Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan

People generally have no idea that they are capable of running a successful small business with little or no experience. However, it is a necessity that a business mentor can have your attention to during the process because starting a business is not as laborious as running it. A small business may be writing and publishing your own book, running a weekend garage sale, making gift baskets, or enjoying your favorite hobby for money. You may not make millions but you can make the kind of money necessary to help pay off existing loans or to take a vacation. Just the thought of the thousands of dollars you can produce while living in a not-so-good economy should get you pumped! Remember starting a business is as easy as learning your alphabets.

Every successful business starts with a great idea or at least an idea. If you are not sure how to come up with ideas that allow you to make a profit and live the life you dream of living, you are reading from the right source. Professionally speaking, businesses of your dreams are special ventures because in addition to the possibility of being successful, they allow their owners to live the life they really desire. Therefore, you need a business idea that can not only earn you a good profit, but is also one that fits you and loads your life with meaning.

“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
~Henry David Thoreau

Do you get excited thinking about starting your own dream business? Do you have an existing business that you would like to turbo-charge and make profitable? Are you ready to change your life? Would you give me your undivided attention if I could show you how to reach your financial goals? You may be motivated; but you lack the right tools. Just as a screwdriver is not for hammering, a psychiatrist is not a surgeon. I have owned and operated my own businesses since 1982. From operating my own insurance agency at twenty-four to owning several restaurants to authoring books, I not only have the experience but also the ability to transfer my experience through prolific teachings.

My knowledge of business comes from an unlikely source. The truth of the matter is that starting your own business requires a significant, long-term investment of time, energy, money and a drawing from some of your life experiences. Business mentorship helps take the friction out of starting a business. You want to make sure you are going to be thrilled with starting and running the business through all of its difficulties. Therefore, it is important to put a lot of thought, care and planning into creating and choosing the idea you will use.

So, how can my favorite hobby help me to effectively run my dream business? That is a very good question, and I will expound on it in the second part in my next post. So Stay Tuned!

Recommended Reading:

I frequently say, “Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.” I strongly believe this statement; therefore, I have taken the time to recommend reading material that I believe will greatly benefit your life and business endeavors. Click the images to see more information or to order the books from Amazon.com.

The materials are provided for your convenience and Dr. Brown will earn a small commission from Amazon when you purchase through the links provided above.

Working 9 to 5

I am all too familiar with deadlines and time crunches that have a tendency to raise your blood pressure and keep you feeling like you are under the gun. And, by the close of the day, you are too tired to want to do anything but rest your brain and your feet.

Starting again is not always easy, especially when you have lost the motivation and desire to pursue or to finish what you started. Oftentimes, in order to get going again, consideration needs to be given to what may be draining you of your drive. Imagine how nice it would be that when you are at a standstill, all you have to do is push a reset button. If it were that easy, everyone would do it. When you are at the point of inactivity because you lack the motivation or inspiration to muster the kind of drive and/or creativity to push yourself beyond the mundane, what is actually needed is not something from without, but rather something from within.

Athletes often run into challenges when it comes to starting again after playing back-to-back games or losing a playoff or championship game. People who fail to achieve their ideal weight loss goal after dieting feel defeated. A smoker who’s seemingly tried everything to kick the habit of nicotine addiction feels that trying to stop smoking is like fighting a losing battle with no hope of kicking their habit. However, how do business people find the motivation to get back up or reconvene business after a major upset?

Regardless of your struggle, the principle is the same for getting up and getting back in the game. How you came to stop in your pursuit of developing your dream business is not as important as what you do to reconvene. To discover the secret to remedy this lackadaisical melancholy, one must search deep within the crevasses of their heart and rediscover the ‘why’ to the reason for starting in the first place. Three things must be given careful consideration:

1. What is the single most important thing for you?
2. What is the prize possession you hope to receive once your task is completed?
3. Is it worth all to achieve your goal?

The answer to these questions must come from a deep place in your heart. And, after the careful consideration and understanding of the ‘why’, your heart will burst into a thousand suns and nothing will keep you from achieving peak performance. You will want nothing more than to accomplish your goal because the reason is more valuable than the goal itself. A man that has nothing to fight for will have no reason to fight.

Recommended Reading:

I frequently say, “Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.” I strongly believe this statement; therefore, I have taken the time to recommend reading material that I believe will greatly benefit your life and business endeavors. Click the images to see more information or to order the books from Amazon.com.

The materials are provided for your convenience and Dr. Brown will earn a small commission from Amazon when you purchase through the links provided above.

Making Business Cents

I have had the dubious honor of speaking to many business owners about the durability of their companies during today’s critical financial times. And, it is unanimous! Eighty-seven percent of them believe that despite government attempts to pull the American economy out of the dumps, they can read the handwriting on the wall, and it’s not good.

It is absolutely vital for owners of companies to make as much sense as possible, as to what will and will not work during these dreadful economic conditions, or else their companies will make no cents at all. On the other hand, families all over this globe are struggling to make ends meet. New research indicates that nearly a quarter of a million people in Ireland have nothing left to live on after they have paid their bills each month.

The latest national snapshot of the social sector shows the number of Australians being turned away from emergency relief, disability, homeless and youth welfare services is dramatically on the rise. Figures from the Australian Council of Social Service show that demand for emergency relief, including food and shelter, almost doubled in 2009-10 from the previous financial year said, Erin Long of the Sunshine Daily Coast, 20th April 2011.

More people and businesses are struggling to make ends meet and the demand for support services is growing as the cost of living grows. While businesses are trying to remain or become solvent, banks are not helping the crisis by not lending. The simple answer to why banks aren’t lending is because they don’t have to. Banks, like all other businesses, are required to make profits. In order to answer to their regulators and their shareholders, banks must be profitable or they cease to exist. That’s exactly what is happening today.

The American public was told that the bulk of the stimulus money will not be spent until the end of 2010, at which point it will probably not be needed. This did not happen and unemployment is increasing at an alarming rate. In order to increase employment, you must stimulate small businesses and encourage banks to lend. The U.S. Government today does not seem to have this as a priority.

What must be done today is that business owners and heads of families should pay close attention to markets and strongly consider how they manage and spend their money. Businesses should be especially sensitive to the consumer’s new spending trends and be on the cutting edge of how to sell more products without increasing their prices. Customers will become loyal when they think that businesses are considerate of their needs as well.

Five things that constitute good business sense:

1. Character: Character is something you either have or are. People of preference try to make something for themselves, while a person of character works to make something of themselves and their business.
2. Forget the Past. The past is always going to be the way it was. Stop trying to change the past. Stop looking at where you have been and start looking at where you can be. Plan for future profits instead of going over past losses.
3. Don’t Procrastinate. A procrastinator is always paying more for something they could have paid less for if they would have made a decision yesterday. Ask yourself, “If I don’t take action now, what will it cost me tomorrow?”
4. Know Your Business. There is something you may have started that you promised to finish. Too many people know what they are running from, but not many know what they are running to. Concentrate on finding your business purpose, then concentrate on fulfilling it.
5. Know your customers’ needs. When you have what others need, you have customers. Needs are not hard to discover. The solution to finding what your customers are looking for is in the ton of questions you need to ask.

If you want to get help to increase your profit margin, ask questions to potential customers. You will be surprised how they will provide you with answers on how to make them buy from you.

Recommended Reading:

I frequently say, “Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.” I strongly believe this statement; therefore, I have taken the time to recommend reading material that I believe will greatly benefit your life and business endeavors. Click the images to see more information or to order the books from Amazon.com.

The materials are provided for your convenience and Dr. Brown will earn a small commission from Amazon when you purchase through the links provided above.

Chef Robert Irvine

Without fail, when Chef Robert Irvine initially reviews the restaurant’s operation and décor, he talks to the owner and commences to inform him or her of all the things that are wrong. Immediately the owner, and usually the key employees, put up their defenses. It never ceases to amaze me when people are doing something wrong, how quick they are to defend it. In one episode, the cook was visibly and verbally adamant about his years of experience and culinary skills. He defended his breakfast and dinner dishes that Robert said looked like a mess of food piled onto the plate. No doubt, this cook’s standard was good for himself, but it was not good for business. Robert asked the cook to prepare poached eggs, he would do the same, and they would see which one was better.

Sometimes, in order to help people, they have to see where they are wrong so they can bring down their defenses and receive advice. It is difficult to help people when they cannot see that they need help. If your restaurant has been in the red for months, obviously your system is broken.

After the poached eggs were done, the cook, along with several kitchen workers, tasted Robert’s poached eggs. They were amazed at the freshness and how delicious Robert’s eggs were compared to the cook’s pre-packaged poached eggs in hollandaise sauce. After tasting Robert’s poached eggs, I could see the cooks’ defenses come down and he subordinated his position to Robert and listened to him. Robert was then free to change the décor, menu, and how the cooks and servers performed. Needless to say, the end result was a happy owner because the restaurant’s point of sale increased 25% and his employees discovered a new way of performing.

Keep Expenses Down And Push Sales Up

Unfortunately, when it comes to businesses, not every job can be saved when you are trying to stay in business. Staying in business is warfare and your enemy is inflation, waste, rising prices and your competition. It is unfortunate that casualties are a part of every war. To minimize employment fatalities, each employee must be informed as to the potential loss of employment if the business continues to decline in sales and production. However, if employees can see themselves as investors and not just employees, not only will it increase the morale around the company, but it will make the work environment more conducive for beefing up sales. This will help create a better atmosphere to make the two tips I mentioned earlier work for the company.

Relevancy is important when it comes to staying in business. To be relevant is the quality of being directly connected with and important to something else. Your clients must see your business as meeting their needs. People do not buy products because they want to help you; they buy certain products because of how it helps them. Center your advertising around your customers’ desires and not on how your product beats the competition. There are times when you smash the competition with attacks, but this is not one of those times. Work at improving the quality of your product without added expense or give your customers an opportunity to have input on how to improve your product or services.

The second tip I mentioned is for businesses to explore ways to become resourceful. To be resourceful means to be full of initiative and good at problem solving, especially in difficult situations. These bad economic times will help businesses to become adversity tested, which opens them up to diversity and how differently something can be done. Adversity can be a blessing in disguise because it divorces one from methodologies that no longer work and is conducive for business owners to become creative.

Applying these two crucial tips can help your business during economic hardships. It will inevitably keep your expenses from rising and at the same time push up your sales. Can you imagine your company experiencing financial increase while your expenses are down? It is possible and it can be done. Rethink how you do business, and you will redo business from a completely different perspective.