Your marriage falls apart, you or your partner is laid-off, or your spouse gets ill and you lose half your household income.

The financial pressures sweep in like a sudden high tide, and as one of my clients wrote me, \”I feel so pressured to make money I can’t think.\” What do you do in a situation like this? \”Forget about the bladdy-blah-blah of patience and organic growth, man! I need to make the rent like, yesterday!\”

Okay, but first you need to know about the two wings of growth.

The Two Wings of Growth

The Sufis teach that in our growth and development as humans, we fly on two wings: Hope, and Fear.

The Wing of Hope is when our hearts sing. In the ego we know it as joy, in the heart as expansion, and deeper in our soul we know Hope as a state of Beauty.

But, flap too much with one wing, and we fly in circles. Too much with the Wing of Hope can carry us into heedlessness.

Extreme Hope leads to fantasy island, where nothing is real. In business, you can fall off the edge of the mountain because you spent so much time visioning, feeling good, having fun, that you aren’t taking beneficial actions and paying attention to structures.

So you need the Wing of Fear. Fear? Yes, Fear.

In the ego we know it as fear, but in the heart we experience it as a natural state of contraction, and in the soul we know it as Awe and Majesty.

A certain amount of healthy contraction is a great way to grow. How else do you get the toothpaste out of the tube, eh? Urgency about paying the bills has moved more than one amazing heart-centered person out of the shadows into the limelight of successful business.

But, Extreme Fear is not a good thing either. Too much fear and all you do is spin your wheels, working harder and harder trying to make things happen. You forget that there is Hope, and that miracles are ever present.

Hope and Fear- your two wings for forward movement.

I’m still so scared about money I can’t think.

If you’re in the situation above, you have to flap your hope wing. You have to break the cycle of fear. How? Take a break.

Spiritual practice, and fun. Time in prayer, and time at the movies. Time shnuggling your partner, or child, or cat, and time on the meditation pillow resting your heart.

Fun loosens you up, brings you hope. Spiritual connection deepens your ability to contain and experience that hope. Fun distracts you so you can back up from the problem. Spirituality lets you take another look, and see a larger Truth in your situation.

Example: My client was panicked, and reached out for help to me, and to The Business Oasis (our heart-centered online business community). And then she also took time to hang out with her daughter and the dog, watch a movie, laugh, play, forget about her troubles for a little bit.

And she took time in her heart to see a larger Truth about the situation.

She came back refreshed, able to breathe and think, and to take in some of our good advice.

And about our good advice? Well, AFTER she flapped her Hope wing with fun and spirit, then came the action steps.

Keys to Quick Cashola (from the heart)

Assess your true needs.

We have a tendency to think ‘I’m making it.’ or ‘I’m not making it.’ Look more closely. What’s your true squeak-by financial needs? And how much is coming in now? The truth, not your ‘hope-for.’

Example: My client, when she looked at how her new business was performing, and her squeak-by financial needs, she saw she only needed a few hundred dollars a month to bridge the difference. That, she knew, was doable.

Assess your business assets.

The only asset that means anything in this situation, aside from cash in the bank, is a list. A list of people who have already told you they are interested in what you offer.

And, if you don’t have a list like that? Who do you know that has a list? Churches, organizations, fellow business owners who have more developed businesses. People who like and trust you, who might be willing to introduce you to their list.

Example: My client realized that she already had some dozens of people on her email list. She also knew folks who liked her work enough that they might be willing to help promote her.

Make me a personal offer.

The final step is to make an offer. Don’t get fancy about it- don’t come up with some big seminar idea, or a shiny new product that needs to be developed.

Create some kind of one-on-one individual support offer. Price it at a rate that feels comfortable to your heart. Don’t low-ball it, but don’t try to stretch too much, either. Remember, you just got yourself out of the panic zone.

And package it so that it’s not one session at a time. Take some time in your heart to ask what will it really take to get your clients results they want? Four sessions? Twelve?

See if your heart, and perhaps some friends, can help you find a middle ground between the ultimate package that will fix everything, versus something so small that they can barely get started.

Example: Someone in the Moneyflow class was talking about how her friends had signed up with a bodyworker for a five-session package. The results her friends were getting, after receiving a session a week for five weeks straight, really wowed her, and she’s got her eye on signing up for a full five sessions.

A single session wouldn’t have created the same wow factor. It also wouldn’t have done the same thing for this bodyworker’s cash flow, who is getting five times the business from the same customers, merely by having a package.

Remember first: fun and spirit. Then, what do you need to squeak by, what kind of lists of people can you access, and package your individual services. You may just be days away from getting out of the hole.

The best to you and your business,

Mark Silver

About The Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

When you’re exhausted from working, overwhelmed, burnt-out, little visions come visiting. Visions of distant beaches, cabin hide-aways, foreign adventures.

Vacation-land.

And so, off you go, on vacation. And, when you come back, by noon on Monday you’re as exhausted as you were when you left. Did you take the wrong vacation? Or is there something wrong with vacations?

Vacations only solve one of two problems

If you are crispy from working in your business, then you probably have two problems going on.

The first problem: physical and mental fatigue.

You’ve probably worked long hours, doing too much, just plumb worn out.

For this, you need rest. Sitting around, doing nothing, taking naps, lounging.

What does resting do? Resting empties you out. When you’re exhausted, it feels as if you are empty, but the truth is you are full.

You may be empty of juice, but that’s because you’ve been doing so much that your being has become full of all the doing-ness. Rest isn’t recharging your batteries- it’s dumping out all the stuff you’ve been piling in there, like to-do lists, worries and responsibilities, and unresolved commitments.

But, when you come back from vacation, it’s all waiting for you as soon as you enter your office. It only takes a few hours before you’ve filled your heart with the same lists, worries, and commitments.

Suddenly, you’re full again. And… exhausted to be carrying it all, even though you’ve been back from vacation for exactly 180 minutes. Because you haven’t handled the second problem.

The second problem: Lack of Connection

What keeps you from getting filled up again? By being full already.

Nature loves a vacuum, and fills it up. To avoid filling it up with all the stuff waiting for you in the office, you need to fill your heart with something else. With Connection.

Your heart’s connection to Source has been blocked by all that stuff. If you fill yourself up with spiritual practices, with Remembrance, then all that stuff can come pounding at you, but the door is already closed. \”Sorry, you’ll have to take the next elevator.\”

Ahhh… finally, true peace. Even though you’re hundreds of miles from the beach.

Live in your heart’s world, not your stuff’s world.

In Sufism, the word for heart is ‘qalb’ which means ‘to turn.’ This is because the heart is always turning between the world of Source and the material world.

Your job isn’t to get everything done in the material world so you can finally rest. Your job is to keep your heart turned towards Source as much as possible.

This keeps you living in your heart’s world, not in your stuff’s world.

But does that mean I don’t get any work done?

Sure you’ll get work done. In fact, you’ll get more of the right work done, and less of the wrong work done. Because you won’t be digging yourself out of a hole, instead you’ll have a clear perspective.

So how do you access this magical happy heart space that protects you from overwhelm? And, does this mean no more vacations? I think you’ll want to keep reading:

Keys to Spiritual Retreat

Is your vacation a running away, or running towards?

Sometimes a vacation is just trying to ‘get away from it all.’ Other times it’s because you want to take an adventure and go somewhere you haven’t been before.

If you are just trying to ‘get away from it all,’ then I’m guessing you are dealing with the two problems I discussed above. Try creating a mini-vacation where you take off two days in a row to do absolutely nothing, even if it’s around your house, or a weekend get-away.

This will relieve your exhaustion, and give you a sense spaciousness. Then you can save your funds, and your time, for adventure vacations that really take you somewhere you want to go.

Take on a fill-you-up spiritual practice.

For what I’ve been discussing here, I recommend taking on a spiritual practice that connects you and fills you up with the Divine presence. I say this because some spiritual practices are meant to be emptying practices, which are great.

But the filling up, such as I teach with Remembrance, is key so that there is no void that can suddenly be filled with stuff.

A key way to tell if your spiritual practice works or not is: does it have a carry-over effect into your work life? Sometimes folks have spiritual practices where they feel great sitting on the meditation cushion, but as soon as they walk in their office, bam, it’s the same as coming back from vacation.

Take a spiritual retreat.

There are places where you can go and be contained and guided by spiritual teachers, who will have you spending your days in spiritual practices. The carry-over effects of these kinds of retreats are amazing, and I recommend them highly.

Keys to look for? You’ll want a retreat center that has teachers available for daily check-ins, to guide you through the internal terrain of your heart. Spiritual practices can bring up a lot of old emotions, like doing a spring cleaning of your basement. I don’t recommend cleaning out either your basement, or your heart, on your own.

The best to you and your business,

Mark Silver

About The Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Why is our nation so focused on everything large when it comes to business? Multibillion dollar financings, acquisitions and meltdowns have us transfixed like rubber neckers on a highway. Is it possible that we need to revisit the thought that bigger isn’t necessarily better?

The most recent poster child for large corporate blunders is Bear Stearns. How could people that were smart enough to create a company that as of November 30, 2006 had total assets of $350.4 billion. (Institutional Investor) allow their shareholders and 14,000 employees to lose almost everything?

And yet, according to the US Dept of Commerce, 60-80% of all new jobs are created by companies with less than 500 employees.

One group that knows this well met last week in Los Angeles. They are the entrepreneurs, investors and professionals that participate in the Reverse Merger industry. This group hailed from the US, China, India, Korea, Vietnam and more. The industries represented there were wide ranging including technology and health care companies from the US and infrastructure companies from emerging nations. Some were startups but most were established businesses in need of growth capital. What they all had in common was an interest in becoming publicly traded in the US.

In the past, these companies may have looked forward to funding and liquidity for their shareholders by going public via a traditional Initial Public Offering (IPO). Today this dream has all but evaporated with the average current IPO in the US raising over $250 million.

In addition, according to Ian Mount writing for Fortune Small Business, “A combination of Sarbanes-Oxley’s steep compliance costs, Wall Street’s neglect of small caps regardless of their performance, and heightened investor distrust has turned running a public company into a far less appealing proposition”.

Even with these issues to overcome reasons still exist to be publicly traded in the US including:

Utilizing public stock to acquire other companies without using cash.

Attracting and retaining professional management through stock options and other stock based compensation.

The potential to raise capital through public equity markets at higher valuations than private companies.

One alternative to the IPO for going public is known as a Reverse Merger. This is when a private company merges into a publicly traded company with little or no operations and is issued a majority of the shares. The management of the old public company resigns and the private company’s Board of Directors replaces the old Board. One of the biggest advantages of going public this way is that it typically takes much less time ( 4-8 weeks) and the risk of an IPO being canceled is avoided.

No industry is left out of this process. According to the Washington Post, a defense contractor, Argon ST, went public through a reverse merger and is in one of the hottest sectors of the defense industry. Other notable former reverse mergers include Turner Broadcasting and Acclaim Entertainment.

A significant drawback of the reverse merger is that unless a private financing is completed simultaneously with the merger, the formerly private company is now public and has taken on the significant costs of being public without having raised any capital.

The comparison between the health of IPO’s and Reverse Mergers for small and mid size companies speak for themselves.

According to Tim Keating of Keating Investments there were only 9 IPO’s on average per year over the last 10 years that raised under $25 million.

In 2007 alone there were 220 Reverse Mergers. 100 of these transactions included simultaneous private placements.

In the first half of 2008 only 23 IPO’s were completed including deals of all sizes. (SPAC’s and REITs omitted)

It is not only homegrown companies that are attracted to this method of becoming publicly traded in US markets. According to Robert Comment of Johns Hopkins Univ. The % of co’s going public in the US via Reverse Merger that are non US has gone from approximately 14% to 37% over the last 10 years.

Companies receiving financing using this method create primary US jobs for printing companies, mailing services, transfer agents, lawyers and accountants and their staffs, employees of our stock exchanges and the government employees that regulate them.

This does not include the employees of these now funded companies and their suppliers as they use the new capital to buy equipment, develop new products, open new markets and more.

In the past this method was largely unregulated and often abused. Thanks to thoughtful regulations developed by the SEC and the NASD in conjunction with input from industry members, the quality of the companies accessing capital through Reverse Mergers has improved steadily. Revenues for these companies went from approximately $5 million in 1997 to $16 million in 2007 according to Mr. Comment.

With the IPO market minimums continuing to grow, we are sure to see more Reverse Mergers filling the gap in the coming years.

About The Author:
Allen R. Goldstone is President of Creative Business Strategies. Inc, a corporate development and turnaround consulting firm based in Boulder Colorado. Alleng123@gmail.com

Getting your most important tasks completed is not always the easiest thing to do. You may even be putting off important tasks for the unexpected issues that pop up in front of you during the day.

It’s hard to stay on track, especially on demanding days. You may have more tasks for the next day and feel guilty because you didn’t complete all your work today. Then you start the next day with a sense of being overwhelmed rather than starting the day fresh and energetic.

Janice likes to have her day planned out ahead of time. She would start off feeling comfortable, knowing what to do. Her problem was that she would begin her day by doing tasks such as checking her e-mail, checking her sales, and looking at her finances. Even though she had a to-do list, she didn’t get to it right away. She got sidetracked many times during the day with unexpected issues that popped up. She ended up with a lot of work that needed to be done but was not as important as her daily tasks.

Self-employed people often find themselves behaving this way. With no one watching over you, you get sidetracked. This article will help you move in the right direction.

If you want be on a daily routine, then plan it in advance. If you don’t plan, you’ll end up getting sidetracked with anything and everything that comes up. I’m not saying that you should ignore those issues, but you have to determine the difference between issues that should be taken care of immediately and issues that can be postponed until later.

A simple plan works best

Step One:
Start by creating a list of tasks you must do every day.

Step Two:
Set the priority for each of the tasks on your list.

Step Three:
Rewrite your list in priority order, and leave a space for a checkmark by every item you complete. In the upper right-hand corner, leave space for a date.

Step Four:
Make copies of your new daily to-do list.

Step Five:
Each new workday, take a copy of your schedule and write the date in the upper right-hand corner.

Step Six:
Start on the task with the highest priority. Complete that task in its entirety, or at least all that you can do for this task on this day. Don’t start a new task until you have completed all you can of the task you’re working on.

When you’ve completed the current task, put a checkmark next to it and go to Step Six. It’s a simple procedure, but don’t let its simplicity fool you. It’s powerful. It keeps you on track. It gives you a new approach to getting your work completed and it works. You don’t need to complicate things, and you don’t need to overwhelm yourself. All you need to do is stick to the list. After a few weeks of using this idea, you’ll find yourself becoming more productive and free from wasted time as well as feelings of anxiety and guilt.

What do you do when something comes up and you’re between tasks? This will happen and, depending on your job, it might happen every day. Aside from a crisis that pops up, here’s what you can do to tackle those issues. You can approach this in two different ways:

1. You can pause between tasks and complete the issues that pop up. I recommend this for issues that only take a few minutes to complete.

OR

2. Between tasks, you can have one of your designated tasks as taking care of issues that pop up during the day. For example, you would complete Task 1. Task 2 would be taking care of issues that pop up. Task 3 is then completed. Task 4 would be to attend to issues that pop up, and so on. It’s a matter of preference for how you work best and what works best for you.

Working with a schedule will help you keep on track and help you complete your important tasks while cutting out wasted time. Try this for a few weeks, and I’m sure that it will help you move through each day quickly and effectively.

That’s the way I see it.
Acey Gaspard
A Touch of Business.com
Action Steps To Help You Get things Done

1. Create a to-do list.

2. Photocopy it.

3. Keep a fresh copy on your desk for each new day.

4. Complete the tasks as outlined in Step Six.

Important Points to Keep in Mind About Getting Things Done

With no one watching over you, you can get sidetracked.

If you want be on a daily routine, then plan it in advance.

Each new workday, use your schedule

You don’t need to complicate things, and you don’t need to overwhelm yourself.

After a few weeks of using this idea, you’ll find yourself becoming more productive and free from wasted time as well as feelings of anxiety and guilt.

Working on a schedule will help you stay on track and help you complete your important tasks while cutting out wasted time.

Try this for a few weeks, and I’m sure that it will help you move through each day quickly and effectively.

About The Author:
Acey Gaspard has over 20 years of business experience. His site, A Touch of Business.com, http://www.atouchofbusiness.com is steadily growing with well over 1,100 original pages to help you run and market your small business. Get Tips you can use today! http://www.atouchofbusiness.com/tips.html

In 1985 the Coca Cola Corporation spent gobs on the best marketing research money could buy, and asked thousands of people their opinion. Armed with overwhelming statistics, and clear answers from a huge number of people, they launched New Coke. $4,000,000 down the drain.

$20 a person spent on 200,000 people in focus groups, testing, market surveys, and the blind taste test. And the results that came back were totally wrong.

The same thing will happen if you go asking your customers ‘what do you want?’ If you ask them if they prefer to meet on the phone or in person, or how much they are willing to pay, or what color they want, you’ll get the same answer: the wrong one.

Because they will cheerfully give you their best answers to what they want, just like the 200,000 did. And when you offer them what they said they wanted, they will turn their backs on it, leaving you in the dust.

Don’t believe me? Ask Coca Cola about the storm of public protest they had to content with, and the fact that a year later, New Coke had less than 3% of the market.

Did 200,000 people lie?

Well, no. They didn’t.

Each person gave the best answer they could, sipping at different unmarked cups of a cold cola beverage. But when was the last time you drank a cup of cola blindfolded, while paid consultants sat around with clipboards, measuring your response?

Asking questions of your customers is one of the absolute best ways to get clear guidance for your business. But don’t ask them what they want.

Why don’t you ask them what they want?

Because you and your customers live in different worlds. You see, you’ve already travelled through the problem your business solves. Maybe you aren’t yet enlightened, maybe you still struggle, but you understand the world of the solution, so to speak.

Your customer, on the other hand, hasn’t gotten there yet. That’s why they’re coming to you. Asking them questions about what they prefer just doesn’t work.

You may ask me if I prefer a wool coat or one of those big, bulky ski jackets. And, my preference is completely irrelevant if you’re taking me up Mt. Everest. You know what I need, I don’t.

So, if your customers have such excellent information and guidance for you, and yet they won’t follow their own advice when you offer it back to them… how do you get clear, useful answers from them that you can implement in your business?

The answer requires you to be a little more intimate. It also requires you to be stronger in the captaincy of your business. How does that work?

What, are you asking me? Read on:

Keys to Questioning Your Customers

Ask about problems, not solutions.

Your business solves a problem. Your customers are very familiar with that problem. So, ask them about the problem.

They don’t know the solution, yet. So, don’t ask them what the solution should look like. Not even what color it should come in. Because whatever answers they give you, won’t apply.

What are they struggling with? Where are they stuck? Where are they frustrated? What don’t they like? What are they trying to accomplish? What would they like to be different?

These questions are powerful for three reasons: one, it creates an empathetic connection, because they are able to be heard in the midst of their frustrations. Two, it creates more empathy in you as well, because you are reminded of what it was like before you got so good at what you do.

And the third reason: the answers show where your customers have the biggest pain, struggle, or misfortune. If you have something that will help them with that, and it works, they’ll come get it.

So ask and ask and ask those questions about the problems. Get as much information as you can. Don’t answer, don’t fix. Just listen.

O Captain, my Captain.

Armed with clear answers about the struggle, your job is to create and offer strong solutions that really work.

You are the expert in your business. People are coming to you for care, guidance, and help. They want to be able to trust you, to lean into your support and care. So be the captain of your ship, and offer your customers what you know will help.

Here’s a prime example: I was getting help from someone around my health, and I asked them for their recommendation. They said: \”It’s up to you.\”

Frustration city! It’s not up to me. I don’t know what’s going to help me. I want clear guidance. I may or may not take them up on it, but I want to know what they recommend.

Remember to first ask about the problem and then to take captaincy of the solution. Do that, and your customers will never lie to you.

The best to you and your business, Mark Silver

About The Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

In business, as in life, habits are very hard to break. Over the years, the reliable old fax machine has become the standard way of sending faxes in most offices and workplaces. Despite a few paper jams or the occasional missed fax because of a busy signal, the old fax machine has worked out quite well.

There’s no denying that point, but is there a more efficient way to fax?

Everything changes, including the way we fax. Now, there is a new method of faxing called Internet Fax or Email Faxing. It simply means you use the Internet and your email system to send and receive your faxes. You sign up to an online fax service provider which handles all your faxes. There is no need for a second phone line and you can access your faxes anywhere, anytime. And yes, you can still send your faxes via the old fax machine.

Trying a new way of doing things takes some effort on the part of everyone. And like anything new, not everyone or every business has embraced this new technology. Is this a crucial mistake? Do you or your company really need Internet Fax?

The answer to that question probably lies in a topic that’s familiar to all businesses: competition. If you’re in a competitive business, will you be at the top of your game without Internet Fax? That’s probably the real question you have to ask?

Internet Fax gives you the advantage of accessing your faxes 24/7, anywhere you have Internet access so you are not tied down to your office fax machine. This can be a great benefit to those working on the road or in the field such as traveling salespeople, managers, real estate agents, engineers, onsite building contractors… and the list goes on.

Having access to your faxes at all times can make you more competitive in a very competitive world. It will give you that slight edge that can make all the difference in a crucial deal or transaction. It’s probably your call or business decision whether or not you go with Internet Fax.

Keep in mind, an Internet Fax service is relatively inexpensive and there is no need for a second phone line. There are many fax providers you can choose from such as MyFax, eFax, RapidFax, TrustFax, and Send2Fax. You should also look at some lesser known fax providers such as Faxage out of Denver and Metrofax out of Seattle; many times choosing a relatively smaller company can give you better individual service in that you or your company don’t get lost in the crowd.

In addition, many companies and individuals like to consolidate all their phone/fax services into one provider. RingCentral is a popular choice since it gives you virtual phone and fax services all rolled into one.

Like choosing any business service, it pays to shop around. You must find the service plan that suits your needs and budget. Internet Fax service plans range from the very modest $20 a year to around $10-$15 a month. Each plan will have a different number of faxes that you can send and receive. Rates are usually based on minutes with 5 cents per minute being the average cost. Multiple page faxes and International faxes will usually cost you more.

The question still remains, do you really need Internet Fax?

Since computers and the Internet are the wave of the future can your company or business remain truly competitive without Internet Fax? Again, this is your call or decision you have to make. It would mainly depend on how crucial faxing is to your business? Is faxing a vital element of your company? Does it play a part in generating new business or making sales? If faxing is a vital element of your company or business, then you may need Internet Fax just to stay in the game and remain competitive.

Many companies are switching over to Internet Fax or using it in addition to their current fax system. Considering the relatively inexpensive cost, this gives them the option of having access to their faxes at all times. For them going forward with Internet Fax is a wise business move on their part, one that will keep their company truly competitive in a very competitive world.

About The Author:
For more information on Internet Fax Services try this handy online Comparison Guide: Online Fax Or if you want more detailed information on Internet Faxing try here: Internet Fax Services.
Titus Hoskins Copyright

Something that’s as important to me as oxygen….is creativity.

Now you may wonder - what does selling have to with being creative?

Let me sum it up in 3 words:

IDEAS CREATE CUSTOMERS.

My office is absolutely gorgeous and it’s not an accident. (a heck of a lot of reno work last summer!).

I have wall to wall leopard print carpet, a chandelier, fireplace, bookcases stuffed with my favorite books, mirrors, a stunning life-size painting of my grandmother in a bathing suit, a vintage black and white cocktail dress on a seamstress mannequin, pictures of people I love, encouraging notes from my clients, and a large chaise lounge on which I sit every week as I write my e-zine as the sun streams through the windows.

And everywhere - absolutely EVERYWHERE - you’ll see words of inspiration on my walls. Why?

I surround myself with creativity in order to be more creative for my customers and my business.

One of my favorite quotes on the wall is from Alice in Wonderland:

\”There is no use trying,\” said Alice, \”one can’t believe impossible things.\” \”I dare say you haven’t had much practice,\” said the Queen. \”When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.\”

~ Lewis Carroll

Why Do I Do This Dear Alice?

2 Reasons:

1. It keeps me focused working ON my business vs IN it.

2. It helps me to think of \”impossible things\”

What’s The Difference Between On and In?

Perspective.

When you’re IN something - you’re working hard, fulfilling orders, invoicing, tons of meetings, networking etc. But you aren’t focused on WHERE you need to take your business or your sales.

Too much working IN the business is pretty much a guarantee your business will stay small and actually will shrink in time (just like Alice in Wonderland).

You Need To Be Like The \”Large Alice\”:

When Alice drinks the magic potion - it changed her perspective. She first appeared large and clumsy but it also gave her a completely different view of her world.

She was looking \”DOWN ONTO\” it.

You need to:

imagine where you want your business and sales to be in 2 yrs, 5 yrs, 10 yrs.

examine where you’re wasting your talent and time by doing every damn thing yourself.

evaluate the clients you make the most money from

decide WHERE you want to attract MORE clients.

Dare To Jump Down The Rabbit Hole

What feels impossible today?

Why are you allowing yourself to be \”stuck\” in that nasty place?

I am challenging you to SNAP OUT OF IT!

As your bossy Sales Diva sales manager I want you to start becoming more OUTRAGEOUS with your thinking. Do it for an hour per week (and not in your office or house either)

Before every action - someone had to think about it FIRST. Whether it was flying to the moon, or that creative woman inventing Spanx because she saw that EVEN Oprah cut her support nylons so she could wear capris pants!

And YOU can too.

Hop to it lady!

Love from your Sales Diva

P.S. If you loved this article, can you please pass it on to 3 of your sassy friends? They’ll receive my FREE Report: The 5 Biggest Sales Mistakes Women Make as well as my savvy and sassy sales tips each week. All they have to do is sign up at www.salesdivas.com

Thanks a million!

About The Author:
Nancy Fraser of Nota Bene Consulting has been helping clients get better results with their marketing and advertising for over 20 years. Sign up for Notable News and get free marketing tips at http://www.notabenemarketing.com

You want to keep all your customers happy. The problem is that everyone thinks differently and experiences things uniquely. You can’t please 100% of your customers. But you can focus on the needs of a smaller amount of customers. Please them, and you’ll automatically have a lot more happy customers.

Amy has a jewelry store. She has been in business for a few years and has a lot of experience in this field. One of her business policies is to get feedback from her customers. Although this is an excellent technique for finding out what your customers want, you must use the feedback with discretion.

Amy’s problem was that she took each comment too seriously; she tried to please everyone and was constantly changing her business practices and product line. This constant change not only caused her frustration, a lot of extra work, and the extra cost involved with each change, it also made her business unstable.

Customer feedback is an essential part of running a business, but the way you interpret those results is critical. Since you can’t please everyone, please those that you can. Find out what your customers want, and then choose products and services along that line. Do less, do a better job, and you’ll do better in your business. You’ll find that your profits grow, you’re more focused on what needs to be done and you’re more at ease. Don’t go after quantity, but rather focus on quality. You can’t please everyone, so please those that you can and you’ll end up pleasing more customers. If you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one. When you combine your strengths and the desires of the majority of your customers, you’ll be able to create a better, stronger business.

Let’s take the above example of Amy’s jewelry shop. Amy has expertise in diamonds, and 60% of her customers come to her shop to purchase diamonds. Amy also has gold rings, gold bracelets, and silver as well as other types of jewelry. Now, if Amy were to focus only on diamonds and build her business in this area instead of spreading herself thin with the other categories of jewelry, she would do much better.

She could take surveys to find out what areas of the diamond trade customers are interested in and determine what services are also needed. She can easily become one of the leading diamond retailers in her area simply by making an adjustment in her focus.

What part of your business do you need to focus on? What are your strengths? Focus on those areas, and eliminate the areas in which you’re not doing so well and that are not what your customers want. You’ll find that your business will prosper, and you’ll move up the ranks with regard to branding, customer service, and quality. Do your best at pleasing the people you can and forget about those you can’t. You’ll end up with happier customers, and more of them, along with a stronger, stable business! That’s the way I see it. To Your Success! Acey Gaspard

Action Steps to Please Your Customers

1. Keep in mind that you can’t please everyone, so please those people you can.
2. Find out what your customers want.
3. Eliminate those areas that do not focus on your customers’ desires.
4. Build on those areas that cater to your customers desires.

Important Points to Keep When Trying to Please Your Customers

Everyone thinks differently and experiences things uniquely.

Customer feedback is an essential part of running a business, but the way you interpret those results is critical.

You can’t please everyone, so please those that you can and you’ll end up pleasing more customers.

When you combine your strengths and the desires of the majority of your customers, you’ll be able to create a better, stronger business.

About The Author:
Acey Gaspard has over 20 years of business experience. His site, A Touch of Business.com, http://www.atouchofbusiness.com is steadily growing with well over 1,100 original pages to help you run and market your small business. Get Tips you can use today! http://www.atouchofbusiness.com/tips.html

How To Use Systems Without Turning Into A Heartless Zombie You can tell as soon as you pick up the phone before the other person has even said anything. That little silence, the clattering in the background, tells you that it’s a telemarketer on the other end of the line, and there is nothing they have to say that is worth your precious time.

The business that hired the telemarketing firm is trying to achieve their goals using systems. Many of the systems large companies use that we come into contact with like automated ‘help’ lines, telemarketing firms, spam-like mortgage offerings that feel completely devoid of heart and personality.

With those experiences, it’s easy to have strong opinions about using systems, and to avoid them like the plague in your own business.

Don’t let a world full of bad apples keep you from the sweetness, and support, that is possible with systems. Systems help you stand up.

The word ’system’ comes from two Latin words: ’syn’ and ‘histanai’ meaning to cause to stand. Merriam-Webster ( www.m-w.com ) defines system like this: \”a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole.\”

Kind of like your bones, muscles and brain all working together to help you stand up. Or your heart, mind, and soul working together to show your family how much you love them.

If you have Thank You cards, address labels, and postage sitting in your desk, and every time you write a card you put it out for the post: that’s a system. And whoever the lucky person is who receives the card is grateful, whether they know it’s a system or not.

Like the body, systems have conscious and unconscious parts.

Chances are you don’t think much about breathing. You breathe in, you breathe out. Your heart pumps, and the blood and oxygen go ’round and ’round, keeping you alive moment to moment.

Thankfully, you don’t have to pay conscious attention to that system: \”Okay, right and left atriums: pump! Right and left-ventricles: pump! Okay, diaphragm: tighten and flatten!\” Try directing all of this, dozens of times a minute.

Wouldn’t leave a lot of room to get much else done, would it?

Are you thinking about every breath your business takes?

I’m betting that there are plenty of places in your business that could use a system to help you stand up. How about getting bills paid? How about keeping your office stocked with business supplies?

A system can be as simple as having a stack of blank inventory lists of what your office needs to operate smoothly, a monthly alarm in your calendar that reminds you to take ten minutes and check your inventory, filling out your inventory list of what’s needed, and scheduling a trip to Office Depot, or ordering what you need online.

Voila! A system has just handled your office needs, and now you won’t ever be stuck at 10pm at night before a big deadline with empty printer ink cartridges.

That’s fine for office inventory, but what about the telemarketing call we received in the beginning of this article?

A ‘heart-less’ system is a zombie.

Systems are, by nature, repetitive. By handling the repetitious aspects of your business, they can leave you time and energy for truly enriching, heart-centered interactions.

The telemarketing company unfortunately thought everything about the call is repetitive, and doesn’t allow for real human interaction. As a result, there is no space left for us to engage with the telemarketer as a person- they become a zombie. And who wouldn’t hang up on a zombie?

‘Zombie’ refers to a corpse that has been re-animated by evil powers. If you are going to systematize your marketing, which I highly recommend, you’ll want to identify which actions are repetitive, and which are creative and unique. But, to avoid creating a zombie, you’ll want to do more than just systematize the repetitive. You’ll also want to bring your presence to the unique, and put your heart into both.

Everything in this world has a spiritual presence to it, which means that no system, engine, or machine need truly be ‘cold and heartless,’ as one client put it. Your veins and arteries aren’t just tubes, but they are imbued with life. The same could be said of your autoresponder, accounting software, or email.

Take a moment now in your heart and ask to be shown the presence and life within some part of your business that you consider to be zombie-like: ‘cold and heartless.’ Once you recognize the life that is present within your business systems, they will function more effectively for you. And your customers may enjoy them more as well.

Sounds simple, but it may not be obvious.

Keys to Heart-Centered Systems

Pick one thing you’d like to happen more often and more easily.

Taking a moment to breathe and check in with your heart, identify some place in your business that you know it would be really helpful if it happened more often or more easily. You may have several ;), but for now, just pick one.

What are all the bite-sized pieces to it?

Even if it’s a list of 20 things, break it down into little bite-sized tasks. For each task, identify if it’s a repetitive task without much creativity or personal touch needed (applying postage, for instance), a task that needs creativity once, but then can be repetitive (a welcome letter you mail out, that can be copied), or a task that needs creativity every time (responding to a personal request for help from someone).

If it needs creativity every time, you can’t systematize it. But, the rest you can put into a system that delivers, does, or reminds you to do the task in question.

A Heart of Business Example.

We decided, for several reasons that have to do with both supporting people and supporting the business, that we wanted people to actually read and use the free workbook we give away:

Getting to the Core of Your Business. We also knew that many people would download it, but forget about it.

There is no way that I could possibly follow up with each subscriber personally to remind them to check out the free download. However, what I did do was go in my heart, and ask for what was one bit in the free workbook that would be very helpful to someone who was relatively new.

When my heart was clear with that, I wrote a -very- short email, and put it in our email autoresponder system. After someone has been subscribed for two weeks, the email goes out automatically, reminding the new subscriber how to get the download, and to look at a specific page, for a specific bit of help.

We get thank you emails all the time from folks who have received that email, and enjoyed what they read there.

Although the email goes out automatically, without me thinking about it (heart- pump! diaphragm- breathe!), the responses that come back fall into the category of needing creativity every time.

So I respond to those emails personally, quite happily. If I had had to think about every step until that point: manually adding someone to the subscriber list, sending them the free workbook, sending them the reminder email- I would be exhausted, cranky, and unable to do much else in my business.

But, because the rest of it is in a system, and Heart of Business is off the respirator and breathing on its own, then I do have spaciousness and creativity available to respond with heart to those who do write to me.

Your next step: What is one heart-centered system you can add to your business this month?

The best to you and your business,

Mark Silver

About The Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

The devil may wear stylish Prada clothing, but most of us have no desire to be compared to the devilishly cruel boss portrayed by actress Meryl Streep in the hit movie The Devil Wears Prada. The story centers on Meryl Streep’s character famously bullying her mousy employee, played by Anne Hathaway. The hit book on which the movie is based was actually a fictionalized account of the author’s days working for Anna Wintour, editor of the fashion magazine Vogue.

Unfortunately, many of us have stories about bad bosses who made our lives miserable, and in many cases the boss never realized just how horrible he or she really was. If you’re concerned that your employees may be swapping tales of your mistakes and errors in judgment, there are some steps you can take to avoid earning a demonic reputation as an employer. International human resources expert, trainer, and speaker Elaine Anderson recommends that you use these tips to keep your workplace under control while still being seen as one of the good guys:

Talk about issues when they happen. You may think you’re doing the right thing when you let a few bad behaviors slide, but the truth is that you could be making things worse. Deal with issues immediately in a professional and honest manner.

Treat \”you\” like a bad word when disciplining. Rather than pointing the finger at a person’s mistake, talk about the situation and not the person. For example, instead of telling someone, \”You left the lights on after closing last night and it cost me a lot of money,\” try a softer approach. Explain that you’re energy conscious and when money is spent on lighting, it’s not available for other important aspects of the business.

Ask your employees how you’re doing. When you provide employees a safe, confidential way to give feedback about your performance, they’ll know their input is appreciated and you’ll have the opportunity to work on improving your weaknesses. Seek training for those areas that you’re uncertain how to fix yourself.


In addition to these great tips, I’ve found that showing my employees how much I appreciate their hard work all year long is an excellent way to maintain employee morale and a cohesive team. One great way to show your employees you care is to make it a point to remember special dates like birthdays or anniversaries with the company. Help them to celebrate with a small token of appreciation such as floral arrangements or plants for their desks. Flowers and plants are not only a nice way to say thank you, they’re also a fantastic way to brighten up the workplace and make it a prettier, more enjoyable place to be.

Keeping your \”good boss\” reputation and avoiding having a movie like The Devil Wears Prada made about your antics is as easy as being mindful of how you treat others while keeping control of your business. And, one step to being mindful can be accomplished quite simply by picking up a phone to schedule floral deliveries to your employees to celebrate all they do.

About The Author:
Wesley Berry is member of the American Academy of Floriculture (AAF) and President of Wesley Berry Flowers, a successful multi-million dollar floral business that was established in 1946. As a member of the Henry Ford Hospital Community Relation Board he has contributed to the community at large. He owns both a brick and mortar and an internet flower delivery business. Visit Wesley Berry Flowerson the web at www.800wesleys.com.