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Tag: entrepreneurial success

  • Facing Your Fears As An Entrepreneur




    The inhibitions

    Most entrepreneurs I have talked with have had to come face to face with their fears. I’ve had to as well. I want to share with you some of the techniques that were utilized to face and overcome them. The first step is not to be in denial. You have fears even if you don’t readily acknowledge them. They sometimes take the form of that little guy – or gal – in the back of your head that says you can’t do it.

    Fear is such a huge factor in preventing people from becoming entrepreneurs. I’ve heard from the CEO of a real-estate based network marketing company that even though he has people packing into company seminars, that maybe 2-5% of them will actually go out and apply the knowledge by putting offers on real estate. He is convinced that the rest are paralyzed by fear. Following are some of the techniques I have used as I learned them from the entrepreneurs I’ve known and dealt with.

    Your goals and work plan

    Think about what you do want in the form of goals and objectives, and when you find yourself spinning the wheels in your mind over and again about your worst case scenario, turn it around and focus on what you DO want. Visualize yourself getting what you do want. See the new house. See yourself talking to the interested person as they become a part of your business. You get what you focus on.

    Change the inner voice in a manner that when you hear yourself telling you that you’re not good enough – you’re going to fail, just change the voice from yours to that of Mickey Mouse or Pee Wee Herman or something else that would hold little weight with you anyway! Who cares if Mickey Mouse thinks you’re not good enough? Is Mickey Mouse an entrepreneur?

    Discussion and research material

    Share them with a trusted friend or associate. Hopefully you have been able to find some level of support from at least one other entrepreneur. Ideally, you have a significant other that supports you. If not, then you should have some kind of support network from your team, upline, or a top producer that you can talk to. Some people may tell you that it is silly you could even believe that you’re not good enough. For me, my wife has been a constant source of support. However, don’t go looking for support from all those people who doubted you and told you it was crazy to go out on your own. They will never understand the entrepreneur.

    Have a personal development library. I draw tremendous support from my library. It is not just filled with how to resources, but also stories of others who conquered their fears. I couldn’t begin to list the many sources I have, but if you contact me I can recommend something based on your own description of your circumstances, although I am in no way a trainer or instructor.

    Visualize. Act. Persist

    Go ahead and “just do it”. Sometimes just making the smallest step will help get you going enough that the fear of not doing something can go away. An example would be neglecting to write an article such as this one out of fear of failure. Just starting it can create enough momentum to see it through.

    Visualize the result, but make the action the goal. There is a subtle difference here for the entrepreneur. Of course you want the result, but maybe that’s not in your direct control. Visualize the result in your mind, but make your goal is the consistent and persistent action of the entrepreneur. Visualization and action will eventually produce the result and you can certainly achieve that goal.

    Never, ever quit! I hate to even use that q word. If you do quit, you cease to be an entrepreneur! Not quitting ensures that you’re not beaten, you are moving ahead!

  • Why Free Makes The Entrepreneurial Experience Easier




    Do you believe in the principle that you’ve got to give before you get? If so, you probably already know the answer to this question: What is the most frequently used word that people type in a search box on the internet? If you don’t already know the answer, I can assure you that learning what this simple word is and using it to it’s fullest extent can literally explode your sales if you’re an entrepreneur running a Web business. Let me explain.

    The all important word is FREE!

    The word that is used in searches on the Web more than any other is FREE. Everyone loves something for nothing. No one wants to pay for something if they can get it for free. You don’t – and I certainly don’t – if the item is of a quality comparable to paid-for items.

    Think about all the times you searched for something on the Web. Weather it was for information, a service, a product, anything. Did you just type in the description, a keyword or phrase, or did you put ‘free’ first? Even if you obmitted the word free, when the search engines generated the results, I can almost guarantee that it gave you a list of ‘related searches’ containing the keywords you used with ‘free’ in front of them.

    The benefits entrepreneurs derive from giving something for free.

    As a Web business entrepreneur, if you offer a product, service or some other information for free, it can have great returns. First of all it boosts your search engine rankings. As the word is typed into a search box more than any other, so having it optimized on your website will pay amazing dividends.

    Once a customer has found you in their search results, further use of the word free will draw them in even more. Giving them something for nothing if they visit your site is a big attraction. In fact it is such a huge attraction that I can’t emphisize how important it is, especially if you’re just starting out as a new entrepreneur.

    Can giving something for free can make you money?

    When someone visits your site to claim their freebie, several things can happen. In order to get their free product, they have to give you their name and email address. This is standard operating procedure in the Web marketing business arena. In fact, it’s the #1 reason for offering the free item(s) to them in the first place.

    It is highly unlikely that someone will buy something on their first visit to your website, or any other site; and unless there is an excellent reason for them to return, they may never visit again. By having their email address, you can contact them and remind them to revisit your site. You can offer them ‘special offers’ and affiliate sales through your correspondence emails.

    It is a well known fact that you have to make an average of 7 contacts (sales pitches, remind revisits, offers ect…) with a potential customer before they will actually buy something and become a real customer. The reasons for this are quite lengthy and will take a complete article to discuss, so lets stick to the matter at hand.

    One of the most important/valuable things you can own as a Web marketing entrepreneur is a LIST of contacts/potential customers that you can send your product promotions to on a regular basis. Being able to have that all-important contact with your customers, improves your chances of them making a purchase significantly.

    They learn to ‘trust you’, you become familiar to them and that is what often clinches the deal. You gain the know, like and trust from your customers and then they feel comfortable enough to buy what you recommend.

    So, that’s a brief explanation of how you, the budding entrepreneur, make money from giving away something for free.

     

    The quality of free

    The item that you offer, weather it be a subscription to an ezine, an ebook, report or software, MUST be of good quality. If the prospect receives their freebie and the quality is poor, they will not come back to your website and buy anything. Even if you are the best website in your niche, offering the best deals, they will never find out, because they just won’t come back.

    On the other hand, if they are impressed by the free gift from you, they are more than likely to visit your website again and again. High quality, useful products are an essential if you want the ‘freeie offer’ to work for you.

    How you can drive traffic to your website using ‘free’

    Classified ads are a fantastic way to drive traffic to your website. The headline and description should be centered around the infamous “what’s in it for me”. That is offering them a freebie. This will entice them to click the link and visit your website. You can post classifieds for free. Just type ‘free classifieds’ into the search box and choose from the 1000’s of results that the search engines produce. Submit your ads often and the traffic will keep coming.

    Simply use it anywhere your ads appear. If you publish articles, reports or ebooks, put your offer in your resource box. If you use pay-per-click, use the offer as your ad copy. Advertising in ezines, weather its your own, an affiliate’s or bought advertising, again use the free offer in your resource box.

    Choose carefully

    When deciding on what it is that you will give way, there is one piece of advice that is vital. Make the free item appropriate to your audience. Whatever niche you operate it, stick with the theme. If you offer an ebook on ‘how to create a website’ and your business sells musical instruments, you’re really asking for problems.

    The customer will visit your website to get their ebook. They will download it and probably be very pleased if it contains high quality information on ‘how to create a website’. When you contact them via email with for example a ‘special offer on violin strings’, unless by some highly unlikely coincidence that they play the violin, they will not visit your website again. So be mindful of what your own niche actually wants and give it to them.

    In conclusion, the more you offer free stuff of high quality, the more money you will make and the more successful you will become in your Web entrepreneurial business experience. It is one of the best traffic drivers and is a straight forward concept. Now that you have this little golden nugget of valuable information, get to work. Plan what you could offer, to whom, when and where.

    Decide on a product that you can legally give away (be careful of copyright infringement). Make it something that is useful to your own niche market. Advertise it everywhere you can and your opt-in-list will grow very quickly. After all ‘the money is in the list’, right? That’s also a topic for another article. Below is a perfect example of the ‘free’ offer. I didn’t make it up, it’s for real and it works.

  • The Entrepreneur’s Checklist


    Hardworking self-starter

    The question was asked of me some time ago, what personality traits I thought were important for entrepreneurial success? My immediate reply was a spontaneous one about passion, dedication and hard work. Later that week and after considering the question a little deeper, I decided to elaborate a little more.

    The result was this self-examining article pertaining to what it takes to achieve entrepreneurial success, which is by no means definitive, but you can lay odds that if you don’t possess most of what’s contained in these paragraphs, your chances of business success will be greatly diminished.

    You must be self motivated, and if you don’t have the wherewithal to bounce out of bed each day without your spouse drenching you with cold water, chances are you don’t have the self motivation or discipline required to be an entrepreneur. Business demands that you take action based solely on your own volition. You have to do a hundred things every day that will not get done unless you make yourself do them.

    Another requirement is hard work. You can’t be afraid of hard work because if you think working for someone else is hard work, try starting your own business. You will be required to give every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears you can muster and then some. You will have to work long hours and be on call 24/7, at least in the beginning. If the mere thought of hard work makes you tired, it maybe advisable that you just keep your cushy day job.

    Experience and resilience

    If you can’t locate your car’s engine you have no business buying an oil change franchise. The most successful business owners have prior experience in the industry in which they have set up shop. Consider working in an industry at least part time for a year before jumping in with both feet.

    And you must be able to climb back on the horse. I always say: “If business was easy, everybody would be doing it.” Starting a business is hard work and the odds for failure are against you in the first few years. If you want to ride herd on your own business, you must be willing to fall off your horse and get back on a few times without giving up.

    Support and humor

    You need the support of your family. When you start a business you may have to spend more time away from the family than you like. The business may also put a strain on you financially, and you will have enough obstacles in your way without having to worry if you have the support of your family and those closest to you. In fact you’re going to be met with challenges big and small so you will have to develop a sense of humor to replace any thick skinned-ness in your make-up.

    If your feelings are easily hurt, keep your non-threatening day job because business is not for you. Many days in business, rejection awaits you around every corner and you must be able to handle rejection without taking it personally.

    Interaction and delegation

    You must interact well with others in order to be a successful entrepreneur. Interaction is a requirement in most business pursuits and an entrepreneurship is most certainly a business, so interacting with a variety of people, from your own employees to vendors to customers to investors. You must have the ability to effectively manage people without offending them; the ability to accept good advice from mentors and politely discount the bad; the ability to overlook mistakes or quietly rectify them; and the one I have trouble with: the ability to tolerate incompetence without losing your cool (at least not on the outside).

    And while we’re at it, let’s not forget money, the lack of which is perhaps the number one cause of business failure, so the deeper your pockets the better. Before you start your business you should have access to enough capital to see you through until the business can sustain itself and replace your previous income.

    This is a skill that you’ll have time to develop as it may not be required until your entrepreneurship becomes relatively successful and you have hired on some help. That skill is the ability to delegate. Running a business requires the performance of dozens of simultaneous tasks and it’s foolish to try to handle them all yourself. You must learn to put your trust in others. If you can’t dish out responsibility without worrying over the result, your business growth will be limited.

    prior business experience
    A primary business tool on hold

    Previous business ownership is a plus but it is not a prerequisite. Of course you would have an advantage over budding entrepreneurs who lack such experience so it can’t hurt. Many successful entrepreneurs have the skeletons of past businesses rattling around in their closet.

    Think of it this way – Business is a lot like marriage: you learn a lot from the first one that may come in handy the second or third time around. With that kind of advice you can see why I didn’t go into marriage counseling. But, according to the old adage…Grab the Bull by the horn and dig in to make your business a success!