow, and your ROI will soar.
By: Pam Magnuson

Creating A Weekly Business Plan

Reading is becoming a lost art but reading a business plan can be very boring. Business plans are important, especially to the boss or a perspective business associate. It is best to get the facts and figures out there and not lose your audience in doing so. A contents list is a good place to start. If someone is looking for something in particular, they will know where to begin looking. In order for them to locate the information, make sure you number your pages and use a consistent heading plan. Business strategies should be developed and progress as the project goes along. They should summarize the project as you go through each week. This would also be a good place to include the original idea for the project. Be sure to include the current status of the project. In the financial section of the report, you should include the weekly expenditures and show the progression to the overall project expenditures. Use Simple charts to show trends but avoid complex spreadsheets. These should be put in an appendix in the back of the plan. Included in this section should be projected income statements, cash flow forecasts, balance sheets and analyses. Remember the simpler, the better.A marketing section should be included in your report. This can show regional competition and how you will differ from them. A marketing analysis is a good move. Your sales plan should be based on the sales projections with current market values. You should be as explicit as possible. Do not load this section with phrases such as first to market, customer driven etc. Describe your plans or ideas as simply as possible. This section should include your plans about management teams and operational issues. These issues include production and delivery.Using different font sizes, types, and colors will give your report an eye catching appeal. Be sure to use the spell checker. Nothing takes away from a report more than a misspelled word. Getting a second opinion from a qualified outsider is also a good idea. Now that you have completed your report, you need to include a summary or conclusion section. Its time to wrap up the report with a positive view of your business or project. Limit your conclusion in a few short paragraphs that are well drafted. This should be written once your report is completed. At this time, you might want to check for a few small details. Is this plan good, presentable and grammatically correct? Is the funding reasonable and the expenses correct? Have all questions been answered? Once you are satisfied with your report, get a second opinion. It is likely you will need to do several revisions. Remember that this is your business, so put your best foot forward.
By: Obinna Heche

How to Go From Fear to Success in Network Marketing

$2,500 cash just arrived in my account again. Making money on a Friday the 13th... Some call that an unlucky day - not me!I have never been involved in an activity like "making money through network marketing" that has such power to literally abolish all personal financial disasters of the past and propel one into the realm of dreams so quickly.Often, that deep level of financial healing and abundance requires a leap of faith larger, longer and wider than one has ever taken before. Scary? Fearful? Thoughts of "Will I fail?" For many of us, you betcha! I've talked to as many wonderful people who became my network marketing members as those equally great who said they were ready to join, but then quietly disappeared off the face of the planet once instructions to start making money through network marketing were given.I remember my own fearful experience... After doing my due diligence research on, I literally knew that this particular network marketing program was for me. There was no question in my mind, and it felt right in my heart. I'd have the opportunity to make money (and lots of it), as well as help open that same magical door for others. I got in touch with my sponsor and asked how to get started immediately.As I started setting up my membership to begin my network marketing journey, I felt the first twinges of fear. I told myself, "You know, once you start this, there's no going back. You're borrowing the funds to start, and you absolutely have to succeed in order to pay it back. Do you really want to do this? Do you really think you can?" And on and on. I continued to move forward, got myself into the system, paid my hosting fee, and contemplated my future. Gulp! The banks were closed for the day at this point, so I had all night to think about it.I awoke the next morning knowing what I was going to do, and even though I was scared, I was determined to follow through. "I can do this! I can do this!" reverberated through my head. I took off for the bank to pick up my borrowed funds. Later, when those funds were finally in the account of my sponsor, I felt both exhilarated by the new life I was now creating, and exhausted by how much energy it took for me to actual begin it. There was no turning back - Yikes!Since that time, I've come to realize the steps I unconsciously took to prevent fear from overwhelming and keeping me from succeeding.
I decided on financial freedom once and for all.The price of staying the same was too awful to contemplate. I was so tired of this and so sick of that, that my desire and hunger to finally make a break for freedom was absolutely huge. -I made a clear choice, a definitive decision, and a firm and unwavering commitment to myself.Lack of commitment creates weakness and leads to failure. I decided I was going to learn to perform this activity from an inner stance of strength, do it from my heart, and I was going to practice it over and over until I succeeded.-I burned my bridges.I made it impossible for myself to give up. I had a loan to repay to a family member, after all.-I kept the faith in me.I believed I could succeed because I already knew I had the ability to learn new skills and work hard. I knew all I had to do was apply what I learned consistently and persistently, and success and freedom had no choice but to show up in my life.-I took actions everyday.Inaction leads to fear and creates failure. I invited people to learn about my activity everyday and I found new ways of doing so by continuing my education.-I didn't entertain thoughts of doubt.Whenever doubt tried to creep in, I slammed the door in its face using these strategies:
a. I dwell on what is working well in my life and what I'm grateful for.b. I keep my environment as free from negativity as possible. I limit reading newspapers or watching the news.c. I repeat affirmative statements in my mind daily.d. I visualize and feel myself getting exactly what I want everyday.e. I surround myself with positive people who believe in me and what I'm doing, and who are also movers and shakers themselves - they're not just talking, they're doing, just like me.f. I read self affirming and empowering books every week.g. I listen to motivational, inspirational, and educational audios and CDs regularly.h. I watch can-do, triumphant and educational movies.i. I continue to place my own faith and belief above and beyond others' failure talk, thought or negativity.-I know that practicing something eventually puts that action on autopilot.Walking used to take supreme concentration when I was becoming a toddler. And of course, I do it unconsciously now. Learning to ride a bike and drive both required that same focus, and are now automatic. Driving in a new city, starting a new job, knitting... they all become just a part of who we are and what we do naturally when the actions required are repeated often enough.Network marketing, making money, succeeding, freedom... all on autopilot. How 'bout that?! I'm creating it now.Do you dream of making money through network marketing too? Decide in no uncertain terms to apply similar types of faith, belief, thoughts and actions I just mentioned above. Decide that you are going to be a success, period. And if you'd like, get in touch with me. I'll show you the ropes, plug you into motivational education, and we'll fly together!
By: Barbie Zabel

Successful Network Marketing is Attained from Within

Network marketing success is not something you can find "out there" through an opportunity, sponsor, or upline. Rather, it's an inside job. Success in network marketing need not come to only a select few. It is all about you in the long run, and it doesn't happen by accident. Success in any network marketing business is based on your productivity and taking action mentally, physically, and sometimes even more importantly, emotionally.In most online network marketing businesses today, you will hear more about their failures than successes, but truly, the only real determining factor in successful network marketing is who you look at in the mirror every morning. No marketing plan will ever determine your network marketing success. Nor will the product line or company. No matter how often you see it screamed from the scam forums, even your upline is not responsible for creating your network marketing success. Your uplines' responsibility to you is simply to help create and facilitate the *opportunity* for your success, i.e. to increase your odds of success with the support of guidance and training. It's up to you to decide how to use and implement that guidance.The journey to all personal network marketing success is paved with seeking education, learning, doing and growing. It is a must to learn some new skills and change some of your thinking, actions and reactions pertaining to online business. Most people don't understand this fact, but your success will be in direct proportion to your personal growth and development! Successful network marketing has many aspects and includes persistence, consistent promotion, and patience, but a positive attitude is equally critical to achieving successful results. Marketers with doubtful minds who lack self-confidence and determination to follow through on those key elements, even when given the best proven tools and systems for success ... will ... still ... fail.For network marketing success attainment, attitude is as important as ability. Attitude can seem like such a little thing, but it makes a huge difference in your personal and professional success. It is more important than skills, talent, experience, education or intelligence. To different people, the same world is a hell... or a heaven. A success-oriented attitude creates the positive difference. Nothing can stop the person with a positive mental attitude from achieving his goal. And on the other hand, nothing on earth can help the person with a negative mental attitude. A successful attitude is not something you are born with. Rather, it's something you have a choice about. Accepting the fact that there will always be some situations that are difficult and that there will always be problems to solve is essential. Having a successful attitude cannot alter what exists, but it can influence your future by helping you choose how to deal positively with the things you encounter every day. Your perspective on challenging situations, not the problem itself, will determine your success or failure.Regardless of the vehicle, upline, product, service or opportunity you choose, the choice to take massive, positive, and focused action to attain success, or to use massive lame excuses to produce mediocrity is totally up to you. At the end of every day, you and only you will ever determine your success ... or failure.
Take responsibility for it, get out there, and shine!
By: Barbie Zabel

Networking By Newsletter: Make Your Professional Organization Work Overtime

Your professional organization decides to send out a newsletter to the membership.They need an editor. Should you volunteer? After all, nobody reads these things, do they?That is what I thought when I was asked to edit a newsletter for the very first time. My group consisted of consumer psychology researchers and marketing managers."Just one thing," I said to the group's president. "Can I have a humor column?""You can have anything. We've had 3 editors in one year. We are desperate.""Okay, but just for a year or so." Six years later, I looked back on this experience as one of the most fun and most rewarding of my career.Running a newsletter offers unique opportunities for self-promotion, networking and contributing uniquely to your organization. You create a vehicle for members to brag about themselves and each other. Along the way, you gain valuable exposure as a professional and as a writer. Since then I've written newsletters and newsletter columns for others, including a neighborhood association and a fitness center. Solo-preneur professionals often are surprised to discover the power of newsletters to help their organizations attract and retain members, as well as explode networking potential for themselves and their members. Here are 7 tips I like to share with my own clients. (1) For the best newsletter content, spotlight your members. Call them and ask, "May I interview you for a story?" People enjoy reading about the superstars, but they relate closely to stories of members like themselves. Don't be surprised if "ordinary" members resist being interviewed, especially if they're also clients. They'll say, "I'm too shy," or, "Nobody wants to hear my story." But once they're featured, they are loyal for life. While living in New Mexico, I wrote a newsletter for the fitness center where I worked out. They always asked for extra copies to take home. "Your name in print" still carries power even in a jaded society.When your members are self-employed professionals, you don't even have to write the story. Just invite randomly chosen members to be "spotlight of the month." They'll come up with a promotional message that everyone will enjoy reading. I was on the fence about renewing a membership myself -- until I was invited to be in the spotlight one month. That group gets my dues next year.
(2) Double your coverage by assigning volunteers to interview each other. Now you get 2 people to feel involved -- the interviewer and the interviewee. New members welcome the opportunity to make connections and maybe find a future mentor. You'll get senior members who normally would be too busy, because they realize they're making a direct contribution. (3) Stir up as much controversy as possible. No need to be dull. My professional newsletter featured a humor column. Many readers were college professors (and I was too, at the time)so we created a satiric view of academic life, featuring heroine Maybelle Marketing, her cat Fluffy whose claws were registered as lethal weapons, and hints of midnight meetings with the mob. My column may not have done much for my academic career, but I honed my writing skills and got a lot of attention for the group and the paper. This format may not be appropriate to your own organization. But maybe you can ask some senior members to write editorials. Some newsletters feature debates with pro vs. con statements on controversial issues. (4)Celebrate every member's achievement you can find. You don't have to wait for someone to win a national award. Your members will win marathon runs and coach winning soccer teams. They'll acquire promotions, houses, children and dogs....readers love this stuff.You get the winners involved -- and you remind everyone that they're participating with a smart group of achievers. (5) Recognize the power of networking with newsletters. Everybody knows the newsletter editor and (if you do a good job) everybody wants to talk to you. After a surprisingly short time, you realize your newsletter practically writes itself. You are getting known faster than if you attended 22 networking luncheons.It's the ultimate win-win: you get to brag about others and you display your own skills in a low-key, creative way.
By: Cathy Goodwin

Some Facts About Women in Business

Since mentoring many small business hopefuls, I have come to realize a very disturbing fact. Many very bright and hopeful female entrepreneurs have crossed my office threshold with the mistaken idea that just being a woman gives them an advantage over their male counterparts. Sadly, this is not as true as we have been led to believe.Certainly the female population of today is much better off than their mothers or grandmothers, but obtaining financial support, loans is not viewed by bankers any differently than it is for male entrepreneurs. A myth has been circulating for years that has led entrepreneurs to believe that womenowned and minorityowned businesses can obtain loans easier. Unfortunately, that is only a myth.If your entrepreneurial dream requires a bank loan, the process is not any easier if you are a woman or a minority. The only slight advantage is that there may be additional lending sources available if you are in either of these categories. But you still have to sell the lender on your business and means of repayment.Both male and female executives in the corporate arena have much in common in terms of professional aspirations. However, the playing field is far from being equal. A survey was done by a non-profit research group called Catalyst recently. Male & female executives at 1,000 of the largest corporations in the U.S. were surveyed and more than half of the women said that they aspire to a CEO position. They were even willing to make sacrifices such as delaying a marriage and or children, and that very willingness shouts to us that the field is not equal.Other survey results were as follows:49.5 percent of all employed managers and professionals are women, but they still tend to manage only other women.The highest-paid female executive still earns only 68% of the salary paid to her male counterpart.Firms that include women on their senior management teams showed greater improvement in corporate performance.62 percentof the firms that included women on their senior management team saw their market share grow, compared with only 39% of companies with no female senior management.Advancements in technology should help ease the movement of more women into leadership. Computers enable women to work more flexible hours and better balance work and family commitments, which is not expected of their male counterparts. (How equal is that?)So-called feminine leadership traits will grow in importance in the 21st century, according to more than 160 international companies and 75 senior executives a view of their firms progress toward gender equity.
Most respondents, predominantly male, predicted wide-spread abandonment of the command and control managerial style for a more team-oriented approach. That does not seem all that bad to me. I can think of a lot of companies that could use more teamwork and less monarchy leadership.These business gurus saw this new style as requiring skills that are more feminine than masculine, thus giving an edge to female managers. However, another 15-year study has shown that female managers are no more inclusive or democratic than men when making workplace decisions.As grim as these facts might be, I do not want to discourage any prospective female entrepreneurs. We female business owners know that we may have to work twice as hard for half the recognition and pay, but ladies statistics show we will outlive our male counterparts.We know that any woman who is a wife and mother and also in business, could do the job of two air traffic controllers without breaking a sweat even as the airport burns to the ground.
By: Ann Williamson

You Can Make Money When You Are an Entrepreneur!

If you are eager and are really prepared to work for long hours, you can make money on the internet. Are you going to do it the right way? This article is going to cover what are required to become a potential entrepreneur.There are successful entrepreneurs, who have found an excellent work from home business, made a success of it; and will even share there secret with you. However, we are all different and what they did to succeed will not necessarily be successful for us. Here is the real crux. An opportunity is worthless, unless it is turned into a viable business opportunity.There are unlimited opportunities and many entrepreneurs have become successful beyond their wildest dreams, because they all have three things in common:They are passionate about what they are doingThey are aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They are supported by friends and family.PassionTo find the right work from home business, start with your passion. List all your passions, the things that you love doing, everything that have a purpose Keep that list in mind when you make a decision about which opportunity to pursue and check that it relates to one of your passions.Strengths and weaknesses We are all different and have unique strengths and weaknesses. All these strengths and weaknesses can be further developed. However by further developing these known strengths and weaknesses you are in a better position because you do not have to start from scratch. Make use of what you are good at.SupportBe grateful for the support that you get from friends and family. Teamwork is always more successful than individuals. These unique strengths and weaknesses not only create a friendly working relationship, but the interaction provides more new ideas and motivation. Be realistic on what is needed to complement your home business and find the best suppliers or subcontractors that are required to succeed.
ConclusionNo one can tell you which the best, work from home business opportunities is. But with the awareness of your own passion, unique strengths and weaknesses and with teamwork, you will be in a position to select the most profitable work from home business.From the first day that you start your Internet home business all that you will read about is that the money is in the list and that never changed. The way you build your list has changed, but you still need your list, if you want to be successful with your internet home business. The problem is that creating and maintaining that list is not very easy and requires hard work. To find the right products to sell can be time consuming and difficult.To summarize this article yes, you can become that potential successful entrepreneur, but only if you are prepared to learn and willing to work hard at it. Set some goals and follow them. Goal setting has given thousands of people all over the world a successful way to financial freedom.
By: Willem Steyn

MLM Success - Your Check Will Grow When You Grow

I want to make a fortune and I want to make it now.That's the attitude of the majority of people that start in MLM or network marketing. People that have been broke all of their lives or at the very least, just getting by, expect to be rich in no time when they start an MLM business.Although MLM has literally changed the lives of so many people around the world, the real reason why people become successful is so simple. Two words. Personal growth.Most of the time you will not become successful in MLM if you don't discover and fully embrace personal growth. Don't get me wrong you may experience some success, you may even have tremendous success, but it will only be a fraction of what you could gain if you were serious about becoming more than you are today!We have a member of our team who has been successful, but his success reached a peak and now his income has fallen. Years ago it was obvious that this was coming but he wouldn't listen. He had begun to believe that he was a great leader when all he really cared about was himself, a sad fact that others began to see as well.He didn't need to grow or learn from anybody because he knew it all. Because he was blessed with an outgoing personality and charisma he was able to become successful, but it was a house of cards that would not last. If only he would have been as committed to personal growth as he was to showing off, this never would have happened.Ego. That little word has caused so much damage in so many lives, especially in MLM. If you are new to MLM we hope that you will hear these words, your check will grow when you grow. We would never have experienced long term MLM success if we hadn't decided to listen and learn from other more successful people. So, what's the best course of action if you really want to experience MLM success?Read the best success books you can get your hands on. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is still one of the best books to get you to start thinking differently. You are no longer an employee, you are now an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs think differently than employees.Stop listening to the radio and fill your mind with the vast storehouse of knowledge from Joyce Meyer, Jim Rohn, Les Brown and others. Make a decision to learn more so you can earn more. Find at least one or two people that will mentor you and hold you accountable so that if you start to believe that you are infallible they will straighten you out.
Although we are successful beyond our wildest dreams we still make mistakes and you will too. Nobody expects you to be perfect but if you are ever going to become really successful in MLM you will have to engage in a deliberate process to become more than what you are today.
By: Scott Miller